101: a colourful metaphor
Hullo.
I just did a “I'm very glad the church have decided to join in the celebrations of the release of DIE 4, by hailing its lead with their Ash Wednesday” joke on twitter and I am very ashamed.
Contents!
Out Today
Coming Out?
Out Last Week
Coming Out Too?
Out Next Week
Byyyyeeee!!!
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Perhaps appropriately, we’re speeding up releases as we head towards the end. This is the eighth of the nine the Wicked + the Divine trades, which collects all six of our specials. Four are historical, one is essentially a collection of scenes I wish we’d found a place for and the last is a comedy special where everyone mocks us. And rightly so.
The historical specials are the main event, and are a fundamental part of the narrative, needed before you can dive into ‘Okay’, the final arc. While we include an introduction that explains the original publication order, we’ve arranged these chronologically, because rather than working to juxtapose with the arc that’s just happened, they’re to form their own unit at this point in the trade collections, and chronologically makes certain things clearer.
This is a story of Ananke and four Lucifers. Lucifer isn’t always the main character, but they’re always instrumental in the story we’re watching. They were in part conceptualised to ease Jamie’s deadlines, which makes it a little ironic that they are deeply in the Too Much Effort For 25 Pages Of Comics for me. Three of them basically were researched for a year, on and off, while the fourth was the easy one, just needing a few books on the black death and my entire growing-up-Catholic. Easy!
They all have guest artists, chosen to suit the timbre of the story and the period. The Gothic 1831 is a chance to get a double dose of Stephanie Hans this week….
Because this is also out. Stephanie has outdone herself again. I’d say it’s her masterpiece, but I’ve got issue 5 on my hard-drive, so know it’s just warm up. Alt cover by Christian Ward, who’s astounding.
DIE 4 is the penultimate issue of the first arc, and about reaching Glass Town and going to the pub. If the first arc is showing various things we do, this is the one where we step past that, and then give some spotlight time for each of the characters. It’s a human and intimate one, which is lucky, as the next one is huge. End of arc, y’know?
And the start of my final arc, the Scourging of Shu-Torun. Andrea Broccardo does this, which is basically the getting-the-team-together issue. I am very fond of Tunga’s intro scene.
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Bombsheller/Team WicDiv party in Seattle Emerald City weekend. Details here.
(I am trying not to think about it, despite the fact it’s clearly next week.)
Peter Cannon 2 came out and folks seemed to like it. Which is always better than the alternative, right?
My writers notes on the issue were lobbed online too, which is basically me brain downloading rapidly. You can find it all here, and it’s even more casual than the WicDiv ones (which reminds me that I need to get around to doing 42s. Though we’ve got a gap month, so I also realise I can take my time. I am very much That Sort Of Writer.) Here’s a quote of a more serious bit…
Cannon and Tabu aren’t lovers in the original comics. Clearly there was no intent in the 1960s, but reading those original books in the 21st century it’s hard to not read them that way. That said, I was reticent to just make that text. I’ve done a lot of queer cast books. Making Peter Cannon and Tabu lovers seems the most obvious Kieron-Gillen-Move imaginable.
(See what I mean by this issue being me?)
Yet at the same time, it’s what those two characters seemed they needed. I love writing close platonic friendships (there’s not enough of that either, frankly) but they seemed like lovers. And then it struck me – not lovers, but ex-lovers. That’s something else, and something I haven’t written before, and felt really interesting. I’m writing two men with a life behind them – they’re both 40. Let’s go with the life.
The whole Peter Cannon team also toodled over to the r/comicbooks and did an AMA. Obviously, lots and lots of answers there to nose through, and it was fun for everyone to be off the cuff. Let’s pull out a couple of the micro-essays I did, because I Just Can’t Helpmyself.
On how I came up with the dimension travel sequence…
It’s (er) not going to be useful for process junkies, for once. In my outline “Nine Panel Grid as superpower” is the guiding aesthetic. As in, I knew I’d be thinking about that in the comic, and going back to it. So that’s sitting there.
In my synopsis, it says that they travel dimensions. I’ve got some more notes with some visual ideas, none of which I used - in fact, it’s ideas I 100% rejected as I realised it broke something else.
So basically I had “9 panel grid as superpower” and “they travel between the dimensions” and I had an idea which amused me and wrote it.
Sometimes it is that - you just trust you can have an idea. You know the terrain you’re exploring is rich enough that stuff will grow here. You’re also aware that you’re subconsciously chewing this over long before you write it, so you’re skewing the odds in your favour.
In terms of writing, I just wrote a LOT, including multiple ways that Caspar may want to draw it. I had a bunch of reference for the panel structures I was riffing on. They then all brought their own skills to it - a lot of books involve a lot more back and forth, but Cannon isn’t that. I have a pretty rock solid structure which then everyone builds upon as they execute.
(The joy is that they really do build upon it - there’s some frankly astounding stuff here, from everyone. Issue 3 is just a beast. Mary’s colours near the end! Astounding.)
On what it’d take to return me to the MU…
It would take me just being less busy, really. That’s the thing - with everything I’ve got on my desk now, I haven’t time for it. People ask me about it regularly, and my answer is always to have the conversation, but tell them my schedule really means it’s unlikely.
