Stories written by Jason Cobley - weird worlds, all-ages action adventure, and grown-up stories

Frontier Reader Review!

2012-02-25T03:12:00.000-08:00

No, it's... I've got something in my eye (and reviews of Frontier)

2012-02-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

I took my daughter to see The Muppets today at the finest cinema in East Anglia - The Luxe Cinema in Wisbech. It's a small, single screen venue, with leather armchairs (and some sofas), high quality snacks and a bar. If you pay a couple of quid extra for the premium sofas, you even get waiter/ess service. If you're ever in the area, do check it out. Unless I'm forced to, I won't go to big multiscreeners - we have a Cineworld about 45 minutes away, and a Showcase (awful, rude staff, tatty) about half an hour away. So it's The Luxe for me or The Majestic in Kings Lynn, great independent cinemas. Anyway, we saw The Muppets. I laughed, and cried a little more than I'm going to admit to. Key to my emotions being manipulated so decisively are the songs - I defy anyone to see this film and not leave the cinema grinning for the next day or two. Oh, and the ending is absolute genius. Listen for Amy Adams' final line. I couldn't stop singing 'Life's A Happy Song' from the movie and downloaded it on to the ipod as soon as I got home. I can see me getting the whole album by the end of the week. So, consider this thought:
"I've got everything that I need right in front of me...
Life's a happy song
When there's someone by my side to sing along..."

For a couple of hours I had The Muppets by my side and I was eight years old again.

There's a lot to be said for being eight years old. Something else that put a bit of grit in my eye (yes, there was something in my eye, all right?) was this review of Frontier: Dealing With Demons complete with added comments from the reviewer's eight year old niece. Below, some extracts. Please go here to read the whole thing. It's kept me smiling.
The narrative of the comic itself is told in a fast moving manner with dialogue that is simplified and easy to read and the added spooky element keeps the story going at a break-neck speed so you never feel like it’s twiddling its thumbs at any point. The artwork suits the story and readership perfectly and compliments the story fantastically, keeping the pace of the story moving along just as well as the dialogue. (Neil Thomason)

...

I liked it because it had a lot of advenchurs in it!

It made me feel scared and sad.

Scared – Because they kept running into dandres creachers.

Sad – I felt sad because they had lost there parents. (They died) (the parents)

The pictures were cool. They were good because it looked exactly like the Wild West...

Thank you for letting me read and write about this book. I’m looking forward to the next book!

Love from

Eloisa xxx

There's another review up here at Bookzone4Boys. Together, they're some sort of proof that boys and girls (and adults) are enjoying our version of Daisy's Diary (which, as we know, is very real...):

As the wordsmith, Jason Cobley masterfully spins a story that will have readers of all ages thirsting for more, and it is perfectly complimented by Wildman's stunning artwork. This is certainly not the case of the story being the poor relation to the illustrations as can happen in comics from time to time. Yes, it is the artwork that first caught my eye and made my heart soar, but the story is so good that an immediate second reading was called for. It has everything - great characters, a fast-paced plot, some cracking set pieces and a particularly nasty villain. I challenge anyone who reads this not to immediately pre-order the sequel (we are informed that Book 2, The Infernal Express, is coming soon).

Well, let's hope so. I have a plot. I guess we'll know whether we're doing a Book Two if enough readers demand it!

Coming soon: more reviews from kids... maybe when this one has cheered up.

Frontier Book One OUT NOW!

2012-02-04T02:41:00.000-08:00

Available from all good bookshops, all internet book retailers and all comic shops! If yours doesn't have it in, lassoo them and make them order it in! I have a very limited number of copies that you could order from me personally - and you could have it signed. Contact me at the email address found at the 'contact' tab for details.

Here's one happy little cowgirl showing off the books!

New Year, and Tom Hickathrift News

2012-01-11T15:28:00.000-08:00

Belated happy new year everyone!

I will post more when I can, but just to keep you up to date: The Legend Of Tom Hickathrift by me is a novel now with a publisher!

Wahey!

Out later this year!

