A Sense of Doubt blog post #2532 - COMIC BOOK SUNDAY for 2201.23
Lazy Comic Book Sunday on the blog but not in real life. I worked until 4-ish, watched an hour of the football game while catching up on the four year back log of Detective Comics (up to 2020!!), and then cleaning up the kitchen, catching the OT end of the Chiefs-Bills (^%^&%$^#$#@@!!@!), and continuing to put away the Christmas Tree ornaments.
So, here's a bunch of Twitter and comic book newsletters.
COLEEN DORAN LECTURE from the ATHENS COMIC LIBRARY
some COMIC BOOK Twitter handles:
Beautiful post from @tombrevoort about @KurtBusiek & #GeorgePerez’s Avengers #1. What an issue! I also bought the Director’s Cut. Never to this day has there been an Avengers run so pure to the Avengers’ essence. Thanks, guys.
— Samuel Salama Cohén (Quarantined) (@SamSalama) January 24, 2022
Personal Best: AVENGERS #1 https://t.co/GmkTDGPq7Y
The DotD story itself is brilliant, but the choice to drop two beloved heroines into sexploitation scenes does shine a light on how UXM might be very different if Claremont were not restricted by various forms of censorship (editorial, CCA, cultural, Weezie). 9/9 pic.twitter.com/ZonGRzhfs2
— The Claremont Run (@ClaremontRun) January 24, 2022
We could even argue that an R-rated X-Men would be superior as it could bring various subtexts to the surface, allowing a frank and honest engagement with UXM's sexual themes, though sexploitation cinema is specifically associated with fantasy (bordering on high fantasy). 7/9 pic.twitter.com/Bry8PFBScC
— The Claremont Run (@ClaremontRun) January 24, 2022
In this sense, we might view the DotD story as a literalization of some of the sexual subtext that we see in Claremont’s work under the Marvel imprint – thus illuminating sexploitation elements in UXM and the manner in which censorship might have impacted his UXM work. 5/9 pic.twitter.com/9vdEZPcbKC
— The Claremont Run (@ClaremontRun) January 24, 2022
With this added freedom, Claremont subjects Misty and Colleen to scenes and events that are reminiscent of what is referred to as “sexploitation” cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, a genre that can intersect with the martial arts film genre that Iron Fist was riffing on. 3/9 pic.twitter.com/K4aPfruPe8
— The Claremont Run (@ClaremontRun) January 24, 2022
Claremont’s X-Men pushed hard on the boundaries of comics censorship, yet maintained a CCA approved level of content. Daughters of the Dragon, however, once transcended it, providing a fascinating case study on what an R-Rated Claremont looks like. #xmen 1/9 pic.twitter.com/A9tXRmb58L
— The Claremont Run (@ClaremontRun) January 24, 2022
Hey Jimmy, as you've obviously got more followers than me, here's some pieces people might not've seen from the John Romita sketchbook ( which I'm sure you've got! ) if you fancy retweeting them 👍 pic.twitter.com/AmJqqUIbXi
— Pete Doree Comics (@PeteDoree) January 24, 2022
PETER PARKER Back In Action In New SPIDER-MAN Preview https://t.co/cWUCq0J3Vp pic.twitter.com/e2chqmpE5A
— ComicBook NOW! (@ComicBookNOW) January 24, 2022
All hail Romita! https://t.co/TvGm6e3sB7
— J.M. DeMatteis (@JMDeMatteis) January 24, 2022
We've added loads of new stuff to our webshop, including new first issues, manga and all-ages books.https://t.co/r6UYSB8Y9w pic.twitter.com/vVC7m6ttUv
— Jared of OK Comics (@OKComics) January 24, 2022
— Mitch Gerads (@MitchGerads) January 24, 2022
Geeeeeeez that cover pic.twitter.com/mtij9ShxTN
— Mitch Gerads (@MitchGerads) January 24, 2022
— Marianna Ignazzi (@IgnazziMarianna) January 21, 2022
a drawing I did of Prince Namor pic.twitter.com/eKeSajKLeu
— Patch the Freebooter (@PatrickZircher) January 24, 2022
Mildly spoiler-ish preview of SUPERMAN ‘78 #6 In Shops TOMORROW! Words by Verbose Robert Venditti, Colors by Brilliant Jordie Bellaire, Letters by Loquacious Dave Lanphear, Edits by Marvelous Andrew Marino #Superman #Brainiac pic.twitter.com/USDMyuSx3Z
— Wilfredo Torres (@mightyfineline) January 24, 2022
top comics to buy for january 26, 2022 is up now
— Comics Bookcase (@ComicsBookcase) January 24, 2022
featuring an absolutely massive week, with the return of Saga AND Monstress, new Ice Cream Man, a celebration of the life and work of John Paul Leon, and morehttps://t.co/uLxNn5tvsa pic.twitter.com/3NQE5f3XBE
No photoshop They actually went crazy !!!! pic.twitter.com/3sO5tuqxwn
— Detective Drip (@ImKindaFunny901) November 22, 2021
https://twitter.com/ClaremontRun
A timelapse of the inking process of a #planetsizeXmen page, hope you enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/4wGhW6nDrV
— Pepe Larraz 🌱 Viva Krakoa (@PepeLarraz) November 26, 2021
See Ya Later 2021If I ever wrote Batman I’d be, like, take those dumb trunks off and then I’d be, like, hey take those pants off too while you're at it stud
Okay, it’s YEAR-END time, so let’s GOOOOOO Today! Two very special books are on sale!
The SPIDER-MAN: LIFE STORY HARDCOVER is out! I know I’ve gone on about it before, but it’s nice having the series in this deluxe format. It includes this year’s J. Jonah Jameson one-shot and all the extras and I highly recommend it! Everyone knows Mark Bagley is the ultimate (AND Ultimate) Spider-Man artist, so every page is really beautiful. Also, I’m still super happy with the cover they let me illustrate for it! Usually I hate my work the second the email attachment is sent! (Also, get it right away because man oh man I get a lot of messages about the out-of-print Daredevil Vol. 1 HC and I have zero idea if it’ll ever get reprinted.) And DEVIL’S REIGN #2 is out today! Where you get to see why Marco is the best superhero artist of our time. His Spidey! His Doc Ock! He’s really amazing and I feel blessed every day to get to work with him. Also, with Life Story out today, some goddamn Australian tried to step up to me?? Nice fucking try, Nightdingo!!!!
Yes, I’m still off of twitter, but I couldn’t let this slide!!!!! CHRIST YOU’RE PETTYyeah so
My Uncle Ben post from last week got around! CBR managed to put the whole thing in an article AND write almost 500 words around it! And comicbook.com just sent their readers to my substack, like absolute losers!!! Come on, comicbook.com! Everything on the internet is free to take!!!! But the best was ONE OF UNCLE BEN’S MURDERERS sent it to THE OTHER UNCLE BEN MURDERER*  Leif Gantvoort @LeifGantvoortDecember 28th 2021 That was fun! (*yeah, yeah, they retconned one of them and made Sandman Uncle Ben’s murderer, but I’m a Burglar Truther through and through) Last week I had a great conversation with Kuljit about Devil’s Reign and Daredevil! Some really great questions, and a behind-the-scenes look at the design of Devil’s Reign!  Daredevil ManWithoutFear.com @manwithoutfear December 22nd 2021 13 Retweets169 LikesAnd I also did an interview with Daniel Fee, a very nice young man who is a better interviewer than 90% of comic podcasts. SORRY, COMIC PODCASTS YOU JUST GOT SHOWED UP BY A KID.  All right, it’s year’s end, which means a lot of BEST OF 20201 lists are making the rounds. It’s always a little uncomfortable, but I still like to acknowledge these because comics are a team effort and I get to work with the best creators and editors in the business, so fuck it, here’s some year end love: Multiversity has me in their list of Best Writers! Multiversity also has Daredevil as 2021’s Best Ongoing Series! Oh hey Multiversity also listed Public Domain as one of the Best Digital First Comics! Screen Rant has Daredevil as Marvel’s Best Comic Superhero of 2021! Comic Book Revolution has Batman: Urban Legends #6 as on of the Best Single Issues of 2021! They also have Daredevil in their Best Comic Book Series of 2021 list! SKTCHD gave me The Man Who Has Everything Award?? That’s nice! What a nice feeling! What a…. a… THE FEELING’S FADING ISN’T IT…yes. ugh i hate being a writer Anyway, hope you have a Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to “entertaining” you with more comics in 2022! Chip’s Funtime Substack couldn’t exist without you! I mean, it could, but it would absolutely suck and be incredibly lonely. Your subscription enables me to make fun stuff, hire fun creators, and give you comics with the Zdarsky Touch™. So, thanks! |
In our FIRST summer of quarantine (my god, we’ve had more than one, that’s wild), I was getting a bit antsy and made up some Marvel-based “Quarantine Houses” that I posted on twitter. A lot of you probably engaged with them over there (they were very popular!) but I thought it was worth bringing them over to Substack anyway because A) It’s been a while. B) Some of you maybe DIDN’T see them the first time around - that stuff is easy to miss in your feed - its one of the many reasons we’re HERE. C) My tweets eventually get auto-deleted, so I figured this was a way to not lose this weird fun little thing and D) I thought I could add some fun commentary here that there wasn’t room for on twitter thanks to the word limits.
