Andrez Bergen's Blog, page 2
June 8, 2016
‘Bullet Gal’, the novel, is go!
So, I found out this week – my Bullet Gal comic, which was published by IF? Commix across 12 issues in 2014-15, and then repackaged as a trade by Canadians Under Belly Comics & Project-Nerd Publishing in the U.S., was recently novelized by me – and just accepted for publication by the good people at Roundfire Books in the U.K.
Stay tuned for more details.
Already, the publishers put together this W.I.P. lo-res mock-up for the front cover of the Bullet Gal novel, incorporating the artwork I did for #4 of the original comic book series, though Nick at Roundfire has tarted it up.
I’m chuffed. It captures the noir angle, with a comic feel as well, and is striking for the simplicity.
Simple, but… sweet.
The comic run received very cool critical feedback, so turning it into a novel (minus the dadaist-style art) was a challenge, but a hell of a lot of fun as well. Anyone who knows me, I think, understands how much I love the character of Mitzi, and the fact that this is a prequel to my earlier novel Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa? (2013) is icing on the cape… er… cake.
Meanwhile, novel #6 (Black Sails, Disco Inferno) has been available via Amazon outlets for almost a week, and seems to be doing pretty well.
The paperback can be manhandled at Amazon USA and Amazon UK and Amazon Canada, while its eBookpicked up at Amazon USA, Amazon Australia, Amazon France, and Amazon Japan.
This post’s a quickie; ta for taking a read!


June 3, 2016
‘Black Sails, Disco Inferno’ has now been published
Well, novel #6 is out right now via Amazon, thanks to publishers Open Books.
In a nutshell?
An unnamed city, in which crime families flourish and the police pinch pennies from those with most power… Black Sails, Disco Inferno is a retelling of the classic medieval romance of Tristan and Isolde, turning things on their head by reversing the sex of the chief protagonists and placing them in a ’70s pulp/noir world.
You can find out a lot more detail about the story and its medieval and comic book origins through pieces I wrote recently for Pulp Pusher and Bleeding Cool.
Otherwise, the paperback is available via Amazon USA and Amazon UK and Amazon Canada, while the eBook can be picked up at Amazon USA, Amazon Australia, Amazon France, and Amazon Japan.
By the way, the sensational cover painting is by Magpie artist Frantz Kantor.
‘Nuff said for now. Think I’ll go celebrate!
May 31, 2016
Book & comic promo trailers, articles, plus reviews
I’m feeling much more chin-up, or chipper, or whatever sounds buzzier than the last entry I made here, and I put that down to feedback and advice from mates and family (always a clincher!) along with a couple of nice write-ups and videos to share.
First up, #15 of Trista & Holt (the grand finale of that noir series) is being published via IF? Commix this week, and we got a wonderful review from Steven Alloway @ Fanbase Press, along with a spotlight thanks to Graphic Policy and a luv’ly write-up on #7-13 thanks to Ben Kooyman @ Australian Comics Journal.
At the end of this month (June 30, in case you don’t have a calendar handy), the novelization of that comic series (titled Black Sails, Disco Inferno) is being published via Open Books.
To highlight what exactly all this means, I penned separate pieces for Bleeding Cool and Pulp Pusher, as well as a celebratory cocktail recipe for TNBBC, and Solarcide gave it a spotlight here.
We also just spliced together a book trailer-teaser, using one of my old unused Little Nobody tracks:
So, yep, am gearing up for that to drop. Discover more here.
Also out this month is Australian comic anthology zine Oi Oi Oi! #8 from Comicoz, which will be delivering episode two of Magpie – the noir/comedy yarn I do with artist Frantz Kantor.
I can’t wait for this to hit stands too.
Yesterday, Frantz unveiled this video tease:
There’s a bit afoot, and it’s great to be busy/inspired.
More, please.
May 28, 2016
Is it time to hang up the typewriter?
I never thought I’d wonder this question — nor open up about it with others like I’m about to do right now, questioning my own ability (let alone talent) as a novelist, and fracturing the ‘mystique’ of sales figures by shoving them right under your nose so you can see how, er, on the nose they’ve become.
Besides, I use a keyboard these days. The red Olivetti got retired off years ago and functions as dadaist art on my mother’s wall.
Yeah, I do still have a hack sense of humour and thank god I don’t take myself or my ideas of art too seriously, or I’d likely be getting out the floral hanky — or fluttering a white flag and calling it a day.
