New comic shop, COMIC DEN opens its doors

News of a new comic shop is always worth celebrating so I was pleased to hear of Comic Den which had its official opening last week. 

The shop is based in Oldham, Greater Manchester, and the official opening ceremony was performed on Saturday 20th January with the local mayor Shadab Qumer cutting the tape. Various artists were also invited for a signing, such as Tim Perkins and Jessica Lucas, along with cosplayers. 

Artist/writer Tim Perkins.

Artist/writer Jessica Lucas.

The opening ceremony.

Comic Den is a family run shop, with Dennis and Sarah Whittle and daughter Amy. "We stock small press as well as all major titles" said Dennis. "We are a comic book store with comics being the main focus."

Dennis went on to explain his inspiration for opening Comic Den. "I wanted to create a hub a place to buy comic talk comics geek out.  I feel some of the bigger stores have forgotten that being into comics isn't just about selling, its about being part of something and I want my store to build on that idea."

He said that the shop will be supporting small press comics and stocking all age titles, encouraging children to pick up a book. (I'm pleased to say that fairly soon you'll find a few copies of Combat Colin on its shelves.)

I'm sure you'll join me in wishing Dennis and his family all the very best with their venture. If you're in Oldham, pop along to the shop. Here are the details:

COMIC DEN
Unit 2 Manchester Chambers
Oldham, 
OL2 1LF 
United Kingdom

Opening times are as follows
Monday - closed
Tues to Fri - 10.30am till 5pm
Saturday - 10.00am till 4.30pm

Sunday - closed

Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Comic-Den-160685134541937/

My thanks to Dennis for permission to use the photos in this blog post. All photographs by Dan Burgess. 
https://www.facebook.com/DanBurgessPhoto/

Return to WORLDS END

Back in 2012, artist/writer Tim Perkins self published his impressive and enjoyable fantasy graphic novel Worlds End - Riders on the Storm. You can read my review of it here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/worlds-end-riders-on-storm.html )

Since then, Tim has been hard at work creating the second volume in the series, Worlds End - A Hard Reign's Gonna Fall, and it's now ready to pre-order. The book will be published later this year but there are incentives for those who pre-order. Tim explains them below...

ORDER IN ADVANCE NOW and receive at least one of our Incentives.

Incentive 1: All Pre-Orders paid for prior to the release date being announced later in 2017 will receive a Limited Edition, Signed & Numbered Worlds End Print - Which will only ever be given away with this offer.

Incentive 2: The FIRST 100 Pre-Orders paid for prior the final date of Publication will also receive an Original Remarked Limited Edition, Signed & Numbered Worlds End Print. Remarked Prints will have a unique original sketch by Tim added to the print to complete the illustration - No two sketches will be the same. This will also only ever be given away with this offer.

Incentive 3: All Pre-Orders paid for prior to the release date being announced later in 2017 will have their Order Number placed into a Wizards Hat. There will then be a Grand Draw on the evening of Monday July 31st 2017 at 8:00pm. 
One very lucky Pre-Order Fan/Customer will have their name drawn out of a wizard’s hat. There, the lucky winner will see their names translated by Tim into the fantasy language used by the indigenous peoples of the mediaeval world of Gaeyrth and immortalised forever by being added to the intricately detailed Worlds End Map of Gaeyrth in the front pages of the book. Their names becoming the name of a place or city or even an island or continent.
Their name will appear alongside such stalwarts of the comic industry, as Jack Kirby - K'rby • Alex Toth - Tothe • Frank Frazetta - Fr' Zytta • Mike Ploog - Plooogg.

Incentive 4: All Pre-Orders paid for prior to the release date being announced later in 2017 will have their Order Number placed into a Wizards Hat. There will then be a Grand Draw on the morning of Monday 25th December at 9:00am.
The fourth incentive is for one very lucky Pre-Order Fan/Customer to have their name drawn out of a wizard's hat and then see them supplied with heavy duty, Worlds End-themed washable wallpaper using the Mural Artz technique to customise a wall in their house, office, studio, garage or den or wherever they want it to hang.

The image area can be up to a size of 12 Feet in width by 8 Feet high. It will come as rolls of wallpaper. All you need to do is carefully hang or employ a decorator to hang it for you.

The lucky winner will be given a few options to choose from between artwork from one of the double page spreads or else panels and logos from the first two books, put together and made into patterned wallpaper.

Publication Date to be announced.
COMING SOON! Order here:
http://www.wizards-keep.com/index.asp?Item=worlds-end-volume-2-a-hard-reigns-gonna-fall--32145327--1


This is the second in the series of "Science Fusion" graphic novels created by international comic artist and writer, Tim Perkins.

This fully painted, All-Ages book is set on another world called Gaeryth, where a Mathemagician, called Gweldar, his familiar, Geek, a young boy, Ralf and a mysterious girl called Zephol continue to be all that stand before an invading alien horde intent on aqua-forming the otherwise tranquil planet in the far reaches of space.

