Merry Christmas, Mr Mothman

A festive treat for fans of the Fortean Fiend, Mothman returns in his first "adventure" for two years! Hope you enjoy it my friends and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here it is!

Return of The King

The Mentalist Monarch makes his long awaited comeback in 2011 in The Griefbringer Chronicles! Watch this space for more details!

The Daily Spine Chillers

Over the festive period my webcomic The Spine Chillers is being updated every day! There will be a new comic every morning between now and Christmas. Already we've had the unfortunate twitter episode, and part one of Legend of The Snowbeast, which starts today! Can Lovecraft, Bierce and Poe survive the unimaginable horror they face? Find out in the days to come!

And Merry Bloomin' Christmas from Mrs P and the boys, and thanks to everyone who has been reading and supporting The Spine Chillers this year, it really means a lot.

Ben

Ship Ship Shop and You Don't Stop

It's still a work in progress kids, but my shiny new online shop is open for business! It's at big cartel, I liked the name :)
The link is over there next to these words what you are reading. Can you see it? Champion.
Or if not:

Magic Beans Comics Online Shop!

Cheers me dears,

Ben

My Friend Flickr

You know the bit of my website that says Read My Comics! Well it works again! So if you click on the links you can, you know, read my comics! Thanks to help from my friends Martin Newman and Paul Thompson I've started uploading my comic galleries to Flickr, so the mysterious world of Magic Beans Online lives again... :)
No thanks whatsoever to Comicspace though, which I used to love but doesn't seem to serve any kind of purpose at all anymore. Never mind.

I'll keep you up to date when new goodies are added, in the meantime, enjoy!

Thought Bubble Aftermath

Another Thought Bubble is over, and it was a rather special one for me. Because it was the first convention appearance of my son, Dylan. That's him there, in his Batman T-shirt, helping out on the Magic Beans table. He was a very good boy all day and had a great time!
So did I, it was a superb event as always, even better than last years I think. I was part of the mighty line of Paper Jam tables, taking up practically an entire aisle with our awesomeness! And I was sharing with Graham Pearce of Sgt Mike Battle fame again, and our next door neighbour was Paul Scott, so it was fab to be surrounded by babysitters erm, I mean friends, all day :)
I didn't quite manage to get all five of my new comics printed in time, but i got three out, which I was happy with. I was being a bit overambitious possibly! Mike Neville Forever!, Gravy and Chips and Stringer Bell At The Earth's Core all seemed to go down well, in fact nearly all of my comics did, I had one of my best single days for sales that I've ever had all told!
I tried my best to get round and see as many people as I could, but the day passes so quickly! So I'm overjoyed to hear that next year's Thoughty is going to be a 2 day event.
I did manage to catch up with the Banal Pig boys, Hugh 'Shug' Raine, Magda Boresyza, Garen Ewing, John Reppion and Leah Moore and baby Eddie, the Accent UK and Futurequake crews, Tom Mcnally, Gary Erskine, Al Ewing and a few others, but apologies to everyone else I missed out on seeing, especially Krystina Baczynski. See you soon Krystina!
And special thanks go to Stacey Whittle, for the gorgeous toy dinosaur that she knitted Dylan. He loves it, it's become his favourite toy and is affectionately called Wonky :)
And now the con season is over for another year, and it feels good to be back after my paternity leave. I'm already planning for a big and exciting year for 2011, so I'll see youse about!

Keep watching the pies,

Ben

The Thought Bubble Five

The mighty Thought Bubble approaches, and the Magic Beans roadshow (me, a box of comics and a small boy in a Batman t-shirt!) will be there in force. We're sharing a table with the splendid Graham Pearce, creator of seminal small press comic Sgt Mike Battle.
This year's Thought Bubble is really the proper start of my return to the comics fold after my paternity leave, and to celebrate I'll have no fewer than FIVE new comics out!
They be:

Mike Neville Forever!
Stringer Bell At The Earth's Core
Funny Onion
Little Things Hitting Each Other
Gravy And Chips

It feels good to be back in the game, and I'm pleased with how they've all turned out!

