Hey, Mom! The Explanation.

Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.

Sunday, September 20, 2020

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2042 - More Dying for DIE - games, scripts, and lots of Kieron Gillen


Kieron Gillen Shows You How to Build the DIE RPG Godbinder - YouTube

 A Sense of Doubt blog post #2042 - More Dying for DIE - games, scripts, and lots of Kieron Gillen

Quickie today because school starts tomorrow and in earnest on Tuesday with THREE classes, and I am behind on everything and want some rest time later to finish two books:



 Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang https://www.amazon.com/dp/1779504217/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_Jc6zFb2G7DWBB via @amazon

March: Book One by John Lewis https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603093001/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_Qd6zFbWQDJTAX via @amazon

And so, short on my comments today, long on Kieron Gillen's.

I never posted what Kieron had to share about WARREN ELLIS, which I wrote about here:

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1949 - Warren Ellis accused of sexual coercion


and here:

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1953 - Men Have to do Better - More unpacking of the thing in comics - sexual misconduct - abuse of power

Among about seven total posts. And now this one.

Marvel announced that Gillen returns with the new Eternals book. Damn. Another thing to buy.

I so want to play the DIE game, even via ZOOM if I have to. But I have no time to make a scenario.

Anyway, here's DIE rpg stuff, tons of Gillen newsletter stuff (not all DIE-centric) going back to June, and all the comic book all love one could want on a Comic Book Sunday.


So here we go.


THE GAME


http://diecomic.com/rpg/



Here's a fantasy cast for Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans' RPG-inspired DIE


about the game

http://www.tcj.com/rolling-up-some-inspiration-an-rpg-conversation-with-kieron-gillen-tim-se/


http://www.comicon.com/2019/06/07/die-volume-1-a-whole-new-world-with-just-one-roll/


http://www.panelpatter.com/2019/06/roll-bones-look-at-kieron-gillen.html?spref=tw


https://foreverdogproductions.com/fdpn/podcasts/comic-book-commentary/


We played Die, the Jumanji-like game fueling Kieron Gillen's new comic - Polygon







Horror comic series Die is Jumanji for roleplayers, with a playable RPG spin-off - Tabletop Gaming



https://kierongillen.tumblr.com/post/185518381252/a-few-weeks-back-in-one-of-my-newsletters-i-did-a


DIE’s trade been out for a couple of weeks now, and I’m coming down and looking around and generally acting like Mole at the start of Wind in the Willows. I will inevitably be dragged into an adventure by Toad.
A couple of pieces on DIE which may be interesting.
Firstly, Quinns of Shut up and Sit Down interviewed me. Quinns is a friend of long standing, so we’re riffing off each other, talking personal history and theory. Also, a few My RPG Session stories. Here’s  a bit…
Quinns: Did a DM ever make you suffer in the ’90s? Didn’t you enjoy it, a little bit?
Kieron: I can’t remember enjoying it. Actual suffering of players is more a sign of incompetence than brilliance. Occasionally of actual sadism. It’s a fundamental lack of interest in the experience of the players. As such, any time I think of what you’re asking, I don’t have anything positive. It’s normally a “I will not be playing with this GM again” moment.
For example, the Rolemaster GM I once played with. We were exploring a castle. That’s what we did all afternoon, room by room. We never found anything in that castle. Anything at all. It took literally all afternoon. Four hours, at least. On the bus home me and the other newest player just glanced at each other in horror. What was that? We immediately set up our own group, because F*** No.
Quinns: I’m cracking up at my desk over here. Holy crap, that’s funny.
Kieron: It was like meeting an alien species who had entirely different motivations than ours.
Also here’s a fascinating long and personal piece about someone’s journey through and away from D&D, and how DIE hit him. There’s one bit in the middle which will hit you like an unexpected trap in a dungeon. I winced.
In passing: folks in non-traditional comics press who have an interest in talking about DIE, or the RPG revival generally, drop me a line. Doing so much with the Beta has meant I’ve done less hype than I’d normally done.