Are they enough to stop the myriad forces, known as the Aoevill from the depths of outer space and solve the mystery of Worlds End…?
"Will a little Magik be enough?"

Tim Perkins continues to weave a timeless All-Ages storyline fusing Fantasy and Sci-Fi into a Science Fusion Epic with a NEW mythology for a new audience.
European Format - Case Bound Cover - Fully illustrated - 88 full colour pages + Cover and illustrated Endpapers
Foreword by David Lloyd - Introduction by Bruce Zick - Afterword by Tim Perkins
ISBN: 978-0-9570310-1-2

Support independent British comics and pre-order Worlds End: A Hard Reign's Gonna Fall today!

Sample pages before lettering is added...

Worlds End: The Riders on the Storm

 This is a book I've been intending to plug for a while now so I'd like to start by apologising to its author Tim Perkins for the delay. Tim has put his heart and soul into this book and it deserves as much recognition as possible.

Worlds End Volume 1 - The Riders on the Storm is an impressive 88 page large format hardback graphic novel from Tim's company Wizards Keep Publishing. Tim has been a comics professional for almost 30 years, having worked on diverse titles such as Transformers, Doctor Who, ThunderCats and Triffik! A few years ago he took the brave step of setting up his own company to self publish books, prints and related merchandise and Worlds End Volume 1 is the first major publication from the company. 

I should confess that normally I wouldn't touch fantasy books with a ten foot wizard's staff but I'm glad I purchased this as I thoroughly enjoyed it. Tim has really packed the book not only with a 52 page full colour comic strip but also with over 25 pages of bonus material; character sketches and profiles, creator profiles, extra illustrations and so on. In all good fantasy story traditions the book leads off with a map of the world of Gaeyrth, and I'm sure you'll be as amused as I was to find lands named after various familiar comic creator names such as K'rby, Brry K'tsyn, P'Crg Rssull, Ploogg, and even one which made my day, - L'Strgor.  A land free of trolls I hope.

The story itself has the expected fantasy elements of an old wizard, his young familiar (named Geek) and a battle against evil forces but what I liked was that Tim had mashed in SF elements with the fantasy. The big bad are an invading alien army intent on aqua-forming the planet, and this has enabled Tim to really go to town on the designs of the invaders and their technology. 

One of Tim's many influences is Jack Kirby and, although the King's artistic style isn't readily apparent in Tim's, what has carried over is Kirby's sense of spectacle and impact. Kirby had the ability to blow the reader's mind with the turn of a page and that's something that happens in Worlds End too. Just as the story begins to relax a bit Tim throws in a fantastic landscape or a new alien design to impress us.

The only downside of the book, for me, was that it's a continued story. Admittedly the words 'Volume 1' on the cover should have clued me in but as this is an all-ages book that is hoping to reach a new generation of readers (along with regular comic readers) I'd have thought a more self-contained story might have helped. Then again, I can't wait to read Worlds End Volume 2 - A Hard Reign's Gonna Fall, so what do I know? I'm sold on the sequel already.

For the price of £15.99 this is a great value book and Tim makes it work as a story that should appeal from anyone from 7 to 70. This is the sort of graphic novel that should be in every school library across the UK really, and certainly deserves to be supported by the UK comics community. 

Worlds End Volume 1 - The Riders on the Storm by Tim Perkins. Foreword by Bryan Talbot. Introduction by John Ridgway. 88 pages. Full colour hardback. An all-original British comic book, well written and illustrated and full of timeless adventure with top class production qualities. To order your copy, visit the Wizards Keep website here: 
http://www.wizards-keep.com/   

Prepare for Worlds End

Over the past few years comic artist Tim Perkins has been hard at work on his creator-owned graphic novel Worlds End, and now the end product is about to be launched.

Described as the first of a series of "science fusion" graphic novels, Worlds End Volume 1: The Riders on the Storm, is a fully painted book intended for all ages that is set on another world called Gaeryth, where a Mathemagician, called Gweldar, his familiar, Geek, a young boy, Ralf and a mysterious girl called Zephol are all that stand before an invading alien horde intent on aqua-forming the otherwise tranquil planet in the far reaches of space.


88 full colour pages for £15.99, hardback, with a foreword by Bryan Talbot and introduction by John Ridgway. The book can be pre-ordered from the website of Tim's company, Wizards Keep, at this URL: http://www.wizards-keep.com/index.asp-Q-Item-E-worlds-end-volume-1-the-riders-on-the-storm--73814029--1

Having seen preview pages of the book I can thoroughly recommend it. There's some stunning visuals in there and even though I don't usually go for such fantasy-based comics I became drawn into the world that Tim has created. I'll be covering the book in more depth soon but for now here's the official YouTube trailer for it:

http://youtu.be/ehASolcoaoA