Merry Christmas from Mag, Scientist!

Click HERE to read from the start!

Mag, Scientist : Episode Six!

Late again, but here's episode six...




Click HERE to read from the start!

Party Crash : A 2000AD Choose Your Own Adventure

This year's 2000ad online advent calendar is currently in progress and Dirk Van Dom's contribution is a multiple choice adventure in the style of one of those books that were very popular a number of years ago. Here's an explanation from the man himself...

Remember the old ‘choose your own adventure’ stories? Well, I’ve prepared one for you to read/play, that centres around a night at a 2000ad Christmas party, as you mingle with various characters, get involved in various situations, and just generally try to make it through the night. The rules are simple. DON’T get eaten by Zombo. DON’T send Slaine into a warp spasm. And, above all, DON’T piss off Judge Dredd. If you can manage all that, you MIGHT impress Tharg and be rewarded, you MAY score with a really hot chick (3 to choose from!), you MIGHT save one character from an old nemesis, and you COULD foil a devious plot to sabotage the party and blow everyone to smithereens! Depending on the choices you make and the way you progress through the story, there are a number of different objectives you can be presented with. There are also quite a few sticky endings you can come to if you don’t choose carefully, so watch out!

To make things more interesting, Van Dom decided to get some folk to do some illustrations to accompany the text. Due to the nature of the thing, which pictures you see will depend on which choices you make, so you'll have to do some exploring to find my one.

Incidentally, the picture I've used at the top of this blog post is something I quickly put together using cover art by Chris Weston. Feel free to nick it for your own blog if you too want to post a link to DVD's game.

CLICK HERE TO PLAY PARTY CRASH!

Temple APA Issue Eight

The lightly seasoned Eighth Issue of the Temple APA* digital comics showcase is now available to download as a completely free pdf file. Full of comicy goodness from such persons as Simon Mackie, (also responsible for the cover shown above), Dave Hailwood, Matthew McLaughlin, Dirk Van Dom, Tony Suleri, Derek Hamill and numerous others including Malcolm Kirk, who cobbled it all together.

Also included is a small press Feature on Paragon comic.

To download, right click HERE and "save target/link as" Alternatively, it's also downloadable from CLICKWHEEL, MEDIAFIRE, or available to read online at MYEBOOK.

File size is 19.27mb

The Temple APA is a showcase of UK based comicbook talent, both amateur and professional. If you'd like to contribute or just want more information, check out the Temple website.

http://templeapa.socialgo.com/

http://templeapa.blogspot.co.uk/



*Amateur Press Association

The Stick-Man Christmas Special (2009)

The next part of Mag, Scientist is going to be a bit late again, I'm afraid. Meanwhile, here's the Stick-Man Christmas Special from 2009.

You can read the 2008 Special HERE.

Mag, Scientist : Episode Five!

After a slight delay, here's episode five...




Click HERE to read from the start!

The Stick-Man Christmas Special (2008)

Apologies to anyone hoping to read the next installment of "Mag, Scientist" today. The next episode has been delayed and should now be with you in a couple of days time, but while you're waiting... Christmas time is almost upon us once more, and you know what that means, don't you?

That's right... Repeats!

In this case, the repeat is the Stick-Man Christmas Special I drew a couple of years ago.


The 2010 Stick-Man Christmas Special will appear in the, (also soon to be forthcoming), Eighth Temple APA issue. All going to plan, that should surface some time next week.

Mag, Scientist : Episode Four!

Click HERE to read from the start!

Mag, Scientist : Episode Three!

Shorter episode this week...




Click HERE to read from the start!

All Temple APA digital showcase issues now on ClickWheel.

All of them to date, that is. Checked them all on firefox and they all appear to download properly, (Internet Explorer doesn't seem to like the site much). If there are any glitches, let me know on here and I'll attempt to fix them.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE DOWNLOAD PAGE ON CLICKWHEEL!

2014 Update : CLICK HERE INSTEAD!

Mag, Scientist : Episode Two!

It's Friday enough for me. Here's the second episode...

Mag, Scientist Episode One! ...and so it begins...

I'm going to aim for episodes of at least three panels per week. First couple of episodes are twice that big and here's the first...

Coming Soon To A Blog Near You...

Blackfriars continues

You've read the first episode of Michael Crouch's story in this year's Hallowscream, now read what happens next in EPISODE TWO!

Further episodes will appear every week over at the Storm Comics blog.

The full size mock-up Scream! cover can be seen HERE.

Right. That's Hallowscream dealt with, now...

...to deal with the next issue of that Temple APA thing.

