There’s changes on the UK new stand for Panini‘s Marvel Collector Editions this week with the launch of Volume 6 of Astonishing Spider-Man, on sale now in all good newsagents. A one hundred page special, priced £3.99 (higher than the previously advertised £3.50 priced due to, we’re told by editor Brady Webb, print cost rises post-Brexit), these compendiums of fairly-recently published Marvel stories are still good value, and subscriptions are on offer that offer further savings.

In this first issue, it’s a brave new world and Peter Parker leads the most cutting-edge company – Parker Industries! Which means that he and his ‘bodyguard’ Spider-Man are vey busy! But deadly new threats are emerging, including a reinvigorated Zodiac, who are threatening the planet!

Plus, think you know everything about Spidey’s early adventures? Then think again! A young and inexperienced Wall-Crawler battles Doctor Octopus! Also, Spider-Man and the X-Men face Deathbird and the Brood-Symbiote Imperium! And who is the traitor?!

Astonishing Spider-Man #1 features stories by Dan Slott, Guiseppe Camuncoli, Robbie Thompson, Nick Bradshaw, Elliott Kalan and Marco Failla and includes material reprinted from Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man #1, Spidey #1 and Spider-Man and the X-Men #4-6.

It’s great to see artist Nick Dyer on “Judge Anderson” in this week’s 2000AD.

Also on sale in newsagents (and various digital platforms) is 2000AD Prog 1993 – and it’s a beauty, crammed with thrill power that includes a really cracking episode of “Scarlet Traces: Cold War” by Ian Edginton, D’Israeli, and Annie Parkhouse, but for me I’m absolutely delighted to see artist Nick Dyer on “Anderson: Psi Divison – The Candidate“, a great story from Emma Beeby with colour by Richard Elson, lettered by Elle de Ville. Over on Multiversity’s detailed review of this Prog, they suggest Tharg would be smart to let writer Emma Beeby tell Anderson tales “for a long time to come” and it’s sentiment I’ll echo here.

Nick’s art inevitably draws comparison with Cam Kennedy, but trust me, based on what he drew for me when I was commissioning him on the ill-fated STRIP Magazine, some of it sadly unpublished, he truly is an artist to watch – he just needs a well-deserved good run at a project to show just what he’s capable of, because he’s a real talent. Hopefully, “Anderson” will give him that. My fingers are crossed!

Over at Titan Comics, this week’s comic shop titles on offer include the continuing adventures of the Ninth, Tenth, and Twelfth Doctors of their Doctor Who ongoing series’. Johnny Red reaches Issue 8 (the end of the series “so far”, they tease – more, please!), Norman and Sherlock: A Study in Pink reach #3 in their series run, and the acclaimed Rivers of London: Night Witch series hits its final issue – revelations and secrets threaten Peter Grant.

UK Newsagents Releases

There are plenty of comics on sale in newsagents that still delight in bringing you such subversive delights, including 2000AD (this year’s Summer Special is still sale), The Beano, the new Danger Mouse comic, Commando (latest release intel here), Judge Dredd Megazine, Panini Comics Marvel Collector Editions titles, Titan Comics superhero titles and VIZ, with great strips also featuring in titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Doctor Who Adventures, Titan’s Doctor Who: Tales from the TARDIS (collecting their strips from the US format titles), Mega, TOXIC and many others.

Plus, the wonderful Phoenix Comic is now on sale in many (but not all) Waitrose supermarkets and – at last, selected high street WH Smiths stores – and some comic shops (stockist list here) as well as available on subscription.

So let’s not get too downhearted by some British publishers lack of faith in full-blown cover to cover comic strip action and humour that only those of us over a certain age remember.

Hachette Partworks, whose partwork titles include Doctor Who: The Complete History and Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection, continue their How To Draw The Marvel Way, along with their re-release of their hugely successful part work, Marvel’s Marvel Ultimate Graphic Novel series.

Some of you in certain areas of the country may also be able to pick up a copy of the new Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection, which is currently being road tested by Eaglemoss.

Note that you may now have to subscribe if you want to continue buying Part Works some are not distributed in newsagents after their first few issues.

Art by and © Dylan Teague

Digital Comic Picks

Aces Weekly Volume 23 is out now. Just £1 a week gets you this and more to come forever – well, you know… till the mountains fall into the sea: Dylan Teague, Paul Rainey, Marc makes comics, David Leach, Jeffrey Vaughn, Brendon and Brian Fraim, Jok LP and Rodolfo Santullo, plus Roberto Corroto Cuadrado and Ertito Montana. Up to 200 pages of cool stuff – for a pound a week!

