044: International Consumerist Leviathans.
Hullo.
A quick one this week. I'm running off to get a medical check-up (in order to continue my mission of Not Dying) followed by going to the pub (in order to continue my mission to do the absolute opposite). I lie – there's a few hours work in a London cafe between the two, but that wouldn't be nearly as neat.
Contents!
Not Mike Patton
Start Wars
Chairman of the Board
Not The One Who Owns The Millennium Falcon
Byeeeeeeeeeee!
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Uber: Invasion 9 out this week, at least if you're buying physically. It's not presently on Comixology, but whenever it's lagged, it's lagged by a week. If you don't need the Comixology Special Source, it's up on Comics Cavalcade. This one is set primarily in Italy, where we catch up with the allied forces in West Europe, which were – if you remember – under control of General Patton.
(I suddenly realise the week I'm off to Italy for Lucca that I've got a comic involving war in that country. This seems to be a habit. I don't get there until Saturday, and already have had messages from Jasons Aaron and Latour, asking where I am. I am working, guys. I'm working.)
For those following the progress of scripts through the Kieron-o-matic Writer 8000 machine, I finished WicDiv 13 this week.
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Next week is the first issue of me and Salva getting the band back together on STAR WARS. The comps of all the alternate covers arrived this morning. They're shown above.
Coo!
I suspect my favorite is the homage to my first issue of Uncanny X-men, because I am a horrific egomaniac.
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I occasionally answer questions on my tumblr. I occasionally copy longer, relevant and even interesting answers here. And lo! Behold.
Q: Weird question, but has anyone brought up the idea to you of trying to create an RPG based of of this series? I can't be the only person who thinks that this series is the perfect basis for an incredible (if extremely dark) WWII rpg.
A: I don’t think an RPG has ever been brought up. I suspect it’s a tricky fit as written, as the Battleships tend to overwhelm everything, and there’s not really enough customisation for characters at the Tank-Man level.
(Or, in fact, any level. Powers are pretty locked down in Uber’s universe.)
If you move it towards something that tends to work as an RPG, you increasingly overlap with Godlike. I’m only aware of Godlike by reputation, but it strikes me as something which could be the basis of an Uber informed game. Of course, you could probably make a more experimental narrative RPG out of Uber, but that involves much more reaching.
I have had some conversations involving Uber as a wargame - the obvious problem is that it’s really just a hack on top of any classical WW2 tactical scale wargame, adding Tank Men. Battleships are really strategic weapons rather than tactical ones - I’m reminded of the anecdote of a 1950s Wargamers wryly suggesting they model tactical nuclear weapons by throwing a real hand-grenade at the table.
I suspect the most natural adaptation of Uber to a game format would be on the strategic level. Something world-level, with a lot of focus on the R&D sections. I did play around with some ideas of semi-random development trees to simulate the uncertainty of Uber’s development, but it’s not really something I’ve given much thought to.
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I finally found time to read this 2014 retrospective of Lando's work, put out by the always interesting Breakdown Press. I've read a chunk of Lando in the original mini-comics, which basically called me from across the room at whatever con I first saw them at. They do that.
I wanted to write about this at length, and I'm not sure I want to or am even capable of wrestling it down, even if I had more time than I do. I love the indefinability of this work, how it haunts, how it evokes. Writing about it is like facing butterfly that lives to break wheels.
The standard line is “Moebius does Ballard” and I think that is enough to intrigue. You can get it from Breakdown, or from comic shops, or International Consumerist Leviathans.
It is very difficult to google “Lando Comics” because we just get the Star Wars Mini. Which is pretty nifty – I suspect my favourite of all the Star Wars minis – but not exactly the same thing.
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I handed over the full short-form structural document for Spangly New Thing yesterday. I ended up writing a quick synopsis of the history of the world where it's set, just to have it in one place in a short form, and only then realised exactly how bizarre some of this is. I also see how conspiracy theorists get started.
I should finish the first issue for tomorrow. So better get to it.
Byeeeee!
Kieron Gillen
London
2.11.2017