FEEDING GROUND _ Foreword

One of the great honors in creating FEEDING GROUND has been the reaction we received from author/scholar Luis Alberto Urrea. In "The Devil's Highway: A True Story," Luis literally wrote the book on the too real horrors of the stretch US/Mexico desert that has consumed lives for centuries and continues to serve as a battlefront of modern immigration. He writes non-fiction that reads like epic poetry and presents an even-handed picture of all players in accounts that are harrowing, human, and darkly humorous. The book was a primary source of research in preparing FEEDING GROUND, our myth on the same subject, and it's with pride that we share Luis' Foreword to our Hardcover Collection, below:

FEEDING GROUNDS OF THE ELDER GODS
by Luis Alberto Urrea

As a writer, I am repeatedly confronted with the same question:  What are the most Influential books in your life? I always want to answer:  Armadillo Comix #2 by Jim Franklin.  You see, I came to writing through drawing. As much as my dad hated it, Batman and Hawkman fueled visions that later remained in my prose; unspeakable visions, spoken.  I’d love to see how many of us in the writing trade owe our “cinematic” styles to early comics and graphic novels.

As huge as the craft has become, comic books retain enough outsider, underground cachet to tackle subjects many of us wouldn’t dare touch -- not in polite company, not at Tea Party rallies.  One shouldn’t approach such vile, filthy subject matter as the worth of a human life, the dignity of a human soul, or the value of, as Bob Dylan once sang, “these children that you spit on.”  I’m talkin’ to you, Mr. Politician.

And, here is a series of books that leaps deep into the brilliant heart of darkness: the damned (in every sense) and glorious border.  The place I write about.  The place where I was born.

Swifty Lang and I share an interest in the exquisite horror and beauty of the wastelands through which the undocumented wanderers must struggle.  It is a formidable region of unforgiving landscape and gods who rule with little mercy.  In my book, THE DEVIL’S HIGHWAY, I stated that we are all aliens in this landscape, what I call “Desolation.”  For fans of the occult, this comes from The Book of Enoch.  Yeah, the lands wherein the fallen Watchers and their earth spawn, The Nephilim, are chained beneath the burning desert mountains.  They wait to return for their revenge.

How stunned and delighted was I when these amazing comics arrived in my mailbox.  As all great graphic novels do, these books create a literary work of searing poetry and awe.  The art allows us to see things we might not be able to—or want to—imagine for ourselves.  That my work has had even a little to do with the genesis of this epic is as cool as it gets.  I laugh out loud in appreciation when I see the smugglers (Coyotes) and The Devil’s Highway itself, the sly gangsters come alive, as if they had jumped out of my book.  But I don’t laugh because it’s funny.  No. I’m whistling past the graveyard, amigos.  This shit’s scary.

What Feeding Ground has envisioned and what Lang, Lapinski and Mangun have captured, is the eldritch nature of this new myth.  The darkness at the heart of the sun-baked killing fields.  There is something…other about it.  There is something from our deep nightmares lurking there.  Yes, there is a relentless toll of suffering and death to go with the realistic adventure and thrills and violent action. That is a given—every border-book ever written deals with it. However, Border Patrol agents know, DEA agents know, the medicine people of those canyons and dunes know that something…other…lurks.

I’m trying to capture this Lovecraftian feeling in my own work.  Yeah, a little pissed that Swifty et al have done it first, and done it so well. This sensation is what the philosophers call “the sublime” in art.  It is beauty, but it is also terror. It’s a higher horror: a sense of the eternal, the dark, the overwhelming.  This epic is so addictive that it will lure you into a deep redrock canyon where the worst dream awaits.  It’s so bad; it’s so pretty.  It’s a festival of wonder that shows you the true awe of awful death.

   
Luis Alberto Urrea
Chicago, 2011

THANKFUL

FEEDING GROUND #1 has been shipping across the country these last few weeks and it has finally landed on our home coast. In honor of the book's release and tomorrow's holiday, here is our THANK YOU page text as it appeared in the back of the issue. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families.

It might not be customary to include "thank yous" in the
first issue of a comic but this was a labor of love almost
two years in the making. It would not have happened if
not for the people below and we'd like to express our
gratitude.

As a group, we benefited greatly from the insight and
experience of Thomas Peyton, the counsel of Suzana
Carlos, and the encouragement and camaraderie of artist
Juan Doe. Great thanks to everyone at Archaia not only
for taking a chance on us, but also offering advice and
support that recognized what we were doing and then
made it stronger.

