StrangeTimes

Robot Shorts have arrived...

2012-01-29T03:11:00.000-08:00

Thursday saw delivery of mine and Steve Holder's little book of short Robot stories, Robot Shorts, and once again Andy Bloor has added his design skills to make this a great little package. I can't be more pleased with how this has turned out.
I'll be in touch with people who contributed a pin up over the coming week, to see where to send their free copy to, and will have this on the stall at all future Conventions.
Belmat, who will also appear at Cons (if I can squeeze him into the bag) is still progressing, albeit slowly due to all the other things going on. Jane, my wife, made a little pair of shorts out of fabric with a robot print on it, to go inside the ex-washing machine. See... layers within layers :o)

I must say, he doesn't look too happy about it...

The Finished One-Eyed Robot.

2012-01-05T13:56:00.001-08:00

I've managed to finish the silver One-Eyed Robot. He doesn't appear in Robot Shorts, sadly, but I'm pleased with how he's turned out.I managed to get some of the words to show through the paintwork, which is what I was trying to acheive, and the silver colour brings all the pieces together nicely I think. I've still got to finish Belmat's hands, but I'm getting there with him as well.

I must say that making these has been very enjoyable and I may do some more.

In other news, the cover proof for Robot Shorts has been sent out but is now in the local Royal Mail depot as nobody was in to sign for it ... drat. I'll pick it up on Saturday.

Also, it's EAGLE Awards time again and both Andy Bloor and The Fall Of The Wolfmen have been listed ... if you think them worthy then we'd welcome the vote.

Oh ... and there's another great Fastest Man review over at http://comicsanonymous.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/whatever-happened-to-the-worlds-fastest-man-2009/.

Happy New Year everyone...

2011-12-31T09:43:00.000-08:00

I'm signing off for the year now... yes... I know it's still early but I also know that once I get settled in to celebrate the New Year I'll not remember to come back online to wish you all a Happy and Prosperous 2012, so best do it now.

Hope to see plenty of you at Conventions and the like in 2012, and that all the creators out there continue in their efforts, improving and growing with everything you produce.

All the best,

Dave W

Belmat... as far as I got in 2011.

2011-12-31T09:38:00.000-08:00

Well, this is as far as I managed to get with Belmat in 2011...

looks like my first project for 2012 will be to finish him off.

Belmat with head attached.

2011-12-31T02:46:00.001-08:00

I decided to fix his head at a slight angle.

and used a couple of very small washers and plastic pins (no idea where I got them from) from the eyes.I think the multiple washes on the arms and legs have done the trick. Of course I still need to do the hands but I'll do them last of all. Need to fix the door now, and finish his back.

Belmat with rusting effect brown wash.

2011-12-31T02:35:00.000-08:00

In order to age him a bit I've given Belmat a brown wash ... lots of water and not too much paint.

oops ... amd made a bit of a mess of the TVTimes whilst doing it. ..just need to darken the arms and legs now ... and then I can start to attach his head and the washing machine door and details.

Must see film of next year.

2011-12-30T13:02:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me that whilst I commented how the John Carter of Mars books had lost their appeal, I've seen a trailer for the John Carter of Mars movie and it looks absolutely stunning. I think it could be the next epic set of movies to rival The Lord Of The Rings.
Hell, I was getting really excited by the prospect of The Avengers movie but I think this will be even better.

Accent UK in 2012.

2011-12-30T08:45:00.000-08:00

Just got back from a long meeting with Colin talking about what we will look to publish next year, dates and how these align to Events.... looks like it's going to be an interesting and busy year.

Yes, as is typical part of the meeting took place in a pub but I didn't sample any of the Delerium Tremens beer, as I was driving. Like the beer mat though so I 'borrowed' one.

I'll be posting the 2012 Events that we'll be attending over on the Accent UK blog as soon as Colin confirms bookings.

Robot table display ... with a little paint.

2011-12-29T14:10:00.000-08:00

So, here's how it progressed today. A bit of dry brushing to leave some of the text visible.

Getting there.

Oh .. and here's one I started earlier....

2011-12-29T05:46:00.000-08:00

This is a robot that isn't in the Robot Shorts book. I started it about 6 months ago and re-discovered him when I sorted out the materials for Belmat.

I wanted to move away from the bipedal robots that I usually draw.

He has a hairdryer end piece for a base (hope Jane doesn't notice) and I did buy a shower hose for the arms, which was a bit naughty as the idea is to make these purely from salvaged bits and bobs.

Table Robot... update.

2011-12-29T05:35:00.001-08:00

The papier-mâché-ing is underway ... a messy process where you end up with bits of glue and paper everywhere.The idea is that I leave some of the words visible through the paintwork, and so I've selected a book on mathematics for the paper used. This is a technique perfected by a lady called Julie Arkell. I'm sure my resulting efforts will look nowhere near as good as hers but if I aim high then falling short will still, hopefully, look good.
With the flash on the camera you can see the tin (from a used tin of soup) that I cut in half for the washing machine drum. Ah ... details details :o)

Table Robot.

2011-12-28T13:07:00.000-08:00

OK, so The Mite-E figurine is really a little too small for a table display, so I've been collecting bits and bobs with a view to making a model of Belmat.

So far I'm at the stage of cutting and taping, tomorrow it's time to glue and paper mache.

Favourite mainstream comic of the year.

2011-12-28T10:07:00.001-08:00

I've been following Sweet Tooth from the offset and am enjoying the tale and the telling of it, but this year's surprise for me has been Journey Into Mystery, written by Kieron Gillen. I must confess to not having read much of Mr Gillen's mainstream output but decided to give this a go following some favourable words on either the Tales From the Parent's Basement or the Burnt Weiners podcasts (I think it was the latter but it may have been both), and 'Wow'. Kieron has really injected something new and interesting into the Marvel universe with the re... well I'm not quite sure how you classify it, let's say ... reincarnation of Loki. There's just so much to enjoy here and I did, on the back of this, go out and buy the Thor - Ultimate Collection (all tales once again written by Kieron). Very enjoyable and it does set the background nicely to the more enjoyable (to me) Journey Into Mystery, which I now have the excuse to re-read.
Damn... I'll have to pick up some Trades of his X-Men comics now ... and I thought my days of reading X-Men was over.

Favourite movie of the year...

2011-12-28T03:21:00.000-08:00

Well, for me the best movie of this year was Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes.
I had the same feeling at the end of this that I had with last year's Star Trek re-imagining. They had done the franchise proud and I hope that this will be the first of a number of sequels that would take the story further.

Jemma's favourites (she couldn't choose between them) were Thor and X-Men : First Class. Both very enjoyable films.

Hey ... that's not the Blue Beetle !!!

2011-12-27T04:38:00.000-08:00

Following on from my wife's comment that the Accent UK table looks a little boring these days, it has only comics on it and nothing to catch the eye of passing punters, I've been playing around with the Blue Beetle figure that comes with that monthly magazine. You know the one, a different DC character with each issue.
So I took the Blue Beetle figurine... add some Milliput, a few bits and bobs and some paint and converted him into The Mite-E.The Mite-E is a character who appears in a few stories in Robot Shortsit's great that he has his own figurine :o)
Sadly though he's pretty small and so won't make much of an impression stood on the stall next to some comic books... so it's back to plan A, which is to make a papermache robot or two ...

Books I read in 2011.

2011-12-26T12:33:00.000-08:00

Well, 2011 was a year of change for me. I moved from a job just down the road to one that involves a 45 minute train journey, on a good day.
The best piece of advice I wass given (thanks Jon Ayre) was to make something of the journey. Make it something of value rather than something to be despised, and so I bought myself a Kindle and everyday get to spend around an hour and a half reading.
So, what have I read this year ?
Well I read all of the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher, Storm Front, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight, Death Masks, Blood Rites, Dead Beat, Proven Guilty, White Night, Small Favour, Turn Coat, Changes and Ghost Story. I really enjoyed them. Great characters in a great setting, with each book building on the last and all written in a flowing style that make them more than just some good ideas stitched together. I loved the short lived TV series and the books are so much better. Nothing too deep, just good enjoyable stories about wizards, demons and stuff.
I then read the 7 Dark Tower books by Stephen King (http://www.stephenking.com/DarkTower/the_books.html). I loved the concept and the books are all good solid reads, but I must confess to being one of those who didn't particularly like the ending. Well worth the journey though.
I also downloaded all of the John Carter of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, but sadly only managed to grind my way through three of them, A Princess of Mars, The Gods Of Mars and The Warlord Of Mars, despite loving them as a boy. A wonderful idea in a very rich world but the writing was a little too... well... plodding to me.
Much better written was Red Sonya - the Shadow Of The Vulture from Robert E Howard and his Conan The Barbarian (so much material and they make three rubbish movies as the people involved think that they can do better).
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacipalgupi was downloaded on a recommendation from someone at work and it was a great little book. I'll be looking out for future books from Paolo.
I also re-read an old favoutite of mine, Caves Of Steel from Isaac Asimov. This one also seemed a little dated and whilst the story and ideas are second to very few writers, his writing style didn't flow very well for me.
At the moment I'm in the middle (I think) of the fabulous House Of Chains by Steven Erikson. This is Book 4, I think, of his fantasy epic, starting with Gardens Of The Moon, Deadhouse Gates and then Midnight Tides. It's got to be the most involved and compelling fantasy series that I've ever read and has me completely hooked. It's very well written and operates on a number of levels, mixing the normal sword and sorcery with war and politics on a global scale. If you want just one recommendation from me then these are the books that I suggest you spend your money on.

and lastly ... for now ... Lego Robot Shorts...

2011-12-26T04:38:00.000-08:00

This one was an award figurine for one of the other figures ... can't remember which one but it looked like a short Robot to me...

