UK ON DISPLAY from UKCOMICS.

This announcement has reached me from Stuart Gould of UKCOMICS :-

''Hello to everyone involved in COMIC BOOKS which includes Writers, Artists, Colorists, Letterers, Publishers, Stores, Editors, Commentators, Reviewers and most importantly the Buyers & Readers. Here at UK COMICS CREATIVE we are proud to announce the completion and launch of UK ON DISPLAY - our NEW CATALOGUE which is now available to purchase from www.ukondisplay.com
The Catalogue will be making its way into Comic Book Shops, Book Shops and other outlets over the course of the next few weeks and we are busy completing our ONLINE STORE which should be live early January.
You can now ORDER titles within the Catalogue by using the ORDER FORM on the site.
We'd love to hear from as many of you as possible. We will be compiling issue 3 in January. Our initial intention is to print 4 Catalogues per annum with a NEW MAGAZINE popping up in between. We will actively market all titles throughout each month and issue a monthly update to include new titles as they publish. We will also be launching many other features including Art Prints, Hardcover Art Books, Event Management and COMICS BOOKS in SCHOOLS!
You can also visit www.ukcomicscreative.co.uk for information on printing and publishing. We look forward to hearing from you. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS''.

Well Accent UK are certainly listing our books in the catalogues, it looks like a great opportunity to get our books into more hands across the country, and if you've met Stuart then you'll know that they don't come much more passionate than him about the genre.

WesterNoir Update

WesterNoir Issue 2 is now available in digital format through Lush Comics.
As with all Lush Comics titles, this means that the Accent UK comics will be available for the Amazon Kindle and on the iTunes Bookstore, with Google Books and the Barnes & Noble coming soon (for those in the US). iPad and iPhone owners can browse, purchase, and read books on the iTunes Bookstore from the iBooks app. Or from Amazon which makes them available on almost every device through Kindle.
Also, we've had a great review over at The Birmingham Mail website.
...and the cover for Issue 3 is progressing very nicely ... did we mention it's got mermaids in it...

Gary Crutchley's working on the cover for Issue 3...

WesterNoir 2 is now available to purchase online...

If there's one problem with our new improved website, it's me.
As I go onto it so infrequently, that is when we publish a new book (about 3 times a year), I have trouble remembering how to update it.
We'll I think I've managed it now for WesterNoir #2, which can now be purchased at www.accentukcomics.com.

 

... this issue will also be available digitally soon through LUSH Comics, alongside issue 1, and will be available through iBooks, iTunes apps and Android. I'll post an update when this is the case but all files are uploaded and are going through the acceptance process.

When I get stock of Missing - Have You Seen The Invisible Man? and Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist? I'll add these to the website as well. Should be in the next week or two.

Also, I've posted another panel from Stephenson's Robot (Issue 3) over on my other blog Strange Times.

Thought Bubble ... how was it for us ...

We never do particularly well at Thought Bubble conventions. We don't know why, unless it's due to the incredible number of great comics on other stalls competing for the customers' pennies. But the cold fact is that Thought Bubble is our usually our worst UK Con.
Or it has been until now.
This year we were determined to break the cycle and timed the launch of three new books to coincide with the event, as well as enlisting support from a couple of extra creators for the full two days. Oh and there was the surprise in store for people outside the hall as mourners of Thaddeus Mist entertained.
Where to start then ?
OK, the beginning.
Saturday morning was cold and damp, and following a typical Holiday Express breakfast I stepped out, accompanied by my daughter, Jemma, to lug four boxes of comics from my car (on the 5th floor of the multi-story car park) to the venue. That and a few extra bits and pieces, the banner, the raffle prize (a piece of original Gary Crutchely WesterNoir art, which I was not at all happy to part with), and some Thaddeus Mist posters.
A few trips later, I am getting weaker as I get older, and we were all set.

That is we would be once the three new books arrived, and as is typical, we'd left it all so late that Stuart Gould, of CITRUS CREATIVE & UK COMICS CREATIVE, was bringing a number of boxes of each to the Con for us.
And there he was, with a smile on his face that told me that once again he'd come through for us.
A few trips to his car later and we now had more boxes under the table than could really fit and a whole load of comics to shift, but what great looking comics they were. Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist ?, WesterNoir 2 and Missing - Have You Seen The Invisible Man ? all looked fab.
Owen Johnson, the driving force behind Thaddeus Mist and Gary Crutchely, the driving force and artist on WesterNoir arrived pretty soon after all the hard work lifting and shifting boxes, and helped set up what stock we had on an over crowded table.

Gary talks to a Customer about WesterNoir whilst in the
background Owen discusses Thaddeus Mist.

And then Colin turned up expecting help carrying his three boxes of stock from the car park. I think one look at my tired expression helped him to decide that he'd best do it himself and so by about 10.30am we were all ready to go, with even more comics on the table.
Our best sale of the day was pretty much our first as a customer bought pretty much one of every book we had (leaving out the few he had brought from us before), a fantastic start to what turned out to be a very busy day. Owen and Gary helping energise Colin and I, and Gary's special sketch packs really doing well to clinch the deal with anybody who hesitated over whether or not to buy both issue 1 and 2 of WesterNoir.

Gary and Colin ready for anything...

The actors that Owen had persuaded to come down from Carlisle and act out the Thaddeus Mist Funeral scene were on stage, we'll in the area between the halls, around lunchtime and they were really very good.

The Thaddues Mist mourners...

I didn't know what to expect but must confess that I feared the worst. How wrong could I have been ? They were great, and certainly helped generate interest in the book, and additional sales (thanks guys .. and girl).
I won't attempt to list all of the contributors to Thad who stopped by, but it was nice to see designer Danielle Horton at what I believe to be her first ever Con.
An incredible day drew to an end and we almost collapsed. It had been a draining but very rewarding experience.

