Diamond Listings and Forbidden Bargains!

Just wanted to give you all a heads up that this month in the Diamond Previews UK Section we have the new Turpin book listed - Dick Turpin and the Crimson Plague - as well as our critically acclaimed London Calling graphic novel.

The order codes are:

DEC112169 - DICK TURPIN AND THE CRIMSON PLAGUE GN

DEC112170 - LONDON CALLING GN

Those fine folks at Forbidden Planet International have also featured the Turpin book in their recommended graphic novels newsletter and they're offering both books at 31% discount ( that's £4.83 against their cover price of £7.00!) if you pre-order them through their website - and if you click on the links above you'll be taken straight through to the relevant pre-order pages!

Obviously any shop in the UK can order it though, and Diamond UK have advised that should the orders be healthy there may be an opportunity for a relist in the main part of the catalogue, so fingers crossed.

Please can you badger your local comics shop to order copies - even better save yourself a few quid by ordering some yourself from Forbidden Planet - as it would be fabulous to see Time Bomb Comics on comic shop shelves all across the UK next February!

Dick Turpin Rides Again!

Time Bomb Comics is delighted to announce that their next release, Dick Turpin and the Crimson Plague, is being released internationally as well as in the UK.

Dick Turpin and the Crimson Plague is being launched at the Leeds Thoughtbubble weekend of the 19th & 20th November, where the creative team will be conducting a mid-day signing session at the Time Bomb Comics table on the Saturday afternoon. This year's Thoughtbubble looks to be a spectacular, mushrooming into a two hall, two day convention that seems to be now the definitive British comics event of the year. Certainly it's now the show we look forward to the most and are delighted to officially launching a book there for the first time this year. Steve Tanner will also be part of Thoughtbubble's Everything You Wanted To Know About Self Publishing panel that's taking place at 11.00am on Saturday morning hosted by Matthew Sheret, so hopefully will see some of you there!

One week later, Steve Tanner and Time Bomb Comics will be at the Malta Comic-Con taking place in Valletta, Malta over the weekend of 26th & 27th November to launch the book internationally. This is the first time we have ventured outside of the UK to be at a show so are looking forward to it immensely. Those lucky enough to have attended previous Malta shows have had a blast, and it's a great way to end our 2011 convention season!

The long-awaited follow-up to the critically acclaimed one-shot Dick Turpin and the Restless Dead, Dick Turpin and the Crimson Plague features the notorious highwayman up against a nest of vampires in 18th Century London. Once again written by Steve Tanner, this second horrors and highwaymen mash-up from the Birmingham based company features artwork from rising star Graeme Howard – who is currently drawing Cy Dethan’s Cancertown 2 for Markosia – and lettering by the talented Nikki Foxrobot.

Dick Turpin and the Crimson Plague also contains The Rogues Gallery featuring exclusive Dick Turpin artwork from Keith Page, Stuart Tipples, Simon Wyatt, Alex Thompson, Josceline Fenton and Glenn Jones.

It has also been confirmed that Dick Turpin and the Crimson Plague will be available to order in the December 2011 Diamond Previews Catalogue.

DICK TURPIN AND THE CRIMSON PLAGUE, 56 pages, Graphic Album, perfect bound, full colour cover, black and white interior, retail price £6.99/$11.99, ISBN 978-0-9561822-4-1

Keep an eye on the website too - our latest Dick Turpin romp will also be available to order through our online shop very soon!

Dick Turpin And The First Six Pages!

I'm delighted to be able to finally share the completed first six pages of Dick Turpin and the Crimson Plague with you. Some of artist Graeme Howard's inked pages were posted here a few months back without the lettering - but don't they look spectacular with the words?

For me, the moment when the lettering is added is when a page of sequential art becomes a page of comics. It's terrific then that we have the brilliant Nikki Foxrobot (yes, that is her real name!) on board to letter Dick Turpin's latest eagerly anticipated adventure. Nikki's steadily been building quite a reputation for her lettering skills - she's already one of Bluewater's regular letterers - and it's great to have her now bringing her talents to Time Bomb Comics. (This shouldn't be the last you'll see of Nikki around here either as she's already agreed to fulfill the lettering duties on our forthcoming western book The Last Ride Of Henry Holden!)

But enough from me - time to feast your eyes on these:

Spirit Of Hope

Britain's Comic Book Alliance will publish Spirit of Hope this month - a stunning-looking anthology featuring work by almost 100 comic creators in aid of survivors of the Tsunami and earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand which happened earlier this year.