I'll also have other goodies too, including some rather lovely badges and a new Spine Chillers episode to give away, and my postcard set which I've been working on for ages might be ready in time, hopefully!

I'll have lots of Renegade Arts Entertainment goodies as well, including the superb new comic 24 Hours In London: Shades of Grey, and postcards and stickers and that. Everyone loves stickers! You do, don't you? See.

I'm really looking forward to Thought Bubble, see you all there!

Keep watching the pies,
Ben

Happy Halloween!

Hope you've all had a spooktacular weekend! Me and Dylan watched The Haunted Pumpkin of Sleepy Hollow, I was going to put The Killer Shrews on yet again too but he fell asleep :)

And you owe it to yourselves to watch this:

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra Trailer. See, I told you!

But mostly, here's a sneaky peek at this year's Spine Chillers Halloween Special, which is one of the first episodes of what I laughably call Season 2. Expect thrills, chills, drills, hills, the lot. And new characters and (maybe) new jokes and plotlines and that :) It should be up to read imminently my friends!

http://renegadeartsentertainment.com/spinechillers/comic-strip

Smell You Later, Comicspace.

Right, I've officially given up on Comicspace and their redesign. So next week I'll be starting to upload my comics somewhere else, and you will actually be able to read them again! Just thought I'd say...

BICS Beiderbecke

I had a proper great time at BICS!

It was a superb weekend, and it was great to see everyone again and to make some new friends too, it feels like I've been out of the game forever but its only been about a year. It was a bit of a disastrous start like, the stock for the Renegade table didn't turn up in time, and the bloody car broke down on the way to the station. But the good folks of comic land saved the day, I managed to get some comics posted to my hotel on saturday morning, and Paul and Britt brought me down a table cloth. Extra special thanks to Gentleman Jim Campbell though, for making some banners and posters for the table at the last minute, he's a star, as you all know anyway. And I didn't eat that much at the Chinese! Well ok, I probably did... Jo was unsurprised, she says I eat that much all the time. At least I didn't want to go out for a kebab at 4 in the morning afterwards like Timson... Didn't really buy that much, Sgt Mike Battle Vol 1, London Calling (Keith Page! KEITH PAGE!) Dark Judgement, and Laura Howell's Adventures of Gilbert and Sullivan off the top of my head, haven't even unpacked yet. Oh and I love my Zombo mask quite passionately :) And I got two sketches for the boys, a fab Scooby Doo from Bolt 01, and Timson's interpretation of Iggle Piggle is a joy to behold, Dylan loves it. So thanks to you all for making it a fantastic weekend, when I was alternating between drunken euphoria and missing my family terribly. And thanks to everyone for the kind words about Spine Chillers and for buying my comics and that :)

Can't wait for Thought Bubble now!

BICSward Bound

This weekend I'll be heading to Birmingham for the British International Comics Show. I'll be manning the Renegade Arts Entertainment table all weekend in the main hall, so pop by and say hello if you're there! There's a brand new BICS themed Spine Chillers postcard for you if you do...
I've got a bag of chocolate and a good book, some new tunes to listen to on the train, and then three days of comic book nonsense to enjoy... I'm really looking forward to this weekend! But at the same time I already miss Jo and Dylan terribly and I haven't even set off yet, sniff... :)

Sneaky Peeky

Here's a brief first look at my 24 hour comic, MIKE NEVILLE FOREVER!

What's that? Big Triangle and Terry Futuro... working together?! I think Mike is in some serious trouble here kids... :)

All will be revealed at Thought Bubble!

It's 24 Hour Comics Day!

All around the world a bunch of crazy people are making entire 24 page comics in the next 24 hours, and once again I'll be one of them! I was going to be joining my friends from the Paper Jam Comics Collective at their 24 HCD shindig at Heaton Methodist Church, but in the end decided I'd better do mine from home, there's a small boy who needs his milk regular, dig?

So keep an eye out here and on the Newcastle 24 Hour Comics blog through the day for updates, photos and sleep deprived nonsense!

Ben

9AM It begins! Here we go folks!

