9

The number 9 has been cropping up in my life quite a bit lately.

First of all, my daughter Halo celebrated her 9th birthday on the 9th of November just gone.

A couple of weeks after that we threw a belated birthday party for her that we themed around the movie '9', at which we had 9 guests, watched the movie, ate a birthday cake decorated with images of the movie's characters, made bookmarks and postcards featuring the characters and even got all crafty and made our own little sackdolls inspired by the dolls in the feature. (It was quite a hectic day. Especially when I realised I didn't have any glue with which to stick on the dolls' eyes and had to race around town on a Sunday afternoon calling at three damn shops - at least it wasn't 9! - before I finally found one that sold some. Sheesh.)

My mother also turned 9 in the last few weeks. Or should I say 09. Or should I say 60, which is what the card actually said, except that my five year old read it upside down and happily announced to everybody "Nanny is 9!" (She was happy to go along with this, I must add!)

Which brings me to another 9-related issue...an actual issue, the 9th in fact, of Super Awesome Eagle Award Nominated Small Press Anthology Paragon!!!! Here it is, look!




Behind this fantastic cover are pages and pages of comic brilliance, including the first episode of a cracking new yarn by Greg Meldrum and Davey Candlish, about cool-as-beans 1930's adventurer Spencer Nero (this issue's cover star) and his mysterious, mask-activated alter-ego Janus; the third high-octane installment of sci-fi epic Rise of the Mekko-Sapiens by Matthew McLaughlin and Vanguardian Louis Carter; a Roy Thomas/Conan-inspired episode of caveman-smushing madness in regular strip Jikan courtesy of(once again!) Matthew McLaughlin and James Corcoran; and the 3rd installment of my own tale, Icarus Dangerous with art as ever by the brilliant Stephen Prestwood, excelling himself on this episode with panels such as this:



As you can see, part 3 picks up where part 2 left off, with Icarus cornered by the Bonemen, silent inhabitants of the interstellar starship he finds himself trapped on having attempted to rescue the alien female who saved him from drowning. He's also struggling to come to terms with the fact that the wings his father constructed for him - previously destroyed by his plunge into the ocean - have miraculously repaired themselves, sprouting feathers where there were none before, feathers that have special, somewhat explosive, properties. His make-shift wings are not what they used to be, though he has no idea yet just how much they - or he - have changed. As he rushes to stay ahead of the Bonemen and free Meriope from captivity, he will come to realise just how different things are. And how he will never be the same again. This chapter introduces us to a whole bunch of new characters who are destined to play a massive part in future episodes' proceedings. It was in the writing of this episode, and the one that follows, that I realised Icarus is my Zenith, in the sense that, although he is the title character, he is just the eye of a crazy storm that's about to kick off around him. And I can't wait to bring it to you!

With all of this plus a set of extra, 'surprise' stories to really put the cherry on top of this ice-cream sundae of a comic, Paragon issue 9 is a mag you're sure to get your money's worth from! So head on over to the Paragon blog and read about how to pick yourself up a copy!

Enjoy!

D.

Icarus is Out!

Yep, Paragon Issue 8 is finally out - and having received and read my copy today I can safely say it's a STONKER! Cosied up alongside wonderful scripts by Mark Howard, The Emperor and Matthew McLaughlin is Chapter II of my "Greek Legend Gone Interstellar" epic ICARUS DANGEROUS, in which our danger-prone hero Icarus says:



If you read Chapter 1 (and if you didn't, stop reading this NOW and go read the blog entry for Paragon Issue 7 instead) you'll know that Icarus has been saved from a watery grave by a strange amphibious female...who, seconds later, is captured and taken on board a monstrosity of a deeply submersed spacecraft! Icarus, helpful chap that he is (and nothing at all to do with the fact that some extremely HOT bikini-clad alien chiquita has just planted a whopper on his lips and might be up for offering a little more if he plays his cards right), decides to give chase in an attempt to rescue the damsel-in-distress who has just saved his life. A noble idea, if not the smartest one, but then Icarus never was the sharpest arrow in the quiver, so what do you expect? It all goes BADLY WRONG...and now Icarus finds himself marooned, millions of light years from Earth and even closer to that dag-blasted sun than EVER. And that's not even the WORST bit.



See? He's got VOICES IN HIS HEAD and everything. That's NEVER good!

Who is Meriope? What has she done to Icarus? Who are the alien creatures who have abducted them both and what do they want with Meriope? Find out the answers to SOME of these questions in "ICARUS OUT!", 8 pages of action wonderfully rendered in PRESTWOOD-VISION, appearing now in a PARAGON near you.

Go HERE to order! And get your Greek on!!!

UPDATE, MAY 2011!!

So the old blogs been a bit dead of late, not because I haven't had anything to blog about, just because I've been so busy with work and family and all those kinds of things that tend to suck up every minute of free time. But such is life! This blog, like a plant, needs attention though, so with that in mind its time for some updates.


ITEM!!!

Icarus Dangerous seems to have gone down well in PARAGON. I've had a number of nice compliments on the first episode of the series. I can't take all the credit though, as Stephen Prestwood's fantastic art really brought the strip to life, so I'm happy to announce he will be back on art duties for the second installment, when things really get interesting and some strange characters start to appear.

Review-wise, there have been three official reviews of the issue and story, and all have been favourable, to my relief! Here are the links to these reviews, if you would like to read them!

