Usually around this time I’d be busy making preparations for my annual pilgrimage to San Diego but this year things are going to be a little different, as later today I’ll be heading off to South Korea instead. The organisers of the Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival have invited me across to present a retrospective of my experimental webcomic and hypercomic work as part of this year’s festival. My contribution to proceedings will include an exhibition of thirteen specially translated hypercomics and an accompanying talk given as part of the digital comics conference being held at SICAF.

I’ve wanted to return to my old experimental webcomic stomping grounds for a while now, and the invite to SICAF has finally given me a decent excuse to do so. My renewed musings on the possibilities of the digital comics form resulted eventually in the creation of a brand new hypercomic – a rather odd little thing called Four Derangements. Follow the link and take a look-see for yourself or, if you happen to be passing Soeul next week, stop by SICAF for an exclusive read of the Korean version.

This Saturday I’ve been invited to talk on a couple of panels at Sci-Fi London. The first is on Comics as Sci-Fi Literature and the second is about Robots & Reality. I confess to having little clue as to what exactly qualifies me to talk on either subject, but I’m sure I should be able to come up with some enjoyable on the day (my recent Iron Man story has both Scf-Fi and robots. I imagine I shall just have to repeat this fact again and again until they politely ask me to leave).

May is actually looking to be a rather busy month here at E-merl Towers. In two weeks time on Saturday 23rd I’ll also be attending The London Movie, Comics & Media Expo. At the show I’ll be sharing a table with Sean Azzopardi and imagine we’ll both being doing our damndest to push Necessary Monsters on the unsuspecting members of the cosplay crowd. Free comics for anyone dressed as a Sci-Fi robot… monster… thing. Yes.

Oh, and while I’m thinking about matters Science Fictional, I realise I have been remiss in pointing out Mister Noble’s recently begun comic serial, Complex. A fine slice of apocalypse fiction set within a mysterious complex full of dysfunctional scientists, the strip is currently updating twice a week at Strip For Me. Go look!

I’ve been thinking I should really get a twitter account going, but then I remember how bad I am at both Facebook and keeping this blog updated and I go hide in a cupboard instead.

Anyway! Time for a long overdue update to let people know what’s up in the wider world of E-merl. First off, there have been a few people lately saying very nice things about Necessary Monsters and The Rule Of Death. Thanks people! Sean and Douglas continue to do wonderful work every week and you should all be getting very excited as both series begin to draw towards their conclusions.

Elsewhere, Astonishing Tales is now on its third issue and my Iron Man 2020 story has been meeting with massive levels of critical… well, indifference mostly. But! It’s still awesome! And things get even more explodey in part four so you should totally check it out at your local comic shop or online at Marvel DCU. Oh and I even did an interview about the serial over at the Pulse. Go see!

What else? The LUC X-mas Bash, The Web & Mini Comix Thing and Shmurgen Con have all come and gone. They were excellent events – thanks to those that made them so. I should now take the opportunity to plug LUC176 in June, where I’ll be part of the Baillie-Azzopardi-Noble-Goodbrey Comics Experience. I may even have copies of a new full-colour Brain Fist collection ready in time for the show, so fingers crossed.

Hmm. I think that about wraps it up for now. Speak to you again the next time I get around to making a post in the distant future. Until then – see you every Tuesday and Thursday for All Knowledge Is Strange. Happy Internets!

Word comes from Marvel that my Iron Man 2020 serial, Endless Stolen Sky will also be available to read online via their Digital Comics Unlimited initiative on December 24th. Along with the announcement they’ve popped up a page of preview art from the story and a natty little description of the plot, both of which I can now recreate for you here:

In a not so distant tomorrow, Arno Stark – the Iron Man of the year 2020 – prepares to launch the new heliliner, the Spirit of Free Enterprise. But Commodore Q wants to stop it! Who is he and what are the Endless Stolen Skies?

Ooh, sounds exciting! I got to see Lou’s pencils from part five of the serial last week, which included a splash page of some insanely large-scale action that is just all kinds of cool.

In other news, this Saturday I’m taking part in London Underground Comics Christmas Bash at the Alphabet Bar in Soho. I’ll have artwork on show from Brain Fist and All Knowledge Is Strange as well as the usual mini-comic goodies for sale. Check out this post on LUC’s website for the full details of the event and then take a peek at some cracking previews from the cartoonists involved.

COVER BY: KENNETH ROQUEFORT
WRITERS: C.B. CEBULSKI, DANIEL MERLIN GOODBREY, CHRIS SEQUERA & JONATHAN HICKMAN
PENCILS: KENNETH ROQUEFORT, LOU KANG, CHEW CHAN, NICK PITARRA & JONATHAN HICKMAN
COLOURED BY: IMAGINARY FRIENDS
LETTERED BY: TROY PETERI

The Marvel Universe is about to get even more astonishing with this anthology that delivers super-sized thrills every month! First up, fan-fave C.B. Cebulski and superstar Ken Roquefort (Madame Mirage) get gritty with a no-holds-barred Wolverine/Punisher tale you have to see to believe! You like Iron Man? GOOD! We’ve got a double dose of the Iron Avenger as Tony Stark and Arno Stark, Iron Man of the year 2020, headline two tales of corporate and high-tech intrigue. Finally, Cannonball and Sunspot of the New Mutants get sucked into the wildest adventure of their short lives when they spend their summer vacation in…MOJOWORLD!!

