Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: al ewing, becky cloonan, kieron gillen, ram v, thought bubble, Wichael W Conrad

Dice & Sexy Dinosaurs With Kieron Gillen & Friends At Thought Bubble

Kieron Gillen took to the stage for his comic book industry role-playing game Die, with Michael W Conrad, Becky Cloonan, Al Ewing and Ram V.

Kieron Gillen took to the stage at Thought Bubble to run his comic book industry-themed edition of his role-playing game Die, with Michael W Conrad, Becky Cloonan, Al Ewing and Ram V. All playing participants in an indie comic that never finished, and who had now gathered on a San Diego Comic-Con panel to play an RPG. So, yes, a role-playing game with comic book creators at a comic con playing comic book creators at a different comic con, playing a role-playing game.

So we had Michael playing writer Ram 5, Becky playing artist Beckman Clooney, Al playing replacement artist a 70-year comics veteran Sal "The Pal" Rosco, and Ram V playing publisher Grant Wetherspoon II. Ram 5 reminded us that "I am the writer, it's my ideas that take care of the thing, I will always be associated with the book", Becky told us that as the artists, she did the whole thing and Ram's name only came first because 5 is before C, alphabetically, Sal is just happy to still be alive, and Grant told us all that "really, it's my comic because I pay for it."

We learn that the Image Comics pitch for this series was Red Dwarf meets Jurassic Park with a hint of Barbarella, giving is the title Space Claws Vs Sexy Ladies, the hit book of 2018 from Hi Concept Comics. And that Beckman left the book over creative differences, "I'm a method artist, I would draw scenes on a rooftop, it became difficult when they went into space, I couldn't afford the rocket flights, it was just a way to get me off the book, setting it in places I couldn't go." As to why Sal took over the book, "that was all I had in the nursing home."

Kieron had more questions, such as how Grant owned all the rights to the book. "It's good business sense; look at these creators; the book would have never seen the light of day." And as to why Beckman's art got progressively worse in the series, that happened when the "dinosaurs went underground, and the batteries went out of my flashlight, I had to draw in darkness." Ram 5 was adamant that the artist should draw what he said, even if it was 25 panels a page, but that he was "working with AI now, they're getting better at the fingers."

Sal Rosco recalled what comic book scripts used to be like, "Page 1, page 2-19 they fight some more, I used to get my script on cocktail napkins, now I get them this big." While Grant had his own solution to what went wrong with the comic. "Beckman's dinosaurs weren't sexy enough, so I didn't pay her. Every time she sent me an invoice, I'd add a not-sexy dinosaur discount".

Sal recalled, "In 1947, my page rate was two nickels and a hot dog,  and it's never gone up." This almost got a comment from Kieron, "That's almost like… I can't finish that sentence. It'll end up on Bleeding Dinosaurs." He had a point.

We learned of the characters. Ram 5 told us of Booberella, a well-endowed velociraptor, and Beckman told us of an evil scientist villain who looked like Ram 5, while Sal – slipping into Al – was asked for a comedy sidekick and reminded us, "I have to be careful here, as a creator from 1947"… before giving the opposite of Booberalla, and incredibly ugly alien from the future called Butt Face". And it was only after all this that we got to the supposed RPG game, which actually saw the creators transported to a hellish realm and Ram 5 choosing Alan Moore as his guiding deity, impersonated by Kieron Gillen. Sal Rosco gave us his memories of buying Action Comics #1 and vowing never to draw a comic book that was so communist before getting the chance to shoot a hundred "All-American" kryptonite bullets into Superman's mouth "to give him a bellyache." . Grant had a similar memory that led to his father buying him a comic book publisher.

The audience helped out with a Q&A that saw them give statements rather than questions, ask about the shipping of various dinosaurs, the plot holes over the Triceratops vow never to gore anyone with his horns and more. Everyone had prepared very well… here are a few TikTok links to a little of what went down. Make sure you come to the next one… back in the day, Lee Barnett and Dave Gibbons used to run a Hypotheticals panel at the old British comic conventions. This is pretty much that – but with added dice and dinosaurs. Dice And Dinosaurs, that's what this should have been called. Dice And Sexy Dinosaurs. I'll put that in the headline…

@thatrichjohnston Kieron Gillen, Michael W Conrad,, Becky Cloonan,, Al Ewing and Ram V play Die RPG at Thought Bubble #thoughtbubble #dierpg ♬ original sound – Rich Johnston

@thatrichjohnston Another bit of the Die RPG W&A section from Thought Bubble with Kieron Gillen, Michael W Conrad, Becky Cloonan, Al Ewing and Ram V #thoughtbubble #dierpg #harrogate #thoughtbubble2023 #comiccon #bleedingcool ♬ original sound – Rich Johnston

@thatrichjohnston The Q&A section of the Kieron Gillen, Michael W Conrad, Becky Cloonan, Al Ewing and Ram V game of Die RPG at Thought Bubble 2023 #thoughtbubble #dierpg #harrogate #thoughtbubble2023 ♬ original sound Rich Johnston

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