A Sense of Doubt blog post #1400 - DIE - a comic book review
I have written about newsletters here in these parts. Warren Ellis has one called ORBITAL OPERATIONS, which I read avidly and from which I have shared material repeatedly: Warren Ellis Category on SENSE OF DOUBT.
Kieron Gillen also has his own newsletter: Word Mail from Tiny Letter.
Gillen is one of the hardest working pros that I have the pleasure to be watching from a seat in the green room. Here shares so much with fans, and he is just a work horse, churning out MANY high quality scripts each month and dipping his fingers into many, MANY projects.
He also does a Tumblr with writer's notes, here's the one for DIE:
http://pomegranate-salad.tumblr.com/post/181052236127/seeds-of-thought-die-1
Here's one for a recent WICDIV:
http://kierongillen.tumblr.com/post/177938176427/writer-notes-the-wicked-the-divine-38
http://kierongillen.tumblr.com/post/177938176427/writer-notes-the-wicked-the-divine-38
I subscribe to many newsletters (yes, one of these days I will do a full list), but with the addition of Ganzeer, Ellis and Guillen's missives are the only ones I read each week somewhat religiously.
Here in this post, I have collected material from Gillen's newsletters, Tumblr, and sundry followed by my own review that references a few other reviews.
Short version? This is a great comic, and one of the BEST first issues I have seen this year.
First some links and then more from Gillen.
LINKS FOR COMIC BOOK ROUNDUP AND REVIEWS
https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/image-comics/die
https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/image-comics/die/1
https://sequentialplanet.com/comic-review-die-1/
Here's Kieron Gillen's announcement from newsletter 080 back on September 12th unveiling that the series DIE from Image is the project he's been teasing for two years called Spangly New Thing:
So there you go. DIE (aka Spangly New Thing). It's Stephanie Hans, Clayton Cowles and my own new ongoing, out December. What's it about? Here's a three page teaser trailer we've pulled together which gives you a taste...
We're pleased with how that turned out. It's only the core opening myth of the series (Or "First It" if we're looking at my guide to first issues). To be honest, it's not even that – we want to keep as much mythic and wonderful as we can for people to come in clean. It's a fantasy comic, and we want to make opening the pages of the comic as magical as opening the wardrobe and finding Narnia back there.
More details? The first interview over at Hollywood Reporter gives you a lot, with Stephanie and I both throwing around ideas. Here's a quote which is basically its origin story...
The specific idea came at San Diego 2016. Jamie [McKelvie, Gillen’s creative partner on Phonogram and The Wicked + The Divine], Ray Fawkes and I were wandering around buying ice cream and just riffing. I said “I wonder what ever happened to those kids in the 1980s D&D cartoon?” We joked around it a bit — historically, they escaped in the last episode which they never recorded — and just thought of these people who'd survived a D&D game gone wild, now well into their adulthood. So we made some jokes, and carried on eating our ice cream.It stuck in my head all day, and I chewed it over, had some more ideas, and by 8 p.m. I spontaneously burst into tears during dinner when I realized what the story was about, and it instantly jumped up to the top of the list of stories I had to tell immediately. I threw the other story in the bin, pitched DIE at Stephanie, and started all the research I needed to do.
Stephanie and I have been wanting to work together forever – Journey Into Mystery 645 is one of my favourite things I've ever done, and this comes straight from there. The Earth needs a fantasy world created by Stephanie Hans, and I had to enable it.
My two word cut-to-the-chase explanation is "Goth Jumanji" which certainly does the job. Being me, I've got a half dozen other things to throw around. Really, it's an intense character drama about six adults whose lives have gone awry in all too human ways, set in a something that tried to do for D&D Precursor's what Planetary did for the Superhero. It's a lot. It's ambitious. It's deeply personal. It's scarily beautiful. I think you'll like it.
Out in December. The Die site will keep you up to date for main updates, though the tumblr will be the place for faster moving churn.
Speak to your retailer about securing a copy, obv. I'll be doing more about pre-ordering (both digitally or physically) later. Yes, after five years, I have to try and launch a big ongoing comic. I should be tired, but in fact, I'm just excited. I've been waiting for two years to tell you about this.
Obviously the big one. I've talked about it a lot previously. Here's the basics.
