Reminder About Demoncon This Sunday

Just wanted to remind you that if you fancy a bit of a warm up for the big conventions next month, there’s a 1 day comic con in Maidstone, Kent this Sunday. It’s called Demoncon and as well as featuring the very best indy talent in the UK it also boasts an impressive line up of pro creators as well.

We’ll be there as will the likes of Kieron Gillen (Uncanny X-Men, Journey Into Mystery), Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, Warhammer 40K) and many more.

We won’t have any copies of Moon #2 for sale I’m afraid, but if you come and ask Steve really nicely, he might show you some of the pencils for it. We will have copies of Moon #1 however as well as some sexy A4 Prints that you can take home and love forever.

Demoncon runs form 11am til 4pm at the EXCHANGE STUDIO, MAIDSTONE, on April the 22nd and it costs a mere £5 to get in. How can you refuse?

For a full guest list, check out their website.

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Moon: Who killed Councillor Hugh Griffiths?

Modern day. The case for Ray and Moon that started the series of events is the mysterious murder of Councillor Hugh Griffiths. Reknowned for his recycling policies and liberal attitude towards street theatre, Tower Hamlets is a poorer place as a result of the loss of this giant of refuse politics.

What does this all mean. Surely a man like Hugh Griffiths couldn’t have any enemies lurking in the shadows. Is he a cack handed gun handler or did someone deliberately assassinate him? Whatever the answer – a big clue as to what it’s all about in Moon 2 when the main suspect to be the fleeing figure featured in Moon 1 will be revealed…

Lost Jedi: Early Sketches 2

Some characters become significantly more interesting unexpectedly. Originally a secondary character brought in to resolve a plot and create a background for what I thought was a more interesting figure. No so. Ba Na Newlon has consistently shaped up as an increasingly fascinating character and more than that, a saviour of many Jedi. A matriarchal figure in the plot, Ba Na Newlon is a stable hand in the middle of chaos.

Potentially the most well rounded and most fascinating character of the bunch – her journey might be one of shortest however is recognisable to anyone who has ever known a driven matriarch (not necessarily with force powers).

Moon Question: What are and who is…?

Moon and Ray : Scrapbook of a Career

Moon and Ray have the promise of being the greatest agents in the history of the Agency. Ray was one of the finest new recruits back in the 70s. With the successful arrest of long-time hibernating crack pot Spring Heeled Jack, loose once again on the streets of London, using a carefully placed set of trampolines and a long range paintball gun – the chief of the time decided to team the young Barton with their most experienced agent. The rest as they say, is history. In future more of Ray and Moon’s adventures will be revealed – whether it be dealing with Space Nazis on Icy Tundra or postal tea ladies at Buckingham Palace – there will always be a place in the hall of fame for Moon and his long time partner Ray. All he has to do is survive the events of Moon 2….

John Carter from Mars: Proper Trailer

We here at Beyond the Bunker have decided to champion John Carter (alongside other sites such as Ain’t it cool). Somethings going awry here. According to AIC the mysterious story of John Carter of Mars wasn’t offered properly to potential audiences. Effectively a cross genre historical sci-fi epic it’s set a little before the time it was written (namely the late 1800s) on the mystical and mysterious planet of Barsoom (Mars). It’s also a forerunner of all of modern science fiction – bow down you puny mortals – so if it looks like old ideas that’s because this is where it came from. This fan trailer apparently nails it.

John Carter is a western hero employed by the Yankees in the American Civil War when we meet him (yeah -see) as has been revealed by the late arrival of a panic driven 10 minute preview (not seen here) released by Disney when everything appeared to be going south. One thing leads to another and he finds himself on Mars trapped in a conflict between two warring species.

Created by Edgar Rice-Burroughs, John Carter of Mars was serialised as Under the Moons of Mars in the pulp magazine The All-Story from February to July 1912. Disney have released the film to mark it’s centenary. He, and pretty much all of the associated characters also appeared in Alan Moore’s The Extraordinary League of Gentlemen: Volume Two. Disney was trying to bring back a literary classic – and one that inspired Star Wars and it’s like decades before there was anything close to it.