3PM It's going really well so far! I've only had six cups of coffee so far too! Got 7 pages in various states of completion, and the whole silly story worked out in my head. Having a break now to have tea andfeed Dylan and stuff...

7PM Flagging a bit. Ninth cup of coffee almost gone...
Likelihood of Hitler appearing in my comic now almost certain.
Dylan's just gone to bed, now the real work starts!

8.30PM Displacement activity. Need break, reading Gods of Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer.

10PM Page 14 begun. Chocolate spread on toast. Hitler.

2.30AM Dylan wants his milky. Lost count of how many coffees I've had. Not making much progress.

7AM Gah! Fell asleep on Dyl's playmat. Not sure if I'll have time to finish now.

9AM Just about salvaged things. The last four pages exist in sketchy form only, and there's still a bit of work to do overall, but I have the basis of a pretty good comic I think.

THE VERDICT: Moderate success!

It'll be out in time for Thought Bubble folks, and it's called...

MIKE NEVILLE FOREVER!

Thanks for all the support and that, and if you've been 24 hour comicing yourself, I hope it went well!

Now sleep...

Ben

Attic Attack

It began way back in the second episode of my webcomic The Spine Chillers, and now at last the awful truth can be told! Just what is Mrs P up to in the attic? Ambrose Bierce has been obsessed with finding out, and now Bingo night approaches, and Bierce and the boys have put Project Rhubarb into action...

The culmination of more than a year of stories, dare you discover the secret?!

http://renegadeartsentertainment.com/spinechillers/comic-strip

Leeds Aftermath

I had a great time at the first (hopefully of many) Leeds Alternative Comics Fair last weekend. It was the first comics event I've been to all year, I sure did miss Jo and Dylan but I had a great time. My new comic Space Dracula seemed to go down well, and overall I had a superb day saleswise, selling out of three different comics!

It was great to see lots of friends for the first time in ages and to make some new ones too. As usual I spent everything I earned on more comics, including the fantastic Sherlock Holmes Vs Skeletor by Gareth Brookes. I'm already looking forward to BICS and Thought Bubble, and I'll have new books out at both so hope to see you all there!

Leeds Alternative Comic Fair

Next saturday sees the first Leeds Alternative Comics Fair, and the Magic Beans roadshow (me and a box of comics) will be there in force! This is the first comics event I'll have got to all year so I'm looking forward to it greatly, to see some old friends and make some new ones, and of course to talk a load of old crap about comics.
I'll also be debuting the first new Magic Beans Comic for quite some time, it's called Space Dracula and I canny like it.
Its on Saturday 18th of September, between 12 and 6 at A Nation of Shopkeepers, next to Leeds City Art Gallery. Hope to see you all there!

Comicspace woes

Comicspace are going through A mega-revamp at the moment, and all of my comic galleries seem to have disappeared! I'm reliably informed they will all be back up and running soon though, I'll keep you informed and sorry if you can't live without the beany goodness for a while.

Dylan,Dog

It's been a while since I posted, I hope you can forgive me chums. As you can see I've been canny busy. This is my son, Dylan. He likes milk and smiling and looking out of windows, and he watched Scooby Doo the other day. He is amazing and the best thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life. You'll get to meet him at comic events in the future, because he has literally no choice about whether he's going to like comics or not :)

He has decided to let me start working again now though, so expect to see some new comics up soon, and I'll be out and about at most of the comic events on between now and the end of the year. And The Spine Chillers is back following my paternity leave, special thanks to everyone who filled in with guest episodes during my sleep deprived absence!

Keep watching the pies,

Ben

The Flying Bikes of Paradise

It's been an eventful couple of weeks here at Chateau Beans. Sadly I couldn't attend the now legendary and fabulously brilliant Hi-Ex in Inverness, but I was there in spirit my friends, and I truly missed you all. Thanks to my pals from the Paper Jam Comics Collective there was a special edition of The Spine Chillers to read though...

