Tube Surfing: 23 July 2008

By John Freeman on July 23, 2008

Two DVD releases coming soon from the worlds of Gerry Anderson are worth a mention. The last of the major Anderson productions to reach UK DVD, the 1969 live action feature film Doppelganger, will be released under its American title of Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun on 8 September. Doppelganger was very much the prototype for the UFO TV series which made use of much of its hardware. The other Anderson release is the complete Thunderbirds TV series on Blu-Ray on 15 September. This will be the first time that any of the Anderson titles has been released in a high definition format although the 4:3 format of the originals will probably be zoomed and otherwise reformatted for 16:9 widescreen.
• Buy Journey to the Far Side of the Sun from amazon.co.uk (Region 2)
• Buy the Thunderbirds Blu-Ray set from amazon.co.uk
• Buy Journey to the Far Side of the Sun from amazon.com (Region 1)

The second Hillhead Comic and Toy Fair of 2008 will take place in Hillhead Library, Glasgow on Saturday 6 September starting at 11am and running to 3pm. Entry is free and there are more details on their Myspace page.

The special Virgin Dan Dare hardback which reprints the first three issues of the seven issue limited series is now in the shops. This should not be confused with the full version of the story which will be released as a graphic novel in October. The seventh and final part of the Garth Ennis/Gary Erskine title is available from this week and it is a double issue.

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John Freeman

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.