I think writing was my earliest bona fide passion, something I’ve been doing since at least age six. Along the way it’s morphed from vacuous sci-fi short stories and never-published long-players to university essays, and then journalism, followed by finally publishing a novel (Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat) in 2011.
I don’t have accurate sales-figures on that one, but as you can see in the cute graph (below) I’m pretty much up to date on the sales of the four novels thereafter.
First up, I’m not here to whine about money.
I’m quite content working a full-time job and write on the side; life goes on, and there’re so many inspirations out there in the real world that it’s better than parking myself at home to fiddle on plots. (cont. below)
I’d like to surprise my wife Yoko and daughter Cocoa with the occasional success story and treat them both for being so damned patient with the time I’ve consumed plugging away. I do carry regrets that I’ve missed chunks of my daughter’s growing up behind me while I type.
And there have been moments of monetary ‘glory’—One Hundred Years of Vicissitude and Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa? had great eBook sales, though admittedly while both books were discounted on Amazon to 0.99c.
The reviews, both from critical sources and layman readers, has been nothing short of fantastic over the past five years. There’s the odd hiccup of a cranky critique, but a majority have inspired me to keep writing, to continue this passion, to explore and link the worlds in my head I’ve been creating — and discovering myself as we go.
With Heropa in 2013 getting 31 reviews on Amazon, at an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars, I began to believe in a camaraderie, a sense that what I was doing was right and it didn’t matter if I failed to make much money, or I had to work 40 hours a week teaching… my writing was getting out there, people were reading my yarns, and it appeared like a considerable number might actually like them.
Which was the moment it pretty much changed.
I’ve had some wonderful people continue to read and review my novels, and new ones discover them afresh – I cannot ever thank these guys enough. They continue to motivate and inspire me.
But as you can see from the chart here, my subsequent novels Depth Charging Ice Planet Goth and Small Change have, let’s face it, completely bombed in the sales department.
In two years I’ve managed to sell 57 paperback copies of Planet Goth, and only 54 eBooks. Over the past six months Small Change has shifted 31 hard-copies and 24 digital versions.
Small Change has a single review on Amazon (thanks, Daniel!), and to be honest I bought three of those hard-copies for family.
So, yeah, in reality 28 paperbacks have reached people’s hands.
Compare this with over 100 units sold in eight weeks during the Kickstarter campaign for my graphic novel of Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat. Which is another factor — comics work. Everything I do comics-wise sells far more than my novels, and it involves a miniscule amount of the time and focus that novels demand.
Months are usually spent living within the pages of a novel, involving every waking moment, before sleep, daydreaming when I should be teaching; burning myself while cooking since I’m plotting out a character.
I’ve written a comic issue in a matter of days and made twice the income of a novel a hundred times longer in terms of word-count.
The thing is, comics and novels are different kinds of imaginative flexing and I adore doing both. I can’t compare them, and will not malign one in favour of the other.
But novels cost more time and more money to produce, and these factors are beginning to prey upon my mind — which is incredibly sad if I really stoop to think about it.
Most of the time I don’t.
But when a prospective publisher (later revealed to be vanity press) asks for £1900 towards the cost of production of a book because I’m still an unknown author, and another publisher says “I really like this, but there’s no point in our publishing it if we can’t figure out how to sell Andrez” (that’s a real quote by the way; I liked the complimentary part at the beginning)… well, I lose some of my stubborness and determination and self-belief (and the fun element of it all) and just start realizing I’m likely never going to make it in this novel-writers’ craft.
Not to the point that it repays me for all the time and trouble, and simply covers the costs of production of books published by people who believe in my work.
Since the last couple of novels have run at a loss, it’s no real surprise to see some barriers going up and publishers being less likely to run risks (again) on a novelist who’s actually gone so far backwards sales-wise. And they’re right. These people run a business, not a charity. Why should they throw away dosh to support someone whose art makes no money?
All this is freestyle thinking, believe me, just some stuff that’s been circulating in my head over the past few months and watching those sales figures flat-line.
Could be I’m just tired too, after finishing a duo of novels (#6 and #7) on the trot.
If they reach only a dozen pairs of hands apiece, I’d worship those readers, but the publishers would shut the door on any future work together and the white flag would be attractive.
But I could be in a far worse position in so many ways.
I have a wonderful family and friends and people who seem to enjoy what I do conjure up between covers — and at least I don’t have any of my characters uttering ‘Hail Hydra’. Actually, that’s not true… sinister businessman Donald Wright barked it out in Heropa.
