In the realms of heroes, Captain Zod and his sidekick Blinky have reserved a place on the table of heroes - to the right, near the toilets.
In their civilian guises, Tony Lee is an internationally respected writer. Although he won't say who internationally respects him, and how much he paid them to. He is the writer of such big name projects as X-Men, Doctor Who, and Starship Troopers. He has also written other, lesser known stuff including The Gloom, The Tizzle Sisters & Erik, and Midnight Kiss.
Currently he has more things going on than a box of slightly wet frogs.
Laird Daniel Boultwood, the Viscount Du'Lamange is an artist. Which means he draws. He's done a lot of things for a variety of mediums. Some of which he can't talk about, some of which he can't remember. Such highlights include his creator owned and critically acclaimed Comicana, the pulp noir The Gloom, and The Tizzle Sisters & Erik, both with Tony Lee.
Trapped out of time and far from his home, the 1940s, Daniel survives on a diet of wearing spats and shouting at foreigners while wearing a fez.
Together, they are Two Drunk Guys In A Bar Productions, and in 2007 will be releasing a collected trade of The Gloom, the graphic novel Dashing Tales - For Young Chaps (including world war one drama The Crimson Todger and sci fi tale The Incredibly Exciting Adventures As Doc Chronology And His Time Travelling Armchair Investigates!) and probably another Tizzle Sisters book with G.P. Taylor.
They can be found at any good convention bar. Or at Two Drunk Guys.
I always have, since a kid. I’ve been fascinated by the bloody things, with their wings and glowing fiery swords and such like. But I’m not talking about the Angels you see in the average new age shop, with candles and prayers to the Angel of fluffkins love bunny happiness, oh no – I’m talking those bastards from the Old Testament. The Angel of Death. The Angel of Bollocks Ripping Off. The Angel of Now I’m Really Pissed. The fire and brimstone point and clicks of God’s holy weapons cabinet.
And they’re all around, you know, in books, TV, movies, comics. Nobody likes the weak ass Angels. They’re pretty and nice to look at, but they’re two dimensional. Angels? They’re not supposed to be sweetness and light. Lucifer was an Angel. And he was apparently cast from heaven after a war.
That’s right, children – a war. Swords and axes and fighting and all that shit. You’re not telling me that the Prince of Lies was taken out by a few hurt gazes and a couple of Care Bear Stares, now. No. We’re talking Rambo with Wings.
When I was a teenager, and pretty much into my early twenties, I did the whole ‘searching for myself’ thing – I was a Spiritualist Medium for a while (my mother was a respected West London healer, and I was referred to in several books on Psychic Questing due to my abilities), I dabbled in the Occult for a bit, trying Wicca, Witchcraft, Druidry, Shamanism, I played with Chaos Magick and Buddism, and even became a Methodist for a while. But the one thing that really grabbed my interest was the work of John Dee and Edward Kelley in the sixteenth century, and their conversations with Angels.
And of course, at the same time I’m reading every Holy Blood, Holy Grail clone book I can find. The thought that there is some kind of Messianic Legacy out there, in addition to these secret Angelic wars? Now that was the sort of thing I wanted to read. Paradise Lost became a cherished friend. I began to enjoy movies like The Prophecy. I didn’t want Clarence from It’s a Wonderful Life – I wanted Christopher Walken as Gabriel.
And throughout my life, I too have wanted to add to the canon of myth. I’ve wanted to do a story about Angels, and have them as more than just Michael Landon in Highway to Heaven. I wanted to really let loose. But the problem with that? Well, apparently Angels have no free will.
No, seriously. Apparently Angels don’t have souls, which mean that they don’t have free choice, or something. Everything they did was orchestrated from behind the curtain by God, becoming some Wizard of Oz type character.
And this got me to thinking – what if Angels did have free choice, but didn’t realise it?
And then we come to Hope Falls, the new, five part series by Dan Boultwood and me, out in November. It’s a story about a woman, Helen who returns to the town she was killed in, twenty years later, demanding vengeance. But as the story progresses you discover (and it’s not much of a spoiler, considering it’s on the front cover of #1) that she’s an Angel, falling further from Heaven with every revenge killing she makes. But, is she doing this herself? Is the fact that she is choosing to do this proof that Angels have free will? And would she have fallen if she hadn’t exerted the right to choose?
