British comic creators, publishers and fans have paid tribute to Judge Dredd artist and former Spitfire pilot Ron Smith, who passed away aged 90 early yesterday
Ron Smith
How Commando publisher DC Thomson pioneered wartime family drama in comics
Long before “Charley’s War” in Battle, and the latest Commando mini-series, “The Weekes’ War” Dundee-based comics publisher DC Thomson pioneered the idea of seeing war through the eyes of different members of the same family in comics – all serving simultaneously on… Read More ›
Wildcat, one of Fleetway’s last boy’s adventure comics, to be collected
Rebellion are to publish a collection of strips from Wildcat, Fleetway’s short-lived, last real attempt at a fortnightly boy’s adventure comic, launched in 1988. There’s also a mention on Amazon for another Jinty collection, Fran from the Floods. Published by Fleetway… Read More ›
Photo Review: The BEYOND 2000AD Exhibition at London’s Orbital Comics
London’s Orbital Comics – the UK’s one and only Eisner Award-winning comic shop – is currently hosting what sounds like it could be an extremely dull and pretentious look at 2000AD. “Beyond 2000AD – The Broader Cultural Impact of… Read More ›
BBC’s daytime drama “Father Brown” rocked by alien invasion – and some comics-inspired fun!
The production team on BBC daytime drama Father Brown had some great fun creating comic-related props for the recently-broadcast Season Five episode “Fire in the Sky“, not only creating a scene from a fictional B-movie but also mixing some genuine… Read More ›
In Like Flint… Announcing a Warlord Retrospective Marathon
Over on the Comics UK forum, we love to talk about comics and one of my friends has been enthusing about Fleetway Editions Battle, home to strips such as “Charley’s War” (documented here on downthetubes, a war comic title now owned… Read More ›
M.A.S.K. Returns in All-New Fan film from David Guivant
David Guivant, a talented young independent director and artist from the South Pacific island of New Caledonia, is working on a fan film sequel to M.A.S.K, based on the toy range that appeared in a DC Comics nine-issue title and 80 issues… Read More ›
Comic Creator Spotlight: The Art of Ron Smith, Part Three. The Hotspur Mark II 1970 to 1980
My first article regarding the work of Ron Smith acted as a introduction, to remind us how great this veteran artist, now retired, has been over the course of his career. The second article demonstrates how I am beginning to review Ron’s… Read More ›
Comic Creator Spotlight: The Art of Ron Smith, Part Two – The Hotspur Mark II 1959 to 1969
My first article regarding the work of Ron Smith acted as a introduction, to remind us how great this veteran artist, now retired, has been over the course of his career. This next pair of articles will focus on one aspect of Ron’s… Read More ›
Comic Creator Spotlight: The Art of Ron Smith, Part One
As a comic fan of long standing, one of my real pleasures is identifying and applauding some of the artists that I feel never got the appreciation that they so richly deserved. But I have found that even with the… Read More ›