Hullo.
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