I apologize in advance for the quality of the questions I asked Nelson. I'm a neophyte at interviewing people, so I can never think of good queries. Don't blame the interviewee!

1. Zero Killer is back on the stands after a long delay. Can you discuss why it was delayed so long?

Alas, it's just the nature of collaboration! Things only happen as fast as the slowest process in the chain. I finished writing Zero Killer a while ago, so if it had been up to me, there wouldn't have been a delay. And it's a shame, too, I know it's really going to hurt us. I can't imagine trying to follow a TV series like Lost if they suddenly stopped making it for two years. I only hope people will give us a second chance. I know Zero Killer is worth it.

2. Are there any plans for a sequel? The ending is a bit ambiguous, so it could go either way - we can be satisfied with it and fill in some blanks, or you're just setting us up for another series.

Oh, definitely. I have another six issues planned out. They'll get much deeper into the some of the mysterious stuff I left hanging. But! it all depends on the sales of this first series. Dark Horse is doing a trade paperback, for which I'm very grateful. I'm hopeful.

3. I noticed that there's quite a bit that is left a bit unexplored, like the status of women in the new society. You bring it up subtly and have a bit in the main story about it, but a lot seems to be going on in the "newspaper" segments at the end of the book. Is this something you deliberately left vague, or is it something you plan to delve into more in a sequel?

I'll explore all of this stuff in the next series, if it happens. It'll be more cyberpunk story than post-apocalyptic. Actually, it's more "biopunk" because a lot of the technologies the second series deals with are genetic and biomedical.

4. You seem to dig alternate history. As a history major, I certainly appreciate that. Where's that come from? Is there anything deep about it, or does it just let you illuminate themes present in our world (JOCOM as a stand-in for the Bush Administration, for instance) that you want to highlight?

Right. I mean, Zero Killer is more of an alternate present than an alternate history. The truth is, guys like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld - they've all be lurking around the periphery of American foreign policy for decades. I had the idea for Zero Killer during the aftermath of 9-11. I live in New York. I started watching the news religiously. Dick Cheney, in particular, kept bragging about how safe he was right after the attacks, because "they had done lots of preparation for a nuclear war during the Cold War." That pissed me off. If there'd been a nuclear war, people like him would have burrowed into secret underground bunkers, while all of us - who footed the bill for those bunkers - would've been left to the fires. Left, right, blue, red - it doesn't matter. It's not a partisan thing. I'm confident people like Dick Cheney will go down in history as villains. I'm not afraid to take a stand on that.

5. Rex Mundi is wrapping up. Can you go into how you feel about finishing such a major project that has taken up so much of your life for the past decade or so?

I got together with EricJ, the original artist for Rex Mundi, in 1999. So it's ten years! I'm enormously proud of it, not just for myself, but for everyone who worked on it. I think we all accomplished something special. But whatever its merits, however much Rex Mundi does or does not suck, we finished it. That means something.

6. I was always wondering about the move from Image to Dark Horse. What happened to facilitate the move?

You know, it just seemed to make a lot of sense. Dark Horse is co-producing the film. At Image, I was basically self publishing, and I just couldn't hack it anymore. That's why I admire guys like Robert Kirkman so much. Who knows? I'd love to go back there some day, now that I know a little more about what I'm doing. It was painful to go, but Dark Horse has been really good to me, too.

7. Is there any news about the Rex Mundi movie?

Nothing I can talk about publicly, no. It kills me, because there's a lot of exciting stuff going on behind the scenes. I can definitely say with a lot of confidence that things are moving right along. I hope we'll have some exciting news soon. When we do, I'll be shouting it out far and wide!

8. How much research did you (and continued to do as the series went along) about Rex Mundi? I've always been impressed with the historical details of the world you created, and I was just wondering how much you read to get things "right?" I still say you mean Clovis I and not Clovis II. Care to comment?

