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.
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From the Trenches: The Lakes International Comic Festival’s Academic Workshop
Mel Gibson reports on another aspect of this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival – its academic workshop, an aspect set to expand next year… The Lakes International Comic Art Festival‘s approach to developing links with the academy is distinctive. Their… Read More ›
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Tokyo reimagined in style by Shinji Tsuchimochi for “100 Views of Tokyo” project
(With thanks to Marcia Allass): Following in the footsteps of ukiyo-e artist Hiroshige, Shinji Tsuchimochi spent three years illustrating the city, bringing a modern sense of whimsy and, sometimes, surrealism to the Japanese city. First published online, 100 Views of Tokyo, published in… Read More ›
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When is the Beano not So Beano? When it isn’t promoted to its readers online, perhaps?
When is The Beano not The Beano? When it’s Beano – the official web site. Yes, it’s a terrible joke, but not as terrible as the bemusing lack of any obvious presence for the print edition of The Beano on the… Read More ›
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ICv2 delves into Digital Comic Subscriptions, asking if they’re gong “Netflix”
For a while in the late Aughts, the Apple iTunes Store model was the predominant way to buy digital content: individual items from an enormous catalog, priced to buy one at a time. Then along came Netflix, with unlimited access… Read More ›
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Sneak Peek: First ever complete collection of the early years of The Sun’s “Striker” comic
Pete Nash, creator of Striker, published by The Sun and online on Planet Striker, has given us a sneak peek at some of the pages of the first ever sequential collection of the hugely popular football strip, Striker: The Complete Collection… Read More ›
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Dan Dare Audio Adventures Theme by Imran Ahmad Released
B7 Media has just released its Dan Dare theme tune for the upcoming Dan Dare Audio Adventures, which launch from Big Finish next month, the music the work of British Indian film music composer and musician Imran Ahmad, who’s previously worked with… Read More ›
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Hallowe’en Comic Tales: The 13th Stone
It’s become something of a Hallowe’en tradition for comic creators Bryan Coyle and Lee Robson to create a short comic for the season, but this year (with the help of Bolt-01), they’ve gone one better and done a full blown 22-page one-shot, The… Read More ›
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Hallowe’en Comic Tales: A Wrong Turning by Dave Morris and Martin McKenna
A few years ago authors Roz and Dave Morris (the former, a fantastic source of advice on writing tips as well as a brilliant well-established writer, the latter currently promoting the marvellous graphic novel project Mirabilis via Patreon) spent a week… Read More ›
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Scream! in the spotlight: a wonderfully ghastly new Comic Archive from Hibernia Comics!
We’ll be running a fuller review of this cracking new title from Hibernia Comics soon, but I couldn’t not give an early plug to their latest brilliant ‘Comic Archive’, It’s Ghastly, the untimely demise of Scream!, on sale now. The third… Read More ›
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Gnasher and Gnipper – Bored Teenagers? New screenprint on sale now
John Patrick Reynolds has just released another of his fab limited edition Beano screenprints, this time featuring Dennis the Menace’s faithful dog Gnasher and his son, Gnipper. Both dogs are looking very bored, lying about like a couple of disaffected… Read More ›
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Doctor Who artist Richard Piers Rayner’s work on show in Middlesbrough
Comic artist Richard Piers Rayner, perhaps best known for his work on the crime noir story Road to Perdition but whose credits include Doctor Who, Hellblazer and Captain America: Red White and Blue, is the focus of a new exhibition at… Read More ›
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Exclusive! Titan Comics Hook Jaw Variant Cover by Brian Williamson Revealed!
Following up on our previous post featuring the covers of the first issue of Titan Comics Hook Jaw project, we have this exclusive for you – Brian Williamson‘s stunning retro-styled Diamond Comics UK variant, complete with Action comic-styled masthead! Launching… Read More ›
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Egmont’s classic comics archive arrives at Rebellion, Roy of the Rovers collections already in the works
The surviving bound comics volumes and comics art from the Egmont archive has arrived at new owners Rebellion‘s Oxford HQ, another step in the process of seeing some great British girls and boys comics material get back into print. 2000AD‘s… Read More ›
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Tax changes ahead for UK freelancers, digital only and quarterly reporting on the way, despite rollout speed concerns
This might sound a bit of a boring item, but it’s important for any freelancer creating comics or working as an illustrator, because UK government proposals to not only require quarterly tax reporting, but to also only file tax returns digitally… Read More ›
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Something For The Weekend – Black Dog and Dylan Teague overload! – This Week’s New Comics in the UK (w/c 24th October 2016)
Ace artist Dylan Teague has taken over all incoming transmissions this week, with a superb cover for the new Judge Dredd Megazine (Issue 377), art on “Judge Dredd” for 2000AD – and of course his strip for the wonderful digital… Read More ›
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Pre-Christmas Comics Goodness planned in Manchester at For the Love of Sci-Fi event
Featuring guests from comics, movies and TV, For the Love of Sci-Fi is a two-day event taking place at Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester on 3rd – 4th December 2016. Comics guests announced so far are Mike Collins, Carlos Ezquerra, Simon Furman, Diego Galindo, Kev Hopgood, Staz Johnson, Mike… Read More ›
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Knight Rider Returns – Again!
Justin Lin, the director behind the Fast and Furious franchise, is working with Machinima to bring back Knight Rider as a digital series. World Screen reports the digital series is being produced with NBCUniversal (who own the property), popular video platform Machinima and Lin’s YouTube… Read More ›
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New comics from the Lakes Festival: “Coelifer Atlas” and “Carrot to the Stars”
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has recently published two great books as part of its developing publishing program. They are Coelifer Atlas, this year’s special 24 Hour Marathon Comic project featuring a stellar line up of talent, which aims to raise awareness of the… Read More ›
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Malta Comic Con 2016 Guest Line Up – PJ Holden, Sean Azzopardi and Tim Perkins join the throng!
Organisers Wicked Comics have announced a slew of guests for the eighth Malta Comic Con, taking place Saturday 3rd – Sunday 4th December at the south end of the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre (MFCC) in Ta’ Qali. I was… Read More ›
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Rare, ‘banned’ 1970s British Action comic sells for over £4000
Regular readers of downthetubes will recall how a rare copy of the controversial 1970s comic Action went under the hammer on eBay last year; and the final winning bid was over £2500. Well, another copy of the rare Issue 37,… Read More ›