Award-winning comics writer Andy Winter is finally back in the spotlight after what seems a long absence from the British comic scene, making up for that with three new graphic novels, all published by Markosia.
Andy, who also spends long hours and late shifts on the Daily Mirror sports desk, has worked for a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, including Smash Hits, Maxim and Match. He was the editor of music mag Splinter and the long-running football weekly, Shoot!. He has also made fanzines and presented radio shows.
Currently publishing his work through Markosia, his past credits include Hero Killers, a one-shot comic-book he created with artist Declan Shalvey, which won an Eagle Award in 2006.
Peter Pan: The Graphic Novel Sequel, with art by Keara Norris, is on sale from 30th October 2024, offering a free-wheelin’, liberty-taking, 100 per cent unofficial follow-up to J.M. Barrie’s classic novel from 1911, the book set an unspecified number of years after Captain Hook’s demise.
“Much to Peter Pan’s disgust, a period of peace and relative tranquility has descended on the Neverland after a failed invasion by brutal outsiders,” Andy teases on his official website. “Suffice to say the calm won’t last and soon Peter, Tinkerbell and Queen Tiger Lily are fighting for their lives as a new threat reveals itself. Oh, and just wait until you meet Wendy, Peter and John!
“The spectacularly talented American artist Keara Norris illustrated, coloured and lettered the book (the cover below is hers, too). It’s Keara’s first published comics work and I rather suspect not her last. When you collaborate with an artist you hope they will throw themselves into it and really make it their own – Keara has definitely done that and more.”
Hot on the heels of Peter Pan, on sale from 1st November, is Robbing Hood, a graphic novel that, stylistically, is very much a contrast to Peter Pan‘s bright colours and giddy humour. “Influenced by gritty British crime movies of the 1960s, such as The Frightened City and The Hi-Jackers, it’s a bold and brutal reimagining of the Robin Hood story,” Andy explains. “Our Robin isn’t a swashbuckling medieval archer sticking it to the Sheriff of Nottingham but a PTSD-afflicted World War Two veteran, trying to retrieve a million pounds from the London crime lord he’s convinced has stolen it.
“Mick Trimble, who I first collaborated with on Septic Isle back in 2008. is the artist and he also provided the excellent Saul Bass-inspired cover. This is the best work I’ve ever seen from Mick and he really captures that contrasting ’60s London vibe of glamour and grubbiness to perfection.
The final title in the upcoming trio is Brothers: The Ultimate Edition, on sale from Markosia from 22nd November.
“I originally published this story about feuding sibling superheroes back in my Moonface Press days, in 2009,” Andy says, “and, to mark the book’s 15th anniversary, it has been dusted off, completely re-lettered, and had some new story pages added, including a brand spanking new ending. Artist Andy Radbourne has done a lovely new back cover, too.
“Andy is a terrific artist and I really hope this re-release inspires him to do more comics – I’d work with him again in a heartbeat.
“Amusingly, a story about feuding brothers seems even more appropriate in 2024 than it did in 2009 – not only are Oasis’s Gallagher boys back in action after 15 years apart but there’s a pair of Royal princes who aren’t exactly on speaking terms either.
(Andy has been busy himself, his dark and violent supernatural tale MARKED – a five-year passion project – available from him direct on his official site. “A marriage of mythology and the supernatural, dealing with adult themes and brutal violence,” Andy Radbourne expands, created when he was reflecting on the concept of mortality, the fragility of life and conversely the weight and loss immortality would bring. “Suddenly, it took on a life of its own.”)
• Peter Pan: The Graphic Novel Sequel (AmazonUK Affiliate Link) by Andy Winter (writer) and Keara Norris (illustrator, colourist & letterer) | Publisher: Markosia | ISBN: 978-1917459082 | Release date: 30th October 2024 | 116 Pages, full-colour paperback | More information here on Any Winter’s official site
• Robbing Hood (AmazonUK Affiliate Link) | By Andy Winter (writer), Mick Trimble (artist) and Jochen Epp (letterer) | ISBN: 978-1917459068 | Publisher: Markosia | Release date: 1st November 2024 | 116 pages, paperback (black and white interior, colour exterior) | More information here on Any Winter’s official site
• Brothers: The Ultimate Edition (AmazonUK Affiliate Link) | By Andy Winter (writer), Andy Radbourne (artist) and Heimi Henderson (letterer) | ISBN: 978-1917459228 | Release date: 22nd November 2024 | 64 pages, paperback (black and white interior, colour exterior) | More information here on Any Winter’s official site
• Andy Winter Official Site: andywinter.online
• Keara Norris is in the throes of moving web sites
• Follow Mick Trimble on Instagram @mick.trimble
• Andy Radbourne is online at andrewradbourne.com
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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.
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