Comics - they're not just for kids, you know!

Imagine turning on a TV for the very first time in your life and the programme that came on was the Teletubbies. Then you turn it off and think 'Well that was childish. If that's what all TV is like, you can keep it.'

Obviously, you know there is more to TV than CBeebies so you know you can explore more channels and find something more to your taste. It is the same with any medium; TV, films, radio, music, books. And comics.

Not all comics are superhero stories - it's not all muscle-bound men in spandex pants punching each other. If you look, you can find horror, adventure, comedy, romance and anything and everything else in between.

So when I say I read comics don't look at me like I'm a simpleton. Comics cover every genre. And you could find one that works for you.

And right now you can get 30% off any PARAGON publications by using the code NEWYEAR30 at checkout

Browse the PARAGON range

Sneaky peak inside the Annual!

What's in the annual?

See for yourself!

Buy it now!

http://www.lulu.com/shop/paragon-comic/the-paragon-winter-spectacular-2016/paperback/product-22486883.html

This year's hardback annual - now in paperback?!

Yes folks! It's true! 

Now you have options; hardback, digital or indeed in the standard PARAGON format! 

And only £2.99!

If you're a fan of quality adventure strips you have no excuse not to indulge yourself - go on, treat yourself. It's Christmas!

Paper back version £2.99

Digital edition for only 95p

Old school hardback £12.50

Bag yourself a copy!

The digital Annual!!

For those who like digi-gubbins over hardback books, you can download the annual for a mere 95p!!

So what are you waiting for?

The digital Annual!

So what's PARAGON like? Try for free!

The e-edition of PARAGON is free to download at the moment. No, it's not mainstream, its not glossy, its not full colour, it doesn't feature superhero types in gaudy-coloured spandex costumes pounding 50 shades of inconsequential sh*t out of each other, or female characters who have nothing going for them other than big tits and improbable asses. What it IS, is an old-school, no-bullshit, boys-own action/adventure comic reminiscent of the 2000ads and Eagles and Warlords and Battles and other glorious black-and-white comics that were so, so cool in the 70'S and 80's. Its hard to find a comic nowadays that inspires the same kind of feeling picking up one of those comics back then did, but PARAGON comes pretty close and it keeps on getting better. If nothing else, its got a lot of heart and its clear everyone involved has a great passion for the medium. Yes, I contribute to the comic so I may be a little biased... but I am just one of 10 people (writers, artists and letterers) whose work is featured in this issue, and every one of them deserves to have their work seen. If you don't like the stories, you might like the art. If you don't like the art, you might like the stories. If you don't like the stories OR the art, you might appreciate the effort and enthusiasm that has gone into every page. If you don't like that either, well, hey, at least you can say you tried! It won't take you but a few minutes to download it and find out. Give it a shot, what have you got to lose?

http://www.lulu.com/shop/paragon-comic/paragon-16/ebook/product-21611163.html

FREE P&P! Buy a copy NOW!!

Buy PARAGON #18 right now!

Did you grow up reading British comics in the 70s and 80s? 

Still like to read an anthology comic? 

Maybe you were a fan of WARRIOR back when it was changing the face of British comics? 

Then now is the time to buy a copy of the latest PARAGON - free shipping!

Go on, treat yourself!!!

Now available direct!

Lulu.com are fantastic and their packing is robust but consequently rather high with their postage fees. Why not buy direct from me where it will be slightly cheaper?

Click the link and pay via paypal to grab your copy of the latest issue of the brilliant PARAGON#18!

Buy PARAGON#18 now!

First review is in ...

Read the review! Grab your copy! You know you want to!

PARAGON 18 in review

PARAGON #18 is here - And now downloadable!

Imagine you had a pound. A quid. You could buy a small burger from a major fast food chain. But you'd get a lot more satisfaction if you bought a downloadable copy of PARAGON #18 - and a penny change!

Download it here!

The 18th issue of the acclaimed PARAGON comic is finally here! The continued adventures of Winston Bulldog - the anthropomorphic defender of the skies of Blighty, the finale of Book Two of the Jikan Chronicles - the time-travelling, demon-hunting samurai - and TWO new escapades for Spencer Nero - the British government agent who finds superhuman strength whenever he dons the ancient mask of Janus! All thriller - no filler! Get your copy now!

