Ben Templesmith is wandering the UK, watching re-runs of THE SWEENEY and peering through your windows at night. These are the details on where to see him, how to commission a piece of art from him for dirt cheap, and exactly what he’s prepared to do to you sexually under the current exchange rate.

People often ask me what comics scripts look like — or, at least, what my comics scripts look like, as there is no industry standard for comics scriptwriting. I have a few scripts up here on the site, and you’re welcome to download them. I write in OpenOffice and save in RTF. Beginning writers may find it instructive to compare the scripts with the published work.

(Please, don’t ask to be shown other scripts instead. These are the ones I have available. Okay?)

MINISTRY OF SPACE #1.

DESOLATION JONES #1.

DESOLATION JONES #7.

(Yes, JONES will be back one day.)

FELL #1.

(And so will FELL.)

At my internet hovel today:

* The Starry Wisdom Of Warren 3nov09 - my daily notes on what I’m up to, and what (or if) I’m thinking about.

* REMAKE/REMODEL: Kardak The Mystic - this week’s challenge for artists, all are welcome to play

* The Self-Portrait Imagethread (Nov 2009)

* Netlabels - a rolling list of the ones we like. If you’re running a netlabel, feel free to stop in.

* Comics Shipping This Week (Nov 4) - the list

* NaNoWriMo 2009 - a support thread for the people participating this year.

If you go to Brian Wood’s flickr stream right now, you’ll find the first five pages of his new NORTHLANDERS sequence, THE PLAGUE WIDOW.

At my internet bumhole tonight:

* Emma Vieceli’s DRAGON HEIR: REBORN - online and for free ^_^ - reminder (because part 3 went up today) and discussion thread

* The London MCM Expo Aftermath Thread

* T-shirt Of The Week #001 - LOVE - discussion thread

* The Weekly Listening Thread (26octo9)

* Halloween Costumes - because Goth Christmas is almost upon us.

* Sarah Sharp’s CHANGING STATES - in support of the excellent book, which needs your vote at the Blurb book contest, too

* 8tracks Mixtapes - we love 8tracks. Give me more stuff to listen to.

Tonight at my internet cave:

* The London MCM Expo Aftermath Thread - Thoughts or comments on the show? Got photos?

* REMAKE/REMODEL: Super Ann - a tougher than usual R/R for any artist who wants to play. JUDGE DREDD artist Paul J Holden has already had a go.

* Comics on Sale this Week (Oct 28)

* Solipsistic Pop - a UK comics anthology - leading up to its big launch at ICA in November.

* Warren’s Ancient Jukebox - still trawling through the depths of my memory and YouTube mostly for my own amusement

* The Autumn Interrogation Of Warren 2009 - on and bloody on.

Emma’s serialising her fantasy graphic novel sequence DRAGON HEIR: REBORN online, for free. The first two chapters can be found via this link right here.

Emma’s done shitloads of stuff, as a writer/artist and illustrator, and most of you will have heard of at least some of it. For example, she was on the Eisner-winning COMIC BOOK TATTOO, has been in PHONOGRAM and THE DFC, and adapted HAMLET into a graphic novel. She’s very good. (Later in the week I think I get to show you a print she’s going to sell, which is gorgeous.)

At CBR.

Today at my internet yurt:

* REMAKE/REMODEL: Dynamite Thor - every week, I call out some ancient old comics character, and anyone can post a 21st Century redesign of that character. (Come and play.) Today, I found an incredible one from 1940: "Peter Thor becomes Dynamite Thor, an adventurer who wears a costume that allows him to propel himself through the air by blowing up sticks of dynamite located in his belt." Really.

* Tell Ellis Of Your New Comics (30sep09) - wherein the comics addicts talk about the comics they bought today and yesterday, priming those normal people who wander into a comic store at the weekend or next week.

* Warren’s Ancient Jukebox - is actually getting very funny.

