18th December 2009 / Dead Space / Wasteland / Wolverine / Interviews / Cold City / Daredevil
Quick round-up before the holidays…
(I’ll do a proper year in review post soon, but may not have time before the new year.)
Comic Book Resources interviewed me recently about WASTELAND, DAREDEVIL and COLD CITY. You can read it here.
WOLVERINE: PRODIGAL SON, which was shortlisted in the Texas Library Association’s Maverick YA reading recommendations, made the final list. See the full thing here.
The lovely and generous Jeff VanderMeer talks about Volume 1 of the WASTELAND Apocalyptic Edition hardback on Amazon today, with an excerpt from his introduction to the book. Read it here.
DEAD SPACE 2 has been officially announced, and a lot of people have asked me if I’m on board once more. Sadly, no, I won’t be writing this game. It hopefully won’t be my last excursion into the Dead Space universe, though…
That’s all I can talk about for now, but as always there’s a whole host of stuff bubbling under right now. Happy holidays, everyone, and remember; Santa cannot be trusted.
29th September 2009 / Dead Space / On Sale
DEAD SPACE: EXTRACTION is released today in America (Friday in Europe).
In case you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few months, EXTRACTION is a prequel to last year’s DEAD SPACE game, made exclusively for the Wii. And it’s getting rather good reviews, pretty much ticking all the boxes that I predicted.
Everyone involved with EXTRACTION, from the producers to the coders to the artists to the voice actors (and, of course, me!) put a hell of a lot of work into making it a worthy successor to DEAD SPACE. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say I hope you enjoy it.
8th September 2009 / Dead Space / Alex Rider / On Sale
SKELETON KEY is now on sale in the UK and Europe (an American edition, published by Philomel, will follow soon). I received my advance copy this weekend, and it looks fantastic.
As with POINT BLANC, this graphic novel is based on the original book, and as always, it’s drawn by the dynamic sisters Kanako and Yuzuru. Here’s the blurb:
Reluctant teenage superspy Alex Rider is useful to MI6 in ways an adult could never be. Now they need his help once again. But a routine reconaissance mission at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships sets off a terrifying chain of events for Alex that sees him on the run from a murderous Chinese triad gang. Forced to hide out, Alex is sent to Cayo Esqueleto — Skeleton Key — an island near Cuba. Waiting for him there is General Alexei Sarov — a coldly insane Russian with explosive plans to rewrite history. Alex faces his most dangerous challenge yet. Alone, and equipped only with a handful of gadgets, Alex must outwit Sarov as the seconds tick away towards the end of the world…
The UK ISBN is 9781406313482. As soon as I have details for the Philomel edition, I’ll post them here.
I’ve mentioned before that this book required a bit of jiggery-pokery with Sabina’s character, seeing as in the novels Alex doesn’t even meet her until this book! But I think it worked out pretty well, and it sets us up nicely for EAGLE STRIKE, which will hopefully hit shelves in 2010…
Also this week, according to Diamond’s shipping list, the DEAD SPACE: EXTRACTION one-shot comic goes on sale. That’s a little earlier than most of us expected, but now you get even more time to pore over Ben’s lovely art before the game hits later this month. Here’s the solicitation:
Take a step further into the horrifying world of DEAD SPACE with EXTRACTION, the special edition comic of the forthcoming Wii title, from the same creative team behind the original DEAD SPACE comic! Senior Medical Officer Nicole Brennan gets the chance of a lifetime when she’s assigned to the USG Ishimura… but before long, the necromorph infection breaks out and Nicole must race to unravel the horrifying clues she finds in a very special young girl!
You can read a huge 9-page preview at Newsarama, and order it with the code JUL090350.
31st July 2009 / Dead Space / Wasteland / Julius / Appearances
I’m back from San Diego — no thanks to British Airways and Heathrow Airport, but that’s a whole other story.
It was, overall, a good con. Interesting Future Things™ may come of it. Or may not, who knows. I’m not going to give a rundown of everything that happened, as it would be rather boring to anyone who wasn’t there anyway. So, briefly:
Thanks to everyone who came out to see me and Chris, or me and Ben. And especially to those crazy guys who bought the super-limited black cloth edition of WASTELAND.
Now, I go to sleep for a week.
20th July 2009 / Dead Space / Wasteland / Appearances / On Sale
San Diego Comic-Con beckons once again. I have three books premiering at the show this year, so here’s a rundown of where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing.
New Books
— The Walking the Dust text pieces from those issues (with illustrations from Chris Mitten, Sam Kieth, Brian Hurtt, Robbi Rodriguez, Joe Infurnari and Joëlle Jones)
— A full colour gallery of Ben Templesmith’s issue covers
— A brand new introduction by Jeff Vandermeer
The book is 384pp, and now you can see why. It’s a real brick.
As if all that wasn’t enough, the edition we’re selling at San Diego is a special ultra-limited “black cloth” edition — signed and numbered, with a sketch plate, and it comes in an exclusive WASTELAND hemp bag. First come, first served, available only at the Oni Press booth.
This special issue focuses on Nicole Brennan, a character players of the original DEAD SPACE will be familiar with, in the days before Isaac Clarke was called out to the Ishimura.
Like the original comic series, it’s drawn by Ben Templesmith, and Ben and I will both be at the EA booth throughout the weekend to sign copies (see below for times).