Tune in now at www.acesweekly.co.uk/shop

Don’t miss out on all the Previous Volumes, either, which have up to 200 pages of comics including Extras, and in full form feature in an exclusive Week-to-Week facility, which transforms any volume’s serialised stories into continuous comic book-sized narratives.

British Comic Publishers

2000AD/Rebellion

2000AD Prog 1993

Featuring Judge Dredd: Ladykiller by John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra, and Annie Parkhouse; Brink by Dan Abnett, INJ Culbard, and Simon Bowland; Outlier: Survivor Guilt by TC Eglington, Karl Richardson, and Ellie De Ville; Anderson: Psi Division by Emma Beeby, Nick Dyer, Richard Elson and Ellie De Ville; Tharg’s 3rillers: Mindmine by Rory Mcconville, Colin MacNeil, Peter Doherty, and Simon Bowland; Scarlet Traces: Cold War by Ian Edginton, D’Israeli, and Annie Parkhouse.

Ro-Busters: The Complete Nuts and Bolts Volume Two

The robots are in revolt! The boss of Ro-Busters Howard Quartz also known as Mr. Ten Per Cent (90% of him is robotic), has seen his stocks plummet due to his involvement in the attempted demolition of Northpool. In order to stop from going bankrupt, Quartz plans to destroy a number of his robots in a staged accident, including Hammerstein and Ro-Jaws! Having gotten wind of Quartz’s plan, the duo seek out the robot underground, who organise the safe evacuation of unwanted robots to a distant moon. Before long, it’s man vs. machine in a battle for freedom!

Judge Anderson: The Psi Files Volume Five

Psi-Division’s toughest Judge, Cassandra Anderson, returns to the streets of Mega-City One, having awoken from the coma she fell into following her exposure to the Half-Live virus. But there is no respite for this Psi Judge – city-wide disasters face her at every turn, including everything from a hideous new disease manufactured by the Sisters of Death and Block-sized city-stomping robots!

Titan Comics

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Year Two #13 – Cover A

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Year Two #13
Writer: Nick Abadzis
Artist: Elena Casagrande
Colorist: Arianna Florean
Letterer: Comicraft

Tested by Anubis at the far reaches of the universe… is he following in the genocidal footsteps of his father?! Reality invaded by the old, angry gods of Primeval Time! The Doctor, Gabby and Cindy have their work cut out for them, as the endgame of Year Two begins!

Cover A: Rod Reis
Cover B: Will Brooks Photo
Cover C: Mike Collins (Linked Cover)

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor Year Two #8
Writer: George Mann
Artist: Mariano Laclaustra
Colorist: Carlos Cabrera
Letterer: Comicraft

He’s seen the universe begin and end – and now all of time and space is his plaything. When there are innocents to save, vistas to savour, and a complete lack of savoir to faire, the Twelfth Doctor will be there to challenge dictators, change the fate of whole worlds, and discover secrets hidden for millennia!

Cover A: Mark Wheatley
Cover B: Photo – Will Brooks
Cover C: Simon Myers

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #4 – Cover A

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor #4
Writer: Cavan Scott
Artist: Cris Bolson

The Doctor, Rose, and Captain Jack, bouncing back from their most recent adventure with a destructive doppelganger, run into a most unexpected face! As the Doctor struggles to keep Rose apart from an element of her future she cannot know, Jack discovers another twist on his missing past that complicates his present!

Cover A: Verity Glass
Cover B: Will Brooks Photo
Cover C: Mike Collins (Linked Cover)
Cover D: Blair Shedd

Johnny Red #8
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: Keith Burns
Colourist: Jason Wordie
Letterer: Rob Steen

Johnny and the surviving members of his beloved Falcon Squadron face execution – not at the hands of the hated Nazis, but by their own side, as the Soviet secret police prepare to eliminate all knowledge of the ghastly secret hatched by Stalin and Hitler!

Cover A: Keith Burns
Cover B: Ian Kennedy

Norman #3
Writer: Stan Silas
Artist: Stan Silas

For Norman, his one wish for Christmas is the longed for hockey mask that will truly complete his “look” – the perfect serial killer. Sadly, he didn’t know about Santa’s Naughty list. As a murderer-in-training, will Santa be coming down the chimney for him? And, besides, what does “good” really mean, anyway?

