The storypaper returns! (or an updated penny dreadful)

[chrissmillie]

Launching at the London Comic Expo spexpo.co.uk (12th March 2011), the Starscape Storypaper makes it's first appearance.

Taking it's inspiration from the Victorian Penny Dreadfuls (small booklets with a startling cover, plus text stories packed full of excitement) and boys' storypapers (prose magazines with pictures: a forerunner to the modern comic), the Starscape Storypaper updates these ancient tales of horror / adventure epics featuring pirates, demons or cowboys into a modern take of sci-fi, fantasy, superpower & horror stories.

Starscape Storypaper features an incredible cover by 2000AD's Alex Ronald and back page from Matthew Soffe. Tales for this first publication are the Knights of Eternity (Arthurian legend meets Celtic mythology) by Chris Smillie & Alex McCarthy, Extermination Theory (a sci-fi bug hunt) by Matthew McLaughlin & Dustin Parr, plus masked mystery men betrayed in Shaun Avery / Ivan Eight's Identity Unhidden.

Who's all up for a pocket book full of exciting stories?

52 pages - A6-size - £1.50

Coming as a pre-release to the London Comic Expo (http://www.spexpo.co.uk), then available to comic shops, bookshops, e-sellers and Kindle outlets. Trade enquiries welcome. http://www.StarscapeOnline.com

[felneymike]

A6? Well it's certianly "pocket", if it was weekly in some alternate universe a bound volume of a year's worth would be an interesting size XD.

I was thinking of starting a penny dreadful myself once that would actually cost a penny, to have been called "The Horrific Picture Paper", but changed my mind.

[chrissmillie]

Scaling up to modern earnings, the 4-page penny dreadful would cost about £2.50 in today's money. Seems a lot for so little.

[steelclaw]

Great I love Story Papers, any new comics coming out.

[chrissmillie]

On sale will be Planetfall graphic novel collecting the Guard Dogs, the Deterrent and Damage Circus, whilst there's Dead and Ouija 1 and 2 collected together in another book.

I had hoped to start a run of historical pocket book comics called Warpsite (Celts, Romans, Vikings, Civil War etc) but struggling with artists unfortunately.

Red Sands 2.2 is also overdue.

[Captain Storm]

Shades of Den on the cover methinks,

The Cap.

[starscape]

STARSCAPE STORYPAPER #1 from http://StarscapeOnline.com
sci-fi, fantasy, superpower & horror tales
Cover: Alex Ronald / Back: Matthew Soffe

the Knights of Eternity
Chris Smillie-Alex Ronald-Alex McCarthy
Merlin conquers time but what does the Son of the Devil need the Ankh of Time for? Find out as we meet Seth as he becomes The Eternal - 'The Man Cursed To Live'!

Extermination Theory
Matthew McLaughlin-Dustin Parr
Even in the future, pest control is a nasty business - especially when it's Mankind versus gruesome alien bug!

Identity Unhidden
Shaun Avery-Ivan Eight
Dressing in longjohns and fighting supervillains isn't the career most mothers want for their son but has the Attendant met his match as he confronts the Big Boss?

ONLY £1.50 inc. UK p&p for OVER 50 PAGES!!!

See a review at http://blog.crystal-knights.co.uk/2011/ ... torypaper/

Starscape Storypaper is an update on the traditional storypaper (e.g. Hotspur, Union Jack, The Marvel etc) and penny dreadfuls of yesteryear (see http://StarscapeOnline.com for some pdf downloads of originals). Basically, it's an A6 pocketbook of around 50 pages (very handy for the train or bus) of the sci-fi, fantasy, superhero and horror genre. The pocketbook contains both serials and one-shots with a fair splattering of awesome covers and spot illustrations.

As well as a paper copy, there's also a means to download digitally. So, if you fancy reading it on your Kindle, eBook reader or tabloid...no problem!

[Jay]

Missed this thread when it was first posted. Anyways, just ordered a copy. Is there a No 2 planned?

[starscape]

Certainly is. And a lot more!

Let me know what kind of stories, format, frequency you'd like to see and I'll see if it's possible.

Cheers for the support. It can't go on without any.

Chris

[starscape]

Try before you buy with this 20 page sampler:
http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=89830

[starscape]

Thanks to all those who bought the first issue of the Storypaper...unfortunately, there just wasn't enough of you. I do however, appreciate those who dipped their hand into their pocket and, for many of you, the feedback given. With a number of big name artists and writers (both sides of the Atlantic) showing interest in the concept, it's a shame there was not enough appeal to develop a bigger audience.

The good news: the stories will be switching to the internet to read for free, with collected text stories available in both book form and via Kindle etc.. See http://StarscapeOnline.com and click on 'Prose' to read the first chapters of the Knights of Eternity (sword'n'sorcery) and Extermination Theory (action sci-fi), plus full stories for Identity Unhidden (superhero) and the Metphysical Police (weird sci-fi). Also, comic and television fanfiction plus links to classic sci-fi/fantasy. Stay tuned for more stories too, including Atomic-CALL (feline espionage), the Deterrent (if Spidey was on Battlestar Galactica...), the War Dogs (WWII superhero action) and historical war stories (Vikings, Romans, Celts etc.).

If you want to read more on the trials and tribulations of the Storypaper and indie distribution, see the homepage of http://StarscapeComic.co.uk

[felneymike]

Gah, and the other day I was wondering if it was time for the next issue. Still I hope Knights of Eternity can continue online.

Hmm, mind you this does mean when I finally re-launch The Trident I can advertise it as "Britain's Best Story Paper!"

[starscape]

Yeah, plenty more Knights...I enjoyed writing it most when a certain miscreant (I won't spoil the surprise) wages war with time-travelling hordes. And that's before they've even reached Otherword or Avalon, not to mention....ah, too much information already!

[presterjohn]

Sadly I never noticed any publicity about this book or even seeing it. I can't help but think that the days of these kind of publications are over now. I do hope that some kind of business model can be achieved for books like these on-line though. Would it be worth putting a low price of 50p or even less per issue for people to download them from Amazon and building up a client base for them?

[starscape]

At the moment, you can read chapters on the web for free but can't download (or at least you will when the server gets up'n'running - some glitch on it for the last few hours). I'll then put up the collected edition of stories to be read via books (traditional papery objects) or Kindle/digital for knock-down prices.

I think the format may well have been the right size and price if I could have got them in shops (cheap and handy for the back pocket on the bus). But unfortunately, the shops wouldn't even consider that format. I'm about to publish an essay about British comic shops and how they have multiple copies of Hawk & Dove/GI Joe they will never sell but completely sell out of Strip and never stock the Beano. I think they're making a big mistake. Anyway more on that to come.

I was also looking to convert the 50-pages for £1.50 into comics. Historical action. I had two already scripted (Celts v Romans and Vikings in Canada), with some close by (samurai and African tribal stories). I think it would have been great but if the Storypaper (and, thus, Commando) isn't seen as a suitable size for British comic shops, then it's pointless wasting money.

There's something far wrong if Commando, the Beano and British small press (A5/A6) comics are deemed unsuitable formats or distribution. I firmly believe it would be good both for UK comics and the shops themselves. They are far too into a traditional but shrinking America comic base, ignoring British comics that sell more (and always have). Isn't it the perfect way to get new blood into shops? Get the kid in to buy his Dandy and let him see Superman/Iron Man etc too. Not many other ways to entice new customers in.