Hallowscream 13 - 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.

 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.

One additional stipulation, same as last year…

IMPORTANT : No stories about global pandemics, please!  Stories containing the living dead are allowed, but the E.C. comics-style vengeful revenants are preferable to the contagion-spreading George Romero types. The last thing we need right now is a comic full of nothing but tales of how difficult it is to find toilet paper during a zombie apocalypse, (don’t pretend you didn’t think about it). First and foremost we’re producers of escapism (quite icky, gruesome horrible escapism at times, but escapism nonetheless), and we feel it’s a good idea to lay off certain storylines at least until such time as current events have settled down a bit. I’m sure you’ll understand where we’re coming from.

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.

It's 2021

With the pandemic still lingering like a bad smell in a lift I've been trying to keep my foot in the comics game while dealing with someone turning real-world work up to 11. 

 Writing has taken an immense hit in productivity but I still get involved with comic production via lettering for other comic creators and living vicariously through their success. It's not the same but it's the best I can manage for now. 

 Once such project is Mythica by Actionline Studios. I was contact by Matt Campbell, CEO of Actionline, to pick up the torch of lettering part 7 of his epic tale, currently smashing it on Kickstarter.

It's a pleasure to work for a creator who has their marketing game on fleek. Matt knows how to make the best of Kickstarter and is very proactive it promoting his product. I'm hoping I'll be lettering much more for Actionline in the future.

Another Logo

 Here's a new logo design I've just completed for a comic pitch. I'd initially lettered the pitch sample pages so it's great that the creator came back for logo design too. Here's the logo in situ on the lovely cover...

The flame effect looks mint on the cover but it wouldn't translate well when used as a stand alone logo. So, as standard practice, when designing logos, you should also make sure it can be used in any situation...

Nice.

Hallowscream 12

 

Vampires! Ghosts! Monsters! Pumpkins! Squiggly things! All these and more can be found within the pages of the latest edition of Hallowscream! Back from the depths once more to fiddle with your fear-centres!

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

Lo-res (rubbish) Version (file size = 21.6mb) :  MEDIAFIRE   DROPBOX

Hi-res (get this one) Version (file size = 69.3mb) :  MEDIAFIRE   DROPBOX

You can also read the issue online at : ISSUU

These are the full contents behind the ghoulishly gothic cover by Malcolm Kirk…

Page 3 : New Neighbour  Story by Rick Perez, Art by Ken Best, Letters by Tim West

Page 7 : The Pumpkin King  Story by Paul Bradford, Art by Randy Valiente

Page 11 : Cartoons (Beasties/Mad Dog)  by Malcolm Kirk

Page 12 : The Paranormal Misadventures of Mr. Cringemeister : Frank Gets A Head In Life  Story & Art by Rick Perez

Page 17 : The Secret of Susan Rand’s Garden  Story by Rob Stanley,  Art by Gregory Woronchak, Letters by Toben Racicot

Page 21 : Terror of The Sheep 2 : Chapter 5  Story & Art by Malcolm Kirk   

Page 29 : Bestiary of Beasties :  Dishclothman  by Malcolm Kirk

Page 30 : Bloody Hands  Story by Troy Vevasis, Art by Denis Pacher

Page 33 : Terrorvision Guide  by Malcolm Kirk

Page 34 : Ghost Story  Story by Chris Denton, Art by Ken Best

Page 37 : Empathy For The Dreamer  Story by Kyle Lawrence, Art by Armando C. Rillo Sr., Letters by  Ryan Bielak

Page 44 : A Grim Tale : Nothing To Fear  Story by Malcolm Kirk, Art by Carol Kewley

Page 47 : Deadvertisements  by Malcolm Kirk

…and…

Page 48 : Back Cover Skull  by Malcolm Kirk

 

Have a horrendously happy Hallowe’en!

Lettering Job #4

 Another lettering job completed for a successful Kickstarter. I lettered 10 pages for the package which smashed its target reaching over £2,500. The production for the the rest of the comic begins next week.

Lettering Job #3

 So, I'm getting quite a few lettering jobs coming my way, thank in part to the new DangerGeek site which gives a very professional overview of the services I offer and also ComicBookLogo.com and this blog, which do pretty well in search engine results.

