Kapow! Comic Con Trailer on Vimeo
• Mark Millar has announced a new London-based comics convention, Kapow (9-10th April 2011) which will host the first Stan Lee Awards ceremony (see Newsarama and Bleeding Cool for more news). The guest line up includes John Romita Jr., Andy Diggle, Jock, Steve Dillon, Duncan Fegredo, David Hine, Simon Furman, John McCrea and Kieron Gillen, plus Frank Quitely, Lenil Francis Yu and Dave Gibbons.
If you buy your ticket before 31st December 2010 you’ll be entered into a prize draw for your name and likeness to appear in an issue of Kick-Ass 2.
• Along with titles such as Luke Pearson‘s beautiful-looking story Hildafolk, London-based publishers NoBrow recently released A Graphic Cosmogony for sale online, and it’s now on sale in all good book shops. Paul Gravett, organiser of Comica festival describes it as “their most ambitious publication yet, the story of creation retold by 24 international artists.”Contributing artists include Brecht Vandenbroucke, Ben Newman, Jon McNaught, Stuart Kolakovic, Mike Bertino, Mikkel Sommers, Jack Teagle, Andrew Rae and many others. More info here
• As part of ongoing promotion for his War Comix project, Sean Duffield sent us this fun Rom Spaceknight cartoon. We suspect there’s a tip of the hats to the latest Wikileaks revelations, too…
• Ace artist Rian Hughes has been interviewed by Comic Book Resources about the US edition of Yesterday’s Tomorrows, which is being published by Image Comics in December. The collection includes his and Grant Morrision’s take on Dan Dare, published in Revolver and Crisis in the 1980s.
“Grant plays on this nostalgia for a simpler, less politically complicated age,” Hughes says of the story he and Morrison strove to tell with Dare, “while mirroring the fate of his original creator, Frank Hampson, who lost control of the copyright and made very little money from the merchandising success of the property, living in reduced circumstances in later life. A sad story.”
• Lancaster comics artist David Hughes (no relation to the above) has written a computer game for the Sinclair Spectrum (no, really, the Sinclair Spectrum – I had no idea it was still being used!) based around his Norman character on his blog, details can be found at www.stonechatproductions.blogspot.com on how to play. “It’s linked to comics in that there is a prize for the first person to complete it before Christmas will get a selection of my comics,” says David. Reader will recall David’s book Thomas Wogan is Dead has been released for iPad by Tabella so he’s no stranger to eComics.
• A unique Ron Embleton painting of actor David McCallum as Man from U.N.C.L.E. agent Illya Kuryakin has been relisted on eBay after it failed to meet its £250 reserve on first offering. As we previously reported, the painting was a prize offered in Lady Penelope comic in the 1960s. View the auction here
• Ace cartoonist Malcolm Kirk recently launched a new web comic, Mag, Scientist, which he tells us he hopes to update at least once a week on his blog. Check out the first episode here
• Fans of free gifts given away with British comics are sure to enjoy Lew Stringer‘s three-part series of articles about such items on his blog (Part 1 here). Lew traces the giveaways back to the 1930s, noting that many were more refined than the cheap plastic toys given away today.
• And finally… the winner of our recent Grandville Mon Amour competition is Michael Charlton from Lancaster, England. We asked you who was the right wing French Prime Minister in Bryan Talbot‘s Grandville? The answer is Jean-Marie Lapin. Congratulations to Michael – the book is on its way. Read our review of Grandville Mon Amour here
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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: Auctions, Comics Competitions, Tube Surfing
Sean D.
if your interested in other blogs you might be able to showcase your ROM related art you should check out: http://www.romspaceknightart.blogspot.com
Hi David, Sean might have spotted our earlier story here which plugged the Bill Mantlo fund raising project. Thanks for the link to this other site, though. Some great stuff.