ADDITIONAL NEWS LINKS

Nightmare world at the tip of his pen
8/01/2007, the Daily Telegraph: Graphic novelist Matt Coyle tells Sebastian Smee about the obsessive craft behind his dark new book. Read the interview

AWARD-WINNING CARTOONIST DIES
4/7/06: Gren, one of Wales' best-known and long-serving newspaper cartoonists, has died aged 72. Gren was voted best provincial cartoonist in Britain four times during the 1980s and was made an MBE for services to newspapers in 1989. Read the full story on BBC News...

downthetubes.net News Archive: January 2007

HORROR ARTISTS WANTED
28/1/07: Horror artists and writers are needed for a demonic new comic experiment! BackfromtheDepths.co.uk, the long running tribute site devoted to the 1980s classic IPC horror comic Scream!, is looking for writers and artist to contribute fresh material for a new online comic.
The re-vamped(!) BackfromtheDepths website has a huge collection of original Scream stories to view online, while the ever-growing fan artwork and stories section is a showcase of new talent, spooky stories and evil art.
Whether you are a budding artist or an experienced writer this great new project is open to all with a taste for the darker side of comics. Just remember -- "It's Not for the Nervous!" as this fab sample image by Neil Sims will hopefully indicate...
• For more information contact Ghastly McNasty at: ghastlymcnasty@backfromthedepths.co.uk

JEFF HAWKE: COSMOS
28/1/07 (with thanks to Richard Sheaf and William Rudling): The new issue of the Jeff Hawke fan magazine has just been published and includes two complete stories from the Daily Express -- The Gamesman and Sitting Tenants. Plus the usual in-depth analysis of the strips and a look at early SF comic hero, Captain Condor. 68 A4 pages and colour covers.
Subscriptions for the magazine are £16.50 (£26 overseas) for three issues from The Jeff Hawke Club, 6 The Close, Alwoodley, Leeds LS17 7RD.

EAGLE TIMES
28/1/07 (with thanks to Richard Sheaf):The latest issue of Eagle Times, the quarterly journal of the Eagle Society, came out just before Christmas. Volume 19, issue 4 is 50+ A4 pages and includes articles on Frank Hampson' Southport, a PC49 Christmas story, 1950s pop music and Dick Barton.
Annual subscriptions are £22 for 4 50+page issues of the journal (rates vary if overseas). Cheques should be made payable to Eagle Society should be sent to Keith Howard, 25a Station Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 2UA.

SPACESHIP AWAY ON APROACH RUN...
25/1/07: Issue 11 of the original Eagle-inspired title Spaceship Away is now at the printers and should be available in 10 days time.
This latest issue of the critically acclaimed magazine is another 44 page issue, featuring all the regular strips and items, plus two more Frank Hampson Studio development sketches and a Graham Bleathman centrespread - "Battle for Mekonta".
But the really big news is what is coming in Spaceship Away #12. That issue will have the first new Dan Dare artwork from Bruce Cornwell in 45 years, and also the start of a three part, brand new, Denis Steeper Dan Dare story - Murder on Mars (which will mean the title will then be running four Dan Dare stories at once!).
More strips will join the title in 2007, which really makes it a must-read magazine for anyone who enjoys science fiction comics. "2007 looks like an exciting year all round," says publisher Rod Barzilay, and he'll get no argument here.
• Full contents for #11 and ordering information are available on the Spaceship Away web site - www.spaceshipaway.org.uk

EAGLE AWARD NOMINATIONS SOUGHT
24/1/07: Introduced in 1976, the Eagles are the comics industry's longest established awards. Acknowledged as the pre-eminent international prizes, they have been featured on the covers of leading US and UK titles across the last 30 years. Unique in that they reflect the people's choice, the Eagle Awards comprise of two distinct stages.
Nominations are now being solicited for the 2006 Eagle Awards. The winners will be announced at the Bristol International Comic Expo on Saturday, May 12 2007 at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Bristol. The ceremony, hosted by comedian Norman Lovett will be preceded by the traditional gala dinner, for which already only a few tickets remain available.
The top five most popular nominations move forwards to the voting stage, and for the first time nominations are open to the whole voting public, at www.eagleawards.co.uk/nominate
• The Eagles now have their very own message forum and website featuring a detailed history of the awards and past winners, all accessible via the Eagles home page of www.eagleawards.co.uk Join in, and nominate now!

