Nice to see no issues of Quantum 10 left in my local W H Smiths

 

... and I had a good look to make sure 😊

Issue 11 will be out in a week or so, and it's the John Higgins issue with new overall design by Andy Bloor.

It looks great.

Quantum 10... in the wilds

 Spotted Quantum 10 in my local W H Smiths today.

Under a great cover by Gary Crutchley, and Judge Dredd 😀

Trip to London

Jemma and I took a trip into London today, with everything going on in my family I hadn't managed to get her any Xmas present(s).

We did our usual Waterstones, GOSH Comics, Foyles (where we also had lunch) and then Forbidden Planet.

It was a very pleasant surprise to see copies of Quantum 7 on sale in Forbidden Planet, and I failed to find any copies in the 'unsold from last months' wall stock :o).

Oh, and 'Job Done', with regards Jemma's presents.

Quantum 11

Due to family issues I've had to step away from Quantum 11 a bit. 

There will be no Peter Thomson episode as I hadn't completed the grey-scaling before I needed to go and help my mother get through her chemo treatment.

Good news however is that WesterNoir is a special crossover with John Higgin's RazorJack and there's a new story from Katie Cunningham called Space Banshee.

We've also decided to have a fresh new cover design but still keep the essence of the great logo from David Morris.

Quantum 10 has hit the shelves.

Having published Quantum for about 2 years I have found that I really understand cashflow for the first time and how important it is for people to pay bills promptly.

I've always done this as a matter of course with my bills but for the first time, as someone waiting for bills to be paid, I've now got first hand experience of the chain reaction when this doesn't happen.

Sometimes this is due to invoices not being received (ending up in JUNK folders etc), sometimes it's the turnaround at the receiver's end (why does it take weeks to do a funds transfer?) and sometimes it's just people taking their own sweet time to get around to doing so.

Regardless, this means that we can't pay people that we owe, be that printer or creators, when we'd like to. When it comes to the printer it means a delay and when it comes to creators it means that they get a little annoyed and we feel bad.

Yes, we should build these factors into our processes but that's difficult when the comic we produce has a 2 monthly publication schedule.

We are hoping to get a little ahead of the money in the year ahead, and get back to a proper schedule...let's see how we do.

Quantum Issue 10 is at the printers

 This issues cover is Peter Thomson by Gary Crutchley and coloured by Luca Mattioni.

Next Subscription Top Trump cards feature WesterNoir characters

As part of our Time Bomb Comics Quantum Prime subscription we throw in some little extra bits and bobs. 

We had a Q sticker, a Q beer mat and also Top Trumps type cards featuring Major Rakhana and Sanjay.

With Quantum 8 subscribers will get cards of the WesterNoir duo of Cassidy (formerly known as Mrs. Jones) and Luther.

We wanted to have them all produced by the same artist and so asked Roland Bird, artist on Major Rakhana to do these. 

I've tried to colour them inn the same way as Dan Harris did for the first two.

They should work very nicely.

Quantum 8

Well, it's nearly time for Quantum 8 to hit the shelves of your local newsagents/WHSmith stores. Once again the over is from Gary Crutchley and this time features Major Rakhana.

and then with titles etc.

Only a week or so to get your copies of Quantum 6...

 ..before it is replaced by Issue 7.

The cover on Issue 7 is of the Clockwork Cavalier and has been produced by Gary Crutchley and coloured by John Charles.

New special limited printing of Fastest Man

At TimeBomb Comics have a Subscription service called Quantum Prime.

Every issue of Quantum we produce a special variant cover version which is only available to subscribers and also look to include something a little special and also very limited.

with Quantum 6 Subscribers will also get the collected Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man? and for the first time it also includes the 5 page prequel, also illustrated by the very talented Marleen Lowe.

Andy Bloor has worked his magic on the design and it's no longer under a The Accent fake newspaper title but has moved to Strange Times.

I'm very happy with the result.

...and if you'd like to know more about the comic then pop over to:-The Mighty World of British Comics  for a very humbling review.

Quantum Issue 1 available for Comic shops to order in Jan PREVIEWS

Yep, Issue 1 will be available in your local comic shop, if you'd like a copy you might want to ask them to order one in for you.

The code for Quantum #1 - JAN241994

42nd Post

Looking back at last year's 42nd Post I remember what tough year that had been. This year my feet have continued to recover and my walking looks less and less like a sketch from Monty Python. I think this may be it and I'll take that, it's a long way from where I was.

I've traded my car in for an Automatic, so I can now drive again. You don't know how important it is to be able to just pop into a car and go somewhere. Being able to drive again has had a huge impact. A very positive thing.

The driving has allowed me to have a full year of Comic Conventions, and it's great to get back to those too. Standing up for 3 days at the MCM's doesn't help my poor feet but they are recovering more and more quickly and I think the MCM endurance is helping that.

Speaking of MCMs, this year I picked up the '42' book in October, subtitled 'The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams'. The man had a lot of improbable ideas that are now, or shortly will, become reality. Interesting that he didn't see all of them as a positive thing and I do often wonder if we are creating things because we can and not because we should.