Alas, there are inconsistencies in any book, movie or comic you read. It's just part of being human, I guess! I do the best I can with historical details, and I apologize for any mistakes. Sometimes I change things around deliberately, but I always try to let the reader know in those cases. [I'd like to point out that I should apologize for this question. I was being a bit snotty, and it wasn't fair to Nelson. I appreciate the fact that he didn't tell me to jump in a lake.]

9. I see you're coming out with Thulsa Doom for Dynamite. Dark Horse has been doing all the Conan stuff, so seeing it from Dynamite is kind of interesting. How much Robert E. Howard did you read to prepare, or is it all you?

A lot of the story comes from me, but the guys at Dynamite had a clear vision for it right from the outset. The character of Thulsa Doom everyone's familiar with is more a creation of the guys behind the 1982 Conan movie. That's the character I'm writing about. The story itself takes place in a period of time in the Conan mythology that Howard didn't write very much about - right after the fall of Atlantis. It's exciting for me, there's a lot of creative latitude. But we're trying to stay true to the spirit of Robert E. Howard, that's the goal.

10. Finally, what else do you have coming up, now that Rex Mundi is done and Zero Killer is mostly completed (at least your part)? And when will we get two HUGE REX MUNDI Omnibuses, one with the Image stuff and one with the Dark Horse stuff? I would totally buy both of those!

Thanks, Greg! Two sales, at least - you and me. I really hope we get to do a Rex Mundi omnibus, too. We'll see what happens with the movie, and with sales of the comic itself. That will be the deciding factor, I think. Two cheers for capitalism!

Aside from that, I do have some other projects coming up, but I can't talk about them yet. One thing I can talk about, because it's all my own, is a novel I'm working on. A fantasy novel, inspired by my love of Celtic and Scandinavian folklore. And heavy metal music. It's very exciting and scary to be diving into a new medium!

How's that for deep, insightful questions! I'm like Mike Wallace, man! I'd like to thank Arvid Nelson for putting up with my questions and being such a good sport about them. I'd also like to point out that both Zero Killer #4 and Rex Mundi #19 (the final issue) are out today. I've already read Zero Killer, so I'm not as jazzed about that, but man! I'm looking forward to reading Rex Mundi. It's freakin' awesome. You know it's true!

1 Comments

• At August 26, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  I'm a far worse interviewer, Greg. Trust me. I have the restraining orders to prove it!

  Good piece.

1. Concerning The Lone and Level Sands, why did you decide to retell the story of Exodus?

Sure would have been easier to sell a superhero book, let me tell you.  But, in the end, I found that the characters and setting really interested me (as well as what Marv Mann could do with them visually).  That is, like many people, I've had this story clunking around in my head for quite a while, yet it had been a long time since it really meant something powerful to me.  (No slight meant there to Passover and such; I meant, from the perspective of narrative, the plot - rather than the miracles - didn't move me.)  So, after having taken a Biblical Literature class as part of my studies at Georgetown University, I stumbled backwards over a new way to tell it that, simply, excited me for the first time about the whole tale from the storytelling perspective.

2. You concentrate far more on Ramses than Moses in the book.  Why?  Was it because Ramses, as the "villain," is more interesting than Moses, or was it something more mundane like space constraints? 

There are several reasons, the least of which being that, in most tellings of this tale, Moses gets a lot of 'face time,' and we only glimpse Ramses from his perspective.  Further, we get to follow Moses through a lot of Exodus, seeing a number of his adventures and obstacles, getting a solid sense of him.  I never felt we knew Ramses, even as a villain.  I was interested in exploring Ramses' additional roles as a ruler, a statesman, a son/father ... and, of course, a slavemaster, the one to which most readers of Exodus default.

