And now... A few important words

Hey fellow Zarjaz/Futurequakers,

My name's Tony McVeigh, a fellow Futurequaker from Northern Ireland. You may remember me from my rather unsavory Angel Gang story 'The Birthday Gift' in the latest issue of Zarjaz.

Anyway, I'm chuffed to say I have a project called 'Devil's Music' in Round 2 this year's SMALL PRESS IDOL competition.

The voting that will decide if our project will make it to round 3 has just opened up. I would greatly appreciate any support that my fellow Zarjaz/Futurequake alumni could give me.

To vote you need to sign up for an account on SPI (it's free of charge and of SPAM), which you can do here:

SMALL PRESS IDOL!!

Then login and vote here: (just select 'I am a fan of this project' and click the VOTE button)

You can vote for the project once daily from now until next Wednesday. Every vote keeps us alive. So sign up and give your fellow droid a helping hand.

Thanks In Advance
TONY McVEIGH

Jimps At Unicon!

Unicon was attended last week by the brothers Denton, and they were kind enough to take some copies of the latest Zarjaz & Dogbreath along as well. They even got a Jimped!

New Thrill! Rogue Trooper- A Tale of the Trenches

Title Rogue Trooper- A Tale of the Trenches is written by Richmond Clements, with art by George Coleman. The strip is five pages long and will feature in Zarjaz 10.

New Thrill! Slaine- A Place Of Shelter

This Just In!



Title Slaine- A Place of Shelter is written by Alec Robertson, with art by Roland Bird. The strip is four pages long and will feature in Zarjaz 10.

Prog 1681- Tharg Pimp!

Forgive me for posting this so late- but this weeks prog has a rather nice treat for the contributors to both Zarjaz & Dogbreath. An unsolicited pimp. His verdant majesty, Tharg the action-figure Model, saw it fit to mention that he liked the new crop, and he gave special mention to the mighty Teen Wulf strip by Richmond and Kev Picture from Kev's blog- Thanks, mate.

This Just In: Judge Dredd- Xtras

Coming to Zarjaz 10, Judge Dredd- Xtras, following on from the strip in Dogbreath 20, another day in the life of a comic-book extra. Written by Lee Robson and art by Brett Buckle.

That was fun- but it is time to get stuck in...

Back from Hi-Ex and finally getting round to sorting myself out. First off the next time I’ll be at a con will be in May, at the Bristol Event. Hotel booked and everything. Check out the pic on the right hand side.

Hi-Ex was great fun, always a pleasure for me to be there as it is perhaps my favourite gig in the country. It was great to meet up with old friends and make new one’s too.

Whilst there though I had a bit of a revelation. I’m a bit of a soft touch on the whole- I’m a fairly easy going kind of guy, so I tend to bend over a bit more than I should as far as strips are concerned. When it comes to scripts it is much easier to be tough- as there are a team of script readers who will all be aiming for the highest level of quality, after all entire strips will stand or fall on the quality of the scripts. I like to think that the team at FQP, as well as Dogbreath & Zarjaz, is pretty hot at sorting strong scripts.

It is the Artists that I need to push more. Most of the artists involved in the titles I produce are of a level where they are polishing their craft ready to approach publishers (I’m not going to put any names in this, just not fair) but there are some that need to be pushed a little harder. This is not a judgement on their drawing ability, not at all- it is mainly to apply the same harsh standards we use for scripts to art. I’m going to start asking for more re-working of panels, and where possible I would like to be able to get hold of a set of pencilled pages for strips so that I can pass judgement before ink is put to paper.

After all, the artists providing the work want to reach a standard where they can approach professional editors and gain paid work- so if I let them submit art that I feel needs work I am letting them down.

Therefore if you are an artist working on a strip for me and I tell you that there is something I want you to change- I’m not being awkward for the sake of it- I genuinely want you to submit artwork that knocks me out. I may be called SMALL PRESS, but that doesn’t mean we have to have small standards.

This Just In: JUDGE DREDD- Red In Tooth & Claw

Due to materialise in Zarjaz 10, Judge Dredd- Red In Tooth & Claw is by Mark Pexton, Bolt-01 and Lynsey Hutchinson.

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Remember the competition we had in the ast issues of Dogbreath & Zarjaz? Did you enter? Be honest now, 'cause I know how many entries there were!

We have a winner for the Zarjaz comp!

The lucky Squaxx is Sean Steele of Liverpool, and your book will be on it's way this weekend, congratulations. I'll not spoil the name of the correct answer, as I want to put the comp up on the blog for a bit of fun.

However- we never had a correct entry for the Strontium Dog comp- so I'm going to put it here now!

Okay- the rules for this version- we have two copies of this book, so first 2 correct emails to me win. There, as simple as that. Remember, once you have found all the named characters, there is another one in the grid who is not named. That is the bad guy you are searching for- GOOD LUCK!

Have fun.