Hullo

9-1
Cut to the feeling
Boldly
Links
Bye

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DIE: Loaded #9 is out next week, and the comps have arrived and are beautiful. Stephanie’s working a whole bunch of different modes – we move from DIE as romantic adventure autobio to satirical cheesecake to pretty full on horror in a few pages, and she makes it all hang together wonderfully.

Here’s a few teaser pages until then.

As always, if you don’t know about DIE: Loaded, have a nose at our binding site. Pass to your friends too.

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The Power Cut is back with its third volume. Over 100 pages of The Power Fantasy theory, essays, art and more. That the book has germinated a community which is so committed to engaging with the book is something that really means the world to the whole team. Go nose! We’ll be back soon enough, and this will keep you ticking over.

The present riddle for the hyperbrains is “we say we’re back in 2026.” Which month is TPF released in?

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Back on my 101 TTRPGs ever thing. I’m just going to post the list on September 30^th if I don’t wrap by then – and I’ve gone from “clearly that will happen” to “Actually, it may be possible to get something in miniature up by then.” It really depends on whether I can do another 20 by early next week. Getting to a Top 40 is a much more psychologically manageable thing to round off.

Anyway – now 79-60! Which includes stuff like…

To Boldly Hahuko
Let me just quote the full description: “To Boldly Hakuho is a live action online game where players take on the roles of a bridge crew needing to communicate with the AI of a starship who refuses to discuss anything other than Hakuho Sho, famous Mongolian-born sumo wrestler.” Come on. That’s what I’m talking about.

Read the rest here.

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• Humble Bundle does an Image Comics in the 2020s bundle. Includes a load of good stuff, including this parish’s GOLDEN RAGE. I obviously own a bunch, but I’m still going to go and buy it now to pick up some extra stuff. Seriously, this is a ridiculous amount of comics.

• I somehow didn’t realise the excellent Dave Baker was doing video essays. This is on Nate Simpson’s Nonplayer. It’s a fascinating story of perfect being the opposite of actually existing, but also used as a lens on Dave’s own journey towards his own magnum opus, Mary Tyler MooreHawk.

• Chloe Maevel on Depiction vs Endorsement, starting on The Devils and keeping on going.

• Quinns’ Quest discord has been doing a review jam. This didn’t mean they’re reviewing jam, mores the pity. Always looking for sweet preserve recommendations. Here’s one for DIE RPG. I especially like that as well as the GM writing the review, there’s some extra player commentary. That actually strikes me as an idea with legs.

• Nathan Blades’ City of Espers is on Backerkit – basically a X-men/Scanners/The-Akira-Kids meets tactical combat, in the style of a Drag Family TTRPG. I love Blades stuff, and my skim of an early PDF makes me really excited.

• Michiah Johnson on Is There A Wrong Way To Chase Your Dreams, looking at how various people act at Worldcon, and specifically how hustle culture can mug you if you’re listening to the wrong people. Let’s choose the single line summation: “doing finance bro shit in artistic spaces closes more doors than it opens.”

• Valeria uses STATISTICS to look into the idea that the OSR corner of TTRPG is especially murderous to players. Her result say no, at least in part.

• Vanity Fair’s profile of Ed Zitron. That’s a sentence, right? We are a long way from Eurogamer’s Darkfall review.

• Another video from Justin Jordan, talking about what Fair Page rates are comics creators, and thus how to budget your book. These numbers seem solid – the one I’d question is colourist, which seems high from most places I’ve seen – I’d day it’s more in line to what he suggests for writers.

• More creator advice, with Steve Lieber doing a quick top 10 of creator tips. This is all great, basic stuff to internalise. Really practical, which is one of Steve’s great strengths.

• Long essay examining Chomsky, opening him up via the lens of his friendship with Epstein, and how that exposes the limits of his practise.

• Tom Shapira over at Shelf Dust on Ennis’ Punnisher – specifically it as a lens to illuminate America, and ideally illuminate in light so bright it burns.

• Lots of hard passings in the last few weeks – we dropped both Tim Curry and three Dolly tracks at our regular club night in Lonbdon – but this essay on Peter Cullan’s performance of Optimus Prime caught my optics – the idea he was channeling his own brother, and a specific mode of masculinity, for example.

• Cripes. I’ve still got another dozen of things in my link documents. This is what happens if I have a couple of weeks off. I’ll save the rest for next time.

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I actually have flesh wounds on three of my finger tips, only one of which is protected by a kids-TV-branded sticking plaster, so I will likely be relatively curt, and spare my weird-ass mortification writing for the other things I have to hammer out today.

I do start a lot of outro essays with something like that – the excuse for brevity, not the bleeding fingertips – which I hope reads as sharing where I am in any given week rather thank just making excuses (even though it is also making excuses).

The last time we talked, I was saying I wanted to wrap projects to clear the deck. This actually happened – DIE: Loaded 12 is with Stephanie, the last AvX went over on Monday and the unannounced thing the week before. I also gave Caspar the next The Power Fantasy – and when looked at my broad schedule, realised that moving onto the next TPF is the best thing to do. That wraps the arc, gets me about 12 weeks ahead of Caspar, which is a good chunk of time for my subconscious to chew over the fifth arc.

I’m seven weeks ahead on the other in-progress book, but it’s likely I’ll circle back to that next – though likely working alongside a core design bible for a new idea. Another thing – larger, 13 issues minimum – is still waiting on finding the right artist. I’m also chewing over whether I’m interested in another ongoing. At the moment I’m leaning no, but I want to finish my reading first – not least, because it’s good reading.

But it’s life stuff which really has been the core thing. Iris started school, in the orientation period, where she does half days for six days, before kicking off full days. She’s done great, but there’s a whole lot of emotions everywhere. My stress dreams are amazing, and it’s very much spilling over into the work. There’s one whole plot in TPF 21 which is clearly me “I AM WORRIED ABOUT IRIS GOING TO SCHOOL.”

I’ve also started the next playtest of The Scions – this time it’s a 12 part one, the biggest game yet, and the first with my own art for the cards. I’ll likely write more about that next time, but I’ve yet to even write up my notes for myself.

In other notes, oh no. I’ve just ate a crisp and now have paprika in my wounds.

Speak soon.

Kieron Gillen
Bath
9.9.2026