And then you have Mike, her enigmatic stranger friend. Is he an Angel? He seems to have powers. But he also doesn’t seem to be stopping her. Is there a reason? Has he chosen not to?
I’ve had a couple of people comment on seeing review copies that I seem to have a lot of biblical knowledge that’s a little more than ‘Sunday School’. And the answer to that is yes. Yes I do have. As I said, I was a Spiritualist Medium in West London, a place that had more clap-happy Fundamentalist Churches per square mile than some areas in the Mid West Bible belt.
I had a friend in one such Church who, one day showed me the file they had on me and my mother, showing where we had performed ‘Satan’s Work’, how many people had attended, etc. Learning every little detail about the Bible was a defensive action. When they stated ‘Ah but the Bible says this…’ I can reply with ‘Ah yes, but it also says this…’ I needed to be as clued up as my persecutors – if not more so.
I will be honest however; I never expected to find it useful in comics. And it has been. I’ve used elements of my knowledge and mild obsession in Midnight Kiss. I’ve definitely mined it in Hope Falls, and I look at Purgatory in CrowTown. I play a lot with spirits in my novels, especially my current one Conversations With My Mother, where the Mother mentioned in the title happens to be six months dead.
With books (and now movies) like The Da Vinci Code, this sort of conspiracies belief has never been trendier, has never been more ‘cool’. And Hope Falls comes out in the midst of this, but isn’t necessarily trying to take a bite out of that pie. We just wanted to tell a story. And if the story is offensive to your beliefs, well that’s the joy of comics – you just put it down and don’t buy the next one. But we’ve sent preview PDFs out to Baptists, Catholics and Pagans alike, and they’re all coming back with praise and enjoyment. Because it doesn’t matter what religion you follow and what beliefs you hold true –
Everyone loves a tale where the Angels kick ass.
And so Hope Falls is out in the September Previews. You don’t know what that is? Well…
Every month retailers receive a book called PREVIEWS. It's from Diamond Distributors, and it tells them what's coming out in a couple of months. So, for example the SEPTEMBER issue (which comes out at the start of the month) will advertise the following NOVEMBER's issues and comics. And so the retailer can look through the publishers and decide what they want on their shelves. Whatever they order, they get. If they don’t order it, it doesn’t arrive.
Now - this is where the fun part starts. You see, if you want a comic that's out in November, and you walk into that shop IN November - unless, they ordered it, it's unlikely to be there. If we're talking a Marvel or DC Comics comic, the chances are that it'll be there regardless, but if it's an indy comic? Probably not.
So. To ensure the comic you want is in, you have to PRE-ORDER.
And, if you decide to buy Hope Falls (which of course you DO want to...) you can do it one of two ways.
Firstly, take this number - SEP073850 - to a comic store RIGHT NOW and ask them to order the comic for you.
Secondly, print this form and fill it out –
- And take it to the shop.
And remember, forgetting to pre-order is not an excuse. The more pre-orders we can raise, the better numbers we'll do. William West of Diamond is already such a fan of the book that he gave us the order code a week earlier than we should have, so let's make this work for us, eh?
Spread the word. Make banners. Link people to www.hope-falls.com. If you're a retailer, email me at mrtonylee@gmail.com and we'll send you a PDF of issue #1. And, if you want - issue #2 as well.
If you're a reviewer, email me as well - and we'll sort you a review copy.
This really is a great book, and we want to make sure that it gets out there. Because numbers mean sales, and sales means a lack of cancellation threats...
But that’s enough of the Hope Falls shilling. Except for two more things – Firstly, we now have a Facebook Group! If you have a Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5742955959 and join up. We’ll be making sure people get all the latest updates and all that.
Secondly, you’ve already seen the covers to issues #1 and #2 on this column, so here’s issue #3…
There. I’ll shut up now. Go order the comic. Sorry, I’ll shut up now.
And now, Dan…
I awoke alone in the darkness and as such, politely defecated myself.