MUSIC - BELLE & SEBASTIAN

People would think it was some kind of statement, when really, it’s just me having my head in the clouds. That’d be an irony. It’s a deeply anti-mythic mythic book, and feeding into that kind of thinking would be deeply counter-productive.
Still – Metallica do add a swagger as I march into the graveyard. Too much swagger. I flick forward in the playlist a half dozen songs until I hit Lazy Line Painter Jane by Belle & Sebastian.
About a decade ago, I realised that Belle & Sebastian are my favourite band of all time. This depresses me. I really don’t want to be the sort of person whose favourite band is Belle & Sebastian, yet here we are. Something like this is hard to deny. Lazy Line Painter Jane is one of their biggest songs, in its soft/powerful duet mode and its rainy bus-seat bisexuality and ambition is a pure burst of WicDiv (“Wondering how you/Got your name/And what you're going to do about it”).
I lose myself in it and realise I’ve walked straight through the Cemetery, by instinct. I normally get lost. This seems meaningful, but I’m aware everything would seem meaningful right now.





Actually, talking about Ted and Ro…
They did a short comic with Jamie McKelvie for Aftershock’s SOS anthology, in aid of retailers. Available from your retailer now. This is Jamie’s comics origin story, and I love that he’s put it down on paper with Ted and Ro.
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DIE #13
WRITER: Kieron Gillen
ARTIST / COVER A: Stephanie Hans
COVER B: Mike Del Mundo
SEPTEMBER 02 / 32 pages / FC/ M / $3.99
“THE GREAT GAME,” Part Three “War isn’t a game” seems obvious. Let one of DIE’s most aggressive masters explain: i) why that isn’t true ii) that war being a game only makes it worse. Can our heroes save the world? Can they save anything?
Back after a gap month, with this clearly being One Of Those Episodes. Plus, I finally manage to get a Mike Del Mundo cover on one of my creator owned books. I purr.

