An eclectic round of quickfire news items that caught our eye this morning across the interweb…
Who remembers IPC’s SPOOKY comic, launched in October 1970? Of course you don’t – because this more supernatural skewed title idea was dropped in favour of THUNDER, on the instructions, presumably of Jack Le Grand, then the managing editor of Fleetway’s juvenile publications. (Was SPOOKY perhaps dismissed as too close a name to rival DC Thomson’s Sparky?)
Still, at least the commissioned art for this unpublished dummy made into public view, as the cover of THUNDER Issue Two. Fascinating!
Over on the Facebook Vintage British Comics & Annuals Group, Claire Le Grand, one of Jack’s daughters, is posting gems like this – including snapshots of a school project putting names to the artists who drew many of the strips the publisher was running in the early 1970s.
(Lew Stringer recalls Spooky was actually suggested as a title again in the early 1990s, as a humour horror comic. He remembers Buster editor Allen Cummings telling him about it. Fleetway turned it down again then too!).
The first monthly ComicScene online Comic Con will take place on the independent publisher’s UK Comics Auctions and Sales Facebook group from Friday 25th to Sunday 27th September. Organisers are planning “a weekend to auction, sell and buy your classic UK comics, US comics, artwork and commissions, new indie comics and promote your crowdfunders. Full details and requirements for posting offers here – grab a bargain or sell your comics.
Talking of buying stuff, how about grabbing some Corgi Comic Cars? Vectis has a lot in its current Modern Diecast Auction on 10th October 2026 that includes thirteen toys featuring classic British comics including Beezer, Eagle and Lion. Check it out here.
Presumably, for some reason, these didn’t quite fit into the remit for Vectis upcoming massive two-day TV and Film Auction, running Tuesday 22nd and – Wednesday 23rd September (Day One Catalogue here, Day Two Catalogue here). This auction includes boxed, carded and loose figures and vehicles, from Aliens, WWF, Spiderman, X-Men, Robocop, Biker Mice from Mars, plus Transformers, James Bond and Jurassic Park. There is also a large Doctor Who and Daleks collection, including a rare Newfield Ltd 1965 Bendy Dalek. Further items include Sideshow Collectibles statues, trading cards, movie posters and artwork, including firework display posters and displays. Plus vehicles from Captain Scarlet, Starcom, Star Wars and other Gerry Anderson shows including Terrahawks, plus chess sets, board games, DVDs and VHS.
Good news for fans of Paul Chadwick‘s Concrete! Following the recent publication of his new story, Stars over Sand, reviewed here by Luke Williams, Dark Horse is bringing his early Concrete stories back to print in a paperback omnibus format launching June 2027. Volume 1 of this release collects the first two volumes of Concrete, Depths and Heights, running to over 500 pages. AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) already has a landing page, but you can’t order it just yet. Have a word with your Local Comic Shop about ordering there first.
Talking of smashing independent comics, Dave Cook’s Kickstarter for his latest, all-new all-thrills cyberpunk thriller Killtopia: Phantoms #1 & 2, ends soon. Offering “a new age of fear”, cyberpunk and horror collide as an elite Neo Tokyo police unit hunts a mind hacker who makes peoples’ fears a reality. If you like your comics visceral, action packed and intriguing, this is definitely for you! Check out the crowdfunding campaign here on Kickstarter
I’d missed this feature, but, talking of Kickstarter, did you know you can filter search results by location? It’s something I thought would be a good idea when the crowdfunding platform originally launched, but I hadn’t realised they’d implemented it. (Every day’s a school day, eh?). There are currently almost 200 UK-based comic crowdfunding projects running right now, including Scratch Comics 10 Lost Days – The End Of Magic, which has deservedly hit target, projects offering Late Pledges such as PsyComics Odyssey, Kate Ashwin’s final Widdershins, adventure and ComicScene’s Tara Togs, through to newly-launched projects such as MOLES, from one our favourite indie creators Chris Askham.
Now, admittedly, over one hundred of the projects listed fall into the “Launching Soon” category, such as Monty Nero’s Chrome Roses: Cyberpunk Triad, the final book in his hit cyberpunk trilogy, The Grey Widow (a Scottish folk-horror comedy 120 page graphic novel from Scunnered Ink & VHS Productions, written by Greg Hemphill & Donald McLeary), The Arc Fall by Owen D. Pomery (the much-anticipated sequel to the acclaimed graphic novel The Hard Switch), and Unit 666 Volume 3 from Noel K. Hannan, “La Grand Finale” (as the French say) of the great Weird World War Two graphic novel. Tallewellyn Comics freely acknowledges its newest series Strike The Anvil, a high fantasy adventure that’s the writing brainchild of Talia Bowett, Becca Thompson and Kieran Connelly, won’t launch until 2027.
But this category alone reflects just how much comics energy is out there in the UK alone, flying in the face of ageing naysayers claiming comics are dead, just because Whizzer and Chips breathed its last decades ago. Let’s wish these hopeful creators good luck in their endeavours. Hit those “Notify on Launch” buttons, folks!
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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: Auctions, British Comics, Comic Previews, Comics, Creating Comics, Crowd Funding Projects, Doctor Who, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, Other Worlds, Television, US Comics
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