Deadlines are looming again as Massacre strides gamely into the new year. We really need to get Walking Wounded #2 off to the printers ASAP but it's not quite ready yet. Steve is still working on the final few pages of artwork.

Here's the first page of the final story, Entente Cordiale:

The reason for the urgency is of course the 2008 UK Web and Mini Comix Thing which gives us a hard and fast target that the issue must be finished, printed and back in our hands by March 22. We'll be cutting it fine!

I am also happy to confirm that a second publication will be coming from us not long after: Massacre For Boys In Colour. This will be a US format non-monochrome collection of material that has henceforth only been available online or in third party publications such as the Thing Anthology. We're a bit nervous about this because the comparisons to Solar Wind are going to be inevitable, however the difference is so marked I don't think any fair judge would accuse us of jumping on Paul Scott's bandwagon.

Massacre for Boys in Colour should be available by the Summer, and it may even debut at Bristol Comic Expo if we can bag ourselves a table there.

Happy Hogmanay!

I would like to wish all the readers of this blog a very Merry Christmas.

I would like to wish all the spammers of this blog a very Miserable Christmas.

Because of the aforementioned spammers I have now had to change our comments section to Fully Moderated. Please be assured that genuine comments will always be published, only complete bastards trying to sell you their crappy rubbish will have their posts deleted.

Except if it's me trying to sell you comics, obviously.

I've just finished Judge Dredd Megazine #266, and greatly enjoyed it as usual. However, I am sad to see that the Small Press section has made way for a reprint of a Wagner/Grant/Ezquerra DC series from the mid-90s.

Guess it's no surprise as the Small Press section did run for over 20 issues and wasn't always popular with the readership, but I feel that it was a major contribution to the British independent comics scene. There is nothing like the promise of professional publication in a mainstream title to motivate creativity.

Certainly it was a great feeling the day that our strip, Holt Bros, hit the newstands within this:

Actually, the opportunity possibly came a bit soon for us and consequently it's not quite as polished as what we're doing now. However, I'm not so sure we'd be even as mildly prolific as we are without such a big incentive to keep us going.

Hopefully the Megazine will bring back the Small Press section in time. But for now, so long and thanks for all the readers...

Wow.

Just finished League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier and it's nothing short of breath-taking.

I'm a big fan of the previous League books, but I always considered them pretty light-hearted and superficial compared to Moore's other great works such as Watchmen and From Hell. However, it seems from the Dossier that I had misjudged his intentions and in fact he has ambitions just as high for the League as for anything else he's ever done.

The plot to this expertly illustrated graphic novel is pretty simple. Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain, now seemingly immortal thanks to the fountain of youth from Rider Haggard's She, return to London in the 1950s to obtain and read the Black Dossier, a secret report on all the various incarnations of the League over the centuries. They tangle with contemporary secret agent "Jimmy", grandson of the League's old liason Campion Bond. Some might spot a copyright violation there but that's just jumping to unfounded and possibly defamatory conclusions. Ahem.

The Dossier is presented in its entirety within the book, and it uses various different genres and methods, most ambititously a mock Shakespeare folio, to catalogue the adventures of each different League throughout the centuries. It soon becomes clear that the aim of this graphic novel is not so much to build a complete history of the League but to build a complete history of their world as well. Literally starting from the beginning of time.

As ever with LXG, the breadth of influences and references is incredible. Shelley's amazing poem Ozymandias is dramatised to perfection in one solitary frame during the telling of the life of Orlando. I am currently catching up on my H P Lovecraft and am gratified to see that Moore uses his works as a major source of material. The Wodehouse-style Cthulu Mythos story is definitely a highlight! More prosaically, Billy Bunter turns up as an old man, and one of the character's introduced late-on, well... you won't believe your marmalade loving eyes!

The Book progresses to a highly satisfying conclusion, in 3-D no less, and leaves you gagging for more. Fortunately, the third volume proper commences next year so it's far from over. Indeed, Moore's stated intention is to bring the League into the present day before concluding, a necessary but difficult enterprise. I'm wondering how he'll manage to get Harry Potter into things...

Walking Wounded #2 by Chris Denton, Steven Denton and Bolt-01:

Launching at the 2008 UK Web and Mini Comix Thing.