The goal was never to redeem him (or Egypt) for slavery; I like to think I keep that albatross pretty well hung around their collective necks the whole time.  Rather, I think it's a mistake in any era to see an opponent as simply an adversary; to use the modern parlance, I don't believe in "evil-doers."  People can do horrible things, but they're not designed for evil, per se; there's a rationale behind it all as well as a life and a psychology.  Even the movie Max makes young Hitler somewhat sympathetic, a victim of his own neurosis.)  So, if anything, I was aiming to look at everyone as essentially human - rather than everyone in a certain two-dimensional role - and then go from there. 

3. What sources did you use beside the Bible and the Koran?  How were they helpful? 

I admit to having a number of pop culture sources sprinkled in there.  There's a moment of Edward G. Robinson's "Where's your God now?" thrown in at the end of one of the chapters, and even DreamWorks' Prince of Egypt - which, on the whole, I didn't really enjoy - did color my view of both young Moses in the Pharaoh's court and the place of Miriam in the story.

Both Marv and I consulted a number of anthropological and archeological sources for an accurate sense and depiction of both the time and location.  Likewise, I read up on the rule of Ramses and his bloodline during the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt and even got to see some of the remains at the British Museum while I was overseas.  Lastly, there's an obvious debt we owe to Percy Blysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias", from which the title of the book - and a number of its themes - are taken. 

4. I mentioned this in my review: God is the real villain of the piece.  Was this the idea from the beginning, or did it stem out of the writing and the attempts to humanize Ramses?  In other words, how much of that was planned? 

I'd like to say that it sort of sprung out of the outline I created early on in the process - but, then again, it could also have been my subconscious at work, too.  This is definitely seems to be my flourish with the story, stemming from the fact that we all know how it's going to end.  That is, I was never going to surprise readers with the plot of this book; we all knew point A, point B, point C, etc.  If there was any narrative tension, it was in leave people guessing how Marv and I would get the characters from point to point as well as how they would react.  Therefore, they, like us, were locked into a set of events that, largely, they couldn't change.  This also dovetails nicely with my personal reading of Exodus, which is basically the notion that the Ten Plagues were going to be handed down as punishment no matter what Ramses did.  He could have genuinely wanted to let them go at any point - which he really seems to want in the Bible until "God hardened Pharaoh's heart" - but I think having all these progressively nasty disasters occur was slated to happen; it was foretold, it was predestined.

So, if I really spun the exegesis of any Biblical line, it was my reading of God hardening Pharaoh's heart.  It's an odd moment in Exodus that comes up a number of times, and it could easily have been written another way.  I readily admit, though, that this is a matter of interpretation up for plenty of debate but ... Yeah, we definitely back God into a corner.

At the same time, I also do something equally heretical by equating myself (or the narrator) to God by the book's end.  Ramses at the end, all alone, gets to finally challenge the course of events.  He basically tells off the narrator/me.  And the narrator seems, if seen a certain way, to relent, ultimately letting Ramses go back to having free will and creating his own destiny.  Therefore, while Moses' people are still in Egypt, God calls the shots; likewise, while he's in the book, Ramses' all mine.

Which is worse - Making God the "villain" or equating myself to Him? 

5. You have mentioned it took you a while to put the project together.  How long did it take, and why did it take so long?

When Marv and I were first casting about for a project to do together, I presented a number of ideas of which Lone and Level Sands was only one.  After deciding on it and feeling each other out with a trial-basis Prologue, we felt that our styles matched well and that we had a similar read on the material.  I went off to script, and Marv went off to draft the characters.  Remarkably enough, Marv is a talented, fast illustrator, so by the third or final section of the book, we did switch to something more of a Marvel style, where my outline served as the script and the actual words came in later.  Of course, Marv was flexible, giving me more room if and when I needed it, but it was a true collaboration.

The whole thing took about a year and a half.  In the meantime, I'm working on other projects, both Marv and I are working other jobs full-time, and he's raising a family.  We found a really good flow, though, that we're currently trying to re-synch with for our next project.  Overall, I was rather happy with the speed from concept to product, given that it's an almost-150-page book! 

