Well look here if it isn't me and Iain Laurie's books, genuinely and legitimately available in Waterstones of Argyl Street Glasgow, and the Graphic Novels of the Month at that!
Showing posts with label Roachwell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roachwell. Show all posts
Lurching Toward Legitimacy...!
It's possible but unlikely that you might have seen my ill-conceived prank in which my "successful line of children's adventure fiction Foes Forever" was presented on the shelves of Waterstones...
Well look here if it isn't me and Iain Laurie's books, genuinely and legitimately available in Waterstones of Argyl Street Glasgow, and the Graphic Novels of the Month at that!
A sincere thanks to Waterstones for having our work in store, and for the generous feature spot!
Well look here if it isn't me and Iain Laurie's books, genuinely and legitimately available in Waterstones of Argyl Street Glasgow, and the Graphic Novels of the Month at that!
2013 Round Up
Now that 2013 is winding up it's time for a wee retrospective. Something to look over what I've done and failed to do, something to appreciate some of the unexpected opportunities that have come my way and consolidate some plans for the year ahead.
This year I brought out two new comics, both in collaboration with the mighty Iain Laurie, and rather unusual beasts they were.
First up was Metrodome. Metrodome was a long and involved process at every stage, partly due to the unconventional nature of our collaboration on it and partly due to the extremely detailed task it proved to be to collate and finalise, and it seemed to take forever to bring to completion. So it was a challenge to complete and a relief to finally put it out into the world! I'm pleased to say it's been very well received, broadly speaking the reviews have been great and I've had all sorts of excited feedback from friends and other small press colleagues, so I reckon in the end me we be pretty pleased with this unruly book. There's a little something extra for Metrodome to come, so look out in early 2014.
About a month later I released Crawl Hole, the spiritual cousin to Roachwell and a collection of various experimental surreal horror strips from across the years. These strips in this collected format had been my plan for a few years, and while it's a strip or two slimmer than I'd planned, it's great to have this out there and finally feel that this part of my work is brought to a kind of conclusion. It seems to have gone down very well, and I'm particularly proud of this book. While I expect I'll do work of a similar sort in future, this feels like the Roachwell / Crawl Hole axis of evil brought to a solid close.
This year was also a bit of an achievement in that I finally got into the frenetic world of selling my comics at conventions and events. I had a little warm up in selling Metrodome at the Glasgow Comic Con, where John Lees kindly invited me to perch on his table. But the first major event on my own was the excellent Stripped Fest as part of the Edinburgh Book Festival.
Something unexpected that came alongside Stripped, and I've no idea how this came about, is that I was invited to take part in a special 'comics edition' of the famed Literary Death Match, with none other than Neil Gaiman as a judge. I've written about it in detail here, but needless to say it was a nerve-wracking and extraordinary experience that was hugely enjoyable and just great to be involved in. Certainly the coolest thing that happened to me, comics wise, for the year.
Stripped itself was a really enjoyable show in a truly lovely set of halls. We were all ridiculously well looked after by the Book Festival and its staff, and it was a great first foray into the world of selling at conventions.
Following that - MCM Glasgow. None of us really knew what to expect of it, but we did not expect the astounding attendance that resulted. I had an excellent day, selling comics and chatting with cool folks and admiring the brilliant costumes going on. I have to say that I was hugely impressed by the crowd, despite a three-odd hour wait in intermittent rain the positivity and good humour on show was really something. Plus I met this guy:
Lastly the mighty Thought Bubble. It was quite an experience, as was my Sunday hangover. All in all I had a great time, I sold better than I expected to, and had the opportunity to finally meet in person lots of friends I know from being in anthologies with, Twitter, Facebook and all. And the huge variety and quality of work on offer was simply fantastic. I suppose the scale of the event is, for an exhibitor, both a positive and a negative. In that there's very little time to get away from your table and in that time, there's so many people's work to look into and events and talks on, it's impossible to make much of a dent in what you'd like to see. Similarly I wonder, with the number of exhibitors, can it be possible that enough punters come in the door with enough money to not send many an exhibitor home short of breaking even? But all that's for wider discussion, and it was a great weekend.
