Nick Bryan's Blog, page 3

New comics! New Patreon! New!

Yes, after a sparse year on the blog, I'm back with new fiction! And it's more comics, which should tell you something about where my head is this year.

But this time, it's not a comic story in an anthology - we now have a new 'Comics' tab at the top of this site, or you can just click here, where I'll be posting a few short stories I've been working on with some very cool artists. We've got three in progress, a fourth hopefully joining them soon.

As someone who likes his comics a lot - you may have noticed - I'm pretty excited. The very first story is called Transcendental Rental, with fun art by Chris Caesar (sample panel above, yes) and features a wizarding mishap. Basically, it's a short comedy bit. Subsequent stories will have beefier plots, but this seemed a fun start.

P-P-P-Pick Up A Patreon

All of which brings me on to our second bit of news - like many an internet creating person, I have now started a Patreon page, to help me hire still more artists and draw still more comics. I've got a few up-front to get us going, but if you'd like to see more without along wait - or if you just particularly like me and my work and want to chip in - there is now a way.

Patreon, for those who don't know, is basically a way of 'subscribing' to a creator you like, paying a monthly amount of your choice. In return, they provide a few perks - I've listed a few on the site, including a short commentary podcast about the process of making each comic. The first is up now!

But yeah, obviously, this is a service I'm providing, so if there's any further perks I can (reasonably) provide to encourage patreonage, do get in touch.

Or if you'd rather stick to a one-time donation than a full patreonisation, there is also this PayPal thingy.

Anyhow. I don't want this site to become a constant beg, but just FYI, the Patreon option now exists, there are perks available. If you enjoy the free comic stories especially, it will definitely make it much more likely that there will be more of them. We'll see how it goes.

“The Half-Baked Sacrifice” – new comic anthology story out now in print and digital!

My latest venture into comic writing is out now! It’s called The Half-Baked Sacrifice, with art by Lukas Kowalczuk and features in the new anthology Something Wicked 2016 from Futurequake Press!

Basically, it’s a four page story about a slightly unstable toaster and its important mechanical religious beliefs. There’s also a rodent. I think the story’s pretty fun by itself, but the the art by Lukas is absolutely excellent.

Seriously – buy the comic, look at it. Or there are a few small samplers available in this very post! (Yes, they are quite small samples, but it is a four page story. I don’t want to give away the farm.)

And if you wish to buy it in print, you can go to Futurequake Press’s website here for £6.50 (plus postage)!

Or, for digital comic readers, it’s also up on popular digital comics platform Comixology for the knock-down price of £1.49.

My bit starts on page 74, if you wanted to know.

So yes, check it out. It may not shock you to learn that writing comics is a long-held dream for me, and seeing it realised in such a beautifully drawn way has come close to making my entire 2017 even though it’s only just started.

Oh, and if you want to see more art from Lukas Kowalczuk (and fair enough), his website is right here. Cheers to Futurequake as well, for making the whole process fun and painless. If you’re an aspiring creator and the chance comes up to work with them, absolutely do it.

"The Half-Baked Sacrifice" - new comic anthology story out now in print and digital!

My latest venture into comic writing is out now! It's called The Half-Baked Sacrifice, with art by Lukas Kowalczuk and features in the new anthology Something Wicked 2016 from Futurequake Press!

Basically, it's a four page story about a slightly unstable toaster and its important mechanical religious beliefs. There's also a rodent. I think the story's pretty fun by itself, but the the art by Lukas is absolutely excellent.

Seriously - buy the comic, look at it. Or there are a few small samplers available in this very post! (Yes, they are quite small samples, but it is a four page story. I don't want to give away the farm.)

And if you wish to buy it in print, you can go to Futurequake Press's website here for £6.50 (plus postage)!

Or, for digital comic readers, it's also up on popular digital comics platform Comixology for the knock-down price of £1.49.

My bit starts on page 74, if you wanted to know.

So yes, check it out. It may not shock you to learn that writing comics is a long-held dream for me, and seeing it realised in such a beautifully drawn way has come close to making my entire 2017 even though it's only just started.

Oh, and if you want to see more art from Lukas Kowalczuk (and fair enough), his website is right here. Cheers to Futurequake as well, for making the whole process fun and painless. If you're an aspiring creator and the chance comes up to work with them, absolutely do it.

Top Ten TV Shows 2016! (Up now on the MFV website!)

Hello universe!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and other such exclamations. Usually around now, I post my Top Ten TV Shows of the year gone by, but since the Moderate Fantasy Violence podcast is now my main outlet for the pop culture chat, it's up on that blog instead.

Still, hopefully that won't discourage you from clicking here and having a look at what I liked (and in what order) in the year gone by!

And if you want even more year-in-review type action from me, we also did a full-on 2016 talk-down podcast episode where we met up in person for the first time in MFV history and chatted about our favourite films, television and other recommended stuff from the year.

And that's all this year's recaps! See you in 2017, when I imagine I'll do a fuller blog post about the fact you can now buy this comic anthology I contributed to on Comixology.

Ben Reilly And Me – New Spider-Man Clone Saga blogging!

