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If that still doesn’t work, try bopping them on the nose with a rolled up newspaper.
Originally published at E-merl.com. Please leave any comments there.
Two quick bits of business. Firstly, Empire of Odd has completed its run at Ctrl Alt Shift. The instalments are kind of spread out around their blog and rather hard to find so I thought I’d better do a post linking to all them from one place. And here it is.
Part One, Two, Three, Four and Five. Ta-dah!
Secondly, this weekend is Leeds Thought Bubble and myself and Sean will be there, pushing Necessary Monsters and getting folks all excited for the new trade paperback collection that’s going to be out in February. Ooh, did I just let that slip? I expect I’ll be saying more about that soon then.
I’m also going to have a brand new collection of the complete Brain Fist that I’ll be selling at the show. In full colour! With a spine and everything! I’ll eventually be selling this at E-merl too, once I give the shop a bit of an overhaul. Until then, if you want to get your hands on a copy you’ll just have to pop along to Leeds on Saturday and grab one in person.
Originally published at E-merl.com. Please leave any comments there.
Ooh, its Halloween week at E-merl! Nothing says spooky like a good axe murdering.
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The first part of my new five-part webcomic serial, Empire Of Odd, went live this week at Ctrl.Alt.Shift. The webcomic is my contribution towards Ctrl.Alt.Shift’s new anti-corruption initiative and will be appearing exclusively on the web to help promote their upcoming print anthology, Unmasks Corruption. The story takes the recent MP expenses scandal in Britain as it’s jumping off point and then gets bigger and weirder from there. Tune in on Monday for part two.
Elsewhere on the web, another webcomic of mine that’s simply brimming with evil and corruption has just finished it’s run. That’s right – chapter five of Necessary Monsters has wrapped up, bringing our tale of darkly-daring-do to a close. Sean has at last been freed from his drawing table to skip merrily through the woods without a care in the world – at least until I chain him back down again to start working on the print edition of the series. Said print collection should hopefully be available in all good comic stores by Christmas - more details to come on that front soon.
And lastly… well, nothing to do with corruption really, but next weekend is The MCM Expo in London and myself and Sean will once again be on hand to sell you our fine comicy wares. We’ll have with us copies of the final Necessary Monsters mini-comic and – provided we can get them from the printers in time – new Necessary Monsters postcards. Yes, postcards! Free ones! Available to anyone who comes past our table and says Hi during the weekend. Hmm… I guess that’s sort of a bribe, isn’t it? Yay! Corruption wins out in the end after all!
Originally published at E-merl.com. Please leave any comments there.
Lesbians shout a lot, apparently.
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Math Week returns to E-merl! Happy Times Huzzah!
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Word has broken across the internets this week that you’ll soon be able to read a fine selection of Marvel comics via Sony’s PSP. But why am I mentioning this at E-merl? Well, last year I was hired as a consultant by Sony to help them in the development of their new PSP digital comics service. The project proved a great opportunity to apply some of my more experimental comics ideas to a practical application, and now my NDA has been partially lifted I can at last talk a little about it bit in public.
I was hired originally both to consult on the development of the service and write a comic based on an existing Sony game IP that could be used as a testbed for the possibilities the PSP had to offer. After the success of the initial comic, I was later asked back to write a second comic using a third-party IP. On the second project I got to take a more hands on approach, working directly out of Sony Computer Entertainment’s base of operations in London to implement the comic’s creation on the PSP.
As the projects I worked on were primarily for internal consumption at Sony, I don’t really expect to see either of them make it out into the light of day once the service launches at the end of the year. But should this change, be sure that I’ll post a link to them at E-merl post haste.
Originally published at E-merl.com. Please leave any comments there.
It’s that special comics-in-Oxford time of year again and this weekend will find me off at the Caption small press convention. Do come along and say hello if you’re in the area – I will no doubt be propped up somewhere in the bar either doodling or drinking or possibly both. There’ll also be copies of Necessary Monsters and the brand new Rule Of Death issue #6 for sale on the Caption comics table. Worth £2 of anyone’s money, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Meanwhile, on the Internets, I’ve finally had the time to complete the web version of my recent collaboration with David Baillie, The Casita Situations. The last year has seen myself and Dave take several jaunts across to Paris where we’ve been working on a hypercomic installation for the walls of a children’s mental health clinic at the Avicenne Hospital in Bobigny. While the comic is to a large extent site dependent, I’ve tried to provide at least a flavour of the thing in this new randomly generated web version. Take a peek and see what sense you can make of it.
Lastly, as I’m sure many of you have already noticed, I’m now on Twitter. So far I’m actually managing to twit (I know, I know, tweet. But I don’t care!) on a more regular basis than I manage to update this blog, which I guess is sort of the point. So keep an eye on @merlism for blow-by-blow updates on whatever nonsense I get up to between comics.
Originally published at E-merl.com. Please leave any comments there.