It's for UK based creators, both amateur and professional, the deadline for the next issue is November 28th, writers are required to find their own artist to team up with and vice versa, already completed strips or pieces of artwork are welcome, (even if they've appeared elsewhere), submissions can be in colour or black and white and any length, A4 sized jpegs are the preferred format and, *pauses for breath*, an intro page is required telling folk a bit about yourselves.

The address to send your contributions to is templeapa@yahoo.co.uk

A Wintery or Christmassy theme might be appropriate for this one, I think.

Back From The Depths Presents : HALLOWSCREAM! 2010

It's here, full of fear and even bigger than last year!

The Hallowscream 2010 Hallowe'en Special! 84 pages of chills, spills, thrills and kills direct from the deranged freaks at Back From The Depths and it's completely free!

You can download it from CLICKWHEEL, DROPBOX, or view it online at MYEBOOK.

File size is 49.1mb.

Full list of contents follows...

Page 1 : Cover by Andrew Milne
Page 2 : Intro by The Reaper, Design by Malcolm Kirk
Page 3 : Contents Background Illustration by Carol Kewley
Page 4 : Blackfriars Script & Art by Michael Crouch
Page 9 : Terribly Bad Monsters : Barking Mad! By Christopher Geary
Page 10 : Little Yelena and the Golligugs Script by Matthew McLaughlin,
Art by El Chivo, Letters by Bolt 01
Page 13 : Terribly Bad Monsters : Bite Size by Christopher Geary
Page 14 : The Furry Collar Script & Art by Denise Ross
Page 22 : Terrorvision Guide by Malcolm Kirk
Page 23 : Grandfather’s Books by Sean Steele
Page 29 : What’s Blood Got To Do With It? Script by Dave Roberts,
Art by Owen Watts, Letters by Malcolm Kirk
Page 30 : Black Damp Script by John Owens, Art & Letters
by Christopher Geary
Page 41 : Mr. Fatty by Tim West
Page 42 : Hole Script by Steev Thulin-Hopper, Art & Letters by Conor Boyle
Page 45 : George Romero’s Living Dead Script by Matt McLaughlin,
Art by Conor Boyle, Letters by Jim Campbell
Page 46 : Wheels of Fortune Script & Art by Philip Sneyd
Page 49 : Speed Date Script by Dirk Van Dom, Art by Liam Matthew Byrne,
Letters by Alan Smithee
Page 54 : Camera Demonica Script by Mark J Howard,
Art by Antony Rothwell
Page 59 : It Wasn’t Me Script by Tim West, Art by Carol Kewley
Page 63 : Escape Plan Script by Patrick Sneyd, Art by Philip Sneyd
Page 64 : Terror of The Sheep by Malcolm Kirk
Page 71 : Windle Script by Liz Warren, Art by Conor Boyle
Page 77 : Promise Script by Dirk Van Dom, Art by Filip Roncone,
Letters by Chain Gun Chimp
Page 84 : Back Cover Skull by Malcolm Kirk

SuperSquirrel Undefeated Volume 2

Due to the secretive nature and tight deadline of the previously mentioned Get Well Soon Carlos Ezquerra Comic Thingy it's been decided that there should be a second volume to give people who didn't know about it, or couldn't get anything done in time, a chance to submit something. Deadline for this one is 1st January 2011 and you can read all of the details by clicking the link below.

The Get Well Carlos Project

Stick-Man on BuzzComic.com

I've uploaded some of my Stick-Man strips to BuzzComic.com.

Go take a look HERE!

The Secret Project : Supersquirrel Undefeated

Carlos Ezquerra is best known as the man who designed Judge Dredd. He's drawn other stuff too... Strontium Dog, obviously, Major Eazy, Al's Baby, Third World War, Fiends of The Eastern Front... loads basically, and he was there right at the inception of most of that other stuff too. He doesn't just draw, he helps create worlds.

33 years later, Dredd's uniform remains pretty much unchanged and Carlos's work still appears in the pages of 2000AD, and neither has dated.

Earlier this year, Carlos had to have a lung removed because of cancer.

The news of this came first from Dredd writer and fellow co-creator, John Wagner, and then from Carlos himself, who wasn't letting a bit of lung-removal stop him from posting comments on the internet.

It was at this point that Mark "The Legendary Shark" Howard, a longtime fan and frequenter of the 2000AD Online messageboard, began to formulate a plan - Carlos had been drawing comics for us lot for over 3 decades, so maybe it was time we returned the favour.

So, Mark started getting in touch with people and making vague references to a "secret project" .

2000AD fans, being a curious bunch, (in more ways than one), quickly responded by emailing him to find out what he was up to.