* Eliza Gauger’s SWEATSHOP

* MagCloud - I want more people to do magazines at MagCloud so I can buy them and be amused. You all live to amuse me. Obey.

* The Self-Portrait Imagethread (Oct 2009) - make me look at your face.

At my internet spiderhole this morning:

* How Many Londoners Are Here? - a quick census, for important and sekrit reasons

* Zinepal: Newspapers For Printers, Magazines For Phones

* Eliza Gauger’s SWEATSHOP

* WITCH DOCTOR: "Rock, Paper, Scalpel" exclusive Whitechapel preview

* Warren’s Ancient Jukebox

* Photographers (Sept 2009)

* Cryptozoology

Javier Mariscal’s exhibition at the Design Museum features notes by him written on the walls. This one resonated with me completely. I wouldn’t be anywhere today without the photocopier, after all. Not to mention making black marks on small sheets of white paper.

Twenty years from now, someone’s going to be assembling an installation and saying exactly the same thing about web pages.

Once every week or so on my message board, I run a game for the artists. I name some ancient comics or pulp character, and tell them to reinvent it for the 21st Century. This week, I called out Black Orchid (the original character from 1944 rather than the semi-recent DC character), which has the following entry on a public-domain characters website:

Glamorous Diana Dawn, district attorney Richard Day’s secretary, is - unbeknownst to him - masquerading as the mysterious female sleuth the Black Orchid. She solves crimes with the aid of a magic ring which contains "black gas" that knocks out her opponents. In her first adventure, Black Orchid takes on Doctor Arso to regain some stolen surgical papers, and she fights zombies, too.

When we’re lucky, comics artists come and play. This week so far, we’ve been very lucky. Take a look.

Y THE LAST MAN artist Pia Guerra:

My old mate Ben Templesmith:

LOCAL artist Ryan Kelly:

Announcing SOLIPSISTIC POP, "a biannual anthology designed to spotlight the best in alternative Comic art from the UK" organised by Tom Humberstone:

It features diverse, beautiful, twisted and peculiar Comics that you won’t be able to find anywhere else. Comic artists old and new are encouraged to contribute. Solipsistic Pop intends to provide a support structure and outlet for UK alternative Comics.

Each book of Solipsistic Pop will be a boutique, tactile product. An interactive, unique artefact designed to suit the content of each edition with an extremely limited printrun.

The website will be updated with previews of artwork from the first book, essays, news and related live events.

Book one arrives November 2009.

(above: example of the brilliant comics of Stephen Collins, to be featured in SOLIPSISTIC POP.)

Bruce Sterling:

A couple years ago, I surmised that blogging would go away. Right now, blogging exists for two reasons: there’s a cluster of people in a visibly dwindling social group called a “blogosphere,” who self-identify as bloggers, and there are “weblog platforms” that are specifically created for “weblogging” activities. If those two things - the group and the platforms - transmute themselves into other groups, other platforms - (let’s say, “social media,” on streaming, clouding, social sites, whatever) - then, yes, blogging is doomed, it’s over, in the same sense that Bulletin Board Systems are over. And, at about the same historical rate of advance and decline…

I dunno where Religion News Blog is finding these weird obscure news services, but they’re turning up some fascinating ledes (true or not — I use the tag "researchmaterial," not "news," after all):

An art exhibit depicting various female Palestinian suicide bombers as the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus, which opened at the Sokolov House press center in Tel Aviv on Thursday, was quickly taken down following an outcry…

The excellent cover to Gillen & McKelvie’s next PHONOGRAM collected edition:

Any day with a new Brandon Graham post is a good day. It’s like getting a diary, a sketchbook and a commonplace book/workbook at the same time.

Jan Chipchase is starting to discuss/anticipate a lot of things I’m been working with and towards on DOKTOR SLEEPLESS. If you’re up to date with the series, this right here will give you a little shiver like it did me:

Ah - nobody’s going to stick an advertising driven augmented reality lens in their eye, right? How about for ’free’ healthcare monitoring?