DIE is a dark fantasy comic by Stephanie Hans, Clayton Cowles and myself. It's Stephanie's first ongoing, the first time she's got to entirely define a book by herself, and that alone should be enough to turn heads. Thanks to her and Rian Hughes' design, it's unlike anything on the shelves.
The basic concept is explained in this teaser: a group of teenagers, circa 1991, disappear while playing a role-playing game. They return two years later, unable to explain what happened. It's now 2018. Those teenagers are now adults and find what they thought they'd escaped has now caught up with them...
It's a lot of things. The first issue gives you the heart of the book - it's about comparing your teenage fantasies and where your life ended up it, using six complicated people as its dramatic core. As we proceed, we bring ever more facets in. In terms of positioning it within my own career, if WicDiv was the spiritual successor to Young Avengers, this is the spiritual successor to Journey Into Mystery.
As some people have asked, it's worth noting that while it's clearly as informed by RPGs as WicDiv and Phonogram were by music, it's a fantasy comic that doesn't require any specialist knowledge. It's authentically grounded in that subculture, but it's really about fantasy and escapism, in its widest sense.
If you want to know more the site's been updated, including links to the tags which compile interviews and features, etc. The Image feature and the Monkeys Fighting Robots interviews are especially good ones if you want to grab either. Critical response seems strong, which is gratifying – I'm aware the book is simultaneously very me while also being a major departure.
We put up the first eight pages of the 35 page issue as a preview, which is basically the 1991-era vignette in all its sepia glory. Here's the first page...
If you want to buy it, you can get it from your local comic shop or Comixology. As said, it's 35 pages for the first issue. Barg, etc.
Here's the cover of the second printing of DIE issue 1. Which probably gives away how the launch went, right? It went well. By the end of the first day on sale Image had mailed saying "We need to do a second printing." If you want it, speak to your retailer – its order code is OCT188783 if you need such things. It'll be out the same day as DIE 2 in January, which means that if you didn't manage to pick up issue one, you can order it, and pick up both and jump aboard the machine that is DIE.
There was a lot of press. I've got a bunch of drafts in the tumblr, which I've yet to post, as losing the actual preview beneath twelve other posts in launch week isn't a good idea. Here's comic book round up's list of reviews, which currently has twenty and an average of 9.0.
There's a couple of things worth highlighting separately to what will appear on the tumblr though, as they actually involve talking some more about the game which we should be releasing around the trade. Polygon actually turned up to a playtest which I was running and wrote about the comic and the experience – I'd stress that there are some spoilers in there for issue 2, but they're the class details – as in, "Spider-man has the powers of the spider" sort of spoilers. So if you want to be totally clean, best avoid until January, but certainly worth coming back to. Stephanie and me also did an interview with Graphics Policy, talking about a bunch of stuff, but certainly involving quite a bit about the game. Oh – and a Comicbook.com had some more concept art, as well as nice chat.
To stress, it's an additive thing. I suspect some folks who don't even like games will like it, solely in a "flicking through Tolkein's appendixes, but with jokes" kind of way. And, like the appendixes, you don't have to read 'em. DIE is just very big indeed.
At the time of writing Stephanie is just doing the final tweaks on issue 5's cover, which is looking like a monster. Also, our artist for the fifth alternate is just doing his. It's all very exciting.
Here's Stephanie and me on the way to the DIE signing on Thursday. Thanks for everone who turned up. It was lovely to see folks.
AND FROM
Kieron Gillen's Word Mail - 090: Joan Wilder from Romancing the Stone
As it's issue one, various retailers have done their own exclusive covers. Let's have a walk around them.
- Top Centre: The A cover by Stephanie, which is the main one you'll see in the shops. It's a standard $3.99 comic, but it's got 35 pages of comics. So a fun intro, hopefully. Content is the same on all of these below, it's worth stressing.
- Top Right: Jamie McKelvie and Matt Wilson's cover, who are two talented young creators who I hope to work with more one day. This is our alternate cover, and also available from all retailers.
- Top Left: This is the Comic Mint cover, available directly from them. This is another Stephanie cover, and the only one which is a non-heroic character.
