Thursday, 30 November 2023

HotchPotch Issue 10




The final thrill packed issue of HotchPotch is out now on Amazon!

Caspian Thrall and friends accidentally vanquish an evil king, Double O Ducky blows the top off a secret cloning project taking place inside an active volcano, Dank the goblin assassin returns home after wild adventures to find his family under threat from local hoodlums.

All this and more in this full colour comic anthology for children age 8+






Wednesday, 22 November 2023

Cosmic Masque XVIII (and a certain freelance peacekeeping agent)

Doctor Who returns to screens this weekend in the first of three 60th anniversary specials and it features a character who first appeared in a comic strip in Doctor Who magazine in the 1980s, namely Beep The Meep.



Coincidentally, a drawing I did of another character the Doctor has met on his comic-strip travels  recently appeared within the pages of issue XVIII of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society's free quarterly digital magazine, Cosmic Masque.

This drawing here.

It accompanies an article on Draw Death's Head Day , Death's Head being the character in question.  Originally created by writer Simon Furman, (whose birthday 'coincides' with DDH Day), and artist Geoff Senior, the robotic bounty hunter freelance peacekeeping agent has encountered quite an eclectic mix of characters over the years. Being a Marvel UK character, there's the obvious array of superheroes, but initially he was a supporting character in the British Transformers comic, before encountering said Doctor and other Marvel UK types, (he even once joined in a fracas started by the aforementioned Meep).

I actually had a letter printed in the original run of Death's Head own comic back in 1989, coincidentally, (again), in an issue which co-starred the seventh Doctor...


There's the letter there...


That building looks familiar.

That toad-like character on the cover, (and the main protagonist in the story), is Josiah W. Dogbolter, who coincidentally, (again), also seems to be making a reappearance in Doctor Who media soon, if that is indeed him on the cover of this new audio drama coming from Big Finish Productions next month, (he has appeared in other Big Finish stories previously)... 


Coincidentally, (this is just getting silly now), Phil Boyce has recently started doing a retrospective of the Death's Head comics over on his Oink! blog.


Click HERE to read the Death's Head entries.


Issue XVIII of Cosmic Masque is available to download HERE, along with the subsequent issue XIX and all previous issues.


Tuesday, 31 October 2023

Back From The Depths Presents : Hallowscream! Hallowe'en Special 2023

Something comes a-creeping...



Returning from whichever Hell it was banished to for the previous twelve months, Hallowscream is back with a blood-curdling fifteenth issue!

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

Hallowscream 2023 (file size = 50 mb) :  MEDIAFIRE   DROPBOX   GOOGLE DRIVE


These are the full contents behind the phantasmaphotographical cover by Malcolm Kirk...

Page 3 : Return Unto Me  Story by Dan Whitehead, Art by Mal Jones
    
Page 9 : Apocaly-Oops!  Story by Tim West, Art by Carol Kewley
    
Page 10 : Deadvertisements  by Malcolm Kirk
          
Page 11 : The Misplaced Tick  Written by AndrĂ©s Briano, Illustrated by Ciaran Duke, 
Lettered by Tim West   
     
Page 15 : The Jogger  Story by John Crowther, Art by Emi Utrera 
           
Page 19 : Undercurrent : The Good Samaritan  Story by Paul Bradford, Art by
Randy Valiente
    
Page 27 : Uncle Fred's Puzzle Page  by Malcolm Kirk
      
Page 28 : Terror of The Sheep 2 : Chapter 10  Story and Art by
Malcolm Kirk
    
Page 31 : Called It  Story by Gate Karain, Art by Rob Gaughran, Letters by
Tim West
           
Page 33 : Grim Gallery  Artwork by Tony Rothwell & Andrew Milne
       
Page 36 : Back Cover Skull  by Malcolm Kirk
 
You can also download all previous issues of Hallowscream at www.hallowscream.net

Sunday, 4 June 2023

Hallowscream! Fiendish Fifteenth 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 :  Monday 31st July 2023

Artwork : Monday 16th October 2023

Completed strips : Friday 27th October 2023.

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.



Monday, 2 January 2023

Sam Slade ZX Spectrum Game Walkthrough

I got the impression some people may be having trouble progressing past one of the first rooms in my recent Sam Slade ZX Spectrum game, ( details and download HERE ), so I made a walkthrough video. Be aware that it's a video of the whole game, so only watch as far as you need or want to...


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.

Friday, 9 December 2022

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.

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!



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


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

    JINGLE BORAGS, EVERY ONE!