Why we need comics we can care about

Tom Brevoort, who is Marvel’s Senior VP of Publishing, recently spoke about the fundamental difference between the DC universe and the Marvel universe. As he sees it, the former takes an optimistic view of the world, the latter a pessimistic one. “Even something like Dark Knight Returns, which is gritty as hell, is at its heart about a heroic ideal, a larger-than-life figure who rises up to champion the city in its time of need.”

I’m not sure about this assertion – though, to be fair to Mr Brevoort, he’s a very smart guy and he did open with the caveat that it was too big a subject to talk about in one short post. As a kid, I turned to Marvel, not for pessimism, but for a more believable idea of what a hero was. I could see that Peter Parker’s heroism cost him more than Clark Kent’s ever did. He was a bigger hero. I didn’t need Aunt May to die to prove that, I just needed to believe that Peter was afraid she would.

In the Lee-Kirby-Ditko era, Marvel stood out because the stories took a deeper, more nuanced view of what it meant to be a hero. The regular guy behind the mask had problems like the rest of us. Courage had a cost. The Marvel universe was a dramatic canvas of love, secrets, misunderstandings, shame, emotional dilemmas. I’m not sure I’d call that universe pessimistic, just indifferent to human affairs. Marvel heroes didn’t get any helping hands from the storytellers.

Are today’s comics (and I’m not specifically thinking of Marvel) rooted in pessimism? Maybe. I don’t really follow superhero comics much, but I see that where once the most extreme stakes for the heroes were life and death, now they’re more often things like disfigurement and brain damage. Action has often been replaced with brutality, personal problems with politics, characterization with a stance on thinly disguised current issues.

Dilemmas in many of today’s comic books are no longer emotional but intellectual. Mutants, that’s like racism, right? And superhero registration, that’s the war on terror. Yeah, we all get it. My blank look is boredom, not confusion.

As I said, I’m not talking about just Marvel here. Comics are a shrinking market and yet the superheroes of the Silver Age are entertaining bigger audiences than ever before. The movies are watched by seventy million people while the comic books’ readership has dwindled to a diehard band of collectors and fanboys. Why is that?

Bambos Georgiou talks on his blog about some of the things that may have gone wrong with the comics market. You would think, after all, that comics as a medium should appeal to both book readers and moviegoers. That’s a pretty wide demographic. The problem is not in the medium but in the content. And we need to qualify that by adding that it’s specifically the US and UK that is facing this problem.

It isn’t a question of whether today’s comics are darker – look how dark Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies are. Comics are strangling themselves to death because most people don’t care a jot about the impersonal and somewhat abstract themes in these stories. Fanboys love that stuff but, thing is, fanboys are not really typical. And in a desperate attempt to inject the missing emotion, writers too often turn to sadism and plot complexity, delivering story punchlines that, if they arouse any emotion, deliver disgust and dismay rather than thrills.

Remember, I'm not saying all comic books are doing this. We still have some great ones that are about the people at the heart of the story. But overall it's a trend that has bedevilled the creators who grew up in the long shadow of Moore and Miller, who ape their style without getting even a hint of their substance. It's like a tyro novelist trying to be Hemingway without earning it. And it's a trend that's putting off new readers.

The majority of us connect with stories about characters whose concerns are personal, immediate, emotional, simple and relatable. Explore themes, sure – but personalize them. Blade Runner is not an issue-based examination of human identity; Roy Batty wants more life, fucker. And he ups and shows us what it is to be human.

I was in France recently. There you’ll see kids, teens and adults reading comics. The genres are as broad as in cinema or TV drama. The stories are gripping, and wildly popular like Harry Potter books or Sherlock Holmes movies. A ten-year-old picked up the first Mirabilis book. I thought it might be too old for her, but she read it through twice (the second time on her eleventh birthday, actually) and then demanded more. Teens and adults can enjoy that same story, perhaps seeing a little more in it than younger readers but without demanding characters’ eyes to be plucked out to make it “mature”.

