Lee reviews HARRY 20 for the ECBT2000AD website

Lee has reviewed the collected edition of the classic 'Escape From Alcatraz In Space' strip Harry 20 On The High Rock for the scrotnig Everything Comes Back To 2000AD blog - you can read it HERE

Stace's latest SFX blog: Bexley Anime & Manga Festival

You can read Stace's latest blog for SFX magazine's website by clicking this here link 'ere. In her latest blog Stace discusses the Bexley Anime & Manga Festival while simultaneously suffering some kind of split-personality schism - who says she can't multi-task eh? 

Megacast ep4 is online!

The Megacast Episode 4

Iz and Stacey (aka The Whittle) are back to work through issues 307 and 308 of the Judge Dredd Megazine As always the issues mentioned are spoiled, the language is not for kids and a fair bit of wine is drunk. Fun stuff.

Available through itunes (just search 2000AD) or via our RSS feed page HERE

Direct download HERE

Sgt Mike Battle invades France on a bike!

....kinda. In fact its Sgt Mike Battle's creator Graeme Pearce who is invading France on a bike for charity. On his Just Giving page Graeme says:

In May 2011 I am going to cycle 700 miles across France to raise money for Comic Relief. I will catch a ferry from Plymouth to Santander in Northern Spain and will then spend to next 7-10 days cycling back through France before catching a ferry back from Roscoff. To make the journey even harder I will be carrying everything I need on my bike, wont have any help from a support car or team and will be camping each night. This entire expedition is funded by myself and ALL money donated will go direct to Comic Relief.

Again, here's is Graeme's Just Giving sponsorship page, should you wish to sling a few quid his way. Best of luck, Graeme! 

Free VIDEO NASTIES #1

Chris Doherty has uploaded a free PDF of his Video Nasties #1 up on his site to download. Check it out.

Cartoon Classroom: Marvel At The Museum

STOP PRESS: CB Cebulski posted on his Twitter this afternoon that he's unable to attend the event. 


CBCebulski 
Sad news, London... I won't be at the Cartoon Musuem or Kapow this weekend after all. First time I've ever had to cancel an event. So sorry!


Whether this means the event is cancelled or whether Marvel will be sending along someone else to take over remains unclear.

******

Legendary V For Vendetta and Nightraven artist David Lloyd also works with the Cartoon Classroom organisation. Today he posted some information on his Facebook about an event they are putting on.

He says:

"Friends,

Let me direct your attention to the event below. One of my other hats is worn working for Cartoon Classroom, and I'm happy to be able to help stage this event for it, allowing more opportunities for folks to see CB Cebulski while he's here for the London convention, Kapow. Please spread the word about it, if you can : )"

Marvel At The Museum

We're pleased to announce that on Friday, April 8th, at London's Cartoon Museum, Marvel Comics’ top talent chief, CB Cebulski, will be conducting an all-day portfolio review in three sessions :

12.30-2.00, 

3.00-5.30, 

6.00-7.00.

Entry is open to everyone at regular museum admission prices : £5.50 ( £3.00 for students ).

Please confirm attendance if you can by emailing:

 contactcartoonclassroom@yahoo.co.uk or info@cartoonmuseum.org.

The Cartoon Museum is at 35, Little Russell St, London, WC1.  Call them on 0207 580 8155 for any other details.

David Lloyd and Steve Marchant will also be on hand throughout the day to give any extra advice and information those attending may require.

This is a Cartoon Classroom event in association with The Cartoon Museum.

But what is cartoon Classroom? This is from their website:

Cartoon Classroom has three key aims. 
1) To provide information for all officially recognised organisations who seek professional cartoonists to lecture and teach.

2) To provide basic advice and information to any member of the public wanting to study cartoon art, graphic novels, strip illustration and/or the specialised writing skills linked to such work.

3) To be the one central access point across the UK and Ireland for those studying in these areas, and for those who provide facilities for such study.

We invite colleges, galleries, museums, libraries, and professionals in the fields of cartooning and sequential art, to register with us and supply information for our service.

