176: I tear up all wool
Hullo.
TheGrimPresent(Christmas)
DIE 3 Soon
Naked Definitely-not-a-god
Vader
Links
Me
Byyyyeeee!!!
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I think this is the last new comic I’ve got coming out this year – with the exception of trades. It’s a fun one to end on, in a suitably bleak “12 year olds murdering one another” way. This is one where I’ve got a bunch of action sequences for Jacen and Java to play with – I love to see how both are chasing their work here. There’s two main moods in the issue – one ultra-action movie show case, and the other more grounded almost punisher-esque action, and Jacen nails both. Oh – and horror too. A friend has just read it who described it as a Ripping Yarn, which is fine by me. I tear up all wool. Death to wool!
I also saw a page of the preview, and found myself thinking of a certain internet meme, and bust out Manga Studio to do my own lettering.
Apologies to Clayton and apologies to you all.
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Out Next week. DIE: THE GREAT GAME.
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The lettered preview for Eternals is out. You can go see it at higher resolution here, but here’s it in newsletter-o-vision.
Coo. Esad and Matt are a bit good.
I smile, and note they decided not to release the data page from this sequence, as there’s no need to scare everyone yet, right? It’s already that kind of open.
There’s also some concept art over in the link.
Out first week of January. Can’t wait.
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Dave Prowse passed since the last newsletter. I was talking to my mum that night, and she mentions that I met him when I was a child. I remembered the above photo, but had absolutely no idea that the guy in the Darth Vader suit was actually the physicality of Darth Vader. That remix of my own past, awed and petrified me as much as the actual experience would have.
Also fun is that it seems that basically everyone who was my friends in later teenagerdom was at this signing, some of which are in the photo. Small town, Stafford. Especially for nerds.
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I haven’t done a newsletter for a while so links have piled up. Here’s a download of stuff to think about and chew over and/or open up in a tab and forget about for months and years.
This was one of my tab-lurkers– this was in a tab for most of the year, and could have been longer. Jillian Weise on the Common Cyborg, writing about the concepts of cyborg, disability and a whole lot else. In the week Cyberpunk drops, I suspect something that’s worth reading and thinking about.
I was also interested in seeing Mike Pondsmith being profiled in the Atlantic – it’s prompted by the new game, but mainly about him, and his work. I’m aware the first Cyberpunk was likely the first indie-RPG I’d bought – its first edition’s rawness was miles away from everything else I was playing at the time.
A review of Ludocrat’s first trade over at AIPT, which is a lovely piece. I’ve said before, but I wish we lived in a place where there were more trade reviews rather than issue reviews. I know why – finances, readerships, a certain strand of anglophone comics being suspended between two formats and so on – but it’s a shame. A populist, well written site which just reviews trades for people who buy trades is something we haven’t had for a long time.
Chrissy and I spent a lovely lunchtime playing the first Mini Mystery. Puzzle stuff with a lovely online narrative wrapper. Tickles the escape-room urge, and very family friendly.
This is a new Eternals animated trailer from Marvel, which is excellent but includes a lot of material from the first issue. If you’re sold on it, I’d save it for afterwards.
I was interviewed in Three Crows magazine which is a really excellent, deep and heavyweight interview – I can’t think of the last time I went in so hard. Lots of fiction and other content in there too. Go nose.
On a similar note, Wyrd Science is a quarterly magazine of boardgames, rpgs, miniature games, etc and are doing a kickstarter. It’s already made its goal, but if you want a copy, go nose and support. They’ve done a big interview with me, and the photography is pretty astounding.
Olly MacNamee’s Once & Future’s annotations jump in on the third arc. Oh – and a preview for issue 14.
I smiled at this list at the top 10 stories, and the bits of people getting miffed at things not included. Which is what lists are for, right? (There’s a Paul Morley line I often think of. To paraphrase: “a good list isn’t the end of an argument, but the start of one”. A list is meant to be a statement about how its compilers see the world, and you’re meant to think about how you see it differently.)
Meanwhile Back In Communist Russia were one of the bands I was obsessed with in the early 00s and have been thinking about recently. This is Indian Ink, probably their best album. The track to go to would be Morning After Pill, whose poetry-over-post-rock, all resplendent of fluids and regret is still a hell of a thing.
Spire is an excellent RPG of Dark Elves trying to rebel against High Elf persecution, and has some of my favourite worldbuilding in modern RPGs, and is presently in Bundle of Holding on sale. I suspect if you’re a fan of the similarly named but unconnect Spurrier/Stokley comic you’d love this.
The Writer Will Do Something by Tom Bissell and Matthew S Burns is an interactive fiction game about writing on a triple-A development, which is i) really well done ii) explains why I was never tempted to ever follow that route. Well worth a play through.
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Ross Richie of Boom fame has started his youtube channel where he does ludicrously in depth dives into creators’ history. This is the first part of mine, which is an hour. If you click through there’s another two parts up, which are an hour each, which I think is the last one. This has a lot, for basically every stage of my life.
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It’s been a while, so too much to catch up accurately. There was another issue of DIE in there. Some more plotting. This week I’ve been working on a charity piece, which I need to wrap up relatively soon and move onto O&F 19, which starts the fourth arc. Basically the plan for the rest of the year is hand in DIE 17, O&F 19, this charity thing and a special project which I plan to be my “send off on Jan 1st” project. I always try to devote the end of the year to something new.
DIE RPG has been on my mind a bunch – I’m only going to mention it in passing now, as I suspect next newsletter will go heavy on it. After 35 sessions we finished the first DIE campaign, which was pretty astounding. C is going through the 1.3 beta, which hopefully will be next week, meaning it’ll better to lean into all of that then. But it’s been fun. I do like this DIE thing.
I’ve also been doing the hard planning for 2021, breaking down projects per month, and all that. I’m basically working out whether it’s feasible to take on a new project with my present commitment. I don’t know yet. That I’m thinking “Will I have space to write something the back end of next year?” says a lot. I’m also aware I need to rexamine my work methods to see if there’s any way to bring more focus in certain areas. I suspect the answer is “you need to have a decent chair in a room where there’s no internet access.”
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London.
9.12.2020