Signing tomorrow canceled. Sorry.

I regret to announce that tomorrow's signing at Astral Gypsy, Coventry, UK is now canceled due to Leah's ill health.

She's okay, just an allergic reaction to some medication. Don't worry I'll look after her.

Blog Buddies 4.

I'm not going to patronise you, you know who Ben Templesmith is already. Oh alright then I'll patronise you. Mr. Templesmith is the Eisner award winning artist and co-creator (with Steve Niles) of 30 days of Night. He's also worked on loads and loads of stuff from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to his self penned books Wormwood Gentlman Corpse and Welcome to Hoxford. Oh and he's brilliant. I mean stupidly talented. The sort of artist we could only dream of working with... but we are!

As regular readers of this Blog (are there any such people? Hands up!) will already know, Leah and I have written a Doctor Who one-shot for IDW entitled "The Whispering Gallery" which Ben is drawing. And here is the cover:

Those of you wishing to keep track of what Mr. Templesmith is currently working on (usually a lot of stuff) should add http://bentemplesmith.blogspot.com to their bookmarks.

Doctor Who - The Whispering Gallery is due out late February 2009 and the Previews catalog order number is: DEC084084.

You can read an interview with Leah and myself about the one-shot over on CBR.

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Matt Timson is an incredibly talented chap who has been working as a professional illustrator for a good few years now. The thing is, like a lot of pro illustrators making decent money, Matt foolishly always wanted to be a comic artist. I know, beggars belief doesn't it? Well now he is one and a bloody good one at that!


We first became aware of Mr. Timson via his work in The End Is Nigh and his collaborations with the legendary Paul Scott in OmniVistaScope. Leah and I pestered him for a long, long time and eventually he agreed to help us develop our retro-futuristic horror detective concept Deadeye - stories from which have already appeared in Image Comics' Popgun Vol 1 & 2 with more to come in the future (watch this space!).


Anyway, these days Matt is busy working for Top Cow on a (brand new, out this week) series called Impaler, the blurb for which goes like this:

Millions of vampires have descended upon America. In a desperate bid to defeat them, the U.S. military nuked New York City but unfortunately, it was too little, too late. The vampire horde had already advanced westward, but how far? A team of soldiers sent to rescue a politician's plane that crash-landed in New Jersey find out the hard way. Humanity's only chance may rest in the hands of vampire hunter Vlad the Impaler and his new companion, a depressed New York City detective who wishes he was dead.

The series is already getting rave reviews and Matt's artwork is quite rightly being praised as some of the nicest looking stuff around. Do yourself a favour and pick up a copy at your earliest convenience (I'm getting mine on Saturday).

For those of you curious about the master's process there's a very insightful step by step for Matt's cover to Impaler #1 here on ComicMonsters.com.

To keep up to date with Matt's griping and grumbling keep a beady eye on http://matttimson.blogspot.com

Signing at Astral Gypsy, Coventry December 20th

We will be signing at The Astral Gypsy (mega talent Al Davison's shop/studio) in Coventry, UK on Saturday 20th of December from 3-5pm.

Hope to see you there. It'll be an ideal opportunity to pick up some last minute Xmas gifts!

My interview with Bryan Talbot now online at steampunkmagazine.com

An interview I did a little while back with comic book legend and genuinely lovely chap Bryan Talbot is now online at

www.steampunkmagazine.com/inside/.

I especially like Leah's accompanying portrait of Mr. Talbot! Go read.

Oh okay, we ARE writing Doctor Who!

We were told to keep this quiet (even though Rich Johnston actually posted about it in LITG in late October) but I've just read this entry over on IDW Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall's Blog which pretty much gives the game away anyway.

WE ARE WRITING DOCTOR WHO! Got that? DOCTOR WHO! And BEN TEMPLESMITH is drawing it! How $%&*ing amazing is that? It's a 22 page one shot entitled The Whispering Gallery which should be in shops in February 2009.



Above are some concept images which Ben posted on his Blog earlier in November, looks like it's going to be good doesn't it?

Out now, coming soon and after that.