Rounding out the year nicely, I was asked to do a reading for the recent inaugural event for a new Scottish outfit the Speculative Bookshop. Myself and four other local writers discussed our work and did readings, for my part I discussed Roachwell, it's conception and some of the ideas therein, and the wider freedoms and limitations of small press comics, then finished with a spoken word version of a Roachwell strip that never was. The highlight of the night was Stephen Goodall's excellent and dread-inducing reading that linked to his Institute for Marine Research Comic. Do check that out! Kudos to Jen and Dale for running a great event with enthusiasm and professionalism, keep an eye on those guys.
So despite not feeling so, it's been a pretty productive year and I've been able to do some pretty cool things. And with those two long-gestating comics out now, the cupboards are bare. So I'm looking forward to the year ahead, and hoping between my young family and compressed working week I can find a little more time a little more regularly. I've got two (or maybe three, if there's an appetite for Haunted Bowels: Volume II) projects at various stages, all of which will be longer and more substantial undertakings. You may even see me flirt with crazy notions such as character and plot...!
Lastly I'd like to thank my collaborators over the years, in particular Iain, and the various reviewers for the time and effort they put into critical assessment of small press work, and the various friends and colleagues who've read and been supportive of my comics. Thanks all!
This year I brought out two new comics, both in collaboration with the mighty Iain Laurie, and rather unusual beasts they were.
First up was Metrodome. Metrodome was a long and involved process at every stage, partly due to the unconventional nature of our collaboration on it and partly due to the extremely detailed task it proved to be to collate and finalise, and it seemed to take forever to bring to completion. So it was a challenge to complete and a relief to finally put it out into the world! I'm pleased to say it's been very well received, broadly speaking the reviews have been great and I've had all sorts of excited feedback from friends and other small press colleagues, so I reckon in the end me we be pretty pleased with this unruly book. There's a little something extra for Metrodome to come, so look out in early 2014.
About a month later I released Crawl Hole, the spiritual cousin to Roachwell and a collection of various experimental surreal horror strips from across the years. These strips in this collected format had been my plan for a few years, and while it's a strip or two slimmer than I'd planned, it's great to have this out there and finally feel that this part of my work is brought to a kind of conclusion. It seems to have gone down very well, and I'm particularly proud of this book. While I expect I'll do work of a similar sort in future, this feels like the Roachwell / Crawl Hole axis of evil brought to a solid close.
This year was also a bit of an achievement in that I finally got into the frenetic world of selling my comics at conventions and events. I had a little warm up in selling Metrodome at the Glasgow Comic Con, where John Lees kindly invited me to perch on his table. But the first major event on my own was the excellent Stripped Fest as part of the Edinburgh Book Festival.
Something unexpected that came alongside Stripped, and I've no idea how this came about, is that I was invited to take part in a special 'comics edition' of the famed Literary Death Match, with none other than Neil Gaiman as a judge. I've written about it in detail here, but needless to say it was a nerve-wracking and extraordinary experience that was hugely enjoyable and just great to be involved in. Certainly the coolest thing that happened to me, comics wise, for the year.
Stripped itself was a really enjoyable show in a truly lovely set of halls. We were all ridiculously well looked after by the Book Festival and its staff, and it was a great first foray into the world of selling at conventions.
Following that - MCM Glasgow. None of us really knew what to expect of it, but we did not expect the astounding attendance that resulted. I had an excellent day, selling comics and chatting with cool folks and admiring the brilliant costumes going on. I have to say that I was hugely impressed by the crowd, despite a three-odd hour wait in intermittent rain the positivity and good humour on show was really something. Plus I met this guy:
Lastly the mighty Thought Bubble. It was quite an experience, as was my Sunday hangover. All in all I had a great time, I sold better than I expected to, and had the opportunity to finally meet in person lots of friends I know from being in anthologies with, Twitter, Facebook and all. And the huge variety and quality of work on offer was simply fantastic. I suppose the scale of the event is, for an exhibitor, both a positive and a negative. In that there's very little time to get away from your table and in that time, there's so many people's work to look into and events and talks on, it's impossible to make much of a dent in what you'd like to see. Similarly I wonder, with the number of exhibitors, can it be possible that enough punters come in the door with enough money to not send many an exhibitor home short of breaking even? But all that's for wider discussion, and it was a great weekend.
