Well it's finally over, all those creators whose books were tied up in legal limbo due to the fall of Insomnia publications have been released from their contracts. The following letter from Crawford Coutts clearly states they're free to peddle their wares elsewhere. Of course it could've come a bit sooner but at least it's here now.

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Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/910305588/the-sleepless-phoenix-comics-anthology

If you're a regular reader of this blog I'm sure you will be aware of our coverage of the untimely fall of Insomnia publications and the fate of the creators and their books. If you need reminding, Chris Lynch has a particularly thorough, personal and heartfelt description of events on his blog or you can read my first optimistic outlook here and then my particularly vitriolic piece here.

Well it's not all bad, as from the ashes of Insomnia rises The Sleepless Phoenix anthology: Survival Stories; a collection of stories from established indy and up-and-coming creators all formerly attached to Insomnia in some way. The story doesn't end there though, in order to get this book published there is a Kickstarter campaign aiming to raise enough money to get the book into print. Michael Moreci, one of the book's creators and instigator of the Kickstarter campaign was kind enough to give us a short interview to tell you what it's all about:

So, tell us about this book The Sleepless Phoenix anthology, how did it come about?

You know, it’s one of those things that developed organically. The creators have been in close contact over the past few weeks, which has been great. We’ve become a collective, more or less, and I say as much on the Kickstarter page.

One of the things we discussed was “well, what now?” I think something that often gets overlooked when you see produced work coming from self-publishing or independent publishing is how deranged the individuals involved really must be (and I mean that jokingly—kind of). You really have to be a tenacious person to put in the work required to put out a book, any book, be it prose, journalism, or comics. There isn’t much money involved. So you’re doing this work on top of whatever you do to provide yourself with income, when you could be spending time with friends, family, or playing X-Box. So you have this group of creators who have just had a substantial part of their lives put on indefinite hold; it’s only natural to find something to fill that void.

But it’s more than that. We all know each other’s work, and we also understood that this was the only material available to us that wasn’t under contract. So releasing the anthology made sense, and we knew exactly what we were getting into because we know each other.

As for me, I was in the fortunate position to have been behind a successful Kickstarter drive just recently with Reading With Pictures (a non-profit organization working to get comics in the classroom). I know how it all works, and what we needed to do in order to be successful (and I had the ability to start the page, which is helpful). We soon realized that the monetary goal we’re after is very reachable, so we decided to go for it.

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Link: http://www.insomniapublications.com/

One of the many rumours (and I do mean rumour!) flying around the Bristol Comic Expo this year was that Insomnia Publications was on it's way out. This came on the back of book release dates being delayed, mass exodus of staff and their distinct lack of any presence at the Expo even though they had a table booked with books to launch and portfolios to view. Until now I've kept pretty quiet about the situation as I count quite a few of the people involved with Insomnia good friends and it never helps a struggling company to throw about rumours of it's imminent demise.

So here as far as I can determine are the facts:

Nic Wilkinson, Alasdair Duncan, Martin Conaghanand Matt Gibbs have all resigned from their positions at the publisher

The publisher had no official representative at Bristol Comic Expo even though they were supposed to be there and creators that were supposed to be with them at the Expo turned up and manned Insomnia's table themselves with no support from the publisher

Will Pickering; artist on Burke and Hare had to bring copies of the book down from Scotland to Bristol himself

At least one Insomnia book that was due to be launched at Bristol Comic Expo has been delayed until later on in the year

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Link: http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=14821

Some of you may remember that after this year's Bristol Comic Convention I couldn't stop banging on about Cancertown from Insomnia publications, well BICS 2009 (British International Comic Show) is coming up and rather than get left behind I thought I'd take a look at what Insomnia have in store for us for Birmingham.

Buskers is a manga graphic novel, no wait it's independent movie, no it's a new soundtrack. Oh hang on it's actually all three, the screenplay is written and produced by Jeymes Samuel and tells the tale of a guy nobody likes living in contemporary London and what happens to him when he walks the path less travelled. The comic book adaptation is being written by Sean Michael Wilson with stunning art by Manga artist Michiru Morikawa. At BICS 2009 there will be special copies of the book signed and with a demo cd of music to accompany the story. The whole thing is one massive multimedia mashup with talent such as Mos Def, Kevin Spacey, Damon Albarn and Ian Brown involved you know it's going to be good.

So if you don't want to be left behind on this one like I almost was last time on Cancertown check out a free preview of the book here.

Link: http://www.insomniapublications.com/

Leading up to the Bristol Expo and during the event itself there was a very definite buzz surrounding one book; Cancertown. Everyone was talking about just how good this book was so I figured I'd pre-order a copy along with Insomnia publication's other offerings Layer Zero vol.3 and Cages, all 3 for 20 quid - special expo bundle, how good is that?! I've been laid up since the expo with a pretty disgusting ear infection, having to lie on my side for most of the day so that my head doesn't explode in a mushroom cloud of yellow gunk I figured I'd tuck into my stack of books I picked up from Bristol and Cancertown was the top of my list.

I really wasn't sure what to expect, I'm relatively new to independent British books normally reading US titles from the big two publishers or at best some IDW or Boom! Studios titles. My first impression was just how polished the presentation of the book was, a stunning cover and a very professionally bound book that wouldn't look out of place next to anything you may find from any of the big American publishing houses.

The book grabs you by the throat right from the start and drags you kicking and screaming into the vividly twisted world of Cancertown. Your tour guide on this journey is Vince Morely, a man on the edge of sanity or does he just see things you can't? He's the sort of hero I can really get onboard with, full of piss and vinegar but with a level of self doubt that very much grounds this engaging character in the likeable range. I've heard him being compared to John Constantine which is a fair comparison, the story itself feeling like a mixture of Hellblazer and Alice in Wonderland. Moorely is more than the sum of his parts though, a truly human champion bringing with him all his own flaws and doubts.

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