Art Attack!!!

I'm very sorry, I couldn't resist it.

So, there's an awful lot of art news this week. It must be something in the water, or perhaps this is the time that all artists come out of hibernation.

We have got full teams confirmed for several books that we signed up a few months ago:

• Gary Crutchley has been confirmed as the artist on six months by Jim O'Hara. Gary has recently been contributed to the Accent UK Zombies, Robots and Westerns anthologies, and with Stephen Costello on his Split Lip web horror comic. Gary also has a story in Layer Zero:Choices, Soul by Stephen Stone, so you can see a sample of his work in the Layer Zero preview below.
  
  
• Chris Wildgoose will be starting work on Dream Solver by Luke Foster. Cris is currently studying in North London and aspires to make connections in the film, comic and game worlds, and as a Fine artist. He has worked with a few directors and companies such as Iron Box films, Deleveres,Mehul Desai and most recently/currently working with director Luke Massey with his new film 'Warhouse' He also occasionally helps with prop design and creatiosn for Rorschach Prop FX.
  
  
• Wu Li will be drawing Shiver by Christopher Barker. Wu Li has provided work for record companies, ezines and designed characters for various international publications.
  
  
• Kev Crossley will be drawing Sidhe by Rachel Robbins. Kev has worked on the Kiss4k comic and done covers for 2000AD and the Megazine, as well as having work in Event Horizon by Mam Tor.

Layer Zero Previews

As I write this the deadline for Layer Zero is only 24 hours away and most of the book is already compiled, the covers done and the bios in place.

Pre-orders for this have been outstanding - so take a look and see the treat you're in for - and if you haven't ordered it direct from us you'll be able to find it on amazon very soon - it's just waiting for it's ISBN to be confirmed.

So, here are the previews - some are final pages, some are just showing pencils, and there are more to come. Where the creators are doing full length books with us I have noted that under the Layer Zero credits:

Beautiful People: story by Jim Alexander, art by Dean Stahl
(Watch out for Jim in the upcoming Focal Point)

Beggars Can't Be Choosers: Story by Christopher Barker, art by Des Langford
(Watch out for Chris in the Upcoming Shiver)

Borrowed Life: Story and art by Valium. K

Pin Up by Andy Bloor

Devils' Due: Story by Richard Casey, art by Preston Asevedo

Devil's Road: Story by James Johnson, art by Leonardo M Giron
(Watch out for James in the upcoming Dead Man's Gold)


Erratum: Story by Matt Gibbs, art by Des Langford
(Watch out for Matt in the upcoming Ion Monger's Daughter)


Love Like Like A Bullet: Story by Aiden Largey, art by Jane Summerfield


Fragile : Story by Corey Brotherson, art by Ariyana Vida
(This is "episode zero" of the Graphic Novel Butterflies and Moths)



The God Trap: Story by Chris Lynch, art by Gary O'Donnell



I am Dead: Poem by GM Jordan, art by Rachel Gater


Magpie: Story by Richard McAuliffe, art by Mark Chilcott
(Watch out for Richard and Mark in the upcoming Damaged Goods)


Nearest and Dearest: Story by Greg Carruthers, art by Monty Borror


So Much To Do, So Little Time: Story and art by Dave West



Soul: Story by Steven Stone, art by Gary Crutchley
(Watch out for Steven in the upcoming Urban Legends
Watch out for Gary in the upcoming Six Months)
Red Wire Blue Wire: Story by Alexi Conman, art by Larry Watts


The Right Choice: Story and art by Steve Butler

TimeWave Zero: story and art by Adam R Grose


The Turtle Guitar: Story and art by Ben Powis


Waste: Story by Cy Dethan. art by Ben McLeod
(Watch out for Cy in the upcoming Ragged Man, Indifference Engine and Focal Point)


Waiting For The End: Story by Marting Conaghan, art by Nulsh
(Watch out for Martin in the upcoming Burke and Hare and Focal Point)

And finally...

There was an interview on Sci-Fi pulse on Sunday night where you can hear Cy Dethan talking about Cancertown, not hear me very well (microphone hitch my end) talking about Insomnia, and hear Crawford wrapping up for a few minutes at the end.

A huge thank you to all the Insomnia creators who have been doing a fantastic job promoting each other's work all around the web, on twitter, at events etc. The results of this have been unbelivable. Cages is on the shelves now and, according to the reports Alasdair is getting back from the store managers is flying off them. The pre-orders for Layer Zero are about 400% over what we estimated for an anthology, and we have just had to take the decision to increase the initial print run of Cancertown by 50%.

The best thing is that as we work with more people this kind of thing will just get stronger.

Thanks also to everyone else who has shown such support for the books and helped us to get the word out. Special mention must go to John Freeman of Down The Tubes, The Geek Syndicate boys and The Comic Racks girls.

