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

You can read my story In The Beginning There Was The Machine in the latest issue of Flurb, edited and published by the mighty Rudy Rucker.

Plenty of other good stuff in there too.  And all for free!

I signed contracts with Insomnia Publications last week to write an original graphic novel based on the life of Aleister Crowley. This has meant I’ve had to crawl around the attic like some kind of giant, malformed silverfish to gather up all my old Crowley books.

Here’s a few for some light bedtime reading…

It will be done in a similar style to Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s  magnificent From Hell - as much as possible based on historical fact but with some fictionalised elements to provide a framework for the story and to really make it sing. Crowley wasn’t averse to fictionalising his own life anyway, so I’m sure he wouldn’t mind too much.

Crowley - Wandering The Waste will be published under Insomnia’s Vigil line of historical graphic novels, probably in 2010.

Not sure yet as to who the artist will be.

I heard from Nic Wilkinson at Insomnia that Robert M. Heske was putting together an anthology book featuring both comics and short stories based around the 2012 myths.  He specifically wanted a short story about what would happen the day after the cataclysmic events of the 21st of December, 2012 . So I knocked up a story and he’s bought it for the book.

The Seeds Of Time will appear, along with an accompanying illustration, in 2012: Final Prayer.

Due out sometime towards the end of the year. Should be a good book.

Just heard that Nature have bought another one of my short stories for their Futures section.

When I sent it in I thought that this one was a real long shot, but I thought that when I sent the first story they published too.

Out within a few months I should think.

Pleased to say that I placed a short ghost story with Supernatural Tales and a five page horror strip with an upcoming Insomnia anthology.

Both out next year sometime, I should think.

Got my contributor copies of Wasted issue 2 today.

68 full colour pages including Holmes Has It Large by me and Adrian Bamforth.

The Bad Press/Wasted lads also have  a spanking new website up here.

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

“Innsmouth Free Press is a fictional newspaper publishing faux news as well as original short fiction stories. We also feature some of Lovecraft’s classic tales.“

They’ve already posted the full text of Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

The first issue launches on June 1st, 2009 and my short story Beneath The Cold Black Sea will be in the Autumn issue. Due out in the, ummm, Autumn.

I knew all that tentacle porn Lovecraft research would pay off.

Our story “Intergalactic Bank Robbing Teenage Space Aliens On The Run” appears in issue 12.

Story by me, art by Jim Boswell.

Lots of other good stuff in there too!

Got my comp copies of the Spring ‘09 issue of The Stinging Fly today.

128 pages packed full of top quality fiction and poetry including my short story The Profligacy Show (in which someone pisses themselves, so, might be worth a punt for all the urine fetishists out there), plus poems by Knut Ødegård, and a short story by Booker Prize winner James Kelman.

Only seven euros . . . bargain!

Northern Haunts is a horror anthology containing 100 700-word short stories, including my contribution, Bad Place.

It’s available now on amazon.

Proceeds go to the American Cancer Society.

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.

Here’s John Cahill’s spiffing inked version of the panel I posted a couple of days ago - top cropped off so as not to give the game away with word balloons and what not.

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.