Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On

A few months back we announced the signing of Dream Solver by Luke Foster and Chris Wildgoose.

"When 22 year old picture researcher Ione-Rose Young has a disturbing, recurring dream about seeing her own death, she doesn’t know whether to dismiss it as just another weird dream, or worry that it’s about to come true. Unable to shake the dream from her mind, she sets out to decipher its meaning"

The first concept art for the main character design is now in, and when I opened the pages it was really quite creepy how perfectly the picture of Ione-Rose matched what I'd had in my head when I was reading the script.

Ione-Rose Young

Jacob Young


Danielle Carter

The story is set in Canterbury, and the pair have been there on trips to get location photos and soak up the atmosphere. According to his blog Chris thought the city was like something out of Harry Potter.

I'm especially looking forward to seeing the first sequential pages as I lived in Canterbury for 3 years when I was at Uni, and often go back. In fact Canterbury is the home of the wonderful Whatever Comics, which is still my "local comic shop". Hmm...I feel a tailored made launch event in the making there.

In other news Chris has recently been working on the indy film Warhouse, which looks very very interesting indeed.

Clap Your Hands If You Believe in Fairies...

Oh that's nice, you are all true believers, so you can see her...


There, you're glad not you're not all cynical hard hearted non-believers now, aren't you?

This little beauty is from the brush of Kev Crossley, and she is set to appear in the 2010 'Dark Fairies' calendar Kev has just done for Infocado. She's just landed here for a second to give you an idea of what you can you expect in the upcoming Art of Kev Crossley book we mentioned last week.

Long Nights and Golden Dawns

So, you want to work on a Vigil Book, do you?

This intimidating pile is Martin Hayes initial research material for Crowley: Wandering The Wastes.



Writing on his blog this week about the book he says he " had to crawl around the attic like some kind of giant, malformed silverfish to gather up all my old Crowley books" which is quite scary in itself.

Better get on with making that circle of salt!


From the Chicago Con

Last week Michael "Quarantine" Moreci was at the Chicago con. Here is what he got up to:

"I began going to the Chicago Comic-Con back when I was a kid. One of the best memories of that time is the year Stan Lee attended; I remember anxiously waiting with my father for what seemed like days simply to be called a “true believer.”

Maybe it’s nostalgia for the past, but as I took in this year’s con, I couldn’t help thinking how much things had changed. Back in the day, the con was all about comics—one of the first things you’d encounter upon walking in was the artist tables; now they’re the last, one step away from being delegated to interact with fans in the food court.

In recent years, Chicago has followed in the footsteps of others cons—San Diego, most notably—in shifting its focus from comics to mixed media (movies, television, games). In a sense, I understand this necessity; cons are an extraordinary marketing tool and, in order to survive, comics need the crossover fans brought in through movie adaptations such as Iron Man, or even American Splendor.

My disappointment in this year’s con was seeing the artists cast off to the Island of Misfit Creators while significant focus was given to the supporting-supporting cast of Twilight, Willis from Diff’rent Strokes, and an assortment of washed-up wrestlers. It’s hard to see novelty celebrities placed front-and-center while someone like Jason Aaron (Scalped) is exiled to the far side of the con.

Griping aside, there was a lot to like about the weekend. Chicago has a great community of creators, fans, and shops, many of whom came out for the weekend. I sat in on a Battlestar Q & A panel, and got to hear Admiral Adama—er, Edward James Olmos—lead a chant of “so say we all!” Mark Millar attended, as did Brian Azzarello and George Perez. I admit, I didn’t meet any of these fantastic creators—though I’ve encountered Azzarello a few times in the past (he’s a local guy)—but there was a genuine excitement in the crowd. I did manage to get my hands on a fairly-mint copy of Uncanny X-Men 171, where Rogue (one of my favorite X-Men) joins the team, for two bucks (two bucks!).

One of the highlights of the weekend was meeting Robert Venditti, author of The Surrogates (which has been turned into a soon-to-be released motion picture, starring Bruce Willis). We spoke for awhile; Robert was a great guy, very energetic and insightful about his work. I’m about halfway through the graphic novel, and couldn’t be enjoying it more. The book reminds me of two films—Blade Runner (one of my all-tome favorites), and Gattaca. It does what all great sci-fi does, blending a unique—yet familiar—scenario with a profound look into the future, via social commentary. I couldn’t recommend it more.

So that’s that—another Chicago con come and gone. Next up: the Windy City Comic Con, which is only six weeks away."

Comics In The Classroom

And in more Michael Moreci news...

Michael will be teaching a 6 week course in Graphic Novels from October to November at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

The course description says:

"Comics, or graphic novels, are the topic of many scholarly studies and a myriad of blockbuster films. Yet many Americans consider comic books a lower form of culture, not an art form. This course will challenge that idea by demonstrating comic book authors’ abilities to examine characters and to critique society in ways that are novelistic in scope and depth. We will read Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Brian K. Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man, among others."

Full details and links to registration can be found over on Michael's blog.

Michael Moreci holds an M.A. in English from Northwestern University. He teaches at Flashpoint Academy, and his work has appeared in a number of publications.

Comic Racks

This week I'm going to be a guest on the fantastic Comic Racks podcast. We'll be recording episode 42 on Thursday night, technology willing.

I'll post details when it goes live.

And Finally...

It seems that Burke and Hare are still making their influence felt from beyond the grave.

In a sinister co-incidence this week, the very week that the book is being finalised for print, the life mask of Hare himself, thought lost to history, has turned up in a museum in Swansea.

You can see the mask and read the story over at the BBC Wales site and find out more about the Crime and Punishment exhibition at Swansea Museum, which runs until the 30th November.