Word has broken across the internets this week that you’ll soon be able to read a fine selection of Marvel comics via Sony’s PSP. But why am I mentioning this at E-merl? Well, last year I was hired as a consultant by Sony to help them in the development of their new PSP digital comics service. The project proved a great opportunity to apply some of my more experimental comics ideas to a practical application, and now my NDA has been partially lifted I can at last talk a little about it bit in public.

I was hired originally both to consult on the development of the service and write a comic based on an existing Sony game IP that could be used as a testbed for the possibilities the PSP had to offer. After the success of the initial comic, I was later asked back to write a second comic using a third-party IP. On the second project I got to take a more hands on approach, working directly out of Sony Computer Entertainment’s base of operations in London to implement the comic’s creation on the PSP.

As the projects I worked on were primarily for internal consumption at Sony, I don’t really expect to see either of them make it out into the light of day once the service launches at the end of the year. But should this change, be sure that I’ll post a link to them at E-merl post haste.

It’s that special comics-in-Oxford time of year again and this weekend will find me off at the Caption small press convention. Do come along and say hello if you’re in the area – I will no doubt be propped up somewhere in the bar either doodling or drinking or possibly both. There’ll also be copies of Necessary Monsters and the brand new Rule Of Death issue #6 for sale on the Caption comics table. Worth £2 of anyone’s money, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Meanwhile, on the Internets, I’ve finally had the time to complete the web version of my recent collaboration with David Baillie, The Casita Situations. The last year has seen myself and Dave take several jaunts across to Paris where we’ve been working on a hypercomic installation for the walls of a children’s mental health clinic at the Avicenne Hospital in Bobigny. While the comic is to a large extent site dependent, I’ve tried to provide at least a flavour of the thing in this new randomly generated web version. Take a peek and see what sense you can make of it.

Lastly, as I’m sure many of you have already noticed, I’m now on Twitter. So far I’m actually managing to twit (I know, I know, tweet. But I don’t care!) on a more regular basis than I manage to update this blog, which I guess is sort of the point. So keep an eye on @merlism for blow-by-blow updates on whatever nonsense I get up to between comics.