A trade collection of David Baillie's Tongue of the Dead and his latest colour mini-comic The Final Adventures of RocketBoy are both available either by emailing him, or showing up in person at the upcoming BICS. His weekly webcomic 'The Belly Button Bubble Chronicles' is up to chapter 5, and is available online at the link.

Hello, Bugpowderites!

I'm still looking for an artist to join me on a new webcomic project.

The series is called BOSTIN HEROES, and is a spin-off of Donato Esposito's line of Bostin-brand Midlands pride t-shirts.

Bostin Heroes is a light-hearted adventure strip, in which four ordinary Midlanders are brought together by forces unknown to defend the Black Country and Beyond from those who would destroy it.

The series would suit an artist with a clean, friendly line. Ideally, he/she would be based in, or familiar with, the Midlands, as many of the stories will take place in iconic locations such as Dudley Castle and the Black Country Museum.

We'd like to launch with a sixteen-page origin spectacular, and update the strip once or twice weekly. We're looking into grants and advertising to pay for the strip, so that nobody has to work for free.

Character notes, sketches and scripts for the first two sixteen-page stories are available on request. Interested parties should email Matthew Craig (mattscrew at hotmail dot com). Links to portfolio sites/previous work only, please: do not send attachments.

Thanks,
Matthew Craig.
http://www.thematthewcraig.com

The creators of Monkeys with Machineguns and Orangutan comics will be signing, talking shop, and looking at portfolios all day at Cardiff's Comic Guru Presents on October 6th.

Confirmed guests are:

* Chris Lynch
(Monkeys with Machineguns, Night2Dawn, Wilde Times, The Heirograph, Avatar's Dark Horrors, WordRiot!, Another Realm, Eternal Night, Masters of the Macabre, The Sorrow)
* Stu.Art
(Monkeys with Machineguns, The Sorrow, Nevermore)
* Peter Rogers
(Slam Ridley, 5th Outlaw, Eye of the Storm, Abattoir, Purgatory Blues, Brothers in Arms, Bloodstain)
* Simon Wyatt
(Slam Ridley, Unbelievable! (The Man who ate Daffodils), Danick & the Dragon, Dolphinman, Mabinogin)

October 6th is also the Comic Guru's 4th birthday, so expect plenty of fun and action in the store!

And now, the links ...

Monkeys with Machineguns
Orang Utan Comics
Cardiff's Comic Guru Presents!

Hello Bugpowder,

My long running small press series "Amaranth" is finally finished! The 8th and final issue came out last week, bringing the adventures of a misfit demon girl to an end. The full series is available for sale though the website.

And as if to celebrate, williehewes.co.uk also has a brand new short comic to show, called "The Suckiest Angel". It's about sucking... and doing what you do anyway.

That was it from me. I'll be turning my hand to new things now, and I'll let you know if anything bobs to the surface.

Thanks,
Willie Hewes

hello bugpowder
brand new american small press publisher with online store here. They are also posting some comics theory and stuff, and selling my comics to the usa.
rob jackson

Hello there BugPowder people,

I'm writing to inform you of a community website I have set up intended to promote comic creators in and around Manchester and to expand the scene that is blossoming here. It's called Manchester Comix Collective

There's individual profiles and blogs for members to post news about their comics or to share resources, there's a forum for discussion of anything comics related, there's image, video and music hosting and it's all easy to use and free to join.

Thanks,
Adam Cadwell.

Gordon Johnston writes:
"I just wanted to drop you a line to mention some comics I've posted up on my website. It's a 5-part fantasy/ horror/ superhero mishmash called 'The Bunisher'. I produced it between 2000-2002, and I've recently scanned in the artwork and digitised the lettering to tart it up a bit. You can read the whole epic here.

To celebrate The Bunisher's online debut, I even got some artwork from guest artists David Baillie and Oliver Lambden. It's all a bit smashing really, please do check it out!

-g"

Listen Again on the BBC radio player, to Futureshock! The Story of 2000AD, as Phill Jupitus tells the story of the popular British Comic.

A list of resources for comic writers.

Modern Monstrosity comic strip, Curtis and Terrorist now has a website.

