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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Thought Bubble Festival programme goes live
The programme of events for this year’s Thought Bubble Festival in Leeds is now live. From 17th – 24th November, in association with Leeds International Film Festival, Allied London, and Arts Council England the largest celebration of comics and animation… Read More ›
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Plants vs. Zombies promotion on way from Forbidden Planet
Plants vs. Zombies seems to be taking over the world, with retail chain Forbidden Planet signing on for an in-store programme while clothing firm Cooneen is developing a nightwear range. Titan Magazines – part of the Titan Entertainment Group which… Read More ›
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Enter our Dan Dare “Reboot” Competition
How would Dan Dare’s universe look if the series was re-launched today? Although it was published in late 1962 the first Dan Dare Space Annual, right, is dated 1963, and we felt it was an opportune event to mark a… Read More ›
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T-Shirt Booth app launches, offering personalised character shirts that raise charity funds
Now this is genius – and a great way to raise money for charities, too. Digital Giving, an organisation which develops engaging and innovative projects for the benefit of national and international causes, has just launched a unique way of… Read More ›
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Delcourt to publish French language editions of ‘Porcelain’ trilogy
French publisher Delcourt and Improper Books have announced that the French language edition of Porcelain: A Gothic Fairy Tale, by Benjamin Read and Chris Wildgoose, is set for a September 2014 release. As the leading independent comic publisher in France,… Read More ›
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Can you resist the latest Commandos?
Here’s the full details on the latest issues of DC Thomson’s war comic Commando, on sale now in all good newsagents and also as digital editions, offering two new stories – one featuring a behind the lines tale of the… Read More ›
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Katie Green guest at Glasgow’s Aye! Write festival
Author Katie Green will be giving a talk in Glasgow as part of the upcoming Aye Write! and Scottish Mental Health and Arts Festival, on Friday 18th October. Lighter Than My Shadow is Katie Green’s new graphic novel about how… Read More ›
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Panel Borders celebrates 100 issues of “The Walking Dead”
Starting a month of shows on horror and fantasy comics, Alex Fitch talks to artist Charlie Adlard this week on his radio show Panel Borders, about drawing 100 issues of The Walking Dead. Alex and Charlie discuss the various storylines… Read More ›
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Spectator launches new award for cartooning
The Spectator magazine has launched what it hopes will be a long-running annual prize: the Michael Heath Award for Cartooning, sponsored by John Lobb. Michael Heath, who is Cartoon Editor at the magazine, had his first cartoon published in The… Read More ›
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Will McPhail scoops “Young Cartoonist of the Year” award
Congratulations this morning to Chorley-based cartoonist Will McPhail, who has won the accolade of “Young Cartoonist of the Year” from the British Cartoonist’s Association. “My flattery battery is fully charged,” says Will, who won the title with his drawing of… Read More ›
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Could your webcomic be part of WASP 2014?
Earlier this year, twelve artists created some fantastic and unique strips swapping art duties amongst their respective webcomics and working to each others’ scripts. Now the team gearing up for Round Two – and throwing down the challeneg to other… Read More ›
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Steve Bell recalls the “Golden Age of Caricature”
Political cartoonist Steve Bell – best known for his work in The Guardian – will be at the University of Aberdeen in November, giving a free talk on Britain’s early visual satirists such as James Gillray, William Hogarth and George… Read More ›
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Top 10 Most Popular Stories so far this week
Just for fun, here’s a list of our most popular stories this week so on downthetubes in order of popularity, omitting ‘landings’ on our home page… The Daily Mail’s Doctor Who newspaper strip that never was Ten Questions: Lighter Than… Read More ›
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Marvel’s Revolutionary War – Dakin, Elson and Erskine on board
The London Film and Comic Con featured two Marvel UK-related panels, the first a general celebration of the company’s US comics projects such as Death’s Head II and Warheads, attended by Stephen Baskerville, Alan Cowsill, John Freeman, Simon Furman, Andy… Read More ›
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Comic fans warned over G+ virus dangers after Rich Johnston explodes*
We’re getting unusual reports of a strange virus circulating among comic press reporters, so serious they’re being referred to a special North London-based clinic run by one “Dr R. Mapra” for testing. According to a source at Titan Comics, the… Read More ›
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SelfMadeHero creators head for The Lakes (Comic Festival, that is)
SelfMadeHero is attending the first Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal, Cumbria, 18 -20 October with six of its writers and artists, including Oscar Zarate. Four of SelfMadeHero’s creators join forces for a Re-imagining the Classics panel discussion with… Read More ›
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London Film and Comic Con in Pictures
Here are some of the brilliant Steve Cook‘s fantastic photographs from this weekend’s London Film and Comic Con, which he has kindly allowed me to re-post. Kindly invited by Mike Conroy to the event (thank you, Mike!) had a… Read More ›
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The Daily Mail’s Doctor Who newspaper strip that never was
During the success of the new Doctor Who when it returned in 2005, I spoke with the Daily Mail, who were keen to run a daily strip of the Doctor. The right folk at the BBC agreed and I asked… Read More ›
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InkShot.com’s ‘International Aces’ profiles World War One fighter pilots
After three years contributing to such British small press titles as FutureQuake and Zarjaz, in 2010 talented London-based comics creator Chris Geary embarked on his ambitious four-volume graphic novel series, International Aces, recounting the true stories of the top pilots… Read More ›
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Here come the Zombie Space Pigs!
Zombies. How many more permutations can there be? The Walking Dead and Dead Roots are just two examples of this horror staple translated into fine comics that we’ve mentioned here recently on downthetubes, but there are many more… —… Read More ›