A Peep Behind The Ion Curtain

A few months back we announced the signing of The Ion Monger's Daughter by Matt Gibbs, with art by Larry Watts.

If you didn't see the announcement the story goes like this:

Victoria Cross wants to see the stars. Against her father's wishes, she leaves the family business to embark on a journey to her mother's home world. Robbed, ensnared by the criminal underworld, arrested and conscripted into the army as a convict, her bad choices turn her dreams into a nightmare.

And now, drum roll please, the first chance to see some of the stunning concept art:



If you click on it you can see a larger version. It hurt to even reduce something so lovely to the larger size.

Matt says:

"It's great that Insomnia has hooked Larry and me up to create The Ionmonger's Daughter.

I was thrilled when he agreed. Larry was my first choice of artist after seeing his awesome sketch work and sequentials.

Right now, I'm about halfway through the script and Larry is producing concept sketches as we explore the look and feel. We're trying to paint a believable vision of the future, a sci-fi backdrop that enhances but doesn't dominate the story.

I'm enjoying the subtle differences between film and comic scriptwriting. In film you try to inspire the director, provide a blueprint from which the creative team can build. Although you can kick start the process, you might not been there at the end.

Comics feel more holistic, your job is still to inspire the artist but the difference is you're the mainstay of the creative team. Together you fill the roles of writer, director, DOP and editor."




Larry says:

"Ionmonger's Daughter has been a great project so far.

I think what I find most appealing about the IMD is the opportunity to imagine a future and travel to all these exciting and vastly different places with our protagonist Victoria Cross.

Matt Gibbs has done a great job crafting a story that I believe communicates on many levels, it has adventure and sci fi elements, but it's also a story about growth, dreams, survival...things I think everyone can relate to.

Right now I am working on chapter 1 and concept work for chapters 1-3. The team has been great to work with, and everyone at Insomnia has done a great job putting the right people together and keeping us all on track- while providing a great atmosphere to keep us happy and creative."



And seeing these first roughs (yes, as far as Larry is concerned these are "roughs"...I know...) I am going to be doing my level best to keep them as happy and creative as possible.

Imagine FX Gets Serious As Cancer

That was the headline of the full page spread on Cancertown in the July edition of ImagineFX (available from newsagents now).


I have been a subscriber to IFX for a long time (and I highly recommend the magazine and it's helpful forums to any artists out there) so was very excited when they contacted me to do piece a couple of months back.

Given the magazine has profiled such luminaries of comics as Dave Gibbons and Simon Bisley I had expected we would get maybe a sidebar mention, or a small section of a page, so we were blown away to see this.

That was not the only press coverage this week for Cancertown, as the Irish Times did a piece on Stephen Downey which, coming out the day before the Northern Irish launch at Belfast Forbidden Planet, couldn't have been better timed if it was planned.

Stephen had a fantastic day, even beating the "sales per minute" avarage of the almost legendary Bristol con launch. Selling 56 copies in 2.5 hours means that a book was snapped up every two and half minutes!

A queue was already forming when Stephen arrived and some lovely people waited patiently in it for an hour and half. There was a great deal of sketching (and even a list of around 20 sketches to be completed later and sent on), and signing, and lots of beer afterwards by all accounts, but you can read more on Stephen's Blog, and see some of the pics from the day.

Next signing is at Whatever Comics, our sponsors, in Canterbury with Cy Dethan on Saturday 6th of June 11-4.



New Signings

• Oz: The Fall of the Scarecrow King now has an artist signed up, the very talented Barry McGowan, who came to show us his portfolio at the SPEXPO a few weeks ago.
  
  Barry is an illustrator from Strabane, County Tyrone, and before his trip to Oz he was the artist on Rosemary Herbb: The Return, written by Stephen Paul Coffey and launched at the Dublin City Comic Con in November 2008.
  
  You can see some more examples of his portfolio over at his MySpace page while you are waiting for me to post up the first Oz concepts, which will be here very soon, or read an interview with him on Jazma Online.
  
  
• Zoo Keeper by Ben Morgan asks can too much knowledge work against your humanity?
  
  John is a botanist and he’s alone in his garden. There’s only John. And them…
  
  Emerging from his year long studies in a bio-dome John finds a world over run by pets we once owned, animals we once hunted and creatures we have never seen.
  
  Now it’s up to John to save the human race. For a scientist and a pacifist, recreating the most violent species on the planet is against everything he has ever believed, but the world is a changed place. Morals and logic will have to be discarded if John is to play the cat and mouse game of survival.
  
  More on this very soon

Fallen Heroes Screen Adaption

It was confirmed this week that Fallen Heroes by Barry Nugent has been optioned for a screen adaptation by Celtic Films, the production company behind Sharpe, Hornblower and The Saint to name but a few of their credits.

You can find details in the "Projects In Development" section of their website where it says:

"Fallen Heroes" tells the story of an unlikely team, numbering a professional thief, a Government agent with a tragic past, a vigilante priest and a university tutor with an encyclopedic knowledge of the occult. In a thrilling global chase, they attempt to track down and destroy an ancient cult bent on world domination."

Which sums it all up very nicely.

The contracts have all been signed for the comic adaptation, and we are currently searching for the right artist for the project.

More as we have it.

In The Body Bag

There is so much exciting news about Burke and Hare come through in the last day or so, that I am going to save up most of until next week, where there is space to go into detail.

Not least I was literally just sent the first breathtaking draft of Rian Hughes cover with the immortal words from the writer "when you see it you are going to wet yourself!" and he was not far wrong.

I really, really, want to share it, but I must be patient, and wait until it's properly done.

It is an incredible feeling to be working with such a lot of supremely talented creators.

Speaking of which, I can confirm now that Burke and Hare will feature a foreword by Alan Grant, the creator of Judge Dredd, and its picture gallery will be graced by a contribution from Frank Quitely.

More dark secrets revealed next week...