Here were the rules I set for myself when building the different quarantine houses:
Strong house right out of the gate. Honestly, it’s hard to mess with this one. First of all it has She-Hulk and Jeff! Also Rogue! And Luke Cage! And Emma Frost! And then it also has Wolverine and Deadpool. Don’t get me wrong, I love Wade to death…but I’m VERY sure I don’t want to live with him. And the Wolverine I’d want to live with is this one, but probably not the “regular one” pictured above.
On the surface, maybe seems a bit dull compared to House 1. But you’re not looking hard enough if you’re thinking that. Nothing is dull with Elsa Bloodstone and Monica Rambeau around. Add to that, Multiple Man? CHAOS. But maybe great Chaos? I feel like Rhodey could reign in Tony’s more annoying aspects and there’s A LOT of fun advantages to hanging out with Tony Stark, especially if someone can curb his worst instincts. And we haven’t even talked about Natasha yet. I actually think she’d be a great roommate. Respectful, quiet, deadly. Yeah, I’m into it. The biggest problem for me here are the snakes. Like Wade, I LOVE writing them, but have no interest in living with snakes, even such good boys as these are (better than dogs even!) JK that’s a joke from a comic I wrote. Oh god, I’m already self-referencing my own work. It’s all downhill from here, kids!
Cool kids house. No doubt. I bet the food is incredible…if anyone is willing to clean up? With two Asgardians I imagine a lot of broken glasses from slamming pints together in celebration. Again, not sure who’s cleaning all that up? This house has definitely got the best music (though Dazzler Thor is probably a real bully about being in charge of that). Lots of sweet cats to pet and I bet if Bishop can relax for two seconds together he’s pretty cool. If Jessica doesn’t murder Gambit by week two, and you’re willing to do a lot of clean up it could work?
There’s a lot of chaotic jokey energy here - Kate Bishop, Spidey, Iceman. But some nice calming energy from Storm, Captain America, Echo, and Lucky to help balance it out. I think with Storm and Cap being the “big kids” this house might have some real nice balace actually - like if you’re more into have a funny, good, peaceful time - as opposed to raging parties - this is probably a real solid choice. Might be MY choice?
This is sort of a dark horse house to me in that it’s surprisingly strong and I think with T’Challa in charge it might work pretty well? Remains to be seen how Medusa and T’Challa handle jockeying for power as fellow “Royals,” but I like to think after my A-Force run that Medusa understands that NOT being in charge is sometimes not only a relief, but the way more fun option. Laura Wolverine and Jonathan The Wolverine are huge pluses obviously and I think Hazmat and Alloy would be good roomates. But Quentin…yeah, I don’t know if I wanna be quarantined with Quentin. He’s A LOT to be trapped in a house with.
Massive bi-sexual energy in this house and I am HERE FOR IT. I’m not sure Carol can keep these guys in line (looking especially at you Jess and Clint), but she’s damn well gonna try. Again, good music thanks to Dazzler (but again, she might hog the playlist), lotta jokes and fun here, but feels less destructive and messy than Asgard house maybe? Only one cat compared to Asgard House’s 3, but the cat is also an alien. Bonus? I feel like Armor and Fuse, despite being the younger class here, are pretty calm energy wise which is some nice balance to Jess and Clint’s sometimes chaotic energy.
Magik and Nico are very tempting but NO. I mean. It’s just too much. I love them all but definitely NO to being trapped in a house with Loki. Or Spiral for that matter. I also think there’s a fair chance Strange can’t keep these guys in line - not for lack of power, but maybe lack of caring? I think maybe Wanda is gonna have to step in so the whole thing doesn’t descend into pure chaos. I really WOULD like to hang out with a baby Pegasus tho so that’s a shame. :(
This house started as a place to house my “leftovers” that hadn’t already been sorted into houses…sort of like a kickball team made up of all the kids that didn’t get picked - except it turned out awesome! And I think Misty’s got the stones to keep this place in line. And I think Gwen would LOVE Lauri-ell. Plus Gwen, Kamala, and Jubilee seem like they could have fun together. Polaris feels a little trapped and out of place here, but maybe she and Misty could become besties? I JUST noticed this house has no dudes in it. Interesting. This house definitely has the least interesting non-human resident (no offense Jeff Kitty but you never had a chance!) Additionally, like Quentin, Deadpool, and Loki before her, I think I might find Gwen’s energy a bit much after a while?
I’m sure this is unlikely to make anyone’s favorite house since most these characters appeared only in one story (Captain Marvel: New World) but I’m of course very fond of them. And in some ways, everything these guys have been through, the apocalyptic world they come from, they’d probably be GREAT roommates in a quarantine situation. Like, they’d be all “wait, we have power and food and running water and entertainment and each other and we just can’t go out and live our “normal” lives? Sounds like fucking paradise - we come from an apocalyptic ice planet situation so y’know, this is a goddamn delight.” But that kind of attitude might also get a bit old and you’d definitely be the odd man out (only Emma Frost will know what you’re talking about most of the time, since only she and Gerry and Jeff were alive BEFORE the apocalypse). In some situations, being the odd man out might be great, but in others, it might really intensify your existential angst. Not great for a quarantine.
So…Jeff House is obviously a little joke. An ADORABLE little joke. But worth it, I think. That said, I think you’d be crazy to pick “Jeff House” as 9 versions of Jeff would be A LOT to take care of during quarantine without help. Especially “Mouth Knife Jeff.” So, shout out which house you’d choose if you had to in the comments - maybe include why if you feel so inclined? There are only two rules:
I think after breaking it down, and knowing how tough quartine can be, I’d be searching for a fun but peaceful experience that had just enough order and discipline that we could all enjoy the situation as much as reasonably possible, so after far too much deliberation for an entirely fictional exercise, I’m going with House 4. What about you? ~Kelly |
This one’s gonna be a lot. I’ll do my best to keep it concise, but big feelings are big. No judgment if you don’t have it in you. Hit delete, we’re good. Those of you who are still with me, let’s go -
If you liked this post from Milkfed Dispatches, why not share it? |
Hello! I missed you! It’s probably not cool to say that, but…secret’s out, I’m not cool. I mean, I sort of am, but in that way that cats are cool. You know what I mean? They’re sort of bored and disinterested and sleepy all the time…which makes them appear above it all and thus…kinda cool. But really they’re just tired and self-focused. Yeah, that’s me. Less cool and more just an asshole. Just like cats.
THIS WEEK + PROCESS! So this week is a release I’m very excited about - an all-new edition from Dark Horse of my first comics work - and also my first creator-owned work - HEART IN A BOX. My co-creator on this is the incredible Meredith McClaren and rather than just droning on about it, I thought maybe we’d show some stuff from HIAB and Meredith was kind enough to both let me show off some of her process stuff and also do a little conversational interview with her…some 6 years after it first released. First up is a page that really well illustrates the use of color in HIAB (which we talk about in our interview below). The original script page plus Meredith’s final page:
And here’s the conversation with Meredith and I, and below that process pages from one of my favorite spreads in the book: KELLY: I know it's been a loooong time since we did Heart In A Box - we're so old and grizzled now - well, I'm sure you're still lovely, but *I* am DEFINITELY old and grizzled. Thanks for taking a minute to talk about this with me...just as an all-new edition of our (slightly grizzled?) baby goes back out into the world. MEREDITH: You're always lovely. Hush. KELLY: So, I pulled two things to show folks today that when I think back are some of my favorite things about HIAB. The first one is how you approached color in the book. It wasn't in the original idea, but pretty early when we started working together we hit on the idea that when Emma loses her heart she should be rendered in grayscale - with a full color world around her - and that she should sort of "warm up" as she gets the pieces back. And as I recall I was like "I think it's absolutely brilliant...but it will be SO MUCH WORK FOR YOU." Is your recollection the same? And if so, at what point in the project did you want to murder everyone, especially me? MEREDITH: I don't think it was that much more difficult than the regular coloring. There are things I would have done differently if I had a chance to do it all over again. But I certainly didn't begrudge the process as I knew how to do it at the time. The only thing that ever drove me a little batty was rendering Emma's awesome tattoo. And like the coloring, I know a little better how to handle rendering tattoos for a whole book now. But at the time, I was cobbling a process together for the first time. And I started to be irritated with myself about 60 pages in. KELLY: Haha. I've been there...and will be again I'm sure. I know that level of complexity made things harder but I'm so glad to hear it was worth it for you too. I think it added so much dimension to the visuals...it really made Emma's loss so much more visceral than it might have otherwise been. MEREDITH: I'm really proud of the book we put out. You wrote something beautiful and it's been so successful hitting people in the way that we hoped. I can't harbor any bad feelings for something that can accomplish as much meaningfulness as HEART does. KELLY: Well said. I've gotten so much heartfelt (no pun!) mail from fans about HIAB, the people who found it and read it, really seemed to love it. Another favorite thing of mine in the book was also a bit controversial as I recall - the scene with Emma and Miles where they're reminiscing...looking at the original script pages confirms that I always thought you should do all the work on this page. Ha! As it's just a concept and then suggestions of imagery, and no dialogue text. MEREDITH: Listen, my memory is real hazy. And clearly I haven't held any grudges, so I couldn't have been that frazzled by it. Release yourself from this burden, Kelly. KELLY: I AM grateful for your hazy memory. I was always a bit sorry that this incredibly powerful moment in the book fell on your shoulders so hard...but I have to admit, when I see the pages, I still think it was the right decision. I think your images of Emma and Miles' childhood together are so much more powerful than if I'd written a bunch of dumb words. Am I crazy? MEREDITH: I don't think you should feel bad about it. You let me join you on this project because you trusted that I could find the moments and acting that would best convey what was most important. You put a lot of faith in me with this baby book. Honestly, I'm just relieved that you're still happy with it so many years later. It means I got it right and that's a huge honor. KELLY: I honestly couldn't have done it without you. You're relieved I'm happy with it, I'm relieved I found you* and you said yes. *ed note: actually Sophie Campbell knew Meredith and introduced us! And so here’s the script page for the process for this wonderful double page spread Meredith created from it:
The eagle-eyed among you that have read a lot of my stuff, might recognize this idea (images/memories expressed inside word balloons) used in another project I did as well. Y’know what? Let’s do a PRIZE for the first person that guesses correctly in the comments to this post what other book (and issue number) I wrote this idea into. And so yeah, HEART IN A BOX is out AGAIN today, pick it up anywhere great comics are sold! Here’s the new cover so you know what you’re looking for:
OTHER TIMES! Just Heart In A Box this week, but next week (7/21) is CAPTAIN MARVEL #30 - this is an oversized issue that ends our “Strange Magic” arc and includes a 10-page Jamie McKelvie written and drawn short featuring Carol and Kamala.
