HotchPotch Issue 9

Issue 9 of HotchPotch comic is out now on Amazon!

An evil king who just wants to be loved, a daring raid on an elf city, a hazardous trip through the Temple Of Argh, and more in this full colour comic anthology for children age 8+

Mad King Numbles attempts to embrace the New Year’s spirit by ending his wicked ways. But is his Kingdom ready for such drastic changes? Find out in the penultimate part of The Last Of The Navel Navigators by David Hailwood, Brett Burbridge and Ken Reynolds.

Double O Ducky and Agent Stamper brave the dangers of the Temple Of Argh in an attempt to dig up treasure for the school show and tell.

Goblin assassin Dank Grapple and his Orc companion Bog trick their way into an elf city, with theft on their minds, in Sneaky Goblins by Rene Pfitzner.

All this and more await you inside the ninth thrill-packed issue of Hotchpotch.

If you’re a fan of Phoenix Comics, The Beano, Adventure Zone or Hilda then this ongoing comic anthology is for you.

HotchPotch UK Link           HotchPotch US Link

Sam Slade Robo-Hunter In : Escape From The Planet of The Robot Robo-Hunter Hunters (ZX Spectrum Game)

They said it couldn't be done!

They said it shouldn't be done! 

They said "Eh? Who's this 'they' he keeps going on about? We didn't say that!"

They said "Oh, we did say that, though... Now we're confused!  :s"

2000AD comic's Sam Slade Robo-Hunter has returned in a brand new, totally unofficial game for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum!

The 'C' stands for 'Christmas', 'Crackers' and 'Computer Code'!

 PLOT & OBJECTIVE

Oh, we need a plot, do we? ...Erm... Give me a minute...

Okay, how about this...

  It's Christmas and Sam Slade's faithful robot assistants Hoagy and Stogie have bought him a state of the art Virtual Reality system, (the ZX Ripovotron 3000), bundled with a brand new game entitled "Escape From The Planet of The Robot Robo-Hunter Hunters". The clueless duo believe that they've purchased a bargain, having obtained the system for a fraction of the recommended retail price from a mysterious figure on the street. Little do they know that the game is actually a trap devised by an evil, self proclaimed cyborg tech-genius known as Noel Skum.

  Having slowly become more and more roboticised while also becoming increasingly involved in a number of dodgy dealings and nefarious schemes, Noel believes it is only a matter of time before he ends up on Sam Slade's bounty-hunting radar and has decided to pre-empt such an eventuality.

  When Sam puts on the VR headset he immediately becomes trapped within the virtual world and must fight for his life for real. Eventually realising what has happened, Stogie patches Hoagy into the system in an attempt to assist Sam, but Hoagy's inferior AI fragments, causing the robot to appear in-game in a number of locations as a levitating head and also have some of his memories manifest, such as that of Sam's Robo-Meter, Cutie.

  It transpires that Noel Skum has also patched himself into the system remotely, in order to direct the game's virtual droids and generally keep an eye on things. To escape from the digital realm, Sam must search for and defeat Noel's robotic avatar, thus completing the game and destroying Noel in both worlds.

CONTROLS

• Kempston Joystick
• Sinclair Joystick
• Cursor Joystick (or keys, 0 = jump)

Up - Move forward
Left + Right - Rotate
Down - Fire
Fire - Jump
A - Quit game
ALT and F4 - Exit bundled emulator

Note : Exiting and re-entering a room resets it.

Zip file includes the instructions and mock inlay shown above, tzx, tap, z80 and sna files, PLUS a version you can run straight away without setting anything up! Just extract the files, click on "Sam Slade.bat", (or "Slade.exe" in the 'PC' folder), and you'll be up and running. You can even use your favourite control pad by selecting 'Kempston' from the options.

Sam Slade Robo-Hunter is a completely unofficial, not-for-profit fan-game by Malcolm Kirk.

Created using Iain Christopher Hayward's 3D Game Maker.

Robo-Hunter™ Rebellion A/S, © Rebellion A/S.

SPECIAL BONUS PROGRAM INCLUDED!

Blockmania : A list of cheats and pokes for 2000 AD ZX Spectrum games!

TO DOWNLOAD SAM SLADE ROBO-HUNTER, CLICK HERE!

My previous 2000 AD related ZX Spectrum games are available to download from the following links...

TO DOWNLOAD DREDD OVER EELS, CLICK HERE!

