Tuesday, 6 March 2012

CO2 BACKGROUND

 Hello, I thought I should explain that there are now two people posting on the Corvus Blog-Pat, who has been posting from the get go and me, an upstart, who has been asked to write a regular Thusday post. I am Paul Tobin, the author of CO2 and over the coming weeks, as well writing about CO2, I shall be interviewing some of the hard working people who make Corvus the quality press it is. I shall also be interviewing other Corvus writers and giving you previews of art work and stories.


It all sounds very exciting. I am going to start today, rather than Thursday, as I am not going to be near a keyboard then, by looking at the world of CO2. It begins to diverge from our reality in the 1700’s and by 1811 the oppressive, corrupt Tory government has been overthrown by the people of England. This leads a power vacuum that is filled by the Church of The Holy Footprint, who, essentially want to remake the world to their idea of what it was like before the Fall of Man.
One of the ways in which they attempt to do this is by altering animals. In this world Charles Darwin writes about how humans may alter the evolution of other creatures. The following section was written for the preview but could not be included because of space.
ADAPTING FOR BALANCE; How fasting led to the paper plant-taken from the Weekly Beacon 21 February 1962
We are blessed to be living in a time when God’s Word is being made manifest all around us. We can see it in the Re-Balancing of His World, we can see it as our forces prevail over the Dragon Empire and we can see it in the adapted animals that are helping create God’s Kingdom on Earth.
Did you know that it was while fasting that the Sainted Darwin was touched by the Hand of God and given the inspiration that allowed him to write The Future of Species? Back in 1830 when it was first published Saintly Darwin and his God Given Vision was the catalyst that inspired the great men of science as they began to adapt the animal and plant kingdom to hasten God’s Kingdom on Earth. It was only ten years later that Gregor Mendel, a middle European refugee, created the paper plant. As you know the plant can, with the correct amount of nutrients and water, produce up to a ream of paper a month!
Once Mendel had unveiled his triumph the following twenty years saw a flood of animals transformed into the useful creatures we see every day and take s0 much for granted. Who stops to think about the hours of ceaseless toil that went into the adaption of the horse so that it could pull the tram you take to work each day? The hours of work that went into transforming chimpanzees and baboons so they could serenade you when you eat in a restaurant.
In our hurrying world it is easy to fall into The Sin of Complacency and take the fish on our plate every Friday for granted. We need to stop and reflect on the work of the cormorant man, who is out on the seas in all weather guiding his flock of cormorants to the richest shoals, harvesting the fish from their pouches far at sea so that we may eat it on a Friday. Do you stop to think of the dockers and their adapted gorillas, who move the fish from the ship to the waiting horse lorries, or the long miles that the horses walk to bring you that very fish?
We take the adaption of animals for granted, we should not, such adaptions are what has made The Church great, it is what has allowed us to dismantle the Heretical Machinery that held the Dissolute Tories in thrall, and it has forestalled the earth’s temperature from rising and destroying all The Works of The Lord.
There was only one type of animal that The Sainted Charles forbade us from adapting – Insects. Even at the outset of adaption The Sainted Charles could see the danger in attempting to alter insects, and he forbade us to do so, save we unleash an uncontrollable mutation. Mammal’s lives are longer than the lives of insects and are slower to reproduce, as the adaptions are carried out on a cellular level the Saintly Darwin saw The Potential For Sin; that the insects would continue to mutate and change into something beyond our control, and so forbade such endeavours.
Let us look at a typical adaption, who does not love the Elephant Fire Fighters we see around the city? It is not uncommon for people to cheer as these leviathans race to the scene of a conflagration through the city streets, but have you ever stopped to think about the planning that has gone into their design?
Water is heavy, it weighs one pound per pint, so when you see a mighty Fire Fighter extinguishing a fire with his tremendous stream of water, have you ever stopped to consider the complexity of the adaption? The musculoskeletal structure of the elephant must be made stronger so that he can carry such a weight of water on his back as is effective in quenching a fire. The very shape of the animal must be altered to accommodate the water reservoir, and extra muscles added to control and maintain the jet of water. The lungs must be adapted to provide the power to push the water out of the trunk and as the elephant will have a stream of water being forced from its trunk a new set of nostrils had to be provided so that the creature could continue to breathe. There is also the psychological treatment that the animal requires so that it is no longer afraid of the heat and flames.
The first elephant was successfully adapted in 1855, since that time The Church’s Adaptors have worked tirelessly to Bring About The Re-Balance. They have adapted over one hundred and fifty animal species and nearly twice as many plants into The Service of The Lord.

