ROK Comics expands its Audio Comics range

ROK Comics is pleased to announce the expansion of its audio comics range, with Team M.O.B.I.L.E., Houdini now on sale for iPad, iPhone and Android devices – and many more titles in the works.

All ROK Comics titles deliver great comic content, enhanced by a fully authored audio soundtrack and other features that only digital comics can fully exploit, including animation and, in the case of its music comics range, music videos.

Says ROK CEO Jonathan Kendrick: “ROK is pioneering the creation and delivery of original audio comic books across a range of new titles and we are delighted to be bringing comic books to life in this dynamic way via the latest technologies.”

Sales of digital comics are growing rapidly, but many are simply re-formats of existing print titles which fail to take advantage of the opportunities offered by digital devices. ROK has embraced the new medium head on, delivering not just great comics but extras that will appeal to all ages now well used in the potential of modern media.

“With all the extras, we wanted to complement the comic storytelling that make a comic a comic,” says editor John Freeman, “but add new elements that will give the stories even greater appeal.

“We’re hoping our carefully-created titles will appeal outside of comic fandom. We’ve had feedback from parents who tell us our audio comics are a great help with children coming to grips with learning to read for example.

Available now for free are Team M.O.B.I.L.E. #1, Team M.O.B.I.L.E. #2 and Houdini #1 – with many more comics in the works.

• An ongoing adventure comic, Team M.O.B.I.L.E. centres on the story of teenagers recruited into a secret organisation to battle crime, terrorism and other dangers – some stranger than others. The series was created by Jonathan Kendrick and features art by Andrew Chiu.

Team M.O.B.I.L.E. #1 is FREE for iPad and iPhone:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/team-mobile-comic/id516600477

Team M.O.B.I.L.E. #1 is free for Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.teammobile01

Team M.O.B.I.L.E. #2 is free for iPad and iPhone:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/team-mobile-2/id549502691?mt=8

Team M.O.B.I.L.E. #2 is free for Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.teammobile02

• Houdini is an ongoing adventure comic recounting all-new adventures of the world’s greatest escape artist. Written by magician Jamie Allan Nicklin and composer and script writer Simon Wheeler, the launch issue features art by the highly-regarded Spanish artists Rafael Broseta and David Belmonte.

The comic includes exclusive videos revealing magician’s secrets – some included for free, some offered as in-app purchase.

• Houdini #1 is FREE for iPad and iPhone at:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/houdini/id531385730?mt=8&ls=1

• Download Houdini #1 FREE for Android at:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.houdini

Titles to come include:

Tomorrow We Live, scripted and drawn by Mike Collins

• Tomorrow We Live, a gritty no-holds-barred action adventure set in a world of jaded spies and dangerous villains, adapted from a story by Simon Piers Thurlow and Hollywood screen writers Shawn Curran and George Sanders by Mike Collins, acclaimed artist on several titles for Marvel and DC Comics, as well as Doctor Who Magazine

The Beatles by Angus Allan and Arthur Ranson

• The Beatles Story, an eight-issue limited digital series collecting, in full, the stunning creator-owned comic co-created by Angus Allan and Arthur Ranson, which will include rare video of the Beatles

• The Elvis Story, an eight-issue limited digital series by Angus Allan and Arthur Ranson telling revealing the legend of the King, never re-published since its first appearance in British comic Look-In in the 1980s

• Ex Astris, an amazing science fiction comic set in the far future on an Earth transformed by alien intervention and environmental disaster, by Bill Storie

ROK is also publishing a number of “music comics”, featuring audio-enhanced comic strip, videos and other bonus material, including:

Rick Fury, drawn by Marc Olivent

• Rick Fury, an ongoing “action music comic” starring an alternate version of one of Britain’s best-known emcees, written by Rick himself with art by Marc Olivent

• Banned Across the Universe… In space, no-one can hear you sing – unless you pretend you’re someone famous, and probably dead! An ongoing action-humour strip by John Freeman and Kev Levell

• ZeZi: The Story so Far, a bio-comic about the Birmingham-based rap band, scripted by Jasper Bark and drawn by Andrew Chiu

• OG Niki: The Story So Far, a bio-comic about the controversial British rapper OG Niki, scripted by Jasper Bark and drawn by Marc Olivent

• Joe Whelan: The Story So Far, a bio-comic about the amazing Heavy Metal guitarist, scripted by Jasper Bark and drawn by Marvel Comics artist Giancarlo Caracuzzo

• Visit ROK Comics at: www.rokcomics.com

Declaration: John Freeman is Managing Editor at ROK Comics

Team M.O.B.I.L.E. Promotions available on YouTube

ROK’s animation team have begin creating a number of promotional videos for our titles, starting, naturally, with our action adventure title, Team M.O.B.I.L.E.!