Rounding out the year nicely, I was asked to do a reading for the recent inaugural event for a new Scottish outfit the Speculative Bookshop. Myself and four other local writers discussed our work and did readings, for my part I discussed Roachwell, it's conception and some of the ideas therein, and the wider freedoms and limitations of small press comics, then finished with a spoken word version of a Roachwell strip that never was. The highlight of the night was Stephen Goodall's excellent and dread-inducing reading that linked to his Institute for Marine Research Comic. Do check that out! Kudos to Jen and Dale for running a great event with enthusiasm and professionalism, keep an eye on those guys.
So despite not feeling so, it's been a pretty productive year and I've been able to do some pretty cool things. And with those two long-gestating comics out now, the cupboards are bare. So I'm looking forward to the year ahead, and hoping between my young family and compressed working week I can find a little more time a little more regularly. I've got two (or maybe three, if there's an appetite for Haunted Bowels: Volume II) projects at various stages, all of which will be longer and more substantial undertakings. You may even see me flirt with crazy notions such as character and plot...!
Lastly I'd like to thank my collaborators over the years, in particular Iain, and the various reviewers for the time and effort they put into critical assessment of small press work, and the various friends and colleagues who've read and been supportive of my comics. Thanks all!
Speculative Bookshop Event
Hey hey - I'll be at the inaugural event for the Speculative Bookshop this Sunday 1st December, at The Old Hairdresser's in Glasgow. Check out this ace poster by Julian Dicken!
I'll be doing something of a talk on me and Iain Laurie's Roachwell, followed by an attempt at a prose reading adapted from the mysterious script for a Roachwell that never was....
There's also the undoubtedly excellent talents of Douglas Thompson, Alexander Abraham and Hal Duncan, and fellow comic maker Stephen Goodall of the fantastic Institute For Marine Research (that's me pictured on the left, and Stephen on the right) as well as a range of local distros and bookmakers.
A massive thanks to Jen and Dale for inviting me to be involved. Come along to see me crash and burn then enjoy the lovely beers available in the Old Hairdressers!
I'll be doing something of a talk on me and Iain Laurie's Roachwell, followed by an attempt at a prose reading adapted from the mysterious script for a Roachwell that never was....
There's also the undoubtedly excellent talents of Douglas Thompson, Alexander Abraham and Hal Duncan, and fellow comic maker Stephen Goodall of the fantastic Institute For Marine Research (that's me pictured on the left, and Stephen on the right) as well as a range of local distros and bookmakers.
A massive thanks to Jen and Dale for inviting me to be involved. Come along to see me crash and burn then enjoy the lovely beers available in the Old Hairdressers!
Scottish MCM Comic Con: Beyond The Wall
I'm very excited to be at this weekend's first ever Scottish MCM Comic Con (7th September) in the frozen wasteland of the SECC, tabling my comics in the Comics Village along with a massive but undisciplined warband of talented indie creators! It looks to be a very busy exhibition with a great deal going on, and for a pretty cheap entry too...
Here's a wee round up of the books I'll be selling - do drop Table C11 by and check them out, say hello and have a chat. Note that Metrodome cosplay is actively encouraged!
Metrodome: by me and Iain Laurie. Drawn from The Metro like poison from a wound, Eight Contenders in The Fight for Survival, The Battle for Ultimate Victory! An experimental production in creation, destruction and survival, in a comic created from a single edition of the free UK newspaper The Metro. Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released July 2013 (£3.00).
"The characters emerge fully formed from the deepest, darkest depths of the magnificently poisonous headspaces of Collins and Laurie... If you like your comics unsettling, in-yer-face and gratuitously grotesque then you can’t go wrong with the wicked and wily wit of these guys." Broken Frontier.
Haunted Bowels: A collection of small press comedy comics - gruesome gags and oddball humour, surreal comedy and morbid light entertainment. Omniscient beings, strange cowboys, troubled poets and unruly spectres and much more await within...!
Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2012 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released June 2012 (£3.00).Chocked to the gills with comics and featuring art by a multiuide of fine comics artists from Scotland and beyond.
"Yep, funny and surreal, dark, gruesome fun inside with a series of wildly different art styles..." Forbidden Planet.
"In the strips that make up Haunted Bowels, Collins combines clever bad taste humour with perceptive pop cultural parody... ruthless satirical swagger" Broken Frontier.
