Blimey, where have the last three weeks gone? I can't believe it's been so long since I posted anything. So, what's been happening? The last month has mostly been concerned with lettering the Tim Skinner: Total Scumbag one-shot. It's looking great - Dec has really excelled himself on the art - and the plan is to finish it off in the next week and get it printed up ready for the Dublin City Comic Con later in the month. The Dublin event has its own website, here: www.dublincitycomiccon.com
Meanwhile, copies of Septic Isle should now be with Diamond and in UK shops in the next week or two. North American stores should expect their copies sometime in the next month.
There isn't much to report on the writing front at the moment, but that will change once Skinner is done and dusted. I have a couple of weeks off at the end of November/beginning of December and will use it to catch up a bit - whether that's with the long-delayed Kurse or something else I haven't decided yet.
Like I said, a brief update. More soon...
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Birmingham diary
THE third Birmingham International Comics Show was easily the best one yet and the Moonface Press table did pretty good business all weekend (especially on the Sunday, which is usually quiet). The first limited edition print run of Septic Isle has now completely sold out - a second printing hits comic shops through Diamond early next month.
Eleven other Brum highlights...
1. Chatting to Andy Radbourne to iron out a few problems we've been having with our Brit Force project. Things are back on track now though.
2. Being genuinely stunned by Andy's work on another forthcoming project of mine that should be ready for next year's Bristol.
3. Talking secret Blood Psi plans with Keith Burns.
4. Getting my hands on a copy of Frankenstein by Jason Cobley and Declan Shalvey - it's easily as lovely as I thought it would be.
5. Finally meeting Toxic/Bulletproof supremo Matt Yeo after exchanging emails with him on and off since 2002.
6. Getting to spend time with Rob, my oldest mate, who travelled up to Birmingham from Warwick on Saturday.
7. Congratulating my old Devilchild collaborator Jason Dennis after he was offered work by DC.
8. Spending a hugely entertaining Saturday night with Mick, Heather, Jamie, Theresa, Keith and Rob.
9. The moment the event's organisers finally switched off the No Heroics* trailer - our table was right in front of the big screen that had been showing the bloody thing on a constant loop for nearly an hour.
10. The bloke who walked about the show dressed as Heath Ledger's version of The Joker all weekend. Respect is especially due for the hours he spent in the nurse's costume on Saturday afternoon.
11. Getting a lift back to Southend on Sunday night with Jamie and Theresa meaning I didn't have to spend hours on a variety of slow-moving trains.
* No Heroics is a desperately unfunny ITV2 superhero sitcom that was being publicised at the show.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Winter in Birmingham
I'M heading off to the third Birmingham International Comics Show on Friday morning and plan on arriving in Brum between three and four. That way I get time to check into my hotel, grab something to eat and generally take it easy before heading off to the launch party in the evening. Last year, I got into Birmingham stupidly late on the Friday night and had to cram everything into a couple of hours. It was all a bit frantic and I was a sweaty, knackered mess at the end of it all.
I haven't really given the event much thought but, suffice to say, am looking forward to spending time with the likes of Declan Shalvey, Mick Trimble, Keith Burns and Jamie Richards. Jamie only lives down the road from me but, this year, I've seen more of him at comics-related events than I have in my regular day-to-day life.
I haven't got anything new out for the Birmingham show – Tim Skinner: Total Scumbag won't be making its bow until Dublin in November – so Mick and I will once again be pushing copies of Septic Isle, ahead of its Diamond release early next month. It might also be your last chance to get hold of Hero Killers, Blood Psi and SHRIEK! as I'm running pretty low on copies of all three and have no current plans to reprint.
If anyone fancies visiting the Moonface Press table - you can find us in the compact and bijou Exhibition Suite, table 150. That's between Bulletproof Comics and Lee Thacker. Bulletproof is run by my old email buddy Matt Yeo, who is also the editor of the brilliant boys' comic Toxic. I've corresponded with Matt many times over the years but we've never actually met so I'm really looking forward to finally seeing him in the flesh.
I haven't really given the event much thought but, suffice to say, am looking forward to spending time with the likes of Declan Shalvey, Mick Trimble, Keith Burns and Jamie Richards. Jamie only lives down the road from me but, this year, I've seen more of him at comics-related events than I have in my regular day-to-day life.