Speaking of the Paper Jammers, their new anthology comic History...And That approaches, and I'll have a story in it, a colaboration with my dear friend Paul Thompson. It's about Pirates. I bloody love Pirates, me. This one is about my favourite Pirate of all, Bartholomew Roberts. He was like the Alan Moore of Pirates or something.

Last month's issue of Judge Dredd Megazine featured an article about Renegade Arts Entertainment, and included among many other things, an interview with me! It was quite a thrill...

The nominations for this years Eagle Awards have started, and I'm on the list in the Best Web Comic category for The Spine Chillers! Blimey. Thanks so much to everyone who has voted for me, and if anyone else wants to, well you know how much I love you...

And work continues apace on The Spine Chillers, new Magic Beans Comics, and my semi-legendary childrens book, The Boo Boat.

But mostly what I've been doing is preparing for the birth of my son! I am excited beyond words, and lots of other emotions too, some of them quite scary. But this is the most incredible experience of my life. Me and Jo have decided to call him Dylan. He's named after Barry Van Dyke's character in the seminal science fiction series Galactica 1980. (note to Jo, Mam and world: I'M JOKING!)

Although seeing as my boy will one day be a citizen of the 22nd century, I hope he will own a flying bike eventually...

I'll keep you posted kids, it won't be long now.

Ben

Punchasaurus

The heartwarming tale of a boy's friendship with a 200 foot monster, Punchasaurus is a strip I did for the children's anthology comic Space Monkey, the most recent offering from the beautiful people of The Paper Jam Comics Collective.
And you can read the whole thing online now at my comicspace page!

Where's My Golden Monkey?!

A new arrival at The Spine Chillers house, as the great M R James moves into Mrs Parkinson's guest house. But just what is his mysterious past with Bierce all about?! The first two episodes featuring James are up to read now!

http://www.renegadeartsentertainment.com/spinechillers/comic/

It's a book! Two words!

This week's Spine Chiller is up to read now, can Lovecraft cope with the sad loss of a beloved friend?

http://renegadeartsentertainment.com/spinechillers/comic/

I could tell you about Project Rhubarb, but I'd have to kill you :) But it's coming. What was that noise from the attic...?

Wintery Spine Chillers

This weeks episode sees the boys taking advantage of our glorious weather, with devastating consequences!

http://renegadeartsentertainment.com/spinechillers/comic/

And The Spine Chillers is now featured on webcomic directory site The Webcomic List!

http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/p/16376/The-Spine-Chillers

Dark Shadows

It's been a while since I talked about my love for the 1960s TV series Dark Shadows, so here I go again! I am committed to watching all 1225 episodes in order, and it is something that I love with such an enduring passion that I know I will be a fan for the rest of my life. With a baby on the way my Dark Shadows marathon is currently on hiatus for a while at episode 568, but it won't be long before I'm deep into the mystery and intrigue at Collinwood once again...
so I thought I'd share the article I wrote about Dark Shadows for Paul Scott's comic Omnivistascope, here it is...


A generation of American kids ran home from school to catch the latest episode. Stephen King and Tim Burton cite it as a major inspiration. As a child Johnny Depp loved Barnabas Collins so much he wanted to be him. But you’ve probably never heard of Dark Shadows. Luckily for you Ben Clark sets the record straight.

