Archive for October, 2008

Geeking Out

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

Very kind of the ever-supportive Barry Nugent at Geek Syndicate to review INDIANA JONES AND THE TOMB OF THE GODS 2 and to be so positive about it. You can hear their new audio reviews here:

http://geeksyndicate.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/indiana-jones-and-the-tomb-of-the-gods-issue-2-audio-review/  

The book seems to go down better with hardcore Indy fans like Barry than with your general comic buyer, which is kind of interesting. I really studied Raiders… when writing Tomb and wanted to get the tone right and this fact suggests that I did, although whether that’s what your general comic-reading public wants is another thing.

Sales seem pretty decent on the book without being anything out of this world. We’ve, apparently, sold 14,552 of issue two, which puts us at number 142 in the comic charts (with a bullet… and a whip). That initially sounds disappointing but when you consider that we’re outselling major books like The Authority and Hellblazer it shows how screwy the comics market is. Basically, the top 100 is pretty much Marvel and DC with Buffy and The Walking Dead and that’s it.

In other news, did the signing at Whatever Comics in Canterbury on the weekend alongside Laurence Campbell (Punisher, which looks gorgeous at the moment and should be on your pull list), Ian Sharman of Orang Utan comics, Cy Dethem and Nic Wilkinson of Cancertown. It was fun. Seemed like lots of people came in and wanted to chat. All concerned were good company and the owners of the shop treated us incredibly well, plying us with drink and pizza once the shop was shut for the night, which was really kind of them. There’s worse ways to spend an evening. I’m aware that I told one or two people that I’d put one of my scripts up on the website and I will soon, I swear. Just as soon as I’ve worked out how to do this barring blue-tacking a sheet of A4 to my monitor and unblinkingly staring at it intensely for two days, in order to achieve this with my mind powers. Luddite fool that I am. 

Writing wise, I’ve recently finished the second episode of the next LOW LIFE series, CREATION, along with the opening episode of THE GRIEVOUS JOURNEY OF ICHABOD AZREAL. I was quite nervous about writing the latter and procrastinated wildly beforehand as a result. I wanted to write in a 19th century style and hadn’t attempted anything like it before. I was really happy with how it turned out, however. And using a narrator so heavily was a different dynamic which I enjoyed. It was nice to try something different.

Speaking of which, myself and another 2000AD writer have been collaborating on a story recently, which again is something different for me. It seems to have worked quite well. We’ll see how the pitch goes and how the actually scripting process proceeds. Thus far, no major plot disagreements have occurred. No toys thrown out of pram. It’s fun to have someone to knock ideas back and fore with. Will this see the light of day? We’ll see.

I’ll post a few new interior CLA$$WAR pages by Trev Hairsine in the next day or two. They’re very pretty.

Oh, and I am, foolishly, now on Twitter. So if you time displacement is your thing and you want to ‘follow’ me go to http://twitter.com/Robwilliams71 

 

 

Cla$$war, in more ways than one…

Friday, October 10th, 2008

Forgive the sweary, but this made me laugh:

Dear Lord, I hope so. Sarah Palin in the White House really doesn’t bear thinking about. Used to have a vague amount of respect for McCain but his pulling Mrs. Palin in is about as Faustian a pact as you can possibly imagine.

Anyway, the coloured version of the new Cla$$war cover for your enjoyment, thanks to Len O’Grady:

Birmingham, Canterbury and needing a bigger (upside down) boat…

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Right, enough of all that praising others and knocking solipsism, back to my desperate attempts to get people to read MY comics. I mean, that’s what websites are for, right? Otherwise what’s the point? (NB – your author had best not consider this question too long, it may cause weeping).

I’ll be attending the Birmingham Comic Convention this weekend – www.thecomicsshow.co.uk . Not down for any panels at the moment, but I think I’m signing with 2000AD on the Saturday between 11am and 12.30 and maybe on the Sunday too. Come along and say hello if you’re attending.

I’ve also agreed to do a signing at Canterbury comic shop Whatever Comics in a few weeks. It’s holding a “grand re-opening celebration on Saturday 18 October to mark its 20th anniversary and relocation to a fantastic new spot on the city’s main high street” apparently. Also appearing will be Laurence “Punisher” Campbell, Cy “Starship Troopers” Dethan, Nic “Cancertown” Wilkinson and Ian Sharman, co-founder of Orang Utan Comics. Hopefully people will turn up. If not, it’s off to the pub! So can’t lose either way.

And finally, Dark Horse have put a three-page preview of INDIANA JONES AND THE TOMB OF THE GODS #3 up on their website. It has sharks and one of them’s even a hammerhead. What more do you want from a comic? If only there’d have been a plane in this sequence the book might have won some kind of ‘sharks and planes in comics’ award. Shame…