Butterflies and Moths, page 1 – by Corey Brotherson and Jen Gyllblad

With gamescom, stag dos, weddings, and various trips making the past couple months something of a blur, I’ve finally had time to sit down and gather my thoughts for a few seconds. Although the funny thing about reflection is sometimes you stare too long and don’t get anything done…

Right, let’s see if I can order these chaotic thoughts of mine.
Firstly, you may have seen in recent comic book news that the publisher (Insomnia Publications) of mine and Jen’s forthcoming graphic novel, Butterflies and Moths, is no longer around. There have been a lot of issues cropping up about the publisher over the past few months, most of which came to light most recently. I won’t go into it here, but you can read about it at the following sources, in order:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/05/25/martin-conaghan-resigns-from-insomnia-publications/
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/05/26/insomnia-publishing-calls-resignations-spring-cleaning/
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/07/05/how-to-get-your-rights-back-burke-hare-a-case-study/
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/07/17/insomnia-publishing-to-cease-publishing/
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/08/20/insomnia-publications-finally-gets-put-to-sleep/
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/08/31/pond-life-by-martin-conaghan-12-putting-insomnia-to-bed/
It’s a long and fascinating (not to mention painful) story; a cautionary tale of how not to run a comic book publisher. Sigh.
So, where does it leave Butterflies and Moths, and mine and James’ vampire short, The Twilight Cleaner (which was due to appear in Insomnia’s newest anthology Layer Zero: Survival)? 

Butterflies and Moths, page 6 – art by Jen Gyllblad

Well, Layer Zero: Survival was declared dead. And The Sleepless Phoenix: Survival Stories arose in its place, featuring many of same creators looking to get their work out there. Which is where The Twilight Cleaner will now be published. The anthology will go on sale next month at the British International Comic Show (BICS), where a number of the creators (myself included) will be on-hand to sell and sign the book. We had to raise a fair bit of cash to get the book on the road, but the target has been fulfilled and so the anthology is ready to go to the printers. If you want to pledge something or check out more information on the book, pass by here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/910305588/the-sleepless-phoenix-comics-anthology. The likes of Lauren Sharp and Michael Moreci have really pushed this whole thing onwards at an early stage, and deserve massive credit for getting it off the ground, along with many others who have promoted the book hard to reach its pledge target. Expect more information on the book closer to launch, and if you’re visiting BICS, do feel free to stop by our stand and have a chat.

The Twilight Cleaner – art by James Daniels
Graphic novel Butterflies and Moths is another story altogether. Jen and I are currently polishing off the first chapter and preparing it for a few pitches. We’ll see where that takes us. We’re not taking the news of Insomnia’s demise as a negative – we’re still going to push on with what we can and hopefully see it through to the end.
In other comic book related news, I managed to interview Steve Niles (of 30 Days of Night fame) at gamescom 2010 for the newest F.E.A.R. title. A really nice and terribly supportive guy – you can read the interview here: http://uk.playstation.com/ps3/news/articles/detail/item302581/F-3-A-R-writer-interview/
Oh, and while I’m here, I got my copy of Futurius’ The Darkling in the post recently, and it’s lovely. And I’ve got a guest appearance in it, bizarrely enough! You can buy it here: http://www.indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3911. Futurius also re-released Tales from the Plex 2, which features my very first published story, Bad Luck Inc. with artist Yui Marr. You can buy that here: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/futurius-tales-from-the-plex-2/12552541
Finally on the four colour front, Magic of Myths has been doing well. With the first three free issues done, Sergio and I are hard at work on the final three issues to launch the eventual mini-graphic novel in the next 6 months. The ebook has clocked over 1,000 visits and continuing to rack up hits, which is great to see – you can check it out over here: http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=39996. Meanwhile, the official site will be offering previews of the forthcoming graphic novel and news in the run up to its release. Pop over and say hi…
Lastly on a whole, I recently got my hands on my long awaited (2 years!) Pandora handheld device. And it’s superb. Any machine which lets me do writing, watch some DVDs on the fly, switch to a bit of gaming from the 8-bit and 16-bit era with excellent controls (my copy of Full Throttle is getting a lot of play right now), listen to music and go online (with touchscreen functionality and TV-out), all while fitting into my back pocket can only be good. There’s limited availability of the machine, but if you’re an older gamer who likes to have PC functionality literally in your pocket, it’s a veritable dream-machine: http://www.openpandora.org/
I’m sure I’ve forgotten to mention something else in this entry, but it’s gone on for long enough anyway. Hopefully catch you soon…

The long overdue second part of my update, then.

Although I’m hesitant to give it the usual kiss of death by talking about it publically, I’ve another story due for publication early/mid next year, courtesy of the good people of Insomnia Publications. By sheer chance I found out this UK based publisher was looking for submissions that were a little off-kilter, strange and different, which seems to be my bag (not just in my writing but, as anyone who knows me will tell you, just in my general personality). I dropped them a line, fired off my long suffering story, Butterflies and Moths, and waited.

Thankfully I didn’t have to wait long before I got a response. Which was, that despite liking it, B&M didn’t quite fit within their portfolio due to its length as a 22 page story. However, the company was interested in a shorter piece which used the same characters, for an upcoming anthology called Layer Zero: Choices. Suitably, my choice was to re-write the script to 12 pages, or write something new.

Hmm.

After mulling it over, I went with something new… and Butterflies and Moths: Fragile was born. And much to my relief, the script is nearly finished, too, in the final few stages of editing and rewrites. In the meantime, Insomnia’s Creative Director, the lovely Nic Wilkinson, did several things which made me very happy. She officially announced the story’s inclusion in the company’s blogsite, the Redeye, in this entry: http://theredeyed.blogspot.com/2008/10/trick-or-treat-choices-from-insomnia.html, convinced the artist who did the original sketches for the first B&M to draw the story (take a bow Ariyana – yep, the same extremely talented young lady who’s working with me on another story, the previous entry’s A Twilight’s Promise) and then made another official announcement in this entry: http://theredeyed.blogspot.com/2008/11/nightly-news.html along with the cover to the anthology.

Phew.

So, Butterflies and Moths: Fragile is coming to your shelves in 2009, through Layer Zero: Choices, all things willing. There’s lots of things going on behind the scenes which are very promising, and this is hopefully just the start of that – I have a lot of plans in the pipeline as usual, after a far too long stint of moping and waiting and more moping. What’s capped off the whole thing so far is that my friend, Matthew Gibbs, has also been signed up for Layer Zero with his excellent story, Erratum. Expect more on that as well, soon.

Fragile itself will be talked about a fair bit in the coming months as the promotion for the anthology starts up, so I’ll save my spiel for then, but I’ll leave this section with a tiny bit of blurb and some artwork that Ariyana did for the original B&M which will be developed for Fragile. Hope you enjoy this tiny glimpse.

Butterflies and Moths: Fragile – coming in Layer Zero: Choices, in 2009

Script by Corey Brotherson
Art by Ariyana Vidya

What would you do if the one person closest to you asked you to do something that put her life and your soul in danger?

What if the one person closest to you asked you to do the impossible?

What if you could do the impossible…

…and didn’t even know it?

Before the strike of 12, Angelica Delapz opened her 18th birthday presents. On the strike of 12, she was imparted with another gift.

And through a horrible, horrific explosion of blood and destiny…

everything
changed.

Hopes, desires… lives… everything can be broken… as if distantly flying on the fragile wings of a…

***

My next bit of news. As stated in my last entry, I managed to become published again this year, reaching my self imposed goal of trying to get a piece of my fiction published every year from 2007 onward. In fact, I broke that goal and became published three times this year, with a fourth by the end of this month.

What the hell is going on?

Well, as you already know, my WipEout HD fiction was published last month. What you may not have known is that indie anthology comic series Tales from the Plex was re-launched as a monthly in November, which you may have noticed via the banner on the right hand side of this site. The book will run through the rest of 2008 and all of 2009, with a variety of different stories available each month. It’s also the home of a comedy series I devised, called L33tspeak, which I’ve mentioned a couple times on here before, drawn by the lovely and wonderfully patient Stephanie O’Donnell, (not only the artist of L33tspeak but also the great talent behind the excellent The Original Nutty Funsters, a drama/comedy strip which is really starting to gather some much deserved attention after the release of the collection, A List of Grievances). Tales from the Plex will also be the place where A Twilight’s Promise will be published, next year. Yay!

The first two issues of Tales from the Plex are out now. Blurb? Why not:

Tales From The Plex #1

28 pages, black and white, RRP: $2.50.

VIRTUA-GIRL by Chris J Powers & Matthew Weldon, IT’S THE BEER TALKINGby Russell Hillman & Sergio Calvet, L33TSPEAK by Corey Brotherson &Stephanie O’Donnell, CROW’S FOLLOW by Cassie Summer (illustrated byBrian J. Crowley) and GUSSY AND PETERSHARK by Jesse Farrell.

Buy it here: http://www.indyplanet.com/index.php?id=1382

Tales From The Plex #2

28 pages, black and white, RRP: $2.50

MY OLD FLAME by Jesse Farrell, DEMI-DEMZ by Daniel Lundie, DOWN BY THE RIVER by Chad Nevett, Ze Troia & Nate Thompson, COLOSSAL BOY 3 Part 1 by Daniel Lundie, Celina Hernandez, Mike Murphy & Darren Schwindaman, L33TSPEAK by Corey Brotherson & Stephanie O’Donnell and TACO ON THE BEACH by Shironu Akaineko

Buy it here: http://www.indyplanet.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1467

I’ll talk more about L33tspeak in coming entries, but Issue three of Tales from the Plex will be out later this month, alongside its publishing stablemate, The Darkling by Chris J Powers, a great monthly limited series about a young girl trying to find her way through life… by being dead. Oh, did I mention she’s blue skinned vampire? And has to deal with some really, really weird stuff? It’s Bridget Jones meets Interview With The Vampire – a madcap fantasy comedy drama that’s unlike anything else in the graphic novel medium.


Buy it here: http://www.indyplanet.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?osCsid=730f357c8da3f2554031232145f9c6d5&keywords=darkling&osCsid=730f357c8da3f2554031232145f9c6d5

Why not give them a try?

And that’s me for now. Thanks for reading, as always.

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