More Raise the Dead?

A big thanks to everyone who has bought the series and emailed to let Dynamite know how much they enjoyed it.

This was printed in the letters column of Savage Tales #3 recently:

It's not quite official yet, so please keep letting them know if you want to see more Moore & Reppion zombie mayhem.

Cheers

:D

Coming in November 2007

Click >>HERE<< for more info.

Savage Tales #3

The third issue of Dynamite Entertainment's bi-monthly anthology title Savage Tales arrives in shops today/tomorrow/very soon (depending on what part of the world you're in).

#3 contains the concluding part of our story "Battle for Atlantis" with art by Pablo Marcos and Stjepan Sejic. Here's a little taster of the thrilling finale.



Also, look out for conclusions to Mike Raicht's brilliant Lovecraftian savage-athon "The Elder Things that fell to Earth" and Lieberman and Avon's "Where Walks the Hunter".

Get down to that comic shop as fast as your little legs will carry you!

J.

Mecon Report

Whew. First chance to actually sit down and reflect on the weekend since got home yesterday evening.

We had a lovely time in Belfast, mainly thanks to the hordes of lovely folk we got to have a sit and a chat with, or a meal or a pint. The actual panels and official events turned out to be less productive in terns of laughs per minute, but then isn't that always the way at cons? We met everyone on Friday night for the opening ceremony, and then the quiz. I soon realized that i have no knowledge whatsoever of science fiction. this was a bit of a blow, but luckily neither did my team mates. Myself and the other four members of the team managed to come bottom of all, which earned us the booby prize. Just goes to show if you are going to fail, fail spectacularly well!
We managed not to have hangovers on Saturday, despite drinking copious amounts of Guinness, and were there bright and early for the con.
We went to see the Parodies in SF panel, which ambled along nicely, and then grabbed a quick sit about and chat before our Writing Comics workshop with Catie Murphy and Paul Cornell. It was really interesting to see how they approached the whole thing, and we managed to witter on for quite a while, hopefully entertainingly in places.
Padraig (center zombie) claimed his free pint (or mineral water in this case) from John (left zombie) for turning up in a " Reppion's zombie army" T-shirt.

We had a brief interlude before we had a panel on transferring comics to other mediums. I doubt we shed any fresh light on the whole subject, but nobody threw anything. We missed the guest of honor speech because we were all starving hungry, and went off to squeeze in a riotous lunch with P J Holden (right hand zombie above).
We went to see the Doctor Who panel, and then Mr Padraig Ó Méalóid organized a meal at a Chinese restaurant. I had a really nice meal for saying I'm not usually fond of Chinese food, and we all trooped back to the bar for more beers and the casino night. I played Texas hold em for the first time and lost £2, but it was for charity so an excellent loss really. It was hard to stop my brain inserting excitable commentary in the style of late night poker shows on TV...which may have affected my play. We stumbled off to bed fairly early by convention standards and read Paul Cornell's Pete Wisdom trade paperback which we both enjoyed immensely.
Sunday started with an almost barren crossovers panel, with the odd person filtering in from the coffee morning next door (filtering...coffee...is that a pun?). We all soon realized that there aren't that many crossovers in SCi Fi,and so we rambled around the subject for a while and then went off to the bar. we had such a lot of fun in th bar, john forgot to go to the web comics panel and we went to see the novel panel instead.

Iain Banks Alastair Reynolds and Catie Murphy were very entertaining and interesting all round. We had time to fit in a last bout of chatting before we took over the last panel of the day in a revolutionary fashion. We had been a bit disappointed by the the lack of guests on panels over the weekend (Paul Cornell did a whole panel by himself!)

and guests were left to basically organize their own convention. The guest of honor Iain Banks hadn't been put on any panels, neither had Ian McDonald, and we decided along with Paul Cornell and Catie Murphy to round as many guests and audience members up as we could and go and take over the "Dead Authors telling tales" panel. we decided it was an open question panel so you could ask anything you wanted of any of the guests. It unsurprisingly was a complete scream. everyone got their best anecdotes out, dusted off their favorite stories, and had a great giggle.

Catie Murphy, John and our surprised moderator!

Iain Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Ian McDonald

Paul Cornell enjoying the rebelliousness...

We managed to fit in a quick trot round the shops on Monday morning before the flight home. i slept through the turbulence, and could have slept all day long to be honest. why is talking so tiring?

The two things we came home with were:

which was a snip at £5 and:

which was even cheaper as PJ gave us a copy. nice one! :D

thats it i think.

