Thomas Behe, author of the comic Contraband and artist Chris Walker have launched a new comic strip, Fone Freaks, via ROK Comics just in time for Hallowe'en.
Fone Freaks follows the adventures of Sally Snedley, a wireless scientist who seeks revenge on the nasty corporate criminals who stole her cell phone invention back in the 1970's.
Sally seeks justice by targeting the Fat Cat's cell phone customers by creating a haunted network that enables ghosts to zoom out and make people to do dumb things on their phone.
Illustrator Chris Walker has been creating comics for five years and hopes his new strip will appeal to sequential art fans of all ages. "Each Freak represents a silly, embarrassing or annoying social cell phone habit we all do - or see others doing - at some point in time.
"It's mildly self-deprecating at heart although we hope younger children will enjoy the characters - even if they don't fully understand some of the sometimes twisted underlying message. Most kids seem to have a cell phone now and (the ones I know anyway) really love being on them as much as possible."
Rodrigo Diaz Ricci's new Liegia comic strip is proving quite a hit: a Spanish language site, vampioros.cl, has just posted an interview with the creator which may be of interest (if you can read Spanish!)
Ligeia, created by Rodrigo is a vampire living in Rumania, and the strip can now be downloaded on any cellphone in the world. You only need to have a connection WAP.
"I created Ligeia in the summer of the 2006 in Italy," says Rodrigo. "I was inspirèd by Edgar Allan Poe: I needed a vampire with a certain touch irony. Originally pitched as graphic novel to an Italian publisher Liegia has since, incredibly given the strip's popularity on ComicSpace, been "buried" on Rodrigo's computer until it found its new ROK Comics home.
Malcolm Kirk has been publishing his madcap Stick Man on ROK Comics for a while now. Check out the strip via this link -- they're all free to view online and on your phone.
The strip has progressed from black and white to vivid technicolour and continues to hit my humour bone! (But I am odd). Here are just three examples...
There's a new vampire story on comics to mobile service ROK Comics. You may have already seen the free sample (right), but now comics artist and writer Rodrigo Diaz Ricci has begun his fantastic looking horror tale Liegia in earnest.
Rodrigo was born in Valparaíso, Chile, in 1971 but later adopted Italian nationality. A graphic designer, after working in cartoons, publishing fanzines and comics he moved to Europe where he published covers for the Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia in Athens and for the horror and forbidden archaeology magazines produced by the publishing house Mondo Ignoto, owned by Dario Argento and Luigi Cozzi.
This year, he has published two stories (which he has both written and drawn) in the Italian comic book El Italiano (The Italian), based on the horror film Currículum by Patricio Valladares. It is currently being published by Nicola Pesce Editore.
He's working on several other projects and one of these is Liegia, now appearing on British comics to mobile service ROK Comics.
"Ligeia is about a Vampire and her cat, Edgar," Rodrigo explains. "They're evil beings who use human beings to satisfy their purposes. The first series is centred in Transylvania and is set during World War II when the Nazis' Paranormal Office sends some men after Ligeia the vampire and a faboulous treasure."
Michael Jantze, creator of the internationally-syndicated comic strip The Norm, whose outlets include ROK Comics (see www.rokcomics.com/thenorm) has had his animated short accepted into the Short Film Corner at Festival de Cannes 2008.
Mr. Lux: At Your Service, Jantze’s first animated short, will be part of the Short Film Corner at Festival de Cannes this month. The animation is a fast ride of traditional animation utilizing both pencil to paper animation and the latest in computer software.
A new character from Jantze, Mr. Lux is only happy when he delivers five-star service to his hotel guests.
Jantze’s script was brought to life by a story team consisting of himself, David Andrews and Kelly McNutt. Jantze created the layouts and designs as well as directed McNutt’s animation. Jory K. Prum provided the Sound Design and Jared Emerson-Johnson wrote and performed the Mancini-esque soundtrack. Nicole Jantze served as Executive Producer.
Michael and Nicole Jantze will be in the Short Film Corner at the Festival de Cannes between 19 and 21 May to speak with interested buyers. The four minute short can be viewed on the Cannes Short Film Corner website or at Jantze.com (www.jantze.com/animation) along with other recently finished shorts. There's also a clip on YouTube, linked below.
• In related news, Michael Jantze's The Norm web site has just had an extensive makeover: not only can you read about the character but related merchadinse and other many gems are now on offer. Check it out at www.thenorm.com
ROK Comics, a subsidiary of ROK Entertainment Group Inc. the global mobile entertainment company, is pleased to announce the addition of the legendary Roy of the Rovers comic to its stable of classic comics for mobile phones, in partnership with Egmont UK.
