UK small press publishers, Blue Fox Comics, are hard at work with their latest slate of comics for 2018.
After a busy 2017, which saw the release of Sinners #3 (Simon Birks, RHStewart), Hexes: Waking Nightmare Variant Edition (Simon Birks, Lyndon White), Dracula and Inferno Concertina Art Books (Lyndon White), Robyn #1 (Simon Birks, Ege Avci), Digital editions of Gone #1 & #2 (Simon Birks, Juan Fleites) and The Girl in the Midnight Gown (Simon Birks, Juan Fleites), Blue Fox have a series of graphic novels, continuing single issues and new titles in the works.
Already funded, printed and sent out to their Kickstarter backers, Hexes Volume One is a graphic novel that collects the first four issues in their psychological horror series, which sees different artists draw each one-off story, all set in the same universe (the Hexaverse). All the issues were written by Simon Birks, lettered by Lyndon White, and had the following artists:
#1 Hexes: The Boy Who Came Closer – Ege Avci
#2 Hexes: Waking Nightmare – Lyndon White
#3 Hexes: Midnight Oil – Emiliano Correa
#4 Hexes: 101 – Rory Donald
They’ve also published ‘The Mind of James Svengal’, a full colour, 180-page graphic novel by Lyndon White and Jordan Sam Adams. Struggling with PTSD, James battles his inner psyche and his addiction. He’s trying to keep himself together while falling apart. An honest account of personal struggle, touching on themes of addiction, loss, alienation and recovery, this book is a heartfelt, uncompromising and surreal account of one man’s journey back to himself.
Next up is the collected volume for Gone, the sci-fi mystery set on a spacecraft where the thousands of crew have disappeared, and where a lone maintenance robot, the AssistA, sets out to discover where they went.
Following on from that, Sinners Volume One (Simon Birks, RHStewart) collects the first four issues of the supernatural noir story, which follows Hope Martinez through the first twenty-four hours after she wakes up dead, finds her on/off boyfriend murdered outside, and gets given a limousine and told to drive it around America, finding and dispatching sinners into its trunk.
Next up, Ben Edwards, winner of the initial Blue Fox Horror Short competition, expands his entry into a full one-shot comic. ‘Nemo’, a bloody Victorian horror comic, sees Walter Sickert seeking inspiration through his alter-ego, Jack the Ripper.
Straight after that, Blue Fox will be running a Kickstarter for their Dragon Colouring Book, featuring fifty-two pages, one for each week of the year, of dragons by multiple artists. Of particular note is the straight fifty/fifty split between images by male and female artists.
They’ll then be crowdfunding the first issue of ‘The Herebey Dragons’, an ongoing series by Simon Birks and artist Eda Çağıl Çağlarırmak. A title for all ages, it follows Billy and his mother, as the mysterious dragon Ponnis attempts to break through into our world from the place the dragons have been banished to.
Hexes: Daughter of Letters (Simon Birks, Yarkin Sakarya) and Hexes: Everything Must Go (Simon Birks, Lyndon White) will be released mid-year, two more tales from the Hexes universe, set in China and America respectively.
Robyn #2 (Simon Birks, Ege Avci) appears after that, continuing the story of the gender-flipped hero as she battles foes from both near and far, and tries to help an unlikely ally.
The first part of our four-part story, Clodagh (Simon Birks, Borbala Cicelle Kiraly), will be next. A dark fantasy, Clodagh tells the story of a town and family ripped apart by a witch hell-bent on destruction.
Finally, they’ll be publishing Hexes Volume Two, rounding off the year with another collection of stories from the Hexavese. Once again written by Simon Birks, and lettered by Lyndon White, Hexes Volume Two will contain the following stories and artists.
#5 Hexes: Passing Through (Edward Bentley)
#6 Hexes: Daughter of Letters (Yarkin Sakarya)
#7 Hexes: Devil in the Details (RHStewart)
#8 Hexes: Everything Must Go (Lyndon White)
All-in-all, a wide range of genres and titles awaits.
“We wanted to develop our offerings, as well as have graphic novels on the table at conventions and online,” says director of Blue Fox, Simon Birks. “It’s going to be a busy year, and we look forward to bringing you new comics by existing and new Blue Fox artists.”
“We want to be one of the top UK small press publishers, and, with this schedule, believe we’re well on the way.”
