#phonogram comic

[southernappalachianmidlander]

A Star

The only thing between you and me is this line as clear as glass

And when I look into the mirror, all I can see is the past

I told myself I wouldn't trade a thing, except for everything I was

But as it turned out, I gave it all away and more, just because

To build me up, I broke you down, buried your bones deep in the ground

A foundation built on dreams and hopes and blood

But when the sun set at the end of the day, there were parts of you I couldn't wash away

My own eyes looking back from on above

A thousand coats of paint can't change the dirt that lies beneath

My nails are black from digging up the earth that lies beneath my feet

When you make a deal and sell your soul, you can't just change the terms

Or you'll meet yourself at the end of the road and watch as it all burns

I built this life and I made this bed and now it's time to lay my head

It doesn't matter if I never fall asleep

When the sun set at the end of the day, there were parts of you I couldn't wash away

And I know that you're just waiting for your turn

I put everything on the line in the hope for just one wish

But I'm never gonna get what I want if I go on like this

[macbethz]

Actually insane that so much of my life rn is built around the butterfly effect of a niche comic I read 2 years ago

[originalharmonysalad]

Phonogram is a comic book written by Kieron Gillen and drawn by Jamie McKelvie. It is published by American company Image Comics.

The first volume, Rue Britannia, began in August 2006 and stars David Kohl, a mage who uses the medium of Britpop music to interpret his magic.

[viktorreadscomics]

Phonogram by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

[graphicpolicy]

Anyone can be a phonomancer in Phonogram: The Singles Club #7

Music is magic for Everyone in Phonogram: The Singles Club #7. @MidnighterBae takes us through the final issue of the series #Comics #ComicBooks

In advance of Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wjingaard’s upcoming comic The Power Fantasy, we’re revisiting some of Gillen’s previous creator-owned work. This article was originally published in January 2021 as part of a series of essays about Phonogram: The Singles Club, but has been edited and re-presented here. “I used to have a special tape. Used to have my track. My one killer track that would…

[thelastofthebookworms]

More polls about comics etc. in my pinned post.

[stevelieber]

Did you know @kierongillen, Tamra Bonvillain & I collaborated on a new 24 page story for the IMAGE! anthology? It’s called CLOSER and it’s terrific. I don't have any of Tamra's color files handy, but her color is gorgeous. And special thanks to @tomrogerscomics for invaluable assistance.

I’ve put some sets of our issues on etsy. Taken together, these three issues are 180 pages of new comics by top creators. Click through to look at the line up!

[scarlet--wiccan]

If you want more context on how Young Avengers (2013) is not only a product of its time, but is in direct conversation with the cultural moment that comics, as a medium and an industry, were occupying, I would recommend Adrienne Resha's article The Blue Age of Comic Books. A version of the article is available here.

Reshas' theoretical "Blue Age" is largely defined by the emergence of digital comics, and the resulting changes in audiences and demographics. This is underscored by the evolving relationship between fandom and mainstream social media and the genre's metatextual relationship with both its readers and the spaces they populated. Simultaneously, there was a renewed focus on diversity and inclusion, although the material impact may have left something to be desired.

Young Avengers was part of the first wave of Marvel Now!, a branding relaunch that lasted from 2012 to 2015, which in many ways defined the first, and formative, portion of the Blue Age. The book holds obvious aspirations towards a characteristic notion of diversity which teeters on the edge of self-conscious tokenism, and the creators were directly plugged into their tumblr-based audience in a way that seems almost inconceivable in today's landscape. Between that, the notably organic (for the time) use of social media formats and vernacular, and a surprisingly clear grasp on junior millennial voices, the book both courted and gave birth to a very specific fandom environment where titles like Ms. Marvel and Champions would later thrive.

To me, Young Avengers perfectly encapsulates the opening moments of the Blue Age. It precipitates so much of what comics, and comic book spaces, would become over the next five to eight years, and experiencing it first hand really informed my perspective on both the industry and fandom. But the book also suffers for its liminality-- tonally and stylistically, it doesn't quite fit into people's nostalgic image of either the Blue Age or the post-9/11 Modern Age which preceded it, and the characters-- now on the verge of legal drinking age-- resist the conventions of an archetypical "teen team."

It's a weird book that sits in an interstitial period for the characters, the genre and its creators, being Team Phonogram's singular dip into work-for-hire supeheroics before returning to making creator-owned, pup-infused urban fantasies at Image. As somebody who loves reading and learning about the medium, I think it's a really valuable and I've learned so much about comics just from poring over this series. You'll never make me hate it, but even if you don't like it, there's a lot to gain from being open to objective, academic conversation!