I’ll give you a good analogy that shows how comic books could turn themselves around. A few years before J J Abrams’ Star Trek reboot, one of the show’s TV producers was talking about how maybe the ST franchise was just dying. And indeed it was dying – of worthiness, of sterility. Dying because it had made its issues bigger than its characters. To paraphrase The Onion, it was dying because of the heavy-handed messages about tolerance and the scenes set at long tables in which interstellar diplomacy is debated in endless detail.

The reboot made Star Trek once more about characters on a journey. We were with people we cared about as they faced huge challenges, They had to reach inside and discover the part of themselves that could meet such challenges. We saw them grow and change.

You tell a story like that, in any medium you like, and they will come.

Simply Irredeemable

Capes and cowls had lost their luster, and I was thinking it was me. Apart from Bendis’s run on Daredevil and Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, I haven’t been reading superhero books regularly for years. Oh, okay, there was Ed Brubaker’s Sleeper – good hard-boiled fun, but I’d trade all of those for one issue of Criminal.

My must-have titles these days: B.P.R.D., Hellboy, Buffy, Hellblazer, Criminal… Some have their roots in superherodom, but they’ve mostly looped the loop to the days when Kirby argued for heroes to wear utilitarian uniforms. Look at the way the Batman’s togged out in Joker – it’s not really a costume at all, a detail that tacitly acknowledged how tights and underwear would have blunted the hard edge of Azzarello’s and Bermejo’s story.

So I was down on superheroes, and I don’t seem to be the only one. My local comic store (Avalon Comics on Lavender Hill – hi, Bruce and Mark!) is sadly closing its doors after two decades. The kids aren’t coming in any more, and the increasingly long-in-the-tooth fanboys are getting distracted by wife and family.

Is narrowcasting reaching its logical conclusion, the collapse of the market to a singularity? The reasons for the decline in popular comic book readership, and what might be done to address that, is a big topic to chew. It would be the height of arrogance for me to lecture Marvel on ways to turn it around, so I’ll save that for next week. What I want to share today is my eureka moment, the comic that showed me superheroes can still enthrall and excite. That comic is Irredeemable.

You know how long it can take for a new thing to permeate through all the background noise? I must have been gazing blankly at ads for Irredeemable for almost two years, but it took a review on Guys Can Read to make me actually buy a few issues to see what all the fuss was about.

All the fuss? There hasn’t been nearly enough fuss. You want pace, inventiveness, rich characterization and sheer bravura storytelling? There's very little in either comics or prose fiction that can hold a candle to Mark Waid's Superman-goes-bad saga. I'm finding it hard to remember the last time I came across such a must-read story. After two issues, I bought the whole run to date. Sleep and eating were out of the question; each plot twist was more compelling than the last. There hasn't been a story this gripping since the second season of Fringe.
In a nutshell: what if Superman wasn’t brought up by Jonathan and Martha Kent? Without a stable, happy home life, he isn’t equipped emotionally to cope with the strain of being the Earth’s mightiest hero. And when he snaps it’s not at all pretty. Batman (his stand-in, that is, in Waid’s universe) dies after seeing his wife and kid vaporized by heat vision. The surrogates of Hawkman and Jimmy Olsen suffer much worse fates.

“I will do such things,” said Lear. “What they are, yet I know not, but they shall be the terrors of the earth!” So wait till you see what someone like Superman might do if he turns evil. It gets grisly. It will make your blood run cold.

What I particularly like: Waid’s story is completely driven by character. As a writer, I know the temptation to just block out a plot and make your characters run it. But when it's done properly, the plot is just something that arises from the character's lies, decisions, revelations, secrets, aspirations and actions. The characters live their lives and a story arises. This is how Waid does it in Irredeemable - and on an ongoing title it's incredibly brave, because you could be painting yourself into a corner. And you need to keep tossing another couple of plates up to be ready to replace earlier ones when they finally stop spinning. It could all go so horribly wrong, and there’s no going back to fix it.