Fastest Man review from Brazil...

2011-12-23T09:34:00.000-08:00

If you speak Brazilian Portugeese then check out this latest review ... looks good to me ... http://www.universohq.com/quadrinhos/2010/review_OqueAconteceuHomemMaisRapidoMundo.cfm, Thanks for letting me know Wendell.

Wolfmen 2 ... a la Lego

2011-12-23T09:16:00.000-08:00

This Lego figurine exists in the same time frame as the first one and isn't just the first one being tweeked a bit for this photo ...

... if you look closely you can see he's wearing a different shirt :o)

Next up ... PREDATORS over on the Accent UK blog.

World's Fastest Man mentioned...

2011-12-20T15:40:00.001-08:00

... forgot to mention that Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man? gets a nice mention at the end of a very comprehensive Thought Bubble review over at http://www.starburstmagazine.com/columnscols4/adventures-on-alternative-earthsby-pm-buchan/1441-thought-bubble-2011... right near the end...

Bobby Doyle from Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man?

2011-12-20T14:02:00.000-08:00

.. in Lego.

.. looking happy, so it must be before all the trouble started.

Next up will be The Man Of Glass over on the Accent UK blog.

Lego does Samuel Close.

2011-12-19T15:24:00.000-08:00

This is the figure that my daughter gave me that would start me off trying to get a Lego figure for all of our books.

Samuel Close's hair was part of a Mad Scientist figure and the conversion took the slightest of modifications.

Next up ... Bobby Doyle from Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man?

The Wolfmen ... in Lego

2011-12-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

I've been playing with these little Lego figures ... over on the Accent UK blog I put up the image of the first one ZOMBIES, and here's the first of the Wolfmen books in Lego ...

.. next up.. ROBOTS over on Accent UK blog.

Wolfmen Reviews.

2011-12-14T15:44:00.000-08:00

Starburst Magazine (at the moment on the web) have reviewed the two Wolfmen books. You can read it over at http://www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/comic-reviewscomics-a-graphic-novels/1586-comic-review-the-wolfmen-a-fall-of-the-wolfmen.

WesterNoir ... a great start.

2011-12-11T07:58:00.000-08:00

A while ago Andy Bloor asked me to write something for him to draw that didn't involve Werewolves in suits, as he wanted a break from The Wolfmen. His idea was maybe to do a kind of Film Noir take on the Old West. A great concept and as with The Wolfmen the idea of blending genres started my mind racing off in all sorts of directions.

Over the following months I produced a script for him that introduces Josiah Black to a world that changes around him, or maybe he changes within it. But I'm getting ahead of myself as that dimension is something that was brought to the story by Gary Crutchley.

Andy, you see, whilst helping shape the story, just couldn't found the time to illustrate it and contacted Gary to see if he could. Gary is two thirds of his way through his own Western, Hard Country, and is a huge fan of the genre and someone who can really capture the mood of both the time in which it's set and the land itself.

The great news is that Gary read the script and jumped into designing the main characters.

We were off and ... riding.

Last Friday night Colin and I met with Gary at The Bleeding Wolf pub, and you can't get much more appropriate than that, to discuss the project and to see Gary's work to date. Andy sadly couldn't make it as he's suffering from a bug, the joy of having kids are pre-school.

Blimey. We were both blown away by the pages Gary talked us through, as well as his ideas about issue 1 and future issues. All great ideas which I have already added to the greater story of Josiah Black.
We are hoping for Issue 1 to be available early next year, with following issues less than a year apart.

Wolfmen Reviews.

2011-11-30T13:05:00.000-08:00

Great reviews of the Wolfmen comics that I co-created with Andy Bloor have been posted up on http://comicsanonymous.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/the-wolfmen-fall-of-the-wolfmen/ following the Thought Bubble event.

Robot Shorts nears completion.

2011-11-04T02:24:00.000-07:00

Whilst I'm busy on the more traditional Accent UK books, the anthologies and one shots, I always have a couple of more personal projects on the go.
With the printing of Strange Times vol 1 in the form of a nice little hard cover edition I knew that this format would suite me going forward and have paused in my Strange Times Vol 2 efforts to collaborate with Steve Holder on a collection of robot short stories.
Robot Shorts is the result of this, with one of Steve's robots gracing a cover designed by Andy Bloor in the style of the old Haines Manuals.
I'm just waiting on a couple of pin-ups for the Gallery section and then it'll be off to the printer.

Right ... back to Strange Times then...

Robot Shorts is getting there ...

2011-09-18T11:15:00.001-07:00

This week I received the artwork for Steve Holder's last contribution to Robot Shorts, and very nice it is to. Very nice indeed.

I've also finished my last full story, in my usual style ...

So, we're getting there. My intention is to have this printed in time for Xmas ... Strange Times is at this very moment getting its second printing, which is great, but of course it's all relative as it only means that I've sold out of the number I printed in the first print run ... could be 10 .. could be 10 thousand but is probably somewhere between the two :o)

What has happened to Strange Times ?

2011-08-29T02:22:00.000-07:00

Please forgive me reader.
It has been many weeks since my last posting.
I've been very busy throughout this time, progressing Robot Shorts and ZOMBIES 2, and have had little time to spare for Strange Times, either the blog or the weekly web-comic. I've also been busy sorting out the second printing of the Strange Times hard cover edition.
I confess that I have taken advantage of the Accent UK website re-construction, which prevented me from putting up new Strange Times pages, and promise that once the new site is up, and we've sorted out how to get Strange Times back on there, I will get back to the weekly schedule.
Apologies to those who read this strange little tale.

On a more positive note, PREDATORS is now out and should be in comic shops soon, if you asked them to get you a copy, and I do have a few pages of work in that one. I'm particularly pleased with the two one pagers ...

Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ?

2011-07-15T13:58:00.001-07:00

Well, he may have ended up on your iPAD.
Yep, through a new independent comics app available through iTunes you can now download Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man?
The Lush Comics app for the iPad can be found by either browsing http://lushcomics.com/ipad, which will redirect you to the app, or by just searching for "Lush Comics" in the iTunes App Store. The iPad version is "Lush Comics HD" as opposed to the iPhone version, simply called "Lush Comics". Justin, who created the app etc, is a keen supporter of Independent Comics and created this app as he saw a gap in the market and wanted to allow us to have a presence in the digital world that didn't find us hidden amongst the countless X-Men titles.
It'd be great to see more UK comics up on iTunes, if you would like me to connect you with Justin then let me know.

In other news, I've been busy lettering some ZOMBIES 2 pages and trying to complete Robot Shorts, but every time I think that's it I think of another story I'd like to add... it will be printed by end of the year though...

Who Is Dave West?

2011-06-19T08:01:00.000-07:00

Well, as part of the new day job I've been asked to do a mini-presentation, the idea being that I let the rest of my area know who I am. You know the kind of thing, where you stand up in front of about 50 people and bore them for 20 minutes or so about what you do and where you've worked before ? Yep .. that kind of presentation. I'm still in my probationary 6 months, but what the hell, a few of them know about my 'comic book' hobby now anyway so what could possibly go wrong... Anyway, here's what I'll present to them...
…maybe I should have kept all of this quiet until I’d passed my 6 month probation period…

Where did all the birds go?

2011-05-15T02:23:00.000-07:00

Something has been bothering me ever since starting my day job in Manchester. Something had changed over the years, between the time when I used to travel to Manchester once a month to hit the comic stores (about 15 years ago) and today.
Something was missing.
And then it hit me as I looked up at the buildings. The netting to keep the birds away from store windows and ledges, where they used to amass in their hundreds, was gone.

The birds themselves, were gone.
And then I started to take more interest in their numbers in the garden and their numbers, and variation has really changed. All the Sparrows have disappeared, and the Starlings and other birds were present in much smaller numbers. Is this another effect of Global Warming somewhere along the line hitting them, or their food source ? Will they ever return to their previous numbers ?

I hope so, it certainly feels a lonelier planet without their noisy activity in the skies above us.

I've had a busy month or so compiling, lettering (some contributions) and editing the ZOMBIES 2 anthology, which is coming along very nicely. The deadline for contributions has passed, so get in touch if you're near completion and we'll see what we can arrange.

I've also been busy writing the final installment of The Wolfmen, which will be titled 'The Last Of The Wolfmen', and Andy has approved the script, and suggested a few minor additions.

This has meant that I've not not had much time for Strange Times, which hasn't seen an update on the Accent UK website for a few weeks now, but intend to get back into that now. My intention is to have Book 2 completed for printing next year, early next year, so wish me luck :o)

Oh, nearly forgot, I've been interviewed in the latest Multiverse Comics Newspaper,
so pick up a copy and amongst the pages you'll find out a little more about what I'm up to.

Leaving New York's never easy.

2011-04-17T03:01:00.000-07:00

This year I went to New York City's MOCCAFest comic convention, along with Colin Mathieson, co-founder of AccentUK and his son Scott. This was our first Mocca event and had been recommended by a few people as 'the comic event in the US for Small Press and Independent comics', but it was Cliodhna Lyons, who seems to have been to most of the US Cons, who finally convinced us to go. Flying Delta airlines was problem free, and whilst being tempted on the plane to part with $995 in order to have my very own Easter Island Head, I arrived in JFK airport tired, but pretty much OK.

I've done a few Cons now and I tend to keep a little 'journal / scrapbook' going to capture the events of the days. Before I did this I'd get back from a trip completely exhausted and struggle to recall much of what had happened.

I've scanned a few pages of the book and scattered them, hopefully not randomly, amongst the write up.

