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.

Tori Amos on Comic Book Tattoo

Just swiped this from unca Neil's blog:

And finally, a lovely video interview with Tori about the Comic Book Tattoo project, and her own history with comics and plans for the future.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/08/tori-amos-on-he.html

And it is lovely! :D

Also me and John boy on Comic Book Tattoo too...

http://www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/10512/192/

L

Signed edition Raise the Dead contest

RUNNING UNTIL AUGUST 15, Dynamite is giving 1 lucky Grand Prize Winner a copy of the Raise The Dead Hardcover! Be sure to enter today!

Raise the Dead sets a new standard in horror storytelling, and this signed, oversized hardcover edition reprints the entire 4-issue mini-series! The Signed Edition features tip-in sheets signed by writers Leah Moore and John Reppion, and the Re-Marked Edition features a signature by cover artist Arthur Suydam.

Visit http://www.dynamiteentertainment.com/htmlfiles/contest.html to enter.

Signed editions will be on general sale very soon.

Anthologies ahoy! (and a new TPB too!)

As I'm sure practically everyone with a pulse is now aware the magnificent Comic Book Tattoo was launched this weekend just gone at San Diego Comic Con. For those of you who have just woken up out of a coma (welcome back by the way - I bet your glad it didn't all end up like 28 days Later...) CBT has been described thusly:

This July the ever-growing relationship between comics and music reaches new heights as Tori Amos and Image Comics release COMIC BOOK TATTOO, a 480-page, full color anthology adapting the themes and ideas behind her songs into a lush volume of sequential art.

“I have been surprised, excited and pleasantly shocked by these comics that are extensions of the songs that I have loved and therefore welcome these amazing stories of pictures and words because they are uncompromisingly inspiring,” says Tori. “It shows you thought is a powerful formidable essence and can have a breathtaking domino effect.”

We're in there, collaborating to Pia (Y the Last man) Guerra on "Hey Jupiter". Other contributors include David Mack, Hope Larson, Ryan Kelly, Jonathan Hickman, Colleen Doran, Eric Canete, Ted McKeever, Jock, Anthony Johnston, Dame Darcy, Carla Speed McNeil, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Mark Buckingham, Ivan Brandon, C. B. Cebulski and Mr. Rantz Hoseley. There's even an intro from the ever charming Mr. Neil Gaiman.

More details plus regular Blogs about the individual stories can be found at http://cbt.comicbookresources.com/

The book is all over "teh internets" already and a quick Google will probably give you all the info you could desire but, just in case you don't feel like trawling for CBT goodness here's a link to the Aint It Cool sneak peek at the book.

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Image Comics' Popgun Vol 2 is out this week featuring another Deadeye story from ourselves and Mr. Matt Timson (who is currently preparing to hit the big time with a new project he's working on - don't forget us Matt!). Other people in there include Dean Haspiel, Ryan Ottley, James Kolchaka, Erik Larsen, Frank Espinosa, Jim Rugg, Danny Hellman, Khary Rhandolph, Dan Hipp, Mark Andrew Smith and, of course, the most prolific man in comics Dwight L. MacPherson.

If you want to know how good Vol 2 is going to be then consider this: Popgun Volume 1 is nominated for a Harvey Award! So, (if you work in the industry) please take a moment to head over to the website and vote for it.

Visit http://www.harveyawards.org/ and follow these steps:

• Download the .txt attachment from the site.
• Chose your picks and put an X next to Popgun Volume 1.
• Save the document and attach it in an e-mail or copy and paste it into the text. E-mail your vote to pjcjmc3@sbcglobal.net

Simple.

And don't forget to pick up a copy of Vol 2 tomorrow or else at your nearest convenience.

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And lastly, but by no means leastly (leastly?), the trade paperback edition of our Dynamite Entertainment/Top Cow cross over mini series Witchblade - Shades of Gray is also out thsi week.

Featuring issues 1-4 of the mini-series from writer John Reppion and Leah Moore (also the writers of Dynamite's zombie opus RAISE THE DEAD) along with artists Stephen Segovia and Walter Geovani, and cover artists Stephen Segovia, Billy Tan, e-Bas, Adriano Batista!

Follow Detective Sara Pezzini and her new rookie partner as they race to stop a murdering madman. Waiting and watching in the shadows is the enigmatic Dorian Gray who may or may not be the murderer they seek! With the action spanning the globe as well as exploring Gray's colored past, this is an event not to be missed! Also includes a complete cover gallery.

