Gears of War

Former Marvel UK artist and these days a publisher in his own right of a range of high quality indie titles from Mam Tor Publishing , (along with partner, Christine), Liam Sharp is busy working on a new six-part story for the new Gears of War comic from Wildstorm, based in the universe of the top-selling game.

The first issue based on Gears of War 2, the sequel to the computer game, debuts in October, one month before the game's launch.

"I'm very excited.," says Liam of the story, which has been scripted by Gears of War 2 video game scriptwriter and comic book writer Joshua Ortega. "I'm doing the lead six issue story."

The opening six-issue arc of this new ongoing series bridges the end of the first Gears of War game and the start of the second one, following the brutal adventures of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad in the battle against the Locust.

For Liam, the appeal of drawing the book was nothing to do with it being a tie-in to a game, but "everything else", he told US comics site Newsarama in a recent interview - the characters, environments, monsters...

"It felt really familiar," he explains. "The deeper I got into looking at everything, not having the game at the time and just going on the visuals, the more I felt I could be well-suited to it. The imagery felt sort of like The Death Dealer with guns - something epic that would require a lot of detail, energy and I guess my kind of grittiness - and that really appealed to me."

The winner of over 30 Game of the Year awards, Gears of War for Xbox 360 and PC features amazing tactical action and multiplayer excitement. The plot thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing story of humankind’s epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet.

Gears of War 2, which continues the story of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad in an epic saga of survival, loss and retribution, is the sequel to the blockbuster game that sold over 4.5 million copies and redefined the third-person tactical action game genre. The game is being developed exclusively for Xbox 360 and will launch this November.

" The game is awesome," says Liam" so I'm trying to give it the same grit and density of detail."

• Taking of Liam and MamTor, a quick plug for the recently released The Enemy's Son - Erth Chronicles Book I. This is the first book in the Erth Chronicles series by James Johnson., a unique vision in SF & Fantasy that unveils an epic universe that stretches from the printed page to a world-wide online community. You can download a preview of 'The Enemy's Son here (Acrobat Reader required).

MamTor's Mother of a Comic

Mam Tor Publishing, the brain child of Liam (Death's Head II, Man Thing etc.) and Chris McCormack Sharp has collaborated with Mother (London) Advertising Ltd. to produce a 16 page quarterly comic inside the London edition of Time Out magazine called Four Feet From a Rat.

The comic, which will be included with the issue published 19th March, features four London-centric stories; "The Crane Gods" and cover illustrated by Liam, "The Little Guy" by Chris Weston (above), "Routemaster" by Dave Kendall, and "Don Pigeone" by Kev Crossley. All the scripts were provided by Mother.

"This is a great chance to take this kind of work to a whole new audience," says Liam. "There are plans to collect the stories into a single book later on, and we're planning on including other big name creators in future editions.

"Time Out sells 200,000 copies, which are meant to be read on average by five people per copy - so it's a massive bit of exposure! Wouldn't it be great if it actually made a difference and brought some new people to our industry? We can only hope!"

Copies of the comic will also be available at the Bristol Comics Expo in May.