All the best and looking forward to 2008.

Just a quick message to wish you all the very best for the holiday season and a happy new year for 2008.

As well as Space Doubles #1, which is out next week, and the Raise the Dead hardback, which should be coming early in '08, we can now reveal a couple of other projects we'll be involved with over the coming months.

The Darkness/Eva - Daughter of Dracula 4 issue mini.
"Dynamite has confirmed for Newsarama that it will continue its “Eva” property (though now re-named “Eva: Daughter of Dracula”) in March, when the character will crossover with Top Cow’s the Darkness, marking the two company’s second such collaboration.

The project will be written by Leah Moore and John Reppion, with art by Edgar Salazar, and covers by Brett Booth, Salazar and Paul Renaud."

Comic Book Tattoo - A Tori Amos anthology
"... according to several blog posts that popped up last night it announces a new Image Comics anthology, Comic Book Tattoo, which will feature stories inspired by Tori Amos songs. Rantz Hosley is editing and the book will be out in time for Comic-Con International next year."
(We're going to be collaborating with Y the Last Man artist Pia Guerra on a story for this mega huge book!)

Thanks for all your help and support; thanks for buying our comics and being interested in what we do. Hopefully, next year will be even better for us all.

Cheers

J&L

Moore & Reppion: "Blah, blah, blah"

For those of you interested in such things, there are a couple of new interviews with ourselves online now.

The first is over on Valhalla Comics Mug O Mead Blog where Kevin Bush very patiently quizzed us about our methods, the industry and our upcoming work.

Then over on Comicon's Pulse Jennifer M. Contino got us talking about Popgun Vol 1 and Deadeye - our horror/sci-fi/detective world which we has finally debuted in the book.

We're currently slogging away at the second script for a huge Dynamite Series which should see print in 2008 and have a healthy list of projects in progress and to be getting on with. It occurred to us recently that we've been writing comic together for almost five years now. Does that mean we have to stop saying "Well, we're still quite new to the industry" soon?

John in Fortean Times #230

www.forteantimes.com

This month's Fortean Times (#230) contains a two page article by yours truly on the subject of the annual celebration held in Market Weighton, Yorkshire known as "Giant Bradley Day". I'm very, very, very happy to be in FT again (my first ever piece of published writing was in #187, in 2004) as it's one of my favourite mags and, in fact, the only magazine I've ever subscribed to in my life. Of course, there are lots of other marvelous articles in there, such as...

In this issue we follow an explorer into the Siberian taiga as he seeks to uncover the truth behind local tales of olguis, or 'upturned cauldrons', dangerous to all living things, and round-up some other examples of Siberian weirdness.

Also this month we learn that the Templars were not guilty of heresy, ask whether writing about your own crime might be a bit of a give away, wonder how you can not notice being shot in the head, mourn the death of an intelligent parrot, and applaud Daisy the dachshund's discovery of a mammoth bone at the seaside.

Well worth the price of admission surely?

J.

Nevermore Anthology yet to come

www.selfmadehero.com/classical_eye/nevermore.html

Now then, we believed that the book was officially released on Halloween but it turns out that it was just a launch; the book will be on sale from the 22nd of November.

Self Made Hero have drummed up some fantastic press fro the book too...
"Nevermore and Richard III, new titles published by manga and graphic novel imprint SelfMadeHero, have been selected as two of three 'recommended reads' by The Book Show, presented by Mariella Frostrup on Sky Arts. A special programme on comics and graphic novels goes out on 22nd November, featuring the books."

and...
"[...]the Guardian are running a standalone review of Nevermore this Saturday by Canongate author Michel Faber, so do try and pick up a copy."

We have received our comp copies and it's a great little book. Hope you all enjoy it.

Signing times for Leeds on Saturday

Just to let everyone know that we'll be signing at the Leeds Thought Bubble festival this weekend between 2:30 and 4 PM.