A quick trip back to hotels to refresh and then we were off out to meet up with Sumyra of Lucky Target Comics and her crew at The Palace. A pub that was allegedly only 10 minutes away. Thirty minutes, a walk down by a canal and a rat sighting later and we all knew that I'd taken us in the wrong direction. But everybody was understanding and decided not to throw my into the canal (or river... it was too dark to tell) and so a mere 30 minutes later we were sat in the pub drinking and waiting for the food to arrive. A great night followed talking about comics and telling convention stories.
Sunday was a quieter affair, as Comic Cons always are, but we still did pretty well, and at the end of the day we'd had probably our most successful Con ever, not just from a sales perspective but also in meeting creator friends, and chatting about and developing new projects with a couple of them.

Biff and Gary draw winning ticket, Dave is kept well away
through fear of him trying to fix the result...

We got Biff (of ACE Comics) to draw the Raffle ticket, and number 300 came out of the hat... the winner has since been emailed, and I'm already missing the artwork that used to sit in my room.
All that's left then is to thank everybody for making it such a great Con. Gary and Owen for all the help, The Funeral Mourners, creators popping over to say 'Hi', Chris for being Chris and all those who stopped by to chat about our books and buy a couple.
See you all again next year.

Thought Bubble

Accent UK have a table at this year's Thought Bubble Con in Leeds, which is this weekend.

and for the first time ever, we are launching three new booksMissing - Have You Seen The Invisible Man ? is the follow up to Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man? in that it is set in the same universe and is another in the Blessed/Cursed line of books. Written by Dave West with art by Joe Campbell.
WesterNoir issue 2 follows on from issue 1 and sees Josiah Black facing aligator men in the swamps of the Mississippi. Written by Dave West and Gary Crutchley with art by Gary.
and...
Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist ? a concept anthology that follows the widow of Thaddeus as she attempts to find out who he really was by questioning guests at his funeral. A very victorian drama in every sense. Owen Johnson pulled this one together and wrote the main story with art by Conor O'Boyle, there are a number of other contributors who tell of Thaddeus through the eyes of his friends, relatives and even a mistress.
Over the weekend there will be a raffle for a piece of original art from Gary Crutchley, which recreates the cover pencils for issue 1. A raffle ticket will be given out with every purchase.
Also, we have a limited number of teaser posters for Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist ? signed by a lot of contributors that will be given to people who buy a copy of the Graphic Novel, until they run out.
and finally ... look out for actors dressed in victorian garb who will be bringing the funeral to those outside the convention hall.
We'll be at  Table 50 of the New Docks Hall for both days, so do come over and spend some time with us talking about comics.

Comiket, Pearly Kings and Nosferatu.

It was a strange trip down to London on Saturday for the winter Comiket. After a typical train journey (in that it arrived 15 mins late) we encountered a Pearly King at the Underground Station (which made more sense when we found out that it was The Lord Mayor's Show), who appeared to be being stalked by Nosferatu, which was not so easy to explain. Colin and I decided to keep well out of it, it never ends well for bystanders when titans clash.

We arrived with time for a coffee before setting up the table and being ready for the customers to start to enter the building.
It was a very slow start, and although the doors had opened at 10am, by 2pm we had sold less than 10 books. I must confess to being a little concerned that my joints would have to undergo yet more damage as we lugged all of our stock back up north.
But things picked up, and by 5pm we had sold almost as many books as we did in the Spring event. My joints we safe... for a bit longer anyway.
There was a little incident concerning Robots, which you can read about over on my Strange Times blog...
It was great to meet up with Olivier & Anders of Cinebook, ’J-P’ of London Horror Comics, Camlia & Taylor from Orbital Comics, Dave O’Connell, Andy from Broken Frontier, and Becky Bagley who created Tick, and provided a pin-up for Robot Shorts.
The Comica guys had put a lot of effort into yet another great event. I think the number of customers were down a little and I know some stalls suffered due to this. Clashing with the Lord Mayor's Show didn't help, and a friend of Accent UK, Matt Boyce, had struggled across London by bus adding about an hour to his journey. I'm tempted to write to Boris Johnson to see if he can't move next year's Lord Mayor's Show, but may have better luck suggesting that the organisers move the Winter Comiket instead.
All in all it was hard work but rewarding and as Colin and I sat back on the train home and discussed the future of Accent UK, we both agreed that it certainly included more Comikets.
Thanks to Megan Donnolley, Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury and all their helpers for another event like no other.

WesterNoir Issue 1 review.

WesterNoir Issue 1 gets a great review over at http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/in-review-westernoir-book-1.html, and as planned Issue 2 will be available at Thought Bubble.

Babble... the one that got away.

When Lee Robson brought his book Babble to our attention a while back, we were interested. Very interested. But while we were taking our time, discussing this between ourselves at Accent UK, Com.X nipped in. Lee knows a good thing when he sees it and so took them up on their offer, and who wouldn't, Com.X produce some great books.

So what is Babble all about ?

Carrie Hartnoll is a girl lost in a life going nowhere fast, until a chance encounter with an ex-boyfriend affords her the opportunity of a whole new career in Ivy League America, as part of a research team attempting to resurrect the language of Babel – a language, it is theorised, that can be understood by any human, from anywhere in the world.

As Carrie pieces together her fractured personal life, she becomes embroiled in the mystery surrounding the apparent suicide of the project’s original team leader, which propels her to uncover the horrific truth about the language and why it was written out of the history books…

Babble is an original graphic novel by Lee Robson and Bryan Coyle (both of whom have produce work for our snthologies in the past) due to be published by Com.X in December 2012.
You can pre-order it from comic shops now with the Previews order code OCT120971. Alternatively, you can pre-order it online here: http://www.babblecomic.com/where-to-buy/.

I've not seen the finished book, but I'll be picking this one up as soon as I see it based on what I saw back when we almost published it ourselves.

Accent UK will be at Comiket.

Colin and I will be returning for the latest Comiket Festival in London on Saturday.
We always enjoy this event as we get to meet so many new creators and manage to sell a good number of books to new and returning customers alike.
Pop in if you're passing...

Off Life hits the shelves of London.

