Insomnia's Beastly New Signing

Upcoming British indie publisher Insomnia Publications have just announced its first signing following the Birmingham International Comic Show: Unbelievable (The Man Who Ate Daffodils) written and drawn by Welsh comics creator Simon Wyatt.

In the remote mining village of Bryn Boncath has its share of stories, of local legends, of half believed histories. It is a close knit community, with closely guarded secrets, home to the orphaned Ben Ellis and his grandfather, Emrys... and it has become the scene of a series of bizarre and mysterious deaths.

A new neighbour has moved in. A man long thought dead has returned. Livestock are missing. There are noises in the night. People are afraid to go into out after dark and sightings of a giant hound, or maybe a big cat are on the increase once again.

Suddenly it seems to Ben that what he took to be the tall tales of his grandfather may be more than just stories. It seems that something is stirring in the forests and the mountains around Bryn Boncath. It seems that ancient history is repeating and this time round Ben has an important part to play...

Unbelievable is described as a dark masterpiece that weaves strands of Welsh legend, modern murder mystery and horror with a dash of cryptozoology that wonders: What if seeing isn’t always believing, but believing will allow you to see?

"I first saw Simon's work in progress on Unbelievable on his comicspace page back before I was working with Insomnia, and the art just blew me away," explains Nic Wilkinson, Creative Director of the new company. "I love British mythology and we chatted about an earlier project of his, Mabinogion - Dawn of The Gods. He promised to draw me a sketch of my favourite Unbelievable character if we met up at BICS later in the year.

"Months pass. BICS rolls round... On Saturday morning I spot him sitting at the Orang-Utan table, drawing away and go to collect my picture. It's fantastic.

"Since we last spoke about Unbelievable things have changed," Nic continues in a posting to the Insomnia blog. "Under the table is a big black folder with the art almost complete and a spiral bound pitch book with character backgrounds, concept sketches, the full plot breakdown the whole works."

After discussion with publisher Crawfor Coutts, the team quickly cut a deal to secure the project.

"I 'm very proud to be able to say this was my first signing for Insomnia, and it exemplifies everything we are looking for in a book and from a creator," Nic says. "In short, being able to bring out work like this is everything that we, as a company, are trying to do."

Previously voted National Young Cartoonist of the Year for Wales, Simon Wyatt has been illustrating books, comics and games for over 20 years. He's worked for various indie comics publishers including Orang Utan Comics Studio, Angry Gnome Comics and Markosia. Unbelievable is his first full-length graphic novel.

• Visit the Insomnia Publications Official web site
• Simon Wyatt on ComicSpace
• Simon's MySpace and Blog Pages