I get sent a few emails from people asking me to spotlight their comics on The Beat, so ‘Something New’ will perhaps become the recurring feature where I get to do just that. Now, I’m not saying these are new works or that the creators haven’t already established themselves – these are simply creators and comics that are new to me, and I’m now sharing across to you as well. I’m somewhat ignorant at times, but always welcome a chance to get educated. Give it a look! Maybe you’ll like what you see! And yes, this feature is named after the Girls Aloud song.
So let’s talk about VS Comics.
A UK project who’ll be seen at Thought Bubble this year, VS Comics is a monthly digital comics anthology which collects three-four stories in each edition. Currently the main two serialised comics are ten pages each, called Day & Night, and Eponymous. The anthology is rounded out by two rotating six-page stories in each issue, from a number of varying creators. The concept is that VS Comics owns the digital rights to the comics featured for one year, before they revert back to the creators. However, the creators own the physical rights to their comics from the beginning.
It’s an interesting turn on the current ideas regarding digital content, with VS Comics offering creators some extra publicity which they could then turn into attention for their physical product. The digital comics, with the four stories in each issue, are retailing for £2.00 each, and feature work from creators like Emma Beeby, Gordon Rennie, and Nich Angell.
Eponymous’ author Mike Garley wrote to me about his series, illustrated by Martin Simmons and lettered by Mike Stock. Simmons artwork is the art seen in this piece. Eponymous is the story of an Earth where superheroes died off long ago. But, when a new hero called Casey shows up and is quickly afterwards prophesied to be the cause of a worldwide massacre, she has to go on the run and fight her fate. The first collection of Eponymous has recently been released, offering 36 pages of content. It can also be found in all of the first four issues of VS Comics. There’s a preview here if you’d like to know more.
You can contact me at [email protected] if you want to be featured on Something New. I’ll try to get to you!
