Issue 2 Cover

The cover of issue 2 will spotlight Call Malone and the other wonderful ladies (of the night) who star in "Atomic Call". The pic features, from left to right: Raquel "Rack" Wiseman, Sally Marrett, Colleen "Call" Malone and Mandy S.N.A (Surname Not Applicable.)

Art is by series artist David Blankley.

Forbidden Planet and Comics Bulletin Reviews

Here's a link to the final review of issue 1, as provided by Kelvin Green at Line of Fire Reviews. It's the most positive one yet, and very welcome, as I've been following Kelvin's reviews and they are always very insightful. He knows his stuff so if he's giving us the thumbs up, we must be doing something right! :)

Also, a review from Forbidden Planet International which is not quite as glowing but still has positive things to say. It's a bit "hit and miss" the review states, but that's probably always going to be the case with an anthology comic - different strips will appeal to different people, as I've already seen with previous reviews. I could call 2000ad a "hit and miss" comic, seeing as of the 5 stories that appear each week, its very rare all five of them appeal to me. There tends to be 2 or 3 strips running at any time that I love and another two that I'm not that bothered about. So that's the nature of the beast then.

Nevertheless, all comments and crits of issue 1 have been taken on board and duly processed, in order to make sure issue 2 builds on them and improves all around. And it is looking pretty good. It will have 4 extra pages, to accomodate an additional story, a cool Atomic Call cover by series artist David Blankley and a full colour 1 page strip on the back cover by Redbats' newest captive artist BHUNA - check his work out HERE.

There will also be - wait for it - FREE GIFTS! In the form of some snazzy, exclusive artcards AND...something else, that I can't talk about just yet. But needless to say, it will make money spent on this issue VERY well spent indeed! More on that closer to the time.

In the meantime, I am happy to report sales have been good for issue 1. I only have a handful of copies left and have just about made back my printing costs, which is the icing on the cake in my book.

Keep an eye out for issue 2, in early (ish) January!

Bye-bats!

DVD, October 2011

2nd Review and Digital Download Info

Second review of issue 1 is up HERE on Irish Comic News.com - another pretty favourable one too. Interestingly, this review is almost the polar opposite of the one that appeared on ECBT2000ad here. That reviewer liked the cover, "Tucker" and "Mammoth Jack" but wasn't a fan of the fantasy-themed "Halo and the Gryphon". This reviewer doesn't like the cover, loves "Halo and the Gryphon" and was (reading between the lines) so offended by "Tucker" and "Mammoth Jack" that Tucker doesn't get a mention and Mammoth Jack only receives one comment, that it is a "gorefest" which will "not be to everyone's tastes". Well--that's kind of what I was going for, so I'm fine with that really! The one thing the reviews have in common is that they both seemed to enjoy Atomic-Call. More reviews needed I think!

In other news, for those of you who have fully embraced the "Digital Age" and no longer read comics the old-fashioned, fuddy-duddy paper way (for shame!) there are now two new ways for you to check out Vanguard!

If you like Lulu.com (and who doesn't like Lulu.com) you can download a copy HERE --- for only 99p, I might add!

And if you are a Myebook.com user, you can do the same - for the same price - HERE.

Simple!

More previews and a review

So two weeks on and I'm happy to report the comic seems to be going down pretty well. Thank heavens!

The mag has had a nice little write up by John Freeman on Down The Tubes, which you can read HERE.

The first review of the comic is also online HERE at Everything Comes Back to 2000ad. Pretty happy with that one! :)

I hope to get a few more reviews coming in soon, I'll be sure to post them when they arrive.

In the meantime, here are a few more previews from Issue 1, in case you haven't been convinced to give it a try yet!

From Atomic Call, art/letters by David Blankley:




From Halo and the Gryphon, art by Louis Carter, letters by Chaingun Chimp:




From Mammoth-Jack, art/letters by Owen Watts:



Based on the response to issue 1, issue 2 is now definately a go. The scripts are written and now it just remains for me to track down my artistic comrades and lock them up in a dark room somewhere for a couple of months! Once more upon the breach, my friends! Tally-ho!!!!

Vanguard! Issue One - Available Now!

At last, our baby is ready to be sent out into the Big Bad World!

The culmination of several months work is back from the printers and boy does it look awesome! (If I do say so myself. :)

My collaborators on this project have put their all into turning in some fantastic-looking pages and the whole thing sits together really well. With this first issue, our small-press adventure is off to a fine beginning, and I can promise that it will only get better from here. The only thing to do now is attempt to get some copies of this beautiful little comic into your mitts, so we can share all our hard work with you! And with that in mind...here's the ordering info!

The best way to order is via paypal.
Our paypal ID is vanguardcomic@gmail.com
Costs are as follows:

In the UK:
Comic - £2.00 Postage - £1.50
In NI:
Comic - £2.00 Postage £1.00
In ROI:
Comic - €2.50 Postage - €1.00 (or free if I live close enough to you to deliver!:)

We've tried to keep the price as low as possible whilst also attempting to garner back some of the printing costs. Unfortunately, the postage cost is the regular postage cost and there's absolutely nothing we can do about that.

