With five episodes of Crucible complete but little sign of STRIP Magazine making an immediate return to the UK news stand, we’re continuing our push to bring you the story digitally (at first, at least), dependent on support.

We’ve already published a digital first issue for iPad via PressPad (no longer available), and a Kindle edition, too, and, thanks to help from comic creator and editor Dave Hailwood, Issue Two is now in the final stages of production, at last. We know it’s been a long time coming!

Sales have not been huge so far but it’s early days, and encouraged by Pat Mills’ enthusiasm for digital comics in recent correspondence, we’re also going to publish Crucible on a weekly basis on the web comic platform Tapastic.

Part of the appeal of this platform is that, like Patreon, which has had wider press coverage, there’s an opportunity for fans of a comic to support their favourite creators through sponsorship, providing the strip gains at least 600 followers.

We hope that our readers will, therefore, opt to try this great-looking way to read both Crucible and other strips, and if we can gain support we can begin work on new episodes.

We really appreciate all the interest and praise we’ve had for the story so far and we do hope you can support us in our determination to continue this story we’ve been wanting to tell for many years – but the day job keeps getting in the way!

Behind the scenes, there have also been some interesting developments which might enable print editions of Crucible, but we’re still waiting to see how these work out over the next couple of months.

• Read Crucible on Tapastic – a new episode every Thursday

• Crucible Comic #1 – Kindle

• Crucible Comic #1 – Scribd 

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. Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Explorer (previously known as Star Trek 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.

Categories: Featured News

Tags: Crucible, Crucible, Crucible Comic Strip, My Comics Projects, Smuzz, Strip Magazine, Tapastic