REJECTED
reject
verb
past tense: rejected; past participle: rejected

1. dismiss as inadequate, unacceptable, or faulty.

turn down
refuse
decline
say no to
spurn
dismiss

I started to write again in 2008/2009. I hadn’t written a thing since the early 1990’s but three things happened that changed my mindset.

One, Bedford, my hometown got a new comic shop, Close Encounters, run by the organisers of NICE comic convention, Jeff, and Bub Chahal. Two, they organised signings in the shop and I got to meet and drink with a host of comic creators and three, some of them encouraged me to write something.

Most of the material in this book stems from between 2010-2014, during which I wrote something, almost every day. I started getting published in 2011, firstly with Reaper Comics, then with Borderline Press, with whom we (collectively) picked up a BCA nomination.

During this period (2008/2009-2011) Edge of Extinction got rejected, forgotten, or passed over by a variety of UK and USA publishers and I started to sense the black dog stalking ever closer. Frustration began to set in. I did not seem to be getting anywhere.

My first Tharg’s future shock submission went in to 2000AD in 2013. Rejected. That one hurt. Strip Magazine, whom I was attempting to submit both Mayne and Tusk to started to suffer with distribution problems and folded in late 2013/early 2014. Little did I know the magazine was beset
with problems, kindly expanded on by the editor, John Freeman in an article for this very publication.

I had a variety of projects on hold, in development hell or that were incomplete. I needed to do
something with them. I recalled having a conversation with Liam Sharp at a convention, over a beer about his career. He is an extremely talented writer, artist and creative. He talked about his Hulk idea, The Leader becomes Gamma irradiated and even more powerful. He painted an image and pitched it to Marvel, they rejected it. I thought it sounded cool. Liam expanded on this, he set up his own publishing company Mam Tor in 2005, as a way of getting the work of new creatives out there. Kev Crossley, Lee Carter, Dave Kendall and many more talented people benefitted from this anthology book.

So, I figured I would create a Rejected graphic novel using these, rejected scripts. Joining me on art are David Hitchcock on Mayne, which will get it’s own series later in 2020, Steven Austin on St Andrews Point, Patrick Goddard and Karl Richardson draw my two Future Shocks, David Millgate on The Family Man/Tusk and Stephen Sampson has done a brilliant job on the cover. Letters are by Bolt-1.

A rejection is an opinion. An opinion based on an individual’s perspective on you, your work, your weight, height, religion, colour. Whatever it might be. It is not a statement of fact. I was free.

We have all been there. We have all been rejected.

JOIN US…..
Paypal badenmellonie@hotmail.com £15 to get your reward.