Anyway.
Fact is I love writing, and want to continue till I’m blue in the face, and have two more novels on the boil. I have so many ideas and plans — but I need to kick back a little and consider the questions: does anyone truly care about my work, and am I being realistic?
There’s the rub.
Shakespeare certainly had his sage moments.
Andrez


May 11, 2016
Li’l Big Dipper, Black Sails, Disco Inferno, Magpie, Bullet Gal, etc.
I’m currently fortunate enough to be working with Australian artist Stu Campbell on a one-off comic short for national zine Oi Oi Oi!, and here’s a tease/process glimpse of the lovely W.I.P. (unfinished) for the first page.
Stu, who works under the alias of Sutu, is really cutting it at the moment with his art, doing some wild things like The Gatecrashers, and has just been nominated for an Eisner Award for his interactive piece These Memories Won’t Last.
He was also a member of the posse behind Neomad, which won the Gold Ledger at Australia’s recent Ledger Awards.
So, yep, I’m honoured and more than a little chuffed. Stay tuned for more updates – and thanks to James Picton for the intro!
Comics-wise, 2016 is shaping up as a lucky year, since I’m also working with fellow Aussies Frantz Kantor (on our quarterly strip Magpie) and Graeme Jackson (the upcoming Crash Soirée), and a short I did with Chris Wahl was just snapped up by Alterna Comics in the U.S. for inclusion in their IF anthology.
As reported in a prior entry here, Graeme additionally did the superb wraparound cover for a new Bullet Gal trade (all 12 issues) that makes its debut at Planet Comicon in the U.S. on May 20th – thanks to Project-Nerd Publishing.
And Frantz did the cover painting that graces my new novel, out next month via Open Books.
It’s called Black Sails, Disco Inferno, and was written with American writer Renee Asher Pickup – and some of you might recall that it not only novelizes our 15-issue comic run of Trista & Holt, but deconstructs the medieval romance of Tristan and Iseult… with a noir bent.
I think I count my blessings everyday that I’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate with all these creators.
There are so many different niches of “art”; I’d never even compare Graeme and Stu, Frantz and Chris, or Renee. They’re each brilliant in what they do.
Then there are the people who take time out to offer up support of the comics and novels or whatever – such as Jay Slayton-Joslin and Jimmy Donnellan, who put together a spotlight on Black Sails, Disco Inferno for Cultured Vultures.
Let’s also not forget the publishers placing faith in the material. In my case lately, Nat Karmichael at Comicoz, Iggy & Galo at Project-Nerd Publishing, and David and Kelly at Open Books. Hats off also to Alterna Comics in the U.S. and Dirty Rotten Comics in the U.K.
Anyway, everybody rocks. So there!


May 2, 2016
Magpie Ep. 2, Bullet Gal redux, reviews, guff, and novel #6 about to be published
May’s kicked itself into fair gear (already!), and there’re several things afoot over the coming 4 weeks.
Rather than waffle on and bore senseless any prospective readership here (which I’m still dubious about; sue me), I’ll get straight into the whats, wheres and whens, ignoring the whys.
Egad!
First pony out of the stable looks like being Oi Oi Oi! #8, published via Comicoz in Australia, which features episode 2 of the Magpie series I do with Frantz Kantor — he who also did this sensational Maggie cover art.
The first 2 episodes of Magpie received a sensational critique thanks to James Picton @ Kapow!, while Jason Bennett nicely reviewed Ep. 2 for PopCultHQ.
Frantz is currently finalizing the art for Ep. 3.
Otherwise?
Coming out on May 22nd, just in time for a U.S. debut at Planet Comicon in Kansas, is a special re-release 250-page trade of the 12 issues of Bullet Gal, all thanks to the cool cats at Project-Nerd Publishing — and fellow Australian artist Graeme Jackson.
Graeme‘s my co-conspirator on upcoming noir comic Crash Soirée, and here he took a shot at Mitzi as well as the over all cover design (incorporating a Giovanni Ballati pin-up from the original series on the back of the book)… and knocked it out of the ball ground.
Cricket or baseball? You choose which.
Incidentally, there’s a podcast by Zakh Fair at Ravenreviews that addresses both Bullet Gal and Magpie; cheers, laddie.
Last month I wrote about the entire Bullet Gal experience for Bleeding Cool.
