Hullo.

Aud
One Last Time
Links
Honesty
OPTIMO!!!!
Byyyyeeee!!!

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Gosh are doing a bookplate for the 2nd Once & Future trade, as drawn by the always amazing Aud Koch, and signed by yours truly. You can order from here, if you wanna. If not, just stare at the Aud art. I totally am putting this up front as I want you to stare at the Aud art.

Go, on. Have a stare.

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At the time of writing there’s four hours left on the Jamie and me and chums humble bundle. Less by the time this reaches you. Last chance for the GillenMckelviechums deal of the century.

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It hasn’t updated yet, but later today the second issue of Ed Brubaker, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente’s Friday is out. I’ve read it, as I am a very lucky boy, and it continues to do this creepy extension of the teenage detective archetype into early adulthood, Veronica Mars’ encroaching upon Cosmic Horror. It’s great work, and Martin is just doing astounding things on the pages, making each page turn feel like a genius detective showing their working. Click the link, then if it’s not updated, keep refreshing it until it is, and buy the bloody thing.
Giada Zavarise interviewed me at my alma mater Rock Paper Shotgun as the last episode of her column about comics and computer games, which catches me in the rare mode of being a bit too honest while not leavening it with too many jokes. For example, why did I never properly get into doing games writing? “It’s mostly because I have a very old-fashioned idea about writing. Writing is about power. If you are not truly deciding what things are happening, you are not really writing in the way I am interested in writing…. when I was in that place of maybe trying some narrative design, lots of studios treated writers like texture artists. You know, a game exists and you come in to write a narrative wrapper, in the same way an artist adds textures and decorations to a level that has already been blocked.” However, re-reading this, I also was reminded of how much fun it was writing the Incognito Princess for Sunless Skies. Times. That’s a voice I’d love to return to.
There’s been a bunch of very kind things said about the first issue of Marneus Calgar, but I felt this io9 piece was a particularly nice overview of what it does.
Coliseum of Comics has a forum, and they’re having me on this week. It’s this Thursday at 4pm EST (So 9pm in the UK) and you can hang around a couple of hours later to chat to the ever-charming Alex Pakndael too. Details here.
Stephanie has been playing around with Zoom brush and making DIE stuff.
Justin Jordan and John Amor are doing a kickstarter for a physical volume of their webcomic Urban Animal. Andy Belanger’s Mother Truckers Kick Starter is very much a logical extension of all his wonderful wrestling adventures he’s been on.
Oh – I read the first issue of Vault’s I WALK WITH MONSTERS by Paul Cornell, Sally Cantirino, Dearbhla Kelly and Deron Bennett which does the grounded horror thing really well. Very much a lived environment, until it extends into the genuinely uncanny. It made me think of Redlands, Something is Killing the Children and the creepier end of Lemire, which are good things to be reminded of. Still time to pre-order, and more details here.
I also just say it’s Dearbhla’s Birtrhday Today. Happy Birthday, her.

***

I write most my comics in Scrivener now, which basically has a sub-document for every comic page. You can name each page, which I use for my top level plotting and what’s happening on any given pages. This week, I looked at one.

Sometimes it’s a bit too honest.

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I haven’t gone into detail about the DIE campaign I’m running. I do keep on meaning to, but…

Last session was fun.

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Bad day to write the traditional check in newsletter, as a few things have come together in my head, leading me deciding I want to try a few things, and writing about them before they’ve bedded in (or not) is always missing the point. So, I’m not writing about that, but clearly that’s all I want to write about.

The short of it is that I’ve felt off for a while, and it’s nagged at me, and a few pieces realigned in my head, and gave me some ideas of things I want to try (and ways of looking at what I already am doing). Hopefully it’ll make a difference. If it doesn’t, I’m glad I tried.

It’s small stuff, but small stuff matters and all adds up. 200 words a day is a novel by the end of the year, after all. Er… it’s not that, but that’s how I’ve always looked at time.

In terms of actual work, I’ve pulled together first drafts of two scripts since last talking – an Eternals issue by late last week, and Once & Future 17 this morning. I plan to polish one up tomorrow and the other on Friday. Then it’ll either be Once & Future 18 (just to finish off the arc) or writing DIE 16. Stephanie is having a month off after she finishes off DIE 15 (which she’s just done as I write) so she’ll be needing it soon enough.

She’s actually presently doing the sketches for the interstitials in the trade, so I’m expecting a handful of these little heartbreakers in pencil to turn up in my inbox.

I hit the 250 day streak on Duolingo. I haven’t mentioned that much, pretty much for the same reason I didn’t mention the stuff I’m alluding to in the first paragraph (i.e. don’t mention it until it’s bedded in). It also seemed a little gauche, due to being the second ultra-minor “oh, ffs” of 2020. I had two small rules of engagement when this year started, which were to not do any cons and to finally learn a little Italian so I can speak to C’s relatives. Turns out everyone was doing the former and the latter became the anthesis of people’s self-care advice (“Don’t feel bad you’re just trying to keep stuff together and not learning another language. People making a big deal about how they’re being so productive are awful”). I’d have likely been quiet about it anyway, but I’ve been doubly so.

The irony is that it’s 100% been my Animal Crossing-esque security blanket, and makes me think how people care for themselves and try to find meaning in this hellyear are as varied as people are. This small tiny thing every day has meant a lot. However, the clitic lessons can go fuck themselves.

Oh – let’s give one last bit of news. As issue 12 is out, I’m fine with saying the title for Once & Future’s third arc.

It’s called THE PARLIAMENT OF MAGPIES. It starts with issue 13, out on November 18th.

Speak soon.

Kieron Gillen
London.
21.10.2020

171: the clitic lessons

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