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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British Comic Creators support fundraising for Haiti Earthquake victims
Comic creators across the globe are already coming up with ideas to help raise money for the Haiti Earthquake disaster – if you’re a British creator or retailer who’s doing something, let us know and we’ll try and plug it… Read More ›
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Tube Surfing: Ro-Jaws, Rebellion, Crikey!, Rankin, Road and Comic Fairs!
Ro-Jaws returns to 2000AD this week, making a comeback in the A.B.C. Warriors strip by Pat Mills and Clint Langley, who also provides the cover for Prog 1667, right.Originally designed by Kevin O’Neill for the Ro-Busters strip in Starlord weekly… Read More ›
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Vworp! Vworp! It’s a New Doctor Who comics fanzine!
A new Doctor Who fanzine, Vworp Vworp! goes on sale later this month. It takes a loving, affectionate look at Marvel/Panini’s Doctor Who comic strips and the magazine that spawned them – Doctor Who Magazine and is o-edited by Gareth… Read More ›
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In Review: Glister and the Faerie Host
Glister and the Faerie Hostby Andi WatsonPublished by Walker BooksOut: Now The Book: It’s coming up to Halloween and already Glister’s father is bustling around getting ready for Christmas! The Butterworths are putting up decorations for the tree and making… Read More ›
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Comic Creators Ally against Human Trafficking
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”– Margaret Mead Monday, 11th January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the US. To participate, a… Read More ›
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Strip! – Philosophers, Gods and Monsters
In the first of this month’s shows from the Strip! podcast team on ResonanceFM and online about the portrayal of masculinity in American comic books, Alex Fitch talks to writer Fred Van Lente about penning the adventures of undead superheroes… Read More ›
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Comics for Windows Wanted
Mantle Arts, a small UK based arts organisation, is running an interesting project to brighten up a town centre – and is looking for comics artists to get involved. The project is employing artists to create artwork for empty shop… Read More ›
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Fallen Angel Slips from Murky Depths!
Fans of Luke Cooper’s The Dark Gospel series, which appears in the speculative fiction quarterly Murky Depths, who can’t get enough of the cigarette-smoking, alcohol-swigging angel, Halo Slipping, will be please to know that The House Of Murky Depths (Murky… Read More ›
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Future to launch Comic Heroes magazine in March
Bolstered by the sales success of an SFX comics special last year, UK publishers Future have announced a March launch for Comic Heroes, a premium-priced quarterly magazine title that promises to take an in-depth look at the latest superhero movies,… Read More ›
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Crikey! regroups after Borders collapse
The editor of British comics magazine Crikey! has revealed the recent collapse of Borders UK has proved a bit of a catastrophe for the magazine, as the loss of that chain and its affiliates took away about 70% of its… Read More ›
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Tube Surfing: Marvel, Disney, Stan Lee and possible iTablet launch
• Marvel Entertainment stockholders approved the company’s merger with Disney at a special meeting held last Thursday (31st December). Under the agreement, valued at an estimated $4.3 billion, Marvel becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Disney. Whether this will ultimately have… Read More ›
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Don’t Get Lost webcomic blog launched
Andrew Luke has launched his strip blog, Don’t Get Lost, which he describes as a 300-page tale of abuse and survival through the self and friendship. The tale begins as a man flees from potential violence at the hand of… Read More ›
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Félicitations – Anthea Bell OBE
Our belated congratulations to Anthea Bell for receiving her Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours list for “services to Literature and Literary Translations.” Anthea is best known to us for the English language… Read More ›
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DC Thomson bids farewell to Bill Graham
DC Thomson editor Bill Graham – whose credits include Starblazer, Warlord and Spike and had a long and varied career with the Dundee-based company – has just retired. Previously interviewed by Jeremy Briggs for the site, what we haven’t published… Read More ›
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Comic Book Alliance launches logo competition
The Comic Book Alliance – a UK-based not-for-profit organisation – has just launched a competition for creators to come up with a logo, which runs until the end of January 2010. The competition, intended to find an iconic logo for… Read More ›
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Dan Dare Figures: Sneek Peek
Award-winning toy figure maker Day2Day Trading has just sent us these impressive shots of their new Dan Dare prototype figure, due for release next year (2010). The Dare figure is just the start of a full Dan Dare range from… Read More ›
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Seek and Strike out for the new Commandos…
The latest issues of DC Thomson’s Commando went on sale a day early this week as we bid goodbye to 2009. There’s also some advance news for the next round of issues on sale in January 2010. “We’ll be starting… Read More ›
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Merry Christmas
Well hopefully Santa arrived at your house last night and didn’t look too much like this. New Eagle’s most popular character was of course Dan Dare but its most popular new character was Doomlord.The alien Doomlord Vek from the planet… Read More ›
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Merry Christmas: 1 Day To Go
Our run of Christmas covers continue as we countdown to Christmas Day. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a good Look and Learn Santa cover and this one comes from issue 728 in 1975. With Santa speeding over the snow on… Read More ›
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New Sandman Collections Announced
DC Comics imprint Vertigo has announced new, re-mastered editions of Neil Gaiman’s critically-acclaimed series, Sandman. Beginning next year, Vertigo will publish new trade paperback editions of Sandman in ten volumes – remastered and corrected versions of the comic the Los… Read More ›