317: that timeline where they kissed
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The Power Fantasy's first collection is out, in any shop served by Lunar. If your shop doesn’t have it, it'll appear in the next two weeks – it'll be in book shops and everywhere by February 12th. Also, I've already heard news of sell outs from shops, so if it's not there, do mention it – they can get copies. It's available in the two editions above, the main one (on the left) and the direct market only one (on the right).
It's $9.99, so a bargain.
As this is the trade, I should re-introduce the Power Fantasy. However, we've actually cooked up something which does the job...
The Power Fantasy Primer is, as the name says, a primer for the book. It includes a selection of all the preview material, explaining what we do, character profiles, teases, critical responses and a bunch more. It also includes links to where to buy it from, the trailer and social links for everyone. It's a living document, so we'll be tweaking it as we go along.
Basically, if you ever want to check in on The Power Fantasy, this is the link to do so. If you want to forward it to an interested friend, this is the one.
https://bit.ly/thepowerfantasyFor my friends in retail, we can actually do a tweaked version of the preview for you, which just links to your own shop, so you can use it in your own communication with your customers. Do reach out (you can respond to this mail) if you want one. By way of example, here's the one I did for GOSH, to help advertise their bookprint edition.
If you're already sold on the TPF, or well aboard the train, it's worth nosing too – partially as I think you'd dig it (it's kind of a zine?) and partially as it already includes some teaser pagers we haven't shown anywhere else.
This is done with the Bindings tech, which I should write a bit more down the line – there's some links in the Links section. Basically, when I saw what they were planning, I realised I could use it for something that felt useful, so we pulled it together. It's probably a bit overkill, but that's always my energy. I hope some folks see this and think “You know, this seems a good thing to have for my book, though perhaps not 40+ pages”
TL;DR: The Power Fantasy's first trade is starting to hit shops, go buy it.
There's more The Power Fantasy supplementary content. I've brought back Decompressed for a special multi-part season where I interview each member of the team. First up is Caspar Wijngaard, in a long one (and I even cut 20 minutes from it). Caspar's smart, passionate and worryingly committed to his art, and I think folks will get a lot from listening to him talk.
Review and rate it on podcast review and rate places? That's something you're meant to say, right?
I answered some tumblr asks, so here's a selection. You can ask more here.
Would you call Phonogram's magic system Soft magic or Hard magic?
I could call it Soft Cell.
Okay, let’s not just do the joke. I would say that viewing Phonogram’s magic through the prism of soft/hard magic fantasy worldbuilding is a mistake. There is one rule in Phonogram’s magic: it illustrates a specific real thing that music does to people, as relevant for this specific story, to this specific character. That makes it hard magic in the definition most use, but soft magic in effect. It is primarily a metaphorical literary effect.
In a sentence: Phonogram’s creative process was “Music does this to people” and then “How can one illustrate that in a fantastical story?”
Hi Kieron, given that Avatar haven’t updated their site in four years, is it unlikely that Uber will ever be finished? Is there any way of knowing the ending at all since it was left so, so close. Appreciate your time and work, thanks!
2025 uber update!
It’s basically no change from previous one - it’s still reliant Avatar getting in a position to be able to publish the end of it, or work out another route. We talk about it, and if anything changes, I’ll let folks know. I have a mail to drop to William whenever I get headspace, as I’ve got something else to pitch.
(Don’t read too much into that - that’s basically what’s been happening all along.)
One thing I have been saying explicitly to folks now - the last four issues are actually written. I wrote them a few years ago, shortly after publication stalled, to make sure they’re available whenever they were needed.
Sorry about this - it’s frustrating for you, and frustrating for me as well.
what was in your mind for S.W.O.R.D's ending? abigail brand is one of my favorite characters and i just need to know what you had planned for her and beast -- and unit too, honestly.
It’s hard to explain, as the things which got us there never happened and so the emotional through line isn’t there. Excuse the roughness of this. There’s a lot more, and I’m always aware whenever I describe a half idea, what’s missing is the craft in executing it.
The final scene would have been Brand with UNIT back in his cell, while Beast has packed his bags and is leaving SWORD forever.
The context: UNIT had escaped, as another UNIT turned up, and been the big bad. The story seemed to reveal that our UNIT was actually a penitent war weapon who wanted to be punished, while this other UNIT was the real unrepentant monster. UNIT and SWORD have to stop him, and they do.
In the moment when the other UNIT is defeated and is killed, there’s a mind to mind conversation between the UNITs - where basically the other UNIT reveals this is all about buying the original UNIT cover. They’ll trust you now. This is all for the greater good. These two UNITs were old lovers (for those who have read the battleworld SHIELD mini may see what I was riffing on there - the idea of SHIELD was, in part, me doing fanfic versions of stories you never read. Me writing a happier ending for the two UNITs.)
In short, for the greater good, UNIT forsakes his great love.
Anyway - Brand and Beast had split up, because Brand was always putting the work first, and generally pushing Beast away. There was a whole lot along the way (the basic plot of the book was it was beauty and the beast - but Beast is the beauty and Brand is the beast.) She was closing him off, at every chance we got, as she had to protect the earth.
When this meeting is going on, Beast is leaving SWORD, out the station, back to Earth.
Brand and UNIT are doing a normal meeting, and everything is by the book.
At one point, UNIT just breaks off from the serious briefing and tells her: It’s not worth it.
This throws her. She doesn’t understand what he means. Your whole thing is about the greater good, UNIT. What do you mean?
To sacrifice love for duty? If you were an immortal being like I am… perhaps it’s worth it. The dividends are larger. But your life is very short, Agent Brand. It’s not worth it.
