Catching Up with Old Friends

By John Freeman on 22 April 2004

Dropped in Lancaster’s John O’Gaunt on Market Street for lunch. They do something called a “late breakfast”. How late can a late breakfast be? Whatever. One of Lancaster’s few remaining decent pubs — it’s not tied to any brewery and so has a varied range of beers, whiskys etc. It’s also renowned for jazz, folk and other live music and the bogs have some great cartoons on the walls.

Been catching up with some old comics friends recently — Dave Gibbons, Richard Starkings, Lew Stringer. We all got our break into comics at more or less the same time back in the 1980s and have been sort or reminsicing about old comic marts and drinking sessions. I suspect it’s all a ploy for a major beer session at the British Comics Festival in Bristol, in May.

Like I’m going to fall for that old trick…

About the Author
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John Freeman

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.