The Midas Flesh

ryannorth: MIDAS - by me, Shelli Paroline, and Braden...

Tue, 07 May 2019 13:24:38 -0400

MIDAS - by me, Shelli Paroline, and Braden Lamb - is officially out today at a bookstore near you! It’s a space epic with GOLD and DINOSAURS and SPACESHIPS and EXPLOSIONS and ETHICS and I really hope you like it <3

It’s a new collection that contains the complete story!

becomeimp-makes-things: here’s a crude turnabout of a crude WiP...

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 10:36:54 -0400

becomeimp-makes-things:

here’s a crude turnabout of a crude WiP of a certain space ship from a certain comic

THE PROSPECT! :0

ryannorth: You’ve laughed at his Dinosaur Comics webcomic at...

Wed, 24 Jun 2015 14:01:25 -0400

ryannorth:

You’ve laughed at his Dinosaur Comics webcomic at work. You’ve devoured his Adventure Time adaptation. You marveled at his Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. But have you read Ryan North’s Midas Flesh, the writer’s first original print comic series? If not, you can easily get caught up via trade. North explores the myth of King Midas – of ‘everything he touches turns to gold’ fame – from a surprising angle in this funny, imaginative and remarkably dramatic series. In fact, this is probably North’s most serious work to date. Sometime in the future, a spaceship with a crew of three (two humans and one talking dinosaur), journey to a golden planet in order to secure something that can turn anything it touches to gold. It’s the ultimate source of wealth, and the ultimate weapon.
That’s Comics Alliance’s write-up of the new Midas Flesh trade, out today! You can read a preview here.

comet-wine: Something to look forward to in June. Absolutely!

Tue, 12 May 2015 07:31:57 -0400

comet-wine:

Something to look forward to in June.

Absolutely!

This napkin sketch of Cooper is pretty great! via

Thu, 29 Jan 2015 13:28:24 -0500

This napkin sketch of Cooper is pretty great! via

"The Midas Flesh isn’t just one of my favorite comic debuts of 2014, it’s one of the best comics..."

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 07:33:15 -0500

“The Midas Flesh isn’t just one of my favorite comic debuts of 2014, it’s one of the best comics titles published all year.”

- From The Geeksverse review of The Midas Flesh done as part of their 2014 year-in-review list! Super great to read - thank you!

"Now that it is finally in my hands I am just in awe of how much I love this little book."

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 12:19:34 -0500

“Now that it is finally in my hands I am just in awe of how much I love this little book.”

- from Bleeding Cool’s review of our first trade paperback, collecting the first four issues! Nice! :)

ryannorth: The first collection of The Midas Flesh is now...

Thu, 11 Dec 2014 14:01:21 -0500

ryannorth:

The first collection of The Midas Flesh is now available!

first four issues of the eight-issue series featuring Space Midas and A Dinosaur In A Space Suit

GOLD FOIL FINGERPRINTS ON THE COVER (AHHH IT LOOKS SO GREAT)

new backmatter with me and artists Braden Lamb and Shelli Paroline discussing the origin of the series and character designs!

all variant covers included!

SO EXTREMELY GREAT

Only $14.99!

It’s available at bookstores near you, comic shops, and online from Amazon and other retailers!

midasflesh: ryannorth: silversnailto: Get your copy of The...

Tue, 02 Dec 2014 11:03:58 -0500

midasflesh:

ryannorth:

silversnailto:

Get your copy of The Midas Flesh TPB signed by creator ryannorth Wednesday, December 3 from 4-7pm at Silver Snail Comics.

RSVP on Facebook.

You should come! I will sign anything. ANYTHING

DO ITTTT. Also, our first trade paperback is coming out!

UPDATE: the books didn’t arrive in time (THANKS REALITY) so instead we’re doing it the week after! The signing will be Wednesday December 10th at the same times. Come! It’s a great chance to get lots of things signed, ESPECIALLY with my name!

ryannorth: silversnailto: Get your copy of The Midas Flesh TPB...

Tue, 18 Nov 2014 10:02:40 -0500

ryannorth:

silversnailto:

Get your copy of The Midas Flesh TPB signed by creator ryannorth Wednesday, December 3 from 4-7pm at Silver Snail Comics.

RSVP on Facebook.

You should come! I will sign anything. ANYTHING

DO ITTTT. Also, our first trade paperback is coming out!

There’s a trade coming in December! This book collects...

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 07:24:24 -0500

There’s a trade coming in December! This book collects the first four issues in a big beautiful volume. More here!

adventuretitan: basically describes their personalities tbh Icon-ready pictures for you!

Wed, 29 Oct 2014 10:51:13 -0400

adventuretitan:

basically describes their personalities tbh

Icon-ready pictures for you!

ryannorth: panovanator: The Midas Flesh - bound! A short story...

Sat, 06 Sep 2014 10:01:19 -0400

ryannorth:

panovanator:

The Midas Flesh - bound! A short story in 8 issues, with awesome characters and a really cool ending (which, myself being a scientist, made me very happy). Also talking Engineer Dinosaurs!

I printed the cover onto canvas this time (thank you FedEx for cheating me out of 1/4” on one side, angry face), thinking it would be flexible yet durable. Unfortunately creasing the material causes the paint layer to break and show the white canvas underneath. Disappointed, but lesson learned.

Also I totally fell in love with that cover art and didn’t even notice that it was going to be the cover for the trade. Derp.

Ahhhh this is gorgeous! Super good job on the binding, panovanator!