"That dichotomy between wry observational humour and outright bad taste lies at the heart of Collins’ best work... Collins’ love of horror elevates his comics to the extent that I suspect we’re only getting a glimpse of what he’s be capable of on a more sustained project" Starburst Magazine.
Roachwell: A surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Sized A5, 28 pages Black and White with colour cover, collected June 2011 (£3.00). Featured in Indie anthologies Hive 4 and 5 and New British Comics #2. Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2011 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
"It’s a clever, solid, surreal and funny comic – and at its end, it manages all four in one strip." - Forbidden Planet.
"This is exquisitely macabre material drenched in a flawless cynicism; wonderfully and self-indulgently morbid in its delivery, it is gruesomely entertaining fare" Broken Frontier.
"...refreshingly weird, effortlessly funny and at times just plain psychotic... Funny, frightening and a world unto itself..." - Comic Heroes.
"...an interesting meld between Collins' absurd blackout gags and Laurie's intensely hatched and grotesque character work". Rob Clough's The High-Low.
Crawl Hole: A collection of surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Trilingual comics, relationships past and the terrors of the Vengabus await... Sized A5, 16 pages Black and White with colour cover, released August 2013 (£2.50). Includes work featured in Indie anthologies New British Comics (UK), Top Shelf Online (USA), Lazer Art-Zine (Belgium) and Yuck (Australia).
"As usual with these gents, gore, violence and a twisted sense of humour is real high in the mix... All in all, this one is slight, but manages to do the important thing; it’s satisfying, with ideas that make the sum of the experience far greater than the page-count". Forbidden Planet.
Forbidden Planet - Roachwell / Crawl Hole cover spotlight.
Of course, if you fancy any of these but are nowhere near Glasgow you can head over to my Big Cartel Shop. You, yes YOU, could be the guy who pulls a gun because we're no longer serving the breakfast menu!
Here's a wee round up of the books I'll be selling - do drop Table C11 by and check them out, say hello and have a chat. Note that Metrodome cosplay is actively encouraged!
Metrodome: by me and Iain Laurie. Drawn from The Metro like poison from a wound, Eight Contenders in The Fight for Survival, The Battle for Ultimate Victory! An experimental production in creation, destruction and survival, in a comic created from a single edition of the free UK newspaper The Metro. Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released July 2013 (£3.00).
"The characters emerge fully formed from the deepest, darkest depths of the magnificently poisonous headspaces of Collins and Laurie... If you like your comics unsettling, in-yer-face and gratuitously grotesque then you can’t go wrong with the wicked and wily wit of these guys." Broken Frontier.
Haunted Bowels: A collection of small press comedy comics - gruesome gags and oddball humour, surreal comedy and morbid light entertainment. Omniscient beings, strange cowboys, troubled poets and unruly spectres and much more await within...!
Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2012 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released June 2012 (£3.00).Chocked to the gills with comics and featuring art by a multiuide of fine comics artists from Scotland and beyond.
"Yep, funny and surreal, dark, gruesome fun inside with a series of wildly different art styles..." Forbidden Planet.
"In the strips that make up Haunted Bowels, Collins combines clever bad taste humour with perceptive pop cultural parody... ruthless satirical swagger" Broken Frontier.
"That dichotomy between wry observational humour and outright bad taste lies at the heart of Collins’ best work... Collins’ love of horror elevates his comics to the extent that I suspect we’re only getting a glimpse of what he’s be capable of on a more sustained project" Starburst Magazine.
Roachwell: A surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Sized A5, 28 pages Black and White with colour cover, collected June 2011 (£3.00). Featured in Indie anthologies Hive 4 and 5 and New British Comics #2. Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2011 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
"It’s a clever, solid, surreal and funny comic – and at its end, it manages all four in one strip." - Forbidden Planet.
"This is exquisitely macabre material drenched in a flawless cynicism; wonderfully and self-indulgently morbid in its delivery, it is gruesomely entertaining fare" Broken Frontier.
"...refreshingly weird, effortlessly funny and at times just plain psychotic... Funny, frightening and a world unto itself..." - Comic Heroes.
"...an interesting meld between Collins' absurd blackout gags and Laurie's intensely hatched and grotesque character work". Rob Clough's The High-Low.
