Now available

This baby is now available as a pre-order via Amazon USA and Amazon UK prior to its publication on September 27, 2013.

We also received this additional feedback:

"A typically inventive and playful take on the golden age of American comics, as seen through a noir lens. If you’ve read any of his previous work you’ll know what a magpie eye Andrez has, with influences ranging from Soviet propaganda to Dashiell Hammett to Charles Dickens." (Eva Dolan @ Loitering With Intent).


"A good old noir murder-mystery, with the comic book legacy of the past 75 years... both decanted into a near-future dystopia where heroes battle villains and the line between good, bad, and just plain ugly has become increasingly blurred." (The Day the Web Stood Stupid)

Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?

I guess we have to start these things somewhere, so here goes nothing.

I've been running a Facebook page, along with one at Google+, that relates to the upcoming novel Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?, for almost a year now.

They've tracked the progress of the book from its beginnings as scrawled vignettes on scrap-paper in mid 2012, through to its submission as a finished manuscript to my publishers (Perfect Edge) in February.

The novel is has just been through the copy-editing process and is currently being formatted for the final proof, a tricky process since it will be including 35 pieces of art (such as the one of character Pretty Amazonia, right, by Chilean artist Juan Saavedra).

I also asked pencil-pushers from Australia (Paul Mason), the UK (Harvey Finch and Andrew Chiu), Italy (Giovanni Ballati), Russia (Saint Yak), Spain (Javier ‘JG’ Miranda and Carlos Gomez), Canada (Fred Rambaud), Mexico (Rodolfo Reyes), the Philippines (Hannah Buena) and Argentina (Maan House), amongst others in Japan and America, to get involved drawing characters and events from the book

Mexican artist Reyes, a specialist in art deco design, did the cover (below), while Agentine Maan House designed two of the Capes, or heroes (bottom).

So, what's this baby about? I think it's easier here to cite the spiel my publishers have lined-up for the back cover:

Heropa: A vast, homogenized city patrolled by heroes and populated by adoring masses. A pulp fiction fortress of solitude for crime-fighting team the Equalizers, led by new recruit Southern Cross - a lifetime away from the rain-drenched, dystopic metropolis of Melbourne.
Who, then, is killing the great Capes of Heropa?
In this paired homage to detective noir from the 1940s and the '60s Marvel age of trail-blazing comic books, Andrez Bergen gloriously redefines the mild-mannered superhero novel.

The feedback, thus far, has been brilliant:

"Like a crazy, post-modern road trip with Jack Kirby riding shotgun, and everyone from Stan Lee to Raymond Chandler nattering away in the back seat." THE THRILLING DETECTIVE
 
“The best non-comic book superhero story I’ve ever read.” COMIC BASTARDS

"That this story about comics should be so similar to a murder mystery of the Sam Spade kind is just the cherry on the cake." THE MOMUS REPORT

"The most wildly imaginative places you will ever encounter in fiction." DEATH BY KILLING

The novel should be published in around September or October 2013—I'll update the sites once I know more.

Anyway, I'm going to try to update this blog regarding progress of the tome, but it's probably easier to stay abreast—if you're at all interested—by heading to the Facebook residence as I tend to keep on that daily.

There's also an acting website set up here, at which we have listed critical feedback and influences, and to check out more Heropa characters, weapons and transportation go investigate my Pinterest site.

Otherwise, definitely go investigate the artists involved (listed above) since they're bloody brilliant practitioners of the trade.

ANDREZ BERGEN