Glubbleblugg, Glubbleblogg...

'There once was an evil Thing that lived under a rock.'

That thing is Glubbleblugg, a nasty beastie that takes its name from the sounds children make when choking on their own blood.

Above is a little tease - you'll have to purchase Something Wicked #6 later this year to read the rest. Glubbleblugg features art by Conor Boyle and letters by Bolt-01.

Durham Red(ux)...

Sometimes a cool project arrives out of the blue...er...red...and 'Durham Red: Long Time Coming' is an example of that.

Rendered brilliantly by Matt Soffe, the strip appeared as a 'silent comic' in the pages of the (very cool) Strontium Dog fanzine Dogbreath. But when Mr. Soffe fancied the idea of adding a bit of narration to the strip, I'm glad he gave the writing duties to me; and although I wasn't so sure the clutter of captions was needed, I couldn't resist contributing to such beautiful imagery.

The biggest problem I faced was avoiding redundancy, and I think I did a fair job of that. I realized right away that the strip had to reman 'silent' and that no dialogue was needed. This only further heaped on to my second biggest problem: being locked into what was already drawn. There was no flexibility. A tough task indeed, working 'backward'.

For some time I sat and just stared blankly at the artwork...until the line "spirits drift with the fog..." came to me. After that the rest fell into place and I finished the script in an hour or so...it was a great challenge, but loads of fun. I hope you enjoy the redux even if you prefer the version without my words! And thanks to Mr. Soffe for giving me a chance to work with him - we've recently begun a followup collaboration, a creepy Gothic tale that is certain to shiver your nape-hairs.

Hither Came Jikan...

Exciting news: I've written a pair of scripts for Paragon Comics, both featuring Jikan, an inter-dimensional demon-hunting Ronin cursed to wander time and space destroying evil.

'Jikan: Witch Fires' has our hero flung from the vortex and into a small English town terrorized by the sadistic Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General and Demon-in-Disguise. 'Witch Fires' is essentially an epic 8-page sword fight which kicks into gear on the rooftop of a burning inn and climaxes amidst the swaying corpses decorating a gallows platform.

'Jikan: Cave of Death' finds Jikan hurled back to the dawn of time and captured by a tribe of demon-possessed apemen. Taken deep below the Earth through a vast network of catacombs, Jikan discovers he is to be offered as a sacrifice to appease the fire breathing monster that dwells within the 'Cave of Death'. My offering: 8 pages of devil-splitting, caveman-hacking, gore-soaked fury.

I'm not sure when the finished strips will appear in Paragon, so for now enjoy the above teaser rendered by Dave Candlish, editor/creator of Paragon Comics.

Order the latest issue of Paragon here.

A Desperate Beacon...

Pause. Deep breath. Reconsider.

Ah, what the hell. I'll do it.

A blog.

A desperate beacon cast into the void.

A distress signal. A cry for attention, a plea for help.

And a little space all mine. Here I can blah-blah-blog about me and only me. Now I have a way of shouting to all the ends of the Earth through the virtual world-spanning tin-can telephone called the internet; now I have a way of shouting - all about me.

But who will listen?

That doesn't matter. I never expected to start a blog, so if no one's here to meet me while I'm musing, well, it'll be business as usual. To be honest, I'm not very comfortable talking about myself anyway. Sure, I write - that's all I do - and I write about lots of people. But none of them are me.

So I've picked up the phone and dialed out.

But who will answer?

If you've found this blog, I hope we're friends or will become friends.

And I promise I'll whisper little electronic thoughts into your ear, if you do the same for me.

This has been a very good year. I've written a lot and commissioned a lot. Nothing for pay, mind. But my stories are getting out there, and that's most important. I plan to update this page as frequently as I have something interesting to say (about myself of course). Thank you for stopping by.