So, arriving on the 7th April we found ourselves checked into the hotel and were wandering passed the Chrysler Building by around 3pm. The Chrysler has always been my favourite building and it is even more impressive than I thought it could be when seen in person. We had a bite to eat in Grand Central Station, remembering the films that it had been featured in, wandered around Times Square, avoided Comedy Club ticket salesmen, and then planned what we'd do tomorrow, as we had a day free before the Con started. The Museum Of Modern Art was top of the list, Colin for the African Art exhibition (hoping to see some Zulu art I bet) and myself to see the Picasso Guitar exhibition. Scott was happy to pop in with us as it was on the way to Midtown Comics, kind of :o).

The exhibitions were amazing, and the normal collections very impressive. It always strikes me how much more impressive paintings are when seen for real. Pollack's explosions of colour just don't translate into smaller books.

Midtown Comics is a real comic shop. A huge selection of comics and minimal toys and other merchandise. We actually found some AccentUK titles there as well, which is great.

This was followed by lunch in a 'posh' diner (well, it was more expensive than the others we'd been to), before setting off to find The Strand, which is a great bookstore. Selling both second hand and new books, and being on 4 floors. We miscalculated the time it would take a little I think, but we made the 40 block walk and it was certainly worth it. The store is incredible. Sadly out of time we had to leave and decided to return on the last day and buy a whole heap of books, if we had room in our suitcases.

We took the subway back. It was certainly quicker.

The evening was finished off with a Chinese Meal, plentiful portions meant that none of us could finish it, but the food was great, and cheap. The fortune cookie had me a little worried though. 'Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come to watch you burn', can be interpreted in a couple of obvious ways, one good, the other not so.

And so the 9th April had arrived. No need for breakfast as I was still digeting last night's Chinese meal, Colin, Scott and I set off, suitcases loaded with comics, in search of the venue. What can I say, the grid set up to the city streets made it painless to find.

The venue itself is the Armory on Lexington Avenue, which is still in active use, and consequently pretty basic to look at. What you could sense though from first entering the building was the passion and energy being generated by all the creators setting up their stalls. I'll not talk about the event from a comic's perspective (or try not to anyway) on this blog as that will be covered, with photos, over on http://accentukcomics.blogspot.com/ but will say that our comics were received very well. We met a number of very talented creators, mostly in our immediate area as it was difficult to wander off for too long, a spent some cash picking up some really interesting comic books.

I'll mention a few of the books I picked up. 'Jack' by Olivia Pelaez is a great little understated story illustrated very nicely, and her little greyscale paintings were wonderful (http://opelaez.blogspot.com/). Manny The Bot, by Maurice Murdock (who almost had the stall next to us) shows an emerging talent and is all the more impressive for being produced so quickly (http://www.murdockink.blogspot.com/), two amazingly designed anthology books called The Anthology Project from Lucidity Press (http://theanthologyproject.com/) and Ten Thousand Stories from Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr of Idiots' Books (http://idiotsbooks.com/), all of whom have reviews and thoughts on Mocca.

I also got to meet some of the people who contribute to AccentUK's anthologies, Morgan Pielli, Jonathan Baylis and Charles.D. Chenet for example, as well as Martin Flink who was part of a Danish group who had travelled over. It's great being able to put faces to email addresses. A big surprise was meeting Ed Traquino again. Ed was a regular on the UK comic scene a few years ago but seemed to disappear. Well, that was because he now lives in the Bronx, NYC, and works as a story board artist. See, the comic world is not that big.

I also met Dennis Kitchen... ... briefly.

It was an amazing two days.

One of my main aims whilst there was to sort out an outlet for electronic versions of the AccentUK books. I've got an iPAD now, (yes ... I know ... it'll probably only give me 2 to 3 years of pleasure), and want to see our books in that format. I spoke to a very helpful guy called Frank Reynoso who had a contact for me. I also spoke to Justin Mound who is setting up a Comixology set of apps for Independent Comics. It's early days for Justin but what he does offer is an electronic store that doesn't get swamped with 30 X-Men titles every month. Following a few follow up chats with people we've decided to use Lush.

and see how it goes. I'm more than happy to share our experiences as we enter ... the Twilight Zone ... err ... digital age.

As we had a free morning, before our return flight, we went back to Midtown Comics. We wanted to meet the manager and thank him for stocking our books. We also had 8 comics left (from 4 boxes) and wanted to leave them with him as a free gift, and so the space that they would have taken up could be filled with other books :o)

A really nice guy. He knew of our books and was more than happy to stock them. His attitude to comics was excellent, actually using the sure sales of Marvel etc to allow him to take a few risks on some Independent titles.

And then it was just a quick trip to The Strand book store, by Subway this time, a morning buying books, a quick lunch and then the flight back home.

I would recommend Mocca to anyone, as either a creator, publisher of reader. It's one of those Cons that has a real identity and is all about comics. No Hollywood stars signing autographs, no props from movies, nobody only selling trading cards or merchandise.

We've already booked the same table for next year ...

... just need to create some new books for it now :o)

Making the most of the journey.

2011-04-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

When I took my new job, two months ago now, the thing that worried me the most was the traveling time. No longer was it going to be a 15 minute car journey, but a 45 minute train ride. No longer was it going to be 20 minutes door to door, but an hour. The words of advice from a good friend were, 'Make the journey a useful part of your day, that way it won't seem like the journey eats into your day but is part of it'. Wise words indeed. And so I chose to make use of the 45 minutes by reading, a passion of mine that I'd never found much time for over the last 10 years or so. So I now own a Kindle and get through about a book a week. No longer do I wait for the train to arrive before getting comfortable with my book, but start reading it on the platform. The journey is now very much part of my day. Why then did I find the trips I used to have to take to London once or twice a week such a daunting task ? OK, the train journey was about 2 hours and not an hour, but back then my iPOD still worked. OK, I had to get up pretty early and was generally too tired to read a book, but what about the journey from Euston to Canary Wharf ? The trip on London's Underground ? And then it all came back to me. The journey down the escallator into the furnace, getting hotter the deeper you got (which made the Northern Line almost unbearable at times), the platforms crammed with bodies (it usually took 4 tube trains before I managed to get even a chance of getting on one), the mass of bodies crammed into the carriages, when you finally managed to get on one, where you spent the next 20 minutes looking at someone's armpit. So that was it. There was no chance to unwind and relax. The days were too long, I was too tired, and by the time I was awake enough the tubes were never hospitable enough. Although I remember that some people on the tube had managed to master reading a book whilst being supported by the mass of bodies around them, it was something that I never aspired to. For those who still make the journey or, worst still, have to use the London Underground every day, here are a few survival tips from the calendar.

Hopefully something that will never prove useful, but here they are anyway.

I'm off to New York this week, for the Mocca Comic Book event. I've never been to New York before and maybe I'll end up on the Metro (I think they call it the Metro), way below the New York blocks. I wonder if its as unwelcoming as the London Underground ? I can't imagine it being worse, although hopefully I'll be avoiding 'Rush Hour', which in London seems to cover about 2 hours these days, so I'm hoping for it to be less busy.

I'll not be taking my Kindle though, just another thing to worry about on the journey, and will fall back to reading things on paper. I've picked this week's New Scientist and Fortean Times magazines, both of which look very interesting, so I should be fine.

Wizards and Robots...

2011-03-26T04:59:00.000-07:00

I've been asked by a few people now about projects that I'm working on, and it occurred to me that maybe I should share a little more than I do. I'm always reluctant to talk too much about comics before they're complete as I'm always worried about 'jinxing' them. Strange that someone who works in IT should worry about something so intrinsically non-logical, but there you have it, that's the contradiction that is Dave West.

Anyway, there are two projects that are well on their way at the moment, and a few others that are in progress but they can be the subject of a future posting.

Marleen Lowe and I are following up on Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man? with Has Kane Mesmer Lost His Magic Touch?
Kane Mesmer was mentioned in passing a few times in our first collaboration, and even then I had the idea for this story eating away at me. It differs from the first in that this one deals with two characters, the relationship that grows between them and their world views, as well as them having a few odd abilities of course :o).
Marleen is 16 pages in (and I've sampled one of the pages below), and, as expected, she's breathing life into the story through her artwork. I'm not sure when it'll be completed, and I wouldn't dream of rushing Marleen, or any other artist, these things mustn't be rushed.

I've also been working with Steve Holder on ROBOT SHORTS, a collection of short stories written by myself and illustrated by Steve (the hard ones) and myself (the easier ones).

Having just finished greyscaling The Flower, illustrated by Steve, I'm now going to finish off my contributions and will then see if the book is ready. It's already coming in at about 100 pages, and will be printed in a nice little hardcover A5 edition, the same as Strange Times.

I feel extremely fortunate to be working with such great artists, as with the other books happening behind the scenes, and am really looking forward to seeing them on the shelves.

Inherent Failure... Guaranteed.

