And now for the latest exciting, hit-attracting episode of NICK MILLER, HERO OF SPACE!

Nick writes: Antonella and I have just decided to re-write and re-draw this strip as a full-blown graphic novel. I think I'll start on it this week, so be on the lookout for the start of the new version of the story from next weekend, running alongside the three-frame version we've already commenced. If there's anybody out there reading this, we'd be interested to know which format, three-frame or full-page, you think works best.

In the meantime, Antonella is about to start writing a sequel, so this won't be like one of those US TV shows that gets suddenly cancelled mid-season just when you're getting into it.

Sunday, March 25, 2007 10:37:56 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the latest page of Edgar Allan Poe's short story King Pest, adapted by Antonella and drawn by Anton Emdin...

Sunday, March 25, 2007 10:26:37 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Headline: Police Federation chairman calls for an end to electronic tagging of criminals after a BBC report shows monitoring equipment 'does not work'.

Saturday, March 24, 2007 12:17:37 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the latest page of King Pest, by Antonella with Anton Emdin...

Saturday, March 24, 2007 12:10:53 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's page 9 of King Pest, writeen by Antonella and drawn by Anton Emdin, based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe...

Anton writes: I love drawing portraits of crazy characters, so this page was a blast! I used to do a regular spot in a street newspaper called The Sydney City Hub. I did this thing called "Sydney City Weirdoes, where I would draw all the strange people I met working at a little corner store in a bohemian area. Some of them looked a little bit like these guys!

Antonella writes: I loved describing these portraits. I put into them all those things kids love ~ Poe gave good descriptions to start with ~ and I hoped that the artist could translate the words into visuals. At the time I didn't know which artist would be choosen to draw this story. It is up to the sensitivity of the editor to match the artist with the scriptwriter. I think this match has worked very well!

Friday, March 23, 2007 10:10:02 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's the latest page of King Pest, the strip Antonella wrote last year for Graphic Classics, drawn by Anton Emdin...

Thursday, March 22, 2007 9:47:31 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Headline: UK bank Barclays and Dutch Bank ABN in merger talks.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:21:17 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's page 7 of Edgar Allan Poe's King Pest, adapted by Antonella and drawn by Anton Emdin...

Anton writes: It's here we meet the infamous King Pest. In the original story he had a feather strapped to his head. I'd originally drawn this in all the panels, but the editor made me change it to the crown you see here as he thought his american audience may mistake the ghoul for a Native (Indian) American.

Antonella writes: In the original Poe describes King Pest and his outfit: his head was adorned with a 'plume', by which Poe meant the kind of plume used by Victorian undertakers to decorate the horses which pull the hearse - I was talking about historical mistakes, this is one of them. I spent ages looking for the right plume... Now I know why he has a crown on his head.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:18:35 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Headline: NHS trusts revealed to be making up to £2m a year from hospital car park charges and fines.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:13:27 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's Antonella and Anton Emdin's King Pest page six...

Anton writes: Seeing as though I was in constant pain, and could only rotate my wrist a few degrees, I decided I'd need to lighten the burden a little. I asked fellow comic artist Glenn Smith ( http://www.glennoart.com/ ) to help me out by doing the inking of the hand lettering.

Besides being an excellent artist in his own right, he has the knack of being able to copy styles really well. Can you tell the difference between these last couple of pages and the first few?

Antonella writes: One problem I found dealing with Victorian authors is that although they loved to set their stories in historical times, often they described things contemporary to themselves. In this case Poe set the story in an undertaker's shop. There were no such things, as he describes them, in that period. I love to be accurate, especially in a historical setting, so I spent ages trying to find anything compatible with the description in Poe's story. In the end I found myself wrestling with hamletic doubt: should I be faithful to the setting (1348) or to the author (1835)? 

Kudos to Glenn Smith for the excellent job!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:07:32 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Today's Headline: The Independent newspaper publishes a front-page apology for promoting the legalisation of cannabis for the last ten years. It now says that new findings about the long-term effects of toking has caused it to reverse its stance.

Monday, March 19, 2007 10:57:12 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [1] 

Here's the latest page of Antonella and Anton Emdin's version of King Pest, by Edgar Allan Poe...

This story was originally published in the Edgar Allan Poe edition of Graphic Classics (3rd edition), in 2006.

Anton writes: I think it was at this point that I decided to go and fracture my wrist. Well, actually, SHATTER my wrist. The drawing one, of course.

I was skating (skateboarding) on a little half pipe, and decided to try something new. Well, it didn't quite work right, and after I picked myself up, I noticed that my arm was a different shape. I got taken to the hospital, where they promptly sliced my arm open, screwed all the bone fragments to a large metal plate and stitched me back up again.

The surgeon did a bloody good job of it. I was back at the drawing board within a month or so, and somehow managed to ink two of these pages a day with a very stiff swollen and painful arm.

Antonella writes: I know I set myself a three-lines-per-box rule, but every rule is made to be broken. These boxes are very verbose, but it's quite impossible to gag Poe... therefore I cut the dialogue. 

I didn't know about Anton's wrist until I was told by the editor, Tom Pomplun. I had assumed it was something less serious, until I read what Anton wrote above. What a true professional Anton is! 

Monday, March 19, 2007 10:47:33 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0] 

Here's part four of King Pest, by Antonella with artist Anton Emdin...

Sunday, March 18, 2007 10:40:06 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)    Comments [0]