Crawl Hole: A collection of surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Trilingual comics, relationships past and the terrors of the Vengabus await... Sized A5, 16 pages Black and White with colour cover, released August 2013 (£2.50). Includes work featured in Indie anthologies New British Comics (UK), Top Shelf Online (USA), Lazer Art-Zine (Belgium) and Yuck (Australia).
"As usual with these gents, gore, violence and a twisted sense of humour is real high in the mix... All in all, this one is slight, but manages to do the important thing; it’s satisfying, with ideas that make the sum of the experience far greater than the page-count". Forbidden Planet.
Forbidden Planet - Roachwell / Crawl Hole cover spotlight.
Of course, if you fancy any of these but are nowhere near Glasgow you can head over to my Big Cartel Shop. You, yes YOU, could be the guy who pulls a gun because we're no longer serving the breakfast menu!
Stripped to the bone...
I'm very excited to be exhibiting at this weekend's Stripped Mini Comic Fair, part of the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, and here's a wee roundup of the books available at my table...
Metrodome: by me and Iain Laurie. Drawn from The Metro like poison from a wound, Eight Contenders in The Fight for Survival, The Battle for Ultimate Victory! An experimental production in creation, destruction and survival, in a
comic created from a single edition of the free UK newspaper The Metro. Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released July 2013 (£3.00).
"The characters emerge fully formed from the deepest, darkest depths of the magnificently poisonous headspaces of Collins and Laurie... If you like your comics unsettling, in-yer-face and gratuitously grotesque then you can’t go wrong with the wicked and wily wit of these guys." Broken Frontier.
Haunted Bowels: A collection of small press comedy comics - gruesome gags and oddball humour, surreal comedy and morbid light entertainment. Omniscient beings, strange cowboys, troubled poets and unruly spectres and much more await within...!
Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2012 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released June 2012 (£3.00).Chocked to the gills with comics and featuring art by a multiuide of fine comics artists from Scotland and beyond.
"Yep, funny and surreal, dark, gruesome fun inside with a series of wildly different art styles..." Forbidden Planet.
"In the strips that make up Haunted Bowels, Collins combines clever bad taste humour with perceptive pop cultural parody... ruthless satirical swagger" Broken Frontier.
"That dichotomy between wry observational humour and outright bad taste lies at the heart of Collins’ best work... Collins’ love of horror elevates his comics to the extent that I suspect we’re only getting a glimpse of what he’s be capable of on a more sustained project" Starburst Magazine.
Roachwell: A surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Sized A5, 28 pages Black and White with colour cover, collected June 2011 (£3.00). Featured in Indie anthologies Hive 4 and 5 and New British Comics #2. Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2011 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
"It’s a clever, solid, surreal and funny comic – and at its end, it manages all four in one strip." - Forbidden Planet.
"This is exquisitely macabre material drenched in a flawless cynicism; wonderfully and self-indulgently morbid in its delivery, it is gruesomely entertaining fare" Broken Frontier.
"...refreshingly weird, effortlessly funny and at times just plain psychotic... Funny, frightening and a world unto itself..." - Comic Heroes.
"...an interesting meld between Collins' absurd blackout gags and Laurie's intensely hatched and grotesque character work". Rob Clough's The High-Low.
Crawl Hole: A collection of surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Trilingual comics, relationships past and the terrors of the Vengabus await... Sized A5, 16 pages Black and White with colour cover, released August 2013 (£2.50). Includes work featured in Indie anthologies New British Comics (UK), Top Shelf Online (USA), Lazer Art-Zine (Belgium) and Yuck (Australia).
"As usual with these gents, gore, violence and a twisted sense of humour is real high in the mix... All in all, this one is slight, but manages to do the important thing; it’s satisfying, with ideas that make the sum of the experience far greater than the page-count". Forbidden Planet.
Forbidden Planet - Roachwell / Crawl Hole cover spotlight.
Of course, if you fancy any of these but are nowhere near Edinburgh you can head over to my Big Cartel Shop. You, yes YOU, could be that little kid who shoots Omar when he's in for a packet of smokes!
Exhaustive Self-Promotional Götterdammerung over! It's an honour to be a part of this and the inaugural Stripped festival, and I hope both Stripped and the fair have many healthy years to come. If you're seeing other events at Stripped this weekend or in Edinburgh, come by and say hello and check out the wealth and diversity of talent that will be on show at the Mini Comic Fair.
