Flux on hold while the world is on lockdown.

The Kickstarter campaign for Issue 2 of Flux was due to launch today, so I was expecting to be writing a post here extolling the virtues of the sci-fi series written by me and Steve Aryan, with art by Maysam Barza, colours by Pressy, a cover by Azim Akberali and letters by Sean Rinehart. However, the world and everything in it has changed beyond recognition since we completed work on the issue.

Since the CV-19 virus outbreak has taken hold of society and shows no immediate sign of loosening its grip, we have taken the decision to put the campaign on hold until things settle down. We did toy with doing a digital only campaign, but our backers preferred the idea of including physical copies still, so ultimately ,despite people being willing to wait for those copies, we felt it best to hang fire. With so many people, ourselves included, concerned about the health of loved ones, their livelihood etc it felt like the best course of action. We’ll be back bigger and better later in the year.

To give people something to read during social distancing and while staying at home we have put Issue 1 up on Gumroad as a reduced price of £1.99 . So you can pick it up there if you haven’t already and please do share the link around.

Flux success and the launch of a new imprint

The Kickstarter campaign for Flux # 1, which ended about a week ago, was a success and we ended the campaign on 168%. Getting to over 150% of our target unlocked our stretch goal, so all our backers receive a special pilot season PDF of other projects Stephen Aryan and I have in the pipeline. Sean Rinehart has been doing a great job on the pre-press design work, pulling together the print version of the book (which has now been sent to the printer) , the digital edition, digital special edition, director’s cut alternative scene and the pilot season too.

The imprint that Steve and I have set up for our first Kickstarter comic series and beyond is called Atlas Stone. My friendship with Steve got me back into watching strongman events over the past six or seven years, as he’s a big fan of the sport. World’s Strongest Man 2017 Eddie Hall’s ‘never say never’ attitude (back up your BS as he’d put it) has been a real inspiration for both of us to keep going with our creative endeavors. Here he is becoming the first person ever to deadlift 500kg.

Ten days left to back Flux #1

There are just ten days left in the Kickstarter campaign for the first issue of Flux, the sci-fi conspiracy thriller comic written by me and Stephen Aryan with art by Maysam Barza.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the support we’ve had so far, we hit our £1,000 target just before we hit the halfway mark and now we have 101 backers. Our next goal is to get to 50% over target, as that will unlock our first stretch goal an exclusive Pilot Season Preview. If we hit £1,500 all backers will receive this special digital comic packed with over 30 pages of content written by myself and Steve, previewing some of our other projects.

Thanks to all who have backed us and shared the campaign’s details.

Flux is on Kickstarter

Sci-fi crime thriller mini-series Flux is now on Kickstarter. You can pre-order Issue 1 through the site and if we get to our target, you’ll have the book very soon indeed. We’re offering some special rewards including the script to the issue, a director’s cut style alternate scene, an early look at part of Issue 2 and an audio commentary on the issue from me and co-writer Stephen Aryan.

Here is the link to the campaign, we’ve been live for about a day and a half and we’re currently on 30% of our goal. If you are able to back the book, we’d all really appreciate it and sharing the campaign on social media will really help us too. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peterogers/flux-1

If you aren’t sure what Flux is all about, watch the video below.

Flux coming to Kickstarter

Steve Aryan and I have been friends for years, we originally met when we both had tables at comic conventions for our self-published books. In the subsequent ten plus years we’ve become close friends, not only do we podcast together (Bags of Action), we also co-write together too.

Sci-fi thriller comic book mini-series Flux was the first thing we worked on together and we realised very quickly that our differing writing approaches complimented each other very well. Skype calls helped us shape the story beyond Steve’s original idea and then we met up in person to really break the story fully. That was in Leeds for Thought Bubble one year, though I can’t remember which one of us was sitting at the laptop and which one was pacing the hotel room. Once we found artist Maysam Barza on the Small Press Commandos Facebook page things really started to take shape.

““An ongoing, complex mystery, FLUX shows readers a twisted version of today where time travel terrorism and casual homicide have become a terrifying norm. Fans of Looper and Blade Runner will feel right at home in the world Rogers, Aryan, & Barza have created.” ”

— Sterling Gates, writer/producer, The Flash

We’ve come very close to the book being picked up by a large publisher on more than one occasion, but now we’ve decided that the best way to get Flux out into the world is via Kickstarter. We’re planning to launch our first campaign in November for Issue 1, with the subsequent three issues and trade collection following in 2020 if we’re successful.

Sean Rinehart is doing lettering and pre-press on the book, Paul Nicholas designed the Flux logo and Zach F Evans is helping us with our video and imprint logo design work for the campaign. If you’re on twitter you can keep up with our progress by following FluxFi and if you like the sound of the book, you’ll be able to pre-order via Kickstarter very soon.

“Smartly using the familiar framing of a Police Procedural, Flux introduces us to a world like our own but with a serious twist: Time Travel is REAL. Time Terrorism is real. Echoing the best of Fringe and the X-Files the team take us in a world we only think we understand. Fantastic.”

— Mike Collins, artist for Marvel, DC, 2000AD. Storyboard artist on Doctor Who, Good Omens and His Dark Materials

Creative Cardiff launch

I was one of the guest speakers last night at the inaugural Creative Cardiff event, their first Show and Tell.  I was asked to bring along an object to help explain my creative process, alongside SC Productions' Sarah Cole and Moshi Moshi dolls' dressmaker Hilary Wagstaff.  My little notebook, while not as visually interesting as a penguin or a homemade pin cushion, did help me to explain how I approach things.

It was good to talk about day dreaming and how starting into space is such a vital part of creativity for me. Also to share how keeping a small pocket sized notebook to jot down notes, do crude sketches and put my stream of consciousness onto paper is another vital part of how I come up with ideas. For me, once you are sitting typing you're mainly formatting and taking what's in your head and in your little book and making it palatable for others and the nods of approval suggested I may not be alone in that. 

It was good to get to discuss both sides of my creative life and I got to show some of the pages from Flux and explained how I've adapted to co-writing. 

I also got to outline how my role as Creative Producer at Bait Studio works and how I approach working on other people's creative projects. It reminded me how much I enjoy receiving film scripts for our visual effects work, reading them once as a writer and then again with my producer hat on. 

It was a fascinating evening and nowhere near as scary as I thought it was going to be prior to stepping up on stage. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing how the other speakers approach their work and it was good to meet lots of other local like minded people too. Creative Cardiff looks like a big step in the right direction, joining up the dots in a very creative centred city. I look forward to attending more events in the future. 

Battlemage - coming in September

Stephen Aryan, my co-writer on comic mini series Flux (along with a few other titles in development), has his debut novel coming out next month. Battlemage is the first in his Age of Darkness epic fantasy trilogy, coming out through Orbit Books. 

“I can command storms, summon fire and unmake stone,” Balfruss growled. “It’s dangerous to meddle with things you don’t understand.”
Balfruss is a battlemage, sworn to fight and die for a country that fears and despises his kind.Vargus is a common soldier — while mages shoot lightning from the walls of the city, he’s down in the front lines getting blood on his blade.Talandra is a princess and spymaster, but the war may force her to risk everything and make the greatest sacrifice of all. 

Magic and mayhem collide in this explosive epic fantasy from a major new talent.

Make sure you pre-order your copy and find out more about his work here.