I haven't got anything new out for the Birmingham show – Tim Skinner: Total Scumbag won't be making its bow until Dublin in November – so Mick and I will once again be pushing copies of Septic Isle, ahead of its Diamond release early next month. It might also be your last chance to get hold of Hero Killers, Blood Psi and SHRIEK! as I'm running pretty low on copies of all three and have no current plans to reprint.
If anyone fancies visiting the Moonface Press table - you can find us in the compact and bijou Exhibition Suite, table 150. That's between Bulletproof Comics and Lee Thacker. Bulletproof is run by my old email buddy Matt Yeo, who is also the editor of the brilliant boys' comic Toxic. I've corresponded with Matt many times over the years but we've never actually met so I'm really looking forward to finally seeing him in the flesh.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Shalvenstein
DEC SHALVEY'S pimping his new Frankenstein book from Classical Comics over at Joe Gordon's excellent Forbidden Planet blog, here: http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=9464
Dec also talks about Hero Killers and our forthcoming Tim Skinner: Total Scumbag one-shot. The interview's worth a look not only for Dec's words of wisdom but also because there's lots of his lovely art featured in it, too.
As far as I know, Frankenstein will be available for the first time at October's BICS show so do yourself a favour and pick up a copy.
Dec also talks about Hero Killers and our forthcoming Tim Skinner: Total Scumbag one-shot. The interview's worth a look not only for Dec's words of wisdom but also because there's lots of his lovely art featured in it, too.
As far as I know, Frankenstein will be available for the first time at October's BICS show so do yourself a favour and pick up a copy.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
My Chemical Toilet
RECENTLY I mentioned Gerard Way's excellent Umbrella Academy trade paperback and it reminded me of a script I wrote last year called MONGO: MUSIC CRITIC. It was written for Natalie Sandells to illustrate and the idea was that we were going to submit it for publication to Alan Grant's new Wasted comic (www.wastedcomic.com).
Busy on other stuff, Nat never got around to working on the story so I thought I may as well post the four-page script here. The story features Mongo, a monstrous-looking alien who is both a Venusian warlord and music critic, turning up at Glastonbury to pass justice on a band not entirely unlike My Chemical Romance...
MONGO: MUSIC CRITIC (four pages)
By Andy Winter
PAGE ONE
Make room for a credits box somewhere on here, which reads: MONGO: MUSIC CRITIC in “MUSIC! MAYHEM! MONGO!” and then the usual artist and writer creds.
1) Exterior – night. We’re at the Glastonbury Festival. Scores of ghastly young people are throwing themselves about in a decidedly un-coordinated manner. They think this is “dancing” – I, and everyone over the age of 19, beg to differ. Emo rock gods, MY CHEMICAL TOILET, are “rocking” the festival’s main Pyramid stage with their winning combination of piss-weak metal and whining, woe-is-me lyrics. The horrible little shits.
Let’s make this first panel an establishing shot – looking down on the stage and the massive crowd from above.
CAPTION #1: The Glastonbury Festival.
CAPTION #2: Packed to the gills with noise and young people.
CAPTION #3: In the name of sanity, bring back National Service and the birch!
2) Close up of MY CHEMICAL TOILET, in the middle of their set. They are, of course, an amusing send up of rubbish American "emo" band My Chemical Romance, so feel free to make your visual interpretation of the band as caricatured and gratuitously unpleasant as you like. They deserve it.
CAPTION: Emo rock gods My Chemical Toilet are midway through their set…
LEAD SINGER (singing): I’m dead and the world has turned a nasty shade of black, I’m dead and my cat is high on crack.
3) Close up of the crowd. Several especially vile emo-fixated youngsters are moshing about to the appalling din emanating from the stage. But one of them – a ridiculous-looking teenage boy – is standing stock still, looking directly up in the air.
4) Close up of the boy. He’s now pointing at something he can see in the sky immediately above him and the crowd.
EMO BOY: LOOK!
5) Big panel. We’re looking up at a massive alien spaceship hovering above the crowd. The crowd panics as well it should. Mongo’s on board, and he’s here to kick ass and chew gum... and he’s all out of gum!
PAGE TWO
1) The spaceship has landed in the middle of the throng, directly in front of the Pyramid stage. The crowd has scattered but many of them are squashed under the craft’s massive, extraterrestrial bulk. Take that indolent, useless youth of today!
2) A door on the side of the spaceship has flipped open and Mongo appears, with his gratifyingly huge alien blaster thingy slung across his shoulder on a strap.
3) Mongo floats out into the air towards the stage.
