294: I always could have made it camper
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I don't leave the house much any more, preferring to skulk around the writing shed, doing my best Gollum cosplay. However, on August 7th we're making an exception, doing a launch day signing for THE POWER FANTASY from 6pm to 7pm.
Come say hello. I will just be back from Gencon, so expect an excitably Jetlagged me. No, I don't know how they let Gollum-mode me on a plane.
At the time of writing we're heading into the last 24 hours before the end of The Wicked + the Divine: The Covers Version kickstarter. It's gone really well – it's just passed 85k, so thanks for all support.
If you haven't seen it, click through. It's a lovely art book of all the covers which will bring a taste of decadent chic to coffee tables everywhere. Hell, it's big enough to be a small coffee table in and of itself.
The Final Order Cut off for The Power Fantasy was on Monday, so the printers are rolling with the orders. That means I can have a break, and not hype the book any more. Oh no, clearly not.
Last time I showed a bunch of quotes from creators and critics, but here's another page of folks saying nice things about the book.
I'm pulling together a third one, as people say things. I just got a quote from Scott Snyder...
This book is one of the best new titles I've read in years. A fiercely smart and original take on superheroes that speaks to all the wonder and terror of this exact moment.
...which is lovely to hear.
The response of folks who've read it is something else. There's more Power Fantasy early reviews dropping – there's a great one on Comicbook.com but I won't link to it until later, as it's very much inching into spoiler territory on certain beats. This one on Graphic Policy is also really kind. A simple quote: “a perfect debut issue “. Steve Foxe actually wrote at length about it over in his Newsletter which is great stuff.
It's out August 7th. Too late to pre-order, but never too late to tell your retailer you're interested in a copy. Even if you haven't pre-ordered, it's the best step to make sure they know you're interested.
The final of our six character teasers dropped. Eliza Hellbound was one of the first two we actually talked about, so the small quotes we did were here, so a little was revealed there, and some more context to her in the other reveal articles later on.
But she's still the one we're keeping a little enigmatic, now and even later. She's this glowering presence in the early issues. She's the one who you see and think “What's her story?” and we don't lay it out instantly.
Her story is: maybe the single most existentially horrifying thing I've ever conceived? I can't think of what we're doing with her without looking away.
I don't want to oversell it, as that sort of thing is extremely personal, but it hits me like a truck.
1373 Lucifer was just a warm up.
Immortal X-men Playlist Notes
So – I've done my Cerebro interview. I think what I'm about to do may be my final bit of Immortal X-men dismount.
These are my writer notes on my Immortal X-men playlist. I've threatened to do this before on books, but never actually done it. The playlists are always a mixture of things which are absolutely 100% things which describe the story structure, things which evoke mood (either of a character conception or the book itself) or just something which hits me at an angle, makes me laugh, and I add it.
This one is mainly mood – which is interesting. Having completed it, I also realise why I haven't done this before. These playlists are ludicrously long and it's taken ages.
Here's some thoughts and facts, and where my head was at.
Paris 1919 – John Cale
Basically, the Rosetta Stone of the whole run. As Sons & Daughters of Hungry Ghosts was to WicDiv, this is to Immortal X-men – basically a good chunk of the plot emerges from its lyrics. Okay, perhaps overstating it but – enigmatic conversation between two people in the Paris peace conference. “She makes me so unsure of myself / Standing there but never ever talking sense” and, of course, “You're a Ghost!” (lalalalalala). About peace, about building a better world, and with a distinctly old-world urbane mood but looking up to see blood flowing like Beaujolais in the future. I started every day writing the book with this.
Utopia- Goldfrapp
It took me a while to realise it, but my general mood for this playlist is “sad middle-class dinner party music” and this starts it. Obvious thematic elements on the surface, and its sci-fi sheen is very Krakoa, but it's also my nod towards Morrison. It was their theme-tune for Marvel Boy, specifically circling around its chorus: “Fascist Baby/Utopia”. This is a pretty, beguiling record, that's also a question mark.
Colouring of Pigeons - The Knife,MT. Sims,Planningtorock
In terms of tone, it's right there – this is a wonderfully alien music. This is kind of what I'd imagine Mutant music may be like, making the human throat sounds like something entirely new. It's also part of a opera about Darwin, so is specifically about evolution. If there was an Immortal X-men TV show, I suspect this would be the theme tune. Imagine slow, awful pans around the room of these beautiful people, faces like masks.
