Sunday, November 05, 2006

What are you doing?

What? Right now? Typing. Why?

Oh, too literal? Okay: for Wildstorm, Texas Chainsaw; for 2000AD, Sinister Dexter and Kingdom; for Titan, Wallace and Gromit; for Boom!, Warhammer 40K.

The next novel is going to be Only In Death (Gaunt #11), which will be followed by another Horus book and then something very big and juicy and 40k (which I'm not sure I'm allowed to mention yet. I must check with the Black Librarians). In amongst those things will be fitted something for Solaris, Young Gaunt (from here on to be known as "Li'l Gaunt") and Double Eagle 2 (which will not be called, as Lindsey insists on having it, 'Quadruple Eagle').

I also have a real yen to write some Eisenhorn/Ravenor short stories - loose end sort of things - and I also wanna take a swing at a meaty Warhammer epic. Must make more clones.

Recommendations for the week:

1. Music - anything by Something For Kate.
2. Comics - Phonogram. Hurrah! Something a bit different AND good.
3. Comics (again) - Next Wave. Warren Ellis writes what gets my vote as the funniest comic around. Thank you, Warren. It makes me laugh.

40 comments:

nova3333 said...

Hi Dan. Always been a fan of your comic work rather than Warhammer which I Sadly don't follow. I remember your stories you did for the old Doctor Who Monthly, later Pendragon. However I really enjoyed yours and Andy lannings take on Nova earlier this year which was highly praised bt many Nova fans which I'd like to say thanks. I'm also glad, via Newramma back in Sept that you're do the new Monthly. How it going? No spoilers please just curious.

VirtualWolf said...

Oooh! Yes, more Eisenhorn/Ravenor! :D

I'm eagerly awaiting Ravenor Rogue. I loved the Eisenhorn novels, but the Ravenor ones feel more... epic. Grander in scope.

Any even slight hints for the "very big and juicy" thing? ;)

Anonymous said...

All sound great indeed!!! When do you start work on the Nova series for Marvel and do you know who will be doing pencils?

The more Eisenhorn the better!!!!

Thanks Danny boy!

Anonymous said...

lol just read the above post after I submitted mine, well it should be seen as you doing a good job with the character getting asked twice so quickly.

marco said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Oi, you --

"Very big and juicy" -- schtumm it, sunshine, you keep it zipped or it'll be the concrete legwarmers for you.

Anonymous said...

The "very big and juicy" thing wouldn't happen to be what you mentioned at your signing in Redhill would it, or is it something completely different?

On top of that more Horus, Gaunt/li'l Gaunt, Ravenor actually pretty much everything sounds good.

Anonymous said...

Why does "Lil' Gaunt" sound like part of a terribly thought out spin-off line, alone the lines of Muppet Babies?

Also, as long as the sequel to Double Eagle isn't called Double Eagle 2 - Electric Boogaloo I'll be happy. Come to think of it, if you called it that I'd probably be amused anyway.

Toymachine said...

VERY BIG (and juicy)...
-Braggs coming back!!!

Anonymous said...

Another installment of horus heresy cant wait. Hope u get to write about the Wolf smashing the granny out of Magnus!
Just finished A.of C. very dark so untill the sun rises on gereon.....

ha ha untill get it... i crack me up

Anonymous said...

Big an juicy, eh? Any more, and I have to wash my hands, so I won't be glued to my books :D

The Preview of Ravenor Rogue on the last pages of The Armour of Contempt was... nice, really.
And talking about Armour of Contempt... WHY THE HELL HIM? C'mon, anyone... but not one of them... that wasn't funny to read... a page before that, you're lifting spirits, and then this one... that wasn't nice, Dan.

But, well, fantastic book nevertheless, and painfully awaiting things like Ravenor Rogue, The Inquisition and History of the Later Crusades :)

Anonymous said...

I have to say I'm very much looking forward to Li'l Gaunt, it's going to be great to see Gaunt as a junior, presumably with the Hyrkans.

