With the
Birmingham International Comic Show just a couple of weeks to go, it seems like a good idea to bring readers a small sampling of just some of the indie press titles on sale at the event. (And we do mean small -- the number is likely to be huge!)
While the event is going to be
packed with creators working in the mainstream and will play host to stands from several top publishers including
The DFC, the event is also going to be packed with indie creators selling their wares, trading ideas and generally pushing the British comics industry further forward.
• First, a plug for
Bulletproof #2, published by
Bulletproof Comics (
www.bulletproofcomics.co.uk), the brainchild of
TOXIC editor Matt Yeo. The 80-page issue, 33 pages in full colour includes contributions from Dave Hailwood & Tony Suleri, Jim Alexander & Jon Haward, Paul Harrison-Davies, Bulent Yusef & Dave Thomson, Alan Grant & Alan Burrows, Stuart Giddings, Lee Langford & Klaus Belarski, John Freeman & Mike Nicoll, Rik Hoskin, Thomas Crielly & John Doran. Check the
Bulletproof web site for more details, web comics and more.
•
Daniel Fish's latest Minicomic will be making its official debut at the Show in Birmingham. For a sneak peak and some info go to
fish1000.blogspot.com/2008/09/stuff-for-you.html• Lee Thacker has two new books that will be on sale at at BICS and can also be purchased online at
www.lulu.com/leethacker. The first is his response to the Holocaust,
Yellow Stars. The other is the first annual
Raw Shark anthology which includes work I've been doing for other people, including indie legends
The Wedding Present. Look out too for the first issue of
Succubus. (His 800-page graphic novel
One For Sorrow, introduced by Dave Sim, and other titles by Lee are also available from
www.lulu.com/leethacker. Page samples can be found at
www.comicspace.com/leethacker).
TimeBomb Comics, headed up by Steve Tanner, will have its second title,
Dick Turpin And The Restless Dead drawn Andy Dodd on sale. (They have several more projects in the works, too). When notorious highwayman Dick Turpin stumbles across a deserted village following his latest highway robbery it seems the ideal place to hide out. But the village is not as empty as it first appears – and Turpin soon finds himself surrounded by hordes of rotting, hungry zombies!
You can read the first five pages of the strip in their ComicSpace gallery.
“This release is our take on the zombie comics bandwagon that’s been steadily trundling through the last few year,” explains Steve, “and after the time-bending mind-twister that was our first comic Ragamuffins: Stitches in Time, Andy and I both readily agreed that our next one-shot should be something completely different, if only to prove to ourselves we weren’t a couple of lame one-trick ponies.
“I fancied doing something historical, Andy wanted to draw horses, but something extra needed to be added to the mix., he adds. "The missing ingredient came from my catching sight of a one-off promotional piece that Andy had done a few years ago featuring a zombie infested sewer, and the realisation that not only could Andy draw zombies – he could draw great zombies.
"The comic is a real historical romp which features all what you’d expect from a comic featuring the iconic legendary highwayman: Black Bess, highway robberies, Flintlock pistols, the immortal line ‘Stand and Deliver!’, and zombies. Lots of zombies!”
• Indiemanga, a group of artists and a writer based in the UK and Ireland will be launching its first book,
Origins, at the
Comics Expo: this is an anthology of comics as well as one prose story. "It features several manga which got to the finalist stage of Tokyopop's Rising Stars of manga," says group member
Azure, "as well as all new material." More information from the Indiemanga web site.
• Keep a look out for
Tim Perkins, whose
Wizards Keep project is the culmination of many years spent working in Comic Books, Children's Books, Theme Park Conceptualisation, and Animation Conceptualisation.
Check out the stunning Worlds End Ashcan here.
•
As I said above this is a handful of what will be available at BICS. If you miss any of the great independent comics on sale at the event, you can always almost certainly find copies via Smallzone, read by BICS co-organiser Shance Chebsey. Visit their main website at www.smallzone.co.uk
Ian Kennedy may be the pre-eminent Commando cover artist over the course of the title's long history but it had been running for nine years by the time he did his first cover. Before that Ken Barr was the standout cover artist before he moved to America. There he continued to create comic covers including covers for the American format Dan Dare reprint comic Dare The Impossible. His last new cover for Commando was for Evil Ace issue 3047 in 1997, but he has now re-enlisted with Britain's last war comic and has produced the cover for issue 4138, Blood Red Battle, written by Alan Hebden with internal art by Olivera. More details of Ken Barr's work can be found at his website.
Sticking with Commando, editor Calum Laird and Gordon Tait from DC Thomson's syndication (i.e. merchandising) department discuss the choices they made to select the twelve illustrations for the 2009 Art Of Commando calendar at the Commando website. There is also a tease at the end of the piece suggesting that something Warlord related may be in the works from Unique Comic Collectables who published the calendar. In the run up to Christmas could it have anything to do with a certain Royal Marine in a Santa outfit?
On a much less war-like and rather more feminine note, after our mention of Beano products from Boots it looks like DCT's syndication department having been talking to Marks and Spencer as well. M&S have a 1000 piece jigsaw featuring a selection of covers of DC Thomson girls annuals such as Jackie, Bunty, Judy and Mandy available for Christmas. Anyone hoping for a similar one featuring Warlord, Hotspur and Victor will be disappointed as the closest male alternative is a jigsaw of The Dangerous Book For Boys. 