Arguably the most famous British comics character of all, 'Roy of the Rovers' forty-year playing career began on the cover of top-selling weekly comic Tiger in September 1954. Since then, the phrase 'Roy of the Rovers stuff' has become part of the English language, regularly invoked by pundits to describe the essence of footballing dreams.
Working closely with Egmont and its Roy of the Rovers archivist Mark Towers, keeper of the official website, ROK Comics has begun its run of ROTR by serialising the 1970s story in which Roy is offered the opportunity to become England manager. Already a successful player-manager of Melchester Rovers, will he accept the demanding role?
Roy of the Rovers joins a growing number of classic and ongoing British comics being published in the ROK Comics format via www.rokcomics.com and telecom partners in countries such as China, India, Pakistan and South Africa. "British comics have been exported worldwide for decades," says ROK Comics Managing Editor John Freeman. "Now they're being exported digitally over the internet and to mobile phones!"
In addition to Roy of the Rovers, ROK is also publishing Egmont characters such as the secret agent Dredger from Action!, the classic humour strip Faceache and others.
"We're delighted to be working with Egmont on bringing their classic characters to a whole new generation," added Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK “and we’re looking to score big time – home and away - with Roy on our hugely popular ROK Comics service.”
ROK Comics also has agreements with publishers such as the Daily Express (Beau Peep, Jeff Hawke and others), Look and Learn Ltd. (Robin Hood), Markosia (Dark Mists, The Lexian Chronicles) and others. Garfield, which appears in the Daily Mail and Doonesbury, which appears in The Guardian, are also being offered for download and on subscription in key territories.
Everyone loves our superhero the Moon Queen - but she's blissfully unaware of it! Her best friend is the Bee - the only one who doesn't seem to want something from her. MQ's real name is Agnes Bale, she can fly and has super powers but she is far from invulnerable.
In Jelston's Lesson, the latest Moon Queen adventure to appear on ROK Comics, jealous Blink Bonny makes her life a misery!
Creator Chris Reynolds, who has been publishing Moon Queen on ROK Comics for a while now, created the classic graphic novel Mauretania first published by Penguin Books. His most famous character is Monitor, the strange, helmeted, spaceman aged between about eight and thirty, who had many strange and nostalgic adventures. Now Chris' latest character is the Moon Queen. She's sensitive like Monitor, but her adventures take place in a more colourful, sunny, upland world!
• You can view them all the Moon Queen strips on your mobile by subscribing to our WAP service.
Simply choose a strip you like on the main ROK Comics site, then follow the download to mobile links and choose the subscribe option (or just subscribe right out the door). When you receive a WAP push message to your phone, connect to the site using that link using your mobile, bookmark it, and you'll be subscribed to ROK Comics Mobile for the next month.
This link is exclusive to your phone, so don't lose it!
Italian artist Rodrigo Diaz is a new face on ROK Comics, trying out the service to deliver a great looking vampire tale called Ligea. We're looking forward to seeing more soon!
The issue includes strips such as 'The Optician', 'Mexican Surgery' and Daze: The Post Apocalyptic Avon Lady in Happy Daze, among others.
Also on sale from the same site is the beautifully drawn She's Leaving Home Mini Comic, featuring art by Lawrence Elwick.
She's Leaving Home is also being serialised for mobile and published via ROK Comics. Paul kindly agreed to try the strip on ROK Comics as part of our drive for more strips that would fit with ROK Comics newly-launched WAP subscription site for the UK arm of international women's retailer Claire's, part of a package of mobile products for the company that includes virtual pets and various text feed services. You can pick up a leaflet instore at any Claire's shop - the Claire's web site includes a store locator.
Always busy on the comics front, Paul tells us he's currently accepting submissions for the second Soda anthology of illustrated song lyrics - a collection of illustrations inspired by lyrics from those songs that get stuck in your head all day.
(Warning: this post contains links to what may be perceived by some as 'adult' content): Thomas Cochrane and Alan Tanner's's The Fat Man graphic novel project has a brand new web site which features a massive 50 page preview of the forthcoming book, due for release in November. Check it out at www.the-fat-man.co.uk
The Fat Man, which is also being previewed on ROK Comics, centres on a British MI5 undercover agent approached by himself with proof of the existence of a notorious World War 2 Nazi secret weapon: a time machine, discounted many years previously as German propaganda.
The Fat Man is Scottish writer Thomas Cochrane's first graphic novel. He says he is inspired by such diverse sources as Tin Tin, The Avengers (the TV show) and a fascination with the concept of time travel.