Here’s their first promo for #1, which can also be viewed on the Team M.O.B.I.L.E. Comic YouTube channel.

The animation folk are busy working on several projects connected to our books – stay tuned for more information…

• Team M.O.B.I.L.E. #1 is available free for iPad and iPhone via http://itunes.apple.com/app/team-mobile-comic/id516600477?mt=8 and on Google Play for Android devices at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.teammobile01

ROK Comics releases first audio comic, Team MOBILE on iPad

ROK Comics, Britain’s dedicated mobile comics publisher, has published its first originated audio comic title for the iPad – TEAM M.O.B.I.L.E.

Featuring a fully authored audio soundtrack and its own theme tune, TEAM M.O.B.I.L.E. is the exciting story of teenage secret agents battling dangerous enemies across the globe.

An ongoing adventure story, the first issue of TEAM M.O.B.I.L.E., available now for free, centres on the story of misfit duo Maisy Brown and Sam Thompson, who are recruited into a secret organisation to battle crime, terrorism and other dangers.

TEAM M.O.B.I.L.E. is the creation of ROK Group PLC co-founder Jonathan Kendrick.

Jonathan has long harboured an ambition to marry comics with sound and published on mobile devices including the iPad and iPhone. Inspired by a love of James Bond and comics, he came up with the back story for the comic, including its top secret ‘MindMerge’ technology and gadgets.

“We are really pleased with the originality and quality of our first audio comic which has just been published on the iTunes store and we look forward to developing the story further,” said Jonathan.

 

The strip is written by John Freeman from storylines by Jonathan Kendrick, with art by Andrew Chiu. Kris Carter is colouring the title, with Jim Campbell providing lettering and logos.

 

John’s credits include work for Marvel, Judge Dredd Megazine and Black Ops Extreme for STRIP – The Comic Magazine, but he’s perhaps better known as an editor, for ROK Comics and titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, STRIP and many others.

Andrew’s credits include 2000 AD, the mainstay of the British comics industry, DC Comics, Vertigo Comics and ILEX Press.

Kris Carter’s credits include Transformers and Doctor Who while Jim Campbell has worked for pretty much every major British comic publisher and some American companies, too.

The soundtrack, which complements the strip action, features the voices of both British and American actors, produced by Sneaky Snake Films in New York. The Team M.O.B.I.L.E. theme tune was created by accomplished composer Bob Townley, who’s worked with a number of established chart artists in the US and UK.

ROK Comics is also publishing strips for mobile under license, including an Andy Capp iPhone app in partnership with the Mirror newspaper and a Viz iPhone app in partnership with Dennis Publishing, and Print Media’s STRIP – The Comic Magazine.

Three iPhone apps published in partnership with individual creators – Ligeia the Vampire by Rodrigo Diaz Ricci, The Mobile Gospel by Rich Diesslin and Madd Science by Steve English – are also available.

Further comics are in development.

ROK Comics, part of ROK Global PLC, continues to provide mobile comics content for WAP subscription services across the globe and is currently working with partners in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

• Team M.O.B.I.L.E.online: www.theteammobile.com

• Visit ROK Comics at: www.rokcomics.com 

ROK Comics Now on iPhone

ROK Comics announces it has launched ROK Comics as an application on the Apple iPhone.

The ROK Comics application, the first of a planned series of applications currently in development by ROK for the iPhone, enables iPhone-owners to read a selection of strips from the huge and fast-growing ROK Comics portfolio, to include such strips as Anomaly (by Kennedy Rose), Crumb (by David Fletcher), Reddickulous (by David Reddick), sci-fi strip Crazy Mary (by Mike Colbert, Edward Woodward and others) and gothic comic Ligeia (by Rodrigo D. Ricci).

“We felt we should offer variety in our comics offering and this selection reflects the diversity of strips available on ROK Comics to include humour, adventure and sci-fi” ROK Comics Managing Editor John Freeman commented. “We will constantly be evaluating, adapting and looking at new features while adding further strips in future versions of the application.”

