Yorkshire-based comics website Shelfdust, run by Steve Morris, has announced it is partnering with reigning comics champion Tiffany Babb to support The Comics Courier‘s latest Kickstarter campaign – and will begin republishing articles the Courier previously published later this week.
As we previously reported, The Comics Courier, founded by first-ballot hall-of-famer Tiffany Babb, is a tabloid-sized newspaper-format journal of in-depth comics criticism aimed at fans who love a tactile, old school reading experience.
Each issue of the Courier is writer-driven, which means the title’s writers choose their own topics based on their own comics-related interests, so you’ll find a diversity of types and eras of comics written about in each issue.
Their fourth issue, seeking support on Kickstarter now, which has already hit target, will be packed with great essays, reviews, and interviews from comics critics and journalists, Armaan Babu, Hagai Palevsky, Kate O’Donoghue, Kathryn Hemmann, Samantha Puc, Shaenon Gaerrity, Tynan Stewart, Zack Quaintance, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, and Tiffany Babb. The comics covered range from Check, Please! to Big Mystery Case to Rare Flavours.
Meet the Comics Courier Team
Tiffany Babb, editor of The Comics Courier, is a comics critic and editor with ten years of experience in the industry. She has served as deputy editor of Popverse, co-editor of the Eisner Award winning PanelxPanel, and has written comics criticism for The Comics Journal, The AV Club, Publishers Weekly and The Comic Book Herald.
Earlier this year, she successfully crowdfunded seed money to launch The Comics Staple in September 2026, a monthly, twelve page, black-and-white zine for anyone who wants to stay in the know when it comes to comics.
The Comics Courier is designed by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, who co-edited the Eisner-winning PanelxPanel magazine, and letters various comics like What’s The Furthest Place From Here? and Precious Metal.
• Check out the crowdfunder for The Comics Courier #4 here on Kickstarter
The Comics Courier archive heads to Shelfdust
In a further development, the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust has announced that it will be teaming up with to re-release from The Comics Courier archive. A new essay from The Courier‘s back catalogue will appear every Friday on Shelfdust, which is run by errant news rabbit Steve Morris, across the course of June.
In what can only be called a home run for fans of comics criticism, every Friday for the next few weeks, Shelfdust will feature articles which originally appeared in the pages of The Courier, including essays from Babb herself, “Moneyball” Nick Marino, and “Live-Arm” Lillie Hochwender.
Many, says Steve, who has apparently eaten a book of baseball terminology for this occasion, are describing this news as sweet chin music which has pulled the string from Uncle Charlie.
Reached for comment on the news, Babb said “Go Angels” and did an improvised Wade Meckler dance.
So run off to Shelfdust this Friday, and then follow it up by racing straight on through to Kickstarter, where you can back the imminent fourth issue of The Courier.
Shelfdust is run by Steve Morris, who has been writing about comics for over fifteen years now, his focus firmly on what he describes as the “strange and silly things about comics, absorbing and reflecting back out the writing he read elsewhere at The AV Club, TelevisionWithoutPity, Cracked, and other sites. His many writing credits include items for The Beat, ComicsAlliance, CBR, Publishers Weekly and more, which eventually led to launching Shelfdust, his current website.
“Shelfdust does what I describe as modular criticism: each article is about a single comic book issue,” he explained to Broken Frontier’s Andy Oliver last month. “A single manga volume; or a single webcomics chapter. The writers can use that as an anchor to then go off and discuss other issues (and sometimes we barely touch on the original comic because we’re spinning off into so many other tangents) but mostly we’re offering hyperfocused and hyperfixated articles about comics as a single item. That’s how they’re sold! So we’re covering things one comic at a time.
Comics Courier joins Gutter Review Revival on Shelfdust
For those unfamiliar, Shelfdust is a website designed to try and give a second look to the comics you have on your shelf. “The goal is to write anything but a comics review, and offer a reason for people to pick up and re-read the comics they love!” Steve, whose day job is Marketing Manager for 2000AD, explains over on Patreon, used to fund the project. “And the ones they tolerate. And the ones they hate. All the comics. On the site right now you can find critical essays, silly recaps and commentaries, esoteric annotations, and loads more writing about individual comics issues. We remain award-eligible.”
Bringing a wide range of comic news and views to the web, earlier this year Shelfdust announced initiated another strategic collaboration, bringing all the hottest and dirtiest comics criticism back to the internet in 2026, by republishing The Gutter Review’s archive across the course of this year.
Created, edited and curated by Chloe Maveal, The Gutter Review featured articles and essays which covered comics of all stars and stripes – from Jack Staff and June Brigman to Richard Corben, Bernie Wrightson and Strontium Dog.
“With one foot in the gutter, and all minds wholly in the trash, The Gutter Review brought incredible and idiosyncratic coverage of comics to the masses,” said Steve earlier this year.
“The site unfortunately had to be taken offline a few years ago, but thanks to this new partnership, all the previous features and articles are being returned to the world, one week at a time.”
So now you can rediscover coverage Steve Gerber’s Foolkiller, rediscover Chloe’s item on Cam Kennedy’s Star Wars art, Tom Shapira reexamination of 2000AD’s Kenny Who?, and more.
• Check out the Shelfdust website at shelfdust.com
• Shelfdust is funded wholly by Patreon support. If you’d like to pledge to help them run guest articles and features, visit patreon.com/shelfdust
As part of your pledge, you’ll also be able to choose issues that will be featured on the site – and if you pledge at the top levels, you can specifically request a particular comic to be featured
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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.
Categories: Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Magazines, Other Worlds
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