Find us in Kendal this weekend!

Hello one and all!

It’s that time of year again when we head to one of our favourite conventions: the Lakes International Comic Art Fair, aka LICAF.

We’ll be in Kendal, Cumbria for the weekend and you’ll find us upstairs in the Comics Clock Tower, close to the stage (but not quite on it… one day, one day…). We’ll have copies of our choose-your-own-adventure book Secret Gardens, happy horror quadrilogy Sentient Zombie Space Pigs, political satire anthology CROSS, and all sort of other bits and pieces.

Do come and say hello! We’re always happy to talk comics, movies, sport, punctuation (Lizzie) and pencils (Conor).

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Secret Gardens: coming soon from Disconnected Press!

Tags

books, Castle, comics, Lowther

We’re delighted that we’ll be launching our new book Secret Gardens at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (Kendal, 16-18 October).

Secret Gardens is a choose-your-own-adventure book, blending comics, illustrations and you being in control of your own destiny!

Handily for those coming to the Lakes Festival, Lowther Castle is just up the M6 from Kendal, close to Penrith. It’s a beautiful place, and a long-term favourite of Disconnected’s. History, atmosphere, incredible landscapes and some things that – so far – only we have seen….

There are four adventures in one, all set in the magical landscape of Lowther Castle in the Lake District.

We’ll be blogging about Secret Gardens over the next few weeks, giving you more insight into the history and mystery of Lowther Castle, the complicated process of creating a four-stories-in-one choose-your-own-adventure book (grey hairs, grey hairs!) and some more little snippets like this:

If you’re already hooked, you can pre-order a copy of Secret Gardens for just £5 plus P&P by emailing hello@disconnectedpress.co.uk.

We’ll have more details about availability in the next couple of weeks, but we’ll definitely be in the Comics Clock Tower at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival on 16-18 October!

 

Latest from Disconnected Towers

Summer greetings from Disconnected HQ. We thought it was time for a wee update on our forthcoming convention plans and a teaser or two about the new comics we’ll be publishing later this year.

Firstly, a plug for a comic con that we sadly can’t attend this year: Melksham. You’ve probably never heard of Melksham but it’s a great little town in Wiltshire, between Bath and Swindon, and it has the Finest Comic Convention of the Year. Trust us! We’ve been each year and seen the show grow from one day to two, taking in more of the town each time and always with a great line-up of guests, a wonderful atmosphere and some of the nicest volunteers and visitors that we’ve ever met. Melksham Comic Con is on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 August at the Assembly Hall – you can buy tickets in advance at http://melkshamcomiccon.com/.

On to cons that we’ll actually be attending:

October will see us returning to Kendal for the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival. We’ve talked before about this one as it’s a firm favourite. The Con really takes over the town, usually theming at least one pub, with workshops and talks in bookshops and cafes and some stellar guests. We’ll be launching a new book at this year’s Lakes show – something a little different from Disconnected and something that we’re VERY EXCITED to be producing. I can’t tell you any more just yet but here’s something from the book from artist Conor Boyle. We’ll be posting more soon!

You can track us down at LICAF in the Clock Tower in Kendal on 17 and 18 October. You can also find the full programme for the festival at http://issuu.com/lakesinternationalcomicartfestival/docs/licaf_programme_2015 (56 pages!!!).

Last but not least, we can confirm that we’ll be at ThoughtBubble again this year (14/15 November, Royal Armouries, Leeds). We’ll be in the Marquee with some lovely people (have a look at some of our co-Marquee-dwellers here). ThoughtBubble is the mummy of conventions, particularly if you’re interested in independent comics: it’s absolutely kid-in-sweet-shop-tastic. And we’ll have a little something for you at ThoughtBubble too – something that many of you have been waiting for…. Yes, more eagerly awaited than the new Star Wars, it’s the return of the Sentient Zombie Space Pigs….

