Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

Lots of new signing news this week, and I already have some work in progress and concept art to tempt you with.

And the title this week isn't because I've been away. It's not about that sort of absence at all.

It's about this sort, which we have just signed up with Martin Stiff, :

The Absence by Martin Stiff

1945, southern England. A chruch is destroyed in a terrifying thunderstorm. Perched on a column of tock the small chapel collapses into the sea, taking Father Jonathan with it. The bridge between the church and its village is also destroyed, leaving the ruin entirely unreachable.



A year later following the end of WWII, the horribly disfigured Marwood Clay returns home, haunted by flashbacks or hallucinations of a strange operating theatre.

His arrival brings back terrible, long buried memories for the the other villagers.



Meanwhile the engimatic, world weary mathematician Robert Temple, a man with the curious talent of predicting the future with startling accuracy, moves to the area and begins building a house ona hill overlooking the village.

Then people start to vanish.




Martin says:

"It’s hard to explain the original source of inspiration for The Absence without spoiling the ending, but memories of childhood holidays to Devon and Cornwall provided the foundation (as well as a pile of photographic research).


The image of a village perched precariously on a cliff-edge came first while setting the action in the years following WWII allowed for a specific psychological landscape: these were people living literally on the edge of a battered, broken world. It was then that the disfigured exile Marwood Clay returned home and the plot began to fall neatly into place...



My first intention was to write The Absence as a novel but since I was also looking for an excuse to start drawing regularly again after a few years away from the drawing board, I decided to try adapting it into a comic.

Knowing their interest in literary graphic novels a friend suggested I pitch it to Insomnia. Nic responded immediately and a few days later they signed The Absence up!


I’m hugely excited – and a little terrified: it’s a big book and a mammoth undertaking demanding a huge amount of commitment from everyone involved but Insomnia’s unwavering enthusiasm for the project and their belief in me has filled me with a new confidence and energy. "


After a degree in Illustration Martin drifted into graphic design. Ten years later, after a decade away from drawing, which he missed, and with a recently rekindled interest in comics he's back, with The Absence.

Martin has co-written a few theatrical plays which performed on the London fringe and has a couple of unfinished novels stuffed away in his office. He is currently an art director with a publishing house.




Corvus by Richmond Clements and Kev Levell

30 AD.

Battle lines scar a rain soaked island at the edge of the world.

Proud, doomed and unafraid before his rag tag band of defenders the British Warlord screams his defiance; challenges the might of the Roman War Machine; calls the champion to single combat. The Champion, Gladius, who men say is unbeatable, who cannot be cut by a blade, who destroys this barbarian rebel as easily as he has so many others.


The people look in vain for a hero, for The Corvus, chosen by the gods.

The Corvus, they say, will rid the island of the hated invaders, will have the strength of one hundred men, will be able to fly.

The Corvus is prophesied, is expected...

...is a fifteen year old girl - and she is all that stands between her people and the crushing power of Rome.



In this cracking tale of high adventure, defiant resistance and desperate heroism Richmond Clements and Kev Levell will show you the history they didn't teach in school, but that they couldn't keep out of the comic books.

Richmond is the first writer we have to be working on both a Vigil book (Pinkerton) and a fictional Graphic Novel.

He is also (presumably using some sort of cloning or time manipulation device!) the co-organiser of Scotland's Hi-Ex convention and an editor for FutureQuake Press.

After a 12 year stretch working for the dark side at a promotions agency Kev is a reformed creator who fights artistic crimes as a freelance illustrator and designer. We are happy to be helping with his rehabilitation.

The Reckoning Diary

A new Facebook Group is now up and running where you can keep up date on progress with The Reckoning by Patrick Walsh and Jimmy Pearson.

Watch out for tentacles!

Going Digital with Geek Syndicate, Insomnia and Sony

There were a record number of entries for this competition, but there can only be one lucky winner!

Congratulations to Kirsty Caffery who wins a PSP loaded with Insomnia Comics.

Thanks to the Geek Syndicate and Sony for running the competition and providing the PSP.

Until next week...