Check It Out

 Ah, the Tyne & Wear Metro! Light rail service of dreams! Iconic! And those unheralded heroes of the service, the 'checkies'! (etymology: Customer Service Advisors who check tickets) 

Finally, their stories are told in comic form!

Some People Call Us Checkies is a comic by Michael Duckett, with colouring/lettering/compiling/editing/wrangling by Britt Coxon. It blends stories from the staff in their own words with illustrations of the Metro service - the stations, the trains, the passengers and staff, along with the local geography and landmarks that the Metro services passes near. It's a lovely publication that mixes authentic personal reflection on an oft-underappreciated public role and some lovely, characterful art. More info here.

It features a few guest illustrations from various excellent local artists, plus a daft puzzle, based on station name anagrams, by Alexi (with colouring/lettering/layout by Britt). The brief was to provide something fun for kids, and while Alexi feels the illustrations and tone are suitable, the puzzle itself is a TOUGH CHALLENGE, only for the truest Metro enthusiast.

There's no specific way to get the comic from Nexus - they're distributing it internally and with school visits and suchlike, but you should be able to get a copy from Mike or Alexi if you're interested (drop Alexi a line by all means and he'll get one to you).

Creatives Creating Comics In The UK

It was a little over a year ago that the UK comics scene lost one of its great unsung heroes, Dave Evans. The encouragement that he provided to so many aspiring writers and artists was immense, and he left a huge gap in the UK comic-making environment. Whilst Dave could never be replaced, the Discord server 'Comic Creatives UK' - started in January 2022, inspired by Dave's ethos - has proven a really supportive new place for UK comic creators to chat, support each other and share tips. Now, thanks to the efforts of CCUK moderators/editors Owen Watts and Lady Geoffery, there's a fantastic anthology made by the creators from the Discord! And you can read it free!

(cover by Winston Chan)

Alexi scripted two stories in this fine publication: 'Another Mystery Solved' is a daft Sherlock Holmes spoof, art by Craig Munro...

and 'Rules As Written' is a D&D-inspired horror tale, with art by HesitantDoodle and Orphicdusk...

Alexi was delighted to work with such talented artists - and those collaborations only occurred thanks to the existence of the Discord and the community that has developed there. There's a load of tremendous comic stories in the anthology, so why wait - go and check it out now! Read it on Tapas, Webtoons or download as PDF from Itch.io

FURTHERMORE, if you're into making comics, and particularly if you're based in the UK, then do check out the CCUK community - it's friendly and supportive and they're already starting to plan the next anthology, so get involved!

                                                                      ... 

In other news, Alexi was delighted to get his grubby mitts on 'tarot puzzletale' The Light In The Mist by Rita 'PostCurious' Orlov and Jack Fallows - a unique narrative puzzle experience based around an ingenious tarot deck. Alexi had provided some playtesting and (a very small amount of) narrative/structure input during the development of this incredible project, and seeing the finished thing, looking so cool and full of amazing puzzles was a delight. The kickstarter has finished, but if you like puzzles, you may still be able to get a copy of this wonder from the link above.

The best all-ages sci-fi sports/cookery adventure comic you'll read today

Several years back, Alexi (working, unusually for him, under a ludicrous pseudonym of Quinston Q. Blowfish) collaborated with artist Cuttlefish on a story for a local all-ages adventure comics anthology, A4Adventure.

The resultant story, 'Trainee Space Chef', turned out well and Alexi and Cuttlefish decided that, as well as reprinting the story itself, at some point they must get round to doing another story featuring plucky chef-in-training-in-space Maria McMurdo.

CUT TO: SEVERAL YEAR LATER

Alexi is delighted to present a brand new Trainee Space Chef adventure: The Space Golf Caper!

The sporting spectacle of the upcoming galactic space golf tournament is the cause of much excitement - especially for the students of the prestigious Asimov-Ramsey Academy of Space-Catering, who have been allocated responsibility for providing refreshments to the players traversing the course across the moons of Epsilon-Gamma-12.

Diligent Maria McMurdo and underachieving Norton Hollandaise are stationed on moon thirteen. Everything seems to be going well until the tournament is thrown into chaos by the revelation that a daring heist has occurred right under the noses of the organisers and space golf viewing public.

With only experimental cuisine and youthful pep on their side, what can our heroes do? Will the pair be able to keep the players refreshed? Will they be able to foil the devious crime? Will Maria ever get an 'A' grade from Professor Battenberg? Find out in... TRAINEE SPACE CHEF: THE SPACE GOLF CAPER.

Sounds pretty good huh? And that Cuttlefish art looks pretty spectacular, yeah? You might quite like to read this, right?

YOU CAN! FREE! ONLINE! RIGHT NOW! Here: Trainee Space Chef: The Space Golf Caper by Cuttlefish and Alexi Conman

Enjoy!

Distances

Despite a recent dearth of posts here, Alexi has been mostly hard at work on a variety of projects. He's very pleased to present the product of one of them, a melancholic little one-pager made with illustrator Michael Arnold ...

 

Alexi urges you to check out more of Michael's work on his website.