2011-03-13T04:18:00.000-07:00

I really loved my iPOD. As it said on the box, it's a Classic. I downloaded all sorts of music and animation from iTunes, or copied them across from my own DVDs and CDs. It was my constant companion on long journeys. My favourite gadget by far.
And then it failed on me.
It would no longer talk to my laptop, or for that matter to any other laptop in the house. I'd followed all the instructions I could find for de-installing and re-installing iTUNES etc, but all had had no effect, other than to eat into my leasure hours.
As the months passed it became less and less useful to me, and soon found itself at the back of a drawer.
And then I got a job in Manchester and it was suddenly very easy to arrange to get an Apple Expert to look at it, and so I arranged an appointment and then in due course found myself armed with both my iPOD and my laptop, in the Apple store awaiting the expert.
As the minutes ticked away I quickly realised that the Apple Expert was entirely that. He had no idea what way up a laptop went and his first suggestion, after having heard what my problem was, was to reformat the iPOD.
'I suggest we reformat your iPOD'. He said.
'And lose all of my music and cartoons ?' I replied.
'Well, it might fix the problem', he responded as if that would persuade me.
'You don't actually know what the problem is, so that sounds a bit of a longshot to me. At the moment it does have a use as it stores my entire CD collection, and the complete Animated Batman Cartoon series, if you wipe it clean then it'll just be a small, albeit nicely designed, box of glass and plastic', I was not a fan of his suggestion.
To be fair he struggled with the problem for about 20 minutes, until I suggested he try one of the new iPOD Classics, from the shelf. I think he sensed a sales opportunity and so rushed off to get one.
'That doesn't work either !', he said, stating the obvious as I was stood next to him.
'Let's try an iTOUCH', he suggested. He was getting the idea now.
'Hey, that works. Looks like you need to upgrade to an iTOUCH'. He was getting into his stride now, sell stuff, rather than try to fix it.
'No. I think not', I burst that bubble pretty quickly.
One of his supervisors wandered over for an update on the situation.
'How long have you had the iPOD?, he asked, whilst turning it over and over in his hands looking for non-existent signs of misuse.
'Only about 3 years', I informed him.
'Well, that's a long time', he said, 'think of the value you've had in that time, maybe it's time you get a new device, the iTOUCH is lighter, thinner, has less storage ...'
'No', I cut him off. 'I'm not sure I want to invest in another Apple product if they are expected to only last a few years'. I thanked them both for their time and, taking my laptop and frozen-in-time iPOD, left the store.

On the train home my mind wandered back to my youth. We used to have a television that lasted for, well it seemed like forever. It had a nice wooden casing, nice heavy glass screen and stuck out at the back as it housed a whole load of 'valves'.
When it eventually failed, we opended the back and quickly located the 'failed valve' which we replaced with a spare from a big box of spares, closed it all up, plugged it in and... it worked.

We did this for many years but eventually we succumbed to marketing pressure and bought a colour TV, the old one ending up in my room, where I could watch Star Trek without worry of it clashing with my Mum's favourite soap.
I loved it when it broke, which it very rarely did, as it gave me the excuse to open up the back and look at all those wonderfully designed 'valves'. By this time I'd realised that they didn't actually hold the TV programmes, but they were still magical to look at.
Imagine my disappointment when the colour TV failed, after only about 2 years, and upon opening it all we were confronted with were a whole load of two dimensional and drab looking circuit boards. Which we couldn't replace or fix. Technical Advancement had caused the removal of a little bit of the magic that inhabited my world. The magic of TV Sets had gone away.
As I sat there on the train I realised that that had been the change that had moved us from a 're-use and repair' culture to a 'throw it away and buy new' one.
It seems to be cheaper now to do so.
There's no interest in fixing things anymore, and companies seem to go out of their way to make sure we never return to those days, despite my sorting out my plastic, from my glass and from my paper every week.
So to Apple it seems that I should be overjoyed that I got 3 good years from my iPOD.
As a consumer I must say that I'm underwhelmed by this attitude.
But then again, maybe I'm just a dreamer, I used to think I could bend a spoon armed only with the power of my mind...

Going Up and Falling Down.

2011-02-27T01:23:00.000-08:00

This week I put the final greyscale touches to a short story called 'Book' that has been illustrated by Steve Holder. This will form part of a collection of short comic strips that will come out later this year, in a little hardcover book called Robot Shorts. Steve talks about this strip over on his blog.

As is always the case with me at the moment, a lot of things seem to come together in very surprising ways. Reading back through pages that I'd already lettered, changing bits here and there as I do, my eye was drawn again to this great image from Steve.

It reminded me of my youth, growing up in a block of Flats (Tower Blocks) in South East London, although the locals were a little less intimidating.

My new job sees me moving between two towers in the centre of Manchester, and I always seem to be having to go up to at least the 9th Floor in each. I therefore have to use the Lift (I'll use that term as it seems more British), in order to get to where I need to get to, at the right time, and sweat free.

I always feel a little seed of apprehension when I enter the Lift.

Will there actually be a Lift behind the opening doors ?
Will the lift get stuck somewhere between floors ?

My experience to date has not been great, though far from catastrophic.

I rushed past a women to jump into a Lift that actually went down rather than up, only for her enter the same lift, giving me a rye smile as it came back up to my original floor again on its way to my intended floor.
I've stepped into a lift, pressed the button, lost myself in thought and then stepped out of it as the doors have opended, only to find myself on the same floor that I left, the Lift having gone nowhere at all in the intervening minutes.
I've stepped into a Lift and pressed the button for my floor, only to have it make a very strange whirring sound, causing me to jump back out between the closing doors.

I'm not sure where this slight phobia comes from. I never had any real problems with the Lifts in the tower block of my youth. Sure I've heard some horror stories, but not many and none that I can remember in detail. So it was odd that this week's Desk Calendar had this advice on the subject.

I'd always thought the best thing to do in a plummeting Lift would be to jump as it hit the ground. Easier said than done I know, but that's probably what I'd have attempted. Now it looks like the best thing to do is to lie down. I'm not sure how practial this advice is as there are usually about 10 people in the Lift and I don't really think that everyone would fit if they all tried to lie down in it. Should I be first in that case, or last ? Would it actually help at all ?

Maybe I should allow more time for my journey and take the stairs, a much healthier option for all sorts of reasons.

Bugs, and their part in our downfall.

2011-02-19T13:31:00.000-08:00

The train pulled into Wilmslow station as it did every morning on its way to Manchester. It was a cold morning, causing even the hardiest of the waiting passengers to wrap as much of themselves as possible with scarf, hat and glove. And yet, with all that protection, the man who sat himself only two rows ahead of me sneezed as he allowed his body to drop into the seat.

With sitting in a train every morning and night I guess it's just a matter of time now before I too succumb to some flu bug or other. I had one only a few months ago, around Christmas as I recall, and yet I know that in the intervening months the little blighters will have evolved into something entirely new and overpowering.

Strange then that once again the little desk calendar had some great advice for me.

The 'Do not enter areas where people congregate' is a tough one, as I couldn't imagine the pain of driving into Manchester every morning... well actually I can, which is why I take the train. 'Wearing a surgical mask or mouth covering in public' just isn't something people would do in the UK. It's just not... British. Maybe I could design something... no... I'd end up looking like someone dressed in a poorly constructed spaceman's outfit. As I left the train, joining the hundred or so commuters as they set about getting into their workplace as quickly as they could, I wondered about the end of The War Of The Worlds. How the bugs (and by this I mean 'germs') had saved us by killing off creatures who had no natural protection against them. Had Mr Wells been prophetically warning us ?

Of course, I'm more of a 'glass half full' kind of person and so my thoughts quickly turned to the day ahead, and the realtive warmth of the air conditioned room in which I'd be spending most of it... Oh, isn't there somewthing about 'avoiding areas with recirculated air systems' in that 'How To Survive a Flu Pandemic' ?

This week, sat as I was amongst the germs on the Manchester boound train, I finished reading abook that Owen Johnson had sent me. A book he described as 'his favourite book'. A book that is very thick and pretty heavy. A book called 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' by Michael Chabon. A book that is wonderfully written, engrossing, hopeful and sad. I can't remember when I've read a better book, and this one was actually about comic book creators as well. Set against the backdrop of the Second World War it follows the plight of the Jewish people as it observes events in Europe from the perspective of a man who has managed to escape, physically if not mentally, the fate of many of his people. I would recommend this book to anyone. It really is an excellent read.

It does trouble me though that just as I finish it, I'm pointed at http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/02/19/this-kavalier-and-clay-animation-test-is-exciting-and-unexpected/ by Dan of Millennium Comics. I'm sure they must be talking about making an animated movie of the comic characters within the book, and are not trying to capture the story of the creators of the characters themselves. I hope that they are anyway. It would make a great movie, but would lose too much if reduced to animation.

The other book I finished this week was Revolver. This one had pictures and was written and illustrated by Matt Kindt. It's a great little tale about an otherwise typical man who bounces between two very different realities. I'll say nothing more about the plot, you'll just have to go out there and find yourself a copy. The harcover collection is very nice.

In other news, I've started an Accent UK blog for all future News, Diary and Event information, phase 1 of the Accent UK website upgrade. You can pop over and check it out at http://www.accentukcomics.blogspot.com/.

Buildings, and jumping across them.

2011-02-13T02:10:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've worked in a city, and I find myself looking at the buildings around me as the train draws into Manchester and I put my book away.

There are some really interesting buildings all around us. I tend to get drawn to the older ones myself, the ones with the interesting shapes, strangley constructed and yet functional rooves. Windows that stand proud of the walls, floors that cover a slightly larger area the higher they get. The names of their original purpose carved into their stonework, rather than being fastened to the outside by rust prone screws. There's a real permanence about these buildings that I just don't see in the newer ones.

So as those around me rush to their workplace with their heads down, I rush to mine with my head raised, enjoying these buildings and wishing that we still built structures like them, rather than the boxes of steel and glass that is the current fashion.

And then I spot some strange marking, drawn in chalk next to an old door on one of these old buildings and I find myself looking for others. Is this some kind of code ? Is there some society moving around amongst us using their own language ? Signalling safe houses to each other ? Or maybe it's nothing more sinister than a workman indicating the depth and position of a water main, running beneath the building at some unexpected depth or angle. It certainly isn't Bobby Doyle marking cleared buildings.

Strange then that this appeared on Monday's desk calendar...

OK ... so I changed the diagram a bit, but good advice for any would be superhero, who hasn't the ability to actually fly.