Full schedule:

Kieron Gillen:: 10am - 5.30pm
Jamie McKelvie:: 10am - 5.30pm
Barry Kitson:: 12pm - 1pm, then 4pm - 5.30pm
Peter Doherty:: 12pm - 1.30pm signing, then 'Hellboy' panel from 2.30pm - 3.15pm @ Leeds
Art Gallery Reading Room
Dean Ormston:: 12pm - 1.30pm
Duncan Fegredo:: 12pm - 2pm, then 'Hellboy' panel from 2.30pm - 3.15pm @ Leeds Art Gallery Reading Room
Sean Phillips:: 12pm - 2pm
Bryan Talbot:: 1pm - 3pm, then 'Alice in Sunderland' talk from 3.30pm - 4.30pm @ The Carriageworks
Jordan Smith:: 1pm - 2.30pm
Staz Johnson:: 1pm - 2pm @ Travelling Man 'Heroes' shop signing, then 3pm - 4pm @ Thought Bubble
Leah Moore:: 2.30pm - 4pm
John Reppion:: 2.30pm - 4pm
Antony Johnston:: 2.30pm - 4pm
Adi Granov:: 3pm - 5.30pm, then 'From Panel to Motion Picture' Q&A from 6pm - 6.45pm @ The Carriageworks
Tony Lee:: 4pm - 5.30pm
Mel Gibson:: 10am - 12.30pm workshop @ Travelling Man.

Thought Bubble Leeds this weekend

www.thoughtbubblefestival.com

We'll be in Leeds this Saturday signing and generally hanging around at the Thought Bubble Festival.

Other guests at the event include:

Peter Doherty Judge Dredd / Batman Superman Al Ewing 2000 AD / Strontium Dog Duncan Fegredo Jay & Silent Bob / Hellboy Kieron Gillen Phonogram Adi Granov Iron Man Extremis / Iron Man Movie Staz Johnson Heroes / Civil War Antony Johnston Wasteland / Yuggoth Cultures Barry Kitson Transformers / Legion / The Order Tony Lee X-Men / Doctor Who Jamie Mckelvie Phonogram / Suburban Glamour Dean Ormston Lucifer / Sandman Sean Phillips Criminal / Marvel Zombies Jordan Smith Alice in Sunderland / Darkview Bryan Talbot Fables / Alice in Sunderland

The con will take place in the crypt of Leeds Town Hall on Saturday 10th November 2007, from 10am - 5.30pm.

Tickets are £3.50 advance and £4 on the door. Children under 12 get in FREE.

See the website for more info on how to get there and everything.

Hope to see you there.

Anomalist #13 - Intermediate States OUT NOW

In this issue…

In a mix of the comic and the tragic, John Reppion searches for the truth behind an 1845 bridge collapse said to be caused when spectators rushed to see a clown in a tub drawn by six white geese in the river below.

Cliff Willett wonders why UFO aliens would traverse deep space to borrow salt, sample our pizza, or offer us pancakes in his delightful examination of alien eating habits.

What does U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney think of the Nephites? Fortean researcher Loren Coleman examines the Mormon belief in this race of beings who live in a world between the known and unknown, who once existed and may still walk among us, saving lives and doing good deeds.

Technology buffs in the afterlife? Mark Macy traces his involvement in our half-century long history of attempts to use technology to communicate directly with the dead – and them with us.

Researcher Ulrich Magin tracks down the oft-repeated story of “the first ever sea serpent sighting” by the Assyrian King Sargon nearly three millennia ago and gets to the slimy truth of it all.

As protosciences proliferate, David Hricenak makes the case for a new interdisciplinary field of study called bioanomalistics that overlaps with cryptozoology, UFOlogy, and parapsychology.

Pennsylvania geologist Sharon Hill tackles the reports of anomalous lights, sounds, weather, and animal behavior that are said to occur before earthquakes, explains why science has been reluctant to accept them as useful precursors, and suggests a possible mechanism to explain such phenomena.

Modern science may finally be shedding light on the paranormal. Biologist Dwight Smith and researcher Gary Mangiacopra look at how recent developments in neuroscience may help unravel the physical and physiological mechanisms that lead to out-of-body experiences.

With an obvious passion for her subject, Victoria Alexander reviews the extreme ecstatic practices of medieval saints and mystics and finds a close relationship to the modern use of ayahuasca as a visionary tool.

Researcher Theo Paijmans makes use of digital newspaper archives to get to the truth about the Black Flash – not the 1990s fictional comic book character from DC Comics but the phantomlike creature that plagued Provincetown in the 1930s and held its inhabitants in an ice-cold grip of fear.

