Spoilers, obv.



Later than usual. There’s been a lot of distractions, like the end of all hope. I’ve wanted to write, and have, but not necessarily something as solipsistic as this.

I’ve deleted about eight paragraphs of meta-chewing over the issue, as you don’t need to do this. I have complicated feelings about everything to do with WicDiv, and this - one of the most ornate things I’ve been involved in with for my whole career - is going to be like that. Short version is “I’m enormously proud.” Let’s keep this to the facts.

How did this issue come to happen?



The core idea came from necessity. Kevin Wada said he’d love to do something else with us. We love Kevin. Kevin doesn’t do sequentials. How can Kevin do an issue? We were chewing this over at (I think) Emerald City con this year. The idea of a magazine format, with Kevin doing all the photoshoots, and me writing up all the articles.

I ran over to Kevin and asked if he liked the idea. He did. I pencilled it in as a Thing To Do. I realised the multi-month gap between the fourth and fifth issue would be a good place to drop it.

And then I started thinking some more, and thought rather than me write it all, I could hit up a bunch of excellent critics and ask them to do it. We’d roleplay the interviews in an instant message client or a slack or something, and they’d write up the transcripts in their own style, as if they were a writer in our universe.

And then when we got that, we started digging more into the magazine of it – the alternative dimension nature of it, giving everyone else jobs, and even digging out Jamie and my early years as magazine editorial cartoonists.

We’re pleased with it. With more time, there’s a few more ideas we’d liked to have done. The main one was to do it in the over-sized magazine format, but we didn’t have enough time for our designer to do a second design in the larger format. It can wait. We may do a special edition for C2E2 next year in the format, as there’s a few other articles I’d have liked to have written and the inclusion would make it worthwhile. I’m not entirely sure. God knows we’re busy.

JAMIE’S COVER

This is the new cover design for Imperial Phase. The option to do it as magazine cover, we wanted to keep it as an issue, just to sell the “we’re back” and “this is the start of a new arc” aspect.

I’m really fond of these. I suspect we’ll keep them for the whole third year of the book, meaning all the gods will get one.

Baal’s clothes’ colouring has been our mind a lot. The purple is very Imperial Phase, if you know what I mean, as well as the other elements.

KEVIN’S COVER

I interviewed Kevin at Thought Bubble, which was filmed, and he talked a lot about his choices here – if it ever goes online, I’ll be sure to link it, as it was amazing, and covers much more than I’d ever include here.

Anyway – this was the first image done, as at the point of solicitation the only interview I was 100% sure I’d include was The Morrigan, for reasons I’ll explain shortly. In universe, she’s never been photographed, which means that if she was in, she’d be the cover star. This is probably the first image of the Morrigan anyone in the WicDiv universe has ever seen.

THE GENERAL DESIGN

Kevin doesn’t do sequentials… but he came close, in some ways. The blocked layouts for the articles were set up in his roughs, as shown below.

And I’ll lob the rest into their interviews.

Jamie also did a bunch of research into current high end style mag design to lead to the approach. In short, “Lots of white space, a lot of big borders.” With our limited space, we couldn’t do much of the latter, but it still holds together. In terms of functionality, I felt pull-quotes were 100% essential. They’re a key part of the form, and I wanted space to play with them.

(Pull-quotes abuse of context is something that is powerful. The words are turned into icons.)

The design work was done by Sergio, who did sterling stuff. Like most design, this was all about iteration on a theme to try and get effects. He did wonderful stuff throughout.

(And Chrissy, as always, was editor. Her background is in magazines too, so this was very useful for her.)

For me, I also got a chance to play real-world-editor as well as fake-editor. So I got to do a flatplan which I moved around as stuff came in. Here’s it…

…and I’m suddenly reminded of the anxiety dreams I used to have, about trying to arrange a flatplan for a magazine, but the content wouldn’t all fit.

I did have some people ask about whether we were tempted to do a tabloid-style rag rather than the high style piece. No, not really. I have something trashier media-based planned for down the line, but as this all emerged from the desire to do a Kevin Wada issue, there was no way a tabloid was going to have any images like Kevin creates. That said, even without Kevin’s aesthetic, I doubt we’d have gone that way anyway. Given the chance to make a dream magazine full of the best art and writers free to do whatever they want and parodying the worst excesses of the media, I suspect we were always going to take the high road.

For now.

THE FIRST ADVERT



We wanted Jamie and Matt to be involved in the issue, so the idea of them doing all the adverts struck us a fun ideas. Baal has always been the god who seems most on point in terms of the money side of things (it’s referenced several times), so him doing merchandise seemed like a good call. I was showing Jamie adverts for superpowered trainers when we were wandering around London.