4) Through some kind of portable alien loudspeaker system, he addresses the band, who have remained on stage clutching their instruments and looking frightened. They look up at him, still floating in the air.
MONGO: I am Mongo – Venusian warlord and music critic. You shall now continue playing.
5) The band look at each other, puzzled and scared. They’re not sure what to do.
6) Mongo bellows at them.
MONGO: NOW!
PAGE THREE
The top six panels on this page should be a kind of mini-comic all of their own as we cut back and forth between Mongo and My Chemical Toilet. It should take up about half the page, I reckon. Maybe two banks of three.
1) The band start playing again.
LEAD SINGER (singing): I heard a rumour that you’ve got a tumour…
2) Cut back to Mongo – he wears an inscrutable expression as he scribbles into a notebook that he has taken out.
3) Back to the band giving it their all on stage.
LEAD SINGER (singing): ...but there’s no way you can ever be, as sick as me, because...
4) Back to Mongo with the same expression on his face as he scribbles away furiously.
5) Back to the band.
LEAD SINGER (singing): ...my cancer has cancer, and it hurts so bad, my cancer has cancer and the pain is driving me mad…
6) Back to Mongo, who has now finished scribbling. He holds his notebook and pen in one of his hands.
MONGO: Enough!
7) The band stop.
8) The lead singer addresses Mongo.
LEAD SINGER: So, er, what did you think?
PAGE FOUR
1) Mongo reads from his notebook.
MONGO: Your lyrics are morbid and melancholy, your tunes repetitive, unimaginative and hugely derivative. Your musicianship is limited, your image ridiculous – and you have the on-stage charisma of a moon rock…
2) Mongo smiles a slightly scary, not-to-be-trusted smile.
MONGO: ...I rather liked it.
3) The lead singer looks up at Mongo with a hopeful, optimistic expression on his face.
LEAD SINGER: R-really?
4) Mongo scowls – he looks scary.
MONGO: No.
5) Mongo blasts the band with his enormous gun.
MONGO: Rating: one star out of five. Sentence: death!
6) We see the band’s ashes on the stage and the spaceship in the background taking off.
CAPTION: Musical justice is served!
THE END
Busy on other stuff, Nat never got around to working on the story so I thought I may as well post the four-page script here. The story features Mongo, a monstrous-looking alien who is both a Venusian warlord and music critic, turning up at Glastonbury to pass justice on a band not entirely unlike My Chemical Romance...
MONGO: MUSIC CRITIC (four pages)
By Andy Winter
PAGE ONE
Make room for a credits box somewhere on here, which reads: MONGO: MUSIC CRITIC in “MUSIC! MAYHEM! MONGO!” and then the usual artist and writer creds.
1) Exterior – night. We’re at the Glastonbury Festival. Scores of ghastly young people are throwing themselves about in a decidedly un-coordinated manner. They think this is “dancing” – I, and everyone over the age of 19, beg to differ. Emo rock gods, MY CHEMICAL TOILET, are “rocking” the festival’s main Pyramid stage with their winning combination of piss-weak metal and whining, woe-is-me lyrics. The horrible little shits.
Let’s make this first panel an establishing shot – looking down on the stage and the massive crowd from above.
CAPTION #1: The Glastonbury Festival.
CAPTION #2: Packed to the gills with noise and young people.
CAPTION #3: In the name of sanity, bring back National Service and the birch!
2) Close up of MY CHEMICAL TOILET, in the middle of their set. They are, of course, an amusing send up of rubbish American "emo" band My Chemical Romance, so feel free to make your visual interpretation of the band as caricatured and gratuitously unpleasant as you like. They deserve it.
CAPTION: Emo rock gods My Chemical Toilet are midway through their set…
LEAD SINGER (singing): I’m dead and the world has turned a nasty shade of black, I’m dead and my cat is high on crack.
3) Close up of the crowd. Several especially vile emo-fixated youngsters are moshing about to the appalling din emanating from the stage. But one of them – a ridiculous-looking teenage boy – is standing stock still, looking directly up in the air.
4) Close up of the boy. He’s now pointing at something he can see in the sky immediately above him and the crowd.
EMO BOY: LOOK!
5) Big panel. We’re looking up at a massive alien spaceship hovering above the crowd. The crowd panics as well it should. Mongo’s on board, and he’s here to kick ass and chew gum... and he’s all out of gum!
PAGE TWO
1) The spaceship has landed in the middle of the throng, directly in front of the Pyramid stage. The crowd has scattered but many of them are squashed under the craft’s massive, extraterrestrial bulk. Take that indolent, useless youth of today!
