264: Under Total Communism the lavatories would work better
Hullo.
No One Man Should Have All This Power But An Artist And A Writer Can Probably Split It
Grail
Toilets
Eggs of Poor Value
Links
Byyyyeeee!!!
So Marvel tweeted this yesterday..
THE FINAL BATTLE OF THE X-MEN’S KRAKOAN AGE BEGINS IN FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X AND RISE OF THE POWERS OF X! It’s the beginning of the end for Krakoa! Learn more next month at New York Comic Con.
And then they included this image.
Coo.
Now, unpacking that...
I) That's the two creative teams, one writer, one artist. II) A radical choice by marvel to do one book where two artists are set free to do whatever they want and two writers have to desperately patch together a whole series out of datapages.
I know the sensible money has to be on I, but if it's the end of the Krakoan Age, there's got to be a chance of all datapages, all the time?
Either way, not long to wait. NYCC soon, when they'll be more details.
Spec Tales just mailed me to say my interview with them has just gone live. They're primarily a podcast for collectors, but they're really into the creator owned side of the business. We talked about a bunch of stuff – a lot about DIE, a lot about DIE RPG, a little speculation about Aphra (it really is speculation - I know nothing about her future).
Let's talk about toilets.
There's an alternate take on Rue Britannia where I put Kohl's split with Britpop at a different moment. A bunch of Phonogram takes autobiographical events as a jumping point – normally by turning the volume way up, making it metaphorical or adding a magical veneer (though sometimes by going the other way – really micro slice of life ). I chose a conversation on Primrose hill. I could have chose Knebworth.
I was at the Oasis Knebworth gigs. These were the cultural apex of whatever Britpop was. If it was a musical movement that lusted after populism and strutting the biggest stage, the logical end point of the Stone Roses belief that you had to get to number 1 and stomp the bad shit down... well, selling 250,000 tickets instantly was it.
The bloom was off Oasis by then, but I was still really fascinated by the expanse of this. I went to the Sunday gig and basically enjoyed it. Mostly.
But there was one moment which stuck to me, and it felt like the end. I could enjoy it, sure, but I wasn't part of it any more.
We go to find the toilets. Front right of the stage. There's a 50-100m queue for about 8 cubicles. People stand dutifully, waiting. It's at times like this when the queuing for the queen thing makes a lot more sense. Even as a republican, I did feel the pull of what I saw described as the Final Boss of queueing.
I join them. I wait.
I see some people going around the side of the cubicles. Could be peeing in the bushes? I decide to give up my place and go to investigate.
Behind the row of 8 cubicles, there's about 50 more behind, arranged in a perfect Napoleonic square.
They're pristine and barely touched.
I use them and decide to do the right thing, no matter how embarrassing it may be.
I approach the queue and shout an explanation that there's 50 toilets no being used just around the back of these ones. There is no need to queue. Just go.
About 3 people do. The rest stand, untrusting, waiting for their distant chance to use 8 increasingly shit and piss encrusted cubicles.
It's at that moment, with all the unforgiving precision of a 21 year old, I realise the futility of this whole endeavour. Fuck Britpop. This whole thing was a mistake.
That was a memorable moment, but for someone with anarchistic tendencies, my frustration at toilet organisation is a weird exception. I spend a lot of times glowering at set-ups. Under Total Communism the lavatories would work better than this.
Now, I haven't really done major outside events for at least 5 years, so this all may be old news for you, but since I've been gone, at least someone has got this sorted.
I went to the closing Greenwich Comedy date on Saturday with C, and went the toilet in the first interval. I sigh when I see the size of the queue before you even got to the area, but I find the end with the person holding a signpost, and join. It seems to be moving quicker than I'd think anyway.
The speed and the person holding the signpost should have been the first two clues we are a long way from Knebworth.
The queue buzzes along. I'm not sure how or why. As we get nearer the toilets, it starts to snake around, ala an airport. We continue to stomp around. I am delighted, as I can see what's happening ahead.
