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When It Changed and Black Widow Pages
I'm pleased to report that When It Changed, the new SF anthology edited by Geoff Ryman, with a story by me in it, is now available, either from all good bookshops, or from Comma Press themselves. You can find all the details here. This is the anthology for which Michael Moorcock was kind enough to allow me to use his character Jerry Cornelius. The idea of the book is that the writers involved, including Justina Robson, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams and Adam Roberts, are paired up with scientists, who offered us research material, and then commented on our stories in a short article after each. My pet scientist was Dr. Rob Appleby, who works on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. I'm very proud of the book, and I love how it once again sits SF and science down at the same romantic restaurant table and says hey, you kids are meant to be together. My story is called 'Global Collider Generation: An Idyll' and I hope you enjoy it. (Oh, and the biography of me on the Comma site is an old one: that 'new Doctor Who two-parter' from me they refer to was 'Human Nature'. Calm down.)
Moving to another medium, Tom Raney's art (but not the text) from the first eight pages, the pre-titles sequence, if you will, of the first issue of my Marvel mini-series Black Widow: Deadly Origin can be found here. I'm looking forward to people seeing more of this series, as there are some weird misconceptions about it out there. A hidden enemy is killing everyone our heroine, Natalia, has ever been close to: romantic partners; friends; people she was kind to in passing. It's not about 'everyone she's ever kissed'. Which the internet has twisted into something about STDs. Obviously. The first issue has guest appearances by Wolverine, the Winter Soldier and Joe Stalin, flashbacks courtesy of John Paul Leon. I think it's some of my best work, and it's pained me to hear my own rather flippant quotes be turned at an angle to portray it as something it isn't. I think that action scene shows one side of where we're coming from.
Until next time, Cheerio!
Labels:
Black Widow,
Geoff Ryman,
Jerry Cornelius,
John Paul Leon,
Michael Moorcock,
Tom Raney,
When It Changed
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"This is the anthology for which Michael Moorcock was kind enough to allow me to use his character Jerry Cornelius"
I said this via Twitter but it is worth saying again - wow!
How do you go about approaching someone like Michaee Moorcock to get permission to use their characters?
Looking forward to reading the story.
Jay
1. Can't wait to see what you do with JC. Wow.
2. Interior pages look GREAT!
Thanks, Jay, I feel much the same way. I asked someone who knows Michael for his email address, and then just asked. He's keen to underline that, while Jerry has been used as a kind of open source character, in the past it was always with specific permission, and he's annoyed when authors use him without asking. And thanks, Lou, I'm really psyched about both.
Mr. Cornell,
I am not a big fan of Tom Raney artwork but I have to say that his preview is pretty good.
I love BW and you are one of my favorite writers.
I cannot wait to get my copy.
ps: JPLeon artwork is a incredible bonus!
Well, I'm a big fan of Tom Raney artwork, and I think he's done a great job.
Mr. Cornell, do you have any plans to do a Silver Sable story someday?
Not really. I don't think I've ever read the character. Sorry!