[dustedmagazine]

Los Campesinos! — All Hell (Heart Swells)

In a way, 2013’s NO BLUES was the end of a particular version of Los Campesinos! and for reasons that had little to do with their personnel changes over the years since 2006. The septet is far from the first (or last) band to experience the music industry leaving them for dead in a ditch for a lack of profit, and sadly also not the only ones to get one of their best albums caught up in that moment. So, everyone returned to (or got) day jobs and although they never exactly split up, it took some time to determine that, yes, Los Campesinos! was still really going to keep going. But if 2017’s excellent Sick Scenes was proof of concept of Los Campesinos!’s vitality and potential, the new, even more self-motivated ethos has led to both the longest break between albums yet and (recency bias be damned) their strongest LP.

Readers of Dusted don’t need to be reminded that financial success does not necessarily correlate with any particular merit, but that the entirely in house All Hell (self-financed, self-produced, on their own label) wound up as their first UK top 40 record (14 with a bullet!) is at the very least a testament to how many people were waiting for this record and how satisfying they found it. In Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s classic music-as-magic comic book Phonogram, one of the main characters describes Los Campesinos! (before they’d even put out a record) to another as “They’re never going to be big big. But they’re going to be big to some people.” Increasingly, it seems that those people have found them. If you go to an LC! show in 2024 fully half or more of the crowd are kids who were not listening to records when Hold on Now, Youngster… came out in 2008, a delightful product of the band just resolutely doing what they do for close to 20 years now.

All Hell is a stirring reminder of what that is, exactly. Their Bandcamp page still describes them as “The UK’s first and only emo band,” and that fine blend of sarcasm, sincerity, standoffishness, insight, and a certain love of starting an argument still sums up some of frontman Gareth David’s authorial voice (although it doesn’t include his incredibly vivid and compelling way with both political and romantic heartache and longing). Guitarist and (here) producer Tom Bromley continues to write incredible songs for David to drop punchlines and emotional haymakers over, and has also burnished this into easily the best sounding Los Campesinos record to date. At this point these seven members have been playing together since 2014 and can turn on a dime and nail pretty much any melodic/emotional register they need to, harsh or comforting, anthemic or plangent.

Fans are likely to draw comparisons to 2010’s Romance Is Boring, often considered a high-water mark. The last three records followed the same straightforward format: 10-11 songs, 40-42 minutes. Romance Is Boring was their most complex, lengthy, and interconnected record, and there’s an ambition here that makes them feel like siblings (possibly partly the result of having more time to build up material). The 15 songs here in just under 50 minutes, with three numbered tracks splitting the record into rough sections, feels sprawling and expansive after the tighter organization of the last few.

You can really feel that extra decade-plus in the structures, songwriting, and sonics of All Hell, but the polish and compositional sophistication here don’t belie a lack of fire. “The Coin-Op Guillotine” is easily the gentlest opener they’ve ever done; there’s bleakness there (“I think I’m right, I don’t think it matters”) but the refrain still centers on the kind of community and solidarity that they’ve been trying to practice from business/concert practices on down: “if you’ve got a cross to bear/call my name, I’ll see you there.” And even there it’s still about our current dystopia, and the title clearly refers to more than just the arcade game.

And sure enough, the following “Holy Smoke (2005)” immediately snarks that “nowadays it’s Live Laugh Love and Listen to Death From Above” over a headlong sprint (one of many places here where drummer Jason Adelinia is a crucial force). Even the magnificent “Feast of Tongues” (which arguably boasts a couple of the band’s best choruses to date), which swells from pensive backing “ooh”s and strings to one of the biggest, hardest hitting climaxes here, specifies that the title refers to when “we will feast on the tongues of the last bootlickers.”

As always, one of the challenges of writing about Los Campesinos! (as well as one of the joys of listening to them) is there are simply too many quotable lines, especially if you’re interested in the ways they refer back to their own history (dropping the “please” from the Romance Is Boring-era “can we all please just calm the fuck down?” as a teeth-gritted acknowledgment of how much less reasonable those they’re addressing have gotten since then) or just a good joke (if, say, “do you still have that one tattoo?/that’s how they work, of course you do” doesn’t work for you, another one will be along soon). And as much as All Hell is rich in the band’s traditional strengths, there are still moments of expansion. The crunching switchbacks of “Clown Blood/Orpheus’ Bobbing Head” are maybe the most aggro they’ve ever been, and the sweetly gloomy “kms” features Kim Paisey taking lead vocals for the first time.