I stopped doing superhero WFH because I was burned out on it. I’m actually quite replenished now - in some way, Peter Cannon was me testing if I felt energised again. I only realised after I finished the first issue that Cannon’s “I don’t want to be involved in this genre” place he starts the story is basically where I was. Like Cannon gets dragged into this, I did too.
If I had all the time in the world, I’d totally be doing it as well, but I also, if given a choice, will likely do a creator owned book over a WFH one. I like making up new myths.
On how you can tell if something is too knowing and not second guessing whether you’re trying too hard to be clever…
With something like Peter Cannon, I just go with a simple magnetic north: do I think it’s funny? DOES THIS SPARK JOY?
It’s clearly totally shameless. Some folk are going to bounce of it, for all the reasons you go into. You can’t write for the folks who aren’t into what you’re doing. That just leads to bland work.
(In another way: “would I like to read this?”. When I see someone try something out of the ordinary, it delights me. I clearly have a high threshold for this kind of stuff. I strongly suspect a bunch of the stuff people who bounce off Thunderbolt like is stuff I find dull. That’s fine. People like different stuff. Comics are for everyone, but no one comic is for everyone.)
At the same time, the lines of emotional sincerity in Thunderbolt also ground it, and make it more than just satire or critique - at least, I hope so. Even our many winks are built into the structure of the piece, and speak to its theme. The book being haunted by Watchmen is funny, but it’s also creepy, and that only grows.
But a lot is just about letting go. It’s easier now, but my regular refrain when talking about my work is “I know it’s clever. I have no idea if it’s any good.” You get so close that you have no idea.
I mean, I was more worried about issue 3 of DIE than anything in Thunderbolt. That Thunderbolt is designed to get laughs gives it a wider emotional range to play with references - I’m someone who had SPACED as their generational comedy show, so you know you can nail that. DIE 3 is as reference packed, but is meant to make people cry. I wasn’t sure if that was even possible.
(You can imagine my relief when people seemed to like it a lot. Phew.)
TL;DR: ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Also popping into the reddit, I find in their weekly Pull Of The Week poll where they compile the number of people who are buying each book, DIE is at number 5 while Batman is at number 4, despite having exactly the same number of pulls. Fix! Riot!
(I’m sure it’s alphabetical order settles ties, obv. Which is why my next book is AARDVARKS OF DIE. Or DIE AARDVARK, as it’s a better pun, but does re-create the problem.)
Oh – the solicits for issue 5 also came out.
Aren’t the covers great? Paulina and Caspar are heroes.
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The coming Monday (March 11th) I’m joining a panel of my peers at Waterstones at Tottenham Court Road. Tickets here, whose value can be redeemed against the price of a book you buy on the evening.
Who’s there? Let me cut and paste: Jamie McKelvie (Wicked and Divine) Sean Phillips (My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, Kill Or Be Killed) Jacob Phillips (My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies) Ram V (Paradiso) Alison Sampson (Winnebago Graveyard) Lee Garbett (Skyward) Jock (Wytches) and me.
Oh yeah – DIE 2 2nd printing next week. Isn’t it lovely? It is. Yes, it is.
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I was a little worried that I hadn’t written any actual script for a week, but in a moment of running away from writing a synopsis I’ve effortlessly vomited out the best part of an issue in the last two days, so clearly my process is still working. “Vomited out” is the technical writer term for when things are working in a state of flow, obviously. It is a colourful metaphor derived from when someone is violently sick. It’s an allusion you may have missed.
That’s ONCE & FUTURE 2, which is basically proving a fun time. I also popped along to the British Museum to nose at the Sutton Hoo burial finds, which are pretty amazing. This will all link together and form a story, I’m sure. I also ran three (count ‘em) tabletop RPGs, all with different systems. I’ve never done that before in my life. One was a DIE playtest, in its condensed one-evening form, which worked well enough. As DIE 5 is being prepped at the printers at the moment, I’ll start mailing some more folks about playtesting it this week.
Keith Flint’s sudden death was a shock, and (inevitably) had me thinking back about to the Prodigy, and the power of what they did in the 1990s. Firestarter is one of those records which I think of when people start putting limitations on what hit pop music – and hit pop culture – is. Flint is inseparable from that. Their Glastonbury 1995 set is still in my best of all time, a band just at the moment where they were transforming into something else. My memory may be addled for various reasons, but the majority of their 1997 Fat Of The Land was already in effect. It’s a Glastonbury many people connect to the debuting of Sorted For Es and Wizz on the main stage, but for me, this was the performance that really got beneath my skin. And on my skin. There was sweat on my skin. I may have just been sweat.
The moment I realised Something Special was happening with the Prodigy was a little earlier than that. I was at the local nightclub in Stafford and one of the serious metalheads was on the floor, headbanging to No Good from Music for the Jilted Generation There was already obvious indie-dance crossover in that album, and the anti-Criminal Justice Bill feel was strong, but this was an absolutely 100% traditional Stafford metalhead who’s a mile away from the free festival stuff. I chatted afterwards, asking him about it. He shrugged. “I just love the energy.”
That. Everyone loved that, and on a stage, Flint was its incendiary incarnation.
Kieron Gillen
London
6.3.2019