A new Wolfmen review.

It's amazing that people are still discovering these books for the first time, and enjoying what they find. Check out a new review over at Pipedreamcomics.co.uk. A very fair review, I had always intended the second book to be told in the first person from Jack's girlfriend's perspective but it just didn't work out.

Giant Monsters Attack...but not Accent UK comics...

I got a tweet yesterday from Giant Monsters Attack...

I remember the two guys buying some books at last weekend's Manchester MCM, and I remember them saying that they did a local Podcast ... it's always really interesting to hear what people think of our books and I used to love listening to the Tales From the Parent's Basement, Burnt Weiners and Small Press Big Mouth podcasts a few years ago, but one after another these all ended.
So... armed with my iPhone, which makes all of this a lot easier, I followed the link...

Turns out I had to download a new App onto myPhone, PodBean, but as usual this was pretty painless,and then a quick search and I was subscribed.

I decided to dive straight in and listen to Episode 39 - Love Interest as I was keen to hear what the guys thought of our efforts. 

Wow, they really enjoyed them and are very respectful in that they call out all the creators involved in the books, which is really nice. 

I listened to the whole episode in the end and it was good to hear their very positive comments about Mike Garley's very interesting The Killscreen and to find throughout the podcast that they had pretty balanced views and were quite willing to say they didn't like something if that was the case.

We've been invited into their Shed (which I think is their secret lair) for an interview, which we'll be sorting out in the very near future. 

The 42nd Post.

Well it's been a pretty busy year for me.
I started the year with a new job, leaving a lot of good friends and making a lot of new ones. The two don't balance each other out though and I still miss seeing some people around the office everyday. I did pop back for the XMas do of the last project that I worked on before I left, a project that I was on for around 8 months or so, and it was nice to see everyone again, albeit briefly.
The new job is more me though, so I'm happy I made the move.

Accent UK has done incredibly well this year. We've doubled last year's sales, I think down to the fact that we now have an on going series on the table at Conventions. Added to WesterNoir it's also great to have Stephenson's Robot #1 out, it's been a while in development but it is amazing to see Brad Tuttle (INDIO!)'s art in all its glory. There'll be more coming next year with two issues of WesterNoir, another Tales Of WesterNoir and at least one Stephenson's Robot, as well as Strange Times Book 2, which wraps things up for Samuel Close and the guys.

I've seen plenty of movies this year, Jemma has made sure we got to the cinema more than we have in previous years, and picking my favourite is even harder than usual. I really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy, I loved the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, I was suitably shocked by Under the Skin and surprised that I actually enjoyed The Amazing Spider-Man 2 but I think my favourite has to be Captain America - The Winter Soldier. It just carried on the whole Marvel Universe so well and moved it to a very interesting place, whilst still being a film the worked as just a sequel to Captain America 1. It had it all and whilst Guardians of the Galaxy was novel and fun, this was just a great film that worked for me on a number of levels.

I'm actually reading less these days, the train journey to work has been replaced by a car journey, where I'm the one driving. I did manage to read the last Skulduggery Pleasant book however and it ended things really well, pulling together all the threads and not ducking out of a few deaths and emotional moments, I'm looking forward to see what Mr. Landy does next. Apart from that I've enjoyed the Long Earth books by Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett, an interesting concept, good characters and nicely written.

My favourite comic book of the year has to be Mind Mgmt by Matt Kindt. I only picked up the first two collected editions at Thought Bubble in November, as Mr Kindt was there to sign and sketch them, I'd heard that they were good, and Sumyra of Lucky Target Comics had recommended it to me. Wow, what a great story, crying out to be made into a TV series. I'd read Revolver by Matt, which I enjoyed, but I'm loving this series. Apart from that I've been following Lazarus and C.O.W.L, but interesting comics, and my only Marvel book has been Elektra, which I picked up for the artwork but am enjoying the tale being told.

I looked back at last year's 'To Do' list when I sat down to write this...

1. I will finish Strange Times Book 2 next year.
2. I will try to finish that book I've been playing with for quite a few years now.
3. I hope to publish Has Kane Mesmer Lost His Magic Touch ?with Marleen Lowe's art.
4. I will publish at least one WesterNoir book, and current plans have it at three new books.
5. I hope to publish From Super-Zeroes to Super-Heroes with art from myself and Seba Velez, and
6. I'm really hoping that we get a few issues of Stephenson's Robot in print.

And as I expected it's a patchy result. I have finished Strange Times Book 2, just need to get the cash together to get it printed.  WesterNoir, thanks mainly to the driving force that is Gary Crutchley, is going from strength to strength, and Stephenson's Robot book 1 is in print. Kane Mesmer has stalled a little as I've been so wrapped up in the other books, as has From Super-Zeroes To Super-Heroes but I'll sort that next year. As to that book I've been playing around with ? Well, I'm still playing around with it...

So, this year's list then...

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...

All the best for 2015 to all you comic book creators out there, professional or amateur ....

Spanish newspaper reviews Wolfmen and WesterNoir...

I'm just back from the Helsinki Comic Festival (full report to follow) where, amongst many other great people, we met Eduardo Serradilla who, apart from being very knowledgeable and passionate about comics (amongst other things), also writes reviews for a Spanish newspaper, Eldiario.es.

Eduardo loved the covers to WesterNoir and The Wolfmen and took copies home with him on the first day promising that if he liked them then he'd review them for the Eldiario.es website. 

He popped over to the stall the next day and showed us printouts of the reviews, with the overall comment that he, and his wife Elena, loved them.

You can check out the reviews over at http://www.eldiario.es/canariasahora/comic/WESTERNOIR and /www.eldiario.es/canariasahora/comic/THE-WOLFMEN. 

Sadly the Wolfmen review is in Spanish only but Eduardo talked at length about how much he loved the way that Andy's art flowed like a movie.

Wolfmen Review.

There's a great review of Wolfmen and The Fall Of The Wolfmen over at www.brokenfrontier.com. It's great that new readers are discovering these books and enjoying them.

Great start to the year...

It's always great to start the year with a fabulour review, and even better when it's one of our earlier books. Andy Bloor and I created The Wolfmen quite a while back but the beauty of Independent books is that they are constantly being discovered by new readers. You can find the review over on the SFX blog...
I also received the latest copy of OFFLIFE (issue 2), which is a free comic anthology (for those who live in the London area).

once again we've decided to advertise in it, and this time we've used Robot Shorts, and included a quote from SFX 222.

It's an interesting little comic, and the standout from this issue is a short from Neill Cameron.
One of the 'Family Days' in the West household over XMas was us all sat in the kitchen making collages, or similar, and here's what I ended up with. I've decided to do them all in a little book this time to keep them all together, and also it means they'll all be a little 'scrapier', which I like. I do have some words in mind for Jack The Giant, but am not sure whether or not to stick them on the page or not... decisions, decisions.

Moonlighting Wolfmen .. with words

I had these words in my mind as I pulled this image together ... thought I'd finish it for the blog.

Wolfmen Moonlighting

When times were hard The Wolfmen could be found moonlighting as bouncers down at Roxy's.

Well ... you can blame Mr. Bloor for this one ... hope you like it Andy ... I seem to be growing a little list of characters to have a crack at ... good fun so thanks for the suggestions.