Leah

MeCon, Belfast this weekend

We will be heading over to Belfast this weekend as guests at MeCon X "Northern Ireland’s Premier Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention"

Guest of Honour

Iain M Banks - link

Other Guests

Paul Cornell - link
Ian McDonald - link
Alistair Reynolds - link
C. E. Murphy - link

The con begins on Friday the 3rd at 7pm with an opening ceremony and quiz night (£5 to enter).

Saturday (£12 on the door) & Sunday (£7 on the door) are crammed with talks, workshops and screenings.

Email meconbelfast@yahoo.co.uk or visit http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=mecon_news for up to date news on the con schedule.

So, if you're at a loose end this weekend why not pop over to the Queen’s Elms Centre, Malone Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland? We'll see you in the bar.

Raise the Dead Hardcover!

RAISE THE DEAD OVERSIZED HARDCOVER COLLECTION

PRICE:

$19.99

DIAMOND ORDER CODE: AUG07 3499

Rating: Teen+
Covers: Arthur Suydam
Writer: Leah Moore & John Reppion
Penciller: Hugo Petrus
Colorist: Ivan Nunes
Genre: HORROR
Awards: None
Publication Date: NOVEMBER, 2007
Format: Comic Book
Rights: WW
Age range: 13-24

Marketing Description: Featuring an introduction from Zombie expert Max (World War Z, Zombie Survival Guide) Brooks!

Dynamite enters the land of the dead with an all-new Zombie tale set in the middle of a full scale zombie infestation! This time though, there's a twist as Dynamite puts the "living" into the living dead! Writers Leah Moore and John Reppion are joined by the newest Dynamite artistic sensation, Hugo Petrus, for this special Zombie event!
From its shocking opening to its ever-evolving cast of doomed humans facing an overwhelming number of the undead, Raise the Dead sets a new standard in horror storytelling - and all the gory details will be presented in full color!
This Over-Sized Hardcover reprints the entire 4-issue mini-series as well as a complete cover gallery featuring Sean Phillips and Arthur Suydam!

"Walking Dead is still a quality read about the emotional toll a zombie apocalypse has on the human spirit, but this is a zombie book that doesn't forget to put the bite into its story."
-- Ain't It Cool News

NOTE: ADVANCE SOLICITED FOR NOVEMBER

Retailer Incentives:
#1: SUYDAM INCENTIVE EDITION

House of Horrors #1 is coming!

Gene Simmons' House of Horrors #1 will arrive in shops in the USA on Wednesday the 18th of July 2007.

Featuring stories from the likes of Dwight L. MacPherson, Thomas Waltz, Chris Ryall and ourselves working with artists such as Jeff Zornow, Grant Bond and Steph Stamb, this is a good old fashioned horror anthology that will hopefully deliver some fresh and unexpected chills.


"I had always loved the Twilight Zone. I never missed an episode," says Gene Simmons. "I read Amazing Stories and Analog. In short, I loved the anthology horror/sci-fi canvas and wanted to re-introduce the format into comic books. [Gene Simmons House of Horrors] is a chance to showcase the best in professional talent, and to introduce new talent, as well. Each story will be written and drawn independently, with wraparound commentaries by myself. The fact that I'm powerful and attractive will only add to the stunning effect of the stories."

Stories featured in the debut issue of GENE SIMMONS HOUSE OF HORRORS include:

"Into The Woods," written by Leah Moore & John Reppion (Raise the Dead) and illustrated by Jeff Zornow (American Werewolf).

"Into The Woods" is somewhere between Midwitch Cuckoos and Grimm's Fairytales. A teenage pyromaniac with mismatched eyes who destroys her village but doesn't know why. We follow the girl as she seemingly condemns herself and her neighbors to a gruesome death. We see wild animals and the forest itself turn on the hapless peasants as they fight for their lives. This is what might happen if Hansel and Gretel stumbled into The Evil Dead... they might need more than breadcrumbs this time.

"Circle Seven," written by Chris Ryall (Zombies Vs. Robots) and illustrated by Steph Stamb (Angel: Masks)

Dack is a new recruit to the Eternal Punishment Border Patrol, but he's got too much to prove to let simple inexperience slow him down. So he's set to be the Neil Armstrong of his generation, only instead of going up, he's headed down - into the newly discovered gateway to Hell. He's sent there alone, because you can't trust a partner once you enter the Stygian depths. There have been doomsday cries of big plans being made in the worst area of Hell, Circle Seven, and Dack's job is to see if a human being can successfully enter-and exit-Hell, and, most importantly, stop Hell from spilling into the real world.