As always, you can keep an eye on what we’re up to on the @DisconnectedPrs Twitter feed, which will get busier as the cons get closer. And you can pick up copies of our books at http://www.comicsy.co.uk/disconnectedpress/ or by dropping us an email to hello@disconnectedpress.co.uk.

Happy travels!!

CROSS: now reduced to just £5

Post-election and with cuts abounding from George Osborne’s Summer Budget (tax cuts if your estate is worth more than £1m; benefit cuts if you’ve got bugger all), we’ve decided to reduce the cost of political satire anthology CROSS to £5.

CROSS was compiled before the last election and features work from creators including Rob Williams, Mary Talbot, SICBA award winner Emma Beeby, Vertigo writer David Baillie and many many more. It was our rallying call to encourage people to engage with politics; the message remains but the specifics (voting) are now a little past their sell by date (the appearances of Messrs Clegg, Miliband and Farage show that some things have changed since May).

Anyhoo, if you would like 64 pages of poking sticks at the establishment, featuring some fantastic artwork and great storytelling, simply pop on over to our Comicsy shop and order your copy!

All the best!

Next stop: Glasgow Comic Con!

We’re delighted to tell you that we will be at Glasgow Comic Con on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July!!

This will be our first trip to Glasgow Con – track record suggests it’ll be a really lively event with a great line-up of guests and some exciting small press and indie comics to pick up too. This year’s guests include Emma Beeby (CROSS, 2000AD), Karrie Fransman, Tanya Roberts, John Wagner, John Higgins and some chap called Mark Millar…

In our cupboard of books this time: we will have some copies of On Dangerous Ground, published by the National Trust for Scotland and featuring artwork by Conor Boyle. It’s a graphic novel of the Battle of Bannockburn and it’s a rip-roaring read. AND it has pages in 3D!!

We’ll also have copies of political anthology CROSS, the inimitable Sentient Zombie Space Pigs and our most recent “small town weirdness” anthology Disconnected 3.

So come and find us…. On Saturday, we’ll be at the Renfield (the cosplay hub) and on Sunday we’ll be in the Art School. Tweet us @DisconnectedPrs if you can’t find us!!

Highlights from the campaign trail

As you’d expect, here at Disconnected Press, we’ve been keeping an eye on the campaign trail (in between comic cons, deadlines and preparing Issue 3 of Everyone’s Favourite Comic…). We thought we’d share a few little moments with you, and give you another reminder to purchase your copy of CROSS, our comic anthology of political satire and voting intentions….

Nige

Bless him, just when you thought he was gone, he pops back up like the proverbial. He owned St George’s Day by doing what everyone else was doing: getting drunk: The Guardian kindly provided a drink-by-drink rundown and listed the karaoke highlights of the evening – http://bit.ly/1Efe3FF.

It’s easy to be flip about Nigel, to point out how this man of the people had a £34,000 a year education and a healthy career in commodities trading before he became a politician. It’s easy to underestimate him.

That said, it’s easy to overestimate him too. One good thing that has come from the disproportionate media coverage of Nigel is that it’s forced the media into giving more coverage to other minority parties – many of whom have a much stronger chance of winning some seats than UKIP does. So, thank you, Nigel, for helping give a voice to the Scots, the Welsh, the Greens and even the Lib Dems. You’re a real gent.

Ed

What’s going on with Ed? #Milifandom was a bit of a surprise – and I will be mightily disappointed if I find out it was a campaign tactic from some smart alec at Labour Party HQ. But it’s amazing how a bunch of people who were saying “he’s weird” have gone very quiet based on the power of other people saying “he’s allright, actually”. This is political debate at its most refined.

Dave

To be honest, any excuse to use this pic of Dave and Boris, drawn by Alwyn Talbot – makes me chuckle every time. The thing I’ve noticed about Dave on the campaign trail… well, I haven’t really noticed him at all. Apart from when he forgot which football team he supports. Oh, and when he tried to sell off all the affordable housing – yeah, that was a corker.

