Quick bit of translation news; apparently Eidalon have bought the German rights to both CLOSER and WASTELAND. CLOSER is scheduled for January next year, and WASTELAND Book 1 is set for a few months afterward (The rights agreement says May, but their website says March, so we’ll see).
[ Wasteland / Closer / Translations ]
I’ve just updated the desktop wallpapers available to download from this site. There’s a new set of F-STOP wallpapers, thus:
…Which also includes a widescreen version for those of you with Cinema Displays or similar widescreen monitors. In the same spirit, I’ve also created new widescreen versions of the existing wallpapers for THE LONG HAUL, JULIUS, SPOOKED and CLOSER.
Click here for the Downloads page.
[ Julius / F-Stop / The Long Haul / Closer / Spooked / Free Stuff ]
I’ve been invited to do a “Horror/Hallowe’en” signing at Travelling Man York on October 30th, which is the Saturday just before Hallowe’en. We’re still finalising the details (including what time I’ll be there from, but “afternoon” is probably a safe bet…) but the date is confirmed, and I’ll definitely be there.
I expect the store will have some kind of tie-in promotion, most likely a discount on my horror books, and I’ve also decided to run my own competition to win signed copies of SPOOKED, CLOSER and NIGHTJAR #1. So if you’re in the area, pop along and say hi.
(ADDENDUM: The start time has now been confirmed as 2pm. Officially I’ll be there from then till 5pm, though I may well stick around a bit longer if people are still coming by.)
[ Closer / Spooked / Appearances / Nightjar ]
“What makes the story work is the human interaction, as the story shows us how people in an isolated and frightening locale can come together or turn on each other. Johnston writes a terrific bad guy…” - Randy Lander gives CLOSER a big thumbs-up at The Fourth Rail.
[ Closer ]
There’s a good interview with CLOSER artist Mike Norton at Sequential Tart this month, in which he talks about his approach to comics, art and storytelling. A good insight into the mindset of the kind of madman, sorry, artist willing to sit and draw 140 pages straight through…
[ Closer / Interviews ]
Well, the house move is finally done and over with. In truth we moved almost a fortnight ago, but the weeks surrounding that move were filled with renovation, decoration and other boring real life things ending with “-ion”, so the Electric Space Interweb took somewhat of a back seat. Now that we’re in and (mostly) finished, though, it’s back to work.
First up is a rather nice post-San Diego review of CLOSER at Ain’t It Cool News, by someone who definitely seems to have ‘got it’. (I do wish people would stop using the advance cover design, though.)
[Edit: it seems the AICN review actually links to the image on Oni’s website, which is also still the advance cover. Which it’s hardly unfair to expect would be the correct version. So, my apologies to AICN.)
NIGHTJAR #2 came out somewhere in June, though you’ll only have seen the wraparound cover featured on the Diamond shipping lists for some reason. I haven’t seen any reviews of it yet, but I was very happy with it myself. Max did a great job of bringing the rather bleak setting of Pendle hill to life. I believe the NIGHTJAR: HOLLOW BONES one-shot should be in stores very soon, and I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of reaction the “flashback story” gets.
YUGGOTH CREATURES #1 should also be in stores any day now, though scheduling always becomes a bit chaotic when American convention season rolls around, so I’ll be double-checking that with Avatar.
So, what next? Well, I’m still ploughing through the Big Avatar Thing that I returned to working on back in June, and I have scripts to finish for F-STOP and THE LONG HAUL. Besides that, though, a few new things have come up over the last few weeks which - now that San Diego is over and I finally have a study I can work in without worrying the walls are going to collapse on me - I can start cracking on with. I should hopefully have at least two pieces of very good news before Autumn.
[ F-Stop / The Long Haul / Closer / Nightjar ]
“Closer has everything I’m looking for in a horror novel; rich atmosphere, creepy ideas, and surprises lurking around the corner when I least expect them.” - Greg McElhatton reviews CLOSER at iComics.com
[ Closer ]
There’s a small preview of CLOSER up on Pulse today, along with some ‘director’s commentary’ style quotes from Mike Norton and I about the pages. (If my commentary seems a little ambiguous, it’s because I thought we were going to be showing final lettered pages, not just final art. Whoops.)
[ Closer / Interviews ]
I received my advance copy of CLOSER a couple of days ago, and it looks fantastic. I know most people don’t have the print-quality nerdity that I do, but Leanne’s inks/finishes are very complex, with zipatone-a-go-go and smudgy bits all over the place, and we were all a little concerned at how it would print. But credit to the printers, and it all came out fine. The book’s on sale now.
“CLOSER is an entertaining horror book […] The creators do a good job in hooking the reader and dragging him through the entire story to the end, throwing in a few good surprises along the way.”
- Augie De Blieck reviews CLOSER in this week’s PIPELINE column.
I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised that Augie likes the book; our tastes are normally polar opposites, and I didn’t even expect him to try CLOSER. But I was definitely attempting a kind of ‘mainstream horror’ feel with this book, so perhaps I’ve succeeded.
[ Closer ]
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