And it occurred to me that a masked character running across the rooftops of old Victorian or Edwardian buildings has so much more visual excitement to it than the same character trying to leap from one skyscraper to another, even if the latter would by much more perilous.

Maybe I need to write a story about a Victorian Superhero and get it out of my system.

Friday night Andy, Colin and I got together to discuss where Accent UK is going and what we need to do to keep growing. We meet every now and then in a local pub, an old building with a very low ciling, full of character... and characters.

We have a lot of projects in various stages of development, and we have that side of things pretty well managed I think. OK, we'd like to publish more books every year but in the declining market we're sticking with our model.

I guess the two things that we did agree we need to look at, and have been discussing with Owen Johnson the last few weeks, is that we need to get into the Digital Comics market with our books. ZOMBIES has pretty much sold out, we're keeping a few copies back for Mocca in April but apart from that the comic is done. It'll be a shame not to keep it in print but there are risks with doing that, in that we've already sold a lot of copies at Conventions and stores and so it'll take much longer to sell another 1000 copies or so, which ties up a lot of our cash. The result of not re-printing is that the creators who contributed to it will have reached their total audience, with no new people enjoying their work. Going digital seems a good way or keeping the books available to new readers without the extra print costs and storage problems that paper copies bring. I'll be looking into this over the coming months, but any advice or guidance anyone has will be greatly appreciated, just add your comments or thoughts to this posting.

The other thing is that we need to freshen up our website. I'm no web-designer or coder so this is something that will take a while to manage I think. Again if anyone has any suggestions then I'm all ears.

As far as the EAGLE awards go, it's great to see that someone has nominated Andy Bloor for Best Newcomer Artist, I wish I'd thought of that. If you haven't voted for your favourites of 2010 then pop over to http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/ and cast your votes. It's one of our institutions over here in world of UK comics, the more votes all round the better.

They know me so well...

2011-02-05T05:35:00.000-08:00

This week was the week of my 'Leaving Do'. Tuesday night I was picked after getting back from work and taken to a local pub where a lot of the friends I'd made over the last 24 years where waiting to see me off.

It was a really enjoyable, if a little sad, evening chatting about the past and the future, and having the odd beer.

I noticed one the guys, Mark, enter the pub quite early on with a huge wrapped picture frame under his arm. And I started to worry. Was my leaving present to be a huge aireal photograph of the building I spent most of the last 24 years working in ? Would I have to bring it out and hang it up whenever anybody called around ? How good would I be at looking pleased by the gift when presented with it ? I'm not a great actor.

Imagine then my delight when I unwrapped this...

They know me so well.

People get to know a lot about you when you've worked with them for such a long time, as the references in this picture show, and whilst it was Mark Dodgson who had had the initial idea and sorted most of it out, I can see that a lot of people contributed to the content of the image. It'll be hard for you to spot some of them on this very small version but there are plenty in there, and I keep finding myself studying it. It's fabulous.

The artist is known as Hammo, I've added a link to his blog on the right, and he can certainly draw a great robot ... and 'Yes' .. that's a young Dave West reading a copy of Strange Times and 'Yes' that's Bobby Doyle on the rooftop.

The other great thing to happen this week is that The Fall Of The Wolfmen has been nominated for an EAGLE award. As with previous years the first round of voting is merely to get the list down to a shortlist of 5 entries in each category, and the final date for this is the 7 March. then from the 17th March the voting starts again where one of the final 5 will be the winner. It's a little bad timing for us as the comic has only been seen in the UK so far, apart from review copies sent out, but hopefully the comic will hit stores across the globe before that date, we'll check our Diamond shipping details.

Also, it's great to see the Tales From The Parent's Basement podcast listed, it's a great comics podcast run by guys how just love the media, and happen to be really nice blokes.

The Man Of Glass wasn't on the list for Best UK Colour Comic, but I cheekily added it. If you don't see it by the time you go in and cast your votes then feel free to add it as well, but only if you really think it was better than the others on the list.

And here's my request ... please don't vote for our books out of friendship, please only vote for those books you really think were the best. That's where this system is flawed, but it's all we've got so let's respect its limitations and not take advantage of them. Thanks.

Oh, the link to cast your votes is www.eagleawards.co.uk.

There and back again... by train.

2011-01-29T15:13:00.000-08:00

Well I've had a week at the new job now and am releaved to say that I'm really enjoying it. There're a lot of things to learn about the IT Systems of my new employer, there are a lot of new people to meet and acronyms to navigate , but that's all good.

My biggest concern really was the traveling. I've swapped a 20 minute door to door car journey in the morning and evening for a 45 minute train journey, with 10 minutes at each end, making it just over an hour of traveling. It was one of my concerns when taking the new role. Would I hate the journey every morning and every night ?

My wife provided me with this helpful little guide of things to do if the train crashes, from her Worst Case Scenario desk calendar...

which was nice. Good to see she cares... I'm not really sure how much warning you'd get anyway, but I guess it's the thought that counts.

Anyway, I'm quite enjoying the journey as it gives me time to catch up on my reading. And I mean 'book' reading... you know... those things without pictures in them? At home I tend to spend all of my available reading time going through a pile of comics, so it's great to be able to get back into books.

So, what was the first book I read on the train that cold Monday morning? The Solomon Kane Stories by Robert E. Howard, what else? hat an ability Mr Howard had to conjure up fabulous settings, creepy adversaries and compelling central characters. I've read most of these stoties before but I'm still really enjoying re-reading them. The only sad thing is that the movie they made really didn't capture a lot of the mood of the character or the settings. Not as bad, by far, as the Conan movies, I nearly walked out of the cinema for the first one, but not as good as they could have, or should have, been.

I think I may have to invest in a Kindle though as it's difficult fitting big heavy books into my back pack, and I'm still not totally convinced I'd make enough use of an iPAD to justify the cost. Decisions, decisions.

This week I also got some great news from Gal Editora, the publishers of the Brazilian edition of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man? They are going to second print, having shifted almost all of the first edition.

They've added some new quotes on the back and a little Second Printing title on the cover image.

but the rest of it is unchanged. They've done very well and we're really happy with the relationship. I guess if you live in Brazil, are considering picking up a copy and prefer First Editions, then you might want to pick up a copy sooner rather than later.

So much to do, so little time ...

2011-01-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been another really busy week. I won't bore you with the day job details, but it's been a challenging week. Who would have thought it'd prove to be so difficult to leave a job.

More interestingly, we've had a good week with regards Accent UK, see below, but sadly I've not really managed to find much time to draw for a while now. I did play around with a little character development for my Two Templars book, that I'll start once Strange Times is completed.

Not sure what his name will be, but I want this book to have a much darker, and scratchier, feel to it than Strange Times ... we'll see how it goes.

The guys over at Tales From The Parent's Basement, a comics review podcast broadcasting out of Utah, have joined forces for a special Best Of 2010, with the podcasters who are known a Burnt Weiners. Episode 76 can be downloaded over on talesfromtheparentsbasement.com, and Accent UK gets quite a few mentions ... and none of them bad :o) If you do listen in though I recommend that you have a pen and paper handy as there are a lot of recommendations and although I pride myself on only buying good comic books, I had only read about 25% of those mentioned.

The Fall Of The Wolfmen got a plug over on paradoxcomicsgroup.blogspot.com, as one of the 10 books that they recommend you pick up from this month's PREVIEWS (see scans in a blog post below this one), which is great.

Colin Mathieson and I will be at next Saturday's (that's the 22.01.11) Manchester Comic Mart, shifting some of our own collections, as well as selling the Accent UK titles, so do pop over if you are in the area. The venue has changed and it is now held in the Thistle Hotel (and not Sasha's), which is in Portland Street, Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, M1 6DP. In case you haven't got Sat Nav, here's a map.

It'd be great to see you there, and maybe grab a coffee and a chat afterwards.

Diamond Geezers.

2011-01-09T04:15:00.000-08:00

Well I've finally managed to get my hands on a copy of the latest PREVIEWS catalogue from Diamond Distribution (number 268), and once again the guys at Diamond UK have done us proud.

We've taken on a lot of advice from Diamond UK over the years, which resulted in us improving our books (over a span of some 4 years) until they were good enough to attract the right kind of attention and interest from Retails and Readers alike.

It was obvious to me early on that Diamond would have no reason to put down a book that they believed would sell, so if they had problems with something then there would be nothing personal in their view. It's purely commercial, and based on their experience of the market.

Their experience of what sells and what doesn't is far greater than mine, so I've always taken their advice very seriously.

A few years later we took the result of our fine tuning to Diamond UK in the shape of The Wolfmen and the ZOMBIES anthology. The advice from Diamond this time was that we'd arrived. These books would look good on the shelves of Comic Stores across the globe, and they would be happy to recommend these books to the parent Diamond company in the US.

All of the Accent UK books since then have been listed in PREVEWS, and many have had attention drawn to them through Spotlights and other recommendations, and our latest book The Fall Of The Wolfmen is no different.

In fact in the PREVIEWS UK section of the catalogue the Diamond Geezers have gone so far as to make our double pack, adding the original The Wolfmen comic, a FEATURED ITEM.

This type of added exposure can only help raise the books profile, and we're very grateful.

In the global part of the catalogue, which is seen outside of the UK, they've highlighted the book with a CERTIFIED COOL logo. Again this is unexpected and very welcome.

All of this helps with getting our books out there and combined with the reviews we get is very encouraging.

It'll be a few months now until we get sales figures from Diamond, but all things considered there's not much more that they could do to push our books.

I know they've had a pretty bad press of late, but I will say that they've always been very helpful to us. We respect their input and I believe that they respect our approach to the whole thing.

I think it's what could be called 'a win win situation'.

Happy New Year...

