OVS - Issue 4 at the Printers

Well, after good deal of work by a good deal of good people (and myself), issue 4 of Omnivistascope is now at the printers, so I now have time to relax a little and try and take stock of the situation.

I feel the comic has improved with each issue, but that with this issue I feel I've managed to create something that starts to go beyond small press into comic strips that stand their own against those that might be found in a professionally published comic. Others may disagree, and I have qualified that statement, but it's a good issue all the same.

It has some fabulous art on the strips and the cover is really something special this time around. Many of your favourite strips appear from before, and those missing are merely on holiday I assure you :). Plus there are more articles about favourite and influential science fiction and fantasy shows and comics. It's also the biggest issue to date.

This issue also features the first guest strip, i.e. one not written by me. I've always felt guilty about not including others work, but putting the comic has always been quite a drain on resources that I haven't felt able to afford to do it on a very practical basis. However, with this issue I've had the chance to include another writer's story which I thought was great and had got criminally overlooked in the past. Hopefully I can do more of this in future.

With the next issue, OVS5, I hope the comic will undergo something of a metamorphosis. A new way of doing things, a new way forward, but remaining very much the same comic at heart.

But for the moment my thoughts still lie firmly with issue 4, hoping all goes well at the printers and the promotion I intend to do at this years Bristol Comic Expo in May. It's the hardest part of putting out an independent comic.

Wish me luck.