Artist Alan Tanner is a veteran illustrator and designer, who has worked on covers for Time Out and the infamous Oz magazine and what he describes as "various other hippy publications"). He has also created many illustrations for the Radio Times, and worked for CBS and Island on record covers. You can see how the Fat Man "Art Process" has developed over on Flickr. 25 per cent of the profits from this fabulous book will be going to a mental health charity.
ROK Comics is delighted to announce the addition of a new adventure strip, Charlotte Corday of the Surete, drawn by top British comics artist Keith Page.
Keith's current work includes Ramsey's Raiders for DC Thomson's Commando and other stories, and a "prequel" of the original Dan Dare for Rod Barzilay's magazine Spaceship Away.
He decided ROK Comics is a good way to present Charlotte Corday in a newspaper strip-style way, at a time when many print newspapers worldwide seem to have abandoned daily, ongoing adventure strips, much to the dismay of millions of fans of the genre.
Written by screenwriter Stephen Walsh, Charlotte Corday of the Surete: London Calling is set in London in the early 1950's will also be a full length graphic novel, with a few surprises.
"I had the original idea for the character some time ago," Keith explains. "The outline concept was the adventures of a French detective of some sort getting involved in all sorts of arcane exploits in 1950's London which could best be described as "Brighton Rock meetsQuatermass and the Pit".
"This evolved further in defining the motivations of the main character Charlotte Corday and the inclusion of a human-sized "Muffin the Mule" entity, (which had its origins in a strip I did for IPC'sRevolver many years ago.)
"All this might sound strange but I can't reveal anymore without spoiling the plot!
"I drew a number of pages of my initial storyline, together with a lot of characters sketches and then set the whole thing aside for a while," he continues. "At this point I got in touch with script and screenwriter Stephen Walsh who was writing for Commando. Stephen took the original theme and came up with a brilliant graphic-novel length script incorporating a host of new characters.
"We decided to approach some French publishers, so the whole thing was translated into French by my wife. In this version, Charlotte is one of a team of French agents on a mission to London. The thinking was to leave scope for a series of linked books with a different agent's story featured in each.
"To cut a long story short, it proved too difficult to interest French publishers and Charlotte remained on the shelf for a while. Eventually, however, I decided Stephen's script was just too good to abandon , and I had a large amount of period reference material, location photos, so I drew the whole 50 page story.
"It features a variety of themes including the North London Vampire Squad (a little-known division of the Met) and what could have been the inspiration for John Steed of The Avengers. [Comedian] Tony Hancock and his landlady also put in guest appearances!"
We're looking forward to seeing how this strip develops, and perhaps finding out why a mule-headed character cannot be seen by anyone else except Charlotte. Check it out now on ROK Comics!
Just a quick reminder that downthetubes and ROK Comics Managing Editor John Freeman is one of the guests at a Breaking Into Comics event in Leicester this Saturday, along with 2000AD editor Matt Smith and indie publisher Jay Eales.
"Breaking in to Comics and Graphic Novels" runs from 2 – 4.00pm at the Central Lending Library, Leicester. Whether you are a fan who has always dreamed of making your own comics but don’t know where to start, or a talented writer / artist on the brink of turning professional, this event will help you understand what it takes to break in to the comics industry.
Organisers say this is proving one of their most popular events ever, with plenty of pre-sales and lending numbers for graphic novels at the library way up on their usual numbers. The event is part of Blam! a season of graphic novel and manga events organised by Leicester Libraries (www.leicester.gov.uk/libraries)
Created using 3D software and digital paint tools, MuseToons are a unique daily strip taking a thoughtfully humorous look at current events; politics, race, religion, ecology and many other topics being discussed around the world.
Other cartoons of interest document Keni’s association with the film and television industry; including cartoons about the contentious Hollywood screen writers strike.
Keni began his career in the motion picture and television industry, working as a set builder. He went on to work as a scenic artist, set painter and videographer and has participated in many art shows and sells internationally. His artwork has been published in Pastel Artist International, Watercolor Magic Magazine, Topia (a former international entertainment magazine), and local publications.
“I’ve always liked to build things," says Keni of his choice to use 3D software in cartooning. "3D is a way to combine architecture, sculpture, painting and humour into one image or series of panels.”
While other artists are creating comics in 3D (for example, the new SF series Ex Astris, which also features on ROK Comics) and UK newspaper The Sun publishes the regular football strip Striker, Keni seems to be one of the first daily humour cartoonists to be working in 3D.
ROK Comics has teamed up with UK TV company ITV to enable I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here fans to create comics based on the stuck-in-a-jungle reality entertainment show, which has just begun its seventh season.
The first of its kind for a broadcaster, this truly interactive services is a simple point and click solution letting any web or WAP user create a comic based around the current celebrities and the best of previous shows.
