There are a lot of great comic projects seeking crowdfunding support right now, so let’s try and give some British projects a bit of boost as their campaigns draw to a close…
Firstly, there’s UNIT 666 Volume 2 from Neil ‘Bhuna’ Roche and an amazing team of creatives, closing out this week, offering a great Weird World War Two graphic novel. What’s not to appeal, when the selling points are Nazi Zombies, Allied Trolls, the Naziferatu, Were-Creators and Alien Tech?
Book One was storm, and Book Two follows the Unit 666 crew as they push deeper into Nazi-occupied Europe at the spearhead of the Allied effort… so what can we expect?
We’ve had a sneak peek at some of the content for this second volume, and it looks terrific, even as it is now, in an early stage. All the stories are written by Noel K Hannan, with smashing art from Warwick Fraser-Coombe, Jeremy Dunn, Bill Storie, Gary O’Donnell, Mal Earl, Lyndon Webb and Chris Askham.
Offering 72 pages of comics, text and pin-ups, you can choose from a standard cover by Warwick Fraser-Coombe, or the variant by Alex Ronald. Add-ons include Book One, prints, commissions, original artwork and commissions. Check it out here.
Another fantastic-looking out there now is Sherlock Holmes And The Empire Builders: The Gene Genie from Joel Meadows and Andy Bennett, offering a fresh and clever new twist on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective. Moving the chronology forward into a chilling alternative timeline where fascists run Britain, creators also involved include Dan Panosian and Frazer Irving, providing variant covers, pin-ups from artists such as George Pratt, Tomm Coker and others, with unique character prints from Andy Bennett thrown in for free.
The project has won high praise from the likes of author Ian Rankin and Oscar winning director Guillermo Del Toro, who calls it “A darn good romp!” If you missed Book One, it’s available as an Add-On. This is an original Sherlock Holmes graphic novel with Holmes as people have never seen him before. Check it out here.
If independent anthologies are your thing, how about the latest issue of the long-running PARAGON from Dave Candlish? Dave has been publishing this title on a modest budget – and crowdfunding target – for several years now, and Issue 35 offers the usual mix of fun strips. The cover story sees British agent Spencer Nero doing what he does best – punching Nazis! – in “Spencer Nero and the Eins Zwei Book of Fascists” by the regular team of writer Greg Meldrum, artist Scott Twells and letterer Filippo Roncone, plus the 2010 webcomic Jikan and the Kappa Kings gets a well-deserved reprint, written by Matt McLaughlin, drawn by creator Dave Candlish and lettered by 2000AD droid Jim Campbell. And is all that isn’t enough for you, how about not one but two classic “BULLDOG” tales, written by Jason Cobley? Check it out here
This isn’t a British project, but British creators do feature: Retro Sci-Fi Tales #12 – Space Mummies + Cathy’s Clown, an Australian, 52-page anthology comic book project, the latest edition of the highly-acclaimed comic book series, continuing with six incredible new stories, and stunning art – and add-ons that offer background on John Higgins work on John Carpenter’s The Thing for Dark Horse in the 1990s, and much more.
Retro Sci-Fi Tales is published by Darren Koziol, creator and editor of DARK OZ comics, who’s been consistently producing high-quality comic books every year since 2010. It’s an ongoing series in the style of 2000AD and Heavy Metal, with full colour art, printed on glossy paper at large magazine size, containing all-new Amazing Stories, engaging characters and incredible art in every issue.
Talking of Heavy Metal, just like the Kickstarter for the new Metal Hurlant, the crowdfunder for the new US-based HM is doing very well, so I don’t think either project needs much hyping from me. Both projects have soared their way past target, each raising over $300,000.
Suffice to say, both look incredible, even if both relaunching at the same time seems a bit bizarre and publishers Humanoids, publishing Metal Hurlant, are clearly keen to put some distance between the two projects, judging by their campaign copy…
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics, Crowd Funding Projects, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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