To corral such a breathtaking narrative and still be able to keep the surprises coming, that’s the sign of a master at work. And the surprises Waid throws at us are rarely coming out of the blue. The most effective ones are blindingly obvious – after they’ve happened. “Surprising yet inevitable” is every writer’s goal, yet not easy to pull off. And Mark Waid keeps on doing it. Hmm, I can see how admiration can start to turn into hatred.

So, if you are rash enough to think that superhero comics have no power to impress you, and if you don’t mind starting on a story that will have you ignoring family emergencies, urgent calls and house fires for the next few hours, get the whole set of Irredeemable (twenty-three issues so far) and plunge right in. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.

BOOM! Studios comics app
Graphic.ly comics app
Irredeemable Vol 1 on Amazon.com
Irredeemable Vol 1 on Amazon.co.uk

Top tips by comic book masters

You probably never thought to see the big blue boy at the top of a Mirabilis post. (Though indeed, why not? He's a mythological figure too.) This image by Dan Scott heads up a list of useful tips by comic book artists. My favorites:

"It’s a lot more to do with the storytelling than just pretty art. I see a lot of up and comers that get into comics in the same position I was in, and I see them focusing very heavily on the way they draw and doing covers and pin-ups and things like that. I don’t see a lot of focus on storytelling, which is something I’ve really tried to focus on in the last few years. I think if anyone can learn from my experience, focus on that just as much as focussing on your art."
- Mark Brooks

"There were all of these little nuances of line readings, acting, reacting, interpretation, layers of character personality, integrity, etc, people bouncing off each other. That was suddenly very grown-up, as opposed to the slam-bang. It was a whole new ballgame, and it forced me to really pay attention, and look, learn and listen."
- Alex Toth on the lessons he took from romance comics

"In the past I’ve overworked my pencils in order to make them as ‘good’ as possible, whereas I now believe it’s best to adopt a looser approach and perhaps to have more self-belief in your own personal style. I was given the same advice in 1982 by Steve Dillon, who I think believes that being a perfectionist can take the ‘fun’ out of drawing comics."
- Tony O'Donnell on not chasing the "in" style

Fact is, they're all great lessons from comics legends. And not a grain of red kryptonite among 'em. Well worth a look.

Mirabilis graphic novel app in Top 100 grossing books

Mirabilis - Year of Wonders has been in the App Store for four days now, which is pretty exciting as it is. But the really great news is that we just nudged into the Top 100 grossing ibooks at #99!

You can get the first instalment of the story completely free, then other chapters cost $1.99 each. So it was fabulous when we rose to #13 in iTunes books, but to actually be in the top-grossing charts too shows that new readers are following through with the story after they've been astounded by the fluid interface, easy in-app issue management, eye-popping zoom and page flip, magical colors and dramatic art.

Next stop: the Kindle. And in the meantime, if you haven't got the Mirabilis iPad app yet, you can find it here in the USA and here in the UK.

UK hardback editions due early next year

As if the news about the upcoming Mirabilis graphic novel on iPad wasn't exciting enough, we are just about to put ink on a deal that will see Mirabilis: Winter, the first 200-page instalment in our fantasy saga, released in early 2011 as two glorious album-sized hardbacks by PrintMedia Productions.

PMP are the guys behind Strip Magazine, one of Europe's leading anthology comics. The first of their planned slate of graphic novels is the rip-roaring steampunk adventure The Iron Moon, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page, previewed here and available for pre-order on Amazon here.

These books are really going to be something to cherish, not least because the format is a jaw-dropping 9" x 12". Have you seen the Charley's War books? Yep, that big. And hardbacks. In full color. There's got to be a catch, right? And there is, if you live outside the UK, because these two volumes will only be available in Great Britain. However, US readers can get the trade paperback editions from Amazon.com and the monthly Mirabilis comic book will be available in the USA from January. So really, everybody wins.

