Kieron Gillen

Kieron Michael Gillen (; born 30 September 1975) is a British comic book writer and former computer game and music journalist. He is known for his creator-owned comics "Phonogram" and "The Wicked + The Divine", both created with artist Jamie McKelvie and published by Image Comics, and for numerous projects for Marvel Comics, such as "Journey into Mystery", "Uncanny X-Men", "Young Avengers", and "Eternals".
Career.
Journalism.
Gillen has worked for publications such as "PC Gamer UK", "The Escapist", "Amiga Power" (under the pseudonym "C-Monster"), "Wired", "The Guardian", "Edge", "Game Developer", "Develop", "MCV", "GamesMaster" and "PC Format", among others.
On the web, Gillen was a founder of and major contributor to the PC gaming site "Rock, Paper, Shotgun" and a games reviewer for "Eurogamer".
He is notable for his manifesto for New Games Journalism, more simply the model of New Journalism applied to video game journalism. In 2000, Gillen became the first-ever video game journalist to receive an award from the "Periodical Publishers Association", for New Specialist Consumer Journalist.
He has been invited as a guest speaker at games-industry conferences. He is a fan of the work of video game developer Warren Spector writing positive pieces on Spector's games, most notably the Ion Storm produced games "Deus Ex" and "". In September 2010, Gillen declared on the website "Rock, Paper, Shotgun" that he was leaving full-time games journalism to better devote his time to comics writing and his contract with Marvel.
Comics.
Gillen has written for both print and online comics. He has worked for "Warhammer Monthly" and "Chaos League". Since 2003, Gillen has collaborated with artist Jamie McKelvie on a comic strip for the "PlayStation Official Magazine – UK", entitled "Save Point". His 2006 project, described by Gillen as "my first real comic" is another collaboration with McKelvie, the pop-music urban fantasy "Phonogram". Veteran comics writer Warren Ellis has dubbed it "one of the few truly essential comics of 2006."
The first issue, published by Image Comics, went on sale in August 2006, the first series ran for six issues. The second series ran for seven issues, and was launched in December 2008. A third six-issue series, "The Immaterial Girl", exploring the character of "Emily Aster", was published in Aug 2015
On 14 April 2008 it was announced he would be collaborating with the artist Greg Scott to expand the Warren Ellis's newuniversal mythos with "a story about killing the future" set in 1959 and he wrote "Crown of Destruction", a "Warhammer Fantasy" comic. The "Phonogram" sequel "The Singles Club" started in December 2008, a series of one-shots, all about the same night. He got a new assignment at Marvel with a "Dazzler" story and a "Beta Ray Bill" one-shot and mini-series.
His workload at Marvel increased in late 2009. At HeroesCon it was announced he would be writing a Dark Reign tie-in with the "Dark Avengers: Ares" mini-series. During the 2009 Chicago Comic Con it was announced that Gillen will collaborate with Steven Sanders on a new ongoing series known as "S.W.O.R.D" from Marvel Comics.
Gillen had a run on "Thor", following J. Michael Straczynski, from issues No. 604 to 614. In late 2010 he started his own ongoing series, "Generation Hope", an X-Men spin-off that leads on from the end of the "Second Coming" storyline. Gillen continued on this title until issue No. 12, being followed by James Asmus.
After collaborating as co-writer with Matt Fraction on "Uncanny X-Men" beginning with issue No. 531, Gillen became sole writer of that title starting with issue #534.1 in 2011. His time on the title saw the book through the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, a renumbering to No. 1 in the wake of "" storyline, and a tie in with the "Avengers vs. X-Men" storyline with issue No. 20. He wrote a five-issue miniseries "AvX: Consequences", dealing 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 "Thor", continuing with its original numbering), starting with issue No. 622. This run finished with No. 645 in October 2012. As part of the Marvel NOW relaunch, Gillen will be writing two books – "Invincible Iron Man" (again taking over from Fraction), with art provided by Greg Land, his penciller on "Uncanny", and "Young Avengers", with McKelvie.
He has written a series for Avatar Press called "Mercury Heat", and a series for Image called "Three", about the helots of Sparta, planned for 2013.
Gillen collaborated again with Jamie McKelvie on The Wicked + The Divine, an Image Comics series that ran from 2014 until 2019. The series has won Gillen multiple awards, including nominations for the Eisner Award for best new series, and for the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story.
In June 2020, Marvel Comics announced that Gillen would write the upcoming six-issue miniseries "Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar", the first in a line of "Warhammer" comics published by that company, which would be released that October.
On August 24, 2020, Marvel announced that Kieron Gillen would be the writer on an "Eternals" series illustrated by Esad Ribic. The series' debut issue was released on January 6, 2021, and garnered positive reviews from critics, accumulating an 8.5 out of 10 rating at the review aggregator website Comic Book Roundup, based on 21 reviews.
Awards and accolades.
Gillen was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Arts by Staffordshire University in 2019 for his work both as a journalist and a comic book writer.