If you don't like Paypal and would like to discuss alternative means of payment you can contact us at vanguardcomic@gmail.com

And just for the record, here's what you get for your money:

24 pages of shiny comic goodness!
8 noir- styled pages of femme fatale action by David Blankley!
7 mind-tripping pages of fantasy action featuring Gryphons and Smoke Angels by Louis Carter!
6 wonderful panels of dark humour by El Magnifico El Chivo!
5 greyscale-tastic pages of donkey-packed mayhem by Owen Watts!
4 stories covering a mix of sci-fi, fantasy, humour and horror genres!
3 preview panels from the next installments of our stories!
2 pages of gloriously atmospheric gothic art by David Withers!
and 1 arsom, full colour cover by the one and only Liam Byrne!

How do you like them apples?? :)

Go on, give us a try folks! There's something in here for everyone and I honestly don't think you'll be disappointed! We need your support and feedback to make sure the next issue is even better!

Ciao!

Dirk Van Dom, July 2011

Gryphons and Donkeys and Parachuting Psychopaths...Oh My!

Earlier in the week I received the artwork for the cover to issue 1, along with the title of this post as an email subject line, adequately describing it. You can view it in all its glory below.

This wonderful piece of front cover-wizardry comes courtesy of the ever-amazing and uber-talented LIAM BYRNE, aka, GHOSTPOCKETS. I wanted something snazzy and colourful and a wee bit psychadelic and Mr. Pockets that-are-Ghostly delivered in spades, with his own renditions of the stars of the comic. I am, needless to say, incredibly happy with this! It's gonna look great as a printed mag...which shouldn't be long now, as there's only a page or 2 of artwork still to come in and then it's all systems go!

Rest assured I shall be keeping you posted!

Thoughts on the cover? Let me know!

Introducing - Vanguard!

One-Woman War Machines! Gryphons! Invisible-ish Men! Smoke Angels! Angry One-Eyed Donkeys!

This is VANGUARD, a new anthology comic featuring four (would be) on-going serials, written by myself and illustrated by some of the best talent working in the UK small press arena.

The idea for Vanguard came about when, at the start of the year, I was going through my files of old story ideas to see which ones I could resurrect and turn into comic scripts. Having gotten into the comic-scripting game last year and been lucky enough to have a number of scripts accepted by various publications, both online and print, I was keen to revisit these old ideas, which were languishing on my hard-drive gathering cyber-dust. I came across three stories in particular which I've been working on, on and off, for the best part of the last ten years, originally with the idea of developing them as novels. That plan has been going nowhere fast for a long time though, and with three half-completed manuscripts and no end in sight for any of them, it suddenly occurred to me that all three might work a lot better as comic strips. A quick trial at creating 6-7 page "part ones" for each of them made me realise I had three pretty much 'ready to go' comic series on my hands, ones I was sure would make for some entertaining reading. But what was I to do with them?

There aren't many places you can submit series ideas to in the UK small press, as most outlets prefer to publish one-off 'future shock' style shorts or fan-fiction type scripts based on existing characters. One exception to this is the excellent PARAGON, brainchild of Davey Candlish and home to stars Jikan and Battle Ganesh. I was lucky enough to get to write some scripts for Jikan last year, and also had my own series "ICARUS DANGEROUS" picked up by the comic (episode 1 appeared in the most recent edition). I realised that a comic like Paragon would be perfect for what I had in mind...but since I couldn't find another comic like Paragon, I thought to myself...well, why don't I make one?! And so the idea was born. I put out the feelers to see if I could get any artists interested and was quickly able to 'sign up' small-pressers DAVID BLANKLEY, LOUIS CARTER and BRIGONOS MAC GIOLLA CHOMHAILL to the cause. With LIAM"GHOSTPOCKETS" BYRNE agreeing to do a colour cover (and a fourth 'dark horse' strip joining the roster, with art by another great small-press artist OWEN WATTS), all the pieces fell into place and I decided...what the heck! Let's give it a shot. The worst that can happen is I put a few quid into getting it printed and have a nice looking comic on my shelf to show for it. If I actually manage to sell a few, all the better!

So, the first issue of Vanguard is very much an experiment, to test the waters and get some feedback on the stories, see what works and what doesn't. The AIM is to produce a regular - if infrequent! - comic that will develop the stories and characters within and allow them to reach their natural conclusions. The plan is that there will be 2 issues of Vanguard published each year, probably Summer and Winter editions, though how feasible/workable this is all remains to be seen.

Vanguard follows the 2000ad formula of offering a varied menu of tales, and will hopefully feature something for everyone, with sci-fi action and butt-kicking heroines, fantasy adventure featuring Gryphons and Smoke Angels, a modern-day supernatural mystery thriller featuring a cast of cursed, tragic heroes with strange abilities, and a retro-style "animals on the rampage" tale starring one very pissed off donkey!

Synopsis of all the stories can be found in the following entries, along with sample pages. If any of this tickles your fancy, please do take a chance on us and give it a try. We've all put a lot of work into producing the best comic strips we can and I'm confident you'll find plenty in here to enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Dirk van Dom,
April 2011