SHUTTLE DOWN
17/1/07 by Jeremy Briggs: For those who would like some new British space opera in the gap between issues of Spaceship Away, one of the early January batch of DC Thomson's Commando comics is called Shuttle Down!
Commando Issue 3971 -- one of four Commando titles released this month -- is a contemporary tale featuring the story of a NASA shuttle with an RAF pilot who has to make a emergency landing in a war zone. Top artist Ian Kennedy provides the cover to the issue.
Check your local W.H. Smith for copies, but while you may recall paying 5p or thereabouts for a copy of Commando when you were a kid, don't be too shocked to discover that they now cost £1.20.
• The official Commando site is www.commandomag.com but it's not updated that often. downthetubes recommends checking out Vic Whittle's excellent site at www.britishcomics.20m.com/pocket.htm

COLLECTED HOOK JAW HARDBACK UP FOR AUCTION
14/1/07: One of five special hardback versions of the upcoming Hook Jaw collection from Spitfire Comics is up for auction on ebay. The softcover is due for release soon through online and high street bookshops.
Prior to the official release of Hook Jaw, Spitfire Comics produced five hadback copies for the purposes of quality control. Three of the five are already taken by members of the project, so this is an extremely rare opportunity to own such a copy.
This is the first collected edition of stories of the man-eating great white shark, Hook Jaw from the pages of the million sales-per-month Action comic. Eventually banned for its graphic violence after a media outcry, this 1970s British forerunner to 2000AD saw blood-n-guts and limbs-a-flying mixed with environmental issues. Hook Jaw was an attempt to cash-in on the success of Jaws, but the horrific nature and young audience of Action weekly led to prohibition campaigns by the Evening Standard, the Sun and the BBC.
The collection comprises the two pre-ban stories: "The Oil Rig"-- Hook Jaw unwittingly becomes an eco-terrorist, as he eats his way through the staff of a greed-obsessed oil magnet -- and "Paradise Island". A t first glance, an idyllic island for the wealthy but at what cost to the indigenous shark- worshippers?
The stories were written by Pat Mills (2000AD, Charley's War, Slaine) and Ken Armstrong (Shako, Dan Dare and other uncredited stories). The art is largely by the wonderful Ramon Sola (Action, 2000AD, Battle etc) and another unnamed artist.
The official copies are a softback cover and are due to hit the comic shops in February and can be ordered from your local comic shop, Amazon, WH Smiths, Tesco or a variety of online book shops.
• View the ebay auction
• Buy Hook Jaw from Amazon.co.uk: Click Here