Cover A: Stan Silas
Cover B: Marc Ellerby

Rivers of London: The Night Witch #5
Writer: Ben Aaronovitch & Andrew Cartmel
Artist: Lee Sullivan
Colours: Luis Guerrero
FC – 32pp – $3.99 – On sale: Aug 10

Press-ganged into helping a Russian oligarch hunt his missing daughter, PC Peter Grant and his boss, Thomas Nightingale, London’s only wizarding cops, find themselves caught up in a battle between Russian gunmen, a monstrous forest creature – and their nemesis: The Faceless Man. But as Grant and Nightingale close in on the missing girl, they discover that nothing about this case is what it seems!

Cover A: Lee Sullivan
Cover B: Rian Hughes

Sherlock: A Study in Pink #3
Concept by: Steven Moffat & Mark Gatiss
Writer: Steven Moffat
Artist: Jay

The three-patch problem of A Study In Pink continues to unravel, in this thrilling manga adaptation of the smash-hit SHERLOCK TV series! John is pulled into a web of deceit, as he comes face-to-face with the man who describes himself as Sherlock’s “arch-enemy” – and Sherlock sets a trap for a serial murderer!

Cover A: Jay.
Cover B: Photo
Cover C: Simon Myers
Cover D: Question No 6

Titan Comics Collections

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Volume Three: The Fountains of Forever
Writer: Nick Abadzis
Artists: Elena Casagrande & Eleonora Carlini
Colorist: Arianna Florean & Claudia SG Iannicello
Letterer: Comicraft
Cover: Mariano Laclaustra
FC – 136pp – $14.99 – ISBN: 9781782767404 51499
On sale in comic stores: Aug 10
On sale in book stores: Sept 6

Collects Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor #11-15 and the 10D story from FCBD 2015.

The first year of Tenth Doctor ongoing adventures hits its jaw-dropping finale as Gabby, Cindy and the Doctor face a cosmic threat from the heart of the galaxy!

From an ageing actress unravelling the code of existence from her Manhattan apartment block, through retro-regeneration, a black ops military organisation, a secret cult, and an extraterrestrial artefact of such scale that it warps human comprehension – Doctor Who stories don’t get much bigger or more exciting than this!

All-Star Batman #1 – Jock Variant Cover

• Check out our British and Irish Comic Shops Map | Art by Nick Miller. We’ve got a range of merchandise featuring this art on sale via CafePress

US Comics On Sale This Week

List in part courtesy First Age Comics Lancaster – all the comics below can be ordered through your local comic shop, as can the 2000AD and Titan Comics titles above

• No local comic shop? check out the latest comics online at ForbiddenPlanet.com (using this link helps support downthetubes)

Archer & Armstrong #6
A-Force #8
Accused #1
Action Comics #961
Adventure Time #55
Agents of Shield #8
All New All Different Avengers #13
All New All Different Avengers Annual #1
All New X-Men #12
All Star Batman #1 also Jock variant covers
Amazing Spider-Man #16
Black Monday Murders #1
Black Panther #5
Daredevil #10
Darth Vader #24
Deadpool & Mercs For Money #2
Deathstroke Rebirth #1
Detective Comics #938
Donald Duck #16
Earth 2 Society #15
Empress #5
Flash #4
Flintstones #2
Hal Jordan & The Green Lantern Corps #2
Lumberjanes Gotham Academy #3
Marvel Mightiest Heroes Volume 69
New Superman #2
Ninjak #18
Old Man Logan #10
Prometheus Life & Death #3
Providence #10
Red Hood & The Outlaws #1
Rue Morgue Magazine #169
Scarlet Witch #9
Spider-Man 2099 #13
Spider-Man Deadpool #8
Street Fighter X GI Joe #6 of 6
Suicide Squad Most Wanted El Diablo & Boomerang #1
Superwoman #1
Vision #10
War Stories #19
Weavers #4
Wonder Woman #4

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: 2000AD, British Comics, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Doctor Who, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News

Tags: Adventure Comics, Annie Parkhouse, Astonishing Spider-Man, downthetubes News, D’Israeli, Emma Beeby, Humour Comics, Ian Edginton, Johnny Red, Judge Anderson, Marvel Collector Editions, Nick Dyer, Panini, Rivers of London, SF Comics, Something for the Weekend, Superhero Comics