mailto:purecrass@hotmail.com

DIRK VAN DOMDirk van Dom has been held captive by a strange red-headed alien who calls himself 'Redbats' for many months. This homicidal freak is forcing Dirk to write comics for his

own entertainment. Some of this work has popped up in Temple APA and Hallowscream, as well as in Tales from the Emerald Isle and the Eagle Award

Nominated Paragon, in which his series Icarus Dangerous appears. He has also had work accepted for Futurequake and is currently putting together (under duress) his

own comic...about which, more can be found herein. Dirk would very much like to be rescued so if you have any idea where he is, please send help (and Jaffa Cakes).

(Website: http://bountyquest.blogspot.com/)

DAVID BLANKLEYDavid Blankley has been interested in comics and comic art since the mid 70's, reading the likes of Warlord, Battle, Action and 2000AD. He gained his 'status' after completing a 2 year graphics & design course at Leicester Polytechnic. Whilst at college his love

for 'all things comic' took him to contacting IPC magazines and he was regularly down at Kings Reach Tower with the 2000AD team! With a son on the way, his direction took

him to advertising, more due to earnings than enjoyment! Now, after many years in advertising, David has picked up the pen again (admittedly a Wacom pen, but boy

does it flow!) You can see his work at: www.batteredbug.co.uk

LOUIS CARTERLouis Carter produced his first small press comic when he was 14, and it was quickly banned at both his school and scout group. A few copies must have hung around in the staff room though, for years later a new art teacher was heard to remark, “Oh, you're the kid who drew that thing with the sperm.” These days he likes to think his

work is more mature, though the first art he posted on his blog was an attempt at that 2000ad strip about the randy whale. Make of that what you will.

(Website: http://lrgcarter.blogspot.com/)

BRIGONOS MAC GIOLLA CHOMHGAILLBrigonos Mac Giolla Chomhgaill is a Northern Irish artist and writer who has

contributed to UK-based small press magazines Zarjaz, MangaQuake, FutureQuake and The End Is Nigh, as well as graphic novels such as Accent UK's Western, Robots and

Predators, and the serial anthology Omnivistascope. (Website: http://takecomfortinsilence.blogspot.com/)

OWEN WATTSOwen trapped the crazy fox on Midnight Moor six years ago. Since then it has been spewing out drawings and philosophical advice which Mr. Watts has been publishing

under his own name. He keeps it trapped in a machine and feeds it on cider. The crazy fox, when last asked, was happy.

(Website: http://crazyfoxmachine.blogspot.com/)

Deep in the Arundack mountains, a young gryphon named Zephyr longs for adventure. Frustrated by his tribe's policy of self-imposed exile, he desires nothing more than to explore the world beyond Sanctuary, and can not understand why the gryphon elders insist they remain hidden from the planet's human inhabitants. After all, gryphon's are bigger, faster and more powerful than humans, what reason should they have to fear them? When he spots what appears to be a shooting star come down in the woods beyond their territory, his curiousity gets the better of him. Ignoring all warnings, he sets out to investigate, planning to retrieve the object. However, when the 'shooting star' turns out to be a high-tech alien Halo, and Zephyr unwittingly becomes its new host, a series of events are set in motion that will change his life forever. The Halo holds many secrets and is being sought by some ruthless, otherworldly foes - foes that will invade Zephyr's life, and the lives of those around him, and bring him more adventure than he could ever have imagined.

Orphan, tomboy, juvenile delinquent, soldier. Colleen 'Call' Malone has been many things in her thirty years of life...and she's about to add 'fugitive' to the list. Detained in a juvenile detention centre during her teenage years, she was enlisted into the Irish army at the onset of Europa War 2, under a new, innovative rehabilitation scheme. Having turned her life around and become a top class soldier during the course of the war, her past comes back to haunt her when she returns home to attend the funeral of 'Mammy', the matriarch of the orphanage she grew up in. Reunited with old pal Sally Marrett (who has also turned her life around, though in an opposite direction) she agrees to repay an old debt by helping Sally with a problem - namely, providing some 'muscle' to help her deal with the goons trying to take over her brothel in Dubai. This task will see Call tempted back to her old ways of thievery and con-artistry, with the skills she picked up during her years in the army allowing her to operate on a whole new level - a level that will see her come into possession of some very powerful technology...and set the world's most dangerous bounty hunter on her tail!

HALO AND THE GRYPHON (art by Louis Carter)

ATOMIC CALL (art by David Blankley)

"The Sluagh: restless spirits of dead sinners rejected by the Earth itself, welcome in neither Heaven nor Hell.”Shane Easterbrook, a troubled young man with a tragic past and dark secret, finds himself cursed to a strange half-existence when he tries to take his own life. Despite what should have been a fatal suicide attempt he somehow survives...albeit out of sync with the rest of the world. Though not invisible, people look through him as though he isn't there. And whilst he quickly learns he can FORCE others to acknowledge him by physically interacting with them, he finds this is only effective as long as he remains in direct contact with them: as soon as he leaves their company, all memory of any interaction they had is forgotten. Unable to understand how or why this happened to him, Shane gives in to an overwhelming urge to travel to Ireland, his mother's birthplace, in the hope of solving the mystery, taking advantage of his 'curse' to get him by. And that's where his problems begin. The Sluagh are gathering...but is Shane one of them?

Ireland, the late 19th century and animal cruelty is at its peak. Horses and donkeys are being exterminated in huge numbers by the factories supplying cabinet and furniture makers with the all important glues crucial to the production of their wares. Equine animals – whose hides and hooves produce the best mixtures - have become the animal of choice as raw materials in the production of these glues, and the men and women employed by the glue factories act in barbaric fashion in 'converting' them. It's a nasty business...and somebody has to do something about it. Enter young Jamie Swift and her pet mule, Duncan, a Mammoth-Jack donkey she found mutilated and dying having escaped one such factory. Rescuing Duncan and nursing him back to health, the two form a special bond and unite in their goal of liberating as many of Duncan's kind as possible...and if that means giving the human animals who torture them a taste of their own medicine, so be it! Watch out glue makers! Duncan Mammoth-Jack is on the rampage - and he is one ticked off pony!

FOR MORE INFO CHECK OUT http://www.bountyquest.blogspot.com/AND http://vanguardcomic.blogspot.com/

CONTACT: DIRKVANDOM@GMAIL.COM

VANGUARD ISSUE 1 COMING SOON!

THE SLUAGH (art by Brigonas Mac Giolla Chomhgaill)

MAMMOTH-JACK! (art by Owen Watts)

http://www.simonmackie.org.uk