about downthetubes




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One of Nick Miller's cartoons of me used in my editorials for Star Trek Magazine.

Yes, there's no escaping it. I did edit Doctor Who Magazine. Here I am, coming out of my office... Pic by Bill Savage.

-- and here I am, in my office, with Nick "Voice of the Daleks" Briggs, in a sequence from the Doctor Who Magazine Myth Makers from Reeltime Pictures. Incredibly, yes, almost 20 years ago I did have hair. We had all sorts of people working for us, back then, as you can see below*

* All right John "Sergeant benton" Levene never really worked for Doctor Who Magazine. He was the first Doctor Who "star" I ever sat next to at an autograph session and advised me:"Always make sure the fans can read your signature." Smashing chap. He now lives in Los Angeles.

Me at the Royal Air Tattoo as launch editor of RAF Magazine, which is now edited by Steve White. Pic by Kevin Wills

Lucky Bag - published by Toontastic.

Gene Dogs for Marvel UK - a four issue limited series intended to be a British X-Men. Maybe I shouldn't have read all those Chris Claremont comics first. (Sorry Chris)

Shadow Riders - a four issue mini series I wrote with Brian Williamson for Marvel UK. The first issue sold 142,000 copies! That was in 1993, though... Art by Ross Dearsley

"If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist..."
Norman Mailer

I'm a freelance writer and creative consultant based in Lancaster, England.

I work part time work for ROK Comics, which resumed in July 2009 but concentrating solely on formatting material for their WAP-delivered comics services in India.

My freelance work, which was full time between 2000 and 2006, includes editing various classic comic collections for Titan Books and reviews for Star Trek Magazines.

I also contribute to various magazines and the SF web site SciFiPulse and I run this downthetubes web site, blog and forum.

In the comics world I'm writing a variety of different strips including two new strips for a new magazine for PrintMedia, a company new to the UK market; Ex Astris, a new SF strip. The Really Heavy Greatcoat, which I wrote for over 20 years is currently on hiatus.

In addition to this web site I run a Mobile Comics Blog, reflecting my interest in this comics form - news stories are very welcome!

Past Employment

• In 2009 I was Managing Editor of Steam Industries weirdandbeard web site

• Between November 1999 until December 2000 I was working as Project Manager for the online community-based site VZSciFi. That job included the creation of the framework for a new "virtual chat zone" using avatar technology. It was all great fun, and mixed a lot of what I have been doing for nearly 20 years - editing SF magazines and comics - with new media applications. Unfortunately, it seems the technology was ahead of its time and the US parent Avaterra.com pulled the plug on many of its operations just as its European arm was about to secure some major media deals. VZones is now back up and running and has a new project, The Second Kingdom, which is doing well.

• Until November 1999 I was Managing Editor at Titan Magazines in London, publishers of a wide range of licensed science fiction magazines. My managerial duties included the hands-on editing of Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine and Star Wars Comic, and overseeing the creation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Wars Magazine, The X-Files, Xena, Simpsons Comics UK and Manga Max. Titan Magazines is part of the Titan Publishing Group, publishers of Titan Books and owners of many Forbidden Planet (London) shops.

• Prior to this, I was Director of the Lancaster Literature Festival.

• Between 1987 and 1993 I was at Marvel UK and my work there included editor of Doctor Who Magazine and, later, several Marvel UK titles, including Death's Head, Warheads, Motormouth (its last few issues) Digitek and the weekly Overkill. I also wrote a few comic strips for Marvel (among them, Warheads and Shadow Riders).

According to several Doctor Who fans I am descended from werewolves (a long running joke in the pages of the gone but not forgotten Fanmail fanzine. This has been attributed to my inability to shave on a daily basis and the fact that I never sleep when there is a full moon.

