Wednesday 30 December 2015

The 42nd Post.

Looking back at last year's The 42nd Post it seems so log ago. A lot has happened this year. My new job has changed a bit under new leadership and I'll admit to it being a little rocky for a bit. We seem to have come through though and a late change has brought my immediate team back together under a new boss, and I'm a lot more comfortable with it all.
I also noticed that last year I set myself a number of goals,
  1. Published Strange Times Book 2
  2. Publish Kane Mesmer, more Westernoir and Stephenson's Robot comics
  3. Publish From Super-Zeroes To Super-Heroes
  4. Work with Andy Bloor on Wolfmen 3, he has told me that he wants to make this his next book, and
  5. Try to finish that book I've been playing with for quite a few years now...
so how did I do ?
  1. Well, I actually have finally finished Strange Times Book 2, and just need to pull the cash together for printing. This book has been a long time coming and I'm really happy to finally be able to look to get it on the Convention Table in 2016.
  2. Kane Mesmer is complete, but I've decided to print it as part of a Collection of my Blessed/Cursed books. Combining it with Fastest Man, Invisible Man, a Fastest Man prequel and three new stories. It make sense to do this as it'll be much simpler at Conventions having the one book to focus on. WesterNoir and Stephenson's Robot are getting into a good print schedule which is great.
  3. I didn't do too well on From Super-Zeroes To Super-Heroes, but I've been in touch with artist Seba Velez and this is my personal focus for next year.
  4. Andy and I have had to accept that Wolfmen 3 isn't going to happen. Andy is fully committed to his great Midnight Man comic, which he co-creates with Mo Ali, and any time he has to do comic stuff will need to be spent in this. Completely understandable but a shame none-the-less.
  5. OK, the book is still a work in progress, but I have managed to add to it, so it's not been forgotten.
next year ..
  1. I will finish From Super-Zeroes To Super-Heroes.
  2. I will complete the Blessed/Cursed Anthology, ready for printing in 2017.
  3. I will publish at least two WesterNoir books.
  4. I will publish at least one Stephenson's Robot comic.
  5. I will try to finish that book I've been playing with for quite a few years now... again.
All in all they seems pretty achievable, I'll see how I get on.
We attended more conventions this year than any previously and our books are certainly finding an audience, which is great. At each and every Con we've found a lot of new customers and also had a lot of people returning to our table to pick up our new books. The highlight I guess has to be the Copenhagen Con, it's always great to go back and catch up with a lot of our Danish friends. This year we printed Martin Flink's new book, The Troll, and also got to hang out with our friend Garen Ewing.

For me the film I most enjoyed was probably Ant-Man which was a surprisingly great little (sorry) film. I kinda expected second The Avengers film to be good, and it was, but it wasn't as good as the first (it was a tough act to follow) and the second Captain America film was better I think. Jurassic Park was a bit too similar to the earlier ones for me and didn't do much to move things on. I think the dinosaurs need to get onto the mainland somewhere to make this interesting again for me.
I've not found as much time to read this year, but did pick up Derek Landy's new book, Demon Road. Not as good as Skulduggery Pleasant but an enjoyable romp, I'll be following future books to see how it all progresses. Following a recommendation from a work colleague I'm now reading The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie and am enjoying it.
Comic-wise I did manage to meet Matt Kindt again at Thought Bubble and now have all the Mind Management books printed to date. I also got him to do a sketch in my copy of Pistolwhip. My other Thought Bubble purchase was Farel Dalrymple's The Wrenchies. I've been a fan of his work for ages and it was great to chat to him whilst he sketched in the book.
All in all a great year creating stuff and selling them around the UK and Europe.
Looking forward to doing it all again next year :o)

This made me laugh ...

My collaborator on Robot Shorts, Steve Holder, sent me the link for these T-shirts ...
all I need now is print TO THE WORLD'S FASTEST MAN ? under it and I have just the T-shirt for Conventions. Thanks for spotting them Steve :o)

If you're interested in buying this as is of course then just then pop over to H&M. :o)

Tuesday 29 December 2015

My annual iPhone photo clear out.