Quantum has been a highlight. It's a lot of work, stress and strain getting something like this ready for publication every 2 months, and financially it's a real challenge too, but we need to try. Things are looking encouraging at the moment and so I think it'll continue for many years yet (I hope I haven't just jinxed it).

A new thing for us is the idea (which came from a friend) to have a subscription to TimeBomb where we produce some very limited edition comics and provide other content. This will help flatten out the ups and downs of print costs and distribution income. The first will go out shortly and features a variant cover version of Quantum 5.

Thanks you all for your support through 2023, and before.

All the best for 2024.

Quantum 5

Yep, just before Xmas Quantum 5 hit the stores. 

It features the last part of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man?, who also features on the cover.

And some people have turned it into an ornament for their Christmas Tree (thanks for the photo Shaun).

You'll be able to find it in your local newsagents or W H Smith stores.

We hope you enjoy it, ideally reading it but if you prefer to use it for your Christmas Tree then that's good also.

Quantum 4 is now available in newsagents across the land.

I've seen it with my own eyes.

Popped into town yesterday and saw this...

I also saw some copies of Spectrum 2, and so moved a few copies of Quantum next to them...

Quantum and Spectrum, a busy weekend for Time Bomb Comics.

Quantum Issue 4 already?

Yep, this weekend Issue 4 of our Quantum anthology hits the High Streets.

Under a Death & Taxes cover by David Morris as a little nod to Halloween. 

This issue features the final part of our WesterNoir : Moon Cursed story.

Back issues are now available on the TimeBombComics website in case you need to catch up.

Quantum issue 3

 Popped into my local W H Smith store yesterday and was really happy to see this...

Quantum has its own label on the shelf 😊.

Also, of the 10 issues stocked there are now only 4 left. Very encouraging.

Quantum 3 is now available in the High Street.

Yep, Q3 has landed and it's a great moment for me as mine and Jemma's WesterNoir story is featured on the cover with great artwork by David Morris. 

Issue 3 will also be available in:-

Although some countries will need to wait a while.

Great to see Malta on this list from Issue 3 as we enjoy a great Comic Convention there in December every year.

Quantum issue 3 is off to the printer.

 

  Yep, the good news is that we hit the deadline for getting issue 3 to the printer in time for it to hit the shelves of local stores on the 22nd August, and as you can see from the image above, this issue has a WesterNoir cover by David Morris.

   It's a real challenge pulling these together in time for proof reading and correcting bits here and there and still hitting the date for Andy Bloor to work his magic pulling it all together, which always seems to involve a little reformatting here and there. Andy pulled out all the stops though and I do sense that he worked a little later than intended and on the last day he even started early so we could get a small correction into the issue before printing started.

   Our printer, Rich Hardiman (Comic Printing UK), also went the extra mile and popped into his office for 30 mins or so on one of his holiday days so we could get this moving through the print process rather than wait for his return in 2 weeks. Had that been the case we would have missed our dates.  

   It's this kind of support that makes the difference.

   Willing to help out as we learn the ropes and hit the little bumps in the road.

   Lesson learned, we'll make sure we discuss dates around holiday times (Summer and Christmas) etc much earlier in the future.

   We'll get there.

Another great review of Quantum 1

 ...can be found over at MidLifeGamerGeek.

Issue 2 is out at all good newsagents and WH Smith stores now.

MCM was fabulous

It was a big step for us at Time Bomb Comics.

We decided to move from a number of tables scattered around Comics Village, or Artists Alley as it's now called, to a Booth. This meant paying a lot more upfront and hoping that we'd have the sales to compensate.

It just felt the right time and a good way to celebrate our Quantum bi-monthly comic.

We had a great corner spot and did our best to make use of the walls we had, and learned what we want to do for future Cons. The Panini Guys next to us put us to shame with their cut-out Spiderman etc. Next time guys :o)

Friday is usually a slow day but we found ourselves being really busy. Lots of customers asking for the promised WesterNoir Book Two (I'm so glad it's available otherwise I think there may have been trouble :o). Lots of customers talking about Quantum and actually picking up comics that contained more stories about the characters in Quantum, or the universe the stories are set in (as is the case with WesterNoir). 

We chatted to a lot of people and sold a good number of comics. It was also great to catch up with our creator friends, all of whom were very interested in whether or not we could make the booth work.

Saturday followed, as it always does, and as always it felt twice as busy as Friday.

I think it must be my age but
the JLA are looking younger and younger.

We were very encouraged that the Quantum comic had been picked up in stores by people of all ages. A few people tried to buy the sample copies that we had to show people, and some even resorted to pleading...

but I'll not name names David Baillie so you'll be OK.

Steve and I even hit the stage to talk about Quantum and there were actually people in the audience listening and even a question at the end, which was nice.

Come close of the event on Saturday we were feeling really tired. We had been on our feet pretty constantly and it's when you stop that it really hits you. It was a great day though so we felt that a nice meal in good company (with some alcohol to help sooth aching muscles) was called for, even deserved. 

And then it was Sunday, traditionally a slower day. It did seem quieter and we did actually have some quiet spells but at the end of the day we found that we'd actually done better than we had on Friday.

At one point I was entrusted with Steve's Coat of many colours but thankfully didn't break into song.

A really great event.

Very tiring but very rewarding.

Did the Booth work out financially?

Yes, it did.