Also looking forward to the next Double Eagle, which I was informed by Mr Abnett himself when I met him at the Forbidden Planet signing is titled Interceptor City.

And Ravenor Rogue too, obviously.

dan_foster11 said...

If you stop writing gaunts ghost books, I will boycott reading all together. Ill threaten to jump off a high rise, or hold a hunger strike. Please dont make me do it

Anonymous said...

Have to say I couldn't agree more re Phonogram. However 3 issues in, loving it, but I still don't know what's going on.

Anonymous said...

Young Gaunt?

Not sure I'm behind that idea.

But then again, what do I know? I just hope Only in Death is a step up from Armour of Contempt....though in my humble opinion that wouldn't be that difficult.

Just being a doomsayer!

Anonymous said...

Young Gaunt? My brain is now offically set to 'Intrigued'.

Toymachine said...

Did anyone think about the Madox/Horus thing yet?
No?
Madox can come back to life, but Horus cant?
No?
Horus the biggest, badest apostle of chaos, Madox a mere marine?
No?

Anonymous said...

Sorry...Madox? I recognise the name, but I can't place it off hand. Who is he?

Anonymous said...

Horus may be the biggest & baddest, but the Dark Gods are fickle things and bore quickly.

Toymachine said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Toymachine said...

Hey Lordofthenight,
"Madox" is Ragnar's rival (The chaos marine in the William king's "space wolves" series).

Just think - he can come back from the dead, but Horus can't?
Interesting that, aint it?

Anonymous said...

The ’very big and juicy’ thing you mention, Mr. Abnett, would that happen to have anything to do with the rumoured ‘Inquisition’ background book? If so, we want spoilers! Looks to be absolutely wonderful once it’s done, oh yes. And of course, mentioning the Inquisition, it’s quite impossible not to mention Eisenhorn. Eisenhooorn. Will he be in the background book? Will he be in ‘Ravenor Rogue’? Can’t wait to find out. *Hopeful fan-girl eyes.*

As for Young Gaunt, I’m all for it; been starting the Gaunt’s Ghosts series over again (my third complete read-through, I believe), and I realised that I actually quite like the descriptions of Gaunt and especially Oktar even though they were just short passages – it would be neat to get to know the person responsible for turning Gaunt into such an unusual Commissar.

@ Toymachine: On the question of why Madox could return from the dead when Horus couldn’t, keep in mind that when Madox’ body was destroyed by Ragnar his soul lived on in the warp, protected by his Primarch Magnus and Tzeentch himself, eventually allowing him to be reborn into a new body. When Horus died, he was torn apart physically as well as mentally, his soul completely shattered by the Emperor, so there was nothing for the Chaos Gods to return to life. Horus was later cloned by the Emperor’s Children, but the clones were nothing like the original Primarch, and eventually the Sons of Horus (renamed Black Legion) destroyed these pitiful abominations. Unfortunately, it looks like Horus is gone for good. :(

~Cec.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Abnett,

Huge fan and I am with dan_foster11 that if you quit writing Gaunt's Ghost Novels it will rank right up there with the Cubs Winning the World Series...another sign of the Ragnorok.

As to the big project for '07 I happened uppon a search of your works on Barnes & Noble and they list a "Tactica Imperium: A History of the Later Imperial Crusades" set to release in March 2007 along with an Omnibus of Gaunt Novels. Not sure if you can talk about the Tactica "thing", but if Barnes & Noble is talking then lets have it then. Sounds amazing and should let you go nuts with 40K Imperial tactical history like you obviously enjoy with regard to real world war history. Good luck with that and looking forward to all your next publishings.

Mike
Illinois

Anonymous said...

@Toymachine
Thanks, I remember the name now. The Space Wolves Omnibus is coming out next year isn't it? I think I read that somewhere.

@Grephaun
Hmm, I thought it was the Warhammer 40K Comic book coming out. Oh well, both are good.

Anonymous said...