Cartoon Classroom is a non-profit venture, initiated with support from Caption, Oxford's annual small-press comics convention. It is overseen by comics-industry professionals with long-standing experience in educational fields.

Slaughterman's Creed's Amazon problem

If you've pre-ordered or you're planning to order the brilliant Slaughterman's Creed from Amazon.co.uk you should be aware that Amazon have cocked-up their ASIN listing for it, which will probably result in you getting the wrong book - here's Nic Wilkinson with more info:

The details for this book are incorrect (due to the ASIN - the warehouse number assigned to products by amazon -apparently having been also assigned a book of flute music).

This means that the title and price are incorrect, as are the "new or used" options from the marketplace, which take you to details for the flute music book. 

I am one of the creative team on this book and I have tried unsuccessfully for over 2 months to try and get this changed, as has the publisher, but Amazon repeatedly claim they cannot/will not change it.

The publisher has contacted amazon directly only to be told that no one can correct this error by the customer service team.

This is appalling service, to the publishers of both books, and to customers, who cannot search for/order either book correctly.

Anyone wanting this title I can only suggest ordering direct from the publisher at http://harrymarkos.com/wordpress/titles/slaughtermans-creed/ or from Waterstones or WHSMiths where the book is correctly listed and the right item will be shipped.

Emails to Amazon customer services or comments on the forum would be very much appreciated.


UPDATE: The problems with Amazon are now sorted - feel free to order SCreed from them with peace of mind.

Lee & Stace appear on ECTB2000AD ep51

Ep51 – Judge Dredd Movie Review

In this special episode Rich McAuliffe is joined by Lee and Stacey from the Small Press Big Mouth podcast, and also by 2000AD writer Alec Worley to discuss the Stallone Judge Dredd movie. This is of course done over a few beers but as the table was split 50/50 between haters and supporters there probably isnt, for once, as much swearing as you’d expect.

Special guest appearance by Rich's effin Zippo lighter in the last 20 minutes (sorry)

Enjoy.

Available through itunes or direct download links from the ECTB2000AD libsyn page HERE

SFX Blog Awards

I am absolutely delighted to tell you that Small Press Big Mouth has been nominated in the Best SF Podcast category of the SFX Blog Awards. You can vote for us if you so wish by following this link and clicking in the box.

www.sfx.co.uk/2011/03/16/the-sfx-blog-awards/

I am so absolutely thrilled by this I barely have words to describe how thrilled I am. If you've ever listened to the podcast you'll know I'm rarely lost for words so I'll just say "thrilled" again and sod off!

Japan Earthquake Fundraisers

In response to the horrific and devastation earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan there have been several fundraising projects announced by the indie & small press community over the last week. Here are some that I've heard about. If you know of any more charity comics or fundraisers we can add to the list please drop us a line.

ITEM! Tales Of The Spiffing  - Special Edition 

"To help Japan, the comic anthology by Aardman Artists will be available with a limited bookplate in the front. There are only a small number of these available and they are at a suggested donation price. All proceeds will go to the relief effort. ~ 15 people who donate $33 or more to Help Japan here: http://bit.ly/guVBfh get the Limited Edition book & Print" "

ITEM! Comic Book Alliance Charity Comic

"I’m sure, like me, you’ve been horrified at the devastating effects of the two enormous earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan. In order to do some good and help the thousands that have lost friends, family, their homes and entire communities, the Comic Book Alliance is putting together a fundraising comic.

We are looking for creators to provide some work free of charge so that we can put together an impressive package that will hopefully sell thousands and to raise as much money as possible to help these countries get back on their feet and to rebuild their lives." 

Full details available on the Geek Syndicate website

ITEM! Draw Comics For Japan  

"Dear webcomic creators, this Friday, March 15th 2011, we’re urging you to mention the following links either in your comic or on your comic’s blog. Whether you have 10 readers or 10,000 readers, we as webcomic creators are fortunate to have an audience that we can encourage to help donate in ways that will directly aid the people of Japan.