Tom Cochrane writes:

I am currently working on a graphic novel in Glasgow - which I think is the first one from here in about 20 years. 'The Bogie Man' being the last one that I know of. My book is still in production and will not be available till November 2008.

My book is entitled "The Fat Man" and has a quirky time travelling story - somewhere between 'The Avengers' UK T.V. series of the
sixties and TinTin.
It is a surreal journey set in a gritty realistic world where fantasy takes over in a magical reality - always with a sense of quiet humour and its tongue firmly in its cheek.

It involves a rogue M.I.5. agent caught up with a group of disillusioned Germans criminals from 1942 who have perfected a Nazi secret weapon but don't want to use it to help Hitler.
The title character is drawn into a a series of paradoxes where he is the catalyst for the time machines invention.
The story is simple but with paradoxical convolutions involving the silent film star Louise Brooks,various time periods and the active ingredient of the Time machine; Cheese.

350 pages full colour - due for release in November 2008 - There will be 3 x 350 pages in a trilogy released 6 months between each other from November 2008.
Quite an ambitious project for a small independent outfit with 2 staff but so far we are right on schedule.

I have a 12 page preview on dozens of web forums.

There is a full press pack available at www.the-fat-man.co.uk

I would be most interested in feedback from you.

Some of the UK's small press stalwarts go mainstream, in Marvel comics GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS SPECIAL #1

Written by C.B. CEBULSKI, MATT YOCUM, DANIEL MERLIN GOODBREY, DOUGLAS NOBLE, T. CAMPBELL & SCOTT GRAY
Penciled by PAUL NEARY, BRIAN DENHAM, NELSON, DENIS MEDRI & ROGER LANGRIDGE
Cover by BRYAN HITCH
As the Avengers battle to take down the Serpent Society, the team recalls never-before-told tales of their past! Watch as:
Spider-Man tries to integrate into a team and learns a thing or two about history, Luke Cage and Wolverine go toe-to-toe against a terrifying cosmic foe, Henry Peter Gyrich becomes an unlikely hero on an unlikely world, and Jarvis the butler cleans house…after some robot Vikings drop by unexpectedly. On top of all that—it’s the return of the critically-acclaimed Fin Fang Four by Scott Grey and Roger Langridge! That’s 55 pages of all-new comics, PLUS classic reprints from Avengers history!
96 PGS./Rated A …$4.99

New Full-Color 'Pewfell' Print Edition Now Available

The astounding adventures of a slacker wizard, his amazonian warrior wife and the small blue gnome who squats in their basement.

A New full-color print edition of this long-running weekly webcomic is now available.

In this volume Tina the Warrior Princess finds herself pregnant and, in order to make ends meet, Pewfell must take a job as wizard in the city sewer patrol.
Meanwhile, a demented and zombie-mad dictator seizes control of local government and an army of chaos invades the city.

$7.95 gets you 48 full-color, large European "Magazine Format" pages

Order your copy here or read online

Oli Smith has finally completed his Bristol 2007 convention report and would love for you guys to go read it. You can see it HERE. Also rumours abound for a new comic out for Birmingham, check the site in a bit for the Caption report and a sneak preview.

Alan Moore on Anarchism. (Via...)

"My name is Martyn Warren, I am a graduate illustrator from Bournemouth and soon-to-be-published author/illustrator. My new website, www.velcrocows.co.uk is now open and ready for your eyeballs. On it you can play with a toaster, find out more about my published books, 'Velcro Cows' and 'Inflatable Geese' and buy my self-published works, 'The League of Really Very Bad Pilots', 'Why Do Trains Have 2 Heads?' and 'Why The Nazis Lost'.
Cheers.

Oh, and don't forget to have a go on the terrapin-mounted projector."

For a few more days you can watch 'Ramadan: She's a Thoroughly Modern Muslim' on the BBC iPlayer (If you can get it to work, that is...).

'A light-hearted portrait of middle class life in modern Britain. Four Muslim women strive to meet the challenges posed by faith and British culture.' Featured is acclaimed Comicbook artist Asia Alfasi. You might also spot a few other comic artists in some scenes (The Hi8us crowd, presumably).

