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 ]
Just a quick reminder that DEAD SPACE goes on sale tomorrow in America for PS3 and XBOX.
Us Euros, and PC owners, will have to wait another week—by which time No Known Survivors will have wrapped up, too. It’s a good time to be a space zombie killer on the loose.
[ Dead Space / Videogames / On Sale ]
I’m not going to post every link that comes up, because every gaming mag and site around will be reviewing it, and that would get a bit dull. But this one’s pretty special: issue #71 of Xbox World 360 magazine, out now in the UK, has the exclusive first review of DEAD SPACE.
The verdict? 91%, and special praise for the “film-worthy” script. Nice!
[ Dead Space / Videogames ]
So it would seem there’s a bit of confusion over something I apparently said to PSW magazine about DEAD SPACE:
But don’t you dare go skipping any cut scenes in Dead Space.
“You’d be a fool to do that,” Johnson told PSW magazine. “If you want to find out the mysteries of the game, you need to listen to the dialogue. But more than that, you actually need to listen to it so you can complete the game.”
Now, this interview was conducted back in April, at the Sci-Fi- London event, so the fact that I have no actual memory of saying it (especially the last part) is neither here nor there. I do remember the guy from PSW, and he was a nice chap, so I’m willing to trust it isn’t a misquote.
However, it is being taken out of context, and I know this for one simple reason: there are no cut scenes in DEAD SPACE. Not one. Everything takes place in real game time. You can listen to audio logs, or watch video logs, while you’re running around dismembering necromorphs to your heart’s content if you want to. Or you can stop and listen/watch as you find them. But they don’t remove control from the player and they don’t stop the action.
So there’s really no need to skip them at all, and if you do, well, you’re only really getting half the game. Which is probably the context in which I actually said the above. Hey ho.
[ Dead Space / Videogames / Interviews ]
Issue #6 of DEAD SPACE, the final instalment of the series, goes on sale this week. The Diamond order code is JUN082254, and here’s the solicit text:
Concluding the prequel horror series to Electronic Arts’ upcoming DEAD SPACE survival horror game! One by one the avenues of escape from the colony of Aegis VII are closed off. Survival seems impossible! But Neumann has a plan. Will it be their salvation? Or will the colony itself become nothing more than a dead space?
…It probably isn’t giving too much away to tell you that it doesn’t end well. For anyone.
And don’t forget there’s more DEAD SPACE goodness (or should that be goriness) at No Known Survivors.
[ Dead Space / On Sale ]
So I’m pretty sure this hasn’t been officially announced yet, but the cover to the first volume of WOLVERINE: PRODIGAL SON is now on Amazon.
(Except, um, it’s in black and white for some reason. I’ve seen the cover colours myself, so I know this isn’t final art, but I also know Amazon often requires covers many months in advance. I therefore assume this is just an old mockup done specifically for them. Hopefully it’ll be fixed soon enough.) [The final coloured cover is now up for all to see, so I’ve altered the image here.]
What’s more interesting is there’s now an official release date of April 7th 2009, and all this means it is, of course, available for preorder from Amazon US (or Amazon UK if you’re over here, naturally).
Speaking of release dates, DEAD SPACE has been brought forward by a week (again!) and will now ship on the 14th October in America.
There’s no official word on whether the European release will be moved forward too, but the expectation is that it’ll follow over here on the 17th October.
[ Dead Space / Wolverine / Videogames / Pre-order ]
EA has just launched No Known Survivors, a DEAD SPACE website that will be updated weekly throughout the run-up to the game’s launch. It’s designed to take you “behind the scenes in-game” with logs, files and animations that give you insight into the Ishimura and its crew as they approach their untimely fate.
I mention NKS here because I wrote a few scripts for it. The implementation has changed quite a bit from the site’s original inception—for the better, I might add—so I don’t know how much of my stuff is still there, though I’ve already found at least one (I’d link to it, but the whole site is in Flash… It’s the medical logs of “Jane Gauthier”). Either way, it’s a pretty cool idea.
[ADDENDUM: Some of the PR I’ve seen quoted around the web implies it’s not changed much after all, and in fact most of what will appear on the site is stuff I wrote. I guess we’ll see in the weeks to come.]
[ Dead Space / Animation / Videogames ]
There’s a new interview with me about DEAD SPACE up at Comic Book Resources today, talking about how we dealt with the comic being ‘in sync’ with the game, the challenge of making people care about a comic where most of the characters are doomed from the start, and so on. Click here to read it.
Obviously, I’m talking here mostly about the comics—but interviewer Brian LeTendre (moonlighting from Secret Identity) also interrogated DEAD SPACE producer and story guru Chuck Beaver at the same time, to ask more about the game and its story. That one should be live soon, and I’ll link to it when it’s up. [EDIT: It’s there now.]
[ Dead Space / Videogames / Interviews ]
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 ]
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