If you can’t make the deadline this week, we’re planning on doing a collected post of comics on every Friday. Please help!"

ITEM! Darwin original art auction for the Japanese red Cross society. A haunting and beautiful page of Simon Gurr's artwork from Darwin: A Graphic Biography. Bidding closes on Sunday. 

ITEM! Fairy Tales For Japan charity comic by Matthew Funk is calling out for artists and writers

"I'd like to put a book together of original fairy tales and fables illustrated by various artists. I'd have them printed and sold, and donate any profits to the Red Cross for the Japan relief effort. The stories vary anywhere from 250-1000 words in length and each artist would be responsible for full page illustrations for their story and formatting the text over the page. If you're a writer/artist, then you're welcome to spin your own tale and illustrate it as well." 

Additional Links

Google's resourses page 

British Red Cross 

Tales of Tales Of The Spiffing with Ashley Boddy

In SPBM ep 29 we reviewed Tales Of The Spiffing a splendid new comics anthology from a group of artists and animators who all work together at Aardman Animation. Not an actual Aardman production the book was produced and funded by the artists themselves - collectively Spiffing Artists - and a quality, beautifully designed, professional looking book it is too as well as being a very entertaining read.

Co-editor Ashley Boddy was kind enough to give us some more details on how Tales Of The Spiffing came about...

How the book came about? After lots of talk (“We should really make a comic anthology thing”) and doing nothing, JP (Vine) finally put his foot down and drafted a “call out” announcing our plan, which I then posted up on our internal network. It basically said, ”Anyone fancy making a comic? Reply to us”. We got a few replies and it kind of snowballed from there really. Some people dropped out, then others joined and what we thought was only going to be 80 pages turned into much more.

Ashley Boddy

This is your first comic, so how was the production process?

Many involved hadn’t drawn a comic before, so that was a hurdle to overcome...setting out a page, what happens across the middle of page spreads and other stuff specific to the format, both the in layout and the telling of a story. We’re used to putting stuff up on screen so when it came down to putting it on a page, we found that things such as an ‘over the shoulder’ shot and other standard film conventions just didn’t read the way you wanted them too. Screen-wise, you can cut when you want, only letting the audience see exactly what you want for as long as you want. In a book, how fast do you tell someone to read for or how long to linger on a panel before moving on to the next one? That was something I struggled with personally. There was much looking at comics (good excuse to just read a lot of them and call it research), to see how others have done it and I think for everyone it was a big learning curve. Also being a first time editor was quite hard. There were lots of bits which happened behind the scenes beyond sourcing a printer, like getting ISBNs, learning new software for layout...and people management!  At Aardman, We work across two sites (Jay Clarke handled one site, I the other) and if you factor in people in other countries working on the book, it swiftly became a big task. Another aim was to have fun. 

Jess Jackson

Yeah I wanted to ask you what your goals were...

This wasn’t a work project, it was all done off the Aardman clock, so stress was not part of the plan, but at the same time we still had to get it done. Chasing people up without being nagging was a challenge in itself, but everyone  still seems quite happy to talk to each other so I something must’ve gotten something right! We ended up with a book, we’re selling it, people are enjoying it...we’re happy! Basically we want to stay happy, make more books (annually ideally) and have a good time doing it.

That would be cool! What were your inspirations?

The impetus behind the book was mainly other animation companies (Blue Sky, Pixar, DreamWorks) having ‘collective’ books and the Disney guys whose books ‘Rocket Johnson’ and ‘Torch Tiger’, are headed up by Paul Briggs. I emailed him and Mark Kennedy early on to ask about how they set about creating their first book and they were very helpful... I even got a copy of ‘Torch Tiger’ out of it!

Andy Janes

Nice one! I've not actually heard of those, I'll have to check them out! Any other influences?

My personal influences are (Comics-wise) Calvin and Hobbes and various French BD Artists...Crisse, Alary, Du Pins - although I’m really liking Ian Culbard’s stuff for Self Made Hero at the moment. I think they are doing a great job of representing classics in graphic form.

