Birmingham Comic Show Revamped

British podcast and comics news site Geek Syndicate reports that after three successful conventions, The Birmingham International Comics Show is regenerating into The British International Comic Show.

"This is simply to reflect how the show has become the UK’s largest comic industry event and to help attract a wider variety of visitors, exhibitors and sponsorship," co-organiser Shane Chebsey told Geek Syndicate. "We also don’t want to be limited to Birmingham as a location for the show, and the name change allows us flexibility on this front."

There are no plans to move locations, though. "We think Birmingham is the best location for a show," he said. "...However, we are always looking at other possible venues and events that International Comic Shows as a company can offer, both to the industry and to fans."

• The British International Comic Show takes place on 3-4 October 2009 • Read the full news story on Geek Syndicate • Vist the British International Comics Show web site

Orang Utan Slams into Birmingham

Fresh from the success of Eleventh Hour Volume 1 hitting the number one spot on e-publisher site WOWIO, British indie Orang Utan Comics Studio have announced an exciting new addition to the creative team of The Intergalactic Adventures of Slam Ridley as they prepare to take the Birmingham International Comics Show by storm this weekend.

The adventures of the space adventurer, Slam Ridley, were previously set to be illustrated by the highly talented Simon Wyatt. However, Simon and the OUCS team felt that his vast talents would be better suited to some of their other upcoming projects, including the Viking tale Valhalla, written by Peter Rogers, and further adventures of the unfortunate medieval hero, Danick Drakesbane.

This, of course, left a huge hole to be filled in the creative team on what OUCS hopes to be one of its flag ship titles. Thus, the search began for a new artist to take on the task of illustrating the adventures of the rugged hero, Slam Ridley, and his robotic companion Dan.

Now Orang Utan Comics Studio has announced that the new artist on The Intergalactic Adventures of Slam Ridley will be the immensely talented Craig Yeung, who is probably best known for his inking work on various Marvel Comics books, including Runaways and X-Men: First Class, and is also a highly accomplished penciler.

“While we're sad to see Simon leave the book, and want to publicly acknowledge the huge amount of time and effort he put into helping us develop the world of Slam Ridley, we couldn't be more excited about having Craig on board as the new artist," says series creator and plotter, Ian Sharman.

"We drew up a wish list of artists which included a lot of very talented people who were all working for the big two publishers. To be honest, we weren't expecting any of them to say yes. Craig was right at the top of the list and we were stunned when he accepted the job.”

“Craig seemed to 'get' the idea behind The Intergalactic Adventures of Slam Ridley right away," feels series script writer, Peter Rogers, " and instantly understood the look that we were going for. I'm really looking forward to working with him.”

Orang Utan Comics Studio made the announcement about the artist change to coincide with their attendance at the Birmingham International Comics Show this coming weekend (4th-5th October) at the Think Tank in Birmingham. Co-founders of the studio, Peter Rogers and Ian Sharman will be on hand all weekend to sign copies of their critically acclaimed anthology Eleventh Hour, answer any and all questions about the studio and review portfolios.

Several of the studio's artists, including Simon Wyatt and John Charles can also be found at the OUCS stand throughout the weekend, signing comics, sketching and giving advice to aspiring artists.

• Visit the Orang Utan Studios Web Site
• BICS Exhibitor Floor Plan Now Online here

Birmingham Show Goodies!

With the Birmingham International Comic Show just a couple of weeks to go, it seems like a good idea to bring readers a small sampling of just some of the indie press titles on sale at the event. (And we do mean small -- the number is likely to be huge!)

While the event is going to be packed with creators working in the mainstream and will play host to stands from several top publishers including The DFC, the event is also going to be packed with indie creators selling their wares, trading ideas and generally pushing the British comics industry further forward.

• First, a plug for Bulletproof #2, published by Bulletproof Comics (www.bulletproofcomics.co.uk), the brainchild of TOXIC editor Matt Yeo. The 80-page issue, 33 pages in full colour includes contributions from Dave Hailwood & Tony Suleri, Jim Alexander & Jon Haward, Paul Harrison-Davies, Bulent Yusef & Dave Thomson, Alan Grant & Alan Burrows, Stuart Giddings, Lee Langford & Klaus Belarski, John Freeman & Mike Nicoll, Rik Hoskin, Thomas Crielly & John Doran. Check the Bulletproof web site for more details, web comics and more.

• Daniel Fish's latest Minicomic will be making its official debut at the Show in Birmingham. For a sneak peak and some info go to fish1000.blogspot.com/2008/09/stuff-for-you.html

• Lee Thacker has two new books that will be on sale at at BICS and can also be purchased online at www.lulu.com/leethacker. The first is his response to the Holocaust, Yellow Stars. The other is the first annual Raw Shark anthology which includes work I've been doing for other people, including indie legends The Wedding Present. Look out too for the first issue of Succubus. (His 800-page graphic novel One For Sorrow, introduced by Dave Sim, and other titles by Lee are also available from www.lulu.com/leethacker. Page samples can be found at www.comicspace.com/leethacker).

TimeBomb Comics, headed up by Steve Tanner, will have its second title, Dick Turpin And The Restless Dead drawn Andy Dodd on sale. (They have several more projects in the works, too). When notorious highwayman Dick Turpin stumbles across a deserted village following his latest highway robbery it seems the ideal place to hide out. But the village is not as empty as it first appears – and Turpin soon finds himself surrounded by hordes of rotting, hungry zombies! You can read the first five pages of the strip in their ComicSpace gallery.
“This release is our take on the zombie comics bandwagon that’s been steadily trundling through the last few year,” explains Steve, “and after the time-bending mind-twister that was our first comic Ragamuffins: Stitches in Time, Andy and I both readily agreed that our next one-shot should be something completely different, if only to prove to ourselves we weren’t a couple of lame one-trick ponies.
“I fancied doing something historical, Andy wanted to draw horses, but something extra needed to be added to the mix., he adds. "The missing ingredient came from my catching sight of a one-off promotional piece that Andy had done a few years ago featuring a zombie infested sewer, and the realisation that not only could Andy draw zombies – he could draw great zombies.
"The comic is a real historical romp which features all what you’d expect from a comic featuring the iconic legendary highwayman: Black Bess, highway robberies, Flintlock pistols, the immortal line ‘Stand and Deliver!’, and zombies. Lots of zombies!”

• Indiemanga, a group of artists and a writer based in the UK and Ireland will be launching its first book, Origins, at the Comics Expo: this is an anthology of comics as well as one prose story. "It features several manga which got to the finalist stage of Tokyopop's Rising Stars of manga," says group member Azure, "as well as all new material." More information from the Indiemanga web site.

• Keep a look out for Tim Perkins, whose Wizards Keep project is the culmination of many years spent working in Comic Books, Children's Books, Theme Park Conceptualisation, and Animation Conceptualisation. Check out the stunning Worlds End Ashcan here.

• As I said above this is a handful of what will be available at BICS. If you miss any of the great independent comics on sale at the event, you can always almost certainly find copies via Smallzone, read by BICS co-organiser Shance Chebsey. Visit their main website at www.smallzone.co.uk