Noid - Yves Tumor
By this point, I wanted to have something with more life in it, while still feeling really mutant-music. No-one kisses to the Colouring of Pigeons, but down the lagoon there would be making out to this. I think I got into Yves from Leah? I'm unsure. If not this, other Yves.
Under The Sun - Junior Boys
More austere dance music for dinner-parties. David Kohl loved this.
Land - Patti Smith
One of my favourite records ever, with more of a heartbeat than a lot of things on the list. I suspect it found it here in a quite literal way – it's called Land, and Krakoa was that. Plus the song's overwhelming greatness, its mixture of highbrow and lowbrow... it's the goal. Immortal X-men was a book that would shout Go Rimbaud Go if it had a chance.
These Are The Days - Lift To Experience
Apocalyptic post-rock, writing its own mythology. Also, another long record. Very long records was the vibe too. These are not mainly pop bangers.
Monkey Gone to Heaven – Pixies
More apocalypse, in a popper format. About the end of the world (via climate change), but constructs itself around the bridge which is all about evolution versus transcendence, and seems to think we are all doomed. This is the fear which drives Moira, in many ways.
For Tomorrow – Blur
So we go back to something more bruised romantic. I don't think I connected it to any character individually (you'll note that none have so far) but listening to it right now, I just think Charles and Max. You'd think I'd say Moira - “She's a 20th century girl/with her hand on the wheel” - but Xavier and Magneto came to mind. In reality, it was more about the hope inherent in Krakoa.
F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E. - Pulp
Mood rather than content. This is Pulp heading towards the iciness of This is Hardcore, and feels sickly and uncomfortable.
hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but I have it - Lana Del Rey
Obviously prime Sad Dinner Party music, and in a torch song place (which we've yet to have any of – there's quite a lot later on this list). I think I added it as a Hope reference, but I'm thinking of Destiny and Mystique when listening.
When Love Breaks Down - Prefab Sprout
While these playlists normally tell a shape of my thoughts as I assembled them. I almost always listen to them on shuffle, so mix the moods, but if you look at them in order, you can see what I'm thinking at any given time. This section is where I actively realised that as well as apocalyptic space-rock, there's such strong Bad Dinner Party notes. I started thinking of music that I'd have listened to if I went to dinner parties in the 1980s, with a certain sophisticated crowd. And here this was. There's something fundamentally 1980s buried in the aesthetic of the book – I suspect it's me dancing with Claremont.
Anyway – bar that, just a beautiful record, and sad. We've done apocalypse earlier – this gives a set of human eyes to look at the end of the world though. The end of the world is love breaking down.
Sketch for Summer - The Durutti Column
When I was on that 1980s-dinner-party space, I thought of The Durutti Column. Open the Chardonnay, dip the fondue.
Outdoor Miner – Wire
This was on a roll from the last one, thinking dinner parties where folks are hoping they'll get one of those fancy new Vienettas for desserts. I suspect this shows I would have ran a terrible 1980s dinner party. This feels like the point where I stopped adding the first rush – I had my aesthetic paintbox and a few things to orientate myself around. Outdoor Miner isn't quite as core as some of the other ones, so I'll give it a rest and only add things when I really need to.
GMF - John Grant,Sinéad O'Connor
Tellingly, this arrives some weeks later, and is the first one which is 100% just about a character. This is a Xavier song. If he had more of a sense of humour, imagine him laconically singing “I'm the greatest motherfucker that you're going to meet.” But there's a real sadness here too, and the sense of death haunting it. This doesn't end well.
Seventeen - Sharon Van Etten
A Hope song. I knew Hope would almost certainly going to be going away from the start, and what this does is what I aspired to be (in terms of emotional truth). Honestly, when this one hits, it fucking hits. It's used in Yellowjackets season 2, and I was shocked that they used the moody build without The Moment, and was relieved when they just dropped it on a scene later. If you pay for the song, use that bit. But yeah – the I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO BE still gets tears from me. It's getting them now.
Is That All There Is?- John Parish,PJ Harvey
And after that, this is some drunken drinks on the titanic energy.
It's Not Just Me - Let's Eat Grandma
Wow. This playlist is long. I see why I didn't do notes before. This was just pure energy – more on the upbeat side of the mood, but certainly the younger Krakoan-pop vibe.
Adore – Savages
Big serious song about life, death and ambition, that just locks eyes with you and doesn't break.
cellophane - FKA twigs
Sci-fi dinnerparty, when most the folks have left and the handful of people straggle behind, finishing off the wine, and considering moving to something stronger, considering sex but not kissing.