TO DOWNLOAD ZOMBO'S CHRISTMAS CAPERS, CLICK HERE!

TO DOWNLOAD THE FIRST ZOMBO GAME, CLICK HERE!

Created in conjunction with the 2000AD MESSAGEBOARD ADVENT CALENDAR 2022.

JINGLE BORAGS, EVERY ONE!

Back From The Depths Presents : Hallowscream! Hallowe'en Special 2022

Forever Autumn...

Rising once more from its uncanny year-long slumber, Hallowscream has returned with a fear-filled & frightening fourteenth issue.

Here's the Download Link (right click and 'save as') :

Hallowscream 2022 (file size = 50.1mb) :  MEDIAFIRE   DROPBOX   GOOGLE DRIVE

You can also read the issue online at : ISSUU

These are the full contents behind the scary skeletal cover by Malcolm Kirk...

Page 3 : Vampires & Aliens  Story by Tim West, Art by Dunk! Nimmo, Letters by Bolt-01

    

Page 7 : Deadvertisements  by Malcolm Kirk

    

Page 8 : The Apocalypse Boys Ride Out  Story by David Hailwood, Art by Brett Burbridge,

Letters by Ken Reynolds 

          

Page 11 : Deadvertisements  by Malcolm Kirk   

     

Page 12 : Terrorvision Guide  by Malcolm Kirk

           

Page 13 : Six Panels of Some Apes  Story & Art by Malcolm Kirk, (with help from Rod Serling)

    

Page 14 : Mods Vs Mutants  Story by David  Hailwood & Neil Bryant, Art by Tony Suleri,

Letters by David Hailwood

      

Page 19 : Snapper & Drilby  Story by Tim West, Art by Ben Michael

Byrne, Letters by Bolt-01

    

Page 23 : Off The Deep End  Story by Paul Bradford, Art by Randy Valiente

           

Page 24 : Terror of The Sheep 2 : Chapter 9  Story and Art by Malcolm Kirk

     

Page 27 : Deadvertisements  by Malcolm Kirk

       

Page 28 : Grim Gallery  Artwork by Tony Rothwell, Carol Kewley, Malcolm Kirk & Matt

Soffe ( https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/mygrimmbrother/ )

       

Page 36 : Back Cover Skull  by Malcolm Kirk

HotchPotch Issue 8

Hotchpotch Issue 8 is out now on Amazon!

Cheese Toastie eating zombies, mushy maggots with ketchup, scrappy goblin assassins, death by nuclear penguin apocalypse, and more in this full colour comic anthology for children age 8+

Zombies stop by for tea, after another of Mag’s experiments goes dreadfully wrong in Mag, Scientist by Malcolm Kirk.

Double O Ducky and Agent Stamper attempt to save the world from the villainous Blubbermonger’s latest evil scheme, which involves…exploding penguins!

Young goblin assassin Dank Grapple and his companions face endless perils on their quest to steal a powerful relic from an elf city in part 5 of Sneaky Goblins by Rene Pfitzner.

All this and more await you inside the eighth thrill-packed issue of Hotchpotch.

If you’re a fan of Phoenix Comics, The Beano, Adventure Zone or Hilda then this ongoing comic anthology is for you.

If you’re a fan of Phoenix Comics, The Beano, Adventure Time, or Hilda then this ongoing comic anthology is for you.

HotchPotch UK Link           HotchPotch US Link

Hallowscream! Phantasmagorical Fourteenth Issue Submission Guidelines

It's the time of the year when we at Back From The Depths are once again looking for contributors for our freaky free annual pdf horror comic, HALLOWSCREAM, so here are the submission guidelines...

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. Anything already completed is far more likely to make it into the comic.

Script submissions should also preferably be around 1-7 pages 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.

To get an idea of the sort of stuff we're after, you can download previous issues of Hallowscream here.

If you're looking to illustrate something, get in contact and we'll give you details of available scripts to see if anything suits your fancy.

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 jpeg or png.

Submissions can be sent to merjeagles@yahoo.co.uk or ghastlymcnasty@backfromthedepths.co.uk

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 : Friday 29th July 2022

Artwork : Saturday 15th October 2022

Completed strips : Saturday 22nd October 2022.

The finished issue will be available online as a free pdf by October 31st, with a physical copy becoming available via Lulu.com, at a later date. You can also keep up to date with Hallowscream news via the Facebook Page.