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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Simpsons Comics on eBay
I’ve just added a small selection of UK Simpsons Comics to eBay. The lot includes #1, complete with poster. Talking of eBay, a lot of comics artwork recently sold by IPC is now being offered by former Nostalgia and Comics… Read More ›
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Wolverine on the BBC
UK digital TV channel CBBC has secured the UK rights to X-Men spin-off animation series Wolverine. First Serve Toonz, a joint venture company between India-based Toonz Animation and First Serve International, has sold the corporation the 26 x 30-minute series…. Read More ›
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The Madness of Corporate America
I imagine this doesn’t really need publicity here, but right after a revealing longer piece by comics creator Steven Grant which is more about the misery of being a comics creator trying to get a project off the ground, is… Read More ›
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Dan Dare on BBC7
Joe Gordon from Forbidden Planet International has just e-mailed me to point out that BBC7 is running a four part dramatisation of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, based on the Voyage to Venus storyline. It started Tuesday at 6… Read More ›
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Is Matt Groening one of the world’s Top 100?
There’s still a couple of days left to vote in TIME’s Top 100 Poll, an annual feature in the US weekly magazine which selects the world’s most influential – note, not necessarily the most popular – people. Along with the… Read More ›
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The Prying Eyes of Britain
Since I’m in a ranty and probably overly paranoid mood, did you know that here in Britain, government agents still have the right to enter your house to enter your house and search for materials used to produce “horror comics”?… Read More ›
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Slaine called in to prevent Cultural vandalism in Ireland…
Well, it’s the only way I can describe it. I know that much Irish historical record has been wiped out in the past, and this road plan sounds to me like a continuation of such destruction, but this time, not… Read More ›
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RSS Madness
Ah. My apologies to the people who have subscribed to the RSS feed on this site: I didn’t realise it would consider every entry I put up, including old diary entries I can now add in, as “new” posts. So… Read More ›
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Quick Switch
The traffic to this blog on my downthetubes.net site wasn’t growing that quickly, but uploading revisions etc. was, I think, adding to my bandwith quite considerably. So I’ve switched the blog to Google’s own host. There will be some hiccups… Read More ›
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Ringtones: The Ultimate Horror
Ring tones are a matter of personal choice (I will confess to currently having Shaun the Sheep on my mobile, much to my wife’s despair no matter how much she likes the show), but imagine the sheer horror of your… Read More ›
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Time Piece Trivia
Tipped off by SciFiTech over on scifi.com, I thought these rather nifty-looking Pixel Watches, available in white, brown or pink, reminiscent of Blake’s 7‘s teleport bands as featured in that inexplicably popular BBC show. Available from online store Red 5… Read More ›
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New Planet discovered
The European Space Agency’s discovery of a new planet five times the size of the Earth that just might have water and thus could support life is great news, although it probably means we’ll now start getting scare stories about… Read More ›
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Weird Crime Stories
It seems the bad year for Captain America just got that little bit worse. 6 News, a Florida TV station is reporting that a Central Florida doctor has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman during a costume party while… Read More ›
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Effluent Flows…
A comment on the sewage disaster in the Foray of Firth, reported nationally here. I found this report in The Scotsman, which suggests that there’s quite a discharge of sewage into the Forth on a regular basis anyway, but no… Read More ›
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Second Life Star Trek
Okay, this is just so wrong, but not entirely unexpected. Seems some creative types in the Second Life virtual community have got the drop on Perpetual Entertainment and produced their own Star Trek-styled avatars. (There’s quite a lot of Trek… Read More ›
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Spider-Man Muscial Madness
Okay, I think we’re probably reaching Spider-Man saturation point here because after several rumours Marvel released a statement yesterday confirming that Spider-Man is indeed headed to Broadway … as a musical no less. Hot on the heels of the release… Read More ›
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In Memoriam: Brant Parker
God, people will be thinking I’m an incredibly morbid kind of bloke, which isn’t the case at all, but there’s been another death in the comics community. Just days after reporting the death of Italian artist Massimo Belardinelli (2000AD co-0creator… Read More ›
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The Perils of Beta Testing
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In Memoriam: 2000AD artist Massimo Belardinelli
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Should Alan Moore be proud?
