Kieron Gillen

Kieron Michael Gillen (born 30 September 1975) is a British comic book writer and former video game and music journalist.

As a reviewer, Gillen has written for publications such as Amiga Power (under the pseudonym "C-Monster"), PC Gamer UK, The Escapist, Wired, The Guardian, Edge, Game Developer, Develop, MCV/Develop, GamesMaster, Eurogamer and PC Format, as well as the PC gaming-oriented website Rock Paper Shotgun, In 2000, Gillen became the first-ever video game journalist to receive an award from the Periodical Publishers Association, for New Specialist Consumer Journalist.

Gillen is a fan of the work of the video game developer Warren Spector, having written positive pieces on several Spector's games, most notably Deus Ex and Thief: Deadly Shadows, both produced by Ion Storm.

In addition to his work as a reviewer, Gillen has acted as a guest speaker at numerous video game industry conferences.

In video game journalism, he created the New Games Journalism manifesto.

The Guardian highlighted that Gillen and the artist Jamie McKelvie "met in 2003 at a convention where Gillen was selling his first photocopied comics".

Between 2003 and 2007, Gillen collaborated with McKelvie on a comic strip for PlayStation Official Magazine – UK, entitled "Save Point", following up with the pop music-themed urban fantasy series Phonogram, which was described by Gillen as his "first real comic".

Veteran comics writer Warren Ellis dubbed the series "one of the few truly essential comics of 2006."

The first issue, published by Image Comics, went on sale in August 2006, with the first series running for six issues.

He co-founded the British video game journalism website Rock Paper Shotgun in July 2007.

The sequel, a series of one-shots subtitled The Singles Club, launched in December 2008.

On 14 April 2008, it was announced Gillen would collaborate with artist Greg Scott to expand on Warren Ellis' newuniversal series with "a story about killing the future" set in 1959.

That year, he authored Crown of Destruction, a Warhammer Fantasy comic.

Further Marvel assignments included a Dazzler short story and a Beta Ray Bill one-shot, which was followed by a three-issue mini-series.

Gillen's workload at Marvel increased in late 2009.

At HeroesCon, it was announced he would be writing a tie-in to the "Dark Reign" storyline, the mini-series Dark Avengers: Ares, and, during the 2009 Chicago Comic Con, it was announced he would collaborate with Steven Sanders on S.W.O.R.D, an X-Men spin-off series.

Gillen took over Thor following a run by J. Michael Straczynski, writing issues #604 to 614.

He is also known for numerous Marvel Comics projects, such as Journey into Mystery, Uncanny X-Men, and Young Avengers in the early 2010s and Star Wars comics in the mid-to-late 2010s including Darth Vader, Star Wars, and co-creation of the character Doctor Aphra who starred in her own ongoing spin-off comic series Star Wars: Doctor Aphra of which Gillen wrote the first 19 issues.

In a September 2010 post at Rock Paper Shotgun, Gillen announced he was leaving full-time video game journalism to devote his time to comic book writing.

Gillen's earliest work in comics was published in various British small-press anthologies and Warhammer Monthly.

In late 2010, Gillen launched another X-Men spin-off Generation Hope that picked up plot threads from the end of the "Second Coming" storyline.

Gillen wrote the title for twelve issues before passing it to James Asmus.

After co-scripting a few issues of Uncanny X-Men with outgoing writer Matt Fraction, Gillen took over the series with issue #534.1.

His time on the title saw the book through the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, a renumbering to #1 in the wake of the "Schism" storyline, and a tie-in with the "Avengers vs. X-Men" storyline.

After finishing his run with issue #20, Gillen penned a five-issue epilogue miniseries AvX: Consequences that dealt with the aftermath of that event.

In 2011, Gillen returned to Marvel's Asgard with a run on Journey into Mystery (the original name of the Thor series, continuing its original numbering), starting with issue #622 and finishing with #645 in October 2012.

As part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, Gillen wrote two books: Iron Man (again taking over from Fraction) with art by his frequent Uncanny X-Men collaborator Greg Land, and Young Avengers with Jamie McKelvie.

Gillen's other creator-owned work included Three (2013), a mini-series about the helots of Sparta, and The Ludocrats, initially announced in 2015 as a collaboration between writers Gillen and Jim Rossignol and artist David Lafuente.

Between 2014 and 2019, Gillen and McKelvie collaborated on The Wicked + The Divine.

This Image series won "Best Comic" at the 2014 British Comic Awards and received multiple award nominations such as the 2015 Eisner Award for "Best New Series", the 2018 Eisner Award for "Best Continuing Series" and the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story.

In 2015, the duo also returned to Phonogram after a long hiatus with the third and final volume titled The Immaterial Girl.

ComicsAlliance highlighted that there was a three year delay between the volume announcement and its release "as everyone involved had rightly become superstars, but it was more than worth the wait".

From 2015 to 2016, Gillen wrote the 25-issue Star Wars: Darth Vader series for Marvel.

This series introduced the character Doctor Aphra; Gillen had originally planned to have Vader kill Aphra during the story, but realized a way that she could escape and still keep the integrity of both characters.

In comics, Gillen is known for his creator-owned series such as Once & Future (2019–2022), Die (2018–2021), Phonogram (2006–2016), and The Wicked + The Divine (2014–2019), the latter two co-created with artist Jamie McKelvie and published by Image.

He returned to the X-Men in the 2020s with multiple series during the Krakoan Age for the Destiny of X, Sins of Sinister and Fall of X storylines.

Gillen has won the British Fantasy Award twice for Die.

He has been nominated for a Hugo Award seven times, once for The Wicked + The Divine, three times for Once & Future, and three times for Die.

He also has been nominated five times for a GLAAD Media Award, winning once for Young Avengers.

The series was eventually published in 2020 with art by Jeff Stokely.