The project codewords (that I use in my newsletter http://orbitaloperations.com/ to be able to discuss unannounced jobs) are taken from towns and cities that have some relation to the work.

My deal was with the Ian Fleming literary estate, not the film people - so my Bond is the Bond of the books, and has no relation to the films or any of the people who have played Bond. The Bond of the books would simply demand bourbon and cigarettes and ask why the other guy is still drinking that cocktail that he…

I think that, at the time, I described it as scraping off the barnacles that had accreted around those ideas over time, stripping them back to show why those ideas had that compelling power in the first place. Not completely successful, of course, but I figured it was worth a shot...

I grew up with two loves: the future, and history. So it comes out in the work.

...well, don’t get your hopes up for that scene...

1) Ben’s had a script for the next issue of FELL for years, but has never had time to draw it — he’s very busy expanding his empire in other directions and making great books. If he ever finds them space to draw the script he’s got, I’ll write another.

I think a lot of us failed to see the online space for what it was, and projected a lot of hope and optimism on to it. It was almost like the early days of the Space Age, where we saw moonshots and skylabs and somehow didn’t think about ICBMs and satellite warfare and all the rest of that as much as we should have.…

Didn’t he write an 8000-word piece that was just the word “fuck” typed 8000 times?

I have the absurd luck to be so utterly neurotypical as to be really quite stultifyingly boring, so I don’t particularly suffer from depression. I have a music playlist called “Alive” full of big drums and guitars, and a well stocked drinks cupboard(s), and a pair of cats. I’m good.

Honestly, I never thought that way. I’ve only ever really written the company-owned characters I was offered — even Nextwave came out of a list of available properties Matvel gave me.

All three. You go secure the rights — I’ll be in my bunk.

Haven’t heard of O’Connell, will investigate, thanks.

quick, look behind you

“Predicting the future” is the first and most obvious mistake. Prediction is a clown show that distracts from everything that is important about foresight and speculative futures. Post a hundred warning signs - don’t try to tell me exactly where the lightning will strike.

65.

(IT’S A TRAAAAAAP)

It’s been talked about before, but it never worked out. I doubt I’ll ever be invited back to play with those characters again. Maybe they’ll be given to someone else. That’s fine. I don’t own them. I am honestly still delighted that Stuart and I ever got to do that project and make that book.

Big questions - especially this year. I have a lot of reading to do between now and the end of the year just to begin forming answers to those questions for myself. Yes, I do worry for my daughter - not least because the field she was due to enter after university is likely to lose all its funding due to Brexit, so…

Maybe ORBITER?

Roland’s drawing my final issue of KARNAK now - issue 6. I’m already done with BOND on my end - issue 12 is my final chapter.