Dynamite Entertainment's Savage Tales #10 arrived in shops this week featuring the final part of the second act (got that?) of our micro mini Battle For Atlantis with industry legend Pablo Marcus on art duties. We're very pleased with the story and always really enjoy working on BFA; we've tried to make it as authentically "classic" as we can, as if we were writing for the original Savage Tales back in the 1970s.
Also in this issue: the first part of a brand-new Red Sonya two-parter by Mike Lieb and Diego Bernard, part two of Valaka by Doug Murray and Lui Antonio and part one of a brand new Hercules story by Doug Murray and Fabiano Neves.

You can see preview pages from ST #10 HERE

This issue is part of our £1 sale so, if you haven't picked up a copy yet, head over to moorereppion.bigcartel.com and place an order.

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Mike Raicht emailed over the lettered pages for our Mike Raicht's Creature Feature story Imago last night and Leah and I were really happy with the finished product. Imago was drawn by the infamous PJ Holden (in his pre-iPhone super-stardom days) and will be published in Creature Feature #2 sometime in late December/early January.
Keep an eye on www.th3rdworld.com to make sure you don't miss out!

In the meantime you can order a copy of #1 HERE (if you haven't already got one) and read a review/creator interview HERE

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Prior to enjoying possibly the best con ever at Thought Bubble Leeds (proper write up to follow at some point - here are some other people's in the meantime http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=10301) on the 16th of November, we managed to turn in a one shot script for IDW which we are very, very excited about. We're working with an artist whose work we both love and with characters that we honestly never imagined we'd get the chance to write. Less cryptic news to follow ASAP but certain rumourmongers have already hinted at the project so, if you can't wait, get Googling.
[EDIT: see moorereppion.blogspot.com/doctor-who]

In the next week or so we'll be putting the finishing touches to a five part Dynamite Entertainment mini series we've been working on for just on a year now. Each issue has 32 pages of story in it but that doesn't even begin to explain how dense the series is in terms of reference research and the sheer amount of stuff we've had to cram into every panel and page. It's a piece of writing that we're both extremely proud of and we can't wait to be able to talk about it properly and for people to actually read it.

We're almost half way through another five issue Dynamite mini which has some similarities with the one previously mentioned and have quite a few other potential projects on the horizon. 2009 is already looking like a very busy year.

£1 SALE NOW ON!

As of today, all back issues in our Big Cartel shop are reduced to just £1 each. They make ideal gifts for yourself or others and we're more than happy to sign and dedicate at no extra cost.

So head over to http://moorereppion.bigcartel.com and spend some money!

Blog Buddies 3

Eric Orchard is a Canadian illustrator whose amazing work we were introduced to via the magic of the interweb maybe six months or so ago. I honestly can't remember what steam of conciseness Googling or linkage first brought either Leah or myself to Eric's website but, as so often occurs in the world of comics, it didn't take long for us to realise that the old six degrees of separation rule - or in this case more like two degrees - applies yet again.

It turns out that Eric is currently collaborating with our old chum Shane Oakley on a Steampunk series entitled The Girls of Fogg Academy. You can keep up to date with Mr. Orchard's biographical posts about the world of Fogg by clicking HERE.


There is something genuinely magical about Eric's work, whose style reminds me variously of people such as Brian Froud, Arthur Rackham and David Petersen but which is definitley wholly his own.

Keep an eye on http://ericorchard.blogspot.com/ to see what he comes up with next.

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Magpie Killjoy is the brains behind and contributing editor of the wondrous Steampunk Magazine, which I myself have also had the pleasure of contributing to. A self described "proud anarchist, author, accordionist, steampunk, photographer, vegan, designer, editor, activist, what-have-you", Magpie can now add Blogger to that list.


Covering music, politics, art, history, writing and everything in between, Magpie's http://www.birdsbeforethestorm.net is a must bookmark site for anyone interested in... well, anyone interested in reading a really articulately written and genuinely engaging Blog really.

You can also download Killjoy's darkly brilliant Demo 08 for free HERE.

Happy Guy Fawkes' night

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I can think of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent

To blow up the King and Parli'ment.