@ Lordofthenight: The Warhammer 40k comic book you're referring to, which one is that? Can't recall having come across it on Black Library's homepage. Googling 40k comics, however, I did come across another 40k comic called 'Damnation Crusade' by Mr. Abnett himself, but that doesn't look to be a book, rather a series, if I'm not mistaken. Doesn't seem to be published by Black Library either, which rather confuses me – looks good, though.

From what I can dig out about this series online (which isn't much) the first issue is due on December 20th – leaves me wondering why I've heard absolutely nothing mentioned about this series until now, and quite by accident at that, when I'm usually quite up-to-date on new Warhammer publications (going through this blog, I have spotted a single little hint only obvious to me in retrospect, and that's all.) Anyone knows anything else about this 'Damnation Crusade' series and/or other 40k comics and/or other new and supposedly secret publications, please let me know!

Mr. Abnett, a plea: we really really want to buy your stuff, that's why we're here, but you've got to tell us when these things are coming out or we won't be able to! :(

Oh, and Lordofthenight, FYI, the Space Wolf Omnibus by William King is published next January – in absence of any new Black Library publications by Dan Abnett that month, I suppose this will have to do for now. Have read the books once already, of course, but this'll give my 40k book club a chance to catch up. ;)

~Cec.

Anonymous said...

WARGHHH!
Ave Dan Abnett!
Never read your comics mate.. but i fething love you Gaunt's Ghosts series... got every since one of them ^^ Yep i'm a Warhammer 40k nerd. but.. thats not a bad thing. :D

Also, love Darkblade, Fell Cargo got all of those too.. and Eisenhorn, Ravenor.. i'm pretty much a Dan Abnett fan.. fancy that.. lol

Anonymous said...

@Grephaun
Yeah, that's the one I was talking about. There's a single mention of it in the Black Library news page. It was fairly recently, but I can't remember the headline.

And January - that was it. Good thing too - there's already far too many books to buy for both December and March, and I expect February is full as well.

Anonymous said...

@ Lordofthenight: Ah, thanks, I found the Black Library reference now as well. I wonder if this comic will be available from Games Workshop as usual or if I should be ordering it online, will have to check with my local GW (they’re usually up-to-date on these things, but apparently they haven’t heard about this new comic either, since they haven’t mentioned it to me.)

As for there being far too many books, I’m sure I must’ve misunderstood your meaning, because surely there can never be too many Warhammer books to buy! ;) Oh, and February is indeed filled up, with no less than two new Dan Abnett books. Wooh! ^_^

~Cec.

Dan Abnett said...

Hi all.

Ta for the all the postive comments (except.... Xhalax? Did you not like AoC because of what happens in it, or did you just think it sucked as a book?). Nova is getting started now (no artist yet) and I'll tell you more once we're up and running.

As to the other subjects of mass confusion:

1) Yes, there is a Tactica Imperium book (out in March? check the BL site) which I wrote with the talented Mr Andy Hoare.

2) Ian Edginton and I are scripting a US format comic book (22 pages a month) called Damnation Crusade, which is 40K (Black Templars, actually). It debuts in December. It's being published by BOOM!, a US publisher, under licence from GW (so I've no idea how much publicity/plugging GW will give it - lots, I hope). I don't know if it will be available in GW stores over here, but you'll be able to get it (ordering will help) through direct sale comic shops (may I humbly suggest Canterbury's Whatever Comics, or Maidstone's Grinning Demon). I've seen the art and colours for the firts issue. It looks top.

3). However... sorry to say, that neither of these is the Very Big and Juicy Thing Marco won't permit me to talk about, nor are either of them the Big Secret Project I'm dying to tell you about. (The BSP actually goes to press tomorrow... look me up on Amazon... it's the thing that starts with a 'T'...)

Does that clarify things any?

Dan Abnett said...

Oh, yeah, I did forget something...

@grephaun

Hello 'Cec' (curious name, must know more)

Yes, I have also contributed to the Inquisition background book (an Inquisitor's handbook). It has LOTS of Ravenorish and Eisenhorny goodness in it. Maybe someone from BL can tell us when that's out, as I cannot say without, you know, making shit up.

Anonymous said...

