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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TOXIC Wednesday
The latest issue of Egmont UK’s TOXIC is on sale today in all good newsagents, with a cover promoting the new GI Joe film. This issue comes with four free gifts, cool Bakugan stickers, super disc blaster, funny photo frame… Read More ›
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Matters of Convention – The Bristol Expo
Continuing our series of interviews with British comic convention organisers, for this fifth instalment Matthew Badham talks to longtime convention organizer Mike Allwood, the man tasked with the unenviable job of keeping Britain’s perhaps highest-profile annual comic convention, the Bristol… Read More ›
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Friday Fun: The New Iron Man
WebFind by Paul Eldridge: OK, we’d all thought of it, but look at the effort this Comic Con attendee went to! • more daft costumes, including this one, here on this French web site
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In Review: The Rainbow Orchid
We plugged The Rainbow Orchid enthusiastically after its Foyles launch (see news story), but David Hailwood has just sent us this review, so here’s another plug for the book! The Plot: The Rainbow Orchid is an ambitious blend of classic… Read More ›
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Brits in Baltimore!
A small contingent British comic creators – including Wolverine: Origins artist Dougie Braithwaite – will be in Baltimore for the Baltimore Comic Con in October. The Baltimore Comic-Con staff tell us they’ve been busily working on arranging the Harvey Awards… Read More ›
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Alan Moore’s Hip Hop Collaboration
Watchmen and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen writer and co-creator Alan Moore is collaborating on a new graphic novel project with art rap musician Doseone. Partly inspired by Radiohead’s deluxe version of In Rainbows, the Moore project, tentatively titled Unearthing, tries… Read More ›
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In Review: Bryan Talbot’s Grandville
by Bryan Talbot Publisher: Jonathan Cape Out: 15th October 2009 The Plot: Bryan Talbot’s most recent book, Alice in Sunderland, was hailed by The Guardian as one of the ten best graphic novels ever and acclaimed by critics all over… Read More ›
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Darabont Takes on The Walking Dead?
Writer director Frank Darabont – whose impressive credits include The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile – looks about to take on zombies currently being drawn by British artist Charlie Adlard for a new TV project. Variety reports cable network… Read More ›
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Unmask Corruption competition Launched
Corruption is both a cause of poverty and a barrier to overcoming it, and one of the most serious obstacles to eradicating poverty. Now, experimental youth initiative Ctrl.Alt.Shift – a community of self proclaimed “outspoken” individuals working to highlight corruption… Read More ›
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Review Round Up: Pasties, Khaki Shorts and Thief Takers!
Over the past couple of months several indie press folk have sent us comics for review and I have to apologize for being slow at publishing reviews of them. downthetubes remains a site created in spare time between paid work… Read More ›
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Warren Ellis’ Supergod debuts in October
Warren Ellis has been talking about his new Supergod project for Avatar Press, which launches in October. “I think of it as the third leg of a superhero-fiction trilogy, following Black Summer and No Hero,” he reveals on his web… Read More ›
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DC Thomson buys Friends Reunited
Via Forbidden Planet International and others: : Scottish publishing empire DC Thomson, home to long-loved titles like the Beano, Sunday Post and the Dandy among many other publications, has bought the Friends Reunited website through its subsidiary Brightsolid Limited. DCT… Read More ›
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Pat Mills Signing Announced
Top British comic writer Pat Mills will be signing copies of the English language release of the first volume of his Requiem Chevalier Vampire series at Forbidden Planet London next month. One of the founding fathers of 2000AD and a… Read More ›
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Titan Books Announce Bond Omnibus
Titan Books has put together an omnibus collection of some of James Bond newspapers strips they originally released in shorter albums. On sale next month, The James Bond Omnibus Vol.1 collects the first time eleven of the Bond strips first… Read More ›
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London Alternative Press Festival Report
Comic creator Gareth Brookes reports on the Alternative Press Festival, which took place in London earlier this month… The Alternative Press Festival took place between the 29th of July and the 2nd of August. The idea was to try to… Read More ›
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FindComicApps Site Launched
(Crossposted from the downthetubes mobile comics blog): A new website, findcomicapps.com, offering a guide to the increasing number of digital comic applications for iPhone has been launched recently. It’s no secret that the App Store can be overwhelming and titles… Read More ›
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Comic Strip at The Fringe: Two Shows to Catch
With the Edinburgh Fringe on now, our readers may already be aware that the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, stars of BBC 3’s Comedy Shuffle and Upstaged, whose number includes comic creator Kev F. Sutherland, will be back at this… Read More ›
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In Review: Tripwire 2009 Annual… Simply Awesome!
Regular readers of downthetubes will recall that as a result of distributor Diamond’s recently-introduced minimum order levels, this latest edition of ace comics and genre magazine Tripwire is not being distributed in the US. (See news story). While not the… Read More ›
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Children’s Comics Fortnight for Resonance FM
Starting children’s comics fortnight on London-based radio station Resonance FM, Alex Fitch talks to writer Terry Deary and cartoonist Martin Brown for his Strip! radio show this week. It’s a chance to find out more about their hugely successful Horrible… Read More ›
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Sharp Advice on Breaking Into Comics
British comics artist Liam Sharp (publisher of MamTor, artist on Gears of War and, many moons ago, Death’s Head II) has just posted a revamped version of his excellent guide to breaking into comics over on DeviantArt. The post is… Read More ›