Visit www.dynamiteentertainment.com for more info.

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Don't forget, if you're just too damn lazy to drag your arse down to the local comic shop and you can't even be bothered Googling round to find books online, then why not visit Our Shop Page where you can get all your Moore & Reppion goodness under on virtual roof.
You know it makes sense.

More Haunted Liverpool

Issue #27 of the newly re-launch Paranormal Magazine is currently in the shops and features A Ghoulish Guide to Haunted Liverpool by yours truly.

Also in this issue, The South Sheilds Poltergeist, Tunguska - The Russian Roswell, Giant Octopuses, Exorcism in the UK, The Power of Voodoo and more.

Featuring articles from the likes of Lionel and Patricia Fanthorp, Nick Redfern, Karl Shuker, Janet Bord and Richard Holland.

The magazine costs £3.99 and is available in W H Smith stores and all good newsagents.

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Those of you who might have missed my recent, related interview on BBC Radio Merseyside can listen again by following THIS LINK.

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I will also be appearing on the Roy Basnett show on City Talk FM this coming Thursday (the 31st of July 2008) sometime between 2 am and 6 am (don't worry, it'll be pre-recorded earlier that day), again discussing 800 Years of Haunted Liverpool.

The show will be available online at
http://www.citytalk.fm/sectional.asp?id=25007
for 7 days after the broadcast.

(I'll also hopefully stick an MP3 of the interview on the 800 Years of Haunted Liverpool Blog after the fact too).

Finally... it is done.

The latest issue of our current series for Dynamite has taken an age to write, almost two months by my reckoning. Much too long really to excuse, but today we got it finished and off to Dynamite. whew. We totted up our to do list the other day and my god we have a long list, but ticking this one off is a great help.

I have also done a portrait and have four more to do, so they will get squeezed in between the scripts. I am enjoying doing them apart from the sore hand afterwards.

We are making plans for Birmingham and Leeds conventions this year, as to where to stay, what to do and it looks like we are going to have fun whatever happens. Do come along and join in with either of them if you can!

I know the Leeds Thought Bubble gang are still looking for people for the tables and guests to sign and stuff, so if you want to sell there or appear professionally (that sounds so impressive lol) then get in touch via their website.


we might have some news soon about an appearance we are doing next year, but I'll say no more in case it comes to naught (as these things invariably do).

L.

John interviewed on BBC Radio Merseyside

I will be appearing on the Sean Styles show (presented by Andy Ball while Sean is away) on Monday the 14th of July 2008 sometime after 11 am, discussing 800 Years of haunted Liverpool.

www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/local_radio

Coming soon from Th3rd World

Space Doubles Collection 1: Set The Controls is coming to a comic book store near you this Halloween.

Collecting the first three issues of Th3rd World's acclaimed sci-fi series the book features the writing talents of Dwight L. MacPherson, Mark Andrew Smith, Mike Raicht, and many more (including us) as well as some truly outstanding artwork from Alecia Rodriguez, Jeremy Dale, Ron Chan and others.


Also coming soon from Th3rd World is Mike Raicht's Creature Feature:

"Th3rd World Studio’s presents Creature Feature, a double sized Drive In horror movie experience."

Each issue is 48 pages with three and a half scintillating tales of monstrous horror done right by top industry veterans, including CB Cebulski, Chris Yost, Andy Schmidt, Stuart Moore, Leah Moore, John Reppion and Brian Smith. -- over the top and gratuitous with a super-cool soundtrack. (Readers are responsible for providing their own tunes, so break out the 8-Track or dust off your 45's!)

*Special "Rockenstein" Comic in every issue by Brian Smith!

ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!
Issue 1 DCD#: # JUL084217

Comic Blog Tattoo launched today

Today marks the beginning of Comic Blog Tattoo over on CBR where creators will be blogging about their involvement in the book, offering insights and sneak previews of their work. Hopefully, Leah and I will have a crack at it sometime in the future.

Visit http://cbt.comicbookresources.com/ and check regularly for exclusive goodness.