Some Quick Reviews and Fenland News

2011-12-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

I am busier than a very busy businessman who has just opened a new business on the busiest business day of the business season. However, I don't want to get to Christmas without commenting on my haul from Thought Bubble. I had already bought Nelson from Blank Slate and proceeded to get as many sketches and signatures in it from contributors as I could, so pleased that friends and acquaintances and people I hadn't met before but had admired from afar all meshed together to create something really special - especially me old mucker Paul Harrison Davies. It's a bit good.
I also handed over cash for the beautiful Incal hardback from Self Made Hero, as well as Sandcastle and Don Quixote from them. I'd been following Rob Davis' progress on the Don via Twitter, and it's great - hilarious, riotous, a great adaptation. I didn't know what to expect from Sandcastle, so my jaw dropped reading it in one sitting. Like a beautifully twisted episode of the Twilight Zone it unfolds into an unexpected shape. Also brilliant, as ever, was the new instalment from Andrew Cheverton and Tim Keable - West: The Confederate Dead, which I can't recommend highly enough. I loves a good Western, me. Also: Ink + Paper with some great talent. I especially liked David O'Connell's strip. It's got airships in it. I like them.

A few reviews are starting to emerge online of my Dracula adaptation. Here's a peek at some of Staz's stunning artwork. Check out reviews here and here.

I'm reliably informed that I should have copies of Frontier in my hands some time next week, so more on that when I have it!

My only other bit of news is that it looks like The Legend Of Tom Hickathrift will be published next year as a novel. I can't announce anything definite yet, but I'm very excited about it. It's all planned out, with about a third completed so I'm getting stuck in right now with the rest. More news as I have it!

Oh, yes... Early days, can't say exactly how it will be published yet, but David Hitchcock and I have begun some work on an adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic ghost story The Signal Man. He has the original art of this image for sale, by the way!

Don't have nightmares.

The View From The Bubble

2011-11-23T12:19:00.001-08:00

The Frontier graphic novel has been delayed as we're determined to make it something really special. It will be out in December in time for you to buy it for Christmas for all cowboy, werewolf and demon loving 8 to 84 year olds you know. As a result, the planned launch at Thought Bubble didn't quite go to plan. As luck would have it, my Dracula graphic novel adaptation of the classic novel with Staz Johnson arrived hot off the presses from Clive at Classical Comics in time for the Leeds convention. Thanks to all who wandered by the table and bought a copy of Dracula. I think everyone is in agreement with me that it's probably the best thing Staz has ever done. I'm quite proud of it too. If you agree, it would be great if you could post a comment below or put up a review on Amazon, or just let me know what you think.

The planned signing by me at the Fully Booked Bookshop in Wisbech has also been delayed until January, but will definitely be happening, so if you're in the area, keep an eye out for dates. The next comic convention I think is Cardiff and hopefully we'll be making a showing there.

I bought a few nice things at Thought Bubble, mainly from the Self Made Hero table, as well as collecting lots of signatures / sketches of contributors to Blank Slate's Nelson book (which features my good friend Paul Harrison-Davies - his pages are nostalgiatastic). I'll post soon with mini-reviews of the books I bought. I also made sure I got a signed copy of You Can't Eat A Princess! from Sarah Macintyre for my daughter. She's something of a fan.

I spent most of Saturday, though, staring out at the passing Judges, Roller Girls, Stormtroopers and a Macintyre Pirate as the day wore on. Here's a few of my pics from the table, along with a shot of weary old me. Thanks to Richard Bruton for taking that one!

Of Vampires, Cowboys and...

2011-10-28T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hi. Haven't blogged for a while. Here's some things: Frontier debuts at Thought Bubble on 19th / 20th November. Please come by and say hi to me and Andrew. I will also be signing books at Fully Booked in Wisbech on Saturday 26th November. If you're in the area, please pop in and support a local independent bookshop. I will be signing Frontier and Dracula, which should be out any day now. I'm hoping to have copies of that at Thought Bubble too. A fair bit hangs on the success of these books, as some recent things have led me to not pursue any more comics projects for now. Aside from anything that comes up as a result of Frontier and / or Dracula, I'm only working on Tom Hickathrift (also as a novel), a strip I'm hoping to get going with Andy Bloor, and another project I'm calling Amnesia Agents. It began as a rejected comic pitch and I'm now writing it as a novel. Let's see where it leads. I've been plugging away at comics with differing degrees of success for a long time now, along with a very full time job and family, so it's time to narrow things down and focus. That said, I have high hopes for Frontier: the proofs I've seen look amazing and I'm very proud of what we've put together. If you're looking for an all-ages book as a Christmas present for boys or girls - even yourself - you couldn't go far wrong, even if I do say so myself!

