104: tasted golden treasure from beneath Smaug’s belly.
Hullo.
The week has been one of intensity and then slowly uncoiling. As such, this is going to be random. I’m hope you’re well. I’m enjoying wearing my favourite jumper. I hope you have a favourite jumper, and you are wearing it soon.
Contents!
Beta
Doctoring The Me
Yap
Our Faces
SF
Cheese
Byyyyeeee!!!
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No comics out this week, I believe. Due to a bug Comixology said it was in their subscriber messages, but that’s not true – we’re still in production, due to the ongoing problems. Also, Star Wars 67 is out next week. Which is handy, as I want to talk a bit about…
I mentioned this last week in passing, but I didn’t want to make it the main story, as the release of the DIE: FANTASY HEARTBREAKER trade is the main thing. But let’s give it proper space this time.
As part of the marketing for DIE (how I justify it to my accountant) or as part of the magical rituals to try and materialise and actualise a fantasy via the medium of mechanics (how I justify it to my demons) I wrote a role playing system. The Beta was released at the same day and you can get it here.
It’s a Beta, so it’s a core game experience, but it’s still a hefty thing. 140 pages in the main manual, and another 20 pages of handouts, including some Stephanie art you haven’t seen yet. There’s another small expansion called the Arcana down the line, which is some extra, less core stuff. It’s written to be as accessible as I can, despite it having used a bunch of more indie RPG ideas. It’s also got at least three good jokes (trad).
It’s been fun to see folks start to play it, and respond to it. It’s as good a response as I can hope, really – it’s been really positive, and I suspect it’s much more than anyone was reasonably expecting. It’s certainly had a bunch of downloads. I was expecting less than 1000 and it’s over 6k now.
The future plans? Next step is Rian Hugues doing a polish on the character sheets, which should be the next week or two. I suspect the Arcana will be around the release of the next trade. I want to have some extra material in each single issue of DIE. What, I’m not exactly sure, but I suspect I’ll be responding to whatever the content of the comic is. After that? We’ll see how folks respond to it and then if they do, think about a full edition for around the end of DIE. The world-building of DIE stuff is not exactly stuff I want to release before it appears in the comics.
But this has been fun. It’s been fun writing this ritual and releasing it, and seeing folks instantly make it their own.
As said, download here and have a nose.
Oh – DIE launch has gone well. Here’s one very nice review and here’s another one.
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Er… I’m being made an honoury doctor of the arts from Staffordshire University next month.
When I was mailed about this, you can imagine my reaction, which was bewilderment. It’s not the sort of thing you would ever think about in any seriousness, so it took a while to calibrate my brain appropriately. When it sunk in, I smiled. What a hell of a thing, right?
No, you don’t have to call me Doctor Gillen now. You can just call me “Doc Gillen”, as we’re friends.
I’ve been doing some yapping and some writing this week.
First of all, over at Shelfdust I joined Claire Napier as a Guest Giant Days Annotator. Er… this is very much a too much information riff, somewhat akin to the sort of things I used to do when I was a game critic when I wasn’t being well poncy. It’s a lot of fun.
I’ve somehow never been on the long running podcast War Rocket Ajax, but my time has finally come. This is very much frazzled end of week chat, and I hope fun.
Ben Blacker invited me to do a little Comic Book Commentary about the DIE trade. This is a DEEP dive into the construction of a trade, as a narrative and commercial unit. People talk about issue a lot, but not really about trades. This may be interesting for folks who like to know what goes into the sausage.
Oh – remember a few weeks ago I did a hypothetical How I Do Scripts thing in a newsletter? The pictures were a bit crunched, so I lobbed it on tumblr. Go have a nose.
Jim and I are also still doing write ups of our Warhammer games in character. This one is a bit silly.
Did some events. Wanna see some photos? Let me show you some. Mauricio de Souza did my present headshot, also from a signing at GOSH, and took some of Stephanie and me.
The Gosh signing is defined by the queue being down the stairs, so being very tidy.
Yes, the balloon was a delight.
The children’s books behind us are a nice touch. Stephanie is the person who knows how to smile in this outfit. The gesture is beyond me.
I like teh last one especially, as Stephanie is clearly rightfully suspicious of me.
This was fun. Thanks everyone for coming.
I just don’t stop with the public events at the mo…
Comix Experience of San Francisco are having me over on July 24th to do a signing and do a private Q&A at their Book Club afterwards (details of joining on the site). And what a lovely flyer!
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I was going to write a little about television at the mo, but I figure you could do without another person raving about Chernobyl.
Instead I’m going to talk about cheese.
I’ve always had a close, if unsophisticated, relationship with cheese. If you asked most of my flatmates what the most iconic Kieron Foodstuff is, they’d say cheese on toast. I am, in a brutal way, good at it. I put slice cheese and put on bread and then grill it until I hit the aesthetic perfection I seek.
One of the many good things about being with C is that she is half-Italian. She has brought cheese and meats beyond my wildest imaginings into my life. Yes, don’t take too much. I am a midlands boy. Red Leicester is beyond my imaginings. However, even with that caveat, I have been on a journey. I am Bilbo, who has gone to the Lonely Mountain and tasted golden treasure from beneath Smaug’s belly.
I say to give context for what follows.
A couple of months back we went for a weekend break to a fancy hotel.
They had a cheeseboard. It was good. One cheese was so good, we had to ask after it. We were told about it.
It’s Godminster cheddar. It’s pretty expensive (“You’d need some cheddar to buy this cheddar”). As a treat or a gift, it’s definitely worth it. It’s the best Cheddar I’ve ever tasted.
If you want to know how good it is, think “How many times has Kieron actually written about cheese before?” It’s the cheese that made me write a few hundred words about cheese.
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The week’s been dismounting. I’ve working on project MILLIONAIRE SWEEPER, which is presently with my co-writer, so I’ve had time to finish a draft of issue 2 of Ludocrats. It’s going well. It is a spectacularly dumb comic, and I love it so.
Here’s a planning document from the last summit Jim and I had…
…which is us trying to work out how issue flow could work. We’re both ex-magazine people, so issue-craft is something that really appeals. It won’t be out until early next year, but it’s going to be the definition of maximalist giggles.
Right - I’ve a phone meeting I need to make a tea in preparation for. “Don’t speak to Americans on the phone without a protective tea” is basically one of my protective rituals.
Kieron Gillen
London
12.5.2019