Bad sci-fi movies are a dime a dozen, but there’s something special about The Flying Saucer. Nick Redfern wonders if there is any substance to the claims of its star/director, who spread the word that the movie would feature footage of a real flying saucer over Alaska. The U.S. Air Force was certainly interested…

For more info visit www.anomalist.com or www.anomalistbooks.com/ta13.html

Happy Halloween 2007

Compliments of the season to you all from ourselves and Mister Jeff "Blood" Zornow. (Above image taken from our collaboration "Into the Woods" from Gene Simmons' House of Horrors #1).

If you fancy a bit of seasonal listening then we recommend the Halloween edition of our favorite web radio show The Retro Cocktail Hour (October 27, 2007)

Have a good one!

Nevermore Anthology coming this Halloween

The works of Edgar Allan Poe have enthralled and terrified readers for over 150 years. Their macabre blend of doomed romanticism, gothic melodrama and ghoulish destiny earned him a place at the top of the list of fiction’s greatest authors. Famous for his poems and short stories Poe, who was born in Boston in 1809, virtually created the detective story and perfected the psychological thriller.

Legendary writer Jamie Delano, the man who launched DC's Vertigo line with the critically acclaimed Hellblazer, reunites with frequent collaborator Steve Pugh (Animal Man, Preacher) to deliver a chilling modern twist on Poe's tale of arbitrary torture and imprisonment, The Pit and the Pendulum.

Ian Edginton and D'Israeli, having previously brought us the gothic delights of Kingdom of the Wicked, Leviathan and the War of the Worlds sequel Scarlet Traces, take us to a fantastical Paris of the future where genetic technology complicates the infamous case of Murder in the Rue Morgue.

The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar, an eerie story of life beyond death, is brought up to date by screenwriter Jeremy Slater and artist John McCrea, whose credits include high profile work for both Marvel (Spider-Man) DC (The Demon, Hitman, Superboy), 2000AD (Judge Dredd) and Wildstorm (Jenny Sparks).

Leah Moore and John Reppion, fresh from working with Alan Moore on the Wildstorm-published Albion, lend their unique vision to The Black Cat, along with artist James Fletcher (Negative Burn). Meanwhile, Leah and John's Albion artist, Shane Oakley, joins forces with writer Dan Whitehead (Star Wars: Attack of the Clones) to bring The Fall of the House of Usher screaming into the modern day, in a skin-crawling tale of madness, mania and decay.

You can order a copy today for only £7.79 by clicking on the link below.

 

Unseen Albion from Shane Oakley

To coincide with the release of Titan's Albion Origins Shane Oakley will be posting (and selling) some as yet unseen character designs for Albion.

Make sure you keep an eye on shaneoakley.blogspot.com, 'cause you don't want to miss out, do you?

Albion Origins winners

The winners of our Albion Origins competition are...

raymond

&

Ms. Darrk

The answers we were looking for were

Fred = Faceache AKA Ricky Rubberneck
Martina = Martha from Martha's Monster Makeup

Thanks to everyone who entered and, if you didn't win, don't worry; you can now buy a copy from Amazon. ;)

Buy Albion Origins.

Witchblade - Shades of Gray #3 out this week

So, after a bit of a delay (sorry about that) Witchblade - Shades of Gray #3 is finally hitting the stands this week with the concluding issue coming very soon. We're very pleased to have Walter Geovani as our new artist and can't wait to see the series wrapped up and "set free".

More info on the Dynamite site HERE.

Birmingham 2007 report

Firstly, apologies for the lateness of this bit of Bloggage; things seem increasingly hectic here in Moore & Reppion towers (AKA the spare room) and the days seem to be getting shorter both literally and metaphorically.

Anyway, we arrived for our flying visit to Birmingham late Friday afternoon. Drawing on past convention experience, we found somewhere to eat immediately (Wagamamma: lovely but very, very spicy this time for some reason) in an effort to line our stomachs. After checking into our hotel and getting ourselves sorted we headed off to the party which was being held at Bennet's Bar as a joint launch for the con and Markosia's new book Hope Falls.

Hunt Emerson's band performing.

Yes, this really is a comics party. Who'd have thought, eh?

We had a grand time hobnobbing with the likes of Ben Dickson, Paul "the nicest man in comics, film, television and writing generally" Cornell, Leigh Gallagher & Niki Robinson, Bryan Talbot, Declan Shalvey, Lew Stringer and loads of other vastly interesting folks. And, of course, we drank...

Niki & Leigh.

Leah and Lew.

