2000 AD Online Forum

Well, I've been tinkering on this in my underground workshop for a few months now, but it's finally ready, having got the proof copies through this morning. May in present...

The Bumper Book of Solar Wind!

In two volumes due to large file sizes, this is a zero profit publication designed to keep the comics available for anyone and everyone who wants them.  I hope everyone approves.  They've come out really well, the best repro most of it has ever had.

More info on the blog.

All the best

Paul Scott
(Servant of Cosmic Ray)

Link: The Cosmic Archives

Ooooh! Goody!

You know, I've always been curious to see y'all's stuff, and with jawdroppingly low American prices like that, I cannot say no.  I've ordered 'em both and will spread the word once I receive them!

Oooo, I liked the Omnivistascopes i picked up a while ago and these look like a nice big read.  One question what is this Llu.com website thing, how do I purchase from there?

CU Radbacker

Just like any online store, you need a credit card.  They take care of all the transactions.  Economy post takes a couple of weeks, but you can go for superfast delivery if you want to pay for it.

Solar Wind is a very different comic to Omnivistascope (which is more hard, gritty, dark humour sf), it was a homage to all those kids comics of yesterday like Action, Battle, 2000AD (of the seventies and early eighties), Misty, Jinty, Scream, Eagle etc.  It's very silly.

It was also the first comic I put together, so looks a bit more basic, however it's pretty chocker with stuff!

Lulu.com is a great resource for anyone publishing their own stuff, and it just goes to show you can keep your comics in print at no cost to yourself.  You can of course set it to make a profit, but these of course, aren't.

With so many contributors I obviously couldn't afford contributor copies, but it's cheap enough that if you wanted a set on your shelves, there's nothing stopping you.

I'll pick a couple up at Bristol Paul :-)

That idea is close to genius, Paul!

Paul, if you ever run out of themes for Solar Wind have you ever thought of making it 2 rival comics in one? I thought tying it in with the Cold War would be good, one half could be capitalist propaganda and the other Bolshevic: "2 rival ideologies in one comic!"

Pick it up at Prestonpandimuoinum?

Huff

So this is source of your money problems.

I may be interested in ordering one of those in the not too distant future.

Link: Your very Own blog

"close to genius"

I'll use that on my gravestone.

Ade, believe me when I say that ideas, themes and stuff to do were definitely not the reason I stopped doing Solar Wind.  If I could have just used mental power to keep it going it could have gone on almost forever.  Sadly, I just found I had a limited amount of resources* and Solar Wind was getting harder to put out each issue.

Boot it's a good idea Ade, there was a great parody of the Fantastic Four called the Freedom collective a while back.  Communist Kirby Era superheroes, it was great fun.  Something going on from your idea could be fantastic.  Why not do it :)

As for people waiting to buy one at a festival, you'll get it a lot quicker and cheaper through lulu.  I may have a limited number of them, but buying lots to sell at zero profit will only cause me cashflow problems.  It'd be a big help if people bought direct from Lulu.

Many thanks

*Being just one poorly paid guy, Thryllseeker :)

Another round of really entertaining and thoughtful blog entries. 'Mazes and Monsters' - lol! Thanks for pointing out that this hated film wasn't entirely without charm.

Recycling - totally agree with you there. I hate throwing anything away, because it just renders invisible what you've consumed and absolves you of accountability for where it ends up.

White Dwarf too - reminded me of the days when my friends and I saw all fantasy games as equivalent, played them all equally in rotation (as soon as a dungeons and dragons campaign ended, we'd start a Traveller, Judge Dredd or Golden Heroes one), and looked forward to news, articles and merchandise for any and all of them, even if we did spend an awful lot more on Warhammer!

After reading through some articles on your website.

I recall the thread you made about 'Hawk The Slayer'

Money problems aside.

You should look into obtaining the rights to 'Hawk the Slayer' comic or graphic novel.

Unless, it's been done already.

Link: http://www.omnivistascope.com/arc/hawk.html

My Bumper Books arrived today.  Holy anna, these are wonderful!  I am looking forward to reading them.

The production is flawless and, again, any other Americans interested, the price just cannot be beat - just $25, including postage, for the pair.  What a great deal!

Hey Hipster, glad they arrived okay and you like the look of them. It was a real slog to put them together, took me the best part of 3 months scanning, reformatting, sorting typos (Satchmo's work) looking for lost files.  Boring stuff :)

I honestly have no idea what you'll make of them, but as you've read 2000AD, you're in with a chance of making some sense of them!

The whole thing came about because of this message board, and many of the boarders contributed to it.  I am very proud of 'em and all the people who worked on it and hope it lives on in some small way.

Plus as Ben is still carrying on Griefbringer and I may be working on some more stories featuring a man with a piece of 2x4, I hope many of the people will carry on with comics, Solar Wind related or not.

As Solar Wind has now finished, and once Omnivistascope issue 4 has been put to bed, I'll be announcing a new project which *anyone* will be able to join in with.  I'm not sure it'll work, as in the words of Dr Vortigan, it'll be 'slightly experimental'.  But it's something I'd very much like to do.

I've gone on record as being willing to swap my son for a complete set of Misty.  I reckon I'll make good sense of 'em.  :-)

Bump that Bumper book!

Mine have *just* turned up here at work. Great repro and lovely to see everything together in a very keepable format. It's a shame whoever packaged it fucked up the back cover and last few pages of Volume 1, though. They've obviously rammed it in and it's now permanently dog-eared and the cover's cracked. Shitty-pickles. >:(

Wils, I'm really sorry to hear that, you could try talking to Lulu.com about a refund, I can't believe they wouldn't under the circumstances.

Please try that first, and if you don't have any joy, I can swap you for one I have which I'm going to use as the display copy on the stalls.

All the best

Paul

Cheers, Paul, but tbh, I think I'll keep this one and not pester them for a refund or replacement and not take one of yours off you either. I've had it weighted down since this morning and although not perfect, the dog-earring isn't anywhere near as bad and I think I can live with the crease. I realise it's not the same as sending something back to Amazon, as they're printed to order. Their packers *should* be more careful, though.I'm letting this slide, but if anything had been torn or cumpled, it'd be a different matter, though.

Just ordered myself one of each.

Tiny Tips was very pleased to see himself on thelist of contributors.

And he has another idea for a strip for the thing you mentioned up at Inverness...

Returns and Cancellations Policy KnowledgeBase > Shopping on Lulu > Returns and Cancellations Policy

Books purchased through Lulu are printed as they are ordered.

Note: Because of the production expense of print on demand manufacturing, Lulu cannot cancel orders, accept returns or provide refunds on these products.

We recommend that you carefully check your order for accuracy before confirming your purchase. Select the shipping option that best meets your needs.

Note: Lulu accepts no responsibility for the quality of the content (including misspelled words, grammatical errors, etc.), its formatting, design or overall appearance. We provide a creator-controlled publishing tool, so the author approves the visual presentation and content of each item. Our staff does not monitor or check individual content prior to publication through our web site.

If you receive a book, calendar or electronic file that is damaged in some way (missing, torn, or loose pages in books or calendars, etc.), we are happy to provide a replacement copy. Please notify us through our online order help form.

Link: Lulu Returns Policy

Volume one of this esteemed publication is featured today on my blog's review tag.  I'm going to force myself to wait a few weeks before cracking volume two, knowing there's no more to come at this time.

Link: What I Just Read

Ha, that's great Hipster!  Really pleased you enjoyed it so much.

However, I'm not sure if anything in it is as funny as the Loafing Leprachaun :)

And you're right, Zoe Biddle was pretty amazing!

Thanks again for taking the time to review it.

Paul