Comic books and ghostly tales

Okay, first thing's first, do you have Savage Tales #8 yet? If not, why not? As well as featuring Red Sonja, Quartermain By Lieberman, Wolpert and Bernard and The Trials of Osin by Lieberman and Fabiano Neves, this issue sees the return of Battle for Atlantis!
Yes, the evil Vacharn the necromancer is back and once again we've teamed up with PabloMarcos (yes, THAT Pablo Marcos) to bring you the next chapter of the fabled doomed island. I don't think I'm giving too much away if I say there are a hell of a lot of Harryhausen style skeletons running round.
http://www.dynamiteentertainment.com/htmlfiles/p-C109827.html

Supernatural wordsmith extraordinaire Brian J. Showers & John Reppion.

This weekend just gone saw the launch of my new book 800 Years of Haunted Liverpool here in Liverpool city center. The launch went far better than I could have hoped and we completely sold out of books. Thanks to everyone who came (some people from as far away as Dublin and Northampton) and helped to make the event a truly wonderful experience.
More info and images over at hauntedliverpool.blogspot.com

The book isn't officially released until the middle of the month so keep your eyes peeled for more news coming soon.

Tori Amos SDCC launch

Promoting the release of Comic Book Tattoo (which we're in!), Tori Amos has scheduled a couple appearances at the San Diego Comic Con. Plans begin with a Comic Book Tattoo panel, hosted by comics and music critic Douglas Wolk, and featuring discussion between Tori, editor Rantz Hoseley and several of the contributing creators on Saturday, July 26 from 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM.

Shortly thereafter, 2:00 pm to be exact, Tori will be doing a signing on site. Fans wishing to meet Tori can receive tickets to her signing, limited to 200 fans, by purchasing a copy of Comic Book Tattoo at the Image Comics booth.

Tickets will be made available in increments with 20 given out on Wednesday, July 23, 75 on Thursday, July 24, another 75 on Friday, July 25 and 30 on Saturday, July 26.

Comic Con takes place at the San Diego Convention Center. More details to follow once specific locations within Convention Center have been determined.

Keep an eye on http://www.toriamos.com/ for regular updates.

Spring-heeled Jack Visits Liverpool in this month's Fortean Times (#238)

This month's Fortean Times Magazine (#238), which officially goes on sale tomorrow, features an extract from my forthcoming book 800 Years of Haunted Liverpool. The article is all about the elusive Spring-heeled Jack and his reported appearances in Everton.

The magazine costs £3.99 and is available in all good newsagents.

Eva, The Darkness and Benny Peiser

It only seems like yesterday (well, maybe a month or so ago) that we were doing all the press for the launch of our Dynamite/Top Cow crossover The Darkness vs. Eva - Daughter of Dracula. Sadly though, all things must come to an end and the concluding part of the four issue mini is on sale now at your local comic shop or internet retailer.
Of course, if you've missed out on the mini, you could always head over to our PayPal Shop where you can purchase the full series, signed by Moore & Reppion, for only £6 plus P&P.

In either case, you might like to take a look at some exciting preview pages over at http://www.wizarduniverse.com/061608darkprev.html

D vs. E has been a really fun series to work on and we've got really positive feedback from the Top Cow fans especially. We've really enjoyed working with artist Edgar Salazar too and hope to be able to team up again on future projects.


On a completely different note, back in March 2007 I interviewed lecturer, Spaceguard member, neo-catastrophism expert and all round good egg Benny Peiser for The End is Nigh #4 which, sadly is yet to surface (it's okay Mr. Molcher, we know that you're very, very busy). Benny emailed me a little while back to ask if it would be possible to publish the interview elsewhere and I passed my transcript on to him.
The full interview can now be read over on Die Achse des Guten ("The Axis of Good") and is a must read for anyone who is interested in the end of the world, asteroids, religious fundamentalism and all that good stuff.

Thoughts on Bristol (long overdue)

Cast your collective minds back to the second week of May and the Bristol Comics Expo 2008. We were there and we had too much to drink but a grand time over all. What's more, as ususal, we promised a report of sorts that never really surfaced. Well, consider this a far too late, sorry excuse for said report.

First of all, we completely failed to take any pictures of the convention despite having our fully charged camera and several spare memory cards with us. We did however have an iMac in our hotel room with free internet connection (which we utilised only to listen to Last.fm really ;-/ ) and therefore can offer the following evidence of our visit.


