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.