Warrior27: the Collection @ Small Press Expo in September

We’re a month out from SPX – the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland – and my co-conspirator, Dan Fleming, and I will have something new for the show – Warrior27: the Collection. 254 pages, digest-sized, black and white + color interiors, with many of the best pieces from the original issues and some new and never before published pieces, this is a big book of stories in multiple genres with artwork from some of the best artists in the world you’ve never heard of.

Over the past five years, Dan and I have self-published four issues of our comics & prose anthology, Warrior27 (an homage to the early eighties British magazine, Warrior). We wanted a receptacle, so to speak, for the stories we wanted to tell. We love comics – the synergy of words and pictures – and wanted to create our own tales regardless of genre or style. Our initial plans involved multi-part epics that would continue from book to book, but we learned early on that this wasn’t a feasible option considering the fact that we were paying to print these books and probably could not afford to produce more than one issue a year.

So we stepped back, reassessed our plan, and moved forward with self-contained short stories. Many writers have stated that one of the best ways to train for writing a lengthy narrative is to master the short story. Condensing the form to its bare essence allows for growth and expansion later, and many of my favorite authors – Harlan Ellison, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Ernest Hemingway – are masters of the form.

We’re excited for this collection. Not only were we able to go back and color many of the stories that originally were published in black and white, but we have also been able to go back into the “archives” and include some things that never made it into print or onto the web before. In the weeks leading up to SPX, we’ll be showcasing some of the artwork found within the collection and teasing at some of the never before published pieces that now have a home, as we prepare for the trip to Maryland.

So come on back to see what’s coming up, and if you can’t make it to SPX, we’ll be offering the book for sale here on the site once the show is done. And maybe there will be an announcement as far as distribution down the line. We’ll see.

Thanks,
chris