In 1966, the American TV Network ABC launched a new afternoon soap opera called Dark Shadows. It would go on to become one of the most unusual and enduring programmes in the history of television. Instead of the usual soap opera fare, Dark Shadows was about vampires, ghosts, mad scientists, witches, werewolves and zombies. Though virtually unknown in Britain, a huge following still exists for the show in America. Come with Omnivistascope on a journey to the great house of Collinwood, high atop Widows Hill…
Dark Shadows is a Gothic romance about the wealthy and mysterious Collins family, so influential the town of Collinsport, Maine is named for them. It begins when raven haired orphan girl Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke) gets a job as Governess at their stately mansion Collinwood. She has been employed by the matriarch of the family, Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard (Joan Bennett), but for what reason? She immediately gets involved in a feud between aging playboy Roger Collins (Louis Edmonds) and the debonair Burke Devlin (Mitchell Ryan), who has served time in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Then she encounters the supernatural entity that is Roger Collins’ ex-wife, and is kidnapped by crazy Matthew Morgan (Thayer David), only to be rescued by a ghost, all at the same time as trying to discover details about her mysterious past.
Dark Shadows was the brainchild of TV Producer Dan Curtis and writer Art Wallace. Curtis later made the two Kolchak TV movies, precursors to the series Kolchak-The Night Stalker, a huge influence on The X-Files, and the Emmy nominated mini-series The Winds of War. Wallace subsequently wrote for many esteemed productions, most notably Star Trek. Robert Cobert produced the haunting, Theremin-esque theme tune and incidental music, a major part of the show’s unique style.
While the programme is very much a product of both the conventions of 1960s TV and traditional soap opera, it stood out from the pack with it’s spooky vibe and air of Gothic mystery. Victoria’s journey is clearly inspired by Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and though the show is set in the present day, the 18th Century mansion of Collinwood, with it’s oak panelling and grand staircase, give it a timeless quality. The sets built by Production Designer Sy Tomashoff are one of the greatest achievements of the show, equalling the opulence of a major motion picture with a tiny budget.
In the 1960s, television programmes were recorded “live to tape”. Editing technology was so primitive and expensive that the actors had to perform almost as if they were on stage in a theatre. Producing five half-hour episodes a week in this way inevitably led to mistakes, and Dark Shadows is famous for it’s bloopers and fluffed lines. You will no doubt have seen many a boom microphone in shot in films and on TV, but probably not the actual camera! However the mistakes add to the charm of the show after a while and are barely noticeable. If it’s OK for William Hartnell to fluff his lines on Doctor Who, then it’s certainly OK for Joan Bennett!
Apart from a couple of ghosts, the supernatural elements of Dark Shadows were relatively low-key. All of that was to change, however, with the introduction a year into the show of Barnabas Collins, the vampire.
Although the unusual nature of the show garnered praise and attention in the media, it was not a great success in terms of ratings. With cancellation looming, creator Dan Curtis and his team decided to try a different approach. A secret room is found in the Collins mausoleum by scumbag Willie Loomis (Cagney and Lacey’s John Karlen). He intends to rob the grave inside, but instead accidentally awakens the 200 year old vampire Barnabas Collins!
Played with enormous warmth and depth by classically trained actor Jonathan Frid,Barnabas soon takes Willie as his Renfield-like accomplice, and introduces himself to the family as a distant cousin from England. In reality he is the original Barnabas who lived in the house in the 18th Century, and supposedly left for England in 1795. Cursed to be a vampire, his own father imprisoned him in a chained coffin, and he has been there, fully conscious, ever since. This immediately made him a sympathetic monster, and audiences went crazy for him almost overnight. He was the saviour of Dark Shadows, but also something of a millstone in terms of the direction the show could now travel. Dan Curtis was somewhat ambivalent about his new leading man.“When Barnabas Collins turned into such a huge hit, I couldn't kill him off, which I had originally intended to do. I had to find a way to keep him alive.”
Barnabas quickly became the centre of the show. A series of attacks on young women starts to occur, and the horror of “The Collinsport Strangler” returns after almost 200 years. Other plotlines are discarded, with the Collins/Devlin feud settled amicably. Blackmailer Jason Maguire (Dennis Patrick) discovers Barnabas’ dark secret, so Barnabas murders him, and he is never seen again. It may not be the direction that Curtis originally intended, but this is as compelling as anything that 1960s television achieved in any capacity.
A murderer and a monster he certainly is, but Barnabas is the archetypal sympathetic vampire. It would be hard to imagine the novels of Anne Rice without him, for instance. Driven by his feelings for lost love Josette Dupres, Barnabas was adored by fans, however terrible his actions. He kidnaps local girl Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott) and attempts to drive her insane to the point where she believes she is Josette, who killed herself in 1795 after finding out what Barnabas had become. (It was Josette’s ghost who saved Victoria Winters when she herself was kidnapped earlier!) After a few months of these storylines, the show became a phenomenon, and Barnabas-Mania gripped America. Toys, games, comics and novels based around Barnabas and Dark Shadows were produced in huge quantities to appease the massive following the show had among children, unheard of for a soap opera.
Though the supernatural now dominated the show, Dark Shadows was still grounded in reality. None of the characters openly admit that a vampire may be behind the horror that has gripped Collinsport, and those that come close to the truth are killed or driven mad by Barnabas and his reluctant henchman Willie. Even after forty years, these events are truly shocking for a soap opera or drama of any genre.
If Barnabas had never been introduced then Dark Shadows would be almost forgotten today. It inspired a boldness in the creative team that, however outlandish the storylines they came up with, the more audiences lapped it up.
Nothing Curtis and his team came up with was as outlandish as the 1795 storyline. During a séance at Collinwood, Victoria Winters is sent hurtling through time back to the 18th Century, where she witnesses the terrible events that led to Barnabas being cursed in the first place. Over almost 100 episodes, she interacts with the Collins family of that period. Brilliantly, the historical family are portrayed by the actors who played their 20th Century counterparts. This “repertory company” approach was kept throughout the five years the show ran, with the same actors playing their past, present, future and parallel universe counterparts. On a daytime soap opera!
The wedding of Barnabas and Josette is destroyed by Josette’s maid Angelique (Lara Parker). Angelique is a powerful witch, who is in love with Barnabas. At the point of death she curses Barnabas to be a vampire for all eternity. This one act of spiteful jealousy leads to centuries of pain and misery for the Collins family and those around them. Again, the beautiful Angelique became a favourite with audiences, despite her despicable actions.
After narrowly avoiding being hanged for witchcraft, Victoria manages to return to the present, to find her boyfriend Burke Devlin apparently killed in a plane crash, and Barnabas’ secret still not revealed to the wider Collins family. This is about a third of the way through the series. Alas, beyond this point I can take you no further. Not even the mighty Omnivistascope can compel me to seek out spoilers for episodes I have yet to see! My Dark Shadows marathon is time consuming and bloody expensive, but without question one of the most rewarding and exciting things I have ever encountered.
Apart from Prisoner-Cell Block H, Dark Shadows is the only long running soap opera ever to have all of it’s episodes released on home video. All 1,225 episodes are available on Region One DVD from MPI Media Group. I hope that I have made the show sound like it is worth further investigation! But a word of warning. Once you step through the doors of Collinwood, you may find that you never want to leave.