Then he had the idea for this. And the pun. I stress, the pun is his.

Yes, we have to presume the container is sold with a stand so it doesn’t fall over.

Also – Jamie is clearly feeling competitive for the sexy with Kevin. We all win.

CONTENTS

Magazine standard, done in that exact style, including buried jokes in tiny fonts. It’s hard to say how much I loved Magazines when I was a teenager. I was obsessed. I used to get twitchy every month around the days when my favourite mags would come out, popping into shops to see if it was there early. As distribution was shit, mags were often late, which led me to popping into basically any newsagents I saw. I was unbearable. In a different way to how I’m unbearably now, obv.

Anyway – the editor’s intro column was written entirely in the style of every editor column I’ve ever seen. Which is “written in 15 minutes before print deadline and we have to fill this space.” I use every crappy gambit I can, especially the eternal “Hey… why are you still reading this!” one.

It’s also where I insert myself into the WicDiv universe. As we see at the end, in this place I never had a career as a comic writer, and just stayed in culture journalism and generally became even more sullen and bitter.

THE MORRIGAN INTERVIEW

The first interview we did. As usual, when we’re doing something experimental, we plan an eject button if it doesn’t work at all. The whole “roleplay an interview” thing may just not have worked. If so, I’d just write them all as an article myself, in different voices.

However, we still had to try it, which is why I first turned to tech and culture journalist Leigh Alexander. Leigh’s a close friend, who I’ve known for years, gamed with, role-played with and we both used to do text-based role-play back in the 90s. As such, she was a safe person to try it with – and someone who would have been cool with us paying a kill fee and binning it if it didn’t work.

She asked if she could interview the Morrigan. There’s other reasons why she’s in here, but the main one is Leigh wanted to. That’s actually true of most of the interviews. The process was “ask the journalists.” I had a list of ones I felt essential… but the ones I thought most essential were ones I was pretty sure people would do.

(It’s not just the writer either. First thing I asked Kevin whether there were any gods he particularly wanted to draw. He asked for Lucifer and Inanna, which led to me working out ways to justify their inclusion. It wasn’t that hard – WicDiv has a surfeit of material, and it’s a case of me choosing what I want to do and when – but certainly led the decisions.)

There was also a flip – certain characters who I felt would really be bad to interview, just because they don’t want to be interviewed. Sakhmet has already shown what happens in a Sakhmet interview, for example. I was aware I’d have to play it out on the fly and I had to keep the integrity of the characters. That would involve leaving and/or atomising the interviewer.

I also realise I probably better not tell you which ones I felt were essential and which one were essentially dessert, as it’ll get you all trying to second guess me. The ones which weren’t as core to the design in my original thinking are much bigger reasons to be included after it was decided for them to be included.

So – Leigh and I went into a slack and started at it.

I was honestly petrified. I was petrified for them all, in different ways. With Morrigan, it was doubly so. As much as I was comfortable with Leigh, it was still a risk. The question is, could I do it on the fly. Doubly so, could I do The Morrigan it on the fly. She’s the most ornate, intricate voice in all of WicDiv. She isn’t exactly “Uh-huh.”

In the end, it was fine. It was a joy, in fact. We always spent longer in the chat than we planned, and nothing ever stuck. We had certain ground-rules. I’d get to massage the transcript afterwards to clean up quotes and/or edit character choices I regretted. Also, in the final piece, I’d get to encourage rewrites to bring forward certain key information.

In practice, the polishing was only ever minor. The complete change was only used twice – one to change a character opinion I decided was actually not something the character would say, and once to change something a character did. Considering all the things the characters did, that surprises me. There were a few other changes in world-building details too, as it developed – a location of an interview was moved. The changes to the articles as they came in were almost entirely about making sure our world was adhered to, but these were all minor.

The articles all surprised me, in terms of what to choose to stress. I did give SOME guidance, but kept it mostly secret, as I knew which way I’d try to push the interview. Here’s my basic briefing for Leigh…

“The interviews (unless previously decided) happen after the end of WicDIv 22 (the end of September). In world, this magazine will be published in late November 2014. The interviews will have taken place in October, possibly early November. (Issue 23 starts on January.)

In other words, the initial media frenzy over the chaos of the fourth volume (RISING ACTION) is over and now it’s getting a little more personal. The interviews in part set up the new status quo.



