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Happy Birthday to us!

Wow, the past ten years have flown by! When we had the idea in 2010 of setting up a publishing business to help showcase creator-owned books and comics we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Ten years, something close to 50 creators in print, and around 150 comic cons plus various in-store signings and events later and we’re still here as stalwarts of the UK indie comics scene. Happy birthday, Deadstar!

To celebrate we made ourselves a little video…

So we’ve had a birthday celebration for us… what about one for you?

Well, we have lots lined up.

  • Starting tonight we’ll be running a competition with a massive prize
  • We’re offering 10 x opportunities to show your dedication as a True Deadstar Fan with a lifetime subscription to anything we release.
  • £100 megabundle – probably the biggest discount we’ve ever offered!
  • Every order between now and

Introducing the Megabundle!

Until the end of June, we’re offering a copy of almost everything we’ve ever published as part of a Megabundle for £100. This deal nets you…

In all that’s £200+ of books, comics and graphic novels for just £100.

Show that you are True Deadstar Fan

In celebration of hitting 10 years – which is no mean feat in the indie comics industry – we’re opening up a special opportunity for 10 people to help celebrate with the ultimate badge of honour: showing that you are a True Deadstar Fan.

What does this get you? In a nutshell… EVERYTHING. For the next ten years, anything we release, you’ll get it. So season 2 of 7 Shades… yours. The next volume of Age of Savagery… heading your way… the merch we’ve got planned for later this year… you’ll have it.

This isn’t for the faint of heart… but if you are one of our True Deadstar Fans then click here.

The competition…

Birthday parties are fun… but they need presents. That’s where you come in. Who should we give a present to? From 6pm on Tuesday 9th June 2020 until 6pm on Tuesday 30th June 2020 tag someone on this Facebook thread that you think deserves to win* the Megabundle. You can’t tag yourself… but you can tag as many other people as you like. Then, on Wednesday 1st July 2020 at 6pm we will randomly select a winner from all the names provided.

 

For everyone else…

In our first year we launched three titles: Jaque’s Magic Beans, Rising Stars volume 1, and Twictions. In recent years we haven’t marketed them so much because we’ve had loads of cool new stuff to show you. That should change! Any orders we post from tomorrow morning will have a free gift inside… either a copy of Jaque’s Magic Beans, Twictions, or Rising Stars volume 1. We’ll continue doing this for all orders we receive up until midnight 30th June 2020… or we run out of copies of those three titles.

That seems like a pretty good way to celebrate our 10th birthday to us!

 

 

 

* Obligatory legal bit: this competition is neither endorsed nor organised by Facebook. Employees of Deadstar Publishing Ltd are not eligible to win. There is no cash alternative to the prize offered. We will make every reasonable effort to reach the winner and arrange delivery to them within 14 days of the competition ending. Failure to provide contact details by that date will result in forfeiture of the prize. We may, at our discretion, award the prize to an alternative individual after that.

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Interview with the creators of 7 Shades

Our  next release is going to be 7 Shades: Hell’s Belles, the follow up one-shot to last year’s 4 issue miniseries. A few months back we caught up with David Clifford and Peter Rogers while they were doing a signing event at The Comic Guru and were able to record this interview with them.

In the interview David and Peter go into detail what the creative process looks like for them as well as talking about future plans. The series has been really well received so far and we’re looking forward to that continuing. Next week we’ll be launching 7 Shades: Hell’s Belles at Thought Bubble in Harrogate. David will be at Thought Bubble and will also join us at MCM Birmingham on November 16th and 17th. We have more appearances planned for the future. Keep an eye on our appearances post for more details.

We’d love to know what you think of the video – and of the series… and if you’re yet to pick up the first season you can find it here!

Production team

We’d like to thank the following for making the interview possible:

  • Editor & Videographer: Benjamin Powell
  • Audio Engineer: Barney George Andrews
  • Sound Mixer: Patrick Flannery
  • Image FX: Dani Abrams
  • And a special thanks to Kristian Barry of The Comic Guru for allowing us to film in his store.

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Passing on our knowledge to the next generation

A few weeks ago we ran a poll on our Facebook page asking if our fans would find value in us sharing our experiences of running an independent publishing company for almost a decade. The overwhelming result was that it was something people would like to see… so we’re going to do it!

Facebook Poll asking whether people wanted us to pass on our knowledge
Facebook Poll asking whether people wanted us to pass on our knowledge

We’ve already thought of a number of topics we could cover, from what talents/roles are needed to take a comic from start to finish – to how to budget for expos and more.

As this is something we want to get YOU involved in though, we have a request: let us know in the comments what topics you want us to write about. That way we can be sure we’re giving you the really useful parts of our experience.

The first post will probably go up in December or January as we have other things (like launching 7 Shades: Hell’s Belles and Dolphin Squad: The Colouring Book) to focus on until then.

7 Shades Hell's Belles cover
7 Shades Hell’s Belles cover
Cover for the upcoming Dolphin Squad Colouring Book
Cover for the upcoming Dolphin Squad Colouring Book

 

 

 

By the way… both titles are now available to pre-order!

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More Dolphin Squad on the way!

Cover for the upcoming Dolphin Squad Colouring Book

Vinny, Fabian and Lazer-Eye are some of our fans’ most loved characters and Danny J. Weston’s Dolphin Squad stories have been part of our catalogue ever since we released Rising Stars in 2010. Last year we launched their second full length graphic novel: A Death in the Pod and now we can announce that there’s more Dolphin Squad on the way! Before the end of the year we’ll be releasing Dolphin Squad: The Colouring Book!

Cover for the upcoming Dolphin Squad Colouring Book
Cover for the upcoming Dolphin Squad Colouring Book

What’s in the colouring book?

Earlier this month we were able to meet up with Danny at the Frome Comic Con. He brought us these cool preview pages to show off. We were excited to see how the book has come together and we think you’ll like it too.

Photo of puzzle pages from the new Dolphin Squad colouring book.
Puzzle pages from the new Dolphin Squad colouring book.

We also discussed what comes after the colouring book as the world of Dolphin Squad continues to grow. We’ve now got Dolphin Squad badges, prints, and our A2 80s action movie poster as well as two full-length colour graphic novels and two stand alone shorter stories. Tonnes of stuff! So… what is coming next? Book three of course! Danny has plotted out the story for the book and scripting is under way. If you keep an eye on Danny’s Instagram as well as the Dolphin Squad Facebook page then you can see concept art, previews, and other cool tidbits as they are posted.

As for the colouring book; we’re still finalising the book’s contents. We should finish that in the next week or two. The book contains a mixture of puzzles, colouring pages and even a sneak peek at future Dolphin Squad characters! This will make an excellent Christmas or Birthday present for any dolph-fan. As soon as we’ve set a release date we’ll add the book to our store for pre-order. Check back frequently to find it as soon as it goes up! Finally, keep an eye on our events page to see where we’ll be attending for signing events. You’ll always be able to find our titles online but there’s something fantastic about meeting creators in person too.