Now obviously I can't really remember what happened very well now suffice it to say we met up with lots of lovely people including Oliver Redding, Matt Timson, James Fletcher, Paul Cornell, Caroline Symcox, Al Ewing, Misako Rocks, Sonia Leong, Emma Vieceli, Ian Whelan, Al Nolan, Bob Byrne, Colin Mathieson, Dave West, Andy Bloor, and seemingly millions of others. Thanks to everyone who bought stuff and got stuff signed by us and, of course, to everyone who set us on to new, exciting things and/or bought us a drink.

We did come home with a massive haul of stuff as ususal and this was due in no small part to Mr. Mike McLean of Asylum Books and Games (a very fine establishment) who pressed a big pile of (mostly zombie related) comics into our hands as soon as we ventured near his stall. Though we were very grateful to receive them, it has to be said that many of these books (without naming names) were, to be perfectly honest, awful. The standard of zombie series out there is, sadly, pretty uniformally dreadful with occasional blips of good stuff and the odd true gem. Why do people think they can get away with just putting a load of crap out? Anyway, enough of that. Mike also saw to it that we got our Elephantmen and Goon fix so we really couldn't fault him. Top chap!

Other noteworthy items which traveled home with us included...

The Art Of Cake Diving- by Cliodhna (www.ztoical.com)

Rock and Roll Love- by Misako Rocks! (www.misakorocks.com)

The Hookah Girl and other true stories Vol 1- by Marguerite Dabaie (www.hookah-girl.margoyle.net)

Robots- by various (including us) (http://www.accentukcomics.com/)

Mister Amperduke a story in pictures- by Bob Byrne (www.clamnuts.com)

Sancho the Life and Death of Jose Maria Garcia- by Alan Nolan and Ian Whelan (www.20000-leagues.com)

Duke Etrange's World of Weird One Step Beyond- by various (with us, again). (Nova X-press)

Omnivistascope Model 4- by paul scott and various (www.omnivistascope)

Marraquai The Forest and the city- by Ben Disckson and Joames McKay (www.scarcomics.com)

Other favorites included Finland Finland Finland- by Philip Barnett Bevis Musson and Tony Lee (http://mrtonylee.blogspot.com/) and Al Ewing presents- Iron Man noble defender of fascism in "hippy Trouble"- by Al Ewing (beatgirlcomics@gmail.com).

*PHEW* So then, there you go; we did go to Bristol and we had a great time and we loved meeting both new folk and old friends and the comics were better than ever.

Here's hoping we see you at the next one, or perhaps Leeds or Birmingham? Cool, see you there.

Haunted Liverpool Launch next month

800 Years of Haunted Liverpool will be officially launched at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool on Saturday the 5th of July 2008 between 6 and 8pm. The Unity bar is fully licensed with Cains Bitter on tap.

I'll do my very best to give a short talk giving a bit of background on how the book came about and what it was like to work on. Limited edition copies of 800 Years of Haunted Liverpool will be on sale for £9.99.

If you do plan on coming, please drop me an email at haunted_liverpool@btinternet.com as places will be limited.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

More info and updates over at www.hauntedliverpool.blogspot.com

Message board down

In the early hours of this morning there was a small explosion outside the place where ProBoards' (our board providers) servers are kept. The explosion caused a power failure and, as a result, ours and many other message boards are temporarily offline.

We expect the board to be back online within the next few days but, initially, it will not be fully restored and may be missing data including posts and accounts/log in details. This will only be a temporary situation until ProBoards can restore the data from their backup servers.

For updated information see http://support.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=status&action=display&thread=244738

We apologise for this and if things aren't sorted out soon, we'll look into the possibility of getting a temporary alternative board just to keep things ticking over. In the meantime, you'll just have to find somewhere else to occupy yourselves... but what are we going to do?

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UPDATE, June 2nd 2008: The board is now back online and working but currently missing the last two month's worth of data (posts, newly registered members' details, etc). Hopefully, this will be resolved soon.

Comic News Insider Podcast Interview

We met many, may very nice people while at the Bristol comics Expo last weekend (pseudo report coming soon, although we did forget to take any photographs :-/ ), one of whom was Mr Jimmy Aquino of the Comic News Insider. Jimmy did an interview with us (as well as one with our good mate Paul Cornell of Doctor Who, Wisdom and now Captain Britain fame) which can now be heard at http://cni.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=339129
Amazingly, we don't even sound all that hung over...