And for 7/28 we’ve got issue #9 of our Eisner-Nominated BLACK WIDOW:
SNEAK PEEKS! Here’s Amora SERVING LOOKS in Captain Marvel #30:
And a peek at Carol (but mostly Lauri-ell) from Captain Marvel #31:
And a peek at Sergio Davila’s pencils of a GORGEOUS Carol from Captain Marvel #32
WHAT I’M DOING! I’m still sorta in deadline hell, so not much to report, but we finished up DARK. Season 3 was definitely a let down. I was super excited by the concept at the end of S2…but S3 mostly felt like them explaining everything for people that were struggling instead of adding more complications. And I’m not gonna lie, it’s a challenging show, there’s A LOT to process and tie your mind in knots around, but I worked hard and it was worth it to work hard…I ENJOYED tying and untying those mind knots! …so them explaining things over and over again…I guess for the audience’s sake?…didn’t land well for us. And there are a few questions that linger unanswered or unsatisfactorily answered. That said, the very end was a surprisingly satisfying wrap up, especially for such a complex show and after a weak season. And even with S3 being a let down overall, I have no regrets about going on the Dark journey. I learned so much and it pinged a lot of my favorite Sci-Fi concepts in really great ways and got me thinking in the ways only “the best” of shows can. So I recommend it for the brave and bold sci-fi fans among you. Really extra behind on my comics reading, but still totally in love with THE NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE. Issue 2 is out now, so you should grab that thing. CATS! One of my favorite early “portrait studio style” photos of the boys...
All right, that’s it for this week. C’mon back next week and be kind to each other in the meantime. Oh, and good luck winning the prize. Tricky of me to not say what it is, right? But it will be good. Maybe even great? Nah, probably just good. Later! Kelly
If you liked this post from 1979 Semi-Finalist IS Kelly Thompson. They're the same., why not share it? |
206: Heavily Foot-noted Chickens
Oct 27 2021
Hullo.
Avon
Importance
Later
Popped
Yap
Links
Byyyyeeee!!!
Once & Future 21 drops, which is another high action one. That said, it’s Once & Future. When is it not high action? Issue 15, perhaps, but that did involve guns being pushed in everyone’s faces, and Dan and Tamra always make things feel suitably high action, no matter how I try and ruin that.
Anyway! This issue makes me smile in quite a few ways. The team head back to Bath, where I play games with a little of the local archaeology. Also, Architecture. The set-piece takes place less than 100m from where the Abbey is, which was a setpiece in the first arc. It’s also visibly seen in the second issue of Phonogram. Kohl’s apartment in Phonogram is actually in the building across the street from Rose’s parents. I believe the second comic I wrote was about one of the statues on Bath Abbey, so acting as a witness to all of this. I’m aware there’s enough locations I’ve used in central Bath to form the backbone of a crappy Comics Kieron Did Walking Tour.
Anyway! Issue 21, out now. Here’s the first two pages of the preview…
…and you can read the rest here. You can buy it from fine comic shops in your locale and online.
And this drops tomorrow in the UK, in a handsome physical edition. In terms of my contribution, I get a chance to work with Sean Philips, which is obviously a joy.
It’s a big, broad church exercise with some prominent people involved and hopefully will raise a significant amount of money and awareness for the cause of us all not just being cooked to death.
More details about the project here and links here to where to buy.
For those who are eagerly awaiting the Kickstarter, some bad news. Due to the world on fire situation, we’ve decided to push the kickstarter campaign to next year. Rook, Rowan & Decard write about the situation here and Dicebreaker covers it, and the wider issue of supply chains and Kickstarter here.
The TL;DR is that when suppliers’ quotes are basically a shrug emoji, it’s best to take a beat.
The plan is spring next year, though we’ll keep you updated. I suspect as frustrating as this is in the short term, this will be only an advantage in the long term – another few months development time and prep for the campaign will only help, right?
If you want to be mailed as soon as the project launches, you can sign up here.
Some more bad news. I’ve regretfully had to pull out of Thought Bubble in Harrowgate. While the con is doing exemplary covid policy the movement in the numbers in the last few weeks means juxtaposed with my personal situation means I better back out.
I’ll miss everyone. This world.
My comps for DIE Vol 4: Bleed arrived. There they are. Out next week.
And, as DIE is over, the decompression interviews are under way. Comics XF talks to the whole team about the experience – Stephanie, Rian, Clayton, Chrissy and me. Lots of perspectives here, clearly, and from angles you likely won’t have seen before.
That said, there’s also me doing this kind of stuff…
CXF: Is immersion in fiction necessarily dangerous? Is creating fictional worlds? What aspect of your creative work/process/whatever do you view with trepidation, as something that might be dangerous?
Gillen: Well, I’ve made a haunted RPG that allows an amoral parasite god to predate upon us. I’m a little nervous about that.
Speaking broadly, a strand of my work tries to inoculate us against fantasy, and encourage one to be a critical reader. The danger of creating a fictional world isn’t so much playing D&D too much. The danger of creating a fictional world is falling into a hole of conspiracies and being radicalised into terrorist actions. I look at most days on Twitter and think, “This is a RPG ran by a malevolent corporation as a GM.”
I’ll admit, I have been chewing over whether one can ethically do a conspiracy story any more. In the current world, doing anything which seems to encourage that sort of thinking seems a bit off. DIE has one in it, using the dates of history to chain together this berserk view of the last 200 years, but I hope that it is so mystically based that it wouldn’t be taken literally. But if the last decade has taught us anything, you never know what someone will take seriously.
…. because I remain me. You can read the rest here.
- The Penguin Comic Creator’s prize winners were announced. These look great. Very excited.
- Britain: A Prophecy issue 1 is available to buy on Gumroad. 1980s-set mystical-poetical-political bastard fairies excellence. You like my shit, you should be all over this.
- Upriver Downriver is a really interesting looking Tarot-driven fantasy RPG that’s presently kickstarting. Go nose.
- The always-good Ritesh Babu over at the always good Neotext Review, writing on These Savage Shores, colonialism and its use of the western canon’s formalist icon. Strong stuff.
- ComicsXF interview Walter Mosley on the Thing. This is just great.
- ComicsXF on an interview roll at the moment, talking to Al Ewing about his personal relationship with the concept of “Cosmic” in marvel. This stuff is always clearly deeply personal in terms of Al’s work, and he lays out how that stretches back to those 1970s Marvel touchstones. Cosmic, for Al, and that generation, clearly meant something other than “is in space.”
- At TCJ, Laura Hudson interviews Douglas Wolk about his book about his critical tour guide to the whole Marvel universe. To do so, he had to read over 27,000 comics. Available now, I’VE MADE A HUGE MISTAKE is a hell of a thing. I finished it this week, and it’s rejuvenating like the best criticism is.
- Sorry – got the title wrong. It’s ALL OF THE MARVELS.
- Legendary Gamesmaster presenter Dominick Diamond writes about breaking up with FIFA. This is a lovely piece about time and one’s relationship with games.
- In his Teeth newsletter, Jim Rossignol interviews Grant Howitt of Rook Rowan & Decard. Grant is on delightful form here. If you wondered why we wanted to get in bed with RRD, you’ll likely see some of it here.
I wrote most of this one last week, before realising Once & Future didn’t actually come out then, so I could stop. With another week the backlog of links got too much, and I’ve saved some for next time. As I will inevitably do one next week release, it hopefully won’t overwhelm. I’m aware that any newsletter can only take so much before people just start pressing Page Down.
Hmm. Writing about the last DIE trade makes me think “should I throw another Youtube streamed chat thing to celebrate the launch of the trade, like last time? I probably could.” I’ve got a thing on Wednesday, so maybe on Thursday? Assume this is me tentatively giving you a heads up. I need to talk to Stephanie.
