Mike Nicoll has worked in the industry on and off for much of the last 20 years, often ghosting for other artists or involved in small press work but now, with the comparative luxury of grown up kids and thus less need to bust his chops working 14 hours a day for the man (and teaching himself how to use the vast array of wonderful CGI software now available) has begun to pull a few projects from the huge "back burner" pile marked "I must get round to doing something about that..." which he has accumulated in that time.

Ex Astris is the first major project from that portfolio to see the light of day. It was originally intended to be hand-drawn in glorious technical pen detail and (hopefully) sold as a "three panels per day" newspaper strip but it seemed to be a viable option for CGI and, having hooked up with ROK Comics and the fantastically generous and talented genius that is JOHN FREEMAN, they began to make plans...

• The Ex Astris Mini Comic includes an interview with Mike about the origins of the story. Click on the image to read it!

John Freeman does as he's told. A comic script writer and editor for more than 20 years, whose strips work has ranged from The Real Ghostbusters and Warheads for Marvel, Cabal for Judge Dredd The Megazine and The Really Heavy Greatcoat, you can read his bio here