British independent publisher Scar Comics recently launched a Kickstarter to publish Dead By Dawn, an exciting new creator-owned horror anthology. The project brings together some of the most respected professional comic creators, including The Walking Dead artist and co-creator, Charlie Adlard, Guardians of the Galaxy and Warhammer 40k Dan Abnett, Bulletproof Coffin writer David Hine and others, with cutting edge small press writers and artists, who will create ten original horror stories for the book.
“The idea behind the anthology, apart from telling great stories, is to not only give new creators a platform for their work,” says co-publisher and editor Shane Chebsey, “but also for seasoned professionals to tell the types of stories they may not previously had the opportunity to tell and really push themselves outside of their comfort zones.”
The only rule is that all of the short sharp shocker submitted are told within four pages – and must be original ideas. Pro writers are teamed up with up and coming artists and visa versa, with top creators paired with talent they may never have worked with before – and the results can be spectacular, says Shane.
“We had some beautiful pages sent in from DC artist Steve Pugh,” he notes, “and I thought it would be great if Daredevil and Preacher colourist Matt Hollingsworth did the colours.
“Working with this incredible set of creators is like a dream,” he continues. “When you have a script by exciting new indie writer like Benjamin Dickson being drawn by 2000AD artist Patrick Goddard, or a David Hine script being brought to life by Mark Stafford, you never know what will happen, but you have a sense that it’s going to be something special”.
Other creators involved in the project include Jimmy Broxton, David Hitchcock and the great great grandnephew of legendary Dracula novelist Bram Stoker, Dacre Stoker.
The full colour anthology is being planned as a 48-page prestige format book, priced at £8.00, although the Kickstarter includes an increase in page count to 68 pages, as one of its stretch goals, with a host of bonus material.
The Kickstarter also offers a selection cool extras to backers, including original artwork, sketch covers by the artists involved, T-Shirts, sketch cards and even VIP Convention tickets.
Scar Comics began from a telephone ideas jam between Shane Chebsey and Andy Richmond in 2004. Both creators love their comics, and both love self publishing. They had their own separate ongoing projects: Andy was a founder member of Dusk – an anthology of likeminded creators, and Shane had The Smallzone Distribution Service and various self publishing projects.
However, they both had their own great ideas, starting with the Dead By Dawn Quarterly, which was to invite all the most talented creators they knew, both small and big press, which even then, asked contributors to submit four-page horror stories, for a perfect-bound anthology.
The invitations were sent out, and before long, a huge interest was generated in the book. Everyone wanted to be part of this new talent fest, the final result was a wonderful collection of short stories from some of world’s most innovative artists.
With the book in progress, it was time to think up a publishing imprint, under which they could publish their collaborations – and Scar Comics, a simple combination of the two creator’s initials, S.C. and A.R., was born.
Now Andy and Shane are working hard to bring exciting creator owned comics and high quality publications to a readership that demands the best. And the sky is certainly not the limit!
• Visit the Scar Comics website at: www.scarcomics.wordpress.com | Facebook | Twitter
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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, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Comics, Creating Comics, Crowd Funding Projects, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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AWWW I love Patrick Goddards black and white stuff much prefer it to his coloured stuff.