"Crude," written by Tom Waltz (Children of the Grave) and illustrated by Esteve Polls (Mega-City Noir)

In 1991, Desert Storm rages in the Kuwaiti Desert. Iraqi forces, in a desperate attempt to delay the overwhelming Coalition onslaught and turn world opinion against the campaign for liberation, ignite many of Kuwait's oil wells, creating an unprecedented environmental catastrophe in the region. As the Coalition attack surges forward, pushing the Iraqi defenders back into their own country, an elite Delta Force team is sent in to investigate the damage done to the oil wells by the blazing, pollution spewing fires. The team goes in with six men, but only one man returns. Something massacred the Delta Force soldiers during the recon mission, and it wasn't enemy soldiers. No, it was something far more sinister, vicious and inhuman. It was something straight out of the depths of the earth itself.

"The Basement," by Dwight L. MacPherson (Dead Men Tell No Tales) and illustrated by Grant Bond (Revere)

When Agnes Beecham's 9-year-old daughter Rosa began telling fantastic stories about a visitor from another planet living in the basement, she dismissed them as childhood oneirism. One day, however, Rosa's father Michael decided to step into the basement to investigate and returned a vegetable. The doctors told Agnes her husband had suffered a stroke, but Rosa knew it was the man in the basement who made her father a helpless invalid. In the days that followed the incident, Rosa began drawing pictures of strange flying objects and telling her mother the man in the basement wished to take her to his home -- and then she mentioned the name Aleister Crowley.

"Nymph," by Sean Taylor (Fishnet Angel) and illustrated by Jon Alderink (City of Fire)

Jane is an eco-happy entymologist married to Dave, a commercial contractor who builds strip malls and parking decks. While celebrating their seventh wedding anniversary on a picnic in the mountains, Dave goes missing after an argument about his work. Jane looks for him, only to find him already consumed by the trees and herself the prey of a blood-thirsty tree nymph.

For more info visit www.simmons-comics.com

Yippee Ki Yay Albion

We received an email a few days ago from Mr. Kim Newman in which he congratulated us on the "product placement" of Albion in Die Hard 4.0. Naturally, we assumed that he was either joking or that his super developed film critic skills had enabled him to spot the comic despite the fact that it had only appeared on screen for a nano second. However, in the days that have followed others have commented on the the fact that they too have noticed our book in Die Hard 4.0 and offered us their congratulations. Basically, we're stunned... at least we have a really good excuse for going to see the film now. I'll do my best not to stand up shouting and pointing when the comic comes on screen, I promise.

J.

Three new comic star websites

Not one, not two, but three brand new comic book superstar websites have just been launched. We advise you pay them a visit.

www.JHWilliams3.com
is the website of artist extraordinaire J. H. Williams III.

You probably know him from his work on Promethea or Desolation Jones or perhaps a little series called Wild Girl from a few years back?

www.NakedFatRave.com
is a "collection of fully-dressed comic book artists".

The collective is comprised of Arthur Adams, Joyce Chin, Amanda Conner, J Scott Campbell, Michael Golden, Gene Ha, Phil Noto, Tim Sale, Bruce Timm, Matt Wagner and JH Williams III. Impressive, no?

www.KleinLetters.com

is the website of legendary letterer and winner of 90% of all lettering awards ever, erm, awarded: Todd Klein.

Todd's site is packed with info about his career, tutorials, images, links... he's even selling albums! Some people seem to get more than their fair share of this "talent" stuff, don't they? Still, I'm not bitter.

J.

Actually reading some comics for a change

When people ask us about what comics we're currently enjoying we usually look a bit embarrassed and mumble something about "not having much time" or some such. The truth is, we don't read a hell of a lot of new stuff or, more accurately, we don't read it while it's still new; we're pretty relaxed when it comes to getting our hands on comics.

However, one man who tries his best to keep us up to date is Mike McLean, proprietor of Asylum Books and Games up in Aberdeen. Disappointed at our lack of commitment to the medium, Mike occasionally sends us big fat boxes of comics and today was one of those days where the postman wakes me up with such a parcel.

The latest two issues of Elephantmen were in there (which we are both big fans of) as well as tonnes of zombie comics; some good, many terrible and at least one that was so very terrible it was almost back to being good.

He also included Your Round #1 - Tequila


"Your Round, the new pub story anthology comic book series from Olive Press Comics is now available to buy. The first issue, Tequila, features the talent of Declan Shalvey (Hero Killers), Bob Byrne (2000AD) and James Hodgkins (Batman/Aliens)."

Declan actually illustrates a story from Mister McLean himself (sometimes known as Tequila Mike, and for good reason). This is a very cool comic (probably our favorite from the lot); drunken pub stories in comic book form is really a genius concept.

You can order the book for £2.50 >>HERE<<.