6. Empty Chamber comes out this month, right?  What's it about? 

Empty Chamber is a two-part, action-espionage mini-series being released this month by Silent Devil.  In essence, it's my attempt at "smart adventure."  As with most espionage stories in the Nick Fury/James Bond vein, there's a heinous threat that only a clandestine group, licensed by the government, has the ability to thwart.  In this case, a do-nothing Everyman doesn't know he has the secret to stopping a megalomaniac from exacting revenge on the U.S. by wiping out any further generations of American citizens.  So, our Joe Average must be safeguarded by a mismatched pair of government agents - one solider, one mercenary - and kept alive until his information can be used. 

And you thought Lone and Level Sands took a long time: Jason Copland and I have been slowly collaborating on this for almost three years!  Until it recently crashed, I was documenting the genesis of Empty Chamber at an online production blog.  I was recounting how it started as a proposal to Red Eye Press and then went into a desk drawer until, following Mortal Coils, Jason and I decided to start on a project together.  After a false start on a sci-fi property (and, later, a pair of interruptions due to his work on Western Tales of Terror and a webcomic that was never truly "published"), we went to work fully on Empty Chamber. 

7. Why did you decide to go in a completely opposte direction with Empty Chamber? 

Two reasons, really.  Both Mortal Coils and Lone and Level Sands were so damn serious!  I mean, I like the academic stuff - I like to think I have a knack for it - but I was really just looking for something where I could enjoy the storytelling exclusively.  There are still elements of background work that I did for Empty Chamber, sure, but I basically got to have fun and do a "kiss kiss, bang bang" sort of book; even with my own reading, these are the two poles I always orbit.

Then, there's the other reason, that being the mis/over-use of the word "terrorism" these days.  It's gotten pretty bad.  I'm not suggesting (in any way!) that there aren't people out there employing terrorist tactics to do Americans harm ... but they're tactics, not ideologies.  Therefore, I wanted to play - as in "examine," along with my "fun" play above - with some ideas of patriotism, America, and, yes, terrorism.  The thing here is that the only foreigner in the whole book is actually our hero.  This is a story of terrorism being committed by Americans at Americans. 

8. How long have you been writing comics?  What else have you done?

My interest and affection for comics goes back to childhood, without question.  However, by the time I got to college, I was more interested in creative prose writing than any sort of comic book writing.  They were just a hobby.  However, thanks to the intercession of one professor, I was encouraged to bring my knowledge of the medium into the classroom and apply it to literary theory.  That sort of kicked off my professional association to comics, starting with conference papers and lectures and then leading to my short story writing becoming comic book scripts.

I think that my scholarly angle on comics helped me break in, somewhat, in the beginning.  I got little anthology stories that required a good deal of research, something that I was not only willing to do but that I actually enjoyed!  That led to some editing gigs, online journalism and column-writing, contributions to charity books, and eventually my own self-published stuff.  It also wove a nice network of colleagues and artists with whom I would eventually collaborate.  Threads, Valentine, 9-11: Emergency Relief, Even More Fund Comics, Mortal Coils, Reflux, etc.  The list has been growing steadily bigger and bigger! 

9. What's next on your plate of projects? 

Frankly, I'm slowing down ... but just a little.  As I mentioned, Marv and I have a new concept in the works which may see the light of day as early as next year.  In addition, I'm among the contributors to Jason Rodriguez' Postcards anthology, teaming up with the brilliant work of artist Danielle Corsetto (Girls with Slingshots).  There's long been this really serious, intensive graphic novel that I've been continually researching that remains on my mind, though it's easily years away from being ready, I'm sorry to say.  Lastly - and this is really in its earliest stages - I've been talking with other independent creators about spearheading a possible 2007 Free Comic Book Day extravaganza.  I'll know better on that last one come wintertime. 

