Phil Boyce, who runs a wonderful blog devoted to the humour comic, Oink, is running a series of ‘Beyond Oink’ features, charting his comic reading down the years. He’s just posted an item on Marvel UK’s The Real Ghostbusters comic,… Read More ›
Featured News
Major new stories on downthetubes – or simply things we feel are major!
British Comic Fanzines Digital Archive in the works
For several months now, British comics fan David Hathaway-Price had been gathering and scanning every British comics fanzine that he’s been able to buy or had loaned to him. His aim is to create a Fanzine archive / repository, celebrating… Read More ›
Photo Review: East London Comics and Arts Festival 2015
The 4th East London Comics and Arts Festival (ELCAF) was held today in the hip East End of London, just off Mare Street between Hackney and Bethnal Green. Spread between two warehouse style venues it was once again a combination of… Read More ›
Unexpected Delights from a British Comics Meme
So on Monday morning, Christopher Muscat, one of the team who run the highly-regarded Malta Comic Convention, involved me in a comics meme… Which led to some great artists drawing new versions of some wonderful, if obscure, British comic characters. As… Read More ›
Lakes Festival’s “Lost in Space” anthology winners announced at Lancaster Comics Day
Last year, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, in conjunction with Titan Comics, ran a competition to find undiscovered talent with a “Lost in Space” theme – and the winners were announced today at Lancaster Comics Day by the… Read More ›
TorsoBear – Back in the Game with new Kickstarter target
Brett Uren, the creator of the acclaimed Torsobear project, has re-launched his bid for funding a second volume of stories on Kickstarter, his enthusiasm undimmed after an ambitious bid to secure £13,500 earlier in the year fell short of target, despite… Read More ›
Lew Stringer’s Combat Colin Returns in Aces Weekly
Aces Weekly – the multi-award-winning, exclusively digital comic art magazine published by David Lloyd – is out now, complete with an all-new Combat Colin story by Lew Stringer. The welcome return of the crazy gun-toting hero, first published by Marvel… Read More ›
Creators @ Wonderlands UK Graphic Novel Expo 2015
To tie-in with the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the first publication of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, the University of Sunderland held a free comics event entitled Wonderlands on Saturday 30 May 2015. Based in the university’s £12m sport… Read More ›
Photo Review: Wonderlands UK Graphic Novel Expo 2015
To tie-in with the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the first publication of Alice In Wonderland, the University of Sunderland held a free comics event entitled Wonderlands on Saturday 30 May 2015. Subtitled as a UK Graphic Novel Expo,… Read More ›
In Review: Draw The Line Here
Author: Various Editor: The British Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation Committee Publisher: English PEN I seem to be turning into the eclectic correspondent for downthetubes, as I am reviewing a cartoon anthology that has a distinctively sharp bite. Many of us will recall… Read More ›
IDW relaunches digital comics offering in partnership with Madefire
IDW Publishing, a pioneer in digital comics, has launched its next-generation of comic apps for Apple iOS. These new apps were produced in partnership with the premier iOS app developer, Madefire, the company established by a group of creatives that… Read More ›
Basil Brush “Full Fox on Tour” prompts TV Comic memories
(Updated 5/6/15): Basil Brush – star of TV, stage and TV Comic – is out and about over the summer months in the UK with his “Full on Fox Tour”, taking in towns across the country from Newport on Saturday to Ipswich… Read More ›
In Review: Thrones & Bones – Nightborn
By Lou Anders Cover and Illustrations by Justin Gerard Publisher: Crown Books Out: 14th July 2015 The Book: From the author of Frostborn comes Book 2 in the acclaimed Thrones and Bones fantasy-adventure trilogy for fans of Lloyd Alexander and Brandon Mull. Karn… Read More ›
In Review: Modesty Blaise – The Killing Distance
By Peter O’Donnell (Script) & Enrique Badia Romero (Art) Publisher: Titan Books Out: Now The Book: Continuing the only complete collection of Modesty Blaise adventures! The return of the ass-kicking femme fatale. Full of classic action and adventure and dripping with… Read More ›
Rare “Banned” Action Comic reaches £1320 bid on eBay
An extremely rare copy of Action – a 1970s British comic whose controversial content provoked storms of protest and was eventually banned – is currently being auctioned on eBay and bidding on the adventure comic has reached £1320. (Updated… Read More ›
Comics Are for Kids! A Quick Chat with “Funny Monsters Comic” publisher Joe Matthews
Fed up with the lack of new British humour comics being published by the major publishers, Rochdale-based comics creator Joe Matthews decided to publish his own. As we previously reported, Issue Three of his wonderful Funny Monsters Comic is… Read More ›
David Hine: Why You should Back the Broken Frontier Anthology
With less than two days to go before the Broken Frontier Kickstarter campaign for its proposed comics anthology to reach its target of $58,000, comics writer and artist David Hine, one of the creators involved in the project, reveals why he feels it could be… Read More ›
1980s Flashback: Marvel UK’s Secret Wars “Secret Artist” Investigated – and the artists revealed!
With Marvel’s new Secret Wars on sale now in all good comic shops, we thought we’d take the opportunity you back to 1985 – and Marvel UK’s reprint of the original Secret Wars comic, which included an originated two-page comedy strip… Read More ›
Derek Pierson: Supporting The Wings Of Eagles
A special interview with one of an unsung heroes of Eagle comic…
The Bear Facts: An Interview with Torsobear creator Brett Uren
One of the highlights of last year’s “Best of….” list that we ran amongst creators was the first volume of Torsobear. Largely the work of a group of creators based in the south of England, it’s a great anthology with a central theme… Read More ›