3Q3A – SPECIAL SDCC EDITION

Finally...a new collective noun and the secrets of my childhood speech therapy!

Sneak Peek from Vallars by Jason Howard and Frank Martin

Welcome back, THWimmers!

[I’ve decided that THREE WORLDS THREE MOONS subscribers need a nickname. I’m landing on “THWimmers” unless anyone suggests anything better. (I’m aware that it sounds like the lisp I battled for the first 15 years of my life is back, but it works.)]

I’m heading down to my local train station for the 3 hour trek to San Diego, California, home of: fish tacos, the 1984 NL pennant and, for the first time in 3 years, San Diego Comicon.

Thursday is the big day for us as the first ever 3W3M panel commences at 6:00 Pacific Time and promises to bring some big news from the team. I’ll be moderating, so come by and see if you detect the remnants of my childhood lisp (and still latent stutter!).

We’ve had several requests to record the panel and I will do my best to bring you at least a clip or two of the proceedings. (However, I also have an idea for a 3Q3A EXCLUSIVE panel that I will be working on if the team plays along.)

The team is also busy prepping for a FOUNDERS ONLY (that sounds like a dating site!) Brunch where we’ll get a chance to meet some of you fine folks who helped put this whole experiment in motion.

(Crap, now I can’t stop thinking about a 3W3M dating site!)

Should be fun. Ok. Onto your Qs!

Q1
After I obligingly answered a question about the size of our [SYSTEMS] Sourcebook, MARCUS BITAR typed:

How about the dimensions for the ‘Foundations’ comic book?

A1
Foundations is 8.5 x 10.875 and Systems is 8.5 x 11.

That 1/8 of an inch holds the secrets to the universe (it’s actually due to CGC concerns, for those who care about that kind of thing). Stay tuned.

Q2
CHRIS also had a [SYSTEMS] Sourcebook question that was keeping him up at night:

Also, dust jacket? No dust jacket? I don't know which I'd prefer...

A2
No dust jacket. I mean those things are just there for me to accidentally rip!

Q3
An entirely different CHRIS asked a tough one:

I have a religion question. How does belief in gods survive a science cycle? How do the churches thrive when magic has been dead for so long and faith requires the acceptance of things unquantifiable by scientific method? Asking in the context of the 3W3M’s universe obviously (but also a bit our one).

A3
I can’t answer for our universe … since I know waaaay less about this nutty plane of existence than I do the 3W3M-niverse … but you are probably going to hate my answer. 

The question is terrific. You could argue, I suppose, that articles of faith harden in the absence of proof. It’s their nature, I suppose… faith being the core need for any religion’s foundation.

That question is a key piece of the universe-building puzzle we have discussed for months and it is also an idea we will be exploring in several stories over the next couple of years. So I hope you’ll understand if answering it here doesn’t seem like the best way to address it. We’d rather answer it in a story.

You’re picking away at something foundational for us, though, so kudos to you for having your brain take you to the same places we’ve been digging into.

NOTE: In case you’re interested in another story that tackles some of these issues, I’ve been re-reading Matt Wagner’s Grendel over the past couple of weeks and as the series goes on and grows in scope and scale, he addresses some similar themes with the Grendel identity becoming akin to a religion in a high-tech world.

Check it out! Tell him “Steve” sent ya!

(And then watch his puzzled face as he wonders who this maniac is yelling “Steve” at him while he’s self-checking out his groceries! Seriously, maybe leave Matt Wagner alone. Thanks.)



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Okay, I gotta catch that train! Keep an eye out for this very newsletter for news throughout the week!

Viva Templar!

Stephen W.
07/19/22

Me after San Diego. By Alejando Aragon