The help and support that the creators have given each other in making sure the anthology was all in by deadline has also been outstanding, and the number of new people getting in touch because what they have been told by people already working with us is amazing.

This is exactly what we wanted when Insomnia was founded.

Thanks for all your hard work guys - we wouldn't be here without you.

It's getting like an Oscar speech now, so I'll close before I cry on my ballgown.

See you in seven!

Looking Out For Creators

Insomnia Publications are inviting submsissions.

Hi everyone this is Nic Wilkinson.

I am very pleased to announce that, as of a few days ago, I have recently accepted the role of Creative Director for Insomnia Publicationsm having been involved with the company as an artist and letterer for about 18 months.

Insomnia are currently inviting submissions from both writers and artists (pencillers, colourists, inkers and letterers). We are looking for both complete "graphic novels" or "albums" of between 80 - 200 pages or short stories for our anthologies of between 4-10 pages.

I know inviting submissions like this is a bit unusual in the industry - but as we receive great scripts from writers who do not personally know artists, and great samples from artists who do not know any writers to work with - why would we not introduce you and build creative teams instead of hoping you meet by chance some time?

The books we have in progress at the moment cover a wide variety of subject matter, and we look for originality and quality rather than concentrating on any specific genre. We would rather have something unusual, challenging, inventive, creative, inspired, literate, thought provoking (you get the idea) than another version of something that is already out there. You can get mainstream works from many places, that is why they are called mainstream and there are lots of publishers who already do those kinds of books extremely well.

If you have been published before or have self published in print or online and can show us a portfolio, that is fantastic. However Insomnia is all about new writing, new art and new concepts and we certainly welcome submissions from new talent.


So, let us know:

For Writers

I need you to tell me:

About the story - proposed length, how much (if any) is complete, about the characters, the setting, What happens, Why it happens, – all of that not just a 10 word high concept "idiot pitch". That tells me if you are good at formulating snappy high-concept pitches, not what your scripting, structuring and storytelling are like - although the high concept pitch will be useful for marketing if your work is accepted.

I also need to know:

• Character profiles for the main characters
• Overall story synopsis (eg what happens for the whole story)
• Story structure (eg how the plot breaks down by "issue" or "chapter")
• Setting / Locations / Time period (important to know for finding artists - so any visual ideas you might have, although it doesn't matter if you prefer to leave all that to the artist)
• The story rationale (eg what it is really "about" that is the concepts you will be exploring rather than the "what happens" of the synopsis that tells us how you will dramatically execute the discussion of the concepts)

Samples are good if you have them but not required at the pitch stage

We do not care if you have the right script formatting software or fonts at this stage, we want your talent, not your technical know how.

If you want to get in touch first to ask if your idea sounds like the kind of thing we are looking for before you put the whole pitch package together you can contact me at:
nichola[at]insomniapublications.com
(remember to put the "h" in my name, it is the reason most emails don't reach me :)

For Artists (Pencils, inks, colours or all 3)

• We would like to see sequentials as well as pin ups (unless you want to be purely a cover artist - which is fine, but let us know that)
• What formats you work in - traditional media, digital etc
• Whether you work in Colour or black and white
• If you are submitting to be an inker or colourist then we need to see copies of the underlying pencils as well as your work.

Please don't send any one email with attachments larger than 7Mb or it will not come through.

Contact me at:
nichola[at]insomniapublications.com
(remember to put the "h" in my name, it is the reason most emails don't reach me :)

Finally one of the most important things for both writers and artists is to let us know the length of story to which you feel you can commit. We have an anthology title for people who want to do short stories through to complete graphic novel series of hundreds of pages. Also we appreciate that many creators are showing incredible dedication by working on their comics alongside day jobs and other commitments, but if we like your work enough to publish we will work with you to agree a schedule that suits all parties

Many of us at Insomnia are/were creators ourselves and we appreciate that making submissions can be difficult and nerve-wracking. We will look at everything we receive, and although it may take time we will respond to everyone. The important thing to remember that your work may be great, and we may even personally love to read it, but it sometimes will just not what we are looking for right now.

We are also interested to hear from games designers, animators, and model makers as we often need to call on such services.In most cases we will look to put our books out as albums or "instant trades" so that they can be sold in bookshops and online as well as through comic shops.
If you would like to see examples of Insomnia books to get a feel for the type of material we publish then you can see previews of two forthcoming Graphic Novels and a selection from our Anthology title online at MyeBook

Cancertown - by Cy Dethan and Stephen Downey
Cages - by Xander Bennett and Mel Cook
Layer Zero Anthology Selection


You can reach me at submissions[at]insomniapublications.com or nichola[at]insomniapublications.com

Hope to hear from you soon

Nic