• More information about the new application can be found at: www.rokcomics.com/iphone

• If you already have iTunes installed on your computer, you can view the App on ITunes via: http://tinyurl.com/rokcomicsoniphone

“The iPhone is having a far-reaching effect in transforming access to – and use of – mobile entertainment,” added ROK’s Creative Director Graham Baines, “and we at ROK are focussed on deploying ever-more interesting, engaging and easy-to-use content services and applications into this fast-growing channel”.

This week, the New York Times reported that Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones in the last quarter in the US alone and has already surpassed its goal of selling 10 million iPhones during 2008, according to Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs.

“This is an exciting development for us,” said ROK’s Group CEO, Laurence Alexander “and reflects our ongoing commitment to develop and deploy engaging entertainment services to mobile phones globally.”

ROK Comics (www.rokcomics.com) provides comic publishers and creators to reach a worldwide audience by delivering comics to mobile phones, either by WAP subscription of Pay Per Download via Multi Media Messaging (MMS) with creators receiving up to 50% of the available revenue on every sale.

Secrets of Ligeia Revealed

Ligeia the Vampire by Rodrigo D. Ricci

With a new episode of Ligeia now available on ROK Comics, creator Rodrigo D. Ricci has revealed more about the background to the character in a posting for the strip’s Facebook page. What follows is a translation/adaptation of Rodrigo’s posting, which is in Spanish…

Ligeia was created in the summer of 2006 in Italy, inspired by the story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. The plan was that this vampire “with a touch of irony”, drawn in a style echoing the work of Alex Toth and Frank Miller, would be the kind of work an Italian publisher interested in publishing a graphic novel by Rodrigo would like.

Unfortunately, neither of the two projects were realized and have been buried on Rodrigo’s computer for some time. Then, when he put some of the pages of comicspace.com, a lot of people told him that they liked the character.

Ligeia is inspired by various sources. Poe first, mainly to capture as much as possible the environment with the use of black and white in high contrast. There’s also elements of the Lovecraft, especially his lesser known work “Medusa’s Coil” ( by Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop, read it online), more than anything because Ligeia’s hair moves in a lively, bizarre way.

The strip also pays homage to movies like La Maschera del Demonio), directed by Lamberto Bava, more than anything because of the use of black and white in that film.

Physically, Ligeia is a blend between Barbara Steele and Edwige Feneche and other actresses of the Golden Age of film.

Rodrigo decided to make Edgar a pet cat to avoid the horrible cliches of Igor in some bad movies. As a character it works well: cats have an extraordinary personality. “They do not need to interpret any role, since they are the role,” he says.

The story comes with the Nazis after reading the book Hanussen, a Jew in the court of the Third Reich. Rodrigo was astonished by this bizarre character, a Jew who was the magician of many senior Nazis, but hated by Gobbels who considered him a charlatan. Hanussen believed in The Temple of the Uunseen, but made the mistake one night at a party having a vision and predicting that a building would be burned, causing a major sea change in the Weimar Republic.

One day later someone set fire to the Reichstag and Hitler came to power. Shortly afterward, Hannusen was found shot dead in a park. (more about Hannusen here on Wikipedia. Werner Herzog made a movie about him in 2001 starring Tim Roth, and there have been others).

There is a definite morality to the comic although Rodrigo leaves the reader to choose whose morality they favour. Ligeia is a vampire, so in theory, evil. On the other side are the Nazis sent by Himmler, and those who might be the traditional heroes are a band of mercenaries, all united bya desire to loot the gold of the vampire.

“This series was born at time of many changes,” says Rodrigo. “Gradually, publishers are leaving paper behind and transferring their attention to the massive audience potential of the web cell phones and the iPhone.”

Any decision on the quality of the strip Rodrigo leaves in you hands, cordially inviting you to read… Ligeia!

80% of World’s Population on Mobile by 2013

Despite turmoil in world financial markets over the last year, the $1 trillion mobile industry continues to confound expectations, with spectacular and accelerating growth, says Portio Research in its report, ‘Worldwide Mobile Market Forecasts 2009 – 2013’.

The report, published this week, reveals that over half the world now uses a mobile phone and predicts that 80% of the world’s population – 5.8 billion people – will be doing so by the end of 2013.

Put into perspective, 5.8 billion mobile phones represents more than twice the total, combined, number of TV sets and PC’s globally.

Among the top 20 growth markets there are few surprises, the report says. China wins the top spot, just ahead of India. These two countries alone are expected to contribute over 1 billion additional mobile phone users in the next 5 years.

Africa, the Middle East and Latin America are also expected to experience high growth, estimated at 13.3%, 10.7% and 9.9% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate), respectively.