Given the way the last two records have ended with some of their heaviest, weightiest songs, as they kick into the room-levelling angst of “0898 HEARTACHE” it feels like just that sort of crescendo. Instead, All Hell actually ends with the humbler melancholy of “Adult Acne Stigmata.” It’s the closest Los Campesinos! have come to an acoustic ballad, with multi-tracked Gareths sighing “it’s all hell, we know too well/it’s all hell” in the background. From another band, it might risk pathos or bathos; from Los Campesinos, it’s practically comforting. In the midst of inferno, we can all sing, and thrash, along.

Ian Mathers

[simon-roy]

A BRIEF REMINDER:

The final order cutoff for the Image Comics edition of GRIZ GROBUS is TODAY! So if you're a comic book store owner, a independent bookstore manager, or anyone who reads comics, consider ordering the book!

What is Griz Grobus? Here, from the solicitation text:

On a distant planet, a prying scribe, a sentimental constable, and a mayor resurrect a sleepy town’s long-defunct priest-bot. But "Father Stanley" is not what he seems. Meanwhile, in another universe, a hungry wizard accidentally conjures a war-god into the body of a goose. These two intertwined tales make up GRIZ GROBUS, the hit Kickstarter graphic novel sensation now at Image Comics!

Perfect for fans of Hayao Miyazaki, Asterix, and Arthur C. Clarke, and readers 12 and up!

Arriving: June 5, 2024 Lunar Code: 0424IM239 ISBN: 9781534397866

Nice things other comics professionals have been saying about the book:

 "Griz Grobus' dual dovetailing narratives let us discover an alien world and a human heart, full of Ghibli style and the finest Tor-novella poise. The team creates a universe, and is generous enough to let us live there." —Kieron Gillen, The Wicked + The Divine, Die, Phonogram

"Rich, beautiful and very funny—one of my favorite comics. Get every book Simon makes." —Tonči Zonjić, Lobster Johnson, Who is Jake Ellis?

"Simon's worldbuilding skills are yet to be matched, but on top of that his stories are both crazy and profound!" —Carlos P. Valderrama, Giants

“It’s amazing. You won’t get a better world builder than Simon Roy. He’s taking us places and I am here for it. Do not miss this.” —Daniel Warren Johnson, Transformers, Do A Powerbomb, Wonder Woman: Dead Earth

"When Simon Roy announces a new book it's an event - and a must buy for me and anyone who loves the medium of words and pictures!!!” —Geoff Darrow, Shaolin Cowboy, Hard Boiled

“Simon Roy’s science-fiction embraces heady ideas of futurism while never forgetting for an instant the foibles and frailties of the humans that exist in it. Griz Grobus is no different—an alien world made lived-in and real by the very human characters who exist within it, where at the end of the day, a full belly is what is worth aspiring to. Another extraordinary piece of work, an addition to a growing body of modern classic science-fiction, Griz Grobus continues the trajectory that began with Habitat.” —Jed McKay, Avengers, Moon Knight, Doctor Strange

“Simon Roy has a way of making strange & alien worlds utterly charming. His world building is unique & filled with quirky characters I strangely want to eat with. AND—I really want an Elaphure.” —Ben Templesmith, 30 Days of Night

"Griz Grobus combines beautiful art and mystical storytelling with an intriguing look at humanity on a world half-alien, half-familiar. A sly and often funny take on the creation of new myths and the rediscovery of the past." —Adrian Tchaikovsky, Hugo and Nebula award winning author of the Children of Time series

"Seriously, it's the perfect kind of Ursula Le Ghibli world and I adore it. The right measure of everything from the writing to the art." —Goran Gligovic, Dagger Dagger, Company of the Eagle

PS - If any of this piques your interest, I'm also running a kickstarter campaign for the hardcover edition of REFUGIUM, - the sequel to this very book! If you or your customers enjoy Wayne Barlowe's strange creatures, or the work of Dougal Dixon, it might scratch a particular itch for you...

[ladyfauxhawk]

hey, i'm sorry to hear you have covid. i hope you feel better soon! here are some music asks for you. take good care ✨🌹

16. Do you choose particular albums depending on the mood?

19. A song you like with a color in the title?

20. A song you like with a number in the title?

21. A song that needs to play loud?

Thank you for the asks! It's been a fun way to spend covid Sunday, and I love reading everyone's responses to their ask box too. 💖

16. Yes to picking albums based on the mood! I don't know if anyone else here ever read Phonogram by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, but it's an amazing comic about how music is magic and I 100% agree with that. (Kieron is a writer/dj and posts his writing playlists on Spotify and I cannot recommend them highly enough!)