Comic books online, on the stands, and in the App Store

In the run-up to last Christmas, I posted a bunch of mock-up comic book covers - y'know, just for fun. The covers here are a little different. These are eight full-size, full-color comic books that will be on sale in the USA early next year - the first wave of a 32-issue run comprising the whole of the Jack and Estelle story. (But not necessarily the whole of Mirabilis: Year of Wonders, as we have plenty of other plotlines up our sleeves.)

Those are guaranteed to be worth waiting for as, along with the story itself, you'll get the RMS letters columns and a cornucopia of wondrous paintings by Martin. But the good news is, you don't have to wait. The whole Winter season will be available in trade paperback (two volumes) in just a few weeks. That's 224 pages of thrills and spills as only Leo and Nikos can serve it up. Look for those on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

That's still not the really exciting news, though. Because the Mirabilis app is on course for a December release and you really need to buy, borrow or steal yourself an iPad right now. Thing of beauty though the iPad is, I honestly haven't seen anything on it to compare to the knock-down gorgeous graphics of Mirabilis. It fairly crackles with luminously sharp empyrean energy. Okay, don't actually resort to stealing. But do anything and everything else to make sure you have an iPad to hand on Christmas Eve as you will not want to miss the opening salvo in the Year of Mirabilis. Did I mention that the opening chapter is absolutely free?

DriveThruComics latest - and other big news

You've seen this cover before. The big difference is that it's about to be the first in an eight-issue run of real comic books. I'm talking about regular, tried-and-true printed comic books now, not e-comics - though we are also on course to have the whole of the Mirabilis: Winter graphic novel on iPad in time for Christmas.

The iPad issues will probably retail around $1.99 each, but if you haven't gone totally digital yet then you may prefer to buy the physical comic books on IndyPlanet. Those will be tagged around $4.50 each, meaning you can read the whole 200-page graphic novel for $36. At that price you have to bring your own Mylar bags. Issue 1 should be on sale in a few days.

On the other hand, if you've never been bitten by the comics collecting bug then you could hold out for the graphic novel editions. We anticipate the trade paperbacks (two comic-sized volumes) going on sale in the USA in December. Those will retail at $19.99 each. But if you live in the UK, the real treat will be massive European-album sized hardback editions due out early next year. Save up your book tokens as those should be the most gorgeous incarnation of all Mirabilis's many forms.

Oh, and we also have breaking news of serialization of the episodes in India. This has got me and Leo beside ourselves with excitement because Jack will be heading off from Britain to India in the Spring GN, so it'll be great to think of Mirabilis becoming another bridge between those two great cultures. More on that as the details firm up.

2011 is guaranteed to provide you with a format of your choice for reading Mirabilis - whether it's online, as an app, in paperback or hardback, or in the form of regular comic books. As a special offer to get you started, we've put Mirabilis #1 up online and you can get it for free on DriveThruComics. Even if you've read this opening issue already, please hit the link and give us a review as we're collecting stars.

Renaissance men in training

The last month has been a super-steep learning curve for me and Leo as we’ve been busy making ourselves familiar with the worlds of printing, book distribution, marketing and app development - all at the same time.

At times over the years we have worked in prose and illustrated novels, choose-you-own-adventure style books, role-playing games, comics, television, videogames, websites and Flash design, radio and even movies. And now we’re getting up to speed on the production as well as creative side. It’s exhausting but exhilarating. Like pushing your bike up Porlock Hill and then coming down without brakes.

It means that at long last we can start to firm up some details of what you can expect to see between now and Christmas. First of all there’ll be the long-awaited iPad app. I know – not everybody has an iPad yet. But why not? It’s like going from black and white to colour TV. Comics have dawn-of-time colors on that perfectly-sized screen and, with average prices per issue around $1.99, you’re saving money and shelf space. And with most comics apps (ours included) you get to read the first issue free. So you can try more titles.

