We’ll be at Comic Con San diego this year. I’ll [Daniel] be at the Poser [Smith Micro] Booth demoing and Phoebe and I will be here and there across the floor.

CC International, in case you’ve never gone, is the Doall- Endall for comics and related entertainment. Trust me, it’s worth the trip.

Hope to see you there.

Daniel

“GHOST “ ILLUSTRATED NOVEL REVIEW

In “Ghost” the writing team of Daniel Scott-Gabriel Murray and Phoebe Reeves-Murray, have created a graphic novel so powerfully gripping that its imagery and words will haunt you long after you have read the last chapter, leaving you wanting more.

In the first of this two part series we are swept through time from ancient Japan to modern day Manhattan through beautifully illustrated pages by the graphic artist Daniel Murray. Mr. Murray has an uncanny ability to capture raw emotion in his renderings, drawing you in with their intensity and bringing a new level to the art of the graphic novel not yet seen in this genre.

The Angel Iblis is the antagonist of the story. He was one of the many angels cast from heaven during the first war and in his rage and despair at his exile to earth he builds a dark army of angels to destroy the will of man and create a paradise of his own twisted design on earth.

When the angels were cast from heaven the creator sent holy guardians to protect the world from the dark angels. “Ghost” is one half of such an angelic being who was cleaved in two by Iblis during the war. After being severed one half of this angelic being became the soul that inhabited the body of a human Jennifer Rhys while the other became Sidriel an angelic teacher to the other human ghosts on earth.

For hundreds of years Sidriel trained his pupils hoping one would have the strength needed to fight the dark angels, but over the centuries all of these “angels of light” were destroyed by Iblis and his minions. Sidriel discovers the child Jennifer Rhys on the very day that she witnesses her mother’s gruesome murder at the hand of angels. Sidriel knows he must keep her very existence from Iblis or all will be lost. As she grows to woman hood Sidriel fights to protect her from harm until she is old enough and strong enough to become the angelic guardian she was born to be and to finally wield Gabriel’s sword - Shishi-O.

This novel is full of amazing and frightening characters such as the “Yakuza”, the Angels human collaborators, the Oni, hideous killing machines created by the angels whose sole purpose is to destroy humans who stand in the way of their army, Adam Nakamura a police officer who is in love with Jennifer Rhys and son to the evil scientist Akio Nakamura. Akio Nakamura searches for the ingredient that is the key to dominating human will and he is getting very close. Also integral to the story we have Adam’s best friend David Allen who has fallen under the sway of Iblis and is in love with Jennifer Rhys creating a very dark love triangle. With all the twists and turns of the plot I found I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Coming to the end of the novel was made a bit easier knowing I could read the rest of the story in the next novel in the series. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy and adventure, happy reading.

Sylvia Szabo

Writer and Producer

After Image Films [Sylvia Szabo]

“Pasting elements of Christian mythology and Japanese folklore onto a contemporary New York setting, Ghost chronicles the life of Jennifer Rhys, from blissful birth to orphaned adulthood. Having suffered a troubled childhood and tortured adolescence, Jen discovers that the visions of malformed winged creatures that once plagued her were indeed real (this would be an altogether different book if they weren’t), and that she is in fact a Ghost, a designated protector of humankind in a war between two feuding factions of angels.” - Read the full review here

Also central Maine News papers has released an article on us concerning GHOST you can read it here:

Cop, wife publish graphic novel

BY MECHELE COOPER Staff Writer

Law enforcement and angels sound like a strange combination.

Yet a new novel that tells the tale of war between good and evil angels has just been released, illustrated by Daniel Murray, a Gardiner police officer.

Murray, who has been in law enforcement for 20 years, is a longtime illustrator. His wife, Phoebe Reeves-Murray, wrote the story.

The novel, titled “Ghost Volume 1,” is the first book of a planned series.

Over the last few years, Murray has done illustrations and comic book work for a number of companies including DC Comics, Lucas Film and UpperDeck Entertainment.

“The story came from a set of characters and basic storyline I’ve had for a long time, and my wife, who is a writer, said, ‘Let me do it,’” Murray said. “So she wrote the story, and I drew the illustrations.”

Volume 1 contains the first two chapters of the story, “Blood” and “Fire.” The second volume of “Ghost” will contain chapters titled, “Steel” and “Death.”

The next in the series will be “Nephlim” — which is the offspring of a human and angel, according to Murray. After that, the series wraps with “Archangel.”

The story is about a young woman haunted by visions of evil angels; she then discovers her true identity as an angel, as well as the last protector on Earth of this great angelic war to reclaim heaven.

“It’s a graphic novel form — not a paperback, not a hardcover,” said Murray. “It’s a hybrid of the two. It’s the size of a standard comic book, but it’s high-quality paper and high-quality illustrations.”

Reeves-Murray, 47, a writer for 25 years, said the target audience for the novel are readers interested in literary gender stories. She said the series is a combination of fantasy, fairy tale and urban mythology.

“I think its a book whose time has come,” Reeves-Murray said. “It’s an unusual offering in the graphic novel arena because this is a illustrated novel. It’s taking an old form of fairy tale books. I wanted to create a story like that with our heroine being a woman who doesn’t want to be a heroine. She’s had terrible family tragedy caught between a war of demonic angels and heavenly angels. And her baby becomes the focus of the war.”

Murray, 48, said he has drawn all his life for his own personal enjoyment. He was a huge fan of comics and cartoon shows in the mid-’60s.

“Drawing and illustration has always been the shaman that released the demons from my never silent head,” he said.

Murray attended Philadelphia College of Art for a short period in the early 1980s.

Apart from that, he said, “It’s been the crash-and-burn method.”

About six years ago, a fellow illustrator he met at a comic book convention gave him the opportunity to meet with DC Comics. From there, he said his comic work spiraled.

He has been asked how he went from “a comic kid” to police work.

In 1990, Murray said he was in a bunch of go-nowhere jobs and trying to support a family when there was an opening at the Hallowell Police Department.

He applied, was hired and graduated from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in March 1991 as a certified law enforcement officer.

He said law enforcement is a noble profession that he is proud to be apart of.

“I’m proud to be one of the folks who runs toward that thing everyone else is running away from,” he said.

Reeves-Murray said the couple, who live in Pittston, are especially excited to have written their novel in Maine with the support of local writers and artists.

“We really hope it takes off from here,” she said. “And we want to feature it at the second (annual) science fiction and fantasy convention in Portland next year,” she said.

It retails for $19.95. “Ghost: Volume 1″ will also be sold online through vendors like Amazon.com.

More to come
Daniel

Story Copyright ©2010 MaineToday Media, Inc.
Photo by Andy Molloy

‘Angel’ one of the illustration images from GHOST Book I

Been painting quite a bit.  She’s good to go.

Been in convertations with Vertigo and TOR regarding GHOST, will keep ya posted.

There’s new artwork heading out soon so stay tuned for updates.

Thanks

Daniel

Just another promotional video from Youtube for GHOST.