- Bottom Left: This is Stephanie recolouring her work in a gothic mode, and is the Forbidden Planet cover (though it's also available from Big Bang in Dublin) and available here. Stephanie and I will be signing comics (including this, obv) in the London Megastore on December 6th next week, with details here.
- Bottom Centre Left: Queen of all things dice-based Emma Vieceli's cover for One Stop Comics.
- Bottom Centre Right and Bottom Right: These Mike Rooth's variants for Sad Lemon comics, available from them with pre-orders starting at 9:30 GMT tonight. Mike does all of Sad Lemon's variants, and does great stuff. We'll be signing them at Limited Edition comics in Stevenage on Saturday December 8 from Noon until 2pm.
Issue ones really are a thing, right? But scanning the covers are fun, in terms of seeing our cast being interpreted by artists. It's a different way of seeing them. Also, oddly, we almost manage to do one cover per our core cast. One is missing, who gets his spotlights soon enough.
and this
- Here's the Comeback's review of DIE (Random quote: "I promise I’m not being hyperbolic when I say there’s good reason to believe DIE has the potential to follow in the footsteps of Saga, Invincible, and The Walking Dead to become an instant classic for Image.") and Monkey Fights Robots do a head to head review with Millar/Albuquerque's Prodigy. I haven't listened to it, but it gives us both four and a half stars, which seems to be pretty good. It is out of five stars. I did check.
- And Creator Talks Podcast interviews Stephanie and Me about DIE, but really about all things creators. This is a fun one. All Stephanie and me giggling along and not understanding our accents is a joy.
AND a LITTLE PREVIEW....
(ALSO FROM Gillen's newsletter...)
***
It's Image previews time of month!
DIE #3
WRITER: Kieron Gillen
ARTIST / COVER A: Stephanie Hans
COVER B: Jen Bartel
FEBRUARY 06 / 32 pages / FC/ M / $3.99“FANTASY HEARTBREAKER,”
Part Three One of the saddest comics in Kieron’s career. One of Stephanie’s prettiest. Clayton’s lettering, of course, remains impeccable.
Between the first three issues, you'll get close to the full range of what DIE's basic scope is. One is the pitch, the second is a serving platter of approaches and the third digs down on the other remaining thing. This is where the sort of meta-history of gaming comes to the fore, and it's an issue we're particularly happy with.
REVIEW OF DIE#1 - by me
I was going to wait and read this in trade paperback form. I did not subscribe to the title anywhere or with anyone. This decision had nothing to do with Gillen. I follow most of his work avidly. But in the last year or two I have tried to cut down on the volume of monthly issues I buy. I had dropped The Wicked and the Divine, but after getting out west, and feeling more financially secure, I added it back and filled in with a trade volume for some of the issues I missed. I even bought a couple of specials, like last year's Christmas issue.
Skimming through reviews of DIE #1, I see a lot of negative criticism for The Wicked and the Divine, most of which amounts to "I didn't overly like it [The Wicked and the Divine] because I find it hard to follow.
Gillen doesn't coddle readers with The Wicked and the Divine. You're either all in or your not. There are no recaps. There are multiple storylines and a fairly large cast and backstory that is loaded in pieces and a HUGE interconnected fan community that Gillen supports well and actively. I saw my inability to follow The Wicked and the Divine as my flaw and not Gillen's. I am actually saving it up to read when it's finished and then go all through it carefully and be ALL IN. It's great stuff.
Before he even told all of his readers what it was about, when it was just "Spangly New Thing," this idea we knew he was working on, but which he could not reveal, Kieron Gillen's enthusiasm for this project hooked me. I was fated to read Die from long before I knew it was called Die or that it was about a group of friends plunged into a sword and sorcery world by a game of D&D. I just wanted to read "Spangly New Thing"; once I knew it was called Die (out of a set of dice, just one is a die but there's a double entendre there that I am sure you get) and it's connection to the Dungeons and Dragons game, of course I was going to read it. But for some reason I was being all stodgy and mud sticky and planning to not buy it in single issues, not subscribe to it so the comic book store would hold it for me, I was going to wait for the trade.
Then it came out, I saw it on the shelf, and I had to have it. Then I promptly added it to my subscription pull list.
