Get your Geek On (after you've taken your shoes off, please)

Many thanks go to Thom Burgess at Get Your Geek On - a website dedicated to cult tv, tech/gadgets, and, of course, comics - for he has just posted a comprehensive review of my three ghostly publications: The Grinning Man, Nature Red, and Proscenium! 

Check it out for a good word on what they're all about - and get yourself up to speed with all the latest news in games, tech, comics and tv, too!

Upwards and on, to Comic Con

Well, then. Here we are at last.

Hot - well, warmish, off the presses is my brand spanking new and spanking comic book Proscenium - best described as an anthology of Strange Stories. That and so much else besides will adorn my table at London Super Comic Con at the end of this very week.

As well as Proscenium, there will be copies of The Grinning Man and Nature Red; my two stand alone ghost story comic books, available too.

What else? Well, my second fan book - The Vault of Such; containing the collected art from the Vampire Variations series a while back plus various other illustrations from video games to classic horror movies, will be available alongside my remaining pair of custom painted shoes - Dragon Ball Z pair A. This pair is UK size 8. Prints, and Mike Read has Beautiful Breath; my strangely titled first fan book containing illustrations from video games, cartoons, and such, shall be available also.

So - if any of the above tickles your proverbial pickle; then my table, and indeed the rest of Artist's Alley, may be for you.

The Vault of Such

This has been a long time coming if I'm quite honest. But with BCZF well on the way, it seemed like a good idea to get it done.

The Vault of Such is, as you can probably see, not just a massive homage to the EC comics of the 1950s, but also a means for me to cram in as much illustration work and 'stuff wat I dun' within two covers as I care to. Besides the new cover, there are various new and not-so-new-but-unseen bits I have done both recently and not-so-recently. There are also images that have previously only been available as prints or apparel - like shoes or custom-painted t-shirts. Yeah.

Here's a few spreads:

 

Also included within is (nearly) all of the collected illustrations and sketches for the Vampire Variations series that I provided for the albums released by Nitro Game Injection and OverClocked Remix respectively.

 



In a way, The Vault of Such is the companion volume to Mike Read Has Beautiful Breath - a previous fan book collecting images from popular culture. The Vault is very similar, but also contains a few personal drawings, plus it's physically bigger - so to call it Vol.2 would seem strange. But technically, it is.

SO. Both books combined covers nearly everything illustration related (not including comics and stuff that I don't want to share) over the last four or five years. Uurrrgh...

The Vault of Such is A4 size and 28PP - and will be available first at Bristol Comic and Zine Fair 2016 this coming Saturday. I'll be there also, obviously. (Blimey, it's been a while since I've had a table somewhere...)

Also available will be various other prints, books and comics. The Grinning Man makes a welcome, albeit limited return, as I have reprinted *very few* copies especially for BCZF, so Ghost Story Comic enthusiasts (I know they're out there somewhere...guys?...) will be able to obtain both The Grinning Man and Nature, Red, if they wish. (Strangely, it's the latter's first time at a convention. I bought a cake. Any excuse.)

Watch this space for a third....ah, but I've already said too much....

Hallowe'en at the Podbean. Unseen.

Big thanks to Vince, Tony and Dan and all at the Awesome Comics Podcast for their generous hat-tipping to The Grinning Man and myself in their recent Hallowe'en Special.

The ACP is indeed an awesome comics podcast and I recommend it to anyone and everyone even remotely interested in what's going on within the world of comics; small press or mainstream. My required reading list has now grown larger still because of it. If you haven't listened to their latest shenanigans, do so now. If you have - listen to it again.

On the subject of The Grinning Man, very few copies of the physical edition remain on my Etsy store, and sadly it is unlikely to be reprinted within the foreseeable future. You can still however obtain a digital version here.

For those who prefer the papery goodness of a physical copy, don't forget you can claim a 20% discount when you type in HALLOWSINTHEDARK2015 as a coupon code at checkout until the end of 2nd November.

In Tooth and Claw

 

Remember that new comic that I said was almost-sort-of-nearly here? Well, now it is. Really.