Right then, where can people buy Tales Of The Spiffing from?

The book is available from our website (www.talesofthespiffing.blogspot.com), and through us at conventions.

Oh right, which conventions will you be going to? 

We’ll be at the London Small Press Expo in March, KAPOW Comic Con in April and the Bristol Small Press Expo in May. I think we’re doing a panel or workshop at the Bristol one, but that’s not confirmed exactly what we’re doing yet.

Excellent! Should hopefully see you at Bristol then! Thanks for the info, Ashley, and congratulations on Spiffing I really enjoyed it. 

Toodle pip!

News Bites 5 is alive!

Fancy a quick nibble of news?

ITEM! Comics legend Pat Mills has been made an honorary professor by Liverpool University in recognition of his work in British comics. On top of that DC Comics is to reprint Marshall Law, Flesh returns to 2000AD, Forbidden Planet posted a two part interview with him and it was his birthday yesterday!

ITEM!  Today is David Wynne's birthday - he is a hundred and five years old!* Particle Fiction issue 12 is out now (no don't worry you haven't missed #11) written by Geek Syndicate's own David Montieth.


*age accurate to with margin of 70 years

ITEM! Daniel Clifford reveals Gary Bainbridge's fab cover of Sugar Glider Stories #1 - which features art by Martin Eden (Spandex), Matthew Craig (Hondle), Graham Pearce (Sgt Mike Battle), Andrew Waugh (Hermit) and Lee among others.

ITEM! Bevis Musson continues to do amazing commissions to raise money for Red Nose Day. Check them out.

ITEM! An ace wee comic to set you off for the day - Marge Gunderson takes on twat de jour Charlie Sheen at Hark! A Vagrant!

The Monster Diaries - a review by Alice aged 10

I Like the Monster Diaries because it humourus fun and some of the entrys are a play on words. Also it starts off a horrid story then go's into a humourus story. There's a charachters like Ghosts, Cry Baby, The Werewolfs, Frankenstein and Mummy! Mummy has to be my favourite because his entry has some information in a twist about the old times. Although I must remember NOT to invite Cry Baby - he never stops crying and so we never get to hear what the others are saying. But the best bit is Mummy saying "Ring Daddy"!

But I love The Crazy Scientist, it inspires me what do do when I'm older. But I wonder and wonder what a Quantum Pysics Exam is but nobody can answer my question - can you?

This book is beauifully illustrated by Poly Bernatene and written by Luciano Saracino. The artwork is exquisite, you can see how much time Poly has put into it! The story is all about how children are having less nightmares and all the people who want to enter have to write a diary entry. The head of nightmares asks for people to scare the children so they have more nightmares, but they all fail!

The Monster Diaries is; exallent, humerus, cool, funny and has play on words!

The Cry Baby

The Crazy Scientist

The Monster Diaries is published by Meadowside Childrens Books and has a new paperback edition due out in September

Happy Birthday Will Eisner

Today (6th March 2011) would've been the 94th birthday of one of the greatest talents and innovators the comics medium has ever seen. Will Eisner's name should be well known to any fans of comics and his books should be on every reader's shelf. 

Born on the 6th March 1917 William Erwin Eisner's accomplishments within the comics industry are innumerable and his influence immeasurable. He is frequently referred to as The Orson Welles Of Comics - a description that while illustrating the importance of Eisner to his respective field is also somewhat inaccurate as Eisner's creativity and influence continued to grow and flourish throughout his career. 

Eisner's work on his most famous creation - the newspaper strip The Spirit - which ran from 1940 to 1952, was so bold and ahead of its time that it still reads as brilliant and as fresh now as it did then and is still an incredible source of inspiration and innovation to anyone wanting to work in comics today or, indeed, anyone who just wants to read well crafted entertaining comics. 

