Defiant!, Nix and other stuff

WORK continues on Defiant! The Legend of Brithnoth and I can finally see an end to the 80-page script now. I'm probably about two-thirds of the way through and pretty happy with how it is progressing.

I really underestimated just how tricky it would be to write an adaptation of something - especially an historical event in which few solid facts are really known but one that requires a certain amount of authenticity and accuracy to make work. I soon realised the original Battle of Maldon poem fragment (all 325 lines of it) gave me the spine of a plot and characters but not much else. I had to make up the rest.

At first I found it horribly daunting and there were a couple of times I just hit a big energy-sapping wall. But eventually I just said, 'Sod it' and decided to tell an entertaining story that incorporated the themes and events of the original poem but that took great big liberties elsewhere. I think it works, although I'm not sure about the car chase on page 42 or the alien invasion at the end (joke!).

* I'M also submitting more projects to various publishers. The latest of these is Nix (see above), a rude and rambunctious time-travel yarn illustrated by Taylan Kurtulus and lettered by Nikki Foxrobot. It's probably the most eccentric thing I've ever written and Taylan's off-kilter, European-styled art make it an even stranger proposition. I really hope it finds a home.

* BEYOND those two projects I probably have another six or seven on the go at various stages of development. These include one I've been trying to get off the ground for years - thankfully I found a cracking artist a couple of weeks ago and we're flying!

I also have a couple of new story ideas that require artists, so if there's anyone reading this who might be interested, feel free to give me a shout at andywinter1@gmail.com

Petal

I'M currently working on a pitch for a crime/horror project called Petal with Argentine artist Nicolas Armano. Here are a couple of panels. We've based the look of the central character - Detective Inspector 'Petal' White - on a young British actress. Bet you can't guess who...

Kurse komes together

GETTING the Kurse proposal together continues apace with sketches of the story's main and secondary characters all completed by artist Chris Simmonds (with his permission I might post a few here at some point soon). I've now sent Chris the first 10 pages of script and I'm sure that will be keeping him busy for the next couple of months. I have high hopes for my collaboration with Chris as he got what it is I'm trying to do with Kurse straightaway and has already brought quite a few of his own ideas to the table.

I've heard from a few artists who are interested in collaborating with me on further pitches and they're all really good. Unfortunately, none of them has an art style that would suit the particular stories I'm working on. After all, it's pointless having an artist with a light cartoony style working on a black-hearted alien invasion story full of death, misery and violence. My search continues...

Radio Free, er, Essex

I appeared on local radio station BBC Essex this morning to talk about Hero Killers' Eagle Award nomination and comics in general.

I can't imagine many of the station's listeners will be rushing out to buy copies of my stuff ("I loved the one about the Antichrist" - Brenda from Basildon), but I think it's important for comicbook creators and fans to engage with the mainstream media whenever they're invited to. As long as the coverage comics get in newspapers and on TV and radio isn't of the patronising "Biff! Bang! Pow!" variety then it can only be a good thing for them to be discussed in exactly the same way as new novels, films and plays. Surely engaging with people who know nothing about comics was one of the ideas behind that whole "comics evangelism" thing that popped up briefly a few years ago, so it was good to do my little bit.

Anyway, I had a blast with the show's presenters - John Hayes and Sadie Nine - and even ended up writing a short story featuring them both as superheroes (Purple Hayes and Cat'O Nine Tails) that I later read out on-air. I had to get up at 5.30 to catch a train over to Chelmsford to appear, though, which means instead of getting any work done on Brothers this afternoon I'm likely to spend it asleep or zonked in front of last night's episodes of Prison Break and Heroes.