"The characters emerge fully formed from the deepest, darkest depths of the magnificently poisonous headspaces of Collins and Laurie... If you like your comics unsettling, in-yer-face and gratuitously grotesque then you can’t go wrong with the wicked and wily wit of these guys." Broken Frontier.
Haunted Bowels: A collection of small press comedy comics - gruesome gags and oddball humour, surreal comedy and morbid light entertainment. Omniscient beings, strange cowboys, troubled poets and unruly spectres and much more await within...!
Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2012 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released June 2012 (£3.00).Chocked to the gills with comics and featuring art by a multiuide of fine comics artists from Scotland and beyond.
"Yep, funny and surreal, dark, gruesome fun inside with a series of wildly different art styles..." Forbidden Planet.
"In the strips that make up Haunted Bowels, Collins combines clever bad taste humour with perceptive pop cultural parody... ruthless satirical swagger" Broken Frontier.
"That dichotomy between wry observational humour and outright bad taste lies at the heart of Collins’ best work... Collins’ love of horror elevates his comics to the extent that I suspect we’re only getting a glimpse of what he’s be capable of on a more sustained project" Starburst Magazine.
Roachwell: A surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Sized A5, 28 pages Black and White with colour cover, collected June 2011 (£3.00). Featured in Indie anthologies Hive 4 and 5 and New British Comics #2. Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2011 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
"It’s a clever, solid, surreal and funny comic – and at its end, it manages all four in one strip." - Forbidden Planet.
"This is exquisitely macabre material drenched in a flawless cynicism; wonderfully and self-indulgently morbid in its delivery, it is gruesomely entertaining fare" Broken Frontier.
"...refreshingly weird, effortlessly funny and at times just plain psychotic... Funny, frightening and a world unto itself..." - Comic Heroes.
"...an interesting meld between Collins' absurd blackout gags and Laurie's intensely hatched and grotesque character work". Rob Clough's The High-Low.
Crawl Hole: A collection of surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Trilingual comics, relationships past and the terrors of the Vengabus await... Sized A5, 16 pages Black and White with colour cover, released August 2013 (£2.50). Includes work featured in Indie anthologies New British Comics (UK), Top Shelf Online (USA), Lazer Art-Zine (Belgium) and Yuck (Australia).
"As usual with these gents, gore, violence and a twisted sense of humour is real high in the mix... All in all, this one is slight, but manages to do the important thing; it’s satisfying, with ideas that make the sum of the experience far greater than the page-count". Forbidden Planet.
Forbidden Planet - Roachwell / Crawl Hole cover spotlight.
Of course, if you fancy any of these but are nowhere near Edinburgh you can head over to my Big Cartel Shop. You, yes YOU, could be that little kid who shoots Omar when he's in for a packet of smokes!
Exhaustive Self-Promotional Götterdammerung over! It's an honour to be a part of this and the inaugural Stripped festival, and I hope both Stripped and the fair have many healthy years to come. If you're seeing other events at Stripped this weekend or in Edinburgh, come by and say hello and check out the wealth and diversity of talent that will be on show at the Mini Comic Fair.
Featuring all these cool and talented folks!
Enter The Crawl Hole....!
Crawl Hole: a new comic by me and Iain Laurie, and the spiritual cousin of sorts to Roachwell....
Sensationally bloody colouring job on the cover by Derek Dow.
Crawl Hole is a collection of short surreal comedic horror strips, some of which you may have seen here and others that are completely new. Includes work featured in New British Comics (UK), Top Shelf Online (USA), Lazer Art Zine (Belgium) and Yuck! magazine (Australia).
A 16pg A5 comic, colour cover black and white comic. £2.50 plus p&p. Available now!
Summer to Autumn 2013: Campaign of Terror!
This year I'm finally diving headlong into the abyss, and starting to table my comics at events. Exciting times!
Later this suummer I'll be at the Edinburgh International Book Festival's Stripped Comic Book Fest, taking part in the Mini Comic Fair on the 24th-25th of August in Edinburgh's Charlotte Square:
There's a wealth of Scottish comics talent exhibiting and entry is free, so do drop by...
Next up, I'll be exhibiting at the first ever Scottish MCM Expo, on the 7th of September in the Comics Village. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that Metrodome Cosplay is actively encouraged...
And finally, the largest and frankly most intimidating of them all: Thought Bubble!
