Hot on the heels of what sounds like an amazing SFX Weekender – which included appearances by Tom Baker, Dez Skinn and Paul Cornell and many other top talents – there’s a smaller but nonetheless eagerly-anticiapted event next weekend: the… Read More ›
downthetubes News
British comic and creator news, book news, media news. If it’s news, it’s here.
The Four Doctors for 2010!
Big Finish, the company licenced by the BBC to produce audio dramas based on Doctor Who, have confirmed that they will be releasing a multi-Doctor story in December 2010 entitled The Four Doctors, starring Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy… Read More ›
Spaceship Away Soars Again
The latest issue of Spaceship Away, the science fiction comics magazine inspired by and featuring the original Dan Dare has just gone to the printers and will be on sale in all its usual outlets, and online, soon. This issue,… Read More ›
Pictures from France: Sarah McIntyre in Angoulême
downthetubes may have one of the best Scottish comics correspondents in, er, Scotland, in the form of Jeremy Briggs, but we don’t have a foreign correspondent: and yet, British comic creators regularly attend the biggest annual French Comics Festival, Angoulême… Read More ›
Hi-Ex Update: Shelton, McIntyre, Heggie confirmed guests
The Scottish HiEx comic convention has just announced several guests for its next event in March 2010. Taking place at Eden Court Inverness (27th and 28th of March), the convention – very much a family event – will feature a… Read More ›
Bonhams auction house celebrates Doctor Who
Marking the upcoming auction of BBC Doctor Who memorabilia at the world-famous auction house later this month (24th February), the latest issue of Bonhams Magazine (Issue 21) features an engaging feature on the series by Benjamin Cook, alongside the publication’s… Read More ›
Crikey! It’s The Cloak!
British comic fans heading to their local comic store should ask if they’re stocking Crikey!, the monthly magazine devoted to British comics, if only because the latest issue marks the return of Mike Higgs’ The Cloak. The Cloak first appeared… Read More ›
Thunderbirds Aren’t Go: Sylvia Anderson cancels nationwide tour
Fans of Gerry Anderson’s 1960s cult puppet show Thunderbirds are downhearted that Lady Penelope, aka Sylvia Anderson, has pulled out of a nationwide tour – citing lack of interest. Sylvia, now in her 80s, was to have been in conversation… Read More ›
Comics @ Glasgow Film Festival
It is a sign of the times in Mark Millar’s career that he has moved from talking to a professional librarian audience in 2008 to the Edinburgh International Book Festival audience in 2009 while in 2010 he will be talking… Read More ›
Doctor Who-inspired Star Tigers returns as animated fan project
Altered Vistas, an amateur production company dedicated to creating Doctor Who-related features from the “fringes” of the franchise, has just released its twenty-first animated CGI release – the first chapter of an all-new Star Tigers adventure, plucked from the pages… Read More ›
Tube Surfing: Alternative Press, Bryan Talbot, Comic Sales Figure and more Mackie!
• The Alternative Press Fair is back! Taking place in London on 13th February, this is a free event celebrating all things self-published and DIY: Comics and Zines, Radical Literature, Poetry, Printmaking, Book Arts and even a bit of DIY… Read More ›
Striker bounces back again – into Nuts
Football comic Striker has kicked off its 25th anniversary year by signing exclusively to Nuts, Britain’s biggest-selling weekly mens lifestyle magazine published by IPC. (We’re betting the team mascot might just be a bit racier than its past cheerleader, pictured… Read More ›
New Biography of Showbiz Legend Lew Grade
A new biography of British media entrepeneur Lew Grade – without whom shows such as Thunderbirds, UFO and The Muppets might never have been made – is to be published by Aurum Press next month. All My Shows are Great… Read More ›
Arthur Ranson exhibition opens at Orbital
Tonight (Thursday 14th January) sees the opening of an exhibition of art by 2000AD contributor Arthur Ranson at London’s Orbital Comics. The exhibition spans his 30-year comic career: Arthur’s credits are numerous, including, of course, “Button Man”, “Judge Anderson” and… Read More ›
Tube Surfing: Ro-Jaws, Rebellion, Crikey!, Rankin, Road and Comic Fairs!
Ro-Jaws returns to 2000AD this week, making a comeback in the A.B.C. Warriors strip by Pat Mills and Clint Langley, who also provides the cover for Prog 1667, right.Originally designed by Kevin O’Neill for the Ro-Busters strip in Starlord weekly… Read More ›
Vworp! Vworp! It’s a New Doctor Who comics fanzine!
A new Doctor Who fanzine, Vworp Vworp! goes on sale later this month. It takes a loving, affectionate look at Marvel/Panini’s Doctor Who comic strips and the magazine that spawned them – Doctor Who Magazine and is o-edited by Gareth… Read More ›
Tube Surfing: Marvel, Disney, Stan Lee and possible iTablet launch
• Marvel Entertainment stockholders approved the company’s merger with Disney at a special meeting held last Thursday (31st December). Under the agreement, valued at an estimated $4.3 billion, Marvel becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Disney. Whether this will ultimately have… Read More ›
Tube Surfing: Wallace and Gromit, Insomnia on PSP, Free Digital Comics and Christmas Covers
• Titan Publishing’s Wallace & Gromit digital comic has taken the iPhone by storm with over half a million downloads of its first free app – and the company is surely hoping to repeat the success with its release on… Read More ›
Striker Returns
Long-running football strip Striker is set to return – this time as a weekly strip in an as yet unnamed magazine. A Striker movie is also again in development. Announcing the return on the official Striker forum (membership required to… Read More ›
Strip! – Cartoons in Classrooms
In the last of this month’s shows looking at the use of comics in education, the Strip! radio show, broadcast on Resonance FM and now available as a podcast, have interviews with a variety of practitioners and tutors with an… Read More ›