The Spirit alone would have been enough to secure Eisner's place in comics history, but in 1978 he is credited (technically erroneously) as the being creator of the Graphic Novel form with his brilliant work A Contract With God. From then on Eisner continued to produce stunning mature often very personal work with books such as A Life Force; Dropsie Avenue; To The Heart Of The Storm; Last Days In Vietnam; an adaptation of Moby Dick; and his final book The Plot: The Secret and Story of the Protocols of Zion which he completed shortly before his death in 2005.

Eisner also wrote two essential academic works on the art and form of comics Comics and Sequential Art and Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative which were based on his frequent lectures at the School Of Visual Arts in New York.

Today, his birthday was marked by Google with a wonderful logo in the spirit of The Spirit (see what I did there?) and with a splendid tribute by Scott McCloud. 

SPBM strongly recommends everyone reads as much of Eiser's work as you can find. A good starting place is the two paperback compilations of the best of his Spirit strips The Best Of The Spirit and The Spirit: Femmes Fatales published by DC Comics to coincide with the recent movie version of The Spirit written and directed by Frank Miller which we strongly advise you avoid! 

What we also recommend is this previously unseen 1995 interview with Eisner by Burke & Hare writer Martin Conaghan which was finally published online today courtesy of Bleeding Cool.

For more information on Will Eisner's life, work and influence please visit his website or his entry on Wikipedia.

Episode 29 now online!

Welcome guys and gals to episode 29 of Small Press Big Mouth. This episode Stace and Lee LOVE Ian Culbard and review both The Sign of the Four and At The Mountains of Madness, also reviewed are two anthologies; Tales of the Spiffing and Solipsistic Pop 3 as well as Hermit by the rather wonderful Andy Waugh. Lee also reviewed another comic but Stace (who wrote this blurb) can’t spell it…I mean it’s a surprise ooooohhh surprises are cool!

(pssst... its Mezolith! - Laughin' Lee)

Direct Download: Episode 29

Linkypoos

Ian Culbard

Tales Of The Spiffing

Dani Abram

Solipsistic Pop 3

Andy Waugh

Mezolith

The Indie Comics Alliance (#NDCA)

The Phoenix Comic Website

Renegade Arts Entertainment

Nick's Review Blog - STIFFS review & PJ Montgomery interview

Nick Roberts has reviewed self-published comic Stiffs on his Review Blog as well as a short interview with one of the comic's writers PJ Montgomery.

Its good stuff - check it out HERE

"The dialogue is fresh and sharp, with loads of great one liners and it’s quite often the monkey stealing the best ones."

Get Well Soon Mark Roberts

We at Small Press Big Mouth would just like to send Mark Roberts - creator of the It Came From Darkmoor blog and Captain Britain fan - sincere hopes for a swift recovery after his operation this week and best wishes to his family.

