This year’s Melksham Comic Con was my second as a seller – last year’s single day was easily one of my favourite events of 2013. For 2014, the small indie con expanded into two days and although the Sunday was markedly… Read More ›
Features
Creators @ MCM Scotland Comic Con 2014
In 2013 the MCM organisation severely underestimated the level of interest in their MCM Scotland Comic Con and the queues to get in on its single day reached near legendary status, as well as the BBC News. This year things… Read More ›
Lakes Festival Focus 2014: An Interview with Comic Artist Doug Braithwaite
In the run up to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival (17th – 19th October), we’re planning to run a number of interviews spotlighting at least a few of the huge number of guests and comic creators who will… Read More ›
In Review: Joe Cape
Joe Cape – Issues One & Two Story and Art by Sam Webster As superhero comics go, this book seems at first glance pretty straightforward. A group of capes work for a company policing society but you have to pay… Read More ›
In Review: The Kill Screen: ILOVEYOU
The Kill Screen: ILOVEYOU – Issue 1 Written by Mike Garley Art by Josh Sherwell Letters by Mike Stock Alternative Cover by Ian Churchill The Story: Humanity has reached its Kill Screen. Now only the strongest will survive as computer… Read More ›
In Review: David Leach Conquers the Universe
Script and Art by David LeachScript Editing by Scott GrayLettering by Peri GodboldPublished by Ian Hine and Dead Universe PublishingOut: Now – £3.95 ‘I took it like a randy Welsh shepherd!’ David Leach Conquers the Universe, released earlier this year,… Read More ›
Malta Comic Con 2014 offers a world-spanning guest line up
Malta’s Wicked Comics are clearly pulling out all the stops this year for their 2014 Malta Comic Con at the end of November, with a growing line-up of internationally renowned creators now announced. Here’s a run down of the most… Read More ›
In Memoriam: “Minnie the Minx” artist Jim Petrie
(Updated 29/8/14 to include tribute from Mike Stirling) We’re sorry to report the passing of artist Jim Petrie, an artist perhaps best known for his work on The Beano‘s “Minnie the Minx”, a strip he took over from… Read More ›
Cup of O – Small Press Reviews and Melksham Comic Con Preamble
Hello! Here I tackle three books I bought from Lakes International Comic Art Festival‘s first event last year – a tremendously well put-together and enjoyable art-focussed festival set in the picturesque town of Kendal in the Lake District. I heartily recommend it… Read More ›
In Review: Doctor Who: Deep Breath proves a Curate’s Egg
(First posted in a shorter form on the downthetubes tumblr, minor spoilers): I’m glad to see that the Twelfth Doctor seems to have been well received in most quarters and was more than impressed by the opening episode of his… Read More ›
In Review: The Scorpion – In The Name Of The Son
The Scorpion returns with In The Name Of The Son, the fourth part of the latest ongoing story of the swashbuckling 18th century rogue who is trying to discover who his father was and his battles with the less-than-holy Pope Trebaldi which… Read More ›
In Review: Countdown to TV Action
by Steve Holland Publisher: Bear Alley Books Out: Now The Book: The latest comic index from Bear Alley Books covers the history and content of Countdown and TV Action, the Gerry Anderson-themed comic from Polystyle launched in the early 1970s…. Read More ›
In Review: Kenya – Apparitions
Kenya – Apparitions is the first in a new series created by Leo and Rodolphe and translated into English by Cinebook. Colonial Kenya in 1947 is a place for big game safaris and American pulp novelist John Remington is on… Read More ›
Cup of O – ICE Birmingham
The other weekend saw the first ICE Birmingham event – filling the long-vacant gap of a solid Birmingham comics show. It’s certainly been the first time since 2011 that I’ve sold my sequential wares in the city. ICE was a single-day event… Read More ›
In Review: Antares – Episode 5
Brazilian artist and writer Leo (Luiz Eduardo de Oliveira) continues his Worlds of Aldebaran saga with Antares Episode 5, the continuation of the third series of his incredibly alien tales of 22nd century interplanetary settlers and the beasts and… Read More ›
Rollerskating Bears? Oh my!
Glasgow-based cartoonist MJ Wallace, a regular submitter to Team Girl Comic, has a collection of her light-heared and funny comic Rollerskates and Breakfast Dates on sale now. Rollerskates and Breakfast Dates comprises some wonderful autobiographical… Read More ›
In Review: Red Baron – The Machine Gunners’ Ball
Cinebook present a new series, Red Baron, set during the First World War and “loosely inspired” by the life of German fighter ace Manfred Von Richthofen, written by Pierre Veys and illustrated by Carlos Puerta. This isn’t the Luftwaffe against the… Read More ›
Creating Comics is No Disaster for Alex Potts
South London-based Avery Hill Publishing will be releasing A Quiet Disaster by Alex Potts later this month and we’re delighted to be able to publish this short interview with him on downthetubes. Alex Potts – Animation Showreel from Alex Potts… Read More ›
Jamie Smart’s Whubble Gets A Sponsor
There’s good news for fans of Jamie Smart‘s web office-woe-oriented comic, Whubble, this week with news that he’s secured US company WorkCompass as a sponsor for the strip. Pity poor Pete Whubble, the reluctant hero of Jamie’s strip, which he… Read More ›
In Review: Thrones & Bones – Frostborn
By Lou Anders Cover by Justin Gerard Published by Crown Books (Random House Children’s Books) Out: 15th August 2014 The Book: Fantasy fans of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprenticeseries will embrace this first novel in an adventure-filled, Viking-inspired… Read More ›