Two Franks

Indie Comics Creator Con 2025 + more!

Mike and I post “It’s Getting Tired Mildred” episode #79, and delicious Indian food.

I don't watch sports like I used to when I was a New York Yankees fan in the 1970s & 80s. But I do watch award shows every year. A spectacle of celebration I was weened on as a kid. My father was friends with famous actresses and wrote about them. My mother helped fund all kinds of artists as deputy director of NYSCA. And my godmother was a two time Academy Award winner who introduced me to a lot of great actors. If I only I knew then what I know now. The questions I could've asked. Alas, my "sports" became "Hollywood." Award shows like the Golden Globes, Grammy's, Emmy's, Tony's and Oscars were my All-Star Game.

I don't criticize award shows and acceptance speeches. What's the point? Watching award shows is like watching aliens kiss each other for 3-4 hours. But I do have one minor gripe. I'm tired of listening to shepherds and custodians of pre-existing material, the people who produce and perform adaptations, inadvertently snub creators of the source material.

This year WICKED and DUNE 2 won Oscar Awards and I got to watch the acknowledgement of peers, mom and God, etc. But they forgot to thank L. Frank Baum, author of the original The Wizard of Oz series, and Frank Herbert, author of the original Dune series. I'm not suggesting the absence of acknowledgement diminishes the merits of the work but, as a creator myself, it bums me out to see how original creators get lost in the spectacle. Often shoved into the 'thank you' section of a credit sequence. If at all.

I understand that periodicals and books usually make a lot less profit than a mediocre movie. And that most people will probably only ever “see” your original text via cinema (if you’re lucky). But I think it's important to raise a toast to the person or people who birthed the story in the first place. The concept that gets adapted and reimagined and perpetuated.

Dead or alive, legacy matters. And the best thing a nomination can do is bring more eyes to the work and to the workers. A win is just optics.

Awards aside, I try my best to acknowledge my influences and the people who help me whenever I can. It's a proactive way to pay gratitude and to say:

“Thank you.”

OMAC #1, page 1 by Jack Kirby. DC Comics, 1974

Only three more days to back TALES OF EROTECH.

Here's a quote I gave for the project and a sneak peak to the inks & colors of page one of my NSFW story featuring my new character, AI Joe:

"For decades I've been haunted by the first page of Jack Kirby's OMAC #1 featuring a disembodied woman as part of a futuristic "Build-A-Friend" initiative. It foresaw love dolls, sex robots and artificial intelligence. I can only imagine what kids were feeling when they first opened up that comic book in 1974. Suffice it to say, I had to do something to honor yet exorcise that spooky electric stranglehold on my mind. And I'm grateful to have the opportunity to tell a tragic romance story between two unlikely lovers in the pages of EroTech."

Here’s a link to the campaign.

I'm honored to be a part of THIS INK RUNS COLD, A 96-page hardcover comics anthology of 1-page space and crime stories, written by 89 separate writers and all drawn by Scott Morse with colors by José Villarrubia!

Check out the campaign here!

Three new episodes of the VITO x DINO podcast dropped since the last time I published a free newsletter. If you like what I type here you’ll dig what I have to say with Vito Delsante and our occasional guests.

Check out episode #8 — where we wonder if we’re too lazy.

Episode #9 — we chat with young buck/cartoonist, Mat Major.

And episode #10 — we talk about politics and how it can inform fiction/comics, excessive trigger warnings, the art that goes into adult/pornographic art, and the power of stories.

I’m a guest at IC3 aka Indie Comics Creator Con 2025 this Saturday, March 15th in New Haven, CT, and I will be sharing a table with brilliant story maker, Whitney Matheson. I’ll have copies of all four of my “Deep Cut” comix, including CHEST FACE, for sale!

See you in the gutters!

—Dean

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