Panel Borders: Fantastical Worlds

By John Freeman on April 1, 2026

In this month’s only regular radio show about comics, Panel Borders, initially airing on Resonance 104.4 FM today, Alex Fitch talks to a quartet of creators who make comics about Fantastical Worlds.

In a panel discussion recorded at Thought Bubble Festival 2025, Donya Todd (The Witch’s Egg), Linnea Sterte (World Heist), Dave Cook (Killtopia), and B. Mure (Ismyre) discuss creating strange new worlds to tell stories inspired by real world conflicts and personal experiences.

Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, Dave Cook is the creator and writer of Killtopia. His other comic series include BPM: Beatdowns Per Minute, Ninja Baseball Spirits, Bust and more. He also writes video game history books, including GoStraight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat ‘em Ups for Bitmap Books.

B. Mure is a comic artist and illustrator from Nottinghamshire, with a love of drawing animal people, fantasy worlds and exploring the human condition

Linnea Sterte is a Swedish artist and author of A Frog in the Fall, which won the Prix Révélation at Angoulême in 2023. She is also responsible for the Ignatz-winning and Eisner-nominated titles Stages of Rot and World Heist, along with several short comics published in various books and anthologies.

Donya Todd makes weird and wonderful illustration inspired by the magical, mystical, and macabre. She is a prophet-poet of the otherworld with visions of apocalyptic romance in a twisted glittery future. She has worked with Cartoon Network, Mercury Filmworks, Blank Slate Books, Avery Hill, Guillemot Press, Image Comics, Blackwater Studios, Foyles, House of Illustration, Ekidna, Cicada Magazine, Samsung, Tatty Divine, the band Tuneyards, and many more. She has received the AOI newcomers prize, the Earl Richards Narrative Prize in 2009 and an Outstanding Achievement in Illustration in 2018.

Panel Borders: Fantastical Worlds airs at 5..00pm, Wednesday 1st April 2026, repeat broadcast 11.00am, Sunday 5th April, Resonance 104.4 FM + DAB (London) / broadcast streamed at resonancefm.com / More info & extended podcast after broadcast at panelborders.wordpress.com

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.