Panel Borders: Making Marvels in the UK (Part 2)

By John Freeman on September 16, 2010

Continuing radio show and podcast Panel Borders month long look at British creators who have written and drawn superhero comics, (in a panel recorded in front of a live audience at the London Science-Fiction Film Festival) Alex Fitch concludes his talk with a quartet of Marvel UK luminaries who were responsible for some of the best British action / adventure titles in the 1980s and 90s.

Alex discusses with artist Gary Erskine and writers Dan Abnett, Simon Furman and John Freeman, the decline in fortunes of Marvel UK as a publisher in the 1990s – despite their creation of memorable titles such as Knights of Pendragon, Dragon’s Claws and popular Transformers spin-off title Death’s Head – due to changing market pressures.

Alex did a fab job of making sense of what must have been a fairly chaotic panel with Part 1 last week, so I’m looking forward to listening to this second part.

• Panel Borders: Making Marvels in the UK (Part 2) airs at 5.00pm, Thursday 16th September, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com and now on itunes (http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/id390974029)

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.

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Categories: Audio, Comic Creator Interviews, downthetubes News