Past Freelance Projects
• See right for comic credits

• Editing the launch issues of RAF Magazine and ongoing issues of Star Trek Magazine for Titan Magazines; editing various comics for the same company, including Planet of the Apes, Star Wars and Simpsons Comics. I also wrote a "Clapperboard" column on new film and TV projects for Dreamwatch.
• Comic strips for web designer company Netfundi and IT company Cardium Solutions.
• Sourcing creators for various creative projects for third party clients
• Raptus Convention in Norway: helped arrange guests for their 2003 convention
• CJL Publishing Italy: wrote a variety of adventure strips. These included The Grand Tour, drawn by Mike Collins; and Aten. The artist on the strip, Gian Marco Ibba also draws an erotic barbarian fantasy which is published online at www.e-popea.com which is also being published by the well-known Italian Erotic magazine, Blue.
• Puzzle pages for Toontastic's Beyblade comic
• Maintained and re-designed the official Hammer Films web site.

Volunteer Work

• Working with Ian Wheeler on Eagle Flies Again, a fanzine about old British comics. The last issue was published in May 2006 but lives on in the features section of this web site
• Wrote the occasional article called "Comics and Crumpets" for Comic World News
• Working as a volunteer with a great local Lancaster team on Virtual-Lancaster.net
• Writing The Really Heavy Greatcoat strip -- written by me and drawn by Nick Miller. Now published in Comic International
• I also edited the now defunct Lancaster-based events listing magazine Off The Beat, a direct descendant of On the Beat, which I started in 1984.
• Editing the self-published a fanzine, SCAN, which counted comics luminary Alan Moore amongst its minuscule number of subscribers; and
• Started writing a novel. I'm still writing it. (I wrote one in Sixth Form which was awful).

About downthetubes

As a UK-based creative consultant I have had over 20 years experience of editing and writing, for both traditional and electronic media. My clients include publishers, web sites, mobile games content suppliers and others.

This site was originally created to be a resource base for people seeking comics artists and writers but has mushroomed over the years to deliver British comics news and features.

It also includes information on events and other SF resources on the web.

Please note that I do NOT claim to have direct contact with all the creators listed on my public resource pages, though I have worked with many artists and writers over the years.

It's an archaic idea now, but I've often thought of the internet as a series of tubes, information plying down them. It turns out I'm not alone in this comparison; in 2006 now disgraced Alaskan senator described the Internet "a series of tubes" in an infamous 2006 rant when he was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, a primary US legislative regulatory body that governs, among other things, the Internet. Apparently, this description of the Internet "encapsulates the generational digital divide", which makes me an old fuddy-duddy. Oh, well. (More about Senator Stevens' "Tubes" rants here)

downthetubes is also the name of that unpublished novel, part of which was realized as various RPG sessions many years ago.

I am always interested in seeing artist and writer samples and am happy to do my best to try and promote British indpendent and mainstream comic publications.

If you are a published creator -- that includes self published -- and would like to be included on this site please send information about your blog or web site to johnfreeman6-downthetubes@yahoo.co.uk

If you want, PLEASE SEND ME NO MORE THAN TWO samples of your strip work (cartoon or adventure strip) or include a link to your website or blog in the e-mail. I will e-mail you if I require more images. Please also send me contact details and information on whether you work using Illustrator, Photoshop and other computer programs; or if you work traditionally with pen and ink. Please also let me know which languages you speak and your usual rates of pay per page or illustration, thank you.

Please note that due to the volume of material received I may not be able to respond immediately to material sent. I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide a critique of submitted material if you are looking for one.

For a guide to comics on the web, check my Links section. Again, further links are welcome.

John Freeman
May 2010

• Try this Google Web Search

ACADEMICS

• John Freeman, Founder, Performance Practice
and: www.dmu.ac.uk/faculties/humanities/pa/jfreeman.jsp

With a BA Honours in Creative Arts, an MA in Theatre Studies and a PhD which focused on heuristic research methodology and performance, John Freeman is the founder and former editor of Performance Practice. In addition to a background in the subject, he has written extensively on contemporary performance, new theatre writing, the documentation of practice and creative processes, with articles in titles such as the Guardian and many others. He's also the author of Tracing the Footprints, aimed at students, teachers, practitioners and lecturers involved in the documentation of practice. Freeman hopes the book demonstrates that theatre making is not just one process but many; all linked, interwoven, and impossible to disentangle.

ARTISTS

• John Freeman, Cartoonist
Link: www.polypop.com/comix/freeman
Black humour comics from an artist and musician with Tourette's syndrome. Read a review of one of his gigs (which starts: "Who needs a tired, worn out Buzzcocks while John Freeman is still in the game.")

