Particle Fiction news!

Okay I'm going to continue plugging David Wynne's awesome Particle Fiction comic until a) it stops being so bloody awesome or b) everyone in the world catches on to how brilliant Ideasman is and Wynne totally sells it out to Disney for an obscenely huge wedge of cash  or c) he destroys the negatives of those compromising photos of me, the giant squid and the king-size Peach Melba. ....Actually, forget I mentioned that last one. Zzz-zzz-zzz!! Forget it, I said!

Anyhoo, things are looking even more awesome on the PF front as Wynne's announced that the next issue (PF12: Hypergirl! His first full-on superhero tale) will not only be bumper-sized 20-odds pages but it will also be IN COLOUR! Wynne posted a couple of sample pages on his Twitter (and if you're on Twitter you should be following him) and they are very very pretty - colouring courtesy of multi-talented Ian Sharman.

In other exciting news Wynne made this announcement on his tumblr:

"From April onwards, Particle Fiction is going to be changing format- issue 13 will be the first part of a continuing story, a six part Ideasman story co-written with the afore-mentioned Mr Papaconstantinou. I was originally planning on also having a 6 or 8 page Scorched Earth back up strip, but I’m losing enthusiasm for that idea, if I’m honest. I may still do it, I may not. We’ll see. I think I can safely predict that once that Ideasman story is finished, I’ll be continuing to focus solely on Ideasman stories in the pages of Particle Fiction." 

Exciting indeed! I love Ideasman! Now if he could only sort that team-up issue with Paul Grist's Jack Staff

Free TRUE GRIT prologue comic

Quite a treat this for anyone looking forward to the Coen bros upcoming western True Grit (either a new adaptation of the original Charles Portis novel or a remake of the classic John Wayne flick or, y'know, both) Glass Eye Inc were commissioned by movie studio Paramount to produce a 24-page comic that leads into the film. Written by Benjamin Read, illustrated by Chris Wildgoose and lettered by Jim Campbell True Grit: Mean Business is available FREE on comixology or downloadable as a pdf HERE. 

Check it out, its good! "Fill your hand your son of a bitch!"

Burlesque Valentine event launch for KIKI!

Self Made Hero have come up with a wonderful and original launch event for their upcoming comics biography of model, artist and muse Kiki de Monteparnasse an alternative valentine's evening with food, wine, comics and burlesque from Marianne Cheesecake - sounds fab! 

Written by Jose-Luis Boquey, illustrated by Catherine Muller and translated by Nora Mahony Kiki De Monteparnasse looks beautiful and is described thus: 

"In the bohemian and brilliant Montparnasse of the 1920s, Kiki escaped poverty to become one of the most charismatic figures of the avant-garde years between the wars. Partner to Man Ray, she would be immortalised by Kisling, Foujita, Per Krohg, Calder, Utrillo and Léger.

The muse of a generation, she was one of the first emancipated women of the 20th century, making her mark with her freedom of style, word and thought learned from the school of life." 

Definitely a book to keep an eye on! Full details of the event can be found on the flier below

RIP Jose Maria Jorge

As a long-time fan of the Commando war comics I was saddened today to read that his favourite Commando artist JM Jorge had passed away on the 4th October 2010. Jorge's detailed photo-realistic style was a huge inspiration to me, but it was many years before I learned his name as it was the policy of the publisher not to credit Commando's creative teams. 

Jorge first worked for Commando in 1969 and continued to work for them right up until his passing - totalling 42 years, 163 issues and well over 10,000 pages of beautiful artwork including many stunning fully-painted covers. His final completed issue was #4329 Divided Aces published in September 2010 and his first #384 Flying Fury has been reprinted as part of Commando's 50th anniversary celebrations and is in newsagents as I type this.

For better written tributes to this amazing artist please check out these links

http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2010/10/jose-maria-jorge-1941-2010.html

http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-memoriam-jose-maria-jorge.html

http://blog.crystal-knights.co.uk/2010/10/15/farewell-jose-maria-jorge/

Stace co-hosts Comic News Insider ep 314

Reviews: Doctor Who #1, Gore #1, Memoir #1, Wolverine and Jubilee #1, Buffy Season 8: #40

Stacey Whittle of Small Press Big Mouth & Megacast podcast fame joins Jimmy in the rotating co-host chair this week. They discuss Oscar nominations, X-Men film set picture leaks, and congrats are sent out to Tony & Tracy Lee on their nuptials and Alison Rosen on landing the "Newsgirl" gig on the Adam Carolla show! Jonathan Hickman joins Jimmy to discuss the big death news in the recent Fantastic Four issue and he gives an exclusive about another title he is working on. News includes: Wizard magazine shuts down, Wonder Woman pilot back on, DC & Archie drop comics code, Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, Ronald D. Moore's new show, Angry Birds animated series, James Kochalka is Vermont's Cartoonist Laureate and more! 

