Next week, July 23rd, DOCTOR WHO: THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR #1 launches from Titan Comics. It’s written by Al Ewing and myself, drawn by Simon Fraser (Nikolai Dante), coloured by Gary Caldwell and lettered by Richard Starkings. And we’re all rather pleased with it. Oh, and it has this absolute stunner of a cover by Alice X Zhang:
It also has a bucketload of variant covers too. Titan have been very proactive in selling their new line of Who comics (The Tenth Doctor book launches next week too), and that’s very welcome. From what I’m told we’ve sold a lot of copies already. But just in case you need further prodding, here’s some of Simon and Gary’s preview pages and the Comixology link to preorder:
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Doctor-Who-The-Eleventh-Doctor/comics-series/19814
Oh, and it WILL be in UK comic shops, I’m told. So Brits can get their print copies by means that doesn”t involve heading down to the docks at midnight to meet someone called ‘Gripper.’
Al and I have been asked in a few interviews how the co-writing thing works. We knocked a basic plot outline together via skype calls and emails, then we broke the issue down into page-by-page scene beats. We had 22 pages, so each of us wrote first draft on 11 pages, then our section went to the other and we each did a dialogue edit on each other’s section. So hopefully there’s a uniformity of voice there. The initial advance reviews have been very positive, and pleasingly no one’s yet shouted out words like ‘JARRING!’ or ‘UNWIELDY!’ or ‘BALD!’ (eh?).
And it’s Who, so the Eleventh’s voice is well established. Matt Smith’s delivery and the writing of his Doctor were very distinctive and kind of leapt out at you. I think we both felt we knew him and his speech patterns very well when writing. I could hear him, the dialogue popped when writing immediately. And it doesn’t always. Sometimes it’s like laying tar, trust me. But it’s usually a good sign if the dialogue sings a bit, and it did here.
Alice, our new companion, was another matter. New character. Up to us to introduce and define her in a hurry. Up to us to make her different from other companions. I think we did that. Hope so, anyway. She feels human to me upon reading. Three-dimensional. Grounded.
Also out next week – July 23rd – is the third and final bumper issue of ORDINARY in its mini-series form. Again from Titan. And, again, here’s the Comixology link for the other two issues and some preview pages.
https://www.comixology.co.uk/Ordinary-2/digital-comic/96369
Been going through the proof of the upcoming trade paperback collection of Ordinary today. Loads of guest pinups, science of Ordinary essay, D’israeli’s process, an introduction by Warren Ellis. You get your money’s worth. Plus the full story, which I still think is the best thing I’ve written. And D’israeli’s a genius. You can order the TPB here:
Last week the final issue of THE ROYALS: MASTERS OF WAR came out from Vertigo Comics. #6 was a bit of an emotional end, both for the characters and for us as well, I suspect. I’ve mentioned before how long Si Coleby and I worked on the book. It felt like something of an achievement to get to the end of the story for Henry, Arthur and co. Sounds like a cliche, but you do get very fond of the characters whose lives you detail, even if they are alcoholic racist Princes of the Royal family. (I’ll probably miss Arthur more than any of them, the enormous arsehole).
And, as for final lines of series’ go, I’m pretty fond of The Royals’. Sometimes it feels like I’ve left too much to do in final episodes of books. I think we got the pacing on The Royals right. One major event per set-piece.
Again with the links. The upcoming TPB collection:
And Comixology for the individual issues:
https://www.comixology.co.uk/The-Royals-Masters-of-War-2014-6-of-6/digital-comic/115245
Here’s some of Si’s art from #6.
Big thanks to everyone involved with The Royals. Talented people all: Si Coleby, Gary Erskine, JD Mettler, Wes Abbott, Greg Lockard, Will Dennis and Ben Abernathy. Everyone did amazing work. It was a bit of a highlight.
Oh, and THANOS: A GOD UP THERE WAITING is moving from Infinite Comic to four-issue Marvel mini-series. Here’s the fab cover for #1 by Dustin Nguyen. #1 is in comic shops in October.
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