US publisher Platinum Studios has announced the global relaunch of the ad-funded e-book distribution service WOWIO (www.WOWIO.com), which was recently acquired by the company that also runs the web comics portal DrunkDuck.com. WOWIO was founded with the vision of giving… Read More ›
Digital Media
New Online Kids Comic Launches
A Birmingham-based company has launched Taymai Comic+, a new online comic which its makers hope will enable which enable the owners of new and existing characters to build fan bases by using the internet. Described as the first ever internet… Read More ›
Online Comic Creator Tools
I posted this list of Online Comic Creator Tools on the ROK Comics Creator Forum some time ago, but I think it may well be of interest to folks here… I’ve been having a dig around on the Internet and… Read More ›
Mama, We’re All Connected Now…
Good news for online comic creators comes via research from KenRadio.com (registration required) that nearly a quarter of the world’s population – roughly 1.4 billion people – will use the Internet on a regular basis in 2008. This number is… Read More ›
Turn your iphone into a light saber
Warning: video above includes swearing… If there was ever a reason to buy an iphone, surely the PhoneSaber app is it, now available free from the Apple “App Store”. This fun little app fires up a virtual lightsaber that uses… Read More ›
How to Draw a Cartoon Cat
Esbjorn Jorsater, who runs the Comic Art School forum on Ning, has come up with a novel use for ROK Comics — as a way to deliver tutorials! Esbjorn has created this simple guide to creating a cartoon cat, which… Read More ›
New British ebook service launches
Just launched in the past few weeks is Myebook.com (www.myebook.com), a new web-based ebook community from a British company, which aims to give people the tools to create book content and ‘get it out there’ for free. Every aspect of… Read More ›
Pubishing News Closes, Victim of Web Competition
British book trade weekly Publishing News, which has occasionally covered graphic novels and related illustrated books in its pages, is to cease publication. The issue of Friday July 25th will be the last. In a statement on the magazine’s website… Read More ›
Shatner on Your Mobile…
Thanks to a deal between ROK Media (publishers of ROK Comics) and top Hollywood photographer Sue Schneider, you can now buy wallpapers featuring some top SF TV and film stars — along with other celebrities — for your mobile. Mobile… Read More ›
Indiana Interview On Geek Syndicate
The latest episode of the fab podcast Geek Syndicate features an interview with Rob Williams, the writer of the new Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods) comic from Dark Horse. Direct Link: http://comicspodcastsuk.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/geek-syndicate-episode-88/
Stealing Dilbert
When the G8 governments met in Japan this week, one of the items on the agenda that has been discussed in secret for months was signing an agreement that could enable customs officers and others to search your laptop or… Read More ›
Tube Surfing: 3 July 2008
Steve Holland of Bear Alley reviews Paul Gravett’s Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics here. He dubs it a ‘must-have collection.’ Over at the Forbidden Planet Blog, Alex Fitch gives us the lowdown on many of the neat podcasts coming… Read More ›
Tube Surfing: 23 June 2008
• Comics writer Jason Cobley is a guest on the BBC Radio 4 show The Learning Curve at 8.30pm tonight, Monday 23rd June, discussing using Classical Comics’ Shakespeare books in the classroom with the legendary Libby Purves. “I’m not sure… Read More ›
Copyright Theft: A New Weapon?
We’ve on occasion reported on some blatant copyright theft of comic artists’ work, but a new specialist search engine could help creators track down culprits a bit more easily. MicroStock Insider, a guide blog to selling stock photography on the… Read More ›
The Return of Paper?
British comic creator Adam York Gregory has just released his new book based on his webcomic, The Flowfield Unity — but has abandoned trying to sell it by Print On Demand in favour of a tried and tested distrIbution method… Read More ›
Parody Ad: Gremlins
The critters from the 1980s film Gremlins do their best to scupper a late night in the office for Dragons’ Den and American Inventor star Peter Jones in this BT ad, created by Swarm. Swarm have published a “Making of”… Read More ›
Adipose Copyright Battle Escalates
(First posted 9/4/08, updated, 15/5/08): The Adipose began to take over Britain just days after the screening of the opening episode of the fourth season of Doctor Who, Partners in Crime. The episode saw the Doctor and Donna (Catherine Tate)… Read More ›
Cameron’s Crash Course Launches
The BBC has just published an 88-page full-colour online interactive comic called Crash Course drawn by top British comics artist Neill Cameron. Neill told downthetubes he spent “a good chunk of last year working on the comic for the BBC”… Read More ›
ROK buys Jalipo Media
ROK Entertainment Group Inc., the global mobile entertainment group and owners of ROK Comics (which is run by downthetubes’ John Freeman), has announced that it has acquired 100 per cent of the issued and to be issued share capital of… Read More ›
Never Been Exhibtion Online
(with thanks to Matthew Badham): Never Been, the giant comic strip that exhibited on the walls of Projekts MCR skateboard park in Manchester earlier this year is now online at www.stuartkolakovic.co.uk/neverbeen.htm The exhibition , both real and virtual, is the… Read More ›