Dracula Mountain - Lightning Bolt
WAKE UP! FIGHT AT THE DINNER PARTY! PUNCHING! PUNCHING!
Atlas – Battles
Masterpiece of structure. Obviously smart, but also deeply propulsive. It sounds like an equation solving itself, and that's kind of what Immortal X-men shoots for – most my stuff does that, but perhaps Immortal more than most.
This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us – Sparks
Pure melodrama. Orchis vs Krakoa? Krakoa vs Krakoa? Sinister versus Destiny? Take your pick.
Nimrod From Enigma Variations - Edward Elgar,Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,Philip Ellis
If folks paid more attention to the playlist would they have guessed the Enigma reveal? Hmm. I dunno.
Pacific 707 - 808 State
Obviously sci-fi utopian vibe, but I was just thinking “PACIFIC” and “STATE”.
People, I've been sad- Christine and the Queens
See, when I realised it was Sad Dinner Party Music, I just saw Christine use the word Sad and I grabbed it.
Instrumental - Black Country, New Road
The Atlas/Dracula Mountain side of this playlist, where we get propulsion, but not exactly in a classically commercial way. It should also be noted: sure, I'm hitting vibe, but I'm also thinking of songs which provoke a certain mood in me. This is one of them.
**Into the White - Pixies
One of the Pixie's B-sides, where Kim Deal really does sound like she's going to another dimension. This is pure White Hot Room energy, and a song I looped when trying to get into that headspace.
Down By The Water - PJ Harvey
This one is puzzling me – it's a great record, obviously, but sits oddly. Was I thinking about Dr Stasis with the “bring me back my daughter” of it? It's religious enough that it could have some Exodus in it? Is it just the mood of murder down by the Krakoan Waters?
Fineshrine - Purity Ring
Big space-vibe mood, and so happy it's actually a little frightening. Love as body horror.
I Wanna Be Adored - The Raveonettes
The Messianic energies coming to the foreground here. Using the Raveonettes cover positions it in a different place too, which is fun.
Avalon - Roxy Music
My Otherworld nod. Also, sad dinner party, etc.
The Killing Moon - Echo & the Bunnymen
1980s dinner party, etc. Big sound, big mood. Perhaps thinking of Arrakko here.
A Love from Outer Space - A.R. Kane
Wonderful weird band with great sonic properties. I think I'm mainly thinking of mutant pop music here.
True Faith - New Order
Exodus and Hope, obv.
Out of Time - Joan As Police Woman
Blur cover, which Joan As Police Woman make even sadder. Out Of Time speaks of the dread as we get closer to the final gala, but is also meant literally – this is heading towards the White Hot Room, existing out of time.
Tenderness - Parquet Courts
For a song this late in the playlist, this is one of the key ones. This Orange-Juice-down-the-Pub sing along, and unlike almost everything on the list, which is kind of the point. It's a song where I'm trying to find a way out of the austereness of Krakoa and the realpolitik for the Quiet Council. “I can't count how many times I've been outdone by nihilism” haunted me. I strove to find a way to let these people to have a little tenderness.
The Order Of Death - Public Image Ltd.
Death and/or post punk's back on the menu, boys.
Still Life – Suede
Big melodramatic regretful song, which I always connect to assassins. We have them. This is for them, when they're feeling blue (metaphorically) instead of just literally.
Still Alive - Vitamin String Quartet
The theme song from the game Portal, as performed by a string quartet, which I heard at a friend's wedding and added the second the ceremony was over. I was thinking of just adding Still Alive for a while, but thought just adding a song about an AI who is still alive may give the game away with Enigma. But a string version? Which, by its nature, speaks to the fact it's more old world than a modern computer? That seems my jam. Nathaniel Essex, Still Alive, AI.
Comfortably Numb - Scissor Sisters
Not a huge fan of either Floyd or the Sisters, but I always loved this. That sort of dulled mood with a pulse of a dance beat is obviously very Immortal.
Protection - Massive Attack,Tracey Thorn
After some cynicism and sadness, I wanted something which was beautiful, but also strong, and willing to fight.
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
I was listening this randomly on repeat, and thinking I'd love to put it on the soundtrack, but realised it was tonally way off and made no sense. Then, when I looped it, the opening lyric struck me: “I met a devil woman/She took my heart away”. Heart. Devil Woman. I immediately imagined Stasis and Mother Righteous singing this at Supervillain karaoke. It was in.