"If you have not picked up Midas Flesh, shame on you… highly recommended"

Mon, 01 Sep 2014 11:18:25 -0400

““If you have not picked up Midas Flesh, shame on you… highly recommended””

- from Boom Addiction - Episode 21’s review of the Midas Flesh series! Some really awesome discussion here.

ryannorth: There’s a Boom Studios Humble Bundle going on right...

Thu, 07 Aug 2014 08:56:37 -0400

ryannorth:

There’s a Boom Studios Humble Bundle going on right now and it’s NUTS. Pay what you want for TONS of rad comics, but if you pay $15 or more, you not only get the COMPLETE Midas Flesh series, but also Lumberjanes, Bee and Puppycat, AND Bravest Warriors! ALL OF THESE COMICS ARE GREAT.

My name is Ryan North and I have an opinion on what you should spend $15 on today.

If you’re missing some digital issues this is a terrific deal! Even if you HAVE all the issues, it’s still a terrific deal: over 90 issues of comics for $15 and you get Lumberjanes and Midas? AWESOME.

Patty bound up her Midas Flesh issues and it turned out...

Sun, 03 Aug 2014 22:14:02 -0400

Patty bound up her Midas Flesh issues and it turned out great!

If you don’t have the complete set, OR if you don’t have Patty’s skills: good news: there will be a TRADE PAPERBACK, coming soon! We will, of course, be sure to post when it’s out. :)

A Recommendation

Wed, 30 Jul 2014 10:01:41 -0400

bunglespleen:

Jade here.

We’ve flung a lot of negativity around on Bunglespleen recently (though in our defense we’re still just emerging from the rocky early years of the Hugos), so I thought I would take a moment while we’re between books to direct your attention to something that I believe should be up for a Hugo in 2015, because recommending everything that I love is kind of how I relate to people.

I’m talking about The Midas Flesh, a comic written by Ryan North with art by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb, the last issue of which is out today. It’s an eight-part science fiction series about a ragtag trio of misfits out to use the body of King Midas as a weapon against their friendly local totalitarian galactic government. One of them is a dinosaur (yes. A dinosaur). The other two are human women, one of whom wears a hijab. There is so much representation here that I can hardly breathe.

But that wouldn’t matter if the comic itself was bad. It’s not. It’s frighteningly good. If you want to study pacing and story construction, The Midas Flesh would make an excellent primer. In many ways, it’s like an old movie serial where the heroes are left dangling over a precipice or tied to a heap of dynamite at the end of each episode, but just like Raiders of the Lost Ark did, it takes those elements and transmutes them into something wonderful. Every crisis grows organically from what we know of this world and its people; unlike some serials, which are like playing baseball in the dark, every curveball here is thrown by a pitcher you can see.

The dialogue is sharp and funny, but heartbreaking when it needs to be. The characters are distinctive and sympathetic: North puts them through some pretty painful twists, but even while they’re doing desperate, morally ambiguous things, we know exactly where they’re coming from and why they, for instance, just turned a starship full of people to gold. You could make the argument that The Midas Flesh is an extended meditation on the uses and abuses of force. When is it justified? When, if ever, is it necessary? The characters themselves argue about this, but it’s never dull: everyone has their own viewpoint, so instead of a dry philosophical debate, we learn something about the person speaking, and we care even more.

The art is clean and gorgeous, and at least once an issue I find myself just sitting and admiring the use of color. It would be so easy to make this story look bleak and cold; it does, after all, involve the constant risk of death, dismemberment, and planetary destruction. (Spoiler: all of them happen at least once.) But the lines and colors are smooth and warm. This is not a future where everyone oozes cynicism like tar.

And it’s just plain fun.

If you want to check it out, you can go to midasflesh, where they have previews of every issue, or pick it up at your local comics store, which is what I’ll be doing today.

(Note that this isn’t a paid ad or anything; I just really want everyone to read the comic. If I got paid every time I told a person to read/watch/listen to a thing I love, I could buy Google.)

Jade out.

Aw, this is awesome. Glad you liked the book, Jade! :)

"Last time we checked in with “The Midas Flesh”, it was just over halfway through its run and going..."

Tue, 29 Jul 2014 09:00:17 -0400

“Last time we checked in with “The Midas Flesh”, it was just over halfway through its run and going strong. So far as super-weapons go, the Midas touch is a pretty novel concept; but more than novel, this series from the Boom! Box imprint exhibited a solid sense of fun. This quality is as striking as ever as this final chapter sends us home.”

- Multiversity Comic’s review of our last issue! The review ends with “This will be an excellent read in trade.” HEY HERE’S SOME GOOD NEWS: those trades will exist! Issues 1-4 and issues 4-8 are going to be collected in two books. We’ll be sure to post when those are out!

Hi, Mr. North! I just finished reading Midas Flesh #8 like, literally 5 minutes ago, and I was wondering what the most challenging part of working on that series was?

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 10:01:46 -0400

Having all the pieces fit together! I actually wrote the whole series all at once, because I wanted to ensure that it would work, and doing it in one giant two-month sprint gave me the option of being able to change something in Issue 5 if I found I needed it different in Issue 8.

This is different from how I normally work in comics: generally Issue 1 is already out while I’m working on, say, Issue 3. So things get set in stone much sooner!

Also, having it all done when Issue 1 hit stands meant I had up to eight months to revise and polish the other issues, which always produces a stronger work!

HEY EVERYONE, ISSUE EIGHT CAME OUT YESTERDAY, CHECK IT OUT

"Any fan of comics should give this one a try."

Wed, 23 Jul 2014 22:01:36 -0400

“Any fan of comics should give this one a try.”

- From Comic Bastard’s 5/5 review of our last issue, The Midas Flesh #8! It’s a review that’s actually full of great quotes. :)