Relevant facts: The world knows Ananke is a murderer. The footage of Ananke killing Minerva’s parents is in the public domain. Ananke was killed in self defense by Persephone. No-one is living at Valhalla any more. They are all out in the world. Baal is promising to maintain order of all this. He’s Minerva’s new guardian. Relevant Morrigan stuff: She was kept captive by Ananke. No-one knows much about her background or anything. After the events of RISING ACTION she has been very much out of the spotlight. Baphomet too. They are more underground than ever, and have not socialised much with any of the other gods, as far as anyone knows. She has never been photographed successfully before. The question of “why now?” is very much there. Baphomet/Her relationship is obviously something worth gossip over. People don’t really know what it’s about or how they became gods. In a real way, this is more open than most. There’s little we need to get in the actual interview, in terms of MUST HAVE facts.”



I often said a little more, setting up how the interview had happened, etc. A lot was the interviewer asking questions and me giving an answer, even before we started Rping.

And when we started Rping, the transcripts were all, to say the least, considerable…

Now, I’m going to put some transcripts here. I’m going to stress something in bold…

These are not part of the WicDiv canon.

If we ever put them in a book, I’ll work out if they are, butf or the purpose of these notes, they’re the equivalent of Jamie’s rough pencils. This is about showing you how it was done, not what happened in the world of WicDiv.

I repeat: THESE ARE NOT CANON.

Anyway, here’s some of Leigh and Morrigan…

[5:06]

You get there, as instructed, 12 minutes before the last train south. It appears, to Morden.



[5:06]

And goes.



[5:06]

There’s a flicker on the board as another train appears.



[5:06]

Morden flickers to Morrigan, like something out of the Ring.



[5:07]

An empty train pulls in and the doors open.



leighalexander [5:09 PM]

Right, right. What… branch? Okay, it doesn’t matter what branch, right? It’s not like I’m from here anyway – where I come from we like an empty train. I wore a nice jacket and I brought my laptop, but I wore flat jellies that don’t match the outfit. It’s because I’m afraid of The Gap. Anyway, I get on.



wicdiv [5:10 PM]

It’s November, and chill, but the train’s air is a few degrees beneath the platform outside. Your breath is visible in front of you.



[5:10]

The doors shut sharply and with a low screech, the train heads into the tunnels.



leighalexander [5:11 PM]

I’ve seen a lot of PR stunts. This was probably the sort of thing I was expecting. I mean, we weren’t going to meet in an office or a hotel suite. She doesn’t seem like the type.



wicdiv [5:12 PM]

The train lurches when it’s in the dark, and the lights flicker out for a second.



[5:12]

By the time they come back on, the Morrigan is standing in front of you, a couple of inches too close for comfort.



[5:12]

“Hello.”



[5:13]

“You wished an audience, woman of words?”



Also, there were some follow up questions. Leigh asked what Morrigan sounds like. I said…



“Sound” is tricky. I always imagine the gigs as almost beyond noise, and more about feelings.

It sort of side-steps a lot.

Imagine Diamond Glass playing your soul like a harp

Racing you through all the darkest scales of your soul.

When Macha “sigs” you feel Imperious, invulnerable, Icy, in control.

It’s a vertiginous feeling.

Bad is frenzied - the mosh pit of a Pixies song that makes Pixies songs sound like easy listening.

Badb

rather

Gentle Annie - and she plays rarely - is the Cocteau twins, lost in the primordial forest where nothing connects to anything and nothing makes any sense

And under it all, there’s an annihilation - a pure sound you fall into.

That you are falling towards death, and it’s coming, but not yet

(We did a little of that in issue 3)

“The Pit” is a key concept with Morrigan and Baphomet.

Is that good?

Which obviously goes into the work.



I think the most interesting thing about this issue is seeing reviewers try and work out how it was done. Some thought I was actually just homaging the five journalists styles, and I wrote the whole things. Others thought the journalists wrote all the articles, including writing the gods’ voice. For those who need it stating explicitly, all the god’s dialogue and the scenario where the interview took place was me. The reporting of those events were all them. And then minor editing by me and Chrissy.



Chrissy noted that this interview took about as long to edit as the other four – I may have been able to improvise Morrigan’s voice, but to actually create something which made sense to any human other than me and Leigh was trickier.

In terms of the images, Kevin’s aim was to try and bring her goth mode to the fore without just dressing her in black. You can see the approaches – the stained-glass as dress, the funeral gold and the elegant, 1920s-ish Morrigan goes to the ball look. Having these arrive, and then be able to send them to the writers, who inevitably were incredibly excited to see them.

It’s a good job, sometimes.

