048 A Supermassive Wednesday
Supermassive, NO/ONE, and a Daniel Earls BMN exclusive!
Good morning from Black Market Narrative HQ! Which, today, is a stripped down coffee shop in LA that also somehow always turns into a dog park.
A quick “Hello! Welcome!” to all our new subscribers who joined this past week through our Radiant Black #24 vote. We’re a fun group making fun stuff and in an increasingly volatile social media and non-Marvel movie comic book coverage landscape, we’ve been prioritizing this newsletter more and more for staying in touch as well as rolling out a host of cool new things.
Just as a quick “hey, this is who we are!” my name is Kyle Higgins— I’m a writer and a filmmaker as well as the co-creator of Radiant Black along with Marcelo Costa. Black Market Narrative is a creative collective as well as my production company for all of the outside-the-box stuff we do on our books— orchestral scores, trailers, secret short films, in-universe podcasts… plus more insane projects we’re working on right now that haven’t been announced.
We use this newsletter for a few things— to keep you up to date on all of the above, as well as the books themselves, and as a way to roll out our (very cool) limited merch drops. These have included everything from blacklight posters to exclusive covers to ultra special editions of issues, like our Radiant Black #18 Infinite Edition, which is assembled as one continuous piece of paper.
We try to do something special at least once a month, and the quantities are always quite low— for example, we only made 250 copies of the Infinite Edition.
Hey, you go to the black market for the good stuff but the good stuff usually isn’t there for long! That said, as a newsletter subscriber you’re covered— you’ll get the drops right in your inbox.
If you want to read more about any of the universes we’ve built, you can head to our Black Market Narrative site. We’ve got (almost) everything we’ve done and are currently doing (that’s been announced) up there, along with direct buy links for most of the books.
And of course, this includes The Massive-Verse, our interconnected universe of superhero stories published by Image Comics!
In fact, the wonderful Michael Busuttil (you may know him as Mr. Massive-Verse) just built a new tab for The Massive-Verse that has all of our series trades in one place, along with direct buy links. It’s even got a really handy unique URL—
So again, welcome!
NO/ONE Speaks Out
Speaking of outside-the-box projects, this week brings several updates to the ongoing NO/ONE situation in Pittsburgh. For those who haven’t been following NO/ONE or haven’t had a chance to check out the series (and podcast!), I’m going to include a handy little blurb right here on what it all is:
Last year, the Richard Roe murders shocked the city of Pittsburgh. In the months since, the killings have sparked a dangerous political movement, copycat killers, and a masked vigilante who’s still determined to hold the powerful accountable. Not a symbol. Not a hero. They could be anyone. They’re NO/ONE.
Superstar writers KYLE HIGGINS (RADIANT BLACK) and BRIAN BUCCELLATO (Chicken Devil) and rising star artist GERALDO BORGES (Nightwing) bring you a 10 issue true crime superhero experience in its own corner of the MASSIVE-VERSE!
AND: the story continues in WHO IS NO/ONE, a monthly companion podcast starring RACHAEL LEIGH COOK (She’s All That), PATTON OSWALT (Minor Threats, Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K.), LOREN LESTER (Batman: The Animated Series), and YURI LOWENTHAL (Marvel’s Spider-Man) available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify!
I’ve also written much more about the series, which runs through December, in previous newsletters. Like this one:
So far, NO/ONE issues 1 and 2 have released and sold out of multiple printings. We’ve also released episodes 1 and 2 of WHO IS NO/ONE, featuring an increasing level of immersion for readers/listeners. Here are some direct episode links for ya. Don’t forget to dig through the show notes!
And if you’ve missed issues 1 and 2, have no fear— we’ll have new printings in stores on Wednesday alongside issue 3.
But that’s all stuff that’s already public— you’re here for the exclusive stuff, right? Don’t worry, I’ve got some of that today, too.