Birmingham Comic Con

2011-08-31T12:50:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the Birmingham BC 2011 Comic Con, a downscaled version of the BICS expo that has been so successful over the last few years, run by Shane Chebsey and so many others, both organising and supporting. I was there only as a customer and to check in with a few friends. I managed to get time to sit down with Andrew Wildman for a while after his marathon signing session, the result being that I'm even more excited about the Frontier book coming out very soon. It was great to chat with friends Dave West, Colin Mathieson and Andy Bloor of Accent UK, as well as David Hitchcock, who I think is the biggest mystery in comics. It's a mystery why publishers aren't beating a path to his door, and offering him more work than he can handle. Do check out his work if you haven't done already. Spring-Heeled Jack and Gothic are great, great pieces of work. I'm very much hoping that David and I will be working on something very soon, possibly with Accent UK involved. Their new anthology, Predators, is out now. It's listed in Previews, so you can order it through your comic shop, or directly from them. Talking of comic shops, I popped into Nostalgia and Comics whilst I was there. It used to be my comic shop of choice when I lived near Birmingham, and is pretty much as it was, except selling more toys now. The array of books there was bewildering, and I did think it was very alienating to the casual reader: how on earth does an 8 year old just discovering comics know what to read? Which Batman should he pick? Back in the con, there were great efforts from exhibitors to embrace all - there were comics for art lovers, comics for kids, comics for geeks, and everything in between. It was great to chat to Kate Brown, Paul Duffield, Abby Ryder and Dave The Demon Tomato Man, as well as the others I've mentioned. I made a contact who may be interested in publishing something oif mine, but I daren't say more as early days and all that.

One of the biggest highlights was getting a lovely cupcake from the Comic Book Alliance stand, who were going great guns with the Spirit Of Hope book, in which I have two strips, one drawn by Andrew Wildman, the other by Warwick Johnson Cadwell. It's an anthology put together to raise money for charities supporting the relief effort in Japan and New Zealand after the earthquakes out there. Still available from the CBA website and well worth your money, with an array and wonderful contributions from pros, amateurs and people who straddle the uneasy divide, such as myself. Speaking of which, the less I say about the 'seasoned pro' who looked at me as if I was something scraped off his shoe when I said hello, despite us meeting a few times before over the years, the better. There's another one who never ever recognises me whenever I speak to him, but there you go. Others are great!

Comics I picked up at Brum that I throughly recommend:
Tuk Tuk by Will Kirby
Signal by Paul Duffield
Predators from Accent UK (various contributors)
Madame Samurai volume 2 by Gary Young and David Hitchcock.
And The Demon Tomato!!!

I spent a nice time chatting to Clive at the Classical Comics table too. If you like the work of the amazing John Burns (a true gent as well, by the way), please seek out his adaptation of Wuthering Heights with Sean Michael Wilson. It's just beautiful, and a great graphic novel in its own right.

Dracula is on for a Halloween release!!!

So what's next from me? What am I working on? Well, I have a pile of pitches that haven't managed to be placed with a comic publisher yet, so I'm thinking of doing something with them. I'm actively looking for artists who would be willing to produce a few pages for pitching around, for a full co-creator share. One of them I actually think could be the best thing I've yet come up with, but time will tell. If interested, please contact me at jmcobley AT gmail DOT com.

September will be weird again...

2011-08-30T06:12:00.000-07:00

Well, the cat's out of the bag now. Taken from the press release on the Strip Magazine website:

Frontier brings readers a very Weird Wild West!

Print Media Productions is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of Frontier: Dealing with Demons by Jason Cobley and Andrew Wildman.

The Wild West... and Daisy Adams is suddenly all alone, living on the plains, left with her father's old coat and a catapult. Then Mitch Seeker, the son of a sheriff, runs into her life. And they've been running ever since, chasing werewolves, ghosts and demons, on a quest to track down the man who turned them both into orphans and unleashed weirdness into the Wild West.

In 1866, out on the Frontier, things got Weird. History failed to record everything that happened, but Daisy wrote it all down in her diaries. In Frontier, we follow Mitch and Daisy as they seek justice but end up finding more adventure and danger than they counted on. It's weird. It's wild. It happened out west!

