Two Deep Dives
A preview of The Ocean Will Take Us, and some deep thoughts about writing historical settings.
Hey Everyone!
In just about a month, The Ocean Will Take Us #1 will be hitting comic shops, and you can read a preview of the first 5 pages right here!
So - what’s the deal with this book? Let me give you the quick rundown - when Casey March arrives at Almanzar High, he’s convinced he’ll be able to pick his championship swimming career up right where he left off - but he’s not prepared for the local swim team, who is more competitive and vicious than any he’s seen!
He’ll soon learn that messing with the social order in his new high school might have deadly consequences, as he and a local band of fellow outcasts investigate the darkness infecting the team, and the town itself!
I hope you enjoy the preview, and please pre-order the book at your local comic shop if you can!
Looking Backwards
Now, The Ocean Will Take Us is a pretty modern story - it takes place in the present day, more or less, and while it might evoke some aspects of ‘80s high school movies, it’s definitely a story of our times.
That’s way different from the work I did with Alex and Justin on Road of Bones and Sea of Sorrows - two stories that are intimately and inextricably tied to a certain time and place.
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of research into the 1960s, specifically the music of the era. I’ve been listening to a lot of songs, some that are familiar classics, and some that are very obscure. I can’t say exactly why without revealing too much about this project, but let’s just say it will make fans of RoB and SoS very happy. And, in the course of all this listening, I came across one song that really affected me.
It struck me as so, so relevant to the way I feel about the world today (which is honestly, not great). I’d heard this song before as a kid… just another oldie on the radio stations my dad liked to play in the car. But I never really thought about what it was saying until now.
Now, I try to keep this newsletter focused on comics and writing, as far as content goes, but I can’t really talk about why this song feels so important to me without talking about what’s going on in the world today.
I encourage you to give it a listen, first.
So, this song came out in 1965, and it’s a protest song, touching on the horrors of Vietnam, the threat of nuclear war, and the darkest hours of the civil rights movement. It’s a powerful song, full of anger and frustration at the state of the world, how it feels like there’s no hope - in fact, it was held up by the conservative media of the day as an example of what was wrong with the young generation. Some radio stations declined to play it, or even outright banned it. But it still hit #1 on the Billboard charts, which I think is a testament to how powerful its message is.
Fifty years later, it’s the same message. Only today, it’s war in the Ukraine. It’s police brutality against people of color. Voting rights. Climate change. And yes, the threat of nuclear war.
Listening to this song, it’s depressing to think that so little has changed over the decades. Things that should be way behind us keep surging back. It really feels like the world could end at any moment sometimes, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
But then, there’s also an odd comfort in knowing that the hopelessness, the futility we are all feeling now has been felt before. In 1965, it must have felt like the world was on the brink of armageddon too. Yet somehow, we muddled through. We didn’t solve all, or even most of our problems, but we’re still here despite the fact that everything seemed to be pointing towards our own annihilation.
That’s not to minimize or downplay any of the horrible things that are going on in the world today - including things that weren’t even a glimmer of an idea in 1965. It’s only to say that somehow, despite how hopeless things must have seemed, we pulled things back from the brink… and I sincerely hope that we can do so again.
It’s realizations like that keep me coming back to history as a setting for many of the stories I tell. It’s not just about horrific conditions, like the gulag, or events like WWI. It’s that no matter what, no matter when, there are some things that tie us all together as humans. Things that have always been with us, and remain with us today. And even if we struggle to learn the lessons that history can teach us, we can at least know that we’re not alone in feeling the way we do about the world.
Finding things like this is exactly why I do research when I’m writing a story set in a certain time period, or part of the world. It’s not so much about getting every detail right - it’s about forging a connection with that time and place, and realizing what it is about that setting that makes it vital to tell the story there.
Anyway, I don’t like to get too heavy here, but if you’re looking for a bit of insight into how these types of ideas take shape in my head, doing research, and thinking about what I find, is a big part of it.
Until next time, my friends, where I hope I’ll be able to share more and better news with you, in a world that feels a little more sane. In the meantime, stay safe, don’t lose hope, and please consider giving what aid you can to the people of the Ukraine via charities like UNICEF.
All the best,
Rich