John Birch works for the National Library of Scotland located in Edinburgh, one of the UK’s five legal deposit libraries, and curated their successful Local Heroes exhibition covering comics and graphic novels last year.
In an interview for downthtubes, he gives Jeremy Briggs the benefit of his experience in organising this exhibition and its related events, as well as the legal requirements regarding archiving small press comics and fanzines for the nation, which some publishers may not be aware of.
• Read the interview on the main downthetubes site
• Discuss the interview and ways to save our comics heritage on our forum
- About the Author
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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.
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