Vanguard Issue 3 unleashed

Dirk van Dom has dropped us a line to tell us that the latest issue of action adventure indie anthology Vanguard is now on sale.

"It's been a bit of a wait as myself and my fellow creators fended off various zombie-like RLI's ("Real Life Issues") that just wouldn't curl up and die," he says, " but our third edition is finally here! And it's worth the wait, if I do say so myself.

Wrapped in a cover featuring Duncan and Jamie of 'Mammoth Jack', with art by David Blankley the 32-page anthology includes continuations of three  established stories ('Atomic Call', 'Mammoth Jack' and 'Tucker') with  three new tales joining the mix - 'Vestige', 'Harry Kane' and 'S.N.A'.

"Notable amongst these is S.N.A, which appears - and will continue to appear henceforth - as a blood-soaked full colour centre-spread strip," says Dirk.

"The one bit of bad news is that, due to circumstances beyond our control, chapter 3 of 'Halo and the Gryphon' will not appear as scheduled. But it will return, with a vengeance!

The line up is as follows (visit the blog for blood soaked visuals, note this is not your PG title):

Atomic Call (Art: David Blankley): Call Malone has been captured by bounty hunter Balthazar Quest, who's been hired by a mysterious organisation to retrieve the Atomic Transference gauntlet she stole. But Balthazar is not the only one trying to get his hands on the strange technology...

Mammoth Jack (Art: El Chivo): Jamie Swift's one-girl (and her donkey) attack on industrial kingpin Gobbett delivers dire consequences when he discovers where she's hiding and sends a team of brutal ruffians to 'take care of business'.

Buck Tucker: Enemy of Love (Art: Bhuna): Tucker has been brought back to (semi)life by a hellish creature he affectionately refers to as 'Slug Slut'. Slug Slut has a mission for the recently deceased serial killer - namely, ridding the human race of a contagious disease called 'love'. In order to do this, he first needs to learn about the demonic Q-Pids...

Vestige (Art: Brian Coyle): Irish-American Chet Easterbrook travels to Ireland following a series of tragic events that lead to his life being turned upside-down and inside-out. He feels certain he will find answers to his predicament here...but his predicament is about to get worse.

Harry Kane will see Her Safely Home (Art: Jim Cameron): This light-hearted adventure strip follows MMA Champ and B-movie action star Harry Kane, who - following a chance encounter with a strange old man whilst touring Tokyo with his new movie - inexplicably finds himself hundreds of years in the past, seemingly living out the plot of his film!

S.N.A (Surname Not Applicable) (Art: David Blankley):  In this full colour spin-off from Atomic Call, we learn more about Mandy S.N.A, the mysterious stranger with a split personality who's been making Call Malone's life hell. Who is she? What is her connection to Call? What does she know about the A.T gauntlet? And will anybody who gets in her way ever live to tell the tale? (Answer to that last one - probably not.)

• Vanguard Issue 3 is available directly from Dirk Van Dom at a cost of 2.50 euro + P&P. (P&P = 1.50 euro ROI and NI, 3.30 euro UK and abroad). Order via paypal: vanguardcomic@gmail.com. 

• More info: http://vanguardcomic.blogspot.ie

If ordered from Dirk, the issue will ship with a free set of full colour artcards featuring some of Vanguard's characters in a Japanese themed setting. Check out previous blog posts for a look at the cards. (Of course, they look even better in the (paper) 'flesh'. :) Only a limited number have been printed, so it's a case of first come, first served with these.

• Print editions of  Vanguard Issue 3 are also available to buy from Lulu.com via: www.lulu.com/shop/van-dom/vanguard-issue-3/paperback/product-20957564.html 

• You can also download a digital version of the issue from the Vanguard Comicsy store here: www.comicsy.co.uk/vandomonium/

Paragon back with twelfth jam-packed issue

Issue 12 of the long running indie British anthology comic Paragon is on sale now from lulu.com and sees the return of Jikan the time-travelling, demon-hunting Japanese warrior Dirk Van Dom and El Chivo, along with Li'l Ganesh and his li'l monkey chum, Hanuman by Dave
Candlish and Jim Cameron.

