The Emperor

The Daft Judge Returns*

Yep my upcoming Dirty Frank story for Zarjaz, the 2000 AD fanzine:

Coming soon to Zarjaz, and just in time- Dirty Frank’s Holy Wrong. Join The Emperor and Bruno Stahl as they show us a glimpse of just how wrong some things can be. Available in Zarjaz 14, on sale from November. 

Special thanks to Bruno for going the extra mile and producing this image purely for promotion purposes (and because I thought it’d be funny) and to the FQP editors for letting me run even if I’ve had to sign a waiver exempting them from all blame.

* Returns in time to kill a certain comic creator

FutureQuake Press have just announced the release of Dogbreath #24 which includes the sixth Sun and Moon story “Reservation Dogs” that I wrote and the sublimey talented James Feist drew. The spectacular Gronk cover is courtesy of Nigel Dobbyn who also writes and draws a Gronk story inside, it brings the days of the Gronkinator flooding back.

Zarjaz #12 is also out with a cracking cover from my Vampire Vixens collaborator Alex Ronald (his big return to drawing Dredd for a comic in 10 years and, despite his years working on the title in 2000 AD, his first cover for the character):

These are the Strontium Dog and 2000AD fanzines (respectively) and are jam-packed with thrills, I can guarantee it as I worked as script consultant on both of these comics, although not every story had my beady eye cast over them (as the FQP chaps try and work quite a way in hand) enough of them have my mucky metaphorical fingerprints on them for me to feel especially pleased at the results (I did get a script consultant credit for Zarjaz #11 but really I arrived after most of the scripts had been greenlit, so I feel these two are really the first ones I had a lot of input into and I’m suitably proud of the results).

Don’t forget that in the latest batches of releases there is also FutureQuake #18, an anthology of Future Shock-style stories with this blinding cover by Neil Ford:

So you should pop over to the FQP shop and get the chaps to bundle up all three of them for you into one envelope to save on shipping, or keep an eye out for them at any number of cons throughout the rest of the year (I believe Birmingham and ThoughtBubble will be two big ones they like to attend).

Love these characters and the fact Dirty Frank shout and swear in German make it more attractive for me
Concept for an upcoming story on ZARJAZ.

Bolt told me they were searching hard for an artist who could bring the weird to my Dirty Frank story, and by jingo they’ve clearly got the right guy in Bruno Stahl. I can’t wait to see the pages.

John Freeman gives a run down of the best bits of the Bristol Comics Expo and I get a mention (thanks, of course, to Conor’s amazing art which has to be seen in the original to be believed, although you can have a peek here):

Top picks? As usual, I headed first to the Futurequake and Zarjaz stand, where the latest issues of both titles were on sale. Stand out strips for me in FQ have to be ‘The Secret Origin of Suspension X’ by Shaun Avery and Jim Lavery,  ‘A Free Ride’ by John Howson and Jack Davies and ‘Robo Sapiens’ by Mark Smith and Steve Howard. The latest Zarjaz, and ABC Warriors special, is a must, and not just for the knock out Cliff Langley cover; ‘Little Jobs’ by The Emperor and Conor Boyle (Conor showed me some of his amazing work, which deserves wider exposure), but the line up is hugely impressive, including strips by the likes of Lee Robson, Conor Boyle, Mike Carroll, Ben Clark, Jim Campbell, Gibson Quarter, Kev Levell and plenty more. Track a copy down, or face a Meq Quake Big Job on you!

ZARJAZ 11 is now available from the FQP Shop!

Contained within the cover by CLINT LANGLEY, you will find:

Joe Pineapples- Tin Man   by Lee Robson and Chris Askham
Mongrol- Blogging by David Withers, Bolt-01 & Mike Carroll
Mek-Quake- Little Jobs by The Emperor and Conor Boyle
Deadlock- Unrepentant by Richmond Clements, Gibson Quarter & Jim Campbell (inks & letters)
Blackblood by Eric Moore and Dunk! Nimmo
Steelhorn- Shadow of the titanic by Matthew Badham and Matt Soffe
Robusters- Terror in the Baltic   Ben Clark and Nick Dyer
A.B.C. Warriors- RICOCHET by Richmond Clements and Kevin Levell.

Thanks to the amazing Mike Carroll for the astounding logo for the issue.

Zarjaz 11 will be going to FPI and now ORBITAL of London in the next two weeks for those who buy their copies from shops.

