Monday, 19 November 2012

British Comic Awards 2012 winners!

This past weekend saw the inaugural British Comic Awards held at the Leeds Comic Art Festival (aka Thought Bubble 2012). The judging panel were Hunt Emerson, John Freeman, Dr Mel Gibson, Stephen L Holland, Roger Sabin and SPBM's own Stacey Whittle.

The full list of this year's nominees can be found here but the BCA 2012 winners are... (drumroll)

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BEST BOOK
Nelson by Various (Rob Davis & Woodrow Phoenix, editors)

BEST COMIC

EMERGING TALENT

YOUNG PEOPLE'S COMIC AWARD

HALL OF FAME











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Congratulations to all the winners - excellent and worthy choices all - and fist-bumps and butt-slaps to all the nominees too!

Thursday, 15 November 2012

Thought Bubble 2012


Just in the nick of all-most-too-late its the SPBM Pre-Bubb Blog (and if you can say that out loud without sounding like a blocked toilet you're a better man than me) 

I, the lovely-and-fragrant Lee, will not be attending Thought Bubble again this year due to the completely unforeseen and totally unpredicted arrival of Christmas in 6 weeks - but no, sweet child, don't cry as I usually manage to not see anyone at these things anyway. So for the full GriceCon experience simply, at random moments during the weekend, ask someone "Where's Lee?" and get them to reply "In a panel I think" and it'll be just like I'm actually there. 

Fortunately, the gorgeous-yet-meek-and-retiring-and-never-ever-intoxicated Stace will be attending so if you see her there please say hello. Also say loudly and clearly "You are The Stacey Whittle off of that Small Press Big Mouth and here's your £5!", then give her £5. 

Important Safety Tip: Stacey will kick out when startled so if you approach her from behind, like with a horse, place a hand gently on her rear and maintain contact as you move forwards until you're in her field of vision.*

*Don't do this. She will slap your face so hard it will spin around your head like its Duck Season Wabbit Season Duck Season. 

Right then, SPBMers - shopping lists at the ready...

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Top of your shopping list should be the second Thought Bubble Anthology - a quality comic and all profits go to Barnardos.

David Wynne will be there selling copies of Hypergirl and Particle Fiction, plus PRINTS! lots and lots of prints!


Nic Wilkinson and Cy Dethan will be there launching Cancertown 2 and have all other their other books  (White Knuckle, Cancertown, Slaughterman's Creed, The Indifference Engine) on sale. Special offer £20 Cancertown 1 & 2. Graeme Howard will be selling original art. Table 15 New Dock (Savile's) Hall

Improper Books will be there with a free colour promo of Porcelain, also, the B&W Butterfly Gate edition they had at Bristol, plus Christian Wildgoose and Laura Trinder will be sketching at the table.

Martin Eden be launching Spandex #7 and O Men Book Two. Spandex 17 is 36 pages and wraps up the ‘O.M.F.G.’ storyline (and deals with that Issue 6 cliffhanger) – and not everyone is going to survive!  Free with this issue is Spandex Black & White – a mini-artbook featuring 16 b&w portraits (including one embroidery and one photograph) of the team/cast by various very talented people including Matthew Craig, Nigel Dobbyn and Graham Pearce.

Lydia Wysocki will be there on Saturday (half of Terry Wiley's table) with her new book Celebrity Homes and some comic etchings and some handmade comics. She has a brand new Comicsy shop Comicsy shop and an Etsy shop Etsy shop. I'll be selling etchings a bit cheaper at Thought Bubble, comics'll be the same prices

Barry Nugent will be launching the second anthology from Unseen Shadows 'Tales of the Forgotten' for £8.50 and the first anthology Tales of the Fallen for £10.0. We will also be doing a special deal where if anyone buys both anthologies they will get them for £15.00. Not only that there will be a special Unseen Shadows panel on Sunday at 12:10 in the Alea Cinema Room.

Bevis Musson will have The Dead Queen Detectives Omnibus: The II Edition, which is both Dead Queen Detectives issues rescanned and tidied up, plus 15 extra pages, 12 totally new. All that plus a new. colour cover for £5. I'll be at the Improper Books table with the Omnibus and be sketching too, £5 each.

Jennie Gyllblad will be there selling Jenspiration and prints and Skal and stuff. And Clockwork Watch: The Arrival plus a Clockwork Watch Preview Book 2013 with arty goodies in it and info on stuff like our live events!


Daniel Clifford will be there and Art Heroes will do workshops all weekend at our table in the Royal Armouries Hall. And comics! workshops are a character competition, they'll give advice on creating characters with a prize for the best. Also they will be releasing the re-drawn, re-inked and re-lettered Remastered Halcyon & Tenderfoot #1.

Graham Pearce will have two brand new comics at Thought Bubble. Firstly there is Last Admin Hero 2 #1 which is the new spin-off mini series starring the humble office worker John Trojan as he fights terrorism in the office. Secondly he has Sgt Mike Battle #18 which is the exact same comic albeit with the ongoing numbering so that regular readers can continue their collection! "There is no incentive to buy both but if you did it would cost less than most mainstream comics these days!"

