The Return Of The Switch

If I only knew then what I know now.

My father, Ken Champagne Sr, passed away 5 years ago today (May 7th). He died in the early days of the pandemic, not from Covid but several days after suffering a heart attack.

Senior was a lot of things: brilliant, charming, proud, stubborn, complicated, handsome, unpredictable, angry and a whole bunch more paradoxical adjectives that would take up several paragraphs to type out. If he ever had a relationship with anyone that wasn’t effin’ FRAUGHT, it would be news to an awful lot of people that knew him and if you’re wondering what this eulogy has to do with New Pain’s new SWITCH project, ELECTRICIA #1, hang in there with me for a minute.

I’ve often wondered if, shortly after I was born, my father and I looked at each other and swore a mutual blood oath to never quite understand one another. It’s ironic that, of my brothers and myself, I was the one by the side of his hospital bed when he passed on. While my brothers’ relationships with Senior were strained and/or broken by the end, there was a lifetime more common ground between the three of them. By the age of eight, I was relatively OK with being the least favorite son. It’s not that I wasn’t loved, it was just…harder…between he and I. The dynamic between he and I shaped us both in various ways, I’m sure.

Complicated relationships are often the ones that are more difficult to release but, strangely, in the months after Senior died he started coming into focus in a way that had always eluded me. Hindsight can be a powerful tool and while there are infinite aspects of my dad that I’ll never understand, I do feel that he makes more sense to me now than during his life.

Also in the months after his death, I occasionally found myself wishing I could go back in time and explain to my younger self how so much of the conflict between Senior and myself often had very little to do with me.

If I had only known then what I know now.

Which (finally) brings us to ELECTRICIA #1.

I wrote the script to ELECTRICIA #1 four years and eleven months ago, inspired by the idea of being able to have a conversation with one’s younger self which, in turn, was inspired by realizations after my father’s death. Trippy, huh? But wait, we’re not done mining my personal life. There’s even a mysterious new character introduced in this special, Senior Kenny, as a tribute to my old man and don’t worry, the name makes sense in the context of the story.

Because I think in terms of superheroes (the original SWITCH: ELECTRICIA graphic novel was an exploration of growing apart from one’s friends; one specific friend in my case), it was a natural impulse to shove a lot of the processing I was doing onto Electricia’s static-charged shoulders. Here was a character that had spent much of her life making the wrong choices. Disappointing the memory of her father. If Electricia could have a heart to heart with her younger self in much the way I was envisioning, what would she say? What could she teach herself—or try to spare herself from? Would she even listen to herself, if given that opportunity?

Interesting questions to build a story from, in my opinion.

Of course, there can be no story about Electricia without TOM NGUYEN handling the art and, while it’s been frustrating at times waiting for this project to take priority in his schedule, Tom has been producing legitimate career-best work for all of us to enjoy. Together with our color artist RICH STAHNKE for this go ‘round, we’ve created a comic book that I’m really proud of, a story that is simultaneously a sequel AND a prequel to the original graphic novel.

I like to think this story was written from a very honest place emotionally and that beneath the super powers and time travel, there’s a very human theme that many of us can relate to.

If I only knew then what I know now.

I also like to think that five years later, my father would enjoy the role he played in inspiring this story, even if he expressed that feeling in a way that would be difficult for me to understand.

If you’d like to check out ELECTRICIA #1, the preorder campaign is currently live on Kickstarter and, as these words are being typed, is very close to being funded. Aside from a great selection of reward tiers and additional swag, there are variant covers by incredibly talented friends like KEITH WILLIAMS, NEIL EDWARDS, ROSS HUGHES, ROBB MILLER (of course Robb had to be in the mix somewhere!) and myself (not quite as talented but certainly plucky), as well as A MYSTERY VARIANT COVER ARTIST that will be revealed shortly. New readers can also pick up a copy of the original graphic novel in print or digital form to get up to speed.

Thanks in advance for checking our our latest offering.

SUBSTACK RECOMMENDATION

I’ve never met Liam Sharp but he’s a creative powerhouse and if you’re going to subscribe to something, he brings the goods every single freakin’ time in his BRAVE AND THE BOLD newsletter. This guy draws like a sonuvabitch, he writes at a pace so prolific that it makes me think he must be smoking meth…he just does it all and does it all really well. I give his newsletter my highest possible recommendation. If you were thinking about subscribing to the New Pain substack, stick to the free subscription and put that money toward Liam instead.

Also, check out Liam’s Conan story published by Marvel this month. Even Barry Windsor Smith must be jealous of what he produced.

MEDIA ROUND UP

Here’s what’s been keeping me sane while I do cardio lately.

THE LAST OF US. I will never forgive you, LAST OF US, but you tell a good story.

THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES. This stupid, silly show made me laugh for four seasons.

ANDOR. I have no idea what’s going on, really. Does anyone, if we’re being honest? Like, why is Forrest Whitaker huffing paint fumes? But I dig it and I love the 70’s-era clunky sci-fi hardware.

THE STUDIO. Amusing and self aware, am I finally becoming a Seth Rogan fan? The magic eight ball is cloudy but I’m enjoying this show.

YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS. Where the actual f*ck did this show come from and why is Don Draper robbing houses? This has been great every week so far, not a surprise because it comes from Jonathon Tropper. If you’ve seen BANSHEE or WARRIOR, you know what I’m talking about.

I also saw THUNDERBOLTS*, which I liked quite a bit. I wasn’t expecting a movie about depression dressed up in spandex and anchored by the most-definitely-going-to-win-an-Oscar-someday Florence Pugh but it was a strong step in the right direction for Marvel Studios.

SINNERS was also great. THE ACCOUNTANT 2, not so much no matter what PETER TOMASI claims.

I’ve also been reading a novel called TELL ME AN ENDING by JO HARKIN. While it doesn’t have any pictures (WTF), if you’re looking for something trippy in the same way that SEVERANCE can be, it’s been well worth the time so far.

TO WRAP UP…

Here’s Neil Edwards’ variant cover for ELECTRICIA #1.

Thanks for reading and catch you in the next thrilling, badly spelled edition of this newsletter.

Your pal,

Keith Champagne