 

Nature, Red; the second of my stand-alone ghost stories is now available online and in select comic book retailers across the UK, including:

 

Orbital Comics

Gosh! Comics

Foyles (Charing Cross Road, London and Cabot Circus, Bristol)

Excelsior! Comics Bristol

 

Online it is available direct from myself through my shiny new Down In The Dark store. Also available there are limited quantities of The Grinning Man, Illustration and Such from Popular Culture Vol. 1, and a special 'double pack' allowing you to get both ghost story comics at a reduced cost. You're welcome.

 

Nature, Red is limited to 75 signed and numbered copies.

 

 

 

Nature, Red



 

The Grinning Man

 

 

Mike Read Has Beautiful Breath: Illustration and Such from Popular Culture Vol. 1

Swipe that smirk off 'is face!!

 

With physical copies running dangerously low (after its third and final reprint) I hereby introduce: The Grinning Man - kindle edition!! Ta Dah. It's really the same as the print edition...just without the touchy-feely bits.

 

The 24-page Ghost Story comic book is available for direct download NOW at Amazon sites worldwide. It will work with any Amazon Kindle device (although because it's quite a big file and obviously heavy on the images - I personally recommend it for Kindle Fire devices and upwards) and also with the FREE Kindle app that's available for phones, tablets and other magical e-reading devices. Go nuts!

 

You can read a review of The Grinning Man by Broken Frontier's Andy Oliver just over here.

I've Got You Covered...

Whoops, it's been a bit of a while since...*checks* ...December. I HAVE been doing things, honest. So, here's a little update for you. Following their debut at the recent Bristol Comic Expo; my newest set of prints double as custom sleeves for PlayStation 3 (i.e. Blu-Ray) and Xbox (i.e. DVD/etc). They were designed and trimmed to immediately work as sleeves, and some are also double-sided.

Here's a rundown of what was available:

 

This is designed to represent any of the Batman: Arkham series for PS3

 

 

PS3 flip side

 

 

Same design; but tweaked slightly to accommodate the larger Xbox/DVD size

 

 

Xbox/DVD flip side

 

 

Aliens VS Predator for PS3

 

 

...and the same again for Xbox/DVD. No flip side to this design unfortunately.

 

 

Some PS3 exclusives now. This one is for Journey; previously released only as a download, it received a disc release with the Collector's Edition.

 

 

Journey flip side

 

 

And finally, the magnificent Team ICO games, deservedly re-released for PS3 in re-mastered editions. Both sides of this sleeve are designed to accommodate both games. This side is ICO...

 

 

...with Shadow of the Colossus on the flip side.

 

 

Along with these were a few more new prints. The covers to Vampire Variations Volume II, and Nosferatu were also available, along with the regulars seen at previous shows, including Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Radagast the Brown, and Regular Show; plus fan books and a further reprint of The Grinning Man.

 

All this (and possibly more) will be available again at the forthcoming London MCM Comic Con at the end of this month. Hopefully I'll see you there - mine's a tea; milk with no sugar - thanks! ^^

Rate My Smile

Special thanks go to Andy Oliver over at Broken Frontier for his generous review of The Grinning Man. Having your comic being likened to the work of the great M.R. James is nice enough, but for it to be called "a kind of council estate ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’" - well, that made my day as you can imagine.

Kudos to him and all at BF for keeping us small pressers on the radar. Here's to them.

The Grinning Man goes MEGA.....City...

 

From this week the jolly Judges that govern Mega-City Comics will be stocking additional copies of my comic book The Grinning Man, so anyone in the Camden Town area (or more specifically Inverness Street - for Heaven's sake let's be more geographical about this!) might want to set their nosies for moseys.

 

I hear comics are great with chips...or a kebab.

The Grinning Man...available NOW at your local store...

 

For those of you perhaps wanting to grab a copy of my comic book The Grinning Man but without having to look at my stupid face as you do so - might want to check out Orbital Comics in Central London, as they now stock a number of copies. Go oooooooooon - treat yourself - you never know, it may be raining when you get outside....and I hear A4 is just perfect for keeping rain off your hair...

 

As well as the good ol' folks at Orbital, TGM and also my fan book, Mike Read Has Beautiful Breath are now available on the Down In The Dark Store.