We’ve given the downthetubes.net British and Irish Comic Shop Map a major overhaul this week, updating a lot of Comic Shop details and, sadly, removing a large number of stores that have closed but also highlighting those battling on –… Read More ›
Creating Comics
Articles on creating comics, how tos, reference information and more
Creating Comics: An Interview with the team behind “The77”, a new retro anthology comic
The77 is a brand new, retro anthology comic currently seeking crowdfunding on Kickstarter that aims to be a fantastic quarterly comic showcase for UK’s emerging talent, present day professionals and heroes from your childhood, and downthetubes caught up with its… Read More ›
Learn to Draw Caricatures with MAD Magazine’s Tom Richmond
Top MAD Magazine cartoonist Tom Richmond is running two workshops in Europe this summer, one in Vienna and one in Dublin
Strangers in Paradise creator Terry Moore announced as Special Guest for Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2020
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has announced Terry Moore, creator of Strangers in Paradise, Rachel Rising, Motor Girl, Echo and Five Years, as a special guest of its eighth Festival in Kendal, 9th – 11th October 2020. Indie powerhouse Terry Moore began his career in comics with… Read More ›
Hire an Illustrator releases “State of Illustration 2019” report
Hire an Illustrator has just released its State of Illustration 2019 Report, the biggest survey of illustrators they have ever done, completed by over 3500 creators from around the world. Compiled by Darren di Lieto, founder of Hire an Illustrator,… Read More ›
Comic Creators Tony Esmond and Sarah Harris cornered for Lakes Festival Podcast!
A new episode of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Podcast, co-hosted by Nikki Bates and Ian Loxam, has just gone live. Episode 68 finds Pete Taylor chatting to The Whore Chronicles creators Tony Esmond and Sarah Harris on this… Read More ›
Webfind: Michael Kaluta’s unpublished strip for “Web of Horror “ – America’s nightmare magazine!
Web of Horror was an anthology horror comic published by Long Island-based Major Publications in the United States between 1969 to 1970. It ran for just three issues – but material from an unpublished fourth issue by some top comic artists is out there…
Looking back at Lawless 2019, looking forward to Lawless 2020!
By Richard Sheaf As the guest list for Lawless 2020 has now been released, I thought I should collate my thoughts on my inaugural trip to the 2000AD and Judge Dredd-inspired event last year, which has spread its programming remit… Read More ›
Zoom Back to the 1990s, with Zig and Zag’s Zogazine!
Take a trip back to the end of the last millennium, and check out this short-lived but funny comic!
ComicScene Announces upcoming Comic Creators Directory
How would you like to be in the new ComicScene Comic Creators Directory in 2020? It’s free for creators to do so from UK, Ireland, Europe, the United States, Australia and Canada
Born This Day: Blondie Creator Murat Bernard “Chic” Young
American cartoonist Murat Bernard “Chic” Young, the creator of the comic strip Blondie was born today, 9th January 1901. Other strips by Chic include his first regular work, the short-lived The Affairs of Jane in the 1920s, about a struggling film actress who… Read More ›
Snapshots in Time: British comics editors on a night out in the 1950s
Dan Dare writer and author David Motton has unearthed a wonderful snapshot from his early days while working on British comics that he has kindly shared with downthetubes. “Very recently, my son Gregory (vide ‘Dan Dare All Treens Must Die’,… Read More ›
Lakes International Comic Art Festival launches GoFundMe appeal to expand youth-focussed comics programming
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, the only festival of its kind in the UK, is a not for profit arts festival, aiming to raise awareness of the transformational power of comics – and has just launched a GoFundMe specifically… Read More ›
Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2020 opens Comics Clock Tower applications
There not one but two items of Lakes International Comic Art Festival news this morning, with the event opening applications for tables from comic creators for its 2020 Comics Clock Tower, and a new podcast to savour from the team… Read More ›
In Memoriam: “Doctor Who” and “Popeye” Comic Artist Bill Mevin
We’re sorry to report the death of comic artist Bill Mevin, who passed yesterday, aged 97. Perhaps best known for his work on TV Comic‘s “Doctor Who” strip and his work on later episodes of “The Perishers” with Maurice Dodd… Read More ›
In Memoriam: Those We Have Lost in 2019 – Part Two
downthetubes regularly tries to pay tribute to comic creators no longer with us. We list those we have noted who died between July and December 2019, and others reported elsewhere, here. 2019 has been a difficult year for the family… Read More ›
In Memoriam: Those We Have Lost in 2019 – Part One
downthetubes regularly tries to pay tribute to comic creators no longer with us. We list those we have noted who died between January and June 2019, and others reported elsewhere, here. There have also been major changes in the US… Read More ›
Remembering Ellie deVille, by Jenny Wackett
Editor Jenny Wackett pays tribute to comics letterer and friend Ellie deVille, who died on Christmas Eve. Our full tribute to Ellie is here I first met Ellie DeVille in the summer of 1996 when I was an Editor at… Read More ›
In Memoriam: 2000AD Comics Letterer Ellie deVille
We’re very sorry to report the death of prolific comics letterer Ellie deVille, best known for her work on many strips for 2000AD, but whose many credits included Judge Dredd Megazine, Sonic the Comic and more. Ellie, who was taken… Read More ›
A Christmas Comics Mystery – The Case of the Missing Garth Strip
A Garth strip has surfaced on eBay that has fans of of the Daily Mirror newspaper strip in a bit of a spin – because it suggests there may be missing, unpublished sequences from some stories out there, that were… Read More ›