Well, I've been given the go ahead, so I can finally announce it.

As many of you know, one of my main incomes comes from book adaptations - ie from novel to graphic novel. In the past I've adapted Shadowmancer, Brothers: The Fall Of Lucifer, chunks of The Tizzle Sisters (now The DoppleGanger Chronicles) and of course over the last three years I've been adapting the Anthony Horowitz Raven's Gate series of novels; the first, Ravens Gate is due out later next year as a graphic novel after a variety of delays with the second, Evil Star following on about six months later. And currently I'm adapting the fourth in the series, Necropolis for Walker Books.

But that's not the only one. Because for the last three months I've been working with Hachette Childrens Books and Orchard Books on a different Horowitz project - Horowitz Graphic Horror.

It's a series of four books, each a digest sized graphic novella of about 44 pages, each adapting one of Anthony's short stories. The first in the line, The Phone Goes Dead is already finished and sent off to the artist for the series, my old compadre Daniel Boultwood who'll be taking on pencilling, inking and colouring for the books.

They should be finished scriptwise by the start of August (I'm over halfway through the second of my adaptations, The Hitchhiker as we speak) and the scheduled release for the books should be around September next year. So apart from the Doctor Who comic, with this and Necropolis, my summer workload really has been sponsored by Anthony Horowitz...

There's another adaptation I'm doing at the moment as well, but I'm not allowed to speak about that until it's announced at San Diego...

 

I'm stupidly busy at the moment, but tomorrow I shall be going down to Brighton and staying the night - not for some early week jolly, but because there will be an important discussion about free speech and the rights of the creator in comics, and as a creator who has harped on a bit about the fact that censorship can sometimes be blinkered, I'm going to go down to add my voice and name to it. As much as my voice and name will do, anyway.

For those who don't know what's going on, here are two links for you to go and read.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2009/06/05/freedom-of-speech-balloons/

and

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2009/06/07/are-you-a-criminal-under-uk-law/

The latter is more interesting in relation to Section 49 of the Coroners and Justice Bill, especially the part which says that having comics on your bookshelf that have certain acts, ie "the performance by a person of an act of intercourse or oral sex with or in the presence of a child" can lead to up to three years in prison for the person who owns it. Now, this might make you go 'absolutely. Deviant scum' - but that one vaguely described scene covers moments in Watchmen, Sandman, League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V For Vendetta, to say the least. If you own one of them, then a judge having a bad day and being a jobsworth can make your life VERY difficult.

Sure, it might lead to nothing. Sure, the same bill states that technically if the particular panel can be shown as part of a narrative that isn't pornagraphic in nature, then therefore it'll probably be all right. But it's not set in stone. And someone needs to look at this properly while it's in review.

The UK doesn't have a Comic Book Legal Defence Fund - and we don't have a constitutional right to free speech either. Perhaps we need to stand to be counted, before we can push to make changes.

I'll be in Brighton discussing this on Monday night, upstairs at The Cricketers, Black Lion St, Brighton, close to the railway station at 6pm, and this matter will be discussed from 7.30pm onwards by more learned people than I, including David Lloyd and Tim Pilcher...

See some of you there.

 

So this week the collected trade of my Doctor Who: The Forgotten series comes out in shops, and next month my 22 page one-shot Doctor Who: The Time Machination comes out.

 Then a month's break before the ongoing Doctor Who series starts with the two part Silver Scream, with the Doctor in 1920's Hollywood...

Whovians rejoice!

So I've not been around much, but I have a lot to mention.

(And this is even more later, as I've just discovered that due to server issues, this post hasn't shown for the last week...)

Firstly, hello to all my new readers. It's always nice to see some new faces. And secondly, I thought I'd bring you up to speed with what's coming out soon.

Right then, MILF Magnet hit stores in America today. It's out from Moonstone, and people who have read it think it's quite funny. But then they're not allowed out much, and when they're in their rooms they scream a lot. It's a story that Moonstone offered to me a couple of years ago with the line 'You might want to write this under a fake name' and has one of my favourite lines of dialogue ever in it - 'Now f**k me hard and call me Granny'. Oh yes. Much fun. There was an interview last year that I did with The PULSE about it, and you can find it HERE.

 Additionally, at the end of March my five part series Necrophim: Prologue begins. This is, well, the prologue to the later, eleven part series Necrophim: Prodigal Son and is labelled as 'Point Blank in Hell' although some people have misquoted this as 'Point Break in Hell' which gives a different story entirely. It has Seraphin and Necrophim and Lucifer and a vague conspiracy and I have no doubt that the guys on the 2000ad boards who hated Stalag #666 will detest it. But we live in hope. But no matter what they think, Lee Carter's art is incredible.