Joan Bennett
Joan Bennett played Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard, and she was the star of Dark Shadows. Starting in silent cinema, she became a major film star in the 1940s and 50s, appearing in several Fritz Lang pictures, Max Ophuls’ The Reckless Moment with James Mason, and was Mrs Spencer Tracy in the original version of Father of The Bride. Later in her career she also appeared in Dario Argento’s film Suspiria, itself reminiscent of Dark Shadows. Her character, the head of the Collins family, gave the show a real sense of drama and purpose, and in 1968 she was nominated for an Emmy for her performance. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Joan Bennett died in 1990, after an acting career spanning seven decades.


The Story That Refused To Die
Two Dark Shadows feature films were made at the height of the show’s popularity in the early 1970s, House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows. Both are available on DVD. In 1991 a lavish remake of the series aired on NBC, starring Ben Cross as Barnabas, and also featured Jean Simmons and Roy Thinnes. It started successfully, but was tossed around the schedule because of coverage of the Gulf War, and was cancelled after 12 episodes. In 2004 a pilot for another remake was made by Warner Bros. Starring Alec Newman as Barnabas and Marley Shelton as Victoria Winters, it was not picked up for a series or even broadcast and remains generally unseen.Big Finish Productions began their series of Dark Shadows audio plays in 2006. Similarly to their Doctor Who range, the plays feature original cast members like Kathryn Leigh Scott, David Selby, John Karlen and Lara Parker. Robert Cobert also contributed music for the plays, which still continue today.Warner Bros. retain the rights to Dark Shadows, and in 2007 announced that they were to make a Dark Shadows feature film. It appears that Johnny Depp will be fulfilling his childhood fantasy of being Barnabas Collins after all, as he is currently lined up to star in the film, with a provisional 2010 release date.