Meanwhile, despite rising mobile data revenues, mobile ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) continues to decline, and is predicted to fall from $23.20 in 2005 to $15.80 by the end of 2013, largely because the additional subscriber growth is likely to come from low per capita income markets.

Nokia, the world’s leading handset manufacturer, shipped 437 million handsets in 2007, while Samsung has displaced Motorola from the number 2 spot. In the first two quarters of 2008, LG displaced Sony Ericsson from the number 4 spot.

Commenting on the report, Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK said “We are enthused by the Portio report as it highlights not just the staggering and continuing growth of the mobile industry, but also the increasing need of operators and manufacturers alike to develop non-voice revenue streams, which is exactly what we offer”.

ROK Entertainment Group Inc., (OTCBB: ROKE) founded in 2004 and owners of ROK Comics, is a global mobile entertainment group. With approximately 200 staff worldwide, ROK has filed more than 40 international patents for its suite of innovative mobile technologies.

With 3.3 billion mobile handsets in use worldwide, the mobile entertainment industry is a multi-billion dollar business.

ROK TV enables the streaming of live and on-demand TV to mobile phones over mass-market 2.5G, as well as over 3G and Wi-Fi.

More Info: www.rokent.com

ROK Comics Goes Free to View

Ligeia, a vampire story by Rodrigo Ricci - now free to view on ROK Comics

ROK Comics is pleased to announce many of the comics published on the service are now Free To View on the web in an ad-supported format.

Marking a major change in the way ROK Comics promotes its comics to mobile service, almost all the comics on the web site (www.rokcomics.com) are now Free To View online.

ROK Comics, which offers comic creators and comic publishers the means to create comics in a format suitable for mobile phone presentation via WAP sites, is also making strips viewable via its web site in an ad-supported format.

The online versions of the strips can be embedded on almost any web site using players similar to many video sharing sites such as ROK’s own Newsjack.tv service or sites such as YouTube.

“We have allowed limited viewing of Pro Comics online since the service began last year,” explains Managing Editor John Freeman, “but an opportunity has arisen for us to promote the service in an ad-supported format on the web, and we’ve chosen to try that route.

“We think this is an appropriate move for ROK Comics,” added ROK Media CEO Graham Baines. “It enables full promotion of most of the comic brands we feature.”

There will be some territorial and contractual restrictions on certain strips being published under license but top independent creator strips such as David Fletcher’s humour strip Crumb, Ian Gibson’s quirky Annie Droid, Chris Reynolds’ superheroine series Moon Queen, Rich Diesslin’s Mobile Gospel, Kennedy Rose’ hilarious Anomaly, Rodrigo Ricci’s vampire tale Ligeia, John Maybrury’s SpaceBabe and Josh Alves’ Tastes Like Chicken are now viewable in full online.

“Reaction to the change has been positive,” says John. “From the outset, we knew ROK Comics was at the forefront of a new development for comics, bringing them to mobile, and the past year has been a tremendous and exciting learning curve.

“Many creators have been very positive about comics on mobile, recognising the potential of a huge market that big comics publishers are just beginning to wake up to. Like us, they see mobile comics as a way of raising awareness of their creations in a format that reaches many new readers, and the potential, ultimately, for making money from this new form.

“Many see mobile a great way to promote their characters and strips, complementing their other distribution methods.”

Creators and publisher will share in any paid-for ad revenues generated by the online presentation, just as they already share revenue on WAP subscription page views from ROK’s mobile subscriber services operated in partnership with key telecoms such as Telenor, Exact Mobile and retailers such as Claires.

Hand in hand with changes noted above, the ROK Comics design team have transformed the main subscription-based WAP site (wap.rokcomics.com). For pricing details in your country go to www.rokcomics.com/subscribe.php.

