Tales of WesterNoir #2 and a review of WesterNoir #3.

Tales of WesterNoir Issue 2 (and not book 2 following a few comments... rightly made) has arrived and it looks great.
Both stories in this issue feature Jim Wilson, the monster hunter before Josiah Black, and who Josiah killed in WesterNoir Issue 1.
My story 'Lure for a Monster' has been illustrated by the very talented Mal Earl and Gary Crutchley's 'A Righteous Man' by the equally talented Joe Campbell who brought my Missing : Have You Seen The Invisible Man? story to life a couple of years ago. Two very different styles make for a very interesting book visually.
Tales of WesterNoir Issue 2 will be launched at the DemonCon event in Maidstone on the 7th February.

WesterNoir Issue 3 got a great review over at IronShodApe.wordpress.com, from a new reader of the series.

2016 Convention Dates.

I've just popped the Convention Dates for 2016 up on the blog, just check the list on the right -->
It's great to be heading back to Helsinki, and whilst we are returning to a lot of the Cons we enjoyed last year, we have added a couple of new ones too.

Winter is here.

Forget 'Winter is coming', it's arrived and the last two days have seen me defrosting the gate before I even get to try to defrost the car.
I did see this though, a strange little ice formation in one of the cow bowls that we have in the front garden, to water the birds and hopefully not any wandering cows...

It's stunning and I have absolutely no idea how it could have formed, standing perpendicular to the ice that had formed on the water in the bowl.
Beautiful though.

Comic Heroes #26.

WesterNoir gets a good mention in the latest issue of Comic Heroes thanks to Mike Garley.
Mike needed to talk to an independent creator about the implications and challenges of producing an ongoing series and thought of us.
Following on from the issue before Mike continues his Creating Independent Comics feature and it is well worth reading if you're starting off. Well, actually there's insight to be gained even if you've been creating them for a good few years.
It was great to see the cover of issue 1 of WesterNoir looking at me as I turned the page...

 I look forward to reading where Mike goes next with this.

WesterNoir #1 is now available on Comixology.

Josiah Black would have looked very different
had I been illustrating it rather than Gary Crutchley.

The great news is that I finally managed to get WesterNoir issue 1 up on the Comixology site.
Previously I had tried to get our comics available through the LUSH Comics digital comics site but this has now ceased trading and Comixology really is the place to be.
You can find it at www.comixology.co.uk and  www.comixology.com.
Some kind soul has already given it a five star rating, which is a great start to the year.

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)