Signs Of Spring

Spring seems to be in the air today, at least where I am in London. The sun is out, the birds are singing (you can hear them when the traffic stops) and little weeds are poking up their heads in the flower pots outside the office.

It is probably just a pratical joke on the part of the capricious English weather system - but I fall for it every year.

Adding to the general air of hope and expectation we have news on some new signings, the start of the Fallen Heroes adaptation, Layer Zero pages starting to flow in and the plans for the Bristol Comics Expo starting to get underway.

So, to begin at the beginning with the signings:

Dream Solver by Luke Foster

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.

Urban Legends by Steven Stone

A collection of short stories all based on the urban legends that everyone swears happened to a friend of a friend. The book's 15 stories range from the comical to the terrifying and all of them leave you with the uneasy feeling that it could happen to you. But they're only stories right? Right?

Fallen Heroes

The Fallen Heroes adaptation now has a writer attached.

Martin Conaghan will be picking up the pen on this one and working closely with author Barry Nugent over the coming months.



I didn’t so much read the first scene of Fallen Heroes back in 2008, as see it come to life out of the page, so visually arresting is the writing. With the sharp, multi-layered plot and slick characters of modern crime writing juxtaposed against the shadowy agencies, ancient magic and bold dynamic characters of pulp adventure Fallen Heroes is going to be a truly striking comic

With any adaptation finding the best writer for the job was crucial. Given the book’s increasing cult status we had a lot of very good pitches from both known and new writers hoping to get involved with this project. Fallen Heroes will be a very complex adaptation, as those who have read the novel will know, and there is huge amount of work to be done on the structure and coaxing the characters over to a new medium before the writing even begins.

We asked Martin to do the honours as he is a very experienced writer and researcher and is making a welcome return to comics (with Burke and Hare, also for Insomnia) after a 10 year absence. Martin’s background as a journalist, his incredibly deep knowledge of comics, their creators and their history, and his ability to deftly re-structure disparate historical sources into gripping stories with vibrant, vital characters all make him the perfect person for the job.

Martin himself says:

"Fallen Heroes is jam-packed full of fantastic ideas and thrilling set-pieces. I’m looking forward to finding out where I can take Barry’s rich characters when I translate them on to the comic-book page; from the reluctant hero Jason Chen to the ruthless demon stalker Napoleon Stone. It has everything; a great blend of mythology, science-fiction, action and the supernatural - all told in a very visual style - it’s perfect for the graphic novel format."

If you would like to read the original novel before the adaptation then you can find it in Waterstones , Borders, or Barnes and Noble (if they can keep it on the shelves!), or on Amazon.

However the really lucky ones can get hold of one of a limited number of special editions from our table at the show in Bristol. These include some of the original sketches of the cover and some deleted scenes (which come with an explanation as to why they were cut).

We also hope to have Barry signing copies and talking about the story at the table at some point in the day, if his Geek Syndicate duties allow. If you want a signed copy and can't make the con then Waterstones around the country have Barry on a regular signing schedule, keep an eye on his website for dates and details.

Right then, I am off to try and sort out bowls of eyeball sweets for the table at Bristol. "Why eyeballs?" you say. Well, that is all to do with the Cancertown launch, but more on that later.

Until next week...

Baggage, Books, Bones and Banshees

Well, Crawford has left for New York, with his bags packed full of books, where he will be manning the Insomnia stand at the New York Comic Con 2009.


This will be a great chance for him to catch up with some of creators for the first time in person, and hopefully get to talk to lots more talented people with stories to tell. Me, I'm snowbound in London, but he's promised to bring back lots of pictures for the blog.

If you've got something to pitch to us (here are the submission guidelines if you want to check them first) , want to find out more about Insomnia, or just want to stop by and say "hi" in person you can find us at stand number 2447.

So, what else happened last week?

For starters last Wednesday, the 28th of January, was the 180th anniversary of the hanging of William Burke, one half of the infamous Burke and Hare. As you will remember, Insomnia has a book by Martin Conaghan and Will Pickering out later this year on this very subject.

The research that is going into the book is just staggering. The "extras" we are going to have for the back of this one this will really deserve a book of their own. Martin and Will took a trip up to Edinburgh last week to do some on-site work, get some more visual references, meet with Crawford, and even get a personal showing of Mr Burke's skeleton.



Huge thanks to Lynsey Hutchinson, who works at the Surgeons' Hall Museum in Edinburgh, who took Martin and Will on a personal tour of the incredible exhibits related to the Burke and Hare case.


They also managed to take in a private tour of the Anatomy Museum where Dr Findlater removed Burke and Hare's life masks, and Burke's death mask, from the cabinet for them to photograph. This where, as mentioned earlier, they got a chance to see Burke's skeleton face-to-face, which was "quite incredible" according to Martin.


Making comics is not all sitting in the warm thinking about scantily dressed superheroines in distress, you know?

I am also pleased to be able to announce Insomnia's latest signing: Sidhe by Rachel Robbins.

The pitch outline was so good I am just going to reproduce it here in Rachel's own words.

"PEOPLE DIE. LEGENDS LIVE. AND HISTORY INEVITABLY REPEATS ITSELF.

Emer O’Connor is a Shaman Priestess, capable of performing simple white magic, “kenning”, and traveling between the worlds. Yet the line between the land of the living and the kingdom of the dead has been blurred as of late.

A fundamentalist Christian cult usurping democracy, pharmaceutical companies with political clout, and growing discord between the Irish clans crept into existence, and the world is giving way to early apocalypse.

Like the few other practicing witches, Eden tries to blend in with the brainwashed masses, lest her dedication to the Old Religion lead to her “disappearance”, as it has with so many others.

Then the screaming begins.

According to Gaelic mythology, five spectres of darkness descended from the ancient fairy race Tuatha De’Dannan: the Bean Sídhe, more commonly referred to as Banshees. Each of the five banshees were bound to one of five powerful families: the O’Gradys, O’Neills, O’Briens, Kavanaghs, and O’Connors. Once upon a time the Sídhe’s hair-raising screams merely alerted friends and family of a loved one’s impending death. But times have changed, and the Sídhe have returned with a more sinister mission: to put the universe back in balance via mass genocide, at last fulfilling an ancient prophesy.

Where in days past they foretold and warned of impending death, now their piercing screeches claim the lives of the ailing and infected—before the diseased hosts have become terminal. After the alleged double suicide of Emer’s parents, her saintly sister’s fatal overdose, and baby brother’s sudden illness, she feels called to action. And so begins her quest to silence the Sídhe.

Every prophesy has a loophole."

And some info about Rachel herself

Sídhe creator Rachel Robbins resides on the coast of New England with her thirteen-year-old son-- writing, sculpting, reading, drawing, exploring, and always seeking a new soundtrack to life. She earned her M.F.A. in creative writing, while her undergraduate degrees were in English and psychology. Rachel’s interest and focus has always been on the mythological and mystical aspects underlying a text, and from whence said fascination Sídhe was spawned. Citing a blurred line between genres of artistic expression, Rachel is as much inspired by self-portraits of Frida Kahlo, the faeriegrrls of J.H. Waterhouse, nightmarish creatures of Geiger, Goya, and Bosch, and the rough-hewn sculptures of Louise Bourgeois as she is by Latin American magical realism, dark Russian prose, Romantic era authors, and neurotic confessional poets. She finds the graphic novel a perfect medium within which to interconnect and respect these expressions of the creative process. Rachel has recently completed a novel titled The Land Of Nod, is developing a line of organic healing teas, painting a larger-than-life deck of tarot cards, and plotting the sequel to Sídhe.

At the time of writing I have just been told that Jazma magazine wants to interview Richard McAuliffe and Mark Chilcott about Damaged Goods (out later this year). More on that with links once the interview is published.

Until next week.

Burke and Hare Signing: Insomnia Works the Graveyard Shift

Over a 12 month period from 1827-1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland, two Irishmen by the names of William Burke and William Hare murdered 16 people and disposed of their bodies to the eminent dissectionist Dr Robert Knox at 10 Surgeon's Square. History often mistakenly references the murderous duo's graverobbing or 'bodysnatching' activities - when, in truth, the pair never set foot in a graveyard with the intention of stealing a corpse.



Writer Martin Conaghan and artist Will Pickering delve into the murky, misquoted history of Scotland's most notorious serial killers with a research-based graphic novel that unwravels a ghoulish story of medicine, murder and money.

Nic Wilkinson says:

"Burke and Hare could have stepped, in full lurid glory from the pages of a penny dreadful. The tale of the resurrectionists is classic gothic horror in the tradition of Sweeney Todd, Varney the Vampire or Spring Heeled Jack. It also happens to be true.

Martin and Will are getting back into mainstream comics in earnest, following a 10-year absence, and we are delighted to have them back with us."

Martin Conaghan's first published writing work appeared in Aceville Publications' Comic World in 1992, in the form of interviews and reviews with writers and artists such as Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell. This was followed by a one-off Tharg's Terror Tale in the 1995 2000AD Yearbook and several short stories for the American publisher CaliberPress, including an issue of their popular Raven Chronicles title. In 1997, he produced a weekly internet column for The Big Issue in Scotland, in addition to writing feature articles for The Herald and other Scottish broadsheet newspapers. He now works for the BBC.

Will Pickering worked on the strip 'Dr Ballard' for the Glasgow-based indie comic 'Frankly' and continues to work on his self-published superhero series 'Something Fast'. He also illustrated Martin's issue of Raven Chronicles for Caliber (entitled 'The Compensators'). He has worked in music journalism and magazine editing, and was a candidate for the rectorship of Glasgow university in 1999 (beaten by former Eastender Ross Kemp). He also produced a strip for the final issue of the popular independent comic Northern Lightz.

Please contact Nic Wilkinson, Creative Director, at nichola[at]insomniapublications.com for further details, or requests for interviews with the creative team.

Until next week.