A new free anthology has hit stores in London, and I believe is already.. well, I can't say 'Sold Out' really as it's free, but they've all gone.

You're never quite sure what to expect when you're approached with the opportunity to place an advert in a magazine or flier, and it was no different with Off Life. So, whilst the approach was very professionally done I still had doubts when I opened my posted copy.

I needn't have worried at all. It's a fabulous little product. The printing, paper and colours are wonderful and the stories I've read so far are great.
If you're lucky enough to be able to pick these up in the future, I believe they are bi-monthly, then I'd recommend doing so, and if you're an Indie creator/publisher then it gets good coverage of London and so I feel is a good opportunity to spread the word about your books. I'll be looking to advertise in it again next issue.

Great reviews for new Accent UK books over at Burnt Weiners..

'Missing - Have You Seen The Invisible Man ?' and 'Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist?' get great reviews over at the Burnt Weiners podcast, Episode 133, and if you scroll down a but you'll find that Owen Johnson, the main mind behind Thaddeus Mist, was interviewed by the guys.

Both of these books, and the next installment of Josiah Black should be launched at Thought Bubble next month... if all goes well.

10th Anniversary Offer in this month's PREVIEWS

As we've previously announced on this blog, we've decided to move away from our themed anthologies, and concentrate more on one shots. What we didn't predict was the amount of feedback we'd have on this decision, a decision that wasn't made lightly. Those who contributed to these books and those who read them were all very disappointed that we'd not produce any more following Victoriana.

The decision was really driven by falling orders from PREVIEWS, and therefore the decline in getting these books out there to shops across the world. Speaking to Diamond we've seen that the biggest dip in orders from stores has actually been in the UK. Maybe this is a byproduct of us hitting more UK Conventions lately, or maybe it is due to the challenges on comic stores to order comics that aren't linked to The Watchmen or the 52 relaunch of DC.

We'd discussed the concept of an 'Accent UK Introductory' pack with Diamond quite a while ago, but never really took it any further, and thought that maybe now was the time to try it, and also combine this with an 'Anthology Promotional Pack' idea we'd been playing around with.
And taking Diamond's advice, we've agreed to focus on encouraging UK stores initially, and take this idea to the US PREVIEWS if it proved at all successful.

So the October PREVIEWS (number 289) offers two of our anthologies to stores for £5 each. The collections will still retain their original cover price, so I'm not sure if the stores will pass on the full deal to their customers, but either way we hope this'll get them to give the titles a chance.

We'll let you all know how it goes.

Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist ?

Well, you'll all be finding out soon.

Cover artwork from Marleen Lowe

Preview Sample PDFs are being sent out to Reviewers in the hope that we get to hear their thoughts on the book, and hopefully a mention on their podcasts or blogs. If you'd like a peview copy then leave a comment below, or email me.

Contributor details page designed by Danielle C Horton

Initial feedback has been very positive, which is great as we'll be launching the book at Thought Bubble in a couple of months.

Internal Artwork from Conor Boyle

It does look very very good ... full credit to Owen Johnson for writing the main story, editing and well, pretty much bringing it into being, and a big 'Thanks You' to everyone else involved.

Megacon was Mega...

Last weekend we attended the Megacon event in Carlisle. It was my first time in the city and so I decided to take Friday off and make a long family weekend of it. What a great little city. Always a big plus to me are cities or towns with decent bookshops and Carlisle has some great book shops, top of the list being the Bookcase which had rooms and rooms of old books on a number of levels covering every subject you could come up with. A hurried hour was spent in there, and it wasn't nearly long enough.

Saturday morning Jemma and I set up the table, amidst the usual hustle and bustle that accompanies such events.
We got to meet Mal Earl, who has done some impressive concept design work for the 'Who On Earth Is Thaddeus Mist ?' book, and also Conor Boyle, who is doing (or has done) the majority of the artwork, and it really is very very good. Owen Johnson was busy as one of the event organisers and for a first event it really was very well organised. I guess, having attended a number of events in his time, Owen knew what worked and what didn't.  This event certainly worked.
It had the same diversity of stalls seen somewhere like KAPOW, the heart of events like Caption (which was sadly on the same weekend) and was the size of Comiket. It pulled all of these elements together really successfully.

People get ready for the Accent UK panel

During what was to turn out to be a pretty busy day sales-wise, Colin and I were pulled away from the stall, which Jemma then covered for us, to sit on an Accent UK Panel, along with Owen, Connor and writer Max Deacon. We talked about all sorts but did manage to cover why we do this comic thing, how others can do it and what new books we all had coming up.

The Accent UK Panel

It seemed to be pretty well attended and from follow up chats at the stall it seemd to be pretty well received as well. Sat in the middle of the hall with stalls on a higher level all around us, it really had a great feeling of being an integral part of the event, whereas these types of panels are usually held in rooms somewhere away from the main halls.

Stacey Whittle asks the tough 'Why no more anthologies ?' question

When we remembered we also gave out some 'teaser' posters for 'Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist ?' drawn and designed by Mal Earl.

Dave looking through Conor's wonderful Thaddeus Mist pages.

I got the rest signed by all the creators present for future prizes and purchased a couple of Conor's excellent pages from the book. I've seen a lot of the book now and it really is going to be one of our best yet. I can't wait to see this on the table at Leed's Thought Bubble.

Two pages of original Conor Boyle art and the teaser poster.

We had a great day, sold well (sales were about the same as other one day events, which was really good for a first time) and met a lot of people we hadn't met before (both creators, podcasters (nice to meet Stacey Whittle of Small Press Big Mouth fame) and readers)... can't wait for next year.

MegaCon and WesterNoir.

We're off to MegaCon this weekend, which is Carlisle's first Comic Convention and promises to be a great informal event where we'll have lots of time to chat about comics. Accent UK will be hosting a talk, so if you're in the area please do pop in, we'll be frank and honest about the whole Comic creation and publishing game, and will answer all questions.
Also, I've just received Matt Soffe's coloured version of Gary Crutchley's cover for WesterNoir Issue 2 .. awesome. It just needs for Andy Bloor to add the design elements and the cover's good to go. Gary is progressing really well with the internal artwork as well, so all is on track for a winter print date.