I love album listening, and got a turntable a few years back because it keeps me from diving into other tracks like I do on Spotify (and sounds better!) I love a playlist, but albums are how I really get to know an artist, and figure out how to use their magic to help me feel my way through (or around) any mood. Message me a mood and I will send you an album. 😁

19. There so many! I picked red last time, so let's go with green. My queer heart loves Arlo Parks:

20. I picked a Lucinda Williams 2 Kool to Be 4-gotten last time, so my heart only has one other obvious choice: Alex and Miles, shyly gazing at each other on stage, playing 505. Like my heart can barely handle them.

21. Please turn up the volume for JOE STRUMMER & THE MESCALEROS! Do I play this when I'm mad about work? hells yes. 💥

[thingsthatmademe]

Die #19

I will probably have a lot to say about the work of Kieron Gillen over the life of this emotional process blog but today is a quick note about a work that didn't mean much to me until it did, Die.

One of Kieron's ur works, Phonogram, is the one that got me. Specifically, The Singles Club. It came to me at the peak of my own late-blooming retro, goth, and indie-pop club years. Die, on the other hand, came later. The peak of the grim Trump and pandemic years in America and reconciling myself to my forties after a decade of heavy drinking, partying, and living in the moment. Trying to make my first attempt at cohabitation work and finding it incredibly difficult, not realizing how hard having another person around to perceive me as who I was (and more importantly, who I was not) was going to be.

It was the summer of '22 when all of that crested and I realized that I both was, and allowed to be, trans. But that's a different story and a different book for a different time.

In some ways, the concept of Die was perfect for me -- four middle-aged people revisiting the sins of their youth. In other ways -- less so. Role-playing games were a part of my past that I set down in my twenties and have not picked back up again. My particular brand of (faint?) borderline autism makes me a bit of a rules lawyer, and my creativity is something that's a very private thing. I love the explosion in gaming that's been ongoing for the past few decades (I live in Portland, OR after all) but it's not for me.

I still bought Die of course -- but it wasn't a must-read and I wasn't following the characters and story as intensely as I had with other comics. Part out of slowly growing out of living my life through fictional characters and part out of denial around needing reading glasses.

But also Ash, and not wanting to look at myself too closely.

I had put down drag and "the thing I could only call genderfluidity in my head and fantasies" sometime around 2012/2013. I had entered the club and kink scenes because they seemed like places where anything could happen. Over time you discover there are, in fact, only twelve things that can happen -- and having them happen over and over again gets a little boring. Growth is a thing, I suppose. And then realizing your health is starting a massive decline from the drink and occasional drugs and that you can only process feelings through altered states?

So my femme persona became a thing I put down. I shrugged internally and said "I guess that was something I did for a while" and other non-answers when close friends asked what was up. My venues for those opportunities were gone, and the need to show up professionally and spend some male privilege for slightly more financial security was in the air.

Every year, particularly around the dark holidays, an old familiar depression would haunt me. A crushing sense that my life was over and there was nothing to look forward to.

When Die #19 came along I wasn't quite ready to listen to the voice my resurrected depression was suffocating -- but unresolved feelings around genderfluidity with no clear model to guide you? Tying it up with sketchy problematic behavior in your past? Capital kay KNOWING this in your head but not knowing it in your heart or what to do about it? I played it off to myself as "oh that's interesting" and moved on.

It would take me another ten months until I was curled up in a ball on the kitchen floor crying my eyes out about who I was and the time I'd wasted.

Re-reading this issue today as I box up some comics the tears come again, but this time they're mostly from gratitude and joy. Mostly.

[macbethz]

kieron gillen is up there with moore and ellis. to me

[thelenazavaroniarchive]

𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟒. The Daily Record reported on the civic reception held by Rothesay Town Council for Lena.

𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟒. In the Dutch magazine “Story”. there was a two page article with photographs about Lena.

Translation:

𝐋𝐞𝐧𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐬.

Only ten years young, very cute to see and a voice that roars like a hurricane. That's Lena Zavaroni the new singing prodigy. The record business has already thrown itself at her with full force, because gold can be earned with such a natural talent.

Father and Mother Zavaroni really thought about it for a long time. And only when it was assured that their little girl would not be plunged headlong into the music business, did they give their consent. But from that day on, it was a normal childhood for Lena. She was soon the world's sweetest child prodigy.

