The Forbidden Planet International Blog

Recently Richard drew your attention to a very interesting project that the great David Lloyd has been very busy putting together with some very talented friends: Aces Weekly. It’s an upcoming new comic in that grand old British comics tradition – the weekly comics anthology, which is what a huge swathe of us, myself included, grew up with. Along with much of the once millions-selling British home comics market many of those titles have vanished into history, although 2000 AD still flies the flag proudly in that tradition and Strip Magazine has made a damned good attempt to return to that sort of format. But those are exceptions and that is a shame, I think – not just for nostalgic reasons, but also because the regular comics which gave each set of creators a handful of pages each issue in which to serialise a tale was a great way to introduce readers to new work by different creators and equally for different creators to try out different work without the risk (for them or publisher) of running an entire multi-issue comic series all by themselves.

David’s Aces Weekly will be a new digital incarnation of this traditional Brit comics format, which hopefully makes it a lot more viable to sell directly to readers, with lower overheads and direct online distribution. Certainly it boasts some brilliant talent on the roster, including Kyle Baker, John McCrea, Phil Hester, Mark Wheatley, JC Vaughn, Billy Tucci, Bill Sienkiewicz, Steve Bissette, Marc Hempel, Yishan Li, Algesiras,  Lew Stringer, Carl Critchlow, Esteban Hernandez, Dylan Teague, Dave Hine, Shaky Kane, Colleen Doran, Ferg Handley, David Hitchcock, Henry Flint, Hunt Emerson and many more, which I think is a list of talent that should make any comics reader interested. And naturally David himself is involved, not only in putting together the new comic (a major undertaking in and of itself), he is also contributing work to it – I’m delighted to say he’s our latest Commentary guest and here he is to tell you more about Aces (which you should be watching out for) and his own strip, Valley of Shadows:

Valley of Shadows is something of a relaxation for me – at least that’s how it was meant to be.  One of  a series of serial stories and shorts in an online version of the sort of comic that no-one can do economically any more in the UK – or elsewhere probably – the kind of weekly that used to exist here in diminishing numbers up to the beginning of the Eighties, before British comics publishers completely gave up the ghost on something they’d had no real faith in creatively for many years anyway, opening the door for a mass exodus of some of the finest British creators of sequential art ever to the US, where they were appreciated instead of being regarded as dispensible.

Anyway, it was the vision of doing that kind of comic again that led me to publish digitally – and EXCLUSIVELY digitally – Aces Weekly – which is just like the weeklies of old except not theme or gender limited ; is dedicated to good serials and shorts of all kinds ; and is produced by top talent, both well-known and new, from all over the world ; i. e. ‘ ace ‘ creators.  We go direct from the creator to the buyer via subscription – no repro, no printers, no wholesalers, no retailers taking most of the money that should go to the creators, without whom there would be nothing but blank pages to sell.  And the contributors split all the proceeds after subtraction of basic set-up and running expenses.
Bearing in mind that Aces was going to be a completely new concept – even though adapting an established form – I wanted to make Aces as appealing a product as possible by recruiting as many well-known creators as possible to it, and in that I was very blessed.  Great guys and girls responded positively to the idea of Aces, and responded just as enthusiastically to a major selling point of ours for them – which is that we ask them to do almost anything they want to.  Few publishers give creators such leeway, and the reaction we’ve got from giving creators such freedom is a collection of some beautiful art and great stories.

(all art for Valley of Shadows is by and (c) David Lloyd; click the images to see the larger versions)

But to go back to my contribution – I was responsible for Aces and funded its existence but I felt I needed to add my weight as a creator to it as well as an initiator.  I’ve been lucky enough to become a recognized name in this area of entertainment, and, I hope, a respected one, so I felt it necessary for me to put myself in the line-up of creators that potential subscribers to Aces Weekly could rely on.  So I’m in the first volume with Valley of Shadows, which was co-plotted by Dave Jackson ( not the artist of the same name many of your readers may be familiar with ), and I’m accompanied by stories and serials from John McCrea, Kyle Baker, David Hitchcock, Mark Wheatley, Carl Critchlow, Lew Stringer and other great folks.  And more to come in future volumes already lined up and ready to go.  It’ll be a fantastic collection.

Valley Of Shadows is about a future California where the sun doesn’t shine anymore ; where climate change by Man has been ignored – as we all know it is being, and will continue to be – and where the elitist, well-heeled of the population look after themselves in a fenced-off gated community that is like a city in itself.  It doesn’t have the glamorously decrepit backdrop that Blade Runner depicted for a future LA – it’s grey like the worst of days in our dear old Britain when the sun deprives of us of it’s presence.  The story concerns a night security guard in the less fortunate area of town who becomes a hero by accident and rescues a little girl from abduction after her mother is killed by kidnappers.  It’s about someone finding worth in themselves by finding worth in doing something for others.

(all art for Valley of Shadows is by and (c) David Lloyd; click the images to see the larger versions)

The art is done in b/w wash and began as a kind of homage to one of my heroes, the late Gene Colan, but it didn’t last long that way!  It hasn’t come out badly, though.  And I hope people will enjoy it – and everything else in Aces Weekly : )

FPI would like to thank David for kindly taking the time to talk us through some of the new Aces Weekly concept and his own strip; you can keep up with David at his own site, while Aces Weekly is here and can also be found on Facebook and Twitter – launching September 30th, please give ‘em some love and support if you can.