Despite my dictator like behavior last year towards the Tales of the Fallen creative team  last year they seem to be up for more punishment as the majority of teams will be staying on to create more stories within the Unseen Shadows in 2012/2013. First up will be a series of one shots to be released throughout 2012. The plan will be to release these titles in a digital format and then collect them all  in a printed format to be published towards the end of 2012. This will hopefully coincide with ‘Forgotten Warriors’ the sequel to Fallen Heroes, which I hope will be out this year *crosses fingers* – this second anthology will be called Tales of the Forgotten.

I’ll will be giving more details on the new projects in the weeks to come but I wanted to announce this title first as Cy Dethan was the first person to join the Tales of the Fallen project so he is now my offical good luck charm!

Cy Dethan, in case you don’t know, is the writer behind the brilliant Cancertown, The Indifference engine, Slaughterman’s Creed , the upcoming White Knuckle and more. In terms of his work with Tales of the Fallen Cy wrote The Reverend one shot, The Wrath of God.

Also on the project are Nic Wilkinson (letterer) and taking up the art duties will be Valia Kapadai, who first dipped her toe in the Unseen Shadows by providing the fantastic cover for Fragments of Fate.  I’ve been a great fan of Valia’s art for a while now so looking forward to seeing her bring here unique style to the project. Valia is currently working with Cy and Nic on White Knuckle.

During his ten-year career at the Enquirer, Bob Kelsey had developed a knack for uncovering great stories with very little information to go on.  His wife, Fran, preferred to describe his gift as being ‘the right bastard in the wrong place’. – taken from Fallen Heroes

For Cy’s second project he has picked a far lesser known character to those of you who have read Falen Heroes. Bob Kelsey was a character who I used as a means to introduce Napoleon Stone and Vincent Marconi into the book. Although I had fun writing such a weasel Bob was always meant to be a very minor character. However after hearing Cy’s ideas for Kelsey it’s safe to say all that is about to change. I don’t want to spoil anything but I will say that fans of the old TV show ‘Kolchak :The Night Stalker’ starring Darren McGavin  (no not the crappy modern reboot) will feel right at home with Cy’s story.

The Immaculate Abortion of Dina Leigh 

The Truth makes liars of us all. The Truth will kill you, or get you killed. It’ll steal your marriage and your daughter’s love. The Truth will get you shot and left for dead in the desert…

So when a woman tells you she woke up in a bathtub full of blood and ice with stitches in her belly that she can’t explain, you’ll know it’s the Truth because nothing else smells or feels or hurts that bad – and you’ll fall for it all over again, even though you know you were lucky before and it’ll burn you even worse this time.

This, then, is the story of The Immaculate Abortion of Dina Leigh – and I’m daring you to call me a liar…

And now I’ll pass the torch over to Cy to explain why he choose this particular character.

When Barry floated the idea of taking a run at another Fallen Heroes character, the one that came immediately to mind was the reporter, Bob Kelsey. As I’ve said elsewhere, one of Barry’s key assets as a storyteller lies in his crafting of minor characters into little polished gems. After the thundering powerhouse of biblical vengeance he presented us with in The Reverend, I loved the idea of seeing the Unseen Shadow-world through the eyes of someone fighting to survive at the opposite end of the food chain. Bob Kelsey is an everyman in a world populated with monsters and heroes. To survive in those hunting grounds takes the self-preservation instincts of a feral rat. That’s what Bob Kelsey is to me.

We’re still sorting out timings and a release date for the The Immaculate Abortion of Dina Leigh but as soon as we have an idea you lot will be first to know so keep an eye on the blog.