3hundredand65.

Dave Kirkwood emailed me the following this week :-

''I am (amongst other things) working on 3hundredand65 a unique one-off project in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust. 365 people write one tweet each, their tweet is a contribution to a year long story written tweet by tweet and every day I make a drawing based on the tweet the end product is a single graphic novel written by 365 writers. The sketches are just first stage rough ideas which we'll adapt and work up next year when we write the full story. I've dropped a couple of images on to the end of this email starting with yesterday's. We didn't predict how quickly the project would grow. We've been in the national: ( Radio 6, Guardian Weekend ) press and local ( Breakfast Show, MEN ) and we currently appear on hundreds of blogs.
The 3hundredand65 idea came to me on December 30th last year and it's all been a bit of a whirlwind since then. I'm a designer not an illustrator I haven't drawn for over 20 years. I nearly lost my sight two years ago in a freak accident, Manchester Eye Hospital saved it, but I'm under the continuous threat of it going at any time. I started drawing sitting in the waiting room at the Eye Hospital one day and couldn't stop. For me it's about ideas and bringing characters to life. It's become a bit of an obsession so it's my channel swim if you like, without getting wet! I wrote a simple blog post about it here: http://www.3hundredand65.co.uk/blog/back-to-the-drawing-board/ ''.

This looks to be an incredibly ambitious and worthwhile project, that actually is more than 'just' the graphic novel mentioned above, and I've jumped at the chance to contribute a Tweet. Dave is looking for more contributors, so why not contact him and get involved. Also check out his blog for more up to date information.

Manchester's MCM.

We missed the MCM Con in Manchester last year due to it clashing with an event at a Library that we'd already committed to, and so we had no idea whether it would be good, bad or indifferent.

What it had in its favour was that it's a very local event for us, so no trains, no hotels to sort out, no lugging heavy bags of stock across city streets. No, it took us only 30 minutes from Colin's house. Which is why we were late.

What never ceases to amaze me at the MCM events is the colour, the costumes and the sense of fun from all the people who take the opportunity to dress up like their hero. Colin would love to dress up as Captain America, I know, but we've told him there's an age limit, and he has yet to find out that there actually isn't. There should be, but there isn't. I can rely on the fact that he rarely goes online and so will never see this posting.

And so there we were. A nicely stocked stall, a banner telling everyone who we were and Colin dressed normally. But would it all count for anything ? We know that the percentage of actual comic readers at these events is quite small, probably around 10%, but with 5000 or more people coming through the door (and they were still queueing to get in at 2pm), that's ... err ... at least 500 potential customers. So, signs were quite promising.

We know that the queue was still there at 2pm because Gary Crutchley was in it.
Once behind the table though he was in fine form. Doing a fab job of selling all the Accent UK books, that he was in, and giving away free sketches and signatures if the customer began to show any hesitancy.

Shauna, The Space Girl from Starburst, teleported down to say 'Hello', it turns out that she's the girl who puts my copy of Starburst in the addressed envelope, for which I thanked her. Actually I think she's employed to pack more than just mine but it was nice to meet her anyway, and give her a copy of WesterNoir as a small 'Thank You'.

Business was steady all day, with 2OMBIES (Zombies 2) being our best seller, closely followed by WesterNoir, which is great.
Gary got to meet the winner of the KAPOW raffle for his original artwork (I still owe you that £10 Daniel) and we then realised we'd forgotten to raffle of his new one (it was an honest mistake .. really .. although it does look very nice on my wall), which we'll take with us to MegaCon.

...and then it was 5pm. The show was over and we'd managed to sell more books than at any other 1 day event before it. A great day, a great range of independent comics on display from all manner of publishers and great sales ... who could ask for more?
We ended the day talking comics over a pint in the oldest pub in Manchester, apparently, with Steve 'Timebomb' Tanner, who had also had a great day. Hope you managed to catch your train OK Steve, see you at Thought Bubble.

Starburst 379 reviews WesterNoir.

I've scanned the review and posted it over on my Strange Times blog, it's a good one :o)

WesterNoir Original Art Raffled At MCM

Gary Crutchley, artist on WesterNoir, has produced another great piece of original artwork to raffle off with purchases of WesterNoir from our stall on Saturday.

It's a reproduction of his excellent cover for Issue 1. Gary will also be at hand to sign copies and via the wonders of technology (his iPAD) will be able to show pages from Issue 2.
Be sure to pop by ...

MCM in Manchester next Saturday

We will be at the MCM Expo in Manchester on the 21st July (yep, that's next Saturday), with copies of WesterNoir and  Zombies 2, do pop in and say hello if you're in the Manchester area.
This also means that I'll finally be able to send out contributor copies, apologies for the delay, I won't bore you with excuses but suffice it to say that I'm sorry I couldn't get them out sooner. If you're a contributor and haven't emailed me your address yet then please do so.

And .. speaking of WesterNoir, from tomorrow up until 12th August, the Birmingham Mail's Speech Balloons will be featuring a summer season of Gary Crutchley's pencil art on the Carter's Column comic strip series.  As ever you can keep up with it at: http://blogs.birminghammail.net/speechballoon/.

The Government seems to have it in for the little creative guy...

Check this out :-

uk-government-dept-of-business-innovation-skills-abandon-proposed-changes-to-orphaned-works-copyright-law

and if you're an independent creator based in the UK then consider signing the petition.
I'm never sure whether petitions do much good at the end of the day but it is the only way to show your disapproval of what is happening.
Well ... not the only way I guess.
The other is to restrict your output to that printed on good old paper where you have a chance of proving that you produced it when you say you did, and less chance for others to say that they weren't aware of it's origins.
Kinda kills blogs like this and my own creator blog as it'll be restricted to work in print rather than discussing and showing things in production or pieces of artwork.
It'll be a sad day if this happens.

