%20(1).webp){kind=logo}
Hi everyone!
Let's give a warm welcome to the newest backers from "Hairology", "Like Father, Like Daughter", and "HAUNTING". We're glad to have you join the Lifeline Comics' community!
For this installment of our bi-weekly newsletter, we've got some HUGE ANNOUNCEMENTS! Keep reading to learn about our new Queer Webtoon comic anthology and a one-week-only chance to purchase our C2E2-Exclusive Enamel Pin!
We'll also talk about some of our favorite media over the last few weeks - including "Power Rangers: Once & Always", "Tetris", and "Air"!
Announcements
As always, we'll begin with our exciting Lifeline Comics' announcements!
NEW QUEER ANTHOLOGY: "Rainbow Canvas"
We're so excited to announce our next project: Rainbow Canvas: A Wholesome BL & GL WEBTOON Anthology!
If you're a fan of our anthologies, "Bi Visibility" & "Hairology", or our Queer Webtoon, "Slice of Life", then you're sure to love Rainbow Canvas!
We've teamed up with some of the most popular creators on Webtoon Canvas to bring this anthology to life. It features twelve brand new stories from the worlds of twelve queer Webtoons!
And for the first time, we're announcing the titles featured in the anthology! Check out these amazing series below:
The book will also feature a Foreword by Refrainbow (of Webtoon Originals's Boyfriends fame)!
.jpg)
And if you're excited for Rainbow Canvas, use the below link to follow the Pre-launch Page! This will notify you when the project goes live on Monday, May 8th!
Follow the Rainbow Canvas Pre-launch Page!
And if you want to help spread word about the project, check out these announcement posts:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ComicUno/status/1650518258481614848
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CrbGqkqrUjJ/
Limited Time Offer: Grab Slice of Life's "All out Action" C2E2 Exclusive Enamel Pin
Thank you to the great people of Zestworld for not only sponsoring our table at C2E2, but also our exclusive pin!
This year's C2E2 exclusive item was a Slice of Life "All Out Action" enamel pin designed by the wonderful Yonson Carbonell. For the Lifeline Comics' readers that couldn't be at the event, we wanted to give you a chance to purchase the pin!
It will be available on our Etsy Store for a limited time only, until 11:59 PM EST on May 4th. Check out the pin below!
Limited Time: Slice of Life C2E2 Enamel Pin
Lifeline Comics' Haul Winner Revealed!
Thank you for participating in our first haul giveaway, and congrats to @confused_raven1 for winning our Anime NYC 2022 EXCLUSIVE Black Rainbow Dragon enamel pin.
Check out their Lifeline Comics' haul from C2E2:
Be sure to continue sharing your Lifeline Comics' hauls on social media because Phil and I have more giveaways planned for the future.
Media Consumed
Let's talk about some of the media we've been watching these last few weeks!
Power Rangers: Once & Always
Kat: As a lifelong Power Rangers fan, we've been blessed with so much content in the past 5 years: new TV seasons, Comic Con Mighty Morphin' reunions, and (of course) BOOM! Studios' Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic books that continue the saga of the original rangers. With so much Ranger goodness, I wasn't sure if a 50-minute special (with only some of the original cast) was necessary.
I won't say Once & Always blew me out of the water, but I'm actually happy that the special took the time to focus on other Rangers - not everything has to be about Kimberly, Jason, and Tommy. The special is a tribute to the late Thuy Trang's Trini Kwan, a ranger that deserved more love on the show. I do wish we had more moments specifically about Trini's character, but I did like the unique take of introducing Trini's daughter to the Power Rangers mythos.
Once & Always is just as corny as the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, which I've come to appreciate. But now that I've been spoiled with nuanced storytelling on a monthly basis with the comic books, it's almost jarring to see these characters go back to their one-note version of themselves.
Air
Kat: “It’s an American story and that’s why Americans are going to love it”
The American Dream is one of the most ingenious marketing campaigns ever conducted. Air portrays the evolution of that dream. Americans aren't looking for white picket fences, we're looking for a legacy.
You don't need to love basketball to fall in love with this story. Matt Damon crafts Sonny into a lead character that you want to root for with Viola Davis playing his perfect foil. Alex Convery's snappy script has a plethora of memorable lines that are going to stick with me for a while.
Ben Affleck shines the brightest when he's playing in a sandbox with his friends. Air is very much a contender for my favorite film of the year!
Tetris
"I played Tetris for five minutes, yeah. I still see falling blocks in my dreams. This game isn't just addictive. It stays with you. It's poetry. Art and math all working in magical synchronicity. It's the perfect game."
Phil: I, personally, have put at least a thousand hours into Tetris (the game) in my life. I obviously have no way to confirm this (I wasn't tracking my playtime at age eleven), but let's call it a conservative estimate. My parents (particularly my mother) aren't video game people. But we would have year-long Tetris competitions throughout my entire life. And every few months, we'll break out the game again and throw another few dozen hours into it.
