286: I am the Blue, No, ARGGGH knight
Hullo.
Let Me Bey Your Power Fantasy
54-76
Links
Bye
The Image solicits are out for August, which is when the The Power Fantasy launches.
You can read the catalogue as a PDF here. We're on the cover of it, which describes me as a heavyweight. I knew I'd put some weight on, but this is a weird place for my distributor to bring it up.
Here's the solicit...
POWER FANTASY #1
(W) Kieron Gillen (A/CA) Caspar Wijngaard
"Superpowered." You have certain preconceptions. They're incorrect. Here, that word has a specific technical definition. Namely, "any individual with the destructive capacity of the nuclear arsenal of the USA."
There are six such people on Earth. The planet's survival relies on them never coming into conflict.
Come dance to the ticking of the doomsday clock with KIERON GILLEN (THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, DIE) and CASPAR WIJNGAARD (HOME SICK PILOTS, ALL AGAINST ALL).
The eternal fight against fighting starts now.
Retail: $3.99
In-Store Date: 8/7/2024
Something I realise we haven't made noise about, so I'm going to do it here, by using bold...
That's an over-sized 40 page issue for the standard price.
There's an alternate cover from Stephanie, which looks like this...
The solicit explains a lot, but the best introduction is the 2 page teaser we released...
That's a dense little of pages too. I'm aware that as we head towards launch, I'm going to be talking a lot about what we're doing. Which is why you talk before launch, right?
The “6 people with superpowers” doesn't mean that they're the only people who have non-human abilities in the world. As the teaser says, there's been people with abilities around before – it's just that in this world, the phrase “Superpowers” means something specific, and doesn't apply to anyone who can't destroy continents. The book is conflating the two real definitions of the word superpowers – the comic book character definition and the “nuclear superpower” one – and then rolling with that.
I'm told there's some folk who wonder how you can have a story with six characters who can't actually fight. I'd say if you replace the comic book definition with superpower with the nuclear war definition of superpower, it becomes clearer. “How can you have a story about the USSR and the USA, when they can't fight?” We call that a cold war story, about brinksmanship and all the things they do when they can't just go head to head without the world ending. And, of course, the world can end. This isn't Marvel or DC. The threat is real, as it is in our world.
It'll all become clearer when that first issue drops, which I think is as firm an explanation and demonstration of a concept as I've written. You'll read it and get it. This. This is the book. We're sharing the issue in its early state with a few people, and everyone seems to really like it, which is both a relief and a delight. Caspar is doing career best work, Clayton is continuing to push himself and I think I'm finding a cleaner route to the story than I often do. It's got all my bullshit, but I don't mug myself.
I'll say more down the line – character teasers and introductions will be soon. There's a couple of pieces about our two cover stars which will likely be out by next week, and more to come down the line. We want to have fun introducing it. Join the apocalypse congo.
If you have a chance, talk to your retailer and tell them you're interested in a copy. Ideally pre-order, but just talking to a retailer is a huge thing. This is how it gets on folks' radar. Pre-ordering on Comixology (or wherever you get comics from digitally) is also great.
Tell your friends. Share the teaser. Have fun.
More soon.
#Let5D0It
I'd followed the previous poll - #FearofMu21C – but this time decided to jump aboard. This time it was #Let5D0It and a compilation of folks Top 50 singles from 1954-1976. There's a few extra rules , but basically means everyone posting one song a day and a brief blurb about them. I jumped on with not nearly enough time to prepare, so was winging it – which gives a certain energy, but does mean it's got big holes in. But so do all lists. That's the point. The results will be posted now, and in the weeks to come, so you can follow that here.
Next time – 76 to 99, I think – I'll be preparing the list in advance, so may actually do it in order of preference – I front load a lot of my absolute faves this time. Or maybe me trying to do that will mean I don't do it, as my brain will break at the effort. I have a tendency to take lists way too seriously.
If life is the 3 questions bridge of death sequence in The Holy Grail, I am the Blue, No, ARGGGH knight.
The next one is also about my lifetime, and includes the period where I was most intensely part of music culture. It continues into the 00s, and I'm still someone who clearly loves music, but it's not the sort of knowledge where I know what's out in any given week. Bands surprise me with releases. I miss releases. That didn't happen in the 90s.
This has been a top 50 which has relatively few obscure tracks in, but certainly a lot of bangers. I suspect they'll be more marginal stuff in the next one... or maybe not. 50 is a very small number.
Anyway – here you go. I'll stick a playlist at the bottom so you can listen to them.
