2016 round-up

Ahem. It's been a while.

In case you missed the “memo” (via my far more regular blog here), my new novel Small Change has just been published via Roundfire Fiction in the UK, and it features Roy Scherer and Suzie Miller from the Tales to Admonish series: think a mix of noir, horror, mirth, and homage.

One homage, clearly from the cover art and title alone, is to the great Tom Waits.

On January 14th I put the finishing touches to novel #6, and sent it off to a prospective publisher: 1970s crime-noir-pulp tipping 67,598 words, including the glossary at the back of the book, partially based on my current comic book series Trista & Holt.

Its title is Black Sails, Disco Inferno. Keep an eye on the novel’s Facebook page for updates. 

Otherwise? 

My collaborative comic book project with Australian artist Frantz Kantor – Magpie – is in full flight. 

We just finished Episode 2, but the first one, introducing our fledgling character Maggie, will hit newsstands in Australia in February 2016, inside Oi Oi Oi! #7. I think the fact that we both have strong, inspiring daughters (Frantz has three to my one!) accounts for some of the direction we’re pursuing here. This is hardly some wallflower, despite first impressions. As Frantz put it in an interview we just did, “What a pleasure to work on a smart female protagonist! Like Margo Channing said [in All About Eve]: ‘Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!’.” 

In this series we’re paying homage to, nodding, winking and piss-taking everything – from Roy Thomas to Ghost in the Shell, M.C. Escher wrestling Russ Manning’s Magnus, Robot Fighter, and on into mass-media current affair programs, even 2001: A Space Odyssey, Fantastic Voyage, and Lost in Space. 

Look out for the first installment of Magpie inside Oi Oi Oi! #7, at the beginning of February in newsagencies across Australia. 

Issue 1 has already scored some very nice feedback from Greg Hatcher @ Comic Book Resources (“Cute and funny and really quite gorgeous to look at – Frantz Kantor is evoking the Mad-era Wally Wood…”), Comics Alliance (“Magpie offers a humorous take on a superhero world, and Kantor’s art is nothing like what we’re used to in traditional superhero comics.”), Comic Crusaders (“The art looks fantastic!”), Sci-Fi Jubilee (“This new comic strip is great!”), and Jason Bennett @ PopCultHQ: “Stunning work… from these talented creators.” 

Also out next month, this time in the U.S., is my redux-version of Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat – with me again doing art chores alongside the script. 

The comic’s currently being printed up by Project-Nerd Publishing in America, but you can pre-order both versions here. 

Aside from being over-excited about Magpie for 2016, I’m looking forward to seeing how the latest short film from Tokyo’s Production I.G (the creators of Ghost in the Shell) goes on the international festival circuit. It’s called Pigtails, directed by Yoshimi Itazu (character designer and chief animation director on Miss Hokusai), and I worked on the English subtitles — mostly naturalizing the translation and giving it a bit of zing. 

Finally, music-wise, I still do stuff as Little Nobody, even though I decided to quit the DJing side of things under this name in August last year. 

However, thanks to the very cool Nicolas Lutz, who runs My Own Jupiter in Europe, I’m about to release a double-vinyl LP of Little Nobody tracks made over the past 14 years here in Tokyo. It’s called, appropriately enough, This is Tokio — and you can tune in to the tracks HERE. 

I’ll let you know when it’s finished being pressed-up and is ready to drop — again in the new year. 

And here’s an interview I did with Tarita Weber @ Say What? magazine.