So, cheers Mike and, if you looking for a good online comic shop (or if you happen to be in Aberdeen) we recommend you pay a visit to Asylum Books and Games .

Other comics we've managed to get our mitts on recently and have enjoyed include all four books of the Luna Brothers' Girls. (actually, I still need to read 3 and 4 but 1 and 2 are brilliant!).


And Bryan Talbot's Alice in Sunderland which is truly wonderful.


J.

New comics out now/soon/in the future

Raise the Dead #3 - "Thicker Than Water" came out on the 6th of June and the reaction seems to be very positive so far. We certainly like it anyway. Only one issue to go now; how time flies.

Witchblade - Shades of Gray #2 - "The Enemy of My Enemy" will arrive in shops in the USA tomorrow (the 20th of June) and here in the UK on Thursday (the 21st). Hopefully, the slight delay between the first issue and this one won't have put too many of you off *crosses fingers*.

Savage Tales #2 (featuring part two of our Battle for Atlantis mini) is also out as of tomorrow/Thursday. People seem to be loving this; it's a really old fashioned adventure/sword and sorcery type anthology title and that's obviously something that's very appealing to a lot of readers.

We're currently working on another four issue mini for Dynamite (which we've already turned in the first script for) as well as researching the hell out of a prospective adaptation project for them. Busy as ususal.

J.

Coming Soon...

A very busy few weeks.

Over the last few weeks we seem to have been up to all sorts and now that we're into June it's time to stop, take a breath and, well, Blog...

Over the weekend of the 12th and 13th of May we missed the Bristol Comic Expo (for the first time in something like four years) because we had a family wedding to attend.

Lots of people have since informed us that is was the best Bristol ever (which, we hope, had nothing to with our not being there).

Lots of images and even videos (isn't modern technology marvelous?) of the convention can be found here, here and here (and probably loads of other places):
http://flingk.com/10dh84jz
http://flingk.com/15fei7fi
http://www.ndcomicsmag.com/bristolcon/

On Saturday the 19th of May Leah and I headed down/over to Stoke on Trent where our old chum Shane Oakley had somehow managed to wangle us a day as extras in a zombie film called Out of Space. Ostensibly, this was so that I could write a piece for www.RevenantMagazine.com about the film and whole experience (which will be appearing online very soon) but it was also a very good laugh. Very nice popping into the pub over the road for last orders still dressed as zombies afterwards too. The bar man's reaction: "Alright, you doin' a film are you?".

The wife and myself (with photoshop enhanced eyes)

Sickly Suzanne and Icky Oakley

Sunday the 27th of May saw us over in the historic market town of Market Weighton for Giant Bradley Day which I will be writing an article about that will hopefully appear in Fortean Times during the next few months.


In addition to all the historical giant stuff (which I'm saving for the article, obviously) not only did we see what was professed to be the world's biggest garden spade...

...we also had a dream opportunity to take loads of photos of classic cars and produce the following Coop style post (with a uniquely British twist)...



That's right my friends, Morris Minors by the dozen. Look at the engine on this little bugger; that's an Austin designed 0.8 L overhead valve A-Series, unless I'm very much mistaken. A top speed of 63 mph. What a beauty, but I digress.

In addition to all the above mentioned shenanigans we've also completed (this very evening... or is that morning now?) the script for the very first issue of a brand new Dynamite Entertainment/Top Cow crossover series. Details coming soon.

Oh and don't forget, Raise the Dead #3 is out this week so make sure you pick up a copy before it sells out (did that sound too cocky?).

That's it I think. Time for my supper.

J.

John in SteamPunk Magazine #2

"SteamPunk Magazine is a publication that is dedicated to promoting steampunk as a culture, as more than a sub-category of fiction. It is a journal of fashion, music, misapplied technology and chaos. And fiction.
It just may be the most spectacular magazine to ever fight against the spectacle, and it is free. Or as cheap as we can possibly get it to you. Using the latest in Creative Commons technology, we undermine the fascism of copyright while protecting ourselves from direct co-option."

