> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hotrailstohell.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Final Countdown - URL: https://hotrailstohell.ghost.io/the-final-countdown/ - Published: 2026-08-13T01:50:48.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-13T01:50:48.000Z - Author: Jeff Treppel Sorry for the delay in the newsletter this past month – I’ve been busy running the Kickstarter for Waypoint and writing updates for that, and this little project slipped through the cracks. San Diego Comic Con also wiped me out for a solid week. Lots of stuff going on here and I’ve been delinquent in my duties, so let’s get rolling. Comic Con is always a gauntlet. It’s difficult to explain to someone who hasn’t been there just how draining it actually is. Oh, you’re walking around looking at comics and toys, what’s so bad about that? It’s like doing that except you’re inside a pressure cooker with one hundred thousand other humans. Which is a lot! And panels and such do bleed off some of the crush. But that’s still a lot of people walking around in a fairly confined space. I don’t think humans do well in large groups. That’s how you get angry mobs, after all. But we’re biologically designed to be outdoors with a small, trusted tribe. This is, frankly, the exact opposite of that. Endless lines to nowhere. A floor packed with other people. Countless hawkers trying to get your business. Add to that the overwhelming visuals of all the advertising and booths and shirts and costumes, the crushing airplane-level din in the main convention hall, and, frankly, the stench, and it’s almost custom-built to trigger the human fight or flight instinct. It’s basically Vegas. You have to either have a strict plan or just let the Fates guide you. I chose the latter, and mostly wound up by the pool at the hotel next door or a nearby Irish pub. Both were much more comfortable and had more alcohol. Pro tip: that’s also where the comics pros that don’t have booths usually hang out. They have no desire to be on the floor when they don’t need to be. I met some great folks – some of whom were even kind enough to back Waypoint! Chatting with fellow comic creators is always fun. It felt good to *be* a comic creator now. I wasn’t just “a guy with a comic I was figuring out what to do with.” I have a comic. It’s great. Back it now if you haven’t. Caught up on movies now that I’m feeling more myself. Two of them had Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal, and Zendaya in them. One of those was fine (honestly better than I expected), and I appeared on Geekscape’s Marvel Movie Talk podcast yesterday to talk about it. The other was a masterpiece. I think Christopher Nolan’s at his best when he’s deconstructing the myth of the Great Man – *The Dark Knight* and *Oppenheimer* are his two best films, and two of the thematically strongest. See also: PT Anderson. In *The Odyssey*, he deconstructs the greatest myth of the Greatest Man. He looks at the most legendary military tactic of all time and says “but what if this was actually a bad thing and the ten year exile was its architect’s punishment for putting a stake through the heart of the social contract?” Absolutely stacked cast, beautiful cinematography (saw it in 70mm IMAX at 7 AM at one of the biggest screens in the country and it was worth it), stunning action sequences that show why Nolan (with his collaborators) is the blockbuster filmmaker of the 21st century. Plus there were practical effects and real scenery! I miss that in movies. I understand the criticism that writing women is not his strong point, but he at least treats them with an empathy he doesn’t necessarily afford most of the male cast. The third film I saw was a preview screening of *Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma*, the new one from *I Saw the TV Glow* filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun. They’re a fascinating storyteller. *TV Glow* used the language of nineties tween supernatural dramas to tell a truly harrowing tale of self-acceptance. *Camp Miasma* is a much different beast – it’s much, much funnier and self-reflexive – but it does a similar trick with eighties slasher flicks, taking the tropes and imagery we’ve come to associate with the genre (both in-film and the meta around it) and using them to tell a love story. Hannah Eisbinder’s Kris has a very specific hang-up that she needs to overcome over the course of the story, and while it’s not one that I’m the target audience for (Schoenbrun doesn’t really do universal experiences and I respect that), they still make it fascinating for outsiders like myself. It’s an audacious film, story-wise and visuals-wise, but absolutely worth seeing. Don’t bring the kids, though. Final day is coming up for the WAYPOINT Kickstarter. The campaign is going great so far! It ends tomorrow morning, so back it if you haven’t and please share the link with anyone you’d think might enjoy it. [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/waypointcomic/waypoint-1-4/](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/waypointcomic/waypoint-1-4/?ref=hotrailstohell.ghost.io) ### NOW SPINNING Palaces – Sunhunting Annihilator – Alice in Hell Killing Floor – Out of Uranus Stone Temple Pilots – Purple Masisi Mass Funk – I Want You Girl