The audio recording of my Bristol Comic Expo panel, “Signs and Portents“, is now available from the Sidekick Cast website, iTunes, and anywhere where good podcasts can be found.

Before I write anything about this panel, I want to send out a huge thanks to both the boys from Sidekick Cast and to everyone who turned up to make the panel a success. We had some great questions, an incredible game of Secrets and Lies, and the whole process was made significantly less nerve racking and markedly more awesome by having a room full of friendly faces.

Gushing over.

If you missed the panel, other than a potted history of The Dark and MWM, some shameless plugging (including a new personal best for me), and some light hearted ribbing of a certain missing monkey, you probably missed me talking about codes, fiction, stories inside stories, fringe science, how thinly read I really am, and trying to answer some questions from people who had clearly thought about them beforehand. The swines. (Barry Nugent, I’m looking at you).

We had a lot of positive feedback about the panel throughout the show, so if you did miss it and would like to catch up, download the “Signs and Portents” podcast today.

For anyone wondering what the mysterious “merchandise” that I’ve been alluding to on Twitter is, it’s badges. 100 lovely, 25mm badges, lovingly made by my new best friends at Badge Planet.

If you want to get hold of one, you need to track me down with your copy of The Dark for signing or perhaps try asking one of “The Darkettes”.

Yes, I have Darkettes.

I don’t think you can get too excited about the Bristol Comic Con, can you?

The Dark went live on the Playstation Digital Comics network last week and my good friend Lee was kind enough to tweet me these shots of the comic up and running on his PSP!

I heard from Harry at Markosia that the book has been doing very well indeed in terms of downloads and the guys at Sony have tweeted me recently to say there has been a lot of positive fan feedback. Great news!

If you’ve got a PSP and you have downloaded the book, I’d love to know what you think.

The Dark has pride of place today on Sony’s Digital Comics Blog.

Click here to read their article.

I’m still thrilled not only to see The Dark on this platform, but also with all the support that Sony are showing the book since signing us up exclusively. If you have a PSP and have downloaded the book(s), we’d love to hear from you!

Omnicomic give us their take on the coded messages hidden throughout “The Dark” today …

See what they did there? They’ve “encoded” secrets into the comic that will give the reader the chance to solve the mystery before Abbot himself can figure it all out. Definitely not a conventional means of relating to the reader but I’m definitely digging it. I mean, how often do even books engage you on this level?

Preview pages etc. can be found at Omnicomic.

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!

Rich Clements (he of Hi Ex, FutureQuake, and Turning Tiger fame) has reviewed The Dark for the Forces of Geek website.

Early on, just as I was settling into the groove, Lynch pulled the rug from under me in a glorious and unexpected way. Which is impressive enough to do once, but he manages to do it another two or three times throughout the book.

The plotting in dense and impressively done. The writing is multi-layered and clever and demands that the reader pays attention (this is a good thing, by the way).

As Rich himself would say … “Thank Grud it’s good”.

Read the complete review at Forces of Geek

After months of of top-secret work behind the scenes, we can finally reveal that The Dark has a new digital home … the Sony Playstation Digital Comics Network.

As of March 25th The Dark will available for download in four installments to your PSP. All of the installments have the same release date, so you will be able to pick up the equivalent of the entire trade from day one.The Dark is taking  pride of place alongside Markosia’s critically acclaimed “Dark Mists” as the first Markosia titles to launch on the platform. Markosia were also able to reveal today that The Dark is also one of two Markosia titles that have been signed up exclusively by Sony for the platform!

‘These are exciting times for us,’ says publisher Harry Markos, ‘there is no denying that the digital comic is here to stay and it will have a major say over the next year or two. We are delighted to be partnering with Sony in this venture and from what I have seen so far; this is very much an exciting step forward. The graphics look amazing on PSP, crystal clear and surprisingly user-friendly thanks to the Autoflow feature.’

For those who remember the early days of “The Dark” as a project, digital was always a key medium for us, and I’m delighted that Sony have put their weight behind us by signing the project exclusively.

I’ll see you all on the Playstation forums!

Rick Lundeen, my partner in crimes against fiction and the artistic genius behind “The Dark”, will be signing copies of The Dark at Graham Crackers in Downers Grove, Illinois on June 2nd

This is an alternative date to the April 7th date, owing to shipping issues with the books.

This is a rare opportunity for fans of the book to meet up with the man who created the graphic novel’s unique look and who gave life to its disturbing creations.

Best of luck to Rick for the signing!

For more details, check out http://www.grahamcrackers.com/events.htm

Ed Kaye followed up his review of Issue #1 of The Dark by giving us his take on the whole story …

Not only has Chris Lynch created an incredibly interesting concept to use as the basis of this story, but he’s also created an incredibly unique plot … Rick Lundeen’s linework on this story has a very clean and smooth look to it, which is complimented by some really vibrant colouring …

The Dark is a highly original and inventive graphic novel, with an intriguing and involving plot that really keeps readers on their toes. It’s a book that you’re going to want to read at least twice, trust me! Forty-Five was my early pick for graphic novel of the year, but it looks like it’s already got some tough competition in the form of The Dark!

Read the complete review here