Kieron Gillen, the co-creator of Phonogram and Die, and sole creator of many a terrible pun on Twitter, is set to receive an honorary degree from Staffordshire University next month. The university lists Gillen among a group of seven honorees, all of whom hail from Stafford, who will receive the school’s highest honor.
Gillen will be awarded a Doctor of Arts degree during a ceremony on July 10th, which also happens to be the release date for the penultimate issue of he and artist Jamie McKelvie’s The Wicked + The Divine. The writer will deliver a speech to the university’s graduating class, and, apparently, get to wear a fancy hat.
McKelvie, Gillen’s most frequent collaborator, took to Twitter to celebrate—and lament—the news:


Originally a music journalist before writing comics full-time, Kieron Gillen has had another big hit on his hands with Die, the RPG-based Image Comics series he created with artist Stephanie Hans. The writer has also developed a cult following for his work with McKelvie, including the aforementioned Phonogram and WicDiv, as well as a brief run on Young Avengers for Marvel, a series which won a 2014 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book.
Header photo by Emi Lenox, from Gillen’s Tumblr page.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Well deserved! He’s been doing some of the best work in comics for quite a while. I quite liked his X-Men run and his Journey into Mystery was criminally underrated, in addition to his more celebrated work. I hope he stays in the medium for a while.

  2. he’s a terrible writer who’s work has only gotten recognition because of who he knows,
    (yes, he’s I believe he’s well-connected. There are very few people who do not come from well-to-do backgrounds who have become critical darlings in the last 20 years.)
    and because his creator-owned work is promoted as being LGBT positive.
    Saying that he has a cult following is a nice way of saying that no really reads his work or even knows who the hell he is but somehow—he gets an honorary doctorate and and gets to give a speech to a bunch of people who probably don’t know who he is.

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