That Was The Week Comics Was – New Scream! and Misty, Doctor Who and a Lime Street Leopard!

The Thirteenth Doctor by Rori, creator of the comic strip Tiny Pink Robots

The Thirteenth Doctor by Rori, creator of the comic strip Tiny Pink Robots

It’s been a busy week! Here are some items you may have missed on our site and beyond. Have a great weekend!

• Sales of the Oor Wullie Bucket Calendar have raised £3000 for Archie Foundation’s Tayside Children’s Hospital Appeal, Dundee’s Evening Telegraph reports. The Bucket Trail (which we covered here on downthetubes) ran for ten weeks over last summer and culminated in the auction of 70 individually designed Oor Wullie sculptures which raised an incredible £883,000 for the Hospital Appeal.

• The latest trailer for Kingsman: The Golden Circle has just been released. Kingsman: The Secret Service introduced the world to Kingsman – an independent, international intelligence agency operating at the highest level of discretion, whose ultimate goal is to keep the world safe. In Kingsman: The Golden Circle, its heroes face a new challenge. When their headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, their journey leads them to the discovery of an allied spy organisation in the US called Statesman, dating back to the day they were both founded. In a new adventure that tests their agents’ strength and wits to the limit, these two elite secret organisations band together to defeat a ruthless common enemy, in order to save the world, something that’s becoming a bit of a habit for Eggsy…

• Rebellion, publisher of 2000AD, has begun soliciting orders for a Scream & Misty Hallowe’en Special through comic shop distributor Diamond, promising new stories starring classic characters from two much-loved British comics published in the 1970s and 80s. Read our news story

• Talking of old comics, the Starlogged blog has a nice but sad feature on the last-ever issue of Battle, which came to an end in 1988. Years after the first predictions of its impending demise, Battle was finally overwhelmed by enemy forces (the enemy being changing tastes and a changing market) and plucked from the battlefield by – yup, you guessed it, EAGLE.

• If you’re still looking to wallow in some British comics nostalgia, then head over to The Bronze Age of Blogs, where there’s a smashing feature on “The Protectors” strip that ran in TV Action in the 1970s, Gerry Anderson’s non-SF TV series starring the late Robert Vaughn.

• The stars of CBS Access’ upcoming Star Trek: Discovery will make their first global appearance together at Comic-Con International on Saturday 22nd July on a panel moderated by series guest star Rainn Wilson.

The Raven Cycle novels by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Cycle novels by Maggie Stiefvater

• Universal Cable Productions and Dark Horse Entertainment renewed their first-look deal to continue developing and producing scripted programming from the publisher’s comic book library, as well as new original material. Separately, UCP has announced it’s developing both Maggie Stiefvater’s book series The Raven Cycle and Hugh Howey’s post-apocalyptic novel series Sand for Syfy.

The Raven Cycle tells the story of 17-year-old Blue Sargent, who becomes involved with a group of private school boys on a quest to find a source of mythical power hidden deep in rural Virginia. Sand, a co-production with Imperative Entertainment, is an action drama set in a world ravaged by ecological devastation, savage winds. The novels will be adapted by executive producer Gary Whitta (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story).

UCP also is working on Sirens of Titan, with Dan Harmon (Rick & Morty) and Evan Katz (Small Crimes). The story follows Malachi Constant, the richest man in 22nd-century America, who possesses extraordinary luck which he attributes to divine favour and has used to build upon his father’s fortune. The studio also optioned Lord of Light, based on the science fantasy novel by Roger Zelazny.

Rebellion Publishing recently released the first volume of the collected The Leopard from Lime Street, the British superhero series published in the weekly comic Buster in the 1970s and 80s. Written by Tom Tully with art by Mike Western and Eric Bradbury, our review is here

The Thirteenth Doctor by Hal Laren

The Thirteenth Doctor by Hal Laren

The BBC announced Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor for Doctor Who, prompting howls of delight in some quarters, anguish in others, and incredibly crass reporting by the Daily Mail and The Sun, who chose to use it as an opportunity to publish nude photographs of the actress. Apparently neither paper had any of William Hartnell or Peter Capaldi. Why not enter our Doctor Who – Thirteenth Doctor Art Challenge (but no nudity, please)

As for those Doctor Who fans complaining about the next Doctor being a woman? The BBC is having none of it. “Since the first Doctor regenerated back in 1966, the concept of the Doctor as a constantly evolving being has been central to the program,” said the BBC in a statement. “The continual input of fresh ideas and new voices across the cast and the writing and production teams has been key to the longevity of the series.” As for Jodie Whittaker, “She is destined to be an utterly iconic Doctor.”

MULP 4 CoverJeremy Briggs gave us a sneak peek at the brilliant independent comic MULP: Sceptre of the Sun by Matt Gibbs and Sara Dunkerton, which you can read here

• Talking of Matt and Sara, Tony Esmond travelled to Swindon and enjoyed a great day out with several independent comic creators at the town’s Incredible Comic Shop – read is report here

That Was the Comics Week That Was –  Friday 21st July 2017 – Thanks to the whole downthetubes team for their contributions and you for reading!



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