Issue two is entitled "A Journal of Missaplied Technology"

Contents:

Narratives
Uhrwerk: The Incredible Steam Band by John Reppion
Mining Medusa by Donna Lynch
Unbound Muscle by The Catastrophone Orchestra
An Unfortunate Engagement (part two) by G.D. Falksen
Yena of Angeline (part two) by Margaret P. Killjoy

Interviews
I-Wei Huang - contraptor extraordinaire

Features
To Electrocute An Elephant - how Edison killed a century on Coney Island
Steam Gear - a fashionable approach to the lifestyle
The Lady Artisan’s Apron - how to sew this functional, fashionable piece
The Pennyfakething - how to build an ingenious bicycle
A Steampunk’s Guide to Body Hair - how to find the hairstyle that suits you best
O Coal, You Devil - the environmental impact of coal
A History of Misapplied Technology - exploring the history of the steampunk genre
Earth Sea & Sky - an excerpt from an antiquated book of natural science

SteamPunk magazine #2 can be downloaded for free (in various , differently sized PDF documents) here http://www.steampunkmagazine.com/downloads.html

Or a printed copy can be ordered for just $3 (+ P&P) here http://www.steampunkmagazine.com/subscription.html

Accent UK's Zombies competition

Hooray! It's an actual Moore & Reppion competition! To celebrate the release of Accent UK's Zombies anthology (OUT NOW!) we're giving away two copies of the book.

Since there are two copies of Zombies up for grabs, to make this fair to both arty and non arty types, we'll have two different methods of deciding who gets the book.

Non arty:

Q: In which zombie classic did the now infamous zombie vs. shark scene take place? Email answer (marked Zombies competition) to Moore_Reppion@btinternet.com.

(all correct entries will be put into the hat of fate a winner picked at random)

Arty:

Best picture of myself and/or Leah (or Leah and/or myself... if you see what I mean) as zombies (we don't have to be fighting sharks), posted here in this thread wins the book. There are pictures of us on our Biographies page and probably elsewhere too.

You can enter both the arty and the non arty but you can obviously only win one book. The closing date for entries is Tuesday the 5th of June.

Good luck!

J.

Dynamite say: "No Reprints"

"Dynamite currently does not have plans to offer second prints of either issue, but does encourage retailers to check their orders on subsequent issues - and fans to reserve their copies as well. Issue #2 for Raise the Dead shipped this past Wednesday (5/2/07) and issue #2 of Savage Tales (MAR073340) is being prepped for shipping later this month." - originally reported by Matt Brady on Newsarama, (and thankyou Danielle for pointing us to it! :D )

I don't know if this is good news or bad news really, i imagine that it means there will be a trade paperback, which is always nice, but it might mean if you missed the first one that you'll have to scour Ebay for a copy. If you want to send the chaps at Dynamite a link to a review you've done, or you want to ask them about the trade, or ask what merchandise will be available, you can do all that and more by emailing letters@dynamiteentertainment.com

We are currently working on a small eight page story for an Image Anthology, which we are very excited about, and then we're starting on the next mini for Dynamite. Its all go at the moment!

we are sadly not going to be able to make it down to the Bristol comics convention this weekend, we have been the last four years in a row, but this year we have a family wedding to attend, so anyone who does go, have a pint for us!

We have just seen the pencils of the the first four pages of Battle for Atlantis part three, and they look great. I'll miss writing those zany Atlanteans! ;-)

L

Raise the Dead #2 out today!

Raise the Dead #2 - "The Road to Hell" arrives in shops across the USA today (UK tomorrow).

So far, people seem to be really enjoying the series and we're very happy with the reviews we've read. Some people are trying to put it down a bit, saying that it's "just another zombie book" but they almost always then go on to say that, for a genre book, it's solid, well drawn, well written and works really well. We couldn't ask for more really; we never set out to re-write the book on zombies, we just tried to do the best zombie series we could and we're pretty proud of how it's come out. That's thanks in no small part to our fantastic artist Hugo Petrus of course and our colourist Ivan Nunes. Cheers guys.

You can check out six preview pages from the new issue over on Newsarama.com now.

Make sure you get your copy early, the last issue sold out remember. ;-)

J.

Thunderbolt Jaxon TPB out now!

"From the world of Albion"...

Written by Dave Gibbons; Art by John Higgins; Cover by Gibbons

Collecting the 5-issue re imagining of a classic British hero! Jack, Billy and Saf are three ordinary, adventurous kids who make a startling discovery: a mystical Norse relic from the fourth century. All is well as they take their newly found treasure home — unaware that it will lead to the rebirth of legendary British hero, Thunderbolt Jaxon!

Wildstorm Signature Series | 128pg. | Color | Softcover |

Buy it now in >>OUR AMAZON SHOP<<.

Rtd #1 & ST #1 SOLD OUT!

Yes that's right, the debut issues of both Raise the Dead and Savage Tales (featuring Battle for Atlantis part one) are completely sold out! Not bad, eh?


Raise the Dead #2 will arrive in stores on the 2nd/3rd of May with Savage Tales #2 coming in June - don't forget to reserve your copies.

House of Horrors previews/interview

Read the interview and see the preview pages >>HERE<<