Writer Daniel Freedman Talks Film and Comics and Birdking Volumes 1 & 2!

When someone references Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun and Glen Cook's The Black Company, you know you're in GOLDEN company!

Sep 19, 2023

Daniel Freedman (who writes BANDITTOWN here on Substack - go give him a follow!) is the writer of Image Comics' UNDYING LOVE, BURN THE ORPHANGE VOLs 1 & 2, Dark Horse's RAIDERS, KALI (spotlighted by previous guest Renton Hawkey (*rent)), and BIRDKING VOLs 1 & 2 (of 4) - the second volume of which is now on pre-order!

BIRDKING PRE-ORDER CODE: JUL231132

Final-Order-Cut-Off (last day you can preorder): OCTOBER 16, 2023

(Preorders for comics are like opening weekends for movies - it's the most important and critical way to buy and support a book! So please preorder from your local comic shop or book store if you like what you see!)

Daniel’s Books

All of Daniel's Dark Horse Graphic Novels (Physical)

All of Daniel's Dark Horse Graphic Novels (Digital)

All of Daniel's Image Books

The Wines

DAVE'S WINE PAIRING

The Blending Lab's 2020 GPS (75% Grenache, 25% Petite Sirah) Blend, Paso Robles

DALLAS' WINE PAIRING

Fabrizio Vella Catarratto (Orange wine). Sicily

Daniel's Comic and Beverage Pairing

ANCESTOR by Malachi Ward and Mat Sheean

Huyghe Brewery's DELIRIUM BELGIAN STRONG PALE ALE

EXTRAS

Daniel mentioned two stone cold classics of fantasy literature as two of his biggest influences:

Gene Wolfe’s BOOK OF THE NEW SUN

You’ve likely never read a more challenging fantasy quartet than these books. Well, unless you’ve read Samuel R. Delany. But otherwise, Wolfe is in a league of his own. An unreliable narrator, a huge ensemble cast of supporting characters that weave in and out of the narrative, and an ending that forces you to reread the whole damn thing with this new information in order to fully piece together what it is you’ve just read. Wolfe is a writer’s writer; we tend to get our minds blown by his work. Non-writers’ mileages may vary.

Glen Cook’s The Black Company

A 12-book opus by a wildly prolific novelist. Where Gene Wolfe wrote with an art-house style sensibility, Cook here writes with a more action-oriented pulp style, while nevertheless covering a lot of the same thematic ground as Wolfe. The books follow said “Company”, who are a cadre of, essentially, canon fodder. Mere minions who struggle to survive in a word of warlords and magi and barbarians and demons. 11 Books were published between 1984 - 2018. A 12th and final book, “A Pitiless Rain” has been announced, but hasn’t yet been given a release date.

Bui Doi Cho Lon

Martial arts movie fan? Would you like to watch the full HD workprint w/ Eng subs of the unreleased martial arts movie mentioned and sampled in the episode above, "Bui Doi Cho Lon"? Well, it’s currently on YouTube in all its glory.

This is an excellent action flick starring Johnny Tri Nguyen (The Rebel, Clash, Tony Jaa’s The Protector). It ran afoul of Vietnamese censors, and was deemed unreleasable. So it will literally never be released, barring a complete change of government in the counry.

But this workprint was leaked, yay the bright side of technology. This is the final edit, though the sound design is unfinished, so sound effects are missing throughout. It’s an eye-opening experience on how much heavy-lifting sound design does in movies!

Elsewhere on Substack

Comic Conversations:

Following up on our previous Substack post with HoraTora Studios , the Demon Bitch Kickstarter is going strong! But still needs more love. Also, that Michael Watson pin-up! (Did you know we’re Livestreaming with Michael at 3pm PT / 6pm ET today, 9/19?)
Earthdog Studios’ Timothy B. Fling has just launched his own Substack. If you know who he is, you know you need to follow it. If you don’t know who he is, you REALLY need to follow it!

Wine Waxings:

Andrea J. atMas Vino Please talks about “Natty” (natural") wine and how we need to start drawing hard lines in the sand about what is objectively good or bad about certain wines, and look closer at what’s happening in America’s own backyard! Personally, I use the term “Natty” to mean “funky”/bad. There’s natural wine, and then there’s NATTY wine, which tastes like it sounds!
Anna Hickson at Anna’s Substack writes about a new “Luxury Boxed Wine” brand in the UK. We have our own experiment happening here with this in California via Tablas Creek. Boxes are vastly more eco-friendly than glass bottles, and the wine actually stays fresh longer in boxes! But we all have to overcome the seeming classiness of the former and the stigma of cheapness associated with the latter. This is one of the biggest environmental hurdles the tradition-focused wine world needs to overcome.
You should be drinking Armenian wine, according to Métier, by Julia Coney. And I second that! Areni is a native Armenian grape that makes incredible red wine, and here Julia features dry sparkling rose made with the same grape.