It was a Get Well Soon Card, which was actually a comic, which was also a way of letting Senor Ezquerra know how much his work is appreciated by both his fans and contemporaries alike.

To cut a long story short, Carlos Ezquerra now owns the only existing physical copy of Supersquirrel Undefeated on the planet, but you can download a (watermarked) pdf version by clicking on the links below, (file size is 56mb & second link works best for me)...

DOWNLOAD LINK 1 (zshare)

DOWNLOAD LINK 2 (dropbox)

...and if you'd like to donate a small, (or large), amount to the cancer charity of your choice, that would be appreciated.

That's my drawing of a Gronk on page 9, by the way.

The Reaper

Hallowe'en's at the end of next month and this chap's been hard at work editing and directing the efforts of a his mis-shapen staff of artists and writers to make sure that this year's HALLOWSCREAM is up to last year's horrific standards.



There's still time to submit any completed horror comic strips you may have lying around, and we still have a pile of scripts in a damp corner in need of some artistic renderings.

More info here... Submission Guidelines

The 2009 HALLOWSCREAM Special

Temple APA Issue Seven

Zombies! Supervillains! Cowboys! Strange creatures! Stick-Men!

The Seventh Issue of the Temple APA digital comics showcase is now available to download as a completely free pdf file. 56 pages of artwork and strips featuring contributions from the likes of Dave Hailwood, Dirk Van Dom, Matthew McLaughlin, Simon Mackie, Paul Eldridge, Dan Butcher and Adam Grose amongst others and I've got a few pages in there too. I also put it all together and did that cover right there.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY!

OR CLICK HERE TO VIEW ONLINE AT MYEBOOK!

Space Invader Optical Illusion

Boredom made me do this.

Ganjaman Presents Issue Two

Ganjaman Presents Issue 2 is now on sale.

http://ganjaman65.webs.com/apps/webstore/products/show/1322434

52 full colour A4 pages featuring stuff by Gilbert Shelton, Bryan Talbot, Hunt Emerson, Alan Grant, Bob Byrne, Dave Alexander, Pudsy Morris, Curt Sibling, John A Short, Gabbie Noble, Ty Stix, Nik Wells, David Hailwood, Jessie Makinson, John McShane, Dave Gordon, Jim Stewart and some bloke called Malcolm Kirk, whoever he is.

ADULTS ONLY!

Vote Doomlord In 2010!

At last a politician we can trust!


You know it makes sense!

Doomlord is copyright 2010 The Dan Dare Corporation
More information...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomlord

Scream Issue 16 (fake cover)

A fake cover for the non-existent issue 16 of 1980s UK horror comic, Scream! (it only reached issue 15 before merging with Eagle). This was originally created for April Fool's Day last year. It now looks slightly more authentic after being fiddled about with in Paint Shop Pro.



Relevant Links

Unofficial Scream! Fansite
Facebook group dedicated to getting Scream reprinted
Max from The Thirteenth Floor's unofficial MySpace profile

Temple APA Issue Six (and some news)

The (somewhat overdue) sixth issue of Temple APA is now available to download as a free pdf file. Almost 100 pages featuring artwork and strips by Adam Grose, Dave Candlish, Dave Hailwood, Paul Eldridge, Simon Mackie, Tony Suleri and there are a few pages by me in there too. There's also a feature on FutureQuake and a Small Press Directory, all put together by John Kirkham.

This is actually John's final issue and someone new will be taking over from issue seven. Hopefully this new bloke won't make a total mess of things or sully the memory of what has gone before. This is of particular concern to myself because I'm the new bloke. So, I'd like to take the opportunity to wish Mr. Kirkham well in his future endeavours and I promise to try my hardest not to ruin everything.

To download Issue Six right click here and "Save Target As..." or "Save Link As..." if you're using Firefox. File size is 50.6 MB.


If you’re a UK based comic artist/writer who’s interested in joining the Temple APA, then more details are available on the site which you can visit by clicking this link… http://templeapa.ning.com/

Monkey Planet

I recently had a go at creating a comic strip adaptation of a film in six panels for Little White Lies magazine's Kick Ass Creative Brief.

The rules stipulated that the story be in black and white, had to conform to the template of panels provided and must be pretty much coherent to anyone unfamiliar with the film on which it was based.

I went with Planet of The Apes and here it is.




You can see the winner and some examples by other people here :

http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/blog/lwlies-issue-28-creative-brief-update/

HALLOWSCREAM Needs You For Issue Two (Back From The Depths 2010 Special Guidelines)

Following the success of the Back From The Depths Hallowscream Special in 2009, we've decided to do it all again this year. That means we're once again looking for contributors. Here's this year's guidelines, (barely altered from last year's guidelines 'cos I'm feeling incredibly lazy)...

