I’m attending the London MCM Expo this weekend. Together with Ben Templesmith, I’ll be doing signings and a panel to talk about DEAD SPACE.
The panel is at 12pm on Saturday, and will be held on Stage 2. Tony Lee will be hosting it and interviewing us, but we’ll try our best to still be sober by the end. Because…
The signings will be at the Manga Entertainment booth (Manga are distributing the DEAD SPACE: DOWNFALL DVD over here), just across the aisle from EA themselves, and will start at 1pm on both Saturday and Sunday.
The Manga booth will also have copies of my other books for sale, including a stash of Alex Rider graphic novels which I’m very happy to sign if that’s your thing.
Should be a good laugh. Hope to see you there.
[ Dead Space / Alex Rider / Appearances ]
Witness the extraordinary work of DEAD SPACE producer Chuck Beaver, who hand made the “Isaac Suit” for EA’s booth at San Diego:
Awesome stuff. (And spare a thought for poor model Jay, who upon donning the helmet found himself blind and breathing his own exhalations. Yum.)
Anyway, San Diego was great. Thanks to everyone who came out to see Ben and I for DEAD SPACE, or Chris and I for WASTELAND. Apologies to anyone who missed me—I was running back and forth between both booths all weekend, and as they were practically at opposite ends of the convention centre, it often took me a full ten minutes to get from one to the other.
One particular highlight was Chuck BB, artist of BLACK METAL (one of 2007’s best books) and our special guest illustrator for WASTELAND #20, winning an Eisner. Nice!
A reminder: this Saturday (i.e. August 2nd) I’ll be appearing at Travelling Man’s Manchester store, signing WASTELAND and anything else shoved in front of me, from 2pm till 4pm. If you’re in the area, do pop in and say hi.
[ Dead Space / Wasteland / Videogames / Appearances ]
Like everyone else and their aunt I’m running around preparing for San Diego right now, so without further ado:
WASTELAND #19 (Diamond order code MAY084063) is scheduled to reach stores this week. This issue is Rain When I Die, and concludes the current story arc. Here’s the solicit text:
The battle is over! But with the Sand-Eaters defeated, Jakob faces a new dilemma—stay or leave? Meanwhile, as the council reels from the revelation of Mebsaa, a new plan for the city is hatched—and Golden Voice’s final quest for Sunner freedom may be its first victim…
(Note that, owing to San Diego, thebigwet.com won’t be updated until next week.)
Also due to Comic-Con, there’s of course no telling how many stores WASTELAND will actually reach this week—as I predicted, DEAD SPACE #5 wasn’t available everywhere on the 16th for the same reasons, but if your store missed out, you should be sorted this week instead.
As for San Diego Comic-Con itself, I’ll be there (along with more than 100,000 other people if reports are to be believed—yikes), merrily signing away. If you want to find me, check the bar here’s where I’ll be.
All Oni Press signings are with Christopher Mitten; all EA signings are with Ben Templesmith.
Thursday
12.00-1.20 - Oni Press, #1834
2.00-4.00 - EA, #5233
4.30-5.50 - Oni Press, #1834Friday
2.00-4.00 - EA, #5233
4.30-5.50 - Oni Press, #1834Saturday
10.30-11.50 - Oni Press, #1834
2.00-4.00 - EA, #5233
6.00-6.50 - Oni Press, #1834Ben and I will also be on Saturday’s DEAD SPACE panel, which starts at 5.00 in Room 2.
Sunday
3.00-4.20 - Oni Press, #1834
At the Oni booth we’ll be selling two brand new WASTELAND T-shirts and giving away some very cool button badges. As for DEAD SPACE, I’ll be amazed if there aren’t posters and the like available at the EA booth.
Also, do note that EA booth number; it’s way over the other end of the convention centre from the main comics booths, so get your walking boots on.
And that’s it from me until the con’s over. Hope to see you there.
[ Dead Space / Wasteland / Appearances / On Sale ]
I’ve just been informed that Secret Identity’s listeners have voted for WASTELAND to be this year’s Summer Reading Project.
It’s an interactive thing: every week, starting from July 12th, Matt and Brian read and review one issue of the book. But they also encourage their listeners to do the same, and then everyone discusses it afterwards on their boards. They’ll be working their way up to #13, and if I have time I’ve agreed to answer any questions that come up about each issue. Should be pretty darn cool.
I also have a new date for that signing in Manchester—it’s been rescheduled for Saturday 2nd August, at 2pm. But I’ll post a fuller reminder about that closer to the time, because before then we have the behemoth of San Diego to slay…
[ Wasteland / Appearances ]
Last night’s appearance at Travelling Man went well. The appalling weather unfortunately kept a few people away, but everyone that made it had a good time, and there were some great questions asked. Thanks to everyone who made it, and Travelling Man for being wonderful hosts.
The whole thing was recorded, too—they’re going to launch a podcast under the Thought Bubble name, and this will be the first release. When it’s up, I’ll link to it here so those of you who couldn’t make it (which includes everyone not in England, for a start) don’t miss out.
Along the same lines, I’ve also updated the For Writers page, adding a new original script (issue #9 of WASTELAND) and a section about backup and syncing habits. Both issues, especially syncing between multiple work machines, are things that I know many writers struggle with (let’s be honest, we’re often not the most tech-savvy people around). It’s taken me a long time to find a system that’s both simple and robust, so I hope it’s useful to some of you out there.