Work has mainly centred around the new thing I’ve added to my To Do list. I figured that as I’m far enough on everything, I can fit another little five issue mini in the mix. I broke its back today, and suspect the rest should come together quite quickly – there’s a ghost off a synopsis on dialogue on every page now. It’s far too early to talk about it, but it’s using muscles I haven’t used before – which, as regular readers will know, is basically the main reason I do anything.
I haven’t talked about culture consumption for a while. It’s not even because it’s a case where me talking about what I’ve been reading or watching would give away what I’m working on next. I was chatting to a writer friend who was telling me that they were in such a deep work mode they’ve had to trick their brain into reading anything which doesn’t link to work, only handling non-fiction by pretending it’s research for a book they’ll write one day. I didn’t say, but I’m in a complete opposite place. My brain has no interest in anything that may actually be useful to me. My brain is telling work me to fuck off, it’s sleeping.
I’ve mainly been reading thrillers and crime stories. This was prompted by bumping into Tony Lee at the Coventry con, and him talking about his crime stories he’s been writing under the pen-name of Jack Gatland. Clearly, he sounded like he was having so much fun I had to grab one to share in that. Then I was playing an RPG as part of Scottish Book Week’s birthday celebrations with Val McDermid, who I’ve never read any of. Mum’s a huge fan (sorry for the swears last paragraph, Mum), and recommended one. And then, for my birthday, my mum bought me a couple of crime thrillers, which I then read. So basically four novels in a genre I really don’t spend much time in, which has a way of focusing your attention on its machinations. So I sort of am lying about the Brain On Holiday aspect. It’s just that it’s more passively taking things in to metabolize rather than actively searching for things I need.
That said, I have been chewing over whether I am moving away from that pure research heavy stuff. I know it’s in part born of my desire To Do Work to justify what I do – overcompensating for the physical labour of the artist. I also let myself mug myself. I’m aware that DIE started with a desire to be something solely about people, and became what it was. That said… the thing I’m developing next doesn’t seem that it needs much deep research. It is a shorter piece, so perhaps it’s just because of that, but maybe I’m learning. I think back to BKV’s 00s work before he went away, and how much it clearly loved showing its research and how that simply disappeared in his 10s. Maybe I’m finally learning.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London.
27.10.2021
This was issue #203 of Kieron Gillen's Wordmail.
You can subscribe, unsubscribe, or view this email online.
Represented by: Jim Ehrich, Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston
9250 Wilshire Boulevard, 4th Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90212
This email brought to you by Buttondown, the easiest way to start and grow your newsletter.
207: the seductive, awful joys of the flip
Nov. 3 2021
Hullo.
D4E
Treasure
Wyrd
Atlas
Links
Byyyyeeee!!!
The fourth and final volume of DIE comes out today in comic shops. It normally comes out the week after in book shops – Amazon lists it for a week, for example. We’re pleased with it.
I did the full sniffling farewell and thanks when the last single issue dropped, but I’ll say DIE is big, dense, emotional, adult work which is a bunch of creators bringing everything they have to the page. The support we got from readers was overwhelming. I write at the back of the trade about how I was aware we were going to difficult places, at oblique angles, and the audience got it every time. Thank you.
As I am a little dehydrating I’m also remembering my fave line from Luke Haines’ sleevenotes to his Career So Far Retrospective… was it Das Capital? Or was it Luke Haines Is Dead? Anyway, he’s going through bigging himself up and scathingly insulting other bits, hits the soundtrack for Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry and casually notes “My Third Masterpiece.” That remains very funny.
TL;DR: DIE. My Third masterpiece.
People have asked about plans for a Hard cover. Nothing at the moment. The standard gap for an Image book going from trades to a fancier edition is 12-18 months, so I wouldn’t expect it immediately. Putting aside the world printing situation (which is something we can’t) we haven’t even talked about it at all.
In other words, this is the only edition for a while. As said, we’re really happy with it. Stephanie’s done some astounding work throughout, and the additional interstitial pencil sketches in the trade remain a dagger through the heart.
Details of where you can buy it from are collated here.. Basically, anywhere you can buy books and comics.
Last week I floated the idea of doing a livestream on Thursday 4th to celebrate the conclusion of DIE. I only got around to trying to arrange it last night at around midnight. Bouncing some chat with Stephanie means we can totally do it!
So, we’ll be doing a live stream here at 9pm (UK time) here. So 5pm Eastern, 2pm Pacific, 10pm Europe. Yes, those times are different than usual. We are in the hell week when British has moved on from Summer time and the US hasn’t (aka the week of missed meetings). Anyway! Come along to the audience and hear us chat and ask questions. Will it just be me and Stephanie yabbering or will there be guests? I have no idea. We only organised it 3 minutes ago.
Yet again, link here. It’ll record for afterwards for those who want to catch up later.
I mentioned this last time, but as I’m doing a RPG as part of Scottish Book Trust’s Book Week Scotland. Here’s the brief description…
Join us as our ragtag bunch of heroes featuring Hari Conner (Finding Home, Into the Dungeon), Kieron Gillen, Marjorie Liu, Val McDermid and Ram V play ‘The Book Shop’, a Role Playing Game written by Adrian Barber specially for Book Week Scotland. A dragon has accidentally ended up in Treasure Island following a spot of bother with a book of spells. Will our heroes be able to save Treasure Island and make it back out in one piece?
The first part is broadcast on November 15th and the second is on November 19th. You can get tickets to live watching at the above links, and you can download the rules for the game yourself here. There’s lots of great other events as part of the week, so do browse the whole programme.
Wyrd Science put their profile interview from their first issue online this week. I don’t get many profile interviews like this which approach me at a specific angle, but looking at the career holistically. The footnotes especially are i) funny and ii) make me oddly aware of the slight quirkiness to what I do - as if Alan Moore’s occult knowledge was derived primarily from Your Sinclair running jokes. It’s worth a read, I think. They describe me as a polymath, which I presume is someone who can do simple math and also assemble warhammer minis with polystyrene cement.
Also, great photography. I have few excuses to bust out the Award Show Skull Blazer any more. Look at me, at work, painting.
You can tell it’s faked shot, because I’m wearing that McQueen Jacket, and it’s not as if even I’m foolish enough to risk getting Nuln Oil all over it.
Marvel’s January Solicits are out, where we show Eternals 9’s cover. There it is. That looks heavy.
This reminds me that I saw Darryl Ayo had lost his copy of the first Eternals trade around his flat, so I ended up writing this on twitter, because I definitely wasn’t dodging work.
- Eternals returns next week with our second arc. Here’s Scott Cederlund’s thoughtful review of the first trade to either remind you what’s going on or lure you in. With the run being the trade and the two specials, it’s easy to do so.
- Jim and Marsh have a new standalone TEETH RPG Zine out. Stranger & Stranger is the biggest one yet, with you playing villagers risking mutation to save their village from things it needs saving from. Blackadder as Horror Adventure remains the tone, and I’m all there for it. You can buy it here.
- A relatively short Alan Moore interview, centered on Northampton and his concerns. Lots useful perspective from the single place.
- Maia Kobabe writes in the Washington Post about schools banning their books, and books with similar themes. Gender Queer is a wonderful memoir, and I’d recommend it to anyone.
- This month Grant Howitt teamed up with Sarah Gordon to do a monthly RPG. Heartwood is absolutely dripping with folk horror emotional truth and it looks gorgeous. That its three stats are I AM BRAVE, I AM HONEST and I AM KIND sets the mood. You can download it here.
- It’s been 5 years since Steve Dillon’s passing. Here’s Kelly Kanayama, writing strikingly about his striking gifts
- I still need to listen to this myself, so this is a link to self, but this is Ed Brubaker on Unspooled, where he’s talking about three of his favourite films. Oh – and Reckless’s third volume, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS is out, and is as great as always. Trades arriving regularly like this is just a joy.
- Atomic Junk Shop writes on Phonogram. I look at this work, and tilt my head, like a quizzical dog. The more I think, the more I’m amazed we did this. We’re about to go back to the print the first volume, adding the colour from the (out of print) hardback, actually.
I was hoping to do a bit more of an update on consuming culture (I’ve even been playing a fair bit of an indie videogame, as if it was 2008 again) but this has ended up being another long one, and I have to get all this wrapped up and sent out before a long meeting at 5.
That said, mentioning Luke Haines earlier made me google around to try and check which album exactly Haines called that, which led me to this Quietus piece earlier in the year about After Murder Park, which is, if memory serves me, he described as his first masterpiece? If so, Haines isn’t wrong. I’m reminded I had an episode of Phonogram I wanted to do which lifted Haines unused original title for After Murder Park – Uber Hate. It was about… well, things which I’ve just written out three times, and then deleted each time out of shuddering. Phonogram was aggressively, relentlessly about love of music. This would have been the flip, and the seductive, awful joys of the flip. In a different way, it was very 2008 too. I couldn’t write it now, and I’m mostly grateful for that.
Work is busy. Handed in the first issue of the new mini, and waiting for feedback. Have to do my pass on something I’m co-writing, and then do the hard plotting for the next O&F arc. This should very quickly turn into issue 25 too. That’s actually a relatively easy issue to right, but I want the next six nailed down tightly before I commit. Lots of pieces are in play by the end of Monarchies In The UK, and I need to do my best Her From The Queen’s Gambit.
