Home › Comics › British Comics › Crowdfunding Spotlight: Kult Creations’ “Octobriana 50th Anniversary Special”

Crowdfunding Spotlight: Kult Creations’ “Octobriana 50th Anniversary Special”

By John Freeman on October 26, 2021

Independent British publisher Kult Creations is currently running a crowdfunded for its Octobriana 50th Anniversary Special, written and published by Diabolica writer John A. Short.

*Octobriana 50th Anniversary Special cover by Gabrielle Noble*

The 40-page plus Special, which has smashed its modest funding target, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the creation of this mad public domain, underground, Russian superhero in 1971’s Octobriana and the Russian Underground, and includes five comic strip adventures with art by Chris Askham (Switchblade Stories), Simon Breeze (Savage! Jungle Princess), Gabrielle Noble (The New Amazons), Andrew Richmond (OctobrianaHammer), Susan Fenn (Shokwave) and others.

The fifth strip is a special surprise that won’t be unveiled until after publication.

Octobriana 50th Anniversary Special - art by Chris Askham — *Art by Chris Askham*

Octobriana 50th Anniversary Special - art by Simon Breeze — *Art by Simon Breeze*

*Bryan Talbot gave Kult Creations special permission to feature his character Luther Arkwright on the David Hitchcock drawn Kickstarter exclusive cover of the Octobriana 50th Anniversary Special*

A limited edition, Kickstarter exclusive print version of the comic features a David Hitchcock cover, coloured by Spectrashift. This cover is textless and features David Boxie, Billy Idol, and, with creator Bryan Talbot’s permission, Luther Arkwright, and many other characters from the last 50 years of Octobriana stories.

• Check out the Octobriana 50th Anniversary Special on Kickstarter

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.