Hello, everyone! This month’s newsletter is probably gonna end up shorter than usual because I’ve been so busy with my day job lately. My comics work has suffered a bit and if I owe you an email, I apologize!
In this issue: What We’re Reading - About What We’ve Read - Shameless Self-Promotion - Some Thoughts on Sci-Fi Remakes
This was another month where I worried I talked too much instead of facilitated discussion. Lol I had met the editor and translator at the annual ALA Conference and Exhibition the prior month and was excited to share all that I’d learned about their passion for bringing this comic to an English-speaking audience and the creator’s process in making it. Hyaku’s journey for revenge was seen by one person as a metaphor for trans-ness and a search for self-actualization. Several people thought her marginalization could be interpreted for other groups, such as the homeless and those struggling with mental health issues. Mileage varied with how much people enjoyed Doro, as would be expected of a child sidekick. Hoopla printed the introduction pages out of order and incorrectly labeled this book as being read from left to right, but everyone who got confused quickly recovered. The architecture was beautiful and we all winced at the violence. One person said they wouldn’t read the remaining two volumes, but everyone else said they might or already had.
Our next meeting will be Wednesday, August 19 to discuss Cosmoknights.
August 19 - Cosmoknights by Hannah Templer
September 16 - Bug Wars, Volume 1: Lost in the Yard by Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar
October 21 - Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? by Harold Schechter and Eric Powell
November 18 - The Power Fantasy, Volume 1: The Superpowers by Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard
December 16 - Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath
The shortage in transfer delivery drivers for the Chicago Public Library may be improving; I recently had a book arrive in a week. Better safe than sorry, though, so we’ll stick with the new schedule and start fresh for next year. Hopefully, all these comics stay available on hoopla. Two people read their copies of I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together by Maurice Vellekoop when they arrived, and that may be how we start 2027.
Based on the varied influences on this series, I could link to articles on everything from Soviet Brutalist architecture to the work of Daniel Clowes, Charles Burns, and Osamu Tezuka, to say nothing of the original Dororo. I highly recommend the MSX: Mangasplaining Extra newsletter, which provides plenty of extras and was instrumental in getting this series published in English.
You can read more about Search and Destroy here. At the first American Manga Awards in 2024, the first volume was nominated for Best Lettering and Best Continuing Manga Series. The following year, the second volume was nominated for Best Lettering and Best Translation. The Library Journal listed the first volume among its Best Graphic Novels of 2024. The first volume was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia in 2025. You can read more about the tribute magazine dedicated to Osamu Tezuka that first published Search and Destroy here.
It was reviewed favorably by The Comics Journal and AiPT. I’ll end with the opening theme of the second animated adaptation of the original Dororo from 2019 performed by Queen Bee for no other reason than because it’s awesome.
The latest NEWS digest is available here. The next NEWS digest will be posted in two weeks on Friday, August 7.
As mentioned, I attended the 2026 ALA Convention and Exhibition! It was the most fun I’ve had at a con in a long time, it really is as underrated as Ryan Estrada says it is. I spoke with several publishers and editors, and I got to meet some online friends and reunite with a couple of old ones. I had a blast!
And I’m going to FlameCon next month! Part of the reason I’ve been so stretched thin is because I want to have copies of “The Cleanest Room in AI City” to hand out and the pitch packet for “Project: Drag Queen” completed. I haven’t been to NYC’s LGBTQ+ comic con in almost ten years, and I’m super excited! As one last treat, here’s the cover for “The Cleanest Room in AI City.”
Rise of the Flightless, the penguins versus robots anthology for which I wrote a four-page comic, launched last week on Kickstarter! I should have timed a special newsletter to create more fanfare, but maybe I’ll do that next week. Support the campaign today! It’s only about fifty bucks shy of being completely funded (time of writing) and it’s for a good cause.
I have a storefront on comix.one! They’re selling my self-published comics digitally and via print on demand.
The Dreamlands Anthology from Warden Comics has shipped!
Geek Collective’s Archetypes #2 has gone out!
The Prism anthology is available on Global Comix!
The first anthology to publish a comic I wrote, CyberSync, is available for purchase. It went into a second printing! You can also find it in my online shop.
As a fan of the original Dororo, I was very excited to read Search and Destroy specifically because of the science fiction angle. I think I would have found a more straightforward retelling less interesting, maybe even boring or unnecessary. A sci-fi remake felt bolder, more original, and more in line with the sensibilities of Atsushi Kaneko, who adapted the story.
I know it’s an easy punchline to add the words “in space” to the end of a title to signal creative bankruptcy and exhaustion, and there are plenty of examples of exactly that, but adding sci-fi elements to a story can also reinvigorate it. Like any adaptation, it has to be done with respect not just for the source material but also to the genre to which it’s being adapted. Otherwise, it’s just a cheap gimmick.
One of my favorite Shakespeare adaptations is the film Forbidden Planet, which moves The Tempest from a deserted island to a distant planet and changes Prospero from a socerer to a mad scientist. It works better than it has any right to and is thoroughly enjoyable.
It can be easy to create sci-fi analogues to supernatural elements. That might be the least cliched application of Arthur C. Clarke’s “third law” that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Where Dororo had demons, Search and Destroy has robots. Both speak to the corruptibility of power and using other people to serve one’s ambitions.
Refracting an old story through a sci-fi lens does more than transform stodgy classics into more accessible artwork; it proves that the themes that make them great works of art transcend genre in the first place.
Thanks for reading! What are some of your favorite science fiction reimaginings of popular works? Feel free to share any thoughts or comments below. Please subscribe if you haven’t already. Take care of each other. Make sure to be here next month for Cosmoknights by Hannah Templer!
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