British comics-related news, interviews and features
Regular downthetubes readers will recall we published some features about DC Thomson’s much-missed SF digest comic Starblazer on downthetubes some time ago, including a checklist of the title. The section orginally kicked off with a feature by Jeremy Briggs called… Read More ›
The Ravenglade Estate is ‘broken Britain’ as its worse. Plagued by ASBO-wielding gangs, boarded-up shops stinking with human despair, scattered with piles of rubbish from a month-long binmen strike – this is the Daily Mail’s worst nightmare. But there are… Read More ›
Last month, comics writer Al Ewing (who’s writing a series of increasingly regular reviews and musings for the Travelling Man website) gave the thumbs up to 2000AD, urging readers past and present to give it a try. With Al’s permission,… Read More ›
The London Super Comic Convention, announced for February next year (25-26th), is ramping up an impressive guest list, with the likes of US creators George Perez, Howard Chaykin, Bernie Wrightson, Mike Carey, Tony Moore, Bob Layton and more all confirmed… Read More ›
From the writer of the science fiction series Orbital, Sylvain Runberg, comes the start of a new series from Cinebook, Darwin’s Diaries. With art from Eduardo Ocana and colours from Tariq Bellaoui, the first diary entry is The Eye Of… Read More ›
Some great strips lined up for the next Century 21 collection
2000AD has just announced its first official convention portfolio session in years – culminating in a Dragons’ Den-style show off! 2000AD has teamed up with the annual Thought Bubble convention , which takes place in Leeds in November, to create… Read More ›
Four new Commandos go on sale tomorrow (Thursday) – a quartet chosen by readers as their best-remembered stories. “There were more than these ‘By Special Request’ suggested (far more!),” editor Calum Laird tells us, “but these came up again and… Read More ›
Cinebook publish a wide range of Franco-Belgian bandes dessinees adventure albums that they have translated into English, from the adult themed XIII and Largo Winch to the more “all ages” Clifton and Yoko Tsuno. One of their most junior series… Read More ›
(with thanks to Clive Bryant and Jon Haward): Classical Comics adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, is to be re-published in China by its Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, along with a number of other titles from the successful range…. Read More ›
Writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières’ spatio-temporal agents Valerian and Laureline return in the second book of their series to be published by Cinebook, The Empire Of A Thousand Planets. It is the 28th century and the two agents… Read More ›
A record number of artists and writers will be flocking to MCM Expo London Comic Con’s Comic Village next month – and the organisers have just announced that acclaimed American comic book writer Gail Simone and best-selling British science fiction… Read More ›
Last week, I was contacted by two newspapers, the Sunday Times and the Independent on Sunday, to offer my views on the state of the British comic industry. Specifically, comics on sale in UK newsagents. The requests were prompted by… Read More ›
(Above: a piece of fan art for Garen Ewing’s Rainbow Orchid by Sarah McIntyre.) Tube surf time again… • The Forbidden Planet International blog has really gone to town with their reviews of the DC Comics ‘52‘ re-boot (re-launch?) Here’s… Read More ›
For this week’s Panel Borders show, in a panel discussion recorded at last month’s Comics and Conflicts conference at the Imperial War Museum, London, Paul Gravett talks to Mikkel Sommer about his graphic novella Obsolete, to publisher Adrian Searle and… Read More ›
As other British comics titles struggle to survive with some, like CLiNT, reducing their frequency, Commando increased its frequency this year from eight issues a month to four every two weeks. This means there are now 104 Commandos published in… Read More ›
DC Thomson’s official Commando website has recently added a lot of content inspired by the Draw Your Weapons exhibition of Commando artwork at the National Army Museum in Chelsea. The entire section of the website is indexed here and, while… Read More ›
MCM Expo London Comic Con is expanding its Comic Village area after tables for the 28-30 October show sold out in record time. Due to the massive demand, the Comic Village will now be enlarged by 50 per cent to… Read More ›
(Above: Sarah McIntyre doodling for charity.) Time for another tube surf… Richard Bruton of the Forbidden Planet International blog has posted a preview of Will Kirkby’s magnificent looking Tuk Tuk comic. See it here. Also at that blog, there’s the… Read More ›
Newly launched, a new Merlin magazine from Attic Media