Of course the germination of the idea -- and Gillen explained the idea's origin and source material in his newsletter -- came from the Dungeons and Dragons TV cartoon that aired on CBS from 1983 to 1985. Instead of a dark amusement park ride, the characters are sucked into the other world by dice, or see we believe so far with the minimal information we have in the first issue, but the concept at least is obviously the same, and THAT'S OKAY. I love that Gillen is riffing on the old premise from back when D&D was owned by TSR, and Marvel Productions helped to produce it.
We have all had the idea. Those who were playing before the TV show came out (like me) had the idea.
Two issues of the X-Men for Marvel back in the 1980s did something similar with the wizard Kulan Garth, the old nemesis of Red Sonja, and Spider-Man is the only one who remembers that the sword and sorcery would is not the original world for everyone, the "normal" universe.
I have been working on a novel since 1995 that riffs on that idea, part of a series I want to call Cyberspell.
So, we have all had the idea. But we each have our own take on it. My realization of the idea for Cyberspell is very different than Gillen's Die.
Also, as a side note, before I plunge deeper into review-land, I think that if I grew up around Kieron Gillen, we'd be pals. Much like Ellis, Scalzi, Joss, Whedon, Monica Byrne, Wil Wheaton, Kieron Gillen, and more that I can think of, people who I would invite to THE DINNER PARTY, my idyllic, fantasy community of like-minded souls and people with whom I feel a strong affinity.
Kieron and I share many similar interests; we'd be buddies.
BTW, I have been working on a post for a couple of years about his WWII epic Uber, which despite its gore factor is one of my very favorite comics of the last ten years. Top Ten list for sure.
I tend to mostly agree with this review from SEQUENTIAL PLANET, which is a cool site that I just found.
The central plot of Die is as such: a group of SIX teenagers in the early '90s gather around to play a pen and paper role-playing game à la D&D but with some twists. We meet Ash (The Dictator), Angela (Neo) Matthew (Grief Knight), Chuck (The Fool), Isabelle (Godbinder) and Sol (The Master and creator of the game).
Gillen uses a stripped down narrative method for story development. He employs first person narrative from Dominic's point of view to make the story more personal and intimate from the start. But there's really no exposition, no over-arching, omniscient narration. The thing is close-up from the start.
But Gillen makes the first page work giving readers a little background as we see at the bottom of the page that the story is being written in the future, past this point in time: "It's hard to think of Solomon's mum now. Back then, I didn't think of her at all." The comic starts out set in 1991.
Gillen is a thoughtful writer of great substance. He plans and researches meticulously, and he is not flying blind. He has the whole thing figured out. In fact, I was amused to learn that he has created an RPG game based on the comic book!
The gorgeous art by Stephanie Hans reflects the ominous tone and the dimness of memory from page one with dark, sepia tones and sharp light effects, the sun setting behind the houses in panel one and the mom, "Solomon's mum," back lit as she opens the door for her son's guests.
The premise is rolled out neatly. The characters are introduced deftly with their powers and alter egos in the other world. They disappear, we do not see where they go or what happens to them.
The comic jumps ahead two years to when the group returns from the other world, unable to explain what happened to them or where they were, and one did not return, Solomon, child of the aforementioned "mum." They "cannot say" what happened to them, which we later learn is the result of a geas, a binding spell that holds those ensorcelled accountable to some terms, like a non-disclosure agreement, but bound with lethal consequences for breach of contract.
Next the comic jumps ahead 25 years, immediately invoking the interesting idea of how these people try to move on with their lives, how they try to come to terms with what happened to them, a mystery not yet revealed to any one, even us dear readers.
Again, we see Solomon's mum, who shows up at Dominic's house, once again back lit in the doorway wanting in rather than letting in, the age on her as a stark contract to the "bourbon biscuit dispensing machine," as Dominic had called her on page one. The woman wants answers the characters cannot give, bound as they are by the geas.
Again the art supports the emotional weight of the story, panel views are askew in long verticals covering two-thirds of the page. Reflections in glass, light from windows, and doors and sad, gloomy shadows set the tone and affirm the story's pathos.
The characters all reunite on the occasion of Dominic's birthday and upon the delivery of the twenty-sided die smeared with blood, the die that Solomon kept for himself when dispensing them in the first scene, one to each character -- D12, D10, D8, D4, and D6 -- ostensibly because he is the dungeon master.
