An all-star line-up from comics, movies, TV and theatre, including Dave Gibbons, Evangeline Lilly and Julie Stark, form the cast of this year’s Hard Agree team’s annual Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol charity podcast, in support of ComicBooks for Kids.
A Hard Agree Christmas Carol is the Christmas 2024 edition of Hard Agree’s annual yuletide charity podcast, featuring Forbidden Planet TV host Andrew Sumner and an all-star line-up from comics, movies, TV and theatre performing Charles Dickens’ live recitation of A Christmas Carol in support of ComicBooks for Kids, a non-profit organisation that provides comic books and other pop culture items to children in medical facilities to help alleviate stress and anxiety.
ComicBooks for Kids! UK, which launched in the UK in 2022, is recognised by the Charity Commission for England and Wales.
Joining Sumner on the podcast arelegendary fantasy author Michael Moorcock; BBC presenter and wine expert Olly Smith (BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, Olly Smith’s Home Cocktail Bible); author, actor and MCU star Evangeline Lilly (Lost, The Hobbit, Ant-Man and The Wasp); comic book legend Dave Gibbons (Watchmen, Kingsman, The Originals); West End theatre star Julie Stark (Company, Chess, Les Misérables, We Will Rock You); comics editor and creator David Leach (Psycho Gran, David Leach Conquers the Universe), designer and comics creator Kelly Yates (Amber Atoms, MonstHer, Doctor Who) and marketing guru and ComicBooks for Kids UK director Will O’Mullane (Titan Comics).
The annual Hard Agree Yuletide Players cartoon was donated by Kelly Yates.
“ComicBooks for Kids is a wonderful charity founded by Mark Weiss, that does amazing work getting comic books into the hands of children in long-term hospital care on both sides of the Atlantic,” Andrew Sumner explains. “Myself and my co-producers Kenric Regan and John Horsley have always admired Dickens’ timeless seasonal message of empathy and civic responsibility, and thought ‘What better way to underline and amplify ComicBooks for Kids’ mission than to return to the words of Charles Dickens himself, the great believer in human society pulling together?’
“Please visit their website CB4K.org, please check them out and please do what you can to help.”
• A Hard Agree Christmas Carol is live now, available at the Forbidden Planet TV channel on YouTube
• You can visit comicbookforkids.org to make a donation (there is a separate option for donating to the UK)
• Connect with ComicBooks for Kids on Social Media via Facebook (CB4) | Instagram (CB4UK) | Instagram (CB4) | X (CB4UK) | X (CB4)
ComicBooks for Kids! UK is recognised by the Charity Commission for England and Wales, and it has been entered onto the Register of Charities with the Registered Charity Number 01196689
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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.
Categories: Comics, Digital Media, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, Other Worlds, Podcasts
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