The samples I’ve seen all look amazing, and Conor hit it out of the park on my story. Here are a few tasters to get you excited (and ordering, always ordering), in the order they appear in the issue (Bolt-01 also lettered most of them but is too humble to add his names specifically to the credits):

• ABC Warriors: “Ricochet” by Richmond Clements and Kevin Levell
• Deadlock: “Unrepentant” by Richmond Clements, Gibson Quarter and Jim Campbell
• Joe Pineapples: “Tin Man” by Lee Robson and Chris Askham
• Steelhorn: “Shadow of the Titanic” by Matthew Badham and Matt Soffe (also here and here)
• Ro-Busters: “Terror in the Baltic” by Ben Clark and Nick Dyer
• Mek-Quake: “Little Jobs” by Emperor (me, for those slow on the uptake) and Conor Boyle
• Blackblood by Eric Moore and Dunk! Nimmo (also here)
• Mongrol: “Blogging” by David Withers, Bolt-01 and Mike Carroll

Plus this is my first script consultant credit at FQP (or anywhere), not that I did much script consulting here (the Zarjaz and Dogbreath scripts I’ve worked on are coming later in the year), it was more proofreading the contents page and ads, but I’ll still take the credit ;)

First peek at my Mek-Quake story “Little Jobs” that will appear in the next issue of Zarjaz, their ABC Warriors special. It was a last minute fill-in request, as someone dropped out, but I’m really happy with how everything has come together. The name was the first thing to occur to me and it spun-off a story pretty quickly, it just took some hacking to get it into the right page count. Then Conor really got stuck into the art and, as the image demonstrates, he has added a tonne of detail, so it should be a real visual treat.

2000adonline:

Former droid Alex Ronald on his cover for an upcoming issue of Zajaz, the 2000 AD fanzine:

Dredd brings the Law to the Undercity on the cover of Zarjaz 12 due out later this year. The full wraparound cover will be viewable soon on the Quaequam Blog so check it out when Bolt one fires on the full preview.

I should have something in this issue and the cover is damn fine.

Zarjaz 11- Spread the word…

Thanks to Clint Langley for the Illustration, and to Mike Carroll for the logo.

This will contain my Mek-Quake story “Little Jobs” drawn by my fellow Fractal Frictioneer, the always excellent Conor Boyle. The first page is in the bag and it is a beauty, keep an eye out for teasers from this at some point in the future (damn, while typing this a preview of page 2 has appeared in my inbox, looking at it now and… bloody Hell that’s good. Just you wait you lucky people!!). It is almost a Fractal Friction special as Matt Soffe, Kevin Levell, Jim Campbell and Chris Askham are also on art duties for others stories, as is our guest artist Bolt-01. Almost a clean sweep there ;)

In equally thrilling news:

Due to the volume of top quality thrills, Zarjaz is now being published three times a year!
Look for new issues during the first weeks of March, July and November from now on!

This is a great development because Zarjaz has perhaps half a dozen scripts from me, accepted and sitting in their in-tray ready to roll - watch out for “Zenith” (kind of, I’ll have to explain what it is when the issue is out) Necronauts, Dirty Frank, Sancho Panzer, and… possibly something else I’ve forgotten, OK it might only be 4 (the first two were already being drawn when they were bumped from last autumn’s issue and given the ABC Warriors Special it meant it wouldn’t appear until autumn 2011, now at least one might appear in July - happy days). Plus I have been greenlit to write a Devlin Waugh story (for which the lovely Colin MacNeil has offered to do a matching cover, although I won’t hold him to it if Tharg is working him hard, but it is a nice incentive to get the script done soon, even if I also have to show it to John Smith who might tear me a new one) and to turn one of those 4 into a short series (even if they questioned my sanity when I outlined the story to them, they were gracious enough to let me run with it). I’m also working on another story with an artist (and some input from the writer) that the editors don’t even know about yet, so even they are in for a surprise - I just hope I can make it a pleasant one.

I’m also helping out the FQP chaps on Zarjaz in a script consultant role, so I can guarantee upcoming issues are going to be… well simply Zarjaz. Not because I’m now involved in a very minor capacity, of course, but mainly because I’ve got a sneaky peek at some of the upcoming stories and you are in for a treat. If you haven’t read the latest issues from FutureQuake Press then hop on over to their shop and get stuck in.