Luck for Some: Temple APA 13 released

The Temple APA Issue Thirteen is now available to download as a totally free pdf file, containing contributions from the likes of Dave Hailwood, Paul Eldridge, Simon Mackie, Tony Suleri, Dirk Van Dom and Malcolm Kirk – who also provides the cover.

The Temple APA is a showcase for amateur and professional creators who are active in the UK comics scene. If you'd like to contribute or just want more information, check out the Temple blog or like us them Facebook.

You can download from Dropbox, MediaFire or view online at MyEbook.
PDF file size is 20.9 MB.

•  Temple APA blog
• Temple APA Facebook page

Temple 12, free comic showcase, available now

Have you forgotten how good it tastes? The 66-page Temple APA Issue Twelve is now available to download as part of a complete breakfast a totally free pdf file, containing contributions from the likes of Dave Hailwood, Paul Eldridge, Simon Mackie, Tony Suleri, Adam Grose and Malcolm Kirk, who also provides 100% of the recommended allowance of front cover, which you can see on the right these words, (unless you're standing on your head or something, in which case - what on Earth are you doing that for? Get the proper way up this instant! How can you even work a mouse like that?).

 

You can download from Dropbox, MediaFire or view online at MyEbook. PDF file size is 17.6 MB.

 

The Temple APA is a showcase for amateur and professional creators who are active in the UK comics scene. If you'd like to contribute or just want more information, check out the Temple blog or like us on Facebook...

 

• Temple APA blog

• Temple APA Facebook page

 

 

It's Temple Time!

Undeath's a beach! The 44-page Temple APA (Issue Eleven) is now available to download as a totally free PDF file, containing contributions from the likes of Dave Hailwood, Jim Stewart, Paul Eldridge, Simon Mackie, Malcolm Kirk and Tony Suleri. 

Intended as a promtional device for aspiring British creators, the Temple is a useful discussion forum for people interested in self or pro publishing.




- You can download from Dropbox, MediaFire, FileDropper, or view online at MyEbook (login required due to mature content). PDF file size is 13.83 MB.




- Visit the Temple APA blog

Temple APA Issue 9 showcases British comics talent

The ninth issue of the Temple APA digital comics showcase is now available to download as a completely free PDF file.

Featuring 48 pages of artwork and stories from a host of creators, including Tony Suleri, John Owens, Dave Hailwood, Dirk Van Dom, Matthew McLaughlin, Paul Eldridge, Malcolm Kirk and Simon Mackie, (who also provides the cover artwork, displayed above).

The Temple APA is a showcase of UK based comicbook talent, both amateur and professional. If you'd like to contribute or just want more information, check out the Temple website at http://templeapa.socialgo.com

• To download, click here and "save target/link as" (15.19 mb file)


• You can also obtain it from Clickwheel, Mediafire or it's available to read online at MyeBook

New Temple APA showcasing British creatives free online

The lightly seasoned Eighth Issue of the Temple APA digital comics showcase is now available to download as a completely free pdf file.

Full of comicy goodness from such persons as Simon Mackie, (also responsible for the cover shown above), David Hailwood, Matthew McLaughlin, Dirk Van Dom, Tony Suleri, Derek Hamill and numerous others including Malcolm Kirk, who cobbled it all together.

Also included is a small press Feature on Paragon comic.

The Temple APA is a showcase of UK based comic book talent, both amateur and professional. If you'd like to contribute or just want more information, check out the Temple website at: http://templeapa.socialgo.com

• To download Temple APA 8, scroll down the blog page of Malcom Kirl’s blog at: http://malcolmkirk.blogspot.com. File size is 19.27mb

Talent aplenty in Temple APA Issue 7

Zombies! Supervillains! Cowboys! Strange Creatures! Stick-Men!

The seventh issue of the Temple APA digital comics showcase - featuring a range of British comic creators, all members of the Temple APA, a great forum for developing comics talent - is now available to download as a completely free PDF file.

This issue features 56 pages of artwork and strips with contributions from the likes of Malcolm Kirk (who did the cover), Dave Hailwood, Dirk Van Dom, Matthew McLaughlin, Simon Mackie, Paul Eldridge, Dan Butcher and Adam Grose, among others.

Set up a few years ago now, the Temple APA magazine is intended as a showcase for the creators involved. Join the Temple forum to fin out more.

• Click Here to download a copy of Temple APA Issue 7 from the Temple APA Forum

• View Temple APA Issue 7 online via MyEbook

Tube Surfing: Alternative Press, Bryan Talbot, Comic Sales Figure and more Mackie!