May’s also special since it’s the month I’ll be wrapping my comic book series Trista & Holt with #15.
It’s been a long, fun monthly ride; hats off to IF? Commix and all the incredible people who’ve (a) stuck by the series, (b) reviewed it, (c) both these things, or (d) just plain been supportive of something a little… er… different.
One such individual is Nevada McPherson, who just penned a wonderful crit. for Trista & Holt #14 at Graphic Policy.
BTW, last month veteran U.K. magazine NME put Dirty Rotten Comics #7 (which includes a story by me & Australian artist Chris Wahl) in their ‘Things We Like’ section.
British reviewers Down the Tubes wrote about the 3-pager: “This boasts quite possibly some of my favourite art that I have seen in a small press book for a long time. Clean lines and a character-driven story make this short by far my stand-out in this volume. It tells a brief but impactful story of depression, with genuinely outstanding style. A real ‘wow’ factor on this one. Got to be seen to be believed.”
Sweet. Ta, mates.
Meanwhile, Ben Kooyman at the Australian Comics Journal did a blinder of a write-up on our IF? Commix trade Tales to Admonish Vol. 1.
Finally, at the end of May, comes publication of my sixth novel: Black Sails, Disco Inferno, via Open Books.
In case you missed the briefs (not hype, I swear!) in previous entries on this blog thingy, the novel is a reboot of medieval romance Tristan and Iseult — set in a crime-filled, noir/pulp/disco-laden 1970s.
It’s also a revisionist version of the Trista & Holt comic book (see above), with cover art by my Magpie cohort Frantz Kantor, and two chapters in which I worked with excellent American scribe Renee Asher Pickup.
Anyway, pre-order is up and running, and it’ll hit in just four weeks.
Wunderbar.
April 20, 2016
Novel #7 finished, Pigtails award, and extra-added reviews
It’s been the month of Bullet Gal for me at this end.
This week I wrapped the novelization of the yarn, which takes place just after Depth Charging Ice Planet Goth, and about 4 years before Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?
Artist Graeme Jackson is working on a Mitzi painting that’s looking absolutely wild.
And?
The entire 12-issue Bullet Gal comic book series (from 2014-15) is about to get re-released in the U.S. market, thanks to Project-Nerd Publishing.
So, yeah, I’m still unable to quite let the character go.
But there’re other projects I’m also working on, including the upcoming Crash Soirée comic with Graeme, another story with artist Stu Campbell (who recently got nominated for an Eisner Award for his incredible tale These Memories Won’t Last), and the bloody fun Magpie work-out with Frantz Kantor.
In fact, there’s a mad review of Magpie Eps. 1 & 2 (in Oi Oi Oi! #7 & 8), thanks to James Picton and the cool cats @ Kapow – check that out here. And there’s a very nice podcast review of Magpie and Bullet Gal, thanks to Ravenreviews, right here.
My other series Trista & Holt winds up next month, after a 15-issue monthly run, and we just received a fantastic review for #14 from Nevada McPherson @ Graphic Policy (ta, mate!).
This augers even better for the novelization of that series, Black Sails, Disco Inferno – which will be published by Open Books in late May.
Lastly?
Production I.G’s new anime short Pigtails – for which I worked on the English subtitles – was just made the Platinum Remi Award winner at WorldFest Houston 2016!
It’s an ace little story directed by Yoshimi Itazu.
Anyway, short and sweet this time.
Later, ‘gators.


April 6, 2016
New Bullet Gal reveal, reviews, new novel, plus Crash Soirée
I just did a piece for Bleeding Cool on the ongoing presence of my character Bullet Girl, a.k.a. Mitzi, last name unknown.
She started out as a bit-player in my 2013 novel Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?, went on to star in a comic book series I wrote and did art for in 2014-15, has a trade paperback collection of same through Under Belly Comics in Canada, and was the main character in 2014 novel Depth Charging Ice Planet Goth.
Anyway, the Bleeding Cool article goes into greater detail, but the reason I mention this is because she’s making a comeback.
First off, I’m currently fine-tuning novel #7, which is based on the comic book series and seriously expanding upon same.
Secondly, fellow Aussie artist Graeme Jackson has convinced me to revive her as a guest-star in our upcoming comic Crash Soirée.
Here’s another sneak preview from that comic, a W.I.P rough character sketch of principle character Jim Falk.
