Panel Borders: Making Marvels in the UK

By John Freeman on September 9, 2010

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

Dan Abnett and Gary Erskine co-created The Knights of Pendragon (along with John Tomlinson), a series which gave UK superhero Captain Britain a new, darker spin in the 1990s by adding him to an Arthurian team of heroes. Simon Furman was (and still is) the primary writer of Transformers, as well as the scribe behind a dozen installments of the Doctor Who comic strip, plus many of Marvel UK’s most memorable SF titles including Dragon Claws and Death’s Head. John Freeman helped create many of Marvel UK’s early 90s titles such as Death’s Head II, Warheads, Killpower and Motormouth and edited Marvel UK’s intended rival to 2000AD, Overkill, for much of its run.

Alex and the four creators discuss the rise in popularity of Marvel UK as a producer of original material in the 1980s and some of the memorable comics they founded along the way.

• Panel Borders: Making Marvels in the UK (Part 1 of 2) airs at 5.00pm on Resonance 104.4FM (London) / www.resonancefm.com, on Thursday 9th September 2010. For further information visit http://podcasts.resonancefm.com/archives/4477

• The podcast is available here on archive.org

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.