#Story

Lindsay Grockle, a sceptical, rational young woman, agreed to be the manager of an isolated hotel in the Great Lakes to get over a terrible break-up that left her with zero self-confidence.  Her partner was romantic, whimsical, a believer.  And she kept telling him there were no such things as fairies.  She arrives to find the former manager on his way out of the door, as if he’d been freed from a terrible burden.  The rest of the staff have all elected to go on leave this weekend.  Because this weekend is… the convention.

Lindsay doesn’t know what that is, but is pleasantly surprised when some charming, but eccentric patrons arrive, patrons who want to hide their faces or shelter under huge coats or all walk together in single file, as if they’re one long creature pretending to be several people.  And there’s a just slightly too big cat that’s started to hang around.  And the lake outside seems to have suddenly become both deserted of wildlife and weirdly choppy.

But still, Lindsay goes to bed in the hotel that night sure that her weird guests are having the best time she can provide.

She’s woken in the early hours by the cat, who tells her she has to come quickly.  There’s been a murder.

Lindsay can’t quite decide which part of that to deal with first, the murder or the talking cat, but she’s quickly hustled to the ballroom, where, on the floor, lies the enormous corpse of… the Loch Ness Monster.

And around Nessie are gathered the convention attendees, now revealed as who they really are: legendary creatures from all over the world.  There’s Bigfoot and the Jersey Devil and a Unicorn and a Succubus and a minibus-load of Yokai from Japan… and outside in the lake there’s the Kraken and many more water-based monsters.  And the cat is actually the Beast of Bodmin.  Or Bob for short.  And oh dear there really are Fairies.

Every year, Lindsay is told, the cryptids gather here for their annual convention.  But never has there been a murder.  Suddenly, they can’t trust each other.  They’ve locked the doors and prevented all external communication.  The only person they can agree on to solve this mystery is Lindsay.

‘You may not believe in us, Lindsay,’ says Bob, ‘but we believe in you.’

#Preview

#Bios

Paul Cornell has written episodes of Elementary, Doctor Who (‘Father’s Day’ and ‘Human Nature’), Primeval, Robin Hood and many other TV series, including his own ITV children’s show, Wavelength. He’s worked for every major comics company, including his creator-owned series I Walk With Monsters for The Vault, The Modern Frankenstein for Magma, Saucer Country for Vertigo and This Damned Band for Dark Horse, and runs for Marvel and DC on Batman and Robin, Wolverine and Young Avengers.  He’s the writer of the Lychford rural fantasy novellas from Tor.com Publishing. He’s won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, an Eagle Award for his comics, a Hugo Award for his podcast and shares in a Writer’s Guild Award for his Doctor Who and the Grand Prix Nova and Scribe awards for the audio series Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Firewall. He’s the co-host of Hammer House of Podcast.  His latest book is the SF novella Rosebud, his latest graphic novel is The Witches of World War II for TKO and his latest comic series is Con and On for Ahoy.

Rachael Smith is an award-winning comic creator based in Manchester, in the UK. She is best known for making comics that deal with mental health issues with warm, relatable humour, such as Wired Up Wrong, Quarantine Comix, and Isabella & Blodwen. Rachael is currently drawing her autobiographical webcomic NAP COMIX about being a new mum. Rachael also wrote and drew the humour comics for Titan's Doctor Who, Tenth Doctor comic series for three years. She has created work for The New Yorker, Image, Boom! Studios, and Mad Cave, among others.

#Stretch Goals

$25,000: Postcard of our cast from the great comics artist Emma Vieceli  (Life is Strange)

$30,000: Postcard of our cast from the great comics artist Alison Sampson (Ministry of Truth)

$35,000: Spot varnish on the cover to make a luxury logo!

#Timeline

As of the launch of the campaign, Paul is finishing up the script and Rachael has more than half of the book to go. It will be worked on throughout the campaign and after, and we anticipate it being done sometime Fall ‘24, at which time we’ll head to the printers.

Printing and shipping should take around three to four months from that point, so delivery of rewards is expected to be done at the beginning of 2025.

Zoop will always be here to communicate with backers should any delays occur, if there’s confusion about delivery, or if any other concerns pop up.