Phoenix to rise from Insomnia's ashes

Comics collective The Sleepless Phoenix is now taking pre-orders for its 192-page black-and-white anthology on creative seed site Kickstarter.com.

The planned collection - born from the demise of  British publisher Insomnia Publications - will feature the work of more than 50 up-and-coming creators from the UK and the US including Martin Conaghan (Burke & Hare), Ben Bates (Sonic the Hedgehog), Jim Boswell (KiCk!), Lauren Anne Sharp (Kronos City), Adam Grose (Cosmogenesis), Michael Moreci (Quarantined), Peter Forbes (Oz: Fall of the Scarecrow King) and more.

The collective was born out of the seeming (and abrupt) end to Insomnia earlier this year. On 30th June, Insomnia publisher Crawford Coutts filed to cease trading with the UK Companies House. Coutts never officially informed his creators and, until last week, had remained out of contact.

(On Friday, Coutts sent out an e-mail releasing creators from their Insomnia contracts. Previously, downthetubes understands that anyone who'd signed a contract was still tied to Insomnia due its status as "inactive" rather than insolvent, and couldn't take their books elsewhere unless the company was formally wound up, or the contracts were officially cancelled. Now that the latter has happened, people can go looking for new publishers).

Rather than allow their work to fall to the wayside,  creators banded together, fast building a mutual admiration for the short comics that will appear in this anthology - and everyone involved is determined to see it get the release it deserves, with the project's Kickstarter appeal pegged at £2320 ($3600) to pay for printing.

Supporters can pledge as little as one dollar to the cause to help get the book printed, although those that pledge more will be entitled to perks such as a limited edition print along with their copy, or an original sketch from one of the artists.

Mike Carey (The Unwritten, Lucifer) has called the book "a kaleidoscope of graphic stories--mostly in the darker colours of the horror palette, but all the better for that".

In addition to selling signed limited-edition softcover editions of the anthology, The Sleepless Phoenix is offering several unique opportunities for donors to snag original art, have their likeness illustrated in the book, and be acknowledged in a special thank you section.

Money raised from anthology pre-sales will pay for the printing and shipping of the anthology. All profit will go to providing funding for the Comic Book Alliance, an organization that works to settle creator disputes in the comic publishing industry.

• Visit the Sleepless Phoenix page on Kickstarter for all the latest news, previews, and updates

Tube Surfing: 12 February 2009

• Former Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton, now an ardent campaigner for internet rights and longtime blogger has a new short collection of his favorite pieces from his books and blog called Sunken Treasures, including a production diary from his 2008 role in Criminal Minds. We mention it here -- quite apart from the fact that it's sure to be an enjoyable read -- because the cover design is by 2000AD creative D’Israeli. Two editions are avalable: a US Edition and a World Edition both from lulu.com.

• Talking of D'Israeli, the consummate colourist holds his hand up to past mistakes in an honest post on his blog, revealing where his career as a 2000AD colourist jumped the shark. "One of the drawbacks of being a commercial artist is that your mistakes are as public as your triumphs," he notes, on discovering that this month's Judge Dredd: The Megazine is accompanied by a reprint volume of Pussyfoot Five. Read the tale here

• The latest issue of The DFC contains FRONTIER Part Six: 'The Greedy Ground' with art by Andrew Wildman, script by Jason Cobley. Weird goings on down in the mines as Mitch meets the eveil Mr Winchester and Daisy meets the amazing 'Mother'. Who is 'Mother'? Well you will just have to get hold of your copy.

• More news from Jim Boswell: he's drawing a football strip for KiCK! magazine, which is aimed at 6 to 12 year olds. "It's been a lot of work, but surprisingly fun, too," he says. "The editor has been fantastic, sending through a tonne of good ref photos and links to youtube clips of the actual match I've been drawing. These have been invaluable, as they're very keen to get the players' likenesses spot-on."

• In the run up to Christmas, author Iain Rankin was doing the rounds plugging his new book, Doors Open. During the interviews he always mentioned his John Constantine graphic novel featuring the Hellblazer anti hero published by Vertigo, even saying he had finished it. Well, it seems something has changed because when Vertigo's line of crime-driven comics and graphic novels was discussed at last week's New York Comic Con, Constantine did not feature in the Rankin-penned Dark Entries, illustrated by Werther Dell’Edera. Comic Book Resources reports that Rankin, a longtime comics fan, did initially pitch a Hellblazer story, according to the line's editor, Will Dennis, it was more a detective story that fitted well into their ideas for the crime line that centres on a private detective hired as a mole on a reality TV show called Haunted Mansion. Something of a locked room mystery, things outside the producers’ control start to affect the contestants. Dennis said that the book has supernatural elements and though it’s not a Hellblazer story, Constantine fans should enjoy it.

• Former 2000AD creator Peter Milligan, currently writer of Hellblazer and Greek Street, is also involved in the Vertigo crme line, working with James Romberger on a book called The Bronx Kill.

• Sean Azzopardi has just published an interview with critically acclaimed artist Oli Smith, the London based self publisher whose work include titles such as Hazy Thursday, Summer Ball and Weekend friends. He has also written for Doctor Who and illustrates and paints the odd canvas. (Check out Oli's own web site here). Sean, no slouch himself when it comes to cretivity, reports he has just found out that a four page strip he submitted has been accepted for Side B, a music anthology.

• This "Tube Surf" complied with help from Matthew Badham and Reuben Willmott

Fly Me to the Moon, Forties Style

Manchester-based comics artist Jim Boswell, whose credits include Markosia's Starship Troopers and more, has begun posting some of his designs and pages for Project: Luna 1947, his latest project for the company.

Written by Martin Hayes, who Jim worked with recently on the "Intergalactic Bank-Robbing Aliens" story for Futurequake, Project Luna: 1947 is an 88-page graphic novel that looks like it's going to be great retro-fun, mixing 1940s post war austerity with spaceships, spacesuits and adventure.

"I won't give away too much of the plot," says Jim, "I'll just say it will be awesome! Martin is a fantastic writer and we're going to have a blast doing this."

Jim plans to post more teaser panels and pages on his blog as the project develops.

"Jim’s a great artist and I’m really looking forward to seeing his pages as they come in," said Martin of the project late last year, who is still busy contributing to the Futurequake project. He's recently written a five-page story called Bad Static for an upcoming issue of indie publiser's horror anthology Something Wicked, which is being drawn by John Cahill.