Back to it. Speak soon.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London.
3.11.2021
This was issue #204 of Kieron Gillen's Wordmail.
You can subscribe, unsubscribe, or view this email online.
Represented by: Jim Ehrich, Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston
9250 Wilshire Boulevard, 4th Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90212
This email brought to you by Buttondown, the easiest way to start and grow your newsletter.
Hullo.
Goth
Morgoth
Chumyabber
Links
Byyyyeeee!!!
And after the specials, Eternals returns with our second arc – HAIL THANOS. Spoilers: it’s not about Thanos starting his own call-a-taxi Uber competitor. If the first arc was about the Eternals, the second brings the focus over to the Deviants, while moving on with everhything we’ve already set in motion. Lots of emotions, lots of politics, new characters and old favourites.
What do I like? Well, there’s a data page spread which is one of my favourites so far. There’s a typo in it, which is mildly annoying (“and then I grew silent” should be “and then she grew silent”) but it’s still the sort of thing I’m living for in this project. The page before the data page is also something I’m quietly pleased with – it’s not showy, but it shows how well the whole team is integrating now.
Anyway – that’s me. Hope you dig it too. Esad, Matt and Clayton are throwing so much at the page, and I’m delighted. First review here, which is spoiler free.. And here’s the first two pages…
You can read the rest of the preview here, and but the whole thing from your local shop, or digitally. All our first arc is on Marvel Unlimited if you want to catch up – and the trade is also out there, and a handsome beast. It is an excellent Jumping On Point, as the marketing folk like to say.
Also, on the Eternals front, the third special got announced. Eternals: the Undying is myself and Ryan Bodenheim doing something particularly bleak, with Andrea Sorrentino doing an astounding cover.
Here’s the quote I gave…
For a second, try and have sympathy with Thanos. He was born on Titan, to a family which he loathes and has nothing in common with. In our run, he arrives on Earth, and meets the rest of his extended family… and discovers that it’s the same thing, all over again. He has nothing in common with any of these people. How depressing for Thanos. And then he discovers… Uranos the Undying, Omnigenocidal Great Uncle, the rotting monstrous tree which Thanos’ apple barely fell from, proof that perhaps this capacity of horror does skip a generation. So it’s a happy ending for Thanos, really. Unhappy for everyone else, admittedly, but you can’t have everything. This is a story about some of the darkest periods in the Eternals saga, as two of the worst people in the Marvel Universe get to know each other. Less Meet Cute, more Meet Execute.
And, yes, you can imagine me cackling as I hammered out that last line.
As you’ve read two specials by now, you know what we’re doing with them. These are big, interesting parts of the mythology which actively impact the main story, given the focus they deserve. I’ve been teasing Uranos for the whole run in the main series, so getting a chance to properly introduce him is really exciting. Uranos is one of the characters who most intrigued me when researching Eternals – clearly hugely important to their mythology, but with only a handful of pages he’s even on. Trying to give a philosophical grounding to this void in the heart of the Eternals is absolutely my jam.
In my earliest notes, I described him as taking the place that Morgoth does in Middle-Earth’s mythology. Having finally started watching succession recently, I smiled, as I got another comparison. He’s the Marvel Universe’s Logan Roy.
I also love Ryan’s design for him, but we’ll get to that eventually. Ryan did some really smart stuff in the details, which were hugely inspiring for me in turn.
Out February! Read the rest of the piece here.
Stephanie and I did the livestream chat to celebrate the release of DIE Volume 4: BLEED and the conclusion of the journey, and it was very relaxed, lots of fun and frankly Too Much Information at times. I was surprised how open we both were about various aspects of the work and our lives. I mean, there’s always more, but I wasn’t expecting to be telling some of these stories.
You can watch the whole thing here.
- There’s more Stephanie and me chat over at Die-Compressed, where the definitive DIE podcast had us both on to talk about the endeavour. This was lots of fun.
- To celebrate Eternals being back I jumped on Marvel’s The Pull List. The pull list is basically a reading group about on Marvel Unlimited. I talked about a selection of issues in the Kirby run – the first, and then 8-12. It’s both hailing what Kirby does in it, but also talking about how I then processed them. This was lots of fun. I don’t get to do this enough any more.
- And Comics Twitter got very into feeling called out over what having each of my books as your favourite said about you. This stuff is always a giggle.
- Over at Shelf Dust, Steve Morris explains, contradictory to Internet Hot Takes, that Batman should never, ever give any money to charity. This is very funny, but also some sharp thinking.
- Brit Indie Comics Hero Sean Azzopardi moved from London to Hull. I was wondering what he’s been up to, but this sounds like an amazing artist’s community.
- I think I linked to Steve Albini talking about his regrets about his edgelordism back in the day on twitter. Here’s an interview which expands on it, and is the sort of thing anyone who was moving in counter-culture in the period is likely chewing over.
- Mark Turetsky over at Comic Book Herald looks at the philosophical underpinings of our Eternal run in Eternals & Asimov: A Robot, An Eternal, and a Philosopher Walk Into a Trolley. I’m glad to see people taking it seriously. I suspect it’ll be worth a re-read after Eternals: The Undying too.
- I was interviewed in part of the podcast documentary where Jonathan Ore’s exploration of Warhammer, where he returns to the hobby he played as a child during the pandemic, and finds… well, finds it like it an be. I need listen to the whole thing, but Jonathan had some really interesting thoughts when we were talking, and am looking forward to where he ends up.
Thought bubble this weekend, which may coalesce into some significant FOMO. It’s better I’m not there, but still. I’ll distract myself.
My thoughts have certainly been up North though. While Tbubz has moved from Leeds to Harrogate, I’ve been chewing over Leeds’ influence in the world due to reading Mark Andrews’ Paint My Name In Black And Gold which I supported on Unbound and I believe is available to buy this week. It’s a history of the first five years of the Sisters of Mercy’s existence. As much as I’m enjoying it, it’s basically the sort of micro-detail that I’m not sure I could unreservedly recommend to anyone other than myself and Ray Fawkes, and decoding the tangle of nicknames, actual names and nom-de plumes is a little like battling through the smoke at a sisters gig… but there’s still a lot that’s captured me, in how it’s summoned up that specific time. Even thought Eldritch is at a distance (there’s some quotes, but only some) you still get a sense of the weirdness of him as a rock figure, self-described as Elvis meets Kierkegaard, this deliberate, precise self-creation. The detail which sticks with me most so far is him constructing a tape-rack out of cigarettes and glue, like a craft project. That’s interesting. That says a lot about a person.
I also finished off by Jon Peterson’s Game Wizards which again positions him as the go-to games historian today. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting – the cover and the tagline (“The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons”) made me think it’d be more about the conflict between Gygax and Arneson over the game (or “The Great War” as Arneson described it.) While that’s absolutely there, it’s more a corporate history of TSR until Gygax loses control of it (and D&D) in 1985. I wouldn’t recommend it as the first thing you read about this history, as there’s assumed knowledge about the origin of D&D, but once you’ve acquired that (any decent article will get you up to speed on Chainmail and Braunstein and the twin cities scene and all that) you should dive in.
At least some of this is being folded into my “Possible future of DIE” folder of stuff in my head. Speaking broadly, Gygax and Arneson seem to be mainly taken as Lee and Kirby - one the self-promotionist who got the credit and one as the actual genius who was cast aside. That’s never seemed fair, and even less so once you’ve walked the path in this book. You could have a workable drinking game based on “drink every time Arneson either doesn’t finish a project or hands in some assorted notes for someone else to turn into a full manuscript.” Before this, my take was a “Lee and Kirby, but if Kirby transferred all his work ethic to Lee” and that’s hardened significantly.
Hell, at the worst, I found myself thinking about the story almost all writers tell. Someone comes up to you and says “Hey – I’ve got a great idea for a novel. You write it, and we’ll split the money 50:50.” Everyone laughs. The point of the story is to underline how people don’t get it. Ideas are easy. The work is the work. Reading about Arneson and Gygax made me wonder that whether for once someone actually did have an idea that was good enough for a 50:50 split to be fair.
But that’s also not quite true – there’s an interesting push and pull in Arneson’s quotes between talking about how common role-playing was in the scene he came from, and the over-riding importance of the core novel idea. In the end, I had a lot of conversations over the nature of creativity coming off it, which is only right. Roleplaying games are conversations about creativity.
Worth stressing for those who know nothing of any of those people, that shouldn’t be taken as a defence of Gygax. Gygax’s sins are manifold, and described in precise detail. Yet at the same time, I suspect if you remove Gygax (or someone with his drive) and you remove D&D, and perhaps even the RPG itself. I think it’s unlikely, but the idea is there. This means there’s a link to Eldritch and the sisters upthread – the will to power aspect to Eldritch pushing to manifesting this idea for a band. Not through magical thinking , but through work. It’s not that assholes get things done, but in a creative exercise someone has to get stuff done.
