Canny Cow Science

Alexi has been up to several things of late that are probably blog-worthy.

ONE! Alexi organised the Canny Comic Con again. Many many emails, but again it went really well and Alexi was moved almost to tears by the spirit of the comics community creating something good by force of will. He is very grateful to all comics folks involved (particular those who helped Alexi behind the scenes), and to the amazing Newcastle City Library for hosting. More blah will go up on the Canny Comic Con blog soon.

TWO! Top Cow ran an open submission Talent Hunt in the latter part of 2012 which will result in a paid gig for two writers and two artists. Alexi understands that it's good PR and that they probably got a sales spike from prospective creators buying comics to research the characters, but even so, he was impressed that Top Cow (or, specifically, editor Matt Hawkins) would take the time to run this kind of thing. It is admirable to see established comics publishers trying to engage with aspiring creators (apparently there were around 1100 entries!).

Anyway, mainly as an exercise in writing to a brief, Alexi decided to enter. He enjoyed the challenge, and produced a script (a slightly offbeat little story about pigeons and second chances) that he was pretty happy with. Along the way, he caught up with reading a variety of recent Top Cow comics. In honesty, Top Cow was not a publisher he had been paying much attention to in recent years, but he enjoyed catching up with their output. One title in particular stood out as excellent - David Hine and Jeremy Haun's new take on The Darkness, which is very human and engaging yet delightfully creepy and unsettling. If you're interested (and you should be), Alexi would point out that you can read the complete first trade for FREE here (legitimately)! Very much worth a go.

THREE! Alexi is currently getting involved in the Newcastle Science Comic, a fascinating project that will use COMICS to communicate SCIENCE to KIDS. Huzzah etc. Alexi is not exactly sure what form his direct creative input will be (if it will be involved at all), but he was recently at a launch event thing and heard a great many extremely interesting ideas whizzing around and is certain that the project is going to be aces.

Disconnected Thought

Alexi Conman was at Thought Bubble 2012. As usual it was far too big and amzing for his tiny brain to comprehend.

He thought the 2000AD panel was good, you can listen to it here.

He thought the British Comic Awards were good. Read more here. Alexi hopes they will grow and prosper in the years to come.

Also, Alexi was very pleased to see his latest work in print in a quality new anthology. Disconnected Vol. 2 from Disconnected Press sees Alexi teamed up with the brilliant Nadine Ashworth for 'Plans', a quiet story of aspirations and regrets and the contrasts between the dreams of youth and the realities of ageing.


Alexi is pleased to report that the book looks great and the tales featured have a real sense of being subtly off-kilter. Themed around unusual events in small towns, the book has a good range,generally veering towards darker stories, but Alexi thinks 'Plans' sits in there quite neatly.

Alexi suggests you click here to find out more aboutDisconnected Vol. 2 and here for opportunities to purchase this fine publication.

Connecting with Disconnected

Alexi has been working on a story in the upcoming anthology Disconnected Vol. 2 from the excellent people at Disconnected Press. His story is called 'Plans' and has fabulous art by Nadine Ashworth.

Alexi was interested to hear last year that Lizzie and Conor were setting up Disconnected to publish some high quality comics anthologies - and he was delighted when he was invited to pitch for their second Disconnected book. The theme (things askew in small town settings) was so intriguing but so hard to pin down that it took a lot of thought for Alexi to come up with a story he was happy with, but eventually he managed 'Plans', a story of aspirations and regrets and the contrasts between the dreams of youth and the realities of ageing.

Disconnected Vol. 2 will be out at Thought Bubble and you can read a little bit about Alexi and Nadine and the story and the book by clicking this link.