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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Tube Surfing: DC Thomson Style
Ian Kennedy may be the pre-eminent Commando cover artist over the course of the title’s long history but it had been running for nine years by the time he did his first cover. Before that Ken Barr was the standout… Read More ›
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Futurequake 11: On Sale Now
(via David Hailwood’s new blog): The latest issue of the twice Eagle Award nominated Futurequake will be available to buy at the Birmingham International Comic Show this weekend. Preview images can be viewed on the messageboard of the comic’s website… Read More ›
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Small Press Week at FPI
Joe Grodon writes to tells us Richard Bruton, who write the Propaganda reviews for the Forbidden Planet International blog is posting a pile of themed reviews this week, all on British small press comics creators ahead of the Birmingham International… Read More ›
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ROK’s Hard Place Competition Winners
Hot on the heels of announcing David Fletcher as the winner of it 2008 Humour Competition (see story), British web and mobile comics publisher ROK Comics has revealed that the winner of its ROK and A Hard Place Comics Competition,… Read More ›
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In Review: Robots
Review by David Hailwood If you haven’t already picked up a copy of British independent publisher Accent Press’s 2008 anthology Robots, then you’ll get another chance this weekend at the Birmingham International Comic Show. A 200 page beast of a… Read More ›
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ROK Comics Humour Competition Winners Revealed
ROK Comics has announced that the overall winner of its 2008 Humour Comic Competition is David Fletcher, for his strip featuring Crumb, his crazy, ever-hungry blackbird character. David’s entry, titled “Pitter Patter” was a stand out winner for the editorial… Read More ›
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Eagle Times Volume 21 Number 3 Available
The latest issue of Britain’s longest running comics fanzine, Eagle Times, is now available. After downthetubes contributor Richard Sheaf’s article on the newly discovered dummy issue of Eagle number 2 in the last issue, downthetube’s contributions to the 54 page… Read More ›
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Revamped Vampirella Winner Revealed
The results are in, and the Project:Rooftop/Harris Comics “Revamp” contest (plugged here back in August) is now complete. With over one hundred entries recieved, the Project: Rooftop staff and guest judges Trina Robbins, Joe Jusko and Dan Brereton poured over… Read More ›
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Vworp! Vworp! Comic Book Stars Celebrate Doctor Who
Legendary comics creator Dez Skinn, founding editor of what is now Doctor Who Magazine, is the latest big name to join the guest list for Vworp Vworp: Comic Book Adventures in Time and Space which takes place in one of… Read More ›
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Quick Tube Surfing: 30 September 2008
• It seems to be interview central for this round up, but this one’s a goodie: Pádraig Ó Méalóid has been busy following up his epic interview with Alan Moore on the Forbidden Planet International blog by chatting with Todd… Read More ›
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DFC on YouTube!
Top artist Neill Cameron kindly dropped us a line to point us towards his rather exciting animated trailer for Season 2 of Mo-Bot High, his strip for The DFC comic, which is now up on Youtube and embedded above. There’s… Read More ›
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Orang Utan Slams into Birmingham
Fresh from the success of Eleventh Hour Volume 1 hitting the number one spot on e-publisher site WOWIO, British indie Orang Utan Comics Studio have announced an exciting new addition to the creative team of The Intergalactic Adventures of Slam… Read More ›
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Gothic Gasoline!
Top London and New York-based independent publishers Merrell — well known for their art and graphic design books and more — have announced the forthcoming release of Gasoline, an entrancing graphic novel by cult illustrator and musician Dame Darcy describes… Read More ›
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Barry Gray Centenary Concert Update
The organisers of this event have asked me to help plug the Barry Gray Centenary Concert (which Jeremy Briggs trailed here back in July). After watching a few classic (and, admisttedly, some not-so-classic) Thunderbirds episodes on SciFiUK over the past… Read More ›
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No Heroics Claire Keelan Interviewed
Quickly following up on their interview with Drew Pearce, the creator of ITV2’s new off-duty superhero comedy No Heroics (see news story), top British comics podcaster Geek Syndicate now offers an exclusive interview with actress Claire Keelan, who plays Sarah… Read More ›
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Insomia Seeks Submisisons
Edinburgh-based Insomnia Publications , publishers of titles such as Layer Zero and the upcoming CancerTown, are accepting submissions from both writers and artists. Incoming Creative Director Nic Wilkinson tells us: “Insomnia are currently inviting submissions from both writers and artists… Read More ›
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Birmingham Show Goodies!
With the Birmingham International Comic Show just a couple of weeks to go, it seems like a good idea to bring readers a small sampling of just some of the indie press titles on sale at the event. (And we… Read More ›
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In Space No One Can Hear You Build, Again
Way way back we pointed you in the direction of some SF related Lego, specifically a Tardis and Blake’s 7’s Liberator, so we are overdue for some more. MOCpages is a Lego fansite which allows Lego builders to put up… Read More ›
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Eagle Cutaway Art
Following on from our review of The Eagle Annual Of The Cutaways we present a little more information on the cutaways themselves. It was not uncommon for some Eagle artists to change their art as they worked on it and… Read More ›
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In Review: Eagle Annual Of The Cutaways
Review by Jeremy Briggs After last year’s uninspiring Eagle Annual: The Best Of The 1950s Comic, its sequel Best of the 1960s Comic has been put on hold to 2009 and this year’s offering from Orion is the unwieldily entitled… Read More ›