DIE 11 sold out, and there was a bunch of orders, so we decided to take it back to print with a tweaked cover. A reprint on issue 11 is pretty unusual, but I suspect we’ll see some more of these,  while the market works out what level orders are going to be now. That’s a worryingly sensible opening paragraph to my newsletter. I must be sick.
Anyway – DIE 11. If your shop needs an order code, it’s APR208893. Out Wednesday, July 29, the week after DIE 12.
I just finished DIE 15’s script, actually, which seems like a huge rubicon, but I suspect I’ll talk more about that in the outro.
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So Many
Schedule
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It’s been constructed by over sixty people who set themselves a hugely difficult task, and created something remarkable. I’ll quote the opening of their statement…
“We are a group of over sixty women and non-binary individuals whose utmost concern is the safety and protection of others like us. Our aim is to dismantle the systems that allow people in power to abuse that power for the purpose of serial predatory corralling, emotional manipulation, and grooming. With this goal in mind, we are sharing our stories about a man who abused his power. This statement was written with the involvement of all who have signed it.
Warren Ellis, a New York Times best-selling author, comics writer, public speaker, screenwriter, and producer, has devised and continues to follow a pattern of emotionally abusive behavior documented across more than two decades.”
The statement is an intense, high level over-view, but there is a lot more here. The testimonies carry huge impact, both in specific detail and in illustrating the scale and repetition. However, the site is more than the powerful statements of the witnesses. It is talking about things which are extremely difficult, and tries to provide context, resources, and arguments. If there’s a concept you’re unaware of, there will be a link to an explanation. If there’s a common immediate questions or reactions, there will likely be a response in the FAQ. If you recognise this as have happened to you, there are resources which may help. It gives you as many as the tools as it can to start thinking about this, while also giving concrete ideas of What Next – both specifically in this situation, and for culture generally. For all the bleakness of this situation they describe, the site seems to be born of a belief that this need not happen and things can change.
I’ll also point at the Guardian coverage of this, which is unusually sensitive and centres the desires of the women and non-binary people involved significantly more than this type of coverage usually does.
Speaking generally, I am heartbroken and angry. I recognise myself in what Chip said yesterday, especially the line of Kelly Sue he quotes: “I did nothing but benefit from my friendship with Warren Ellis for years. I paid no price. And that incurs a debt. I don’t know if we can make sure this never happens again, but I can think we make it not as easy.” Working out what that looks like is the present problem for all of us in comics generally, and Warren’s orbit specifically.
The rest of this newsletter is just the alerts for the books that are out. If you don’t need a reminder, I’d suggest spending your time with any of the resources and testimonies above.
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DIE 12 is out, picking up from DIE 11 and setting the stage for DIE 13. We are such iconoclasts.
There’s a short preview here, which includes links to digital purchasing places. Lovely alternate cover by Justine Franny, who we adore.
Next month is a skip month, before DIE 13 hits in October, which is one of those fancy over-researched ones.
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I did a quick write up of a throwaway monster from the DIE Campaign, as they worked really well. First draft. Worth stressing, that in DIE you play a real world person dragged into a fantasy world, so we’re talking character’s memories, not players’ memories. That would be weird.
Also, yes, clearly a Luggage-meets-mimic gag.
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I had an acquaintance mail me and ask for some advice on long form plotting in ongoings, specifically what you need to know to pitch it, what you need to know, and all that. The question was the writer considered themselves a gardener, the sort of writer who likes to explore and find out what they can along the way, which made them worry they were going to write themselves into a hole given the larger canvas of an ongoing. I figure it could be of interest to some of you.
Firstly, if you're pitching an ongoing in the market, be aware that you may be pitching a mini. Books get cancelled quick, and while some people will just plan for everything working fine, I tend to think that the best route is also working out an eject button. If it IS only the first arc, it comes with a hard ending which can either work as the end or (if you realise it'll be the last arc) be tweaked a little to work as an end. I tend to have an eject button on most of my series - Uber, for example, always had a "If you give me one issue, I can end all the plots, as I'll just turn it into a documentary."
(There’s the obvious caveat there. You have to know that you only have one issue left.)
