Jack’s Abstraction is my first stab at making a hypercomic app for Android smartphones and pads. I built it in Flash via the wonders of Adobe Air and hopefully it’ll be the first of many more such experiments to come. Go to the Android Market for more details of the app, where you can also grab your copy gratis, free and for nothing. At some point there may be an iPhone/iPad version in the offing too, but first I’ll need to figure my way around Apple’s slightly less welcoming approach to app publishing.

For those keeping score, Jack’s Abstraction would be the first of the dark plots I hinted at last week. The next few revolve around what I’ll be up to at San Diego Comic Con in a month’s time.  Stay tuned for more news on that in the weeks to come.

Hi everybody! It’s been simply forever since I wrote a news post here, hasn’t it? So here’s one big post to bring you up to speed on stuff I’ve been up to since last November. In reverse chronological order and starting right now, the comic project I’ve been working on for Sony to promote their new videogame, inFamous 2 has just gone live. I was brought onboard by Margaret and John Doe to design the Flash interface for a series of comics written by the great Pat Mills and illustrated by a whole host of talented illustrators. Go take a look and be sure to check out the credits for the full list of everyone involved.

Next up is Comics Launchpad which I was at yesterday, delivering a talk on the new frontiers of digital comics. The talk went very well and the event as whole was a real eye-opener. Met a lot of new and interesting comics folk who I hope I’ll be seeing again somewhere soon around the scene. I also got lots of requests from people for a copy of the presentation that accompanied my talk – any interested parties I haven’t got back to yet should drop me a tweet and I’ll send on a copy of the pdf.

Turning the clock a little further back to April we have the release of Paper Science 4, for which I created a rather dark little tale entitled When She Sleeps. Copies should still be available for purchase via We Are Words + Pictures so do drop by for a copy if you haven’t picked one up already.

And lastly way, way back in December last year I was invited by the British Council to give a talk and presentation of my work to a visiting delegation of comics folk from the Strip Turnhout comics festival in Belgium. This was a great opportunity for me to get a window into the Belgian comics scene and should hopefully lead to another exciting project I can’t tell you about yet. But in the meantime if anyone’s interested, a full report of the delegation’s visit has been published here.

In between the above I have been busy learning ActionScript 3 and hatching various dark plots which will hopefully be coming to fruition over the course of the summer. Expect to hear a lot more on such matters soon.

Been doing some tidying up around E-merl today, including finally getting the new Consulting page up and running. It’s an area of my work I’ve wanted to draw a bit more attention to for a while now, so it’s good to finally have it out there. Anyone looking to engage my services as a Comics-Brain-For-Hire should hopefully now have a little more information to go on as to the kind of gigs I’ve tackled in the past.

Elsewhere on the site, I’ve also updated the Print Comics page so that you can all get your hands on my new mini-comic, Missing Pieces. The comic collects five of my harder to find short stories, plus a brand new tale entitled The Scorpion & The Bad Parable. Check out the full details here, then proceed directly to the relevant “Add To Cart” button to engage in acts of hearty consumption.

So hey, it’s Though Bubble today! Yay! We here at E-merl towers heartily approve of Thought Bubble and will be heading off to Leeds to share a table with the lovely Paul Fryer. There’ll be copies of the new Necessary Monsters trade to be had, plus a brand new mini comic called Missing Pieces that’ll be making its debut at the show. As if that wasn’t enough excitement, We Are Words + Pictures will be unveiling Paper Science 3, which has a new full-colour strip by me hidden somewhere within its papery depths. More Yay!

Elsewhere and elsewhen (um… in Hatfield on Thursday) I’m also contributing a new hypercomic installation piece to the Cells Symposium being held at the University of Hertfordshire. My piece is called Cells: War On Weird and you can view the web version right here at E-merl by clicking on either of the links in this sentence. Even more Yay!

The Archivist is now live on the web, with new updates to come for the Pop section throughout August and September. This is probably the most ambitious hypercomic project I’ve attempted since Sixgun back in 2001, so I’m pretty excited to finally see it out there. And of course this time the web is only the beginning – tonight The Archivist’s physical installation opens in London at the Pumphouse Gallery as part of Hypercomics: The Shape Of Comics To Come. The show runs until September 26th and I’ll be there in person for the opening tonight and as part of the Comica Comiket on Sunday 22nd August. See you all in Battersea!.