• The Alternative Press Fair is back! Taking place in London on 13th February, this is a free event celebrating all things self-published and DIY: Comics and Zines, Radical Literature, Poetry, Printmaking, Book Arts and even a bit of DIY Fashion come together in this carnival of modern cottage industry!

There will be a huge variety of things to see and do, including collaborative drawing and live screen printing where you can make your own poster of the day. Plus, in the evening there will be a party to celebrate the first birthday of the Alternative Press Fair with an open mic night for all comers to try, also featuring poetry, spoken word and music. Get along and help the organisers blow out the candles! More info at www.alternativepress.org.uk

• Talking of events, Bryan Talbot and Denise Mina will be attending Glasgow's Aye Write Festival on Friday 12th March at 7.30-21.00. Bryan will of course be well known to most readers as the creator of Luther Arkwright, Alice in Sunderland, hailed by the Guardian as one of the ten best graphic novels ever and, more recently, Grandville, inspired by the work of the nineteenth-century French illustrator Gerard. Denise Mina is well known as a crime writer but recently worked with Leonardo Manco on John Constantine: Hellblazer: Empathy Is the Enemy, set in Glasgow. They'll be discussing graphic novels in a specially illustrated event with Stuart Kelly. Tickets are £7/£6 and you can find more info here on the Festival web site.

• (via Bugpowder): British independent Unico Comics is on the look out for British artists who can complete books they intend to publish in 2011! Unico's plans include a series of 22 page one shots published in b/w or using grey scale. Paul H Birch has the story at speechballoons.

• News that Kieron Gillen and Steven Sanders' S.W.O.R.D. series from Marvel, which guest-starred Death's Head in its first two issues, is to meet an untimely demise has prompted a flurry of debate over on the Marvel UK-inspired It Came from Darkmoor blog. #3 came out this week, to be rewarded with the news that #5 will now be the final issue, and the Darkmoor editor has joined others campaigning for its continuation, offering several insights into the state of US comic publishing. It's worth checking out the comments on the piece, where we learn the success threshold of a US comic is, apparently, some 27,000 copies. (#1 of S.W.O.R.D. sold 21,988, according to ICV2)

• A much longer living comic was Britain's weekly title Film Fun, which celebrated its 90th anniversary last week. One of the most successful comics from Amalgamated Press, it ran from 1920 to 1962, compiling over 2,000 issues before it merged into new kid on the block Buster and Lew Stringer has published an affectionate tribute on his always-entertaining Blimey! It's another blog about comics blog...

• And finally... comic creator Simon Mackie, who kindly dropped us a line about his new blog devoted to The Beezer earlier this week, is certainly keeping busy. He's currently working on 'digitalising' an old comic strip he drew with Ben Rowdon Called 'Ride Your Horse Cowboy' and you can view the first two pages over on the Drunk Duck web comics portal. Also, look out for an autobiographical story of his coming out very soon in the mature readers only US comic Satyr, in #10, available from Dimestore Productions and other online stores.

(Compiled with thanks to John Owens and Matthew Badham)

Beezer Blog Launched

Comic creator and Beezer fan Simon Mackie has launched a new blog that aims to chart the history of DC Thomson's best-known large format humour comic.

The Beezer was a large format (tabloid newspaper/A3 sized) weekly published by DC Thomson from 1956-1981. Along with its sister comic, The Topper, it dominated the comic stands from the late 1950's to early 80's until it was cut down to A4 size.

"For many years the comic retained a charming consistency," says Simon, who is a huge fan of the comic. "Fantastic artists like Dudley D. Watkins, Bill Ritchie, Leo Baxendale and Mal Judge contributed: the characters rarely changed and when you opened up the comic every week you knew exactly on what page they were going to be."

Sadly, when it was shrunk in size, a lot of the original artists left and the characters and formats changed. The Beezer continued until 1993 when, after merging with The Topper, it ran for 153 issues before cancellation. Although never officially merged, some characters did continue in The Dandy and The Beano.

"My blog is solely devoted to the glory years of The Beezer when quality, style, consistency and above all size mattered," Simon enthuses.

• Simon Mackie's Beezer Blog: thebeezersgoldenyears.blogspot.com

Back From The Depths Presents Hallowscream! 2009

It's finally here! The 2009 Back From The Depths Hallowe'en Special is an anthology horror comic that's not for the nervous, inspired in part by the short-lived Scream! title published in the 1980s.

The comic, which includes contributions from creators such as David Hailwood, Malcolm Kirk, Tim West, Andrew Milne, Dave Windett and John Gatehouse is available as a totally free pdf file from the Back from the Depths forum or via Clickwheel.