First published in the acclaimed Random House weekly comic The DFC, Print Media Productions is delighted to bring you this collection of Britain's weirdest western comic – Frontier: Dealing with Demons. Weaving an engaging, adventure-filled tale of derring-do in the American West, this collected edition of Frontier from Jason Cobley and Andrew Wildman includes additional feature material, including pages from Daisy's secret diary and reveals just how the story was created.

Frontier – now being considered as a possible TV series with a trailer shot earlier this year – will appeal to anyone who's ever enjoyed a cowboy film or comic, but has an added fantasy element that will draw in plenty more readers. With great characters, werewolves, ancient gods and demons and a bad guy that bullets can't kill, there's plenty to enjoy.

Head on over to the website for more info. I wasn't sure at which point we were going to reveal the TV pitch, but it's there now. Only time will tell which direction this goes in, but Frontier has been put forward as a potential TV series. A trailer was shot just a few weeks ago. I've seen some photos taken on the day but wasn't there myself. Andrew was though, and I can tell you it looked amazing from what I can see!

Some of the photos will materialise in some form in the forthcoming book. As well as the original 11-episode story that appeared in The DFC, re-edited in some places and with some extra pages of artwork including a prologue and epilogue, there's a lot of added material. Prose extracts from Daisy's Diary tell the story of how Mitch and Daisy meet for the first time, and Andrew provides a feature on how the artwork was put together. The book feels quite special to us and we're confident that it will look the business.

The book will have its comic convention debut at Thought Bubble in November, when we will have a table. It should be quite an event, and I hope as many of you as possible can be there to get your copy signed by me and Andrew Wildman, who as I'm sure you may have heard, is returning to Transformers comics very soon!

I'm also hoping that, the following weekend, 26th November, I will be signing both Frontier and Dracula at independent bookshop Fully Booked in Wisbech. More info on that soon.

update 16th August 2011

2011-08-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

Site updates:

Some info on Frontier

Added some comments on Tom Hickathrift and Hugo the Zombie

Frontier! Coming Soon!

2011-08-15T16:26:00.001-07:00

Finally, the hardback collection!
All going well, this will be available at Thought Bubble, where Andrew will have a table and I'll be mooching off him. We'll both be signing copies, so get yours in November in Leeds!
More info here.

Downloads and Print Editions of my books - new prices!

2011-08-11T01:42:00.000-07:00

My independently published books are now available from Lulu at new revised prices. You can also download editions that are identical to the print versions as PDFs to be read on your Kindle, iPad, Mac or your PC - or you could just print them off if you like.

As follows:

MOVING TARGETS - a collection of short stories with illustrations by Paul Harrison Davies, Davey Candlish and Jim Cameron
Print version: £5.00
Download: 99 pence!

BULLDOG CLIPS: new collection of short comic strips mainly featuring Capt Winston Bulldog, Keiko Panda and Hugo the Zombie.
Print: £2.99
Download: 99 pence!

THE GREATEST ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN WINSTON BULLDOG: collection of Winston's adventures from 1993 to 2006
Print: £4.99
Download: 99 pence!

THE EXTRAORDINARY EXPLOITS OF CAPTAIN WINSTON BULLDOG: second collection of Winston's adventures from Bulldog Advneture Magazine spanning 1993 to 2006
Print: £3.99
Download: 99 pence!

Previews of some strips are appearing at the tabs above, so please check them out for free, then go ahead and download from Lulu! You can't go wrong with a 200 page book for 99p!

Don't brush the riots aside

2011-08-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

Couldn't think of any other way to comment on recent events than this:

Feel free to add your own slogan.

New News of Newness

2011-08-06T04:55:00.000-07:00

Hi -
The old Cobblers Blog is gone, so here's the new one. This will be a one-stop shop for news about my writing projects. I dabble in writing comics and other bits and bobs. All my books so far are available to buy from the links on the right.
Coming very soon is the long-awaited hardback collection of Frontier: The Weird Wild West, which appeared in The DFC in 2009. There have been some very exciting potential developments with this recently that I hope at some point I'll be able to talk about. Check out the blog of artist and collaborator Andrew Wildman for more stuff Frontier-related and his own great projects too.

Comig soon: a post on the Spirit Of Hope anthology that I contributed to, and hopefully also some other news. As well as exploring work with established publishers, my Captain Winston Bulldog adventures are self-published through Lulu (see links on the right). A new adventure is in the planning stages. Also in development: a novel for youngsters, and something more 'grown'up'...

Welcome

2011-08-06T04:20:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my new blog. More info soon.