BAAL INTERVIEW

Dorian is someone I mainly know from occasional parties in London and his work. His was the second interview. In the end, the interviews were done in the order they appear in the magazine. That’s partially a fluke of fate, and partially that the process of doing the issues decided the flow of information. The Morrigan interview makes public how Baal beat her when being arrested. The Baal interview has him responding to it, and on and on through the book. So if you do read the magazine from end to end, you get a narrative, while still allowing you to absorb the information randomly.

Dorian’s interview has one of the world-building changes. I was planning to have Baal’s home to be on the North Bank of the Thames, but Jamie suggested renting out a couple of floors in the Shard. I’d actually already considered that, but rejected it as a little grandiose. When Jamie suggested it, I pretty much slapped my head. Christ, Gillen. You’re not writing Phonogram any more. Of course it’s Grandiose. That’s the whole point. This is Imperial Phase.

I think it’s one of the things I’m most fond of in the third year. Every time I head across London and see the Shard, I think of WicDiv. Transforming the landscape into a reminder that your next script is due is handy.

Anyway – here’s a fragment of transcript…

dorianlynskey [4:17 PM] Have you been thrust into an almost parental role with Minerva and Persephone? They’re gods but they’re also orphans now. wicdiv [4:18 PM] <He nods at that… and pauses> [4:20] “Minerva, yeah. Persephone… it’s different I feel like… a guardian, definitely. I feel like that for most of the pantheon, even the ones who don’t want it. I’ve been doing the god thing longest. I was the only one of us who was alone, dealing with this. It’s a job. I always saw it like that, but now? Even more so. Someone needs to make sure everyone is okay. Someone needs to put people back in line when they’re not.” [4:20] “But a lot of us are orphans. Or at least lost a parent.” [4:21] (Sorry - realised I should have said that) dorianlynskey [4:23 PM] You’ve been grieving too. Who’s there to help you? wicdiv [4:23 PM] “It’s my job to deal.” [4:25] “In some ways it… helps. I’ve always been directed. This gives me direction. I’m not the sort to spend all day listening to sad songs and staring out on the South Bank, y'know?” [4:25]

<Pauses, and has an afterthought> dorianlynskey [4:26 PM]

Is that why you’ve always been the one to speak to the press? Like, if you don’t who will? wicdiv [4:26 PM]

“But persephone? Yeah. She’s been good to me. She was close to Inanna. We sort of help each other, a little.” [4:26]

< laughs and jumps on the question. Definitely is more comfortable with this line of questioning> [4:29]

“I guess on a scale of 1 to 10, I’m the 10 on the big mouth scale. I see something that gets me? I want to say something. Most of the gods aren’t like that. They’re self-enclosed. I like people to understand… or at least, I like people to understand how I feel, and what I think of THEM if I disagree.” [4:29]

“And I know more than most, so my opinion is better. Sakhmet was second, but she’s never really paid any attention to the duty of the job. I take it seriously.” [4:30]

“I worry what’ll happen after I’m gone. I came first so I’ll be gone first. Not sure if anyone could do what I do…” [4:30]

<He pauses> [4:30]

“Maybe the Norns.” [4:30] “But they’d get it all wrong, so I better make sure it’s all cleaned up before I go.” [4:30]

<He laughs> dorianlynskey [4:32 PM]

<sycophantic interviewer laugh that will embarrass me when I listen back> Do you think that being the first and feeling a responsibility to hold things together made it hard for you to realise what Ananke was doing? Like maybe your instinct was not to doubt the person who brought you all together?



(You’ll note the style changing compared to Leigh. Any text based role-play is a dialogue based around deciding exactly how you choose to do this thing.)

Dorian’s interview is arguably the most most clean profile-style writing of the book, and it has an uncanny verisimilitude. He talked to me about before he started writing up not being sure of how it would work… but when it was done, it was almost like something that happened. You strip away the miracles, and this is something you can imagine dropped right in the Guardian culture section.

I was worried about improvising Baal, primarily because of the word-play. I’d had a list of thgem prepared in advance… many I used, none of which Dorian chose to use in the transcript. Which is an interesting example of how a journalist chooses to use the material.

With Baal, my only guidance was that I’d like to have seen a period shot of Baal/Inanna together, so Kevin gets his chance to draw Inanna. The rest is him going wild, and we have Baal stepping away from the suits, and just playing. For me, the spread of images across the page is joyous – we rarely see Baal have fun, and these are just great. The close shot which opens the piece is great portraiture, and powerful.

WODEN INTERVIEW

Heh. Of all the interviews, this is the one who’s most conceptually amusing.

When I asked Laurie Penny if she’d be interested in the project, I had a variety of options for her, but I’ll fully admit that I was hoping she’d be tempted to go one-on-one with Woden. She jumped at the chance. I feel she got it would be a giggle too.

