Hello everyone,

Following a bit of interest I have made a limited edition print of the double page spread from Phonogram: Singles Club #4. It looks like this.

It’s 16 by 20 inches, signed and numbered, and limited to 50 copies only. I’ve already sold about half, so if you want one, move quickly.

Click to buy.

I have not updated my journal in like, forever, so I think we’re due!

Last week was San Diego Comic Con, and as ever, Kieron and I had a table at the Image booth. After taking the train down with Katie West, we checked into our hotel (the brand new Hilton Bayfront, right next to the Convention Centre) and then got ready for Preview Night. Once accessible only to pros and exhibitors, it is now open to all and is often just as hectic as the rest of the show. Luckily, this year we had Matthew Sheret onhand as our helper monkey (or “booth babe” as he liked to refer to himself), as he was selling the Phonogram fanzine he had curated. The fanzine seemed to go down a storm with our fans, which is great. After that we made our sole visit to Fred’s Mexican Cafe for margaritas and tacos.

Con week tends to blur into one huge thing for me so I can’t remember which events happened on which day a lot of the time, so some of this may be in the wrong order.

Thursday was the first full day, and was super hectic. A lot of the week-pass attendees seem to do most of their shopping on the Thursday, so we were on our feet the whole time. I think this was the day where we first met author/troublemaker Caitlin Kittredge? She ended up spending a good chunk of the weekend keeping us company at the table. It was also the day of the Longbox panel, where we explained the potential benefits of the app to the packed audience. The new demo looks very impressive, with new features added since we saw it in New York.

Oh – I should make a mention of the impressive dedication of Twilight fans. There was a panel showing the new trailer (and I think the cast were there) on the Thursday afternoon. Some of the fans were camping outside the con for up to two days before the show so they could get in.

I’ve heard of some comics fans complaining about how “Twilight fans ruined Comic Con” which is bullshit. Any and all expansion of the attendee base – *especially* female – should be encouraged. So they’re in a different fandom to you? Who cares? What I will say is that the organisation for the Twilight stuff was very badly organised. As panel rooms are not cleared out between panels, the Twilight fans got into the very first panel of the day and stayed there until the Twilight one, so that they could have their spaces. As such the earlier panels in the day did not have an audience who cared about them. The best thing to do would have been put the Twilight panel on first.

Thursday night was spent having dinner with a group of friends who then went back to Ed Brubaker’s hotel for a relaxed evening on the balcony/roof. Ed’s wife is lovely, in keeping with the tradition of comics people having much better significant others than we deserve.

Friday, as per usual, was a little quieter – the calm before the storm of Saturday. Friday night we had a lovely seafood dinner with Bryan O’Malley, Hope Larson and Becky Cloonan. Speaking of Bryan, it was pretty great to see a giant poster for the Scott Pilgrim movie hanging in the con hall. Friday was also the day that Wil Wheaton came by the con, so we got to have a quick catch up. Wil brought along his son Ryan, who seems like a great guy (but wouldn’t you be, if Wil was your dad?).

Saturday was another crazy day, meeting lots of fans and signing, selling and sketching. I think it was Saturday where I was asked to sketch “whatever makes me happy”. After some thought I settled on this. Sorry, Kieron. Amber Benson stopped by the booth to give me the medication I’d left at her house when I stayed on Tuesday. She had a few panels relating to her new book, which seems to be doing very well. Following the show we had a quiet dinner at a Mexican place before picking Amber up from her signing at Borders and taking her over to the bar to have a coffee before her drive home.

Sunday, things began to wind down as they do, which gave us our first chance to wander around. As such I managed to acquire a page of Kill Your Boyfriend from the ever-excellent Philip Bond. KYB is Kieron’s favourite comic, so I showed him the page.

A pause.

“Does he have any more pages left?”

“One more.”

Another pause.

“Where is he?”

“Artists Alley.”

Another pause.

“I’ll be back in a minute.”