Listen HERE

SCreed Chopping Bloc at Bristol SPEXPO!

The fragrant and talented Nic Wilkinson has updated the Slaughterman's Creed News Facebook page with some exciting news regarding their plans for the Bristol International Comics & Small Press Expo which will be occurring on the 14th-15th May. Over to you, Nic...

"There is going to be a convention special edition of Slaughterman's Creed, signed by all the creators, on sale at the Bristol Comic Con in May at the special price of £10.

Everyone who buys it on the day, or pre-orders it before the 14th May to be sent out after the show will be entered into a competition to win an original piece of art pencilled by Stephen Downey and coloured by Vicky Stonebridge.

We know that not everyone will be physically going to the con, and some people will only be there for one or other of the days, so if you would like to reserve a copy to be held behind the stand, or posted out to you, please then you need to get in touch with us now and we will add your name to the list, and email you to let you know the options for how to pay.

If you are not coming to the show there will be postage added to the £10 which is £2 in the UK and £4 for overseas delivery.

Also... as well as the signing and sketching sessions at the Markosia stand in the Ramanda, the Slaughterman's Creed "Chopping Bloc", Vicky Stonebridge, Stephen Downey, Nic Wilkinson and Cy Dethan will have a table in the Mercure SPEXPO side of Bristol Con. 

Have a think about what you want the guys to draw!"

Excellent stuff! And keep your ears tuned to SPBM for Stace & Lee's review of Slaughterman's Creed.

The Megacast episode 2 is up!

Megacast Episode 2

In this episode Iz and The Whittle ™ look at issue 306 of the Megazine. Due to a high level technical malfunction (someone not pressing record) the second half of this had to be re-recorded after even more alcohol had been consumed. Hopefully this isnt TOO obvious  

As always, expect language not suitable for the easily offended and spoilers for the issue in question

Direct Download link HERE

or available via Itunes etc

Slaughterman's Creed cover revealed

And an absolute belter it is too! Posted today on the Slaughterman's Creed facebook page this is the cover the Slaughterman's Creed graphic novel collection (can I call it SCreed for short?) which will be available in May and officially launch at the Bristol Comics and Small Press Expo. Can't wait!

Credits for the cover are

Pencils - Stephen Downey
Digital Paints - Ryan Brown
Graphic Design - Ian Sharman

You can read the first 12 pages of SCreed free, gratis, and for nothing HERE. Written by Cy Dethan, pencils by Stephen Downey, inks by Andy Brown, colours by Vicky Stonebridge, letters by Nic Wilkinson, covers by Ryan Brown and published by Markosia.

Valia Kapedai's Kiander And Abylss return

The art of Valia Kapedai (Twisted Vision, Innocent Soul) is a huge favourite here at the SPBM mansion so it is with great excitement we read Valia's announcement that she'll have a new comic out at the Bristol Comics Expo. Check this out...

New comic of KIANDER & ABLYSS coming in May !!

the issue will include some strips from the previous issue 100% MUSHY Kiander & Ablyss [which was a limited and now sold out mini comic], plus some new unpublished strips - all in full colour !!

Stay tuned for more info !!

Lee guest co-hosting ECBT2000AD ep44 - online now!

ECBT2000AD episode 44

In this episode Rich is joined by Lee Grice of the Small Press Big Mouth podcast to look at progs 1714 and the end of year special edition. Sinister Dexter takes a bit of a kicking, they are both VERY careful about how they discuss the underage Judge Anderson and the mystery of the Stalag 666 “poo in the post” is finally solved.

As always, expect spoilers and non kiddie friendly language.

Available either through itunes or through the link below

Direct Link

Episode 27 is here at last!!!

