7th January 2010 / Wasteland / Videogames / Interviews / On Sale
WASTELAND #27 is now on sale. This is the second part of the “Enemy Within” story arc, following Jakob’s perspective on the six months following the Sand-Eater attack.
The order code is JUL091015, and here’s the solicit:
After saving the city from the Sand-Eaters, Jakob has a plum position in the city Watch… but Golden Voice’s call for freedom will give him pause for thought. Working for a man he despises and abandoned by his faith, Jakob must decide where his loyalties lie as Newbegin faces a Sunner rebellion!
(Observant readers will have noticed that WASTELAND #29 hasn’t yet been solicited; don’t panic, we just ‘paused’ solicitations when it became clear #26 and #27 would be delayed, because we all hate soliciting books that we know we can’t ship. We’re getting back on track now, so #29 will be solicited next month.)
Of interest to the videogame crowd: the inimitable Fran Shergold of Ready Up! recently interviewed Rhianna Pratchett and myself about writing for games, and it turned out pretty interesting. You can read the whole thing here.
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.
17th November 2009 / Wasteland / Appearances / Daredevil
As previously mentioned, I’m attending Thought Bubble in Leeds this Saturday. If you don’t know it, TB is fast becoming one of the premier comic conventions in Britain — it’s comics-focused, creator-friendly, and very well organised.
You can view the full programme here (the one-day con is part of a larger festival over three days), but here’s the relevant info for me:
Two other brief snippets of news today: First, there’s a very nice review of WASTELAND up at sci-fi site io9.com.
Second, as you may have already heard, I’m co-writing DAREDEVIL #505-507 (“Left Hand Path”) with Andy Diggle. We’ve wanted to work together on something for a long time, and now we finally have the chance. More on that soon, no doubt.
16th November 2009 / Wasteland / On Sale
WASTELAND Book 05, “Tales of the Uninvited”, goes on sale this week.
This is a collection people have been asking us about for a long time — it contains all the interlude issues thus far, which don’t appear in the other trade paperback collections. So you get issues #7 (drawn by Carla Speed McNeil), #14 (Joe Infurnari), #20 (Chuck BB) and #25 (the double-length colour issue, drawn by regular series artist Christopher Mitten).
These stories are set in different places and times to the main story, shedding light on the people and places of WASTELAND — some familiar, some not-so. One of the things I love about the book is that it allows me to write stories like this on the side, delving into the mythos without disturbing the larger narrative.
It’s $13.95 for 128 pages (48 of them in colour), the Diamond order code is SEP090939, and the ISBN is 978-193496429-3.
And this is probably as good a time as any to apologise for the delay of issue #27. It’s due to personal circumstances outside of our control, and that’s about as much as I’m prepared to say. Rest assured that no-one is more frustrated about the delay than us, but these things happen, and we beg your patience for a few weeks more.
21st September 2009 / Wasteland / On Sale
If we’d tried to plan it this way, it would never have happened, but happening it is; both issue #26 and the first Apocalyptic Edition hardback of WASTELAND hit stores this week.
Issue #26 kicks off a brand new story arc, “The Enemy Within”, which takes us through the six months in Newbegin following the Sand-Eater attack, and Golden Voice’s call for Sunner freedom. Each issue will focus on a different character, and we start with Yan, son of the late ex-Primate Heddor.
The order code is JUN091043, and here’s the solicit:
BRAND NEW STORY ARC! Six months of chaos and turmoil following the Sand-Eater battle, as the city struggles to cope with upheaval. Each issue follows a different character. This month features Marcus’ precocious young charge Yan, as he is sent to work for Artisian Neelan — but discovers a side to life, and perhaps himself, that he never dreamed existed.
As for the Apocalyptic Edition, well, I’ve talked about this several times already. It collects the first thirteen issues in their entirety, including the Walking the Dust text pieces and Ben Templesmith’s original covers.
Suffice to say that the production values are gorgeous, the new art for Walking The Dust is amazing, the colour cover gallery is awesome, and we all couldn’t be happier with how it’s turned out. We knew going in that only the serious fans are going to pick up a hardback, so we worked around the clock to make sure it’s worth every penny.
The Diamond code for the Apocalyptic Edition, Vol. 1 is MAY090998, and the ISBN is 978-1934964194.
30th August 2009 / Wasteland / Pre-order / Anthologies
Two things to announce today:
WASTELAND Book 05
I don’t often mention solicitations for the collected editions of WASTELAND, but this one deserves your attention.
Book 05: Tales Of The Uninvited is a collection of ‘interlude’ issues — the one-shots by guest artists that we run between the main story arcs, and which aren’t collected in the regular book editions.
There’s a good reason we don’t do that, which is outlined in my FAQ. But despite our (oft-repeated) assurances, we still regularly get people asking us why they’re not collected, whether we’re going to put them in their own collection, or what?
