Andrew Wildman talks HORIZON and Transformers at Literary Festival

HORIZON by Andrew Wildman. © Andrew Wildman

If you're in the Chipping Norton area on the 21st April, then get along to the Chipping Norton Literary Festival.  

Andrew Wildman, co-creator of the recently-published weird western Frontier and artist on the new IDW Transformers title will be giving a presentation about his own creator-owned project HORIZON, explaining the process of how he is creating the story and exactly what it is about.

He will also be talking about the new Transformers book and the secret narrative behind it.  

Published by Print Media Productions, Frontier: Dealing with Demons, is an all-ages 'Weird Western' by Jason Cobley and Andrew Wildman. There's more information here about that book.

The Festival line-up also includes a session from the team behind the Alien Invaders books, plus workshops on How to Break into Freelance Writing, How to get published and Writing short stories; and a number of author appearances, ncluding an audience with Inspector Morse creator Colin Dexter.

• Andrew Wildman: Creating a Graphic Novel - 10.00am, Saturday 21st April 2012  £7.50  The Chequers Inn, Chipping Norton • Click here to book online • Box Office: 01608 642350.

Weird Western set for release from Print Media

On sale from Prnt Media Productons at the end of this month is the the much-praised graphic novel Frontier: Dealing with Demons, an all-ages 'Weird Western' by Jason Cobley and Andrew Wildman.

The Wild West... and Daisy Adams is suddenly all alone, living on the plains, left with her father's old coat and a catapult. Then Mitch Seeker, the son of a sheriff, runs into her life. And they've been running ever since, chasing werewolves, ghosts and demons, on a quest to track down the man who turned them both into orphans and unleashed weirdness into the Wild West.

In 1866, out on the Frontier, things got Weird. History failed to record everything that happened, but Daisy wrote it all down in her diaries.

In Frontier, follow Mitch and Daisy as they seek justice but end up finding more adventure and danger than they counted on. It's weird. It's wild. It happened out west!

First published in the acclaimed Random House weekly comic The DFC,  Frontier: Dealing with Demons weaves an engaging, adventure-filled tale of derring-do in the American West. This collected edition includes additional feature material, including pages from Daisy's secret diary and reveals just how the story was created.

"Cobley and Wildman put the 'Wild' into the Wild West with Frontier," says the BBC's David Gilyeat of this story. "Imagine True Grit spun out into an ongoing action adventure serial, with a weird and wonderful script and sprightly, dynamic artwork. Oh, and with really cool monsters."

"A great comic needs three things: dynamic art, original and thrillingly-paced storylines, and characters we can root for," enthuses Dave Morris, creator of Mirabilis, also published by Print Media. "The team of Jason Cobley and Andrew Wildman are unsurpassed on all counts, and Frontier shows them at the top of their game. Put it on your Wanted poster right now."

Frontier – now being considered as a possible TV series with a trailer shot earlier this year -- will appeal to anyone who's ever enjoyed a cowboy film or comic, but has an added fantasy element that will draw in plenty more readers. With great characters, werewolves, ancient gods and demons and a bad guy that bullets can't kill, there's plenty to enjoy!

Writer Jason Cobley (Interviewed in STRIP Magazine Issue 3, on sale now in all good UK comic shops and for iPad) has adapted Dracula, Frankenstein and An Inspector Calls as graphic novels, working with artists Staz Johnson, Declan Shalvey and Will Volley to bring the classics to new life.

As well as working as a teacher for almost two decades, he has written the adventures of Captain Winston Bulldog for almost as long, with a variety of UK comic artists including Neill Cameron, most notably in the epic Bulldog: Empire. Based in East Anglia, holding back the sea with just a dustbin lid and some twine, Jason is currently working on a children's fantasy adventure novel The Legend of Tom Hickathrift, due out from Mogzilla later in 2012.