A friend of mine who works in marketing asked about our pricing. I said each episode of Mirabilis after the first will be $1.99, because that’s a dollar off the cost of a typical print comic. He was surprised. “In most fields you pay more for convenience, not less.” So there you are. Get ‘em now, as the comics ads used to say, before we come to our senses.

The iPad versions will be the only way you’ll get the full comic book style layout for Mirabilis including letters page and “coming next issue” blurb. But if you aren’t ready to give up buying physical books just yet, we have a couple of options planned. First of all we’re looking into getting our own paperback edition of the Winter book up on Amazon.com. We’re risking the supposed stigma of self-publishing but we just like being in control, striking out as pioneers, doing our own thing… Also we don’t have any contacts among US book publishers yet!

Here in the UK, we have a publisher negotiating to release Winter as two 112-page volumes early next year. These will be European-style large format hardbacks, a little pricier than the iPad or paperback options but eminently collectable.

I’m cautious about giving definite release dates as we’re breaking new ground with all these ventures. Each day usually brings an unexpected setback followed by a flash of inspiration to solve it. But Christmas is the season we’re working towards. Updates to come…

New look website

More cryptic hints today, but I can give you some solid clues now. We've been working on the first eight comic covers (you can see them over on the Mirabilis website) and a lot of our tears and sweat have gone into converting from the A4 format imposed by the original DFC serialization of episodes 1-10. The all-new comic book issues use a format ratio nearer to 4:3 - and that's your first clue.

It could have been worse, incidentally. The original specification for The DFC insisted the comic was going to be in Berliner format, which is about 18.5 by 12.5 inches. That's the same size as newspapers like Le Monde, which would have been an absolute distaster for serious story-based comics (as distinct from the funny pages) and could never have been turned into viable trade paperbacks. Luckily all we had to do this week was wrestle everything down from A4, a ghastly enough page size for comics but not an unmitigated disaster.

The other clue is that there's no title text on these covers, unlike the ones we ran off at Christmas. But why, you ask? Well, that's why we call it a clue. More details, with a bit less of the enigmatics and some firm dates, figures and schedules, to come very shortly.

By the way, be sure to check out the new flipbook episode because it's now the whole of the first issue complete with letters page. This is the new look of Mirabilis. A lot is going to be happening around here in the next six weeks and you won't want to miss any of it.

Something wicked

Back around Christmas I had some fun putting together a bunch of comic book covers and I mentioned how it would be nice to live in the parallel universe where we could actually release Mirabilis in that form.

Well, Fringe-like, that shimmering gateway may be opening, and you won't need Walter Bishop to get you there either. (Which is probably just as well.) Snap a wishbone, cross all digits, and look out for falling stars. We hope to bring you some exciting news very soon.

While there's music and moonlight

Not wanting to jinx it, but things are looking distinctly brighter for Mirabilis this weekend than they turned out to be for the Weinsteins and Miramax (see last post).

We have spent the last three months negotiating a release from the old DFC contract that will free up the Mirabilis rights. And at last that is looking like it’s about to happen, thanks to the heroic efforts of our agent Stephanie Thwaites and the personal intervention of Random House Children’s CEO Philippa Dickinson.

Getting back our rights will allow me, Leo, Nikos and Martin to complete the Winter book and get on with the rest of the series. We’ll also be able to go looking for publishers in various territories who really love Mirabilis and will want to get behind it. The size of the publisher isn’t all that important – it’s their passion and commitment we’ll be looking for. For example, look at comments by Tim Jones here and Alistair Spalding here that show their enthusiasm for Garen Ewing’s brilliant Rainbow Orchid series (next book out July 5th). Leo and I fantasize about finding Mirabilis a home like that.

You diehards won’t have to wait, though. We’ve got 200 pages almost complete and we plan to release those in a limited collector’s edition right away. We’re also iPad junkies, and you can expect to see a version in the App Store alongside Leo’s charming Sweet Pea series. (My wife thinks Sweet Pea looks like an infant Estelle. Close, except Estelle at five years old would probably be building a formicarium in her wardrobe instead of deciding what to wear!)