You can find me in exhibiting in the New Dock Hall on the 23-24th of November, along with this vast horde of slavering ravenous comicsters... Look for the my exhibitor icon!:
I'll be selling Roachwell, Metrodome and Haunted Bowels at all of these events, and possibly a sneaky something else... Or alternatively, Glasgow pals can get all of these comics at Plan B Books, Forbidden Planet Glasgow and Geek Retreat, or anyone in the whole goddamn world can stop by my Big Cartel Shop.
Hope to see you there!
Later this suummer I'll be at the Edinburgh International Book Festival's Stripped Comic Book Fest, taking part in the Mini Comic Fair on the 24th-25th of August in Edinburgh's Charlotte Square:
Next up, I'll be exhibiting at the first ever Scottish MCM Expo, on the 7th of September in the Comics Village. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that Metrodome Cosplay is actively encouraged...
And finally, the largest and frankly most intimidating of them all: Thought Bubble!
You can find me in exhibiting in the New Dock Hall on the 23-24th of November, along with this vast horde of slavering ravenous comicsters... Look for the my exhibitor icon!:
Hope to see you there!
Roachwell in Comic Heroes
If Roachwell in a magazine with Spider-Man on the cover suggests you're finally getting the crossover you dreamed of, well you'll just have to placate yourself with this next best thing...
However, Roachwell did get a rather good wee review as part of a small press round-up in Comic Heroes #9, which is a real life tangible magazine you can find on the actual shelves of Tesco and such. According to the good folks at Comic Heroes Roachwell is "...refreshingly weird, effortlessly funny and at times just plain psychotic..." and "Funny, frightening and a world unto itself..."
It's not online, so you'll just have to take my goddamn word for it. Thanks indeed to Rob Power for both the review and extending support to small press comic creators at wide!
February 2012 Update Excitement : Screw my "goddamn word for it", here it is online now!
However, Roachwell did get a rather good wee review as part of a small press round-up in Comic Heroes #9, which is a real life tangible magazine you can find on the actual shelves of Tesco and such. According to the good folks at Comic Heroes Roachwell is "...refreshingly weird, effortlessly funny and at times just plain psychotic..." and "Funny, frightening and a world unto itself..."
It's not online, so you'll just have to take my goddamn word for it. Thanks indeed to Rob Power for both the review and extending support to small press comic creators at wide!
February 2012 Update Excitement : Screw my "goddamn word for it", here it is online now!
A Bloodbath of Hideous Self-Promotion
It's a fearsome feast of raw reviewage here of late, with a cool wee review from The List coming in that declares Roachwell "...does run the gamut from laugh-out loud funny to quite disturbing to totally incomprehensible, which may just be an achievement in itself". Thanks!
Here's us stinking up the place next to 'The Wire' writer George Pelecanos. Sorry George!
Rambunctious Roachwell Reviews
The train-wreck that is Roachwell comes to a shuddering halt with an agonised scream of twisting metal and a conflagration of good reviews!
Over on the Forbidden Planet Blog "It’s a clever, solid, surreal and funny comic – and at its end, it manages all four in one strip". While over at Rob Clough's High-Low, Roachwell "...is an interesting meld between Collins' absurd blackout gags and Laurie's intensely hatched and grotesque character work".
Thanks very much to FP and Rob! Now I should probably post some comics next, rather than this gratuitous self-promotional mudbath.
Over on the Forbidden Planet Blog "It’s a clever, solid, surreal and funny comic – and at its end, it manages all four in one strip". While over at Rob Clough's High-Low, Roachwell "...is an interesting meld between Collins' absurd blackout gags and Laurie's intensely hatched and grotesque character work".
Thanks very much to FP and Rob! Now I should probably post some comics next, rather than this gratuitous self-promotional mudbath.
Don't Make Me Run - I'm Full of Geek Chocolate!
Over at Geek Chocolate, Roachwell has received a beamingly positive review. It's "a body of work that will challenge you, that asks you to actively participate and, God forbid, think for yourself" and thanks to us "the comic world is a slightly scarier, weirder, stranger, but above all, better, place".
I'm flattered indeed - thanks Geeks! Read the full review here.
Meanwhile, behind the façade of this innocent-looking comics-blog... we've also had a kindly nod from the industrious Colin Bell in his 30 days of Comics over on Bloggerin' Time.