10. So, the Ph.D. program at Boston U., eh?  Do you think you're better than the rest of us?  Why Religion, specifically?  And what do you plan to do with it beside get "Dr." printed on your business cards?  [That's why I would get a Ph.D.  I may be shallow.] 

What do I hope to get from the Ph.D.?  A job frankly!

In all seriousness, I knew that I would eventually be writing and teaching for my profession; the only part I never really knew was whether I would primarily be teaching with writing on the side or primarily be writing with teaching on the side.  The Lone and Level Sands was a wonderful step forward for my writing, and the Ph.D. at BU is meant to serve as the response for my academic pursuits.

As for the Religion program, it's strange.  I am a rather secular guy in my everyday life.  I'm a sucker for a good story, though, and there are few traditions with richer narratives than the sacred texts.  I respect them, please understand; I'm not just in the program to mine them for story ideas.  But I want to be challenged intellectually and presented with a wider range of thought and belief.  As it's designed, the BU program for Religion & Literature serves as the perfect follow-up to my English Literature background - and they're interested in comics!

 

Check out ADL's blog here. If you're wildly interested, read about his journey through academia here. The Lone and Level Sands has its own website.  Empty Chamber had a production blog, but it went kaboom!  ADL was nice enough to send along some images from the book and some sketches, but something is not letting me post them.  The first issue should be out "this month," which is about as specific as small presses can get.  I have pre-ordered it, so look for a review when it shows up.  Ask your retailer about it!

2 Comments

• At January 15, 2007, 3UZEVhejJq wrote:

  Hi! Very nice site! Thanks you very much! t5a0xTFBxf0pj

• At May 25, 2007, oachluvptf wrote:

  ltgvobm

1. Tell the people, in your own words, what Phonogram is all about!

Phonogram is about how awesomely McKelvie can draw punk girls.

Er ... rewind.

Music is Magic.

I mean, it is. There's no reason why sounds arranged in sequence create an emotional response in us, let alone act as the catalyst for major life changes. We take that completely literally. That every change music makes in the world is a magical act. Our stories follow people who are aware of this fact, and use this knowledge to warp the world more to their liking. Most of our stories involve situations where two different sets of these so-called phonomancers have conflicting desires.

Or, if I were trying to sell you its movie rights, Hellblazer meets High Fidelity.

2. What other comics work have you done?

Phonogram's my first real work - by that I mean "Has my name on the cover." I've done a mass of small press and webcomic stuff previously. On the small press side, my most notable work's the Commercial Suicide anthology I co-edited with the beautiful and talented Alex "Smoke" De "Kat and Mouse" Campi. On the webcomics side, I'd point you at my in-progress modern-fantasy OGN Busted Wonder (here's the site), on which I'm collaborating with the equally beautiful and talented Charity Larrison. In terms of stuff for a small pile of cash, there's bits and pieces. McKelvie and I have been doing Save Point, the monthly editorial strip for the UK's Official Playstation Magazine, for three years or so. I sold a couple of strips to Warhammer Monthly before they decided to stop existing. Also trees across Europe hate me for the 280,000 copies that were printed of a comic I wrote as part of the marketing of a French videogame, but I don't like to talk about that. At least sober. Come back later.

3. How did you hook up with Jamie McKelvie? And how did you hook up with Image to get the book published?

Phenomenal luck, in the first part. He wanders over when I'm selling some small press stuff at a Bristol Con. I say that his style would be perfect for a book I'm writing. Later, he reads a script and agrees. In the words of Art Brut: Look at us! We formed a band! In the second part, while we were preparing the pitch McKelvie did a OGN with Eric Stephenson for Image called Long Hot Summer. Phonogram came up in conversation at San Diego, and they said they'd like to see the pitch. We gave 'em it. They liked it. Easy! I expect to pay the karmic debt eventually.

4. Music is obviously important in the book. Why did you decide on the "pop music" but instead of music that's a bit more, I don't know, hefty? What is it about "disposable" pop music that makes it perfect for the book?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "hefty": like something more classical? Or more primal like bits of world music? Or ... well, I'll go with "Why Pop Music?"