On top of that, what I’d really like is to get Mirabilis out in comic book form. Book One neatly slices into eight 25-page instalments. I’m not sure yet how Mirabilis: The Comic #1-#8 would dovetail with an iPad or print collector’s edition, much less what the eventual publisher would think about it. But a tiny part of the story was originally serialized in Random House’s weekly DFC comic two years ago, and that didn’t hurt – in fact, netted us several thousand blog hits.

And you know I mocked up those “Mirus Comics” covers a while back? Those might soon be a reality. My ten-year-old self is going to be ecstatic.

A grand ship out on the ocean, all mounted with silver and gold

We are currently making plans for what we’d do with Mirabilis if we can get full control of the publishing rights. To explain that remark and put it in context, I need to take a short historical detour.

As I’m sure you’re aware, Mirabilis originally appeared in the last few issues of Random House’s short-lived weekly comic The DFC. Consequently they are the company that currently controls the publishing rights for those initial ten 5-page installments.

Leo, Martin, Nikos and I have plans for how we would turn that original stub of material into an 800-page epic. But of course to do so we need to be able to publish the first 7% of the story, namely the pages from The DFC. We’re still hopeful we can make some kind of deal to free up those rights. Currently it’s not doing any good for anybody, and the longer it languishes in limbo the harder it is for our whole team to resume, so we're trusting that reason will prevail. (Short pause while I bang my knuckles on this fine oak desk.)

So, if we can get back control of that first chapter, what will we do with our baby then? First of all, we’d reinstate the flipbook episodes on the Mirabilis website. The next step would be to immediately start publishing Mirabilis as a monthly comic book. Eventually there would be collected book editions too, of course, but I like the sense of community you get with a monthly comic, and even a small print readership would help to sustain the team (moral support being far more vital to creatives than financial support, though both are nice) as we continue to work on further installments.

Our current plans would lead to at least a three-year run for the Mirabilis comic, with the four big books (Winter, Spring, etc) appearing at six-monthly intervals once we are well under way. We have to ensure there’s not too much of a gap between release dates for the books because Mirabilis isn't like Alex Rider, for example, where each book is a standalone story. This is one continuous epic – more like Lord of the Rings, say - so readers won't want a long wait between volumes.

One thing we’d be able to consider is whether to stick with the old comic’s A4 format or go with regular US comic book size, which I prefer. It may be too late to change, as any resources we have are better spent creating new material rather than reworking the earlier stuff. That’s not a priority, then – though I do think it’d be a shame not to change it, as Mirabilis leans towards America rather than Europe in that split personality thing we Brits have going. A4 is not a format that would find much favor on the far side of the pond.

We’d look to put the comic out in electronic form too, of course, with PDFs on DriveThru and an app for both iPhone and iPad. All the episodic formats we can release it on would bring in regular revenue - maybe not a lot but it's cashflow, and that’s vital if we’re to keep the whole team together and have any chance of completing this Herculean task we set out to do.

That's not forgetting the Royal Mythological Society stuff, which could serve a useful peripheral function like the Black Freighter to Watchmen, or the Animatrix to The Matrix. We actually have the RMS shorts all ready for publication on the Kindle - and that material has the advantage that it could quite easily be repurposed if need be. I'll just keep touching the desk.

So those are all the what-ifs. What if we can’t get control of the opening installments, though? Well, in that case I suppose you may end up reading the adventures of blond John Spark and red-headed Astrid Fieldweather under the mysterious blue comet, in Fabulosia: 365 Days of Miracles. Or maybe we shouldn't even joke about that, judging by the look on their faces there...

Cave canem

There’s something outside on the pavement (the sidewalk, to our American cousins). Nobody wants to touch it. We’re waiting for the rain to wash it away. One of the neighbours has pinned a big notice on a tree nearby: PLEASE CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR DOG.