After a too-long pause with no new writing on the internet, I have written a post about my childhood enjoyment of the Spider-Man Clone Saga and Ben Reilly, which you can find over at the Moderate Fantasy Violence website.

Moderate Fantasy Violence, in case you’ve forgotten, is my fortnightly podcast about pop culture type stuff which I do with my friend Alastair JR Ball. It’s still going, our new episode just came out covering The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch (the new Rivers of London book), new Top Gear copy show The Grand Tour, Doctor Who spin-off Class and me finally watching Taxi Driver. You can search for it on iTunes (and hopefully most other podcast providers), or get it directly from the podcast website.

Ben Reilly And Me - New Spider-Man Clone Saga blogging!

After a too-long pause with no new writing on the internet, I have written a post about my childhood enjoyment of the Spider-Man Clone Saga and Ben Reilly, which you can find over at the Moderate Fantasy Violence website.

Moderate Fantasy Violence, in case you've forgotten, is my fortnightly podcast about pop culture type stuff which I do with my friend Alastair JR Ball. It's still going, our new episode just came out covering The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch(the new Rivers of London book), new Top Gear copy show The Grand Tour, Doctor Who spin-off Class and me finally watching Taxi Driver. You can search for it on iTunes (and hopefully most other podcast providers), or get it directly from the podcast website.

Hobson & Choi v4 – Blood Will Stream – OUT NOW!

Today is BWS day! No, not “beers, wines and spirits” (my friend Paul used to work in Sainsburys BWS section), it’s Blood Will Stream!

The fourth Hobson & Choi book is out today, featuring our heroes investigating the locked room murder of a YouTuber. Who did the deed, and can Hobson and Angelina find the killer without making the whole situation much worse? For once? Maybe?

I could type a lot more, but since I’m doing YouTube videos at the moment to tie in with this YouTubey book, I’ll embed a video instead. Here are my release day thoughts. Ready yourselves.

There we go. Hope that stirred something in you. Aside from the thought “Man, that guy needs to stop waving his hands around.”

Anyway, down to business: here are all the places you can buy Blood Will Stream in print and digital! Check it out! Hope you like it! Tell your friends! Etc! Release day woooooooo!

Hobson & Choi v4 - Blood Will Stream - OUT NOW!

Today is BWS day! No, not "beers, wines and spirits" (my friend Paul used to work in Sainsburys BWS section), it's Blood Will Stream!

The fourth Hobson & Choi book is out today, featuring our heroes investigating the locked room murder of a YouTuber. Who did the deed, and can Hobson and Angelina find the killer without making the whole situation much worse? For once? Maybe?

I could type a lot more, but since I'm doing YouTube videos at the moment to tie in with this YouTubey book, I'll embed a video instead. Here are my release day thoughts. Ready yourselves.

(Or if you just want to buy the damn book, there's a grid of buy links just below the video. Go for it.)

There we go. Hope that stirred something in you. Aside from the thought "Man, that guy needs to stop waving his hands around."

Anyway, down to business: here are all the places you can buy Blood Will Stream in print and digital! Check it out! Hope you like it! Tell your friends! Etc! Release day woooooooo! (Annoyingly the Amazon purchase page for the print edition isn't up yet. Sigh. Added as soon as I have it.)

Blood Will Stream Video #3 – Five Favourite Books I Had On My Bookshelves

So, my attempt to do some authentic YouTubing to promote my upcoming book about a YouTuber being murdered continues! First, I filmed a broad intro to the book, then I unboxed my print proof.

Now my third video is here, and I thought it’d be fun to talk about some authors other than myself this time. So, in the end, I decided to do the my five favourite books I have on my current bookshelves! So excluding all ebooks and everything I’ve left at my parents’ house for space reasons!

An odd criteria, maybe, but I’m pretty pleased with the five I found. Click the video below to see what they are and what I said about them, including a brief anecdote about the one time I met Neil Gaiman. (Yes, he’s on the list.)

And, video messing aside, today marks one week until the release of Blood Will Stream! So that’s pretty nerve-wracking. Pre-order now to make me feel better about it all! Links to available pre-orders can be found in its entry on the main Hobson & Choi page!

Blood Will Stream Video #3 - Five Favourite Books I Had On My Bookshelves

So, my attempt to do some authentic YouTubing to promote my upcoming book about a YouTuber being murdered continues! First, I filmed a broad intro to the book, then I unboxed my print proof.

Now my third video is here, and I thought it'd be fun to talk about some authors other than myself this time. So, in the end, I decided to do the my five favourite books I have on my current bookshelves! So excluding all ebooks and everything I've left at my parents' house for space reasons!

An odd criteria, maybe, but I'm pretty pleased with the five I found. Click the video below to see what they are and what I said about them, including a brief anecdote about the one time I met Neil Gaiman. (Yes, he's on the list.)

And, video messing aside, today marks one week until the release of Blood Will Stream! So that's pretty nerve-wracking. Pre-order now to make me feel better about it all! Links to available pre-orders can be found in its entry on the main Hobson & Choi page!