Blood Chic Fan Art [UPDATED 30/03/13]

This delightful interpretation of our superhero shape-shifting mermaid Sirene from the the Dart mini-series was created by French artist Stéphane Dollégeal. He mentions on Facebook that she is the "leader of the fiercest and prettiest superhero team ever." You can see the original Sirene in the unpublished Blood Chic pinup that Jozef recently found in his art collection. The characters from left to right are Rosette, Death Gaze (because he's "drop dead gorgeous"), Noyade, Shaq Splade and Sirene. 

Support the Caravan of Comics 2013 [UPDATED 22/04/13]

Our friend and professional colleague Bruce Mutard is going on the road in this year's Caravan of Comics – a Melbourne based travelling comics contingent that is about to hit Canada and USA with their books.

Bruce emailed us with the following info:

You may have heard whispers in the wind that a submersible Winnebago was about to depart these antipodean shores for the northern New World. Yes, the proof is now in the pudding of mixed metaphors: the Caravan of Comics hits the road again for 2013. Myself, Mirranda Burton, Scarlette Baccini, Marijka Gooding, Patrick Alexander, Gregory Mackay and Dan Hayward will be hitting the Toronto Comics Arts Festival, Librarie Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal, Fantagraphics Bookshop in Seatle and myself to the International Comic Arts Forum in May. We are taking our comics,, the Graphic Novels! Melbourne! documentary and the idea of Australian comics, to show them we have the right stuff, we have the left stuff, we have the STUFF that comics are made of. Which is of course, the stuff of life. 

This is a deserved and worthy bunch of comics creators so we encourage you to stop by the campaign and support it if you can. I (julie) am about to pledge $40 for The Sound and Vision Book Club reward. Please head to http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/358899/emal/2677232 
For lots of info, please head to www.caravanofcomics.comCaravan of Comics is also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caravanofcomics (to be updated very soon) and on Twitter: https://twitter.com/caravanofcomics

CAMPAIGN NOW CLOSED! Over $6000 was raised.

Comic Gong Launch [UPDATED: 27/03/13]

There's a new comics event happening in Wollongong later this year – Comic Gong. It's the inaugural event in what is hoped to be an annual event.

Comic Gong aims to provide a fun and creative day out for children, youth and adults to immerse themselves in the dynamic world of comic books and pop culture. The day will include trade displays including Kings Comics and Film Ink, an artist alley showcasing various Australian comic artists including our friend and comics compatriot Marcello Baez, anime screenings from Madmen, a caricature artist, workshops for kids and young people, as well as great giveaways including comics and a major prize of an iPad. Also throughout the day there will be a costume competition, technology petting zoo, badge making, comic craft, circus performers, food stall, air brush tattoos and a photo booth.

Comic Gong will be the start of BMP's convention circuit as we have secured an Artists' Alley table and we'll be selling copies of Elf~Fin there amongst other goodies. So here's the important bit:

Date: Saturday 18 May 2013

Time: 10am to 1pm

Venue: Corrimal Community Centre and Library, 15 Short Street Corrimal

Further information: Phone (02) 4227 7414 (phone) or email  libraryenquries@wollongong.nsw.gov.au 

Elf~Fin Poll Results

We recently asked our readers to vote on a poll to determine whether they were interested in purchasing Elf~Fin: Hyfus & Tilaweed comics: (1)  solely in a US comics format which will be available through comics stores, (2) in a larger Treasury Edition which will be available directly through BMP, or (3) in both print formats.

52% of the respondents favoured the third option, 33% wanted the Treasury edition only, and 15% wanted the US standard size. What this means is that we're going ahead with the Treasury edition and the US standard size (pending approval from Diamond Distributors on the latter) so it's good news all round – a win / win / win situation!

Thank you to everyone for voting.

Mermaids in Comics 7 – The Devil from the Deep

"The Devil from the Deep" is a seven-page short comics story, which featured in the vintage anthology Nightmare #2 published by Ziff-Davis Publications in 1952. The comic book, which had 36 pages in all, sold for 10 cents. The short story is about – SPOILER ALERT – a rabid cannibalistic mermaid who bewitches the fisherman who catches her on his line off the Florida Keys and then proceeds to eat his friends.

We personally love these little gems both in prose and comics formats. Julie has a great collection of short story anthologies called 50 Great Horror Stories, 50 Tales of Terror and others. No mermaid tales amongst those. Good to find a horror mermaid story in comics.

You can read the full story on Comic Book Plus – just scroll down the page and use the NEXT button and go to page 9.

And a big thanks goes out to Marcelo Baez for alerting us to this great little treasure.