TALES OF MIDNIGHT

Only on sale once at a 2 day British Sci-Fi Galaxion convention in 1999. This was a once-only show organised rather disastrous on a Sunday and a Monday so attendances were not good on the Monday as I recall.

I am featuring this in The Guidecas a copy sold for an amazing £100 on eBay UK in Jun 2013.

Some notes from noted fanzine collector and dealer Ewan B:

Featuring the unique and unpublished anywhere-else Alan Moore five page story The Serpent And The Sword with illustrations by Mike Fiamanya. Cover by artist Chris Achilleos and inside by Dave Gibbons (Alan Moore s Watchmen collaborator), Nao, Sandra Borg and Al Davison.

This is certainly one of the very rarest Alan Moore collectibles out there - and up there with Seminar no.2 and Embryo in terms of near-impossibility to find. I m sure the World-renowned Alan Moore expert and no.1 fan, Pádraig Ó Méalóid, won t mind me quoting a little of his blog about the book -

The Serpent and the Sword from Tales of Midnight, Kosovo Refugee Special, Galaxion '99 Convention pre-launch edition (Blue Silver Entertainment, October 1999). There was to have been a regular edition of this comic, but the pre-launch edition at Galaxion '99, which was held in London's Olympia Exhibition Centre over the weekend of Sunday 3rd and Monday 4th October, 1999, is apparently the only edition that actually got released.

I ve not been able to determine a print run but from experience I d say in the low hundreds at most and since Galaxion 99 was a Sci-Fi convention rather than a Comics convention, I suspect most copies were either discarded or are in the collections of Blake's 7 or Star Wars fans! Who knows! I would also politely question whether Tales Of Midnight has the fan-base the marketing suggests it has again, who knows! Anyway, it s the first time I ve ever seen it for real and probably the first time it s been for sale on ebay certainly in recent years.

The comic is both interesting and strange in its content. In addition to the original Alan Moore story, there s an original strip by Garth Ennis & Dave Gibbons, plus unique art by Bryan Talbot, John Higgins, John Bolton, Al Davison and some others I don t recognise. There s a four page strip by newster Richard Johnston. There s also a section of truly odd pictures of various Sci-Fi celebs posing with Tales Of Midnight characters including Walter Koenig (Chekov from Star Trek), Jacqueline Pearce (Blake's Seven) and Dave Prowse (Darth Vader)!!!

The comic itself is printed on heavy glossy stock throughout and is a thick 78 pages long.