The IndieReview website has launched, and there'll be lots of stuff there of interest to readers of this blog, including Small Press Creator Bio's and links, recommended reading and more. Co-Owner Hassan writes...

The idea behind IndieReview is that it’s a place newcomers to the UK independent scene can go to get some more information on the currently under-exposed UK scene. We have lists of publishers along with some of their comics. These listings give a brief description on the publisher with links to their website, and the comics’ listings include a cover picture, contact links, a brief description and much more information.

www.IndieReview.co.uk

Broken Voice Comics is pleased to announce that Chapter 7 of its flagship title – the online graphic novel “Shades” – is being launched today at www.brokenvoice.co.uk.

Written by David A J Berner and illustrated in full colour by artist Harsho Mohan Chattoraj, Shades tells the story of a group of heroes in the UK, struggling to come to terms with their role in late 20th Century Britain; a Britain still haunted by the loss of Empire.

After two freebie sampler comics and a rashly boastful leaflet, the juggernaut that is Crazypants is gathering steam! The first full issue is due for launch in March 2008. A small-press cornucopia of silliness and excitement, it promises to delight and entertain.
Meanwhile, why not visit the Crazypants website?

Oli Smith, of the rather lovely Hazy Thursday, talks to LiveWire Review about his new comic, Summer Ball. Pritt stick for fixing on lettering - respect.

Trains Are...Mint 4 is finally finished and can be viewed HERE, where you can flick through the 96 pages. it is a unique edition of one, painted directly onto the pages of a book I did in 2003, Allemenstratten, published by i3 in which I tried to camp exactly 150 metres away from people's houses in Norway. It is for sale but you can't afford it.

Have a look when you have a minute.
all the best
oliver

Free 2008 Desk Calendar from MidnightFiction.com

Featuring the work of over a dozen top cartoonists from the small
press and alternative comics scene the 2008 Midnight Fiction Desk
Calendar is now available. (This 14-month calendar begins with Nov.
2007.)

Contributors include:
• Sean Azzopardi (Phatcomics)
• Scott Ball (Ask Maridee)
• Hunt Emerson (Largecow)
• Brad W. Foster (Jabberwocky Graphix)
• Allen Freeman (Fan-Actic Press)
• R. Krauss (Midnight Fiction)
• DC McNamara (Bigfoot Comix)
• John Porcellino (King-Cat Comics)
• Bill Shut (Insufficient Dada)
• Jim Siergey (Cultural Jet Lag)
• Dan W. Taylor (Weird Muse Productions)
• Bob Vojtko (Vojtkomics)
• Steve Willis (Morty the Dog)

The calendar fits into a calendar-style jewel case and is available
in two versions:
1) a free PDF file you can download and print yourself, or
2) a full color, printed copy you can order for $6 (Includes case,
shipping, handling, and a bonus front and back "cover".)

Visit http://www.midnightfiction.com to download or order your copy!

Paul Gravett sends a big update:

Hello again

Sorry to have been rather out of contact over the busy summer. Hope your
summer was fine too.

I enjoyed the 2nd week-long Bande Dessinée Université d'Eté in Angoulême and
Dundee's Biff, Bam, Crikey conference in July. In August had a great 12-day
trip to New York, my brother's place upstate, then on to Toronto and the
excellent Toronto Comic Arts Festival, a truly uplifting and inspirational
celebration of the best in current comics. Then soon after my return, two
days in Manchester for Dave Huxley's intense Aesthetics of Trash conference,
very stimulating and hopefully a harbinger of more.

Many of you in the UK will have seen the trailers and press coverage for
COMICS BRITANNIA, a 3-part series of one-hour documentaries about British
comics. The series starts on Monday September 10th on BBC4 Digital at 9pm.
Thanks to Paul Wells, who advised on Animation Nation, I was brought in to
advise and help them make contact with creators and experts. Clearly, three
hours is nowhere near enough time to cover all of British comics- or at
least those since The Dandy's launch 70 years ago this year. Lots had to be
left out, my suggestions were not always included, but it does a great job
over three hours of giving an overview and if it proves successful enough
may well lead to more BBC programmes on comics to come. If you do enjoy it,
let the Beeb know and urge them to do more. I've already got several
follow-ups proposed to them!

