It must be the week for it. CBR and Comics Alliance have both lobbed up some footage from San Diego.

The CBR one is a quite hefty interview of me, on a boat. Topics include the just announced Generation Hope, Phonogram, being behind the scenes at marvel and the word “y’know” used as a comma.

Or you could watch it bigger here.

Meanwhile Comics Alliance interviews several luminaries about their strangest San Diego experiences. Wherein I am prompted to do a MC Hammer Crab dance.

Because I’m slutty like that. Watch it larger here.

In the US today tomorrow and tomorrow tomorrowtomorrow in the UK, my Thor run reaches its conclusion…

(Unless you’re in Canada. When it reaches it comes out nottomorrow. As in, today.)

Here’s CBR’s review and and you can read the preview here. Which thankfully cuts off before something particularly spoilerific. And as much as I’d like to do a looking-back-on-my-run post, I’m resisting saying anything else, because I’d risk doing the Spoilerific thing myself. It’s not over until those 22 pages fall between your fingers, with our array of final confrontations and the reading of the fine print.

As a whole, the run’s worked better than I could have ever hoped for. None of the three stories were in an easy situation, and that they even worked at all pleases me. I’ve few regrets about what I did and only a handful of what I didn’t do (More with the Broxtonites, Blake, Sif). And all those regrets aren’t really regrets at all, because I don’t think I could have played it any other way. It helped that I was working with such a fantastic string of artists, all of whom were up against it as much as I was. Billy, Rich and Doug - I salute you. Niko for New Mutants too. And, as always, McKelvie gets his own special, less complimentary kind of salute.

Most of all, I’m pleased that, no matter how random its ever-extending nature seemed to be, it’s a body of work. Stick those 11 issues of Thor with the Loki and New Mutants issues in a trade paper-back, and you’ve got something with clear themes and defined character arcs. Also, lots of hitting. The genre will not be denied.

It’s been fun and thanks for reading to those who read.

*****

Another thing strikes me. This is the last comic I have out before November when Generation Hope debuts. When I’ve had as much on the shelves in the last year as I have, that seems like a spookily large gap. The odd thing being, I’m not writing any less comics now than I have been. This month is Generation Hope, my second Avatar book and something else. And it’s a fun something else which I suspect will cause the most communal eyebrow raises since… well, since I was put on Thor.

So, expect this blog to lean more towards interview posts in the near future. Expecting shouting.

Thor 613 is out today in the US (and tomorrow in the UK). Penultimate part of The Fine Print, penultimate part of my run. Thor vs Hell.

I do like this cover.

Here’s the reviews at A Comic Book Blog, IGN, Multiversity Comics and A Weekly Comic Book. Also, the preview’s here.

What could this update be about?

*****

Why, didn’t I just do a long interview with David Uzumeri over at Comics Alliance. It basically takes in all my Marvel work, but it’s core is talking about the forthcoming Generation Hope. I say things like…

I’ve been working very closely with Matt so far, literally the late-night conversation talking nonsense with each other and trying to figure out just who these five people are, and the fact that we got the characters… not nailed down, but — I’m trying to think of a useful metaphor. It’s basically that scene in “Audition” where they’ve got hooks in people’s back and they’re hanging from the ceiling, and they’re suspended in interesting and painful ways, as a dramatic necessity to almost all of them, and especially a dramatic necessity with each other. They’re characters who really, really do want to talk to each other, and they’ve already got that kind of… Like the first issue, I was just rereading it earlier, they’ve got the gang-ish mentality in that way, in that the interaction is very pure and bright, so that, I think, is actually a key to the book.

And much more here.

Of course, I now realise when I said Audition, I actually meant Ichi The Killer. Man!

*****

Thor 613 is out next week. Preview up. Thor has a big stomp across hell, Hel is under-siege and in the real world people wonder why I’ve got so hung up about the letter L.

Oh - the second issue of the Five Lights arc in Uncanny X-men came out this week, introducing the second light Gabriel. Here’s a five-page preview.

I haven’t mentioned much of the Curfew here, as for a general audience rather than a games-following one, it’s not something I really want to recommend it to play until it’s out of the Beta phase. That said, it’s basically working now, after a final really nasty bug where you could only get bad endings for the game. If the loading is particularly bad for you - it’s never been a problem for me and my relatively normal web connection - I’d recommend stopping and waiting for the download version in September.

Anyway - relevantly, I did an interview with the Dublin based Burn All Zombies. I only know they’re Dublin based, because they mentioned it to me, which I kinda like. Most actual people I talk to don’t say where they are, which gives me the sense of them existing in the Internet, like Neuromancer ghosts. Conversely, Burn All Zombies are in Dublin. I saw all manner of stuff, primarily about the Curfew, but touching on a lot of my comic work and features me being really mean to Jamie, like so…

Finally, regarding characters or franchises from the worlds of comics and video games: if there were one character or franchise you could get your hands on, regardless of rights or medium, what would you write?

