14th May 2013
Post with 18 notes
But before we dive in, there’s an article about UBER over on USA Today, wherein I say things like…
“As a writer, I might tend to be more interested in why people do bad things than why people do good things. It’s why people are led down horrific moral paths and all the different reasons for that.”
And you can read the rest here. There’s a preview for Issue 2 in there too.
Spoilers, obv.
Read More
Tagged: Kieron GillenCaanan WhiteUberÜber
8th May 2013
Post with 13 notes
Delays in the UK due to bank holiday. There’s multiple covers too. I also believe the issue 0 reprint is also available, in case any of you missed it. It’s a dollar extra, but there’s a bunch of making-of stuff, and issue 0 is twice as long as normal, so it’s still not exactly expensive.
Issue 1 has apparently sold out at retailer level, so I’d rush and grab one from your local shop, if you’re interested.
There’s a preview here.
Tagged: UberKieron GillenCaanan White
3rd April 2013
Post with 24 notes
It’s out tomorrow (i.e. Thursday) in the UK.
It’s a double-sized first issue, including 44 pages of comics.
It has several covers, but here’s one.
You can read more about my thinking, including a preview here.
There’s a fairly hefty interview over here.
It’s a while since I’ve launched an entirely new book, so I’m a little nervous. Doubly so, because this first issue dates from the period before I’d done any work in the MU.
It’s an unusual book. I think you’ll find it worth your attention.
And, as an entirely new book, if you find it worthy of discussion, I’d encourage you to do so.
Thanks for your time.
Tagged: UberKieron GillenCaanan White
28th March 2013
Post with 29 notes
You can read it over at Bleeding Cool.
A few notes before you go in. This is a hard-R comic about WW2 with everything that entails. If you are worried about content, it probably isn’t for you.
Here’s the first page. 
Do click through for the rest.
The preview ends with my essay from the first book. I pull those pages out and put them here, as it’s the shortest and sharpest explanation of my hopes and fears for Uber.
The whole issue is 44 pages of comics, and is available next week.
Tagged: UberKieron GillenCaanan White
20th February 2013
Post with 5 notes
The Previews cut off date for UBER 0 is this week, so if you find yourself in a shop, now would be a really good time to tell your retailer you’re interested. In the current market, letting them know so they can order comics appropriately is a big deal. Issue 0 is a double-size for the same price, and is a big, dense chunk of period action.
(I talk about why pre-ordering matters in comics over here. All these years and nothing’s changed.)
If you want to know more, there’s another set of interviews doing the rounds.
Here’s a big hefty one with me over at Bleeding Cool, which also includes a bunch of concept art and some notes on it. I think it’s probably the biggest interview I’ve done (well, out of the three) and goes fairly deep into the differences of approach. I’d especially nod towards the bit where I start talking about Tanks and Gunships, but there’s a lot to chew over. You can certainly get a sense of how I’m interested in Weaponization of people.
Here’s an interview with Caanan White about what it’s like to draw it.
And here’s an indie Edge article, which includes some (small) coloured pages from the finished thing.
Pop into a shop and have a word and I will basically perform a triumph in your honour around my house. I totally will. Any excuse for a triumph.
Tagged: Kieron GillenUberCaanan White
5th January 2013
Post with 61 notes
Last night news broke on Bleeding Cool about the oft-teased Avatar Project 2. It’s called Über. There’s more art in the post.
We’re starting with a $3.99 double-sized (44 pages of comics) issue 0 in April. Just to front load an essential piece of buying info, y’know?
Despite that I’ve been calling it Avatar Project 2 in blog posts, it was actually Avatar Project 1. THE HEAT came later. William approached me in 2008, right at the start of my career, and talked about doing some work for him. He had some core ideas that he thought would work well as Avatar books and thought I’d suit one. The core of this was basically “Germany invents superheroes in WW2, prompting an arms race between them and the allies. Deal with any and all of the genuinely horrific stuff.”
So I went away, worked out whether I had anything to say, decided I did, went and did my research and then came back with a 25,000 word series bible planning out the whole thing.
I’ll be talking about its ideas as we progress, but I wanted to do a war comic with almost none of the genre tropes. There isn’t a single raised eyebrow. This is done entirely straight, made with the leap of faith that you can say something serious about the worst conflict in human history via the genre.
It’s serious work. It’s obviously phenomenally violent. It’s written with the sense of moral outrage that WW2 has to provoke. I’m angry when I’m writing it. I can’t write about WW2 without being angry. Since I conceived it, I find myself thinking about reviewers who say I seem to be more interested in villains than heroes in my work. I suspect Über will provide more fuel for that particular argument.
As I said, I’ve tried to purge the majority of the tropes of the genre. This is a book that, if you run with its assumptions, takes itself seriously. It’s a book that is more concerned with large scale strategy and economic production. Technological advancement and R&D is key. The heroism tends to be desperate and futile. A tradition of the genre is that a weaker hero will overcome a stronger one. There’s none of that here, any more than a tank is anything but a target when a gunship pops over the horizon. It switches between those decisions between men poring over maps and the lives they’re ending as they push pieces around the board. As the size of the bible suggests, the world building is considerable and the plan is complete. I could end the series at any point by going into a documentary-style comic. While the title shows that the Wunderwaffen of the Germans precipitate the situation, this uses all the major players and all the major theatres. So far I’ve written everyone from Churchill to Hitler, from Guderian to Turing. Its scope is large, to say the least.
It’s overthought. It strives to be credible. It’s as ethical as I can make it. It’s dark as hell. I think it’s good.
I wrote the issue 0 in 2008 (If you remember this blogpost, this was me planning the issues’ structure). Caanan had to work on other projects for a couple of years, before returning last year. There’s now 7 issues worth of comics in the can (0-5) and I’m starting writing issue 10 next week. I’d be surprised if it was less than 30 issues. It’s openly strange for something that I conceived so long ago to come to light, but part of me thinks it may make a lot of sense.
Über is out in April with a double-sized issue 0 for $3.99.
Tagged: Kieron GillenÜberAvatar PressCaanan White
