Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Accent UK, smallpress, Time Bomb Comics, uk

Accent UK Closes, Dave West Joins Time Bomb Comics Publishing Team

Published Wed, 14 Sep 2022 06:57:10 -0500

Accent UK was a collective small press comics publisher collective headed by Dave West of Deva Comics and Colin Mathieson of M56 Comics, and Barry Renshaw's Engine Comics, formed in 2002 to produce themed US format anthologies featuring contributions from dozens of UK independent creators, including the likes of Andy Bloor, Jon H. Ayre, David Hitchcock, John Reppion and Leah Moore, Bridgeen Gillespie, Garry Brown, Kieron Gillen, Frazer Irving, and David Baillie. Renshaw left in 2006, leaving West and Methieson running the operation.

But it will be all change ahead of convention season. The collaboration has come to an end and the publisher will be no more. It may also have something to do with Dave West choosing to leave Accent UK to join the publishing team of Time Bomb Comics, a Birmingham-based publisher founded in 2007 that mostly publishes one-shots and graphic novels, but launched its first ongoing title Flintlock in 2016, and now publishing Spectrum, licensed from Gerry Anderson's Anderson Entertainment, and being sold in newsagents as well as comic book shops and shows.

Colin Mathieson stated "we've always kept things informal so that our shared objectives shouldn't prevent us individually pursuing other opportunities and so it is now that Dave and I recently found ourselves at a creative crossroads. Realising that Accent UK couldn't fairly continue without the both of us, we've decided it best to gracefully retire the brand. We can both be justly proud of what modestly we've achieved in our small part of the independent comics landscape and give thanks to everyone out there who has been part of our journey, whether it be a contributor, reader, supporter, retailer or reviewer. Dave and I both plan to remain active in the comics community so please watch this space and our social media channels for news of forthcoming events and projects."

Indeed Dave West will now join Time Bomb Comics as part of their core publishing team alongside business manager David Morris and publisher Steve Tanner. West states "It's a very amicable split, we'll still be seen chatting at Cons and at social gatherings, but from here on I'll be printing my comics under TimeBomb Comics Ltd as I join Steve Tanner and David Morris on their board."

West will be bringing some of his own titles from Accent UK to Time Bomb Comics, including supernatural western series Westernoir, Kia Wordsmith and Stephenson's Robot, which will now be published under the Time Bomb Comics banner. Dave will also be developing further titles for Time Bomb. Steve Tanner states "Dave, Colin and Accent UK were a key inspiration in the formation of Time Bomb Comics fifteen years ago. I'm delighted that Dave will now be part of our editorial team and brings his brilliant range of creator owned titles with him."

West stated "I've enjoyed the past 21 years working with Colin as part of Accent UK but as time has passed we've realized that we're both looking for different things from the company. A lot of the things I'm looking for are either being achieved by Time Bomb already or are on their Roadmap and so it makes a lot of sense for me to bring my experience and books to the Time Bomb brand to hopefully make it an even stronger presence in the Independent UK comic scene than it already is".

This news has been timed to coincide with the newest volume of Westernoir (written by West, art by Gary Crutchley, colours by Matt Soffe) hitting Kickstarter. Time Bomb Comics state that this is "a good example of the sort of exciting cross-genre comics West is well known for, and the expert storytelling he will bring to Time Bomb."

Accent UK's website and social media channels will remain open until further notice to allow outstanding orders and distribution obligations be fulfilled.

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