*grin*

I thought "Eisenhornian is better than Eisenhorny", as you said not long ago. :D

Thanx once more for your emailing informations about the in-game books of Ravenor!

Anonymous said...

Heyla Dan (may I call you Dan? Mr. Abnett sounds so formal.)

First of all, delighted to hear that the Inquisition background book will be featuring Eisenhorn and Ravenor, as I am sure many of your other fans will be as well; they are both in my estimate the most (in)famous and beloved Inquisitors of the 40k universe from a fan point of view, and vying with Gaunt for popularity as characters (no small feat.)

I'm really looking forward to getting more information on the Inquisition as a whole as well as Eisenhorn and Ravenor in particular; maybe the new background book will even be able to answer some of the questions I've always been curious about, such as how Ravenor got himself apprenticed to the Eldar, and of course the background story of Cherubael - being, as I understand it, a Daemon Prince, he must have quite an extensive past, which no doubt provides for his wonderful charm and personality. ;) A little is mentioned about him in the Inquisition rulebook, and some more on the Spanish GW homepage (information I've been unable to spot in any other publication, though, which leaves me wondering where they got the details found here), but I'd love to know more. I'd also love to see him interact with other characters more; I find Daemons and especially Daemon Princes to be very fascinating entities who are unfortunately too often reduced to slobbering brutish monsters for the heroes to kill - surely it's their oft-neglected human aspects, intelligence and cunning (and a wicked sense of humour), which makes them so dangerous (and interesting), rather than their mere size and strength.

As for 'Damnation Crusade', I have since my last post visited my local Games Workshop as well as two independent comic stores, and none of them had heard mention of your new comic, let alone made plans to sell it. I'm hoping it might be available by mail order, as I'm neither a US nor UK resident, or else I'll have to twist a few arms until these people come around to my way of thinking. I agree with you on the artwork of the comic; from what I've seen of previews, it looks absolutely delicious.

And you say that neither Tactica Imperialis nor Damnation Crusade is the Very Big and Juicy Thing nor the Big Secret Project?! You're actually saying there's more?! *Fan-girlish squee.* ^_^

As for the curiousness of my name, Cec, it's actually not that curious at all. My real first name is 'Cecilie', the Danish/Norwegian form of Latin 'Cecilia', originating from the Catholic Saint Cecilia who was martyred for renouncing the Roman gods and then annoying refused to die after being suffocated and beheaded (unfortunately, it was later thought inappropriate that she become the patron saint of female stubbornness, which I find a shame.) However, all my friends abroad find the proper Scandinavian pronunciation impossible, Danish being a notoriously difficult language to master (some say the most difficult in the world), and so my name has been reduced to the more manageable 'Cec'. I find this version of my name to be aesthetically superior, not least when compared to the horribly mangled form (sounds like someone with a throat-disease) that is the inevitable result of foreigners trying to pronounce the actual thing, so I've adopted it for my personal use. That's all there is to it, really.

Anyway, I'm afraid this post is turning to verbose rambling now, my apologies for spamming your blog. Thank you very much for the information provided, I'll put it to good use. Looking forward to reading your future publications; for now I must get on the case of the mysteriously missing Damnation Crusade comic. Cheers!

~Cec.

Anonymous said...

wow. not sure what i expected, but all the comics stuff thru me for a loop(not sure why), but i just needed to be quoted electronicly as saying your work rocks. Eisenhorn and ravenor are some of the best fiction out there right now. I love an author who can write a galaxy as dark and paranoid as the inside of my head. I sincerely hope you are heavily involved in whatever inquisitorial background storys BL publishes, as you are my favorite BL author. Oh yeah the malus darkblade series is pretty badass. luv 2 see more o' that. keep on rockin in the oppressed continuim.

Jackwraith said...

Dan, I can't speak for Xhalax, but I can give you a little feedback on Armor of Contempt that might encompass some of his dismay, given that I've started and finished it over the past two days. [mild spoilers below]

AoC is a good story. You're a great war story writer. AoC is no exception to everything that you've done in that respect. The Dalin section of the book explicitly outlined the frequent futility of war and how that is taken to the Nth degree in the Imperium's philosophy.

