Glasgow Comic Mart With Added Small Press Goodness

By John Freeman on March 29, 2010

The latest of the half yearly Glasgow comic marts will be taking place this Saturday, 3 April 2010, in Hillhead. In a change from the mart’s traditional home in recent years at Hillhead Library, Saturday’s event has moved down the road to the Queen Margaret Union building in University Gardens where is has been re-christened the QM Union Comic And Toy Fair. The doors are open from 11am to 3pm and entrance is free.

In addition to the usual local dealers selling comics, graphic novels and other related merchandise, Glasgow’s small press creators will be displaying their wares under the banner of Underground Overkill. These creators from the Scottish Cartoonists Ning group include Dave Alexander, John Alexander, Jim Devlin, Dave Gordon, Garry McLaughlin, Curt Sibling and Jim Stewart and between them they publish titles such as Gangaman, Khaki Shorts, My Excess, Nexion and Total Fear.

After testing the water at the last Glasgow comic mart where they were selling a selection of their own titles, the group has come together to create two compendium books that will be launched at this mart. These are the large anthology Underground Overkill which will retail at £9.99 and the pin-up collection Babes, Bullets and Blades which will be £7.99 and consists of illustrations of… well you can probably guess that one.

• More details of QM Union Comic And Toy Fair are available on the mart’s Myspace page while more details of the various Glaswegian small press titles and their creators are available on the Scottish Cartoonists Ning group.

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.