Tube Surfing: 21 January 2009

By John Freeman on January 21, 2009

• Comics Bulletin have run the first review of Thunderbolts #128, writen by Andy Diggle and drawn by Roberto de la Torre, on sale today in the US, which sees Black Widow and Ant-Man engaged in covert ops aboard Air Force One. “Writer Andy Diggle uses dialogue quite well, with the entire cast sounding unique and true to their character. The art is excellent, both the consistent and sharp pencils and the mood setting colors,” they say. The issue is already selling for $20 on eBay. Read the whole review, plus a six-page preview, at Comics Bulletin.

• IDW’s Doctor Who: The Forgotten #6 is also on sale now in North America (technically, the only place they’re on sale…), written by Tony Lee with art by Kelly Yates. It’s Timelord vs. Timelord in this final issue as The Doctor takes on the Clockwork Droids and the Robots of Death! But, weakened and disorientated, can the Doctor really beat him this time? Or will he need a little help from each of his prior incarnations… and a variety of previous companions including Sarah Jane, Harry, Kamelion and Adric? Ben Templesmith provides a special cover for this concluding issue.

• (via Forbidden Planet International): Continuing the theme of Brits Abroad, over on his blog, artist JH Williams reveals what we’d all been suspecting: there will be an Absolute Promethea from DC Wildstorm in October 2009, as confirmed tonight by the DC solicits that have just been released. Promethea, for those who came in late, was of course written by Alan Moore.

• Insomnia Publications has now posted its 2009 brochure on MyEbook.com. “It’s an impressive line-up, and endorsements from industry figures like Alan Grant and Ben Templesmith speak volumes about the company’s commitment to putting out high-quality books,” says writer Cy Dethan.

• Talking of e-publications and variants, Warren Ellis kicked off a discussion about Print on Demand services on his Whitechapel site. Check out the debate here. Views on services such as Lulu, Ka-Blam.com, blurb.com and others feature.

• Rufus Dayglo has posted a stunning cover rough for The Mythid, a project he’s working on with done with Brett Ewins and Scott Brown, on his blog.

• Tim Perkins has released the first of his Fantasy Bookmarks based on his Wizards Keep project, that only folks that have visited the Wizards Keep stand over the past couple of years at Comics Conventions here in the UK have seen, or you may have seen on his Blog. The Troll bookmark is on sale from his website, under the Fantasy Bookmarks section of his Shop.

• (via Jon Haward): John McShane started a new Scottish cartoonists site and forum over on Ning (scottishcartoonists.ning.com). Talking of Ning, the downthubes forum’s membership has had a flurry of new members after Andrew Wildman very kindly went on a recruiting drive off his own bat, including The DFC‘s publisher David Fickling and son Will, comic creators Sarah Macintyre, Laura Howell, Stephen Baskerville, Izzie Tun and Richard Starkings. Why not sign up and join in the fun?

• Long-time readers of Bear Alley, the blog of British comics expert and writer Steve Holland will know he’s a big fan of Roland Davies, whose “Come On, Steve!” strip has been mentioned there quite a few times over the years, so you can imagine how pleased he was to have stumbled across a previously unrecorded strip by Davies in the pages of Everybody’s: “Sporty Shorty”— or “Sporting Shorty” as the title seemed to change each week. Read more…

• Happy Birthday for yesterday to former Doctor Who Tom Baker (although you never really escape that role), who is now 75. Star of television, time, space and everything, one of my favourite interviews I did while editor of Doctor Who Magazine was spending a couple of hours in his bonker presence. I shall also never forget that at a US Who convention, his minder was armed. That was scary…

• And finally, while not comics related, I note with some irony that having made the vast majority of its technical staff redundant, my former employers ROK Entertainment (the company behind ROK Comics, which it’s good to see is still live) have launched the ROK Developer Challenge with an open invitation to developers around the world to submit their ideas with a view to partnering with ROK on the commercial deployment of the best and most innovative new applications received. It’s one way to keep innovating, I suppose…

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.