Dominion / Mother Russia - Sisters of Mercy
Mood is true, and at least a little of Colossus... but mainly for the Dominion namecheck.
See-Line Woman - Nina Simone
I think I may have just wanted to add some Nina Simone to my daily diet.
In Every Dream Home A Heartache - Roxy Music
Awesomely perverted sex-bot love song. The mood is pure here, towards Krakoa's end – it just feels absolutely decadent, collapsing in on itself. The title alone does it? Our dream house is a haunted house, full of sex ghosts.
The Box (Part 2) – Orbital
Big sci-fi mood, obv.
Retributions Of An Awful Life – Heartworms
The title alone would get it on here. By here we're heading towards Mother Righteous' downfall, but all the Sinister-clones' descent is here too. It was also just one of my fave new records of the year, and I wanted to not just be historical.
Our Mutual Friend - The Divine Comedy
I believe I got this from an Al Ewing playlist, and it stuck in my head, and found its way here. The chamber-pop aspect called back to Paris 1919, and feels like closing the loop. The betrayal of the middle-eight feels somehow deeply Immortal X-men, and I can't quite place why. Except for the word “Betrayal”.
Never Here – Elastica
This one has turned up on a lot playlists over the years – it's an atypical Elastica record, in that it stretches out... and Justine seems to have her guard down more, but only as she's got knives in both hands. It's a song about love and ambition again, and I suspect you could map onto a lot of people here. Being disappointed in everyone, done well.
Marlene On The Wall - Suzanne Vega
This, as the “I think it's called my destiny I'm changing” and “I'm fighting things I cannot see” lines may imply, this is just about Irene, with Raven as Marlene on the wall.
Looking For Clues - Robert Palmer
This jittery hypervigilance suits Immortal heading into the back end, as Xavier and Sinister try to put this all together.
Fake Plastic Trees – Radiohead
Reaching the end, and we're getting big elegiac emotions. Reality falls. Despair. Similarly...
Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel
The video is always in my head in this one, as it captures the tone. Kate Bush and Gabriel, holding on to each other at the end of the world. You think all is lost, but if you're not alone, you're never entirely lost. If you're two points of light in the abyss, you know something.
Soldier Girl - The Polyphonic Spree
This was in my Generation Hope playlist back in the day. It was Hope's iconic song from that. If she's going out, we'll go out with it playing.
And that's it. Do I need to do the Immoral X-men one too? I don't think so – I suspect its jokes are more obvious, and while the vibe is strong, there's also a lot of jokes. Cher's If I Could Turn Back Time, for example. Imagine Sinister belting that out as the universe burns. Remember: I always could have made it camper. Rise of the Powers of X one is fun too. And shorter. Maybe I will. Probably not. Though there are more jokes in there.
While we're talking playlists and to X folks – The Power Fantasy's playlist is here, which is all period stuff. If you liked the Immortal run, and you're here for that, I'd say you really should consider checking it out when it launches on August 7th. Speak to your retailer, etc.
Oh – the Image solicits for September are out and in an example of our novel, rules-breaking thinking we've decided to publish the second issue of a comic the month after the first.
THE POWER FANTASY #2
WRITER: Kieron Gillen
ARTIST / COVER A: Caspar Wijngaard
SEPTEMBER 11 / 32 pages / FC/ -- / $3.99
There are six people who can save the world. They save the world every day they don't use their powers. Yesterday, one used their gift. The world is still here. Have we been lucky, or has the fuse to end us all been lit?
Heh. Early solicits are such an exercise in me trying to not say anything that's happened. “Events occur, please read more.”
Sweeney does the alt, which is just great. I love her stuff.
Speak to your retailer, etc. Speak to your friends. Speak! SPEAK!
- The third part of my guide to writing DIE adventures is live – this bit specifically about how you write the adventure bit. Example quote: “If you asked a dozen questions in Persona Gen about who a Persona’s Favourite Pop Star was, it’d take a lot of time and give the game away. All you need to do is ask who their fave pop star is in Persona Gen… and when you reach the encounter, ask more questions to flesh out more details. So in Persona Gen the player could answer “Taylor Swift” and in the adventure there’s a whole set piece about trying to get backstage at a Taylor Swift gig. You add details to the encounter via questions in the moment”.
