Oh, boy, better get on with issue 2 now.

Sold out!
As of a few months back we managed to sell out of all the 100 copies of Smart Bomb!! 1-1 we had printed. Of course, you can still get a copy printed at Indy Planet but all the cards, bags and stickers have now gone. We may well get a reprint done at some point but we’ll have to sneakily change a bit so it’s not the same (if only as a nod to the ill-fated comics speculator boom of the ’90s, you understand).

Smart Bomb!! Level 1-2
It took a while to get going but SB 1-2 is now full-steam ahead. Everyone from 1-1 is back on board along with some new recruits and even more pages!

Smart Bomb online
We’ve been putting SB 1-1 about on quite a few different online mag/comic readers to try and gauge which is best, easiest to use and which gets the most views. Out of Issuu, Yudu, Myebook and Scribd we liked Issuu the best for it’s ease of use but if you’re looking for readers then Myebook has it covered and the comic is now up to nearly 9000 views! The next step is the iPhone and iPad and we’ll be reporting on how we get on with that very soon.

Another review
Lastly, we’ve had another nice review over at Starscape (follow the link and then click on ‘comicscape’ on the left hand menu and scroll down to reviews).

Well, that’s about it for now. Hopefully we can soon have some sneak peaks leading up to the second issue.

If anyone out there spots a review or knows a great place that we can send a copy or a link to please drop us a line. You get brownie points, you know!

Our little snippet in GamesTM

Well, we had a nice surprise when we opened our latest issue of GamesTM (the excellent multiformat games mag from Imagine Publishing down in Bournemouth) – a little news piece all about Smart Bomb!! You just can’t beat the feeling of having something you’ve had a hand in sitting on the shelves in WHSmith, even if it’s another magazine. Thanks GamesTM!

While stocks last each copy comes with 2 free cards and an eco-friendly slipcase (ok, a paper bag - but its a nice paper bag, with a sticker! )

If you’ve got a real world, can-hold-it-in-your-hands copy of Smart Bomb!! 1-1 you might have noticed you also get 2 super-duper game cards free! Yes, it’s the game that makes Number Wang look like Snap – HACK! If you’re wondering if the cards you got were the only ones available, then the answer is a resounding no! There are, in fact, 13 (unlucky for some) different HACK designs that were distributed by Cam amongst the issues and if you’re desperate for a checklist so you can chart your collection just click on the big pic above (warning – it’s a biggish pic).

Gotta collect ‘em all!

Just wait and see what fantastic free gift we’ve got lined up for Level 1-2 (uh-ho – teaser alert!).

The crowds descended, ready to buy. There was an amazing quilt right down the end, in the corner.

We hear tell that there were famous comic people here this weekend, talking on panels and generally doing famous comic people stuff but we didn’t see them. We were in the trenches, in the main hall (the hot main hall) where people jostled with stormtroopers, gazed in amazement at a big metal Transformer and got held up by a particularly slow Dalek. Luckily, a lot of them also stopped by the dinkybox table where Smart Bomb!! was getting its first real public outing. To be honest, we didn’t really know what to expect. We’d had good reactions from games fans but these were comics folk and there were lots of other super, duper comics to draw their attention.

We'll forgive Chris Phillips' Candleman for being all kinds of awesome because he's our mate. There was room for both of us at BICS!

Cam shows the Toxic team his handiwork in Smart Bomb!!

Luckily, we needn’t have worried. Lots of nice things were said about Smart Bomb!! and we all wiped our collective brows. Our real world mascot – Cam (6) illustrator of the X-0 HACK card – took the show on the road, managed to avoid being accosted by a Clone Trooper, and spread the word about.

It’s probably true to say that we could have advertised and shouted about ourselves a bit more. We didn’t have any of those fancy roll-up banners that seemed to be so popular and we didn’t have someone dressed as a pussy cat in a superhero costume wandering about, drumming up support but by Sunday morning we’d made a bit more space on the table and come up with b&w A4 sign.

Mr. Jolly Jack in action. He had FANS!

So, all in all we had a great time. Millennium Point is a great venue (even if lugging boxes up to the 3rd floor is a bit of a pain) and everyone was really friendly. True, we didn’t really get around to see much of what else was on offer but then that’s the lot of most people manning their own tables. Hopefully we’ll be back next year. Now, who wants to be fitted for the Kosmikat outfit…

Look for this cover!

Ok, here we go!

Welcome to the official Smart Bomb!! blog. If you’ve stumbled across us by accident and haven’t got a clue what’s going on then let’s get you up to speed. Basically, Smart Bomb!! is…

• an all-ages, video game-themed, independent comic produced in the UK
• 40 pages long
  
• in full-colour
• available either online or in a lovely proper comic
  

Er… that’s about it, really.

We loved making Smart Bomb!! and hope you’ll love reading it. So settle back, have a look around and if you like what you see please leave some comments and get in touch.