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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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Competition winners

A few days ago we ran our Cardiff Comic Con competition with our Mk. II doomsday device. The response was fantastic with guesses ranging from 75 grams to 17 tonnes!

After we sorted and counted the entries, first prize went to Danni Coakley who the Android tablet, our ebooks, a tee shirt and a mug. Second prize went to Michael Voysey (pictured below) and he won a tee shirt, a mug and 5 of our ebooks. Third prize went to Alexander Keattch who won five of our ebooks!

Photo: Well done to our prize winners! First prize went to Danni Coakley! She won the Android tablet, our ebooks, a tee shirt and a mug. Second prize went to Michael Voysey (pictured) and he won a tee shirt, a mug and 5 of our ebooks! Third prize went to Alexander Keattch who won five of our ebooks! Congratulations guys! Your prizes are on the way!

We’re already thinking ahead to our next competition. Keep your eyes peeled!

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Doomsday competition – rules and prizes

Our resident mad genius is at it again. This time he’s built a Doomsday device powered by jelly beans. This ties in nicely with our competition this weekend; If you subscribe to our newsletter then you’ll have known all week that our competition for Cardiff Comic Con this weekend is sponsored by the team over at T101 Computers.

They have donated a 7″ Nexus tablet running on Jelly Bean Android. To be in with a chance of winning:

  • First prize: 7” Jelly Bean Android tablet preloaded with all our digital back catalogue plus T-shirt, mug, and keyring.
  • Second prize: T-shirt, mug, keyring + 5 ebooks from our range
  • Third prize: 5 ebooks from our range

Visit us at the Cardiff Comic Con and make your guess – or, if you can’t make it there in person you can enter here.

Obligatory rules bit:

  1. Nobody working for Deadstar Publishing Ltd, T101 Computers Ltd, or their immediate families is eligible to receive any prize as a result of this competition.
  2. The competition is open from 4am (BST) Saturday 31st August 2013 until 5pm (BST) Sunday 1st September 2013.
  3. The competition is a test of skill with participants guessing the weight in grams of jelly beans being used to ‘power’ our Doomsday Device,
  4. First prize will be awarded to the person with the closest guess to our recorded weight. Second prize will be awarded to the person with the second closest guess. Third prize… you guessed it, will be awarded to the person with the third closest guess. In the case of multiple identical guesses the first person to select that weight will be considered the sole eligible person in case of a win.
  5. To be considered, people must follow the instructions as presented in person or via our online store.
  6. Results will be announced at 5.30pm (BST) at the Cardiff Comic Con and shortly afterwards on this page. Details will also be circulated via the Deadstar Publishing Facebook page and the @DSPublishing Twitter account.
  7. Winners will be contacted to arrange collection/delivery of their prizes within 7 days of the competition closing.

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Coming 2012

Hello all, and welcome to the new year! 2011 was a hectic year for us; we gained staff, new offices, and a lot of new friends. This year we want to build on that so in the spirit of sharing, I thought I’d offer some spoilers as to what’s coming in 2012.

Starting with books: first up this year is Not As Pointless As You Think by Lynda Nash, which will hit stores soon. We also have two other titles slated for release this year, but you’ll have to wait to find out what they are…

When Deadstar Publishing Presents Rising Stars vol #1 was released, we were awed by the combined talent of David Owain Hughes and Kevin Enhart and knew that we wanted to see more of their work. White Walls and Straitjackets is the result of over a year’s collaboration from the pair and will be out later this year as a full-length graphic novel.

On the comics front, Thackeray, Stiffs and The Pride are continuing their run and are available in ever more comics shops. For a full list of our stockists, check this page.

We’re in the process of arranging more signings at the moment, so if you’d like to see your favourite author near you, let us know. As for conventions and expos, so far we are confirmed as exhibiting at the Cardiff International Comic and Animation Expo 2012 as well as the Bristol Comic Expo. There are a few more in the pipeline, so once those are confirmed we’ll let you know about those too.

As a final point, our Facebook page is fast approaching 500 fans. When we hit that milestone we’ll be giving away a free and exclusive wallpaper to all our loyal followers.

Well, that’s about it for now. 2012 looks like it will be a fantastic year and it’ll all be thanks to you!

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Thoughtbubble 2011

Phew, we’ve been kept on our toes for the past few days. A few days up in Leeds then the start of Christmas trade… anyone would think you guys don’t want us to get any rest!

What’s that? Thoughtbubble? Yes, we spent the weekend of the 19th and 20th November in Leeds meeting, greeting, chatting to, and displaying our wares for you lovely people. This was our second year at Thoughtbubble and if you take our great experience last year, you can double that! It was fantastic to catch up with other industry insiders; Scott Stanford, Genki Gear, Dr Geof (sometimes NSFW), Com.X and many more.

Aside from those we loved meeting each and every one of you that came to our store. I’m told we have photos of some of you in cosplay… but right now I’m not sure where the files are. Once I find them I’ll put them up.

Thackeray was definitely our most popular product for the weekend, but it had stiff (pun intended) competition from Stiffs #1 which we had limited copies of as a convention exclusive. The guys from Stiffs and The Pride had their own stall in the other hall to us and they reported how positive everyone was about their comics, so they were pretty thrilled about the weekend too.

The biggest news from the weekend though is that Gav Mitchell, artist for both Stiffs and The Pride, won the prestigious 2000AD portfolio competition! That’s right, we have an award winning artist working on not one, but two of our titles.