Three-score barrels of powder below

To prove old England's overthrow;

By God's providence he was catch'd

With a dark lantern and burning match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Happy Halloween 2008

A mini mixtape to get you in the festive mood. Artwork by Dave Hitchcock.

Winners of the signed Gothic competition are now up on our website HERE.

A message from our sponsor... sort of...

As regular readers may already be aware, Asylum Books and Games is a shop in Aberdeen run by the infamous Tequila Mike; a thoroughly lovely chap who, at every major UK comic convention, furnishes us with all the latest in awful zombie comics as well as keeping us up to date with the likes of Elephantmen and The Goon. We're shockingly bad at picking up monthlies so Mike's efforts, and those of his dedicated staff, are greatly appreciated.

I'm sorry to say that we only had quite a brief drink and a chat with Mike and his orderlies (or are they inmates?) on the Saturday night at Birmingham. My liver, however, thanks me for the fact.

You can find Asylum Books and Games at

29 Adelphi
Aberdeen
Scotland
AB11 5BL

Telephone: 01224 574637 Fax: 01224574637

E-Mail: info@asylum-booksandgames.com

Or visit the website at www.asylum-booksandgames.com

Look out for in store signings and appearances and hopefully Leah and myself will get back up there in the new year.

Accent UK signing in Borders, Liverpool

Just like the poster says, the Accent UK guys will be in store at the Liverpool branch of Borders on Saturday the 25th of October talking about self publishing, signing and selling books.
Leah and I will also be there helping out and scrawling our signatures on things, so please do come down and say hello.

What better Halloween present could there be than a signed copy of Zombies?

You can find full contact details and directions to the shop on the Borders website.

Blog Buddies 2

After two consecutive weekends of out of town comic related events and considerable liver damage, I thought it was about time I paid tribute to some more of our talented peers, all of whom just happen to be people we've bumped into recently.

Adam Cadwell is one of those enviably talented chaps who manages to find time to put out an (almost) twice weekly webcomic whilst running a sucessful commercial art company called DRAW in Manchester. On top of that his art is fantastic and his story telling subtle and witty. Makes you sick doesn't it?

We were lucky enough to come back from BICS with a copy of The Everyday Collection One which collects the first 50 Everyday strips into one volume. You can get your copy now for just £5 (+ P&P) at www.adamcadwell.com and we heartily recommend that you do so.

Keep up to date with what's happening in Mr. Cadwell's busy life over at http://cadwell.livejournal.com

Adam and other members of the Manchester Comix Collective were plying their wares at last weekend's con but, sadly, one of their number who wasn't able to stick around for unwisely heavy drinking afterwards was Mr. Chris Doherty whose work you might well recognise from the Accent UK anthologies.

Chris's site http://bittersweetfatkid.info is home to his ongoing GN project Video Nasties and more recently has become home to The House of the Holy Flesh Eaters.


In Mr. Doherty's own words -

A zombie nunsploitation epic from 1976. Let this loose synopsis whet your appetite:

When the purehearted sister Elizabeth Collingwood transferred to Bathgate Convent, there was nothing in Heaven that could have prepared her for what she would discover..

Will she have the strength to make it through her first night? Can she leave the sinister village of Bathgate with the same innocence and purity with which she entered?

Keep an eye on http://bingogasstation.livejournal.com to see what Chris is up to.

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Andy Bloor was another chap whose visit to BICS was all too brief. Andy is a professional graphic designer and valued member of the Accent UK team responsible not only for logos, design and layout but also for the beautiful yet horrific artwork on The Wolfmen and The Wolfmen II - Fall of The Wolfmen (coming from AUK in 2009).

We were lucky enough to work with Andy on a story for the 2008 AUK anthology Robots called The Cabinet of Doctor Diablo. If you don't already own a copy of Robots you can order one online now for £8.50 from http://www.accentukcomics.com.


Mr. Bloor also collaborated with Kieron Gillen on a tale entitled Robot for the aforementioned anthology and will be contributing to the forthcoming Phonogram 2.

Don't forget to keep checking http://andrewbloor.blogspot.com for regular updates.

