Moving Forward

An update from our studio in which we discuss good friends, Tyler Appreciation August, and the kindness of strangers

Y’all–

This morning, I woke up excited. My bff is coming to visit for a few days. We met TWENTY-FIVE years ago during our first semester of college and have essentially been laughing ever since. Talk about something to celebrate.

I don’t know about you, but I could use a good laugh right about now.

It’s been a brutal summer. For me, personally. For the world. For so many of my friends.

In hindsight, when my therapist ghosted me, it should have been a sign that summer 2025 was going to be relentless.

Back in early July, I was driving home from visiting my parents in their assisted living community. I had learned that one of their caregivers died in the flooding brought on when Tropical Depression Chantal plowed through central North Carolina (a disaster overshadowed by the even deadlier storms that ravaged Texas a few days earlier).

I’m able to navigate the backroads between where my parents live and my house in a pretty wrecked state. I come home crying two or three days a week.

I don’t tell you that for pity, just as a statement of fact. Providing eldercare is the hardest thing I’ve ever done— and I’m fortunate enough to have a TEAM of people helping me out. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you’re reading this and need someone to talk to about caregiving, don’t even think twice before sending me an email. I will gladly listen to whatever you need to say. And I have a feeling that some day I’ll have something to write about this experience, but right now I’m living it and I want to honor my family’s dignity and privacy.

My dad loves gardening and his tomatoes have been bumping this summer. While the rest of y’all call these “grape tomatoes,” I grew up calling them “tommy toes.” Anybody else?

But on this particular day, I was a sobbing, snotty mess. In addition to eldercare, I was dealing with a sick dog. Our youngest beagle, Whitney, has been under the weather most of the summer. After a few trips to the emergency vet, we learned that she hadn’t secretly eaten rhinestones from Hubby Jon’s hand-crafted Cowboy Carter couture, she has chronic gastroenteritis. Before learning of this diagnosis, I would have said that the most Millennial thing about me was that I got a tattoo based on a pattern from a dinner plate I bought at Urban Outfitters in 2001. Having a dog with chronic gastroenteritis feels impossibly Millennial. But good news: Whitney’s on a new diet and doing great!

Whitney is back to feeling so well that she tore a whole through my favorite quilt just last week!

Also, I had a little cancer scare. I was at the dentist and she looked under my tongue and said, “Uh-oh.” Sidebar: I’m not a medical professional but maybe saying “uh-oh” isn’t the best bed-side manner when examining a patient? Anyway, my dentist seemed pretty convinced that I had a cancerous growth under my tongue. One trip to the Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist later: I just have a naturally bumpy under-the-tongue area, I guess? Anyway, that was a major point of stress.

Oh and then there’s my professional life. I ain’t trying to tell tales out of school (only because I need that paycheck), but let’s just say that working in higher education is… not great right now. The semester starts next Tuesday and I’m very excited to teach a bright new group of young people. Fighting for the right to do that job has been exhausting, though.

All of this conflama was on my mind as I was driving those backroads in July. And then I remembered that I needed to pick up a birthday cake for my husband.

So, I swung by one of my all-time favorite eateries, Tonya’s.

Tonya Council comes from Southern culinary royalty. Her grandmother, Mildred Council, was the pioneering owner of Mama Dip’s Kitchen, a landmark of Southern cooking. I’ve been hitting up Tonya’s bakeshop since she opened and let me tell you: she makes some of the best desserts I’ve ever stuffed in my face. Don’t believe me? Maybe you’d listen to someone named Oprah? Look, we already talked about how hard the world is right now, so maybe you deserve a sweet treat? Order you something from Tonya! I’m working my way through Tonya’s entire catalog so if you need a recommendation, just ask.

But anyway, I went to Tonya’s to pick up a couple of slices of her famous cream cheese poundcake that reminds Jon of his grandmother’s recipe. Maybe Tonya could tell that I was in a PLACE. More likely, I think she is just an incredibly kind and generous person. But she hooked me up with an entire pound cake because Jon and I regularly order Sunday dinner for my parents from the café.

When I tell you I ugly cried while hugging Tonya’s neck in front of the pastry display, I don’t think that quite does the scene justice.

Just like Blanche DuBois, I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.

Thank you, Tonya! I tried to pay it forward by taking cake to the staff of my parents’ assisted living. And I’ll tell you one thing: if you visit me in Chapel Hill, we WILL stop by Tonya’s for one of the best Southern meals you’ve ever eaten.

I tell you all of this to affirm that those small acts of kindness can change the trajectory of a person’s day. Maybe James Gunn and Superman are onto something: kindness is the new punk rock.

Art by Howie Noel, posted under @dicktracyroguesgallery on Instagram.

Okay, a few quick updates from The New Futurists’ studio:

• If you are a Paid or Visionary subscriber, be checking your mailbox because we sent out packages with your print rewards last week! If you don’t receive your rewards, you may not have responded to our messages asking for updated shipping information. It’s not too late! Just hit reply to this email and let me know where I can send your goodies.

• Yes. The rumors are true. We have a limited number of print editions collecting the first series of Omniverse trading cards as the Official Handbook of the Omniverse Volume One: Troll Files and the first three chapters of American Gothic: The Hand of Poe as an ashcan edition! We haven’t added these collections to our online store just yet, but stay tuned as we plan to make those available to everyone early this fall.

  

  Paid and Visionary subscribers should be receiving their print rewards including the Troll Files handbook and The Hand of Poe ashcan in the mail this week. We’ll be offering these collections on our website for purchase later this year.

• I never got a chance to write a proper HeroesCon roundup, but suffice it to say, we had a blast. Personally, I love the annual opportunity to hang out with Luis Valero-Suarez, the brilliant artist behind our first series of Omniverse trading cards. It’s also a genuine treat to meet our readers in person— especially some of you who have been with us for THREE years! And HeroesCon is endlessly inspiring because every year I get to check in with some immensely talented artists who have become friends and meet new, wicked brilliant creators.

  

• Our next convention appearance will be at L.A. Comic Con September 26-28! We are BEYOND excited to see all you Angelenos!

• Finally, I can’t wait for you to see what we have in store for you for the rest of the year here at The New Futurists. Our first Hand of Poe-centric letters column will drop later this month along with not one, but TWO entries to The Supernaturalist’s Notebook featuring art by ride-or-die collaborators Ezequiel Rubio and Luis Valero Suarez in celebration of Chupacabra Awareness month (a new fictional holiday, I hope you’ll join us in recognizing). And hang on tight because Chapter 4 of The Hand of Poe will be coming to your inbox in September!

Cover for “Don’t Tap the Glass” by Tyler the Creator and “Snipe Hunter” by Tyler Childers.

Now before I go, I’d be remiss not to acknowledge another milestone of 2025. I’d like to call it “Tyler Appreciation August.” Have you been listening to Tyler the Creator’s “Don’t Tap the Glass” and Tyler Childers’ “Snipe Hunter” on a non-stop loop? Well, catch up, gentle reader. If you care to check out my Q3 playlist, smash that link below. Can I just say, no song has ever summed up my personality quite like “Bitin’ List?” Thank you for holding space, Mr. Childers.

Hit me up with any comments, questions, or jokes. Take care of yourselves out there and I’ll see in the funny papers.

Ben Bolling

Chapel Hill, NC

8/13/2025