Valia Kapadai says she'll have a few copies of everything she's ever done, some copies of Pavlos Pavlidis' Full Bloom, her new Stinky Sketchbook (with a toilet paper sketch), and maybe I'll also have copies of new comic Dreamcatcher written by Mo Ali. "oh..and CANDIES!!!! LOTS OF CANDIES at our table!!!!!!"

Richmond Clements will have Ketsueki his new book with artist Ai Takita-Lucas, and there will be new issues of Futurequake, Something Wicked, Zarjaz & Dogbreath. Speaking of which...
...2000AD art droid extraordinaire Colin MacNeil will be at the FutureQuake table during the weekend sketching and selling original artwork. Table 166 in the New Dock Hall.


Abby Ryder will be doing £10 sketch commissions as well as having Imaginary Gumbo prints and comics.


Gavin Mitchell  will be selling these bad boys.

Dave Shirley will have Fera issues 1-2 as well as his new comic The Editors at table 131 NDH. Fera is an adventure-romance story also available to read online here whilst The Editors is a conspiracy tale set in a superhero universe with a shady group who conduct in-world retcons.

Dave West will be launching WesterNoir #2 and will surely have copies of issue 1 as well as all his other very fine comics such as Robot Shorts, Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man and the Accent UK anthologies.


Sarah Turner kindly informs us that the  Leeds University Anime Society will be doing a 'make a manga' anthology for the first time. This collection of comics, art and writing will apparently be available in the foyer of the Royal Armouries Hall.

Afterlife Inc. Volume 2: Near Life And Other Stories, will be debuting this weekend. Collecting the hit series Near Life and Dead Days - plus a wealth of special features and an exclusive, print-only tale - Near Life And Other Stories marks the triumphant return to the world of Afterlife Inc. as written by Jon Lock and illustrated by a stunning selection of artists. Afterlife Inc. is also running a Kickstarter campaign throughout November to fund Volume 3: Lifeblood. Be sure to stop by our table in the Royal Armouries Hall to learn more about the project and the next phase of stories for Afterlife Inc.




Starburst Magazine columnist P M Buchan and manga artist Karen Yumi Lusted will release the first issue of their Gothic-Horror series La Belle Dame Sans Merci. Based on the poem of the same name by John Keats, La Belle Dame Sans Merci is a four-part series that drags The Beautiful Lady out of the forest and screaming into the modern world. And speaking of Monsieur Buchan... 

Controversial horror-comedy anthology Blackout will launch at Thought Bubble comic festival in Leeds. This 32-page, full-colour anthology is packed with unrequited romance, booze, death-by-misadventure, necrophilia, cannibalism and suicide, and that’s just the first story! Created by PM Buchan, The Big Bang creator Jack Fallows and Kerrang! illustrator Phillip Marsden, with guest contributions by Andrew Waugh (Dodgem Logic), Mike Barnes (Cornelius Blow) and Harley Poe frontman Joe Whiteford.

Sugar Glider artist/co-creator Gary Bainbridge is launching Nightbus #3

The Phoenix Comic are going to Thought Bubble this weekend! Join in the fun feathery festivities with the team and see what they've got lined-up by reading the flyer, left.

Disconnected Press have two new comics Disconnected v2 and How To Kill BearsDisconnected v2 will pick up where Vol. 1 left off, exploring the curious things that happen in small towns, the stories that don’t make the big city press, the tales that tell us the truth about ourselves as we twitch the net curtains between our fingers.

How To Kill Bears is the sister publication to their earlier Lost: Boys, it follows the fortunes of four female characters, in stories written by Lizzie Boyle and brought to life by emerging and even unknown female artists.

Find the Disconnected team at Table 11 in New Dock Hall. Alternatively, order your copy of Disconnected v2 from their online shop for £5.00 plus P&P.

Blank Slate will have some super-earlybird copies of Felt Mistress' Creature Couture & 20 limited-edition gold Tippy designer toys. Come meet the team behind the book as Felt Mistress, Jonathan Edwards, Woodrow Phoenix & Tippy Winkles will all be in attendance!


Dan Thompson ‏tells us Beyond The Bunker will be launching Moon #2. The trailer for the book is here on Vimeo or here on Youtube 

The Last Ride Of Henry Holden will be on sale at Thoughtbubble at a special launch price of £6.00, along with Time Bomb’s full range of  titles.

Garen Ewing will have the Rainbow Orchid Supplement and The Complete Rainbow Orchid selling that one for a mere £10! Quickly! Take advantage of the poor fool before he sobers up!



++++ STOP PRESS! STOP PRESS! STOP PRESS! ++++

Ian Culbard just tweeted is to tell us his Lovecraftian graphic novel Deadbeats (as written by Chris Lackey & Chad Fifer, and published by Self Made Hero) will make its tentacular debut at TB. 


Dan "Druff" Harris and the Lou Scannon boys will be there. Say hello if you want, buy their comics if you like but for the love of God guard your chips.