I’m currently hard at work on a new comic called The Archivist, which is my contribution to the Hypercomics exhibition taking place at The Pumphouse Gallery in Battersea Park. The show’s being curated by Paul Gravett and will feature hypercomic installations by myself, Adam Dant, Warren Pleece and Dave McKean. The show will be running from August 11th to Septhember 26th and you can get the full low down here and here.

This weekend I’ll be taking a brief break from my frantic scribbling to head into London and sell some comics. The London Film & Comic Con is taking place on the 17th and 18th July at Earl’s Court and you’ll be able to find me there, sharing a table with Sean Azzopardi. We’ll have a wide selection of fine comic products with us that we will be more than happy to offer to you in exchange for small (but perfectly formed) sums of cash money.

(Oh, and for those unable to attend, the new 100 Planets mini comic is also now available right here at E-merl via the wonders of PayPal. Consume!)

It’s sunny outside, the birds are singing in the trees and the London MCM Expo is almost upon us. This weekend I’ll be part of the Comics Village at MCM, sharing a table with my old pal and collaborator Sean Azzopardi. I’m going to have a brand new 100 Planets mini-comic for sale that features a whole bunch of strips that haven’t yet made it onto the web, plus the latest Rule Of Death mini for those that didn’t make it along to Uni Con. Surely there can’t be a better use of your bank holiday weekend than popping along to say hello? (Hint: there isn’t – see you there!)

This week my employers, The University Of Hertfordshire are dabbling their feet into the world of comics with Hertfordshire’s first full fledged comics festival, Uni Comics. Starting today and running until Sunday, there’s a veritable gaggle of events taking place and if you’re nearby (hint: if you live in London you’re more nearby than you think) I’d say it’s well worth popping along to a few of them.

As our own little contribution towards event, myself and Sean Azzopardi have organised Uni Con, the festival’s very own comics convention. Taking place this Saturday at the university’s de Havilland campus in Hatfield, the con is running from 10am to 5pm and will cost you the grand sum of zero English pounds to enter. The great and the good of the British comics scene will be on hand to sell their wares and shoot the breeze, plus the esteemed Mr. Noble has been drafted to organise a series of panel discussions that are sure to both enlighten and entertain. And what’s more, there’ll even be a brand new issue of The Rule Of Death on sale as a further incentive to attend – what further reason could you possibly need? See you all on Saturday!

So I think it’s time to make it official – Welcome ladies and gentlemen to E-merl 7.0! I know right now it may look a bit similar to the ol’ 6.0 design, but under the hood it’s an entirely different beast. Just one regular weekly webcomic series? Hell no! E-merl 7.0 is running three! Tune in on Mondays for the brand new 100 Planets, check us out on Wednesdays for the metafictional thrills of The Nile Journals and then pop back again every Friday for the latest episode of The Rule Of Death.

This new profundity of comics coolness was made possible by the excellent Webcomic suite for WordPress, which came via a recommendation from Jesus & Mo. It really leaves ComicPress in the dust in terms of functionality and ease of use – well worth a look if you’ve a webcomic site of your own to manage. I’m still banging around a bit behind the scenes so expect to see a few more changes and upgrades come online across the next few weeks. I might even give the old colour scheme a facelift if I can find a new one that takes my fancy – stay tuned!

Two quick bits of business! First up, as the not-so-subtle hints in this week’s strips have suggested, All Knowledge Is Strange is ending. I have a farewell sequence of strips planned so that a few of the regular cast members can get to say their goodbyes, but expect the series to wrap fully at some point in the next few weeks. Fear not though, gentle readers – you will not be without your usual dose of E-merl comics for very long. I have a brand new weekly series by the name of 100 Planets all prepped and ready to run in AKiS’s place. I’ve been quite touched by all the kind comments from regular readers expressing distress at the series’ conclusion – I hope you’ll all stick around and give 100 Planets a try. I can promise you it’ll be just as strange a trip, even if the giraffes will be singing in a slightly different key.

Secondly, I have at the last minute discovered that I am sharing a table with Douglas Noble at this year’s Web & Mini Comix Thing. That’s this Saturday 27th March in good old London town (Mile End, to be more specific). I imagine there shall be the usual small press shenanigans afoot and that those who enjoy such things would be well served by popping along to say hello. Were you to slip me a crisp £8 note during the event, I might even be persuaded to part with a personalised copy of my new, full colour Brain Fist trade paperback. See at least a few of you there, I hope!