Author Archives
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.
-
Anti Smoking Ads: A Shock for Bully Brown
Talk of banning smoking completely in West Lancashire council offices — no more fag breaks etc. — prompted memories of anti-smoking campaigns in 1960s comics, and the image here from TV21 #21 coincidentally arrived in my mailbox this morning. Of… Read More ›
-
WebFind: Calvin and Hobbes spoof
The wonders of dabble and youtube turned up this segment from the US comedy show Robot Chicken. I love Calvin and Hobbes, but this is very funny… but wasn’t Calvin taller in the strip?
-
Tenacious D storm downthetubes
Over on the official web site for the new Tenacious D movie (Titan Books has some tie-in books on the way), there’s an option to “overhaul” a “lame” web site, using some fun flash screengrabbing and animation. Clever, with quite… Read More ›
-
More manga from Harrison Davies?
I bumped into artist Paul Harrison Davies yesterday, looking a bit knackered from the recent happy birth of his daughter but still bubbling at reaction to his fab strip in Constable and Robinson’s recently-published Mammoth Book of Best New Manga,… Read More ›
-
Hollywoodland
Heading for UK cinemas 24 November is Hollywoodland, which centres on the mysterious death of George Reeve, the man who played Superman. The trailer looks slick (but as others have pointed out, does it give too much away?) Ben Affleck,… Read More ›
-
Special
Okay, this one passed me by. I need to read more dreamwatch (unashamed plug). There’s a new film bearing down on us called Special, centring on Les Franken (played by Michael Rapaport), who leads a painfully unremarkable life as a… Read More ›
-
The Host
Anyone who’s feeling intrigued by the new monster movie The Host might find the official Korean web site interesting (www.thehost.co.kr). Entertaining use of Flash… make sure you allow pop-ups on the site.
-
Cat Tracking into parallel dimensions
It’s a well known fact that many SF and comics writers own cats. Don’t ask me why, it’s just one of those weird rules of the universe. Of course many freelancers work from home, but even they must sometimes wonder… Read More ›
-
Is The Eagle a British icon?
Having just received a “Media Advisory” from icons.org.uk celebrating Guy Fawkes’ nomination as a national British icon, I thought I’d check to see who else was up for this “celebration of British culture”, backed by Culture Online, part of the… Read More ›
-
More from Moores
Read Yourself Raw reports that Alan Moore discusses the new League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen book The Black Dossier at Wizard www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/002034679.cfm Talking of Moores, folk may enjoy Leah Moore’s scathing review of their hotel accommodation in Lancaster, posted on Virtual-Lancaster…. Read More ›
-
Astrapets
I’ll put something up on the main site later, but just received two fab books from artist Bambos Georgiou, the first of his Astrapets collection. Aimed at all ages, both The Great Space Chase and Dangerous Games are great fun:… Read More ›
-
Lancaster Comics Festival – Thanks
I’d just like to thank all the small press creators — Redeye, Omnivistascope, Futurequake, the Comic Creators Guild, Soaring Penguin and many others — and professional comics creators – including Bryan Talbot, John Ridgway (pictured), Leah Moore, John Reppion, Adrian… Read More ›
-
All set for the festival…
Lancaster’s Ashton Memorial will be filled with comics fans tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to the event. Local artist Ant Mercer has done a top job of PRing the thing, so I hope all his hard work pays off in… Read More ›
-
Pingu for Number One!
While I was working at Marvel UK, Paul Neary once foolishly confessed admiration for the animation Pingu. Once the laughter had died away he made me watch the show with a view to a potential pitch for a comic and… Read More ›
-
Mistaken Identity
Working on the virtual-lancaster.net web site as now only sometimes I do, just occasionally we get information from people in one of America’s Lancasters rather than Lancaster, England. Case in point is a very courteous note we had from the… Read More ›