Forthcoming Attractions

Now that Bristol is out of the way and The Sisterhood:Morningstar is launched it's back to getting future Time Bomb Comics further along their way to future publication. Of course, that doesn't mean The Sisters are forgotten about - the one-shot has a listing in the inaugural Haven Comics! catalogue that's out this month and it will be interesting to find out how much comes out of that. Unlike Diamond's Previews catalogue, which for good or ill is still the main industry advance comics showcase, Comics! is purely designed for those comics buyers who

want something other than what the Big Guys can offer. Haven's customer base is exactly the sort of crowd who'll take a gamble on something a bit different, and there's a great range of varied publishers - including Time Bomb! - featured over the catalogue's 100 pages. Obviously we have a vested stake in Haven's success but apart from that as a comics reader it's something I want to personally support and see flourish, and it would be great to see Comics! regularly sitting next to Previews on the comic shop shelves before too long. Of course, that can only happen through reader demand, so please badger your local comics emporium to sign up with Haven and have their Comics! catalogue available.

Moving to the future Time Bomb has a number of projects on the boil, and we can now announce our remaining 2009 releases:

First off we finally have The Furies graphic novel, written by Steve Tanner with art by Andy Dodd. This was trailed on the back covers of Ragamuffins and Dick Turpin and the Restless Dead, and we now have a fixed October release date to tie in with the British International Comics Show in Birmingham. Time Bomb's first graphic novel has been a long time coming, much longer than most people realise.

You see, The Furies was the first major comic that Andy and myself first collaborated together on nearly 25 years ago, and it finally seeing print form in full is something that we've both wanted to happen for a long time. Ten chapters long and set in 2012, it's an apocalyptic tale of good, evil, and that grey area in between where most of us spend our lives, with a fair few dollops of the old ultra-violence throughout.

I personally think we're taking a gamble with this one - this is predominantly the work of two teenage creators inspired by 1980's comics, and is very different in tone and style and ability from what each of us do now. I'll freely admit that some parts of it make me cringe today but apart from a few tweaks to make it more contemporary and smooth over a couple of plot cracks it'll be published warts and all!

The other release is Bomb Scares, our first horror anthology. Also coming out for BICS, this features work from Andy and myself as well as a range of other artists and writers who have made themselves known to us over the last couple of years. Some of them are currently working on longer project's for us but a lot of the work in Bomb Scares is by very talented individuals who deserve to be recognised but just don't have the time in their already busy schedules to produce lengthier works for us - so short stories are an ideal compromise.

Anthologies seem a cormerstone of the UK comics industry these days (with Accent UK chunky yearbooks surely setting the standard) so it seemed fair time to throw Time Bomb's anthology hat into the ring as well. Horror comics have also traditionally flourished in the anthology fomat, from the notorious EC titles in the 50's and Warren's 60's and 70's monthlies to Steve Bissette's disturbing Taboo series in the 80's and 90's. Recently Accent UK's Zombies collection published a couple of years ago has been their most successful to date, so it seems comic fans love horror comics and I'm hoping they love our take on the format too!

And isn't Bomb Scares the most perfect title for a horror book from a company named Time Bomb Comics anyway?