(Woden actually paraphrases one of Laurie’s arguments in issue 14, and twists it to his own purposes. So, in universe, Woden has definitely read Laurie.)

Laurie’s another close friend, and one who I’ve done pen-and-paper RPGs with once, so I was comfortable with this in that way… but I was also conscious that I was going to be role-playing this awful character against one of the more prominent feminist writers in the UK. This could have gone very badly.

But, once again, it was a lot of fun. Laurie definitely prodded at the edge of the scenario I was hoping to run, and it went to some interesting spaces, and even led to Woden having a good last line.

Here’s some transcript…

pennyred:

You’re a master builder. How could you possibly not know what she was asking you to make?



[6:22]

[suddenly aware that I’m alone in a room with this guy]



wicdiv [6:23 PM]

I’m not expecting pity. I’m… trying to be honest and see what happens. It’s not exactly usual for me.



[6:23]

<Woden, perhaps surprisingly, notes your tension>



wicdiv [6:23 PM]

presses a button in his wrist, “Hey, Eir, get us back.”



wicdiv [6:23 PM]

<The light again… and then you’re in the spire, looking out the view to the distant Valhalla where you were. If you believe him, anyway>



[6:24]

<Gondul passes you a coffee as you come back.>



[6:25]

Laurie Penny: you don’t know my job. You don’t know how it works. It isn’t like being an engineer. It is very much an art rather than a science. And I know if I went on any more you’d accuse me of mansplaining miracles, I’ll leave it at that.



[6:25]

Anything else?



[6:25]

<OOC: Probably one more question? Unless you have much more…)



pennyred [6:25 PM]

No, i’m a journalist. It’s my job to be mansplained to. I like to listen.



wicdiv [6:25 PM]

You’ll go far.



pennyred [6:25 PM]

That machine you were looking at back there. What does it do?



[6:26]

Thanks. That WAS patronising.



wicdiv [6:26 PM]

laughs at that.



wicdiv [6:26 PM]

It was, wasn’t it?



pennyred [6:26 PM]

[OOC: I have 2 or 3 more]



wicdiv [6:26 PM]

The machine… a new project. I’m inspired by peers. I like seeing if I can make performances like the other gods make. I’m good at Baal and Sakhmet. I’ve had more time.



[6:26]

But Persephone? I don’t get her at all. I’d like to.



pennyred [6:27 PM]

I’m not sure you get many women.



[6:27]

You seem afraid of us. Afraid of her most of all, maybe.



wicdiv [6:27 PM]

(OOC: Cool - I’ve got an interview at 6:30 that I’ll push 15 mins to have last 2 questions)



pennyred [6:27 PM]

ta



wicdiv [6:28 PM]

<He thinks about that>



[6:28]

Possibly. My desire to have this pantheon of my own made of beautiful women I’ve selected? That’s about control. That’s about fear. That’s about fear of power.



[6:29]

And Persephone is powerful in a way I just don’t understand.



[6:29]

I’m petrified of her.



[6:29]

Everyone should be.

Obviously Woden is the most limited in terms of costumes of all the gods, so Kevin had the most space to play. When it comes down to it, when you have the awesome mask, anything goes. These are the openly funniest images in the book for me – Woden with his crown, flanked by Valkyries is plain glorious. The fingers-pressed together is a key look for Woden, so good to see it with the suit. And the pink outfit with the flowers? I kinda want to see if I can get this made. Yes, it’s disturbing to see Woden of all people be hot. Kevin Wada can do marvellous things.





LUCIFER INTERVIEW

(Obviously Amy’s roughs above as well)

Lucifer’s appearance came from Kevin’s desire to some portraits, but when he suggested it, there was certainly some material I wanted to use. That WicDiv started so late in the time line various events have already happened, so exploring some specifics about what happened between Baal and Inanna and Lucifer was useful, plus highlighting her pre-pantheon friendship with Amaterasu.

I only know Mary through her work, so it was a good chance to get to know her in e-mail. Like the rest, I was nervous, in this case mainly because I’d be Rping with someone I didn’t know at all. But it was fine.

She also hit the most interesting problem with the whole interview process. The reason why the interview was kept under legal censor is that it outed Baal. Now, we can all imagine a journalist doing that. We can imagine Lucifer doing that. However the journalist is Mary. Mary would never do that.

So, instead, the piece is written with Mary not revealing it’s Baal. The actual transcript just talks about Inanna being in a relationship with someone else and Lucifer messing with it. It doesn’t matter, as we already know who that was with… but what there is still enough that Baal would set his lawyers to shut it down.

