Cancertown joins Markosia publication line up

By John Freeman on October 8, 2010

Cancertown – one of the books published by now defunct publisher Insomnia – has found a new home with Markosia.

Written by Cy Dethan with art from Stephen Downey, with colour by Melanie Cook and lettering by Nic Wilkinson, Cancertown was well received on publication (downthetubes enthused about it here). It had a very successful launch weekend at the 2009 Bristol Comic Expo; a the string of bookshop signings followed and earned consistent top-ten status on the PSP download charts.

“Cancertown: An Inconvenient Tooth was always a book with a much higher profile than we had any right to expect,” notes Cy Dethan in a recent blog post. With the echoes of the apocalyptic Insomnia Incident still ringing in our ears, the Cancer Cell (that is, Nic, Stephen, Mel and I) started trying to work out precisely where the book now stood. It was at this point that Markosia stepped in and saved the day once again.

“Right from my first steps in comics, Markosia has been nothing but good luck for me,” Cy enthuses, “so when Harry Markos signed Cancertown up it was a significant, even hazardous amount of joy to dump on me all at once. Right now we’re looking at getting the book back up on the PSP store as soon as possible, with other formats to follow.”

• The Cancertown team will be at the British International Comic Show next weekend – catch them there to find out about the plans for the future

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “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.