Yesterday “The Dark” and “Freeman of the Armed Services” were officially launched at Ace Comics in Richmond. Behold, the beautiful picture of creators and books below …

First off, many thanks to Ace for hosting the signing. If you’ve never been, it is an absolutely great store. Lovely layout, brilliant stock, and really great staff … a true gem. It also seems pretty easy to get to, at least if the District Line is running (more on that later, thankfully I was chauffer driven to London like the fabulous celebrity I am).

The signing went very well, with lots of very positive feedback on the book. A lot of people already knew about the book as well, so it’s good to know that all the podcasting and reviewer stalking has been worth it and everyone’s support for the book is working.

Obviously London is fair distance from my usual stomping grounds and with my FP signing, Cribbs Causeway, and then Bristol not that far around the corner, I was hard pressed to convince many of the faithful that they should make the epic journey to the big smoke. Fortunately, Huw J is quite clearly the King of London, knows just about everyone, and was immensely gracious in sending many of his visitors, friends, family, etc. my way to take a look at Te Dark.

Despite it being as difficult to pitch without spoilers as ever, a number of people bought copies and hopefully they enjoy the book and appreciate me not giving away any secrets!

So, one down and many to go. My next signing is in the evening on April 8th at Forbidden Planet in Cardiff. This is the home town gig, and hopefully I’ll see you there!

I will be appearing at Ace Comics in Richmond, along with Huw J and Harry Markos, to sign copies of The Dark on March 20th. Ace are already offering copies of The Dark at a discount price with free shipping via their website.

View Larger Map

The signing will run from 12:00 – 15:00, so hopefully I will have plenty of time to talk to everyone who comes in. Podcasters and bloggers are welcome to get in touch in advance to arrange interviews before, during, or after the session.

Other than for conventions, this is my first ever signing outside of good old Cardiff, so fingers crossed for a good event!

OK, you’ll need to excuse the pun. Ace is a superlative I don’t think I’ve used since junior school. I put it away in the big-box-of-words-I-no-longer-use along with “mega”, “brill” (except when referring to the fish), and “wicked” (except when describing witches and rather nifty anthology comics from FutureQuake Press.

Something that is genuinely, actually, and properly ace though is the new Ace Comics website, not least because the guys at Ace have been kind enough to place The Dark and Freeman front and centre on their brand new homepage for your pre-ordering pleasure.

The guys at Ace are proper comics retailers – passionate about the medium, supportive of homegrown talent, and damn good people across the board. We need more guys like this, out there on the front line. So, visit the site.

That is all …