Stand & Deliver... Lady Flintlock is Coming Your Way!
BIRMINGHAM BASED Time Bomb Comics will be launching Flintlock, their first ongoing series, in time for the convention on April 23rd that is part of The Birmingham Comics Festival.
Publishing critically well-received one-shots and graphic novels since 2007, Time Bomb Comics’ publisher Steve Tanner has decided to do something that marks a step-change for the brand by creating and publishing this ongoing title that will revolve around the highwaywoman that is Lady Flintlock and feature assorted support strips, with Shanti the Pirate Queen to be featured in the first book.
“I’m describing it as adventures in the eighteenth century!” Tanner enthused. He explained that the book will be a shared timeline anthology that features regular and rotating characters – and each story in Flintlock will take place at some point between 1701 and 1800. He already has a number of original characters ready to make their debut that include pirates, rogues, samurai, law enforcers and highwaymen of the male persuasion too.
Time Bomb Comics first became known to many for their historical horror mash-ups featuring the eighteenth century highwayman Dick Turpin, so readers may be expecting more of the same of the same with Flintlock, but there will be decided differences, as Tanner elaborated.
“Researching the Dick Turpin stories really opened my eyes as to how rich the eighteenth century was as a setting, and sparked off for me a real fascination with the period. I used to think it was the boring bit between the middle ages and the Victorians – how wrong I was.
“Part of that may be that we still only really see the 18th Century distilled through the novels of Jane Austen and the like. Beyond that there’s a world in transformation with some wonderful opportunities to tell some good stories. That said, the opportunity to create a unique highwayman character as part of the Flintlock universe was too good to pass up – and Lady Flintlock is very different to my take on Dick Turpin!
“Actually, both the stories that feature in Flintlock Book 1 have female leads. As well as Lady Flintlock we have Shanti the Pirate Queen. Shanti is Asian – from India – very different from the traditional pirate. There are so few Asian characters in British comics so I’m interested to see how she’s received.”
Over the last nine years Tanner has endeavoured to evolve Time Bomb Comics from what was essentially a platform to promote his own work into something more far-reaching with a wide range of creators featured over a diverse range of titles. Flintlock may be considered to represent a more ambitious endeavour.
“The last full comic I wrote for Time Bomb was Dick Turpin and the Crimson Plague back in 2011 – and a story actually scripted in 2010. Since then I’ve been fortunate to publish some great books featuring some great creators – including some who inspired me to start up Time Bomb in the first place – but I wanted an opportunity to wear my grand creator hat again, which to be honest had been lying forgotten in the corner gathering dust.”
Having written the stories himself, Tanner has recruited some talented artists to come on board for Flintlock. United States creator Anthony Summey is the artist on Lady Flintlock and brings a clean, classic style ideally suited to adventure storytelling. He’s no stranger to Time Bomb or the subject matter either, having drawn Christine Logan’s The Dandy Highwayman short story in the 2015 released the Bomb Scares horror anthology. Also on board is newcomer Lorenzo Nicoletta, who is the artist for Shanti, and marks the first UK appearance for the Italian creator. Finally, another Bomb Scares alumni – Bolt-01 - has provided the lettering throughout.
Time Bomb Comics successfully released Bomb Scares in October last year using Kickstarter the crowd-funding platform is being used again for Flintlock Book 1.
“I’m revisiting it simply because the Bomb Scares campaign I ran last year proved to be so successful,” said Tanner. “It enabled me to reach a readership that otherwise I wouldn’t have. As a pre-order model it seems to work providing you’re fair to your supporters and sensible in your expectations. It’s not the be all and end all - if the Kickstarter fails Flintlock will still be published – but the Kickstarter allows people to get the book for a great price and with some extra Flintlock goodies if they want it!”
The campaign for Flintlock Book 1 runs on Kickstarter from 1st – 31st March, for more information on the series visit the Flintlock Facebook page.
Sponsored by Target Media.