Not to mention the plucky British Tommy, Ginger Perkins by Jim Cameron. or the pulp adventurer Spencer Nero (Script by Greg Meldrum, Pencils by Tom Newell and inks by Dave Candlish) and part six of Icarus Dangerous.

The issue, which features some great looking and often funny strips, is available in print or online.

• Paragon #12 e-edition on lulu.com (download immediately)

• Paragon #12 Print edition on lulu.com

Zombies invade Paragon comic!

Behind this fantastic cover for the latest by edition of indie comic Paragon by El Chivo and Matt Soffe are 32 A4 pages of some the world's most wonderfully weird heroes!

Issue 11 includes:

• El Bigote by Locustsofdeath, El Chivo and Bolt-01 
You’re South of the Border now, the border between Life and the Afterlife. Welcome to Undead Mexico, where El Dia De Los Muertos never ends… Living dead banditos and ghoulish conquistadores, cannibalistic muertoads and spectral sessquatches prowl Mexico’s haunted prairies – and it’s up to Undead Mexican Mustache-Quillslinger El Bigote to put them back in their tequila worm-infested graves!

• Spencer Nero, written by Greg Meldrum with pencils by Mike Kennedy, inks by daveycandlish and letters by John Caliber
There's alchemical athletics, competitive cantrips and transcendental track-and-field in this issue's 'Spencer Nero', as our pulp hero goes for gold at the Berlin Olympics! Can he keep his shorts on and foil a nefarious Nazi plot?

• Ginger Perkins by Jim Cameron 
In which the plucky World War Two Tommy finds himself in the desert looking for the secret of eternal life!

• Icarus Dangerous by Dirk Van Dom, Stephen Prestwood and Dan Bell 
Following his plunge into the murky depths after 'flying too close to the sun', reckless Greek teen Icarus is rescued from his watery grave by Meriope, an alien female who saves his life and bestows his damaged wings with magical properties. When she is subsequently captured and drawn aboard a submersed alien vessel, Icarus gives chase in an attempt to return the favour, soon finding himself millions of light years from home in an alien galaxy.
Freeing Meriope from her captors, the Bonemen, Icarus learns she is an Artist with the ability - via a special brush and a substance called Mythica - to 're-draw' living beings in a form of her choosing, transforming them into Mythicals. Icarus unwittingly frees a number of these creations - also retrieved from Greece by the Bonemen - little realising he, himself, is now one of them.
Confronting Dax, leader of the Bonemen, Meriope learns the reason she has been captured is not to stand trial for a past indiscretion, as she believed, but to save her universe from destruction. And Icarus is going to have to help her?!

• Paragon Issue 11 - only £2.50, print edition available by Paypal payment; and for all you young dudes who like techno-comics you can download an e-version for only 99p at www.lulu.com/spotlight/PARAGONcomic (anyone outside the UK who wants a paper copy can buy one here too) 

Special offer! Anyone who buys a paper copy via the paypal link gets their own cut-out-and-wear El Bigote facial hair!

Paragon team release new Jikan collection

Indie comic creator Davey Candlish has announced the release of a second volume of Jikan stories, a character featured in Paragon comic.

"It looks even better than Book One (as if that's possible!)," he enthuses.

Featuring nearly 90 pages of time travelling, demon hunting samurai action featuring some of the best small press talent around for only £5, if includes scripts by Dirk Van Dom, Matt McLaughlin, Chris Cronin and Mark Howard and the artistic talents of El Chivo, Chris Askham, Dustin Parr and Davey Candlish.

• Buy it from lulu.com here

• More about Paragon comic: http://paragoncomic.blogspot.co.uk

Vanguard 2 anthology now online for free

The second issue of the UK indie anthology comic Vanguard is on sale now, continuing the stories that began in issue 1.

