So, we’ve another issue out this week. It looks like this…

And is about the lovely Emily Aster and how delightful she is to everyone. Back up stories by Leigh Gallagher and Lee O’Connor. There’s a five-page preview to read here. And the first review is Sarah Jaffe at Newsarama, which is the smart sort of review which doesn’t go for the complimentary quote. Let’s go with this…

“I relate to her, though she’s nasty and frightened and working as hard as she can to keep up with something shallow and silly to leave behind the person she was, the person who hurt. I want to know just how Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie got into the head of a woman stuck trying to stay as pretty as the pretty young things around her, clinging to a rock’n’roll youth that she’s losing fast because she cannot relate to the adult world she’s supposed to be part of.”

Which gives a taste for it. It’s not an up-episode, as we’re returning to Phonogram’s more direct horror roots. Go read here. The second one has just popped up on CBR from James Hunt. 5 stars! Hurrah, etc:

Once again, “Phonogram” delivers a truly stunning single issue package that makes the most convincing case yet for the continued existence of the “floppy” format. If only every comic had as much work put into it as “Phonogram.”

Also, the solicits for issue 7 go live on CBR.

PHONOGRAM 2: THE SINGLES CLUB #7 (of 7)
story KIERON GILLEN
art & cover JAMIE McKELVIE
SEPTEMBER 30
32 PAGES / FC
$3.50

Because you demanded it! No, not you. To the left… no, not you either. One more. There you go. You! This issue is for you! It’s the long awaited Kid-with-knife solo vehicle. He likes going out. Go with him! You’ll like it! Exclamation mark!

PLUS! THE SINGLES CLUB rushes to its conclusion with as many back-up stories as Team Phonogram can cram in.

So it’s available to order. We’re not linking to the cover because, like Issue 6, it’s a mock-up for Previews rather than what we’ll be going with eventually. You can have a nose at it here.

We’ve been busy recently with stuff, but I should point you in the direction of Cherwell’s interview with me, which is one of the better overviews of Phonogram for a non-comics reader. If you want more regular updates, you should turn to Phonogram’s twitter, which we keep for proper announcements and similar. If you just want to hear me and Jamie wibber, well… follow those links. We do though. I warn you.

The August solicits are up, including new Phonogram. Firstly, the second printing of Rue Britannia - which, yes, does mean we sold all six copies - and secondly…

PHONOGRAM #6 (of 7) story KIERON GILLEN art & cover JAMIE McKELVIE AUGUST 26 32 PAGES / FC $3.50 Lloyd believes as much as a boy ever has. As such, he’s ready to be heartbroken. In the sixth of seven stories set around a single club night, we join the fledgling phonomancer as he sifts through the evening’s wreckage and tries to piece together meaning with glue, scissors and magic. Complete with two back-up stories with art from PJ HOLDEN (2000AD, FEARLESS) and ADAM CADWELL (The Everyday).

Worth noting that it’s a place-holder cover for previews. The real one will be something different. And that’s all I’ll say on that, eh?

Things have been busy, as always. Work continues on 4. Issue 3 isn’t actually at the printer yet, but we’ll let you know when it is. Here’s a load more reviews for Issue 2, which has been terribly well received. Oh yes - and we’re at the MCM Expo in London this weekend. Kieron is only there on the Sunday, but Jamie will be there all weekend. Treat him nice.

The second issue of THE SINGLES CLUB is out today in the US and tomorrow in the UK. Here’s the aforementioned five page preview. We pointed out the first review already, but there’s a second one from Sarah Jaffe of Newsarama:

“Just when I think I can’t love this comic any more, Gillen and McKelvie set out to prove me wrong. Rue Britannia was fun to pick apart, and 2.1 was just a cotton-candy bite of pure bliss. but this one made me feel.”

Will compile more as they appear. And… oh, it’s Phonogram 2.2. Sorry about the delay. I think it’s worth it, and it should be less time until the next one. It could hardly be more.

And while we’re talking Phonogram stuff, Kieron did an interview with the London Student Culture Magazine Play wherein they ask him what his first comic was and he says…
“The first comic I wrote was called The New Dinobots at primary school. It consisted of a single copy which I rented to people for 20p a read. I’d managed to amass £1.82 before the Catholic school teachers noticed that the robots had enormous pentagrams drawn on their chests. They confiscated the book and made me give the money to charity. Controversial from the off, me.”

And continue in a similar vein.

Excuse us. We’re feeling giddy.

SINGLES CLUB #2 hits stores next week, how about a nice little 5 page preview? Click the image below to find it.

In addition, Seb Patrick has reviewed the issue over at Comics Daily:
“It’s actually kind of terrifying to see just how good Phonogram has become. It was previously an excellent comic with something of a niche appeal, but I honestly think it’s hauled itself up to a point where it deserves to be talked about in the same breath as the likes of Scott Pilgrim as one of the best things the industry currently has to offer. While I find it hard to believe that anyone could fail to engage with the series’ exploration of the meaning of music, it can at least be admitted that there are people in the world who simply have no emotional connection to music of any kind. That’s no longer any excuse for not reading Phonogram, though - you can only get away with it now if you have no emotional connection to anything“.

We should have quoted Seven-days’ Too Long at the top, shouldn’t we? Man!

While we wait for PG2.2 - out 28th in the US and 29th in the UK, as far as we can work out - here’s a fun project you may want to get involved with. Comrade Matt Sheret wants to do a Phonogram Fanzine. So, yes, a fanzine of a fanzine, essentially. IT’S ALL GOING META. Let’s quote the relevant bit from his post.

Phonogram wears a lot of influences on its sleeve. As much a product of C90’s and glitter as Kill Your Boyfriend and xerox paper, it’s an open love letter to a culture that continues to inspire it.

