ROK releases ZeZi audio comic

Rok Records has launched the official audio-enhanced ZEZI COMIC, telling the story of Birmingham's top rap act.

Featuring a full soundtrack that brings the story added life and excitement, find out about ZeZi's rise - the triumphs, the setbacks, the personal tragedy that has shaped their success in different ways.

Birmingham born rapper, singer, song-writer Bc Da Bossman has been involved in writing and producing music since he was very young, crafting his skills with an assist from a music project organised by the band UB40 at Dep Studios Birmingham at just 16. Armed with these skills BC developed himself as an artist, working with some of Birmingham’s most accomplished musicians, rappers and engineers such as the B15 Project, MSI & Asylum and Pato Banton.

But the music really came together with the formation of ZeZi and neither he or fellow band members DeNiro Capo, Durty Sqwurt and P.O.V. have looked back since.

Now, the winners of Radio 1's Freestyle Competition and the New Style Radio Competition have worked with ROK Records to bring their fans this special comic, charting how they came together, the near-tragic shooting that almost put paid to their plans but in the end, steeled them for greatness - and the story of their greatest fan, Taivann, whose life was cruelly cut short.

Working from a story by BC Da Bossman himself, top script writer and novelist Jasper Bark has crafted this bio-comic, drawn by Marc Olivent, coloured by Kirsty Swan and lettered by Jim Campbell.

This free comic includes the option to buy ZeZi's latest single "Spend It All", which will unlock an exclusive ZeZi video within the app.

• Zezi for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad: https://itunes.apple.com/app/zezi/id573944649

• ZeZi for Android devices: http://bit.ly/zezi-comic

ROK buys Fun Little Movies

The ROK Entertainment Group, owners of ROK Comics, has announced it has acquired a 51 per cent controlling interest in Los Angeles-based Fun Little Movies.

FLM specialises in the development, production and distribution of original mobile-oriented comedy for global distribution such the very daft Love Bytes, featuring Babylon 5 star Claudia Christian and guest starring Star Trek: The Next Generation's Wil Wheaton. In its nomination for Best Video Producer at the 2007 ME Awards, Mobile Entertainment Magazine said FLM “pioneered the advertiser-funded concept” for mobile video.

More info over on the ROK Comics blog.

Ex Astris Episode 11

You'll need to download this to your mobile to read the full strip




• Mike's now working on a mini-comic which takes up the story where this leaves our Earth-bound explorers. For the latest strips and more information check out www.exastris.co.uk

Ex Astris Episode 10

You'll need to download this to your mobile to read the full strip



• For the latest strips and more information check out www.exastris.co.uk

Ex Astris: Episode 9

You'll need to download this to your mobile to read the full strip



• For the latest strips and more information check out www.exastris.co.uk

Ex Astris: Episode 8

You'll need to download this to your mobile to read the full strip



• For the latest strips and more information check out www.exastris.co.uk

More Sound of Drowning released

Comic creator Paul O'Connell, creator of cult comic book The Sound of Drowning, has a brand new issue (#10! double figures! ) out now.

"It's a non-linear comic book inspired by those kids 'Choose Your Own Adventure' stories," he says, "co-written with Laura O'Callaghan-White and just a dash of Harry sauce."

Paul, whose "Air Diana" strip was one of 30 shortlisted in the 2007 ROK Comics Humour Competition, also has some new strips on the soundofdrowning web site.

Paul will be selling the new comic and other bits and pieces in the small presss market at the London ICA Comica event, curated by Paul Gravett.

• Read and interview with Paul on Geeks of Doom

$10,000 Mobile Comic Winner Announced

ROK Comics has announced the winner of its first $10,000 humour competition as cartoonist Steve English, for an episode of his ongoing series "Madd Science".

Runners up in the competition, which ran on ROK Comics this summer and attracted hundreds of entries, were David Hailwood and Toshiro de Smeyter for and episode of their strip "Drink Like a Fish" and Paul Eldridge, who used the ROK Comics Creator Tool to produce a strip entitled "The Secret of Stonehenge".

Steve won the $10,000 overall prize while the runners up will receive 12 month subscription to ROK Comics.

After two rounds of short listing, thirty cartoons were considered by external judge Alan Digby, editor of the best selling British weekly comic The Beano, published by DC Thomson.

"The standard was very high, and the different approaches to a inherently restricted art form, such as the 'three picture' strip cartoon, were refreshing," commented Alan.

"I wouldn't be surprised if one of the contributors who made the shortlist managed to make a breakthrough into the world of cartooning - and it might not necessarily be the most obvious entrant who does."

As the Managing Editor of the ROK service, I have to say I've been hugely impressed by thethe huge range of entries we had to the competition, especially given this is a fairly new medium for comics. There was much umming and ahing in the office to get down to a shortlist.

Commenting on his win, Steve English (right) said: "It's fantastic. The last time I entered a cartoon competition I only won a pizza!”