FORBIDDEN PLANET REVIEW

GEEK CHOCOLATE REVIEW

LINE OF FIRE REVIEW

So who is the alien girl who saved Icarus' life? What was she doing in the ocean? Who are the cloaked figures in the ship that took her away? What exactly has she done to Icarus to save him? And what in the world is he going to do a million light-years from home? Find out the answers (maybe) in Chapter 2: Icarus Out! coming in Paragon issue 8!




ITEM!!!

You may remember from previous posts how I had a strip called "Chronoleech" being done up to appear in this Not-Quite-Doctor-Who fanzine, which is on the verge of being published. Sadly, my partner on the project, NICOLAS BANNWARTH, ran into some problems at the start of the year and was unable to finish the art in time to meet the deadline. It was disappointing for both of us but it couldn't be helped. Nevertheless, the show must go on and here is the glorious cover to the finished project.



I've been lucky enough to see a preview copy of this and it is one of the kookiest, most gloriously bizarre (and colourful!) comics I have ever seen! As soon as I have info on where you can order a copy from I will post about it here. If you are a Doctor Who fan you aren't going to want to miss this!

As for the fate of "Chronoleech"? Who knows? There's always Dr. WTF?! 2012!!


ITEM!!!

I currently have two new comic strips in production, both of which feature the return of two of my more homicidal creations. The first is a sequel to my horror short SPEED DATE, which appeared in last year's edition of HALLOWSCREAM. This time round, NEIL 'BHUNA' ROCHE is on art duties, and his interpretation of Tucker promises to be darker and grittier than ever. The amazing skills of GHOSTPOCKETS will be missed on this follow-up installment, but Bhuna is going to bring his own style to the table and the result will be nothing short of awesome! Will Tucker continue to terrorise and murder innocent young girls in his quest to find the 'perfect date'...or will he meet his match in more ways than one and get his come-uppance? You'll have to wait for this year's Hallowscream to find out! In the meantime, here are some character sketches of Tucker and one of the few surviving victims from the previous tale (let's call her Blondie) for your perusal.





As for the second sequel, well, can you say "zombies" and "ice-cream"? If so, you might be able to figure out that "Basking" Robin Baskerville is on his way back, with a new artist, and a new agenda. More info on this, along with teaser images, soon! In the meantime, it has come to my attention that Mr. Baskerville is posting on Facebook these days and you can follow what he has to say by visiting the True Zombie Apocalypse Stories page set up by LOCUSTSOFDEATH on Facebook. He seems to post there as and when he gets a chance to get online! :)


ITEM!!!

Back to PARAGON and I currently have a brace of Jikan stories being worked on for inclusion in future issues. The first of these, "Griffin's Bounty" sees Jikan journey to ancient Greece where he encounters a pack of thieving griffins. Taking it upon himself to rescue a young girl taken from her family by the griffins, Jikan sets off on the treacherous climb to reach their mountain-top eyrie...where a few surprises are in store. Regular Jikan artist ELCHIVO is providing the art for this strip and as you can see from the sample below, he is the perfect choice to bring Jikan's newest foes to life!





ITEM!!!

Last, but certainly not least there is ---- VANGUARD!!! Vanguard is...a little project of mine that I've been working on putting together with some wonderful artists for the last few months. It's an experiment really, a test run of my own anthology comic, which will hopefully go down well and lead to a regular publication. 4 strips per issue, 4 fantastic artists and hopefully a whole heap of fun, you need do no more than check out the offical blog for the comic to find out all you need to know. Do it. Do it NOW. What are you waiting for, go already!!!

And check back here again soon for updates on yet MORE new stuff coming your way soon!!!

The adventures of ICARUS continue! And they're more DANGEROUS than ever!

We all know the legend of Icarus and Daedalus. Imprisoned by King Minos to prevent the secrets of the Labyrinth (which Daedalus built to hold the dreaded Minotaur) being revealed, they manufactured wings from bird feathers and wax in order to escape the island of Crete. Many years were spent on this endeavour, and when the day - and moment of truth - finally arrived whereupon they put their plan into action, the Gods smiled on them and the wings worked as they were meant to. As the duo fled Crete and made their way across the seas, however, reckless Icarus got carried away with his success and the elation of flying and grew over-confident of his abilities. Ignoring his father's words of warning as mere fatherly over-protectiveness, he allowed himself to fly higher into the mid-day sky, drawing so close to the sun that its heat melted the wax holding his feathers together. His wings came apart and he plummetted into the sea far below, where his story came to an abrupt and watery end. Or did it?

In "Icarus Dangerous", it's not quite where the adventure ends. In fact, it's just the beginning of a wild ride that will take Icarus closer to the sun - and beyond - than he ever imagined! Strange beings, out-of-this-world situations and a whole host of legendary foes await him on his journey. Before long, he's going to curse the reckless, danger-prone nature which caused him to ignore his father's words. And he's going to have to fly like he's never flown before if he wants to live to regret it!

"Icarus Dangerous" chapter 1 appears in Issue 7 of Eagle-Award nominated comic "PARAGON", with art by Stephen Prestwood and letters by JIM CAMPBELL.

You can buy a print copy of the comic (FOR €3.00) here or download a digital copy (FOR €1.00) here

Thanks for the support and enjoy!