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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Crucible Design Work – Zingamy
Smuzz has just delivered some stunning colour guides for the main ‘Quest’ cast: I’ll post them here over the next few days or so. Here’s the first… © 2011 John Freeman and Smuzz
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A Decade Of Irish Comics Events
Having recently featured posts both on Comics In Northern Ireland and Scottish Comics Events, Belfast Comics organiser Paddy Brown has been in touch to effectively combine the two by pointing us in the direction of the Irish Comics Wiki. This… Read More ›
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Commando comic goes digital for 50th anniversary
Commando – now available on iPad and iPhone Along with the latest issues of Commando – which includes a reprint of an issue from 1970 drawn by now top 2000AD artist Cam Kennedy – comes news from DC Thomson that… Read More ›
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Comica Conversation: Lorenzo Mattotti and Dave McKean
On Saturday March 12th, mesmerising Italian maestro Lorenzo Mattotti makes a rare visit to London to discuss his career in comics and beyond, including his latest graphic novel Stigmata, translated by Fantagraphics, and his collaborations, from his animated terrors in… Read More ›
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Jody MacGregor’s ‘100 Comics to Read Before You Die’ reaches Top Ten
(with thanks to Dez Skinn for the tip off): Over the last few years, there has been a plethora of rushed and badly researched books on the top graphic novels, often too tightly focused onUS product. But writer Jody MacGregor… Read More ›
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Leeds Alternative Comics Fair back in March
The second Leeds Alternative Comics Fair takes place on the 19th March 2011, 12 noon-6pm, at A Nation of Shopkeepers bar (behind Leeds City Art Gallery). Steve Tillotson (banal pig comics) and Hugh “Shug” Raine (REET! Comics) are again to… Read More ›
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Manga @ Glasgow Film Festival
The Glasgow Film Festival has a considerable comics strand this year due to the presence of Mark Millar as a GFF Ambassador. The details of workshops, talks and screenings were originally mentioned on downthetubes here. One of the events listed… Read More ›
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Investigating the dark comedy of comics – a call for papers
A call has gone out for papers investigating the dark humour of comics, which will be presented at a one day event, the Bath Spa University Postgraduate Symposium in May at Corsham Court, Wiltshire, whose guests will include both academics… Read More ›
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Markosia to publish Henry Fint art book
(via ECBT2000AD and Cy Dethan): Markosia will be publishing Broadcast, The TV Doodles of Henry Flint later this year. The book will contain about 100 pieces of all new artwork from Henry, best known for his work on 2000AD, Vertigo… Read More ›
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Comics In Northern Ireland
With the good news of the return of 2D, Northern Ireland’s Comics Festival, for its fifth year in the Verbal Arts Centre in Londonderry at the beginning of June, perhaps it is an appropriate time to take a look at… Read More ›
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10thology project to debut at Cardiff comic expo
The Cardiff International Comic Expo takes place at the end of this month – and with it, the launch of 10thology, an exciting looking comics project featuring a host of top Welsh comic creators, including Mike Collins, Si Wyatt and… Read More ›
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"It’s… Jokes" is latest Signature Publishing title for kids
Signature Publishing, whose titles include Dinosaur King and Dinomite, are to release It’s… Jokes magazine later this month. The new magazine is the fourth in their successful “It’s…” series, aimed at 5 to 10 year olds and, say the publishers,… Read More ›
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Skyjack to launch Moshi Monsters title
Skyjack Publishing, the company behind their own title, Megaton and who have also packaged comics such as Ben 10 for Egmont, launch a new UK monthly magazine, Moshi Monsters, later this month. Based on the hugely popular online game that… Read More ›
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Classic British Comics Abroad: Dan Dare and more, in Yugoslavia
A quick look at popular British comic characters abroad
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‘Next Blog’ brings news of John Watkiss latest work
This is one of those ‘lucky finds’ on the Web, courtesy of Blogger’s ‘Next Blog’ button. In the past, these often used to throw up random spam sites, but it seems Google has been cataloguing their blogs, so clicking ‘Next… Read More ›
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2D 2011: Brush Strokes In Stroke City
2D, held at the Verbal Arts Centre in Londonderry, is the UK’s most westerly comics convention and for the last four years it has been the largest comics event in Northern Ireland if not the whole island of Ireland. This… Read More ›
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SciFi Art Now Creator Interview: Graeme Neil Reid
About two years ago, Graeme Neil Reid went full time as an illustrator after having produced work part time and in conjunction with his job in the marketing and advertising industries for over 15 years. “These days I spend every… Read More ›
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Classic British Superheroes reprinted
Black Tower Adventure Volume 1 Following up on our recent story about classic British comics reprinted (now an expanded standalone page here) The Black Tower Gold Collection – the brainchild of Terry Hooper, who edits the ComicBitsOnline web site – … Read More ›
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Adam Eterno art on sale on eBay
Three pages of Adam Eterno art by Solano Lopez are currently on sale on eBay. All three pieces are from the Peter Hansen IPC Archive Collection, who bought IPC’s entire archive of art some years back, and are all from… Read More ›
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The Quest – First Colour Promotional Image
© 2011 John Freeman and Smuzz (SMS) Time for some gratuitous self promotion for The Quest, a comics project I’m working on with ace artist Smuzz (whose credits include 2000AD and Interzone). Here’s a terrific promotional image for The Quest,… Read More ›