Win signed copies of David Hitchcock's GOTHIC

One of the highlights of the Birmingham International Comics Show this weekend just gone was getting our hands on copies of David Hitchcock's magnificent new newspaper format anthology Gothic.

We've got three copies of Gothic to give away, all of which have been signed by Mr. Hitchcock, Leah and myself. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning them is to answer the following question:

To date we have collaborated with Dave on three stories for Accent UK's yearly anthologies. Two of the stories are contained in Gothic and one is set to be published in 2009. What are the FULL titles of those three stories?

Email your answers to moore_reppion@btinternet.com and the lucky winners will be announced on our message board on Halloween.

Good luck! ;D

Birmingham International Comics Show 2008

We have woken up rather late in a post convention fug of confusion and laundry. I have managed, however, to upload some of our pics of the weekend, and will endeavour to report on all the thrills and spills, bargains grabbed, pints drunk and gossip. Okay, not the gossip, I'd get in trouble.

Friday we got a coach down to Birmingham, which was fairly quick, very cheap and meant I could stare out of the window at things instead of swearing at the traffic on the M6.

We went to Wagamama for dinner which has become a minor obsession of ours when we go to cons, mainly because they serve Asahi Dark beer, which is very more-ish.

Our hotel was always going to be a source of fear and pain, because we have an unerring knack of booking the worst flea-pit noisy unhygenic dives wherever we go. Last year we stayed at the Britannia, which had terrible street noise (including bagpipes at 8am) and a door on our corridor which had a mouldy roast dinner on a tray behind it, and nothing else.

This year we thought we'd try again and booked the MacDonald Burlington down the street. We were trepidatious that it would be another hotel where the website makes it look like a palace and then its the Bates Motel, but I am happy to report it actually was a palace. Friendly staff,breakfast of kings which never ended, walk in wardrobe, huge huge bath and the most comfortable bed in the whole world. See what i mean?

So, after we recovered from the shock of our good fortune, we headed over to Bennet's bar for the launch party. Hunt Emerson's band was already playing up a storm by the time we got there, so saying hi to people we knew became a lip reading contest.
Several people nearly lost their voices before the con even got going, just from shouting to each other. The music (including the comic creator super group "Giant-Sized Band-Thing") was great, and all it goes to show, is that we are just reclusive wusses not used to the noise of being out of doors. It was pretty relentless though.

We had a lovely gab with Paul Cornell and Caroline, the indie manga girls, newlyweds Emma Vieceli and her lovely husband Pud, Lew stringer, Vicky and Richmond from Hi Ex, Barry Renshaw, Declan Shalvey, Adam Cadwell, Nick Setchfield, PJ Holden, Al Ewing, Ian Sharman, Jamie Mckelvie, Si Spurrier, Tony Lee and many more, guzzling beer all the while. I was so plastered i congratulated Sean Phillips on Charlie Adlards drumming...and I have to say we walked back to the Burlington in a zig zaggy way, and John even had an escapade trying to find chips. All that, and we'd only been there a few hours!

Saturday started with amazing breakfast and view of the shopping folk below. Only a short walk and we were at the Millenium point. It always feels kind of isolated stuck outside the main shopping streets, but thats all to the good, as there are loads of signs pointing there from all over the city, which there isn't when a con is in a hotel or whatever.

The con was much better laid out than last year, much less overcrowded, and less like a nerd-sweat soup than normal. We had a slice of the Accent Uk table (huge thanks to Dave and Colin again for that, and to Gemma for opening the cash box for us!) and we got our books set up and then went off to see what panels were on.

We went to see Paul Cornell, Mark Buckingham, Doug Braithwaite and Dave Gibbons doing the obligatory "breaking into America" panel, but in the form of a podcast with the guys from Geeksyndicate. It was nice to see a panel in a room designed for it for once, and it all got a bit Kilroy there, with the guys running about with mikes.

