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.
-
Charley takes on Hitler in latest collection of classic war comic
Charley’s War: Hitler’s Youth, the eighth volume of the classic World War One comic strip by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun, first published in Battle Picture Weekly, is now on sale from Titan Books, although the official publication date is… Read More ›
-
Wear your red (or white) poppy with pride on Remembrance Day
Remembrance Sunday falls on 13th November and across the world, services and events have been arranged, with the public being urged to take the time to remember all who died for their country in the two World Wars and… Read More ›
-
STRIP Magazine’s courier curse strikes again
Courier problems have hit STRIP Magazine again, meaning the planned launch date had to be pushed back. STRIP Magazine is printed in Bosnia and shipped from there. After problems with Strip Zero earlier in the year it was shipped earlier… Read More ›
-
Demoncon2 finalises line up with plenty of web comic creators
(With thanks to The Grinning Man, Maidstone): The line up for Demoncon2, taking place in Maidstone in November, is now pretty much finalised and includes comic creators such as Garen Ewing and Dan Boultwood on the guest list, along with… Read More ›
-
Back from the depths…
My apologies for the lack of posts over the past week (and special thanks to Jeremy Briggs for stepping up to the plate). Unfortunately, my computer had a hard drive failure (now fixed thanks to Ubertechs in Lancaster) which meant… Read More ›
-
Private Eye marks 50th anniversary with special issue
Issue 1300 of Private Eye, on sale 26th October, will be a special issue marking its 50th birthday. This landmark event for the magazine – which has always featured cartoons and comic strips satirising British life and politics – is… Read More ›
-
A Choice Of New Who Sketches Up For Grabs
Scotch Corner artist Graeme Neil Reid is running a competition over on his I Got No Work Done Today Because… blog to win one of three new Doctor Who colour sketches that he has been displaying over the last week…. Read More ›
-
Newcastle Gets The Canny Comic Con
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne has long had a regular comic mart to go with its branches of Travelling Man and Forbidden Planet, but it has apparently been some fifteen years since it has had a big comics event. Small Press Big Mouth-er Stacey… Read More ›
-
Pat Mills Talks Charley’s War At The Tank Museum
Having already given talks this year on Charley’s War at the Imperial War Museum in London and the Edinburgh International Book Festival, writer and editor Pat Mills continues to discuss his World War One character at the The Tank Museum… Read More ›
-
John Ryan Artwork Exhibition in Rye
Two characters that were created for the first issue of Eagle comic in April 1950 have entered the British public’s collective consciousness. The first is Eagle’s most well known character, the spaceman Dan Dare, but the other, whilst well known,… Read More ›
-
Commando Raids Estonia
Commando may be best known for its one-off stories but it has run quite a few series over the years with recurring characters and situations. Perhaps the best known, mainly due to the sheer number of issues they have been… Read More ›
-
Latest Issue Of Eagle Times Now Available (Volume 24, Number Three)
Leslie Ashwell Wood was Eagle’s premier cutaway artist providing over 600 different painted cutaways for the weekly comic between 1950 and 1969. While some of these paintings have been reused in the recent Eagle reprint books published by Orion to… Read More ›
-
Historic Event told in Comic Strip Form
A gigantic comic strip depiction of the Battle of Wakefield drawn and written by artist John Welding, previously shown at Wakefield Museum as part of their ‘Battle of Wakefield 1460’ Exhibition, can be seen at the University of Leeds until… Read More ›
-
Steve Moore’s Somnium novel out in November
Comic creator Steve Moore — creator of such wonderful characters as Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer and Axel Pressbutton — has an intriguing new novel on the way from Somnium Press, with Strange Attractor Press. A prominent inclusion in Iain Sinclair’s 2006… Read More ›
-
Striker site down – but no early bath for the strip, says creator
Football comics seem to be getting it in the neck this month – after the demise of the print edition of Comic Football (due to return online later this year), fans have alerted us to say that the official… Read More ›
-
WebFinds: Girls Comics of Yesterday and Bunty’s British “Supergirl”
Researching a question from a downthetubes reader about a fondly-remembered British ‘Supergirl‘, I came across Girls Comics of Yesterday, a relatively new fan site dedicated to British girl comics of the past, looking at three of the most long lasting… Read More ›
-
Larry Hama Rolls Out for Action Force Roll Call
All The Cool Stuff has just announced the third Roll Out/ Roll Call, the UK Fan Show Convention dedicated to Transformers, Action Force and GI Joe – and that one of its star guests will be top US writer Larry… Read More ›
-
Multiverse muses on DC makeover, Com.X and Valiant reboot
The latest issue of British comic news magazine Multiverse is on sale now in all good UK comic shops – and back issues are now also available digitally from graphic.ly. Edited by Mike Conroy, Issue 4 sports a DC Comics… Read More ›
-
Comic Football bounces back, looking for creators
We’ve got some good news about Comic Football, the national subscription-only comic that recently informed subscribers it had been cancelled. It seems that this is only part of the story – the comic will return later this year, but in… Read More ›