Secondly, there's basically two kinds of ongoings. One is the classical American comic industry ongoing - as in, it goes on forever, in perpetual second-act. Two is the sort of vertigo model ongoing - which, in reality, just a really long graphic novel, published in segments. The difference is the latter has a planned end and the former likely doesn't - at least, not an ending you know at the start.
Most of my real ongoings have been the Vertigo model - Uber, WicDiv, DIE, Journey into Mystery, Young Avengers. Here, at the start, I almost certainly know the following...
1) The conceptual engineering of the series. This will almost certainly warp grotesquely as I continue, but I've got whatever makes the series the series. Warping to fit new ideas Is entirely normal, I stress, for everyone. Tolkien reworked the Silmarillion to squeeze in the Ents.
2) The first arc, in its entirety. If it's not written, it's tightly plotted in a synopsis form.
3) The major movements of the series. As in, the second arc will be kind of like this, and end here. The third arc will be like this, and end here. And so on and so on until the end of the series.
4) A good chunk of the characters' emotional arcs. This character is about this, this is their secrets, these are the things I want to do with them.
What 2 and 3 are basically how you orientate in an ongoing. You head towards a point, hit that point, and then see the next waypoint, and write towards there. That I conceive arcs in terms of their purpose to a larger story means that as long as the stories complete the goals I need them to, it doesn't matter HOW you do it. It also means they're flexible enough to change according to your changing interest, incorporate new ideas, etc.
4 is about material you can drop into the story wherever it's required. As in, it can be tied to the larger arc structure, but it isn't always tied to a structure. I considered revealing Baal's secret in WicDiv in the chaos of Imperial Phase. I decided against it, saving it for Mothering Invention. Why? Lots of reasons, but that's not the point - the point being that I was able to sequence it into the story as I felt when writing it. I get to experiment and play when writing, because otherwise, I'd just be typing for 5 years. All plans break apart the second you enter combat.
I tend to tightly plot the next arc before writing it, and then write it, and when that’s done, plot the arc AFTER it.
There's also basic structural stuff for writing - have a look at the DIE arcana which has a lot about catching balls in the Story Structure For Beginners lesson. As long as you don't foreshadow something too heavily, you can prepare your reader for the possibility of it happening by foreshadowing it softly. You can keep your option open, while still being structurally sound.
For the other sort of book, the more traditional ongoing? It's the same, but without the long term plan. You know the first arc, and know it'll stand together as a unit. You likely have a bunch of things you want to explore, and just trust yourself to sequence them as you proceed. This essentially means you move everything that is in point 3 ("Major movements in the series") into 4 ("Stuff to use whenever as you have the chance.") In a real way, I tend to work the same way – tight synopsis for the next arc, then write it.
(Well, tightish. Occasionally you have episodes mid-arc which you have a sentence for the sort of thing which is happening. “In this issue it’s a huge fight against Beowulf” or something.)
In my experience, soon after I start one of the less structured ongoing, it'll morph into one of the hard-ending ongoings anyway. I started Once & Future with the idea it'd be a modular story I'd come back to, each trade like a movie instalments, but when we turned it into a true ongoing, I turned from "No firm idea where this is going long term, bar a list of all the cool shit I want to use "into "Yeah, I'm pretty sure this all builds towards this thing at the end of the third trade, and then the next big thing at the end of the fourth or fifth." But interestingly, it still doesn't have the WicDivian hard ending I can't continue past. That’s a big climax, but there’s still space for more.
In short, you're still writing modular. If you're a gardener, you can help yourself by writing the whole of each arc before the artist draws any of it. This is hard to do with schedules, but not impossible, and definitely can work it, in terms of being able to treat each arc as a graphic novel.
Oh - when pitching this, it's unlikely any of your publishers will want to know the detailed long term plan. It'll be a conceptual description of the series, the break down of the first arc, and a vague talk of its long term direction. As in, you could get by with just what you need for the pitch.
Hopefully some of this is useful.
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Stephanie has set up a DIE merch shop! You can get stuff like T-shirts…
Coo! There’s also a bunch of other stuff. There’s different colours of T-shirts, prints and best of all…
A shower curtain. There is part of me which wanted to get Stephanie to remove everything else and only sell shower curtains.
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Assorted links sitting in this document from the last month or so.
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Ed and Sean have dropped PULP, which is a hardcover original crime story. It’s a story which covers two eras of pulp fiction, based on the observation that those young men in the wild west era were also around in the 1930s. It’s thematically powerful, emotionally driven and just great comics.