(The question why he would do that is an interesting one, of course.)

And, yes, you may rightly guess Baal is pretty core in this arc.

Anyway – here’s a little transcript…



wicdiv [4:13 PM]

leans back in the seat, arm resting on the rest, and waits. She’s definitely somewhat run down.



mujupu [4:13 PM]

“Morning’s here tend to be. I just got in last night.” Pulls out another tape recorder as a back up. “Sorry, I’m paranoid.” Places it on the table.



wicdiv [4:14 PM]

smiles at that, “You must feel as bad as I do. But mine was self-inflicted. I do have a tendency to make crosses for myself to bear in the morning…”



wicdiv [4:14 PM]

“And paranoia, like most flaws, is something I tend to consider a virtue”



[4:14]

(Oh god. It’s been so long since I’ve written her, but this is making me laugh. She is so pretentious)



[4:15]

(Did I mention anything in brackets is out-of-character, yeah?)



mujupu [4:15 PM]

(figured lol)



wicdiv [4:15 PM]

(hah)



mujupu [4:16 PM]

“A handy survival mechanism as these things go. So, what finally made you agree to this? We (Hedi Slimane) shot the photos months ago. I thought the 3 email questions were all I was going to get.”



wicdiv [4:17 PM]

sips the drink, “Christmas… ” she stops herself, then smiles “Xmas. Musn’t say the "C” word.“



wicdiv [4:17 PM]

"Xmas has a way of making me maudlin and confessional.”



mujupu [4:18 PM]

[laughs] “Makes sense. The C word. Like saying Beatlejuice three times I guess.”



wicdiv [4:19 PM]

nods, “Heaven help me if I get too much attention. And clearly, it won’t. The boys upstairs do hold grudges against those of us who get ideas above our station.”



mujupu [4:20 PM]

“Well, hubris always leads to a healthy smiting. Even with free will and all of that. I’ve got to ask you though, I can see why suicide spikes this time of year for hoi polloi but you? What does Xmas mean to you?”



[4:20]

“You just had a killer Q4”



wicdiv [4:22 PM]

smiles at that, actually fond “I’ve had what I like to call fun. Q3 was bored teenage girl. Q4, Antichrist superstar. I try to make the most of every second i have. I’m hoping the next year and a half will prove likewise…”



wicdiv [4:23 PM]

“Xmas has me thinking bigger. Mythically. What it all means. And, being the devil, is about knowing you’ve lost.”



[4:23]

“If that makes sense. That’s what I’m for. I’m the bogieman.”



[4:23]

“The one good side is that I can afford to actually buy friends presents now… even if I haven’t actually remembered to do so.”



mujupu [4:26 PM]

“Look, I’m familiar with the two years origin story and I think it’s genius but reinvention is a huge part of every popstar, I mean, "Antichrist Superstar’s” evolution. I’m not saying you’ve got to go into your Harajuku era or your blue period but I’m confident it won’t all end in a year and a half. They flew me out for your Brixton show before we knew we were getting a tete a tete and your fan army will surely follow you to whatever persona you want to embody next.“



[4:26]

"Or is that just not onbrand?”



wicdiv [4:27 PM]

looks at you intensely. With her shades, it’s hard to tell, but it’s long and silent and lingering.



wicdiv [4:27 PM]

“I wish I had your faith in the future. It would be wonderful if you were right, but I fear I’m doomed.”



wicdiv [4:27 PM]

downs the bloody mary.



And here’s a little bit more…

wicdiv [5:14 PM]

“If someone comes at me, I will use whatever weapon to hand to take them down. I will not be judged by anyone, and that very minor cultural commentator seems to think she can judge us. As my personal history shows, only god can judge me.”



[5:15]

“But I am a very pleasant monster if you don’t hit that somewhat… apocalyptic self-defense response.”



mujupu [5:15 PM]

“and yourself, it would seem. i don’t mean to be patronizing but I’ve interviewed so many of the sparkliest stars from whom we want our pound of flesh but you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.”



[5:16]

“drinks are on me. and the crumbling institution of print media. have a good xmas luci. we’re going to hug now.”



wicdiv [5:16 PM]

looks at you, and the eyes are suddenly very young and scared. That posture is gone for a second. She accepts the hug, and is about to answer…



wicdiv [5:16 PM]

There’s a flash of light. You can’t locate it.



[5:17]

And then the bars from the inside of the cocktail bar open - we’re on the balcony - and a young woman rushes out. She’s got flaming red hair, and dressed in a long white dress, with face paint. You don’t recognise her.



