Over on this always-entertaining blog about British comics, cartoonist Lew Stringer has posted a number of terrific Christmas strips drawn by the wonderful Ken Reid. You’ll have seen some of the pages before on Lew’s blog over the years but others… Read More ›
Features
IDW announces Al Williamson’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Artist’s Edition
The legendary late artist Al Williamson’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back stories have been collected in the award-winning Artist’s Edition format by US publisher IDW, to be released in April 2016. Al Williamson is an artist much admired by comic creators worldwide and, back… Read More ›
Eagle Daze: The Life and Times of Leonard James Matthews – Part Two
Leonard Matthews, General Managing Editor of Fleetway and the Eagle Group of Comics, was a “Creative Visionary”… but that, Roger Perry argues in his extensive biography of the man which continues here on downthetubes (Part One here), is only due to… Read More ›
Comic Creator Spotlight: The Art of Ron Smith, Part One
As a comic fan of long standing, one of my real pleasures is identifying and applauding some of the artists that I feel never got the appreciation that they so richly deserved. But I have found that even with the… Read More ›
Artist Ian Kennedy Talks About His Return To 2000AD
To put it quite simply, Ian Kennedy is the most experienced British comic strip artist working today. Beginning his career as a staff artist at DC Thomson in Dundee in 1949, he went self-employed in 1954 for the simple expediency… Read More ›
Amazing Comics Podcast Episode 25: Tally Burtram and Bajo Mano
This week Vince Hunt, Dan Butcher and Tony Esmond are joined by the creator of the procedural cop drama comic Bajo Mano Tally Burtram to talk about the series and how it came to be. She also tells the ACP crew about… Read More ›
In Memoriam: Comic Artist and Editor Luis Bermejo Rojo
A tribute to the Spanish master, whose credits included “Johnny Future” and “Lord of the Rings”
In Review – Porcelain: Bone China
Written by Benjamin Read Art by Christian Wildgoose Colours by Andre Many Lettered by Jim Campbell Published by Improper Books Full Colour. Softback. £14.99 or $22.99 “Set within a world that’s a magical echo of our own, Bone China is… Read More ›
Doctor Who: Panel to Panel Podcast Interviews Cavan Scott
Episode 43 of Doctor Who: Panel to Panel is out, and in the section “The Pandorica Opens”, Jeremy Bement reviews the Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Year Two #2, covers recent news and chats with writer Cavan Scott about… Read More ›
The Really Heavy Greatcoat Review of the Year 2015
The Really Heavy Greatcoat by myself and Lancaster-based artist Nick Miller was published fairly regularly for about 20 years in alternative Lancaster print titles such as On The Beat and Off the Beat and online on virtual-lancaster.net. The strip’s last regular appearance in print was in the… Read More ›
Cup of O – Small Press Reviews
Hello! You find me still plundering through my enormous backlog of small press marvels – the first two titles here are from the Melksham Comic Con 2014 and the last is the first of my teetering pile of titles from Thought Bubble… Read More ›
The British Comics Industry: Still Alive and Kicking, Despite Troll Claims to the Contrary
Phil Boyce runs the Oink! blog, dedicated to the original, cheeky, innovative comic that once featured the best of British talent, as well as extra posts on every aspect of the world’s greatest comic, creator info, behind-the-scenes shenanigans and more. He recently posted… Read More ›
In Review – Dirty Rotten Comics Issue 6
Edited by Gary Clap and Kirk Campbell Art and Design by Gary Clap These people do not mess about. Back with another big old chunk of awesome comics anthology goodness are the creators from Dirty Rotten Comics in their sixth… Read More ›
Creators @ Thought Bubble 2015: Part 2 – Small Press
The ninth annual Thought Bubble Festival took place in Leeds over the week of 9-15 November 2015, however it is the huge two-day comic convention over the weekend of 14-15 November that the vast majority of punters and creators think… Read More ›
Awesome Comic Podcast Thought Bubble Special
Get the sherbets out and It’s the Awesome Comic Podcast‘s first convention special folks! Vince Hunt and Tony Esmond discuss their time at Thought Bubble Festival 2015 (unfortunately Dan couldn’t make it), give shout outs to the lovely people they met… Read More ›
Awesome Comics Podcast Episode 21: Comics Writer Sam Read
Who better to join the Awesome Comics Podcast crew for a chin wag than the writer of Exit Generation, Sam Read? Sam talks about how his brilliant SF action book came to be, his route into the world of making comics, the… Read More ›
Review – ‘Take It As A Compliment’ by Maria Stoian
Created by Maria Stoian Published by Singing Dragon Hardback/Full Colour. £14.99 Comics can cover all kind of subjects, a fact that I am sure I don’t need to tell you. Consequently, they can instil different feelings in the reader through… Read More ›
Creators @ Thought Bubble 2015 : Part 1 – Artists
The ninth annual Thought Bubble Festival took place in Leeds over the week of 9-15 November 2015, however it is the huge two day comic convention over the weekend of 14-15 November that the vast majority of punters and creators… Read More ›
Creating Nightmares: An interview with “Call of Duty” Lead Writer Craig Houston
A chat with Craig Houston, a Scottish writer, artist and musician with over 25 years experience in the video games and comic book industries…
In Review: Ron Turner’s “Space Ace” Volume 5
Out: NowPublisher: John LawrenceOriginally published by Atlas Publishing & Distributing Co. Ltd The Title: A 40 page full colour magazine reprinting two Space Ace stories from the mid 1950s: “The Nine-Bomb Menace” and “Magnetic Meteor”, plus an extensive interview with… Read More ›