375: two yoghurt pots
Hullo
Reloaded
UKGME
Seekrit
Page One
Links
Bye
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Due to my current situation (i.e. connecting to the internet via a piece of string and two yoghurt pots) I was going to skip this week, but then I realised it was time. What time? THIS TIME.
It’s the week when retailers are setting their orders for DIE: Loaded’s second arc. So, if you’ve read the trade and want to jump aboard the single issues, now’s the time to talk to your retailer. And retailers, if there are folks who are especially hungry for DIE: Loaded after the cliffhanger, we’re here to feed them on a monthly basis.
(With a bunch of extras – including bits and bobs of Beta material for the DIE: RPG. Mistress Woe’s rules are in this issue. Clearly, I’ve made her super-powerful, as I don’t want Mistress Woe miffed with me.)
Here’s Stephanie’s cover, which she really likes – it’s very different for her.
And here’s our guest cover from Aleksi Briclot, which we both love.
If you need a tease for more, here’s three pages from the middle of the issue. It was a little tricky to pick what to show, as everything is spoilers, but considering the trade’s been out for a bit now, I’m okay with showing this.
Though scroll down quickly if you haven’t got DIE: LOADED’s first trade yet.
Anyway – talk to retailers and let them know. If you want to know more about the beast that is DIE: Loaded, here’s the site which will walk you through. It’s not too late to just order the trade, or the original series either. I mean, you know this. This is how books work.
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I mentioned I went to UKGE, and wrote up my time for Old Men running the world.
If you want to know what the annotations are for, you can click here.
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Page One had me on to talk about a bunch of stuff – it’s a whole career thing, about moving from being a journalist to being a comic writer. The youtube link above works, but if you’re an audio-person, the audio podcast is also on their site.
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Comrade Rossignol and Marsh’s Supernatural Pirate TTRPG Gold Teeth is now available to buy in PDF. They talk about the experience of getting their game this far here, but I will sell it to you by saying that it is the only pirate TTRPG I’ve seen where you can play a shark who is the enemy of all kelp.
We lost John Blanche this week, and if it was less pressed, I’d write more about how he is such a primary voice for everything which made Warhammer worthwhile - all weird and gnarled and just off. He very much illuminated the darkness. Wyrd Science writes more in their newsletter.
Lovely review over at AIPT for DIE: Loaded’s first volume. “In other words, DIE: Loaded is terrific. It’s a game to get caught up in, a comic as dense and thrilling as its predecessor that carries its fire while running its own marathon. It’s a must-read comic.”
Charlie Jane Anders writes about some of her favourite current books, including The Power Fantasy. “The other thing that keeps me marveling at this comic is the way that the story flows across the page. I'm trying to get better at writing comics, which means that every time I read a comic by someone else, I try to learn from it. I'm obsessed with Wijngaard's clean linework and the way his style can go from a somewhat classical realism to a disjointed horror splat. But I'm even more obsessed with the layouts, and the way they pack so much story into each page — some pages have eight freaking panels that flow cleanly, while others get beautifully messy. It's rare to read a comic this dense and yet this readable. Fucking brilliant.”
Grant Howitt writes about a bunch of stuff around writing his Romantasy short game, A Court of Sparks & Ashes. Oddly, Stephanie and I were chewing over what a Romantasy book by us would look like this week.
The next chapter of Last War In Albion drops over at Eruditorium Press, which is a big journey through Alan Moore’s magical awakening with some frankly amazing cameos. Go read.
I dropped off the Boys at Season 2 due to the reduced amount of TV watching in my life (for some toddler-shaped reason), but really enjoyed Laurie Penny writing about why it sung for them.
We’re about a month away from the Children of Time TTRPG kickstarter, and RRD have dropped the beta rules for folks to see. Just sign up for notifications to get them. I’ve only had a chance to glance through them, but it’s a really interesting and even brave approach to the material - Minerva McJanda takes elements from her period-skipping Legacy: Life Beyond The Ruins, adds some GMless Belonging Outside Belonging sauce and gives a real determined push towards Doing Children Of Time as a RPG, for real. Go nose.
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So, I have 27 minutes to send this. What I’m going to do is prepare it all for sending, and then if I have any extra time, come back and write something here.
If this is the end of the newsletter, there was no extra time. Oh noes!
There is not exactly much time. C just came in and said “Ready?” which says how tight it is.
And now the town bell is chiming. Yes, yes, yes, I get it. The bell tolls for this newsletter.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
Bath
10.6.2026