Grab a cuppa on Thursday 1st April and find out more about Kieron Gillen’s career as a comics creator, his work with Marvel Comics and creating comic books for 15 years, in a special Society of Authors online event.

Kieron will be in conversation with Nyla Ahmad, Reading Communities Manager for the Scottish Book Trust, and will offer insights into his work and creative routine.

Kieron Gillen first came to attention as a comics creator with his 2006’s Phonogram, with Jamie McKelvie. Jamie and he formed into a gestalt monster that rampaged against the next 15 years of comics, culminating with critical and smash hit the Wicked + the Divine. When not with Jamie, he has co-created books such as DIE, The Ludocrats, Once & Future, Three, Uber and more. When not making his own worlds, he has worked on Marvel Comics biggest books, such as Uncanny X-men, Young Avengers, Thor, Iron Man, Star Wars, Eternals and Darth Vader (where he co-created Doctor Aphra). His hobbies include pop culture, talking about pop culture, redefining what ‘pop culture’ means in any given conversation and putting off updating his bio as long as possible.

Nyla Ahmad is Reading Communities Manager at Scottish Book Trust, leading on programming Book Week Scotland. Nyla was the inaugural awardee of Literature Alliance Scotland’s Next Level Award and currently serves on the Glasgow Zine Library board of trustees. She previously co-led the BHP Comics project, Full Colour, a mentoring programme for young comics creators from BAME backgrounds. She has also worked for the Glasgow Women’s Library on their museum access project, Equality in Progress. Nyla’s MPhil thesis examined South Asian and Muslim representation in comics. She served as chair of the Scottish Independent Comic Book Alliance Awards for three years. Twitter: @NylaNylaNyla

This online event is in conjunction with the Society of Authors new Comic Creators Network and will take place on online via WebinarJam and the link will be sent to registered attendees.

The Comics Creators Network was set up in 2020 to address challenges facing comics creators and advocate for better industry standards. It is run by a Steering Committee made up of seven comics creators and specialists and three SoA administrators. Find out more here

• For full details of the event and to book a place, check it out on this Society of Authors web page

All SoA @ Home Afternoon Teas are free to everyone but, if you can afford it, we recommend a minimum £5 donation to the Authors’ Contingency Fund to help us support authors facing financial hardship during the health crisis. Donate Here

If you would like to send questions for Kieron Gillen in advance, email Nadia Bonini with ‘Kieron Gillen – Question’ in the subject header. We will prioritise questions sent in advance and try to answer as many as we can on the day.

• Follow Kieron Gillen on Twitter: @kierongillen

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events

Tags: Comic Creators Network, downthetubes News, Kieron Gillen, Nyla Ahmad, SoA @ Home Afternoon Teas, Society of Authors