Usually around this time I’d be busy making preparations for my annual pilgrimage to San Diego but this year things are going to be a little different, as later today I’ll be heading off to South Korea instead. The organisers of the Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival have invited me across to present a retrospective of my experimental webcomic and hypercomic work as part of this year’s festival. My contribution to proceedings will include an exhibition of thirteen specially translated hypercomics and an accompanying talk given as part of the digital comics conference being held at SICAF.
I’ve wanted to return to my old experimental webcomic stomping grounds for a while now, and the invite to SICAF has finally given me a decent excuse to do so. My renewed musings on the possibilities of the digital comics form resulted eventually in the creation of a brand new hypercomic - a rather odd little thing called Four Derangements. Follow the link and take a look-see for yourself or, if you happen to be passing Soeul next week, stop by SICAF for an exclusive read of the Korean version.
Originally published at E-merl.com. Please leave any comments there.
Invest in giraffe futures now and beat the inevitable rush.
Originally published at E-merl.com. Please leave any comments there.
This Saturday I’ve been invited to talk on a couple of panels at Sci-Fi London. The first is on Comics as Sci-Fi Literature and the second is about Robots & Reality. I confess to having little clue as to what exactly qualifies me to talk on either subject, but I’m sure I should be able to come up with some enjoyable on the day (my recent Iron Man story has both Scf-Fi and robots. I imagine I shall just have to repeat this fact again and again until they politely ask me to leave).
May is actually looking to be a rather busy month here at E-merl Towers. In two weeks time on Saturday 23rd I’ll also be attending The London Movie, Comics & Media Expo. At the show I’ll be sharing a table with Sean Azzopardi and imagine we’ll both being doing our damndest to push Necessary Monsters on the unsuspecting members of the cosplay crowd. Free comics for anyone dressed as a Sci-Fi robot… monster… thing. Yes.
Oh, and while I’m thinking about matters Science Fictional, I realise I have been remiss in pointing out Mister Noble’s recently begun comic serial, Complex. A fine slice of apocalypse fiction set within a mysterious complex full of dysfunctional scientists, the strip is currently updating twice a week at Strip For Me. Go look!
Originally published at E-merl.com. Please leave any comments there.
I’ve been thinking I should really get a twitter account going, but then I remember how bad I am at both Facebook and keeping this blog updated and I go hide in a cupboard instead.
Anyway! Time for a long overdue update to let people know what’s up in the wider world of E-merl. First off, there have been a few people lately saying very nice things about Necessary Monsters and The Rule Of Death. Thanks people! Sean and Douglas continue to do wonderful work every week and you should all be getting very excited as both series begin to draw towards their conclusions.
Elsewhere, Astonishing Tales is now on its third issue and my Iron Man 2020 story has been meeting with massive levels of critical… well, indifference mostly. But! It’s still awesome! And things get even more explodey in part four so you should totally check it out at your local comic shop or online at Marvel DCU. Oh and I even did an interview about the serial over at the Pulse. Go see!
What else? The LUC X-mas Bash, The Web & Mini Comix Thing and Shmurgen Con have all come and gone. They were excellent events - thanks to those that made them so. I should now take the opportunity to plug LUC176 in June, where I’ll be part of the Baillie-Azzopardi-Noble-Goodbrey Comics Experience. I may even have copies of a new full-colour Brain Fist collection ready in time for the show, so fingers crossed.
Hmm. I think that about wraps it up for now. Speak to you again the next time I get around to making a post in the distant future. Until then – see you every Tuesday and Thursday for All Knowledge Is Strange. Happy Internets!
Originally published at E-merl.com. Please leave any comments there.
Advice as promised. I hope you pay better heed than our unlucky volunteer here.
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Oh dear! Better tune in Thursday to find out what to do next.
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The topic of bestiality as a whole is perhaps one best avoided.
Originally published at E-merl.com. Please leave any comments there.
Surviving related heatstroke issues is another matter entirely.
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Word comes from Marvel that my Iron Man 2020 serial, Endless Stolen Sky will also be available to read online via their Digital Comics Unlimited initiative on December 24th. Along with the announcement they’ve popped up a page of preview art from the story and a natty little description of the plot, both of which I can now recreate for you here:
In a not so distant tomorrow, Arno Stark - the Iron Man of the year 2020 - prepares to launch the new heliliner, the Spirit of Free Enterprise. But Commodore Q wants to stop it! Who is he and what are the Endless Stolen Skies?
Ooh, sounds exciting! I got to see Lou’s pencils from part five of the serial last week, which included a splash page of some insanely large-scale action that is just all kinds of cool.
In other news, this Saturday I’m taking part in London Underground Comics Christmas Bash at the Alphabet Bar in Soho. I’ll have artwork on show from Brain Fist and All Knowledge Is Strange as well as the usual mini-comic goodies for sale. Check out this post on LUC’s website for the full details of the event and then take a peek at some cracking previews from the cartoonists involved.
Originally published at E-merl.com. Please leave any comments there.