Oh shit.

It’s the monthly reboot for my online community, but it’s going slow because 1) I’m busy and 2) it shares a server with Bleeding Cool, which has been getting hammered over the last 24 hours following the Disney/Marvel thing. So it’s a little slow today. Please persevere. Threads already up and running include:

* New London comics initiative: We Are Words And Pictures

* The Self-Portrait Imagethread (Sep 09) - Always popular, always weird.

* FREAKANGELS Episode 0066 - still talking about the last episode.

* The Weekly Listening Thread (1sept09)

* REMAKE/REMODEL: The Flamingo - comics artists Afua Richardson and Paul J Holden have already come out to play.

* Concept Albums - mildly scary

No, I am not going to be writing Disney comics.

Fairly fucking obviously.

Copying/pasting my own mailing-list email due to sheer laziness:

bad signal
ME

For the artists in the audience, I’ve brought back the
weeklyish REMAKE/REMODEL thread at Whitechapel.
This week’s one should be kind of funny. All are welcome
to play.

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=6686

Everyone else… give it a couple of days and check
the thread to see who’s doing what…

Garth’s birthday wishes to the venerable British comics institution that made us what we are, at Bleeding Cool:

Thank you for two Tyrannosaurs fighting to the death on the rim of a volcano; Bofors gunners shooting it out with UFOs; Old One Eye’s last and greatest kill; the only Bear on the CIA death list; “Quack-quack, Volg!”; the truly unstoppable Artie Gruber; Dan Dare at the battle of Jupiter; Conclusion: MACH One terminated. Now closing down transmission; the Space Fort’s final battle with the Starslayer Empire; I came into the apartment blasting. I’ve been at this game for forty years and there’s one thing I’ve learned- never give a robot an even break…

This guy’s going to be a big deal.

Preview of the new release of KING CITY by the brilliant, inspired and inspirational Brandon Graham.  Just click and go.

You’ve got to admit, he’s in good shape. And he’s not afraid of wax, either.

(from Paul Sizer’sChicago Con 2009 photoset)

Jotting:

* I just read through the PDF of the PLANETARY #27 Sneak Peek section that’s going to be running in September’s DC Wildstorm comics, prior to the book itself being released in October. It’s a chunk of serious Mad Science from the early part of the issue. As much as it’s nice to see John drawing them all one last time, it’s doubly glorious to see Laura Martin working on pages of mine again.

* I see young Ellerby has all his minicomics in stock again.

* The Ovi Store is bloody terrible. Just wanted to note that somewhere. Terrible. I mean, makes me think about getting an iPhone 3GS so I can use the App Store terrible.

* Also, I’ve played you this before, but I just found a copy on YouTube, so what the fuck, maybe you missed it last time:

From Brandon Graham’s livejournal, let me introduce to you the mental illness of James Stokoe:

A… thing by Sean Hexed. It is really quite brilliant. A series of mucky little cartoons about Things. A collection of funny monstrosities. A Gross Of Goblins.

Discovered on the Webcomics Summer Clearing House at Whitechapel.

At my internet house of mirrors today:

* Webcomics Summer Clearing House - the irregular moment where I ask webcomickers to tell me about their webcomics, so I can send the 7000 people on Whitechapel to read them. Tell me. Tell your friends to tell me. In the above-linked thread, not here.

* COMICS DESIGN: Paul Pope, Design Containers, 1999 - something interesting Paul wrote ten years ago

* Comics Shipping This Week (Aug 5)

* The Doomwatch Thread - in which people identify the sources of Our Coming Doom.

Proper reboot starts on Monday, but if you want to kill some time this weekend:

* The IGNITION CITY #4 Talk Thread - please tell me you bought a copy. I need to buy whisky food.

* Wizard World Chicago 2009 - next weekend. Comics artist Tony Moore wants to know if you’re going. So do Avatar Press.

