Hell's Gate Springs from Dublin!

The recession may be bad news for most, but it has its silver lining. Case in point: it's given Dublin-based comic creator Alan Nolan the chance to publish At Hell's Gate, the kind of thing he's always wanted to do but never had the time.

"Thanks to the global recession I'm now in a position to spend some time doing something I have always loved," Alan told downthetubes, "writing and drawing comics.

"This is the first ever published work I have done and it came to life as a short story I put together one lazy afternoon."

Reaction has been positive so far. "I believe that this is the first comic I have ever had in my hands that has been entirely produced by one person," comments ComicRelated reviewer Daniel O'Leary. "That sheer fact alone is very impressive. Dubcity Comics is Alan Nolan and this first title from him is a doozy.

"...This is a well thought out book and Nolan has a great sense in his writing of where to reveal what at exactly the right moment. But as writer he does double duty on pencils and he uses the art to supplement his story effectively."

"At Hell's Gate is based around the real events at Bobby Mackeys Music World, seemingly America's most haunted site," he reveals. "I've elaborated on the story to involve my own characters and scenarios."

As for the origins of the macabre story, "It's possible I was watching too many paranormal reality shows at the time," Alan confesses, "but this formed the idea for me."

A chilling horror tale, Alan's pleased with this first outing. "All in all, I think it works as a general horror yarn," he enthuses, "not too taxing on the brain, the way comics where when I was a good deal younger."

• Find out more via http://alannolan.wordpress.com

• Read the full ComicRelated Review of At Hell's Gate #1

Markosia Dances out The Dark

British indie publisher Markosia Enterprises have teamed up with Chris Lynch (Monkeys with Machineguns, Photonic Graffiti) and Rick Lundeen (100 Covers, Epoch) to publish The Dark -- a four-issue, cyberpunk-styled comic series.

With nods toward the novels of authors such as Neal Stephenson and William Gibson, and films such as The Matrix, The Dark is the story of Daniel Abbot, a brilliant young scientist on the fringes of the establishment and the creator of Memetech - a technology that encodes information and memories into a liquid form, allowing anyone to “drink” the information. Terrified that his invention will be used for military purposes he decides to destroy his research, but not before he takes one last trip... with disastrous results.

Two years on, and the Memetech genie is out of the bottle. Abbot, having perfected his own version of the technology, fights a one-man war against the spread of his own invention and the collapse of our information culture in the guise of “The Dark”. Aided by an artificial intelligence nicknamed Howard Hughes, Abbott creates “The Baffler” – a coat made of Memetech that gives his the edge over his enemies. Capable of injecting information directly into this brain and firing Memetech flechettes to hit others with bursts of pure information, The Baffler is both weapon and disguise in Daniel Abbot's war against his own creation.

When The Dark uncovers a plot to set off Memetech bombs across the whole of the city Dante, filling the air with liquid information and creating a new society of his enemy's devising, he's plunged into a desperate race against time. But, not everything is what is seems. Who is the new and mysterious enemy who seems to know The Dark's every move? How did the Memetech, thought destroyed, reappear? Why can't Daniel wake his wife and son? And why is everyone in Dante named after an English poet?

Markosia kindly sent us an advance copy of the first issue and we're pleased to report it's some of Chris Lynch's best work to date, complemented by some suitably moody art from Lundeen. The story is complex but well realized, with plenty to get you thinking and wondering just what will happen next.

"I've been a big fan of Chris Lynch for a while now," says publisher Harry Markos on securing the property for Markosia, "and asked him to pitch a couple of new projects that we could look at for the digital market, with a view to releasing it as a graphic novel later.

"He's come up trumps with The Dark. Coupled with Rick’s fantastically atmospheric art, Chris’s story takes you to a very believable but disturbing world, not unlike the one we are living in at the moment! I am confident that we have a hit in the making."

• The first issue of The Dark will be released in August of this year as a digital comic book, via iTunes, with three more issues in the pipeline. A graphic novel is planned for later in the year. There's a free 8-page preview at www.thedarkcomicbook.com

Bear-Shaped Comics Collection Launched!

Richy K. Chandler, the creative force behind UK indie title Tempo Lush comics, has been wanting to put out a collection of his Tempo Lush Mini Comic range since the first one featuring Lucy the Octopus was released to the world back in 2007. After being kept busy with various other comic and illustration work -- including writing for Titan's much-missed Wallace & Gromit comic, bear- shaped inspiration finally struck and a new collection of 10 A4 mini-comics was the result.

Published in both colour and black & white, the collection comes snuggled up inside a box in the shape of Square McBear, who also stars in the final comic in the set. Other entries include "Govinda the Meditating Rabbit" and "22 Responses to an Insult."

The sets, which Richy put lots of love and effort into making, went on the sale for the first time at the London Underground Comics 176 event at the end of June and were flying off the shelves.

He tells us he was determined to make the sets as fun and tactile as possible, using different paper stocks and a broad range of drawing styles to create a breadth of experience jammed into one little package.

Also new to the Tempo Lush range is Bunch Issue 2, featuring a woman discovering that her toys are not as innocent as she thought, some literally eye popping office antics and more Lucy the Octopus.

Joining Richy is Fabtoons comic artist Francesca Cassavetti, creator of The Most Natural Thing in the World and Striptacular, plus in her comic book debut, animator, illustrator and graphic designer Maria Lee.

• You can read comic samples and buy your own bear at www.myspace.com/tempolush

• Tempolush is also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/tempolush

Moon Landing: T Plus 4 Days - Splashdown

Today, the descent stage of Lunar Module remains untouched where it was left in the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon. The ascent stage of the Lunar Module was left in a decaying lunar orbit and eventually crashed into the Moon's surface. The Apollo 11 crew separated the CSM's Command Module from the Service Module, which was left in Earth orbit and eventually burned up on re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere.

Of the 365 feet of Apollo Saturn V that launched on 16 July, only the 11-foot high Command Module, Columbia, returned to Earth where it safely splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean 40 years ago today.


The crew were taken aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet by a US Navy Sea King SH-3D helicopter with the code 66 on her side. "Navy 66" was lost several years later in a crash, but her spirit lives on in the toys and models that were produced of her, probably the single most famous of all the hundreds of Sea King helicopters that were built. Dinky produced a die-cast metal toy complete with plastic Apollo Command Module that could be winched up and down while Airfix were considerably more accurate with their 1/72nd scale plastic kit.

Again, Airfix cover art maestro Roy Cross is on top form with the Sea King shown having just dropped off its divers who have climbed onto the floating Command Module ready to attach the winch cable.

Today that Apollo 11 Command Module, Columbia, is on display in the National Air And Space Museum in Washington DC where she is displayed beside the first aircraft to fly, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier, the first aircraft to fly hypersonic and the first manned American craft in space, amongst many others.

British readers have the opportunity to see a real Apollo Command Module in the Science Museum in London where the Apollo 10 Command Module, which also orbited the Moon and was named after the comic strip character Charlie Brown, is on display.

Yesterday - The Future

• Coinciding with Jeremy's countdown to the 40th Anniversary of the first Moon Landing, downthetubes is publishing "Moon Landing 40th Anniversary: A Comics Celebration" - a gallery of illustrations and comic art inspired by space exploration.
Contributions are very welcome: if you don't want to join our forum and upload art but would like to join in with the celebrations, simply send your work to johnfreeman6-moonlandinganniversaryart@yahoo.co.uk. Please ensure images are no larger than 2MB in size and include a brief bio and web link so we can give you deserved credit.