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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Cracking Contraptions!
(with thanks to Katie Bleathman): London’s Science Museum has announced a new Wallace & Gromit-themed exhibition, which will run from Friday 27 March until Saturday 31 October 2009. From Techno-trousers, the Telly-scope and the Shopper 13, Wallace is famous for… Read More ›
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The Really Heavy Greatcoat Review of 2008
Art and script by Nick Miller. We haven’t been doing many Greatcoats lately, maybe there will be more opportunities in 2009… • More Really Heavy Greatcoats on the main downthetubes website • Check out Nick Miller’s fab work over on… Read More ›
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Who’s Who?
It has been going on in earnest since October when David Tennant announced that he would be standing down as the Tenth Doctor after the four Doctor Who specials in 2009 and speculation went into overdrive as to who would… Read More ›
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Gromit Reads The Beagle
Wallace and Gromit had a triumphal Christmas with the new story A Matter Of Loaf And Death topping the TV ratings while their film, Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, made it to number eight. Of course all the publicity surrounding the… Read More ›
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Run With Dennis in 2009
So Christmas is over and the New Year celebrations are a vague memory, even if they only were last night. Your 2009 Dennis The Menace calendar is set to January, the Beano and Dennis annuals are both read and you… Read More ›
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Merry Christmas
The final Christmas cover and a cover that just screams Seventies at you. Since the cover date was 25 December 1977 Look and Learn Plus Speed and Power went all out with this gem from artist Ron Embleton. Having presumably… Read More ›
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Merry Christmas: 1 Day To Go
After the less than peaceful image of yesterday our Christmas covers look to their feminine side. Ian Kennedy is the artist once again but from DC Thomson’s long running “For Girls” title Bunty and a far cry it is from… Read More ›
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Primeval Greetings!
Card and wrapping paper company Gemma International are to launch a range of greeting cards inspired by top ITV show Primeval in January. LicnesingBiz reports the collection will consist of age cards for six to nine year-olds, a no-age card,… Read More ›
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Eagle Times Volume 21 Number 4 Now Available
The Christmas issue of the fanzine devoted to the original Eagle comic, Eagle Times, published by The Eagle Society, is now available. Volume 21 Issue 4 includes articles on artists Tony Weare and Ian Kennedy, the first part of a… Read More ›
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Merry Christmas: 2 Days To Go
Two days to go to Christmas and a slight cheat on our Christmas cover today in that it is the cover of an annual rather than a weekly title. That said Christmas covers on war comics are few and far… Read More ›
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Hinton Memorial Anthology Released
Shelf Life, the tribute anthology dedicated to Doctor Who author Craig Hinton, who sadly died two years ago, is now available. The memorial anthology, edited by Factor Fiction‘s Jay Eales, David McIntee and Adrian Middleton is an unofficial collection of… Read More ›
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New Thunderbirds Merchandise in 2009
It’s just been announced that Gerry Anderson’s classic puppet series Thunderbirds has been re-licensed to Sci Fi Channel UK. SCI FI has renewed its license for the 32-episode show, for launch in the spring, and has also taken two additional… Read More ›
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Merry Christmas: 3 Days To Go
Just when you though that there couldn’t possibly be any Christmas covers that Lew hadn’t used in his mammoth, and excellent, coverage of Christmas comics over on Blimey, let us bring you just a few more in this countdown to… Read More ›
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Simon Mackie’s Christmas Credit Crunch!
Tis the season for Christmas e-cards, and this one from cartoonist and illustrator Simon Mackie, creator of the Flick and Jube web comic, is one of my favourites so far… not only funny but summing up the mood of the… Read More ›
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Sock Puppets at Christmas…
The Sock Puppet Theatre, scourge* of many a British comics event is counting down the Christmas with The Socks’ Advent Calendar, a wee musical treat! Eat your heart out Aled & Terry. And Bing and David… Comic creator tells us… Read More ›
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Tube Surfing: 18 December 2008
• Latest details on the subscription-only weekly comic The DFC are among the updates to our British Comics On Sale Now list on the main downthetubes site. The page has gotten quite lengthy thanks to all the information some publishers… Read More ›
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Drawn to be Wild!
Broadcaster and comedienne Jenny Eclair explores the world of outrageous animated ladies in Drawn to be Wild, a show for BBC Radio 4 broadcast last week, and available for now via iplayer until 12:02pm Thursday 18th December, and considers why… Read More ›
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Merry Fringemas
Gene the Cow from ABC’s Fringe, showing on Sky in the UK, is working overtime this month to provide milk for Santa Claus, but she still found some time to wish you all a Happy Fringemas.
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Stick-Man’s Christmas Adventure
Courtesy of Scottish cartoonist Malcolm Kirk, whose hilarious Stick Man discovers Santa has gone a bit, well, strange this year… Check out www.myspace.com/mal_comix for more of Mal’s work, and there are more of his Stick Man cartoons here on ROK… Read More ›
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No Heroics Gets ITV1 Airing
ITV2’s superhero sitcom No Heroics will be repeated on ITV1 from 6 January, screening at 11.35pm on the terrestrial channel, after a successful debut run on ITV2 over the autumn. The six-part series features a group of British off-duty superheroes… Read More ›