Which is a cue to stop this and go back to Getting Stuff Done (while also knowing that the reason the newsletter gets done is that it’s also on the Getting Stuff Done list). It’s been a pretty good week for work – it’s intense, and I’ve been serving multiple masters, but big work has been done, people have liked it, and artists are at work. I’ve just had a bunch of first take designs for the new mini arrive in the inbox, and have delighted me, and have been everything I could have wished for. I’m at work at Once & Future 25 this week, while also plotting the rest of the arc. That’s been kind of magical. On Monday, I started writing a couple of scenes I wanted vaguely, and knowing they just felt wrong and aimless. I woke up on Tuesday, and on my run just did the mental surgery, moved the pieces around, and could see the shape of the issue just there. The trick was moving the prologue to the epilogue, leaning into some character work to give it heart and then integrating an incredibly lucky piece of etymology which turned up when I researched a key word. In other words, it was a case of start typing, and then working out why that’s wrong.
Writing is magic. The delete key is most magical of all.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London.
10.11.2021
This was issue #205 of Kieron Gillen's Wordmail.
You can subscribe, unsubscribe, or view this email online.
Represented by: Jim Ehrich, Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston
9250 Wilshire Boulevard, 4th Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90212
This email brought to you by Buttondown, the easiest way to start and grow your newsletter.
209: shiny treatmentHullo.
Gran out of Hell
O&FuturerHC
Earlier, Meanwhile
Links
Byyyyeeee!!!
Now, Dan’s covers are all great, but I especially like this one. Gonzoid, and great composition. I know Dan’s doing extra stuff over at DC right now, but every time he does something like this, I want to see if he’s up for some pages at Marvel.
Once & Future continues the fourth arc, and things continue to be very reasonable and not at all ludicrous. I just found myself thinking “we may be the smartest dumb comic on the market” and I’m going to write it down rather than censor myself. Yes, I’ve read a few books, but I have a head full of soup, and somehow Dan and Tamra just make it all sing.
And you can read the rest of the preview here. You can get it from shops or digitally.
I got my comps of the first Once & Future HC collection, which is available to buy now, from retailers online and off. It’s incredibly lovely, and collects the first three volumes, and has the sort of shiny treatment that makes me go “coo” a lot.
However, I’m told there was a Slipcase edition solicited. There’s been production limitations there, and so all orders have not been able to been filled. Boom have decided rather than just sending out to some people, they’re going to wait until they can fulfil all orders for the slipcase rather than just selecting people. This should be April 27th next year in comic shops, and a week later in book shops.
This is very sad, but I agree it’s the fairest way to go ahead here. Thanks for your patience in advance. The HC without the slipcase is an amazing thing, so hopefully it’ll be worth the wait.
Meanwhile… in Coventry was the only con I did this year, and delightful. I see they’ve stuck up the short interviews they did with various creators. Here’s my one and I think it’s quite fun. Frankly, you’re getting Sunday At A Con And Frazzled And Why Didn’t He Shave His Head Before The Con, but I do enjoy me doing my usual awkward fuck who has to deconstruct any question before answering it.
- SyFy Wire interview Stephanie and me about DIE coming to its end. Lots of good stuff in here, I think, across all aspects of the book.
- Prompted by McKelvie, I did an enormous thread about RPGs I’ve enjoyed over the last few years. If you want a potted guide to a bunch of fun stuff, in different genres and styles, have a click and a nose. Seeing people excitedly realise there’s Jane Austen RPGs gave me a lot of life.
- Fantastika Journal has Emma French speak on “Detoxifying Male Fantasy: Genre-Savviness and Desire in the Worldbuilding of DIE” This is really good. You’re aware that sometimes a work leaves you naked, but it’s still a surprise when someone else sees that too. It certainly reminded me of what we were doing with DIE, and clarifies thoughts going forward. Sometimes when you finish a work you kind of forget exactly what you did with it. Most criticism is rarely useful to a creator (and it shouldn’t be – the creator is not the audience) but this was one of those exceptions.
- I plugged Jonathan Ore’s podcast about returning to Warhammer and navigating its political position in the modern age last time, but CBC have put up a text version. Well worth a read. The usual “don’t read the comments” goes doubly here.
- Sktchd Interviews chip about the comics that made him. I love this kind of stuff.
- This on why “There was a lot of Cowboy movies!” argument about film production isn’t exactly useful is great.
- Lewis Packwood on the history of the Golden Age of British Videogame Magazines. He mentioned this when talking about considering a book on this whole topic, and I’m all in.
- Dave Richards and Stephanie Cole on horror in Star Wars. You can read part two here.
As it’s been a few weeks without a comic out, I’ve skipped the Newsletter. I’m in a place where a couple of hours on a Wednesday is very much time I can use to write something else. It’s a shame – I actually do find this sort of download centering. While the newsletter is justified to my sensible head as a marketing thing, it’s really an excuse to write directly. It’s not a diary, but it’s certainly something like that.
I’m fitting this between writing some more DIE RPG material. This week is the last actually brand new material (rather than editing) that the book definitely needs. This is basically the bestiary entries for the Fallen, Fair and DIE itself. I did the Fair before this newsletter, and will be moving onto DIE afterwards. DIE RPG has actually been the main work over the last week and a half. In the time before that, I finished a couple of big things which require feedback from the requisite bodies (and being American, Thanksgiving is clearly going to stop that being timely). As such, I realised I had a good chunk of time I could just concentrate on DIE, and see where I can get. When I’ve been doing most work for DIE RPG at the weekend, this is a welcome change, not least because I get my weekends back.
Assuming the notes on the things don’t come back too messy, this lines up my writing for the foreseeable future. Which is nice. Around this time of year, I do just like knocking things off my to-do list – and that usually carries onto January. I’m also trying to work out if there’s a Christmas Project I want to do – regular readers will remember I normally fit in something between X-mas and New Year. It’s often the first issue of something big and new – DIE and WicDiv’s first issues were both pulled together in that window. I’m not really in the place to do the larger project I want to do, but there is a a short one-issue thing I’m chewing over. I say “chewing over.” I should say “Making entirely from scratch as I’ve nothing other than a venue, an artist and a possible deadline.”
Minor Culture consumption stuff – I mentioned Paint my Name In Black and Gold last time, and I finished it since, and my opinion significantly shifted. Then I liked it, but it was the fly on the wall low-key aspect of it I liked – part of the appeal of the Beatles documentary, which I’m looking forward to taking in. But when you pass a certain point it becomes about the dissolution of the band, and becomes awful, terrible and compelling. There were points where I became aware why exactly I chose Eldritch as the major influence on the Male Rock God in WicDiv when he’s a relatively fringe figure. You can almost see him take Ananke’s deal at one point, and transform. Also, it’s fundamentally changed how I listen to This Corrosion, as it really sells how it was heard in context, the makeover after a bad break up. There’s a bit where Gary Marx and the Ex who was Eldritch’s gateway into the Leeds scene first listen to This Corrosion, and its amazingly bittersweet.
I’ve also been spending my time going through some old Marvel comics. I’m actually half way through a huge mega crossover I hadn’t actually ever read before, and shocked by how into it I am.
As a final plug before I go: Wonder Woman: Historia by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Phil Jimenez, Out this week.
Honestly, it’s an overwhelming piece of work. Utterly boggling. Normally when you compare something to the Sistine Chapel you’re being melodramatic, but for this, it actually feels like the most relevant work. The Sistine Chapel was the product of a gay man’s attempt to externalise a relationship with something of profound spiritual import to him and do it on an impossible scale. I see Phil talk about Wonder Woman, and see these pages, and can only file them together. Polygon writes about it here. Applause to Kelly-Sue and Phil on this. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London.
1.12.2021
This was issue #206 of Kieron Gillen's Wordmail.
You can subscribe, unsubscribe, or view this email online.
210: half-gang, half symposium
Hullo.
First, Last & Always & Always & Always
Slipcase
Links
Byyyyeeee!!!
I mentioned I was doing another book at Marvel. Here it is.
It’s called Immortal X-men, with Lucas Werneck on interiors and Mark Brooks on Covers. It’s an ongoing. Well, it’s Immortal X-men, so that may be implied. “Ongoing, forever” is kinda one of the core things in the book.
IMMORTAL X-MEN will focus on the current leaders of mutantkind known as The Quiet Council in an X-Men series ripe with backstabbing, shady alliances, and chilling revelations that will put everything you thought you knew about Krakoa’s future into question! Already proven to be a master of the mutant mythos on books like UNCANNY X-MEN and GENERATION HOPE, Gillen makes his grand return to the franchise with an ambitious series unlike anything that’s come before in X-Men history. And fresh off his work on TRIAL OF MAGNETO, Lucas Werneck is ready to use his acclaimed talents to bring all the high-stakes action, heated clashes, and intense DRAMA to life in this first-of-its-kind X-Men title.
The Quiet Council rules the Krakoan age, for better… or worse. Now, shaken by INFERNO and X LIVES OF WOLVERINE/X DEATHS OF WOLVERINE, they strive to hold together—no matter how much they want to tear each other apart. Take a seat in the room where it happens. “It” being “the most powerful people on Earth deciding the fate of the whole planet.” Prepare for sinister secrets to be revealed and learn that some secrets are more sinister than others…
And you can read the rest of the press-release here.
It includes a selection of the things I mailed Marvel when they asked for a quick quote.
