Home › Comics › British Comics › SHIFT Issue Three heads to the stands, Dan McDaid’s “DEGA” and “Crucible” to join strip line-up later this year

SHIFT Issue Three heads to the stands, Dan McDaid’s “DEGA” and “Crucible” to join strip line-up later this year

By John Freeman on February 19, 2021

Sporting a terrific cover by Mark Montague, SHIFT No. Three – the latest issue of the anthology comic from British publisher and independent distributor GetMyComics – goes on sale in newsagents and comic in early March, and can be pre-ordered now. And there’s some excellent news of future plans for the title, too.

This issue – the first release of the year due to the ongoing pandemic and recent national lockdown – offers 90-plus pages of awesome art and phenomenal stories by Skip Brittenham, Simon Furman, Chris Geary, Brian Haberlin, Brian Holguin, Jim Krueger, Scott Morse, Geoff Senior, Martin Stiff and Steve Yeowell.

This issue includes an interview with Simon Furman and Geoff Senior, creators of the cover-featured strip “To the Death“, and, for the first time in print, the Killatoa origin story in The Killatoa Express from Simon, Geoff, lettered by Richard Starkings – an oversized newspaper insert.

SHIFT No. Three - Killatoa Newspaper — Killatoa art by Geoff Senior

SHIFT No. Three - Killatoa art by Geoff Senior — Killatoa art by Geoff Senior

“Killatoa Express was due to start in a future issue, but we accelerated the production to appear now,” publisher Adrian Clarke tells downthetubes. “Because the third issue was delayed, due to the recent national lockdown, we wanted to make up for our readers patience, with a beautiful cover from Mark Montague, extended episodes of our ongoing series, and some bonus materials.”

The back of each news sheet of the “newspaper” features a Geoff Senior work of art in all its black-and-white glory, and after the initial run, the story will continue with exclusively new material in SHIFT. Killatoa will also be smashing his way into the pages of “To The Death” in a future issue.

There’s more good news for fans of this fledgling comics addition to the British newsstand, too.

“We had such a fantastic response to the recent Issue 3 cover reveal that we’ve decided to include a high quality art print of Mark Montague’s image with any orders placed at our online store,” Adrian tells us. “This applies to existing orders as well as those through the GMC store.”

GetMyComics have also revealed two new stories will be joining SHIFT in the near future. “DEGA” by amazing artist and writer Dan McDaid (Doctor Who, Firefly, Judge Dredd), a thrilling sci-fi mystery; and the SF adventure “Crucible” by myself, John Freeman (Doctor Who, Judge Dredd Megazine) and Smuzz (2000AD, Interzone), lettered by Jim Campbell, with early pages coloured by Kris Carter.

Crucible. Art © 2011 Smuzz — *Crucible Art © Smuzz*

Regular readers of downthetubes will know two episodes of “Crucible” featured in STRIP: The Adventure Comic Magazine a few years ago, before the Bosnian publisher unceremoniously withdrew from the the British comics market and left many creators in the lurch.

As you can imagine, I’m more than delighted the strip has found a new home at last and more than anything, glad to know it will finally appear in print, as originally planned – albeit long delayed. While part of the adventure has been published online, the new SHIFT incarnation will continue with pages never before seen.

• Pre-order SHIFT Issue Three direct from GetMyComics. Along with the Killatoa origin story in news sheet format, online orders will get a free art print of Mark Montague’s cover | 100 pages, £6.99

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.