A record was quickly made in the record studio, "Ma, He's making eyes at me" and 300,000 copies flew out of stores within a few days. The British record boys rubbed their hands in delight.

By the way, Daddy and Mommy Zavaroni weren't dissatisfied either, because through the booming voice of their ten-year-old offspring the money started pouring in. Lena flew in and out of the studio, made one television program after the other and was allowed to make sweet trips to European countries in between. After all, this great talent should not only be saved for England, no, the mainland also had to kneel before the endearing prodigy. And so it is that from now on you will regularly see and hear dear little Lena on the tube. And now you should start shouting impatiently for hall performances, because our labor inspectorate is not so generous with that for prodigies. Just think of Hein and Wilma.

In England this is seen somewhat more broadly. The little girl can also be seen on television all the time. But because you can't immediately tear such a cutie out of the familiar world of her dolls and skipping rope, the English labor inspectorate has determined that Lena is not allowed to perform more than forty times a year. Furthermore, the little darling is also not allowed to hang out in the studios after ten o'clock at night.

And that's where the aftercare stops, because of course you can't keep going. After all, Lena also has her sweet caring parents.

"A special talent"

"The big problem for Mr. and Mrs. Zavaroni was how to publicize their little miracle without harming her upbringing in any way. Rightly so, for they were extremely concerned about the development of Lena's career, " wrote Phonogram in a biography of the Scottish prodigy. However, Lena's parents got in touch with Philip Solomon, a manager who is trained to keep very young talents on the right track, Solomon said. "At first I didn't feel like starting something with such a young girl, but when I heard Lena sing, I realized I was dealing with a very special talent. I will guide her further."

She is indeed special, because the simple Lena, who says very sweet things about the Netherlands during a conversation, that she likes being here and things like that, the same Lena becomes a creepy personality as soon as she is behind the microphone.

There is no longer a girl who would much rather play with her dolls and romp in the street with her girlfriends, but a real star! A creature that blindly imitates what the grown-ups have pumped into her. Professional movements, mischievous steps behind the microphone, a lot of working with the arms and the occasional almost comical, but certainly not intended, mischievous look into the camera.

𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧

The future looks healthy for Lena - financially at least - yes. But the commercials and record guys won't spare her, because she just happens to be ten. Multitudes of records will have to be filled from them and she will be dragged from one unit corner of Europe to another, living within the shackles of success.

On the other hand, there is a rapidly growing bank account belonging to papa Zavaroni, a man who used to have to be frugal as a sales representative. Lena never had to nag for a new doll for a long time, such a little extra is also welcome because Lena's golden voice made it possible for father and mother to buy a very expensive house in London. London has become their new base: that's where the studios are and that's where the big world begins for Lena.

Meanwhile, Lena's spiritual formation is not neglected either. Papa has sent her to the Italia Conti School, a famous London institution for rich kids, where she is taught the necessary knowledge through private tuition. After all, the ten-year-old prodigy cannot remain stupid...

𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.

Playing with balloons, blowing fun bubbles or just doing what she likes is no longer an option for little Lena. The balloons and soap bubbles can only be used in front of the photographer's camera. For the rest, Lena can forget that, prodigy as she is.

Photographs by Peter Mazel.

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟗. In The Stage, the Jictar ratings had Lena Zavaroni and Music at number nine in the Central Scotland television region.

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟗. The Liverpool echo had an article about Lena and her new haircut.

[graphicpolicy]

The Wicked + the Divine #1 - 10 Years Later

The Wicked + the Divine #1 - 10 Years Later. Sometimes, the things that were great a decade ago are still great #comics #comicbooks

“And every demon wants his pound of flesh.”–Florence + the Machine “Forgot that inside the icon, there’s still a young girl from Essex.”–Lorde Until I read Kieron Gillen’s newsletter last week, I couldn’t believe that it had been ten years since The Wicked + the Divine was released and basically changed my life. It, and Gillen and artist Jamie McKelvie’s other collaboration Phonogram,…

[inquisitiveheretic]

Wait what do you mean when you say Thats Why Britpop Was Like That? I want to know what britpop was like, pretty please tell me about britpop 🙏🙏 (my experience is mostly with the Phonogram comic series and also I've listened to Pulp a little bit but I don't know all the Context and Lore of britpop as a movement beyond that comic series)

never heard of that series so idk what you know about britpop ngl but what i was basically referring to under that post was the oasis v blur battle that was mostly about chart positions and also the huge football hooligan/lad culture that was baked into their followings lol