Also, in April I have a backup story in Amazing Spider Man Family #5 - called 'Treasure, Hunted' it's a jolly romp across the roofs of New York between Spidey and Screwball, a newer addition to the Spider Man family and was immense fun to write. Also in April is the release of the collected Doctor Who: The Forgotten by IDW, which looks spangly and nice, and sparkles and glitters in the sunlight like sucky Twilight Vampires.

In May, I have a 22 page Doctor Who one-shot out called Doctor Who: The Time Machination that features Victorian Torchwood hunting the Doctor, HG Wells and a man named 'John Smith'... It's a sequel to a Sixth Doctor tale and a prequel to a Fourth Doctor tale, and is drawn by the amazing Paul Grist. I also have the collected trade of Hope Falls coming out, the critically acclaimed and Eagle award nominated story that I created with long time chum Dan Boultwood. This is a bit of a personal crusade for us, as we need as many people to buy this through Diamond as possible, and for more information we've created a Facebook page HERE so please spread the word, tell your friends.

In June? Well, in June we have the release of Outlaw: The Legend Of Robin Hood, the 144 page Graphic Novel that Sam Hart and I have been working on for almost three years now. It's a beautiful piece of work and has already been announced as a Junior Library Guild Award Selection in the USA, which means it will be in every library in the US. Which is quite big.

And then in July we have the big one, as my ongoing Doctor Who series starts with IDW - beginning with the two-part 'Silver Scream', set in 1920's Hollywood, with Charlie Chaplin...

So. As you can see this is going to be an interesting year. And these are only the things I can announce at the moment. There's plenty more coming, believe me!

Well, tomorrow morning I'm off once more on my travels - tomorrow (Monday) I'm talking at a school in Hounslow, and then staying overnight at my father's house in Hayes, near Heathrow Airport, where I need to be bright and early Tuesday Morning, as I'm flying out to New York.

I'll be in NYC until the 11th, during which time I'll be doing a variety of things including being a guest on the Comic News Insider podcast, going for dinner with Bram Stoker's Great-Grandnephew, being a guest at the New York Comic Con, making a couple of announcements, visiting a few editors, meeting some of the Doctor Who New York society at their Monthly meeting and spending an evening as special guest on Comic Book Club - Live.

On the 11th I fly to Los Angeles, where from Friday until Sunday I'll be a guest at the Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention. I'll also be seeing the sights of LA with Comicraft's Rich Starkings, hanging out with Josh Fialkov, Gary Russell, Paul Cornell and Pia Guerra and having dinner with Jazan Wild. I fly back on Monday the 16th, and touch down around noon on the 17th..

Suffice to say that things will be busy, and I have not only got work to be doing while I'm there, I've also got a couple of announcements coming out. So, as per usual I'll be doing my best to blog daily on my Livejournal thingie. Now, I'm hoping the wifi situation is better than last year because last April the Milford Plaza wouldn't allow me to upload photos, and it was a nightmare... Here's hoping to a better time!

(Especially as I'm in a one bedroom suite this year)

Anyway, I thought I'd warn you. Be good while I'm gone.

Marvel.com have finally announced the Spider Man books coming out in April - and in doing so have announced the following...

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN FAMILY #5
Written by TOM DEFALCO, ABBY DENSON, MARC SUMERAK & TONY LEE
Penciled by RON FRENZ, COLLEEN COOVER, TODD NAUCK & MARK ROBINSON
Cover by RON FRENZ

Never send a man to do a girl's job! That's right, Spider-Fans, Mayday Parker, the spectacular SPIDER-GIRL joins the Family this month and she's here to stay to answer one crucial question: Who is GWEN REILLY? Elsewhere, take another trip to the neighborhood battlefield of Forest Hills, Queens, with Aunt May - THE AMAZING SPIDER MA'AM! And back in our universe, Spidey teams up with brand new foe SCREWBALL in a race against the clock to rescue a young child, and in the Private Life Of Peter Parker, new pal Carlie Cooper shows Pete how a real cop solves crimes -- it's Ladies' month here in the family, so stop on by! 64 pages of ALL-NEW STORIES!
64 PGS./All-New/Rated A ...$4.99

For those curious, my story is the one with Screwball vs Spidey - a ten page story called 'Treasure Hunted'...

Go look. Go order.

05/01/2009 - "Iz Wun An Award, Mum..."
16/12/2008 - "Doctor Who: The Forgotten #6 Sneak Peek..."
10/12/2008 - "With Great Sexual Power..."
12/11/2008- "Sorry guys..."
03/11/2008 - "Dodge & Twist at APE..."
22/10/2008 - "MCM EXPO This Weekend..."
17/10/2008 - "This Is A Souvenir - Jan 09..."
17/10/2008 - "Clues For The End Of The Forgotten..."
16/10/2008 - "He's Quite Good, You Know..."
10/10/2008 - "Back To School..."