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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Take Ten: Channel 4’s Alien Ink graphic novel project launched
Channel 4 Education recently launched Alien Ink, an online graphic novel for teens. Written and illustrated by the team at Pulp Theatre, publishers of the hard-hitting cult hit graphic novel Brodie’s Law, Alien Ink aims to reflect a series of… Read More ›
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Culture Show Discusses Comics Tonight
Just a quick ‘heads-up’ to advise you to tune into tonight’s The Culture Show on BB2 (at 7.00pm, repeated at 12.20am Friday morning). The programme will be exploring “the past, present and post-election future of British comic art” which is… Read More ›
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In Review: Scheme Comix #1
The Comic: SF-inspired comics anthology featuring the work of Kev Harper, Number Six, David Walker, T. Bye, Sharon Irvine and Drip Tray. The aim of publishing Scheme is to showcase the best unknown artists working out of the city of… Read More ›
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VE Day Marked in Latest Commandos
The latest issues of DC Thomoson’s Commando, on sale now, features another cover from Janek Matysiak using his new direct-to-screen way of working. (You can see the first he did in this way here). The releases also feature the work… Read More ›
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In Review: London MCM Expo 17
The one thing that really hits you about the MCM Expo at London’s ExCel centre is its sheer size. The two big comics events in the UK are Bristol and BICS. Two weekends ago Bristol had 1000 people at it… Read More ›
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Doctor Who graphic novels range cancelled?
Speculation is rife on the future of Panini’s Doctor Who comics collections today, after news broke that the planned release of The Crimson Hand – featuring Tenth Doctor David Tennant’s last comics adventures – had been cancelled. Sheffield based store… Read More ›
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In Review: Crikey! pays tribute to John Hicklenton, O’Donnell
The latest issue of Crikey! – which has notched up an imprejavascript:void(0)ssive 15 issues, none too shabby for an independently published comics magazine these days – has changed its planned line up to pay tribute to the passing of creators… Read More ›
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Record attendance at London MCM Expo, Comics Village success
MCM Expo, May 2010. Picture: Juliette Crawford Last weekend’s London MCM Expo was the most successful in the show’s history, with more than 41,000 visitors attending over the two days. Already established as the top UK entertainment event, the show… Read More ›
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Marvel Super Heroes storm London’s Madame Tussauds
Two of the world’s leading entertainment brands – Madame Tussauds, part of the Merlin Entertainments Group, and Marvel Entertainment – have joined forces to create a unique new visitor experience at the leading London attraction, scheduled to open in early… Read More ›
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Councils Of The Galaxy Visit Scottish Schools
After last year’s comic adaptation of The First Men On Mercury, created by Metaphrog for the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, was given away free on National Poetry Day to Strathclyde’s school children, this year the charity Children in Scotland… Read More ›
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Zine Symposium this Saturday in London
The London Zine Symposium takes place this weekend at the Rag Factory in East London. An annual event where people interested in zines, small-press, comics and/ or radical culture can get together, buy or sell zines and share ideas with… Read More ›
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Britforce finally arrives in stores from Moonface Press
(Corrected credits, 27/5/10): Britannia! Bulldog! Lionheart! Stonehenge! Moonwitch! Helspawn! In the 1990s they were BritForce – the UK’s very own team of super-powered heroes. But driven appart by catastrophe, BritForce disbanded and haven’t seen each other in over a decade…… Read More ›
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Wallace & Gromit find a place in The Sun!
A new newspaper strip featuring Aardman Animations’ Wallace & Gromit, launched last week, is getting good feedback from the characters legion of fans. Replacing the long-running ‘strip-com’ George and Lynne, the new comic is being produced by Titan Comics and… Read More ›
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Tony Lee taks Zombies — and Jane Austen!
British comics creator Tony Lee is a busy man: popping up at the Bristol Comic Expo last weekend, writing a number of projects, with more in the pipeline. This week, he found time to talk to Mike Braff at the… Read More ›
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Pat Mills delight at Eagle Award Nomination for Charley’s War
2000AD co-creator Pat Mills has expressed his delight at learning that the latest collection of Charley War, written by Pat and drawn by Joe Colquhoun, has been nominated for an Eagle Award. Nominated in the category for Favourite Reprint Compilation,… Read More ›
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In Review: Classics from the Comics Issue 170
The latest issue of DC Thomson’s Classics from the Comics sports a new look, complete with revamped cover masthead reflecting it’s ‘retro’ appeal, but the line up of humour and adventure strips inside is the usual engaging mix of material… Read More ›
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Japanese publisher seeks colourists
Tokyo-based publisher EigoTown is looking to have around 600 black and white and greyscale illustrations coloured for use on the iPhone and iPad and has put out an appeal for samples to British creators. “We’re creating Apps based on Oxford… Read More ›
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Voting opens for Eagle Awards
Voting for this year’s Eagle Awards is now open on the official site. Introduced in 1976, the Eagles are the comics industry’s longest established awards. Acknowledged as the pre-eminent international prizes, they have been featured on the covers of leading… Read More ›
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Striker comic to go free-to-view online in July
The entire 25-year archive of the football strip Striker, first published in The Sun and now featuring in mens magazine Nuts, is to be available online as free to view comics on the Striker website when it relaunches in early… Read More ›