Chris Welsh, writer of Lovecraftian inspired cosmic horror comic Wart and co-creator of Doc Dino joins the Awesome Comics Podcast gang to talk about his work and boy has he got lots of awesome stuff in the pipeline. Whether it’s… Read More ›
Creating Comics
Articles on creating comics, how tos, reference information and more
Comic Creator Spotlight: The Art of Ron Smith, Part Three. The Hotspur Mark II 1970 to 1980
My first article regarding the work of Ron Smith acted as a introduction, to remind us how great this veteran artist, now retired, has been over the course of his career. The second article demonstrates how I am beginning to review Ron’s… Read More ›
Comics and PartWorks Publishers get Top Marks in Battle for Readers from Licensing Industry Insider
Over on the Licensing Lookout, Start Licensing’s Ian Downes has been browsing at the latest partworks on the UK market including Hachette’s new Draw The Marvel Way and offers some interesting insights on comics in general from his point of view… Read More ›
Birmingham Comic Festival Announces First Guests for 2016
The Birmingham Comics Festival returns to Britain’s second city with events being scheduled to take place throughout April. Yet again Edgbaston Cricket Stadium will plays host to a spectacular one day gala convention as part of the festival, and it will take… Read More ›
Awesome Comics Podcast Episode 27 – Dean Beattie and Random Trials!
This week Awesome Comic Podcast hosts Vince Hunt, Dan Butcher and Tony Esmond are joined by Dean Beattie, a creator with an ever growing fanbase due to his amazing series Random Trials. He talks about how the series came to be,… Read More ›
Graphic Shakespeare Competition Launched
A new Graphic Shakespeare Competition has just been launched as part of the activities surrounding the Elsinore Conference: Shakespeare the Next 400 Years in Denmark this April. The competition is open to comics creators worldwide and challenges creators to bring their own… Read More ›
Desert Island Dix: The Globe at Hay probes “Klaxon” graphic novel co-creator
The Globe at Hay will be picking the mind of cartoonist Dix later this month, whose dark humour is often found in his cartoon work, and will make for a fascinating desert island picks night. Dix, vicar’s son from deepest darkest Wales, is a freelance illustrator,… Read More ›
Missing In Action: Marvel UK’s “Zip” anthology
Marvel UK published a huge number of anthology titles down the years, starting with Mighty World of Marvel in the early 1970s through to Overkill in the 1990s – but one that got away in the company’s final years was Zip,… Read More ›
The Awesome Comics Podcast End of Year Special – A White Riot of Comics Goodness!
It’s been a fantastic year for the world of small press comics, and what would the last Awesome Comics Podcast of the year be if there wasn’t a talk about some of the highlights of the year that was 2015? There are… Read More ›
ARGH! Comics Need You! Or Rather, Bay TV Liverpool Need You For a TV Show About Comics…
Can you laugh out loud while someone drones on for hours and hours about bloomin’ comic books? If so, Bay TV Liverpool want you to be part of the audience at Liverpool’s Central Library on Saturday 30th January 2016. You will witness the… Read More ›
Panel Borders: Drawing The Beano
In Drawing The Beano, the latest Panel Borders podcast, Alex Fitch talks to writers / artists Laura Howell and Hunt Emerson who have contributed a number of strips to The Beano since 2002, including “Little Plum”, “Ratz”, “Minnie the Minx”… Read More ›
Starblazer remembered by legendary comic artist Enrique “Quique” Alcatena
DC Thomson’s 1970’s Starblazer – “Science Fiction Adventure in Pictures” – is remembered by Enrique “Quique” Alcatena in a new Spanish-language documentary titled, simply, Alacatena, directed by Diego Arandojo. Enrique “Quique” Alcatena is regarded as one of Argentina’s most prestigious cartoonists who also drew several… Read More ›
Missing in Action: Marvel UK’s “Just William” Project
A comics company lives or dies by its catalogue, and back in the 1980s and 1990s Marvel UK, like others, was always considering new ideas from editors. Some fell at outline stage, such as my proposed roleplaying game magazine (suggested following… Read More ›
Comic Creator Spotlight: The Art of Ron Smith, Part Two – The Hotspur Mark II 1959 to 1969
My first article regarding the work of Ron Smith acted as a introduction, to remind us how great this veteran artist, now retired, has been over the course of his career. This next pair of articles will focus on one aspect of Ron’s… Read More ›
Hachette Launches “Draw The Marvel Way” Part Work in January
Hachette, the British publisher of titles such as Doctor Who: The Complete History and Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection is to launch How To Draw The Marvel Way on 6th January in all good newsagents. The part work – evocative… Read More ›
Eagle Daze: The Life and Times of Leonard James Matthews – Part Three
Leonard Matthews, General Managing Editor of Fleetway and the Eagle Group of Comics, was a “Creative Visionary”… but that, Roger Perry argues in his extensive biography of the man which continues here on downthetubes, is only due to him having utilised… Read More ›
The British Comics Industry: Looking Back on 2015, Looking Forward to 2016
With the festive season upon us and 2015 racing to a close, over on Comic Book Resources, staff writer and comics retailer Brian Hibbs, in an article titled “Tilting at Windmills: Trouble on the Horizon?“notes we’re in an extremely odd… Read More ›
Marvel UK Heroes Lost in Action: Officer Outbody by Glenn Dakin and Ross Dearsley
A Marvel UK character that fell foul of the company’s implosion in the 1990s
Pitch In for Perlin! GoFundMe Appeal Launched for veteran Marvel artist
Veteran US artist Don Perlin – perhaps best known for his work on Marvel’s Ghost Rider, The Defenders and Transformers – recently had surgery to stop bleeding in his head. Writer and editor Clifford Meth, who has previously led successful… Read More ›
Celebrating the Genius of Ken Reid at Christmas
Over on this always-entertaining blog about British comics, cartoonist Lew Stringer has posted a number of terrific Christmas strips drawn by the wonderful Ken Reid. You’ll have seen some of the pages before on Lew’s blog over the years but others… Read More ›