Now Accepting Questions for a Holly, Jolly Mailbag Q&A!

By David Harper

December 5, 2024

After a month off from the Q&A game, we’re back on the beat this month. That’s right: It’s time for another Mailbag Q&A!

Now, there are quite a few new folks both in terms of SKTCHD subscribers and Off Panel patrons, so you may not know what that means. What it is is quite simple. Every month or two, I ask subscribers and patrons for any questions they might want to know my answers to, and then a few weeks later, I answer all those questions in a giant-sized column. Those columns are my Mailbag Q&As, an effort that owes a whole lot to Bill Simmons and the mailbags he used to do at ESPN and then Grantland. Most importantly, they’re always a whole lot of fun.

Part of the reason they’re fun is because there are basically no rules to them. If you have a question (or questions) about any topic, you can ask it. Want to know my thoughts on something related to comics or the industry? That’s obviously something I’ll be happy to answer. Curious about my approach to writing and/or podcasting? Sure thing. Want to learn how I’m handling this terrible Indiana Pacers season or what I’d do if I found myself in a Silo like, well, the cast of Silo? I can do that. It doesn’t matter if it’s about comics, sports, movies, TV shows, music, or whatever, I’ll be happy to answer your questions in this Mailbag, because that’s what it’s all about. Whether the question is reality-based or purely hypothetical, I’m in on it.

The only caveat is that if the question is too big to answer in a Mailbag, I may graduate it to a full-out column or feature. That has happened before and I imagine it’ll happen again, even if it’s a pretty rare occurrence.

My only request is that the questions are turned around slightly faster than usual. I’ll be traveling to Texas on December 20th and I’d love to have this as something I can write during my flights. So, if you have a question, please get it to me no later than December 19th, and you can do that either by commenting on this post, emailing me at david@SKTCHD.com, or by hitting me up on your preferred social media platform and hoping I see it (Bluesky would be best, as that’s my primary home these days). Regardless of how you submit your questions, though, the point is submitting them. So hit me up, and let’s have some fun with this! I always enjoy these, and it’d be great to have this as a fun way to end the year.

Notable Replies

russel says:

December 5, 2024

Hey David, as always excellent job with writing and reporting and otherwise sharing your insights on the world of comics! I don’t know how familiar you are with TTRPGs or D&D specifically but I’ve got a “this character for that role” style question for you.

Can you put together an “adventuring party” consisting of superheroes and/or supervillains. Adventuring party can be used in the broadest of terms (this group can travel together for good or ill but they don’t have to), so take your pick for each of the “entry level character-types” for the current edition of Dungeons and Dragons.

Those character-types are: Barbarian (your big front-line bruiser), Bard (the face of the party who usually has trouble staying out of trouble), Cleric (healer who can be divine associated), Druid (gets power from nature), Fighter (weapons master), Monk (hand-to-hand fighter), Paladin (champion of the less fortunate, also can be divine), Ranger (the outdoorsy scout with an animal companion), Sorcerer (power they were born with, let’s be honest this will probably be mutant), Warlock (in a bad relationship with a very powerful patron), Wizard (class cannon scholar).

Oh, and to shield you from the comments, the character-type descriptions are my own and do not reflect the opinions of David Harper and SKTCHD. Bonus points if you have a story or era for the character that you’re assigning to each role.
robby1 says:

December 5, 2024

Hi David!

I’m a longtime listener of Off Panel but only recently subscribed to SKCHD. That said, your articles have already become a real highlight of my days/week, so thank you for what you’re putting out in the world. It’s really top-tier criticism and commentary, and it’s made the world of comics that much more fun for me.

This is maybe more of an Off Panel question, but I suppose it could apply to your written interviews as well. If you’re comfortable sharing, I’d love a little insight into how you go about selecting guests and preparing for particular interviews. I’m consistently impressed by both the tenor and substance of those episodes/pieces and would love to know how you go about structuring conversations, whether you have overarching themes you’re shooting for, and just what your process looks like more generally.

Thanks again for a year of great stuff!

Cheers,
Robby Earle
mark1 says:

December 7, 2024

Every comic book store I’ve ever been to is divided into Marvel superheroes, DC superheroes, manga, children’s comics, and everything else, with only minor variation or dividing everything by publisher.

I’ve never been into a comic store divided by genre like you’d see in a bookstore. If someone is specifically looking for romance, they have to look for it between so many other genres. I’m curious, have you been to comic book store split up by genre or have you interviewed anyone that runs their store that way? I’d be interested to know what kind of differences you observed / heard about from these stores.
mark1 says:

December 8, 2024

You’ve got a Christmas party coming up and you want to really impress your guests. You must staff your party with characters from the pages of comic books, plus add five comic characters as special guests to impress and astound, while still maintaining overall harmony.
StAdkison says:

December 9, 2024
1. How are you doing David?
2. I know you’ve done plenty of sports-superhero articles. Have you ever done a classic listicle comparing teams in a given league to what hero or villain they best map on to? Like, are the Phillies MLB’s Deadpool? Perhaps the Lakers are the Wolverine of the NBA?
3. Among the comic book online fandom, many people pine for the return of longer runs. Even creator-owned series don’t seem to be chugging as long as they have in the past (Saga and Monstress being the exceptions.) Big manga, on the other hand, will often have stories that easily go over one hundred installments. Short of the obvious “as long as the story needs to be,” what is your ideal story length? Is it dependent on the format you read the comics in (monthly as they come out, trade waiting, reading series that are already completed, etc.)?