The image above is the Jimmy Broxton cover, but a Mike Allred cover is also available and the list of creators involved is pretty phenomenal: Natalie Abadzis, Nick Abadzis, Adrian Bamforth, Jasper Bark, Donna Barr, Jordie Bellaire, Paul H Birch, Bolt-01, Dan Boultwood, Mark Buckingham, Jim Campbell, Richmond Clements, Jason Cobley, Simon Coleby, Mike Collins, Martin Conaghan, Gary Crutchley, Glenn Dakin, Al Davison, Brandon DeStefano, Benjamin Dickson, Martin Eden, Mats Engesten, Gary Erskine, Al Ewing, Glenn B Flemming, Emma Flint, Henry Flint, Leigh Gallagher, Matt Gibbs, Gary Gilbert, Alan Grant, Jon Haward, Peter Hogan, Kev Hopgood, Graeme Howard, Inko, Rich Johnston, Ant Jones, GM Jordan, Jessica Kemp, David Leach, Tony Lee, Nigel Lowrey, Ciaran Lucas, Paul McLaren, Gary Spencer Millidge, Michiru Morikawa, Alex Moore, Leonie O’Moore, Michiru Morkawa, Eva Perkins, Grant Perkins, Martyn Pick, Maria Pickering, David Pugh, James Reekie, Regan, Neil Roberts, Darick Roberston, John Robbins, John Ross, Declan Shalvey, Liam Sharp, Akiko Shimojima, Si Spencer, Vicky Stonebridge, Lew Stringer, Steve Tanner, Archie Templar, S Thompson, Geoffrey D. Wessel, Chris Western, Andrew Wildman, WJC, Ant Williams, Rob Williams, Sean Michael Wilson and Yel Zamor.

Copies of the book can be ordered in advance and will be £14.99 + £3.00 p&p. Anyone ordering should state their preference of cover, both will soon be available to be seen on the CBA website or Facebook page. Advance orders will be sent out and will hopefully include 3 small limited edition prints of the covers and an extra picture. The address is: The Comic Book Alliance, PO Box 165, Marple, Cheshire SK6 7BL. Cheques & Postal Orders should be made out to 'The Comic Book Alliance'

We saw the preview of the book at the MCM Expo last weekend and it's stunning, so do yourself a favour and those affected by the tragedy an even bigger one by buying a copy.

Henry Holden's Moseying Along...

The Last Ride Of Henry Holden was announced as a forthcoming one-shot early last year, written by Alex De-Gruchy with Giorgio Iannotti handling the pencils. The talented Mike Bunt has since come on board as the inker and the finished pages are now becoming a regular feature in my inbox!

A gritty oater that should appeal to any fans of modern takes on the classic Western genre such as DC's current Jonah Hex series and HBO's Deadwood, The Last Ride Of Henry Holden is now tentatively scheduled for release next year. In the meantime here's the first five pages to whet your appetites:

Aren't they fabulous? And believe me, having seen Giorgio's amazing pencils for the later pages the best is yet to come!

If you want to see more be sure to check out our Henry Holden preview booklet which I'm putting together that will be on the tables at any of Time Bomb's show appearances this year - the first of which is the Cardiff Comics Expo at the end of February!

Tom, Dick and Graeme

2011? Already? Doesn't time fly when you're having fun! Anyway, now that the tinsel has been reboxed and all the fireworks exploded to appreciative gasps, I'd like to introduce you to Graeme.

Graeme Howard is a comic book artist living in London England. He has worked as an illustrator for several books and national newspapers and storyboarded several music promos. After graduating in 3D character animation he worked in the games industry and on various childrens television productions. He lives with two dogs and a very understanding partner. He is also the newly appointed artist on our upcoming one-shot Dick Turpin and the Crimson Plague!

As you can see from the fabulous artwork above, Graeme is set to take the long-awaited sequel to Dick Turpin and the Restless Dead to dazzling new heights. The fact that the above illustration landed in my inbox just a few hours after Graeme agreed to the gig should tell you how fired up and enthused about the project he is, and I think Graeme's classic style suits our notorious highwayman to a "T"!

Below you can see his pencilled interpretations of Dick Turpin and Tom King. What struck me about these is that that they follow Andy Dodd's original look of both characters, yet at the same time puts Graeme's own stamp very firmly on them.

Oh, and it gets better. Graeme has already completed the artwork for page one - dripping with atmosphere, it completely nails the look of the period, and I can't wait to see the rest of his interpretation of the story! Don't take my word for it though, check it out for yourself:

So, what do you think?