2011-01-02T05:06:00.000-08:00

Not wanting to start the New Year on a down note, but when will I get rid of this damned Flu Virus ? Not only is it messing up my Bank Holiday enjoyment but has also chewed its way through three days of holiday that I took between XMas and New Year ... due to this I've done little more than sit in front of 9 hours of The Lord Of The Rings with my daughter (and her comment at the end of it all ? ' I prefer Harry Potter...').

We did manage to get a few games in there and as is traditional I managed to own the Bank at the end of our Monolopy session, I won't talk about the other games, being beaten at Scrabble by a 12 year old is something that I need to deal with in my own time ....

A friend at work showed me a book that I found really amusing. It's called Movie Charts, by Paul Copperwaite, and using pie charts (etc) to reflect certain elements, and messages, of films we all know and love. I've not copied any here, but have made one up concerning the movie 300 that should show you the type of thing it contains. Not to evertone's taste I know but it appealed to me.

I've made a few New Year's resolutions, in the hope that one makes out beyond January, but am not brave enough to share them with the wider world, as they'd then be played back to me on a weekly basis.

On the comic front, The Fall Of The Wolfmen, written by myself and illustrated by Mr Bloor has been reviewed over on http://www.hypergeek.ca/2010/12/comic-review-fall-of-the-wolfmen.html. Good timing as the comic itself is listed in Jan's PREVIEWS. if you'd like a copy then now id hte time to pop in to your local comic shop and get them to order one for you.

In other news, Steve Holder has a blog up and running over at http://holdersteve.blogspot.com/. Steve and I are collaborating on a couple of projects at the moment. Robot Shorts, a collection of tales about ... Robots .. that are .. well ... short. The stories that is, not the robots themselves. Steve is also illustrating a future Blessed/Cursed comic, but I'll keep that under wraps a bit at the moment.

Here's an image of Steve's that I've greyscaled, but sadly we've decided it best not to include it. To find out more then pop over to Steve blog, there's a link on the left :o)

Looks Like It's Going To Be A White Christmas.

2010-12-12T06:56:00.000-08:00

About this time last year we took in a rescue Dalmatian. Having lost Smugde (also a Dalmatian) to old age a few months before, we came across Tara on a website for dogs looking for new homes. Well, she settled in pretty quickly and is nothing like our previous dogs, not that we expected her to be.

I thought I'd share this photo taken of her last winter and wish everybody a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2011.

The Eagle Has Landed...

2010-11-05T14:31:00.001-07:00

Well we did it :o)

Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? has won the EAGLE award for Favourite Bristich Black and White Comic published in 2009.

We collected the award at the London EXPO MCM event last weekend, a shame that we couldn't all be there and as it was Colin and I couldn't make it down for the awards ceremony and actually received it on Sunday in the end.

As you can imagine I'm feeling pretty happy at the moment :o)

The Fastest Man In Brazil...

2010-10-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

Mauricio of Gal Editora sent this photo from a recent convention over there... Fastest Man gets a great position on the poster :o) Mauricio is pleased with how it's selling, which is great news.

Whatever happens we'll enjoy ourselves...

2010-10-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

... was the last thing I said to Andy as we stepped out of the car to meet Manny of Whatever Comics in Canterbury. Manny has been a great supporter of Accent UK for a few years now, selling more copies of our books than any other store, anywhere.

We had decided to launch Fall Of The Wolfmen at Manny's store mainly because it would give us the opportunity to meet him and thank him in person for being so helpful and encouraging ever since The Wolfmen first hit the shelves. To be honest I've been to enough store signings to know how they can go, and so my expectations were set very low.

I was completely blown away, however, by the response we got.

I knew Manny had pushed our books on a number of his customers, maybe even most of them, but to a man they all told me that he had been right to do so. They had enjoyed them so much.

We met a lot of really committed comic fans and had a good chat with a lot of very interesting and interested people.

It was a really really great day.

We were working the table from 1pm to 5pm. Not a moment passed when we weren't doing something, and the time just flew.

I can't imagine better hosts than Manny and Debe, as they took us under their wings and sorted everything out for us. Also the work done, as a favour for a friend, by Karol (and later Carl) in walking the streets in Wolfmen garb to raise the profile of the event worked incredibly well, so a big thank you to them as well.

I've written a fuller report over on the Accentukcomics website, with a lot more photos. Also pop over to the http://www.whatevercomics.com/ to find out more about the store, and take part in the very active forum, and visit Andy Bloor's blog (follow the link on the right).

I'm still buzzing from the launch even now ....

Wolfmen Figures...

2010-09-26T06:40:00.001-07:00

Well I've created my two Wolfmen figures ahead of the Store Signing at Whatever Comics in Canterbury on the 2nd October.

Merging Reservoir Dogs and Dog Soldiers figures, when seemed only appropriate, adding plenty of milliput and then a lick of paint and there you go.. what could be simpler :o)

One of these I'll keep and the other is a gift for Andy Bloor, a small thank you for all the hours he's spent slaving over a drawing board to produce another great piece of almost cinematic story telling. Over to you to choose which one you'd like Andy... they look better in person than on the photographs so you might want to wait until you see them for real.

Fall Of The Wolfmen...

2010-09-19T08:05:00.001-07:00

Yep ... Wolfmen 2 - Fall Of The Wolfmen is back from the printers ... I'm a very happy man as it looks really solid. Andy Bloor's artwork and design skills just get better with each book he's involved with, as you can see from the image above ... I've even copied his photograph as it's better than one that I'd take :o)

We'll be launching this at Whatever Comics in Canterbury on the 2nd October, so if you'r local, in the neighbourhood or just fancy a day out then do come to the store and say hello ... you can then get your hands on a Collector's Edition cover version that'll only be available at Cons and Store signings ... once they've gone they've gone I'm afraid ...

Brazilian Edition of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man?

2010-09-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

The Brazilian edition of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man? is now available in stores across Brazil. Published by Gal Editora you can see their version of the cover above. Looks great !!

Two Templars

2010-09-12T03:49:00.000-07:00

Whilst being very busy with Wolfmen 2 (should be in my hands next week :o), Strange Times and a little Robot book I'm pulling together with Steve Holder, I'm also playing around with designs (well, as close as I get to such a thing) for my Two Templars book.

In other news, the Brazilian edition of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man? is available very soon, and Gal Editora (the publishers over there) have put a great little trailer up on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpjZ6hIkS1I, check it out.

Strange SFX Times...

2010-08-28T08:12:00.001-07:00

My Strange Times webcomic (also available in collected hard cover edition ;o) got a great little mention in Issue 200 of SFX this month, which is nice as SFX is read by a whole load of SciFi fans across the UK, and possibly the world.

I'm an SFX reader myslef and use it to judge what films I should be catching (usually on BluRay as I don't get to the cinema much) and what books to read. I tend not to bother with their Comic Review pages though as they are always a bit too mainstream for me, I get my Comic info from Tales From The Parent's Basement Podcasts.

It's a great advert for Strange Times though and all I had to do was email the link to the email address at the bottom of the article (see above) ...

The Captain America blues ....

2010-08-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

Been a busy week this week ... catching up with the 300 odd emails at work ... yep ... things just carry on when you're not around.

More interestingly I've now printed off Andy Bloor's Wolfmen 2 pages and they are great. Really impressive work. Our process is that I now sit down and script it more tightly, as Andy has put many of my words into the images. This typically means that I end up writing it from scratch with his visuals as the thread through the story. I'm not sure if other people work this way but I enjoy the opportunity to re-write the script in this way and believe that a better comic is the result.

Well, back to work ... if you can call this work :o) Did I mention that I've now seen all the pages of Andy's fabulous artwork ... and everyone else has to wait another month :o)

Jersey... The place to be if there's a Zombie attack.

2010-08-01T03:12:00.000-07:00

Just back from a very relaxing holiday in Jersey.

As always when I'm travelling, my mind starts to wander and subconsciously look for good hide outs in case of a Zombie Attack (Yep ... I probably should visit the Dr.). Well Jersey has the best structures I've ever seen. Whether built to ward off the Normans, the French or the Allies, it has a lot of solid buildings with elevated windows and doors that can be easy enhanced to make them proof against the mindless creatures. No glass windows at ground level for them to burst through, in some cases a great surrounding wall and others surrounded by the waves at low tide. Yep ... come the Zombies Plague I'm heading for Jersey.

It's all about proportions...

2010-07-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with proportions.. thinking ahead to when I do my Two Templars book that'll follow Strange Times. I want to have a different look and feel to the characters, but also to bring across the kind of cartoony feel that I've now got to grips with. At the moment I'm playing with some recognizable (hopefully) characters, but soon I'll start to define the look of the Templars.

Solomon Kane had the feeling he was being watched...

2010-07-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

I watched the Solomon Kane movie and it was... OK.

Again they failed to capture the magic of Robert E Howard's stories and instead went for an adventure film that is probably a safer bet financially that trying to aim for something different. Sad really as they could turn out something memorable, and generate some real buzz if they took a few more risks. I wanted a horror story with a central hero and got Indiana Jones in olden times. What this film has successfully done though is lower my expectations for the Conan film that's in the making.

It was the 22nd June and Norman's internet purchase wasn't all he'd hoped for...

2010-07-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

... he'd wanted 'Three Lions' on his shirt and not 'Three lines'. Still, in a couple of days it'd turn out to be a wise purchase.

'Norman' has been created by Dave Hughes and you can read a load of gags about him over on Dave's blog (follow the link on the right), They always make me chuckle so I decided to vent my frustration at England's World Cup performance through Norman.

Norman is copyright Dave Hughes.

It's just one Thing after another.

2010-06-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Steve Holder for the idea for this one ...