Here's a few samples for a recent indie project I've now been commissioned to do the 2nd issue for...

Photoshop Comic Lettering Course

Big news! My new online course, Comic Book Lettering in Photoshop is now live! For only $27 you get lifetime access to over 40 video tutorials totaling over 3 hours of content on the technical and theoretical aspects of lettering comics using Adobe Photoshop.

The course contains heaps of information suitable for both lettering novices and those looking to improve on their lettering skills.

For more details please visit the site

Latest Logos

The centralised and updated website/hero page has been helpful in getting loads of new comic related jobs. It's been a week of logos - 2 for upcoming comics and one for a comic publisher. I'll also be assisting on comic lettering duties for one of them!

The logo jobs are cool as they need doing relatively quickly but signing on as someone's letterer means a long term commitment that might not even start for several months. All good fun though.

Comic Book Logo 1

Comic Book Logo 2

Comic Publisher Logo

Lettering Job #2

Another lettering job, another happy customer. This time a sports based comic! Check it out...

Lettering Job

I'm going to post a few lettering samples of the jobs I've been working on. Not going to name the comic or who they're for as I don't want to clog up Google if someone searches for these comics later by name.

Check these out. From a comic lettering job I landed through a word of mouth recommendation. Sweet.

 

Gave me a chance to try some kick-ass sound effects. All done in Illustrator.

 

The Legend Grows

So...stage 2 of 2020 is in full swing. I've fleshed out the website a bit, adding sections for Comic Book Lettering and Logo Design and I'll be adding Editing and Kickstarter Video Production as additional services too.

I've started posting unpaids ads on Facebook and Instagram for the existing services and I've got a pretty solid response. I've got several lettering jobs, logo creation and video production which I'll post a bit more about soon.

I'm slowly working on a course comic lettering comics and have done several samples which you can see on my Youtube channel.

Overall goal is to fund and support writing projects through other comic projects. It was pretty easy getting short stories publishes for free but longer form is going to take some financial resources.

Hallowscream 12 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,  but, (just in case you haven’t being paying attention), the planet’s gone a bit mental this year and we’re going to have to add an additional stipulation.
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.

Now here comes that additional stipulation…
IMPORTANT : No stories about global pandemics, please!  Stories containing the living dead are allowed, but the E.C. comics-style vengeful revenants are preferable to the contagion-spreading George Romero types. The last thing we need right now is a comic full of nothing but tales of how difficult it is to find toilet paper during a zombie apocalypse, (don’t pretend you didn’t think about it). First and foremost we’re producers of escapism (quite icky, gruesome horrible escapism at times, but escapism nonetheless), and we feel it’s a good idea to lay off certain storylines at least until such time as current events have settled down a bit. I’m sure you’ll understand where we’re coming from.

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 :  Friday 31st July 2020
Artwork : Friday 16th October 2020
Completed strips :  Friday 23rd October 2020.
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.

New Website

Stage one is go with a new look website www.dangergeek.co.uk

From the new site you can order print versions of both Killer Bytes and Get Woke, subscribe to my mailing list, and take a look at all the crazy comic projects I've made over the last 10 years.

I'll be adding extra pages in the coming weeks promoting the comic book services I offer.

Looking forward to 2020

I certainly am!

In January of this year I spent 5 days in Nashville, Tennessee, being yelled at by the world's leading motivational speakers, social media influencers, life-coaches and inspirational icons. It was a astonishing few days that have had a lasting and positive effect on me.

The event was called Funnel Hacking Live, a fully American conference in which I spent the time hanging out with 5000 highly motivated entrepreneurs. I leaned a lot in over those few days and came home with a vision of how I can apply my new knowledge to the industry we love so well - comics.

So in 2020 I'll be upping my game. This will begin with a brand new website and a refresh for this blog. I'm going to be attending comic conventions, as a seller and not just a buyer, and will be promoting my own brand much more vigorously. I'll be applying new tricks and techniques to my marketing my products, developing comic creation courses, branching out in to video content, pushing forward with services to the comic community, and generally kicking ass on all levels possible.

Shit's about to get real.

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.

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.

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.

 

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

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!

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.