Overload anthology launches at Kapow

Here's the gruesome but powerful cover art by Graeme Neil Reid to a new anthology, Overload, edited by Martin Conaghan, which will be launched at Kapow this weekend, priced £4.

Yes, as if the very memory of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wasn't bad enough - the darling of our current leadership - now she's back as a zombie*.

Contributors to this new title include Gordon Rennie, Emma Beeby, Eoin Coveney, Martin Hayes, Graeme Howard, Dave Cook, Gary Crutchley, Geoffrey D. Wessel, Steve Penfold, Matt Gibbs, James Reekie, Jacen Burrows, Paul McClaren and Jim Campbell.

Overload is also looking for contributors – you can bring along your portfolio or story ideas to table 34 on Saturday 19 May at Kapow at 1300BST and on Sunday 20 May at 1300 BST

- View a preview online at: www.copydesk.co.uk/overload1
* Margaret Thatcher is not yet dead.

Overload yourself at the Glasgow Comic Con

If you're at the Glasgow ComicCon this Saturday, then look out for copies of Martin Conaghan's new title, Overload, which comes wrapped in this ace cover by Roy Stewart.

All work in the title is creator-owned, with Overload reserving some reprint and digital rights.

"I started up my own company, The Copydesk Ltd, a few months ago with a view to publishing some of my own projects," Martin says of the project "and I'm starting with a US-format black and white anthology title called Overload. It'll be short run stuff, but will hopefully build.

"Issue #0 comprises my old six-page stories, previously published in Negative Burn and some other places, but it helps me get it off the ground.

"I'm planning for it to be semi-regular, perhaps quarterly at first and I'm aiming to crowdsource some of the money to cover costs etc.

"I've started gathering a roster of names for issue #1," he reveals, which I'm aiming to have done by October (in time for the Leeds' Thought Bubble convention) and then I'll work on a schedule from there.

"So far, I've recruited Gordon Rennie, James Peaty, Vito Delsante, Cy Dethan, Matt Gibbs and Martin Hayes (plus me) for issue #1. It's a good blend of established, semi-established and up-coming writers. For now, it's invite-only, so I'm being careful about how I source contributors."

• Overload #0 will be sell at the Glasgow Con, price  £4 (44 pages, b/w, colour cover).

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.