[5:17]

(She’s Amaterasu, but you’d only realise that later)



[5:17]

“LUCI! LOOK!” shouts Amaterasu, wildly.



[5:18]

Lucifer breaks the hug, turning amazed, shocked “Hazel?”



mujupu [5:18 PM]

(JESUS AND THEN WHAT)



wicdiv [5:18 PM]

The two women grab each other’s arms, looking at each other.



[5:18]

“No, not Hazel!” says Amaterasu, “Amaterasu! I’m a god too. We get to do this together.”



[5:19]

(I did the math and realised that Amaterasu actually became Amaterasu the day of the interview)



[5:19]

(It’s the WInter Solstice)



mujupu [5:19 PM]

(whoa)



wicdiv [5:19 PM]

(And Amy and Luci were friends before they became gods)



mujupu [5:19 PM]

(AND THEN WHAT)



wicdiv [5:20 PM]

Lucifer stops, and whispers “I’m sorry.”



[5:21]

Amaterasu is clearly not getting her friends’ worry, “Luci! You are wrong. This is everything. This is exactly how it should be. Trust me. Didn’t I always say we were special?”



[5:21]

Lucifer sighs, and turns to Mary, “I have to go. Old friend, shall we say. Have a nice life. G-o-d knows I will.”



mujupu [5:21 PM]

“Take care Luci. Be good to yourself.”



[5:22]

stops recording



[5:22]

(thanks man)



wicdiv [5:22 PM]

smiles backwards, “I don’t need to be good to myself. I have adoring worshippers for that.”

I can’t say how much I enjoyed writing her after all this time. I mean, if I ever release the full transcript, there’s a lot more Lucifer material there. It just came streaming out, which either says how close Lucifer’s archetype is to me.

In terms of the imagery, Kevn was tossing up between soft butch or opulent dandy. In the end, we went for the former, and they’re great. The band of colour and Black and white out of it was his idea – the full image is actually in colour, and we’ve dropped it. Imperial phase.



I must take the blame for the Satan Claus gag.



AMATERASU INTERVIEW

The last interview to be done, and with Ezekiel, who I also know only from his work. Abstractly should have been less stressful – I’ve done it four times, and it worked each time, and I didn’t know Mary either. In practice, the stress was that Lucifer is history, and her meaning of the interview meant to impact on the other gods’ present. Amaterasu’s interview is a plot still in action, so if I write the wrong things I mess it up)

(The connective between the two issue was Amaterasu’s arrival just after her transformation at the end of Lucifer’s interview.)

But it was fine again. Amaterasu is a tricky interviewer – she’s just not as good at it as (say) Baal or Woden is. She cares, so can’t be blasé like Lucifer. The contrast between her media voice and her casual voice has always been there, and working out how to move between the two was the trick. She’s less actively entertaining here than most the gods – Amaterasu in interviews is always a little like her sitting-up-in-class, as most of the comedy with her comes from her interactions with others – but does delineate what I wanted to bring forward nicely.



Here’s a little transcript…



ezekiel [4:34 PM]

well, thank you. let’s change the subject, shall we?



wicdiv [4:35 PM]

smiles, “If you wish.”



ezekiel [4:37 PM]

a slight frown plays over my face. I’m clearly annoyed with myself. I smile again. “It’s clear that you have a deep reverence for the god you’ve become. Did you have a connection to Shinto before becoming Amaterasu?”



wicdiv [4:41 PM]

is excited by it, “Always. I was always interested in myth and legend and fantasy, but he had all these old books, and I loved reading them. There was this one set of translations I read over and over. When I was 8, we went to Japan and went to so many shrines. It was was just so peaceful, so beautiful. It got so much calmness from it.”



wicdiv [4:42 PM]

“My mother wasn’t as interested, but daddy would always make me pay attention, pointing things out…”



wicdiv [4:42 PM]

lets it drift off, in a reverie.



wicdiv [4:42 PM]

“It means a lot to me,” she finishes



ezekiel [4:43 PM]

so the blurry pictures and tweets are true, then? You still go to Japan regularly, now, as Amaterasu?



wicdiv [4:45 PM]

thinks about it, “Yes. Quietly. There’s… problems if I go during the day, especially with what happened at Hiroshima. But I go quietly, when no-one else is around. I pay my respects for the living and the dead and to my Father.”



ezekiel [4:46 PM]

what happened at Hiroshima?



wicdiv [4:46 PM]

(This would be a public event - issue 15, when she was in a fight with Cass and transported there and became a huge burning fireball above the city.)