John Freeman - Watercolour artist
Link: www.johnfreemanstudio.co.uk
North Yorkshire-based John Freeman's beautiful watercolour works include Nocturne, HM Endeavour, Goathland and Whitby series in prints, cards, calendars and jigsaws. (Photo of John's shop in Whitby courtesy of Jeremy Briggs)

• John Freeman - Watercolour Artist
View a gallery of his work on the St. Neot Picture Gallery web site
Another artist, this Bedfordshire-based John Freeman has been painting in watercolours for over 10 years. Though showing promise at an early age John discontinued drawing until his late twenties when the gift of a paint box inspired him to rediscover long neglected skills.
In an effort to make up for lost time, John now paints regularly, following the English tradition of watercolour landscape.
His passion for capturing the essential essence of our surroundings has led John to sketch & paint in many parts of the world, however his interest chiefly lies in painting the ever changing landscape and beautiful skies of his native England.
John currently lives in Bedfordshire.

BUSINESS

• John Freeman
Link: www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0887001.html
Born in 1807, By 1850, according to a census, Freeman was the wealthiest African American in Marion County, with a restaurant in Indianapolis and four acres of land on which he grew crops for his restaurant. But he still had to fight to prove he was not a runaway slave...

• John F. Freeman
Link: www.johnfreeman.com
An experienced Business Analyst/Project Manager with a versatile and extensive background in various business sectors involving the full systems development lifecycle (SDLC). Adept at defining the scope and effect of changes made within business operations. Experiences include requirements gathering, data analysis, process and systems modeling, database design, traceability and UAT. Technical skills are matched by soft skills required to act as a liaison with technology and business.

JOURNALISTS

• John Freeman
Biography: www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUfreemanJ2.htm
Also a member of the Labour Party and MP before becoming a journalist. Freeman resigned from the House of Commons in 1955. He worked for the New Statesman and served as editor of the magazine between 1961 and 1965.
Other posts held by Freeman include High Commissioner in India (1965-68), Ambassador to the United States (1969-71) and Chairman of London Weekend Television.

• John Freeman, American editor of Granta magazine
Read his blog on The Guardian web site
A former president of the National Book Critics Circle, John's criticism has appeared in publications around the world, including The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times Book Review. He has written a book on the tyranny of e-mail, for Scribner.

• There's a John Freeman who contributes to the bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com who might be same one as immediately above. He's described as a freelance writer and book critic whose reviews and essays have appeared in more than 100 newspapers and magazines including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune. He graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in English literature and now lives in New York City with 2,000 books.

• John Freeman (of KION 46)
Link: Full Bio on the KION 46 web site
John Freeman has been covering news on the Central Coast for nearly two decades and now ranks as one of the most experienced broadcast journalists in the area. John started off as a photojournalist, but has gone on to fulfil a multitude of roles at the station, including News Director, Special Projects Producer and now Weekend Anchor on KION 46 News at Eleven.

MARINE SURVEYORS

John Freeman, Freeman and Partners - UK
Link: www.freemanandpartners.com
Freeman & Partners offers specialist services to underwriters and yacht owners or their agents in respect of condition surveys, supervision of maintenance, repair and refit programs together with certification surveys and inspections. The company has two offices, one based in the New Forest headed by John Freeman, and one in Palma, Majorca headed by Bob Hoghton, offering a high quality, economic, efficient professional survey service throughout southern England, the western Mediterranean and the Balearic Islands.
In addition to their normal survey and inspection services they also able to offer specialist endoscopic surveys of both concealed structures and machinery internals. They have access to specialist equipment for non-destructive testing of spars and rigging, in particular rod rigging together with sophisticated methods of detecting damage or defects in carbon structures.

PHOTOGRAPHERS

John Freeman
Link: www.johnfreeman-photographer.com
London-based photographer - some great images, clients include the BBC World Service and Ann Summers. That's what I call diversification.

POETS

• John Freeman (1880 - 1929)
Link: National Portrait Gallery Information

POLICE MEN

Sgt. John Freeman
Link: A long link to a page on the British Transport Police web site
A Midland Railway Policeman who served in four wars.