Ed’s interviewed here about it, and you should read and go buy from fine comic retailers everywhere.
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More work. Mainly polishing scripts and doing various odd bits and pieces – one of the more unusual things I’ve done is doing a more intense mentor/co-writing experience for an anthology, which was really interesting in terms of stretching muscles. There is part of me which loves just essentially being a consultant on things, and trying to work out a way to nail a story harder.
I’ve also turned down a couple of jobs – one which would have only been a few weeks, and the other which could have expanded indefinitely. I decided I was just actually letting that part of you which is just excited by the prospect of a new thing, especially a new thing that you haven’t done before. I have things I want to do. If I don’t leave space for them, they won’t happen. I don’t need to take them. I won’t take them. This is character growth, of a sorts.
(That said, I likely will be doing a short story with one of my fave artists, so I’m not entirely invulnerable to temptation.)
We’re back on PROJECT MILLIONARIE SWEEPER, which should be a moment of gleeful axedom. I’m also just finishing up polishing up issue 3 of PROJECT COWBOY, which I wrote a few months ago, and had forgot the one problem I’d left to solve in the script, which involves doing something which has lead to me to promise my editors that it isn’t a sign of lockdown lunacy, and I had it planned from before Xmas. But it’s very strange, a huge amount of work and clearly no-one will care about it bar the four or five critics who like when I go full WTF, so absolutely my thing.
Let’s move focus away from me, and over to Stephanie. In terms of DOING STUFF, the following was Stephanie’s response to reading the latest DIE script.
Spoiler: Zamorna holds Ash’s hand at a future point in one issue.
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And lo! My return to the Marvel Universe proper, with Esad for company.
It’s been a while. I just checked, and by the time Eternals 1 drops, it’ll be over five years since I took lead on a Marvel Superhero book (Siege, during Secret Wars, for the records). I took a break. I was burned out and wanted to do other stuff, mainly my own. What lured me back?
Partially as it has been five years. I’m not burned out any more. Planting clover for a while your superhero bit of your brain works. Plus, I’ve kind of been missing it a bit. Seeing old peers and people who came after me tear things up is a delight, and you do get an itch to get involved.
Secondly, and most importantly, it’s always the chance to do something different, something I haven’t done yet. As in, taking a set of characters who’ve been a way for a while, deconstructing their engine apart, and re-assembling it and unleashing it.
Thirdly, Esad Ribic. I’d said yes before Esad jumped aboard, but my yes changed to YES! the second he did. I expect some YES! yelping from you lot when you see more. It goes without saying it’s good to be working with Matt again, and he and Esad are just magical together. Clayton has yet to escape me, but I’m especially interested to see what he does with the lettering challenge of the book.
Clearly, there’s going to be a lot more chat about Eternals down the line. Here’s the quote I gave for the press-release…
"I said if I was ever to do a book again at Marvel, it would have to be something I've never done before. This is exactly that. This is me teaming up with literally my favourite artist of the epic, taking one of those lightning-storm Kirby visions and re-making it to be as new as the day it was forged,” Gillen said. “While Esad makes whole worlds on the page, I'm applying all the skills I've developed when I was away. It's a lot. It's everything. There's enough scale packed in here that I believe that when you look at the comic, you'll see the pages slightly bulge. Essentially 'Eternal' has to mean 'never going out of style,' which means we're aiming for 'instant classic.' Also -- fight scenes, horror, human drama, emotions, explosions. Comics!"
…which has me laughing at myself. People always ask me for quotes at the end of the day when my brain is fried and my resistance to my own nonsense is low.
Key facts: it’s a clean, accessible book. It’s set in the Marvel universe, and will impact it hard, but it’s also designed to be picked up by anyone and enjoyed. Plus it’s very much me trying to bring to bear the skillset I’ve developed when I’ve been away (especially from WicDiv and DIE) and a whole bunch of other things I’ve been chewing over, in terms of things one could do.
Suffice to say, a huge bible document is involved, as I can’t help myself. In this case, I really can’t. One of my things I’ve tried to be doing more with my work is to do the stuff only I would consider doing, and there’s a lot of that here. Issue 3 has something so offkilter I’m even giving myself side-eye.
I think you’ll like this. Out November. Speak to you retailer. More press soon.
(For those who are keeping track, this was PROJECT COWBOY.)
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DIE #15
WRITER: Kieron Gillen
ARTIST / COVER A: Stephanie Hans
COVER B: Bill Sienkiewicz
NOVEMBER 18 / 32 pages / FC/ M / $3.99
"THE GREAT GAME,” Part Five
The Great Game ends. The board is flipped. The pieces go to pieces. Can anyone play on?
Whereupon you can imagine Stephanie and I holding hands, crouching and whispering billsienkiewiczcoverbillsienkiewiczcoverbillsienkiewiczcover. Also, end of the arc.