FREE CLASSIC COMIC TO FLOOD EDINBURGH IN FEBRUARY
13/1/07, updated 17/1/07 with thanks to Jeremy Briggs and Alan Grant: 25,000 free copies of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped - including a graphic novel version by Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy - are to be distributed throughout Edinburgh in February in a campaign to get the city's residents reading the same book.
Edinburgh's first citywide reading campaign is a unique project created by the world's first UNESCO City of Literature.
One Book - One Edinburgh aims to get as many Edinburgh citizens as possible reading this exciting adventure story - on their own initiative, or through libraries, schools and book groups. The campaign is supported by more than 30 partner organisations from across the city with a large public programme of events backing up the reading campaign in February.
Three new editions of Stevenson's great adventure story have been created - a paperback, Grant and Kennedy's fantastic new graphic novel and a simplified version. Of the 25,000, there will be 10,000 copies of the original text with a preface by Louise Welsh in a beautiful new paperback edition from Canongate.
The organisers for Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature describe the publication of 7,500 copies of a specially commissioned graphic novel by Alan Grant and illustrator Cam Kennedy as "a major coup." Between them the top creators have contributed to classics of the comics genre such as Judge Dredd, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight and Star Wars.
This campaign has also sparked two new spin-offs of the graphic novel. Both use Kennedy's magnificent artwork, but publishers Itchy Coo have produces a Scots language version entitled Kidnappit!, and Barrington Stoke have created a modern text edition, simplifying the original language for younger readers. Look out for these editions in local bookshops.
The third free edition of Kidnapped comprises 7,500 copies of a simplified retold edition created especially for a younger audience.
Free copies of the three editions of the book will be distributed across Edinburgh in February to every primary and secondary school, to every public library and to partner organisations. From 1st February, members of the public can drop into their local library to claim a free copy while stocks last. More information can be found on the campaign's dedicated One Book - One Edinburgh pages.
"Robert Louis Stevenson is Scotland's greatest author, and for me Kidnapped is his greatest book," Alan Grant told downthetubes. "It was an honour for me to be asked to do the graphic novel adaptation, especially as it's UNESCO's first-ever "One City, One Book" campaign. My hope is that the comic strip version will get young people reading -- it would seem to be bearing some early fruit, as Cam and I have been asked to put on a series of workshops in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, targeting some of the top schools as well as several of the more difficult ones.
"I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's a success, because I really want to do adaptations of Treasure island and Jekyll and Hyde as well!"
"Kidnapped, the epic adventure of young David Balfour, is a fantastic story set in one of the most dramatic periods of Scotland's history," explains Ali Bowden, Manager of the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust, "and Stevenson is a great Edinburgh author. We're very excited to be bringing this wonderful book to an Edinburgh readership in these new formats. The different editions will appeal to different readers, and will enable us to reach the widest possible audience."
The public programme totals more than 30 events, including exhibitions, a literary walking tour following in Stevenson's footsteps and a series of readings in conjunction with the National Library of Scotland, the first of which will take place on 1st February when Ian Rankin joins others to discuss the gothic, the criminal and Stevenson. For a younger audience, Donald Smith, Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, has scripted an irreverent and cheeky take on the Kidnapped story - When Kilts Were Banned - storytelling theatre with the bare essentials: wit, humour, falling out, friendship and growing up - but no kilts. The 1971 classic film of the story, starring Michael Caine and Donald Pleasence, will be shown at the Filmhouse on 24th February.
• Buy the Kidnapped graphic novel from Amazon.co.uk
• Edinburgh City of Literature Project

NEW COMICS ANTHOLOGY LAUNCHES
13/1/07 with thanks to Matthew Badham and Joe Gordon at FPI: MC², a new comics anthology, was launched in November and it's something that was on my radar to plug but I've just been reminded about it thanks to number of related e-mails. The brainchild of the Midlands Comics Collective, "a group of aspiring artists, writers and other such deviants based in and around Birmingham UK, all of whom are aiming to break into the comics industry - by force if necessary”, the anthology was edited by cartoonists Laura Howell and Hunt Emerson who’s lived and worked in Birmingham since the 1970s when he was part of the Birmingham Arts Lab.
Laura Howell is working with him on the Beano with Hunt at present and is doing a Strip-a-Day Spectacular throughout January, all of them quite different from each other, and look really impressively diverse.
• MC² can be ordered from Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones, Thing from Another World and Forbidden Planet International.

LOOK AND LEARN RETURNS
13/1/07 with thanks to Steve Holland): The first issue of the Look and Learn Company's limited run (48 issues) of a magazine made up of the best of the original Look and Learn has just been published and released to subscribers, printed to have the same look and feel as the original.
The Look and Learn company web site is also being extensively developed. "We have a lot more work to do on the website and we're close to getting the next few fun-packed things up," Steve told downthetubes, "including a massive Q&A section (based partly on the old Look & Learn Book of 1001 Questions) and a blog-style section which will use a wide range of feature material from Look and Learn.
"After that, I think the next project will be to upload the whole of The Children's Newspaper, all 46-years worth!
We've got a lot more planned for the site -- more images, a web-comic, an audio podcast -- which will keep us busy for the next six months at least."
Conceived as a rich miscellany of the original magazine's wide-ranging contents - spanning history, legend, literature, art, philosophy, nature, science and geography - The Best of Look and Learn showcases the work of the brilliant illustrators and writers who worked on the original magazine during its 20-year history. The magazine also contains a small number of extraordinary comic strips. You can download sample pages from the first issue of the best of Look and Learn (PDF format, at 12MB, they may still take several minutes to download.)
Those with subscriptions will receive a welcome pack, including a facsimile of the first ever issue of Look and Learn complete with its beautiful 'Where and When' presentation booklet. This will be followed by 24 issues of the new magazine in calendar 2007, and 24 in 2008.
The annual subscription price for those based in the UK is £29.99, postage included. The price for the full 48 issues is £54.99. Alternatively, you can pay by Direct Debit at a rate of £9.99 per 8 issues.
Gift subscriptions, including a Look and Learn greetings card for you to give or send to the recipient, are available at varying rates to anywhere in the world.