Tutti Frutti - Little Richard (1955) This is apparently winning, but there's no way I can't include it. Long Tall Sally and Lucielle may turn up later but I always think of my serious, collected mother in law talking about being a young teen, waiting for a bus down an italian mountain in a cafe, and this comes on the jukebox and her HOWLING ALONG TO THIS AT THE TOP OF HER VOICE. That's pop music.
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone - The Temptations (1972) I basically grew up in 1960s Soul Household, so expect a lot of Motown, but let's start with something cinematic from the 70s. Full body memories of being in the back of the car, obsessed while this played.
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix (1968) I have a low tolerance for guitar heroes, which I suspect comes from coming to Hendrix first and comparing them all to him. If you were going to re-do Phonogram chronologically, teen me listening to this may be the inciting incident.
You Keep Me Hangin' On - The Supremes (1966) From the SOS of the guitar to the "and there ain't nothing I can do about it", the Supremes at their most urgent and desperate. When McKelvie told me he preferred the Wilde version, I knew it could only be time until we never spoke again.
Paint it Black - The Rolling Stones (1966) No Stones in my house growing up. My Dad was a big fan, but had all his albums borrowed and not returned - which obviously infuriated him.
I came to them as a teen. I was a goth. And so.
Say A Little Prayer - Aretha Franklin (1968) Pure phonomantic ritual. By now, there must be a whole year of my life by now when my day started with this.
Gloria - Patti Smith (1976) For a second, I thought it was going to be hard to choose between this and Land. But this was the only single, so it turned out to be easy. There are times I think this may be the greatest rock and roll single of all time, usually whenever it's playing.
California Dreamin' (1965) - the Mamas and the Papas (1965) There won't be a lot of West coast 60s here, but this is an extraordinary record I find absolutely petrifying. I'm going to bust out the word "numinous". It's also amazing if you slip one ear or the other off your headphones.
Patches - Clarence Carter (1970) Never wrote about this one. Hell, I don't think I've ever talked to another music fan about it. But once, 20 clear years before my dad died, I heard it and it took my head clean off.
Telstar - The Tornadoes (1962) Number one during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which makes it feel like an SOS from the sci-fi future yet to come.
Be My Baby - The Ronettes (1963) When you've made bank from a record, I don't think I have much choice but include it. I'm not rude.
Reach Out I'll Be There - The Four Tops (1966) I'm listening to this now, for the millionth time, and find myself thinking maybe it's just about the bassline and then the "now if you you/HAH!/feel you CAN'T go ON!" hits me in the face, and no, it's all of it, ever note
I Can See For Miles - The Who (1967) A band I've always wanted to like more than I do, but the exceptions are notable. This is the biggest note stretching out, for miles, and miles, always finding a few more inches to stretch then just soars away, never to be seen again
Shout - The Isley Brothers (1959) If I got to pick a single job to do in all of pop, it'd be to do is the OOOOHs in the back half of this.
Dancing Queen - Abba (1976) On the list of Phonogram scenes that never was, imagine Kohl's head against a speaker in a basement club, with this playing at full volume, to turn the harmonies to static as he tries to hallucinate what a heaven may be like. Petrifyingly good pop music.
Born To Run - Bruce Sprinsteen (1975) When talking about Warhammer 40k, I like to say that some people think less is more. 40k argues that, no, more is more. That's what "more" means.
And so.
Heatwave - Martha Reeves & the Vandellas (1963) When I normally rant about Heatwave, I talk about the closing Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but the moment it really buys a place here is Reeves' vocal kicking in and just hitting like the cool breeze on the hot day, and sweeps you away. This is my classic fave MR&TV, but last time I DJed I played Nowhere To Run To and I found myself thinking maybe I've been lying to myself. Nowhere's a more muscular record and hit really hard... but hitting in a London basement isn't the only thing a song can do. Listening to now, made me go back.
20th Century Boy - T. Rex (1973) If I went with "more grace" over "more muscular" with the Vandellas, I'm going the other way with T Rex. This just attacks your face with an axe, as if Jack in the shining was having the time of his life, and you're really into it too.
Try A Little Tenderness - Otis Redding (1966) My brother's favourite artist of all time, so clearly one pick, and perhaps another later. Listening to this, while we all live for the explosion, the restraint and the slow striptease of the whole band dancing with Otis is a perfect launchpad. ❤️
Jesus Was a Cross Maker - Judee Sill (1971) Only came to her around WicDiv, and my general singer/songerwriter aversion was circumvented by Sill. Somehow a bisexual with a taste for the ornate and a complicated Donne-esque relationship with god hit me. Mysterious!
Twist And Shout - The Beatles (1963) The Beatles are unfortunate. If they were 6 bands, they'd have 6 slots. So... what? The more I think of the Beatles, the more I think of them as gleeful music nerds. And so: the cover which shows they're the band most likely to do #let5d0it
Please Don't Let Me Understood - Nina Simone (1964) I've given up trying to wrestle a choice for this one down (what monster can choose between the stars in the sky?) so I'm going with this, a live version of which is still my choice to play at my funeral.