After a frankly crap night's sleep we were awoken on Saturday by someone playing the bagpipes outside our hotel window. No matter how hard we looked we couldn't see them but we could %$&*ing hear them! Leah was feeling a bit too delicate for the hotel breakfast so I opted for the "last night's cold pizza" option; breakfast of kings!

We arrived at the con at about 10:15 AM and were amazed at the size of the queue outside the entrance. Inside the place was already mad busy and, after saying a few hurried hellos and lining up to get a sketch and signature from Mike Mignola, we found ourselves sitting between Dave Gibbons and Mark Buckingham doing a bit of signing.

Leah and Dave.

We had to run and catch the coach back to Liverpool at 4 PM so spent most of our time trying to say hello and goodbye to as many people in as short an amount of time as was possible. We bumped into James Fletcher (who has done a fantastic job on the art for our contribution to the Nevermore anthology), had a quick gab with the Accent UK and Engine Comics chaps and generally went into a kind of comics related sensory overload.

Dave "Springheeled Jack" Hitchcock.

Mike from Asylum Books and Games in Aberdeen.

Daley Osiyemi.

Rich Johnston explaining the finer points of selling The Flying Friar.

The Futurequake team; always alert for the call to action.

All in all we had a great time, cheers to James Hodgkins and Shane Chebsey and everyone else involved in organising the con.

I think we'll try and stay for the full weekend next year though, as traveling home and then immediately going to a party might not have been the best course of action in hindsight.

J.

Birmingham Comic Con this weekend

We'll be attending this year's Birmingham International Comics Show on the Friday night ("the party" as it's otherwise known) and the Saturday day time, doing some signing and maybe some panels (if they want us to). No Sunday for us sadly.

If in doubt, look/ask for us at the Accent UK table; Dave an Colin usually know where to find us.

Other guests include:

• Mike "Hellboy" Mignola (!!!)
• Paul "Doctor Who" Cornell
  
• Dave "Watchmen" Gibbons
• Bryan "Alice in Sunderland" Talbot
• Lew "Brickman" Stringer

And literally dozens more. The list goes on and on. Just imagine someone who you might like to see as a guest at a UK comic convention and they're there! It's that good.

Hope to see you there.

Space Doubles #1 in October Previews

Space Doubles is a science fiction series from Th3rd World Studios that features 2 stories per issue, 2 covers ( in flip cover format NO VARIANT NONSENSE), each by a different creative team.

Diamond Order Code# OCT073781

Issue One features our retro styled "Project Obeah" which we wrote way back in early 2006 (if memory serves)
Artist - Jeremy Dale
Cover artist - David Barkmann

Here's a preview (click to enlarge)




The flip side story is entitled "Red Rain"
Writer - Mike Raicht (Marvel MAX Zombie, Deadworld Frozen Over, Savage Tales )
Artist/cover artist - Alecia Rodriguez

Preview pages below (click to enlarge)




Hope lots of people will pick this up as it's going to be great.

Future issues feature the talents of Mike Baron, Dwight MacPherson, Andrew Dabb, Ben Raab, Deric Hughes, Mark Smith, Jason Hall, Justin Robinson, Scott Closter and more!

Diamond Order Code# OCT073781

SubCon 2007 report

www.myspace.com/subcondublin

So, we arrived in Dublin late on Friday afternoon confident that we had our mobile phone fully charged, a list of phone numbers and that we had given our number to everyone who would need it. This was our third trip to the city and I'm completely at a loss when it comes to explaining why we hadn't remembered that our bloody phone does not work in Dublin. We can receive calls and texts (at a cost) but we can't call or text other people. Yes, I know that means we should switch networks or something but, to be perfectly honest, we never use the phone anyway. Getting back to the point, we were so disgusted when we realised that we'd been so stupid about the phone that we turned it off (thinking it was useless). Only to realise when we turned it back on again half an hour or so later that we had loads of texts and voicemails and that receiving them had now eaten all our credit. Rubbish!

Steve Niles, Brian J. Showers and Aly in the Central Hotel.

Anyway, after a bit of getting ever so slightly lost in Dublin we found our way to the Central Hotel and met up with Bryan Talbot, slovobooks and ephiriel who led the way to a very, very nice Indian restaurant. There we met the notable author and general gad about Brian J. Showers who was accompanied by the lovely Aly. We had a great meal and a good old gab and, after saying our goodnights to slovobooks and ephiriel, the rest of us headed back to the central for a pint or ten. There were lots of nice people there including Simon Furman and his very nice missus. I tried to stay off the Guinness for a change...