I would like to get my hands on all the Suburban Glamour characters, so Jamie doesn’t own them anymore. And then I would write them really badly, saying things like “Jamie McKelvie smells bad. He smells so bad. Pooooooooo! He smells like Pooo.” And then I would phone him up and laugh at him. Again.

I also, approaching the end, say something where I come fairly close to expressing what’s currently on my mind regarding the work. Read it all here. And thinking about that, I find myself turning to Lazy Line Painter Jane, which is normally a sign of something.

Enough self-obsession. I’ll also point you to the Scissor Sister’s Ana Matronix being interviewed by CBR about her strip in the second issue of the CBGB anthology, which is out this week. Good stuff.

So, the solicitations for November have gone up. Most important thing is this baby…

COVER BY: OLIVIER COIPEL
WRITER: KIERON GILLEN
PENCILS: SALVADOR ESPIN
INKS: SALVADOR ESPIN
THE STORY:
Spinning directly out of UNCANNY X-MEN comes the most important new X-Book in years—GENERATION HOPE! When Hope Summers returned from the future she triggered the rebirth of the mutant gene. Five lights appeared on Cerebra and five mutants’ powers came to life, but their activations have been chaotic and dangerous, nearly killing each of them. It was only the touch of Hope that saved their lives. With Rogue and the four new mutants who were gathered in UNCANNY X-MEN, Hope heads to Japan to join Cyclops, Wolverine and the fifth light. But will this new light be a hero or a villain? Only KIERONGILLEN (THOR) and SALVA ESPIN (SAVAGE SHE-HULK) know! 40 PGS./ /8 page saga/Rated T …$3.99

PRICE: 2.99
IN STORES: November 3, 2010

I’ve tweaked it a little from the actual listed solicits, as that’s a Coipel cover rather than a Land one. Presumably a typo somewhere. This is the start Generation Hope, cast begat from the word-womb of Matt Fraction and myself, with Salva Espin wrestling my cheery excesses into existence and generally about the future of mutantkind and whatever that means anyway. It’s a series equally inspired by the two great poles of teenage existence - body-horror and hot-making out. Please feel free to pre-order it.

Other things of note include the THOR: SIEGE AFTERMATH tradepaperback, which collects the my THE FINE PRINT run, which is my favourite of all the Thor stuff I’ve done. Also, Jamie McKelvie is contributing to ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN 150, which is a triple-side special which puts him side by side with David Lafuente, Skottie Young and Sara Pichelli, so will hopefully lead to everyone realising what a no-hoper he is.

******

In terms of criticism, Sarah Jaffe’s piece at the Awl on Phonogram: The Singles Club caught my eye. One of the longest and best meditations on Phonogram, and really worth reading. Sarah’s got a fine eye for some of the stuff people tend to miss.

Talking about a fine eye, I also enjoyed Multiversity’s Casting Couch article for The Singles Club, where they pair up actors with parts in an imaginary comics property. I am absolutely terrible at this, and never have an answer when people ask me “who should play Kohl in the films”, so will be shamelessly ripping it off.

Not actually about our stuff, but I thought Tim Callahan’s take on Issue 7 of Planetary over at CBG was particularly strong. Yeah, it totally does all this, but I think it under-estimates the smirk throughout. It’s also got me listening to the Art of Noise all day. Bastard Tim Callahan.

Finally, Craig Gilmore (aka Lazarii) writes to me to mention that a comics anthology he’s contributing to - “The Sleeping Phoenix” - is currently running a kickstarter project to try and get it off the ground. The long term readers of this blog will almost certainly remember Craig, and I suspect many of you would be interested in seeing this brave venture come to pass. I wish ‘em luck.

And that’s about all for now. Back to work.

And the big San Diego announcement which I mentioned in passing, but finally get a chance to put a proper post about together now.

Generation Hope is a new ongoing comic by yours truly with art by the ever-popular TBA. While I’ve written in the X-men part of the Marvel Universe before, this is by far the closest I’ve come to the core. It spins directly out of the current Five Lights arc of Uncanny X-men and stars the five characters above - co-created by Fraction and I in a series of excitable e-mails and late-night/early-morning XBox Live chats - and “Mutant Messiah” Hope, who binds them all together. Plus a cast of older X-men who are trying to make them shape-up, whatever that means.