Hello, Happy New Year and welcome after our Christmas break to Episode 27 of Small Press Big Mouth. In this episode Stacey and Lee review Parker: The Outfit, Sugar Glider, Too Cool To Be Forgotten, Art... and That, Our Valued Customers and revisit the now complete Kochi Wanaba.

Warning: Stace & Lee were feeling particularly silly during the recording of this episode.

Direct Download: Episode 27

~Linkypoos~

Our Valued Customers

Kochi Wanaba

Jamie Smart's 9 Ways Guys Pee

Sugar Glider Comics Facebook page

buy Sugar Glider via Cottage Industry Comics

buy Sugar Glider via gb.bigcartel.com

Alex Robinson's Too Cool To Be Forgotten

Darwyn Cooke's Blogspot

Art...And That

if you want to know what this is about stay tuned to the end of the episode!

Stace's comic picks of 2010

I have a new blog up on the SFX website which is my top comic picks of the year. Check it and them out yo!

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2011/01/10/blog-top-comics-of-2010/

The Comics & Conflict Conference

Comics legend Pat Mills just posted about this on his twitter and its got Lee all a-flutter.  To be held at the Imperial War Museum on the 19th & 20th August 2011 The Comics & Conflict Conference aims to look at how war and conflict has been and is still depicted in comics. Speakers and guests include Pat Mills, who will be discussing at least in part his classic WWI strip Charley's War (the single finest comic ever produced in Lee's opinion); Garth Ennis (War Story, Battlefields, Troubled Souls); Jaques Tardi (It Was The War Of The Trenches); Martin barker and Roger Sabin (discussing Doonsbury) and Jean-Pierre Verney (Putain de Guerre)

The event is part of a larger literary festival which accompanies The War Museum's exhibition Once Upon A Wartime: Classic War Stories For Children. More details on the Comika Festival website.

Bevis Musson's Dead Queen Detectives back in print

Hugely talented and too-damned-modest Bevis Musson announced today that he has reprinted his splendid comic The Dead Queen Detectives which Stace reviewed back in episode mumblymumble (note to self: sort that ruddy SPBM index out!)

On his LiveJournal he said: "I have reprinted copies of The Dead Queen Detectives so I am no longer sold out. If anyone would like one (or two, or three) then let me know. They're £2.00 each and if you're only wanting one or two then there wouldn't be any postage included (basically free postage up to the price of a regular First Class stamp)."

He is also accepting commissions and can be contacted via his Twitter, LiveJournal or e-mail for more details. You 'Musson' miss this opportunity! (yeah I went there) Now just check out his awesome style...

The Dead Queen Detectives

Planetary

Poison Ivy - in colour!

a festive Batman & Poison

Dragon Heir: Reborn in January Previews

Uber-talented Emma Vieceli's Eagle Award nominated manga fantasy Dragon Heir: Reborn (published by Sweatdrop Studios) is available to order Diamond's Previews catalogue. On her blog Emma says:

"This is very exciting news as it means that the book can now be ordered from all good book shops, comic shops and such. So, if you've been keen to get hold of a copy but weren't sure about ordering online, this is your time!

Sweatdrop members are of course independent creators. What that means is that it's just little old me and my book. Being picked up by Diamond as an independent creator is a huge honour, but getting stock to retailers is the harder step."


Dragon Heir: Reborn gathers together the reworked first 5 issues of the comic, as well as issues 6 - 9 as they were originally printed; the whole series to date in one handy volume.

 Find it listed on page 310 with the product code JAN111316

Order Fall Of The Wolfmen from January Previews!

I'm a huge fan of Andy Bloor's artwork for Accent UK and on his blog today he posted that his mafia-lycanthrope book Fall Of The Wolfmen is listed in the January Previews (Item Code: JAN110891)

"Can't stress how important it is that if you don't have a copy (and want one) that you place an order with your local comic retailer. We need to get a good order to meet Diamond's order threshold and also to show them that there is an audience for our books not just in the UK but the USA too.

The future of further Wolfmen books is up in the air currently, but a good order with Diamond might help change that."

Written by Dave West Fall Of the Wolfmen is the follow-up to their earlier The Wolfmen which can also be ordered via Previews as a 2-book bundle (Item Code: JAN112052)

Small-time hood Jack Grey’s life-changing encounters with the notorious Wolfmen gang are collected in this special shrink-wrapped pack of both The Wolfmen and Fall of The Wolfmen. Gritty crime noir drama with a horror twist from the popular UK indie team of West and Bloor. This exclusive pack includes a special Fall of The Wolfmen collector’s cover.

