Tube Surfing: 4 March 2009

By John Freeman on March 4, 2009

• This is the 1500th Post to the downthetubes blog! Some sort of milestone. downthetubes itself has been going in varied forms since 1999. Special thanks to all our contributors, old and new!

• Erik Salholm has just posted a short interview with Kane and Jack Staff creator Paul Grist in which the creator talks more about his new comic, Eternal Warrior, which is now online. “Each story needs a different approach,” he sasy of the styling to the new strip. “I think my ‘style’ is distinctive, without being the same regardless of the story. I’m trying to work my way through different story genres – humour, crime, superhero and now fantasy (for want of a better word) – eventually I’ll find something I’m good at!”

• Tony Lee’s MILF Magnet hit stores in America today. “It’s out from Moonstone, and people who have read it think it’s quite funny,” he says, “But then they’re not allowed out much, and when they’re in their rooms they scream a lot. It’s a story that Moonstone offered to me a couple of years ago with the line ‘You might want to write this under a fake name’ and has one of my favourite lines of dialogue ever in it…” Tony was interviewed last year by The Pulse about the project here.

• Belated birthday wishes to Ronald Searle, veteran British cartoonist and comics guy, who was 89 yesterday…

• Manga expert and former Titan Magazines co-worker Jonathan Clements reveals he is now avalable in podcast form, courtesy of the people from the Right Stuf, who interview him on their latest Anime Today show about anime, manga, and the difficulties of getting Chinese waiters to sing Help Me Rhonda.

• (with thanks to Eddie Campbell): Just found Larry Latham‘s fab web site Lovecraft is Missing, which not only features his eponymous, gorgeous comic that he both writes and draws, and has been running since last August but a host of other visual goodies, too. The colouring on the pages is by Eric Lee (who has his own web strip here) and Tony Johnson.

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. 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.