Take a butcher's at Slaughterman's Creed

We reviewed (and loved) Slaughterman's Creed in episode 28 of SPBM but if you have any stray questions about the book this press release should answer them for you - take it away, Russ...

~~~*~~~

Take a Butcher’s at Slaughterman’s Creed in May 2011

Markosia Enterprises are proud to present their new graphic novel, Slaughterman’s Creed - a surreal London gangland thriller which combines the vicious intensity of British crime fiction with the structure and spirit of a Samurai revenge drama in a nightmarishly compelling urban fantasy.

The book re-unites writer Cy Dethan with artist Stephen Downey, the creators of the 2009 indie hit, Cancertown: An Inconvenient Tooth. Set in a world where an ethical knife-edge is all that separates hero from villain, the story combines a strong British crime aesthetic with mythological overtones and a distinctive noir edge.

Slaughterman’s Creed Can be ordered through the March edition of Diamond Previews in the usual way using order code MAR11 0811.

Laurence “The Punisher” Campbell recently wrote in his foreword to the trade paperback: “What you will find is a nasty, dark tale which cuts into the underbelly of gangland London. Think The Long Good Friday meets No Country For Old Men.”

This man drew The Punisher! He knows “nasty and dark” when he sees it. He goes on to say, “Cy Dethan pushes the boundaries. No, not pushes them - casually disregards them and walks right over them.” 

So, it’s not a book for the squeamish.

Read a free 12-page preview of Slaughterman's Creed. 

“Thine is the task of blood.

Discharge thy task with mercy.

Let thy victim feel no pain.

Let sudden blow bring death;

Such death as thou thyself would ask for.”

The Slaughterman’s Creed

“Sidney is a professional killer working for Big Lenny Addison, a London ganglord specialising in human trafficking. He is almost completely uneducated except in his family’s trade at which he is an unparalleled expert. 

“When he is called upon to breach his code and bring a pregnant woman to slaughter, Sidney's world is changed forever. Betrayed by those he has served his whole life, the Slaughterman embarks on a bloody vendetta - determined to put Addison's entire monstrous empire to the blade.“

Carving A Name

Slaughterman’s Creed, described by writer Cy Dethan as “a story of the fall and rise of monsters” is already carving a name a name for itself on the independent comic scene. 

"My plan was to take my time and read Slaughterman’s Creed over a few days, but pretty much by page five I was in for the long haul and ended up reading the whole thing in a single sitting. Cy has a way of leading the reader by the hand and letting them think they know exactly where the plot is going, and then the next thing you know he’s kicked you down the stairs, leaving you battered, bruised and with no idea where the tale will lead you next.

"Slaughterman’s Creed is a bloody gourmet, serving the reader a mixed platter of gangland politics, murder, betrayal and revenge with a large side order of body parts. It’s a tale that is dripping with great writing and art. Digest it today," said Barry Nugent ofThe Geek Syndicate.

The book gave Wayne Hall of Sci-Fi Pulse a case of the night terrors - although, strangely, he seems to have enjoyed them. He said: "If Mr. Dethan keeps delivering this kind of novel perspective on the world, I’ll have trouble sleeping at night. Yikes! But I was gripped from the first page, so please keep it up!"

“This is old school – dark story telling. This is the London gangster scene without the rose-tinted glasses. Brutal and grim,”said Michael J Nimmo on the digital comics review site 3 Million Years.

“One of the things I liked about this book was that there are no good guys in it at all. Everyone in this book could be the sole bad guy in another story,” said Richard McAuliffe of Everything Comes Back to 2000AD. “Cy Dethan’s writing is very tight and the book has a real British cinema feel to it... this is a book screaming to be made into a hard 18 certificate movie. If you like gritty underworld stories with a seriously dark edge you’ll really enjoy this book. I did.”

To wrap up the whole bloody package, here’s a final word of persuasion from Rich Clements of the Hi Ex Blog:

"So, all in all, I’d say this book is a bit of a triumph for all involved. With a strong narrative, well realised and rounded characters, strong visuals and a wonderful seam of oh-so-black humour, this deserves to be a hit for all involved. And not turning it into a movie would be nothing short of a travesty."

Notes for Retailers

Markosia would like to help retailers in any way possible please contact Harry Markos, publisher, at harry@markosia.com for posters, flyers, shelf hangers or to discuss the possibility of an event at your store.

For further retailer information, offers and support, contact Markosia through the Retailers section of their website.

Notes for Editors:

Writer: Cy Dethan
Pencils & colours chapters 1-2: Stephen Downey
Inks: Andy Brown
Colours: Vicky Stonebridge
Letters: Nic Wilkinson
Cover: Ryan Brown
Foreword: Laurence Campbell

Cover, logo, character sketches and more can be found at www.slaughtermanscreed.com. These images may be used in reviews.

Slaughtermans Creed is published by Markosia Enterprises and will launch on May 14th at the Bristol Comic and Small Press Expo, as part of the Markosia Madness event, which will include signing, sketching and facepainting. A limited signed edition, costing £10 (RRP Price £12.99), is available to pre-order, which also includes entry into a draw to win a piece of original art by Stephen Downey and Vicky Stonebridge.

Pre-order details can be found at Cy Dethan’s blog

Slaughterman’s Creed is also available digitally on the Sony Playstation Network with audio commentary by Cy Dethan, and will be available on Comixology and Graphic.ly, with other formats to follow.