POLITICIANS

John Freeman - British
Wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Freeman_(politician)
The Right Honourable Major John Freeman MBE (born on February 19, 1915) was a British Labour Party politician, television executive (he was chairman of LWT for 13 years), bowls commentator and diplomat (he was ambassador to the US). He was the presenter of the BBC Face to Face television series between 1959 and 1962. His polite but probing questioning famously reduced the renowned-for-being rude What's My Line panelist Gilbert Harding to tears after probing about his (then illegal) homosexuality. (The Transdiffusion web site reports: "Freeman made pointed reference to Harding’s ‘mannerisms’, suggesting that Harding was camp (he was not)." Although Harding did not admit to being gay in the interview, "eventually, the façade cracked and he began to cry when Freeman mentioned the recent death of Harding’s mother."
Freeman also clearly unnerved comedian Tony Hancock. The Tony Hancock Appreciation Society, whose site features a transcript of the interview, comments: "Hancock was as surprised as anybody when he was asked if he would like to participate in the show. After some deliberation Hancock agreed... The resulting examination of Hancock's troubled personality was so stark that the BBC had their doubts about whether or not it should be aired at all; indeed, Freeman was forced to write a letter to the Daily Telegraph following the broadcast to counter the public criticism his interview style had received."
• Listen to extracts from John Freeman's 1960 interview with Evelyn Waugh on the BBC web site: www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/waughe1.shtml

PROFESSORS

John Freeman, MD (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine)
Link: www.neuro.jhmi.edu/profiles/freeman.html
Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics and has spent most of his career at Johns Hopkins. After graduating from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

John Freeman (University of California)
John H. Freeman, a leader in the field of entrepreneurship and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business, died of an apparent heart attack at his home in Lafayette, California on Monday 3 March 2008. He was 63. This a link to the notice of his death on the Univerity's web site.

Dr John Freeman BA (Cantab) PhD (York) (University of Cardiff)
Link: www.cardiff.ac.uk/encap/staff/freeman.html
John Freeman teaches courses on Romantic Poetry, Shelley, Twentieth-Century Poetry and Creative Writing. His research interests are in the poetry of the last two centuries with particular emphasis on Shelley and on poetry from 1950 to the present. He has lectured on literary topics and given poetry readings in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Lithuania. He has taught many creative writing courses and workshops outside the university including the Poetry Otherwise course at Emerson College, Sussex, in 2003 and 2004.

John Freeman (University of Florida - Journalism)
Link: www.jou.ufl.edu/people/faculty/jfreeman/freeman.htm

John Freeman (University of Iowa - Psychology)
Link: www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/freeman/freeman.html

John R. Freeman (University of Minnesota - Political Science)
Link: www.polisci.umn.edu/faculty/freeman
John R. Freeman (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, l978) is Distinguished McKnight University Professor.

John Freeman (West Dean College, UK)
Link: www.westdean.org.uk/site/arts/gallery/art/freeman_john.htm
John Freeman, artist and etcher, studied at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, and Chelsea School of Art, and exhibits widely. He has a special interest in the history of drawing and painting the figure.

SLAVES

Thomas Jefferson and John Freeman
Link: www.wku.edu/~andrew.mcmichael/freeman.html
On 1 June 1801 Thomas Jefferson recorded in his memorandum book the £10 he had paid John Freeman, a slave the new president rented from Dr. William Baker on a monthly basis. While Freeman might have been an uncommon and ironic name for a slave, the rental arrangement was not unusual, either for Jefferson or for thousands of other slaves and their masters in the early American republic. (Read the article on slave John Freeman in full)

SPORTS

• Baseball Player John Freeman (d. 1958)
View Stats here

• Racing Driver John S. Freeman
Link: www.johnfreemanracing.net

TECHNOLOGY WIZARD

• John Freeman
Link: http://jlfreeman.net/
Computer programmer with more than 20 years experience. Most recently developing genomics and microarray tools for biologists. Previously developed visualization software, communications and operating systems software, and device drivers, ported and packaged the X Window System and related software packages, delivered software to the customers, always with high quality. More than fifteen years project lead experience.

• John "Cloudy Hands" Freeman
Link: www.cloudyhands.com
This guy does things with databases and other stuff. Damm clever chap by the looks of it!