However, AoC is not a great 40K story. Despite the long-standing characters and setting, the background/theme of this book seemed very pasted on. It very easily could have been derived from any background setting of the 20th-century. Even the mutated enemy troops could be seen as easy allegories to the beastly countenance given to the opposition by most propaganda (or, these days, 'pundit') pieces.

With a return to Gereon, I was hoping to see something more fantastic. Wirewolves, glyfs, Sons of Sek, Chaos Marines, SOMETHING. While I know that a full-on representation of 'how does the IG deal with wirewolves?' would have dispelled some the excellent horror for which I so enjoyed Traitor General, I did expect to see some kind of combat against the elements of Chaos that pervaded the world. The bit with the tank just didn't really do it.

Or, perhaps, it all kind of came in under my expectations. Traitor General was the first good representation of a world under Chaos that the BL has produced. I expected to re-encounter that and see how it clashed with the Imperium. Instead, I got a Normandy invasion story. A very good one (as always), but still not what I was hoping for.

Also, the jacket blurb is very misleading. 'Gaunt in direct conflict with his superiors!' Uh, when? In the last 20 pages when he has a resigned argument with an Inquisitor? The jacket implies that he's on the verge of becoming a rogue commander or that his decisions in this book will have huge effect on his status. None of that occurred.

I honestly think it was a bad idea to run the Dalin storyline in the same book. I think Dalin may have made a good book of his own or perhaps a novella. I think taking half of this book away from Gaunt, away from Gereon, away from what could have been a science fantasy-drenched, just kind of left us with what I first said: a good war story, but not a good 40K story.

Still looking forward to Ravenor Rogue and everything else 40K that you're turning out. Thanks for that.

Anonymous said...

AoC is a nice book, yes, but as said, not the best 40k book. jackwraith pointed it out well. Last thing that really was bad was the dying one. To see Colm and Bragg dead was bitter enough, but Him had really hurt...

Anonymous said...

Well, as far as I can tell, I've read everything you've written for WH40k, and I've even read a couple of titles twice, when I couldn't get my fix. So I'm glad I finally found this webpage and to see that you have a lot of projects running because I was about to send a nasty letter to your editors, asking them to light a fire under your ass. But it seems you have stoked the fire yourself. I enjoy your work immensely!

Anonymous said...

I really must be a glass in half full kinda guy cos as far as I can see no-one 'big' died in AoC. Someone was shot, fair enough, reactions were made, fair enough, but I never attended a funeral. Did you guys?

That said as far as I'm concerned my cat is living large on the farm at the ripe old age of 30 and not pushing up the dasies. I never saw the body,who am I to say.

Looking forward to Ghosting and 'Quisitor aplenty in the future. Keep on keeping on fella.

Soaps.

nemesis749 said...

The GG novels have to be far and away the best 40k books written to date. I think AoC was a bit anti-climactic but still a great read. Also like the way you had a translation of what traitors and dreamwalkers language meant.(helps in my own mind anyway) pretty excited about Young Gaunt stories too, the hows and whys and so forth. Big big Malus Darkblade fan as well, hope to see series continue after this story arc.

Well feth! i have to go...

Anonymous said...

I dont know if Im the only person in this boat, but First and Only is literally the first book I read front to back, and the gaunts ghosts books probably total 75% of all books that I have read front to back. I must have more. Im getting up into the 10+ times for each book I currently have, I need something new! (I even bought and read, front to back, the limited edition sabbat worlds crusade book, which is insane by the way)

Anonymous said...

Hi Dan. I'm a big fan of your work, and I loved AoC despite understanding some of the complaints.

I'm going to warn you though, if you kill off Gaunt, you're going to send me diving for the Prozac. I can't remember getting this much into a series since I was ten and in love with the Redwall series.

I just ordered the first two GG books and Honour Guard (I've read all the other ones) along with Eisenhorn trilogy. Can't wait to read them over vacation. Thanks for all the good work!