Category: Therefore Repent!

  • Hour Power and a Free Graphic Novel

    ancientmars-web

    Each day for the past two weeks I’ve been writing a story in one hour, taking a screenshot of it, and attaching it as an image to a tweet — they’re generally a screen long and definitely a violation of Twitter’s 140 character limit. It’s fun to scope a story to super short pieces, explore whimsical sci-fi ideas, try different tones and styles, and spend a moment or two with some characters.

    The other day me and Sean were over at Mathew Borrett’s place and he showed us how he’d ported some of his mind-blowing HyperNurnia series created for 2D display into virtual reality. A few minutes after I took off the Oculus goggles I knew what my one hour story was going to be that day. Above is the landscape that inspired the following story, click to enlarge and if you have a VR headset and the wherewithal here’s the stereo file. After the story, deets on how to get my graphic novel, Therefore Repent!, for free.


    David watched his son rock back and forth in his chair and knew it was just a matter of time before he fell over and hurt himself.

    “Harry,” he said.

    His son stopped, stared at him defiantly. “What?”

    “You know what.” (more…)

  • No Media Kings Launched 15 Years Ago

    marcbelldoesays

    Things have changed since I started No Media Kings in the year 2000. Rupert Murdoch, who inspired the name, is less of a threat to media security than the innocuous & pervasive Google and Apple. I’ve gone from writing novels, to writing for games, comics, and movies. I went from being a 20-something bachelor writing about superheroes and rocket ships to a 40-something father making a historical mystery audio drama.

    I launched NMK by giving away free ebook versions Angry Young Spaceman. Pre-Kindle and iPhone, people found it baffling. But the gift economy works — it’s come back to me in a lot of ways.

    So every month I’m going to be giving one of my six ebooks away!

    If you want to find out when the new book’s up follow me on Twitter or even better, subscribe to the blog — so we don’t have to rely on a corporation to keep in touch.

    Free in August: Angry Young Spaceman
    My book about a guy who goes to another planet to teach English, based loosely on my ESL stint in Korea. Recently the talented Marc Bell drew a few pages adapting the beginning of the story, above is a detail from it.

    “It’s a wonderful book. Unquestionably SF, it isn’t written in the usual science fiction voice, and that’s part of its charm. His prose is conversational, his characters and settings of the future Earth and Octavia are fascinating, and the story remains engaging from start to finish.” — Charles de Lint, Fantasy & Science Fiction

    Cover art and back cover copy & more blurbs here.

    Download here

    Free in September: Everyone In Silico
    Free in October: Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask
    Free in November: An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil
    Free in December: Therefore Repent! (illustrated by Salgood Sam)
    Free in January: Sword of My Mouth (illustrated by Shannon Gerard)

  • Sword of My Mouth #1 Out Soon

    Her baby isn’t quite right. But in a post-Rapture Detroit, not much is.

    The first 22 pages of the next post-Rapture story after Therefore Repent! will be appearing in comic stores in May, to be eventually collected into a graphic novel called Sword of My Mouth in 2010. Check out Shannon Gerard’s fantastic cover art and the description after the jump, and if it looks good you can preorder at your local comic store — it’s in this month’s Previews (MAR09 4308, pg. 266). Update: I just saw it’s a Staff Pick at Previews!

    (What’s that, you say? You’re behind and haven’t read the critically acclaimed Therefore Repent! yet? Well, lucky thing I’m releasing the full graphic novel as a free download today, isn’t it?)

    (more…)

  • What Pulitzer Prize Winners are Reading

    tcafstrip-thumb.jpgMy comic, it appears.

    2008’s Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, Junot Díaz, was asked what he was reading for pleasure and he named my and Salgood’s graphic novel Therefore Repent! “It’s completely nuts,” he said, which is pretty close to what the Quill and Quire guy said (“unhinged”). Seems there’s a literary consensus on that. When my reader poll came out in favour of Lilith being actually daemonic and not just crazy, I committed to doing something over-the-top fantastical in contrast to my more muted stuff — nice to hear it’s working for people. Junot sounds like my kinda booknerd!

    In other flattering news, I’ve been nominated for the Joe Shuster Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Writer award. Unlike some of the other talent there with a dozen or so comics to their name, I have only TR! and one other strip that appeared in the Beguiling-produced Comic Festival. You can read it on Salgood’s site.

    Also: Chicago launch of Therefore Repent! next month!