In my initial script Bullet Gal was a maybe, possibly a cameo, but over the past few weeks Graeme and I have put our heads together and conjured up an heir-apparent.
It’s been eye-opening stuff, and makes me realize the Bullet Gal idea is something that’s a little dangerously infectious.
Anyway, this Bullet Gal that Graeme and I dreamed up isn’t Mitzi at all.
She’s a bubblegum-masticating teenage “legacy” character named Junie Mills (her name’s a doff of the hat to pioneering Miss Fury creator Tarpé Mills) that sent me this week scrambling back to the Bullet Gal novel manuscript to insert Junie’s own origin – which involves Mitzi rescuing the six-year-old from a human trafficking ring.
Here (above) is Graeme’s visualization of Junie as the new Bullet Gal.
Otherwise, novel #6, Black Sails, Disco Inferno, looks like it’ll be published early via Open Books, and we’re looking at a June release date. It’s a fused-to-the-hip mix of hardboiled noir, crime, pulp, disco… and a retelling of medieval romance Tristan and Iseult. You can find out more and pre-order via their site here.
The book is based on another of my comics, Trista & Holt, which winds up its 15-issue run next month.
#14 of same just received sweet-as reviews from Sci-Fi Jubilee and Fanboy Comics.
In other news, #7 of British comic book anthology Dirty Rotten Comics was just published, and it includes a story by me and artist Chris Wahl – and that also got a nice write-up thanks to downthetubes.net.
A few other things are in the works, and I’ll post about same when/if they arise – not that I expect anyone else to bother brushing up same here!


March 15, 2016
Black Sails, Disco Inferno: pre-sale now available
OK, so this shall be the briefest I’ve been in this blog for absolute months (aside from all the times I haven’t written, but let’s discount those).
Novel #6 is slated for publication at the end of June 2016, and my publishers Open Books have now set up a stand-alone homepage, plus anyone who’s keen can also pre-order the book!
That said, just head here.
I know you’re not s’posed to judge things by covers, but the painting gracing the wraparound is by the great Frantz Kantor.


March 5, 2016
Black Sails, Disco Inferno
My new novel has a home, and will be published by late June!
Saying it’s “mine”, however, is a wee bit egotistical.
This baby belongs as much to American writer and mate Renee Pickup (she wrote about her part of the process yesterday at Do Some Damage), who helped pen the thing via our Trista & Holt comic – creating a key path to follow within the story – and Frantz Kantor, my partner in crime on the Magpie strip, who kindly gave permission to use a beautiful (and oh-so-appropriate) painting of his for a wraparound cover.
The art above is just a part of that piece, as a sampler.
So, in a nutshell, this novel is the culmination of feedback, support and critiques from good mates, media people, fellow artists, and writers.
And it would not exist without the support of family and friends.
For this book we’ll be going through David A. Ross‘ Open Books imprint, since we very much respect their indie stance and the way in which the team there look outside the box in terms of promotional strategies and simply supporting authors.
The secondary source material for this novel – some might already know it’s based on medieval romance Tristan and Isolde, or Tristram and Iseult – is the comic book series Trista & Holt, which I write and illustrate.
It wraps up with #15 in May.
However, we just licensed the series to Project-Nerd Publishing in the U.S., so it’ll start appearing there in print from summer in a semi-colourized version.
Just a few minor revisions on the original, I swear.
The series has been getting some incredible reviews (whew!), and just this week Nevada McPherson took a good, hard look at #12 for Graphic Policy, while Paul Bowler @ Sci-fi Jubilee and Steven Alloway at Fanboy Comics reviewed #13.
Meanwhile?
Artist/co-writer Graeme Jackson and I are going full steam ahead on our new comic series Crash Soirée, which will be launched in the pages of Oi Oi Oi! #9 in Australia in a few months’ time – alongside Magpie Ep. 3.
Here’s a sneak preview of Episode 1’s splash-page.
We have some mad plans in mind for this series, some of which relate to both the world of Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa? and Magpie – starting with a legacy character who isn’t actually Bullet Gal. Yet is.
Finally, I muck around with muzak on the side, mostly as Little Nobody since 1996. Yep, 20 years… zounds.
Thanks to Nicolas and Edurne Lutz, I now have a double-vinyl 12″ LP out via their label My Own Jupiter in Europe. It’s titled This is Tokio (intentional misspelling, I swear!) and is available at places like Juno Records and decks.de.
Techno/electronica with a skewed mentality. Just my cuppa.