Btw I've written three web articles to accompany the series that will go up
over the next three weeks. The first one is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/comicsbritannia/comics-britannia-ep1.shtml

I've also done a rather brief chat with Arthur Smith about the first
programme on today's Loose Ends in Radio 4. It goes out tonight at 6.15pm
but you can listen again online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/looseends.shtml

In other news, the British Museum Manga To Anime Season is going well. A
good house last night for Phoenix 2772, though apologies again for the
difficulties with the subtitled version and having the screen the dubbed
version instead. I hope to see some of you at the next screenings: Barefoot
Gen on Thursday 13th and Akira this coming Friday 14th. More info and links
here:
http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/059_nakazawa/059_nakazawa.htm

Cult Fiction continues to tour the country and I'll be in Leeds next month
for a lunchtime illustrated talk and guided tour at the Leeds City Art
Gallery on Saturday October 6th. I'm also chairing two panels on graphic
novels at the Ilkley Literature Festival on the 6th and Manchester
Literature Festival on Sunday 7th, both with Simone Lia, Rutu Modan and
Bryan Talbot, courtesy of Jonathan Cape.

Keep an eye out on the COMICA subsite as the full programme of events, at
the ICA but also elsewhere, will get posted there. It's a truly
international festival this year, with LINGUA COMICA, supported by the
Asia-Europe Foundation, as a major component, bringing to London fourteen
young talented creators from Asia and Europe. The Festival spans just over
two weeks this year and I hope you'll be able to come to some of the varied
events on offer. One extra event will me a talk on British comics at Dulwich
Picture Gallery on the morning of October 31st.

Big thrill yesterday was the arrival of the Finnish edition of GRAPHIC
NOVELS, with a superb translation and adaptation job by Otava in Helsinki.

Due soon in print will be my interview with Posy Simmonds for The Comics
Journal and a paper on coming to 'terms' with the graphic novel in Europe
for Third Text.

Peter Stanbury and I are also at work on a new book for next Spring. More
news on that shortly. And this month I'm also joining the panels of judges
to choose the winners of The Observer/Jpnathan Cape/Comica graphic short
story prize, and the Embassy of Japan's Manga Jiman competition (there is
still time to enter this - closing date is Friday September 14th):

http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/event/big_mjiman2.html

I'm afraid i won't be at the exciting Birmingham International Comics Show
this year:
http://www.thecomicsshow.co.uk/
Instead, I'll be at an Italian festival called Komikazen that weekend, which
should be an interesting gathering if you can make it along:
http://www.mirada.it/komikazen/

Finally, webwizard Tim Webber has posted two articles on the site this
weekend as he is off now on a well-deserved break. Tim does a superb job
designing the site for me, I know so many of you appreciate it.

All the very best and looking forward to seeing you perhaps at some of these
upcoming happenings.

All my best

Paul
---------------------------------
www.paulgravett.com
www.greatbritishcomics.com

CreateSpace is Amazon.com's print-on-demand publishing service. (Is it too much to ask for a demand-on-demand service to complement this one?)

A kind of Bash Street Kids from the Irish school of miserablist writing, Three-Man is the sequel to Little Cunts, and is there for the reading on rhubarb108.

Look out for Orangutan Comics first release, an anthology - 'Eleventh Hour'. Theyre looking for artists too - See the webpage for more details.

There are updates regarding Redeye 7 and Seven Sentinels on the Engine Comics Blog

Stu Kolakovic writes:

Hello Bugpowder!

Just dropping you a line to make you aware of my wee mini mini micro 42 page full colour comic, "Ja Ljubav Te", which is now available from The Travelling Man comic store in Manchester from it's own vending machine for only a quid (or I'm sure I can send some in the post, if anyone would like one just email me at stu@stuartkolakovic.co.uk).

Also, good news on the comics liberation front, my first attempt at a longer more sustained narrative, the first chapter of "Milorad"- a story about my Serbian Grandad won a D&AD New Blood design award. Fancy that, a comic winning a Graphic design competition.
Cheers,

Stu
www.stuartkolakovic.co.uk

Paul Burke has an upcoming graphic novel from Ambrosia Publishing