My point? That little brown pile, that’s how UK publishers view comics. By and large they wouldn’t actually want to pick one up.

Having grown up with comics and got my love of fiction from them, I really don’t get it. Movies, comics, novels, games – aren’t those all valid and effective ways of leading somebody on an imaginative journey?

I’m sure American and continental European readers will simply be baffled by this, but most adults in Britain see comics as a mean and contemptible medium. I tell people I’m writing a graphic novel and they look at me like I’ve joined the Hare Krishnas. It goes beyond blank uninterest; it's more like pity. Some (and these are the worst) will say, “Oh, I think comics can be ever so helpful in getting reluctant readers to pick up proper books.” Nobody can do condescension like a British literary snob.

Leo, Martin and I have sometimes toyed with writing Mirabilis as a prose novel instead of a comic. Just to get some respect, you understand. I think publishers would sit up and take notice then. Some of them might even read it!

We’re not going to do that because – well, for a bunch of reasons. Because we like comics. Because we love making comics. Because Mirabilis is a visual story. And because anyway who needs respect from those twits? Stuff ‘em if they don’t like comics. Me, I don’t like crap novels where nothing actually happens. We’ll have to agree to differ.

But all the same, Mirabilis was conceived to be medium-agnostic. I’ve worked in games, television, books, you name it, and any way that gets the story across is fine by me. So Mirabilis is a comic but it isn’t only a comic. We have all the Royal Mythological Society story snippets, for example. And there are other bits of prose that got written for various reasons. Some of them we’ll use in that form, some get repurposed.

This vignette for instance. It was originally planned as a prose story to go in the Gazetteer, but got reworked as the basis for one of our newspaper comic stories. Though the pterodactyl didn't make it into the comic version, it got airlifted to Paris for a screech-on role in the main Jack and Estelle story instead. (And, as you can see from the picture, it had to dress up in a pteranodon costume.)

Hope you like our little amuse-cerveau. Tomorrow we’re back to picture stories. With flying dinosaurs. Promise.

Never Never on the Portsmouth Line

"You know, Jennings, it's getting worse if anything," remarked Sanderson over the glass bubble-helmet of the little green man on the seat next to him.

"I think you're right," his friend said in the same matter-of fact tone. "Take that last station. I could have sworn the sign said Never-never Land. Never-never Land didn't use to be on the Portsmouth line, did it?"

"That's not all. Do you know, just as we were leaving the office, there was something rather large perched on the top of Nelson's Column." Sanderson hesitated. "I didn't like to say at the time, but..."

"No need to apologise, old chap. Pterodactyl - no mistaking it. That's the second time this week it's been there. I suppose it's been keeping an eye out."

"For pigeons?"

"Well, I was thinking more of tourists."

"It's this comet that's to blame, of course."

"Without a doubt. No other explanation. Chap on the radio last night saying the same thing. Oh I say! What a cheek!"

The Martian sitting on the other side of Jennings had clamped a tentacle onto the page of his newspaper and was silently reading the share prices.

Jennings tugged the paper away and folded it up. "The nerve of these blighters, reading over a fellow’s shoulder like that."

"Tickets please," said the inspector.

Mr Sanderson handed over his ticket. The Martian beside him sat immobile. The inspector leaned down and rapped his knuckles on the glass dome. The green brain inside opened several eyes like a crab waking up inside a shell.

"Tickets," repeated the inspector.

The train rattled on through the dusk. The Martian sat in dumbfounded silence.

"He wants your ticket," explained Jennings, enunciating one word at a time as though the Martian was a very small child.

The Martian turned its eyes in several directions at once. Reaching into its little silver knapsack, it pulled out a ray gun.

"Ticket," said the inspector stolidly.

The Martian seemed taken aback. It leaned over Jennings' lap to confer with its comrade. The two buzzed and twittered at each other for a few moments, while Jennings stared at the ceiling of the carriage with a disdainful expression and pretended to ignore them. Finally the ray gun was put away and the Martian produced a ticket.