I particularly enjoyed The Golem Rises by Mister Roberts, with art by Simon Mackie; Mo Ali and Brian Gorman's Avenger; Bucket of Blood, written by Andrew Milne & Carol Kewley, with art from Matt Soffe; and the fun features such as "How to Sell Your Haunted House"!

Temple APA Issue 4 Online

The indie British creators group known as the Temple APA has just released the fourth issue of their 'portfolio' comic, available free in hi-res PDF format from their Forum here.

Intended as a digital showcase of British comic writers and artists both amateur and professional and also UK small press comics the comic, this stonking 132 page edition also includes an interview with Accent Press masterminds Dave West and Colin Mathieson.

Creators such as Tony Suleri, Dave Hailwood, Adam Grose, Paul Eldridge, Dave Thomson, John Kirkham and Jim Stewart; Malcolm Kirk, have all contributed material to the issue, ranging from full page comic strip to portfolio work. Adam Grose' work grows with confidence every time I see it, and his sample pages from new project, Time Wave Zero, are no exception. I definitely want to see more of Dave Thomson's work -- why isn't someone of this standard getting more notice from publishers? -- while Malcolm Kirk's parody of the sadly-missed Junior TV Times, Look-In, (or Pyook-In, as Malcom has re-named it), is a delight. Plus, with more great stuff from the likes of Paul Eldridge, Paul Harrison-Davies, Simon Mackie and others, this portfolio edition is well worth taking time to download.

That said, I think the team are missing a trick by not giving this quarterly outing a bit more structure: it might be worth considering making it more of a comic event, as sketch book pages and single page samples tend to be a little out of place. By taking a leaf from Accent Press' anthologies - extensively featured in this issue - and sticking to an overall theme for portfolio pieces -- SF, for example, heroes, steampunk or horror -- the Temple APA might prove an even nore attractive digital release.

The next issue is due in September and the team invite all British comic creators to join the APA and contribute via templeapa.ning.com

One great item in this edition is the ever-growing British Small Press Directory, useful for those of you trying to track down some of the higher profile indie titles at comics events or online. That this regular section has even more page dedicated to covering these is testament to the energy of the indie scene at the moment (and, of course, an indication of how ill-served our comic creators are by the sheer lack of professional outlets for their work...)

• Download Temple APA Issue Four

• Feedback on the work is always welcomed. Post any comments or feedback on the Temple APA forum here

Temple's Third Outing Online

The third Temple APA anthology, a collection of work from one of Britain's longest-running Amateur Press Associations, is available for download (PDF format).

Featuring work by Adam Grose, Dave Hailwood, Malcolm Kirk, Simon Mackie, Tony Suleri, Paul Eldridge and Jim Stewart, the anthology is intended as a platform to promote the creators and deliver some darn fine comics fun along the way. It also includes a new Small Press Directory.

My favourite parts of this issue have to be Simon Mackie's autobiographical strip and Tony Suleri's increasingly confident work - strip and illustration samples with simply stunning vibrancy. And, of course, it was great to read Paul Edridge's smashing strips he originally created over on the ROK Comics platform again -- both very funny! -- as is Malcolm Kirk's Stick Man.

"I'd like to attract some new and old faces for the next issue," says Dave Hailwood. "So if you're an old Temple member please send in a couple pages and if you can't spread the word!"

The next deadline is 22nd June 2009.

• Templeapa at: http://templeapa.ning.com

Simon Mackie's Christmas Credit Crunch!

Tis the season for Christmas e-cards, and this one from cartoonist and illustrator Simon Mackie, creator of the Flick and Jube web comic, is one of my favourites so far... not only funny but summing up the mood of the season at present! (Presents?)

End of the Road for Flick and Jube

Simon Mackie's ace Flick and Jube web comic, published over on DrunkDuck (along with several more of his comics such as Dr Ballard The Golem Rises and Bikini Blow Up, is finally complete. "Now to try and find a publisher," he tells us.

Simon (www.simonmackie.org.uk) has been a regular contributor to underground comics for many years contributing to comics in the UK, Holland and the US. For a number of years he lived and worked in Japan where he found himself heavily influenced the Ukiyoe prints of Hiroshige.

In Flick and Jube, this manic pair of characters break out from their mundane world and find themselves on a journey of exploration through nature and psyche that Simon describes as "both exhilarating and terrifying as they try to comprehend their new found power."

Running to some 97 pages, the strip finds Flick and Jube both benefitting and suffering as a result of their talents, with evil minds set to try and destroy them at every turn.

"Go out looking for Nirvana and you end up in hell" says Simon.

• Read Flick and Jube on DrunkDuck.com