I decided to interpret the phrase “quick” liberally. Full version…
Obviously, I was delighted when I heard that Jon was leaving the X-office, due to our ancient rivalry. It’s a complicated story, and involves several duels, all of which I lost. Suffice to say, I have sworn to never enter any office where he is present. When news reached me he was leaving, I realised it was time to sneak in the back door. For a good month or two, I was lurking around pretending to be Jonathan. I donned a disguise (a wig, a different accent, a series of gnomic diagrams as my zoom background) and sort of hung around, making pronouncements. I have since learned everyone realised it was me immediately, but felt so bad for me they decided I could stay.
This speaks to what a lovely place the X-office is, now that Jon has left. In fact, it’s mildly annoying to know that this wonderful, supportive environment for creators has gerinated around thrice-damned Jon’s foundations. It’s unlike anywhere I’ve been during my time in Work-For-Hire comics, half-gang, half symposium. I find myself thinking in many ways the X-Office’s set-up mirrors the comics itself. The X-men are about the new, and this feels like a petri dish, pushing towards the future of comics. And I hate to admit it - I really do, like Doctor Doom having to say “nice one!” to Reed - Jon’s climax of Inferno has started a thousand fires in the office.
So, the match is lit, and IMMORTAL X-MEN is a book about the burning. To speak in a Hickmanian idiom, this is the New Avengers to Gerry’s Avengers. This is the book about Krakoa, and the Quiet council, with all its muffled screams. It’s about a group of people, some of whom are convinced they’re in the West Wing, some who have designs to be in House of Cards and at least one who knows they’re in Veep. It’s big ideas, politics, fights and fashion, lies, creation and destruction, all told across the widest possible canvas, in time and space. It’s some characters I’ve written before, with the volume turned up. It’s me falling in love with some characters I’ve never touched. It’s me somehow talking Marvel into paying me for having this much fun. .
Returning to the Inferno nod, Lucas Werneck is basically fire on the page. He’s someone who absolutely nails the tone of the book. When we do quiet and real, the characters have so much charisma it feels like stars are on the page. When we do big and impossible, he makes it real, and takes your breath away. Mark Brooks on covers is another treat. His gifts in creating form and charisma are obvious, but he’s throwing ideas at the page with a huge velocity. People are going to be poring over his first cover like it’s a piece of art at the heart of a conspiracy, as if every line means something. Which is lucky, because it does.
Immortal X-men. Hated. Feared. Forever.
TL;DR: I am very happy to be in the X-office, please can I stay a while, I will write comics.
As it’s early, I don’t really want to say many specifics, not least as I don’t want to give away any hints at what happens at the end of Inferno. I’ll be doing interviews shortly, and I’ll be more specific about the identities of my core cast, though there’s names in the press release. For now let’s keep it to “The Quiet Council.”
Immortal X-men is part of Destiny of X, the name of the line’s new direction. Leinil Francis Yu and Sunny Gho did a teaser piece, which gives you a taste.
Coo. There’s also a bunch of teasers of individual characters here.
As it’s the first book out in Destiny of X, I’m keeping several eyes on making sure it’s as clean an entry point as possible. Even for people who’ve been following the X-line since House of X and Powers of X, a reminder of where we are is likely useful. Immortal X-men, being about Krakoa, and for it to be meaningful, one must know what that means, and what’s at stake.
And if you’re talking about beings who are immortal, that means “Everything, forever.”
I’ve got a lot more to say about this, but I’m going to shut up for now, so there’s stuff to talk about later. I almost just said the main formalist device of the series, and that serves no-one. I think you’ll like it. The X characters remain a delight to me, and I hope I’ll share that glee with you too.
Oh, I’ll give you this: here’s my playlist. It’s a working one, so will likely change as I progress, but speaks to a lot of the book’s aesthetic.
Out March 30th.
An update on the Once & Future hardcovers. Last week I said that while the edition without the slipcase had been released, the one with the slipcase had been delayed until next year. This was the original plan, but I’ve been told that things have changed. Essentially the first wave of slipcase books were already with the distributor, and so heading out in the world and impossible to recall. As such, Boom has moved to a two wave system. Retailers got to set their orders for the second wave on December 6th, and will be with folks on April 27th. If you want one, talk to your retailer. It’s too late to hit FOC, but they may still want the diamond code anyway, which is OCT218494.
- Creators for Creators is back for a fifth and final time! Get a $30,000 grant for your comic and whatever mentorship is useful to you. Submissions deadline is March 31st 2022.
- I linked to DIE-Compressed’s interview with Stephanie and me before, but I want to do again, as I remembered exactly how deep we went in it. There’s whole sections where I talk about deep our-equivalent-of-Tolkien-
Appendix that I’ve never talked about before, including such weird buried elements like how the numbers on the dice were interpreted to inform the plot. DIE is a lot. - I still haven’t watched Get Back, but this Gawker article which argues the contentious position that The Beatles Were Friendsis really good. What it describes is the sort of boots-on-ground nature of a friendship as creative partnership that seems familiar.
- Looper’s Best Comics Of 2021 include DIE, which is very kind. I’m glad they liked the first line of the last issue. We had fun.
Chrissy sent me this photo this morning.
I like that Smaug is determinedly avoiding eye contact with Manny, as he knows how it would go down.
I was going to sign off by saying life is a lot like that photo, and leave it for wild interpretation. It wouldn’t be true. The world is a lot better painted than my miniatures. In truth, it’s been actually a nice week. There’s a lot going on, and a lot of pressure, but – on a personal and work level - it’s all basically under an umbrella of “good”. The notes on the two things I were waiting for were entirely reasonable. I made good progress on the DIE RPG stuff I wanted to do – I may do a little preview thing next week. I played a couple of interesting new games - The Haunting on Holly Street’s two-player ghost-mystery and The Thief and the Necromancer, all of which are absolutely scandalous in their formalist playfulness. I found a bunch of neat music. We had a weekend with friends, in a proto-Christmas of boardgame and food joy. And as I’ve got synopsis of O&F until issue 30, I’ve just started working my way through them.
It’s a lot, but I like a lot.
But it is a lot, so I better get back to it.
Speak Soon
Kieron Gillen
London.
8.12.2021
This was issue #207 of Kieron Gillen's Wordmail.
You can subscribe, unsubscribe, or view this email online.
Represented by: Jim Ehrich, Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston
9250 Wilshire Boulevard, 4th Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90212
This email brought to you by Buttondown, the easiest way to start and grow your newsletter.
210: mainly thinking about Chip
Dec. 15 2021
Hullo.
Art is Eternal
Future?
Chat
Chip Made Me Do This
Links
Byyyyeeee!!!
We’re back with the second part of Hail Thanos, where things continue to unfold. More deviants, more of the political movements, more of the extended cast and even a little cultural history, in the mighty marvel manner. Last issue went down amazingly well – I talk about it in the interview linked later, but when writing it part of me was thinking “Is a double-page text spread about gerrymanding an election really as exciting as I think it is?” and I’m relieved to discover, yes, there’s folks who think like me. Also, a couple of my favourite members of Kirby’s supporting cast appear here, which makes me smile a lot. Hope you enjoy it, as we certainly enjoyed putting it together.
Here’s one page of the preview which the internet particularly liked…
… and you can read the rest here. Available online and digitally.
A few folk have asked about Once & Future’s schedule, and I checked out with Boom to get specifics.
We’re having a gap after issue 24 drops again, and we’ll be back in May for the next arc.
Hurrah!
It’s a good week if you want to hear me yap.
David Harper had me on Off Panel to talk about everything, at length. This is the first time I talk at all about Immortal, and so you can hear me try and work out what I actually want to say real-time. It is early, but I do say some significant things. There’s also at least one bit where a penny audibly drops as I realise something, plus a lot about how I feel about myself now. In some ways, this feels like the first post WicDiv post DIE interview, and I think it’s a good one.
Meanwhile… at Coventry have put their con panel coverage online. I’m on the Star Wars panel, which is lots of fun, but the one I think you’d be interested is what is abstractly the Marvel Panel, but is really Al Ewing and me interviewing each other about everything. I mean, mainly Marvel but this is a broad picking over of everything comics, work for hire and creativity. I can’t remember if this was the day I had my worst hangover of the year, but we definitely had a plan that I’d take lead in trying to organise it which I do, mainly by asking “Hands up if you have no idea who Al and me are?”
Also, what on earth is going on with how I’m holding the microphone?
THE FIVE SCRIPT CHOICES IN PROFESSIONAL COMICS WHICH MAKE ME MOST REGULARLY TUT
These have been scrawled in one of my notepads for a while, but I haven’t written them up, as I figured making half the industry think I’m subtweeting them would be bad. Thankfully, Chip has slapped me around the head and told me to do it, despite the fact I was mainly thinking about Chip when writing the list. I’m not even joking.
Important caveats:
- I’ve done all of these. I will do all of these again.
- I adore a lot of writers who use these.
- There’s ways of making them all work – that they can work is one reason why folks do them. Some have been a backbone of enormously successful writers’ styles (that’s part of the problem – people lift without 100% internalising why they work).
- Sometimes these are choices born of other options being even worse.
- Especially important: while these are all scripting, these are not necessarily writer critique: writing doesn’t just prompt the artist – it also respond to the artist’s choices.
- Most of all, this is mainly me laying out my aesthetic. What I don’t like speaks to what I do like, and what I choose to do. I’m not the boss of you.