Frontier artist Andrew Wildman is an illustrator of some 25 years industry experience. His work has been used in advertising and publishing but it is for his work in the field of comics that he is best known, illustrating for books such as Transformers, The X-Men, Spider-Man and Venom. Further work includes character and environment design as well as storyboarding and animated movie production for the Video Games industries on projects such as Wing Commander, The Mummy, Gunlok, Jesse James: Gunfighter, Delta Force and Dredd versus Death.

Andrew was also Head Character Designer for the animated TV shows Legend of The Dragon and Zorro: Generation Z, Production Designer on the children’s animated TV show The Matt Hatter Chronicles and storyboard artist for the BBC on The Fades and Doctor Who.

He's currently collaborating again with Simon Furman on the eagerly anticipated Transformers comic book series, Transformers: ReGeneration One and is also creating a Children’s TV series with Bob the Builder scriptwriter Simon Jowett and developing his own Graphic Novel, HORIZON.

SALES DATA

Title: Frontier
Creators: Jason Cobley (writer) Andrew Wildman (artist and cover) Release Date: 28th January 2012
Format: Hardcover Graphic Album
Page Count: 68
Publisher: Print Media Productions Ltd.
Web: www.printmediaproductions.com
ISBN-10: 0956712134 ISBN-13: 9780956712134
Product Dimensions: 31.5 x 23.5 cm
List Price: £14.99

Frights on the Frontier!

The latest issue of the subscription-only weekly British comic The DFC features Jason Cobley and Andrew Wildman's Frontier on the cover, as heroes Mitch and Daisy find themselves cornered by werewolves in the weird Wild West.

"It's an absolute privilege to be involved in The DFC," says artist Andrew Wildman in a post on the downthetubes forum. "... It really is forging ahead in a country that offers little to younger readers other than licensed material.

"[There's] nothing wrong with licensed material, I have worked on much of it, but it is nice to think that comics can stand on their own two feet as a creative medium. We all remember those days when comics contained original material and it was ours. That sense of ownership as a reader is something that has been rekindled by The DFC and long may it continue..."

Also in the issue are Phillip Pullman and John Aggs' John Blake, in which an old scientist has an enlightening story to tell Blake; Super Animal Adventure Squad by the ever-brilliant James Turner; Wilbur Dawbarn's Bodkin and the Bear; mayhem involving a character called Countess Sheepula in John Gatehouse and Dave Windett's Lazarus Lemming; stories from the Stone Age in Ben Heggarty and Adam Brockbank's Mezolith; more fun from Pickle Rye in the talented Sarah Macintyre's Vern & Lettuce; Dave Shelton's Good Dog, Bad Dog; Mirabilis, in which hero Jack gets an astrology lesson, and we meet a "crazy" wizard!; and Simone Lia's Sausage and Carrots.

• View The DFC discussion on the downthetubes forum
• Visit The DFC web site or the The DFC Previews Site
• Visit the Frontier website

New Take on the Wild West in Frontier

Frontier, the new comic strip by Jason Cobley and Andrew Wildman is now up and running in weekly subscription-only comic The DFC.

The second instalment sees heroes Mitch and Daisy dealing with the Weird and Wonderful... well, check out the picture, it doesn't get any more weird than that.

Frontier tells the tales and adventures of Mitch Seeker and Daisy Adams and is "Based on the recently discovered diaries of Daisy Adams from 1866.

"It's weird, it's wild and it all happened out west," explain the creators, who have also launched a supporting web site for the strip (www.weirdwildwest.com) with information about the strip, gallery and creator profiles.

Extracts from Daisy's diaries are also being published in blog form, the creators warning that "It is with some nervousness that we present these diaries for publications.

"Discovered in a hoard of old documents and personal items in an old shack out on the plains of North America, we have been able to study at length the journals and diaries of many early settlers of the United States. We have been able to verify the truth of most of them, such as The Diary of Willam H. Ashley, March 25 - June 27, 1825 and others that are available to view at: www.over-land.com/diaries.html"

• Click here to read an online version of Frontier Part One
• Official Frontier web site: www.weirdwildwest.com
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