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Got DIE 13 comps yesterday. Mike Del Mundo alternate cover, which I adore – Mike’s always a surprise as an artist, as he’s so adaptable, and playful, and Sol is so awfully charming her. And awful.
Out next week.
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Weird week, and I’m not quite in a place to write about it. I’ll get back to you on that.
Still, it was weird in a few good ways – not least, that we’re pushing Ludocrats over to Image to be examined by their horrified staff before publication. Clearly, despite being 13 years in the making, we’re still in full on panic stations, with the final pages and colouring elements being throw into the back of the metaphorical van as it pulls away. In a series that’s done a whole bunch of very silly, experimental weird stuff, the last issue takes it even further. When the final pages arrived,  showing this visual sequence that I had in my head since 2007, it’s something else.
Next, DIE 14, whose lettering draft I’ve just mailed over to Clayton after going through Stephanie’s pages. The opening page is one of my favourite things Stephanie has ever done – and she’s just been nominated for a Ringo Award as best Cover Artist, Clayton as best Letterer and (in an un-DIE place) Dan Mora as best inker. Only professionals can vote, and can do so over here.
Anyway – DIE 14. Stephanie’s done good, and I hope you’ll like it too. I’ll be finishing the interview off tomorrow, and I’m starting to think about whether I want to do it for next arc too. I think the answer is “Yes” despite it clearly being far too much work. I am very lazy.
After that, polishing up Once & Future 15, hopefully finishing a little eight page story I’m doing for a lovely artist and then straight into Marneus 5.
In other news, I’m exhausted.
D13
Links
Books
Byyyyeeee!!!
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DIE 13 is out. I woke up and tweeted “Good morning DIE 13 day. It's one of the Kieron Read Some Books one, but also the Shit This Is A Lot Of Plot ones and, as always, Stephanie, Oh God, Stephanie, You're Amazing ones” which seems about right.
About once an arc, we do the deep historical dive one, and DIE 13 is this arc’s. Compared to the poetry of issue 3 and the horror story of 9, this is something more conspiratorial, and very much is showing a whole bunch of cards. I don’t think there’s an issue which reveals more about the mythology of the world than this – well, except as we head towards the end, obv. Answers and questions. Your move.
Lots of fun stuff in here, and I was pleased that folks have googled HG Wells wargaming tables, as the images are just adorable.
This sets up the last two issues of this arc, which are just full on emotional dominoes falling. Hope you like it.
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I’ve finally managed to get my prose brain in gear. I now need to do that while also keeping my comics brain in gear. I appear to be able to read one or the other right now, or nothing.
YEAH, YEAH, YEAH by Bob Stanley has been my slow-read for several months as I wandered through the fog. Despite the fact it took so long, I never stopped loving it. It’s a huge one-volume over-view of popular music, as defined by as the starting at the UK charts and ending at the debut of Itunes. It was brought to my attention when a reader asked me for a recommendation for such a book, and I had nothing. As in his other life in Saint Etienne Stanley is part of one of my favourite bands, I’m surprised I hadn’t read it already – except it came out in 2013/2014, which basically explains everything. It is, broadly speaking, a history which comes from my aesthetic corner – as in, it assumes that Pop is Good and Rockist attitudes are Bad. As such, the stuff I loved is the stuff I knew less about – the earlier, pre-60s sections, and the side of the sixties I didn’t care about. There’s a playlist of all the tracks in it here, which was a great accompaniment. I’m sure that one reason why I spent so long to get through it that every second paragraph I was stopping to go and look up a record. It opened a lot of doors for me, and reminded me of doors I loved and hadn’t been through for a while. Not the actual Doors. You won’t trick me that easily. Basically, whoever recommended it to me on twitter was right – if I was to lob a single book at someone to tell them about what Pop was all about, it’d be this – not least that it is entirely upfront about the implicit Argue With Me. History is a conversation.
Then I hit the prose, with a couple of excellent novels, both enchanting the modern world with different tactics. Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame was on the Hugo shortlist this year, and she managed to create another fantasy mythology. Her prose remains dazzling, simple ink transmuting into gold like the alchemists the story circles around, and some of the most compelling monsters (as in, ethical monsters) I’ve read recently. Just released last week, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Doors of Eden takes the long-view sci-fi evolutionary ideas which provided the intellectual punch of Children Of Time (or as I like to call it It Made Me Cry Over Spiders) and drops it into a present day multidimensional story, which moves like a thriller and thinks like that gif of the guy with the board covered in string, waving his hands. And while I read it much earlier, to provide a blurb, XX by Rian Hughes came out recently too, where Rian brings his powers as a designer to create a novel which only he could have done. That it manages to be so clearly experimental while also having a big, rock solid story engine is a hell of a thing to see.
I’m now back onto Non-fiction, with John Keay’s China: A History, where I will try my hardest to finally memorise the order of the main Chinese dynasties.
There’s also smaller things I approach. I also finished Board Games In 100 Moves by Ian Livingstone and James Wallis, which is a brief but characterful look at the entire history of boardgames. Clearly, this is all great stuff for DIE – lots of anecdote, detail, wit. I’m trying to read a short story from Yoshi Yoshitani’s Beneath The Moon. She’s one of my favourite fantasy illustrators, and she’s done 78 illustrations for 78 of her own short retellings of stories from all around the world. I love this approach – a short, determined injection of ideas, efficiently opening up worlds. It’s just come out, and there’s a sister-tarot deck along side it. Coo.
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The main thrust of work this week has been twofold – firstly getting books out the door and secondly, working on Project Millionaire Sweeper, in various formats. The books out the door are Ludocrats and DIE 14, with the first issue of Marneus inching towards that door, and O&F and Eternals having lettering drafts too. Project Millionaire Sweeper remains secret, but is basically a re-examination of what we’ve done so far, and a reconsideration of purpose. What draws this all together is that it’s basically editing and micro-rewriting.
C, Jim and I are talking about tweaks to the penultimate line of Ludocrats, weighing up comedy and momentum, the effect of context and all that. With Project Millionaire Sweeper – and similar to what I was doing in the DIE essay mentioned upthread – it’s a question of reduction, without removing of flavour. You can trim a lot from the piece from losing sentences, but you lose too much flavour, and it’s semi-skimmed prose. It’s functionally the same, but no-one liked it. Alternatively, you can cut a whole section, and leave the rest with full-fat writing. Or anywhere between the two poles. That’s why it’s a job, and that’s why it’s fascinating.
In other notes, it appears that Wednesday is a deeply mixed metaphor day.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London.
2.9.2020


