51. A Kitchen, Comics, and Worker's Rights
Sneak peeks and how to support the strikes
Howdy Brave Being,
Welcome back. Hope y’all have been enjoying the latest season wherever you are in the world. It’s summertime here in the PNW and I’ve been loving the clear skies and warmer weather days.
What I’m Working On
My husband Ross and I have been designing and building an apartment above our garage for my mom and things are finally coming to fruition. We put pen to paper in 2021 and now the bathroom and bedroom are fairly finished, the floors have been laid, and the walls are painted. We built an IKEA kitchen ourselves and seeing it nearly complete is so satisfying. Here are some snapshots showing the process from our design to now:
Since the construction project has taken up many weekends and downtime, I haven’t been writing much outside of my day job. I did, however, write a short comic last year with Jack Van Thomme, and it’s headed to Kickstarter next Friday, July 28th in an anthology dubbed Containment Breach Vol. 4: Monsters, Beasts and Bastards. Here’s a sneak peek of our story entitled UPROOTED:
I texted Jack on how to promote the story and he with his witty ways he said, “There’s something special about the water on a warm day, but there’s even more going on with Talia and Codee…” Find out more by signing up for the Kickstarter below:
I’ve also been editing scripts and pitches like crazy. The one that I can talk about is, drum roll please…
ONE-SHOT, a killer fantasy adventure from Jeremiah Espinoza, Butch Mapa, Fabi Marques, Lucas Gattoni, and Chris Benamati. Think Dungeons & Dragons meets The Suicide Squad. It’s also headed to Kickstarter in August, so don’t miss signing up to get notified. Early bird gets the worm, right?!
I mean, just check out this rad cover!
The Ringo Awards final nomination ballot was released this month. Some time ago, I asked folks to cast their nominations for DEAD DREAMS and its dream team. While we didn’t make the cut, some other truly fantastic books did. For one, TWILIGHT CUSTARD made the list for Best Original Graphic Novel. I helped the writer Josh Wilson with his book’s pitch and I’m elated to see it come this far. Voting is open to professionals in the industry, so to the pros reading, I hope you’ll consider voting for the following:
- TWILIGHT CUSTARD for Best Original Graphic Novel
- SEASON OF THE BRUJA for Best Series
- LOWER YOUR SIGHTS for Best Anthology
I wish I could recommend others to vote for but even I’m having trouble deciding in some categories. Vote here.
Tips & Tricks of the Trade
I’m dedicating tips and tricks to another side of the entertainment industry, the film and TV arena. I’ll summarize what’s happening right now in the film industry regarding worker’s rights and follow with tips on how to take action.
As you may know, for about two months there’s been a major writer’s strike going on in Hollywood led by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and recently, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) joined them. Writers and Actors are demanding fair contracts, and are striking for a few reasons. First, they are not getting meaningful residuals from streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon, Paramount+, etc. If they are receiving any residuals, it’s painfully low. For writers like Cody Ziglar who wrote one of the most successful episodes of She-Hulk (2022), he made $396 in residuals.
For actors, like Jana Schmieding who plays Bev in the television series Reservation Dogs (2021), she makes $0.03 per quarter in residuals.
Second, the writers’ rooms, where writers were paid a guaranteed amount for their work and could predict how much they’d make, had been downgraded to mini writers’ rooms, which were specifically designed to cut costs and they remain financially unpredictable. Read more about mini writers’ rooms at Slash Film. Plus, there’s an awesome explainer from More Perfect Union that goes into more detail:
Third, Artificial Intelligence, like ChatGPT and generative technology that can clone voices and faces, threatens to take away people’s jobs. While AI is currently being used in film and TV, like in the creation of the opening credits of Secret Invasion or in Roadrunner where they used AI-generated audio to recreate the late Anthony Bourdain’s voice, the potential of AI sounds like something from a futuristic sci-fi novel. Sometimes when I get worried about the future I look to the past, and there are some historic court cases that give me hope. Remember when Scarlett Johansson sued Disney for a breach of contract? It was regarding the same-day release of Black Widow (2021) on their streaming service and in theaters, which affected how much she would make. She won that case with Disney offering a settlement.
