BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Six months since the last update and the only thing that's prompted me to post is an email I got this morning from PJ Holden - "For gods sake man, update your blog!"

He's got a point.

Personally and professionally it's been an up-and-downer this past half a year. My father lost his battle to cancer at the end of October, and since he was only diagnosed during the spring, it was still a major shock for all the family when the inevitable happened. Consequently, pretty much everything careerwise (other than the day job as Group Editor for Uncooked Media) has taken a backseat.

So what's happened comic book-wise since my last update?

Unholy Warriors for 2000AD received an online bashing following its publication in the Winter Special. By far the biggest problem people seemed to have with it was that there were too many characters and the use of Amercanised dialogue. To be fair, the dialogue is in keeping with the style of the hugely popular manga books, which perhaps wasn't appropriate for the more traditional 2000AD reader who are likely in their thirties. As for too many characters... well, that was the brief provided by Tharg - all seven of the characters needed to appear as a fully-formed team in the first episode, along with an introduction to the world and concept. In hindsight, trying to pull all that off that in five pages was perhaps a little too ambitious. Still, it was fun to try though.

That said, Unholy Warriors did receive a lot of support through the 2000AD letters pages, with many readers actually getting the point of the lightweight series, praising the uniqueness of each character and actually enjoying the tongue-in-cheek tone - seemingly proving my theory that online communities might be the most vocal, but seldom represent the majority opinion. It's still unlikely that the strip will be picked up for a series but Unholy artist, Kev Crossley, and myself are interested in doing something else together. This time using our own concept and not a pre-provided brief. I've got a few ideas, but it's just finding the time to get them down.

The day job's going great guns. NEO is doing remarkably well and has evolved so much in the past year - considering that the concept of an "Asian pop culture" mag was a risky proposition at the time, it's odd to consider that it seems a no-brainer now. I also helmed the launch of Xbox 360 GAMER late-last year as well, which is Uncooked's three-weekly mag dedicated to (the clue's in the title) Xbox 360 gaming. This is also performing above initial expectations, but fronting two regular mags leaves little time for comics writing... or eating... or sleeping.

So the big question remains: will it be six months until my next update!?

2000AD WINTER SPECIAL '05
The return of the AD Winter Special is designed as a showcase for up-and-coming writers and artists. It also features the first part of Unholy Warriors, written by me and illustrated by Kev Crossley.

Tharg's brief was "The Magnificent Seven versus the undead, in a Lord of the Rings fantasy setting". Really enjoyed scripting this and, hopefully, the characters and world they inhabit come across within the five-page limit. Not sure what happens now though, but I assume Tharg and co will see what kind of feedback the strips generate before committing to a full series.

I've resisted the urge to request a sneak peek at what Kev's come up with for the strip, so seeing it in print will be the first time I get to discover how the Warriors look. His work on Mamtor's Event Horizon title was suitably whacked out, and through emailing I've discovered that he loves zombies and was very enthusiastic about the strip.

The 2000AD Winter Special 2005 is now available to order through October's Diamond Previews on page 312, and is published by Rebellion.

A Birth
When one door closes...
2000AD is bringing back its seasonal specials - well, it's releasing a Winter Sci-Fi special this November anyway. From what I understand, the theme is that it will be a showcase for new and/or up-and-coming writers and artists. Considering I was racking my brains to find a suitable follow-up to my one-and-only published strip in 2000AD, I was eternally grateful when editor Matt Smith contacted me about contributing to the Winter Special.

It wasn't a completely open proposal: the brief I had was to write a five-page intro to a new series that would feature the main characters, concept and world, which would hopefully excite readers enough to write in and 'demand' that it becomes a full-fledged series in 2000AD. The brief basically requested a fantasy spin on the Magnificent Seven, set in a Lords of the Rings-style world, and pitching the heroes against zombies.

I wrote it a couple of months back now and the strip is currently being pencilled by Kev Crossley whose zombie-fuelled art was recently seen in Mamtor publishing's Event Horizon anthology. Fingers-crossed that it goes down well enough to warrant a series...

A Death
Well, after little less than a year, my one-page gag strip 'Nanas & Custard (along with another one-pager) has been quietly 'decommissioned' from Toxic magazine. I knew about this way back in April but, hey, when was the last update!

It's a shame that N&C has been canned as PJ had put together a list of potential stories that were arguably better than my last few efforts (where I was having real difficulty coming up with a new and wacky idea and character in each strip) - pity they will never get to see print. Apparently 'the kids' just didn't get the strip during one of Toxic's many market research doo-dahs. And if the target audience isn't interested, then that's as damning a criticism as any you could get!