But obviously, there was this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32223486.

Nicola, Natalie and Leanne

This: http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article10183343.ece/alternates/w620/HUG.jpg

Because maybe there is a new kind of politics on its way.

Nick

Yeah.

The final analysis

Just over a week to go. Between now and then, we’ll be following proceedings with an eager eye and making a special appearance at one of our favourite comic stores for Free Comic Book Day (this Saturday – watch this website for details!). On the night itself, we’ll be up late, watching and counting with the rest of you, to see what kind of colour combination we end up with for the next five years.

 

 

 

When did you last see your vote?

Tags

comics, CROSS, election, satire, voting

You know, your vote. You used it a couple of years ago when you voted in your local council elections (well, one in three of you did). More likely, you used it five years ago to help create a very curious coalition (two out of three of you voted that time).

You get to use it again in just over three months’ time. It’s quite useful: it’s the only legitimate way we have of overthrowing a Government if we don’t like it. In the interests of balance, it’s also the only legitimate way of ensuring that a Government you do like stays in power.

Anyhoo, the point is this: voter registration has changed. Up until last year, one person per household filled in a form which said who lived there and was eligible to vote.

Now, every individual in the household has to fill in their own form. This has been in the works for a decade, and is a good way of making sure that we don’t miss anyone.

Except the process of change has lost a million voters.

Here at Disconnected Press, we care about votes. Underlying the sarcasm and the venom that populates our political satire anthology CROSS is a core message: use your vote.

In order to use your vote, you need to be registered. So go and dig through that pile of junk mail you’ve been ignoring and make sure you are. Spread the word too, particularly on National Voter Registration Day on February 5th – you can find out more about that at http://bitetheballot.co.uk/nvrd/.

What you do with your vote is entirely up to you. Just don’t lose it….

Frustrated at the state of the world? Don’t get mad, get CROSS!

Tags

anthology, comics, humour, politics, satire

We’re delighted to announce that – tomorrow – we will have our hot little hands on copies of CROSS, our new comic anthology of political satire.

In the best create-your-own-adventure tradition, you can now choose one of two options:

I want to read more about CROSS.

I’ve read enough and I want a copy!

This second option will take you to our nice new shop on Comicsy, where you can order CROSS (and some of our other titles) and pay by debit / credit card or by Paypal.

CROSS features an all-star line-up of established and emerging UK comics talent – over 25 creators all brought together to poke a stick at the establishment and see if it’s still alive. Following in the long tradition of satirical cartoons and comics, and taking a very British look at the world in which we live. There are also robots and flying squirrels, if you like that kind of thing.

Still not sure? Here’s what John Freeman has to say at Down The Tubes:

This weekend will see the launch of the CROSS anthology from Disconnected Press at Thought Bubble, a glorious assemblage of political wit, satire and polite British rage!

And we do mean glorious, because Conor Boyle, the co-conspirator in the project with partner Lizzie, has sent us a preview copy which comes with a stonking cover from Pye Parr, and it looks fantastic!

Don’t just watch the world in silence and frustration. Get CROSS!

CROSS goes to print!

We at Disconnected Press would like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us along the way with our new anthology, CROSS. It means a huge amount to us to have had support from so many people over the past few months.

Just to let you know, the book is now with the printers, those lovely folks at UKComics, and will be launching at ThoughtBubble, one of the UK’s largest comic conventions, on November 15th. For those who’ve already booked their tickets, you can find us in the Royal Armouries, at Table 84.

We will be promoting the book at further comic conventions, in bookstores and with a variety of events and splashes in the period up to the General Election.

We’ll keep you posted with more exciting developments!

CROSS – now with even more amazing artists!

Tags

comics, politics, satire

We’re delighted to announce three – count ’em – three amazing artists whose work will be featuring in CROSS, our comic anthology of politics, humour, venom and the occasional robot.