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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Crowdfunding Spotlight: “That Girl Comic” Anthology by TGC Collective
The Glasgow based TGC Collective are using Kickstarter to fund their latest comic anthology entitled That Girl Comic in which women cartoonists take on the theme of ‘growing up’. This is planned to be an A5 size, black and white comic of… Read More ›
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“Video Games For Good” Charity Anthology
What was your first video game? And how many times since you first played it has someone said “Those can’t be good for you”? The new comic anthology Video Games For Good, curated by Claire Hubbard, sets out to counter… Read More ›
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In Review: The Little Mermaid by Metaphrog
Metaphrog’s latest hardback adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, The Little Mermaid, is now out from the US publisher Papercutz. Adapted by John Chalmers and illustrated by Sandra Marrs, the Franco-Scottish couple who make up the Metaphrog team, the… Read More ›
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Papercutz Publishes Metaphrog’s The Little Mermaid
Metaphrog’s latest hardback adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, The Little Mermaid, is being released by American publisher Papercutz today. A follow up to 2015’s The Red Shoes And Other Tales, The Little Mermaid is written by John Chalmers… Read More ›
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A New Comic Con Comes To Glenrothes In June
Saturday 10 June 2017 will see the inaugural Glenrothes Comic Con launch at Rothes Halls at the western end of the Scottish town’s large Kingdom Shopping Centre. Running from 9:30am to 5:00pm the one day event is a true comics… Read More ›
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Crowdfunding Spotlight: Jessica Martin’s Life Drawing – A Life Under Lights
Having created two comic biographical vignettes on the lives of actresses Clara Bow and Vivian Leigh, plus a full length graphic novel detailing the 1930s Hollywood life of the fictional Elsie Harris, actress, singer and comic creator Jessica Martin’s latest… Read More ›
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UniVerse To Launch Anthology Seven At Dunfermline Comic Con
The University of Dundee’s comics imprint UniVerse will be launching the seventh edition of their Anthology publication at this weekend’s second Dunfermline Comic Con. Anthology editor and university lecturer Phillip Vaughan told us, “Anthology Seven is a 176 page graphic… Read More ›
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Commando: Still Fully Loaded After 5000 Issues
In 2011 DC Thomson’s war digest title Commando celebrated its 50th anniversary, a remarkable achievement only surpassed on the newsstands at the time by The Dandy and The Beano. While other titles were being cancelled or their publication schedules scaled… Read More ›
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Comics Circulation Figures For 2016 Released by ABC
February is the month when the Audit Bureau Of Circulations (ABC), who describe themselves as “the industry body for media measurement”, release the official circulation figures for Consumer Magazines that are registered with them. That includes comics and comics magazines published… Read More ›
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Official BBC Doctor Who iStickers Featuring Graeme Neil Reid Artwork
The official BBC Doctor Who Sticker App for iMessage has just been updated with a second batch of 30 high quality original stickers of the Doctor, TARDIS, Daleks, Ood, the Master, Ice Warriors, Davros and others. As with the first batch… Read More ›
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Crowdfunding Spotlight: The Penned Guin Treasury Edition on Kickstarter
Writer/artist Alan Henderson has been producing his newspaper style, three panel, humour strip The Penned Guin since early 2013. The characters are all, unsurprisingly, penguins and the humour, by Alan’s own admission, consists of “terrible puns and Dad jokes that really make… Read More ›
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Comics @ Aye Write! Glasgow’s Book Festival 2017
The Glasgow Book Festival Aye Write! returns to the city from 9th to 19th March 2017 of this year with a multitude of bookish talks, discussions and workshops over three locations, the Mitchell Library, Aye Write’s spiritual home, as well as the… Read More ›
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UniVerse Brings Alpha to Thought Bubble
One of the new publications on show from the University of Dundee’s UniVerse imprint at Thought Bubble this coming weekend, 5/6 November 2016, is Alpha which is written by Chris Murray, designed by Phillip Vaughan, and illustrated by various Dundee comics students… Read More ›
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Pushinka: A Cold War Doggy Romance from Aimee Lockwood
Pushinka is the latest offering from Edinburgh based writer and artist Aimee Lockwood and tells the true story of a Cold War doggy romance in the Kennedy White House. The first living creature in space was the Soviet dog Laika in… Read More ›
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In Review: MULP – Sceptre Of The Sun Issue 3
The rodent adventurers of MULP are back in their on-going quest to discover a powerful ancient relic, the Sceptre Of The Sun. Written by Matt Gibbs and illustrated by Sara Dunkerton, MULP issue 3 joins our mousey heroes as they prepare to… Read More ›
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In Review: Largo Winch – Crossing Paths / 20 Seconds
It feels like a long time since we heard from Largo Winch, writer Jean Van Hamme and artist Philippe Francq’s billionaire, businessman, adventurer and philanthropist, and part of the reason for that is that Cinebook, who publish the English language… Read More ›
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Sneak Peek: MULP – Sceptre Of The Sun Issue 3
MULP – Sceptre Of The Sun written by Matt Gibbs and illustrated by Sara Dunkerton has been a favourite here on downthetubes since we first got our paws on a copy of this mousey Indiana Jones style adventure back in… Read More ›
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Photo Review: Ian Kennedy’s Mekon Art Masterclass
To put it quite simply, Ian Kennedy is the most experienced British comics artist working today. Beginning his career as a staff artist at DC Thomson in Dundee in 1949, he went self-employed in 1954 for the simple expediency of… Read More ›
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In Review: DTHRTL 3 by Bob Turner
Writer/artist Bob Turner’s remarkable silent tale DTHRTL (that’s “Death Rattle” for those of us who like to use vowels) draws to a close with Book 3. DTHRTL follows our eyeball-headed hero (remember, the comic is silent so there are no… Read More ›
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In Review: Yoko Tsuno – The Three Suns Of Vinea
Yoko Tsuno and her friends Vic and Pol return in The Three Suns Of Vinea, the eleventh of Cinebook’s translations of Roger Leloup’s tales of the young engineer. This follows on in the alien Vinean sub-series from The Curious Trio and… Read More ›