Well that is it for this week, please write and let me know what you make of the world of CO2.

Thursday, 1 March 2012

CARDIFF COMIC EXPO-THANKS AND FOLLOW UP

Well, we are just about over the event, so here are some of the photos. Thanks to all the people who came to talk to us last weekend at the Cardiff show, you made the launch of CO2 such a success and a special thank you to all the people who had to get up at 6am to make the coach to the show on the Sunday. Your efforts were much appreciated.
CO2 our new title was greeted with much interest and the signs are that it will be a popular series.
It was good to talk to all the people who had bought the zero edition of The Baker Street Irregulars and were coming back for issue one. Issue two will be available at Bristol (http://www.bristolexpo.co.uk/). I for one can’t wait to read it.
There was also a great deal of interest on our other new title Victoriana, a steam punk extravaganza, the prebook will be also be available at Bristol, and two short films will be premiered as well. In the next few weeks we shall be interviewing author Tim Hart about his unique steam punk vision that has created this exciting world.
You can look at the rest of the photos we took at Cardiff on our Face Book page (http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=Ac9urUdgNmwseCYA). Have a look at the photos and tell us who you think has the best costumes.
In the near future you will be able to purchase your favourite Corvus titles directly from this web site. Also we will be posting at least every Thursday from now on. See you next week.

Monday, 27 February 2012

Cardiff Expo

Had a great time at Cardiff and a sucesseful one with sales, had lots of interest in the titles and now looking forward to Bristol. David, Paul, Liz, Tim and I thank everyone who stopped for a chat and of course bought the books. We will post photos of the event later when we get over the weekend.

Thursday, 23 February 2012

CO2

CO2 preview is in and it looks fantastic, it will be available for sale at the Cardiff Expo this weekend so come over to the table and have a look and of course buy it. Baker Street Irregulars issues 0 and 1 will be available also but for the last time, so get in there before they are all sold out. Issue 2 will be ready for the Bristol Expo.

Really looking forward to the weekend and chatting with everyone so please get over to our table and make yourself known.

Thursday, 16 February 2012

As I write the preview of CO2 is being sent to the printers.
We shall be launching the book at the Cardiff International Comic Expo (http://www.fantasyevents.org/cicae/index.html) which is happening on the 25th and 26th of February. It will be a great weekend, even better than the one last year. I am really looking forward to promoting CO2 why don’t you come to the show and say hello, I'd love the chance to talk to you. Just a word of warning, it is an all ticket event and there will be no tickets available on the door.  The tickets are Selling fast so you’ll have to get your skates on if you want a ticket. This is the second year of the Cardiff show and it is fast becoming the premier comic and small press event in the UK.

The weekend before we'll be at the Exeter Comic Expo, which is on Sunday 19th February, (http://www.fantasyevents.org/exetercomicexpo/index.html) at the Rougemont Thistle Hotel and it promises to be a good day out. Why not come and join us.

Saturday, 14 January 2012

Update

Looking forward to the Cardiff show in Feb to meet up with old pals, make new ones and get to see all the other good works that will be on show. Dave and I will be bringing the BSI issues to date and previews of the other titles in the works, in particular CO2 from the great writings of Paul Tobin with art and design from Dave Morris. I have seen segments and it is excellent. so look out for that at our table. We will be bringing the original art from the books so that people can peruse and if you want to buy any pages or artwork we are up for negotiation. There will be also other bits and pieces of art, pinups posters etc also for sale. We can sign all copies bought. Issue two of BSI will be a little longer now in being published, as I have mentioned in a previous posting we want to make each issue better that the previous one in every department and we agreed that the second issue needed reworked in some areas. We are aiming for the Bristol Expo in May to launch the series again.

There is a link to Paul's blog on the links section so please check it out.

So please even if you don't buy anything please come over for a chat and a laugh. as much as it is about business it is also about having a great time.