[ Wasteland / Appearances / Free Stuff / Musings ]
News on those two personal appearances I mentioned, then. Or one of them, anyway. Sort of. Read on:
In Leeds, I’ll be appearing at Travelling Man for their inaugural Comics Masterclass (part of their now-regular series of Comics Nights) and obviously mine will be about writing. It’ll mostly be an extended Q&A session, but don’t think that means it’ll be short on speechifying; anyone who saw me on the “indie vs mainstream” panel at the end of last year’s Thought Bubble knows I have a tendency to ramble at length, and I’m not short of an opinion or three.
It takes place next week on Thursday 26th June in the Travelling Man coffee bar (downstairs from the store), and is scheduled for 6.30-8.00pm. Though, given the aforementioned rambling tendency—not to mention that the place is fully licensed for booze—don’t be too surprised if we overrun just a little.
Full address and details are here. There’s no entry cost, but space is limited, so book to be sure of a place.
Meanwhile, I was also lined up to do a signing at Travelling Man’s Manchester store, but it was unfortunately flooded last week (is it possible to be fortunately flooded?) and they’re still cleaning it all up. So we’re going to reschedule that for a later date, probably some time around San Diego (which I’ll be attending, by the way).
Details, of both Manchester and SD, will of course be posted here closer to the time.
[ Appearances ]
WonderCon was fantastic, thanks for asking. Ben and I barely stopped signing all weekend - we reckon we must have topped 1,000 comics and posters by the end of it - and I had a great time (despite travel woes that saw me arrive a day late, and minus my luggage). I’d forgotten how much I like San Francisco. Hopefully I won’t leave it seven years before returning next time…
We couldn’t see the end of the line:
The Isotope party was a hit, with a pretty full house. I sold out of my bound scripts, and Ben sold a metric boatload of artwork. My thanks to James Sime, his wife Kirsten and the inimitable Storm for putting on a great party and looking after us.
We also did a signing at the EA campus after the con, which was great fun and totally insane. People gave up their entire lunch breaks to stand in a line that, again, we literally couldn’t see the end of:
So, thanks all. Let’s do it again some time.
DEAD SPACE #1 officially goes on sale this week, $2.99, available from all good comic stores.
The official game website, in addition to bonus stuff about the game, also has previews of the book and the animated trailer they made for it. Pretty nifty. Go to deadspacegame.com and see for yourself.
Finally, I did an interview about DEAD SPACE for ComicMonsters.com, which is now up. We did plenty of interviews at the show as well, for podcasts and the like, so hopefully those will all be available soon.
[ Dead Space / Appearances / Interviews / On Sale ]
Last-minute WonderCon confirmations before I jet off…
• The EA booth is attached to “Image Island”, and is #509. I’ll be there for DEAD SPACE signings, with Ben of course:
Friday, 2.00-3.30
Saturday, 2.00-3.30
• I’ll also be on the Comics and Multimedia panel, Saturday 11.00-12.00. This is in the programme as “Spotlight on Ben Templesmith”, but it’s also a general multimedia discussion. It’s in Room 220.
• The Oni booth is #621. I don’t know exactly when I’ll be there, though a decent portion of Sunday is currently looking the most likely time. If you want something signed and can’t make it to the Image booth at the above times, head for the Oni booth instead. If I’m not there, they’ll know when I will be.
(Christopher Mitten can’t make it after all, but I’m still going to see if I can pressgang Ben into joining me for a WASTELAND signing.)
• Finally, the Isotope party has been officially announced:
Click here for a bigger image and full details.
That’s it—I’m off to get some rest (I can never sleep properly on aeroplanes). Hope to see you there.
[ Dead Space / Wasteland / Appearances ]
San Francisco WonderCon is just over a week away, from Fri 22 till Sun 24. Ben Templesmith and I will both be attending to promote the launch of DEAD SPACE. EA will have a special con-only edition of issue #1 for sale and we’ll be signing copies, possibly doing a panel or two.
We’re also hoping to get Christopher Mitten out to attend, so that we can do another three-at-once signing for WASTELAND at the Oni booth (#621). Not sure if Chris will be able to make it out yet, though.
• Special Event! Finally, Ben and I will be appearing at Isotope on Friday 22nd, from 8pm onwards. We’ll be signing copies of all our books, answering your questions, and selling some stuff—Ben will have original art, I’ll have some limited edition bound scripts. This is the first time either of us have ‘experienced’ an Isotope event, so it should be a lot of fun.
[ Dead Space / Wasteland / Appearances ]
I saw the printer’s proof of DEAD SPACE #1 yesterday, and it looks stunning. Prequels are always a hard gig to pull off, because you have to tell a good story without giving too much of the main story away (i.e. the game, which is released on Halloween this year). But I think this is a good one. Quite proud of it, actually.
Ben and I will be at WonderCon next month to promote it. I believe there’ll be a short-run convention special of the first issue on sale there, and EA say they have some other promotional events lined up (though I have no idea what).
In other news, I’m about to start work on the WOLVERINE manga, I’ll shortly be writing WASTELAND #18, I’m contributing to the upcoming Tori Amos COMIC BOOK TATTOO anthology, and working apace on another of those left-field projects I mentioned a while back. Still can’t talk about it yet, though. Shame, it’s really cool.
And that’s about it for now (oh, is that all?!). WASTELAND #14 will be on sale shortly - when I know the exact date, I’ll let everyone know. Until then, it’s back to the grindstone for me…
[ Dead Space / Wasteland / Wolverine / Appearances / Anthologies ]
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