051 Last Chance

The future of Radiant Black is in your hands! Plus, a new Black Market Live TONIGHT! And, the store vault is NOW OPEN!

Hey hey, Black Market crew! Hope everyone’s had a killer week. We’ve been hard at work over here on Deep Cuts, The Catalyst War, and new arcs of Rogue Sun and The Dead Lucky. Plus a few things you’ll be hearing about in the next couple months (hint hint, if you’re planning to be at SDCC you’re definitely going to want to make it to our panel. Time and date TBD).

Last night though, I was fortunate enough to slip away between deadlines to catch the one-night-only screening of Shin Kamen Rider. For those who aren’t familiar with Kamen Rider or this new “Shin Japan Heroes Universe” line of films (and very weird, fun merchandise) that Hideaki Anno and company are doing in Japan, you should definitely take a look. Especially if you like superheroes but want something surprising and different.

The films are both celebrations of the 1960s and 1970s series from which they come as well as modern reimagining, with everything from shooting styles to costumes to themes delicately swaying back and forth between classic and new, making the films— in my opinion— wonderful, accessible additions to each character’s library. And the fact that these properties are all owned by competing studios is a testament to the reverence everyone has for Anno. This would be like if Christopher Nolan, Spielberg, or Peter Jackson convinced Warner Bros, Disney and Paramount to do a new shared universe— separate from their ongoing shows and movies— featuring DC, Marvel, Star Wars and the Transformers… along with The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones and/or Lord of the Rings. And they’d share merchandise.

Wild, right?

Spoiler alert, I loved the movie. Even the stuff I didn’t love. And considering the history of Kamen Rider’s first season from which this is based— where the main actor broke his legs in a motorcycle stunt and the show had to introduce a new Rider, before the original actor eventually came back and it became a two hander— well, it felt like an incredibly apt time to catch the movie. We are, after all, in the final days of our own little mantle situation in the Massive-Verse.

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Last Chance to Vote

Tomorrow, June 2, is your last day to vote on the fate and future of Radiant Black. Straight up, the vote is close. Which is really exciting! When I first pitched this to Michael and Marcelo, we knew that the absolute best version of this vote would be if it were close. It would mean that each character had sparked with a certain subset of readers and based on all the discourse we’ve seen over the past month— plus the actual vote itself— that seems to be absolutely the case. It’s been a lot of fun to see the memes and the impassioned write-ups. And it’s brought us a whole new group of subscribers! (Welcome, all!)

We have really, really big plans this summer and they all start as soon as you decide who the next Radiant Black will be.

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Available Now

Deep Cuts #2 - 05/31/23

Chicago, 1928. Gail Geldstein has 48 hours to write the biggest jazz hit of all time. There’s just one problem: she doesn’t know anything about jazz. Rising star artist HELENA MASELLIS joins the DEEP CUTS team for a whirlwind journey behind the curtains of Broadway!

On Wednesday, issue 2 of Deep Cuts hit stands, introducing readers to Gail Geldstein, a singer, songwriter, pianist and composer in 1928 New York, who is goes on something of a journey over the rainbow to try to save her first broadway show. Helena Masellis and Igor Monti crush this issue, in a style that feels at times European and impressionistic and at other moments, 1920’s refined New York illustration.

And, because we don’t know how to do anything but go all out on our books, of course we made the actual song that Gail writes, too. Courtesy of Joe Clark, I’m thrilled to present— “I’m Just Here For The Music,” featuring Leslie Beukelman, Jeremy Kahn, Christian Dillingham & Greg Artry.

It’s available on Apple, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube etc. I’ve embedded Spotify and YouTube links right here.

And for anyone who is interested in the book you can find issue 2 here:

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Black Market Live - Tonight

Last week, Ryan Sidoti helped us host our first Black Market Live livestream, where Supermassive creators talked about everything from the book to the state of the Massive-Verse, and answered reader questions. We’re looking to do more livestreams like this, talking about new issues, maybe an interview from time to time, that sort of thing. They’ll live on YouTube, and for the audio crowd, I’m working to set them up as a Black Market Live podcast, too.

Tonight, join myself and jazz composer, trumpet player and DEEP CUTS co-writer Joe Clark as we take a deep dive on issue 2. Oh, and Joe’s piano will be hooked up live. There will definitely be music :)

And if you missed last week’s Black Market Live with all our Supermassive writers, you can catch that right here. It was a fun one!

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The Black Market

In addition to our small run variants we’ve been rolling out over the past few months, I always forget to mention that we also have a Threadless store. For most of the past year, it’s also featured a monthly exclusive design, specific to that month’s issue of Radiant Black and only available until the next issue’s release. Then, back in the vault it has gone.

Well, just as we did last year for the summer convention season, we’re opening the vault back up! Grab your favorite and show off your love for the Massive-Verse all summer long!

We’re also working to add some new designs over the coming weeks. But for now— here’s everything!

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Okay, that’s it for me! Back to NO/ONE and The Catalyst War!

See you tonight!

Kyle
Los Angeles, CA