In our previous episode, Metro Editor Teddy Barstow (Patton Oswalt) sat down with Assistant Chief of Operations and father to alleged original Richard Roe killer, Ben Kern. In fact, I’ve got a clip of their conversation pulled for you all right here.
How great is that? More importantly, who is that? Drumroll please! I’m thrilled to announce that joining the podcast as the voice of Ben Kern is none other than Captain Liam Shaw himself…
…the incredible Todd Stashwick!
One of the joys of putting together the podcast has been casting. From Rachael and Patton to Loren, Yuri, David Blue, and an upcoming killer episode with Walter Jones and a host of others, it's been a blast working with some of my favorite performers in such an awesome medium. I've known Todd's work for years and between his presence and effortless naturalism, I thought he was the perfect fit for Ben.
We've recorded a lot of fantastic moments for the podcast but I have to say, this sit down between Ben and Teddy is a personal favorite. Todd brings both a strength and a weariness to Ben. You can hear him grappling inside with what his life has become and how much of the current accountability movement his faults as a parent are responsible for.
Big thanks to Patton and Todd for helping us make something special!
Now on Monday, we also saw The Drop post their coverage of the police altercation last month along with (spoilers!) Ben Kern’s shocking retirement. It’s a piece by Julia Paige that ran on The Drop’s site. Give it a read— it could be important ;)
NO/ONE apparently didn’t think too kindly of the way Chief Mixon has been framing the events. Wednesday, he posted this on social:
I definitely encourage everyone to head to NO/ONE’s server and scope out all of his doxxing material for themselves. That said, we’ve pulled yesterday’s video off his server to make it a bit more accessible for everyone. Here you go:
Well that looks pretty familiar, doesn’t it?
Oh shit. Was NO/ONE recording the whole time?! Uh oh, Chief Mixon. I think you might have a problem…
Issue 3 hits stands next week and you definitely don’t want to miss episode 3 of the podcast— it takes our immersion to the next level.
Available Soon
Supermassive 2023 - 05/17/23
Next week, the Massive-Verse goes Supermassive. This one is an absolutely wild ride with everyone’s current status quo the status quo our story takes place in. Which means, now that Radiant Black #24 is out, I can finally reveal this page with the dialogue!
Available Soon
Rogue Sun Volume 2 - 05/17/23
Also dropping next week is Rogue Sun Volume 2. It’s another beautifully designed trade from Michael, with some killer spot gloss and a great back gallery. And check out that killer pull quote from a guy who knows something about villain sequels.
Available Soon
NO/ONE #3 - 05/17/23
As I mentioned up top, next week is also the release of NO/ONE issue 3 and WHO IS NO/ONE episode 3. It’s a story across mediums, with a level of pairing that we’ve only really hinted at to this point. Really excited for you all to see this one.
The Black Market
This week, we’re announcing our NO/ONE #3 Black Market Foil Edition, featuring another cover by Daniel Earls, this time colored by Radiant Black’s Marcelo Costa.
We’ve made 175 copies of this, sans comps, and they’ll be on sale on Wednesday— timed to our next newsletter drop— for $40.
We also still have copies of our Radiant Black #24 Black Market Blacklight Edition featuring a fluorescent cover by Jim Mahfood.
You can find that here along with a number of other exclusives, including some copies we just posted of the Radiant Black #18 Infinite Edition!
All right, that’s going to do it for me today. Thanks so much for checking out everything we’re doing— I’m working with some amazing people and it means the world to us that we get to do this for a living.
The last thing I want to mention, too, is that if you’re planning to head to San Diego Comic Con this July or Galaxy Con Raleigh, you should definitely be on the lookout for our panel announcements soon. You’re not going to want to miss these.
Until next week—
Stay Radiant!
Kyle
Los Angeles, CA
You know, I never would’ve guess Todd Stashwick, but that’s a good choice for Ben. Super hyped to hear Walter Jones too. Also, can’t wait for Supermassive and No/One later this month. Those Danny Earls covers for No/One are legitimately some of the best I’ve ever seen.