284: a severed plushy arm
Hullo.
Fore3ver
Cutie Murderer
Links
Bye
X-Men Forever #3 moves us into the back end of this coda to Immortal X-men. These three issues form an interesting little loop – #2 continued just after the end of Rise of the Powers of X #4, and both #3 and #4 happen before the first panel of Rise of Powers of X #5.
Basically, Rise's backbone been the story of Xavier's desperate attempts (and moral descent) to un-do the horrors that Krakoa has unleashed while X-Men Forever's the story of the attempt to make the Phoenix rise again. Plus being the end of Immortal X-men – last issue picked up X-Men Blue's reveal that Nightcrawler is Destiny and Mystique's child, and this issue (and the next) go full into it, while also acting as the end of the whole of their love story that's been ticking along since issue 3. And a payoff for whoever else's stories I can work in there. End of the Krakoan ages, knots are tied.
In other words, there's a lot in here, and it's tightly wound, and there's a lot of hard cuts between topics.
You can read the rest of the preview here, along with more details on it.
Back next week for point 4, which wraps X-Men: Forever. Hmm. It seems that as the pace inside the issue has to accelerate so does the pace of publication. Hmm.
Brian Schirmer was at Disneyland this week. He sent me this picture.
Of all the characters I co-created, Black Krrsantan wouldn't be an obvious suspect for the cute-toy-ififcation. Show what I know.
(A friend of mine noted that they missed a trick by not giving him a severed plushy arm.)
- Multiversity Comics are closing their doors, which is a real shame. They were one of the good ones, though they had a real innings. 15 years is a long time for any site. They'll be missed.
- I loved this when I read it on El's Patreon, and I'm glad to see it's now public. “Anarcho-Trumpism: A Thesis.”
- As the optimistic Cassandra who wrote Phonogram, I was interviewed for this feature on a wave of musicians using and remixing elements of Britpop. A quote of mine ends the article, which is another example of me being way too optimistic, as proved by the comment thread.
I'm still in the flying period, as my brain goes hardcore into the new projects. That the previous projects dragged, means that I have been playing catrch-up – after I finish this, I'll be sending Caspar half an issue of the Power Fantasy for him to start on while I wrap the rest. Which isn't ideal, obv, but it is a big chunk (9 pages) and all in self-contained settings which aren't used anywhere in the issue. After I complete the issue (likely by Friday) I move to then new Stephanie Project. And then... well, I'm actually ahead, properly, and get to actually use that. I suspect I'll get ahead on Power Fantasy a fair bit, and then look back at what Stephanie needs. It's a larger script than a normal issue, so I suspect it'll be about 2 months before she needs anything else.
That gives me time to work on a more detailed, larger structure for that, while working ahead on The Power Fantasy. I can do that, as the map is now firm. I sent Caspar an outline for twelve issues on Friday, so he could see in detail the shape of the thing. Sequencing the material was a joy – it moves from “here is stories that exist in this world” to “Here is an actual story.” That's the thing with a multi-plot with a group cast – it's very modular, and you're looking to sequence to create meaning. The Power Fantasy is probably the most group cast story I've done since Uber. WicDiv always had Laura as a central thrust. DIE primarily has Ash at the core. Here, the core character(s) is going to be harder to discern.
It's a social group. A social group who can destroy the world, but a social group nevertheless.
(Oh – there was a fair few people say they were interested by the idea of a subscription script newsletter to pay for some things, so it's entirely possible I'll get around to actually doing it and you'll be able to study panel descriptions such as...
...or others. I'm the new Alan Moore, me.)
I was sending Caspar the synopsis document on Friday, as he was heading up to London for Free Comic Book Day. We were both signing at GOSH. I arrived half an hour late (at a run) because I'd somehow written the signing down a whole hour out, somehow thinking that a 3pm signing was simply impossible. Mid afternoon? It did not compute.
It was good to see Caspar and Dan and meet Ben Wheatley, but was also just good to see so many people come up to sign. I haven't done a UK comics gathering for a while, and just generally seeing people, catching up and getting a sense of comics made me hyper aware of how lucky I have been to be able to do this. It's a small, weird, beautiful medium, and it's amazing to be a part of it. I always define a good con as one which leaves me excited to do more stuff. In which case, Free Comic Book Day was a good con for me.
I al so managed to have a playtest of LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD, for DIE Scenarios 2 last night. It's a 2 player game of DIE, which is based on a desperate relationship trying to settle their differences, and somehow doing it via the medium of a wargame.
This is the map we generated and then fought over...
The "Moving for work" was us debating whether we should move from Bristol to Taunton. High stakes action, I'm sure you'll agree.
DIE Scenarios 1 and 2 can still be pre-ordered - I think the first it is shipping very soon.
And now Iris is pulling at my arm, and asking I play in the garden, and who am I to say no?
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London
8.5.2024