Archive for the Hexes Category
So, how did Hexes: Waking Nightmare come to be?
Well, as with many of my comics, it started life as a short film I wrote as part of a competition I enter annually. It’s called NYC Midnight Screenwriters Challenge, and one of the things I like about it is that it gives you two limitations; time and circumstances.
Held over three rounds, the time you must write the short screenplay diminishes until you have just twenty-four hours for the final round. What I really like is that they give you three parameters you must include: Genre, Character and Object.
For Waking Nightmare, I was given the horror, a child and a ferry to contend with. Working within parameters really helps me focus and concentrate on the story. It reminds me of being at school and getting the first line of a story that you have to complete!
Anyway, the Waking Nightmare script got me through the first round, which I was pleased about. That was mid-2012.
Fast forward to mid-2015, and I decided I’d turn it into a full-length movie script. That took a few months to complete it to a standard I was happy with.
Then, in 2016, after Hexes: The Boy Who Came Closer (another comic that started as a short film script) had been drawn, I sent it to Lyndon White for lettering. I’d been trying to find a project to work with Lyndon on for a while, and he mentioned how much he liked ‘The Boy Who Came Closer’, and if there was another one-off I was planning to send it through to him.
Well, I dusted off my Google drive folder, and found the Waking Nightmare short film screenplay. Over a few weeks, I turned that into the comic script, and sent it to Lyndon, who loved it.
After the normal iterations, the finished comic was ready in time for the Hexes Kickstarter campaign in July/August 2016, and the rest is history.
In the next few months, the first Hexes trade paperback will be launched on the Kickstarter platform. It’ll be made up of four Hexes stories. You already know about the first two stories, The Boy Who Came Closer and Waking Nightmare, but what about the next ones.
Well, we can officially announce the next two stories are:
Hexes: Midnight Oil
Words by Simon Birks, Art by Emiliano Correa, Letters by Lyndon White
Set in Argentina, Midnight Oil tells the story of Connie and her husband, who run a petrol station. After a tragic accident which Connie finds impossible to come to terms with, she receives two visitors, neither of whom are welcome.
Hexes: 101
Words by Simon Birks, Art by Rory Donald, Letters by Lyndon White
On a dark night, Lee, a young man with a secret, arrives at an old peoples home in mid-town America, looking for help. He receives some, in the form of Greta, a 101 year old woman, who has a very dark secret of her own.
Don’t worry about missing the start of the Kickstarter, we’ll make enough noise for everyone to hear! It will most likely be towards the end of March / beginning of April, sort of time.
Would love to know what you think.
“Hexes is one of those horror comics that gets under your skin and stays with you for the rest of the day. A mix of hauntingly beautiful artwork and dark, sinister story telling make for a creepy and disorientating read that feels very different to the majority of horror books in the market right now.”
“Hexes is a brand new horror anthology created by Simon Briks that is refreshing the comic book medium. We were offered a glimpse into the project brought to life by Kickstarter, our favorite engine for projects fueled by fans, with the first two volumes. Each one was vastly different, subtly chilling and wildly inventive. As a person that was first brought to the horror genre by art and literature (between 30 Days of Night and Interview with the Vampire it was a done deal from an early age) this was a throwback to why I loved horror in the first place. There are so many reasons this will find its place in so many online orders.”
Read the full review here.
“Hexes: Book 1 is an impressive release from writer Simon Birks (Sinners) and artist Ege Avci, telling the eerie tale of a dying young boy named Brendan whose life is saved after being gifted a magical stone by a mysterious stranger. In situations like this one history has taught us there is always a catch and in this case, it’s that the stone won’t work indefinitely, and sooner or later death will catch up to Brendan whether he’s ready for it or not.”
Read the full review here.
“There is something to be said about a comic that manages to give you the chills as soon as you open to page one. That comic is Hexes written by Simon Birks. With its macabre art style and simplistic yet eerie storytelling, Hexes is sure to please anyone who enjoys dark, spine-tingling tales.”
Read the full review here.
On August 16th 2016, the Hexes Kickstarter campaign for Issues 1 & 2 ended successfully!
Not only did we manage to raise the £2000 funds for printing and additional rewards, we were also able to raise a further £900+ on top of that!
This additional money meant we were able to reach four additional stretch goals:
- two double sided, full colour postcards
- four additional pages in each comic
- pencil PDF version of Issue #2
- fabric patch
The link to the campaign is here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simonbirks/hexes-comics-1-and-2-one-shot-supernatural-horror
