In this episode Kieron Gillen will be working on a video game comic whaaaaat yasss.

Topics include legend status, actual fandemonium, gods as pop stars, everything you’ve learned by 40 in one book, sentient rave dance floors, gamer life, hitting deadlines, and what he’s doing next!

Links:

Transcript:

Kara:  Welcome back to the New York Comic Con live stage. I’m here on the Twitch stage with my co-host Slim. I’m Kzam, we’re both from ComiXology, co-host the weekly comiXologist podcast, and we’re here with comics legend, Kieron Gillen. Welcome.

Kieron Gillen: Legend makes it sound I’ve died? So it’s like.. Thank you very much, though.

Kara: Your current book that everyone is going nuts over, is The Wicked + The Divine. Tell us a little bit about that nutty line that you had at your artist alley table earlier.

Kieron Gillen: It’s like literally, we’ve been signing since 9:30 this morning. We signed all yesterday. It’s generally cause of, Fandemonium, it’s like, oh no, sorry, the title of the second book is that. So yeah, lots of people in cosplay, people buying tee shirts of the characters. There’s a little bit of like, the book kind of becoming reality a bit, so it kind of starts feeding on itself, and you realize you’ve written a book about fame and celebrity and what art means to people, and you kind of realize, oh no, that’s what’s kind of happening around the book. If the actual TV show ever takes off, it would be amazing, but it would probably be very weird. Because, you know, a book about fame and stardom becomes an object. You end up facing, you know, a metacritique. But yes, it’s a lot of interesting times.

Kara: All right. How would you describe The Wicked + The Divine to someone who hasn’t experienced it yet?

Kieron Gillen: I would say it is about gods as pop stars, and pop stars as gods. The idea being that every ninety years, twelve gods are reborn in human form, and they are loved and hated, and perform for enormous crowds, and then in two years, they’re dead. And it’s happening now, it’s happening again. The whole story is about the 2014 incarnation of gods, and how they impact on the world, and how they generally mess around with one another. It’s about fame, celebrity, sex, death, the big, exciting themes.

Matt:  It is, and I remember we talked previously, there had been an issue that had come out that shocked everyone. It broke some hearts. We’ve talked about the fandom before, but eventually, this book will probably end and … I feel like it’s going to end in a way that people will be even more upset, at some point.

Kieron Gillen: It’s going to be okay, as I always say. The whole thing is planned to be 30-60 issues. We know the end. How to phrase this … I’m very happy that people have faith in us. Even the really big shockers, like issue 11. People, “Oh, it must be done for a reason.” It’s true, it’s an enormously planned work. Everything we’re doing is done for a reason, and when we hit issue, I don’t know, issue 40, people go, “Oh, yeah, no. I get it.” The whole thing is the idea, it’s a book that is everything I have learned, or loved, or hated, and point to one enormous thing. Everything I’ve learned for 40 years on earth … I said 40. Yes, last Saturday.

Matt: Foot in the grave.

Kieron Gillen: Yeah.

Matt: It’s over.

Kieron Gillen: Then I can die, and everything’s fine. Then I will truly be be a comics legend.

Kara: Tell us a little about the shirt that you’re wearing. That’s from the comic too!

Kieron Gillen: This is Dionysus, the dance floor that walks like a man. He basically is a sentient rave dance floor, and you kind of enter a hive mind, when you throw down with him. He basically wore this tee shirt in the issue you met him. Yes, you only live ‘infinite sign’ tee shirt, which we thought was very funny, so we made it in real life. We do lots of clothes in the book, and we end up actually making them. We did a “Lucifer died for your sins” tee shirt. What happened to one of the characters, minor spoilers. We just kind of have fun. The idea that we can make the tee shirts. It’s very easy cosplay. Wear this and you’re basically cosplaying Dionysus.

Matt: These cons … You come from a gaming background, too. You were a gaming journalist. What’s your experience of these things, with the gaming environment, versus now, you’re more entrenched in comic books?

Kieron Gillen: I think it’s interesting. I was always … The thing about WicDiv, the pop stars and the music is so much more obvious. The fact it’s kind of about fandom generally, so it is kind of about games, it’s especially about comics. WicDiv is really, like, me being a creator, everything I’ve learned, and the sort of people, and how wonderful or back-stabby, they’re interesting, complicated human beings. So it all kind of goes in there, I guess?

The games do get interesting. I was never really much for games cons, you know? When I was coming up, they never existed, and when I was a journalist, I was there professionally. So I walked around being my best Spider Jerusalem impression. I had a Spider Jerusalem page from a Transmetropolitan put above my desk, I was a very angry young man. That’s what I was like. I was unbearable. The character in WicDiv, Cassandra, when she’s being angry and everyone is an idiot, and eff everybody, as she would put it. That’s very … the autobiographical elements of me being a games journalist, and basically thinking you know better than everyone else, even when you don’t, and sometimes when you do.

Kara: Have you found that your interest in games has influenced your comic work?

Kieron Gillen: A little. It’s made me hit deadlines. I was a journalist for a long time, so I write quickly. There’s surprisingly little. There’s bits, like, I tend to be a structural thinker, and the better … For me, the better games are a kind of, games as a storytelling medium, all structural. It’s something like, Half Life, that moves you through an environment, the way Gone Home works, and across the last say, 10 years, people have kind of embraced how games tell stories uniquely.

You’ve got my book, like Uber. Uber you can really tell I’m a gamer, because all the rules are so hard. It’s a very mechanical idea of how the universe works. Games, whether it’s Sim City, Crisis Simulation … Games tell what their meaning is by simulation, so there’s some of that in there. I actually am … There’s probably less games stuff than anyone would think, considering how much I did. I do actually have a book I will be doing next year, which is finally being me explicitly doing a video game comic, which is–this is the first time I’ve talked about it.

Matt: Wow. Breaking news.

Kieron Gillen: That will be announced at some point. It’s an interesting idea, and it’s kind of like me, going, “Okay, this is an interesting device to finally use all my knowledge about games for something.” I hope people like that.

Kara: Kieron, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today.

Kieron Gillen: Thank you so much for having me.

SoundCloudmusiccomiXologycomicsgraphic noveswicdivbut like are there updates on this book he's working on because um DO WANT