So you mother-loving philistines – get out there and watch it. While the spineless mainstream critics are scavenging around what they see as a blood spattered carcass feedback on a lot of forums are that it’s pretty good. So why not save director Andrew Stanton’s career and go and take a look?

It’s important you understand that I haven’t yet – too broke – but given the chance I’d support what is quite frankly a laudable attempt to bring back an obscure – but never the less important – literary classic of science fiction.

Beyond The Bunker hits Demoncon

Next month Beyond the Bunker will be heading to Maidstone in Kent for the third Demoncon event. Founded by Maidstone’s own Grinning Demon comic shop, Demoncon is a chance for fans an creators to get together and share their love of comics. We’ll be joining the likes of Kieron Gillen (Uncanny X-Men, Journey Into Mystery) as well as the duo of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, Warhammer 40K).

Demoncon is a great chance to come and meet creators in a less hectic environment than that offered by the mega-cons. As always, you’ll be able to come chat to Steve and I about pretty much anything as well as picking up signed copies of Moon and other such goodies.

Demoncon runs form 11am til 4pm at the EXCHANGE STUDIO, MAIDSTONE, on April the 22nd and it costs a mere £5 to get in. How can you refuse?

For a full guest list, check out their website.

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Moon Preview: Cometh the Bingo Moles

Bingo Mole is the affectionate term that we’ve applied to the villains you saw at the end of Moon #1. It’s not their real name but if we told you that we’d both spoil the story and not get to use the awesome phrase that is “Bingo Moles”.

Now that we’ve explained that little detail, proceed to feast your eyes on some brand new preview art for the upcoming second issue of Moon. It’s all kicking off and the Moles are right in the middle of it! Pencils and inks are by Steve Penfold, colours are by Ivanna Matilla.

The deck’s stacked against our heroes, but there’s still a wild card left to play.

A hero falls, another rises and an astral body grows a beard!

It’s all in the facemeltingly exciting second issue of MOON!

Marvel offer free digital downloads with it’s premium titles

Marvel have taken an interesting approach towards digital comics. It’s been a thorny issue for the big two – namely DC and Marvel to try to figure out a balance between embracing new technology and not losing enormous amounts of money.

They have announced in the last few days that any sales of their premium (presumably best selling titles) at $3.99 will have a – presumably one time – code that will allow a digital download of the same book for free.

It would appear that this is an attempt to keep sales of print material buoyant while encouraging interest in the digital market. With Image and Dark Horse benefitting from digital sales – it’s an original idea and one that will be interesting to keep an eye on – particularly for us indy printers.

News on Beyond the Bunker’s digital sales will be appearing on Monday. Please keep an eye out.

Moon has a great weekend at LSCC!!

After a long weekend of meeting new fans and seeing old friends we can honestly say that the LSCC was a massive success for all involved. Hosted at Excel Centre it’s fair to say that everyone there will be leaving a space in their diary to see what’ll happen next year. Moon had a great weekend!

The LSCC was incredibly successful. The idea of creating a comic book only event meant that everybody knew why they were there and had a great time. Harry Markos, one of the organisers and owner of Markosia Comics was very clear about the success of it. By the end of day 1 it had already proven itself more successful than any other con he’d been involved in.

This was reflected in the weekend everyone had – including us. Sparse though it was, the simplicity of it’s message benefitted everybody and frankly pushed the British indy scene even further and faster ahead than it already had. Moon included which saw record sales over the weekend. Massive thanks to all the great people who stopped by, showed an interest and bought a copy. Nothing without you guys.

We introduced some new things as well at this con. Alongside the book and the badges (free with every copy!) we are now supplying a set of prints featuring all the main characters from Issue 1. The most successful of the con turned out to be a simple image of Ray which surprised both me and Dan.

One thing that became undeniable over the weekend was that Moon Launch 2 is inevitable. It’s well on it’s way. As we’ve told those at the con this weekend, Moon 2 will be released at an undisclosed date at an undisclosed venue. Details will be appearing here in the coming month. Something we here at Beyond the Bunker are very much looking forward to…