So it’s a big moment for UNIT in terms of that awful bittersweetness of him clearly thinking he’s made a mistake… and also for Brand. This robot, which she still distrusts to some level, who she views as a cold and calculating thing… is telling her this.
Unit is basically her. She is turning herself into a robot. She doesn’t want to be a robot. She doesn’t know it, but senses the truth - even the robot doesn’t really want to be the robot.
It gets through to her.
She runs through the Sword Station.
We have the full “stopping Beast boarding the plane” scene, and we end on the big kiss.
Aww.
I think of that Beast and Brand a lot. There was a fork in the timeline for them, and I didn’t realise when writing SWORD we were already past it - the Beast who became a genocidal monster was already appearing in another thread of Marvel’s tapestry. I think that timeline as the one where Brand influenced Beast more than Beast influenced Brand - or maybe better phrased as the SWORD timeline was one where the relationship made them better, rather than making them both worse.
(I sort of allude to this briefly in Immortal X-men issue 1.)
They were great stories - Brand and Beast were two of Krakoa’s greatest villains - but I’m still a little sad for them. Brand and Beast were the first couple in the MU who were briefly “mine”, so I can’t pine a little for that timeline where they kissed.
What's one aspect of comics writing that's a lot harder or more time consuming than people would think? (Comic writing specifically, not the adjacent stuff that comes with it like marketing.)
Before you hit “not the adjacent stuff” I was going to say “the emotional support of your team”. That then got me thinking whether it is adjacent or not - and it is adjacent, as it’s not a part of the job as much when I'm not doing an Image book.
I then think one of the hardest things is actually spatial understanding of a scene. When writing a screenplay I was laughing at it, because the bit where I had to work out the order everyone was speaking in every panel and then edit (or rewrite) to make it work was just gone. All I did was write the conversation.
But that’s not hugely time consuming, above anything else. It’s just hard, and constant.
This is the only answer, I think: script formatting.
Which big superhero character that you haven't written for would you love to write?
Hmm. The only big superhero character I can think of right now is Giant man and I don’t want to write him.
As I mentioned Beast & Brand, a friend commissioned Ryan Kelly to do this as an engagement gift for C and me...
..which may be less cute with how they ended up.
I mentioned Sweetshop's Bindings above, and hopefully my primer explains why I think it's neat. They are busy in lots of ways – they're working on the actual digital comic side of it and launched a new and snazzy comic shop finder, which works outside of America for once. You would help them if you would check if your shop is in there, and then be update details and so on. Kelly Sue wrote about the app a bit more in her latest newsletter, guesting Kenny to write a bit. I'll highlight a bit for other creators – it's $5 for 100 uploads. As in, putting a new page on the site. I uploaded a bunch of mine repeatedly, so it cost me less than $5 in expenses (bar time) to do this, which I think says a lot about its cost-efficiency. They've also published their plans for what's next on the platform here. We've all talked about the difficulties of marketting comics, so this is all really welcome.
More Power Fantasy chat. I was on The Comic Pals to talk all things Power Fantasy and more. This was fun.
Perhaps revealing I was listening to 6 Music this morning, I heard Mum Does The Washing Up by Joshua Idehen which is both a bop and sharp as hell. I won't spoil any of the one-liners. You should be all over this.
Rascale interviewed Lee Gold of classic RPG zine Alarums & Excrusions fame in the back of DIE, but Rascal has done a full history of the zine here, which is really worth your time. Lee's first conversation with Gary Gygax is a particular highight/horrorshow. (“Mr Gygax. How wonderful to speak to you. We really love your game D&D.” “You’re a woman!”) Garrrrry!
A week sugar-coated with sadness, really. I finished that little essay on J Nash last time, stepped away, and spent the next few hours with the reality of it creeping back on me. Nash was a huge influence, and someone I hadn't spoke to significantly for a long time, so I was framing it through that lens. When I finshed the essay, and especially after talking to some people who were closer to him, the other truth came in, something I was avoiding talking about. The essay was phrased in order to not try and take up more room than I felt deserved.
However, I was good friends with Nash for quite a few years, and formative years at that. Very basic personal memories came to me, in terms of specific scenes now rendered painful, and it was like finding a hidden labyrinth beneath an already gothic house. The man was always a mystery, and now a sealed one. So, basically, last newsletter I said goodbye to a hero, and this week I've just been thinking about the man, and it's made everything awful. I can only imagine those closer to him are feeling.
But the personal stuff has been happy, even with the patina of that over it. It was Iris' birthday, which was a lot of fun, and she was delighted, and I was delighted with her. But you just look at something for a second, hold it at a different angle, and everything's bittersweet.
I'll tell you what wasn't bittersweet though. This fucking cake.
Two Layer chocolate, ganache topping with icing trails and raspberries, frosting layer forming a dam to prevent the reduced raspberry sauce escaping. It is very home-made, but it absolutely worked.
Work wise? The month has crunched as we head towards February. The battle to get the Primer out when it was is real – it'll be tweaked when it's out when Rian has some tweaks, I'm sure. That issue 8 basically took 2 weeks means that the timing is tight for the next script for Stephanie – which isn't helped by writing it needing me to read some of the dourest material I've ever had to research to write it, all the more awful as it's about an everyday horror, so hard to demarcate from your life. It's not like me reading about (say) the Eastern Front or the Black Death. This is all close.
On the brighter side, Jim ran a hex crawl for us where we did a total OSR-trap to kill a horrific monster. If all goes to hell, you can always stab demons.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
Bath
29.1.2025