This potential of AI in films also reminds me of Back to the Future 2 when Crispin Glover, who played George McFly in the first film of the trilogy, was replaced by actor Jeffrey Weiss but the filmmakers used a face mold of Glover to help the makeup artists build prosthetics for Weiss to wear, all to make it seem like Glover was still playing the part (summary from the Hollywood Reporter). Glover sued Universal Pictures for using his likeness without his permission, not paying him for the reuse of film shot from the original, and his right to publicity. Glover won.
My hope is that these landmark cases bode well for the writers’ and actors’ strike going on today.
While there have been some winning cases, those striking still need our collective hope and help to combat the predatory nature of the studios and the executives. Here are a handful of ways to support them during the strike:
Pledge your solidarity with SAG-AFTRA
Sign WGA’s letter of support
Donate to food drives helping picket lines
Take action with the WGA’s social media toolkit
Download SAG-AFTRA’s social toolkit
Sign the WGA NBCU Construction Petition to demand the safety of pedestrians and picketers
I’d also recommend checking out and donating to any of the organizations listed by Discussing Film that are helping writers and actors pay for things like groceries, emergency financial assistance, healthcare, and more.
Things I’m Digging
I participated in a wellness challenge not too long ago with Geek Girl Strong, AKA Robyn Warren, who’s a Health Educator and Coach (and former P.E. teacher). As a younger person, I didn’t enjoy P.E. that much but Robyn helped me see movement in a new light. She’s amazing at building community around exercise and employing nerd culture to keep it engaging. For me, it turned something I didn’t want to do into something I could manage, and it was all the more enjoyable. I highly recommend checking out Geek Girl Strong and all her offerings here.
My reading pile has been piling up but I’m slowly getting through it. Up first is THE NASTY by John Lees, George Kambadais, Adam Cahoon, Kurt Michael Russell, and Jim Campbell about a group of British youths who make their own horror film and led by Thumper Connell, who has an imaginary friend straight out of his favorite horror flick. It’s a delightful mashup of Super 8 and Stranger Things. There are three issues out so far with the fourth and fifth coming out in August. Its publisher, Vault Comics, is offering a jigsaw puzzle to match Cahoon’s brilliant cover for issue #5, which features hidden victims, and I couldn’t resist picking it up.
Next up is SIDEQUEST #1-5, a series launched on Kickstarter from creators Grant Stoye and Alaire Racicot about escapism through the lens of an adventuring party on an epic quest. It’s now being published by Scout Comics, so be sure to order it from your local comic book shop because it’s loads of fun. I absolutely LOVED the first issue which took an unexpected turn at the end and surprised me—something that does not happen often when you’re an editor like me.
Merry Musings→PSAs
This time, the merry musings section is being taken over by some Public Service Announcements.
Back up your files. I recently suffered a sudden computer death and have been reeling from it because I, like a newb, didn’t back up all my files. I’ve been of two minds about the whole thing. On one hand, it’s like a fresh start. On the other, the loss of some files has been more than I can bear, so I’m hoping that the loss was for the best.
Take care. If you’re reading this and going through any kind of tumult, I hope you’re doing manageable things to take care of yourself. Some things that I do to take care of myself include taking micro-breaks during the day, like standing and stretching or drinking a glass of water. I also have been more mindful of asking for help when I need it and I’ve learned to say no when I’m overwhelmed. The latter can be quite liberating.
Thanks for reading.
Mercy buckets!
Brittany
Thanks for a great newsletter! I’ve followed the Kickstarter campaigns you’ve mentioned, and I’m looking forward to supporting them. And I appreciate the tips on how to demonstrate solidarity with striking writers and actors!