In the UK, for a free trial of the service on your mobile, text COMIC to 83736. For a full subscription text COMIC SUB to 83736. The UK subscription price is just £3 a month. You need to bookmark the site when you follow the link you are sent.
ABOUT ROK COMICS

• ROK Comics on Mobile (www.rokcomics.com) is a mobile comics publishing solution enabling comics’ creators and publishers to syndicate their works to mobile phone users worldwide. The service opens up huge worldwide commercial opportunities for all comic creators, artists, writers and publishers. The ROK Comics Creator Tool is also offered as a standalone ‘sticky’ content feature for a variety of companies and was utilised last year by UK TV network ITV to promote I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.
With access to hundred of millions of handsets through existing Mobile Network Operator Agreements, ROK Comics can deliver digital comics straight to mobile handsets and collect revenue for doing so.
ROK Comics is a new opportunity for publishers and creators to reach a worldwide audience who will be able to download the comics via Pay Per Download or subscription via Multi Media Messaging (MMS) and WAP. Creators publishing professionally via ROK Comics will receive up to 50% of the available revenue on every sale, with full access to sales statistics, viewings and more.
In addition to several licensed comics that are being offered via ROK Comics, publishers can also create Free Samples of strips that can be viewed online and on mobile to promote their print editions, and let fans know about them by e-mail, and also provide an “Embed” of a strip, which can be posted on web sites, blog or company site.
Publishing partners include King Features, Egmont, the Mirror and Express national UK newspapers and comics publisher Markosia.

• ROK Comics, managed by ROK Media Ltd, is part of ROK Entertainment Group, founded in 2004, a global mobile entertainment group.
With approximately 200 staff worldwide, ROK has filed more than 40 international patents for its suite of innovative mobile technologies.
With 3 billion mobile handsets in use worldwide, the mobile entertainment industry is a multi-billion dollar business.
ROK TV enables the streaming of live and on-demand TV to mobile phones over mass-market 2.5G, as well as over 3G and Wi-Fi.

ROK Launches Two Comics Competitions

ROK Comics is pleased to announce we have not one but two great competitions to tell you about – open to everyone using the ROK Comics comics-to-mobile service, so pass it on!

Both offer the chance to win a top of the range Nokia 9500 phone, worth nearly £500 ($1000 US). It’s a great mobile phone with high memory capacity, a full set of applications, and versatile network connections so you can keep in stride while on the go.

The 2008 ROK Comics Humour Competition: We’re running another Humour Competition through to 1st September 2008 after last year’s proved such a success. Any humour comic created on the ROK Comics platform – Pro or Freefall and assigned as “Fun” – qualifies for entry. The winner and runners up will be published on a special page on the ROK Comics site, just as we did last year (www.rokcomics.com/winners2007.php).
• For full details of this competition, go to www.rokcomics.com/humour_competition2008.php
The ROK and a Hard Place Competition: We’re delighted to be partnering with the Birmingham International Comic Show (www.thecomicsshow.co.uk) on this, Britain’s premiere comics event, which takes place on 4-5 October. The winner of this competition will also get free entry to the event (travel and accommodation costs not included). While it’s yet to reach the giddy heights of the incredible San Diego Comic Convention, the organisers fully expect over 4000 fans to plough through the doors and they have a terrific line up of creators to see, including the legendary Michael Golden, Hellboy artist Duncan Fegredo, Thor artist Olivier Coipel, V For Vendetta co-creator David Lloyd and Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons and many more.

Our ‘ROK and a Hard Place’ competition challenges comics creators to come up with a comic featuring a life changing moment. It could be your life changing moment or someone fictional… Even an animal or robot! What you come up with is up to you.

The theme was the idea of Shane Chebsey, one of the co-runners of BICS and a long-time supporter of Britain’s huge indie comics press. We think this challenge will appeal to many creators worldwide, and we’re looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

“We at BICS love the way that Rok Comics is so accessible to both creators and readers,” says Shane, “and feel that working together we can help to bring the wonderful medium of comics to a wider readership. Mobile phones are now the most widely used method of communication in the world, so it seems the perfect way to present new comics to more people than ever before”.

• For full details of this competition, go to www.rokcomics.com/bics_competition2008.php • For terms and conditions of both competitions go to www.rokcomics.com/competitionTerms.php

New Anti Doping Comic from UNESCO

Just launched on the UNESCO Social and Human Sciences website is a new weekly comic by Mychailo Kazybrid which aims to promote the battle against doping in sport.

Published by UNESCO in partnership with EDGE G3 Ltd., The Case of the Spoilsports, published in English, Spanish and French, stars Rattus Holmes and his assistant Dr. Felis Watson and dramatizes UNESCO’s anti-doping role and explores the importance of the International Convention against Doping in Sport, adopted by UNESCO’s member states in 2005.

The characters come from the pen of Sheffield artist, Mychailo Kazybrid who has been involved in the cartoon and comic book industry for over 30 years, with work covering a variety of licensed characters from Shaun the Sheep, Wallace & Gromit, The Tick to Duckula, Dangermouse and the Bash St. Kids, to name but a few. He also publishes his own strip, Do-Do Man, on the comics-to-mobile service ROK Comics.