WesterNoir Review over on the Accent UK Comics Facebook group

Thought I'd post a review from Lazy Bones Studios' Ken Thomas that has been posted over on Facebook.
Gary asked for a non-spoiler review and Ken sure delivers...in spades.
Cheers Ken....

 

WesterNoir by Dave West and Gary Crutchley. (Review)

I have always liked a good... western.........and loved a great western. Which brings us to WesterNoir. The hook was equally great between the Name as well as the Cover Art. All that was left was to actually read it.

Many a book are in my position with the intent to someday read. Unfortunate for most in that they will remain in that state of promise as titles like WesterNoir so easily claw their way to the front of the line.

To Mr. Crutchley & Mr. West I tip my hat in respect for a job not well done but rather extraordinarily so.

The tale WesterNoir is centered on a man, a hard man named Josiah Black. Josiah has spent his life on both sides of right and wrong. Some say Josiah's life has left his soul calloused with sin others say it is like his name, black & dead. In spite of his rugged spit in your eye disposition, it was always tempered with a sense of honor. A man of honor always pays his debts...no matter how great. These things are the essence of Josiah Black and are his driving force as that of the story.

This story works and plays out at a pace where you find yourself anxious to finish and turn to the page. My only regret is that I only have Book I and it has infected me with that itch, that question that begs to be answered "What happens next?"

Bravo mates, Ken (Lazy Bones)

 

Accent UK have a table at MCMExpo Manchester on 21st July.

It's just been confirmed that we will be at the MCM Expo in Manchester on the 21st July. It'll be great to do a local Con, hope to see you there.

2OMBIES have landed.

Well, 2OMBIES is in stores, but if you want a copy then I'd go to your local comic emporium sooner rather than later as numbers are limited.
This photo was taken in Manchester's Forbidden Planet store...

(thanks to Scott Mathieson for the photo)

I should be getting some copies myself next week, so if you're a contributor then email me your address and I'll send your contributor copy out to you as soon as I can.

The MEGACON is coming...

A new event has been announced to take place in Carlisle on the 18th Aug. We'll be there and it looks to be shaping up into a great opportunity for comic readers in the North West to get a feel for what Cons are all about, and meet some of the creators and publishers face to face.
You can find out more on their blog and facebook group.
Looking forward to this.

WesterNoir reviews

WesterNoir has had a great review over on Burntweiners, pop over and have a listen.
It's reviewed as part of their Indie Rack (and is No. 4), and is discussed alongside such worthy titles as 'Into The Woods' from the Small Press Big Mouth people, under a wonderful cover from Andy Bloor.
We are very grateful to podcasts like Burnt Weiners, Tales From The Parents Basement and Small Press Big Mouth for raising our profile by reviewing our books, and as Jim says on the Podcast, these podcasters are an unsung hero of the Independent Comic scene, and are appreciated.
WesterNoir has also been mentioned at  Birmingham Mail, and reviewed at www.comicbitsonline.com.

Victoriana will be our last themed anthology for a while...

I announced this on the ''Accent UK Comics'' Facebook Group a few days ago...

'Sadly, I need to announce, I guess due to the current economic climate (which is hitting comic retailers as it is everybody else), we have been experiencing ever decreasing orders for our anthologies.
The idea of the anthologies was always to get the work of contributors as far and wide as possible, but with falling orders from stores this commitment isn't really being honoured, and so we've decided to stop publishing themed anthologies for a while.
Not an easy decision as we really enjoy pulling them together and selling them at Cons but a decision we've had to make.
So, Victoriana which is in the works, will be the last for a while which means that Vikings won't be published I'm afraid. Apologies to those with stories already in production.
This does not effect any of our other books in production, it just means that we'll be focussing more on the one shots and mini-series for a while ... and of course Thaddeus Mist which is looking jaw droppingly good'.

This move is not something that we've wanted to take, but is a reflection on the tough times we are all facing and also the success of events such as DC's 52. You just need to walk into stores around the country to see shelves packed with titles from 52, wander in a week later and you'll see that a lot of them have sold. This leaves shops with little cash to spend on books that will sit on the shelves a little longer. All understandable.
As mentioned in the Facebook posting, we will continue with the many one shots and mini-series in production, as well as the awesome Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist ?, with the focus on getting more readership which will then hopefully result in more interest in our other books, including anthologies.
Also, as mentioned in the KAPOW!! posting, these books do sell very well at Cons and we get plenty of customers, who have bought one before, coming up to us to buy more. We just need the retailers to stock them, if they don't then the non-convention-going-population won't see them. Hopefully smaller, cheaper, books will be more attractive and will continue to see healthy numbers through Diamond.
We are getting good interest in digital versions of our books through LUSH Comics, but as with printed copies, the percentage of cover price that actually gets back to us is not that high, and whilst this is a growing outlet for our books, it certainly is nowhere near encouraging us to replace paper with digital comics as a viable step to take.

Get WesterNoir on your iPad...

You can now download WesterNoir on your iPAD, in advance of it going into PREVIEWS.

If you like it and want the physical copy then we'll be letting you know when to pop into your comic store and ask them to order a copy ... you can get details on LUSH Comics through their website at lush-comics if you don't already have the app.

KAPOW !! A knockout... two views of the weekend.

Dave's View - 'Anthologies do sell'.
Last weekend saw Accent UK travel down to London for the second KAPOW!! convention.
We've heard a lot of good things about last year's event but had failed to make it ourselves as we were at the MOCCA event in New York.

