091: neediest of the needsters.
Hullo.
Hello, my name is Kieron Gillen, and I'm selling these fine leather jackets comic products.
Contents!
Something New
Something Old
Something Signing
Something In A Galaxy Far Far Away
Something Stolen
Bye!!!
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Obviously the big one. I've talked about it a lot previously. Here's the basics.
DIE is a dark fantasy comic by Stephanie Hans, Clayton Cowles and myself. It's Stephanie's first ongoing, the first time she's got to entirely define a book by herself, and that alone should be enough to turn heads. Thanks to her and Rian Hughes' design, it's unlike anything on the shelves.
The basic concept is explained in this teaser: a group of teenagers, circa 1991, disappear while playing a role-playing game. They return two years later, unable to explain what happened. It's now 2018. Those teenagers are now adults and find what they thought they'd escaped has now caught up with them...
It's a lot of things. The first issue gives you the heart of the book - it's about comparing your teenage fantasies and where your life ended up it, using six complicated people as its dramatic core. As we proceed, we bring ever more facets in. In terms of positioning it within my own career, if WicDiv was the spiritual successor to Young Avengers, this is the spiritual successor to Journey Into Mystery.
As some people have asked, it's worth noting that while it's clearly as informed by RPGs as WicDiv and Phonogram were by music, it's a fantasy comic that doesn't require any specialist knowledge. It's authentically grounded in that subculture, but it's really about fantasy and escapism, in its widest sense.
If you want to know more the site's been updated, including links to the tags which compile interviews and features, etc. The Image feature and the Monkeys Fighting Robots interviews are especially good ones if you want to grab either. Critical response seems strong, which is gratifying – I'm aware the book is simultaneously very me while also being a major departure.
We put up the first eight pages of the 35 page issue as a preview, which is basically the 1991-era vignette in all its sepia glory. Here's the first page...
…and you can read the rest here.
If you want to buy it, you can get it from your local comic shop or Comixology. As said, it’s 35 pages for the first issue. Barg, etc.
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And the Wicked + the Divine starts its final arc. It’s called “OKAY”, which is clearly something that’ll make WicDiv readers raise an eyebrow and an obvious tempting trap for critics. After the mythology centric last arc, this very much skews back to the world of fandom and mundanity in its opening.
It’s a formally playful one, in a naturalistic fashion. When we did the high fashion magazine with issue 23, people asked us if we’d do something in a tabloid mode. I said I had some ideas for something – and this is basically what those ideas ended up being.
The preview is here, and you can get it from your shops or Comixology (where there’s a nifty WicDiv sale on at the moment if you want to catch up.)
I’m having an extraordinarily busy Thursday (December 6th).
Firstly, from 6 to 7, I’m signing DIE with Stephanie Hans at Forbidden Planet, London.
Secondly, from 7 to 9, I’m at the Launch party for 24 Panels at Gosh, London.
Thirdly, pub.
Oh – Stephanie and I are also signing in Stevenage at Limited Edition comics on Saturday December 8 from Noon until 2pm.
So there’s more chance to see me this week than usual. I will be looking tired, because I am tired, and I will never lie to you, probably.
*
Oh! A new Star Wars is out, where (er) stuff happens? I’ve just handed in issue 64, so I’m so far ahead on Star Wars that I’ve lost track of where we are with publication. What happens in issue 58? Let me check my notes.
Oh yeah! This one. The escape continues, and it shows that Leia isn’t exactly the sort who can ever stop working. Preview here, showing some chopping and fine dining.
20 years ago on Friday, Thief: the Dark Project was released. It was my first byline in PC Gamer magazine. My old friends at Rock Paper Shotgun asked me if I had anything new to write about it. Which is a fair question – about 80% of what I wrote as a critic was either about Thief or Deus Ex.
Clearly, the answer was yes. Here’s how I start…
In 2007, I was in a bar in Soho. I was waiting to order a drink. Two guys in their early twenties were standing next to me. They were gamers. One was talking loudly about an old guy he had befriended. “He bought a Commodore 64 the day it came out” he said, with clear wonder and delight, “I have a friend… from back in time.”
Hi. I’m Kieron Gillen. Today, I will be your friend from back in time.
…and you can read the rest here.
If you’ve never read any of my games writing, it’s a (as someone in the comments entire nails) greatest hits set with a few twists, mainly born of perspective. As I say in the piece, Space Invaders came out in 1978. Writing about Thief in 2018 is the same as writing about Space Invaders in 1998. For people of a certain age, that’s as chilling as anything as I’ve ever written.
This was interesting for me, especially as it gave me a chance to chew over a fun fact: that it’s the point where I’ve been working as a full time writer for twenty years. That’s unbelievable, for many reasons, not least that you’d have hoped my grammar would have improved somewhat.
Oh – here’s the Writers notes for WicDiv: The Funnies, where I basically hail all our friends, as is only right, as they are entirely excellent.
And as this is the truncated links sections, this Insect Apocalypse is great (by which I mean, petrifying). The idea of normality shifting slowly between generations is particularly well summoned. The world ends, and we don’t even notice.
Release weeks of a new book are almost inevitably a complete right off. Part is all the work around a launch – meetings, interviews, marketing and all the rest. Part is just the general excitement and/or anxiety. I have not been sleeping well. I’m off to meet some zine folk for Lunch know, and I’m sure they’ll think I’m some kind of haggard liche.
That said, I’ve done all of that and managed to push on with a few things. I reached issue 43 of WicDiv and have stopped to rethink my approach. I’ve just thought of a (er) fairly audacious way to approach a key scene, so I’m going to consider it a bit more. 42 wrapped up well though – it’s just hit after hit after hit. I may tweak the pacing a little before getting over to Jamie, but I think it’s strong.
Jamie is pressing on with the work, and he’ll be sending me pencils shortly. Stephanie is presently nailing down one of the gods’ designs – Mistress Woe, who is one of my favourite of DIE’s pantheon. She’s likely on issue 5’s cover, so the alternate artist needs a nailed down character sheet. Thunderbolt 1 is just being finalised, so I’m looking forward to seeing it all in a finalised PDF. It’s an aggressive, playful first issue, and that it’ll drop in January does feel like a statement of intent.
This week? More WicDivs and all the marketing, and hopefully sleep. Oh – and introducing Stephanie to the cats, as she’s coming to stay. Hurrah.
Anyway, I won’t say go buy DIE again. I’m not that needy.
Kieron Gillen
London
5.12.2018
p.s. Go buy DIE. I am that needy. I am the neediest of the needsters.