My buddy Dan – in discussing my absence from social media, obsessive reading, and increasingly long gap between projects – referred to me being up on my mountain. It’s a description that I’ve been thinking about a lot, in terms of the clarity and epiphanies that come with the type of focus that can only be achieved by pulling back, winnowing away, and distilling down to what’s essential, what’s important, what matters. Epictetus says: Endure and renounce.
All of which is to say…this is but a brief missive from my mountain retreat, where I continue to work diligently upon Jed Dougherty (my Savage Hearts collaborator) and my next project. It’s the best thing either of us have ever done; is a different, more complex approach to comics; and is from my dream publisher. However, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer for me to descend, Zarathustra-like, and reveal unto you our startling vision.
But! In the meantime: Max Fuchs’ THE MOTHERFUCKING FUCKER!
I can’t say enough good things about Max broadly and The Motherfucking Fucker specifically; he let me read through the new Spring Fantasy Special and it’s as perfect as the debut TMFF issue. A classically trained cartoonist, Max welds technical excellence – inclusive of stunning draftsmanship, impeccable storytelling, and breathtaking brushwork – with an uncanny appreciation for what the form can accomplish.
Don’t let the hilarious name fool you: The Mothefucking Fucker is smart comics. Actually smart comics: not “Characters rattling off the same pop-science concepts hack writers have been referencing since the 90s” but, rather, engaging with comics as comics, utilizing the medium to tell a story that could only be told through comics, and harnessing all of the form’s many, too often underutilized strengths, through innovative layouts and page design.
It’s outrageous humor, exciting action and big, musclebound bodies, all of which comics lends itself to, of course, and, because it’s Max, done with an exquisite degree of craft. But what’s most impressive about The Motherfucking Fucker is how Max pushes at the boundaries of what we should expect from a comic, especially a genre comic drawn this well, with so much humor and action. His insistence on making – not just a pilot or spec script crammed into the shape of a comic – but a book that functions as a compelling art object worthy of study and rumination is what puts him head and shoulders above his contemporaries. And, for what it’s worth, it’s been an incredible inspiration on Jed and my next book as well as a brand-new project that Max and I have been crafting together.
Go back The Motherfucking Fucker Spring Fantasy Special right this minute.
xoxo,
Aubrey
I am extremely excited for your upcoming projects, you are such a genuine man whose work I will follow as long as I read comics.
Taking time off social media and short term dopamine hits is really good for clearing the head. What have you been reading?