Vanguard Issue 3 unleashed

Dirk van Dom has dropped us a line to tell us that the latest issue of action adventure indie anthology Vanguard is now on sale.

"It's been a bit of a wait as myself and my fellow creators fended off various zombie-like RLI's ("Real Life Issues") that just wouldn't curl up and die," he says, " but our third edition is finally here! And it's worth the wait, if I do say so myself.

Wrapped in a cover featuring Duncan and Jamie of 'Mammoth Jack', with art by David Blankley the 32-page anthology includes continuations of three  established stories ('Atomic Call', 'Mammoth Jack' and 'Tucker') with  three new tales joining the mix - 'Vestige', 'Harry Kane' and 'S.N.A'.

"Notable amongst these is S.N.A, which appears - and will continue to appear henceforth - as a blood-soaked full colour centre-spread strip," says Dirk.

"The one bit of bad news is that, due to circumstances beyond our control, chapter 3 of 'Halo and the Gryphon' will not appear as scheduled. But it will return, with a vengeance!

The line up is as follows (visit the blog for blood soaked visuals, note this is not your PG title):

Atomic Call (Art: David Blankley): Call Malone has been captured by bounty hunter Balthazar Quest, who's been hired by a mysterious organisation to retrieve the Atomic Transference gauntlet she stole. But Balthazar is not the only one trying to get his hands on the strange technology...

Mammoth Jack (Art: El Chivo): Jamie Swift's one-girl (and her donkey) attack on industrial kingpin Gobbett delivers dire consequences when he discovers where she's hiding and sends a team of brutal ruffians to 'take care of business'.

Buck Tucker: Enemy of Love (Art: Bhuna): Tucker has been brought back to (semi)life by a hellish creature he affectionately refers to as 'Slug Slut'. Slug Slut has a mission for the recently deceased serial killer - namely, ridding the human race of a contagious disease called 'love'. In order to do this, he first needs to learn about the demonic Q-Pids...

Vestige (Art: Brian Coyle): Irish-American Chet Easterbrook travels to Ireland following a series of tragic events that lead to his life being turned upside-down and inside-out. He feels certain he will find answers to his predicament here...but his predicament is about to get worse.

Harry Kane will see Her Safely Home (Art: Jim Cameron): This light-hearted adventure strip follows MMA Champ and B-movie action star Harry Kane, who - following a chance encounter with a strange old man whilst touring Tokyo with his new movie - inexplicably finds himself hundreds of years in the past, seemingly living out the plot of his film!

S.N.A (Surname Not Applicable) (Art: David Blankley):  In this full colour spin-off from Atomic Call, we learn more about Mandy S.N.A, the mysterious stranger with a split personality who's been making Call Malone's life hell. Who is she? What is her connection to Call? What does she know about the A.T gauntlet? And will anybody who gets in her way ever live to tell the tale? (Answer to that last one - probably not.)

• Vanguard Issue 3 is available directly from Dirk Van Dom at a cost of 2.50 euro + P&P. (P&P = 1.50 euro ROI and NI, 3.30 euro UK and abroad). Order via paypal: vanguardcomic@gmail.com. 

• More info: http://vanguardcomic.blogspot.ie

If ordered from Dirk, the issue will ship with a free set of full colour artcards featuring some of Vanguard's characters in a Japanese themed setting. Check out previous blog posts for a look at the cards. (Of course, they look even better in the (paper) 'flesh'. :) Only a limited number have been printed, so it's a case of first come, first served with these.

• Print editions of  Vanguard Issue 3 are also available to buy from Lulu.com via: www.lulu.com/shop/van-dom/vanguard-issue-3/paperback/product-20957564.html 

• You can also download a digital version of the issue from the Vanguard Comicsy store here: www.comicsy.co.uk/vandomonium/

Vanguard 2 anthology now online for free

The second issue of the UK indie anthology comic Vanguard is on sale now, continuing the stories that began in issue 1.