I’ve done three interviews so far, which you’ll find below, all of which are fun…

Comic Book Resources
Newsarama
IGN

All were done either before or at SDCC, which caused a few problems - mainly that I couldn’t talk about it properly without spoiling Matt’s Five Lights arc, either in terms of who the characters are or the exact mechanics of how this series operates. The first issue came out last week, which fills in a few of the blanks - and introduces Laurie, the girl in blue on the far left. If you’re not following Uncanny, it could be a fun place to drop in if you’re planning on following Generation Hope - which I hope you will, because it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Expect more details in a second wave of interviews nearer release, but there’s a couple of basic concepts in the book which separate it from the classic “teens in training” X-men book - though I’d argue the core fantasy of becoming a mutant and dealing with it hasn’t been explored in the X-men for a long time, and is a key part of its appeal. Firstly, they’re instantly tight-knit and clannish around Hope. It’s called Generation Hope for a reason, and the gap between them and the traditional mutants is one theme. The second hook is… well, it’s kind of the inverse of X-Force. X-force protects mutant rights by black-op surgical strikes. Generation Hope protect mutant rights by rescue missions. They’re Medics to X-force’s Assassins. They’re here to save mutants. They’re here to save us all.

“Here to save us all”. If only there was a word to describe someone like that.

Oh yeah - I’m doing what I always do when doing this sort of thing, and keying characters to song. This is Hope:

Catching up a little with stuff that happened when I’m away. I’ll talk Generation Hope later, but here’s the two comics I’ve got out this week.

My Thor In Hell and Hel arc continues. Here’s the five-page-preview. Enormous metal seriousness. My dual influences remain I, Claudius and the cover of 1980s Metal albums. Assorted random reviews: IGN. A Comic Book Blog. Weekly Comic Book Review.

The concluding party of my two part character-study/fight-comic. Preview here. And no reviews which I can find, but pleased to see that at least some people thought it was funny. Few things make me worry more than writing comedy.

Oh - here’s Seb’s review of the first one, which will give you a taste for it.

Since I’m at San Diego, I haven’t had a chance to update about this until now but… CBGB 1 is out. You can find the 4 page preview here, read the first review here and see me interviewed about it by fellow CBGB 1 writer Sam Humphries here.

San Diego update? San Diego is a lovely time.

Crikey. I think I’ve got this wrestled down.

Basically, Jamie and I are going to be at the Image booth (#2729) for the whole four-and-a-half days. Come along, get stuff off us. We’ll have all our trades and a few (mainly girl-sized) T-shirts. We’ll see if we can dig out some single issues to take with us, but they’re short in supply.

At other times during the day, we will be on these panels and/or proper signings at assorted other places we detail below. During the evenings, we will be drinking, as is our wont.

WEDNESDAY

7pm-8pm: CBGB Signing with beautiful Sam Humphries and Kieron Gillen. BOOM! Studios Booth #2743

THURSDAY:

4pm-5pm: Marvel Signing (Booth #2329) for Gillen.

5pm-6pm: SFX Best of British Panel. Let me quote from the information online…

SFX presents The British Invasion— Five top UK writers from the worlds of TV, comics, books, and movies discuss what makes modern British SF unique. Dan Abnett (Ultramarines), China Miéville (Perdido Street Station), Paul Cornell (Doctor Who), Kieron Gillen (Thor), Pat Mills (2000 AD), and Toby Whithouse (BBC’s Being Human creator) talk to SFX magazine’s Dave Bradley in this panel and Q&A session. Room 5AB

Some more details here.

FRIDAY

10-11pm:
Kieron’s going to be on the X-men panel. Let’s quote from the information that’s been released…

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Following SECOND COMING, Marvel’s merry mutants are unable to catch a quick breather. As CURSE OF THE MUTANTS begins, there’s no telling what the vampires have in store for the X-Men…or is there? You’ve got questions & these people have answers! Vice President, Executive Editor Axel Alonso is joined by a host of creators to lay out what’s going on with the X-Men. Panelists include Matt Fraction (UNCANNY X-MEN), Victor Gischler (X-MEN), Marjorie Liu (DARK WOLVERINE), Daniel Way (DEADPOOL), Editor Nick Lowe and more for this all-new, all-DEADLY panel! Room 6DE

1pm-2pm: Jamie will be signing at the Ifanboy/Graphic.ly booth (#2229). Handy location info here.

SATURDAY

4pm-5pm: Kieron will be signing at the Ifanboy/Graphic.ly booth (#2229). Handy location info here.

SUNDAY

1pm-2pm: Marvel Signing (Booth #2329) for Gillen.

MONDAY

12-1pm: Too late, you fools. We’ve gone home.

******

They’ll be a few other times when either one or the other will be off having a meeting (which is slang for or “passing urine”. Or, alternatively, actually having a meeting.) And Kieron apologises in advance if he’s met you before, as he will inevitably not remember your name because he’s got the world’s worst memory for faces. And names. Jamie will though. Jamie’s good like that.

Will this be a funtime! This will be a funtime.