Once again, for maybe the third time, Gillen re-emphasizes that one out of a set of dice is called a die just to make sure that even the casual speed readers get the point and the double entendre that goes with it.
Contemplating the "die," Isabelle says "I can't believe I'm forty-three years old and I'm petrified of a dice" to which Dominic counters "Die. The word is die."
This time we see where they go. The die floats into the air and there's a booming voice-over: "Once more, the Grandmaster threatens the realm! The land calls out for a hero. Is it you?"
And then we get the play out on the double entendre: "I'm burning up," states Dominic's narration, "What choice do I have? I don't want to die."
And then we are treated to gorgeous big pages, the gloom and shadow and sharp light effects are opened to the sky, to brighter colors, to a more fantasy game feel. And then a double page spread with the characters in their alter ego garb and weapons.
The geas is lifted and they can openly talk about what happened to them. Apparently, they know what to do to get back home. But how do 40-somethings fight the good fight with magic spells and swords? For instance, Matt is one of the first to speak: "This... I... I can't do this again."
As the characters discuss, we learn that leaving Sol behind was a choice, and there's a question as to whether he is dead or alive.
Lots of background is packed into abeyance to be explained in future issues. In the end, we see that Dominic has assumed the role of Grandmaster, and we should be intrigued.
We are, or at least I am.
Some reviewers made comparisons that limit the comic and are back-handed compliments.
"Die is like a cross between Stephen King's It and The Never-Ending Story. These normal teenagers are whisked away to a fantasy world where they witnessed real terror that's haunted them well into their adult lives. Now they've been forced to return and face it once again, this time voluntarily. This debut issue set a very high bar for this series." - https://www.horrortalk.com/comics/die-1.html
Other praise is more direct, such as
http://www.comicsthegathering.com/review/olivier-roth/12103/die-1-review
As her work is fully painted, you not only see the brushstrokes throughout, but you can almost feel them as well. Her use of light throughout is probably my favourite aspect of her art. She uses it to put into relief important set pieces and brilliantly uses it to set the mood as well. Probably my favourite sequence (one of many), is when Ash and Angela are outside in the rain as they leave a restaurant. Eschewing the need to draw the rain as individual droplets, Hans instead have the lights from nearby building reflect off the water as Anglea, dropping her bright red umbrella goes to comfort Ash. It’s an amazing, impactful two page sequence.
Clayton Cowles on letters is a legend in my mind and he continues his amazing.g work in this issue. Gillen mentions that Cowles has this knack of being to fit all his lengthy dialogue into onto the page without compromising the art, and that is true once again here. Though not as robust as their work on Journey Into Mystery, Gillen still packs a lot of the pages with dialogue and Cowles navigates the challenge with aplomb.
Die Demands to Be Read
Die #1 is a tribute and subversion of childhood fantasy, of the games we played when we didn’t fully understand the rules. Gillen and Hans are a dynamic duo that have created an alarmingly alluring world of horror and fantasy and I’m so excited to add this to my pull list.
10 “Meanings of the Word Die” out of 10
http://blacknerdproblems.com/die-1-review/
Oddly, Stacy gives it an 83% but offers little in the way of criticism for why it's not 100%.
http://majorspoilers.com/2018/12/08/die-1-review/
BOTTOM LINE: +1 WITH ADVANTAGE TO BE A HIT
I have a long history with role-playing games and have been involved in them since the TSR Moldvay Red Box. I started playing DnD the week before the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon first aired. The idea of what happened to the party, if they ever made it home, was one we bandied around the gaming table for years. Gillen takes kernel of an idea and completely transforms it with his own amazing imagination, creating a completely new mythology to it. This is not the story of those kids, this is a story of real kids and he takes it beyond what most people would have thought. The choice of Stephanie Hans as an artist is inspired and her art adds to the feel of originality, and therefore adds to the depth of the story.
DIE #1 may look as if it is nothing more than lip service role-playing games, but read it, it is much more. There is a story that goes beyond the standard idea of being whisked away to a magical fantasy world.
As for the lowest reviews 7.0 from Newsarama and a 5.9 from Multiversity, despite making it the pick of the week, it's only the latter that musters some real criticism, most of which proves immediately suspect.
