Pat Mills

Pat Mills (@iconoblast) Me, Lisa and Ian Ashcroft had a great time chatting to the Awesome Comics Podcast team about Hellbreaker, and the kind of Hell we’ve created. Our Kickstarter is 100% funded, but we’ve still got a few ...

substack.com/profile/9725...

I just found out that some people think our Hellbreaker Kickstarter is a reprint! It's 48 pages of a BRAND NEW STORY, Fire in the Blood. The deluxe ed. includes a bonus story by Ian Ashcroft & George McDonald.
Back us here:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/pat...

This is very exciting!

This Friday, 8pm GMT!
We launch Hellbreaker. Hope you'll join us!
fb.me/e/8A4FeUiIy

Colouring art designed with heavy blacks for BW publication is always a tightrope walk. But these tests and covers for Defoe that I did proved I might be able to pull it off. Story by @patmillswriter.bsky.social for @2000ad.bsky.social #horror #steampunk #zombies

Coming soon: Hellbreaker: Fire in the Blood Hell is real – and it's a supermax prison. But the Infernals have escaped, and their leader is on a mission of vengeance on Earth.

t was worth it and Asquith really deserves his own series.
The deluxe ed. of Hellbreaker (KS exclusive) includes a bonus 6-page Asquith story: A Night Down the Pub, and it's DARK!
Launch date 7 Nov. Follow us here:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/pat...

Rough diamond cops and agents are always popular. There was the Sweeney, Gene Hunt and now Jackson Lamb. So I got writer George McDonald - who has expert knowledge - to come up with a genuinely different cop for Hellbreaker: Asquith.

I made the entrance to Hell the Orwell Bridge in Ipswich. Firstly, because I know it well, but also because George Orwell named after himself the river Orwell. The Hell world the protagonists enter is even more nightmarish than his 1984.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/pat...

One reader asked me about Hellbreaker’s name: Anton De La Rue. It means ‘from the street’. E.g. A working class hero. I wanted a hero who had the style and costume of the Raffles archetype, but wasn’t a ‘gentleman’, most of whom I detest.
Follow our KS:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/pat...

I *think* they are saying nice things about Requiem 😈

Inspirations 6: Music in Comics My original inspiration for music in comics was seeing ‘Sympathy For the Devil’ by the Rolling Stones in comic strip

to the Terra Meks. ‘Come Away Melinda’ inspired a nuclear survivor sequence in my Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth. And I would play Carmina Burana as I wrote epic battle scenes in ABC Warriors: The Volgan Wars. 3/3
iconoblast.substack.com/p/inspiratio...

‘Kill the Poor’, and the cost was prohibitive. Elsewhere, I had ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ – which provided the punch-line for my Judge Dredd Rico story. ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, by Gerry and the Pacemakers inspired the dramatic and highly emotional finale 2/3

think all we creators on 2000AD have been inspired by music to feature it in our stories. It’s why I had Comic Rock in Nemesis The Warlock, to focus on musical sources, without paying a fortune for them. Thus, in Third World War, I used the lyrics from the Dead Kennedy’s 1/3

There are the classic monsters: Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies. So I’m thrilled for a new breed of monster to join them: Infernals, injected with fire in their blood in Hellbreaker.

Check out our KS and follow us so you don't miss our launch:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/pat...

Coming soon: Hellbreaker: Fire in the Blood Hell is real – and it's a supermax prison. But the Infernals have escaped, and their leader is on a mission of vengeance on Earth.

If you don't want to miss our Kickstarter launch, click the 'Notify me' button:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/pat...

A big appeal to me of Ian art is his incredibly handsome hero which is essential to the story. Glenn Fabry is the only artist I can think of who could portray anyone so impossibly good looking. There’s a unique chemistry between Hellbreaker and his female cop pursuer that I find very compelling 1/2

Hellbreaker looks at different versions of Hell and why many people still believe in punishment in the afterlife. Christianity seems to have been responsible for the idea of Eternal Damnation, as a form of control. Great fun exploring it all!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/pat...

Hellbreaker is coming to Kickstarter in early Nov! Follow us now so you get notified when we launch - Ian Ashcroft has a limited number of original art sketches available!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/pat...

Ian Ashcroft and I just pre-launched our KS campaign! Hellbreaker: Fire in the Blood.
Hell is real – and it's a supermax prison. But the Infernals have escaped, and their leader is on a mission of vengeance on Earth.
Follow us so you don't miss our launch!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/pat...

Inspirations 7: Doug Church As I wrote the first episodes for 2000AD, I got him to design them. In effect he was dressing mutton up as lamb.

Even this morning, as I struggled with a tricky problem of what the cover of a forthcoming book should look like, I found myself wondering ‘What would Doug do?’. He was a great character, and I based Smith 70 in Charley’s War on him.
iconoblast.substack.com/p/inspiratio...

'Working-class Hero': Dredger Gerry had a knack of turning so many stereotypes on their head, even though, politically, we were probably poles apart.

Dredger as a working-class secret agent was ‘something to be’, to quote Lennon’s immortal lyrics. Such characters had never appeared in comics before and were a rarity in film and novels. And they still are today.
My latest Secret History of Comics:
iconoblast.substack.com/p/working-cl...

We are publishing the book on our new direct sales store at millsverse.com/product/amer... Hardcover and softcover formats are available to pre-order now. Check out the info in our store and pre-order your copy now, in good time for Christmas!

But we really appreciate everyone who has followed the pre-launch and helped to boost the campaign on their socials. Thank you!
So, with the clock ticking, we thought we should go for a Christmas release instead.

CHANGE OF PLANS ON AMERICAN REAPER
We decided that, rather than go for a Kickstarter, we'd get Book One of Reaper out in time for Christmas. There's so much love for Reaper, but we weren't getting the followers that we needed.

Aaaagh! The Secret History of Action: Introduction I had six weeks to put together the stories for Action. Anti-establishment thinking is so hard-wired into my DNA, there was really no alternative theme.

Read for free my introduction to the Aaaagh! The Secret History of Actio
iconoblast.substack.com/p/aaaagh-the...

Pencils from Gary Welsh 'Beating Churchill' in Ragtime Soldier.

Churchill was sick. True story:

MAN (to bearer): How much is he paying you to carry him?

BEARER: Ten bob.

MAN: I'll gie' you double to drop him. (love it!)

Churchill lost the Dundee election and blames Ragtime.

New York City, 2062.
Reapers hunt coffin cheaters: members of an ageing rich elite who become young again by inhabiting the bodies of innocent teenagers.
A story torn from tomorrow's headlines: a future that's perilously near!
Follow our Kickstarter: tinyurl.com/4a9yb25v

American Reaper: an exciting discovery! The original treatment that got us a film option

I found my original storyline that got us the gig with Trudie Styler’s film company to develop the character into a film and a comic strip.
iconoblast.substack.com/p/american-r...

YouTube video by Millsverse AMERICAN REAPER ANIMATIC GRAPHIC NOVEL PROMO

Matherson hunts body snatchers who perform illegal mind transplants. He's already lost his son. Now he must protect his daughter.
youtu.be/xcdzmT_03Jg
Join our Kickstarter for American Reaper Book One, drawn by Clint Langley with Reaper Files from Fay Dalton
www.kickstarter.com/projects/pat...

Use MILLSVERSE10 for 10% off!