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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Cartoon Map of Europe in 1914 “discovered”
Cartoons featured as heavily in the day to day lives of the men and women of 1914 as they do today. This German cartoon from 1914, highlighted by the Public Domain Review, shows the lay of the political land… Read More ›
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Lakes Comic Art Festival announces “Great War in Comics” exhibition
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has announced that the prestigious Abbot Hall gallery in Kendal is to host a tie-in exhibition, entitled “The Great War in Comics” – featuring art from the classic war strip Charley’s War drawn by… Read More ›
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Ladybird Books celebrates 100th anniversary in 2015
Ladybird Books – whose artists in the past included Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson and fellow Eagle artists Martin Aitchison and Frank Humphris along with TV21 artist Ron Embleton – will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2015. To coincide with… Read More ›
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Markosia announces “Apollo” SuperCon Exclusive
Independent British publishers Markosia have added another Limited Edition London Super Comic Convention Exclusive to their roster – an over-sized version of one of their latest graphic novels, Apollo by Erik von Wodtke and Douglas A. Sirois. Just 50 copies… Read More ›
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Battle Classics – Competition Winners
The winners of copies of Titan Books new British comic collection, Garth Ennis Presents Battle Classics were John Hammond and Paul Eldridge. Congratulations to them both and our thanks to Titan for the prizes. You’ll be pleased to hear that… Read More ›
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Hal Laren wins our Dan Dare “Reboot” Competition
We know we’ve been longer announcing the winner of our Dan Dare Reboot Competition. You can view them all the entries on Flickr here. There’s a piece of news on the character we have been anxious to share with you, but right… Read More ›
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Lakes International Comic Art Festival announces 24 Hour Comic Marathon
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival (17-19th October 2014) has announced plans to host a 24 Hour Comic Marathon hosted by ace comics creator and educator Dan Berry – and they’re looking for comic artists to take part. Here’s the… Read More ›
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British Comic Awards 2014 Nominations Open
After a slight delay the nomination process for this year’s British Comic Awards is now open. Readers, retailers, creators, publishers, heroes, villains and talking animals are all welcome to suggest their favourite comics and comic book creators. They will all… Read More ›
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Panel Borders: Régis Loisel and Peter Pan
Starting a month of shows about French comics or bande dessinée, Alex Fitch talks to cartoonist Régis Loisel about his epic graphic novel adaptation of and prequel to J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, published in the UK by Soaring Penguin Press…. Read More ›
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In Praise of… Gerry Dolan
Back in my days as editor of Doctor Who Magazine, one of the first comic strips I edited for the title was “Stairway to Heaven”, a story that is much noted for being the first published professional work of a… Read More ›
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Birmingham MCM Comic Con back in March
Two great events; one weekend; one ticket! Visit the MCM Birmingham Comic Con at the NEC on 22-23 March and you’ll also get entry to Britain’s biggest collectors’ event, Memorabilia Birmingham. If you’re into movies, sci-fi, videogames, comics, cosplay or… Read More ›
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Revolutionary War: Fitting It Into Marvel Continuity
Over on the excellent It Came from Darkmoor blog dedicated to all things Marvel UK, Mark Roberts has been mulling over Marvel’s new limited series, Revolutionary War, and how it fits into overall Marvel continuity. In particular, he’d been trying… Read More ›
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British comic creators a-plenty head to London Supercon
The line up for this year’s London Super Comic Convention in March (15–16th) is hotting up. Taking place at the ExCel Centre in London British guests and exhibitors now include Charlie Adlard, Mark Buckingham, Ian Churchill, Andy Clift, Mike Collins,… Read More ›
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Crucible Comic #1 available for Kindle, work in progress on #2
We’re pleased to announce that the first issue of a US-comic styled, digital edition of our Crucible comic is now also available for Kindle and in PDF format from Scribd. Work is progressing steadily on Issue 2, with Jim Campbell at… Read More ›
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Judge Dredd: Underbelly sells out in 48 hours, reprint on the way
Just 48 hours after it went on sale, 2000AD has announced that they are to reprint their sold-out comic book Dredd: Underbelly. The official comic book sequel to the cult hit movie staring Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby, Underbelly sold… Read More ›
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Convict Commandos return in ghostly new Commando tale
Here’s the run down on the latest issues of DC Thomson’s war comic, Commando – Issues 4675-4678 – on sale now in all good newsagents and digitally for iPad and iPhone on the iTunes store. Commando No 4675 – Grave… Read More ›
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BFI celebrates 30 Years of “Spitting Image”
BFI Southbank will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Spitting Image on 27th February – one of the most innovative and daring television programmes ever conceived. Thirty years ago, Roger Law and Peter Fluck were happily ensconced in a converted Temperance… Read More ›
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Judge Dredd: Underbelly, movie sequel collection released
The comic book sequel to the critically-acclaimed movie DREDD hit comic book stores and online today. Written by Arthur Wyatt and drawn by Henry Flint, this special US-format one-shot is available, collecting the whole Underbelly story, from comic book stores… Read More ›
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Creator Spotlight: Gerry Embleton
I had a quick phone call with ace artist John Ridgway today, discussing colouring comics, Commando and one of our favourite topics, favourite comic creators, which today included the great pulp magazine artist Alden MacWiliams (whose credits included Twin Earths,… Read More ›
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National Literacy Trust charity auction includes Doctor Who script, Gruffalo art
Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler, League of Gentlemen co-creator and co-star Steve Pemberton, along with celebrities including Joanna Trollope, Barbara Taylor Bradford and Madness have united to support literacy. All have donated items to an auction on behalf of the National… Read More ›