Because Pop Music changes peoples' lives - for better, for worse - every single day. From the woman who listens to the radio on the way to work and a song gives her the one smile of the day, to the man biting back tears at a wedding when the DJ plays some cheesy track connected to some sad event years in the past which he'll never correct to the lonely girl in her bedroom pressing play on a mixtape which contains information and ideas which will change the way she thinks, dresses and who she associates with for the rest of her life ... Pop Music does all that.

Every single day.

5. I thought the sex scene was a bit fun, but it felt a tad gratuitous. Why specifically did you put it in? Just to scare off the kids' moms?

Well, nowt wrong with scaring the moms.

I had a handful of reasons for the scene. A couple which explain why we'd want to have something a little bit more extreme in the first issue: firstly, Phonogram's a book which - sooner or later - is going to have that sort of thing. We needed something in the first issue to signpost this so people can't be surprised when it eventually does turn up. Secondly, it's the introduction to Emily Aster. Almost any time we meet Emily we'll find her involved in some decadent glorious adventure (in contrast to Indie Dave - who we'll meet eventually - who lives in a shack in Yorkshire with only rotting vinyl for company). We need to know from the first second what sort of person Emily is. That is, someone who enjoys casual sex, is callous enough to stop it answer the phone and then slag off her partner down it.

But neither of those really justify why we went for a lesbian sex act, do they? It's mainly a thematic point. Without the scene, we've got a straight axis between the bastardly and manipulative (male) Kohl and the puritanical and pure (female) Goddess/Ladyfest crowd. I don't like or believe in essentialist positions like that, so had to try and avoid it (which is tricky when you've got the Feminine Principle turning up as character). Equally, the other nods towards lesbianism are pretty much solely towards the idea of it being very right on, dour and political - which is clichéd bollocks too. By showing Emily acting like she does we undermine both of those essentialist positions. There's other ideas of what being female (or into-girls) means in our world (and the world), and some are arguably as hedonistic and cruel as Kohl's. By showing some extremes, people can assume a middle ground. In other words, the scene's about showing the world is more complicated and to warn people against drawing easy lines.

Also, I thought it was pretty funny.

6. I have a feeling the music angle might be a bit off-putting to people who don't know it. It's not really necessary to know every reference in the first issue to enjoy the book, but there are a lot of them. How intricate are the references going to be as we get further into the story?

I think we actually loosen up a little for the rest of the series. There are references, sure, but once they're introduced we play with them for longer than they do in the (basically) self contained first issue. For example, in the second issue we'll introduce you to the concept of Manic Street Preachers, but once you've grasped what they "meant," you'll be able to understand their importance until the last issue. Even with that, the glossary in the second issue is slighter. I even padded it a little with some stuff I just wanted to talk about.

The only exception would be issue 4, which is probably the most reference heavy issue ... but it's also the most fantastical one. That the references can be taken on face value - i.e. what they do - I'm hoping it'll get in the way less than Kohl just namechecking some obscure record by the Slits.

In other words, I dunno. I hope not.

7. Do you expect this to be more of a "British" book, in that people on that side of the pond will "get it" more than we ignorant Yanks?

Maybe, but it could easily go the other way. People who lived through Britpop and are unable of seeing past the bits where our interpretation differs from theirs will probably have trouble accepting it. In that case, having a little bit of distance from the subject matter - while entirely understanding the idea of loving music - may mean they like it more. In terms of the feedback we've had so far, I've seen both the responses you've predicted and the ones I've suggested.

People are different. Also, awesome.

8. How difficult is it to balance the references with the demands of storytelling? Did you have to get rid of some things because it was overwhelming the story you wanted to tell?

