Storm Comics Thief Taker #2 On Sale Now

By John Freeman on June 26, 2009

British indie publisher Storm Comics (www.stormcomics.com) has just released Thief-Taker General #2, concluding the true-life stories of two legends of 18th century London, Jonathan Wild and Jack Sheppard.

Sheppard was a petty thief who has gone down in legend for his many daring and seemingly-impossible escapes from some of the city’s most notorious prisons. Wild was the self-proclaimed Thief-Taker General of Britain who both sold captured felons on to the courts and employed them into his own criminal network.

Issue 2 follows the fates of these two men. Sub-titled The Triple Tree, this refers to the three-sided hanging posts of Tyburn, execution capital of Britain.

Like issue 1, and the SF tale Afterlife before it, this is a 32-page black and white comic with colour cover. The two previous titles are still retailing at £2.25 each plus p&p though to cover costs issue 2 sells at £2.50. However all three Storm Comics titles can be bought in one fell swoop for £8.00 inc. p&p, a saving of £1.25.

“Sales of these titles have been slow but steady and judging by the emails, interest is good,” writer and artist Michael Crouch tells downthetubes, who has also been busy with some contributions to the Temple APA #4 which will be available on line soon. “All in all things are going prety well.”

• Visit Storm Comics at www.stormcomics.com to order copies of Thief Taker and Afterlife

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.