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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All About Thunderbirds documentary
A quick update on the BBC4 Thunderbirds documentary we reported on recently. downthetubes has been in contact with the producer of the show and he tells us production is complete and is pencilled for broadcast on 4 January 2008. In… Read More ›
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$10,000 Mobile Comic Winner Announced
ROK Comics has announced the winner of its first $10,000 humour competition as cartoonist Steve English, for an episode of his ongoing series “Madd Science“. Runners up in the competition, which ran on ROK Comics this summer and attracted hundreds… Read More ›
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Floods Charity Comic Planned
(Updated 21/10/07): UK indie publisher Adam Grose, who runs Clown Press, is working on a charity comic in aid of the Red Cross, to raise money for flood victims the world over. Although initially prompted by floods in the UK… Read More ›
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Marvel Heroes never die…
— They just get reinvented. Way back in March I commented on the ‘death’ of Marvel Comics iconic hero Captain America and cynically suggested the character would not stay dead for long. Well, the original Steve Rogers remains dead but… Read More ›
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I went to the Birmingham International Comic Show and all I got was…
— a fab day out seeing some great comics people, the chance to talk about ROK Comics, announce the winner of the $10,000 ROK Comics humour competition as judged by Beano editor Alan Digby and pick up some terrific indie… Read More ›
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Silver Bullets to get makeover, new name
One of my favourite comics news sites is about to undergo a reavmap and name change, so be ready to update your book marks. Since its creation in 2000, Silverbulletcomicbooks.com (SBC) has been one of the most frequented sites for… Read More ›
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Chap with wings…
Good news for fans of early Doctor Who: BBC 4 is to screen a classic Third Doctor story later this month. Fan favourite The Daemons screens from Sunday 21 October at 7.00pm, with the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and trusty… Read More ›
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Read this blog on your mobile
John Roshell over at Active Images put me on to feedm8, which offers a means to make a more mobile-friendly version of this blog for phones. Thought I’d give it a try: check out the “get mobile version button”, right…
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Thunderbirds: the Dan Dare connection
BBC4 is continuing its efforts to mine Britain’s rich science fiction and comics culture with a new documenatary on the 1960s cult classic puppet show Thunderbirds. Dan Dare fan site dandare.info reports the Beeb has discovered Dan Dare was an… Read More ›
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Bruin Up
Way back when I came up with a lab animal gag I still like and my mate Tim Stevens did too since he’s remembered it 20 years later, and suggested an update. So here are both cartoons in ROK Comics… Read More ›
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TV is bad, bad, bad
Bad news for TV fans. Sitting too close to the TV has been proved to be bad for childrens eyes, but a new study also show too much television may be linked to a bad attention span. According to a… Read More ›
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Big Ben Animated series in development
Former Comics International and Warrior editor Dez Skinn has been in touch with downthetubes to update us on his upcoming projects — the first of which is an animated show based on one of the characters from Warrior – Big… Read More ›
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American extremists seek history re-write
Who would have thought it? Web search engine giant Google rightly marked 50 years of spaceflight with a terrific Sputnik-decorated version of their logo last week, but now it seems right wing commentators in the US feel this is the… Read More ›
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Alan Moore interviewed
“Alan Moore, the undisputed, eccentric king of comic-book writing, made it acceptable for literary-minded adults to enjoy books about superheroes. Will his new book do the same for erotica? Susanna Clarke, the novelist and long-time Moore devotee, speaks to him… Read More ›
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Ex Astris Episode 7 – Ambush
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Ex Astris Episode 5
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Ex Astris Episode 6
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Ex Astris Episode 4
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Ex Astris Episode 3
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Ex Astris Episode 2