As before, art duties on the International Woman of Mystery tale "Atomic Call" are by David Blankley, while Louis Carter continues to produce some brilliantly bizarre artwork on the sci-fi, fantasy epic Halo and the Gryphon. This issue's violent installment of 1800's When Good Donkey's Go Bad tale "Mammoth-Jack" features a change of artist however, as El Chivo takes over pencilling duties from Owen Watts. (However, Watts is still on board providing some fantastic lettering work for the six page tale...and that's not his only contribution to this issue).

Apart from this there is another Tucker story, featuring glorious, blood-soaked, full colour artwork by Bhuna.

"This tale features a change of direction for the psychopathic character originally created for Hallowscream," says editor Dirk van Dom, "bringing a fantasy-based twist to proceedings in order to 'lighten' the serial-slashing tone somewhat.

"I've also got another two wonderful pages of art featuring the comic's fictional editor 'Redbats' by David Withers, who also provides lettering for two of the strips herein. And, of course, it would be remiss of me not to mention that lettering master Jim Campbell has also deigned to grace us with his presence lettering David Blankley's noir-tastic Atomic Call pages.

Vanguard is 24 pages of cover to cover action, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, alien creatures, ass-kicking babes, angry donkeys, demons and deceased serial killers. You can read it for free online - just make your way here and enjoy the comic, but be sure to leave some comments in return.

If you enjoy Issue 2, then you might want to buy Issue 1. "Only issue 2 is available to view," says Dirk. "I didn't think it would be fair to those who purchased a copy of issue 1 to then make it available for free, so I haven't done so."

Of course, you might still want to buy a print copy of Issue 2 - and that's avialable too and comes with free gifts, including a copy of "Speed Date", a 16-page full-colour A5 comic that collects together both parts of slaser-serial killer story "Speed Date", which originally appeared in Hallowscream's 2010 and 2011 issues. Art on part 1 is by Ghostpockets and on part 2 by Bhuna.

You'll also receive a set of four, full-colour, gloss laminated artcards featuring art by some of the comic's contributors. There's an unlettered version of Liam Byrne's groovy issue 1 cover art, an unlettered version of David Blankley's issue 2 cover and brand new images by Owen Watts and Louis Carter, featuring 'Mammoth-Jack' and 'Halo and the Gryphon' respectively.

If you would like to support us by purchasing a copy, you can order via paypal at the below rates:

For ROI orders, the cost is 3.35 Euros, including p&p.
For NI orders, the cost is 3.00 Sterling, including p&p.
For UK orders, the cost is 3.75 Sterling, including p&p.

Payments should be made to vanguardcomic@gmail.com.

• There are also copies of the comic on sale in Sub City, Exchequer Street, if anybody Dublin-based wants to check that out.

Icarus flies into Paragon 7, out now

The latest issue of British indie title Paragon is out now - so here's a chance to find out why it has been nominated for an Eagle award as best British black and white comic book by buying the latest issue.

With a full colour cover by the fantastic Matt Soffe, publisher Davey Candlish tells us this issue makes a great jumping on point for those who want to see what all the fuss is about, as it includes two new stories.

What if Icarus hadn't plunged to his doom as his wings melted? Read his further adventures in Icarus Dangerous by Dirk Van Dom, Stephen Prestwood and Jim Campbell

Plus there's Rise of the MekkoSapiens... in which the question asked is - is G127 a robot? Human? Both? Does G127 even know? By Matthew McLaughlin, Dave Candlish and Matt Brown.

Alongside these new tales there's the terrific Jikan (by Mark Howard, El Chivo and Matt Brown), in a a double length 16-page complete adventure starring the time-travelling, demon-hunting Japanese warrior.

• Paragon #7 is on sale in print for £1.50 direct from the Paragon blog site - or as a digital edition via Lulu for just 99p

• Current Jikan scribe Mark Howard is auctioning off some original Jikan art for charity, namely to help those affected by the Japanese tsunami, and wrote a four page script for the occasion. More info here at http://genreforjapan.wordpress.com