Leah and Bryan Talbot in the library with the Guinness.

We were up bright an early on Saturday (for comic writers anyway) and we're over the river at the Central Hotel (where the con was taking place) by a little after ten. After bumping into Steve Niles & Sarah Wilkinson, Al Nolan, Danielle Lavigne, Michael Carrol & Leonia and various other astoundingly interesting people (especially for that time of the morning) we were ensconced on a table next to Bryan Talbot who was already dealing with a queue of people all wanting their copies of Alice in Sunderland signed.

Bryan Talbot doing a sketch for us during a very brief period of quiet.

Steve and Sarah.

This was easily the best con we've ever attended in terms of the fans and interest we had during the day. We had so many people coming in looking for our work and bringing in copies of Albion (loads and loads of them!!!) for us to sign. Thanks very much to everyone who we spoke to on the day; you really made us feel welcome and like the stuff we write might actually get bought and read by people (scary thought).

Steve Niles finds himself at the wrong end of an Armstrong-Siddeley "Royal Albert" Vibro-Beamer.

Leah and Pia Guerra getting all feminist.

Leah and Y the Last Man artist Pia Guerra did a great "Women in Comics" panel (yeah, there's alway one of those isn't there?) in which they discussed the fact that neither of them really felt like their gender was particularly relevant to job they did. There were lots of questions from the audience and notably from Father Ted and It Crowd writer/director/creator Graham Linehan who was sat in the front row and is obviously a big fan of Y the Last Man.

The con ended at five. We all got drunk and went for Japanese food then headed back to the hotel and drank some more. It was grand and we'll certainty be back again next year if they'll have us.

Cheers to Rob Curley and all the SubCity/SubCon staff for making it such a great con.

J.

Win Albion Origins!

We're very pleased to announce that we have two copies of Titan's Albion Origins to give away.

The blurb:

Now starring in Albion, the critically acclaimed graphic novel plotted by the legendary Alan Moore, come four of British comics' most loved - and most bizarre - characters! There's Tim Kelly, a boy who finds the Eye of Zoltec, a jewel which grants him fantastic power; Dolmann, a genius inventor with a legion of crime-fighting toys; occult troubleshooter Cursitor Doom; and victorian escaplogoist Janus Stark! Never-before-collected, boasting a stunning new cover by comics legend Brian Bolland ("Batman: The Killing Joke"), and featuring exclusive new articles exploring the history of these characters' comics, this is another amazing trip into the past!

We're not making it easy this time.

The question is: Which two Ken Reid characters did we base Fred and Martina on in Albion?

Email your answer to moore_reppion@btinternet.com (subject: Albion Origins competition) along with your message board pseudonym.
We'll put all the correct answers in a hat and draw the winner out at random.
Competition closes on the 14th of October 2007.

Only registered board members may enter (register HERE).

Best of British!

EDIT: there was rather a big clue in there accidentally. Did you miss it? Too bad.

SubCon, Dublin this weekend

Sub-Con is Ireland's longest running comic con and this year sees our biggest venture yet!

With a combination of comics, manga, models, dvds, posters and t shirts as well as an plethora of comic guests.
The list includes Steve Niles, creator/writer of 30 Days of Night as well as penning the graphic adaption of 28 Days Later, Pia Guerra, artist on the wonderful Y the Last Man and Bryan Talbot, one of comics royalty whose new book, Alice in Sunderland has surpassed any of the hype leading up to its release. [And, of course, Moore & Reppion ;-) ]

We'll be there! Hope to see you too.

Visit: http://www.myspace.com/subcondublin for more info

Resonance FM interview this Thursday

Moore and Reppion on the radio... well, internet radio...


What: Strip!

When: Thursday, 27th September, 2007, 5PM

Created By: Resonance FM

Description:

To kick off our weekly hour-long comic book magazine show, Alex Fitch and Duncan Nott interview Leah Moore (daughter of Alan) and her husband / writing partner John Reppion about their comic writing. Moore and Reppion have written half a dozen comic series over the last couple of years in a variety of genres from Romero-esque Zombie action to re imaginings of classic British characters.

Listen on http://resonancefm.com/