So, in no particularly order…
1) EXCESS SPEECH OVER A SPLASH
Or heaven help us, a double-page splash.
The more text you put on an image, the more you distract from the image. There’s two main things a splash does – hyper-stress a single moment of the story (as space = meaning) or create a complicated visual space which the reader is meant to explore.
In the case of the former, more speech distracts from that moment. In the case of the latter, the speech will lead a reader through and past the image with undue haste, because you have signaled that text is more important than the image by writing so much of it.
Worth noting: I am saying speech here rather than captions. You’re usually best cutting your captions to the bone on a splash to avoid distraction, but captions can be placed peripherally, framing the image. Speech over an image is almost always central – and always central if there’s a whole chain of it.
In short: if you’ve asked your bandmate to do a solo, don’t try and do a solo at the same time.
2) NON-LINKING SCENE-LINKING DIALOGUE CAPTIONS
This one actively bemuses me. I can absolutely understand why a writer would do the rest of the list. This one I actively don’t even understand why people think it achieves the aesthetic effect it’s aiming for.
A classic old school Dialogue Caption would be something like…
LAST PANEL OF PREVIOUS PAGE.
Hero McBifface nodding.
HERO: Don’t worry…
FIRST PANEL OF NEW PAGE…
Elsewhere, in a darkened alley, we see Sidekick Sidekickson getting kicked in the face by Captain Punchy.
HERO CAPTION: “… I’m sure Sidekick Sidekickson is fine.”
There’s lots of versions of this, of various levels of wankiness – early Alan Moore was very into visual transitions and so on. The idea is to ease a scene transition, and connect two scenes in some way – thematically, emotionally, narratively, whatever. This is a great goal.
But there’s a weird trend at the moment of. just taking dialogue from the end of a scene and having it as a dialogue caption on the first panel of the next scene for NO REASON AT ALL. It’s not even makes no sense comic juxtaposition. It’s just… lines, trailing off, stuck on the next scene, in an attempt to connect them.
It undermines the panel you’re linking from, by removing the line from the context of its speaker - and also undermines that scene’s aesthetic unity. It undermines the panel you’re linking to by guiding the readers’ eye to a caption which has nothing to do with the scene you’re entering, and so distracting from the art and any other writing in that panel.
It’s almost as if people remember that linking captions ease transitions, but have forgot that it takes more than than just cutting the line off and lobbing a chunk a page forward. I am absolutely bemused by this.
3) EXCESS TALKING IN FIGHT SCENES
Conversely, this one I absolutely get. 20-page American comics is a compression-heavy medium, which means you want everything to do the narrative lifting. Whether character work or basic exposition or anything, you want to cram it in.
For me, it comes back to the juxtaposition ideas earlier. The more the image is doing, the less the text can do and feel like an aesthetic whole. A punch with a single, short line is always more kinetic than a speech and a punch. If we’re doing a fight and it’s not feeling kinetic and you’re working in any kind of serious mode action genre, something’s gone amiss.
You can tell by the number of “ifs” in there that I want to talk at length about the push and pull in this one, but I’ll resist. It’s complicated.
4) ILL-CHOSEN BACK AND FORTH DIALOGUE IN A SINGLE PANEL
As in....
CHARACTER 1: Blahblahblahblah.
CHARACTER 2: Blahblahblahblah!
CHARACTER 1: Blahblahblahblah?
CHARACTER 2: Blahblahblahblah!!!!
The problem of back and forth dialogue is increasing dissonance between the image and the dialogue. If there is any change of emotional timbre in one speaker’s lines, the artist has to choose an expression which matches one of the lines (so rendering all the other lines off) or choose a middling emotion (and so rendering the whole panel flat).
This works nest with snark, noir or His-Girl-Friday-esque Screwball, all of which involve very short lines, and very little change in emotional timbre. Two deadpan characters talking to each other is ideal. It works least well with longer-than-usual lines of dialogue, characters having big serious emotions or – linking to the above – fight scenes, as it breaks the kineticism of the fight in a whole new way.
If only one character as two lines, hiding their expression by focusing on the other character can paste over it. Equally, you can make it work by taking a middle distance shot, ideally where you can’t see any character’s face in close up. Ironically by not showing the expression, juxtaposition isn’t off – the dialogue can stand on its own.
Take that too far and you’re tripping onto 1 on this list.
Most of the above four are extrapolations of McCloud’s observation that the more complicated a piece of writing is, the further it is away from pictures, and the more direct (and short) a piece of dialogue is, the closer it is to being interpreted like a picture (and alongside) the picture it’s in. A single word by a single image (whether it’s an expression, an action, a landscape) creates a cohesive single THING. For me, that’s some of my fave stuff in comics. Jamie finding the perfect expression to go with a one liner. Esad drawing a city burning next to a single caption. Comics!
That said, it’s not just words/pictures juxtaposition things…
5) PARALLEL CAPTIONS AND DIALOGUE
Oh, this is one us pretentious writers fall into all the time. Here’s me doing it.
There’s two separate stories for the reader to follow – one in the dialogue of Emily, the other in Kohl’s captions. The two threads are only distantly in conversation with one another. In practise, you have to read the page twice to get everything – once with Emily’s lines, once with Kohl’s, and then put it together in your head. As written, it seemingly thinks a reading equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your belly is a good idea.
This was basically Vertigo’s house style in the 1990s, and yes, that’s absolutely why a strand of wanky writer gravitate towards it, despite the fact it actively undermines their own material.
If you want someone to be able to actually read it, either the captions or the dialogue needs to take the lead. If you make the dialogue being glorified sound effects to the scene, narrate it however you wish. If you have a full dramatic scene, the captions have to find another supporting role. If you’re clever, you can pass the ball of narrative attention between the two streams of information, but you need to treat each bit as atomic and separate. Each burst of captions are its own thing, not just a continuation of the last bit of captions, and ideally in response to what has just been said in the action, etc.
(You’ll see I manage that in the first panel above, and then give up.)
As said, the captions/dialogue duelling here is an interesting exception on the list. The rest are the writing taking up the reader’s attention in a way which minimises or neutralises the effect of the art. This is one where the writer is actively fighting themselves. Writers are their own worst enemies.
That’ll do. Love you, Chip! Love you comic chums!
- I’ve never met George Perez, but am an enormous admirer of his work. The news about his terminal cancer is an enormous shock, and this interview with him is hugely powerful. Do read.
- Political journalist Sarah Jaffe’s newsletter is always good, and the latest one was especially so. She’s writing on Covid, labour and living in a haunted world.
- I talk about Blades in the Dark and Forged in the Dark games a bunch, and the latest bundle of holding has a load of them in. Have a nose.
- Playing Games Carefully over at Eurogamer. Thinking around the nature of sharing games with people, through the focus brought upon playing a game with his dying sister. “What if we thought of playing games as a careful act, rather than a skilful one, whether we’re playing for others in a professional context, or by ourselves?”
- People Makes Games follow up on their earlier Roblox reporting is yet more essential watching.
Despite the chaos and horror in the world, I feel happy, and I feel like that’s jinxing it. Happiness is fragile, and can be snatched away. I’m also aware that the things that can snatch it way are worrying about its fragility, so I’m trying to not to let it, and appreciate feeling like this.
A lot of it is personal (For example, my mum visited this weekend, which I feel lucky for – clearly it’s unlikely we’ll see each other for a while now, with Omnicron) but there’s professional joy too. The work I’m doing is all exciting. Perhaps weirdest, is that I feel unlocked and am having new ideas again. As in, whole new big, sprawling, messy ideas. Far too many. One of the things in Covid was that I was aware that I “should” do a new Creator Owned book after DIE, but I was also aware that I just didn’t want to. There wasn’t enough space in my brain. Instead, I’ve put energies into some WFH things (Immortal and Eternals) and a few other media things, as they involve different muscles.
Since the earliest crush of the pandemic, I’m aware those parts have woken up a bit. I have another, smaller CO project plotted out, for example, and scratching away at something else, as well as a bunch of smaller game things… but in the last few weeks, frankly it’s become ludicrously febrile. I’ve had enough firm “this has legs” ideas to basically cover multiple years of creation, as well as god knows how much crap I can dissect for parts. Even bad ideas are like twitches of a dowsing rod, pointing towards where your interests are.
Why so much stuff? Some of this is just being a bit more refreshed, some is being in an interesting place emotionally, but others is that I am actively looking for ideas. I said I’d write an issue’s worth of material for a project, and that’s coming up to being needed… which means I need an idea for that. Which means I’ve been actively thinking about “is that an idea? Is that interesting?” and when you’re looking at everything through that filter, a lot ferments. I may be looking for something that’ll work for 24-32 pages, but it doesn’t mean that’s what I’m going to find. After a few years where I was looking at quite old project ideas and deciding whether it was time to finally do them, to have another bunch of shining new ones is enormously satisfying. Also, a damn sight easier than writing the bastard things.
Speak Soon
Kieron Gillen
London.
15.12.2021
This was issue #208 of Kieron Gillen's Wordmail.
You can subscribe, unsubscribe, or view this email online.
Represented by: Jim Ehrich, Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston
9250 Wilshire Boulevard, 4th Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90212
This email brought to you by Buttondown, the easiest way to start and grow your newsletter.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2201.23 - 10:10
- Days ago =2396 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment