MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Many thanks to all our readers, and we'll see you in March at HiEx03!

This Just In: GLUBBLEBLUGG

GLUBBLEBLUGG is one of those rare strips- one that arrives fully formed as a gift ready for us to use. The last of these that we received was KING of the CATS in SW05, so it is fitting that this one will run in SW06, in October 2010.

Written by Matthrew McLaughlin (More of him in the future- over on The Quaequam Blog and with art by Conor Boyle GLUBBLEBLUGG is a four page strip. Thanks chaps!

Friday 18th December.

Bit of an epic today, as I’ve not really been keeping up!

First thing to bring your awareness to is the rather splendid TURNING TIGER, issue 1 of which is available to download HERE. For only 63p, you can’t argue with that can you?

TT is a corking little title, written by FQP editor and Insomnia comics writer, Richmond Clements! Artwork by Alex Moore and lettering guru Jim Campbell does the honours textually.



I'd like to be able to bang on here about the structure of the comic, and how the storytelling really compliments the script- but to be honest, I'm rubbish at that. All I'll say is that I have printed this off for my kids and they happily read it all.


Also this week FQP got mentioned in the Insomnia comics BLOG, where Richmond and frequent FQP contributor Lee Robson were name checked, and then Johnny (Neroy Sphinx) McMonagle posted up DARK RIDER, PALE HORSE from the pages of Something wicked.

For the new issues, we are definately looking at releasing the new issues at next Years Hi-Ex Convention, and I've just received a very nice set of pencils for a strip that will feature in the next issue of Something Wicked.

Sneaky Peek! FQ15 Cover

What's this!? Sneaky Gibson Quarter getting the cover to Springs FQ15 out from under my nose!

Lovely isn't it? Over on his BLOG, GQ talks about this, and a few other things too. I'm really looking forward to seeing what this looks like when it gets back from the colourist.

Press: Thought Bubble 2009- Down the Tubes!

DOWN THE TUBES has review of the rather lovely Thought Bubble event from the last weekend, and FQP get a mention!



Thanks to Jeremy for the nice words!

Thought Bubble 2009

This was the first time that I had attended Thought Bubble, but it won’t be the last. I’ve been to many conventions in the time I’ve been involved with the Small Press, but I can honestly say that from an exhibitors point of view- this was the best organised, and possibly the most varied I’ve ever seen.

The venue is superb, right opposite the Royal Armouries in Leeds, I managed to guide the Bolt-Mobile there with almost no mistakes at all, a rare feat. As soon as we entered the hall, we were greeted and shown to our table by one of Lisa’s horde of helpers. A change from one convention where I had to go looking for someone who knew where we were, or another where all we got was a numbered diagram that left us to work it out based on the relative position of the moon and the stars….



ANYWAY! We got set up quickly and away we went! As with any new gig I’d not got the slightest idea of what to expect, but for next year I’ll be more prepared for the vast number of Cos-players, both of the slightly scary Manga variety and the more normal Supergirl or Iron-Man type.

It was lovely to catch up with so many familiar faces at the show, and also to meet some folks I’d only ever spoken to via the internet before. Networking wise I managed to get a proper confirmation for an upcoming cover for Zarjaz, discovered a few juicy bits of info that might be of interest to readers of a certain Megazine and saw an upcoming cover for the galaxies greatest comic.

I also got to make a fool of myself in an interview, scoff a donut given to me by an actual Art-droid and even sell some comics!

Overall it was a quiet day, though I did get to sketch Gene the Hackman for one young reader of 2000ad who knew a lot more than I thought he would.

Next year I’m going to be unleashing my newest assistant- Micro-Bolt! Mini-Bolt will be away at Uni (where do the years go? I remember building his kit as if it was yesterday) and so the baton of minion will pass to the younger Micro-Bolt.

This just in: DEJA VU

DEJA VU is the latest strip to be finished for the next edition of FutureQuake. Written (and lettered) by Adrian Bamforth with art by the superbly talented Toby Philp. This strip will most likely be in FQ 15, spring 2010.

Reminder: Thought Bubble!

Just a quick note to remind all you good, good people that the Bolt-mobile will be making its way up the M1 in the early hours of the morning, laden with FQP Product for the fine people of Leeds.

If you have so far managed to avoid picking up copies of the finest Small Press titles in the known multiverse, then tomorrow is your chance to take a peek and see what you are missing. It is also a rare chance to pick up a copy of the FQP family special, for just ONE pound.

And I'll even be scribbling sketches for those that want them.

See you tomorrow!

New Link added for Creator:

I've no idea how useful these are to folks, but if you are a creator on one of our strips, at any time in the present or the past- and you want to- send me a link to your blog. I've added a few that I've been asked to, and every now and then I think I should get organised enough to add more, but if you lot send me the links in- then I'll have no excuse.

Thanks to Eric Jackson (He's got a strip in the next Something Wicked called 'A Measure of Wheat for a Penny') for prompting me to do this by asking for a link.

1st Peek BUTCH STONE

BUTCH STONE is a strip commissioned for FutureQuake by writer Mike Moreci and Artist Andy Scordellis. Andy did THE CHEMICAL MARRIAGE is the current issue of FQ (14, you
do have a copy, don't you) and the pin-up he did for that was featured on this very blog.

Normally I don't like teasing for things that aren't finished yet, but I reckon this is spot on and a great way to warm up for a main strip.

The State of play November 2009.

I did this for Zarjaz & Dogreath last week, so it is only really fair to do it here too. There are a lot of strip pages currently awaiting printing for FQP. So far we have:

Murder, Ink by Nick Xylas and Rehaan Akhtar (3 pages for FutureQuake)
Flower Story by Azure and Sophia Grant (10 pages for MangaQuake)
Halloween in Hero town by Dan Rafter and Triluz (7 pages for MangaQuake)
Hunter/Prey by Mark Smith and Paul Johnson (3 pages for MangaQuake)
Outside the Box by Lawrence Conquest and Bolt-01 (5 pages for FutureQuake, and also available as part of the current TEMPLE
The Deadly Merger of Brilaxia Fo by Tom Davies and David Tomson (4 pages for FutureQuake)
Edge of Creation by Dan Hill and Bryan Coyle (5 pages for FutureQuake)
Ookai by Inko (7 pages for MangaQuake)
Search & Avoid by Inko (7 pages for MangaQuake)
A Measure of Wheat for a Penny by Eric Jackson, Chris Walker and Chris Fenoglio (6 pages for Something Wicked)
A Hobby a Day by Dan Hill and Matt Birks (2 pages for Something Wicked)
The Unleashing of the Ineffectual by Dave Tallerman and Duncan Kay (4 pages for Something Wicked)
Tom Foolery by Zackarya Anwar and Tony Suleri (8 pages for FutureQuake)
War of the worlds by Mark Howard and George Coleman (5 pages for FutureQuake)

Which is quite a bit!

We also have 123 pages of ‘actively commissioned’ strip and 101 pages of Script awaiting an artist.

All of which goes to show that we are going to be bringing you the best in the small press for quite a while yet!

Visit, The TEMPLE

The Temple is a digital showcase for many of the finest British comic creators and has five issues available for download.

The latest issue features OUTSIDE THE BOX, a strip that will be in the next issue of FQ, so if you want a preview of the strip take a trip to the temple and download the current issue.

The next issue is also going to be featuring FQP as it's small press feature, so I'd better get my big ol' behind in gear and sort out the stuff they need.

In other news- it is only two weeks to THOUGHT BUBBLE! Mental!

FQ15: 1st leak... EXTINCTION HUNTER

EXTINCTION HUNTER is a strip illustrated by longtime FQP favourite Gibson Quarter.

GQ has posted over on his blog about his strip for the next issue of FQ and also he is designing a cover for us based on the strip.




FQ15 is due for the Spring of 2010, as is ZARJAZ 09, which will also feature a strip by GQ. Here's hoping that he is able to make it over to visit for a signing!

In Review: B&W

B+W is a new (to me) web strip by Dave Cumming and BMB (FQ14- A Fistful of Shekels) and I ripped through it in a blur yesterday.

A rather nifty little webstrip, that will benefit greatly from building up over time. Take a look and join in.

Comps away!

As of today (14th October 2009) all the contributor copies are away to be delivered. If you have any work featured in the new issue listen for the patter of Thrills on the doorstep in the next few days.

And we're back!

With our website that is!

Webmeister Barny has now moved us to a new server, so the whole FQP Website is back in action. Click the button on the right to go visit. Being on a new host means that we've got some new bells & Whistles we can play with, so expect a few changes over there in the near future.

Thought Bubble- Here we come!

Now that BICS is done for another year, it is time to start getting sorted for THOUGHT BUBBLE. I've added a pic on the right hand side and I'm going to be making sure the mighty Bolt-mobile makes it through it's 10 year MOT before making the trip up north to Leeds!

As usual I'll have the full compliment of titles with me, though I've had an idea for a different display type to help with the sheer weight of issues we carry.

This is the first time I've been to Leeds, ever (It is after all, on the wrong side of the Penine's for a Manchester lad) so I'm really looking forward to it.

SW05 Pimpery 07

Welcome to the opening round of tonights show! First up tonight we have a hilarious feature we entitle -'You can have an eye out with that!' Ha Ha! From If looks could kill by Kevin McHugh & Neil Roberts.

FQ14 Pimpery 07

Drifting by Mark J Craig & Paul Carter gives us all a chance to visit an island paradise as part of a most unusual journey.

SW05 Pimpery 06

Confession by Robert Spalding & Bruce McLaren features an actual instance of precognition. Many years ago, Chris Rea actually dreamed the whole strip! However all he could remember upon waking was this panel, and it became the inspiration for his hit- The Road to Hell!

FQ14 Pimpery 06

The Vault by Dave Roberts & FQP favourite Peter Anckorn sees a cautionary tale about being prepared.

FQ14 Pimpery: The Sunday Special.

Today I have decided to do something a little different. The Chemical Marriage by Phil Rigby & Andy Scordellis is one of the strips featured in the new FQ, and as part of his prep for the artwork, Andy prepared a rather lovely pin-up, featuring most of the cast. I believe there is a colour version of this being prepared, but for now this is the best version available.

SW05 Pimpery 05

This is one of those 'quiet times', when you finally have five minutes peace, before the world comes knocking on your door with a tumourous fist demanding your blood- or is that just me? From King of the Cats by Andy Warner

FQ14 Pimpery 05

Crikey, some arguments are really best avoided if you are going to be hot headed! From The Stacks of Callimachus idea by Peter Kempton, execution by Chris Geary.

SW05 Pimpery 04

Ever think you've had a bad week? Tenure by Luke Borley & Calum Carr shows us possibly the worst week ever for someone, but who?

FQ14 Pimpery 04

In A fistful of Shekels by Ady Hall & BMB, we present to you a tale of greed, gullibility and the redeeming power of loads of money.

SW05 Pimpery 03

In Key to the Kingdom by Lee Robson & Caroline Parkinson, you will discover why sometimes those 'three little words' may not lead to eternal happiness.

FQ14 Pimpery 03

From Love & War by Dave Hailwood & David Thomson, can you guess which part of the title this is related to?

Shopping Update!

Greetings!

Further to the problems being experienced over at the FQP Webshop, I have now set this very blog to be able to act with Paypal and accept payments. Nothing has changed from the FQP shop, but this allows sales to be carried out whilst the main shop is repaired.

Simply look down the blog to find the issue you require (which surely should be only the new issues, you have had plenty of time to buy the old one's) and click the button underneath.

Happy shopping.

SW05 Pimpery 02

Sometimes you know you are going to have a really bad day...
From: Confession by Robert Spalding and (making his FQP debut) Bruce McLaren.

FQ 14 Pimpery 02

Loneliness by Alec Robertson and George Coleman shows us one of the pitfalls inherent in early time-travel experiments. Which one? Like I'm gonna tell!

SW 05 Pimpery 01

Today I present you with a snippet from BAD STATIC by Martin Hayes and John Cahill.

FQ14 Pimpery 01

Today I present to you a panel from ARMSTRONG by Armstrong by Chris Steifvater Thomas and Steve Denton.

NEW COMICS TODAY!

Due to the current problems with the main FQP website, I am unable to open the shop for the titles. However- If folk want to pre-order their copies of any of the titles, please email the comics and I’ll arrange delivery and determine costs.

NOW ON SALE FUTUREQUAKE 14 brings you 48 pages of the finest in the Small press. For a mere £3.50 you can discover one of the many worlds where Man Vs Machine is an everyday reality, see the dawn of time through the eyes of one who was there and witness the ultimate in home shopping!
STRIP Pages WRITER ARTIST
A fistful of Shekels 5 Ady Hall BMB
Armstrong 5 Chris Steifvater Thomas Steve Denton
Drifting 4 Mark J Craig Paul Carter
Loneliness 5 Alec Robertson George Coleman
Love & War 5 Dave Hailwood David Thomson
The Chemical Marriage 5 Phil Rigby Andy Scordellis
The Stacks of Callimachus 5 Peter Kempton Chris Geary
The Vault 5 Dave Roberts Peter Anckorn
Who fears the reaper 7 Mark Smith Tony Suleri


NOW ON SALE Something Wicked 05 brings you 48 pages of tales designed to assault the senses. For a mere £3.50 see the outcome of a science experiment years in the making, tremble at the truth behind a beautiful smile and quake upon hearing those three little words.

STRIP Pages WRITER ARTIST
Bad Static 5 Martin Hayes John Cahill
Confession 5 Robert Spalding Bruce McLaren
If looks could kill 4 Kevin McHugh Neil Roberts
Inseminhate 1 Dan the Emperor Paul Williams/ Steven Denton
Key to the Kingdom 5 Lee Robson Caroline Parkinson
King of the Cats 4 Andy Warner Andy Warner
Knock Knock 7 John Owens John Cahill
Tenure 5 Luke Borley Calum Carr
The scientist 5 William Tennant Vicky Stonebridge
Underworld 5 Mike Moreci Keith Burns

FQP Website issues- Update.

It looks like things are worse than we thought in the website dept. The upshot is that we now do not know how long it is going to take to get the FQP website back into action.

BAH!

In the meantime I'm going to start posting images from the new comics up next week to whet your appetite and hopefully I'll be able to start taking pre-orders via paypal.

Thanks to everyone who has gotten in touch with us about this.

It Came From The Stars- 5.

And there you have it. I hope you have all enjoyed the strip and I hope it has whetted the appetite for more new strips from FQP.

It Came From The Stars- 4

Small Press, Big Mouth: Richmond Clements!

Here's a thing! Richmond Clements being interviewed about all sorts of stuff. Hear the man himself as he talks about FutureQuake, Zarjaz, His Shiny new book deal and the comics he's written and then about the Hi-Ex convention he is co-organiser of!

It Came From The Stars- 3

FQP Website Down.

In other news the FQP Website, is unfortunately down, due to techie stuff.

FQP Web wizard, Barny Shergold has been on the case and hopefully the site should pop back into existance sometime in the next two days; just in time for the new items to be in the shop!

It Came From The Stars- 2

IT CAME FROM THE STARS!

As part of the run-up to the new crop of comics being released (All CD's are at the printers, so fingers crossed for everything being okay) we have got a new strip ready that we'll post up over the course of this week leading to the pimpery starting properly on Saturday.

IT CAME FROM THE STARS is a script by Richmond Clements and it was drawn by Bolt-01.
(An earlier version of this strip has been drawn by Owen Watts)



Join us tomorrow for part 2.

Creator Update: Luke Borley.

Luke Borley has 'TENURE' about to premiere in the new issue of Something Wicked.

In Review: Omnivistascope 05

OMNIVISTASCOPE is possibly the most highest standard small press title out there.

Publisher and lead writer Paul Scott brings us a massive 100 plus page title, that sees within its pages a superb array of science fiction, photo-story, interview and opinion.

The cover is by Oliver Redding, who graced us in FQ07 with Meet the Don and other creators some of you may find familiar are Bryan Coyle, Ed Berridge and Julia Bax.

This issue also features a repeat outing of a strip from FutureQuake 05- Tides and currents, relettered to within an inch of perfection by Paul and the strip really benefits from the improved printing OVS enjoys.

I recommend each of you to buy a copy of this, as it is well worth it.

In Review: STARK REALITY 01

STARK REALITY is a self published anthology strip collection by australian contributor BMB. This is the first of three volumes currently available, and I've got vol 2 in the pile to read in the next few months.

BMB openly states in his bio that he is a fan of 2000 ad, and it shows. The strip here all share a universe, and it isn't a very nice one. There is a lot here for a 2000 ad fan to enjoy, but more than that there is a sense of something starting. BMB's artwork is patchy in this volume, and if you compare it to 'CAVEY' that he drew for Zarjaz 07, or to the strip he has in the next FQ 'A FISTFUL OF SHEKELS' then you will see how far this lad has come. The scripts are solid, and entertaining as you would want for a first collection.

I'm looking forward to reading vol 2 when it reaches the top of the pile, and I'll be ordering Vol 3 as well when time and finances let me.

Something Wicked 05: First tease

Over on her BLOG, Artist Vicky Stonebridge has talked about her strip for the next issue of Something Wicked, that I received the artwork for yesterday. It is also the coverstrip for the issue, so I'm hoping it will go down well when the comic is released in October.

Here is a small tester Vicky sent me to show how she was building the pages.

Stripviewer: CLASSIC FutureQuake!

Freshly released from the archive we present selected strips from the original trio of comics that were FutureQuake.

Featuring contributions from Arthur Wyatt (2000 ad), Matt Timson (Impaler), Adrian Bamforth (2000 ad)and wrapped in covers by PJ Holden (Eclectic Mick...)

Catch a glimpse of the strips that started it all.


FutureQuake 01


FutureQuake 02



FutureQuake 03

STRIPVIEWER: Something Wicked 03

The October 2007 edition of something Wicked is now available to read online at the FQP website. Boasting a cover by DAVE KENDALL this issue features:

Dead Air- by 2000 ad's Alec Worley & Lonny Chant
Shouldn’t have asked- by Nick Andreychuck & Chris Fenoglio
The Beast within- by Mark Woodland & Bolt-01
The confronter- by Kieran Murphy & James Fletcher
The Hidden monster- by Ben Womack & Vicky Stonebridge
The Twist- by Robert murphy & Paul Carter
War diaries- by Terry Stock & Charles Paul Wilson with Steve Talaba
Withdrawal- by Scott Clements & James Feist
Zombigeddon- by Dave Roberts & Dan Kennedy

This is the only way to read the comic now- so let me know if there are any problems with the pages!

The Loneliness of the Runner

A message from FQ regular Christopher thomas:

As you may know I'm going to be running in a marathon in Tromso, Norway a week on Saturday (I make that the 20th June- Bolt-01). I'm doing it to try to raise money for the Stroke association, which helps stroke victims and their families in the UK.
Would you please sponsor me? Even if you can only spare a couple of quid it would be a big help.
This is the webpage where you can donate securely:

JUST GIVE!

This isn't the first time Chris has done this, and so I hope that he gets all the support he needs and gets a resonal best time too.

FQ13: Traumatised Astronauts- Components

Sometimes putting out a comic will be fairly straightforward: You get a good script, you comission the art and it arrives on time. Sometimes you don't get that- which is the subject for a later rant. Sometimes though, you will get a complete surprise- like this time.

Traumatised Astronauts is a fairly straightforward tale. Chris- the writer, had delivered possibly (to now) my favourite script of his, and I wanted an artist who would be able to deliver artwork of sufficient quality to make this look as good as I wanted it to. So I asked Steve Denton. I make no apologies for liking Steve's work- he's a damn fine illustrator and he knows his way around a colour pallette as well. "So what is the point of this?" I hear you mutter?

Well...

Take a look at these.





Nifty huh?

These are CG designs for the space station the lead character finds himself working on, and Steve spent so much time on these that the strip had to move issues (originally for 12) to accomodate. It is nice to see that even though the strip wasn't being paid for, Steve still wanted to deliver work that for me is of pro quality. Check out FutureQuake 13 for yourself if you don't believe me.

Forum closure on the FQP website

As some of you might have noticed- we are closing the forums over at the main FQP website. This is mainly because the bloomin' thing was dead, and also it was getting hacked again the other week. If you have any feedback, please use the email addresses.

Stripviewer: FUTUREQUAKE 08

It's that time of the month again! This month the might FutureQuake 08 becomes available to read for free! Just click
HERE! to visit the stripviewer and find another slice of classic FQP action.

FQP on the road, THOUGHT BUBBLE

Not content with Hi-Ex, Bristol and Brum, I'm going to be taking the FQP and Zarjaz table up to sunny Leeds on the wrong side of the Pennines for THOUGHT BUBBLE in november.

Hopefully this will be as much fun as I've been promised...

EAGLE AWARD Nominations are open.

I'm fairly sure many of you here will already know about this, but the nominations for the Eagle awards for the year are open.

Eligible for the voting this year are FQ 10 & 11, MQ 06 and SW 04. There are some cracking strips in those issues and it would be remiss of me not to encourage you to vote.

The voting is open till the 22nd May HERE!

Remeber to vote for FQP, we've been nominated twice, surely this time we get something!

Normal service will be resumed shortly!

Been back from Bristol a week now, and I'm still getting straight and sorted from everything that happened.

However I need to start getting moving on things for the future, so with that in mind let me tell you of a rather earnest and enthusiastic young man who stopped by many of the tables over the course of the weekend. Dennis Morrison represents Zzizzl, and they are keen to provide a platform for comics to be viewed in other mediums, in this case Video! The preview he showed me was made from 100 Bullets and was very interesting indeed. Take a look and get in touch.

Bristol this weekend!

Final reminder that this weekend we'll be at the Bristol comoc expo for the official launch of FQ 13. We hope to see lots of familiar faces and have a flippin' good time. If you've not bought a copy of FQ before, why the hell not?

FQ13 Previews 05

From: Timewaster by Paul Glasswell & Panos Kamoulakos


From: Our work here is done by Jamie Stanton & Duncan Kay

Post Update.

Yesterday I collected the new stock from the printers and spent the rest of the night sorting all the pre-orders. If you have ordered anything from me before yesterday (05/05/2009) it is all ready for the post and I plan on dropping it off before the weekend.

FQ 13 Previews 04

From: Bear him Away by Darren Ellis & Roland Bird


From: Traumtaised Astronauts by Christopher Thomas & Steven Denton