Covers for 'Volunteers - issue One'

Here's the front and back covers for my latest comic, 'Volunteers - issue one'. I'm sending it off to the printers today. This is the first thirty six pages of my new story. I think it will have three parts.

'Casino'

More panels from 'Volunteers - Volume 2' (that's what I'm calling these trains comics). Volume 1 is going to the printers this week, after I finish the covers. It will be 36 pages long.

'New Years For Young People'

More panels from my new comic.

Richard Swan - 'Parallel Lines'

 This is a cool wordless book by Richard Swan. It describes a little world of odd creatures. A group of sort of robots are mining coal. They have shovels for hands and their bodies hold the coal. They are overseen by another strange creature. A few of them wander off from work while on a break and find a doorway in a tall brick wall. Sometimes it leads to a beach but huge machinery like a train comes out of the ground, and can move the doorway so it leads to other places. The overseer becomes worried about all the missing robots and not hitting his targets with the mining and rings an alarm in his hut. This brings his overseer along to see what the trouble is. Lots more strange things happen.

I liked it a lot, the drawing is really cool with a lot of detail, and with very interesting and unique creatures. I didn't work out why it was called Parallel Lines though.

'Happy Xmas'

More Christmassy scenes from my comic in progress.

Research

We walked to Bury yesterday in the sunshine, along the old closed Bolton to Bury train line. We had a drink at the Trackside Pub in Bury so I was able to sit there drinking on the platform and take some research photos for my new comic. I've done 56 pages of it now, I am going to bring out the first forty pages in time for Leeds Thoughtbubble.

Paul Rainey & Robert Wells - 'Thunder Brother Special'

This is a great comic from Paul Rainey. It's got two complete new Thunder Brother stories and another story 'Connected' written by Paul and drawn by Robert Wells. Both the Thunder Brother's are really good. In the first one a woman who was extracted from a soap world tries to force Sally to get her put back, and in the second a new producer sends a woman into a soap world to break up a couple, in order to get higher ratings. I was wondering what happened to Thunder Brother, we still never found out much about the Library King, who was the mysterious villain of the series.
I liked 'Connected' a lot. Jonathan is given a chip for his smart phone by his inventor brother, which allows him to access something called the 'Universal Network'. This is like a galaxy wide 'ask your phone for help' thing. It was funny and reminded me of the ultranet in 'There's No Time like the Present'. Robert Wells drawing is really good. Highly recommended.

'Christmas Scenes'

More Christmasy scenes from my new comic.

Comics for Sale

Here's a reminder that I have lots of comics on sale at my website and also at my Comicsy shop. Here's my drawer of comics, looking very full. I can see 'RhiZome', my 'Japan Sketchbook', 'The Storytellers', 'Ragnar the Cheesemonger' and 'Flying Sausage Academy'. There's more underneath. Why not have a look today.