Colin describes Roachwell as "uncompromisingly surreal horror comic, which alternates between the terrifying and the hilarious" and erroneously calls us "amiable chaps". Thanks very much - though I think you meant to say "contemptible shit-heads". Read more here...
I'm flattered indeed - thanks Geeks! Read the full review here.
Meanwhile, behind the façade of this innocent-looking comics-blog... we've also had a kindly nod from the industrious Colin Bell in his 30 days of Comics over on Bloggerin' Time.
Colin describes Roachwell as "uncompromisingly surreal horror comic, which alternates between the terrifying and the hilarious" and erroneously calls us "amiable chaps". Thanks very much - though I think you meant to say "contemptible shit-heads". Read more here...
Strange Kids Like Roachwell!
There's a great wee review of Roachwell over at the always awesome Strange Kids Club, in which it's described as an "oddly intellectual narrative" and a "welcome mindf*ck from the banality of everyday life". Take that, everyday life!
You can head on over to my Esty and pick up a copy if you fancy. Many thanks to Rondal for the kind words, and go check out Strange Kids Club where there's an abundance of weird and fun things going on.
Roachwell nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer.
I'm very pleased to announce that Roachwell has been nominated for the Best Comic Award at the Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards, hosted at the Glasgow Comic Con on June 18th.
On top of that, to my surprise I was also nominated for the Best Writer category!
Luckily I'll be receiving a short print run of Roachwell just in time to supply to the Comic Con reading room that's set up for the week prior to the event. So now's a good time to reveal the cover, by Iain Laurie and coloured by the very talented Derek Dow. Yeech!
Best Writer
Craig Collins - Roachwell / Martin Conaghan - Burke and Hare / Gill Hatcher and Adam Smith - Go Wildlife! / John Lees - The Standard / Curt Sibling - King Evil
Best Artist
James Devlin - Dark Ascension: Confession / Will Pickering - Burke and Hare / Alex Ronald - Vampire Vixens / Curt Sibling - King Evil / Stevie White - Milk+
Best Comic Book or Graphic Novel
Burke and Hare / Dougie's War / Ganjaman Presents / Go Wildlife! / King Evil / Milk+ / Roachwell / The Standard / Team Girl Comic / Wasted
Update! Roachwell, printed at last:
Update! Roachwell, printed at last:
Roachwell vs. The Goon!
A friend of mine was at Portland's Stumptown Comics Festival recently, where he met the very talented Eric Powell of The Goon fame.
While getting this smashing Goon sketch for me, he passed Eric one of my little Roachwell minicomics, which apparently Eric was already familiar with and thinks is cool. Which is pretty amazingly cool for me...!
I've been a massive fan of The Goon for years, back to when Eric self-published it under Exploding Albatross Funnybooks, and recommend it to anyone who's listening and many who are not. So getting this lovely sketch was a genuine Knife To The Eye of excitement for me. Thanks Eric!
While getting this smashing Goon sketch for me, he passed Eric one of my little Roachwell minicomics, which apparently Eric was already familiar with and thinks is cool. Which is pretty amazingly cool for me...!
Hive 5 Is Upon Us!
Indeed - Hive 5 is upon us!
Another edition of the top quality indie comics anthology from Jordan Shiveley's Grimalkin Press is out soon and is available to pre-order here!
And you'd do well to pre-order it too, you filthy dogs! Not just because there's some Roachwell therein - but because with contributors including Joe Decie, Lord Hurk, Chris Mostyn, Box Brown, David Ziggy Greene, Andrew Waugh, Jess Smart Smiley and many more, it promises to be a veritable Royal Rumble of comics ruckus wrapped in a lovely screenprint cover. So get to it!
Another edition of the top quality indie comics anthology from Jordan Shiveley's Grimalkin Press is out soon and is available to pre-order here!
And you'd do well to pre-order it too, you filthy dogs! Not just because there's some Roachwell therein - but because with contributors including Joe Decie, Lord Hurk, Chris Mostyn, Box Brown, David Ziggy Greene, Andrew Waugh, Jess Smart Smiley and many more, it promises to be a veritable Royal Rumble of comics ruckus wrapped in a lovely screenprint cover. So get to it!
OooooOOOOooooH!
UuuuUUUuuurrRRGggh!
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