Since getting laid off from the shipyard in mid May I have done just about bugger all of anything. This must change. So, time to kick into gear and push on with some projects that have been malingering in the edgelands for too long.

While I’ve been dawdling things have been chugging along nicely.

The Crowley book is out in the wild. The signed limited edition sold out in under 24 hours. The regular edition is still readily available.

Project Luna: 1947 is out there in trade paperback. Still a few hardcovers knocking about too.

Get It Down & Other Weird Stories, which collects fourteen of my short stories (ten previously published in magazines like Nature, Supernatural Tales and Innsmouth Magazine, along with four stories seeing the light of day for the first time) will be released towards the end of August.

But it’s time to get a move on with the new stuff.

The as-yet-unnamed WWII/horror graphic novel is ticking along nicely. Chris Askham’s pages are always a treat to see and Bram Meehan’s lettering is consistently top-notch. We’re close to a third of the way through it. Here, have a low-res sneak-peek…

I’ve got a few short stories out there, just need to keep them in circulation until, hopefully, an editor likes the looks of one.

There are a few other comic projects to get off the ground too, along with a couple that got off the ground only to then develop bad knees and rickets before collapsing face first into the dirt. Time to kick them back into life. Or kick them to death and have done with it. Better than having them hanging around in limbo.

Not long now until Thought Bubble in Leeds. Roll on November. I’ll be singing at the Markosia table on both days. Times to be announced.

And it’s off to London the following weekend for what promises to be an exciting event involving my old pal and Crowley artist extraordinaire Roy H Stewart. As Roy said to me recently, “Turns out the occult is a very friendly place.” I’ll post details here once it’s all announced.

Right then. Onwards.

I’ll just put the kettle on first.

I am told that Project Luna: 1947 is listed in the May issue of Previews.

The Diamond order code is MAY13 0753. If you were to bring that number to your friendly neighbourhood comic retailer she could order you a copy. We should all do that. Yeah! Lets! The 88 page + bonus material pulp science-fiction trade paperback will breach earth orbit on July 1st.

It’s still available for pre-order on amazon.co.uk

There’s an interview with me and Jim Boswell on the Markosia website. Click here to open the pdf.

The Project Luna: 1947 trade paperback won’t be released until July 1st but I hear that the publisher still has a few copies of the very limited LSCC hardcover edition in stock at their fortified storage bunker.

Jim Boswell and I are really happy with how this edition came out – it’s a thing of beauty. Jim’s artwork looks truly superb. The crappy jpeg below doesn’t do it justice.

Usual price is £15 + p&p. But Markosia have just begun a week-long special offer of £13 with free UK p&p.

Full colour. 96 pages including bonus material: sketches, script pages and things of that ilk.

Project Luna: 1947  will almost certainly never be available as a hardcover again.

Gears are slowly creaking into life for the launch of Project Luna: 1947 at LSCC next month.

Matt Soffe kindly produced this thoroughly brilliant poster for us. It’ll be included in the book’s bonus material. Matt blogged about creating the poster here.

A limited edition hardcover will be available at LSCC. Written by me, with art, letters and colours by Jim Boswell. 88 pages plus extras (script-to-art samples, sketches and whatnot). I’ll be there on the Saturday at the Markosia booth should you want a copy defaced with my signature.

A trade paperback release will follow through the usual channels.

Took a shortcut through a lane I haven’t used in many years today and spotted a very nicely made iron gate that I don’t ever remember being there before.

I used to walk through that lane at least once a week but I have no recollection of the gate, and yet the gate is very old. What’s going on?

Looks like I’ll have a six page comic called “Thunder On A Summer’s Day” in an upcoming issue of Overload. Probably issue three. No word on who the artist will be yet. I’m quite happy with this one.

Lets see – I’ve got pitches for two new 66 page graphic novels out with publishers at the moment. One seems keen. The other inscrutable. Fingers crossed.

Work continues on Project Luna: 1947 and the Crowley book. Both look to be on schedule to launch early next year.

This painting is haunting me.

My favourite of Gustave Courbet’s trout paintings – the fish seems to be staring right at you. There is a something in that eye that pleads for help, or at least mercy. The late Robert Hughes said “A Gustave Courbet portrait of a trout has more death in it than Rubens could get in a whole Crucifixion.”

It reminds me of bright summer mornings. A fit trout, fresh from the water and still squirming in your hands, has a unique and not at all unpleasant odour.

Project Luna: 1947. My collaboration with the infinitely talented Jim Boswell.

Look at that cover!

88 pages of retro pulpy science fiction goodness. Out from Markosia in 2012. Here’s to hoping those Mayan bastards were wrong!

Unlettered. Top notch work as always from Jim Boswell, who has made me promise not to write any more crowd scenes.

Here’s another teasing peek at what Jim Boswell has been up to while working on our graphic novel . . .

Jim Boswell has started work on Project Luna: 1947.

Here’s a tiny peek at what he’s been up to . . .

I especially like the fact that the fellow on the right somehow ended up looking like HP Lovecraft.  This makes me strangely happy.

More images over on Jim’s blog.

Project Luna: 1947 will be an 88 page original graphic novel written by me with art by Jim Boswell, who I worked with a little while ago on a four page sci-fi strip for Futurequake.

Contracts with Markosia are signed and we’re good to go.  Above is Jim’s first mock-up cover, a try out as he gets to grips with the characters, sorts out their hair colours and builds, designs the ships and what not, and it looks rather splendid.

Jim’s a great artist and I’m really looking forward to seeing his pages as they come in.

So, some good news to end the year on.  Who knows . . . next year might not be complete shit after all.