The Oxford Trollomicus – Our Competition Winners!

By John Freeman on October 30, 2019

Art © Spike Greenwood

The winners of our recent competition to win copies of the smashing illustrated book, The Oxford Trollomicus, created by Spike Greenwood, were “The Rockwool Troll” by Joakim Järnström (all the way from Finland!) and “Jee Bee Lee, Troll Op-Orator of Troutbeck Bridge” by Paul Eldridge (all the way from the UK!).

We challenged readers to come up with a troll of their own, who you might just find in the Lake District, perhaps…

“The Rockwool Troll” by Joakim Järnström

“Jee Bee Lee, Troll Op-Orator of Troutbeck Bridge” by Paul Eldridge

Joakim tells us he’s been fascinated by trolls since childhood, especially the drawings of Swedish painter and illustrator John Bauer. “The Oxford Trollomicus will get a very special place in my bookshelf,” he says, so we know the book is going to a good home!

The Oxford Trollomicus caught my eye over on Kickstarter earlier this year and we reported on it here – a gorgeous-looking Illustrated Guide Book to the Bridge Trolls of Oxford, based on the increasingly dubious research of Professor Bulstrode Whitless.

I wasn’t the only person to like it, either, and the book gained the required backing and the hardback edition has now sold out – but you can still buy other “Trollomicus” items from the Greenspike web site.

Congratulations to both the winners – and look out for another competition on the downthetubes web site very soon!

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.