Warren Ellis's Blog, page 109

Cafe Kaput 3: Summer Gathering Sequence

The Advisory Circle – Summer Gathering Sequence by Cafekaput on Mixcloud

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My robot-building daughter has just described #SVKcomic as "very, very cool." This is a first. I can quit comics now.Tue Jul 05 18:20:49 via SeesmicReplyRetweetFavoriteWarren Ellis
warrenellis

For posterity: the BERG crew watching the SVK sales count...

For posterity: the BERG crew watching the SVK sales counter.

 

(…watching the SVK sales counter… through electronic devices.  Because they are BERG.)

SVK Is On Sale

SVK is now on sale at http://www.getsvk.com .

(Am sending this from iPad – if that link doesn't work, the one in this page's top bar will.)

SVK is a 40-page comic book available via mail order only.

SVK is an experimental publication, conceived of and produced by the design and invention group BERG.

They came to me with the idea and asked me to help them make it work. I drafted in my old friend Matt Brooker, better known to a legion of comics readers as the artist D'Israeli, to illustrate it and help me solve it.

SVK comes packaged with a UV torch. Because a lot of it is printed in invisible UV ink, and therefore elements of the book can only be seen by shining the torch on the pages.

Why is it only mail order? Because BERG wanted to solve their own supply chain. They want to make more things and sell them themselves. SVK is a test article for that process. They're publishing it: they decide how to distribute it.

Why is it expensive? It's a short print run, printed in UV ink that they had to pass security tests in order to get their hands on, enclosed with a UV torch with custom printing, and wrapped in custom packaging. This isn't a standard comic.

SVK comes with a foreword by William Gibson, and articles by futures expert Jamais Cascio and comics historian Paul Gravett.

SVK was the hardest thing I've written in years. I think it's also the best thing I've written in a few years. And, without offense to my other collaborators, I've known and worked with Matt for twenty years, and that means that not only does stuff appear on the page exactly as I imagined it would, but that it'll also be better than I imagined it.

At some point, once the book's circulated a bit, I'll talk about the horrible technical difficulties Matt solved without breaking step. Suffice it to say that this book very probably would not have happened at all if Matt Brooker had not been onboard.

And, finally, I need to thank the whole BERG team, who have worked like demons on SVK. The book itself is only the iceberg tip of the machine they've had to build to make this work.

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It Lives

Just arrived here. Just got up, full post in a bit.

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#SVKcomic Today is Independence Day in the US. Tomorro...

#SVKcomic

Today is Independence Day in the US.  Tomorrow is Surveillance Day in the UK.

SVK is imminent.

Zero Hour

Oh, this is interesting. A preview of something being made by Hannah Nicklin and Steve Kilpatrick. Turn the sound up.

Preview… from Hannah Nicklin on Vimeo.

Corey Lewis Is Up To Something

Corey Lewis, creator of graphic novels SHARKNIFE and the forthcoming SHARKNIFE DOUBLE Z (which I seem to remember writing a back cover blurb for) is up to something again.  Look at these:

I do actually leave the house on occasion.

I do actually leave the house on occasion.

Digital devices are great work tools. But always keep...

 

Digital devices are great work tools.  But always keep a notebook and pen or pencil handy.  They don't use batteries, are as instant as use gets, and can help you think in different ways.  And then store them somewhere convenient so that you can sort through them when necessary.