'Angel of Vengeance' Descends to the Web

After juggling various client commissions over the past few weeks, Chaz finally made some time to pull together his previously-abandoned angels & demons/urban fantasy comic book project that was started about a year ago.

Knowing he no longer has the strength or the time to draw full-length comics anymore (at least, not within a reasonable timeframe), he's compromising these days and developing 'graphic fiction' - heavily illustrated prose - in this case, featuring cut-up panels from the old comics pages interspersed throughout the text. He's always loved the characters, the dark humour and the backstory to this tale, and felt it a shame it never saw the light of day after some great feedback from friends on the artwork on Deviantart. It also brings together a few of Chaz's favourite subjects - dualist cosmology, Enochian angel mythology, epic storylines and a cast of characters who are painted neither 'good' nor 'bad', but complex beings with deep virtues and flaws.

As such, "Angel of Vengeance - Episode 1: South of Heaven" has finally materialised.

We're still limited only to publishing these works as digital downloads via Lulu.com as Kindle still doesn't like big illustrations. Once that platform is up to speed we'll seek to expand, but in the meantime it's been fulfilling simply to bring this thing all together and come up with something that is interesting and a bit different. A lot of so-called "urban fantasy" these days seems to be aimed at teenagers or feature friendly werewolves or jolly goth vampires. No such kid gloves exist in AoV - this is adult-only material, both in image and word. Darkness and evil abounds, but at the core is a rather human, story, with extraordinary characters torn between opposing poles of love, pain and morality.

But don't take our word for it: Episode 1's out now, right here.


Art from Issue 1. All works (c) C. Wood 2011.

A Warm Fuzzy Feeling Inside!

No, Chaz hasn't been eating Vindaloo curry or drinking ginger wine again. But he did check his bank statement recently and found that he had been paid a small amount of money from a cheque he took to his bank last month...

A rather special cheque, as it happens, as this was his first ever royalty cheque, courtesy of Lulu.com! The sum was a princely $20 US and serves to illustrate how little a creator makes at Lulu if they wish to have any hope of keeping a sensible pricing structure on their books and other products.

The problem was, he couldn't pay it straight into his business account - the bank charges for that would have been more than the cheque was worth! - but by some jiggery-pokery arranged by the very helpful staff in his local branch, he managed to pay it into his personal account and only got hit for £7-odd charges for cashing a cheque in a foreign currency. But 50% of a cheque is better than -10% and besides, it's the symbolism of the thing which counts.

Ironically it's also likely to be his last cheque from Lulu too, having parted company with them for print completely, and only keeping on the fully-illustrated editions of The Wish and the Will, which at present are too big and colourful to be accommodated on Amazon's kindle platform.

Maybe in a few years' time he can expect to find a royalty cheque in the post from Kindle, too...

This is the End, My Friend…

No, not of Fenriswulf Books or anything, but of the long-winded Lulu.com support query involving our missing block of ISBNs.

Seven weeks after the support query was first raised, and last night Chaz received his details as originally requested. While the relief has been tangible and welcome, it’s not encouraging that this simple query took so long to resolve, and seems only to have been accomplished with a good deal of wailing and gnashing of teeth, not to mention prodding Lulu’s support agents, and their public Facebook provile page, with long sharp objects.

So, the arduous mission in to the heart of darkness is over, and a new era can begin: when Fenriswulf can once again publish and globally distribute its current and pending catalogue of new books. This awkward voyage has resulted in Chaz’s original plans to release the new edition of Maranatha on Easter Sunday being completely shredded, but no matter – the book ought to be out in the next few weeks, with its new prequel, Venus in Saturn, to follow soon after (or as quickly as Chaz has figured out how to use Lulu’s new global distribution services).

As such, normal service is resumed!

Lulu.com Reply...at Last

Further to an earlier (and rather belligerent) post on this very blog regarding Lulu.com's lack of response to Chaz's ISBN problem (now 6 weeks and climbing), and a few comments and responses on the front page of their Facebook profile, Chaz has finally found someone at Lulu who has been willing to apologise for the delay, acknowledge his patience in this matter, and escalate his query.

That was really all Chaz had been wanting to hear from someone - anyone - at the company, yet it has taken 1 month of waiting, regular emails to their support team and finally the threat of public humiliation in front of Facebook's half-billion users to get a result. But Chaz is happy that at least some movement on the issue has occurred, with promises of the case being put to the top of the queue.

We shall wait and see. With luck, our next major releases: Maranatha (2nd edition) and Venus in Saturn will be out before too long, with Last Rose of Summer to follow. In any case, we'll keep you posted.

P.S Chaz has now removed the earlier 'complaint' post leveled at Lulu's customer service teams. It served its purpose at the time, to vent his frustration in public and try to raise some awareness of the issue, but its time has now passed. And it is now time, as they say, to move on. (Ironically, it also proved the most viewed post on the Fenriswulf blog this year, by far...perhaps our readers enjoy rants and complaints?)

Forthcoming Fenriswulf Fiction…with Freebies?!

Things haven’t been quiet on the Fenriswulf Books front of late – in fact, they’ve been positively deafening (or at least that’s Chaz’s excuse for not getting enough sleep of late).