40 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

The above being the solicitation copy for my next outing at Marvel Comics. Astonishing Tales will be the home for Endless Stolen Sky, a six-part serial starring everyone’s favourite alternate-future armoured bastard, Arno Stark: The Iron Man of 2020. The story’s artwork is being provided by the amazingly talented Lou Kang and you’ll be able to read the first part of it when Astonishing Tales # 1 hits the stands on February 4th.

More details to follow soon – I expect there’ll be one or two interviews popping up around the web as we get nearer to the book’s release and I’ll try to keep track of them all here at E-merl. In the meantime, ordering the book at your local comic shop ASAP is probably a good idea if you want to be guaranteed a copy to read come February.

Excelsior!

It’s way-to-early in the morning and I’m just about to set off up to Leeds for the Thought Bubble comic festival taking place today. Should probably have mentioned that on the blog a little while ago but organisation is at times something of an alien concept to me. For example, I recently seem to have misplaced the month of October. Perhaps I should check down the back of the sofa?

Anyhoo, do pop along to myself and Sean Azzopardi’s table if you happen to be passing by, yes? We’ll have comics and such for purchase and more sleep-deprived witty banter than you can shake a rather tired, confused stick at. If you can’t make it to Leeds, then next weekend I’ll be at the ICA for the Comiket small press show as part of this year’s Comica events. I’m also one the folk behind this year’s Comica Potential Comic, the web version of which should be showing up on E-merl in the nearish future.

I’ve a bunch more news titbits to share but I’m rather running out time. Expect a follow up news post to follow soon (“soon” being the most relative of terms).

Spent a while tidying up around E-merl this week, adding some new links and a few features that I’d been meaning to implement for a while. Most prominent of these is the new bookmark button that allows you to easily share All Knowledge Is Strange strips across whatever web network you prefer. I’ve also finally got my e-mail address visible as a nice prominent graphic at the top of the page, as I understand people were having trouble spotting it on the About page (which I’ve also updated a little).

Elsewhere across the wild, untamed Internet I’ve done two more interviews – one with Jen Contino at The Pulse and one with Xaviar Xerexes at Comixtalk. Mr. Noble and Mr. Azzopardi have also been busy working their magic on Facebook, resulting in new groups being setup for The Rule of Death and Necessary Monsters. Join at your own peril!

Wait… where did August go? It’s been a busy month here at E-merl and today we’re bringing our summer touring season to a conclusion with an appearance at Low Energy Day as part of London Underground Comics in Camden Lock. Come say hello if you’re passing and I’ll have copies of the new Rule Of Death, Necessary Monsters and All Knowledge Is Strange mini-comics on hand to entertain you.

Taking a quick look around the Internet at my electronic footprint over the summer reveals a report from the panel I was on at San Diego (“So You Want To Do A Graphic Novel?”) and a photographic account of my part in The Caption Comics Collective gallery show in Oxford, courtesy of Matt Brooker. I also did another interview to promote Necessary Monsters at CBR and there’s this con report from San Diego which lets the cat out of the bag about what I’m writing at Marvel next. Which I shouldn’t really link to I suppose, but I’m going to and then pretend that I didn’t. If anyone wants to see some pages of artwork from said unnamed-on-this-blog project, just provide the secret E-merl handshake at Camden and I’ll hook you up.

A quick little San Diego update before I go jumping on a plane tomorrow: AiT have just posted their signing schedule for Comic Con. It may be a little subject to last minute changes, but if all goes according to plan you should be able to find me doing a signing stint at 4pm on Thursday & Saturday and at 1pm on Friday. And that’s booth number 2001, in case you were wondering. Hope to see a few of you there!

Very busy! Very! But not so busy that I can’t take time for a few quick updates. Firstly, I got to have a nice long chat with Tom Spurgeon the other day and the resulting interview can now be seen at The Comics Reporter. One of the things I mention in the interview that I think might be worth repeating here – I’m currently looking for artistic collaborators on a number of graphic novel projects. If you’re a comics artist and you think you might enjoy illustrating one of my scripts, drop me an e-mail on merlin (at) e-merl.com with some examples of your work. It may take me a little time to reply as I’m away on my travels for the next two weeks, but I promise everyone who gets in contact will hear back from me as soon as I can manage it.

Speaking of travels, San Diego Comic Con International is – yikes – less than a week away! This year I’ll once again be based at the AiT/PlanetLar booth, so do say hello if you happen to be passing by. I’ll have on hand copies of the Necessary Monsters ash-can, a new All Knowledge Is Strange mini and maybe even some artwork from the new Marvel project that you’ll be able to take a peek at.

Once I return from the US I’ll be stumbling, no doubt sleep deprived and half blind towards Oxford where I’ll be setting up for The Caption Comics Collective gallery show. The show will be open for the whole of August at the Oxford Jam Factory, with a special gala-opening night taking place on 8th August at 8pm. I’ll be displaying my work alongside a veritable gaggle of cartooning talent so I’m sure it’ll be well worth popping along to if you happen to be in the area. I imagine it would be handy if there was some kind of flyer that contained all the pertinent details about the show. But wait! What’s that oblong image to the left of these very words? Huzzah!