That’s precisely why the series alienates and embraces by equal measure: Phonogram fans *love* pop culture, even when they hate it. Life just wouldn’t be the same if we couldn’t break hearts with the strut that Love Is All puts in our footsteps or if Wanda Jackson’s fractured vocals didn’t cut through love’s bullshit for the two and half minutes of ‘Tongue Tied’. Choosing to believe that music could be magical wasn’t an issue, because Music IS Magic.

And, like the best kids wearing glitter, listening to mix-tapes and reading early Grant Morrisson, it seems like making a fanzine is the only sane response.

So this is an open call for submissions: Essays, pin-ups, poems, short stories, one-page-comics… anything that can be photocopied in black and white and answers the question “When did you know music was magic?”

The ‘zine, as yet untitled, will be produced in a short run for San Diego Comic Con, and will be sold at cost through the weekend until they run out. It’ll be around 40pages long, and will include sketches and fragments from the early stages of Phonogram’s inception.

Submission details and similar on Matt’s site. Go read more.

Oh - while we’re talking, go see Matt Wilson’s explanation of how he does comic colouring.

Yeah, we’re back. All thanks go out to Ryan Closs, who’s henceforth canonized in the church of the divine Phonogram for fixing the blog. What was wrong with it? It had ran out of magic. Ryan has filled it up with the fermented ichor of pixes, and now it’s working again. Hurrah!

So: update.

Issue 2.2 is trickling through the mighty world of comic production. It should be out before the end of the month, unless something goes catastrophically wrong. In terms of an exact date… well, there’s a couple of places reporting different dates. We don’t want to jinx it until we know for sure - but as soon as we do, we’ll post both here and on the PG twitter feed. And then there will be street parties, at least in our street.

What then? Well, we’re going to try and keep it monthly from now on in. Things could still go wrong, of course, but that’s the plan. And as a sort of tease for that, here’s the first page of inks from Issue 3. Say hello to Emily Aster again. It’s been a while.

Since it’s been such a wait, I don’t want to say “the issues will totally be worth the wait”. But we think they’re pretty special. Let’s just hope someone else agrees, eh?

As we previously mentioned, we’re at New York Comic Con this weekend. We’re not aactually running a table this time, but we’re doing a few signing slots at the Image table (booth #1403). Do come along and say hi! It’ll make us look less lonely.

FRIDAY: 6:00 - 7:00 PM

SATURDAY: 5:00 - 6:00 PM

SUNDAY: 10:00 - 11:00 AM

Please be gentle when asking about PG2.2. Unless you want to make us cry, in which case don’t be gentle.

Image have the April solicits up…

OFFERED AGAIN
PHONOGRAM 2: THE SINGLES CLUB #1 (NEW PRINTING)

Doesn’t that sound lovely?

We’ll be taking a skip month next, to give us a bit of space to get back on track. Also, don’t expect Phonogram 2.2 soon - it turns up on lists, but it really isn’t going to appear imminently. We’ll give a warning here when it’s reasonable to start expecting it. It’s going to be early/mid February at the earliest. Sorry again. It’s frustrating for us too.

Hello

We’ve had a few people asking about where the second issue of the Singles Club is. Well, herein lies a tale.

We get the pre-order figures before the comic comes out. That lets us know how many we’ve sold to retailers in an initial shipment. That number basically tells us what sized cheque we can expect in three months times. From our pre-orders, we realised the size of cheque we could expect was no-size. In other words, come February, there would be no money to feed McKelvie.

So, Jamie had to take on some other work to do alongside Phonogram, which has pushed back the release date. It’s not that we’re not working: Jamie did over 30 pages in December. Problem being, it’s not all Phonogram. When will it be out? We don’t know. Hopefully by the end of the month, and on a better schedule from then on. We’ll keep you updated, and sorry for disappointing anyone who’s disappointed. We’re disappointed too.

Some people may note that we’ve sold out our print run – so sold more copies than were originally ordered. Surely that means the cheque we’ll be getting will be bigger than no-size. Yes, indeed it does. The problem is that we didn’t know that until too late, and to make sure there was some money for Jamie-eatings, he has to plan in advance for money to arrive. Just waiting until the last minute isn’t a way to live. In fact, it’s a way to starve.

Does it make us bitter? Yeah, a little. There’s a bit of a kick when Jamie – say – realises that by drawing a single page of Cable he’s going to earn more money than all of a Phonogram issue or that when you realise that despite everything Kieron did with the second series to make the singles attractive and unique, you just get the same pre-orders of the first series. Which also sold out instantly, before going on to shift 10K in trades. And when you realise that just having another thousand pre-orders would literally make it financially viable … yeah, it’s frustrating.

But educational. Our readers aren’t the sort to pre-order (Which is understandable – pre-ordering is a strange thing). Retailers, on average, don’t particularly want to support the book (Which, in the financial climate, we also understand). And we haven’t the status or leverage to do anything about either (Which we knew all along). If there’s a next time we’ll rethink it and do it a different way.

And before anyone gets stressy – this isn’t a prompt to do a “Save Phonogram” sort of thing. Phonogram’s fine, supports its printing costs, and we’ll get it done. A little slower than we’d like, but we’ll get them done. It remains worth pre-ordering later issues from your shop, if you want ‘em though.

Oh – and before we go, we’d like to thank everyone who’s bought the comic, written lovely things about it and those retailers who showed some faith in ordering. You’re splendid. If we ever meet, we’d probably be so sycophantic towards you that you’d wish you hadn’t been so nice.

And, to close, a song:

Cover for issue 5, with Kieron trying to write in music-flyerese and Jamie indulging in ironic retro cheesecake. Hurrah for comics!