Only Colin and I were going down to man the stall for the two days and so we were a bit limited as to how much we could take with us, limited that is by what we could physically carry. Or that would have been the case had it not been for support from a company that will remain nameless (as I think they prefer it that way) who we to bring with them a box of each of our old anthologies, and Stuart of UK Comics (our printer) who was bringing 2 boxes of the new 2OMBIES. This meant that, if all went to plan, we'd actually had more comics to sell than we've had at a Con for a very long time, and most of them were anthologies, which are notoriously a bit of a hit or miss affair . The danger was, of course, that we might find ourselves carrying a lot of books back up North with us, and the anthologies are pretty heavy beasts. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Colin and I set off for London on the Friday, rather than rush down Saturday morning. There were two reasons for this. Firstly the Con started at 9am, which would have meant a very very early start, and secondly we'd agreed to deliver some stock to Orbital Comics, following a meeting for Camila at the last Comiket event.
Before heading off to Orbital we needed to lighten our load and drop off most of our luggage (comics) at the venue. Blimey. Talk about well organised. Within minutes of entering we were looking down at our table and less than an hour later we were pretty much set up. Covering the stall with a sheet as we left to keep the dust off, job done.
We set off for Orbital Comics.
After a little wandering around London's streets we were once again reminded of the value of having an ex-scout along with us. Without Scott we were hopeless and completely failed to find the store. Still, modern technology soon came to our rescue. We phoned Scott who talked us through the route and ten minutes later and we were there.
Wow, what a great store Orbital Comics is. A full room dedicated to Independent Press. We were in heaven. Camila, and the store in general, is a real champion of comics that are outside the mainstream, and only too happy to stock our books. It's a great feeling knowing that we have our complete catalogue (except the original ZOMBIES, which is sold out) available in a London store.
As we were chatting about comics with Camilla our good friend Chris Dingsdale appeared. Chris had kindly agreed to allow us to crash at his house, despite Colin's snoring issue, see, a good friend indeed.
I was tempted, albeit only momentarily, to cry AccentUK Assemble, but we were still missing a member, as artist Gary Crutchley wouldn't be meeting up with us until Saturday, and so I refrained. Well, there was also the fact that Chris would have probably clipped me around the ear.
So, first things first then... off to a pub for a pint. Which turned into a few pints and some food.
Then it was back to Chris's for a beer, some chat and a video. The video we selected was Doc Savage which we were all old enough to remember watching at the cinema. I could say that it had aged pretty well, but that would be because it was as bad now as it had been back then. Still, great fun and a film that would be all the better for a new audio track that had us doing the vocals, agfter having re-written the script of course.
Satuday, and no headache. No idea how that happened. Must have been some of that old Doc magic.
We arrived to find that all the anthologies had been delivered, which meant we had a whole load of them to sell, and a few minutes later the stall was fully stocked... and Belmat was in position.
We had a steady stream of customers all day really. We didn't do the sales we'd hoped to do but we did sell about 2/3rds of what we expected, so it was too bad.

(photo from Bleeding Cool 

- that's us in the red circle talking to some customers)

Gary Crutchley arrived with a fabulous piece of original art and we gave a raffle ticket to everyone who bought a copy of WesterNoir. Sales, and interest, in WesterNoir were very encouraging, and although it sold very well, so did all of the books. Best seller on the day was 2OMBIES, you just can't keep them down, and it was great to hand a few copies out to contributors, and see the look of pleasure on their faces.

(photo - Chris finally gets back with the coffee only to find Dave no longer at the stall)

An added bonus of these Cons is that we often find that our table is next to someone we've never met before and this time it was the team behind Mr. Who. A really nice bunch of guys who are very passionate about the industry and their work. I've not read the comics yet but they're full of extras, in the form of CDs, that relate to the comic story itself. Interesting ideas.
It was a late finish on Saturday, 7pm, but it really didn't feel it. Usually the last hoour of a Con is pretty quite but in this case we were still talking to customers and making sales pretty much up to the last minute. Great stuff.

(photo - good friend Steve Tanner's TimeBomb stall)

Saturday night say a tired trio make it as far as the first restaurant that had a spare table, were we had food and beer. Not necessarily in that order. And then it was back to Chris's for more beer and a movie. This time it was the classic Megaforce, which is kind of a merging of Mad Maz and the Bee Gees, but not in a good way. Great fun though and once again I think our dialogue script was better. I did bounce the idea of acquiring the rights to Megaforce, what a comic book that would be, but the more I sobered up the less convinced I became.

Sunday, following a cooked breakfast (thanks Chris, maybe remember the Black Pudding next time ... just a suggestion) we made our way to the event wondering how much stock we could shift to save a few back problems on the way home. Sundays are always quieter than Saturdays. It's a fact of Comic Con Life.
But there's always the exception to every rule and this Con was it.
Sunday we did better sales than Saturday and following our passing the agreed number of anthology stockover to the guys on the Orbital Comics table, we were pretty much down to only having a few copies of most books left to sell. Phew. I even had a couple of offers for Belmat, but he's not for sale I'm afraid ... I do take commissions though :o)
I did get to wander around the event a little over the two days and it certainly is impressive. The organisation was excellent, with no queues effecting us in the main area. Most of the people behind stalls seemed to have had a very good convention sales-wise and a good cup of coffee was always close at hand.
Joel Meadows (Tripwire) pulled the winning ticket for the WesterNoir original art out of the hat (as it were) and disappointingly I didn't win, but we phoned the happy winner who will be receiving the artwork very soon.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by for a chat, to buy a comic or two or to bring me food (that's you Chris).
A great event ... I'd recommend it to all ... punters, dealers and publishers alike.
We'll be back for more next year.
                                                                     Dave West - May 2012.

Chris's View - “Deeds Not Words”

Comics events used to be about as common in the UK as hard photographic evidence of the Beast Of Bodmin.

