Back from the Depths is proud to announce the launch of the all new Scream! community site www.hallowscream.net.

As many of you will know our existing Creepy Community has now been terminated due to greedy fat cats of the evil corporate Ning empire. Hallowscream.net has now risen from the ashes to replace the Ning site as Back from the Depths’ new social network. If you are a fan of horror or comics this is the hottest new place to be.

After the success of the first tribute comic, along with the upcoming launch of issue 2 of Hallowscream the comic, the new site, also titled Hallowscream, will hopefully drive the whole project forward. The ultimate goal is to make Hallowscream.net a place for fans of horror/sci-fi/fantasy, comics and Scream! to meet new friends with similar interests. Hopefully the site will also become a place where horror comic artist and writers come together to share ideas and contribute to the Hallowscream comic. A community for fans and for creative types to join together as a network of horror enthusiasts and comic lovers.

Thanks to everyone who made the Ning site an exciting place to be. Please come and join the new community.

Here’s to the next step! www.hallowscream.net

Ghastly McNasty

Yamasei (mountain sprite), Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters, 1972

Nostradamus (Psychics of the World, 1974)

Tenjō-sagari (ceiling dweller), Illustrated Book of Japanese Monsters, 1972

Above is just a handful of these unusual illustrations. You can view more of these creepy pictures by visiting the original Pink Tentacle article. Useful for inspiration in the horror department.

Zombies! Supervillains! Cowboys! Strange creatures! Stick-Men!

The Seventh Issue of the Temple APA digital comics showcase is now available to download as a completely free pdf file. 56 pages of artwork and strips featuring contributions from the likes of Dave Hailwood, Dirk Van Dom, Matthew McLaughlin, Simon Mackie, Paul Eldridge, Dan Butcher and Adam Grose amongst others and I’ve got a few pages in there too. I also put it all together and did that cover right there.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY!

OR CLICK HERE TO VIEW ONLINE AT MYEBOOK!

Thanks for tuning in for Monster. It’s taken a while to re-start (never realised just how close it was to the end) due to a slight intermission for ice-cream. Hope you all enjoyed it!

The Gorbals Vampire

It’ll be available to listen to for the next six days. To read the comic strip which may have started it all, click the link below…

The Vampire With The Iron Teeth

When asked, they told the constable that they were hunting a 7ft tall vampire with iron teeth who had already kidnapped and eaten two local boys. Children returned to the graveyard on subsequent nights to continue their hunt.

The incident was quickly blamed on American horror comics, such as those published by E.C., despite there being no evidence to suggest any of the children had ever read any such material. Nevertheless, the government responded to the moral outcry by introducing the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955, which banned the sale of magazines and comics portraying “incidents of a repulsive or horrible nature” to minors.

BBC Radio 4 will be broadcasting a documentary about the incident at 11pm on Tuesday 30th March, which will be available on BBC iPlayer.

More details of the story here…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8574484.stm

Update : Cartoonist, Lew Stringer has posted a blog entry on the subject which includes a number of interesting newspaper clippings…

http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2010/03/1954-year-britain-got-horrors-over.html

The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael from w3bz on Vimeo.

The (somewhat overdue) sixth issue of Temple APA is now available to download as a free pdf file. Almost 100 pages featuring artwork and strips by Adam Grose, Dave Candlish, Dave Hailwood, Paul Eldridge, Simon Mackie, Tony Suleri and there are a few pages by me in there too. There’s also a feature on FutureQuake and a Small Press Directory, all put together by John Kirkham.

This is actually John’s final issue and someone new will be taking over from issue seven. Hopefully this new bloke won’t make a total mess of things or sully the memory of what has gone before. This is of particular concern to myself because I’m the new bloke. So, I’d like to take the opportunity to wish Mr. Kirkham well in his future endeavours and I promise to try my hardest not to ruin everything.

To download Issue Six right click here and “Save Target As…” or “Save Link As…” if you’re using Firefox. File size is 50.6 MB.

If you’re a UK based comic artist/writer who’s interested in joining the Temple APA, then more details are available on the site which you can visit by clicking this link… http://templeapa.ning.com/

Ideal submissions should be horror orientated and must be weird or spooky to make the final cut. We are mainly looking for completed comic strips between 1-7 pages in length. Script submissions should also preferably be around 1-7 psges in length. Eerie illustrations and artwork along with interesting horror/comic articles, scary short stories, petrifying poems or anything just plain creepy will also be considered.

If you’re an artist looking to illustrate a script, get in contact and we’ll give you details of what might require your skills.

We’ll also consider material previously published elsewhere, as long as the contributors own the copyright.

Completed artwork can be either colour or black and white, and should preferably be A4 (21cm x 29.7cm) 300 dpi jpegs.

Submissions can be sent to malcolm_iain_kirk@yahoo.co.uk or you can join the ning group and upload stuff there if you prefer.

As this is a non-profit, small press publication, contributors will not be paid but they will retain copyright on any material submitted.

DEADLINES :

Scripts, articles and text submissions : Saturday 24th July

Artwork : Saturday 9th October

Completed strips : Saturday 23rd October.

The finished issue will be available online for free on October 31st.