Author Archives
News, reviews, interviews and features for print and on-line: Spaceship Away (since October 2005), Bear Alley (since February 2007), downthetubes (since June 2007), and Eagle Times (since October 2008). Plus DC Thomson's The Art Of Ian Kennedy, Titan’s Dan Dare and Johnny Red reprints, Ilex’s War Comics: A Graphic History and 500 Essential Graphic Novels, and Print Media’s The Iron Moon and Strip magazine.
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Stripped “highly successful” says Edinburgh International Book Festival
Summer 2013 saw the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the largest literary festival in the world, take a major step into the field of comics and graphic novels by running Stripped, a mini-festival within the main festival consisting of 45 different… Read More ›
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In Review: WesterNoir Book Four
The fourth book in writer Dave West and artist Gary Crutchley’s WesterNoir tales of Old West demon hunter Josiah Black is now available and seemingly turns the table on the main character as its subtitle is Josiah Black: Wanted For… Read More ›
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In Review: Alpha – Sanctions
It is quite a while since Cinebook translated one of writer Mythic (Jean-Claude Smit-le-Bénédicte) and artist Youri Jigounov’s albums about CIA agent Alpha but they have returned to the series with Sanctions, originally published in France in 2000. A Russian… Read More ›
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More XIII For British Viewers And Readers
The bandes dessinee series XIII written by Jean Van Hamme and illustrated by William Vance began in the French weekly Spirou in 1984 and ran for nineteen albums between 1984 and 2007. In 2008 XIII was brought to the small screen… Read More ›
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Photo Report: Dundee Comics Expo 2014
Since 2007 the University of Dundee has run various annual events that are now tagged as the Dundee Comics Day which consist of talks and workshops by comics creators plus a handful of sales tables. In Easter 2013 they added… Read More ›
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In Review: Line Of Fire by Stephane-Yves Barroux
As more and more Franco-Belgian bandes dessinee albums are translated into English, the various English language publishers have largely ignored the non-fiction titles. While Cinebook have translated three of the aviation themed Biggles Raconte history titles as Cinebook Presents, it… Read More ›
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Barroux’s On Les Aura! Now In English
During the summer of 2013, the Edinburgh International Book Festival ran a major comics and graphic novels strand entitled Stripped which we covered heavily here on downthetubes at the time. BookFest’s 2013 Illustrator in Residence was Stephane-Yves Barroux who took… Read More ›
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Dump Issue 2 Now Available From Fred Egg Comics
Issue 2 of David Robertson’s anthology comic Dump is now available from Fred Egg Comics. David tells us, “the title Dump serves as a description of the book – a collection place for different comics I’ve done; and as the… Read More ›
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Stripped Event Reviews And Recordings Available Online
The 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival took place in the Scottish capitol in August this year and for the first time incorporated a major comics thread in its programming – Stripped. Over the course of its near two and a… Read More ›
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In Review: Long John Silver – Guiana-Capac
With three books already translated from French to English, writer Xavier Dorison and artist Mathieu Lauffray’s on-going tale of Robert Louis Stevenson’s pirate Long John Silver reaches its fourth and final book, Guiana-Capac. In the South American rainforest, with their… Read More ›
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Creator Talk: 6 Questions For Graphic Novelists metaphrog
Glasgow based metaphrog are the Franco-Scottish couple, artist Sandra Marrs and writer John Chalmers who have been creating comics graphic novels and illustrations since 1996 to much critical acclaim, including three Eisner Award nominations, and were Highly Commended for the… Read More ›
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In Review: Winter’s Tales by metaphrog
Graphic novelists metaphrog are writer John Chalmers and artist Sandra Marrs who are best known for the Louis series of GNs that have been nominated for Eisner Awards. Their latest title is a limited edition 20 page, A5 landscape format… Read More ›
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In Review: Wallace & Gromit – Complete Newspaper Comic Strips Collection 1
In May 2010 The Sun newspaper began a series of Wallace & Gromit comic strips, a series that ran six days a week for over three years. The strip, credited to “Aardman and Titan Comics” told the humorous antics of… Read More ›
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Eagles Of Battle Series Begins In Commando
One of the traits of Commando over its 50 years of publication is that it tells one-off stories rather than on-going serials. The title has rarely even had series within its run that reused the same characters, although notable exceptions… Read More ›
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In Review: Lady S Volume 4 – A Mole In DC
Born as Shania in Estonia, now a naturalised American under a stolen passport as Suzan, while blackmailed into espionage activities as Lady S, the leading lady of writer Jean Van Hamme and artist Philippe Aymond’s Lady S series has such… Read More ›
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In Review: Lament Of The Lost Moors – Siobhán
Cinebook start yet another new series with Siobhán, the first book in the Lament of The Lost Moors series, a tale of dark ages swords and sorcery written by Jean Dufaux and illustrated by Grzegorz Rosinski. In the land of… Read More ›
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In Review: Wayne Shelton – The Mission
Writer Jean Van Hamme is a major name in the Franco-Belgian bandes dessinees world, indeed one could equate the success of his many graphic novel series and the films and TV series based on them with Alan Moore, so when… Read More ›
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In Review: WesterNoir Book Three
Writer Dave West and artist Gary Crutchley return to their Old West demon hunter Josiah Black in the third book of their WesterNoir series subtitled The Siren’s Song Of The Mississippi Mermaids. After protecting Cassie Eliades in a bar on… Read More ›
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A French Artist’s View of ‘Cinebook Censorship’
British publisher of bandes dessinees albums Cinebook has come in for criticism from some quarters in the past for the relatively minor changes to the artwork in their Franco-Belgian originated books that have been made to make them more suitable… Read More ›
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In Review: Barracuda – Slaves
As Cinebook’s other, and rather excellent, pirate offering Long John Silver appears draws to a close with its fourth book, the publisher begins another pirate series this time set amongst the islands of the Caribbean rather than South America. Barracuda… Read More ›