• Comics artist Francesca Cassavetti has confirmed her brand new 24 page comic will be on sale at the upcoming 176 event in London tomorrow (Saturday 27 June). Put your best foot forward and stride on down to 176 for a fab day out in Camden and pick yourself up a copy while you’re there.
• Other exhibitors at 176 include Oli Smith, Sean Azzopardi, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, David Baillie, Thomas Plaskitt, Juan-Carlos Cambon, Phil Spence, Paul Rainey, Gavin Burrows, Sally-Anne Hickman, John Maybury, Andy Luke and many others – a great line up and well worth checking out if you’re in the smoke!
• Commando artist Keith Page is having fun teasing his fans with art from his upcoming steampunk adventure Iron Moon, which features an alternate version of his heroine, Charlotte Corday. Iron Moon will be fully painted and appear as part of the new line up in Spaceship Away: coincidentally, the latest issue features a cover by this terrific artist.
• Jon Haward, who reveals he’s back at work on a Judge Dredd story for 2000AD – his first strip for the comic since 1993 – also reports that Classical Comics award-wiining comics adaptation of Macbeth is to be published in Turkey. In more good news for the determined publisher, another of its titles, Frankenstein received its first award, given by the Association of Educational Publishers in America, for Distinguished Achievement in grades 9-12. Every notable educational publisher enters these awards, so to win on their first attempt is a great accomplishment.
• Chris Weston has just posted the final art for his cover for Bear Alley Books upcoming Phantom Patrol – and as you can see, it’s truly stunning.
Both Phantom Patrol and Cursitor Doom will ship in August: ordering information will be online soon at bearalleybooks.blogspot.com.
• Artist Rob Davis, whose working on several projects at once, reports he busy working on layouts for a 10-page Doctor Who comic strip that will be “a bit of a tribute to a true comic genius.
“Dan McDaid has written me a mad little story full of genius characters.
“I’m also juggling two other comic strips with the help of Geraint Ford and Faz Choudhury. I’m trying not to keep using the word busy in all my posts, so I’ll just say that I’m… fully occupied.”
• Boychild Productions’ Sean Michael Wilson reports he has opened up a new blog to tell people more directly about the Bespoke Comic book service that he’s now developing with various artists.
• And finally: Simon Furman reminds us the latest issue of Wildstorm’s StarCraft Issue (#2), written by Simon with art by Federico Dallochio, hits stores this week (24th June in the US, 25th in the UK). A spin-off from the upcoming StarCraft 2 game, due out later this year, the second issue sees the recently reformed, hard bitten team of ex-cons, The War Pigs, running up against serious opposition in the shape of space-going cutthroat mercs. Will their quest to find and ‘retire’ ex-marshal and StarCraft mainstay Jim Raynor collapse before it’s even started? Probably not, as this is issue #2 of an ongoing series, but there’s still 22 packed pages of searing story action waiting for you, with a twist or two thrown in for good measure.
“Things are really starting to hot up, and whether you’re a fan of the game or not, you’d do well to jump onboard now!” Simon urges.
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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.
Categories: 2000AD, British Comics, Tube Surfing