2) A door on the side of the spaceship has flipped open and Mongo appears, with his gratifyingly huge alien blaster thingy slung across his shoulder on a strap.
3) Mongo floats out into the air towards the stage.
4) Through some kind of portable alien loudspeaker system, he addresses the band, who have remained on stage clutching their instruments and looking frightened. They look up at him, still floating in the air.
MONGO: I am Mongo – Venusian warlord and music critic. You shall now continue playing.
5) The band look at each other, puzzled and scared. They’re not sure what to do.
6) Mongo bellows at them.
MONGO: NOW!
PAGE THREE
The top six panels on this page should be a kind of mini-comic all of their own as we cut back and forth between Mongo and My Chemical Toilet. It should take up about half the page, I reckon. Maybe two banks of three.
1) The band start playing again.
LEAD SINGER (singing): I heard a rumour that you’ve got a tumour…
2) Cut back to Mongo – he wears an inscrutable expression as he scribbles into a notebook that he has taken out.
3) Back to the band giving it their all on stage.
LEAD SINGER (singing): ...but there’s no way you can ever be, as sick as me, because...
4) Back to Mongo with the same expression on his face as he scribbles away furiously.
5) Back to the band.
LEAD SINGER (singing): ...my cancer has cancer, and it hurts so bad, my cancer has cancer and the pain is driving me mad…
6) Back to Mongo, who has now finished scribbling. He holds his notebook and pen in one of his hands.
MONGO: Enough!
7) The band stop.
8) The lead singer addresses Mongo.
LEAD SINGER: So, er, what did you think?
PAGE FOUR
1) Mongo reads from his notebook.
MONGO: Your lyrics are morbid and melancholy, your tunes repetitive, unimaginative and hugely derivative. Your musicianship is limited, your image ridiculous – and you have the on-stage charisma of a moon rock…
2) Mongo smiles a slightly scary, not-to-be-trusted smile.
MONGO: ...I rather liked it.
3) The lead singer looks up at Mongo with a hopeful, optimistic expression on his face.
LEAD SINGER: R-really?
4) Mongo scowls – he looks scary.
MONGO: No.
5) Mongo blasts the band with his enormous gun.
MONGO: Rating: one star out of five. Sentence: death!
6) We see the band’s ashes on the stage and the spaceship in the background taking off.
CAPTION: Musical justice is served!
THE END
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Let's go to work...
THAT'S summer done and dusted. The kids have returned to school/nursery so that means it's back to the grindstone for me, too. Here's a projects update...
SEPTIC ISLE: Hits comic stores in the UK and North America in early November. Artist Mick Trimble and I will also be flogging copies at the Birmingham International Comics Show over the weekend of October 4-5.
TIM SKINNER - TOTAL SCUMBAG: Artist Declan Shalvey only has around 10 pages of this left to draw and colour, and I've started lettering it. Our plan is to launch Skinner at the Dublin City Con over the weekend of November 22-23. I'd better get that new passport sorted out.
SCOREGASM: Mine and artist Duane Leslie's long-delayed football-themed one-shot is firmly back on the schedule. Look for it in 2009 - maybe launching at Bristol, maybe before.
KURSE: The aim is to get this fully written by the end of the year. Starting again today!
SEPTIC ISLE: Hits comic stores in the UK and North America in early November. Artist Mick Trimble and I will also be flogging copies at the Birmingham International Comics Show over the weekend of October 4-5.
TIM SKINNER - TOTAL SCUMBAG: Artist Declan Shalvey only has around 10 pages of this left to draw and colour, and I've started lettering it. Our plan is to launch Skinner at the Dublin City Con over the weekend of November 22-23. I'd better get that new passport sorted out.
SCOREGASM: Mine and artist Duane Leslie's long-delayed football-themed one-shot is firmly back on the schedule. Look for it in 2009 - maybe launching at Bristol, maybe before.
KURSE: The aim is to get this fully written by the end of the year. Starting again today!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
septic isle interview
There's an interview with artist Mick Trimble and I to publicise Septic Isle over at Comics Bulletin.com. In it Mick and I talk about such fun stuff as Nazis, sex scenes, James Bond and whether MI5 has a file on us!
The interview, conducted by Kelvin Green, is here: www.comicsbulletin.com/features/
The interview, conducted by Kelvin Green, is here: www.comicsbulletin.com/features/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)