So, we decided to put this collection together. Never let it be said we don’t listen to our fans.
The book includes issues #7 (with art by Carla Speed McNeil), #14 (Joe Infurnari), #20 (Chuck BB) and #25 (regular series artist Chris Mitten, working in full colour paints). It goes on sale in November, and can be preordered now from your comic retailer with the code SEP090939.
LAST DRINK BIRD HEAD
“What an odd title!” You may be thinking, and if so, you’re thinking exactly what I was when Jeff Vandermeer first approached me about this project.
LAST DRINK BIRD HEAD is a flash fiction (i.e. ultra-short stories) anthology benefitting charities working to promote literacy. It’s edited by Jeff and his wife Ann, who gave contributors a single editorial directive. It went like this:
Last Drink Bird Head.
Don’t think; just write.
So I did. And so did Peter Straub, Stephen R Donaldson, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Caitlin R Kiernan, Brian Evenson, Nicholas Royle, Gene Wolfe, and many, many other writers substantially more talented and famous than I.
I’ve read the manuscript, and it’s chock full of great, imaginitive pieces. Plus, you know, charidee. Keep an eye on Jeff’s blog for more updates, and I’ll announce here when the book is available.
26th August 2009 / Wasteland / Musings
It was my birthday yesterday. I spent it working, as is often the case, but I’m off to Paris next weekend, so that’ll do me. Briefly, then:
WASTELAND: THE APOCALYPTIC EDITION, Vol I is en route from the printers. The Oni web site had it scheduled for arrival in stores today, but with hardcovers (which are printed outside the US) these dates are only ever an estimate, especially as the books have to clear customs. But it’s definitely on the way, and of course I’ll announce it the moment we know when it will reach stores.
I finished the script for WASTELAND #29 this week, and we sent WASTELAND #26 to press, so expect that in stores soon. Issue #29 is all about Dexus, and he’s always fun to write.
I’m also very close to finishing the ‘Zero Draft’ of cold war spy thriller COLD CITY, which I’ve mentioned before.
Allow me to explain what a ‘Zero Draft’ is.
The first stage of any story is the outline. I tend to lengthier outlines than some writers, but it’s inevitable that things will change as I write, no matter how detailed the outline is.
The next stage is writing basic dialogue and blocking out major scene directions; this often consists of rough, on-the-nose speech and just an indication of where the scene takes place. It’s the writing equivalent of a guide vocal, if you will. If something major happens, like a character shooting someone, I include that. But if it’s a talking heads scene, with no real need for detailed action description, I just write the dialogue.
Why not write all the panels in full? Because things change. I might get halfway through, then come up with a great idea that necessitates altering scenes in the first half. I might get to the end, only to realise I need to set something up halfway through. Whole characters and scenes can appear, disappear or be changed wholesale. But if you start making those changes immediately, before finishing the rest of the script, more often than not you’ll get bogged down, lose momentum, and never finish. Instead, I just make a note about what I want to change and press on.
So the Zero Draft allows me to get the skeleton of the script finished. It’s much easier to look at a story and see what needs revising once the whole thing is in place, even if you know a lot of it will change.
And a big advantage of this method is speed; in the Zero Draft stage, I can power through twenty pages in a good day. Of course, it’s a complete mess, and not fit for anyone but me to read. It wouldn’t even make sense to most people. But it gives me a whole story to look at and start revising… which is the next stage, followed by writing all the panels out in full, then polishing and polishing again until the first true draft is ready.
Anyway. Happy birthday to me; have an amusing Internet site to celebrate.
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!
6th July 2009 / Wasteland / On Sale
WASTELAND #25 goes on sale (finally!) this week.
As I mentioned before, this is a double-length, full-colour issue (with painted art from regular series artist Christopher Mitten) that delves into the history between Michael and Sultan Ameer.
The Diamond order code is JAN094382, and here’s the solicit text:
Michael and Sultan Ameer were once friends. So why are they now so hostile? The answer lies in the city of Waters Meet. Ten years ago, Ameer’s machine caravan rolled into town — and Michael found himself at the centre of a whirlwind of love, lust, tragedy and betrayal! Don’t miss this special double-length, full color anniversary issue!
Once again, I can only apologise for the delay. This is the first time we’ve done a full colour issue, and we miscalculated how long it would take to finish. That wouldn’t have been so bad, but as a result we subsequently missed our printer slot, which pushed it back even further. We screwed up, plain and simple, and we’re sorry.
But hopefully you’ll agree it was worth the wait — and don’t forget there’s a huge interview plus 13-page preview at CBR to (big) whet your appetite.
The good news is, we’ll be back on track in no time. I’m currently writing issue #29, and Christopher is already halfway through drawing #26, scheduled for an August release. As for July, we’ll all be at San Diego, and more on that soon.
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