My point in all of this being, I've played a lot of Tetris. And yet, despite the countless hours I've sunk into the game, I never really gave the game much of a sense of importance in my mind. If you asked me to list my favorite video games or the ones that have influenced me the most, Tetris likely wouldn't come to mind (despite me definitely having played for far more hours than other games I might instead list). Maybe it's just the simplicity or ubiquity of Tetris, but it's just a constant in my life that I never really thought much about. Something I would play for a couple of hours after school, or on a lazy Sunday morning, or in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep. So it's a great experience seeing a film celebrating the game and the way that it took the world by storm.
Tetris (the film) has a sharp script and very strong pacing. There are so many scenes in the just-under-two-hour runtime that it sometimes feels like you've been watching longer than you actually have. But everything flows so cleanly and the film weaves between its characters so expertly that you never lose interest or feel like any sequence is overstaying its welcome. There are moments where the dramatization of the events surrounding the proliferation of the game maybe feel a little too dramatized, but the movie quickly assuages those feelings with incredibly fun stylized sequences (example: punctuating action beats in a car chase with flashes of beautifully colorful 8-bit art).
A stylized, well-paced movie with a strong script, everything falls into place very nicely for Tetris (2023).
Comic Recommendations
And now let's spotlight some of our favorite comics!
As always, we highlight a Marvel/DC comic, a Direct Market, an Indie Comic, a Kickstarter Comic - and starting this week, we'll also spotlight a Webcomic we've been enjoying! Our goal is to share our love for all sides of the comic industry. So let's jump in:
Indie Comic: Dark Ride
Kat: I love theme parks! I love their history. I'm intrigued by the fanbase. And the rides (of course). It's just a fascinating culture. Dark Ride is brought to you by the same team that created Birthright, the new perfectly paced Skybound series shows the horrors that lay behind the curtain of your favorite theme park. It's an interesting balancing act as the creative team showcases their love for theme park culture, all while building a horrific world of their own.
Marvel: Hellcat
Kat: I love a story that lives in the gray. A story that reflects our real lives. No one is fully a bad person or fully a good person. We do good things, and we do bad things. Our choices are ethical debates.
Hellcat is a murder mystery that transforms our hero into both the detective and prime suspect. Patsy Walker has always been a complicated character. Premiering as a lead in a romance comic (that would later tie into her origins as an Avenger), Patsy has been through hell and back - LITERALLY! This new mini-series is an introspective journey of that complicated history, while still keeping the book planted in the present.
Christopher Cantwell and Alex Lins are obvious fans of the character (and her complicated layers), putting every angle of her history on display. It's a love letter to the character that celebrates all that has come before by simultaneously introducing new dimensions to our romantic Avenger.
KICKSTARTER: "Tart 15 - Deal With the Devil"
Phil: A demonic serial killer is loose. Tart Acid must track it down the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. But if this was an ordinary evil, Tart wouldn't be on the case. Can she succeed without help from a member of the ruling family of Hell?
Our friend and an incredibly talented creator, Kevin Joseph, is back on Kickstarter with the whopping FIFTEENTH INSTALLMENT of his demonic series, TART! This is one of the longest-running comics serialized entirely on Kickstarter. As comic creators who use Kickstarter, Tart is truly an inspiration. It's amazing to see how Kevin has built such a ravenous audience on the crowdfunding platform and how he continues to deliver amazing installments well into the double-digit issue numbers!
Check our "Tart" here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tartcomic/tart-15-deal-with-the-devil
WEBTOON: "Encore!"
Phil: Since we'll be spotlighting the Webtoon Canvas titles featured in "Rainbow Canvas" a lot over the coming weeks, we wanted to spotlight a series not included in the anthology for our first "Webtoon Spotlight" in our newsletter. So let's take a look at Encore!"
"After a falling out in middle school, two childhood friends are brought back together in their senior year of high school."
"Encore!" is a story about connection (and re-connection). Clay and Aron lost touch after middle school, and the crux of the story is their finding their way back together. And as much as I love a good queer romance, I love a strong ensemble even more. The series balances a large cast of incredibly interesting characters and always knows the exact moment to switch things up and check in on another rich subplot. It's one of my favorite examples of casual queer representation, with an incredibly diverse cast that embodies many different labels (the series lead is trans, and the ensemble is made up various other queer identities, including gay, non-binary, and asexual characters).
One of my favorite things about "Encore!" is the dialogue work. Effortlessly weaving between sincere and funny, and managing to keep a very large cast of voices incredibly distinct and consistent. The group of friends feel like real teens with real issues. And seeing the ways they connect with each other weekly is a truly rewarding experience.
Check out "Encore!" here: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/encore/list?title_no=528408
In Closing
That's it for this week's newsletter! Be sure to follow the Pre-Launch Page for "Rainbow Canvas"! And don't miss out on your one-week-only chance to get our "All Out Action" C2E2-exclusive Enamel Pin from our Etsy store!
Thanks for reading!
Previous Kickstarters: HAUNTING #5 and Like Father, Like Daughter #8
Next Kickstarter: Rainbow Canvas - A Wholesome BL & GL Webtoon Anthology
Next Convention: Saturday, May 6th from 10am-3pm: FerryCon (Address: 55 Main Street, Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522)