"Tak uz to yir leader," the second Martian said. Sanderson thought that its accent sounded faintly Scottish.

The inspector glowered at their tickets. "You want London, then. This is the down train."

The Martians sat bolt upright like glove puppets and started waving their tentacles. There was more buzzing, quite heated now. The inside of the glass helmets was beginning to steam up.

"He said you're going the wrong way!" said Jennings, losing his patience. "No use arguing about it."

"You'll have to go back to Woking and change there," said the guard. He gave the Martians their tickets and went on to the next compartment. They looked at each other glumly, silent now inside the fishbowl helmets.

Sanderson looked up at the window. "This is my stop," he said, rising.

Jennings nodded. "Looks like it.” He raised his paper and leaned over to speak confidentially. “What do you know? Martians. It’ll be Venusians next week.”

Sanderson paused as he stepped down to the platform. He thought about what Jennings had said and brightened. There was even a bit of a twinkle in his eye that had not been seen since Mrs Sanderson was a Miss.

“Venusians…” he said dreamily. “Marvellous!”

Boom

Talking of fight scenes: when we ran our Silver Age mock-up covers around Christmas, one glaring oversight was not showing you the whole fabulous Charge of the Centaur Brigade picture used to illustrate"Boom - like that!" Well, here it is. A shame that it never got the full color treatment it deserved, but c'est la guerre... (No, we didn't go to Angoulême this year, but I guess we've got it on the brain.)

If you appreciate Mr McKenna's masterful artwork (who doesn't?) but somehow managed to miss his story of death, parenthood and early motor cars, you can still read it right here.

Kicking off with something new

And bringing us full circle, here is Mirabilis #1, the twelfth and last in the series of Silver Age mockup covers. Lovely as the artwork by Leo, Nikos and Martin is, I appreciate that you can't get much sense of the whole story from these few images, but we have a notion what to do about that. Come back tomorrow to find out.

Get ready...

According to Wikipedia, tonight is Twelfth Night. But that's by the medieval reckoning of time, whereby each day began at sunset. Our decorations won't be coming down until tomorrow night, and by the same token this is the eleventh of our merry Marvel-style covers. The final one in the set will be up tomorrow, and the day after that we should have some news about new Mirabilis episodes for you to read online. Keep the faith, O True Believer!

McFabulous wins again

And here's the latest "what if" comic cover. When you think that this is just a small detail from one panel, it works pretty well as a cover pic. What I like most of all, though, is the expression on Gran's face - evidence in favor of Eisenstein's theory that it is the juxtaposition of images that creates a sense of meaning in the viewer's mind.

What the butler saw

Peter Richardson of Cloud 109 was saying only last year how Leo's panels work amazingly well when blown up to cover size. This one is taken from a page using the classic 3x3 grid, yet Leo has managed to fit in the finely-observed detail and dramatic composition that marks out the best cover art. I just couldn't bring myself to splash an episode title all over such a perfect little gem of a pic.

Dreaming spires

Here's another fake Marvel-style cover to ease the long, long wait until we can finally unveil this 190-page epic we've created. This cover is dedicated to Tom Burton, who I just heard has been accepted at Brasenose to read Economics and Management - thus following, incidentally, in the footsteps of another very dear friend of mine, Tim Harford. Well done, Tom; a paradise of punting, Pimms and parties awaits you!

Jubilations!

Happy holidays. We're signing off till the New Year but, if you aren't too stuffed with turkey, pop by tomorrow as I may put up a little seasonal treat.

This Christmas Eve comic cover is dedicated to our mums - mine and Leo's and Martin's, all absolute treasures. And, as it happens, my mum has a connection to Mirabilis because the nickname she had as a young girl is also Lord Deerdand's nickname for Estelle. I can put it no better than to paraphrase Dr Johnson, who wrote to his own mum: "You are the best mother and, I believe, the best woman in the world." And to paraphrase Stan the Man: 'nuff said!