Busy as always on a number of projects ... I've just finished greyscaling some of Steve's great interpretations of some of my short stories for our little Robot Shorts book, which we're both working on in the background, and I'm now colouring the Martian pages of Stephenson's Robot Issue 2 from the pencil, and pen, of INDIO!

A few months of no pain in the gym and Superman had to accept that therefore there'd be no gain. His body would never look as good as Batman's.

2010-06-12T13:31:00.000-07:00

I've been busy catching up with things the last few weeks, but feel that I'm getting there. I just hope that 'there' is somewhere nice to be.

The date for voting on the Eagle Awards has been set as the 4th July, now that dates seems familiar but I'm not sure why, maybe Cally can remind me :o) If you've not voted yet then pop over to http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/vote.aspx, and if you liked Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? then it wouldn't hurt if you voted for it whilst you were there :o)

After a few years away from the action Iron Man was getting a bit rusty.

2010-05-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

Just back from another fantastic Komiks.DK event in Copenhagen. The Danes are a very friendly and hospitable bunch and we're always made to feel very welcome. Over the last 8 years we've made a lot of friends over there. I'll post a full report over on the Accent UK website this weekend (hopefully) but in short, we sold every Accent UK title we took, and between three of us and a box shipped over, it was a lot of comics ...

And I come back to find out that Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? has made it to the shortlist of 5 comics up for the EAGLE AWARD (http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/vote.aspx ) for Favourite British Black and White Comicbook, so if you voted before then please do so again as all previous votes have been removed and everyone starts again from scratch. It'd be great to win this, so if you enjoyed the book more than the others shortlisted then now's the time to vote for it ... As Clint Eastwood said, 'Go ahead .. make my day.'

After many years of searching, Thor began to believe that Jörmungandr might not actually exist.

2010-05-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

As I'm hopefully off to Denmark this coming weekend for their Komiks.DK event, I thought it only appropriate to have a go at Marvel's version of our favourite Norse God. Let's hope that Thor uses his powers to keep that ash cloud away.

From very early on Bruce Wayne realised...

2010-05-09T00:43:00.000-07:00

... that if this super-hero thing was going to work, then he'd need to find a much quicker way of getting around.

Been busy this week catching up with pages for my Strange Times webcomic and getting ready for Komiks.DK, the Copenhagen Comic Convention that takes place every two years. One of our favourite Cons.

Dormammu decided to see a Doctor about his 'flaming head' condition...

2010-05-02T05:19:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who voted for Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? over on the EAGLE Awards 2009 nominations. If we succeed in this step of the process then I think everyone is asked to vote again ... and then it goes before a final panel ... or something like that ... anyway ... thanks everyone ... I'll keep you all posted.

Eagle Awards 2009

2010-04-24T00:21:00.000-07:00

Well, Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? has been nominated by some kind soul for Favourite British Black and White Comic over on http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/nomination.aspx http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/nomination.aspx

so if you read it, liked it and think it worthy of such an award then please pop over and register your opinion on the appropriate drop down.

I think the 5 with the most such votes go through to a panel of our peers for the final vote.

The Thing meets a bigger Thing...

2010-04-23T14:14:00.000-07:00

I guess this is one of those, 'no matter how big you are there's always someone bigger' ideas. Or maybe it's an image about your biggest enemy being yourself... hmmm... that's all a bit deep isn't it ... maybe then it's just a strange idea for an image that occurred to me on the way to work one morning ...

Waiting for the cosmic wave ...

2010-04-12T11:21:00.001-07:00

.... so, does The Silver Surfer ever run out of cosmic waves on which to soar ? I don't know how cosmic waves work, but it seems likely ...

Captain America loves all creatures ....

2010-04-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

So, Capt America is off to foil another of the Red Skull's evil plots to take over the world, but has a bit of an accident on the way. This delay could spell 'doom' for mankind, but at least the bunny is OK.

'' That's not Batman !!! ''

2010-03-30T13:14:00.001-07:00

... 'His nose is too big ... his ears don't go like that and his car doesn't have smoke like that coming out the back.'

Well, my daughter's views on my latest little illustration are quite clear :o)

The title was going to be 'Batman takes a leasurely Sunday drive in the country ... what could possibly go wrong ?', but my daughter would probably have commented that he doesn't look like Batman at all, so I went with her title instead ;o)

Everyone's a critic ....

Best Comic of the Year You Probably Haven’t Heard Of ...

2010-03-27T02:25:00.000-07:00

Well, Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? was nominated for the 'Best Comic of the Year You Probably Haven't Heard of' award over on http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1715467.html?thread=55955211.

We didn't get the most votes and so didn't win ... hmmm ... wait a minute .... doesn't that mean we should have won as we were therefore the one most people hadn't heard of ?;o)

Nice to be on the list with such great titles.

Alan Scott and Emerald City Con

2010-03-22T08:21:00.001-07:00

This one is for Jim Schwitzer of 'Tales From The Parent's Basement' fame ... over the weekend of the Emerald City Con Jim asked if I'd had a chance to do an Alan Scott - Green Lantern image in my 'style' ... I hadn't and apologised ... but in discussing it with Colin on the flight home we both had the same idea for what the image would be.

Hope you like it Jim .... and 'Yes' .. I spotted that he wears his ring on his left hand ... but only just in time :o)

Sleepless In Seattle ...

2010-03-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

I know .. it's an obvious title for this entry but so apt.

A plane flight of some 10 hours or so, hit me pretty hard. I found myself waking up at around 2.30am every morning, even if I'd gone to bed at around 12.30am. In fact, and typically, the one morning I didn't wake until 7.00am, was the day we came home.

OK, so it was a long way to go, but was it worth it ?

It certainly was.

This was never going to be financially viable, we knew that going in. In fact I don't think we could have shipped enough comics out there to balance the price of air fare and hotels. What this was all about was meeting people (both friends from Tales From The Parent's Basement and new collaborators and customers), getting Accent UK books in front of people who had never heard of us, meeting retailers and showing them what we produce and seeing some of Seattle.

We acheived all of our goals.

The guys from Tales From The Parent's Basement were great, to a man, and great hosts for our shared table. We had a load of fun with them and they introduced me to Burretos and reintroduced me to Churros. A quick thank you to them all.

We sold a whole heap of comics, ZOMBIES proving most popular (as always), met a load of new customers, met our Vancouver counterparts Cloudscape (again nice people), met Val Mayerik who will be contributing to a future anthology and maybe more.

We talked to about a dozen retailers, all of who seemed genuinely interested in our books, and some of whom already stocked them. This was a great response and something we need to do more of.

Vanessa, Wei and Wai of the Vancouver Collective, Cloudscape, were all very nice and as enthusiastic about the independent comic scene as we are. Hopefully we'll be able to support eachother in the future from different sides of the Atlantic.

We also had a interesting chat with Val Mayerik, who does a pretty decent London accent, and he's shown a lot of interest in working with us in the future.

Bald Eagles in Pioneer Square, never seen before, was a fitting end to a great 4 day adventure.

We're not sure we'll visit the same Con for a while, but it has certainly got us looking to attend more US cons ... we'll aim for 1 a year I think.

I'll be putting up a more comprehensive report on the Accent UK website in the coming weeks ... with photos etc. I need to get some rest now .. the jet lag hasn't finished with me yet.

Follow the yellow brick road ...

2010-02-28T03:58:00.000-08:00

Well, Accent UK are off to our first ever US Comicon, Seattle's Emerald City Comicon to be precise. We've been invited to share a table with our friends over at Tales From The Parent's Basement, where we will help them sell copies of their anthology '8am', which contains contributions from a few Accent UK regulars, including a prequel to Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ?, written by myself and illustrated by Marleen Lowe (of course). We'll also take as many copies of Accent UK stuff as we can fit into our suitcases, hand luggage and pockets.

It's a fair old trip ... but I can't wait !!

Check it out at http://www.emeraldcitycomicon.com/

Fastest Man review ...

2010-02-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

.. and another great review here http://davescomicsuk.blogspot.com/2010/02/presuming-on-his-senses-whatever.html.

Fastest Man review

2010-02-20T12:28:00.000-08:00

Came across another great review over at http://www.ifanboy.com/reviews/akamuu/comics/whatever_happened_to_the_worlds_fastest_man_one-shot.

Moonlighting Wolfmen .. with words

2010-02-09T14:47:00.000-08:00

I had these words in my mind as I pulled this image together ... thought I'd finish it for the blog.

Shane Oakley is having an 'Almost January Sale' ...

2010-02-07T06:12:00.000-08:00

.. over on his blog ... and does commissions ... he's got a very unique style ... so if you collect sketches around a theme then your collection will be all the better for having a piece of his artwork in there ..

Check out his blog at http://shaneoakley.blogspot.com/ for more ...

Wolfmen Moonlighting

2010-02-07T02:28:00.001-08:00

When times were hard The Wolfmen could be found moonlighting as bouncers down at Roxy's.

Well ... you can blame Mr. Bloor for this one ... hope you like it Andy ... I seem to be growing a little list of characters to have a crack at ... good fun so thanks for the suggestions.

Lobster Johnson meet Frog ...

2010-01-30T08:26:00.000-08:00

Well Gary Crutchley suggested I have a go at Lobster Johnson, although I think he was meaning a head shot, so you can blame him for this one ... think I'll have to have a go at The Wolfmen next ... phew ...

Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? has landed ....

2010-01-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

... in the UK anyway .. and gets a mention over on
http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/

.... and they also mention that we are in talks with Gal Editora, a Brazilian comic publisher, about printing a Portuguese version ... that'll be cool.

Dr. Strange 2 ...

2010-01-23T12:51:00.001-08:00

Still playing around with these little A5 efforts .... this one'll go to Rob too .. if he wants it.

It's in the shops ....