While I admire the ambition and time skips in the script, there isn’t a strong voice pulling you along and keeping you interested in the narrative. Skipping ahead so quickly in time comes across as jarring. Gillen covers a lot of ground and only prompts readers on certain aspects of the issue, overlooking others. While it is wise for him to focus more characterization and spend time establishing the premise, a more focused character piece to start readers could have made for a stronger first issue.
No, strong voice? Dominick's first person narrative is not a strong voice?
Jumps in time are jarring?
Has this reviewer read any comics or watched any TV shows (like jumps in time in LOST OR in the new Netflix movie BIRD BOX)??
A more focused character piece? This is not a focused character piece on Dominic from start to finish with his POV clearly established?
Not that Gillen should only get positive reviews, but the comments at Multiversity by Alexander Jones turn me off from reading further material on the site.
The Newsarama review is not much better as it sacrifices clear explanation for brevity. The second act spins its wheels? How so? The third act kicks it up? Which part?
Again, not going to be a go-to site for me as others have proven more insightful and intelligent.
Newsarama:
Die #1 (Published by Image Comics; Review by Richard Gray; ‘Rama Rating: 7 out of 10): The title of Kieron Gillen’s latest indie work actually refers to the multi-sided dice used in RPGs. The clever setup sees a group of teenagers get sucked into a game and emerge years later. After ageing, forgetting the incident and growing apart, they are drawn back into the game with their memories in tact. A cross between the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon and Stephen King’s It, you may have to be a gamer to full appreciate this one. A middling second act feels like it is spinning its wheels until the third act reveal, where both Gillen and artist Stephanie Hans kick it up a notch. Hans’ painted art captures the metal vibe of the visuals seen in D&D guidebooks without aping them, with the metallic colours adding to the fantasy landscapes she ultimately gets to craft. The premise is a solid one, although this patchy first issue makes us ponder whether the concept has legs to sustain a series
As for me, GAME ON.
I am ready for more DIE.
this is an image from Ellis, but I thought it looked good here as a spacer |
Been a while, uh ? I missed you too. But before we start, we have to adress the horrible, no-good, terribly misguided elephant in the room : I am currently working on solutions to keep posting my work outside of tumblr before it pulls the carpet from under us, but nothing concrete yet. As soon as I have my new internet home, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, I’ll keep posting here. If all else fails, I’ll migrate on the Wicdiv Discord server. I’m Pom there too.
Alright ?
Alright.
Let’s do this.
IS THIS THE REAL LIFE ? IS THIS JUST FANTASY ?
Metaphors are like elections : the quickest way to ruin one is to call it early.
Even now as I’m doing this write-up, I am kind of hesitant : do I actually want to pick apart this debut, or do I want to let the rest of the comic do it for me ? There has to be some equivalent of a love bubble for art, this fleeting period before you get one of those “oh… that’s where they’re going with this” moments, before potentiality unravels into concreteness, before, like in the garden of Destiny, you look behind you and only see one path leading to where you are despite seeing so many crossroads ahead.
That’s why, paradoxically, beginnings are also the most liberating moment to write about stories, because there is a round 100% chance that you will get it wrong. The further the story goes, the least margin of error you have, and you find yourself in a situation where you HAVE to get it right, because you actually have a chance to get it right. But now ? I do not know what DIE wants to say. Not yet. If I did, there would be no point for me in reading it, and if we all did, there would be no point for them to write it. Of course, even on first read, I feel like I might know what the master word is – just like wicdiv’s was “Death”, DIE’s is “Time”, which is nothing else than the slowest sort of death – but this master word is, at best, a key without a lock. The door is further down the path.
So let’s talk about DIE – not to decrypt it, not to crack it open, not to judge it even, but maybe simply to enjoy it.