As before, art duties on the International Woman of Mystery tale "Atomic Call" are by David Blankley, while Louis Carter continues to produce some brilliantly bizarre artwork on the sci-fi, fantasy epic Halo and the Gryphon. This issue's violent installment of 1800's When Good Donkey's Go Bad tale "Mammoth-Jack" features a change of artist however, as El Chivo takes over pencilling duties from Owen Watts. (However, Watts is still on board providing some fantastic lettering work for the six page tale...and that's not his only contribution to this issue).

Apart from this there is another Tucker story, featuring glorious, blood-soaked, full colour artwork by Bhuna.

"This tale features a change of direction for the psychopathic character originally created for Hallowscream," says editor Dirk van Dom, "bringing a fantasy-based twist to proceedings in order to 'lighten' the serial-slashing tone somewhat.

"I've also got another two wonderful pages of art featuring the comic's fictional editor 'Redbats' by David Withers, who also provides lettering for two of the strips herein. And, of course, it would be remiss of me not to mention that lettering master Jim Campbell has also deigned to grace us with his presence lettering David Blankley's noir-tastic Atomic Call pages.

Vanguard is 24 pages of cover to cover action, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, alien creatures, ass-kicking babes, angry donkeys, demons and deceased serial killers. You can read it for free online - just make your way here and enjoy the comic, but be sure to leave some comments in return.

If you enjoy Issue 2, then you might want to buy Issue 1. "Only issue 2 is available to view," says Dirk. "I didn't think it would be fair to those who purchased a copy of issue 1 to then make it available for free, so I haven't done so."

Of course, you might still want to buy a print copy of Issue 2 - and that's avialable too and comes with free gifts, including a copy of "Speed Date", a 16-page full-colour A5 comic that collects together both parts of slaser-serial killer story "Speed Date", which originally appeared in Hallowscream's 2010 and 2011 issues. Art on part 1 is by Ghostpockets and on part 2 by Bhuna.

You'll also receive a set of four, full-colour, gloss laminated artcards featuring art by some of the comic's contributors. There's an unlettered version of Liam Byrne's groovy issue 1 cover art, an unlettered version of David Blankley's issue 2 cover and brand new images by Owen Watts and Louis Carter, featuring 'Mammoth-Jack' and 'Halo and the Gryphon' respectively.

If you would like to support us by purchasing a copy, you can order via paypal at the below rates:

For ROI orders, the cost is 3.35 Euros, including p&p.
For NI orders, the cost is 3.00 Sterling, including p&p.
For UK orders, the cost is 3.75 Sterling, including p&p.

Payments should be made to vanguardcomic@gmail.com.

• There are also copies of the comic on sale in Sub City, Exchequer Street, if anybody Dublin-based wants to check that out.

British indie comic anthology Vanguard debuts

Comic creator Dirk van Dom and a few others from the 2000 AD forums have put together their own anthology title - Vanguard - and issue 1 is now on sale.

Vanguard features four (would be) on-going serials, written by Dirk and illustrated by some of the best talent working in the UK small press arena.

The title follows the 2000 AD formula of offering a varied menu of tales, and will hopefully feature something for everyone, with sci-fi action and butt-kicking heroines, fantasy adventure featuring Gryphons and Smoke Angels, a modern-day supernatural mystery thriller featuring a cast of cursed, tragic heroes with strange abilities -- and a retro-style "animals on the rampage" tale starring one very angry donkey!

As well as Dirk, other creators involved in the new book include David Blankley, Louis Carter, Brigonas Mac Giolla Chomhaill, Owen Watts and Liam Byrne, who provided the cover.

"My collaborators on this project have put their all into turning in some fantastic-looking pages and the whole thing sits together really well," says Dirk. "With this first issue, our small-press adventure is off to a fine beginning, and I can promise that it will only get better from here.

"The first issue of Vanguard is very much an experiment, to test the waters and get some feedback on the stories, see what works and what doesn't. The aim is to produce a regular - if infrequent! - comic that will develop the stories and characters within and allow them to reach their natural conclusions.

"The plan is that there will be two issues of Vanguard published each year, probably Summer and Winter editions, though how feasible/workable this is all remains to be seen... Issue 2 is certainly going to happen by the end of the year."

• For more information and how to order visit: http://vanguardcomic.blogspot.com/