Users can make up their own quips using speech bubbles and insert themselves into comic strip. Once completed users can then choose to buy their masterpiece or send it onto a friend for £1.50.
Comics cost £1.50 each and you can also send them to friends (if you know their network). All comics are moderated prior to publication.
Also as part of the offering from ROK, a daily professional comic strip based around the exploits of the celebrities is being created by ROK Comics and published on both web and WAP.
ROK Comics is delighted to announce the addition of Ian Gibson's comic strip Annie Droid to its comics-to-mobile service.
Working in partnership with Ian, ROK Comics will bringing mobile users worldwide this funny strip written and drawn by Ian Gibson, which was first published in Britain's The Saturday Times.
Annie Droid is just one of many characters inhabiting the mysterious Den City 4, battling Millennium Bugs, Program Errors and many other miscreants.
The strip joins a host of classic British strips and new creator-owned material on the ROK Comics mobile platform, including Garth, Jeff Hawke, Andy Capp and many others.
In addition to the ROK Comics web and wap sites (www.rokcomics.com, wap.rokcomics.com) Annie Droid will also be offered to ROK telecom partner sites worldwide, reaching new readers of comics in countries such as China, Pakistan, India and more in coming months.
Comics fans will need no introduction to the work of Ian Gibson (www.ian-gibson.com), whose many credits include 2000AD's Judge Dredd, The Ballad of Halo Jones and Robo-Hunter, DC Comics Mister Miracle and creator-owned classics such as The Chronicles of Genghis Grimtoad.
Ian is currently developing several creator-owned projects that will employ his unique and much-praised art style at its best.
"Believe it or not, the humble mobile phone may be coming to the rescue of comics," feels Ian. "Comics are now being made available to view as downloads to your multifunction pocket wonder. Now you can catch up with vintage comics strips and some new freebies done by aspiring amateurs.
"Thus, if your pocket starts to throb, glow, play a cutesy jingle or even the soundtrack from Psycho... I may be there - in the shape of some of my creations. So, maybe I'll do some drawing today. Tomorrow it may be on your mobile phone. There is no escape…"
"We're obviously delighted Ian has agreed to try ROK Comics," says ROK Comics Managing Editor John Freeman. "I've been a fan of Ian's work since my time at Marvel UK, when he was drawing Genghis Grimtoad, and Halo Jones is simply an unforgettable comic."
• You can view Annie Droid on ROK Comics at www.rokcomics.com/anniedroid.php The first episode of the story is free to view online.
"It's a non-linear comic book inspired by those kids 'Choose Your Own Adventure' stories," he says, "co-written with Laura O'Callaghan-White and just a dash of Harry sauce."
News that Jeff Hawke is soon to feature on ROK Comics has been welcomed by none other than David Jones MP, Member of Parliament for Clwyd West; Shadow Minister for Wales.
Jones is a longtime fan of the science fiction character created by Syd Jordan and published by the Daily Express, revealing "Jeff Hawke was a staple of my childhood. It appeared in the Daily Express from 1955 to 1974 and was years ahead of its time" and describes the strip as "among the most intelligent sci-fi comic strips ever produced, significantly better than much that was published in America, the home of the genre, at that time.
"Hawke dealt intelligently with moral issues in a futuristic setting and was often astonishingly prescient," Jones notes. "In 1959, the strip portrayed a memorial stone on the Moon, recording the first manned landing on “August Fourth, Earth Year Nineteen Hundred Sixty-Nine”. Neil Armstrong in fact set foot on the lunar surface on 21 July, 1969, just two weeks earlier."
"I am now seriously tempted to subscribe to the Rok service," Jones declares.
One interesting thing coming out of comics fandom and creator reaction to comics on mobile phones has been a strident defence of print comics, as though comics on mobile will somehow put an end to them. This of course is not the case: in fact, we have plans to do more to promote print comics down the line anhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifd we always saw mobile comics, like web comics, as a means to complement print comics (and web comics, come to that).
The other major point about this is that in some countries where ROK Comics is setting up WAP comics subscriber-only sites with telecom partners, like Pakistan, print comics are not big business, but comic reader numbers are still huge, largely reading strops via newspapers. PC use is also low compared with mobile phones, making even more sense to develop the delivery of comics to mobile there.
It also means that we can promote some independent creators creations alongside more well known licensed content, offering a platform for their work they may previously not had. Hopefully that's a big plus 9as well as the potential revenue stream for their work).
I'm pleased to report Markosia has joined the growing number of publishers on ROK Comics. There will be a fuller press item later but in the mean time, here's the first episode of "Dark Mists", an adventure set in pre-war Japan...