The first thing DIE is, is a voice. It emerges from the intricately painted pages in its concrete boxes of black circled with red, in a way that you almost resent it from breaking the perfection of the page, what with its eye-grabbing crude colours. Unsurprisingly, given Cowles’ always excellent work, the content of the text soon comes to match perfectly this first impression. Dominic, our narrator, is dark, jaded, and he knows how to grab his audience. But on the other hand, he’s never being all that smart and elaborate. He’s a big box of black. Even his own hindsight, the way he looks at his younger self with this mixture of indulgence and pity, is nothing that original or ground-breaking : it’s basically the way any adult might look at their own self-important teenage persona. And of course, nothing about that persona is really gone : Dominic, as an adult narrator, is still the self-important, quiet kid with just enough self-hate to balance out feeling better than everyone else half the time.
In fact, every main character in this first issue is the sketch of their own teenage stereotype, whose attributes are listed out by Dominic on our introduction page. There’s a transparent parallel between that page and the spread a couple pages later where each character introduces their game persona. Dominic’s description is just as much of a character sheet as the ones they hand out to Sol. And by way of that parallel, there’s of course the one between the cast’s game personas and their real life personas : the character they are playing, half-consciously, half-unconsciously, just enough to believe it, just enough to call it their identity. This was already a theme in Wicdiv, and it’s not surprise it shows up again here. Between the characters’ former selves, their current adult selves, and their RPG avatar, DIE sets up a game of mirrors, almost daring us to find the real Dominic – or is it Ash ? – the real Angela, the real Isabelle.
Does fantasy escapism allow you to be someone else, or does it do the opposite, and brings you closer to yourself than you’ll ever be in real life ? That’s a question asked by the text, but also by the art. Now there’s nothing I could say that wouldn’t undersell just how gorgeous Hans’ art is, but for all its merits, it’s actually its one limitation that hit me the hardest : its inability to evoke the mundane. The issue is pretty clearly divided between a flashback portion in sepia hues, the real present in bleak red, blue and black, and the fantasy world with its warm tones. The first two parts are designed to come in contrast with the third one, but for all the supposed triviality of those scenes compared to the fantasy world, nothing in the way those parts are designed resonate as ordinary. Everything is bathed in light in such a way that everything always seems to be moving, from the complex hues of the evening skies, to the shadows on the characters’ faces. The smiles are big and toothy, the eyes are either glimmering or deep and sunken. At every moment, everything in the art works to indicates that something is happening, something big. Hans’ art is out of this world, in a very literal sense : it is somehow unfit to depict our reality. And so when we finally move to the fantasy world, it’s as if pieces finally fall to their righteous place and the world is finally set right side up. Everything about the way DIE depicts our reality feels deeply unreal. And because meta is never far when Gillen is writing, this probably says something about the way we think of comic books, and all escapist media.
The entire issue is building up to that fall back into the fantasy world – to the point that I thought they’d make us stew even longer for it – but we’re not the only ones intently waiting for something that, from the very beginning of the comic, is ineluctable : the characters, too, were waiting. They were waiting surrounded by characters who feel like NPC – we never even see the full face of Dominic’s wife – waiting while marrying women who look like their high school boner and having jobs serving as constant reminders of their past. They were waiting to the point that the first sign they get of the fantasy world of their youth, they immediately all show up to the reunion, and play around something they should know damn well is going to drag them back to it.
That’s not to say any of them “wants” to go back, per se ; such is the nature of trauma, that you want to get away from it as it prevents you from totally moving on either. DIE’s characters are stuck in that in-between, as if none of them had ever really left the fantasy world – and by extension, their teenage years.
This is also why I’ve been uneasy with the reviews of DIE out there linking its storyline to “nostalgia” ; for something to be about nostalgia, that thing has to, you know, be over. But none of the characters is even close to being done playing the game they were playing in their youth. And that for the fantasy murder game as well as for the game they played in reality, the game everyone plays. As teenagers, they push each other around about elitist fantasy books. As adults, they pretend not to know what “woke” means. The codes switch, but the game is still the same. Maturity can be a persona, too. They lie. They deflect. They follow their character sheet. And that’s fantasy for grown-ups.