Phonogram has been, by far, the hardest thing I've ever written. That I'm trying to balance at least three different desires in the story at any time and trying to prioritise what actually is important is something I have to deal with on every panel. What causes problems is less the references - if it's just a nod at something, it's easily dropped - but maintaining the truth of the exercise. For example, if I realise I could have plugged a plot hole by making the music-magic work in a certain way which I don't believe music does work like ... well, I have to find a different way to solve the problem, no matter how neat a short cut it would be. It has to be narratively coherent and intellectually coherent simultaneously, and any thing which fucks up one or the other is something I just can't allow myself to do.

So, yeah, it's tricky. I live in fear of screwing it up.

Heh. You read all these cheery interviews with people hyping up their books as "THE BEST THING EVER! IT'S LIKE WATCHMEN TIMES DARK KNIGHT RETURNS COVERED IN GLITTER AND SMEARED IN JAM" and I'm all "OH WE ARE SO DOOMED! WHAT I WAS THINKING! I'LL BE BURNED AS A HERETIC IN THE CHURCH OF KENICKIE!"

I'm scared of screwing up. I don't think I have.

9. It's pretty obvious that David Kohl is commenting on the culture of pop music even as he moves through it and uses it. How much of this should we read as a critique of these various "scenes"? Or is David just a dick?

Everything in Phonogram should be read as critique. The one proviso I'd make would be not to take anything out of context. Kohl will say something, sure, but it's always worth looking at how it turns out. In the first issue, look where our phonomancer's phallocratic thuggery actually got him.

At the base level, having Kohl as our narrator gives a little warning to people at taking what's said at face value. Kohl is a smart character. What he says is often pretty coherent and occasionally even convincing. However, that he's clearly a bit of a cock should make everyone not automatically go along with him.

There's a - I think - Paul Morley quote about those "Top 50 films/movies/albums/books/aubergines EVER!" lists which always comes to mind: A good list isn't meant to be the end of the debate. It's meant to be the start of one. I'd expand that to almost any work, especially one that trying to talk about pop culture. Here's what Kohl thinks. By looking at the whole story, you may be able to work out what I think. What do you think?

I like discourse. Also, talking bollocks.

10. What's next for you?

Well, it's the early morning. I thought sleeping may be a good idea. Who am I fooling? I'll be here for hours yet typing nonsense and attempting to download the entire internet.

Well, while McKelvie is finishing his Suburban Glamour OGN for Image, I'll be thinking about the possibility of a future Phonogram arc. Obvious that depends on sales, but there's a couple of ideas which I think are worth pursuing. And no, it won't be about Britpop again. Also on a PG tip, I'm chatting to a DJ mate of mine about doing a Phonogram club night which could be funny. I've got a couple of pitches in with people, and we'll see what happens to them. Putting that aside - and please, any editors reading don't put them aside - I've got three projects I've been dying to write but haven't made any real progress on thanks to Phonogram sitting like a giant all-consuming slug in the centre of my imagination. Oh - and I've been taking the opportunity of doing a few shorts for various British small press anthologies, as I still have love for the street and kinda like art for arts sake.

Alternatively, living on the street and eating my daily lunch out of the distended belly of a deceased cat.

You can never tell. Comics are exciting like that.

I'd like to thank Kieron Gillen for being such a swell guy and answering my silly questions. Phonogram #1 should still be on the shelves. Check out the web site for the comic here. You can also visit Kieron's site, and Jamie McKelvie, the artist, has a site here. If you're interested, Cronin reviewed the book here, and I reviewed it here.

Next time: who else would be foolish enough to have anything to do with me? That's the question, isn't it????

4 Comments

• At August 29, 2006, T. wrote:

  has this come ouyt yet? i keep my eyes open for it but never see it.

• At August 29, 2006, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It came out last week.

• At August 29, 2006, Kieron Gillen wrote:

  It's been out for a couple of weeks. It's entirely possible your shop has sold out of all their copies. ...

• At September 19, 2006, Matt wrote:

  That comic sucks.