New Year Spine Chillers

A double episode of The Spine Chillers is up to read to start off 2010! The thrilling New Years's Eve episode, and also discover the awful truth about where Poe got the idea for The Raven from.
Quoth the Ben- know the score!

http://renegadeartsentertainment.com/spinechillers/comic/

Alan Frankenstein's Tales From The Allotment

Another new story up to read on my Comicspace page! Alan Frankenstein's Tales From The Allotment was originally done for an anthology book that never got off the ground, and it eventually ended up in Shabby Tales 1.
It's a story of Alan's day off, but really it's the pilot episode of crime fighting extravaganza Frankenstein and Onions. The first episode proper will be appearing soon, can Spennymoor survive the horror of it all?
This isn't the first time Frankenstein and Onions have appeared though, they made a cameo appearance in my first ever comic Mike Neville Vs The Monkey God, along with other Spennyverse characters Winston Phibes AKA Chimpy, and Old Man Dracula and Terry from Nessie Vs Dracula. Crikey it seems like a million years ago...

The Deadly Robot

The first story of the new Magic Beans Online Age is now up for you to read on my Comicspace page!
The Deadly Robot is a story I did last year for The Paper Jam Comics Collective's anthology comic Robots...And That. I hope you like it!

Lenny Biscuits

The epic gangster/werewolf/talking cactus murder mystery Lenny Biscuits was one of the first comics that I published, not long after Mike Neville Vs The Monkey God. I was always very fond of it, and Lenny himself, but for various reasons I could never quite get it going on a regular basis. Something else always seemed to come first, like Solar Wind or Mothman or The Spine Chillers.

Well all of that is about to change! Starting tomorrow, the whole of Lenny Biscuits Book One: Bite of The Strangler will be available to read on my Comicspace page. It contains the whole of the original three issues that I published, as well as a new epilogue and the thoughts of Dr Crime in Who Killed Mrs Biscuits? And there is also a preview of what is to come in Book Two: Windy City Rumble. I'm hard at work on that and publishing Lenny Biscuits online has given me a whole new motivation to get it going again, so I hope you enjoy it because there's a lot more to come in Lenny's wild and crazy adventures!

And I hope you'll email Dr Crime with your thoughts on Whodunnit, because he lives for it. He needs it!

Space Year 2010

Happy New Year my friends! The magical mystery tour that was 2009 is over, it was quite a year for me, hope it was for you too.

I start 2010 at a huge turning point in my life. In a few months I will be a father. Jo and our son are my whole world and I love them so very much. But there is still room in that world for comics!

The Spine Chillers occupied most of my creative output last year, and I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who has been reading it and has supported me. I love doing Spine Chillers and we've got huge plans for Year 2, including a collected edition full of surprises and new lovely things. Keep watching the pies!

Which brings me to my other comics. I've decided that with my main project being a webcomic, and with a baby on the way and me not going to many conventions in the near future, I won't be publishing any more comics for the foreseeable future.

Stop crying! What I intend to do is publish everything online from now on, with my eventual goal to collect them all in a book, similar format to Jeffrey Brown's Clumsy. God I love that book. I'll still be making the odd small, imperfectly formed bit of daftness here and there to give away, like the forthcoming Stringer Bell At The Earths Core. But Mike Neville, Lenny Biscuits, Griefbringer, Tab Monkey, Frankenstein and Onions, Professor Cosmonaut and Waxy the Elephant Detective and all the rest, they live online now. And one day in The Magic Beans Book.

I also intend to actually update my website! So I'll keep you informed of what I'm up to, when there's a new story up on my Comicspace page, and when I have a story appearing in another title, like that time I totally forgot to tell you about my Judge Dredd story in Zarjaz 8!

And as for everyone's favourite Fortean Diagnosis Murder fan, he's coming! The Mysterious Affair At Mothman's is on it's way soon.

As a great philosopher once said- Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. This is a momentous year for me, but I intend 2010 to be my most productive year yet.

pip pip,

Ben