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.
-
Artist seeking artists for charity comic
Brain aneurysm survivor Siike Donnelly is aiming to share his love for comic books, and his writing ability, to recruit artists for a very personal project that he hopes will save more lives like his. 30-year-old Siike (Seek) Donnelly, an… Read More ›
-
Fanfare, Knockabout Comics and K9 team up for San Diego!
The annual pilgrimage that is San Diego Comic-Con has begun anew for many creators and British-Spanish publisher Ponent Mon/Fanfare has dropped us a line to tell us about lots of interesting products they’ll have at the show from a host… Read More ›
-
Team Girl Comic Issue 5 Kicks Off
Back in May, Glasgow’s Team Girl Comic collective began a Kickstarter campaign to raise the money to publish issue 5 of their title. Their target was $1000 (Kickstarter being a US site) and, remarkably, they reached it in five days… Read More ›
-
London Film and Comic Con 2012
Crowds gathered at Olympia, London from 6-8th July for another hugely successful London Film and Comic Con. High-profile TV and movie guests included Bernard Cribbins, Freema Agyeman and John Simms from Doctor Who, Gillian Anderson from The X-Files, Gates McFadden and… Read More ›
-
Comic Creators voice protest to proposed UK copyright law changes
(Updated 9/7/12 with comments from various creators about the plans) Comic creators are raising concerns about changes afoot to copyright law in the UK, effectively stripping away long held rights and potentially handing the handling of your copyrighted creations to… Read More ›
-
Com.X promotes Monster Myths at San Diego
Publishers Com.X will be promoting a number of their innovative and eye catching projects at San Diego, including the recently-released Monster Myths written by John Lupo Avanti and Chester Westward, drawn by Avanti. Alfredo, a recovering felon turned working stiff,… Read More ›
-
Rogue Trooper history for sale
“The Emperor” came across some cracking early Rogue Trooper art and concepts by Dave Gibbons on eBay
-
New British Small Press Community launched
Comic creator Trystan Mitchell just dropped us a note to mention an excellent new Small Press Comics Community Forum has just been birthed in the UK, dedicated to small press comics and self publishing. Some excellent discussions and experience sharing… Read More ›
-
Commando: Spot The Difference
Twenty-five years ago Commando published an issue entitled “Roll Of Honour” featuring a cover by artist Ian Kennedy. To celebrate the 65th anniversary of D-Day in 2009, Carlton Books released the then latest of their Commando reprint books entitled D-Day:… Read More ›
-
Panel Borders: Scott Snyder and Jock – The Black Mirror
In the first of a series of shows about comic book creators who collaborate together, Alex Fitch of radio show Panel Borders talks to writer Scott Snyder and artist Jock about their 2010 / 2011 collaboration on Detective Comics, collected… Read More ›
-
Print Express launch Comic Printing Competition
The folk at British online printers Print Express love designers, writers, artists and anything creative and they’ve been running a number of competitions to help support interesting, creative people. Now they’ve decided to do something a little bit special – and… Read More ›
-
Glasgow Comic Con 2012: More Pictures
Following up on our review of Glasgow Comic Con, here are some more pictures from the event, courtesy of the organisers. Photography by by Alasdair Watson © Alasdair Watson & Glasgow Comic Con Queueing around the block Newly-signed creators for… Read More ›
-
Steadfast! Commando Art Exhibition in Aberdeen
For the third time in less than twelve months the Commando archive has been opened to allow artwork to be used in a public exhibition. After the Draw Your Weapons exhibition in London’s National Army Museum and the Battlelines exhibition… Read More ›
-
2000AD announces San Diego ComicCon schedule
Along with many British comic creators, 2000AD, the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic will be flying the flag for British comics and heading to the greatest show on Earth with a packed schedule of exclusive signings and panels. “San Diego Comic-Con 2012… Read More ›
-
In Review: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Century: 2009
The third chapter of the third volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is an epic finale…
-
Second Glasgow Comic Convention proves success
Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely at Glasgow Comic Con 2012. Photo: Craig Hastie of Comics Anonymous David Robertson of Fred Egg Comics reports on a weekend offering a range of big name guests and upcoming comics revelations… Photos kindly provided… Read More ›
-
No Heroes But One Award!
The “little comic that could” No More Heroes picked up the award for Best Comic at the SICBA (Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards) event held at Glasgow Comic Con over the weekend. The four-issue mini-series about the suspicious death of… Read More ›
-
British Comic Awards launched
News today (via The Emperor and the Forbidden Planet Blog) of the launch of the British Comic Awards website. The British Comic Awards is described as a brand new initiative to annually celebrate the very best in British comics. The… Read More ›
-
Scotch Corner Art Blog Celebrates Its 3rd Birthday
The Scotch Corner daily art blog is celebrating its third birthday and, like last year, has called on a number of guest artists to give a short holiday to the Scotch Corner regulars, artdroids Graeme Neil Reid, Gary Erskine, Simon… Read More ›