HIGH PRAISE FOR WORRY DOLL
8/1/07 (with thanks to Liam Sharp): The Daily Telegraph has published in interview with Matt Coyle, creator of the forthcoming graphic novel from UK publisher Mam Tor, Worry Doll.
The book is a noir story about three dolls who discover the horrific murder of their "host" family in the living room. The story's point of view appears to belong to the dolls, but, as things progress, it emerges that it actually belongs to a man. The dolls, his cherished belongings, are carried around in a suitcase, and brought out into the open to bear witness to his crimes.
Each of the 33 drawings in Worry Doll - described by the Telegraph as "groundbreaking" -- took Coyle months to complete. Most people who see them for the first time have to be persuaded that they are drawings.
"The imagery in Worry Doll is so far ahead of anything out there in terms of visual sophistication that it suggests a new way forward for the genre – maybe a new genre altogether," the article suggests.
"In a perfect world of graphic novel publishing, I'd publish these images without any words," Coyle, who lives in Hobart, Tasmania, reveals.
• Read the Daily Telegraph Interview: Click Here
• A preview of the book is available from MamTor
•Worry Doll will be published by MamTor in February

COMICS ON THE RADIO
4/1/07 with thanks to Bugpowder: London radio station Resonance 104.4FM is to air three shows on comics this month, presented by Alex Fitch. "I'm Read For My Close Up" can also be heard online and include contributuons from creators such as author Paul Gravett, writer of the much=praised Great British Comics: Celebrating A Century Of Ripping Yarns & Wizard Wheezes and Alan Moore. Here's the line up in full:
Thursday 4 January: The first of a series of shows on comics, Alex Fitch and Duncan Nott talk to Charles Brownstein, the director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a US-based charity that protects comic book creators and shops from the vagaries of American law regarding the first amendment.
Thursday 11 January: Alex Fitch and Duncan Nott talk to author and journalist Paul Gravett about his books on British comics, Graphic novels and manga.
Thursday 25 January: Alex Fitch conducts an epic three part interview with magician, orator, novelist and oh, yes, comics writer Alan Moore about his continuing work in the medium, his career so far / in the years to come, plus his collaborations and his many and varied interests…
• Listen to the interviews online at www.resonancefm.com or www.readyformycloseup.blogspot.com

TITAN SEEKS NEW COMICS TALENT
3/7/07: Titan Magazines, UK-based publisher of the originated Wallace & Gromit Comic and such best-selling licences as The Simpsons, Futurama, SpongeBob SquarePants and Star Wars, will be expanding its range of originated comics based on high-profile TV and movie properties in 2007. The company is now seeking versatile comics artists and writers to produce originated, licensed material for an exciting new range of UK children's comics, aimed at 8-14 year olds.
Titan is launching a number of new monthly titles in 2007, all of which will require a large amount of original material.
Artists and writers can learn how they can submit portfolios, plots and samples by going to www.titanmagazines.com/comicsubmission or, alternatively: www.titanmagazines.com/titan/comicsubmission.html
Interested creators can also get in touch direct by emailing: Writers: comicwriters@titanemail.com Artists: comicartists@titanemail.com
Please bear in mind that any artists or writers will need to be approved by external licensors as well as Titan's in-house editorial team. Please note that
Titan states categorically that these comics will not feature superheroes, and all submissions in that vein will be rejected. They are also not looking for original comics ideas at this point -- these comics will all feature new stories featuring existing, licensed characters.
The company will also not be accepting submissions for Simpsons and Futurama Comics, SpongeBob SquarePants Comic or Star Wars Comic. Please pass this news around to any creators you think would be interested – we guarantee to look at everything submitted to us!
• Visit the Titan Magazines web site at: www.titanmagazines.co.uk