Heavy Metal and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles artist Mark Bodé is to launch a new graphic novel, based on one of his father Vaughn Bodé’s earliest works – the ground-breaking Cobalt 60. In the late 1960s, Vaughn Bodé was one of… Read More ›
Creating Comics
Articles on creating comics, how tos, reference information and more
Nick Abadzis talks Doctor Who for latest Panel to Panel podcast
Episode 72 of of Jeremy Bement‘s Doctor Who: Panel to Panel is up and features an interview with writer-artist Nick Abadzis. Nick, whose many credits also include Laika and Cora’s Breakfast, has been writing the adventures of the Tenth Doctor since… Read More ›
Utopia/Valhalla, rare comics fanzine featuring early work by teenage Alan Moore offered for £2700
Over on eBay, there’s an auction running for a comics fanzine published in 1970 – Utopia/Valhalla Issue One – with a starting bid of over £2700. Before anyone starts scrabbling in their attics for fading issues of Comic Media News,… Read More ›
Roy of the Rovers comic artist David Sque confirmed for Lancaster Comics Day – making a rare comics convention appearance
The Lancaster Comics Day team have announced the appearance of Roy of the Rovers comic artist David Sque at Lancaster Comics Day 2017 (Sunday 11th June), who will be at the event alongside ROTR editor Barrie Tomlinson. Both creators – like… Read More ›
Pick a Card, Any Card, it’s an Ace! (Aces Weekly, that is!)
Aces Weekly, the on-line comic magazine, founded in 2012 by David Lloyd and Bambos Georgiou, has announced the release of a set of collectable “trading cards”, which give purchasers access to volumes of the award winning publication. Each of the… Read More ›
Fifth Lakes International Comic Art Festival Line-Up Announced, Tickets On Sale Now
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has announced its full guest list for this year’s Festival Weekend in Kendal (13th – 15th October 2017) – and it’s simply crammed with amazing guests, including Stan Sakai, Sergio Aragonés, Ryan North, Mariko Tamaki – and… Read More ›
British Comic Heroes Abroad: Dan Dare’s first Asian Publication Recalled
We’ve covered some of the reprints the original Dan Dare experienced across the globe in the past on downthetubes and Richard Sheaf wrote a detailed guide to many of them In the Titan Dare collection, Safari in Space. But until… Read More ›
New ComicPopUp Brighton revives indie comic creators cooperative ideas to sell comics
ComicPopUp Brighton is a new event happening on Saturday 13th May 2017, a one-day small-press/art comics shop that’s part of the Brighton Artists Open House Festival. Selling comics to comics readers and a whole new audience in a family-friendly pizza… Read More ›
From The Trenches: A Guest’s Eye View of True Believers Comic Festival 2017 by Jessica Martin
Comic creator Jessica Martin, one of many talents at the event, reveals how she’s now a “True Believer” after her trip to Cheltenham this weekend… On Saturday 5th February, I was a guest at the True Believers Comic Festival in… Read More ›
Lakes International Comic Art Festival wins two culture awards
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival won two awards at the Cumbria Life Culture Awards 2017 this weekend. Core team members Aileen McEoy and Carole Tait were among those on hand to collect the awards for Festival of the Year and another… Read More ›
Web Finds: Essential Sequential, delivering the ABC Comics Project to long-term unemployed
Essential Sequential is a not-for-profit organisation created to provide creative workshops and activities for mainstream and hard-to-reach individuals of virtually all ages and abilities – and they’re working on a number of projects in the works, including the ABC Comic Project, which… Read More ›
Dark Horse Comics announces “Lead Poisoning: The Pencil Art of Geof Darrow”
Geof Darrow’s slick, precise inks and stunning detail have amazed comics fans for decades, from his early work with Moebius to Hard Boiled, his first collaboration with Frank Miller, to the overwhelming success of his current series, The Shaolin Cowboy…. Read More ›
Jack Kirby to be celebrated in new book “Kirby & Me” as centenary looms
A crowdfunding project to fund a new book celebrating the life of Jack Kirby is gathering pace, which if successful, will include contributions from British comic creators such as Brendan McCarthy and John McCrea, as well as a host of internationally-accliamed… Read More ›
Celebrating “ABC Film Review”, Boys Adventure Blog spotlights the Dan Dare and other comic strips the magazine published
When news that the last ever ABC cinema has closed reached the ears of downthetubes writer Richard Sheaf, he began a series of features on its inhouse magazine, ABC Film Review, over on the Boys Adventure Blog, spotlighting some of the… Read More ›
“Rourke of the Radlands” returns via 100% Biodegradable shapes up
Back in the early 1990s, myself and now Wonder Woman artist Liam Sharp co-created “Rourke of the Radlands“, who has only, to date, appeared in Marvel UK’s STRIP anthology (Issue Four). As I previously mentioned here, the response to the… Read More ›
Tributes to comics artist John Watkiss, who has died, from fellow creators and fans
I’m sorry to report the passing of the hugely/talented British film and comics artist John Watkiss, whose most recent comics work was Surgeon X from Image. He was 55. A very private man, he had been ill for some time…. Read More ›
downthetubes Discoveries: Turkish comics culture, thanks to comic hero Tarkan
Almost every downthetubes visitor is a comic reader, but up until I came across an item on the Facebook Mighty World of British Comics group, to my shame, I had no idea comics reading once as popular in Turkey as I already… Read More ›
Awesome Comics Podcast Catch Up!
Here’s a round up of the recent Awesome Comics Podcasts from Vince Hunt, Dan Butcher and our very own Tony Esmond (we’d write that in bigger letters, but the web doesn’t let you). The gang were really busy getting on… Read More ›
Driven To Abstraction: A Chat with comic creator Gareth A. Hopkins
Gareth A. Hopkins bucks the trend. His comics are both complex and unorthodox. They are also at times hauntingly charismatic. Like watching a comic flow directly from Rorschach’s mask on to a page of a comic, but about a thousand times… Read More ›
Art Model Collective and 2000AD team up up for unique “Muties & Perps” life drawing event in London
Budding artists should prepare to head into the dystopian futurescape of Mega-City One, the home of Judge Dredd, with the first part of 2000AD’s 40th anniversary celebrations. Muties & Perps is a unique life drawing session taking place at London’s… Read More ›