• (via Forbidden Planet International): The Observer, ComICA and Jonathan Cape have teamed up again this year for a second graphic short story competition following the success of the first such endeavour last year (which was won by Cathy Brighton’s… Read More ›
downthetubes News
British comic and creator news, book news, media news. If it’s news, it’s here.
Doctor Who Part Work in the Offing
(with thanks to Jeremy Bentham and Tony Clark): Alerted by a posting on the web site of Blackpool’s Who shop, it seems plans are afoot to release a Doctor Who DVD Files Magazine. Part works publishers GE Fabbri, publishers of… Read More ›
Doctor Who’s Brief Encounter!
Colin Baker, who played the Sixth Doctor Who in the 1980s, is visiting Carnforth, Lancashire for a special bank holiday event. Colin will meet and greet fans of the series at Carnforth Station‘s Doctor Who-themed shop ‘The Tardis’ on Monday,… Read More ›
Moggy in the TARDIS
Liking a) Doctor Who and b) cats is obligatory for all downthetubes contributors – and anyone disliking either of these two things is asked to leave pretty quickly, I can tell you. The team was therefore thrilled to see this… Read More ›
Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Computer Adventure!
With Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park in the news as guest editor of the 70th Birthday Beano, Telltale, Inc., the leader in interactive episodic entertainment, have just released a cinematic teaser trailer and new details about the Wallace &… Read More ›
Narnia by Night
British film fans, families and kids are getting a unique opportunity to relive the magic of The Chronicles of Narnia movies at close quarters at a one-off, Narnia-themed Wow Night on Thursday, 14th August 2008. ‘The Wonderful World of Weta… Read More ›
Exclusive Hand Made Transformers Figures Up-For-Grabs!
Transformers — a robot toy range that has spawned several successful comics across the globe down the years and will see the launch of a new UK comic title from Titan in October — has a massive collector fan base,… Read More ›
Crossovers That Never Happened: The Two Doctors
… The Two Doctors in question being Doctor Who and Marvel’s Doctor Strange. It was TV Doctor Who script editor Andrew Cartmel who proposed a Doctor Who/ Doctor Strange crossover and submitted a plot to me around 1991/92, about the… Read More ›
Happy Birthday Beano: The Dandy’s Better!
One last word from the Happy Birthday Beano exhibition in the Lamb Gallery in Dundee. One of the first things you see on entering the exhibition gallery from the stairway is a comments book for the exhibition and it has… Read More ›
Ron Smith in Book and Magazine Collector
The long running series of articles on Great British Comics Artists by David Ashford and Norman Wright in Book and Magazine Collector has reached part 28. This time the subject is Ron Smith and it is the first time that… Read More ›
In Review: Happy Birthday Beano Event At Dundee University
GASP! Would you believe it? The Beano is 70! Taking place on 30 July 2008, which was The Beano’s 70th birthday date, this event had been billed as the official opening of the Happy Birthday Beano exhibition in the University’s… Read More ›
Digital Publisher Relaunches
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 ›
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 ›
Happy 70th Birthday, Beano!
As Britain’s top weekly humour comic The Beano celebrates its 70th birthday, downthetubes asked comic creators to offer their birthday wishes, and the first received have now been published in a special tribute section on the main downthetubes site, including… Read More ›
Sun, Sangria and San Diego…
• It’s the San Diego Comic Con this weekend and many British comic creators, including Grant Morrison, have headed to the sunshine state for the monstrous event, surrounded by thousands of sweating people and lovely ladies in very few clothes… Read More ›
Tube Surfing: 25 July 2008
• Steve Winders has reviewed Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future Voyage to Venus Part 1 , Orion’s new audio version of the first half of Dan Dare’s first ever adventure from Eagle for Bear Alley, noting it sticks rigidly… 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 ›
Tube Surfing: 23 July 2008
Two DVD releases coming soon from the worlds of Gerry Anderson are worth a mention. The last of the major Anderson productions to reach UK DVD, the 1969 live action feature film Doppelganger, will be released under its American title… Read More ›