Episode 10 Extended Show Notes: Our First Guest, Renton Hawkey and his Tower of Death! Plus Chateau Bernadotte & Pais Salvaje

Renton brings his own comic-and-drink pairing, and we make sure you have links and explanations for the insane number of things we name dropped! Though I spared everyone an essay on Darkhawk. :P

Welcome back everyone! Today’s episode drop is a special one, as it’s the first time we brought a guest onto the show!

Everyone meet writer/artiste extraordinairre, Renton Hawkey and his one-shot comic, “Tower of Death:

This is the first print comic of Renton’s epic RONIN DIGITAL EXPRESS.

RDE has run a total of 8 “Episodes” - many of them multi-part, so this isn’t just 8 pages/posts - all of which you can find in the RDE Substack’s archives.

These early episodes were loosely connected stories, some of them with the loosest of narratives in and of themselves. But starting with Tower of Death Renton plans to tell the story of his Green-Eyed Ronin as a true blue epic. So get in on the ground floor now, if you can swing it.

The Insane Number of Things We Name Drop in This Episode

JL Johnson and his Ennead comic:

The man who (likely) recommended Renton to me in the first place. JL writes his own epic fantasy comic, Ennead: The Rule of Nine. The first trade paperback collection was funded earlier this year, with the next three chapters - 9, 10, 11 - set to be funded soon!

JL also writes Ennead prose stories with full-on novels in the works. And as someone who is a bit of a snob when it comes to prose - most comic book writers do NOT make the trasition as well as they think they do! - I can say that JL’s got the goods in the prose department. The man can write.

I cannot recommend subscribing to his Substack enough.

The FAQs Project

Speaking of JL Johnson, Renton mentioned another YouTube comic-themed show, THE FAQS PROJECT (apparently pronounced “Facts Project”). Here the ep with JL:

Renton’s Favorite Panel (though part of an inseparable page)

We asked Renton what his favorite panel in Tower of Death was. He said this “cross-cut” panel at the bottom of the above page.

Look at the “stacking” of the panels here: the foreground panels form a “T” shape overlaying a fourth action-oriented panel layered beneath. This is something arguably only comic layouts can do well, where the sword slices through the gap between the top two panels of the “T”, and then slices clean through - not once, but twice - the robotic character at the bottom of the “T”. All these panels are layered around and over each other to show multiple key elements of a single moment.

Even cinema would struggle to achieve this effect. You need the “static” action lines to show the motion as well as multiple panels to show the cause-and-effect, and the layering of the images to allow the “cutting through” effect. Moments like this really are why we love the comics medium, and often don’t know why. You don’t have to be able to dissect it in order to “get” it. That’s the magic of the medium right there.

The Green-Eyed Ronin and Kill Bill

One of the fun moments of the video is when Renton reveals that his “Green-Eyed Ronin” protagonist being referred to as “XXXX” is a nod to Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL, where the leading lady’s name is always *BLEEP*ed out whenever anyone mentions it, and is credited only as “The Bride”.

While looking for a clip to show an example of this, I stumbled upon a Reddit thread where eagle-eyed viewers noticed that the movies DOES, in fact, quietly reveal “The Bride’s” true name on a plane ticket":

"Beatrix ‘The Bride’ Kiddo”. There you go. I’m sure most of the known world already knew about this, but it was news to me!

Chateau Bernadotte Haut-Medoc 2011 Grand Vin (Dallas’ Pick)

Originally known as Chateau Fournas, the name was changed in 1997 when new ownership revamped the entire Chateau grounds, including vinification equipment and rooms. Everything was modernized, the vineyards replanted and upgraded, with more Merlot added to soften the wine. In proper French fashion, this wine is made from the best parcels of every varietal grown on the estate, so the percentages planted genrally = the percentages in the final wine blend.

With 12 years of age on it, the 2011 is drinking gorgeously now. And for the price of $18.99 - $24.99 per bottle, it’s definitely in the affordable range for most folks. The reviews for this vintage focus on its balance, plus black currant, chocolate, and tobacco notes.

J. Bouchon Pais Salvaje (Dave’s Pick)

País is known by a half dozen other names: Listan Prieto in Spain, Criolla Chica in Argentina, and the Mission Grape in the USA, where it’s primarily made into an uber-sweet (and uber-pricey!) dessert wine called Angelica.

The first ever vinis vinifera¹ to make it’s way to North America, it was brought over by Spanish missionaries in the 1600’s to Mexico, to make church wine. It travelled over the border to Texas in the 1700’s, but was always a grape known to make church wine/lackluster wine. The grape absolutely flourished in South America, in Argentina and especially Chile, where it is the most widely planted grape.

Far and away the BEST podcast/video to listen to, to learn everything about Pais you never knew you wanted to know, is Elizabeth Schneider’s Wine For Normal People Grape Mini-Series episode on the topic.

Renton’s Influences:

-Nicolas Winding Refn: director of the movies Pusher 1-3, Drive, Valhalla Rising, Only God Forgives, Neon Demon

-Brian Stelfreeze

Personally, I see *some* connection between Renton’s style (left image) and Brian Stelfreeze’s style (right image). Renton’s blacks are softer, and Stelfreeze’s much sharper/angular, but there’s a stark dynamism shared between them, and not just because they’re both black and white.

-Dani (Greek-based artist, link is to her IG account)

-Matt Kindt (writer/artist of MindMGMT, Spy Superb, Pistol Whip, a vast number of Valiant comics, and the recent Keanu Reeves blockbuster comic BRSRKR)

-Frank Frazetta (more as a complete creator who controls their own career. Frazetta is known as possibly the greatest swords and sorcery fantasy artist of all time.)

-Todd MacFarlane (again, not from a stylistic or content standpoint, but from an entrepreneurial one. Todd originally made his mark at Marvel on the Spider-man books, eventually getting his own. But creative differences and creator rights issues motivated him and a handful of other mega-star artists at Marvel and DC to branch off on their own and found Image Comics. At Image, Todd created the character Spawn and launched a branded empire that now includes video games, action figures, movies, and animation.)

Renton’s Drink-and-Comic Pairing

Something I always knew I wanted to have happen if/when we had guests on the show, was to request they bring a drink-and-book pairing of their own. A book that isn’t their own but that they love, and then a drink of any kind that they think pairs beautifully.

Renton banner waved the neo-spaghetti western / neo-expoitation Original Graphic Novel (OGN) KALI written by Daniel Freedman and illustrated by Robert Sammelin.

This is a wildly cinematic book, though one which uses the language of comics superbly, much like Renton does with Tower of Death.

A Future Guest???

Oops! What’s THIS?!? Could reaching out to the creator of whatever comic our current guest suggests be our master plan all along? Mmmmmmaaayyyyybeeee.

To pair with the above badboy, Renton selected TINCUP’s Rye Mountain Whiskey. I’m not gonna lie, Dallas and I are going to buy a bottle and give this a whirl. We *might* just sound of on how it goes when/if we do that episode with KALI creator Daniel Freedman :D

1. Vinis vinifera is the species of grape that makes the best wine, traditionally. In very recent history, thanks to climate change, hybrids that take a vinis vinifera grape and cross it with a different species (non-vinis vinifera) of grape have become popular and are making consistently better wines as well - Norton, Chardonel, and Chamborcin to name just a few. There is even a push to begin using native US grapes, all entirely non-vinis vinifera, to create amazing wines. Thanks to the technology and control we have in the 21st century, the results are consistently improving and surprisingly good, though the flavor profiles tend to be quite distinct from vinis vinifera wines.