It was during the great bleakness of 2020, that first abysmal lockdown, that my old pal Alfie Gallagher texted to suggest that we work on a new comic together. Gentlemen Ghouls, our long running serial in the pages of Aces Weekly, had reached a state of natural (although possibly not permanent) conclusion and I’d been hoping we would work together again at some point, on something else.

Alfie suggested we both work in a looser style, something more free-flowing, more organic, and over the next few weeks EarthWorks began to take shape.

Gentlemen Ghouls had run over three volumes (four really, as Vol 3 had been split into a part one/part two format) so we wanted to do something quick this time, a one-shot, in and out, no flab, greyscale, 40 pages all in, and cram it full of good story, with an essay at the back about the origin of it all.

EarthWorks is set in rural Ireland, a strange place familiar to both Alfie and myself. Odd things happen out in those hills, birds plot and beetles whisper, and sometimes the earth itself can no longer contain the weight of secrets that it holds.

We funded it through Kickstarter and were both surprised and delighted when it hit its funding goal in just over three hours. 

We were also lucky enough to get James Doherty onboard, who kindly allowed us to use some of his amazing photographs. They brought a strange and intensely unsettling atmosphere to the book and really helped to tie the whole thing together. 

If you missed out on the Kickstarter you can grab a copy over on Alfie’s Etsy store or if you’re in Dublin just head to Big Bang Comics in Dundrum to pick up a copy.

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…

Booklore has just been published by Zagava. A very beautiful book, expertly crafted and handsomely designed; it includes my essay Fishing For The Pike, a treatise on the life and times of Cliff Twemlow and my some-might-say unhealthy obsession with his 1982 piscine pulp classic The Pike.

Pretty stellar line-up of contributors in this one, including Brian Catling, Reggie Oliver, Timothy Jarvis, and Supervert.

It’s not even Christmas but here’s an eight page comic for you to read right now.

The Corner of Some Foreign Field.

Generous to a fault, that’s what everyone says about me.

Genesis: me and my old pal Alfie Gallagher were both between larger projects and looking for something quick to scratch that old creative itch. Sometimes Sudocrem just won’t do the job. It wasn’t long since we’d finished our run on Gentlemen Ghouls for David Lloyd’s digital comic Aces Weekly, and we’d enjoyed working together on that immensely, so why the hell not?

We got Bram Meehan, Santa Fe’s finest letterer and designer, on-board. He was the only choice having done such an outstanding job on Gentlemen Ghouls. And we were lucky enough to get the brilliant Chris O’Halloran to work his colour magic for us.

Alfie threw out some loose ideas: things like Moore/Bissette/Totleben era Swamp Thing, rural folk weirdness, Alan Garner, and Nicolas Roeg films. I took all that on-board, adding in my perennial WWII and folk horror obsessions before turning the brain blender up to full blast. Here’s what oozed out…

You can read the whole thing here: http://goo.gl/owtC4Y

If you like it, give the fellas a follow…

https://twitter.com/AlfieGallagher
https://twitter.com/ChrisOHalloran
https://twitter.com/BramMeehan

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.)

You can read my new short story, Ontogenesis, which begins with the line

I took Jesus to the river because I wanted to be rid of all that.

in the latest issue of Wyrd Daze. Available for free download right here.

Artwork by Emma-Jane Rosenberg

Signed copies now in stock.

Yep, copies of Aleister Crowley, Wandering the Waste are available at my on-line store. Signed and inscribed upon request. Ships direct from me. Details here.

Who could’ve foreseen that a weird graphic novel about Aleister Crowley would sell well and get good reviews and have to be relaunched at London Super Comic Con in a handsome new hardcover edition with an all-new cover by Roy H Stewart. Not me, that’s for sure.

Me and Roy will be signing at the Markosia booth from 2-3pm on Saturday the 20th of February.  And I’ll be there, flying solo (but hopefully not flying low), on Sunday from 11-12. Do stop by and say hello if you can.

It was great to get a chance to go back and fix a few small but niggling errors. And I was very glad of the design skills and all-round good taste of Bram Meehan, who pulled everything together for us on this new edition. This is very much the author’s preferred edition. So if you’re going to buy a copy, make sure it’s this one.

Here’s the skinny…

Aleister Crowley: Wandering the Waste, the critically-acclaimed graphic novel by Martin Hayes, Roy Huteson Stewart, and Paul McLaren is re-launching at LSCC 2016.

A meticulously researched exploration of the life of Aleister Crowley, with a foreword by renowned Crowley scholar Richard Kaczynski. This new edition has been revised and completely redesigned with a new cover and additional bonus content – fully annotated and complete with bibliography and rarities.

Know then the life and times of England’s most infamous son. Occultist, artist, poet, prophet, record-setting mountaineer, drug and free-love pioneer, spy, scholar, and legendary bad egg. Summoner of demons and loser of friends. An explorer of many realms who conversed with gods and angels but ended his days labelled “The Wickedest Man in the World.” A foolish genius. A much-maligned history. A wanderer of the waste.

Published by Markosia.
ISBN: 978-1-909276-75-8

Praise for Aleister Crowley: Wandering the Waste

“One of the most ambitious and well-balanced experiments in comics I’ve seen this year.” Hannah Means-Shannon, Bleeding Cool.

“The ending really is something quite interesting and special.” Richard Bruton, Forbidden Planet International Blog.

“Skilfully written and illustrated, leaving one almost dizzy and in mind of Vonnegut’s Slaughter-House 5.” Matthew Stocker, The Green Book.

“Deftly weaves together the spiritual and the mundane, truth and rumour, into what is ultimately a human story about one of the most ambitious people ever to live . . . a work to savour and return to.” From the foreword by Richard Kaczynski. Author of Perdurabo, the Life of Aleister Crowley

Written by Martin Hayes. Art by Roy H Stewart. Lettered by Paul McLaren. Designed by Bram Meehan. Script edited by Martin Conaghan. Published by Markosia.

A few pages from the prologue…

If you could smell my latest short story it would probably reek of mildew and frogspawn. It’s called Dāgônime. You can read it in the latest issue of Wyrd Daze.

Here’s the opening…

Dāgônime

By Martin Hayes

A three week wait. It kind of took the shine off the illicit and risqué nature of it all. Illegal drug deals – in the films they always seemed so exciting. But not here. Not in London. Not in the rain and sleet with the thousand-ton grey slate sky hanging inches above your head. Bill stood there like a lemon and held the crumpled fifty in his damp fist and hoped to fuck that it would all be worth it.

You can read my new and very weird short story, Changes in the Hive-town, in the latest issue of Wyrd Daze. Lots of great stuff in this issue; fiction, essays, interviews, artwork, and music. All wrangled into shape by the indefatigable Leigh Wright.

Preview and download link here.

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.

I wrote and filed the essay on a “lost book”. It’s a book by one of my favourite authors. A forgotten author. An unappreciated and sneered-at author. I’m bringing him back. And if you don’t like it then you’re a tasteless, dull-witted clown. Yes – you specifically. If you don’t like it then that’s what you are. It’ll be published late this year/early next by Zagava.

Also wrote and filed an essay on the sainted Nigel Kneale which will be out in late 2016. Nothing on this book has been announced yet, so I better not mention any details. But it’ll be brilliant.

Wyrd Daze will be publishing my new short story Changes in the Hive-town in an upcoming issue. No release date yet. Wyrd Daze is a great little magazine. Here’s a link to their latest issue, which includes my story Notes From Some Other War.

I also wrote a five-page comic for a charity anthology that’ll be out at some stage. It’s set in Dublin in the months following the Third Battle of Ypres. Not sure what the antho will be called, or who’s drawing the story, but it’ll be in aid of War Child.

No one was more surprised than me to see what appeared on page seven of the Morning India newspaper recently. Me, prattling on about horror. They misspelled my name but they did use the cover to Abominable Glory. So I won’t complain.

I wrote a little article for Bleeding Cool, which you can find here. A weird essay about three days in Dublin, and drinking too much, and comics and conventions, and a soft announcement about Older Than the Hills, the new project with Chris Askham and Bram Meehan. We’ll be doing a proper PR campaign in the coming weeks, but for now, all the info is in that BC article.

My short story, Green-eyed Monster (which I’ve written about previously here), is reprinted in the PUSH 2 anthology, published by East London Press. Edited by Joe England. Grab one here.