I'm forever running out of space on my iPhone, I know I should have bought one with more storage, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. 
Anyway, you can't keep all the photos on there forever and letting iCloud store them somewhere means I'll probably never look at them again, so I think from now on I'll pop them up on the blog at the end of the year, and then delete them from my iPhone.
I see this tree whenever I walk my dog
and love looking up at its twisting branches.
and of course, play with them a little in photoshop, putting a frame around them and the like.


These two are of a table at the art class I took earlier in the year. I want to learn how to paint with acrylics, and whilst the teacher made me use water colour I did learn a lot and certainly got the bug. Sadly events conspired against me though and I never made it to a second term.


The next three are things I just came across when out and about. That's the really great thing about having a camera on your phone. You see something, you can just take a photo.
Cotton Man.

Guano man
and this toy lizard seemed real when caught out of the corner of my eye, basking as it was in the sunlight.

And anyone with a teenage girl will know how difficult it is to get them to pose for the camera, or actually to allow a photo to be taken at all. So I take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself...
Jemma having a photo taken
for her Provisional Driving Licence.

Monday 28 December 2015

No snow so...

I took some photos of spider's webs with frosted dew on them a while ago...
Kinda Christmasy...
just try to forget that they were made by spiders...

I'd forgotten all about this...

Back in 2008 when severe floods were quite new to us in the UK, I contributed to an anthology looking to raise awareness and money to help out.


John Freeman, having a better memory than me, posted about it over on www.facebook.com and you can purchase the finished article in pdf form over at www.lulu.com

Saturday 26 December 2015

Strange Times Book 2 is ready for the printers.

Well, after a lot longer than I'd hoped, due mostly to me getting carried away with having too many projects on the go at the same time, Strange Times Book 2 is finished.
Andy Bloor has once again worked his design magic and also done a lot of tidying, despite me best efforts I always seem to leave dots here and there or pages with different sizes ... sigh.
I'm not sure when it'll actually see print, I'll need to get the necessary cash together, but it will be sometime in 2016.
It'll be great to have another of my little books on the Con table.

Saturday 19 December 2015

Tales Of WesterNoir #2 is at the printers.

Tales of WesterNoir Issue 2 will be available at the first Convention of 2016.
I've just received the proof copy from our Printer, Stuart Gould, and it looks great.
Cover art is from WesterNoir co-creator Gary Crutchley and is coloured as always by Matt Soffe.
This issue has two tales of Jim Wilson in the role of Monster Hunter with artwork from Mal Earl and Joe Campbell. Two very different styles both work very well with stories from myself and Gary respectively.
All wrapped up with the design eye and talent of Andy Bloor.
Should be a great start to the year.

Sunday 13 December 2015

Events of 2015 .... what a busy year.

We've had a really busy year from a Convention perspective this year, and have enjoyed all of them.
Some will disappear but most will continue and most of those that do will see us return.
There are some new ones that we have heard about and are looking to add, but before I update the list with 2016s dates, I thought I'd cut and paste the 2015 calendar here.

15th Feb - DemonCon9 - Maidstone
18th Apr - Birmingham Comics Festival
2nd May - MCM - Belfast
3rd May - MCM - Belfast
16th May - Warrington Comic Con
22nd May - MCM - London
23rd May - MCM - London
24th May - MCM - London
30th May - Granite City Comic Con - Aberdeen
6th June - Copenhagen Comic Festival
7th June - Copenhagen Comic Festival
13th June - Geekbox Comics Newcastle-under-Lyme
4th July - Glasgow Comic Con
5th July - Glasgow Comic Con
25th July - MCM - Manchester
26th July - MCM - Manchester
12th Sept - Comic Con - Blackpool
23rd Oct - MCM - London
24th Oct - MCM - London
25th Oct - MCM - London
14th Nov - Thought Bubble - Leeds
15th Nov - Thought Bubble - Leeds