This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us - Sparks (1974) First time this exploded from the car speaker as a teen, I was thrilled and confused. I had no idea. Was it current? What decade was it from? What PLANET was it from?
I've never really moved on from that.
Life on Mars - David Bowie(1973) I'm days behind, so let's not think too hard. I knew I'd have Bowie, so I scan the singles in the period and think "Well, it's Life on Mars, innit?" which is a graceless a process in inverse proportion to the melodramatic grace of this.
Papa's Got A Brand New Bag - James Brown (1965) I wanted to choose Sex Machine, to tell the anecdote which shows the level of actual practical musical knowledge in my household - my parents were convinced "The Bridge" was an actual place. But instead, this perfect thing
Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (1965) I'm only a relatively recent convert to Dylan - as someone who treats pop as a fantasy game, getting into him seemed like getting into Runequest. Except now, I kinda fancy runequest and I fancy bob too. This one I always loved.
Summer in the city - The Lovin' Spoonful (1966) 1st day back in CO comics, and this basically inspired the whole opening scene in The Power Fantasy, my next book, and I've been looping it for months and still makes me want to walk, and miss London before I've left her.
The Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (1970) I keep on trying to put a slower Motown pick, but I gravitate to the dancefloor. The two Tears were as close as any, but I'm still going for this which sounds like the happy mask it describes so precisely.
96 Tears - ? and the Mysterians (1966) That we've gone 30 songs into this without hitting a misogyist-y garage rock revenge song is probably something of a miracle, given the 60s of it all. It's not even by the Stones.
I still go DUUH! DUUH! DUUH! DUUH! every time.
What's Going On? - Marvin Gaye (1971) I'm surprised. I thought I was going for another, but it just came on and I was transfixed by how a song about the absolute bleakest stuff can, by by the nature of its sonic properties, showcase exactly why life is worth living and fighting for.
(Ed Note: I genuinely can't believe I didn't include Grapevine.)
Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley (1956) If you want an image, imagine me as a teenage goth and bouncing between Sisters of Mercy and this.
Move on Up - Curtis Mayfield (1971) Wait, this didn't chart in the US? WTF? Guys!
Superstition - Stevie Wonder (1972) I’ve been going back and forth on my Wonder, and it’s come down to “what’s the song I most want to hear whilst walking rapidly across London” and this is absolutely it.
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher - Jackie Wilson (1967) It glides in, assembles before my ears and just fills me. Our first dance, for the record. Witnesses to that describe us as looking like giddy children who surprised and delighted we had found a secret. That.
War - Edwin Starr (1970) While What's Going On argues shows sonically what we could have, War's muscular intensity sounds like what it decries, and makes me want to punch war in the fucking face. I will even forgive it for generations of Game Journos using it for strapline jokes.
Young Hearts Run Free - Candi Staton (1976) Somehow makes being trapped in a hellish relationship to a faithless man make you giddy. The line between wise and euphoric is narrow, but this builds churches there.
God Only Knows - The Beach Boys (1966) Well, exactly. I haven't a fucking clue.
Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry (1958) When I was in terrible bands, and we were auditioning drummers, this is what we plugged into, played at time and a half and howled, and if the drummer didn't quit, they were in. This is some primal rock band stuff.
Rescue Me - Fontella Bass (1965) When Bass comes in with the first "Rescue Me" I'd literally do anything for her. And the bassline, off in the corner, idly trying to solve the secrets of the universe. I'm don't want to write. I want to point at it and gesture wildly.
Give Him A Great Big Kiss - the Shangri-las (1965) "WELL, I HEAR HE'S BAD!" "He's good-bad, but he's not EVIL"
To some, it says nothing, to others, they somehow turn trying to turn lines like that into a whole comic career.
Where Did Our Love Go - the Supremes (1964) First artist to have two songs, born of me listening to it on Friday and having a "This is one of the greatest achievements of humanity" moment with it and proof that a boot stomping on a human forever could be pretty amazing.
I Love To Love - Tina Charles (1976) "So explain this thing, Kieron." "Singles, 54-76, basically. Pick 50." "You're including that one about loving to love, right?" "I feel love is later." "No, not that one. The one you play all the time and ramble about." "Oh. That one."
You Really Got Me - The Kinks (1964) As we hit the back end, I realise I haven't got two things - Kinks or a brit band plugging in and doing it. Hence, this with its insistent insouciance, the balance between not giving a fuck and really wanting to fuck.