  • Signs of the Apocalypse

    they’re always getting defaced… drawn by salgood samBoth critical raves and good sales? Eerie.

    Therefore Repent! got a starred review in last month’s issue of Quill and Quire, made the Best of 2007 list in this month’s issue, and actually squeaked into the bestseller list for Canadian graphic novels last week.

    Salgood Sam has booked the Montreal TR! launch at the newly opened Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore (211 Bernard Ouest) on Saturday, December 8, 7-9pm. As I’ve been in the baby zone, he’s been taking point lately with an audio ad and tabling at Expozine.

    All this and it hasn’t even come out in the US yet! It’s due to hit the stores down south in January via Diamond (# NOV073660) and the US publisher IDW has printed up a great looking 30 page sampler to promote it: drop a line if you want some for your store or your pals. UPDATE: Salgood has a nice interview here, and the Montreal Mirror did an article as well.

  • Therefore Repent! Now Out!!

    tr-arrived-thumb.jpgSo my fifth book and my first graphic novel, a collaboration with Salgood Sam, is finally available. Therefore Repent! is my take on the dark fantasy world established in the Holy Bible’s Book of Revelation. Some folks have asked about its relation to the Left Behind series, also set post-Rapture but with a conservative bent. I haven’t read it (though I have watched the movie starring Kirk Cameron and featuring Toronto’s CBC building as GNN Headquarters) but from what I hear it’s sincere bible fan-fiction, careful not to violate the canon. Mine’s closer to Bible slashfic, what with the bisexual angels and nipple-clamp-enhanced demonic communion. I like to think I’m re-imagining the Bible franchise, like Frank Miller did for Batman. Head over to the store to buy it or keep reading for the back cover copy and to see a hot book striptease. (more…)

  • Drawn Out Apocalypses

    Therefore Repent!, my post-Rapture graphic novel, is launching on Thursday August 16th to kick off the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. It’s a co-launch with another comic about the end of the world — my pal Claudia Davila has written a thoughtful and ultimately hopeful story about what happens when the world runs out of oil. As well as the books being on sale, Salgood Sam will be bringing down the original Therefore Repent! art from Montreal for folks to ogle — crazy ass shit like this. Keep reading to see the neato flyer for the event. (more…)

  • Graphic Novel Preview

    trpreview-thumb.jpgFour pages of our forthcoming graphic novel Therefore Repent! were published in the winter issue of Taddle Creek magazine, which was great. Taddle Creek dusts off the concept of the literary magazine and allows one to appreciate the quality and yes, even glamour, beneath. A mainstay of Toronto’s writers for the past decade, TC publishes excellent fiction, urban history, profiles where writers are given the star treatment — and they throw great launches. Click through to see the four page preview of our post-rapture comic. (more…)

  • One Creepy Dawg

    Dog's Blank Eyed StareSo I’m putting together the catalog copy and cover mockup for my upcoming graphic novel, Therefore Repent!, and Salgood’s done another killer job on the art. My favourite comment so far: “When I looked closer the dog’s eyes seem to be, uh, overflowing with evil.” I told Salgood about it and he said he just drew a blank eyed stare and people read it as demonic.

    Keep reading to check out the cover it its full glory, wingèd helmet and all…
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  • Therefore Repent!

    Click to see page from Therefore Repent!I’m excited to announce that my fifth book will be a graphic novel: Therefore Repent! is set in the Chicagoland area after The Rapture and continues the story started in the 24 page webcomic I did last year with Michel Lacombe. Salgood Sam is illustrating this one and and we’re working towards a summer 2007 publishing date — check out a rough page from it here to get a taste of his amazing talent.

    In the tradition of The Book of Revelation, it’s a pretty wild dark fantasy tale filled with demons and swords and blood. (more…)

  • My Evil Comic Book

    Mummy and Raven and Dog, tooSo what would you do if the Rapture, the biblical end of the world as foretold in Revelation, came to pass? Raven and Mummy go on a roadtrip! To read the 24 page comic for free go here.

    The backstory: a year ago, when An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil came out, I posted one entry a day to the faux blog. On it was an online poll that asked readers if they thought the character Lilith was really a demoness or just delusional: I said that I’d write a spin-off story depending on how the vote went. Of the 500 people who weighed in, 55% of you thought she was unholy rather than unhinged.

    Supernatural, then.
    (more…)