Comic creator Tzvi Lebetkin, perhaps best known for his indie project BIBLICAL and his Doctor Who-inspired, fan strip “Ice Warriors” (drawn by Stefano Cardoselli), has just launched a IndieGoGo crowd funding appeal for a new project, The Imperium – a… Read More ›
Creating Comics
Articles on creating comics, how tos, reference information and more
This week’s Panel Borders: 2000AD alumni Colin Wilson and Jim Alexander interviewed
Starting a month of shows about ‘The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic’, Alex Fitch talks to a writer and an artist about their work in and after 2000AD. Colin Wilson discusses getting his first work on the periodical and drawing Judge Dredd… Read More ›
In Review: Future Shock: The Story of 2000AD
Directed by Paul Goodwin Produced by Sean Hogan, Helen Mullane and Stanton Media The Film: Future Shock: The Story of 2000AD is a fan-made, warts-and-all documentary on The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic from the perspective of its creators. From original editor… Read More ›
In Review: Post Mortem – The Harvesting
Authors: Phil Woodward and William Wismer Pencils: Jaime Martinez Inks: Santiago Ramos Letterer: Mindy Lopkin Publisher: Close 2 Immortality The Book: No name. No memory. No escape. He awoke with no memory and found himself plunged into a blood-soaked hell…. Read More ›
Creating Comics the Awesome Way: Generating a Buzz for your Comic
Episode five of the new UK Small Press Awesome Comics Podcast has just been released. In this segment, the hosts Vince Hunt (The Red Mask from Mars), Dan Butcher (Vanguard) and Tony Esmond (downthetubes contributor and reviewer) are reviewing a stack of small… Read More ›
Lakes Festival announces its 24 Hour Comics Marathon Team for 2015
On Thursday 15th October at 3.00pm, six incredible artists will enter a room in Kendal to draw in a single day a whole 24 page comic book each. The following day each of those books will be printed and available… Read More ›
Jazz, Hot Jazz and Comics and a CallFor Papers – It’s an Irresistible Mix!
If you’re the find of comics person that’s backed Hunt Emerson‘s Kickstarter to publish a deluxe edition of his Hot Jazz comic strips (in the vein of his marvellous Calculus Cat collection last year, now on sale), then this new… Read More ›
“Eagle Daze” – Part Two: The Fall of Eagle and the Rise of Max Clifford
We are pleased to publish Part Two of the memories of Roger Perry – memories of now more than half-a-century ago – of his days at Fleetway Publications working on Girl and Eagle… 1963: A New Home brings about a “Cleansing of the Slate”… Read More ›
Exploring Tapastic: The Weird and the Fantastic
As regular readers of downthetubes know, we regularly post new episodes of our SF adventure strip, Crucible, to the web comics platform Tapastic. The series, written by me, drawn by Smuzz and lettered by Jim Campbell (and which has had an… Read More ›
Guest Post: Support British Comics, urges Lew Stringer
Comic artist and writer Lew Stringer argues the case for more positivity from fans about the current British comics industry… There’s often a bit of negativity on the ‘net about the British comics industry and how things were so much… Read More ›
Guardian newspaper launches #OpenComics project
The Guardian Witness has launched its #OpenComics call out, which aims is to get creators of all skill levels to share comics you’ve created that reveal the personal and political untold stories from around the world. Here’s the details in full from… Read More ›
Incoming: Episode 4 of The Awesome Comics Podcast, featuring artist Christian Wildgoose
Episode four of the new UK small press Awesome Comics Podcast will be coming at you this Monday. The hosts Vince Hunt (The Red Mask from Mars), Dan Butcher (Vanguard) and downthetubes contributor Tony Esmond will be chatting to artist… Read More ›
Halfpenny Dreadful Comic Publishing – punk pulp fiction from Mike Knowles
Halfpenny Dreadful Comic Publishing – the brainchild of veteran comics writer Mike Knowles – is seeking aspiring writers and artists who might enjoy producing punk pulp fiction. Mike has been a published writer/artist for over 30-years working mainly in comics, (DC Thomson… Read More ›
Something for the Weekend (22nd July 2015) – A little 2000AD for the weekend, folks?
Here’s this week’s list of comics on sale now in comic shops across the UK. As usual, our list highlights the work of British creators and publishers. Prize-winning British cartoonist Julian Hanshaw makes his US debut this week with the… Read More ›
Panel Borders: Bruce Mutard – from The Bunker to The Sacrifice
Continuing a month of shows about Australasian comics, Alex Fitch talks to Melbourne cartoonist Bruce Mutard about his career so far, from his first graphic novel The Bunker to experimental comics such as Alice in Nomansland, and working on a sequel to his… Read More ›
Comic Creator Spotlight: Comic Artist Jim Watson
There are many comic artists that I have still to identify whose work I’ve enjoyed down the years. Others that I have identified and see that others also share my enjoyment of their work. But there are many more who… Read More ›
In Review: Panel Borders: Crowd-Funded Comics
A train journey to the Lakes afforded me the chance to listen to this terrific episode of the Resonance FM ’Panel Borders‘ podcast about the positives and negatives of crowd funding your comic projects. This show concluded a month… Read More ›
John Ridgway Interviewed for Doctor Who Panel to Panel Podcast
Veteran comic artist John Ridgway, still drawing issues of Commando but perhaps best known for his work on 2000AD, Doctor Who Magazine and DC Comics Hellblazer, is the guest on the latest Doctor Who: Panel to Panel podcast. A true Doctor Who comics legend,… Read More ›
Warren Ellis: “Read Comics. All comics. And then cut them open…”
Comic creator Warren Ellis – author of Trees, Injection, Ministry of Space and whose fanzines I bought back in the 1980s when we met at the Westminster Comic Mart days, publishes an entertaining weekly newsletter, Orbital Operations (subscribe here), covering all… Read More ›
Proposed New US Copyright Act threatens creator rights worldwide
(Updated 21st July, added comment by artist Tim Perkins): Proposed changes to US copyright law, effectively re-inventing the failed “Orphan Works” act put forward seven years ago, have come under attack from a huge number of artists and writers,… Read More ›