"It's nice to know that when you're staring at a blank page and banging your head against a wall waiting for an idea to drop out, sometimes something lands in your lap that makes others laugh too.”

"I'm torn between cashing in the cheque and framing it as proof that I made the editor of the Beano smile... No I'm not – a framed bank receipt will do the job just fine."

Shortlisted were Ian Alexander, Josh Alves, Vicente Aviles, Mike Carey, Paul O' Connell, Rich Diesslin, Mike Flanagan (Adult Themes, filtered), Lizz Lunney, Jack Noel, Howard Priestley, David Reddick, Kennedy Rose (Adult Themes, filtered), Paul Stapleton, Super Massive Studios and Dave Windett.

ROK Comics will be running more competitions in future.

Bruin Up

Way back when I came up with a lab animal gag I still like and my mate Tim Stevens did too since he's remembered it 20 years later, and suggested an update. So here are both cartoons in ROK Comics format -- completely free to read online. The final panel is Tim's gem.

Ex Astris Episode 7 - Ambush

You'll need to download this to your mobile to read the full strip

More Moon Queen for ROK Comics

ROK Comics creator Chris Reynolds is working on a new Moon Queen strip that will appear on the comics-to-mobile project. Titled "Moon Queen in Las Vegas: The Moon Queen's Greatest Tragedy", we'll let you know when it launches.

Chris is the author of the seminal graphic novel Mauretania first published by Penguin Books, and his Adventures From Mauretania (available from lulu.com) was voted as one of the best comics of 2006 in the Comics Journal.

Chris also tells us that on 16 November he and Paul Harvey are planning an exhibition, "The Newcastle Stuckists Celebrate the Mauretania" as it will be the Centenary of the maiden voyage of the ship the comic was named after.

"We plan to have paintings and comic artwork by me and Paul," says Chris. More details as we get them.

Stuckism is a radical and controversial art group that was co-founded in 1999 by Charles Thomson and Billy Childish (who left in 2001) along with eleven other artists. The name was derived by Thomson from an insult to Childish from his ex-girlfriend, Brit artist Tracey Emin, who had told him that his art was 'Stuck'.

Stuckists are pro-contemporary figurative painting with ideas and anti-conceptual art, mainly because of its lack of concepts. Stuckists have regularly demonstrated dressed as clowns against the Turner Prize. Several Stuckist Manifestos have been issued. One of them Remodernism inaugurates a renewal of spiritual values for art, culture and society to replace the emptiness of current Postmodernism.

The web site www.stuckism.com, started by Ella Guru, has disseminated these ideas, and in five years Stuckism has grown to an international art movement with over 100 groups round the world. These groups are independent and self-directed.

Crazy Mary joins ROK Comics

Acclaimed comic Crazy Mary has joined the ranks of a growing number of independently-created comics on the mobile comics website ROK Comics, edited by downthetubes John Freeman.

Crazy Mary is a cyberpunk action series about a bounty hunter, Mary, who can see a twisted supernatural universe that overlays and interacts with our own. Mary uses this ability along with her military training to compete in the intense world of “freelancers” a blanket term applied to Bounty Hunters, Bodyguards, Detectives, Assassins, and any other folks who get their hands dirty.

Crazy Mary combines elements of SF, Action and Horror and delivers a heroine perfect for the new millennium on the new millennium’s hottest platform.

Crazy Mary is created and written by Michael Colbert and art by critically praised painter J.K. Woodward (Peter David’s Fallen Angel, Marvel’s X-Men Mythos: Beast).

A free sample promo and serialized episodes are now available for download through www.rokcomics.com.

Crazy Mary also exists in analog form through Digital Webbing Presents as an on-going series, starting in November 2007.

• Official Crazy Mary Website: www.whoiscrazymary.com

ROK Comics seeks hot talent and offers $10K Prize

ROK Comics, the UK-based online and mobile phone creative aggregator and publisher of comics and cartoons have announced a competition with a prize of $10,000 (£5,000) for the best original comic strip or cartoon published it receives between now and the end of July 2007.

In addition, ROK are offering the winner of the prize the opportunity to feature front-and-centre online under a new section of the ROK Comics website to be called ‘HOT TALENT.’

ROK Comics is a new opportunity for publishers and creators to reach a worldwide audience who will be able to download the comics via Pay Per Download or subscription via Multi Media Messaging (MMS).

“The mobile phone is the perfect delivery vehicle for comics. The back lighting provides incredible vibrancy and the MMS presentation format we have chosen works across almost all phones and network operators” commented ROK Comics Managing Editor, John Freeman.

In addition, ROK Comics offers "FreeFall Comics" – an advanced Flash-based web service enabling anyone to create strips using their own photos along with ready-made characters and backgrounds that can be delivered to mobile and email.

With access to millions of handsets through existing Mobile Network Operator Agreements, ROK Comics can deliver digital comics straight to mobile handsets and collect revenue for doing so.

