Spare Parts Episode 4, Page 3 of 3, written by Jay Eales and illustrated by Peet Clack. First published in Violent! #8.

Here’s a sneak peek at what should be the next major release from Factor Fiction - collecting strips from across the first seventeen issues of The Girly Comic in a shelf-friendly perfect bound edition, under a gorgeous Dez Taylor cover. Further down the line will be The Girly Comic Book Volume 2, collected strips from Violent! and Crazycrone: The Lee Kennedy Collection. And tomorrow, the world!

The Girly Comic Book Volume 1 will, all things being equal, debut at the Birmingham International Comics Show this October.

In December 2006, author and friend Craig Hinton died. Discussions were had about putting together a collection of stories in celebration of his life, and after a little while, the two editors (Adrian Middleton and David McIntee) started asking about for a third person to join the editorial team. In the past, I’ve been involved in a few such projects, or fanthologies as they were dubbed, so after some consideration, I came aboard.

Craig was a huge fan of comics, and it must be said, I know quite a few comics bods, so it seemed the obvious role for me to take on designing the book and getting an illustration for each story. Fast forward many months, and we’re almost there. We’re just awaiting final approval from Craig’s family, and we can get this baby out into the world, with all profits being donated to the British Heart Foundation.

Contributors: John Aggs, James Ambuehl, William Andrews, Peter Anghelides, Jon Arnold, Chris Askham, Andy Baker, Allan Bednar, Simon Bucher Jones, Damon Cavalchini, Andrew Cheverton, Peet Clack, Roger Clark, D’Israeli, Jonathon Dalton, Alec Daniels, Vince Danks, Darren Douglas, Stuart A Douglas, Jay Eales, Paul Ebbs, Garen Ewing, Josceline Fenton, Toby Ford, Simon A Forward, Roger Gibson, Brian Gorman, Steve Graeme, Matthew Griffiths, Allan Harvey, Steve Hatcher, Craig Hinton, Laura Howell, Mike Juniper, Tim Keable, Andy Lane, Roger Langridge, Robbie Langton, Andrew K Lawston, Jen Leavesley, Yishan Li, Marvin Mann, David McIntee, Chris McKeon, Ant Mercer, Mark Michalowski, Adrian Middleton, Fiona Moore, Mike Morgan, Jim Mortimore, Bevis Musson, Peter Neville, Lee O’Connor, Daniel O’Mahony, Kate Orman, Caroline Parkinson, Paul Peart-Smith, Stephen Prestwood, Pete Rajski, Graeme Neil Reid, Natalie Sandells, Rachel Simpson Hutchens, Dale Smith, Oli Smith, Rachel Steffan, Alan Stevens, Daniel Tessier, Christer Van, Emma Vieceli, Nick Wallace, Dave Whittam, Terry Wiley, Dave Windett.

More news as and when I have it.

Jay

Today’s the day that we’ve decided to make our official launch for the new web incarnations of The Girly Comic and Violent! Some of you may have already been sampling our wares, but we wanted to have a few strips in the archive already when we launched. Press releases have now been fired off to the great and good, and all that remains is to bid you welcome.

We should probably clarify at this stage - we don’t intend for the webcomic sites to merely reprint the contents of our previous print issues. As new strips are finished, we will slot them into the schedules. We also haven’t abandoned the print medium altogether. Plans are afoot for book collections of the Girly and Violent! archives, so we can let the individual issues go out of print. Speaking of the issues, you can still buy most issues from the Factor Fiction shop at: http://factorfictionpress.co.uk/shop.html

 Apologies to anyone who was hoping to see us at the UK Web & Mini Comix Thing or the London Underground Comics tables at Camden Market today. The best laid plans of mice and men, and all that… Hopefully we’ll catch up with you again soon. Next on the agenda is the Bristol Comics Expo in May.

 Right… back to my sick bed!

 Jay

As we mentioned previously Jay was involved in the recent BLAM! season of events run by Leicester Libraries. Read a round-up of the BLAM! events with pictures.

The Girly Comic has also been praised and highlighted in an article on women in comics by Bridgeen Gillespie.

“Bridgeen Gillespie tells us why comics aren’t just for boys anymore and gives her guide to what’s best, by and for girls, inprint and on the web… “http://www.verbalartscentre.co.uk/verbalmagazine/assets/verbal_11.pdf”

Also, check out Bridgeen’s own lovely work.

Now it can be told… Attendees at Caption 2007: Dreams & Nightmares were given a prophetic dream of the theme for Caption 2008. And the dream came true. Caption 2008 is CAPTION TIMEWARP. We’re just waiting on final confirmation, but it seems likely that it will be taking place again at the East Oxford Community Centre on August 9th and 10th, in the year that celebrates DEADLINE’s 20th anniversary, ESCAPE’s 25th anniversary, LUTHER ARKWRIGHT’s 30th anniversary and THE BEANO’s 70th anniversary…

 Watch this space for further developments as and when we have them.

EDIT: 26/02/08 - The date is now confirmed. Caption Timewarp is go for 9th/10th August 2008!

Jay