You’ll also be able to try the game out for yourselves, if you’re so inclined. You might even get to hear some of my character dialogue, assuming you can hear anything over the noise of the con floor…
It collects seven scripts in total (at least one from each year of 2002-2007), features an introduction and notes on each script by myself, and clocks in at a fairly whopping 264pp.
COLLECTED SCRIPTS will only be available directly from me at Comic-Con 2009. It will not be made available in stores. I may consider selling copies direct from this site if there’s enough interest, but for now my intention is to sell the book at conventions only.
Signing Times
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
…And that’s your lot. Hope to see you there!
17th June 2009 / Dead Space / Wasteland / Interviews / On Sale / Pre-order
WASTELAND BOOK 04: DOG TRIBE goes on sale today. Collecting issues #21-24, this volume tells the story of how Michael and Abi’s quest for A-Ree-Yass-I is almost stopped before it starts, as they find themselves caught between two rival Dog Tribes fighting for supremacy.
The ISBN is 978-1934964170, and for comic stores the Diamond order code is APR090964.
In other WASTELAND news, the double-sized, full colour anniversary issue #25 goes on sale next week, the 24th June. That’s a fair bit later than we solicited for, and no-one is more embarrassed about that than me, but I promise you it’s worth the wait. Chris’ painted art is gorgeous, and even seven months after I wrote it, I’m still pretty pleased with the story. [ADDENDUM: I’ve just been told it’s likely to actually be the week after, owing to distribution delays. Sigh.]
You can read an interview with us about WASTELAND #25, and see an exclusive 13-page (!) preview, at Comic Book Resources.
You may also have noticed a couple of recent additions to the Coming Soon sidebar, over there on the right; DEAD SPACE: EXTRACTION goes on sale, exclusively for the Wii, in September. Before that, though, you’ll be able to get your hands on the EXTRACTION comic, a one-shot issue that ties in with both EXTRACTION and the original DEAD SPACE game, once again featuring the inestimable Ben Templesmith on art duties.
And finally, the new comics blog Exquisite Things asked me to contribute to their Simple Headphone Mind section, wherein creators reveal what music they’ve been listening to recently. No surprises there for anyone familiar with my Last.fm page, but fun nevertheless.
(Blog founder Matthew Dick is also part of UK noisemeisters Analysis of Bison Kills, by the way, and if you’re into a bit of grind and doom you should check them out. Because they’re brilliant.)
17th April 2009 / Dead Space / Wolverine / Interviews / On Sale
Last batch of WOLVERINE links for now, promise:
I was interviewed on Secret Identity last week, talking mainly about Wolvie, but also WASTELAND #25 and (briefly) DEAD SPACE: EXTRACTION. I always enjoy chatting to the guys at SI, so this is probably the most relaxed interview you’ll hear me do for a while.
Bookgasm reviewed PRODIGAL SON and gave it a big thumbs up. Their review features the words “Horde of Ninjas”, which is reason enough to give it a read.
Finally, Newsarama did a fairly in-depth WOLVERINE interview with both me and Wilson Tortosa, the book’s artist. Which makes a nice change.
1st March 2009 / Dead Space / Videogames
I’ve been informed that I can officially announce what a few people already guessed — I’m scripting DEAD SPACE: EXTRACTION, the new game for the Wii.
Obviously what I can’t do is go into any detail yet. But I can say the following:
That’s all I can say for now, but there’ll be plenty more closer to release.
31st December 2008 / Dead Space / Wasteland / Free Stuff / Pre-order
Two quick snippets of news before the New Year:
First, 
WASTELAND #25 is now available to pre-order. I don’t normally mention WASTELAND solicitations here, but this is a special case.
It’s almost hard to believe that we’ve made it this far—very few indie series survive a full year, let alone to a quarter-century of issues—so to celebrate, we’ve put together a double-length full-colour anniversary issue, with painted art by Christopher.
The order code is JAN094382 and the issue will be on sale around March/April, following the conclusion of the current Dog Tribe story arc. You can see the full-page solicitation from the January PREVIEWS on Flickr.
Second, as part of its annual New Year tradition with Image Comics, Newsarama has made the entire first issue of DEAD SPACE available for free.
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, this is the prequel to the acclaimed video game of the same name and was recently released in a hardback collected edition. Try before you buy.
Happy New Year, everyone. See you on the other side of midnight.
21st November 2008 / Dead Space / Appearances / On Sale
The DEAD SPACE hardcover collection is now on sale—a couple of weeks earlier than scheduled, just like the game.
The book collects all six issues of the DEAD SPACE series, concept artwork from the game, previously unseen art by Ben Templesmith, and extra background information on the series’ main characters by myself. I’ve had my copy for a couple of weeks now, and it’s a lovely package; sturdy, well-bound, nice paper.
In appearance news, first I want to say thank you to everyone who came out to Thought Bubble in Leeds last weekend to say hi. I had a great time, and so did everyone else—if you didn’t go, you missed out on what is rapidly contending for the title of “best UK con”. Let’s do it all again next year.
If you’re in the Leeds area, though, you don’t even have to wait that long—I’ll be signing at Travelling Man Leeds on December 13th, primarily to sign copies of the above DEAD SPACE hardcover and Book 3 of WASTELAND (which is due the first week of December) though as always I’ll be happy to sign anything else you want to bring along.
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