PARAGON #18 - out now!

The 18th issue of the acclaimed PARAGON comic is finally here! The continued adventures of Winston Bulldog - the anthropomorphic defender of the skies of Blighty, the finale of Book Two of the Jikan Chronicles - the time-travelling, demon-hunting samurai - and TWO new escapades for Spencer Nero - the British government agent who finds superhuman strength whenever he dons the ancient mask of Janus! All thriller - no filler! Get your copy now!

Cover to the latest issue by the fantastic Neil McClements

Spencer Nero Feels Your Pin

by Greg Meldrum, Scott Twells and Jim Campbell

The Reckless Return of the Ruthless Rhymer

by Greg Meldrum, Dave Snell and HdE

Bulldog and Panda

by Jason Cobley, Stephen Prestwood and Jim Campbell

Jikan : Shimasu

by Mark Howard, El Chivo and John Caliber

Get your copy now by clicking the link on the right - only £2.50!     >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

It's been far too long...

But I promise you the next issue is on it's way! A lot of the delay has been entirely down to me and the long promised Brahms & Liszt and episode 3 of Bludd and Xandi have been held over once again until the next issue.

However...
Jikan; Shimasu concludes this issue and we have a great new Spencer Nero tale featuring the Reckless Return of the Ruthless Rhymer!

The next fantastic episode of Bulldog features Stephen Prestwood on art again (and, of course, written by his creator Jason Cobley) and is being lettered up by the brilliant and ridiculously talented Jim Campbell, who has done so much to make PARAGON the quality production it is.

I still hope to have the next episode of El Bigote within the covers but that is slightly out of my hands - we will still have four of five strips to entertain and excite you with!

Tell your friends! And keep checking back here in the next week or so for updates!

PARAGON #18

So far I have the finale to Book Two of the Jikan Chronicles and a brand new Spencer Nero tale in the bag. I expect to have the next episode of El Bigote delivered soon and regular artist Stephen Prestwood is working hard at the last pages of new Bulldog. That'll be 32 pages worth of comicy goodness!

I'm also inking up the long promised first episode of Brahms & Liszt: Wotan Walks in Weimar and I have the fantastic pencils of another Bludd and Xandi chapter to work at. The question is, do you want to wait and have a bumper issue or shall I hold those over until the next time and use them to take the place of Jikan which takes a break after this issue?

Let me know what you think!

Christopher Lee RIP

More Bludd & Xandi

Coming your way in PARAGON #18 - out soon!

Blade Runner

The good lady wife said she would like to see Blade Runner at the cinema this afternoon as she had never seen it and knew it was meant to be a classic. I hadn't seen it in over a decade and had only ever seen the originally released version way back on video so jumped at the chance to see it on the big screen. As we sat in the packed out cinema and watched the Directors Cut unfold in front of us, three things struck me;

It's a very 80s film with its' sexy echoing saxophone on the Vangelis soundtrack. 

Ridley Scott is a gloriously over-rated director - he's all smoke and steam and shafts of light. He used all the same tricks in Alien and Legend - and they are the films everyone quotes for his visual genius.

And for all the bustle of the city streets it's a rather slow film

I may have to hand in my nerd card for voicing this opinion but I don't think it's the five star film it's held up to be . If I want to re-watch a good Ridley Scott sci-fi film I'll stick Alien on the DVD player.

Coming Soon in PARAGON #18

A sneaky peak at the latest adventure for Spencer Nero - coming soon!

The Gang's All Here!

Stalwart artist Stephen Prestwood has drawn up this portait of the stable of PARAGON heroes.

How many do you recognise?

R.I.P John Cooper

John Cooper was one of my favourite artists back in the 70s when I was growing up so I was saddened to read of his death last week. A great artist with a great eye for an action page.

 R.I.P John.

Read the review! Buy the book!

Read the latest review!

Buy the book!

With FREE p&p, now is the time to stock up on the PARAGON range, including the hardback annual and the Jikan Chronicles Book Three!

The PARAGON Annual 2015 - free?!

