I’ve been quite remiss in updating this website. Blame it on the great creeping malaise of 2019, the working away from home, the pandemic, the lockdown, the attempted coups, the general decline and inevitable demise of western civilisation; yes, blame it on some or all of that, I guess.

Thought I’d document some of the stuff that was released in that time but wasn’t posted here.

Gentlemen Ghouls volume 3 was such an epic that it had to be published over two volumes of David Lloyd’s long running digital comic Aces Weekly, appearing in late 2020 in volumes 47 and 48.

Rumour has it (started by me) that a print edition of the entire Gentlemen Ghouls saga might be coming sometime soon.

Written by Martin Hayes.
Art by Alfie Gallagher.
Lettering/design by Bram Meehan.

Unremitting steel work has me all at sixes and sevens. Bereavements drain the heart. Now-perennial house renovations suck the very lifeblood from my neck like that mad-eyed Lugosi fella in the old black-and-whites. Time marches on and I am left behind, like so much dust-encrusted meat. Basically, I haven’t had time to take a piss let alone do anything like update the website to let people know that I had a new comic out.

Don’t Feed the Pigeons ran for three weeks in Volume 32 of Aces Weekly. A tasty little slice of near-future SF, with wonderfully frenetic art by Hugo Hughes Doherty and lettering/logo work from the always superb Bram Meehan.

You can buy Volume 32 here.

And here’s a little taste, because you’re not all bad.

Written by Martin Hayes.
Art by Hugo Hughes Doherty.
Letters/logo by Bram Meehan.

That’s right, slags. Shut yer cake-holes and listen up while I tell you the brilliant news… the Gentlemen Ghouls are back!

It’s nine months since they kicked seven shades out of the most monstrous vampire of them all, and now things are about to get a whole lot worse. It’s still 1972. London is still awash with supernatural naughtiness. The clothes and cars and music are still better than they are now.

What Is and What Should Never Be!

Unholy plots will be revealed!

Cosmic forces will be unleashed!

Almost-new leather shoes will be ruined by vomit!

Right, I’m off for me dinner, but don’t forget that it’s all kicking off again in Gentlemen Ghouls Volume 2. Serialized from Monday the 4th of December, exclusively in the pages of Aces Weekly.

Written by Martin Hayes.
Art by Alfie Gallagher.
Lettering/design by Bram Meehan.

Alfie and Bram have surpassed themselves on this one. Just real top-notch art and lettering. So glad to be working with these guys. Here, have a little preview…

My next story for David Lloyd’s digital comic Aces Weekly is called Deophonic; or, The Old Sow That Eats Her Farrow.

Deophonic will run for seven weeks, launching in Aces Weekly Volume 22 on Monday, May 16^th 2016. Readers can subscribe at www.acesweekly.co.uk/shop

Written by Martin Hayes. Art by Brian Corcoran. Lettered by Bram Meehan.

I’ve had this story knocking around the old brain pan for at least five years. Never could figure out how to tie it all together. Turns out all I needed was the right location and a truly brilliant artist. Enter Mr Brian Corcoran. Brian’s pages are things of beauty. We decided not to colour this series at all, not even grey tones, because to do so would only detract from the exquisite line work.

Ireland’s been kicked around more than most these last ten years, and I wanted to take a microcosmic look at how the effects of this lunatic and injudicious austerity experiment might play out.

Here’s the info, and some samples…

Bill and Kitty, Dubliners nearing retirement age, are trying to make ends meet in their hi-fi shop on Amiens Street. But the trouble with living on the edge of a precipice is the fact that it only takes one little shove to push you into the abyss. Deophonic is a microcosmic examination of the effects of relentless austerity, an autopsy on the true meanings of love and loss, and a veracious look into the mirror of modern Ireland.

Written by Aces Weekly veteran Martin Hayes, whose previous projects include the graphic novels Abominable Glory and Aleister Crowley: Wandering the Waste. @martinhayes and www.paroneiria.com

Art by Brian Corcoran, who has illustrated for the Cork Horror Comic. www.briancorcoranart.com and @ _Brian_Corcoran and briancorcoranblog.tumblr.com

Letters by Bram Meehan, who has worked on titles such as Abominable Glory, Gentlemen Ghouls, and Older Than the Hills. www.bramletters.com and @BramMeehan

That’s Amiens Street railway bridge, just outside of Connolly Station. Connolly, and the street – that exact scene which you can see in the amazing panorama above – was always (and sometimes still is) my gateway into Dublin. Some of the grandest days of my youth began with trudging off the train within spitting distance of that bridge.

The location was all-important, for reasons I can’t really explain. I just hadn’t been able to find a way into the story until I set in a real-world, tangible, touchable location.

It all started to fall into place about a year ago. I’d met my old mate Brian Showers for lunch and maybe a pint and we’d ended up down on Amiens Street searching out a basement-dwelling supplier of embossing stamps and engraved brass plaques. I forget the reason why. But that little excursion out of our way sowed the seeds. And I knew that this story could grow and thrive within that topography.

Deophonic; or, The Old Sow That Eats Her Farrow. Running for seven weeks, launching in Aces Weekly Volume 22 on May 16^th 2016. Subscribe at www.acesweekly.co.uk/shop

(The above photo taken on the day of the embossing stamp excursion. Look at that ten-ton slate-grey Irish winter sky. The kind of sky that can crush all hope and innocence from even the kindliest soul.)

Morning, creeps. I’m very happy to announce that I’ve got a new story launching in David Lloyd’s digital comic Aces Weekly.

Gentlemen Ghouls.

London, 1972. An unholy cesspit of crime, vice and diabolical villainy. And that’s just the good bits.

When a girl winds up dead at the first Ziggy Stardust gig at the Toby Jug pub in Tolworth, it falls to two hard-talking and harder-drinking London coppers to crack the case. But Jack Pike and Paddy Roach are out of their depth, at a loss to explain the strange bite-marks on the dead girl’s throat. And when handcuffs and truncheons just won’t do the trick, the Flying Squad in the experts. The Gentlemen Ghouls to be precise, England’s greatest and most reclusive occult investigators.

A high-camp mash-up of Hammer Horror and gritty seventies cop shows. Lush, lurid, lively, and lecherous. All the L-words, basically.

Gentlemen Ghouls will run for seven weeks, launching in Aces Weekly Volume 21 on Monday, March 14^th 2016. Subscribe at www.acesweekly.co.uk

Written by Aces Weekly veteran Martin Hayes, whose previous projects include the graphic novels Abominable Glory and Aleister Crowley: Wandering the Waste. @martinhayes and www.paroneiria.com

Art by Alfie Gallagher, who has illustrated for FutureQuake, Zarjaz, and Charlatan Tales. www.alfiegallagher.com and @AlfieGallagher

Letters by Bram Meehan, who has worked on titles such as Abominable Glory and Older Than the Hills. www.bramletters.com and @BramMeehan

Samples…

I’ll be sharing the Aces Weekly table with David Lloyd for an hour or two on the Saturday and Sunday of Thought Bubble. Come and see us at Table 172 in New Dock Hall. I’ll have eye-wateringly limited quantities of Abominable Glory, Get it Down, and the Crowley book.

Do stop by and say hello if you’re around. Would be great to see you.

Older Than the Hills has now concluded it’s run in Aces Weekly. Was a treat to get to work with Chris Askham and Bram Meehan again. Fine friends and collaborators. I hope we can team up again soon. You can get the whole story by buying Volume 18.

I’m very happy to say that I’ve got more work coming up with Aces Weekly. A playful horror story, a bit of a love letter to Hammer Horror. Can’t say too much about this yet but the art is starting to come in and it’s going to be an amazing looking book. I’ve wanted to tell a story like this for many years, so it’s great to finally scratch that itch. Expect an announcement soon.

Other news: I sold another story to Wyrd Daze. Squirming my fingers through that old HPL pie again. It’s called Dāgônime and it’s very weird and it should be appearing in the next issue.

Right, time grows short and I’ve got lots to do. Time to pack this bag and then trip off to Leeds.

I’ll be hanging out with David Lloyd at table T2 in Artist’s Alley for an hour or two on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

I’ll have extremely limited quantities of these books . . .

Only a few copies of each – just what I can fit in my backpack!

Drop by to say hello and pick up a flyer for Older Than the Hills, currently running in Aces Weekly.

My next comic project is called Older Than the Hills and will be appearing in volume 18 of David Lloyd’s digital comic Aces Weekly.

It’s a story about desire, and history, and the creeping influence of ancient, unseen forces. I’m calling it a “pastoral science fiction story”. Just to annoy people, really.

Very happy to be working with the old Abominable Glory team again. Chris Askham on art, Bram Meehan on letters. And both doing a superb job, as always.

The story will run over seven issues, for the entirety of volume 18, and launches on the 7th of September. You can subscribe here.

And here, just for you, is the first instalment. I hope you’ll check it out.