Paranoid - Black Sabbath (1970) I am many things. I'm a writer. A husband. A bisexual with complicated feelings around gender. A mediocre but enthusiastic dancer. A fantasy fan who uses fantasy to attack fantasy.
But, beneath and above everything else, I am a midlander.
Band of Gold - Freda Payne (1970) Across the last twenty years or so, all my attempts to make an impotence themed mix-tape have been foiled by hitting this and just getting stuck here on repeat. Now I write it, I realise this is probably ironic.
Respect - Aretha Franklin (1967) First (and only, unless I change my mind) double artist in the list. When I had her doing one certain sort of magical thing with Say A Little Prayer, I couldn't not have her doing the OTHER thing.
Lazy Sunday - Small Faces (1968) How much more bearable would Blur's britpop-period records be if Damon pulled off the mask in the back end and revealed he actually had one of the best voices of his generation?
Then he kissed me – Crystals (1963) Exit music for our wedding. I hear it and it soars out the room and keeps on running.
That said, every time I hear "And he kissed me in a way that I'd never been kissed before" I imagine he's licking her forehead or something and she's going WTF.
Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade (1973) I once requested this to a DJ to play in a club. He was genuinely shocked. He said no. I asked why. "It's July." Really, these are the people I have to work with.
Tramp - Otis Redding & Carla Thomas (1967) Otis gets a double appearance too, with this banquet of moments. If I had to choose, I'd choose Otis impossibly aggrieved WHAT?!? when Carla, once more, refuses to understand what manner of man she is speaking to. I had so much fun doing this, I wanted to end with one which just makes me happy, every single time.
- Mike Drucker dons the mask of increasing levels of sarcasm and writes as the idiot who's angry about everything in videogames except the layoffs. I said last time there's times I miss writing about games. Mostly, not.
- There's lots of excellent writing tied into #Let50d0it, but Jonathan Bogart writing on Be My Baby is especially on point, in terms of separating it from the myth of Spector and a whole lot more.
- Aditya's always good, but I liked them writing about playfulness and seriousness. Read the rest here.
- The Quietus on the 20 year anniversary of A Grand Don't Come For Free, and casting the long-view on Mike Skinner. This is excellent. Packed full of ideas for anyone and everyone's creative jpourney.
- Here's Adrian Hon on his frustrations on academics writing on ARGs which I can only imagine. When marginal forms get brought into the academy, the narrative we choose to tell about them matters, as it sticks around. As more and more forms of gaming become transitory and based on service models (and so are liable to vanish) I think this is only going to become worse.
- I write that, and then there's the news that IGN have bought all of the Eurogamer Stable sites from Reedpop, and have already laid off staff. This is always hard to see, and especially when I've got that personal connection to it. I co-founded Rock Paper Shotgun, and seeing it continuing to exist and hire good people to do good work contextualising games (including games basically no-one else writes about) made me quietly proud. There's basically no staff there who I have any connection to. I doubt most of them know who I am, which always made me happy. Losing the deputy editor when they don't actually have an editor bodes ill for IGN's plans for any of this, and it'll be a huge loss – both now, and for the future. It's still a new art form. As the last link shows, we need people doing a first draft of history.
I said I may have a nose through DIE Scenarios this time, but I'll push it to a later one, mainly as this is already long with the writing about music. Here's a video I lobbed on instagram of me flicking through it, and sounding camper than usual. You can order your copy here, and it'll be for sale at RRD's booth at the UKGE the weekend of May 31st).
We've been sorting out artists for the next two volumes, and all the writers have been commissioned. Volume 2 is going through proofing, after I managed to squeak in a few more tweaks to my scenario after a playtest. The response to the first one has been great, so we're hoping to keep it up.
As well as the solicits going out, there's been a lot of The Power Fantasy stuff. I haven't shared the PDF with too many people yet, but giving it to the people who'll be working near the book (Image, our lawyer, our agent, etc) is a big step. We've been busy lining up the alternate covers for future issues, which is a huge thing to organise I've let slip. Caspar's at work on the new issue, and doing beautiful thing – there's some Japan scenes which he's really got a great vibe for, using aspect-to-aspect storytelling to set the scene.
I've been working on the new thing for Stephanie, which is starting to feel real. I said I was writing in an exploratory fashion, and it's coming. The lead's voice is still taking shape, in a purely natural way. She certainly has things to say.
It's also the 10th anniversary of WicDiv next month. We've been talking about seeing if we produce something to commemorate that. Last week, I posted on on twitter and bluesky, asking if folks would be at all interested in a coffee table book of all the WicDiv covers.
People were. Interesting idea.
Anyway – next week, Rise of the Powers of X #5, which is a big one. See you then.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London
22.5.2024