Sadly, this seems to have died on its arse, which is a shame as I think it's the best book I've put out yet - and that really is saying something

Hopefully by putting the download version out as a free ebook it will now gather some readers

Download for FREE

Download a copy. It's bloody good.

Churchill

Seemed appropriate to post this teaser poster for The Jikan Chronicles Book Four today!

Scratting around the digital page

You know in the Ice Age cartoon movies there is that squirrel creature bounding around chasing an acorn always trying to climb a wall or God-knows-what, desperately trying to find a purchase with his tiny claws?

That's my eyeballs with digital comic pages. My eyes just slip off the page; turn the page, see a digitally illustrated colour comic strip and, wheeee - turn the page again as I have nothing to focus on.

2000AD regularly has strips illustrated in this manner; ABC warriors, Slaine, American Reaper.... not read any of them. My eyes just glaze over at it. Doesn't matter who writes it, who draws it - if it's photoshopped, digitally enhanced faces I've got no chance of focussing on it.

And I think that is why I hate American Reaper so much. I was brought up on UK comics in the seventies with ten panel, hand drawn pages by the likes of Mike Western and Joe Colquhoun.
AR has maybe 5 panels the width of the page.
Are they going for the widescreen look? I dunno.
It's not as though I don't like the idea of the story; witness the Reaper Files painted by Fay Dalton - they are great. It's just that bloody photoshoppery. For me that's sixteen pages that could be put to much better use with something else - reprint, small press contribution, interviews, anything.

Jikan - a few false starts, but the end is nigh

Regular readers of PARAGON (and I know you are both out there) will know that the third volume of the Jikan Chronicles was released before Christmas. What you may not know is that the story ends with book four and has already been written.

I can't wait to share it with you!

Did you know that originally Jikan was to be a three panel newspaper style strip? Once I was fortunate enough to get other (better) writers involved it span into an epic series of adventures but occasionally I brought it back to my original idea with the help of writer Matt Mcloughlin. And so we had the Kappa King story and the western Jikan Noon 

When the original story was published in PARAGON#2 the final panel had the samurai landing in 20th century traffic dodging cars. What I intended next was to have jikan take on a demonic underground Fight Club. I still think the idea of Jikan cage fighting demons in a New York basement is a great visual, but it was not to be.

There was also an unfinished 3 panel strip called Leviathan where Jikan was to take on an hellish Moby Dick. We got seven episodes into that until it faltered. I still hope to finish that one at some point (although certain frames need a serious redrawing) if I can get Matt to complete the scripts.

Another idea that I started writing but never got around to drawing was to have Jikan arrive at the court of King Arthur to find a demon controlling the throne under the guise of the mage, Merlin.

Of course, those of you who have read Book Three know that can't happen now - Merlin is somebody else. (Spoilers!)

Maybe one day we should have a fifth book of The Jikan Chronicles - The Untold Stories!

In the meantime, grab yourself a copy of Book Three while it's going cheap - only a £5 for over 80 pages of time travelling, demon hunting adventures!

Buy The Jikan Chronicles Book Three

Annual vs Annual

You know, I went to my LCS today and bought the Marvelman Annual. $5. 

That's £3.50. 

For what amounts to a Grant Morrison piece of fan fiction from the 80s padded out to 11 pages by having a couple of splash pages. The rest is basically filler. Hell, the whole thing was. It's no wonder they shrink wrap this comic, otherwise folk would just stand and read it in the shop. It took about three minutes to read.

For less than a quid you could get this 68 page PARAGON annual which will engross you for ten times as long.

Grant Morrison was unknown when he wrote the Kid Marvelman story. There are no star contributors to this particular issue ofPARAGON but if you are a reader of Zarjaz you will know the names of a lot of folk who contributed to this annual; Jim Campbell, Greg Meldrum, Mark Howard, Matthew McLaughin, Stephen Prestwood, Dirk Van Dom and more.

99p for the digital version. So much more worth it than wasting more cash on fewer pages from the American Big Boys

Take the plunge and download a copy. At less than a quid it may well be the bargain you've been hunting for.

PARAGON Digital Annual - buy it here for 99p

In the PARAGON annual!

This book is brilliant! But don't take my word for it, read a review here;

Review of the Annual

You can buy a copy right here

Buy the Annual!