2010-01-22T11:16:00.001-08:00

Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? is now available in the UK stores.

If you can't find one and want to read it then can you please ask your local comic shop to order you a copy through Diamond. It'll help raise our numbers with Diamond and give our next book the best chance of them listing it.

Great to see the comic on the shelf in Millennium Comics in Nortwich. Thanks to Dan for ordering a good number of them.

The Shadow .... of his former self.

2010-01-17T01:56:00.001-08:00

I was asked if I'd do a sketch of The Shadow for a collector of images of the character. I did it in my usual 'Strange Times' style, but used watercolour rather than computer colour it. It's an A5 piece ... on bristol board ... I enjoyed doing it as it's fun to try out more famous characters than Mr. Rock :o)

Dr. Strange doodle ... with watercolour ...

2010-01-09T06:31:00.000-08:00

At conventions I've found myself stood next to a very busy Andy Bloor as he turns out his wonderful 'sketches' of the likes of Dr. Strange, Batman and .. well .. pretty much anyone the collector asks for and I think ... I wish I could do something like that ... maybe I should practice a style for 'convention sketches' ... well ... I've got a way to go yet but here's my first attempt ... not as whacky and freeflowing as I wanted it to be ... I really do need to loosen up a whole lot ...

Strange Times indeed ....

2010-01-07T13:57:00.001-08:00

Another review of Strange Times has popped up on the net over at http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2010/strange-times-indeed/ ... which is nice ... I'm hoping to have book 2 done before 2015 though ... hopefully :o)

Best of 2009 ....

2010-01-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

Jason has listed Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? as his best comic of the year over on a report he did for Forbidden Planet. I've just come across it, skipping across blogs for the first time since Christmas ... I couldn't ask for a better start to the year. Thanks Jason.

Check it out :- http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2009/best-of-the-year-jason-cobleys-selection/

Radio Times Stars ....

2009-12-28T02:16:00.000-08:00

Just flicking ahead to see what films the TV has to offer us in a world where we all have DVDs, Blu-rays and downloads (and of course here I'm talking about BT Vision and iTunes ...).

The Dark Knight is on SKY on New Years Eve and has been awarded ... 3 stars out of 5. Hmmm .. well I find that hard to agree with, but I guess the standards must be really high ... oh no .. wait a minute ... Superman Returns and Hellboy 2 get 4 stars ... that just doesn't add up. Superman 2 just didn't do it at all for me ... and whilst Hellboy 2 looked fabulous ... the story wasn't what I'd call an all time classic. The Dark Knight however worked on all sorts of levels ... it's one of the few films that I've ever seen where I'm sat there as the credits roll and just think 'Wow'.

If you've not seen it yet then shame on you ... go and get a copy ...

As for Radio Times .. you need to get some consistency across your reviews ... I can only assume that the guy who reviewed The Dark Knight has much much higher standards than the guy who reviewed Hellboy 2 ... oh .. wait a minute .. the guy gave 4 stars to Shrek .... sigh.

Merry Christmas Everyone ....

2009-12-20T04:26:00.000-08:00

I'd like to thank all those who have supported us over the last year, either with contributions to our books, advice, feedback, reviews or just words of encouragement. It all helps and is great appreciated.

A couple of interviews have made there way to the web ...

Firstly a podcast interview, which also gave me a chance to chat to the guys over on Tales From The Parent's Basement, can be downloaded over on http://talesfromtheparentsbasement.com/ and secondly an interview conducted by email can be read over on http://www.sfsite.com/columns/booknews310.htm.

I tried to sound lively and energetic on the podcast but I'm afraid my natural character kept breaking through .. still ... hope you enjoy it ... it was fun to do.

Robot Shorts - A to Z. L is for ...

2009-12-06T08:04:00.000-08:00

Things are getting quieter now .. Convention season is over and ... oh no ... Christmas is rapidly approaching ... better buy some presents ...

Another great review of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? over on http://www.whatevercomics.com/#/whatever-happened/4529543834 from Manny of Whatever Comics ... Manny has really given us a lot of support since he first picked up The Wolfmen and ZOMBIES ...

Robot Shorts - A to Z. K is for ...

2009-11-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

OK .. so 'K' had to be Kingdom. Kingdom first appears in the ROBOTS anthology, and his look is pure INDIO! We liked the whole set up to much that we then drafted in Jon Ayre and together wrote a 7 issue mini-series around him ... titled Stephenson's Robot. This will be a full colour production, the first issue is already coloured and issue 2 is fully inked and awaiting colouring. It looks really amazing and allows INDIO! to show just how damned talented he is.

In other news here's another review of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ?

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2009/whatever-happened-to-the-worlds-fastest-man/

and it's another great one :o)

I need to knuckle down now to doing some Strange Times pages as the web comic over on the

http://www.accentukcomics.com

site has just completed the pages that are in Book 1 (as I won't be putting up the Secret Origin of Mr. Rock) ... and although I have started Book 2, the web comic is fast catching up with pages that I have finished. Made all the worse by the fact that I'm sat here with a cold ... still .. nobody said it would be easy :o)

Robot Shorts - A to Z. J is for ....

2009-11-08T03:56:00.001-08:00

It's been a really busy few weeks ... I really must get back to doing some Strange Times pages ... the website entries are fast catching up with me ....

New Fastest Man review ...

2009-11-05T11:37:00.000-08:00

OK ... when I read this one I thought that I might have written it myself and somehow hacked it onto the Newsarama website ... and then I remembered I'm not that clever :o)

Check it out ... http://www.newsarama.com/comics/091103-Best-Shots-Advanced.html, although I do seem to have trouble accessing the website at the moment ... maybe I imagined it after all.

Robot Shorts - A to Z. I is for .....

2009-10-31T04:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy few weeks, October and November being Comics Convention season over here in the UK are typically busy, but this year we've added to the problem with Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? hitting the November's Diamond PREVIEWS catalogue.

Good news is that it has been given a SPOTLIGHT box around the listing, which will hopefully raise it to the attention of retailers as they make their orders. Bad news is that the same PREVIEWS catalogue has so may cross over events from DC and Marvel that I can see the retailers having very little spare cash with which to try something new, which is probably the DC/Marvel plan. Still, we've emailed reviews and low res PDF link out to about 800 retailers across the globe, mostly in the USA, so we'll have to see.

I'm off to a DAMA conference next week ... nothing to do with LOST I'm sorry to say, just a Data Conference ... to do with the day job ... sigh.

Pop over to see Jason Cobley's review of Fastest Man ...

2009-10-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

Jason Cobley picked up a copy of ''Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ?'' at the BICS event and has written some very nice words about it over on his blog ...

http://jasoncobley.blogspot.com/

... Thanks Jason .. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I also had asome great feedback from people at the MCM event, professionals, self publishers and comic book readers .... it really does make it all worthwhile ...

A Strange Times - Book 1 review ....

2009-10-23T12:12:00.000-07:00

... from the guys taking shelter in their Parent's Basement over there in the US ... http://talesfromtheparentsbasement.com/reviews/?p=153.

another Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? Review ...

2009-10-21T15:26:00.001-07:00

... can be found over on http://www.comicshopvoice.co.uk/reviews/comics/Whatever%20Happened%20to%20the%20World%27s%20Fastest%20Man.htm .... :o)

Robot Short - A to Z. H is for ....

2009-10-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

At the moment I'm busy preparing my brain for the MCM Expo next weekend ... it's a huge convention but sadly not all about comics ... film stars rub shoulders with comic stars ... and us ;o)

We've managed, thanks to Diamond UK, to get 4 pages ... yes ... 4 whole pages in the MCM Expo Booklet ... you can check it out yourselves http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=17552 ... we're at the end of the book .. where people tend to start their browsing ;o) Thanks go once again to Andy Bloor for designing the 'advert-that's-not-really-an-advert' page.

Also Fastest Man is still getting plugged over at http://www.hypergeek.ca/ as we near the November Previews.

Busy ... busy ...

Strange Times Book 2 .... in progress ... honest.

2009-10-11T07:09:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd pop an image up to show that I am progressing with Strange Times Book 2, and not sitting here with my feet up watching TV. As you can see from the image, if you're following the web comic, there have been some changes in Barrington Cully's life of late .... is he happy about them ? We'll have to see ....

Strange Times and Fastest Man mentions ...

2009-10-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

.. over on Mark Clapham's Blog http://rollbackandmix.blogspot.com/ ... Mark does contribute to our anthology titles and so may be a little bias o) Thanks for the reviews Mark .. glad you enjoyed them both ...

Robot Shorts - A to Z. G is for .....

2009-10-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

Just recovering from a really busy and productive BICS event. Sold a good number of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? and even some copies of Strange Times Book 1. GOSH Comics in London took a few copies of the latter for their store as mentioned on their blog http://goshlondon.blogspot.com/2009/10/gosh-authority-071009.html, you'll have to scroll down the full entry for The Gosh! Authority 07/10/09 but it is there :o).

Andy Bloor helped out once again and drew (uh oh .. pun alert) in a queue of people by sketching Wolfmen ... which resulted in them wanting to buy a copy ... they even bought a copy when he drew other requested characters .. a punk ... Thanos .. Dr. Strange and Batman ... hmmm ... Dr. Strange ... not a bad name that one ...

It was great to meet so many people I'd only ever spoken to electronically and I'll apologise now to anyone who I may have blanked a little ... I'll blame it on my state of mind over the weekend, the poor lighting and my age ... I've already apologised to one person by email (Sorry again Mr Hughes) ... hopefully I didn't do it to anyone else.

I bought a few books over the weekend and so far have read Grandville from Bryan Talbot and Thomas Wogan is Dead from Dave Hughes. They're very different and both a very good.