Sunday night we had dinner with Fraction, Joanne, Marc, Katie, Chrissy, and Sheret before heading to the hotel for a relatively quiet drinking session, joined by Brian Wood and a couple of others. Rick Remender sadly showed his face at this point.

After a Monday morning breakfast with Becky Cloonan, Katie and I took the train back up to LA. As a last minute plan we ended up having a wonderful dinner with Wil, Amber and her boyfriend Adam, and Chad Michael Ward. It was a pretty perfect end to the trip, although I still have “In The Summertime” in my head (thanks Chad!).

EDIT: Something else – a big thank you to everyone who stopped by the booth. We’re not exactly becoming rich off Phonogram, but the fans we DO have more than make up for that. You’re pretty much all awesome.

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Wow, it has been an embarrassingly long time since I’ve updated this. A lot has happened – I’ve done two issues of CABLE for Marvel (11 and 12, 11 came out last week). One issue of PHONOGRAM: SINGLES CLUB has come out, with another to follow shortly. I’ve done a piece for GOTHAM GAZETTE: BATMAN DEAD? for DC. And I’ve just got back from NYCC, which was tremendous fun.

Oh – I update Twitter a LOT more than I update here, so if you want to follow me there, feel free to do so: Twitter

As I don’t have the coloured and lettered jpegs for CABLE, here’s some of the inks for you (out of sequence).

Oh, workblog, I have been neglecting you in favour of, well, working. Sorry about that.

News!

PHONOGRAM 2: THE SINGLES CLUB #1 (of 7)
written by KIERON GILLEN
art & cover by JAMIE McKELVIE

December 10 • 32 pages • FC • $3.50

Yep, issue 1 of The Singles Club is being solicited for December. So head to your local comics shop and place your order now!

Conventions: I will be attending the Birmingham International Comics Show on Oct 4-5, sharing a table with Marc Ellerby (Kieron sadly can’t make it), and we’re both going to be at Thought Bubble in Leeds in November.

Prints: I’m in the process of making a limited edition (100 only) print for sale within the next few days. Keep your eyes peeled.

Raising my head above the water quickly to say that Kieron and I will be at San Diego Comic Con, on the Image Booth. We’ll have books, t-shirts and artwork for sale. Stop by and say hi!

Just a quick one to say for the last few people waiting on commissions, if everything goes according to plan they will be in the post to you soon. The last few weeks has been a crazy rush of house-moving, cons and work, but I’ve cleared my schedule enough to get back to them. Thanks for being patient.

This weekend I will be appearing at the MCM Expo – http://www.londonexpo.com/ – along with Kieron, Frazer Irving, David Hine and more. Also some people off the telly will be there, if you like that sort of thing.

In all good comic shops. And some of the bad ones.

I’m moving house in about… 4 hours, so I ought to pack up the computer soon. In the meantime, the next week is as follows:

TOMORROW (3rd May): Signing at They Walk Among Us in Richmond – http://www.twau.co.uk – With Mike Carey, from 2pm.

TUESDAY (6th May): ImagineFX 31 hits stands, featuring a whole host of comics bods. There’s a lengthy interview with me, and also a workshop I put together on how I created pages for Suburban Glamour. The cover looks like this:

WEDNESDAY (7th May): SUBURBAN GLAMOUR Vol 1 is released in America and Canada. It looks like this:

It’s $9.99, and I think it printed very nicely, if I do say so myself.

THURSDAY (8th May): SG Vol 1 is released in the UK, and to coincide I’m doing a signing at Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Ave in London, from 6pm. Afterwards I’ll be having a book launch/birthday party, so will be very hungover for…

FRIDAY (9th May): Travelling to Bristol Comic Expo.

SATURDAY-SUNDAY (10th-11th May): Bristol Comic Expo. Gillen and I are sharing a table with Marc Ellerby and John Cei Douglas. Follow the trail of emo and you’ll see them/us.

MONDAY (12th May): May die.

with Ash at RescuedByNerds, at New York Comic Con: