Subscribe to my mailing list for updates on future projects

Thursday 26 December 2019

Looking back on 2019

This will be the last post of the year so we might as well finish with an overview of 2019. I've not been super busy on this blog, making only 14 posts, but it has been a super busy year all round, not just in the comics department but in real life too!

Most significantly, a ran a Kickstarter for the first issue of Get Woke, which achieved target and is now about to go to print. Really pleased with this although slightly disappointed it only squeezed past the finish line by a meagre £8. Still, we made it! This means I'll now have a physical copies of both Get Woke AND Killer Bytes, my first anthology. Which means I have product that I can take to conventions and sell.

The time spend working on Get Woke and the subsequent campaign pretty much consumed all spare time set aside for writing new comics. I've been fairly busy in the lettering department, adding words to 3 comics for the Tales from the Udderverse anthology and a paid lettering job for a comic about a psychotic elephant titled 'Cello'.

I do love lettering comics but I much prefer writing them. The idea pile has continued to grow throughout 2019 but turning those ideas in to scripts has almost ground to a halt. For the first time in its 11 years of publication, I didn't manage to write a story for my own anthology Hallowscream. Fairly annoyed at myself for that.

Make more time for writing is definitely the lesson to be learned from the last 12 months. I believe I will actually need to set aside a block of time in my daily schedule, to make sure I do nothing but write in that time.

Anyway, have a great New Year and watch this space in 2020.

Wednesday 25 December 2019

Now with the option to buy

I've added a shop to the blog using something called Ecwid. Kinda useful and easy if you have less than 10 products and don't need digital. Too expensive if you do.

They'll be 2 products to buy: the print versions of Get Woke #1 and Killer Bytes #1. You can visit the shop here.

Sunday 1 December 2019

Conspiracy shorts

To promote the Kickstarter a bit I made a couple of small strips for the Reddit r/comics crowd. Conspiracy related of course.

68 Upvotes on Reddit for that one.

Slightly more respectable 107 Upvotes for this one.
 

Wednesday 6 November 2019

Get Woke #1 Now on Kickstarter

Clicking the launch button was intense but it's done. Ladies and gents, the Get Woke Kickstarter is now LIVE.


Imagine a world in which ALL conspiracy theories are true. A world of secret societies, shadow governments, aliens, monsters, and the supernatural. No need to imagine too hard, that's the world YOU live in today. It's all real and it always has been.

And if such evil exists in the world, which it does, humanity is going to need a very special team of heroes to protect it from the horrors that lurk behind the curtain of our false reality.

Don't believe in conspiracies? You need to...GET WOKE

------------------------------

After nearly 2 years of production the first issue is completely done and I'm now looking to raise the funds to get the comic printed. I've gone with a fairly low target as I don't want to not make the goal, hopefully this doesn't put people off.

Please check it out and if you can pledge a bit of cash.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dangergeek/get-woke-1-a-conspiracy-comic-mini-series

Thursday 31 October 2019

Hallowscream 11


It has returned from the eldritch depths once more... The eerie eleventh edition of the annual Hallowscream! Hallowe'en Special has materialised as a totally free pdf file! 52 terrifying pages filled to the brim with shocks and scares for your delectation!

Here Are The Download Links (right click and 'save as') :

Lo-res (rubbish) Version (file size = 23.8mb) :       MEDIAFIRE     DROPBOX

Hi-res (get this one) Version (file size = 84.7mb) :       MEDIAFIRE     DROPBOX

You can also read the issue online at :      ISSUU

These are the full contents behind the beastly barbecue cover by Ken Best...

Page 3 : Down To The Woods  Story by Paul Bradford, Art by Luciano Fleitas, Letters by HdE
Page 5 : A Cold Bloody Night  Story by Ed Whiting, Art by Jo Galicia, Letters by Ken Reynolds
Page 11 : Flick & Jube in House of No Lips  Story & Art by Simon Mackie
Page 13 : The Lament of Chet Wilder  Story by Rob & Stephanie Stanley, Art by Rick Alves, Letters by Toben Racicot
Page 20 : Loch Mess  Story & Art by Gordon Innes
Page 21 : Terrorvision Guide  by Malcolm Kirk
Page 22 : The Paranormal Misadventures of Mr. Cringemeister : The Dawn of The Living Coffee Drinkers  Story & Art by Rick Perez
Page 27 : Bank Horror Day  Story & Art by Gordon Innes
Page 31 : Terror of The Sheep 2 : Chapters Three & Four  Story & Art by Malcolm Kirk
Page 39 : Ultima Fool  Story & Art by Gordon Innes
Page 40 : The Red Lagoon  Story & Art by Gordon Innes
Page 43 : Heartburn  Story by Rough Stuff McGraw, Art by Carol Kewley
Page 45 : The Tale of Baron Urbenstein  Story by Troy Vevasis, Art by Saul Haber
Page 47 : Bestiary of Beasties : Downside-Up  by Malcolm Kirk
Page 48 : Brexhausted Story & Art  by Gordon Innes
Page 49 :  Funny "Ha-Ha"  Cartoons by Carol Kewley & Malcolm Kirk
Page 50 : Deadvertisements  by Malcolm Kirk
Page 51 : A Grim Tale : Omnibus of Horror  Story & Art by Malcolm Kirk
Page 52 : Back Cover Skull  by Malcolm Kirk


Previous issues of Hallowscream are available to download from
backfromthedepths.co.uk/hallowscream or you can buy real-life monochrome paperback versions from Lulu.com. HAVE A HORRIFICALLY HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

Sunday 27 October 2019

Ready for launch

After a long hard slog we're finally ready to go live with the Kickstarter for Get Woke. You can take a quick shifty at the pre-launch page here. It's not much to look at at the moment but the actual Kickstarter campaign page has all the details you need about the project included a very interesting video.

It's pretty nerve-wracking displaying yourself online for the world to see. Will I make the target? What if no one backs it? These are just a few of the questions you'll ask yourself pre-launch and probably even more so post-launch, until the pledges come in.

These concerns have led to me choosing a low target to achieve funding. It's low because all the hard work is done and I'm just looking at covering printing costs. I just hope it's not too low that backers won't pledge once it makes the target.

I'm also concerned about the potential IP fringement. Hopefully this is just paranoia. It is a comic about conspiracies after all.

Here's a nice GIF that show some of the inner pages from the comic. Cool huh.


Wednesday 28 August 2019

Tales from the Udderverse

What's this? An exciting new anthology has been launched from the teats of Mother Udder Comics. This 48 page collection of short stories features 3 that have been lettered by yours truly. Been a pleasure to be a part of this awesome comic collective.



You can reserve your copy of Tales from the Udderverse by simply emaling motheruddercomics@yahoo.com

Saturday 13 July 2019

Image Comics Rejection

I feel a bit dirty with this news. Not because of the result but because I failed to inform you, dear reader, that I had submitted Get Woke to Image Comics. I meant to post something about that experience and how it felt, but now you're only just learning that the submission has been rejected. At least I don't have the shame of looking back on such a positive pre-submission post and all the naive words of optimism is would have written about how the comic would definitely have been picked up.

The rejection letter:


Hello Tim, 

Thanks for submitting to Image Comics.

Unfortunately, while we're thrilled that you chose to share your proposal with us, we don't believe your work is an ideal fit for our catalog at this time.

Due to the high volume of submissions we receive, I can't offer more detailed commentary, but I appreciate you giving us the opportunity to consider your work.

We wish you the best of luck with this and future projects.

Sincerely,

Eric Stephenson
Publisher

Even though it's probably just a standard auto-response, it still feels good to get a reply from someone like Eric Stephenson, and at least they did reply. Imagine the torture of NO response and they resulting nightmare of wondering if they even received the submission package!

So, we pick ourselves up, brush ourselves down, and submit to some more publishers.

Wednesday 3 July 2019

Process Porn

Nothing gets a comic creator more excited than feasting their eyes on some page process porn. I've included a fine example below from my new comic Get Woke. You can really see the page move through its development stages, from the final script (which would have several interations itself), through to the completed and lettered page.



















Saturday 22 June 2019

Get Woke Logo

Without further ado, here's the logo for Get Woke...



I think it captures the zaniness and gravity of the series quite well. I wanted to keep it text only for maximum impact of the words as I think the phrase itself is pretty damn hilarious. It's not just a name, it's an instruction as well.

If you're looking for quality logo for your comic book series then please check out my comic book logo and lettering service ComicBookLogo.com

Latest Update #10

At last! It is done. After a year and a half of production I'm pleased to announce that Issue 1 of Get Woke is now complete. It's been a long process which has pretty much consumed most of my spare time (which ain't much) and really hampered any other comic creating tasks. But it's done. 36 pages are draw, coloured and lettered, and the cover is complete. No inners have been done yet but it really all depends what we are doing with the comic. I have an amazing product, now I've got to figure out the best way to sell it!

Get Woke's awesome artist, Kevin McCullough, is keen to explore the professional publishing route so our first step will be to compile some pitch material (comic samples, synopses, etc) and send it to a few serious comic companies. I'm currently in the process of doing this but making sure I get it right is slowing me down. I've been waiting ages for the finished article and now it's arrived I'm all WTF do I do now. It's a new and exciting chapter.

If pro-publishing fails we'll take the Kickstarter route. This has become a thoroughly acceptable way to release a comic and there are plenty of examples of success stories that give hope that we can achieve our goal of getting the comic out in to the big wide world.

Whatever happens next is going to be thrilling. You're welcome to come along for the ride.

Saturday 20 April 2019

Hallowscream 11 Submissions Now Open



It’s the time of the year when we at Back From The Depths are once again looking for contributors for our freaky free annual pdf horror comic, HALLOWSCREAM, so here are the submission guidelines…

Submissions should be horror orientated and must be weird or spooky to make the final cut.
We are mainly looking for completed comic strips between 1-7 pages in length. Anything already completed is far more likely to make it into the comic.

Script submissions should also preferably be around 1-7 pages in length.

Eerie illustrations and artwork along with interesting horror/comic articles, scary short stories, petrifying poems or anything just plain creepy will also be considered.

To get an idea of the sort of stuff we’re after, you can download previous issues of Hallowscream here.

If you’re looking to illustrate something, get in contact and we’ll give you details of available scripts to see if anything suits your fancy.

We’ll also consider material previously published elsewhere, as long as the contributors own the copyright.

Completed artwork can be either colour or black and white, and should preferably be A4 (21cm x 29.7cm) 300 dpi jpeg or png.

Submissions can be sent to merjeagles@yahoo.co.uk or ghastlymcnasty@backfromthedepths.co.uk
As this is a non-profit, small press publication, contributors will not be paid but they will retain copyright on any material submitted.

DEADLINES :
Scripts, articles and text submissions : Monday 29th July 2019
Artwork : Tuesday 15th October 2019
Completed strips : Tuesday 22nd October 2019.

The finished issue will be available online as a free pdf by October 31st, with a physical copy becoming available via Lulu.com, soon afterwards. You can also keep up to date with Hallowscream news via the Facebook Page.

Saturday 2 March 2019

FutureQuake 2019

It's been several months since the last decent post. I am still here and I am still working on comics. My lack of visibility is down to a new job, which is taking up all my time, fatherhood, which takes up all my other time, and a new diet, which makes me go to bed early through sheer lack of energy. I'm trying to be a better man, but how can not making comics make me so? It's a serious contradiction.

I received an email this week containing the contributors edition of the new FutureQuake2019. Opening it up I was delighted to see that the story I wrote for the issue has been given the front cover. Superbtastic!

Mika and the God Heart (check out some preliminary sketches here) is a nine page story nestled among 97 pages of pure sci-fi comic awesome. The story was written and drawn by Rafael Romeo Magat who is destined to become a professional comic book artist. Here's his cover below...



You can purchase this comic from the FutureQuake website for a mere £6.50. Go on, it's the only thing that makes sense in this crazy world we live in.

In other news, issue one of Get Woke, my conspiracy based comic, is almost complete. Hopefully, it should be done this month as the artist has a gap in his work that allows him to focus on finishing the colouring. Then, get to see a legend-bound comic book rise to cult status and I intend to blog about the journey as I go.

Keep making comics.

Sunday 6 January 2019

Latest Update #9

Oh, sad, neglected blog. It's been 2 months since my last post! What went wrong?

Once again it has been the most evil of comic villains, the heinous 'Dr Real Life' who has taken up all my time and stopped me from doing comic things. Hopefully 2019 will be the year that I can get some decent exposure on my comic making exploits.

Stay tuned.

EDIT: This turned out to be one of the most viewed posts ever. Don't click the title, there's no more info behind the fold. Just a short and boring post.