MamTor’s Mother of a Comic

By John Freeman on March 9, 2008

M am Tor Publishing, the brain child of Liam (Death’s Head II, Man Thing etc.) and Chris McCormack Sharp has collaborated with Mother (London) Advertising Ltd. to produce a 16 page quarterly comic inside the London edition of Time Out magazine called Four Feet From a Rat.

The comic, which will be included with the issue published 19th March, features four London-centric stories; “The Crane Gods” and cover illustrated by Liam, “The Little Guy” by Chris Weston (above), “Routemaster” by Dave Kendall, and “Don Pigeone” by Kev Crossley. All the scripts were provided by Mother.

“This is a great chance to take this kind of work to a whole new audience,” says Liam. “There are plans to collect the stories into a single book later on, and we’re planning on including other big name creators in future editions.

“Time Out sells 200,000 copies, which are meant to be read on average by five people per copy – so it’s a massive bit of exposure! Wouldn’t it be great if it actually made a difference and brought some new people to our industry? We can only hope!”

Copies of the comic will also be available at the Bristol Comics Expo in May.

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.