David Wynne rocks. That is all.

Happy New Year, Smallpressbigmouthians! We hope you had a lovely holiday and are feeling suitably bummed out now its all over, like what Lee is. Fortunately he had some awesome comics off Father Christmas not least a hat-trick of goodies by David Wynne: the Particle Fiction v1 paperback (containing Lee's official Favourite Comic Of 2010: Particle Fiction #2); the Damnation collected paperback and this frankly flipping fantastic sketch of Axel Pressbutton, Mysta Mystralis and Zirk (if you don't know who they are then shame on you!)

You too can own your very own Wynne sketch by visiting his shop HERE - only £5 for an A4 sketch! You'd be robbing the poor bastard! Get in there!

Oh and by the way, the latest issue of particle Fiction is now online and available to read free, gratis and for nothing HERE - check, as they say, it out.

Cancertown is back - and talking!

Cancertown: An Inconvenient Tooth was originally published by Insomnia Publications in 2009 and was something of a sensation. The horror-noir graphic novel - a kind of malignant neoplasmic Hellblazer - gained rave reviews from every corner and our Stace loved it back in episode mumbley-mumble. Anyhoo, while we await the sequel Blasphemous Tumors the original book is being republished on the PSP courtesy of Markosia. Read this press release and look at the pretty pictures if you please...

----------

Cancertown: An Inconvenient Tooth, the scrappy indie outsider that punched far above its weight and consistently elbowed its way into top-ten status on the PSP download charts alongside its more respectable cousins from Marvel and DC, is back!

Harry Markos of Markosia Enterprises is the man responsible for this remarkable metastasis, swooping in to rescue the book from its period of remission over the summer, in time for a January 2011 re-launch on PSN.

“I am delighted to have signed Cancertown,” enthuses Harry, “it is a great book with a solid and loyal following, so I am looking forward to working with the team in getting it out to a wider audience. We have big plans for it! Cy and the team have done a great job and they have already promised a sequel, so we have exciting times ahead!”

“Oh wow, it talks”

 

Such were the immortal words of our hero, Vince Morley, when confronted in his hallway by a muscular medicine ball of a monster, full of blunt, flat teeth and bad intentions. This new digital edition of the book talks, too - thanks to the audio capabilities of the PSN. This all-new version is complete with additional creator commentaries From Cy Dethan and Stephen Downey that will take you down the back streets and dark alleys where Cancertown was conceived - but be warned, as Bryan “godfather of British comics” Talbot has said: “Cancertown will disorientate you, suck you in, chew you up and spit you out and you might well be in need of a change of underwear by the end.”

"Remember - nothing here is real, and everything can hurt you."

"I described it to someone asking me what it was about as a 'rip-roaring mindf***,' says John Freeman of Down The Tubes.

What kind of story provokes that kind of reaction?

Vince Morley is a man with big problems and a brain tumour like a baby’s fist, living with one foot in a monstrous alternate world he calls Cancertown. When the lost and dispossessed of London start tripping over the same cracks in reality he spends his life avoiding, Morley realises he must confront the residents of Cancertown – and risk finding his place among them.

“Babyface was a very special girl. She had very special friends, who lived in a place behind her eyes.”

 

Cancertown returns to the Sony PSP on the 12th of January. So what are you waiting for? Hurl yourself into its nightmarish shadow-world and meet its population of grotesques and maniacs. For those of you who’ve been this way before, we’d be delighted to see you all again.

Writer: Cy Dethan

Pencils: Stephen Downey

Colours: Mel Cook

Letters: Nic Wilkinson

For more information see www.cancertown.co.uk

Read a free preview of chapter one HERE

Innocent Soul starts today!

We've mention Travis Legge & Valia Kapedai's new horror webcomic Innocent Soul before and Lee in particular has been looking forward to the strip's début - well the waiting is over as the story starts today! And a grim start it is too... in Travis's own words "Our story begins in a bad part of town, where good people wind up doing very bad things to get by. I think you will find that to be a recurring theme in our little tale."

Obviously, there's not a lot of story to go on yet but Valia's artwork is phenomenally ominous and grimy! The strip will be updated every Wednesday with bonus material posted throughout the week so keep your eyes on innocentsoul.aegisstudios.com