Creators publishing professionally via ROK Comics will receive 50% of the available revenue on every sale, with full access to sales statistics, viewings and more.

Publishers can also create Free Samples of strips that can be viewed online and on mobile to promote their print editions, and let fans know about them by e-mail, and provide an "Embed" of a strip, which can be posted on web sites, blog or company site.

John Freeman, a veteran of the comics and magazine world is spearheading ROK Comics, part of ROK Media. John was previously an editor for Marvel UK, Titan Magazines and a number of independent publishers. At Marvel, he edited Doctor Who Magazine and several of the company's US titles such as the best-selling Death's Head II. He was also editor of Star Trek Magazine and oversaw the launch of titles such as Star Wars Magazine, and the UK editions of Simpsons Comics.

“John and I have been looking at the potential for comics on mobile phones for some time and now, with advances in handset technology and ROK’s huge distribution network, we have finally made this a reality. We believe that this is a great mass market opportunity for creators and publishers alike. By enabling mobile delivery, syndication of their creations is now instantly possible, generating real revenue and we’re delighted to be offering this fantastic cash prize for the best original content we receive.” Said Graham Baines, CEO, ROK Media Ltd.

The £5,000 winner will be announced on the 1st August.

ROK Comics is available via mobile and the web at www.rokcomics.com. ROK Media is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ROK Entertainment Group who announced in May this year they had agreed to be acquired by US publicly-listed company, CyberFund (OTC: CYFD) in a Share Exchange Agreement.

Pig Brother

It had to be done, apparently.

New Characters for ROK Comics Creator Tool

Been busy last week with ROK Comics - several new faces have joined the beta and behind these scenes there's some revamping going on that looks fantastic.

British creator Dave Windett (Simpsons Comics, Daffy Duck, The Dandy) has created another suite of 'Freefall' characters, objects and scenes for the site's Creator Tool, which lets anyone create comic strips, even if they can't draw!

Dave has designed original characters for a variety of publications in the past and provided illustrations for everything from magazines and websites to mobile phones, games, and even childrens shoes.

At the moment, he's also busy converting some smashing pencil designs by Steve Bright into vector art for me, another suite of Freefall characters for the Creator Tool which should be added to the free service soon.

Dave is also uploading a humour strip The Wacky World of Animals, written by John Gatehouse, to ROK Comics, joining creators as diverse as Vince 'El Profe' Aviles from Puerto Rico, David 'Trek Life' Reddick, Steve 'Madd Science' English, Chris 'Mauretania' Reynolds and several other early adopters.

ROK Comics Launches

I'm very pleased to announce the launch of ROK Comics on Mobile, a new publishing solution enabling comics creators and publishers to syndicate their works to mobile phone users worldwide - and I've been given the task of being its "Managing Editor".

ROK Comics should open up huge worldwide commercial opportunities for all comic creators, artists, writers and publishers, and the service offers a revenue share deal to creators using the service, creators which on launch include Chris "Mauretania" Reynolds, David "Trek Life" Reddick, David Hailwood, Nick Miller, Graeme Neil Reid, indie publisher Broken Voice, with more to be announced in the next few days and weeks. We'll also we'll be publishing/adapting including several comics under license.

The concept behind ROK Comics is a no brainer for me and I've been banging on about it for years, but it's only the relatively recent advent of mobiles capable of displaying graphics well that has spurred the project, plus the worldwide reach ROK has thanks to its wide-ranging partnerships with a large number of telcos around the world.

With access to hundred of millions of handsets through existing Mobile Network Operator Agreements, ROK Comics can deliver digital comics straight to mobile handsets and collect revenue for doing so. Comic readers will be able to download the comics via Pay Per Download or subscription via Multi Media Messaging (MMS).

Creators publishing professionally via ROK Comics will receive 50% of the available revenue on every sale, with full access to sales statistics, viewings and more.

In addition to several licensed comics that will be offered via ROK Comics, publishers can also create Free Samples of strips that can be viewed online and on mobile to promote their print editions, and let fans know about them by e-mail, and provide an "Embed" of a strip, which can be posted on web sites, blog or company site.

In addition, ROK Comics offers "FreeFall Comics" – an advanced Flash-based service enabling anyone to create strips using ready-made characters and backgrounds that can also be delivered to mobile.

There are thousands of comics creators worldwide who publish independently or online, with no way to profit from their hard work. By enabling mobile delivery, syndication of their creations is now instantly possible, and, I hope, generating real revenue.

Have a look and let me know what you think!

The Perils of Beta Testing

Monkey News continues

In addition to being in the middle of an alpha test for a new comics-to-mobile service for ROK, this week I'm uploading Monkey News samples to YouTube while the guy who usually does it enjoys a well-earned holiday away from monkeys of virtual and office kind. Enjoy...





One viewer commented recently that her Siames cat is fascinated by MNN. perhaps it's the spinning bananas.