The Mind's Highway

Off the back of yesterday's post about upcoming work, and due to the fact that I'm currently wide awake at 2:02am and working on it, here's some more news on Midnight on the Mind's Highway. As I mentioned previously, I've been working on this for the best part of five years - back when it was called DARK REVERIE, and very different to how it exists today. Anyway, a glimpse:

"The dark, dramatic and hallucinogenic tale of Carl Sark, a man frequently plagued by horrific, vivid nightmares involving disparate parts of a repressed, long forgotten memory. In desperation Carl volunteers to undergo a brand new form of regression therapy: The Mind’s Highway, originally created to let people re-live their fondest memories like they were happening for the very first time. But as Carl delves back into his past, unlocking the shocking mystery by piecing together fractured memories one-by-one, he’s pursued by a horrific, monstrous force that seeks to punish him for an act he's yet to rediscover."

That's just a short synopsis - there's obviously much more at work than that. However, I feel it does a good job of summing up the main thrust of this dark little tale. More information will come as I continue to pound out the pages, and especially when Insomnia gives me the okay to throw some preview art up here.

Until then, it's off to fucked up places I go... mentally, of course.

End of the World Party

So my first ever paid-and-published comics work is due for release next month, called End of the World Party. It's a five-page black-and-white one-shot that I've written, illustrated by the the mighty Monty Borror. I can't really divulge anything plotwise, nor can I link to any art. However, the press release with more information on the anthology itself - called 2012: Final Prayer - can be found here.

It's a strange little tale, very befitting of the subject (the end of the world, basically). But it's hopefully very different to what people may expect. It's at once intimate and epic, funny and hopefully shocking. And my main inspiration for it, of all things, was the French horror movie Martyrs. Though it shares nothing in common with the aforementioned flick, what I loved the most was the way the film altered itself three times over. It started as one thing, before shifting territory for its second act, and finally changed gears for its final third - all while maintaining a pretty linear and clear throughline.

So I wanted to do the same thing: set up a story that seems like one thing, throw that all up in the air for a shocking middle and then pull out all the stops for a crazy end. In just five pages. And while maintaining a clear and linear throughline for the story, so it all doesn't feel batshit crazy for the sake of it. Hopefully I was successful. I'm proud of the story as I think it's different, and Monty pulled no punches with the art. Time will tell.

As the press release states, 2012: Final Prayer will be released 15th November, and you'll find End of the World Party and 18 other tales featured therein. I also have several other comics projects due for release over the next year or so. Following End of the World Party is Senior Citizen, a six-page short for inclusion in Insomnia Publications' Layer Zero: Survival anthology. Then there's that one story about zombies for that thing that I can't talk about yet.

Finally, the big one: Midnight on the Mind's Highway, my feature-length original graphic novel due for release from the fine folk at the aforementioned Insomnia. I say it's the big one because, naturally, it's pretty fucking big in and of itself. But it's also something I've been working on for a good five years, and I can't believe I'm finally getting the chance to have it published. I'll be forever in debt to Insomnia, and the avenues for further published work they've opened for me.

All in all, a rather bloody exciting year ahead of me. Boom!