Psycho Vivisectionist Nightmare Apes

PG Tips Caffeine Free: the ad was quickly withdrawn.

I'm pleased to see this.

 It's a panel from a four page thing that the unfairly talented Jon Taylor has drawn for The Psychedelic Journal ofTime Travel. I don't know when it will be printed. I do know it's called Elison.

I'm pleased because I've been quiet on the old comic writing front for a while. I seriously wondered if it was worth it. I've been busy with work and messing around with prose. (OK, and playing Skyrim).

But, you know what, I really like this little story. Enough to regret not sending it to Tharg.

Vanity, vanity - all is vanity.

Well, that didn't work

Another rejection from Tharg today. Bah.

I sent it off in October. In an effort to stand out from the rest of the slush pile, I enclosed a 36 page  mock-prog that I had printed. It contained some of the small press stories I've had (a Dredd from Zarjaz, a Strontium Dog from Dogbreath, a Futurequake tale and a couple of other things). I even made up my own my own Damage Report in the small text and some Nerve Centre blurb about how it was a prog from the future. The argument was that Tharg had to accept the script because the future Tharg already had (and Tharg is never wrong).

In fact, Matt Smith was sufficiently kind not to mention this silly thing in his standard rejection.

I thought it was worth a shot. Turns out it was just vanity publishing.

Roll on 2014.

When sunbeds go wrong

So I've just finished two scripts, to appear in the small press near you. Yay! Except both aren't likely to be released into the wild until 2014. A whole year away.

I'm not going to say any more about them. I'm only mentioning them here so my last post here isn't Christmassy. Leaving a Chrimo post up in January is like leaving your lights up outside the house all year round - the neighbours will talk. Plus, this way I get another couple of posts out of it and make it look like I'm doing stuff. Which I am, obviously.

Anyway, they'll hopefully be drawn by the jolly talented Jon Taylor, who drew the lovely lady above. Unless he starts to get even more proper paying comic work. Swine.

Elf Harm

So this was the submission to the 2000ad Forum's 2012 advent calendar, written by me and drawn by Jon Taylor.

He hasn't said anything to me, but a little helper elf mentioned that John REALLY enjoyed drawing all the elves on the second page.

Merry Christmas!

Alcohol! Adultery! Poverty! Servitude! It's Christmas, innit?

You know the worst thing? That's yellow snow.

I've written a script for the 2000ad message board's Advent Calendar. It's being posted on the 19th.

Jon Taylor is drawing it. He's worried it's not festive enough. I don't know why. It's got Santa in it and everything.Then again, so did last year's entry.

Prickly...

Big stompy robots: improving fiction since 1951

When is it a good thing that the folks at Zarjaz say they don't want a six page script? When they tell you it's because they want it to be twelve!

It's been a long time coming this one - I wrote it two and a half years ago (June 2010 - yes, that is two and a half years ago!). Looking at the script now, I can hardly remember it and the way I lay them out now is defintely better. But, you know what, I love this story.

What is it, I hear you ask? Well, I'm not telling. Not a word. I don't know when it will be published but I guess it is ages and ages away - I think the art deadline is the end of next year. So I don't want to spoil it.

It's going to be drawn by Mike Bunt and the snippet above is from a sketch of the eponymous lead in the strip.

One clue: I'd love to say it's like nothing you've read before. But it is!

Oooh. Pretty.

I'd see a doctor about that, mate.

See that, up there? That's the cover for Dogbreath 26. In which I have not one, but two, stories. So, um, go to the Futurequake Press shop and order two. It should be out in November, at Thought Bubble. You can find out more at the Dogbreath and Zarjaz site.

And did I mention the cover is for a story written by little old me? It is, you know.