042: Jamie had a lizard-brain
Hullo.
You may be wondering why I've had a few weeks off. Because I'm lazy, chum. I'm very, very lazy. I wish that was true. I was plotting in my sleep last night. There is literally no rest for the wicked.
Contents!
Commerce
Art
Cons
Horror
Books
Another Cons
Links
Byeeeeeeeeeee!
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Hmm. It appears to be a big week.
The penultimate issue of Imperial Phase Part II, and things continue to accelerate. The future remains a brick wall, approaching with worrying speed. The (one page) preview's here and if you want it digitally you can go to Comixology or Image.
Doctor Aphra #13 rounds off the first year of the book. I'm sort of using a model half way between a TV season and a novel with Aphra. The year was basically designed as a single statement, that without a doubt leaves our heroine in a new status quo... but we don't give many hints on what's next for her. The aim was kind of to provide aesthetic closure, before we move onto new things – because while I'm co-writing it from now on, that means I am co-writing it, so there will inevitably be a change.
Also, as when I conceived it, I was unsure whether or not I'd be continuing with the book, I wanted it to work as an actual end for my time with her. If you want the full effect, when you hit the last panel, play Bad Reputation and then pretend we've cut to the black and the credits roll.
Preview here! Get digitally!
Oh – THE SCREAMING CITADEL trade is out today too, which was the middle volume of our first year, and our Gothic Star Wars crossover with the main book. It is a fun time, and features the prettiest Luke Skywalker eyelashes you'll ever see.
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Let's front load this before the general con chat.
We announced the artist for the 1920s special, who is the wonderful Aud Koch. You may know her best for her brief couple of issues on the Ultimates, and Al couldn't say enough nice things about her. Here's one of her illustrations...
You'll see why we thought she'd do a wonderful 1920s pantheon. Click the above link to see more of her stuff.
I'm still writing the issue, which is cutting it fine, but it's really the sort of script that's going a lot of fine detail. It's the first special where the whole pantheon are actually in it, which means that it's a different scale of work – and a different focus. The special is what I was dreaming about, which probably says a lot.
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I'm presently in a New York hotel, having stayed for a few extra days in the city to decompress and so Editor C can do some readings. I will almost always grasp a chance to stay in New York. I just love the ludicrous Peak City-ness of Manhattan. When I hit Times Square around 3am, I always find myself thinking of Rome. Also, in the week of the new Blade Runner, as beautiful as it is, it did make me think that perhaps it didn't quite go far enough with the visuals.
New York Comic Con was great. It's always a physically demanding con, with our 2015 one being our breaking point. We needed a week and a half to recover from it, and we didn't even get con crud. WicDiv's success had reached the point where no matter how long we stayed at a table, we simply couldn't sign for everyone. In a perverse way, that ended up setting us free – if we can't ever achieve a task, we can be more reasonable with our efforts.
As such this time, we've scheduled much longer breaks, and sign for 3-4 hours a day rather than the 6-8 hours we used to. I sit here, and feel basically tired but okay, so it seems to have worked.
(It was a cramped con though – I'd basically agree with most of this, and I hope the con actually does some rethinking after the experience. Jamie had a lizard-brain response to entering the Artist Hall in a I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE.)
We're not quite sure what our plans for 2018 US cons are. We may actually have the whole year off, and if we do any cons, it won't be any place we've ever been before. As we're on the final approach to finishing WicDiv, I suspect we may want to concentrate on that, which means that there's space for a triumphal 2019 grand tour where we'll go from city to city in an enormous palanquin.
As usual, it's the human stuff that sticks with you. Readers being great. Seeing your friends. Relaxing in a tiki bar at the end of it all. Even if a con can destroy you physically, they almost always spiritually refresh me. It's a pure reminder of why I care about the medium.
While the WicDiv cosplay was on point, I have to say this one was the best cosplay of the con...
...in both senses of the word.
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There is an odd downside to cons, is the tendency for controversial stories to break when everyone is least able to respond to them. This time it was the Northrop Grumman comic which went from the understandable outrage to cancellation before I was even able to send a WTF? at my editor. I'm glad that it was acted against quickly, though I'm as bemused and saddened as anyone in how it happened in the first place.
Probably worth mentioning here – if there's a situation, we want to research what's going on, and then will (if we're working at a place) complain to our company to see if we can stop it and then (finally) make a public statement if it's still necessary. This process is not instantaneous, and every step takes considerable time, none of which is necessarily possible when we're working at a con.
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Oh – this came out too. The panel at NYCC was a highlight of the con, and being with that many writers was genuinely hilarious. They basically had to do a tasting menu, taking out 5-6 writers at a time. You can buy it from all the usual real world book places.
It's a lovely book, and I'm stroking it lovingly at the moment.
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Thought Bubble was a delight. There was a change of venue this year, which means it was distributed around the town center. In our case, it meant that our tent was 10m from the front door of our hotel, and that the side-entrance was there, meant we could dart in and out of the hotel at will, as long as HEROIC HELPER Sally opened the door for us.
(She always did. Hail her!)
It's always going to have the teething issues, but I felt it generally worked well. Integrating it with the town means that there's more exposure to the world (and seeing Jen Bartel's art all around town is always a joy) and the con-go-ers have more access to facilities. Instead of basically being stuck with a couple of restaurants near the old venue, we have a whole cities of joys easily accessible.
In practise, we went to Nandos on both days. Cheeky, I know.
Highlight was the party, and I thought those mysteriously masked DJs did good work, even that one in a particularly creepy serial killer mask.
Also, this is one of the best things I've ever been given by a reader.
AmateRATsu.
Astounding.
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Some links that have found their way into this document across the last few weeks...
Panel x Panel 4 is out, this time focusing on Mister Miracle. I've got a short review in it too.
I found this overview of the The London Uber situation useful.
Ink's mailmagazine for Thought Bubble was excellent, even though it includes an interview with us. A full version of it is here. They're well worth subbing to.
Jim Zub is probably the most generous creator with his time online. This is his breakdown of the economics of his Wayward book, and the sort of data that anyone who's a series industry watcher needs to know, especially if you're considering working in a Creator Owned space.
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Work has been slack when at NYC – mainly just making sure everything is ticking over. I did manage to have a meeting with the artist for Spangly New Thing yesterday, which covered a mass of material, not least in terms of me actually explaining the whole world building of this fucking thing. After a couple of hours, conversation had turned towards Manatees performing 69, which seemed to be a good time to wrap it up.
(They do, btw. This is a fact garnered from the trip to the NY sex museum.)
Lots of good stuff, basically, including nailing down an actual provisional schedule. The first script should go over at the start of November, with the rest following before the end of the year. We're trying a different work method, so that they will do the storytelling for the whole arc in one go, and then move onto actually rendering them.
That means the rest of my month is now mapped out – 1920s WicDiv comics pages, Uber 13, Modded and a reworked Spangly New Thing #1. Which is... do-able, but intense, in the best ways. I'll write more about my method next time – I've been integrating Kelly-Sue's favoured Deep Work into my regime.
Oh – and art is arriving for the WicDiv Christmas special too. Hotttttttttt, etc. I may slide in a few panels next time as well.
Byeeeee!
Kieron Gillen
London
11.10.2017