SWIFTY LANG would like to thank the following people:
I would like to thank my parents, my brother David and
sister Samantha for believing in me. I would like to thank
my Uncle Neal for giving me the GI Joes that kept my
imagination rollin’. I’d like to thank my cousins B.B. and
M.B. for proving that writing can be more than a hobby. I
would like to thank all of my friends in Hollywood, Florida,
NYC, LA and world-wide. I’d like to dedicate this to my girl
Spooky, for listening without judgment, reading every
draft, and putting up with a grown man arguing about
werewolves when he barely had a job.

MICHAEL LAPINSKI would like to thank the following
people: Cartoonists Rick Ritter, Mike Dawson, GB Tran and
the guys of MAMMAL, their art and dedication convinced
me to get back into making comics. Paul Zdanowicz,
horror guru and Lapinski-booster with a keen critical eye.
Klaus Janson, whose professional instruction came just at
the right time to bring structure and rules to what I had
been discovering on the page. Brian Michael Bendis for
providing the Jinxworld message board and its posters for
keeping me company in the solitude of my man cave. To
my parents and family, whose generous affection has
always allowed me to thrive. And, to Lindsay, thanks for
adding sweetness to my life and for riding this wolf with
me to Bayonne and beyond.

CHRISTOPHER MANGUN would like to thank the following
people: His father Rick, who taught him craftsmanship. His
mother Kathie, who taught him how to work with people.
His sister Jenny, who open his eyes to ideas and music at
the right time. His brother Rob, the best entertainer he
knows. His Uncle Tim, for evoking storytelling as an
important part of him. And most of all, his best friend Mel,
who believed in him through unbelievable weekends and
continues to do so with kind support. Also, Pale Ale beer...
Yes, he know that's not a person, but it is a friendly spirit
that sometimes helps grease the pleasant grind of
so-called-life-events.

Finally thanks to YOU, the reader, for giving this a shot and
holding this in your hands. CHEERS!

FEEDING GROUND _ Solicitation and Podcast

Michael here:

In case you missed it, here you have the solicitation for FEEDING GROUND Issue 2 and a link to my first Podcast appearance! With this cover image, I was trying to create a new doomed iconography based on the Christian symbol of the Sacred Heart as well as the Mexican lotería card for "Corazón" to communicate the cursed blood that flows within.

FEEDING GROUND #2 (of 6)
Retail Price: $3.95 U.S.
Page Count: 64 pages
Format: saddle bound, 6.625” x 10.25”, full color
Written by Chris Mangun and Swifty Lang
Illustrated by Michael Lapinski
Cover by Michael Lapinski

A local enforcer, Don Oso, terrorizes the Busqueda family as their father Diego makes a solitary trek home through the horrors of the Devil’s Highway. Meanwhile, US Border Patrol agents unearth a shocking discovery that threatens to reveal a secret buried in the desert for generations. Also included are 24 pages of bonus content in Spanish!

T +13 (Contains material suitable for teen readers age 13 and above)

I'm a regular listener to The Ink Panthers Show podcast (a "Fanther") and I was nervous and excited to be asked on as a guest star. Hosted by famed cartoonists Mike Dawson and Alex Robinson, the show is ostensibly a comic book podcast but the topics are all over the map and the main draw is the funny, familiar, conversation held between Mike and Alex.

On this episode, I reveal the details of that crucial moment when Archaia accepted my FEEDING GROUND pitch and then the conversation veers off into other bits ranging from Pixar to veganism and my love of cuttlefish.

You can listen off of their website or download and subscribe to the podcast for free through the iTunes store.

Ride the Panther!

FEEDING GROUND _ Solicitation Update

Some additional backstory: initially, the Archaia website listed the book a 48 pages (accounting for a flip book in which the book is reprinted in Spanish) for $3.95. One problem, our first issue has 28 pages of content (x 2 = not gonna fit). Then, I went to the Previews site (the distribution catalog for comic sales) and discovered that the book was listed at $5.95 (!) and my jaw dropped. After a fitful night's sleep and some phone calls, Archaia is more than on top of resolving Diamond's typo.

In fact, the book will be 64 pages at $3.95. Holeee Mackerel! We were already planning on including some extra content (pin-ups and articles a la Ed Brubaker's incredible Criminal) but I could not hope for a better package for this book. Thanks and cheers to Archaia for taking a chance on us.

One artist that we already have lined up to do some additional art is friend Tom Forget. His work is the best kind of lurid pulp and a great match to the heat of our material. Warning, most of his images are Not Safe For Work but are perfect for your basement office.