Peter Cooper and Adam Burn will be there with the first issue of Telikos Protocol - check it out.


Sally Jane Thompson has new prints for Thought Bubble - signed, archival, on acid-free paper. She's at table 168 in New Dock - stop by! I assume'hope she will also have some of her beautiful mini-comics with her - Now & Then, From and Candy Bag - take a looksee.



Accent UK launches Who on Earth was Thaddeus Mist? from Owen Michael Johnson and a host of writers and artists.


John Lees will be selling of The Standard v1, the graphic novel collecting the first 3 issues of the series.  He'll also have prints and T-shirts available while stocks last.  He will be at table 72 in Armouries Hall, sharing with...


...Gary Chudleigh who will premiering GLoW 2, the second Glasgow League of Writers (he theme this time round is horror)...


...and artist Graeme Kennedy of Obscure Reference Comics, who will be debuting the 3rd and final issue of dark thriller Villainous. 


Gordon McLean will be at Table 89 at Royal Armoury Hall with No More Heroes #1-3 and a special deal including a limited edition variant of #1 - only 50 printed.











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PS If you see any 'Fake Nerds' there this weekend don't be a cunt, tell them about a comic that you like.

Wednesday, 7 November 2012

News Bites 23!



Howdy SPBMers, here's our latest platter of tender vittles - a smaller serving today but meatier... chewier... juicier. Like sausages.

Prime cut sizzling sausages of news.

I've not had my dinner yet.

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ITEM! Sam Johnson's character Cabra Cini: Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman makes her return in H!M Comics' IF-X: Halloween. Introduced in Visionary Comics’ Digital Visions, Cabra is back in 'Bad Voodoo'--in which a friend’s fancy dress Halloween party is meant to be a night off for Ms. Cini--but events prove to be as eventful and bizarre as any of her assignments! The comic also features ‘Brody and Lisa’, a supernatural romance strip from Kelci Crawford; and ‘Recovery Unit’, an offbeat vampire tale from Patrick McEvoy & David Beyer, Jr.  Suggested for mature readers, IF-X: Halloween, 32 pages, b&w, published by H!M Comics is available to buy online at Sam's website in $2.99 Regular and $1.99 Digital editions. And if you didn’t catch Cabra’s color debut, it’s up to read for FREE at the site!



ITEM! Here's the first (of four) teaser posters for an upcoming Unseen Shadows anthology Tales of the Forgotten the second anthology and follow up to Tales of the Fallen which was launched last year at the Thought Bubble Comic Festival. "When truth must be stolen from the mouths of the wicked, it falls beyond the reach of mere heroes. Liars, loners, losers – trapped on the outskirts of a war fought in silence and shadow. Drawn into darkness, they flee it, they study it, they make it their home."

...Tales of the Forgotten features stand alone stories based on characters from the former number 1 Amazon novel Fallen Heroes. The creative team features some of the upcoming talent from the world of Indie Comic including Cy Dethan, Valia Kapadai, Cormac Hughes, Corey Brotherson,Richmond Clements,Jorge Oliveira, Nic Wilkinson, Alex Moore, Paul Mclaren and Vicky Stonebridge. Check out the cover...


ITEM! The Thoughtbubble 2012 Anthology goes on sale today digitally from ComiXology or you can pick yourself up a paper copy from Thoughtbubble -The Leeds Comics Festival on 18th November. The comic features an all-star, all-talent cast of creators including Warren Ellis, Gail Simone, Skottie Young, Sean Phillips, Fiona Staples, Tony Harris, Boo Cook, Emma Vieceli, Leigh Gallagher and many others. Beautiful cover by Tran Nguyen, look.


ITEM! Check out this fab cover art for Nightbus #3 from Gary Bainbridge, artist & Co-creator of Sugar Glider. "Conrad and César run the Newcastle University student safety bus, the service that takes students back to their halls of residence after a long night of studying or partying. For the past couple of years, Conrad and César have been taking the specifics of their job description a little further than necessary. What started off as getting people home,soon became getting people out of trouble. Now the pair have become the self-styled vigilantes of Newcastle."
Nightbus 3 can be bought from Gary's online store online store HERE or from Comicsy HERE as either a physical book or digital download. The print version is only £3.00 and the PDF is half price at £1.50. Nightbus 1 and 2 can be purchased for £1.50 each or £2.00 for both at Gary's Shop or Comicsy. Digital versions will be coming soon.


ITEM! Jon Lock just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his Afterlife Inc. Volume 3: LIFEBLOOD book. "This is going to be the largest, most ambitious Afterlife Inc. story to date. If I meet my target, Kickstarter profits will fund 96 pages of full colour artwork from Ash Jackson and Nadine Ashworth, and the first print run of the book." The project has already reached 37% of its target. You can learn more at the Kickstarter page HERE.





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Right then, that'll do you for now I reckon. If you've got any sausage small press/indie comics news or have a sausage comic you'd like us to review - or you'd like to review for us - please drop us an email via the address in the banner at the top of the page.