Emerald City and Solid State
Don't trust them.
- kelly sue deconnick -
Things have been moving pretty fast around here, so I'm not sure I mentioned that we got a pilot order from NBC for Redliners! For the next several weeks, I'm working with Shaun Cassidy (yes, that Shaun Cassidy), David Janollari and director Jason Ensler, basically going to TV school. In this and all things, you have to learn the rules before you break them. More on that as I'm able. (Oh, we cast our lead and I adore her.)
Emerald City Comic Con is coming up, and our schedule is posted here. If you've never been to a Milkfed panel, come check it out -- we play games and the Milkfed Trash Fairy will be there giving out prizes. Warning: there is an oath involved.
SPEAKING OF EMERALD CITY COMIC CON and fun stuff -- y'all are familiar with Bombsheller leggings, yeah? In brief: they're HIGH QUALITY and have a size range from XS to 6X, which is why they are one of the few companies that we're comfortable enough with to license BITCH PLANET. So, Bombsheller and Valentine De Landro have something up their sleeves that's very special -- so special in fact, that I want you to know about it beforehand so you can budget for it. It's gonna work like so:
Starting IMMEDIATELY, we're taking suggestions for Bitch Planet legging designs via Twitter -- use the hashtag #bitchplanet. On Friday, from 11am to 1pm, Val will be live-drawing the design. Orders can be placed right then and there. Here's the really cool part: the first 50 orders will be made overnight and available for pick up at the con on Saturday.
So the design you watched being drawn (and maybe even suggested!), will be on a pair of high quality leggings and ON YOUR BODY in 24 hours. ALL HAIL THE FUTURE!Oh, and hey -- while we're at it, let's go all Beyoncé and drop a full line of new Bombsheller leggings -- BAM. Because we love you, use code MILKFED for 20% off now through March 6th.
Parisian White v1, Bitch Planet v2 and Pretty Deadly v3 are all up and running and in production, so publishing schedules will resume shortly. The Bitch Planet anthology -- titled BITCH PLANET: TRIPLE FEATURE is near completion so be on the lookout for that as well.
JoCo Cruisers -- we can't join you this year (to our great dismay!) but our dear friends Chelsea Cain, Marc Mohan and their incredible daughter will be on the high seas with you. Please show them love.
We'll show more at Emerald City, but here's a page from Bitch Planet 10 to tide you over:
- matt fraction -
So here's a funny thing that happened. Last year, I went on a boat. It was a boat with Jonathan Coulton on it -- and a bunch of other people it turns out? -- and we all spent time together on a boat, avoided listeria, and had a grand old time.
A couple/few weeks afterward, I think, Jonathan reached out to me. There was this project he'd been working on, and he had an idea. His next record was kind of a concept thing, kind of an adventure for him in storytelling, only maybe he'd not done so thorough a job of telling the story, or maybe he had, either way, maybe there could be, maybe should be, a kind of graphic novel that, like, ties into it somehow? Or not! Who knows. It could be whatever.
It was a very Coulton-esque job offer.
And thus my involvement in SOLID STATE began, which, it turns out, is a very Coulton-esque album.
JC says it's "a concept album about the internet, trolls, artificial intelligence, and how love and empathy will save humanity!"
Which is, I suppose, true enough. Although I find that description almost criminally lacking in its emphasis on dodecahedrons, which, SPOILERS, is the safest shape, so, of course it's a critical piece of our story. It's like BRAZIL if BRAZIL was an office comedy. It's 2001: A SILICON VALLEY. It was like writing the book to a musical. It's the first straight-up graphic novel I've written in more than ten years and, boy oh boy, what a different beast that is from a floppy thing with staples. It's a graphic novel I wrote that dances around the raindrops of the record. It was a chance to superimpose my work over someone else's and see what we could find together. A retrocollaboration? It was a lot of fun. It's a dessert topping and a floor wax.
What it REALLY was, more than anything else for me, was a chance to work with yet another mad Spaniard genius, Sr. Albert Monteys, introduced to me by David Aja, madman supreme, who said something along the lines of, "This is the guy everybody over here wants to be," or something close to it, which, shit, man, if fuckin' David says it... y'know?
Anyway, Albert was our first choice and our only choice and me and Jonathan are the luckiest jerks on the whole jerk bus because Albert said yes and it's all so much better because of him.
Of course you know Albert from his pay-what-you-want masterpiece running on Panel Syndicate right now, UNIVERSE!, which is just absolutely the best thing in the world and I hated that doing SOLID STATE meant slowing down progress on UNIVERSE! but now we're done so more UNIVERSE! is happening and you gotta read UNIVERSE! you gotta, mister, you gotta…
More will come as we get closer to the book's (& album’s!) release (4/28!). For now, THIS has all the info you need.
Keep safe, buddies.
Oh hey, I got that thing where, like, all I want to do is lie down under a heavy blanket and smell my dog's head all day. What's that called?
MF
(A very sneaky peek...)
- #icymi -
Image Comics had its 25th anniversary! Kelly Sue and Matt joined a whole lot of other creators in celebrating with signings at local comic stores.
Just some totally unweird Image 25th anniversary variants
FEMME MAGNIFIQUE: Comic-book stories celebrate women who crack ceilings, take names, and change the game, from Harriet Tubman to Sally Ride to Kate Bush. Kelly Sue and Elsa Charretier team up in here for a short about Hillary Clinton.
Bitch Planet won a 2017 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award! (It's really, really pretty!)
"Bitch Planet might no longer be absurd enough to effectively comment on the state of sexism in America today." Kelly Sue talks with Alex Abad-Santos of Vox about navigating satire in the current landscape.
Carrie Sessarego of Google Play editorial did an author guide on Kelly Sue. It's a great, short primer on Bitch Planet, Pretty Deadly and Captain Marvel.
BOOKRIOT: Let your non-compliant flag fly, Bitch Planet aficionados. Also: Smashing the Patriarchy and Reaching New Audiences.
While we're in Seattle, we want to go visit the awesome cheese monger here.
Psst... here's Ed Brubaker's newsletter!
Play games with Kelly Sue and Matt on March 3rd in Seattle and support a good cause.
And for the sweet-toothed among us: it's that time of year again...Girl Scout Cookie sales are upon us! Tallulah would be most pleased to help you eat your feelings.
Jennifer Grajales Memorial Fund.
tl;dr
Mar. 2-5 - Team Milkfed journeys to Emerald City Comicon. Panels, prizes and special guests galore!
Mar. 15 - Acedia #8 on SALE
Mar. 15 - Sex Criminals #17 on SALE
Mar. 29, 6-9PM - Matt signing with CHIP ZDARSKY at FANTASTIC COMICS in Berkeley, CA
Mar. 31-Apr. 2 - Matt at WonderCon
May 10 - Acedia vol. 2 TP on SALE
May 27-29 - Kelly Sue is Guest of Honor at Wiscon
Milkfed Logo by Rian Hughes.