CDComics releases 'Robin Hood 2020'

Sheffield-based indie publisher CDComics has just launched Robin Hood 2020 – a political action thriller offering a modern take on the classic outlaw legend.

How would Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men respond to the current political and economic climate in the UK? How will they react when placed just seven years into future and the dystopian nightmare of 2020?

‘It just felt like the right time to write a story like this,” said the writer and artist Craig Daley.

The first digital issue - available online or on CD ROM from the Sheffield Space Centre - issue includes the usual humour expected from CDComics, whose previous titles include three Surreal Murder Mysteries (Meadowhell, Spring Heeled Jack and Football Crazy) and a 1960s-based alien abduction story, Carnacki & Hannay. This time, Craig's telling his story against the backdrop of a society that is divided across old class boundaries. On one side the plebs and on the other those who were born into privilege, the ruling elite class.

Along with a revamped Robin Hood, the comic has many of the characters you would expect to see such as Little John, Marion, Tuck, Much – and Scarlet, who has been through the most blatant transformation and is now a female. Along with the characters, even Sherwood Forest gets a surprising make over as the action moves from the traditional forest locations to the cities of London and Sheffield in 2020.

There isn’t a bow and arrow in sight, but the politics is close enough to the truth that the comic keeps the appearance of reality that flows through CDComics’ output. The comic says ‘There is No Conspiracy’ and unlike political thrillers, such as The X-Files, it doesn’t create one. The narrative uses current and historical events, facts and figures and just takes the reader seven years into the future.

“I'd like to think it owed more to A Very British Coup with action piled on top, rather than The X-Files," says Craig. "That was the reasoning behind the title of this first issue."

The action is full on and takes centre stage throughout this 32-page first issue that introduces all the main characters and the comic also asks enough questions to make you want to read Issue Two.

• Issue One of ‘Robin Hood: There is No Conspiracy’, is available to download from Amazon.co.uk, Drive Thru Comics, Smashwords (and after processing by Smashwords will be distributed on Kobo, Diesel, Barnes & Noble, Sony and Apple, priced around £1.25/$1.99 or the Euro equivalent.

• The CD ROM version of the comic packaged in a slim line DVD case with wrap around cover will also be on sale, priced £2.50, from Sheffield Space Centre on the Wicker, Broomhill’s Galaxy 4 and Record Collector, Rare and Racy on Devonshire Green and Blackwells on Carver Street, Sheffield

CD Comics issues free Hallowe'en sampler

Sheffield-based CDComics is releasing a free 'Taster' of its digital titles free via Amazon on 30th/31st October 2012 - a sneak peek into a world of surreal murders and mysteries from the mind of their creator, Craig Daley.

Whether it’s demons, aliens, monsters or just your average human psycho that whets your appetite, the 30-page full colour digital comic, offered in Kindle format, has them all. It features six front covers and four pages from Meadowhell: The True Horror of Shopping, Spring Heeled Jack: From the Tunnels of Hell, the well-received Football Crazy: The Theatre of Nightmares on the Road to Insanity, CDComics latest title, Carnacki and Hannay: Eyam, the Plague Village UFO Mystery, plus samples from Manhattan 1930: The Man in the White Suit and War Nurse: Alone.

You can grab your copy from amazon.co.uk. The free comic is also available at Amazon.co, USA, Japan, Germany, France, etc.

“CDComics output has been nothing but a treat to read, Daley’s unique, dry wit is the highlight of his writing..." say the reviewers over at HorrorCultFims. "and when it comes to the closing pages, there’s no one else to compare.”

• Download free Kindle reading Apps for Smartphones, Tablets, Macs and PCs

The full versions of all CDComics current titles are available from

• Amazon UK
• Drive Thru Comics
• Smashwords
• Kobo
• Diesel
• Barnes & Noble
• Sony
• Apple

 

CD Comics latest title set to scare!

The latest CDComics release - EYAM: The Plague Village UFO Mystery - is now on sale, with a title that conjures images of Gerry Anderson's UFO and Hammer Horror, all rolled into one.

In September 1665 the village of Eyam, South-West of Sheffield suffered an outbreak of plague and during the following fourteen months it killed almost two thirds of the population.

Eyam: The Plague Village UFO Mystery is set exactly 300 years after the original plague outbreak, and opens with UFOs being tracked on radar over the village.

“Like lots of kids from Sheffield, I visited Eyam, the plague village on a school trip and found it really interesting," explains creator Craig Daley, who has now released a number of his projects on CD. "Then, more recently, I read about the unbelievably titled “Flying Saucer Working Party” that was set up by the Ministry of Defence in 1950 and the idea for this story just jumped out.”

MI6 dispatch their top agent, Richard Hannay and due to the extraterrestrial nature of the mystery they also send for Thomas Carnacki, a private investigator whose speciality is the paranormal. Miss Emma Dodgson, an Oxford, Mathematics and Science graduate is Carnacki’s assistant and the three investigators are faced with an unexplained abduction on a massive scale. The comic tells the story of their combined investigation as history, science and aliens clash in 1965 when the entire population of Eyam disappears.

