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This was announced yesterday, so I can stop worrying if there’s some way folks can see I’m listening to the Aliens OST on repeat on Tidal.

ALIEN VS. X-MEN #1
Written by Kieron Gillen & Chris Claremont
Art by Geraldo Borges & More
Cover by Ryan Stegman
On Sale 9/16

More details in the article. Short version: Alien vs X-men! Geraldo Borges and me together, doing the lead story. Chris Claremont is doing a Kitty-and-Brood-centric bonus story, which makes me smile. There’s a lot about this which makes me smile, as the quote I provided likely shows.

"Alien was the first R-rated movie I ever saw. Aliens is one of the four founding teenage films that I built my understanding of story structure upon. As a hormonal teen, I had a looming Alien poster hung over my bed. I love Aliens so much that I am unhelpfully explaining beats to Geraldo by referencing two-second sequences featuring tertiary characters, as if he cares about Ferro and Dietrich as much as I do. So, yes, this is some prime-grade bucket list stuff for me, and I'm highly enjoying taking the X-Men on an X-press elevator to hell."

Excuse the R-rated movie, Brits. I’m speaking American. Also, I can sense the attentive readers out there going – “wait, what are the other three?”. That’s an essay for another time, I suspect.

They’ll be interviews and more to come before launch, I’m sure, so let’s leave it at that. It’ll be fun, in that action-horror way. When I’ve been talking about this to friends, it’s basically all I can do to not just rant out all The Good Bits.

This drops in September, so speak to your retailer.

Let’s end on Ivan Shavrin’s alternate cover.

Oh – actually one thing I will add: No Mister Sinister.

***

After I write this I’ll be jumping on a train then another train and a plane and another plane and probably a car to get to the Pyrkon convention in Poland. I haven’t done a con in Poland before, so I’m really looking forward to it. This is my schedule…

Friday:

Autographs - 16:00 - 18:00

Saturday:

Interview - 12:00 - 13:00

Autographs - 14:00 - 16:00

Panel - Storytelling Across Mediums - 22:30 - 23:30

Sunday:

Autographs 10:00 - 12:00

Q&A 14:30 – 15:30

So come and get stuff signed and watch me yabber. I’m told that Polish cons (or, at least Pyrkon) have a real festival vibe. I raised an eyebrow at a 10:30pm panel, but I’m told a panel at a similar slot was packed when RRD went last time.

This is a fun one actually – I’m dual classing, as Rowan Rook & Decard are there, but I’m also wearing my comics hat.

Come say Hi. Be aware the only Polish word I know is “Dziękuję” which I pronounce in a way which makes me sound like I’m Joey from Friends saying “How you doing?”

****

As Caspar is starting work on the third issue of The Power Fantasy, we thought it was time to do something fun. I’ll be doing an Ask Me Anything on the Power Fantasy reddit on June 24^th. Caspar will be doing one later – I figured I’ll get most the stuff about what we did so far, and when Caspar does it, he’ll be sharing more of where we’re going.

Anyway, stick in your calendar. Will be fun.

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What’s the next Script club? I thought maybe DIE: Loaded #1, but then just read the opening and realised – uh oh – this is way too early to share. So with my mind still in a DIE place, I thought of…

The next Script Club will be DIE #10.

DIE 10 is one I reference a lot when teaching comics, as it’s when Stephanie and I are deep in our groove, and I’m writing explicitly for her. There’s a panel description I often refer to in here, where I basically lay out three setting for a scene, and let her pick. This really showcase the sort of collaboration we were doing at this point.

If you want it, sign up before the 30^th June. Script Club is essentially our tip jar which keeps the newsletter ticking over – paying for the costs of the list, primarily. On months where I send a script (or similar size piece of work), you pay $5.

You can sign up here.

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• Humble Bundle are doing a frankly ridiculous TTRPG PDF bundle. I can’t see many people who like TTRPGs liking all of this – but I can’t imagine almost anyone not finding enough that appeals to justify buying it. You want to try (or even nose) at a bunch of stuff? An ideal chance.

• People Make Games covers Jerry Gretzinger who has spent decades generating an enormous map, which they assemble for the first time. I’ve still yet to watch this, but the screenshots are astounding.

• The Star Wars podcast A More Civilized Age is presently working their way through Salva and my Darth Vader run. I don’t often listen to stuff like this about my work, but I’m distant enough that I actually did, and really enjoyed this. Just hearing smart people chew over what we were up to, and how it landed. It actually made me appreciate Vader more, in that it reminded me what we actually were quite consciously doing.

• Dr Emily Friedman was visiting after UKGE. She writes up what she played when crashing at mine for her Patreon. Star Crossed, The Last Train to Bremen and For the Queen. I want to write a little about all of them myself, depending on the time – coming back to For The Queen (always one of my favourite games) got me thinking about it.

****

My tendency not to look up at the calendar has jumped me. I didn’t realise I was going away to a con so quickly after getting back from the family holiday. I thought I had a full week, and in fact, it’s really three and a half days. In practise, two and a half days, as I spent my Monday working on something which wasn’t as urgent as the thing I should have been doing.

(It was the first full document for a new Creator Owned Thing. So, definitely worth doing – but not what I needed to do immediately.)

That was DIE 11, which Stephanie wants (for various reasons) a couple of weeks earlier than was scheduled. This wouldn’t have been a problem if I wasn’t away last week, of course. Even as is, I’ve broken the back of it. I don’t know if it will be completely written by the time she needs it on Monday, but I know I have enough locked down to give her half the issue, which will tide her over. Not ideal, but it’ll work.

(You can imagine the noise my editor will make when she reads the above. Sorry, Katie!)

The other complication last week is that my RSI kicked in on Friday – I’m not 100% sure what set it off, but I’m basically working around it. Minimum work, careful use, no other hand use, posture, exercises, etc. Don’t worry. It’s something I’ve basically managed since I was 21 and MU* use and bad posture did it for me.

Still – in some ways, that refocusing has been good. I’ve been in bed earlier and reading more. After going to see him speak on Tuesday night, I’ve dived into Simon Reynolds’ new book, Still In A Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994, which is leading me to listen to a lot of wooshing noises. It’s a sort-of sequel to Rip It Up And Start Again, following what Rock Did Next, with a bit more autobio as Reynolds enters the story in the music press. The “Shoegaze” is a little opportunistic – one bit of rock which is doing stuff right now – as it’s a book with a much wider focus, but there’s enough guitar-pedal-abuse and Cathedrals Of Sound to satisfy those who came for that. It’s a broader tone anwyay: Reynolds’ work in the period was a lot about that reinvention of rock and music as sound rather than a device to carry lyrics.

It was also good to get Alien vs X-men announced, the first of the WFH things I’ve been mentioning here, and a good example of the thing which I’ve been saying yes to. They’ve got to be things which make me cackle. It’s actually the most recent yes of the three projects – the other two date to last year. I’ve actually done another yes since though. More on them all (er) soon? I dunno when. I suspect New York Comic Con, but I really don’t know.

Right. RSI management is go, and I’ll stop here.

Speak soon.

Kieron Gillen
Bath
18.6.2026