Ideal submissions should be horror orientated and must be weird or spooky to make the final cut. We are mainly looking for completed comic strips between 1-7 pages in length. Script submissions should also preferably be around 1-7 psges in length. Eerie illustrations and artwork along with interesting horror/comic articles, scary short stories, petrifying poems or anything just plain creepy will also be considered.

If you're an artist looking to illustrate a script, get in contact and we'll give you details of what might require your skills.

We'll also consider material previously published elsewhere, as long as the contributors own the copyright.

Completed artwork can be either colour or black and white, and should preferably be A4 (21cm x 29.7cm) 300 dpi jpegs.

Submissions can be sent to malcolm_iain_kirk@yahoo.co.uk or you can join the Creepy Community and upload stuff there if you prefer.


As this is a non-profit, small press publication, contributors will not be paid but they will retain copyright on any material submitted.

DEADLINES :

Scripts, articles and text submissions : Saturday 24th July

Artwork : Saturday 9th October

Completed strips : Saturday 23rd October.

The finished issue will be available online on October 31st.

Back From The Depths Presents HALLOWSCREAM! (2009 Hallowe'en Special)

Last year saw the 25th birthday of Scream! , a shortlived British horror comic. To celebrate this, the members of the forum of the Back From The Depths fansite decided to produce a horror comic of their own. In actual fact, there had been talk of a tribute issue for a few years, but the 25th anniversary seemed a good time to finally get our act together, so yours truly set some deadlines, rushed like mad to put it all together and on Hallowe'en night, 2009, it finally appeared as a free, downloadable pdf file...

72 pages of horror comic, delivered on time, albeit with one or two rough edges. Overall, I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.

You can download it from Clickwheel by following the link below...

http://www.clickwheel.net/features/308

...or right click the attachment at the Back From The Depths ning site and "save target as"...

http://backfromthedepths.ning.com/forum/topics/back-from-the-depths-presents

2014 Edit : Click HERE to download or HERE to view online!

... or you can now also read it online at myebook…

http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=19415

...but you'll need an account to be able to read it there, because I set it to be for "mature readers".

Another special is planned for this year and I'll be posting the submission guidelines for that in the not too distant future. Watch this space.

Full list of contents for the first issue follows...


Front Cover... Artwork by Dracaddict
Page 2... White Werewolf Pin-up by Andrew Milne
Page 3... Contents Designed by Carol Kewley
Page 4… BUZZZ! Story by Tim West, Art by Andrew Milne
Page 6… Dracula : Harker’s Journey by Rattan Bhagwandin
Page 13… Time Tours Story by Rory Kavanagh, Art by Bolt-01
Page 14… How Not To Sell Your Haunted House Poem by Shaun Avery, Art by J McMonagle
Page 15… Mostly Haunted Story by Tim West, Art by Carol Kewley
Page 20… A Grim Tale : Arthur by Malcolm Kirk
Page 22… Glubbleblugg Story by Matthew McLaughlin, Art by Conor Boyle
Page 25… Terrorvision Guide by Malcolm Kirk
Page 26… Hell’s Belles Story by Dave Hailwood, Art by Chow
Page 29… The Golem Rises Story by Mister Roberts, Art by Simon Mackie
Page 36… A Grim Tale : Stone The Crows Story by Tim West, Art by Andrew Milne
Page 37… A Grim Tale : Bloodline by Malcolm Kirk
Page 38… Avenger Story by Mo Ali, Art by Brian Gorman, Lettering by Chris Harvey
Page 44… The Bucket of Blood Story by Andrew Milne & Carol Kewley, Art by Matt Soffe
Page 51… Last Orders Story by Dave Hailwood, Art by Stuart Giddings
Page 52… Trick Or Treat Story by John Gatehouse, Art by Dave Windett
Page 53… Special Ingredient Story by Rory Kavanagh, Art by Andrew Milne
Page 55… Field of Screams by Malcolm Kirk

The First Post

Hello.

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while. I've already got one on MySpace, but this one seems more "official" somehow. Of course, what'll probably happen is I'll end up posting exactly the same stuff in both of them, but I suppose that just means you can choose whichever you prefer.

My intention is to post various bits and pieces of artwork and stories that I've been scribbling down, give some background details on aforementioned artwork and stories, generally promote myself in an arty fashion, and flog some gear like those T-shirts you can see down on the right, ('cos I needs the money).

I still haven't finished fiddling about with the look of things here, so expect that to change over the next few weeks.

Right... I think that's it for now. Catch you later.

Malcolm.