While Lulu.com go about the interminable process of trying to re-discover Chaz’s remaining block of ISBNs (purchased in 2008 and now seemingly lost in their cavernous system somewhere, and still no customer support in 4 weeks of emailing and livechat), Chaz has pushed on ahead with 2011’s release schedule as follows:

Trinity Chronicles - Maranatha (2nd revised edition): to be released ASAP
Wish and the Will: Sundancer’s Regret, Episode 1: ASAP!
Trinity Chronicles – Venus in Saturn: scheduled for summer 2011
Last Rose of Summer: Late 2011

Jolly good, you cry. Glad to hear Chaz is so busy and creative. So what about those freebies you spoke of earlier?

Well, we’re seeking “beta readers”, as they seem to be referred to in these circles, or kind people who love reading, with lots of time and their hands, who don’t mind going through the proof of a text and providing constructive feedback and opinion to the author.

If anybody out there would like to take part in this, we’re currently looking to gather opinions on Venus in Saturn and Sundancer’s Regret, ideally within the next 4-8 weeks. Leave a comment here or send us an email and we’ll pop you a proof of the text in PDF format. Your payment, should you wish it, will be a free copy of the finished product (signed, print edition of Venus, full-colour illustrated edition of Regret in e-book format) when all the work is done.

Of Swords, and Other Tools of Mayhem...

The second issue of 'The Sword of Lochglen' comic series is now just about to be released! The cover is a true collaboration between Chaz and Frang, with Frang pencilling the whole thing and doing much of the inking and colouring. As a result, 'Lochglen' now has its own dedicated webpage, located here. Currently we're only awaiting the arrival of the first set of proof issues from Lulu.com (which with the current weather could take us into 2011...though I seriously hope not!). Once the proofs have been approved, then the direct link to buy a download, or a print copy will become active on the Lochglen homepage.

Speaking of which, it appears that Lulu are current working on some new APIs to improve the digital commerce side of their services - out of all the new improvements, the addition of a 'shopping cart' for creators to place on their websites looks like the most useful so far.

In other news, Fenriswulf has now made it onto Facebook. The profile page is here, where we're looking forward to meeting lots of interesting people, and sharing opinions on comics, books and other things.

"Last Gas Pump" Now Out of Print...Thanks, Lulu

Busy old week.

While desperately trying to knock together final editions of "Lochglen" and get "Arf & Mo" issue 1 re-issue, I thought it would be an idea to update and revise the "Last Gas Pump" issue 1 and take some copies of the X-rated spoof along to the Comics Conference next month.

Until I saw the price shoot up mysteriously from £3.99 to £5.59 as I tried to complete the update.

"Obviously a mistake," I thought. Tried numerous updates, but the price hike remained. One communication with Lulu support later, and seemingly: "We recently repriced many of our books. Our most popular books have had a drop in price...by reducing the price of these books we have had to also increase the price of some specific sized books. Unfortunately the books you have revised have been affected by the price change and the price you are currently seeing is accurate."

Ah, so I see. With no warning, update, or any other kind of announcement...in other words, fairly typical of the kind of service I've come to expect now.

Which means that as of now, the "LGPotL" is officially out of print (£5.59 is a ridiculous price for a 28-page colour comic, even before adding creator commission and punter's postage & packing) and is now downloadable only - at least until I can find more favourable print costs elsewhere.

Dundee Comics Conference 2010: A Prelude

Much business followed a get-together with Fenriswulf collaborator Frang the other week. The hot topic of conversation was comics, and what we should be doing to get those that we have out there.

Arf & Mo is still hot on the agenda, but currently long-term collaboration project "The Sword of Lochglen" has finally seen print. Book 1 "Bejants & Blethers" of this quirky Scottish historical/fantasy satire is now available to buy online (see banner on left!), with Book 2 to follow later this year. Lulu didn't disappoint this time, and delivered a spot-on proof of Book 1 with sharp black and white interior printing, and a very good job on the front cover which does justice to Frang's painted artwork.

So, with the 2010 Dundee Comics Conference just a few weeks ago, we decided to get ourselves out there and put ourselves about at the event.

Highly professional Fenriswulf business cards were knocked up in good time by the highly-recommended Cards Made Easy, while I also banged together a US comic-format folio art book, showcasing some of my more professional art pieces from the last couple of years (just in case any talent scouts happen to be hanging around at the bar after the Comics exhibition!)

Local shops in Dundee are likely to be badgered before too long with regards to stocking some Fenriswulf products, as Frang & I work together to raise our local profile and branch out from online sales back into bricks and mortar stores, following the sad and very unexpected demise of Borders.

Actually going out into the outside world and mixing with human beings, rather than the electrons which clump together to form the Internet, can be a bit daunting for head-in-the-clouds hermit writers and artists, especially when it involes pushing their work in people's faces and saying "Look at this, isn't it funny?", but what better way to kick off that process than mixing with like-minded comics fans in a relaxing environment? Especially when the legendary Pat Mills of 2000 AD fame will be in attendance...

For more info and tickets on the Dundee Comics Exhibition, see here.