That’s not to say that these characters aren’t genuine – as I’ve said, it might be precisely because they’re constantly playing that we can get a better picture of who they are – or that we can’t connect with them. In fact, one of the many feats of this first issue is how immediately touching each of these characters is, both in their efforts toward pretend and genuineness. Well, with the one exception of the character who both seems the most dedicated to the game and the only one who doesn’t seem to be playing at all. Even as a teenager at the beginning of the story, Solomon is that one kid who seems uncomfortably comfortable in his role as the star his friends revolve around, vying for his attention. When he drags his former friends back into the game, is he looking for revenge, or has his world simply become boring without the rest of his party to move the story along ? This is where I should mention that the tabletop RPG hobby is one that is completely foreign to me – it’s just not my scene. And I think part of the reason why is that I’m too fundamentally selfish in that regard to share my imagination with other people. Playing RPGs implies losing part of your control over your own stories. Again, I have no idea how RPGs are supposed to work, but being both the gamemaster and a player strikes me as a fundamentally selfish move ; the move of someone who expects his friends to play their part perfectly, only giving them the illusion of control. For a RPG-themed fantasy, quite a fitting portending villain.
If I can be honest : I hope he’s our villain. I hope there isn’t some dark lore that’s manipulated all of them, and that it’s really just the story of how some teenage bullshit got gloriously out of hand. DIE’s premise is a simple one, just like Wicdiv’s premise was a simple one. But two hundred and a half plot twists later, it can be hard to remember just how fucking awful people can be to each other even when they’re not under the influence of some millennia-old force working in the shadows. I hope we never learn where the dice come from. I hope we never get an entire arc explaining how the fantasy world came to be. I hope it remains just as inexplicable as real life is, with its posture, its pretending, its own unreality, its game you can never, ever stop playing.
And that’s DIE so far. I loved it. How does it compare to the first time I’ve read Wicdiv ? Beats me. The first time I’ve read Wicdiv, I majorly skimmed through it thinking it wasn’t for me – just like comics weren’t for me in general - until maybe issue #11, when I finally slowed down and started again from the beginning. First impressions. I was wrong about Wicdiv, many times, and there is definitely ways in which I am and will be deeply wrong about DIE. And I like that. So join me, if you will, in future write-ups of DIE, where we can be wrong, be surprised, be amazed, be disappointed also, and have ourselves a party.
And I am just stashing this stuff here so I find it again next time I review my review of DIE:
(Also from Kieron Gillen's Romancing the Stone episode of his newsletter.)
- Creators for Creators 2019 has gone live. As in, a cartoonist or writer/artist team has until March 18th 2019 to submit for a $30,000 grant. It's one of my favourite things to be involved with. The quality every time has been astounding – Desvitio and M. Dean were incredible winners, and I can't wait to see what arrives this time.
- Neil Gaiman linked to this – Todd Klein on lettering prep for writers. This is all good stuff to internalise, and good stuff to be better on. Regarding the last point, it's definitely a place where I've failed, especially on certain creator owned projects. I'd suggest at least offering paying for serious edits proportionate to the amount of work, and even that doesn't help with their scheduling.
- I saw Samira Ahmed link to this, which is on being interviewed for Oxford and how entirely unprepared her life made her for the experience. Powerful, insightful and interesting. Also got me thinking of my own botched Cambridge interview, which I've always taken entirely as my failing. This makes me see it through a class filter, and be a little more sanguine about it. I mean, I was pretty sanguine anyway – as bad as my process was, it did teach me Oxbridge really wasn't for me. Also, can you imagine how fucking unbearable I'd be if I went to an Oxbridge college? I'm terrible anyway.
- 24 Panels is out, and seems to be going well. However, I was thinking this morning "it's a shame no-one's reviewed it yet." And as I'm writing this, Broken Frontier drop a review. I'm really proud of what everyone achieved with this. Launch party next week, of course.
- When I got in on Friday morning around half one, I turned on my Mac to check out anything else about DIE. Stephanie asked me if I was actually going to work. I said no. She went to bed. Then I found that Pete Shelly of Buzzcocks had died, and was up for the next hour writing a drunken stumble of a tribute thread on tumblr. Alex P of the Guardian's is a great overview of his career and the impact, reminding me of a bunch of things I've actually included in my work (especially Phonogran). A hell of a figure.
- The first part of the Oral History of the Warren Ellis forum. Clearly, horror, in every single way.
- Jacob Hill is doing annotations of WicDiv issues over at Multiversity. Here's his ones for the latest issue.
- 25 years since 36 Chambers. The Tiny desk concert is amazing.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1812.21 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1266 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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