I received this fantastic page from Valia today. Although the final print of the story in Insomnia’s “Survival” anthology will be in black and white, the colours were simply too fantastic for me to keep them tucked away in my inbox.
A disturbing amount of people how now joined our “I want to be killed by Chris and Valia” Facebook group and we are having great fun coming up with horrible ways to dispose of you all.
As far as I know “Survival” will be out in time for the Bristol Comic Expo.
If you cruise the comic book websites, you are almost sure to have the teaser image from Mark Millar’s new mini series “Nemesis” doing the rounds on the new sites and forums.
The series once again teams Millar with fan-favourite artist Steve McNiven and basically asks the question, the quote Millar himself, “What if Batman were a c*nt?”
Whilst the premise may not seem that original when compared to DC’s existing “Negative Batman”, Owlman of Earth 2, the few snippets available on the web do promise some definite bar-raising in terms of the level of death and destruction one man with a mask and a fancy belt is going to cause. A lot of people blast Millar for being too commercial, for writing comics deliberately for the screen, and for his general self-agrandising and publicity whoring but I am rarely one of them.
Mostly because I would be just as bad, given half a chance 
So, from one comics publicity whore to another, if you haven’t read it yet, cast your eyes over this rather interesting interview at CBR … “Nemesis” Asks: What if Batman was The Joker? – Comic Book Resources.
So …
It started as a harmless bit of fun, a Twitter hashtag kick about between Valia, Rich McAuliffe, and me. Hypergraphia, you see, needs victims. Lots of victims. As Valia does a fine line in likenesses and cameos, we thought it would be funny to kill of Rich. So did other people. Then … those same people wanted us to kill them as well.
They don’t know how we’ll do it. They don’t know how the story ends. But they want in. Personally, I think that is just plain weird. Nice weird, in a “that would be cool, Chris” way, but still weird. Weird is the common demoninator in this fraction of oddness.
So …
Now there is a Facebook group for people who want Valia and I to kill them, and its growing.
I’m writing this blog post now not to promote it, the damned thing seems to have a life of its own, but just to go on record that whatever happens next … the story was already written. Honestly.
I received the first pencilled pages yesterday for my new Insomnia story “Hypergraphia” this week, drawn by the very talented Valia.
I can’t say much about the story without spoiling it, but suffice to say that this once is a heady mix of Greek mythology and Faerie lore, and should have 
enough little “Easter Eggs” in it to satisfy everyone. As always, I’ve had a great time going overboard with the research.
I’m hoping Valia will have time to include some cameos from my writing alumni, as there is room for plenty of extras. Of course, as this is one of my stories, and Insomnia seem to be foolishly giving me free reign again … they may not be so please to be included as will be to see them there.
I’ve put some simple letters over Valia’s pencils, so you can get a bit more of a feel for what the story is all about.
Readers of Rich Johnston’s Bleeding Cool comic news website have been given a sneak peek of the cover for the graphic novel release of “The Dark”.
Click here to see “Thanks Given 21 @ Bleeding Cool”.
Regular readers will know that I have been working on this project with Rick Lundeen for Markosia since May of 2009 and, having finished the script just a few weeks it ago, I am incredibly excited to see the cover sitting alongside other previews for Markosia’s 2010 line.
Finishing the last chapter of the story was probably one of the toughest things I have had to do as a writer, mostly because I don’t think I wanted to let any of the characters go. I hope that’s a good thing. Maybe they didn’t want to go either. They’re tough bastards.
The Dark will be being solicited through Diamond to all good comic shops (more news on that when I have it) and will also be available through book stores, Amazon, etc. More information on that as I have it …