* A Proper Comic

* Oddcult TV: Some views from the British occult and pagan scene - "…video interviews of people on the British occult and pagan scene. The idea was that they do a piece straight to camera, about something they’re either responsible for or interested in. One shot, no cuts (except for when they go ’oh fuck, er… can we do that bit again?)…" Brilliant stuff.

I stopped in at the Alternative Press Fair in London today and spent more money than I intended to on zines of all shapes and sizes. Because I have no idea what’s going on in the London (or can-reach-London) small press these days, and thought I should obtain a sampling. Jimi, the organiser, is a really nice guy. It’s on again tomorrow (Sunday) — if you’re in London, it’s really worth a look.

Alternative Press Fair

Sunday 2^nd August - 11am- 7pm - Free

We will be returning once more to St Aloysius Social centre, where in February we held the first Alternative Press Fair. We hope you’ll join us once more for chilled out Sunday to celebrate comix, zines, poetry, book arts and radical literature. We will have space for around 80 exhibitors and many more visitors so see you there!

St Aloysius Social Club, 20 Phoenix Road, London NW1 1TA

Nearest tube Euston

Map here

16 original stories by the premier webcomix collective, ACT-I-VATE, with a foreword by me, coming this October from IDW Publishing.

I was in Los Angeles for a couple of days before heading down to San Diego, for an insane sequence of meetings that included spending most of one day on the Warner’s lot. Passers-by might have seen me and Bruce Timm huddled under a tree for shade and frantically smoking cigarettes before Californians came and shot us for committing Air Crimes. I have a few things in the process of Maybe Happening on the lot right now. Bumped into Craig Flores, who’s my exec on OCEAN and Untitled Arthurian Thing, and also the delightful Lisa Roos, who did her best for us on the GLOBAL FREQUENCY shoot way back when. It was one of those weird trips where the first emails you get after deplaning are “you must call the office IMMEDIATELY.” Very productive 48 hours, ending in my producers at Marvel Anime, Taro and Scott, taking me out for an excellent steak and a bottle of Pinot Noir that I think I mostly drank. William H Macy walked past our table. That guy is THIN. Thank god he was in a steakhouse, he looked like he could use a couple just to summon the strength to walk out again.

Taro had decided to drive us down to SD in the middle of the night in a hired car, so we could smoke and talk — bless the tar-lunged Japanese and their correct understanding of what a civilised world should be. We’d only spoken in phone conferences before, and by the end of the trip I’d made two new friends and only nearly died once. We got in a hair before midnight. By the time I was checked in, my friends in town had dispersed for the night, and Ryan Keely, who I was supposed to see for a drink, was across town, and I was exhausted, so I said Fuck This Town and went to bed.

Note: my hotel was non-smoking. So Taro gave me a gift: a steel Japanese portable mini-ashtray, that pops out the tray and then reseals into a pod. Lovely thing. If only the room’s window had been openable…

After pretty much no sleep at all, I was dragged out of my pit to do a filmed interview that’ll eventually form a DVD extra for the Marvel Anime stuff. This is where I discovered I had a limo with my name on a card in the window, and a driver who looked like he’s just come in from killing Clint Eastwood on the high plains. This was very strange. The interviewer was a friend of a friend, the guy who’d interviewed me for the IRON MAN DVD, and so everything went smoothly. Weird moment: one of the organisers in the room had pulled his friend’s son and his friend’s son’s friend in to meet me, so while I was stuck in this chair with a mic nailed to me these two terrified teenagers were produced. I guess I’ve reached the “fatherly advice” stage of my career. Without, I guess, having to talk about diseases or unwanted pregnancy.

Whoops. Time to go. More later.

Jamaica Dyer’s wonderful new graphic novel is almost here. Pre-order it at this link direct from the publisher. Read a bunch of her work here. I wrote a quote for it:

The only explanation for Jamaica Dyer is that she was built by aliens and dropped here to show us all how crap we are compared to her.