We did our signing with Staz Johnson, Mark Chiarello and Shane Oakley, and had a couple of people come to get things signed, me and shane made the most of our good looks...

then we headed back to the Accent Uk table to give the chaps a break while we tried to flog our books, saw Cliodnha Lyons although i failed to buy her excellent charity book "Sorry I can't take your call right now, I'm off saving the world" , and also the excellent Dinkybox table, where i got an amazing brush pen if you want nice markers or cute toys...go to their site now! Also grabbed some nice things from The Beepbeep car company. The afternoon flew by pretty fast, and we arranged to have dinner with a gang of mates.

The dinner thing is almost as scary a point as the hotel thing, because when you run about all day doing con stuff, the only thing in the world you want is a heap of nice food and a sit down with a beer.
Often con organisers will put on a main "Guests Dinner" which you may or may not be invited to depending on how far up your name is on the con playbill, but everyone else divides off into little subgroups and run in different directions for different meals. It can be hard to grab the right number of people and all head somewhere everyone will like, and everyone can afford. In the past we have been to lots of cons in different cities and countries, and dinner is sometimes odd, expensive, inedible or just very far away.

This time it was a bracing rainy walk through dusky brum to a glittery curry house and a very very nice meal indeed. We then popped in to the "Diamond Party" in Malmaison, which people thought was a party paid for by diamond, but was actually a normal pay bar, and comics people in some rooms. Nice enough, but it was miles from our hotel and the drinks cost an arm and a leg. We returned to Bennets, like it was the scene of a crime, and resumed where we had left off the previous night, albeit in a hungover slow motion way.

The main buzz at the table, and the con in general was the Eyecandy iphone application created by PJ Holden and written by Al Ewing which is so innovative, and cool and fun to use, it made everyone at the con immediately start thinking of things to do for them. Download the first issue for 99c (0r 50p) here, and watch them like a hawk in case you miss a second of their meteoric rise to fame and stardom!

Sunday, more huge breakfast, then packing checking out and getting to the con. Huge heap of luggage under the table at the Accent Uk stand (sorry chaps) and then off to see what panels there were.

Gegged in to watch Dave Gibbons' "Watching the Watchmen" talk which was awesome. I am fairly familair with Watchmen *ahem* but it made me nerd out to see all the early concept art, and dads typed synopsis up there on the big screen. Dave is certainly the most entertaining man to see do a panel in all of comics (anyone better? no? thought not) so it would have been ace to just sit and hear the anecdotes, but seeing the pages of his book (designed by none other than Chip Kidd) made me want to rush out and buy one right then. Dave says you can get it in the shops later this month, and I would recommend you do so immediately.

Stayed in our seats to see Rufus Dayglo do a one man show on 20 years of Tank girl, which he hadn't expected to be only him. Tank Girl's creator Alan Martin had a family emergency so couldn't come, but Mr Dayglo made it look like he'd been planning it this way all along. Interesting and entertaining tales of the Deadline starlet's trajectory over the last 20 years, and then passed his portfolios round so we could all get an ogle of his artwork. Lovely stuff sir.

Had a stint behind the table for long anough to see Tim Pilcher, Ian Edgington and Mike Collins, whose marvellous adaptation of A Christmas Carol from Classical Comics was talked about all over the con, and much admired, but which I also failed to buy (sorry Mike!), we also bothered Barry Renshaw, Adam Cadwell and Emma Vieceli for sketches...because they rock!

After that it was the usual Sunday slide into oblivion, with everyone nervously checking to see if there's likely to be a last minute surge in wealthy comic fans at 4pm, or whether they should cut their losses and make a run for it, we managed to get an amazing shot of Ian Edgington's daughter constance showing her approval of Raise The Dead and then we ran off, lugging all our unsold books...i mean 'residual stock' all the way down the road to the coach station.

Bumped into Adam Cadwell again just as we were about to keel over under the weight of our luggage, and then jumped on a crowded coach of doom back to Liverpool. Couldn't read by the futuristic roof lights, so shut our eyes and listened to everyone's phones going off and then their conversations for the rest of the journey.

Got home at half nine last night and watched the first episode of the new season of Heroes on BBC 1, which was as big a disappointment as you can get. Who wrote it? I have no idea but someone stop them before they do it again!

today, slept in, dressing gown day, unpack, and blog. We bottled 20 litres of Home-brewed stout though...ready for John's brithday later in the month.

whew. That's it folks!

