306: get Xavier to update his wardrobe
Hullo.
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That cow makes me laugh every time.
The Power Fantasy is back, and seems to be shipping everywhere in the week of release. Distribution working properly: that's the real power fantasy. It's a bit of a relief. As an ongoing, momentum is a big part of the point, and to lose 2 (or 3?) weeks from the schedule due to things beyond our control is desperately annoying. I'm glad the comic is as dense as it is so there's lots to keep this busy – plus giving time for more people to jump aboard with the reprints.
We're doing another split run for the main cover, and here's the alternate covers from Paulina Ganucheau and Rian.
Anyway, issue 3. This is the first issue which does the big picture thing. I was originally planning for this to be issue 2, but realised we needed to follow the events of issue 1 a little further before pulling out. This is primarily the Valentina focus issue, where we follow her through from her birth in 1945 to the present day. If you've been wondering what certain events are, here's where we start to give answers – and a time-frame on answering many others.
It's also the issue where Caspar really starts pushing the art styles we've been talking about in interviews. There's some just lovely stuff in here, and some choices which I'd have never had asked him to do as it'll be clearly way too much work (check out the interior of the Pyramid early on, for example). When I saw this, I immediately changed my methodology for issue 4... but we'll get there in a month's time.
Here's the preview...
And you can read the rest in your local comic shop, or online (UK/US/CA)
It's been 10 years since Marvel got the Star Wars licence, and I wrote Darth Vader. To celebrate, Marvel's doing a 10 year anniversary comic called Star Wars: A New Legacy. I'm doing a story for it, returning to Doctor Aphra, the droids, Chewbacca and the big boy in black himself. Art is by Salva. Not Larocca, but Espin, who I haven't worked with since Generation Hope. He's finished it, and it looks great.
I have smiled a bit at this – I'm not sure how the news story was put out, but a lot of people came up to me at NYCC thinking I was doing a new Star Wars ongoing, and not just a short story in an anthology.
However, it is a fun story. When asked, I said I wasn't sure I had anything more to write about them in the period, but then 10 minutes later something struck me which made me laugh, and I hope it makes you laugh too.
It's out on January 29th.
For the record, I am happy to write a crossover where Etienne tries to get Xavier to update his wardrobe. You heard me, Tom.
Talking nonsense with comrade Sheret and I had a foolish idea, and so I wrote it up some Tabletop wargame rules.
It’s WALLETHAMMER. Here's some excerpts I lobbed online.
I quite like that you can see my sappy nature come into play even in this most cynical of game designs.
I dunno if I'll actually polish it up and release it, but it's tempting.
This long piece on the history of TERF-y feminism by Sophie Lewis crossed my dash, and is worth chewing over. It kind of ends up where my head has been for a while. “We do not need to say that all of this is “not feminism” in order to fight it. Contra the aggrieved cries from certain quarters that patriarchy benefits when feminists fight, I propose we draw lines of affinity, not identity. Let us get better at describing feminist enmity when necessary: The feminism of cisness, for sure, is the enemy of my feminism.”
I did some interviews at NYCC, and Tessa Gray's one has dropped on her instagram . This was fun. See Caspar and I camp it up, and the auto-caption clearly give up when trying to deal with my accent. Tessa was great – she worked on the Kinetic tables for a lot of the weekend, and we were giggling throughout.
Shelfdust continue their slow wander through Everything Burns, with Chad Nevett talking about The Mighty Thor #21, which spends a lot of time chewing over our unusual decision to list all the artists and writers alphabetically in every issue. I can't actually remember why we did it, but it strikes me that Chad's theory is probably right.
I know nothing about this, but it just appeared in my dash – ON Games Journal. Hyper-beautiful games magazine from Edge veterans. Coo. It looks very pretty. Designer Andrew P Hind is an ex-work colleague from the PC Gamer days too, when I knew him as Beast. We've all come a long way. He was always great, and this looks great too.
NYCC was great. It's my first time in New York since 2019, so it feels forever. I'm a shameless NY fanboy. I walk around, eyes wide, and may as well be wearing a “Mug me” T-shirt. There was one moment when I was crossing a road, listening to Atomic, glanced left and I caught a glimpse of the Empire States Building silhouetted in golden light. I live for that.
Here's some photos of me, posturing.
Being away for five years (including a whole stay at Marvel!) does mean there was a bunch of people to say hello to, and so much stuff. Really, so much stuff. I only went to the main hall once, for a signing, spending the rest of my time in Artist's alley. Artist's alley is so big that it's a great comic con just by itself. As well as readers new and old, I managed to actually meet artists who I've been working with for ages. Lucas wasn't there (I think?) but chatting to people like Valerio Schiti and Michele Bandini was great. It was also so busy – Dan Mora was apparently just on the next aisle, but I didn't manage to get over and see him.
Social side was great too. Special mention must be made of Thursday night, when we realised that a bunch of writers were in town, and that Krakoa didn't get any kind of actual social closure, perhaps we should get together and toast it. The problem was that it involved me organising it, which led to three possible venues before settling on one, which was closed when Gerry arrived, leaning to going to two more venues, and somehow managing to get everyone there to drink to way too late.
And honestly? For all its ramshackle energy, that felt a very Krakoan way to do it. There was an idea, but it took everyone together to make it real. It almost made me wish WFH. Almost. It certainly made me miss all the people I worked with.
I also ate tacos, four times.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
London
23.10.2024