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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Comics Nostalgia
Cartoonist and writer Lew Stringer has just blasted us with the past on his new blog with a number of covers from fanzines, some going back as far as 1976 headlined with news of the death of Frank Bellamy. It’s… Read More ›
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High Praise for the “Worry Doll” by Matt Coyle
(With thanks to Liam Sharp): The Daily Telegraph has published in interview with Matt Coyle, creator of the forthcoming graphic novel from UK publisher Mam Tor, Worry Doll. The book is a noir story about three dolls who discover the horrific murder… Read More ›
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The Really Heavy Greatcoat – The Party 4
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The power of personal e-mail marketing…
Some good news from my friend Lou Anders, Editorial Director at US publisher Pyr, an imprint of Prometheus Books. Last year Lou wrote plugging one of Pyr’s authors, David Louis Edelman, whose novel Infoquake, described on America’s National Public Radio… Read More ›
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The Really Heavy Greatcoat – The Party 3
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The Really Heavy Greatcoat – The Party 2
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Surely straight from the imagination of Charles Stross…
Dutch researchers have recently announced a piece of kit called “RFID Guardian“, which sounds like something straight out of the devilish imagination of SF author Charles Stross (I’m still trying to finish the mind-boggling Accelerando) and could be one in… Read More ›
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Rainbow Orchid wins award
Congratulations to Rainbow Orchid creator Garen Ewing, who I interviewed for downthetubes last year. Rainbow Orchid, a wonderful acrion adventure strip which makes an affectionate tip of the hat to Tin Tin (and has a loyal French comics fan following)… Read More ›
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Really Heavy Greatcoat – The Party
Nick and I started this Really heavy Greatcoat storyline last year but it got interrupted by (yay!) paid work. So I’m posting it here – adapting my blog design to better present the strip, hopefully – in its entirety over… Read More ›
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Credit cards for cats
This surely has to be a theme for a new Really Heavy Greatcoat, when I get time to write some. Reuters reports today that an Australian bank has been forced to apologize after it issued a credit card to a… Read More ›
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The Top Linked-To Blog Posts In 2006
Those infamous Danish cartoons, US TV channel Comedy Central’s news analysis mock-up, “The Colbert Report,” which orchestrated a “wikiality” check for Wikipedia, a petition by LiveJournal bloggers angry about interface changes, anti-Bush sentiment and Technorati proved to be the top… Read More ›
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Tourists ask the strangest things…
After the national press reported some of the strange questions asked of tourist offices across the country this week, including “Are there any lakes in the Lake District?”, “Is Wales closed in the Winter?” and ” What time of night… Read More ›
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Comics on My Radio
(with thanks to Bugpowder): London radio station Resonance 104.4FM is to air three shows on comics this month, presented by Alex Fitch. “I’m Read For My Close Up” can also be heard online and include contributuons from creators such as author… Read More ›
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Iraq in comics
Over on Slate, there’s a selection of some of the best new comic books commenting on the Iraq war, including a mention for the much-talked about Web comic Shooting War by Anthony Lappé which Warner Books is publishing in 2007… Read More ›
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Titan Magazines Seeks New Talent
Titan Magazines, UK-based publisher of the originated Wallace & Gromit Comic and such best-selling licences as The Simpsons, Futurama, SpongeBob SquarePants and Star Wars, will be expanding its range of originated comics based on high-profile TV and movie properties in 2007. The company is now seeking versatile… Read More ›
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A few links to strike fear into your very soul…
It’s downtime, so time to see what’s out there in web land… And my goodness, there’s some strange stuff. Even stranger than the last time I looked. First, one for PC fans, especially those with a professed hatred of all… Read More ›
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Christmas Decorations
I’ve had a quite a few e-cards this year from a variety of creators, and since printing them out rather defeats one of the objects of an e-card — to save paper — I thought I’d post some of them… Read More ›
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Really Heavy Greatcoat: News Blues
Nick Miller has kindly delivered a greatcoat for the end of the year, in the absence of any new scripts from me: it’s inspired by a Bob Dylan song some of you may be familiar with. Enjoy!
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Happy Christmas, All!
… and what could be more appropriate to illustrate this festive season than this festive LP image, as a small tribute to the genius of Hanna Barbera? Check out this wonderful blog recommended by the First Tiger of Comics, Richard… Read More ›
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A Modern Christmas image
Well, if Debenhams can do it…