I have a tumblr, which has an ask function. You can ask me questions here:
http://kierongillen.tumblr.com/ask

A bit of a shame about Formspring, but at least I can export everything - and it simplifies the "Where do you ask me stuff" situation.

(i.e. Now we do it through Tumblr)

I'm going to answer some more questions here before it shuts down though.

Been a pleasure.

The timeline is a tricky place.

We have actually talked.

I've only seem them in PDF form, I'm afraid.

You never know.

If we ever get around to doing a Decompressed about it, we'll talk more, but Jamie shows how it works here...

http://mckelvie.tumblr.com/post/41362475874/a-lot-of-people-have-been-wondering-about-the

Basically, sharing a dropbox, working on different parts of an image. The basic way would be "Mike does backgrounds" but it's a bit more complicated than that.

Have you read THE FINE PRINT? The origin of the sword is explained there.

You mean how did they escape the bonds of Hell and go after Sigurd? That's hinted at in the opening monologue. As in, they are trapped unless there's an older magic with previous claims on them. That Sigurd has revealed himself kicks all that off.

Tolkein is one of my formative influences. I have a problematic relationship with him, as I suspect people who've read MANCHESTER GODS will assume. I talk about it at length in an interview that should be coming relatively soon over at Too Busy Thinking About Comics.

But yes, there's also the fact it's a pop cultural icon that makes it a useful shorthand.

In short: he's a Death's Head from earlier in the time-line.

There's more than a little playful dancing with my forebears in JIM.

HIGH VOLTAGE!

I would worry about any writer who didn't feel they had areas to improve on.

Mine are too many to list. Some of the trickier ones are things which are arguably positive attributes, but just don't fly in the part of the medium I've chosen to work.

The big one is over-complication, I'd say. Which hurts 20 page comics in a number of ways. Compare the length of time it takes one of my villains to explain what they're doing to most comic villains. At the absolute least, it creates a pacing issue.

(Some of my best work is where I've created something so complicated that explaining it actually becomes the story - UNCANNY 14 would be the best example of that. But in the superhero genre, it's not as if people are paying for travelogues.)

Most of my better stories involve a lot of jettisoning of extraneous elements.

These are good questions to be asking.

And no, it's not usual.

I saw! You're all very kind.

I wouldn't want to generalise.

I read almost all my reviews, and while I do a lot of sighing, there's certainly people who do a good job. Criticism is an art too.

They did pretty well, it seems. The standard public figures people work out have said 72k, which doesn't include either the UK and Digital stuff. No idea how we did digitally, but we *did* top the UK digital charts. And it also seems we did pretty well in the UK in paper (which I work out by knowing the "real" sales.)

Second printing too. Early days, but certainly could be a worse start.

I haven't listened to this, but there's a lot of musicians talking in terms of magic. It's one of those metaphors that people reach for, it seems.

Can't really talk about that, alas. But he's drawing the 4 issues of ORIGIN OF TONY STARK.

No.

McK's actually the bigger Bronx fan out of us two. I really should delve further in.

I'm not sure who in the YA would even listen to the Bronx. Since on twitter we've just said that the cartoonist Marc Ellerby is basically Billy, it's probably him.

Not around.

(If I ever need to intro the siblings I'll explain it in story)