These days you cant move for them. At least not in the merry month of May at any rate.
Last week it was Bristol Expo. This week its Kapow! at the  London design Centre in trendy Islington.
Last year’s event was a good one. I travelled down from my home in North Wales for a relaxing weekend in the Capital. Stayed in Kensington (well OK at the Youth Hostel but it is very nice….) spent some time and lots of cash in the Convention Hall, attended various panels, chatted comics, met up with old friends and even made some new ones. Nice one.
This year though I was worried. Really worried.
Now I am living in our wonderful Capital City and I have offered up my digs once already to the unfailingly nice Colin Mathieson and his son Scott for the purposes of the Accent UK presence at London SuperCon.
This time however Mr M was being accompanied by the fearsome Mr Dave West.
Yes THAT Dave West. The Eagle Award Winner. The CEO. The Chief. The Genralissimo himself.
A man with an ego so large he can only talk about himself in the third person.
Thus on Friday afternoon I was informed that Dave would be arriving in the City Centre with his “people” ( well, Colin ) and I was to await instructions as to when I would be granted an audience with the great man.
Actually what transpired was that I was looking around the excellent Orbital Comics and saw the pair of them trying to sell Accent UK books to the unsuspecting proprietors. I told Orbital they were frauds. They didn’t listen and took the books anyway.
We then retired to the “Marquess of Anglesey” on Drury Lane for beer, food and then more beer.
A return to the East End was capped off by a group viewing (with beer) of “Doc Savage The Man of Bronze” (1975) or at least my German R2 DVD. A camp classic. Dave and I laughed nostalgically whilst remarking what a good Doc Ron Ely was. Colin shared that he really liked the scene where Doc takes his early morning swim. Hmm. OK.
Saturday morning; Breakfast, Underground, London Design Centre. In that order.
I have to say that on entering, the Hall was impressive. The Design Centre is as close to an ideal venue for a Convention as you will find, just beating out the Ex Cel as it is essentially in the centre of London.
Layout was similar to last year’s event but it became apparent over the course of the weekend that the organisers had listened to the comments and acted on them where necessary.
The lower level entrance floor was taken up again by the Movie promotion area – natty flat screens arranged in a circle with couches to watch the (limited) number of movie trailers on offer. The stage area was back for events and interviews. In addition this year, a full size wrestling ring had been erected adjacent the entrance signing area.
Stairs led up to the main mezzanine floor with all the dealers’ and exhibition stands. Signing tables were once again at the rear of the floor.
The upper gallery levels that overlook the main floor again featured the main panel room and also the Auditorium for movie / TV events.

Accent UK were grouped on the main floor with a number of other independent publishers. The stand was already set up by Dave and Colin on Friday. They had gained access to the Hall early. No doubt Dave West had one of his “Don’t you know who I am ?!?“ moments to gain entry. Seen a few of those down the years.
The doors opened, people arrived and within minutes the place was packed. Really packed. To the point where it was difficult to look at dealer’s stands with any success.
One of the delights about going along with the Accent UK lads is that they recognise my many and varied skills, talent and experience. I am a Professional after all in my chosen field.
Thus within no time I was going to the Concession stand for coffees and out to the nearest Sainsburys to fetch lunch because you know it’s good to feel well, “valued”.

So Kapow! was in full swing again. In truth there was so much going on that you could not possibly participate in everything. In the Hall there were dealers, signings, the stage for interviews and wrestling going on simultaneously.
The upper galleries held panels and movie previews and this hosted some independent press and an “artists alley” also.
The Saturday ended at 7pm which is perhaps a tad too long and we retired to a local Thai restaurant before returning to the East End (via a beer stop at Tescos) for a late night showing of the 1982 classic “Megaforce”.
Some films are good and some films are bad and some films though are so bad they are good. In fact so enamoured was Dave that at one point he was considering acquiring the Comic Book rights together with us lot turning up next year in lycra jumpsuits and headbands to promote the thing. Of course that could have been the beer talking. Still, miss Kapow! 2013 at your peril eh?
Sunday morning. Full English breakfast courtesy of yours truly. Dave then asked me for one of those Hotel guest comment cards for accommodation / quality / service for him to fill in before he left. Sadly I didn’t have one. Got marked down for that one. Damn.
Once again we negotiated the weekend tube closures and reached the Design centre just prior to opening at 9.30am. Stall sorted I resumed my duties and we were off and running once again.
The Convention didn’t even seem to suffer the Sunday slowdown these events usually suffer from. The Cosplay Contest was due to be staged and thus all manner of costumed characters turned up. Some looked great. Some ah.. didn’t. Special mention to the two She-Hulks though who both looked fantastic. Not sure who won but the prizes looked spectacular.

I attended two panels; The Marvel “A Cup O’ Joe” Panel seemed disorganised and not spontaneous as I think it was meant to be. Sorry guys but it seemed like a wasted opportunity to me. Better next year huh?
The DC Panel on the other hand seemed well organised, interesting and informative, In fact I hadn’t read any “New 52” material but the Panel actually made me  want to. Well done Bob Wayne, Dan Didio, Scott Snyder et al.
(I have now read  “Justice League; Origin” and “Batman; A Court of Owls”. Excellent they were too and yes Dave, I know you told me so.).
So what is the verdict? Well Kapow! in 2011 was all nice, shiny and new just as the Super Con was this year but I am pleased to report that this years event was even brighter and shinier even though it wasn’t new. I spent more money than I have ever spent at an event.
It was great to see Marvel, DC and Image attending. DC even gave a breakdown of what the UK market share means to them (and it’s significant). We are getting the recognition that out valuable custom deserves.

Organisation was good, the problems from last year with queuing on the main floor for autographs had been solved. There was tons of activity going on simultaneously. I cannot imagine anyone being bored over the two days. The dealers sounded as if they did well. Accent UK did pretty good numbers and made a load of new contacts including retailers.
Proceedings closed at 3.30pm we packed up and Colin and I carried Dave’s bags out of the Hall. Fame and status carries its own rewards I guess.
Roll on next year then.
Actually I made up the stuff about Dave West if I am honest. I didn’t help carry his bags out of the Hall.
Colin did.

                                        Chris Dingsdale - May 2012

Robots anthology reviewed over on Talkcomix.

Check it out on their website.

Bristol Expo 2012 – “Room With a (déjà)View.”