- I was on the latest Cerebro with Connor and I talking all things Hope Summers. Four hours of us chatting, basically, and kind of feels like the Krakoa debrief. I say lots of things I've never said before in it, and likely some things I shouldn't. This was fun.
- I get namechecked in this interview with Ken Levine about the story behind Bioshock. Ken basically says that a retrospective on Shock led to publishers thinking there was a demand there. Ken doesn't say it, but the journalist thinks it was likely me, and I suspect they're right. Tempted to add that to my list of “things I did which actually moved the dial as a games journo.” I probably should just mail Ken and ask it was me.
- Curse Words was Charles Soule and Ryan Brownes delightful, scabarous fantasy is running a kickstarter. For a concept album, written and performed by Charles. I am delighted. Charles lobbed my the mixes, and I'm charmed, and find myself incapable of not laughing at the word “Wizord.” Charles is annoyingly talented.
- A review of DIE RPG which digs into running Total Party Kill (our one off scenario). Heading to Gencon in a couple of weeks, it's just great to see people playing the game and writing about it.
- Kelly Sue's latest newsletter is her chewing over ways to market her forthcoming creator owned work, and thinking through the angles. I didn't do this sort of thinking in public – at least, not without a lot more shields in place – but it's fascinating stuff, and stuff I recognise.
- Wes Craig's Kaya is just a great fantasy comic, and I loved to see the new thing he's done here – a self-contained new black and white Story So Far comic for new readers to jump aboard. Trailers are a common tactic in my books, but this is something different and I really like it, and suits what Wes is up to.
- Oh – Chip's newsletter talks about about ZCN which is a delight and I want to write about more another time. Oh – AIPT quotes me talking about it already. Maybe I won't bother.
- The Covers Version isn't the only hot comic art book croudfunding at the moment – you can Christian Ward's Many Worlds over at Zoop. Christian is a master, and I'm looking forward to getting hold of a copy of this. Go back here.
As the final order cut off for The Power Fantasy was on Monday, I was thinking of having this week off – until I realised that I really should remind folks about the end of the Kickstarter, and then I saw how much else I had for a mailing list. I was thinking I should do it, but just the core.
I realised something else. I looked at myself in the mirror, and saw basically a month of excess facial hair which accumulate as I was banging the FOC The Power Fantasy drum. I needed to trim that off. I considered losing the beard entirely, but that felt a bit too 2014 in the “this is a new era” way.
But I did realise that since I've had so much stuff on, I should write to feel the shape of words. I found myself flicking on my most played tracks of 2016 playlist on shuffle – core WicDiv period. And it's a lot of memories, of some songs I've barely touched since, but my main response is – fucking hell, Kieron, this is the most depressed mess I've ever heard.
That prompted me to think... you know, you always say you're going to write notes on a playlist when you leave a book. Hence, the above Immortal X-men playlist notes, which thankfully is less of a scream than the WicDiv one was. Just a chance to write about stuff which is easy, to feel the fingers move, to feel slightly more solid by seeing thoughts coalesce before you.
In this case, mainly “Wait – I have no idea why this is here?” but still.
There's the line about writers that turns up a lot – no writer likes writing, all writers like having written. I can see the truth of it, but I also see the lie. At the best, when you're on, it's like the gods are plugged right into your nervous system. If you've had that and not liked it, you're a different kind of writer than I am. The only reason not to like that is if “like” is too small a word for it.
(“Oh, I met an angel on the way back from the pub whose very existence seared my skin and made me see new colors?” “How was it?” “Oh, I liked it.”)
But the “all writers like having written” is closer to the mark, but still incomplete. It's not just that “Oh, I'm happy I wrote that thing” but it speaks to the need of it. To go all Rorschach, You Are Compelled. You are less if you don't write.
Sometimes it's important as a writer to remind yourself of that compulsion, and let it take you wherever it takes you.
Like that sentence.
Work update? As I said – FOC on The Power Fantasy plus all the sign off at Image, which is always a lot of moving pieces for an issue 1. I found myself away at getting on for 2am on... 3 nights? The time difference to the west coast is a lot. I'm going to try and put some things in place to mitigate against that next time.
I also actually was writing the third DIE scenario I've been trying to do for weeks – I found an angle, attacked it, and found myself 2000 words over. I showed Chant, and asked what he thought, in terms of cuts. He quotes some of my own advice from my writing guide back at me, and gives a simple edit that I would never have considered which will basically reclaim 1500 words.
Good work, Chant. Editing is magic.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London
17.7.2024