It’s only a few weeks now until the start of the UK comic convention circuit and our annual trip to Cheltenham for the True Believers Comic Festival 2019. Consistently one of our favourite events of the year, we take a look at some of things on offer at this year’s event, including some of the amazing small press comics that will be launching on the day itself!

CIRCUSIDE #3 by GRAYHAM PUTTOCK

Having discovered this dark delight at last year’s event we are very excited to discover that Circusside Book 3 will launch at TrueBelievers 2019. Writer Grayham Puttock describes it as “Featuring clowns, far-right extremists, dwarves and witches, Circuside#3 is the mid-season finale of this unsettling supernatural drama, moving all of the players ever closer to explosive conflict and resolution.”

To mark the launch, Grayham will have a bargain-price Circuside bundle availablealongside Closely the Graphic Novel, exclusive original art as well as copies of the award winning one-shot Red Rocket Comet!

CRY0WOLF by SAM ROADS & BEN MATSUYA

Silicon Heart creator Am Roads is back with an intriguing sounding take on the classic Beowulf myth that sees the character’s genders flipped.

His brief outline tells us: “Cryowulf is set on a long-abandoned space station sited over the black hole Cygnus X1. It centres on a young Apprentice Keeper called Crow. Mourning both her birth-mother and her foster-mother, she dreams of the sleeping folk hero Eortha, who might one day rise from her sleep under the station and save the tribe from prowling Grendel. But will the help of her level-headed sister Raven and her pugnacious friend Puffin be enough to overcome the forces that threaten Crow, her tribe and the entire station? And who will save them from Grendel?”

DEXTER’S HALF DOZEN: THE STONE CHILD by JAMIE LAMBERT & DAVID CLIFFORD – DEADSTAR PUBLISHING

Having published ten issues of this mix of Hellboy and the A-Team, Jamie Lambert and David Clifford of Dead Start Pubslihing have dusted off this title from the archive and are finally releasing it out into the wild!

Here’s how they describe it: “The mission is clear. Get in. Rescue the spy. Get out. One winter night, a ragtag group of criminals and misfits is parachuted into wartime Germany. Their objective: an apparently inaccessible castle, headquarters of the Nazi’s secret occult division. Their mission: to rescue Britain’s top spy, who holds the secret to stopping an unimaginable terror that could change the course of the war.”

MOONFRAME by NICK BRYAN, LUCAS PEVERILL & DC HOPKINS

Moonframe is a sci-fi horror one-shot about two astronauts somehow trapped both on the moon and inside the internet, trying to purge a biological computer virus before it deletes them first. It’s atmospherically illustrated by Lucas Peverill, in a distinctive otherworldly style.

Lucas is a new name for us, but we’re reliably informed he has worked on a lot of short comics, including for Futurequake. Writer Nick Bryan though is a familiar name, as his previous book The Little Deaths of Watson Tower illustrated by Rosie Alexander, about a group of kids suddenly turned into tiny grim reapers was recently named #48 in our top 100 indie comics of the year.

PLAN A/PLAN B by JOHN TUCKER

From the truly unique voice that is John Tucker, the man behind Bald and Adrift. “Plan A/Plan B is another work of utter brilliance. It’s the world’s first “two-shot” comic, in that it is two one-shots in one book. The two separate stories focus on how two distinct groups handle arrangements gone awry and the story joins up in the middle. So be sure to pop by John’s table to check it out, if only to see how this whole thing works in the flesh!

TALES FROM BEYOND INFINITY #2

True Believers 2019 will see the launch of the second issue of the True Believers Charity Anthology Comic – Tales From Beyond Infinity.  The comic will be sold in aid of the Sue Ryder Leckhampton Court Hospice, with all profits from the sale of the comic going to the charity.

This year’s anthology comic features 6 short comic stories over 22 pages featuring work from Steve Tanner & Jason Smith, Dave Hingley & Lee Brandrick, Emily Owen & Gavin Mitchell, Asa Wheatley & Kat Willott, Leon Reichel and Craig Turl and cover art by Andy W. Clift.

Prolix Sketchbook Volume 2

The latest sketch book from Slang Pictorial’s Nick Prolix sees him collect together pin-ups, commisions, illustrations, hand-drawn type as well as examples of his sequentials all drawn over the last twelve months.

It runs to 20 pages of black and white interior art with two full colour pin-ups and a Maurice Tillieux/Gil Jourdan centrefold, all for the bargain price of £3.99. You can also see his work showcased in the Awesome Comics anthology.

Awesome Comics #4

After making it’s debut at last year’s event, the final issue of the Awesome Comics team’s anthology series is here, bringing you the conclusion to Vyper, Cockney Kung Fu and Murder Road.

You can find out more about the True Believers Comic Festival 2019 at www.oktruebelievers.com where you can pick up tickets. Or find them on Facebook or follow them on twitter @OKTrueBelievers