The highly regarded magazine dedicated to promoting independent comics returns this November, with the REDEYE 2024 Annual.
Originally launched in November 2003 from Engine Comics and the Accent UK collective, REDEYE Magazine ran for six print issues and one digital edition, garnering praise for its news coverage, previews, articles, interviews and reviews. It had an explicit mandate to treat the smallest self published comic with the same respect and interest as other magazines would afford releases from mainstream publishers like Marvel and DC.
Editor and publisher Barry Renshaw placed Engine Comics on hiatus in 2009, and later began work as a freelance production editor, artist, designer and writer for magazines such as Comics International, Multiverse Magazine and others. SFX Magazine called it “Excellent” and “a vital read… it has never failed to impress”; Aintitcool called it “a must have”; and here at DownTheTubes we described the first digital issue as “simply brilliant.”
Barry has been a regular face at UK comic conventions for the past twenty years, and recently provided art for the launch title from publisher Cutaway Comics, the four issue fully painted Doctor Who spin off series, Lytton.
He puts the decision to revive REDEYE down to the current state of UK comics. “The diversity of comics available now from independent publishers and small press creators is extraordinary,” he says. “I’m overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of choice, and at the last Thought Bubble I began to feel the excitement again in comics I used to feel back in the early 2000’s.
“Obviously so much has changed in the interim,” he continues, “technology, distribution, printing, crowdfunding, multiple social platforms, and it felt like the right time to bring it back, twenty years after that first issue, to reassess where we are now.”
The lineup for the latest incarnation of the magazine is still being formulated, and Barry has asked for readers and creators alike to get in touch via email and be involved.
“Ultimately, the magazine is there to highlight the most interesting new work being done, while also putting that in the context of what has come before. REDEYE is just one of a very long and distinguished line of news and reviews magazines, and I think it’s important to look at the past as well as the future with retrospective articles alongside interviews and previews of the newest kids on the block.
“Creators and publishers will need to get in touch with information of new titles available from November 2023, by the cut off date of 1st September 2023 to be included.
“It’s already shaping up to be something special.”
Engine Comics will also make scans of the previous issues, long out of print, free to download “in all their messy, typo-filled, naive but well intentioned glory,” says Barry.
Engine Comics is also known for other well-reviewed titles, such as The Rough Guide to Self Publishing, the anthology Fusion and one shots such as Voodoo Macbeth and Seer. The latest title from Engine Comics will be Aphelion: The Rise of Calvus, by writer Troy Martin and series artist Barry Renshaw, a fully painted horror set during the time period of the Roman occupation of Britain.
The US format series follows the journey of a centurion willing to lose everything, an empire with something to prove, an island refusing to be conquered, and the eldritch horror from beyond time and space willing to destroy them all.
• Visit the Engine Comics table at Thought Bubble 2023. REDEYE, Aphelion and other titles will also be available digitally from enginecomics.com. The publisher can be emailed direct at info@barryrenshaw.co.uk
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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