It's 2016? Already?

I'VE become one of those people who only updates their blog twice a year - oh, the shame. I'm going to try and do better in 2016, I promise. It isn't as if I've been idle though. I've had two graphic novels published in the last 12 months - Defiant: The Legend Of Brithnoth and Hushers: A Very Victorian Apocalypse - and both were well received. This stuff is also happening...

* I shall be attending the London Super Comic Con over the weekend of February 21-22. I will be signing copies of Hushers at the Markosia table on both days (3pm Saturday, 3.30pm Sunday), along with artist Manuela Bassu Lebrino, who is coming over from Milan.

* I am currently writing a new book for Markosia and hopefully signing the contract for a second at LSCC. The former features art from Jim Lavery, the latter is another team-up with Manuela. Both books will offer a very different take on well-known characters. 

* On the subject of Hushers, there have been a couple of positive recent(ish) reviews of the book. Writing over at Bleeding Cool, Olly MacNamee compared it to James Bond and said it was "fast-paced, action-packed [and] thrill a minute", while Jason Wilkins of Broken Frontier said: "Hushers is a fun, rousing diversion full of inventive world-building and lush illustrations". A hard copy of the book is available here (£13.99) or digitally here ($3.99/under £3).

* According to Time Bomb Comics publisher Steve Tanner, the first print run of Defiant has sold out. He's looking to do a second run a bit later in the year. In the meantime, you can buy a digital copy of the book from here for a very reasonable $7.99 (about £5.50). Steve - and the book - were also featured in the recently relaunched Comic Heroes magazine in an article about indie publishing. We've also started talking about a sequel...

* When time allows, I'm still writing a film blog - As Human As The Rest Of Us - which you can find here.

I think that's everything for now. Thank you for continuing to read my blog, despite its erratic schedule. Your support is very much appreciated.

Talk is cheap

HAVE I really not updated this blog since the middle of November 2013? Yes, that's exactly what has happened. How embarrassing.

It isn't that I haven't had a lot going on, because I have - bloody loads, actually. I am, however, trying to avoid talking about projects until something actually, properly concrete exists. Like finished pages, printed issues, viewable webcomics... that kind of thing. Because I've noticed that I come on here and jabber on about what I'm up to and then, more often than not, bugger all ever comes of it.

There are also things I won't talk about because I don't want to jinx them - after this morning, one thing in particular...

A few projects I will mention though, purely because they seem a bit more concrete than most of the half-arsed, airy-fairy nonsense I blather on about.

Firstly, I've finished writing the first episode of Tim Skinner: Retconned for Ruairi Coleman to draw. The idea - at least as it stands - is that we will finish all four episodes before the first one goes live and that the episodes will appear weekly for a month later in the year (September is favourite right now). I'm very happy with the first episode and had forgotten just how much fun it is to write Skinner.

I've also penned a one-shot for artist Henry Simon to illustrate. It's a pulpy sci-fi story featuring motorcycle gangs that runs to 28 pages. There's also a seven-page short story for artist Jim Lavery. I'm really proud of this one, actually, and I'll be going all out to get it into a decent anthology.

Thing is, though, I've mentioned those three projects and none of them actually properly exists yet. Any one of them could go tits up tomorrow, making me look foolish... again.

So, let me turn my attention to Defiant! The Legend of Brithnoth, which is becoming more and more real with every passing week. Artist Dan Bell only has a few pages and the odd panel revision to go before pencils and inks on the book are finished. I suspect Dan will treat himself to a stiff drink when it's all done. Then it's just the colouring and lettering, the cover and backmatter to sort out. Easy.

There's other stuff - stuff I'm pitching, stuff I'm struggling to find reliable artists for... the usual. I'll talk about it when and if... or probably not at all.

Hushers

HERE are a couple of pics from a project set in Victorian London I've been working on with artist Manuela Lebrino. It's called Hushers and is something very different from what I've done before. I'll post more of Manuela's lovely art on here soon.

* IN other news, Defiant! The Legend of Brithnoth is pretty much finished writing-wise. I have been going over and over the last third of the script, though, ensuring it all works. One plot point took me months to get right but I think I nailed it in the end. Dan Bell is 30+ pages into the art now. Look for the book at some point next year from Time Bomb Comics.

* I THINK we may have found a publisher for Nix. Still early days but I've just started work with an editor on it and will confirm things as soon as I am able.

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