"The mystery concludes in issue two of Carnacki & Hannay, Eyam: The UFO Mystery Solved," says Craig, "when the investigation shifts to Sheffield. This second comic is due for release in November 2012.

“It’s sort of South Yorkshire X-Files," says Craig, "with the Eyam plague of 1665 replacing Roswell and you’ll find out in issue two if Sheffield is England’s Area 51!"

• The CDrom of Eyam: The Plague Village UFO Mystery includes both JPEG and PDF formats of the 37 page full colour comic and is on sale now, priced £2.50 and is available from Sheffield Space Center on the Wicker, Rare and Racey on Devonshire Green, Broomhill’s Galaxy 4 and Record Collector, The Funhouse, Woodseats and the Blackwells on Mappin Street.

The comic is also available to download from Amazon for Kindle, iPhone, iPad and other digital formats.

• All previous CDComic titles are also available at the Sheffield Shops listed above and on Amazon at

• For more information please check out the pages and posts at www.cdgraphicnovels.blogspot.com

 

CD Comics 'Meadowhell' reveals the true horror of shopping

Meadowhall Shopping Centre is located between Sheffield and Rotherham and is just like every other shopping mall - but independent comic company CD Comics has published a humorous Surreal Murder Mystery Graphic Novel on CD-ROM that has sold triple figures locally and has now been released on Kindle and ebay.co.uk

The writer and artist Craig Daley gives us a story that deals with the fictional, but gruesome murder of three security guards in Meadowhall, two months prior to the opening. The bizarre murders take place on the night of the Summer Solstice in 1990 and D.C.I Bramley of the Met is called in to deal with the triple homicide.

The fast paced investigation that follows leads the Police into areas they had not expected and ends with several shocking and surreal discoveries.

The digital format allows the reader the opportunity to zoom in and analyse each page for clues and carry out their own investigation.

The CD's cover carries the warning, “What follows could change the way you shop forever.” and reassures us that, “the names of the innocent have been changed, but the guilty have remained the same so that we can be sure this never happens again.”

Craig Daley worked for a few years on the comic strip The Jerks for the national magazine Making Music, but tells us Meadowhell is a return to his roots as a born and bred Sheffield lad who prefers creating comics in a longer comic book format.

“It’s Hammer Horror meets Silent Witness with a bit of Richard Dawkins to confuse matters, he says.

As well as beng on sale online CD Comics Meadowhell and their other titles are available at three Sheffield retailers: the Wicker’s Sheffield Space Centre, Broomhill’s Galaxy 4 and Rare and Racy on Devonshire Green, for £2.50.

Other titles currently available locally and on Kindle include Spring Heeled Jack, Football Crazy, Manhattan 1930 and War Nurse, the latter a reinvention of a public domain heroine created in the 1940s.

• To see some sample pages of Meadowhell visit cdgraphicnovels.blogspot.com

CDComics bring Salem to Sheffield

Following up on the success of their digital comics Meadowhell and The Attercliffe Prowler, Sheffield-based independent comic company CDComics has produced the third in their local horror series.

“I’m sort of on a mission to make Sheffield into Britain's Salem.” says writer-illustrator Craig Daley.

CD Comics are exactly that – comics/graphic novels on CD rather than paper, to read on your PC or on various other devices. Each CDComics release has more than 50 full colour pages.

Their latest horror tale - Football Crazy - is a 66-page full colour graphic novel available in two versions, Red or Blue. A reader can follow either Sheffield Wednesday or United on an eventful FA Cup run, so if you support either the Blades or Owls you have a choice of stories.

“Football Crazy is Roy of the Rovers meets Frost, but set in The Twilight Zone," Craig says. "It’s for football fans with a sense humour, who like a ‘whodunnit’ and all the clues are in the comic, but I’m hoping I keep the reader guessing until the last few pages.”

"The story starts with a FA Cup Third Round Replay and Steel City Derby, covered by Radio Sheffield," says Craig. "The victorious Sheffield team go on to meet Manchester United in the Forth Round, but then the bizarre and macabre nightmare begins.

"One of the Sheffield players is murdered in strange circumstances and the police, led by D.I Charlton must find out who the killer is and why they killed a footballer."

The story has plenty of twists and turns, and, just like previous stories features plenty of Sheffield locations, including the Police Station in Attercliffe, Heeley Baths, Manor Lodge, the Moor and also visits several of England ’s larger football stadiums.

There are cameo appearances from the Look North team, Harry, Christa, Tanya and Paul the weather man, along with other famous faces like Jim Rosenthal, Alan Davies, Robson Green, Stephen Fry and the Chuckle Brothers.

Thanks to its local links the project has already attracted local press attention, just as other locally-based titles have done (Bryan Talbot's Alice in Sunderland being a leading example). That will surely help boost local sales, which can be a boon to smaller independent press publishers.

The Football Crazy CD contains JPEG and PDF versions of either Sheffield United or Wednesday’s F.A Cup run.

All CD Comics are available at four Sheffield Retailers at the Wicker’s Sheffield Space Centre, Broomhill’s Galaxy 4, Blackwells on Carver Street and Rare and Racy on Devonshire Green, for £2.50. To order online go to: http://www.space-centre.co.uk/

• For more about CDComics visit: cdgraphicnovels.blogspot.com