“Observer”.
I reach 50 this year and this is what my role for Accent UK has deteriorated into.
Observer.
You know I used to attend, help set up the Accent UK table, chat, sell books and  drink lots of alcohol with Colin. Hell a couple times I was even a creator (of sorts).
However this year Accent UK decided against taking a stand at the Expo but Dave West and Colin Mathieson were curious to assess how the Expo would run especially as the event returned to the previous and indeed largest Venue – Templemeads.
So Colin asked me if I was attending and if so could I keep my eyes peeled and report back to Accent UK HQ “somewhere” in deepest Cheshire.
Colin actually asked me rather nicely even though I knew that Dave West at his most dictatorial had likely issued a directive to Colin along the lines;
“I know we are not going Col! So tell Dingsdale to get his arse into gear and get along there. Oh and tell him to send in a written report and to use bloody spellcheck this time!”
Mr West is not a man to be trifled with. If you don’t believe me just ask for his opinion of the 1981 “Conan the Barbarian” movie.
And then stand back.
So I checked the website www.bristolexpo.co.uk and found out that the main guest was to be Denny O’Neil. Mr O’Neil is one of my Comic Creator heroes. The man who reinvented Batman along with Neal Adams and (unfairly not credited enough in my opinion) Frank Robbins, Irv Novick, Bob Brown and Jim Aparo in the late 60’s early 70’s.
Also the man who wrote one of my favourite stories; “Night of the Ninja” in The Shadow #6, which blew this (at the time) 11 yr old’s mind. And so on and so on.
That sealed it for me.
True there were lots of other guests including familiar faces who I know give up their time willingly and which the fans always appreciate but it was the chance to hear Denny speak and maybe meet him, shake his hand and offer a “thank you” for all the enjoyment he has delivered down the years that cemented my desire to attend.
Coincidentally those nice people at Lucky Target Comics were attending and after a quick exchange of emails they invited me to share their rented apartment for the weekend.
(Whilst I am writing I urge you all to check out their website www.luckytargetcomics.com and buy all your back issues from them. They are lovely, knowledgeable people who like Comics as much as you or I.
Well Sumyra is. Darren is a nice bloke for a Yorkshire man but in keeping with his heritage he kept inventing debts over the entire weekend for me to re pay to him.
Apples falling not far from trees etc spring to mind.)
I arrived in Bristol on Friday Lunchtime from London. Whilst in the course of a little sightseeing I looked for signs of the Con in the City generally. Sadly I didn’t find any. No flyers in the bookstores or street advertising.
Templemeads itself is an old Railway shed converted into an exhibition space not surprisingly close to the main Railway Station and thus well positioned for visitors to the City. As I waited for the Lucky Target crew to arrive I couldn’t find any sign of  advertising for events at the location, Comics Expo or otherwise which seems a little like a wasted opportunity given the location and proximity to commuters ,visitors etc.
Anyway Sumyra et al arrived, parked up and we eventually made our way to the rented apartment for the evening which further involved beer, a takeaway Curry and a great deal of debate about who was sleeping where. Matters were resolved following a debate that the host of Question Time would have found challenging and we all retired for the night.
On Saturday morning we found out that Templemeads isn’t the only place not well served by notices, neither are Bristol’s roads and so we arrived back at the venue courtesy of an “ahem” circuitous route.
Setting up with Lucky Target it was clear that all the Tables were booked. A very positive sign but outside the venue still no obvious sign that anything was taking place in the Centre.
Attendees started to enter the hall at 10 am. The place filled up slowly – there seemed to be a bottleneck caused by processing peoples’ web tickets so I was informed – but pretty soon there were plenty of people browsing and buying.
If you have attended the Expo before then the layout and format was familiar; dealers tables around the periphery of the room, with independents grouped together and the ever popular “artists alley” for the sketch heads.
Busy it was too. A special mention for all those creators who turn up to meet the fans ,chat and fill comics, sketchbooks with signatures and requests. I sometimes feel the creators on our shores don’t get the credit they deserve for this.
I abandoned the hall after the first hour to wander across to the Ramada hotel where the Panels and discussion group agenda is staged. Again, familiar to anyone who has attended previously.
Tony Hitchman was offering one of his (now legendary) comics quiz events. This years offering was “Reduced Heroes”. Now if you have never attended one of Tony’s gatherings, you should because you are missing something. Tony knows more about comics than just about anyone on the Planet and his events are frankly hilarious. Tony, like many others gives his time and effort each year and deserves a ton of credit.
Oh and I won the quiz. So there. (and yes it was hilarious!).
(Oh and before I forget Tony and co author Steve Bowkett have written a Teachers Resource book on using Comics as a teaching aid called “Using Comic Art to Improve  Speaking, Reading and Writing” – its on Amazon.co.uk -  I had a look – very impressive. Tony is an ex Headmaster – there, EVERYBODY knows now!!)
The remainder of Saturday passed, the hall was very busy and we eventually packed up at 5.30pm to go off into the City for a Thai Meal and a far too short evening in the local hostelries. My old partner in crime Mr Mathieson would have been ashamed. Really ashamed.
Sunday was more of the same. Traditionally the Sunday is slower and quieter and this one seemed no exception. I helped set up and then made an early exit to return to London after a leisurely lunch in the City Centre.
On the way back I mused that the last 12 months has seen Comic Conventions, Gatherings, call them what you will change in the UK. We have seen the rise of the more media orientated event with Kapow! and The London Super Con. I attended both and enjoyed both immensely.
At Bristol there seemed to be a lot of talk as to whether the event would continue. I hope it does. Yes the event is well established and yes Templemeads looks a bit tired in comparison to ExCel and the London Design Centre but the whole thing is still very enjoyable. I don’t know how the dealers fared but it seemed like a success to me.
It's possibly the equivalent of that old sweater you pull on when you get home from work.. Familiar and comfortable but still high on your list of favourites. The organisers deserve a lot of credit for all their hard work.
Finally I never got to meet or listen to Denny O’Neil, He couldn’t attend due to illness but that didn’t matter, the event was good regardless.
Get well Mr O’Neil maybe you can come to next years maybe?
And you’re still one of my heroes.
                                                                                                               (report by Chris Dingsdale)