Creature Feature #1 review and creator interviews on Hypergeek

Comics Blogger extraordinaire and all round good egg Ed Kaye has just posted a review of Th3rd World Studios' fantastic new comic Creature Feature #1 over on Hypergeek.

As if that wasn't enough, Ed has also interviewed some of the creators involved with the series (including Leah and myself, C B Cebulski and series figurehead/mastermind Mike Raicht) and included lots of juicy preview art.

So, what are you waiting for? Get over to www.hypergeek.ca!

See you soon?

This coming Saturday (the 27th of September) we will be appearing at the Golden Orbit sci-fi, comic and card fair in Manchester.

The fair is being held at the SACHAS HOTEL - Tib Street , Piccadilly, Manchester M4 1SH between noon and 4:30 pm.

Also appearing DC & Marvel artist James Hodgkins, promoting his new book Civilians NIL, and the Accent UK guys will be plying their trade their also.

If you're in the neighbourhood please do stop by, we'll be signing and selling Raise the Dead hardbacks (11 page preview HERE) and we'll be only too happy to sign any other stuff (such as Accent UK anthologies) or just have a bit of a gab.

For more info visit http://www.goldenorbit.co.uk/

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The weekend after that (4th & 5th of October) we'll be at the Birmingham International Comics Show along with the likes of Dave Gibbons, D'Israeli, Mark Buckingham and pretty much everyone else from the comics world you can think of.

We will be signing on Saturday from noon until 1pm accompanied by our old chum and Albion artist/co-creator Shane Oakley.

After that we'll most likely be hanging round the Accent UK table and generally mooching around (somewhere near a bar in all probability).

Of course there's the big launch party on Friday night which we'll definitley be at so maybe we'll see you there first, yeah? Just don't let us get too drunk.

More info at http://www.thecomicsshow.co.uk

The End is Nigh... again.

The End is Nigh - official magazine of the apocalypse is back! And about time too seeing as we're all about to be turned into stranglets on Wednesday... well, maybe.

You can now download Issue #2 "War" for free as a PDF, and order #3 "The Sky is Falling" online via www.endisnigh.co.uk not no mention keeping abreast of the latest apocalyptic news via www.theendisnighmagazine.blogspot.com.

As if all that wasn't enough, you can read EiN editor Mike Molcher's thoughts on the coming apocalypse in this BBC News feature on people's facinations with the end times.

#4 of EiN is coming soon apparently which means that Leah and I should probably start thinking about our contributions...

Black and white blogs of our buddies

One of the best things about working in comics is that you get to meet, work with and generally hang about with some really talented people. Thanks to the interweb we also get to spy on people and see what they're up to so I thought I'd share a couple of artists Blogs with you - both of whom are good mates of ours.

David Hitchcock is probably best known as the man behind the Eagle Award winning indie sensation Springheeled Jack but we've also had the privilege of collaborating with him several times for the yearly Accent UK anthologies.

Dave is currently working on Gothic - a 48 page tabloid newspaper one-shot re-printing some rare and hard to find material (including some of our collaborations) as well as some brand new stories, all of it presented in beautiful sepia tone.

We always jump at the chance to work with Dave (we've already collaborated on a story for next year's Western anthology) and hope to work with him again soon.

Visit http://davehitchcock.blogspot.com to keep up with what Mr. Hitch is up to.
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Leigh Gallagher started his professional career with Vertigo's The Witching back when Leah and I were doing Wild Girl. However, Leah actually met Leigh years earlier when they studied art together in Liverpool so we've all known each other for a long, long time.

Leigh's big project for the last year or so (and for the foreseeable future) is Defoe - a seventeenth century zombie steampunk romp written by comics legend Pat Mills and published in 2000 AD.


In between rendering crazily detailed zombie smashing machinery and weapons Leigh somehow also finds time to perform art chores on the Lego Bionicle Comic.

Visit http://leighgallagherart.blogspot.com to find out what Leigh is working on at the moment.