“When Ed Chatelier of EDGE G3 Ltd, provided the script, he wanted something different, and the idea was to take a new approach to something that was already well known.” Mychailo explains. “So we came up with the pets of the famous having an encounter with pets of the infamous, with my partner, Sarah Sier naming the characters. When the rat and cat belonging to Holmes and Watson have to take on the evil bird of Moriarty, anything could happen!”

With the colour work produced by fellow artist Richard Thomas the story is in five chapters, published weekly.

Inspired by the famous detective stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it will trace how twin athletes react differently to the pressures of competitive sport. One gives in immediately to the pressure put on him by his trainer and teammates, while the other athlete suffers as a result of the use of performance enhancing drugs by his competitors. From one sports event to the next, the plot will lead us to the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Having also produced Rattus Holmes and the Case of the World Water Crisis, artwork is already being put together for the character’s third adventure.

• View the strip on the UNESCO Social and Human Sciences website

Creepy Curtain Crawlers!

Moon Queen: Curtain Crawlers

by John Freeman

Comic creator Chris Reynolds, the groundbreaking talent behind the classic Mauretania graphic novel, has just added a new Moon Queen adventure to the comics to mobile service ROK Comics.

Titled Curtain Crawlers, the spooky tale is different to the previous run of Moon Queen stories, which feature Chris’ very own take on superheroes and superheroines, for a number of reasons.

“Because of their content, the previous Moon Queen stories all use ROK Comics’ ‘R’ rating,” Chris explains. “Curtain Crawlers is the first Moon Queen story I felt could take the ‘U’ rating without bowdlerising it into nothingness.”

The story also markes the first Moon Queen story where Chris has taken ‘as read’ the previous body of stories as knowledge that, really, is required of the reader – so if you want to catch up with what has gone before your best bet is to subscribe to the WAP subscription service for just £3 for 30 days, and then you can read all the earlier Moon Queen stories on your mobile.

“I wanted a to go back to a story like my prose novels that’s a bit more than just one, however interesting, incident from Moon Queen’s life,” says Chris of the haunting 24-episode tale. “In Curtain Crawlers, I wanted to write more of a novel-length type of thing – to cover that sort of ground – even if the final story isn’t actually very long.

My inspiration for this is the amount of content they fit into the 45-minute episodes of post-Eccleston Doctor Who,” he reveals. “I sometimes think some of these these zip by too quickly for me to get a proper grip on them, but that’s where comics have a unique advantage shared with text novels – that you can take them at your own pace and re-read at will!”

There are more developments in this story, further expanding the Moon Queen mythos. “By now, I wanted to link the stories a bit with the world and the journey of Mauretania Comics,” says Chris, “from which so far Moon Queen’s been at arm’s length. So Garnet Ross from ‘Pure Holiday‘ makes a cameo appearance (at quite an important moment) and the themes and the concerns of the whole story are quite Mauretania-like, connecting with ‘Pure Holiday’ again in using audio recordings as an element of the plot.

“I’ve even re-used one of the imaginary locations from ‘How To Do Your Own Dentistry’ for the place where ‘our’ Moon Queen is held while the story unfolds.”

Chris was one of the first creators to give ROK Comics a try when it comes to bringing comics to mobile and has some useful tips on developing new comics for the young medium.

“I found ‘mobile storytelling’ simple to get into because I nearly always draw strips using a uniform panel size anyway,” he says, “and my scenes are generally quite short, so the translation to ‘page-by-page’ format is straightforward.

“The most recent thing I’ve learned, in correspondence with [ROK Comics Managing Editor John Freeman], is that it’s best to have very brief episodes starting with a one-panel recap using the final panel of the previous episode.”

At present, Moon Queen stories can only be found on mobile and on Chris’ official web site MetroPoppyfield. While there are no plans for a print edition just yet, Marc Baines at Kingly Books, who, among other titles, also pulished The Dial by Chris and Voice of the Wilberforce by Ed Pinsent, is planning a new edition of the Penguin Mauretania.

• You can view all the comics on ROK Comics on your mobile by subscribing to the WAP service for a small monthly fee – $4 in the US, £3 in the UK, other countries also served. Simply visit this page on the ROK Comics site and choose the subscribe option. When you receive a WAP push message to your mobile, connect to the site using that link using your browser, bookmark it — and you’ll be subscribed to ROK Comics Mobile for the next month.