Rain as soft as bits of fluff fell upon my haggard Dutch as I began my long tepid journey back to the Manor. Fearing the effort my consumption kicked in forcing me to break my finger on a hedge.
“Spare a penny for the guy?” A voice seemingly emanated from my pocket but in actuality, came from my pocket.
Turning suddenly my kidney annoyingly ruptured, peering into the gloom I could discern no shapes other than the ones flashing across my pupils as the belladonna berries I had scavenged from a scout hut wreaked their hideous revenge.
“Please leave me alone, I have dysentery” I yowled, my plea falling into to the night like plea’s into the night.
Silence.
Terror frustrated my scrotum as I heard a toilet door close somewhere out of sight so to have no actual evidence of it’s astounding occurrence. Whinnying loudly I broke into a saunter wildly swaying to and fro as my inner ear over spilled.
Disorientated I caught my ankle on a boot scrape, pain coursed through me coursing through it’s course through me as I started to cry and get a bit snotty.
“Really! I really have dysentery!” I mewled, what sort of prize rotter would attack a man with a bowel condition.
Silence.
Too wounded to walk I fell asunder to my hands and knees ruining my opera gloves as I hauled my squirrel like carousel across the broken glass which I had unfortunately stumbled across.
Blackness closed in, suffocating me making me suffocate and feel suffocated.
Onwards I hurled, the smell of urine in the air meaning I was close to an underground station and ironically salvation.
“Here we are” A voice in the night! My heart thundered as hope slathered on the honey.
“Dysentery?” I ventured as the darkness receded. Low-level lamplight burnt my retinas as I looked into the face of my saviour and dare I say it publican?
Confusion reigned as my eyes took in the countenance that is the Contessa De Vestibule. Wildly I looked around me cursing the realisation of my self-imposed oubliette.
I had put on the wrong top hat.
In other news, The Cotton Club, the location of the Hope Falls Launch at October’s Birmingham International Comic Show had a rather nasty fire a week ago, so we’re currently waiting to see if it’s still on at this location. More information when we get it. Additionally, due to a double booking, Dan will be unlikely to be attending the BICS past Saturday afternoon, so get the comics signed early! We will apparently be having a booth at the London Comic Expo the week after, this is still up in the air, so don’t take it as gospel. Last year I met all time hero Matt Frewer, so I’m very excited.
In addition there, we should have more information on Shotgun Samurai: Love Hurts – So Kill Everyone, some more news on Dodge & Twist and also some exciting news on Crowtown, currently having some beautiful art done by Rob Guillory. Don’t believe me? Look at this then…
Anyway, that’s it. Remember to go order Hope Falls, if you’re in the UK remember to pop into WH Smiths and buy Wallace & Gromit #25, where I have a two page tale called ‘Trouser Pressed’.
Oh, if you’re in Suffolk way, our good friend and conventioneer ‘Spike Steve’ has opened a comic store – “Green Al’s” at 3, North Street Parade, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 1GL. Do your best to support them, pop buy and buy loads of stock. Sometime around the New Year Dan and I should hopefully be doing a signing there.
Well. Until next time. Did we mention to order Hope Falls?......
Tony Lee is the award-nominated writer of things including The Tizzle Sisters with G.P Taylor and Dan Boultwood, Starship Troopers, Doctor Who, X-Men, and Midnight Kiss. Later this year Tony has stories involving Wallace & Gromit and Shrek coming out. At the end of the year he hopes to have Dodge & Twist out by AiT/PlanetLar. In 2008 he has Robin Hood – Outlaw’s Pride with Sam Hart.
Michael Moorcock says that ‘Tony Lee is one of the best story-tellers working in comics today’. He drinks, though.
Dan Boultwood is the critically acclaimed artist of things including The Tizzle Sisters with G.P Taylor and Tony Lee, and both Monster Club and Comicana for APC.
Together they have written and drawn The Gloom (out later this year as a collected edition) and the upcoming Hope Falls, out in November from AAM/Markosia. The website is www.hope-falls.com.
Tony’s website is www.tonylee.co.uk. Feel free to email him and interrupt his day.