There's a handful of people standing at the head of the queue, and traffic conducting to wherever there are empty cubicles.
This works seamlessly. The queue moves at a dawdling walk pace. You get to the front. You go to the cubicle. You use it. You leave out the far side. It's like a very slow rollercoaster, and I am all for it.
In the next intermission, C goes to the toilet. I don't need to, but go with her anyway, just because I want to see her delight when she experiences this.
My faith is returned. Progress is possible. This world can be a better place.
Other critics would talk about how great Stuart Lee was, but instead, over 500 words about portaloos. To thine own obsessions be true.
I was just in the Co-op, nosing.
I do not think this is the bargain the Co-op seems to think it is.
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No Pun Included had me on this week too, to talk about games, art and DIE as part of their podcast. Fun talking in a space unlike normal – I've linked to No Pun Intended's videos before, and they're great.
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Joe Matt passed this week, which was a shock. I've never met him, but he was one of the big comics non-genre influence on early Phonogram. Ed Brubaker writes about Joe, and his relationship with him.
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Ed also did a big interview about craft with Cole Haddon. The first part is here. The second part is here.
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I like the look of this. The Monstrous kickstarter is basically a system agnostic toolset for adding flash and style to your monsters – finding an angle why your creatures are they way they are can really enhance a campaign. We tried to do something a little like this in DIE's Bestiary, but coming at it from another angle. Have a nose.
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This story behind an Imperial Knight army on Goonhammer is about grief, rage, communication and lack of between generations, Covid, Gerald of Wales and a lot more I did find myself spending much of the first Covid year painting an army of ghosts in faded sepia, and was aware of the weirdness of that at the time. Art is big and complicated, and we use it in many ways.
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Finally, there's a small chance you haven't seen Chip's new press shot. Let's not take the risk.
With the announcement of rotPoX and fotHoX, I suspect a few coins drop for folks, in terms of my workload and when I'll be stepping away from Work for Hire and towards my own stuff. I said how many issues I have to write, but I was writing for two series. I'm down to... 6 issues to write now, across both books. Oh, and likely something else at the end. My plan for the rest of today and tomorrow is trying to get closer to the tight plotting for one half of it. In a machine as complicated as the Krakoan Age, trying to find what is the emotional heart needs some real thought. The timeline is complicated. I have often thought that when you take a timeline structure invented by Jon, and then give it to me to play with for a few years, you're going to end up with a death pretzel.
So the emotions is what I'm holding onto. Caring is why we care.
As well as one issue of that, I've been dabbling with various other things. I just handed over a DIE Quickstart scenario (Its current title is MAGIC ISN'T REAL!). It's designed to work out the box, and I'm trying to judge how I've managed to do it. I suspect I may have not done tight enough focus on the set encounters, which will require a second draft to rewrite it... but I think the bones are good.
There's also three more DIE adventures I've got to do before December. One is a 36 player game we'll hopefully be running at Dragonmeet. Another one is for a panel at Thought Bubble which kind of turns everyone in the room into a player. A third one is for the second of the DIE Scenarios games – my hope is to do a 2 player version of DIE. I feel that I am now completely on my bullshit.
I've also said yes to going further with another project – really unusual, completely different to anything I've ever done (and pretty different to anything anyone has ever done.) Which is not saying that it's some magical impossible new thing... but it's a variety of different things being brought together in a novel formation. It may not end up happening, but I'm excited to see what the next steps are.
(It's not my idea, so I don't mind saying the above. It is a pretty neat, unusual idea. At the least, it'll be fun.)
Also, slow progress on another thing and... oh, this is a weird one to just leak out at the end of the newsletter.
Stephanie mentioned that her new project is with me on twitter.
So, yes, Stephanie and I are doing something else together. It's the Graphic Novel I've mentioned.
More details at some point, I'm sure.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London, finally
20.9.2023