[4:47]

(Before Cass told her DUDE! THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA!)



ezekiel [4:47 PM]

(I remember! just re-read this issue last night in prep. trying to draw her out)



wicdiv [4:47 PM]

(Ah, sorry. Doh)



wicdiv [4:48 PM]

frowns, “I made a fool of myself. That’s what happened.”



wicdiv [4:48 PM]

“I was so into showing her what I was I just… acted badly. She doesn’t believe in me. I was talking to her, and didn’t really think about anyone else.”



wicdiv [4:49 PM]

frowns, “She’ so good at shouting at people it can make you forget there’s other people.”



ezekiel [4:51 PM]

She doesn’t believe in you… but she was the first person you went to when you were in your place of deepest need… does it provide a kind of clarity? To not believe?



wicdiv [4:52 PM]

stops, frowning. It’s possible that she’s never thought of this before.



wicdiv [4:53 PM]

“She doesn’t believe in anything… but she’s so sure of it. She believes in nothing. She BELIEVES in nothing, if you see what I mean…”



[4:54]

“So in her own way, she believes in order. We’re the same like that. And she’s the one who is most like an adult. If my mum was a god, I’d have gone to her. Instead, we get Urdr.”



wicdiv [4:54 PM]

doesn’t look like she quite likes her answer.





There was another artefact of Mary and Ezekiel’s interviews coming last. Due to the learning-as-we-went-along aspect we generated much more material for the first three interviews before releasing we were. As such, they’re all 6 pages, versus four for the other two. If I were to re-do it, I suspect I may have tried to keep two of the other interviews down to four pages, to make room for another interview… but that’s solely a hindsight. I’m not even sure who to add.

(Cassandra would have been obviously hilarious, but I’m not sure she would be interested in an interview for plot reasons. Dionysus isn’t exactly someone who hungers for that, but I could have worked out an angle for a short one. I feel Minerva would be protected by Baal from the press for now, but her doing one without his permission would be a possibility. Baphomet as well as Morrigan is overkill. Persephone? Well, I think her absence is probably more important than her presence. And, as I’ve already said, Sakhmet has already shown herself not exactly a good interviewee.)

Anyway – Kevin has fun with Amaterasu, and the last images to be done with the book. She’s one of the gods who leans towards the bright colours and light, but he approaches it in a way that’s a little more casual than her stage persona. The candy bohemian of the first image is one of my favourites, and the competely alternate take on a sun-god vibe of the second is inspired.

Good work, Kevin. Again.





DEATH IN VALHALLA

I had a few more ideas for text page things, but when the interview content came in, it became clear thee was unlikely to be room for them. This was the one to keep, to get the public story of what happened in Valhalla there. Clearly, we know that some of this is true and some of it simply isn’t.

CREDITS

I love writing credits for people. Obviously the aim was to big up our contributors and to mock our regulars.

Jamie wanted to homage the highly-photo-refed style of this kind of magazine, which works very well. Trying to work out colouring for it was the trickiest part, and I love his solution.

NO LIFE LEFT

Always on our list of things to include was an editorial comic. Yes, this is drawn by Jamie, in a stripped back style. WicDiv is designed to include elements of everything we’ve ever done (for example, last arc being our Young Avengers reprise) and this is us harking back to our first professional work. We did an editorial comic for Official Playstation Magazine called Save Point. I was approached by editor Stephen Pierce, who wanted an oblique look on various things in games which we never talk about – you know, inverting your controls, etc. I said I’d do it, but suspected they’d be no more than a year’s worth of funny ideas. Forty nine episodes later, Jamie and I had proved that original statement 100% correct. But still – it got Jamie £100 a month at a time in his life when he desperately needed £100 a month.

Anyway! If we were doing a magazine issue, we definitely had to a tribute.

The problem is most of the jokes that I immediately made up worked for the readers of our comic, not the readers of the in-world magazine. We couldn’t do jokes based on a reader’s knowledge of the gods. So I ended up with this very basic thing, which Jamie entirely makes work. I also stress the Mobile Dio-Sco gag is entirely Jamie. I’m not getting blamed for all the puns.

BACK PAGE ADVERT

And this is just luscious. There’s so much work here, and it just screams opulence.

Obviously, as our lead character’s only appearance in the book, it being positioned last is not a small thing. I think the sheer power of the image is what sells it, and sets the tone for what’s the come.

Er… lots of WicDiv things in the image, but I suspect I shouldn’t talk about that. You guys have got this, and key bits will be stressed going forward. I’ll say working out what to call her phone did involve a lot of googling.

Anyway – WicDiv back to “normal” on Wednesday. Looking forward to showing you guys it.

Thanks for reading.