Hullo.
Future 11 Out
Eternals 2
Wait, am I doing serious descriptions of the sections now?
Links
That’s a real abandonment of the brand.
Byyyyeeee!!!
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Issue 11. Cripes. I’m working on issue 16 this week as well.
We’re motoring along, building towards the conclusion of OLD ENGLISH. I keep on wanting to reveal what the title of the third arc is, but then remember what it arguably spoils. There’s some definitive Bridgette beats in here, and Dan and Tamra are going full horror on this. The second half of Old English is very much a Slasher Structure, and there is so much red here. So, so much red.
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Marvel released the cover of ETERNALS 2. Also, a lovely animation. I am very into the lovely animations.
I try to have a relaxed relationship with the nature of big-two PR. In my creator owned books, I keep things hyper tight. In the Big 2, I only really try to protect the hugest beats, because they’re all that really matters.
I try to remember that the people who are actively following comics conversation intensely (to the level of reading Previews months in advance) have bought into knowing some degree of what are strictly speaking spoilers. Not to know everything, clearly, but they want to know something.
Equally, I know that information being available is very different from all your audience knowing it. Some – likely most – people won’t know what’s in an issue until they open it. If spoilers distributed perfectly, no-one watching Game of Thrones would have been surprised by anything that was in the books. That holds true here.
That said, I’m aware different places have different preconceptions. I’ve retweeted it on twitter (as twitter is a place for comic chat, and most people on it don’t see anything but a tiny fraction of what any individual tweets) but I’ve decided I won’t be actually showing the cover for issue 2 in the newsletter, at least yet (as the newsletter is both more intense, and also more passive. It’s broadcast, not conversation, and people on are more likely read it.) I figure there’s more people in the newsletter who will like to not know what the cover reveals.
Anyway – the cover of issue 2 reveals the series’ villain. It’s a character I’ve only ever written very briefly before, and has always been one of my favourites. It’s very beautiful. Esad is a monster, and his vision for this particular monster is something else.
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Big ol’ interview about Marneus over at Games Radar. I think this is probably the most brain downloady one I’ve done, and so the most fun. Here’s a random quote…
I want to introduce 40k to people. If you ask someone who is vaguely aware of 40k to think of 40k, they'll likely think of a Space Marine. That's the icon. We have to start with the icon, which means starting with the Ultramarines and Calgar as their paragon. The thing with the Ultramarines is, when it comes to being Marines, they wrote the book. Literally. The book in question being the Codex Astartes.
My model of the book is basically Batman: Year One. It works simultaneously as an introduction to Batman's universe while hitting every single button a Batman fan would like to see. I want to be able to hand the book to my friends who always wanted to know more about this obsession of mine to explain it a little, while also handing it to my gamer friends so they can enjoy the truly gleeful destruction I get to wreck with Power Fists.
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Couple of quick comic plugs for things I’ve read this week.
Ryan North & Albert Monteys adaptation of SLAUGHTER HOUSE 5 is out (I see it’s a month later in UK book shops, but I’m not sure about comic shops) and it’s a tour de force and an absolute shoo-in for Best Adaptation from Another Medium Eisner next year. Every page is a delight, and audacious.
Not meaning to take anything away from the achievement, but for a oft-described unadaptable novel, Slaughterhouse 5 is ideal for a comics translation. Vonnegut writes in something that can be seen as derived from comic vignettes: it’s atomic. Not as much as Cats Cradle, but still there. This means you can derive pages-as-stanza from there, and get an analogous effect. Equally, Slaughterhouse 5 is a story about the non-linearity of time. The story skips back and forward, part science-fiction construct, part-analogy for PTSD. This works in novels, but the ease of moving back and forward between moments, both for the writer and the reader (i.e. you can skip back or forward to a scene to check things with greater speed) gives extra focus on this aspect, which leads to fascinating effects.
It’s one of my favourite Vonnegut novels, and it does what any great adaptation does – let you see the work from another angle, adding rather than diminishing. Love it. Go gets.
SCARENTHOOD by Nick Roche and Chris O’Halloran is out in October from IDW, so available to pre-order now It’s a brutally funny horror story that finds genuine terror and honest messy humour in single-parenthood. I’ll note that while the cover is lovely, it’s a little deceptive of what it does – I’d file this next to a little-lewder-than Giant Days in its content and style. It does for being a parent what GREEN WING did for being a doctor, plus slams in a lurking suburban horror story for good measure. It also has interesting fact about Bono. Well, I never.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2009.20 - 10:10

- Days ago = 1906 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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