Tube Surfing: 28 October 2008

• Voting is now open for the 2008 podcast awards (www.podcastawards.com) and comics podcast Geek Syndicate has been nominated in the best entertainment category, which is great nes -- the team there have done a brilliant job of promoting British comics this year. If you've been following and enjoying their work, you can vote once every 24 hours and voting closes on 6th November 2008.
The team were at the MCM expo in London on Saturday and will be reporting on several of the panels including the press Q & A sessions for Heroes, Primeval, Demons, Merlin and Battlestar Galactica. "Once I've sorted out the quality a little more I'll be sticking them up on our website for people to listen to," the Syndicate's Barry Nugent tells downthetubes.

• Part works publisher GE Fabbri are fireld testing a new magazine devoted to Indiana Jones in the North East of the UK, which features comic strip by John Royle which looks superb. More news as we get it.

• 2000AD artist Dave Taylor has posted a sneek peek of his Christmas Judge Dredd story for the weekly comic, written by John Wagner. Like many other comics artists, his blog is a useful stoop if you're interested in seeing how he works on a strip from blue line to finished images.

• (with thanks to Forbidden Planet International): Simon Mayo’s Radio 5 show included a feature on Graphic Novels earlier today, with guests Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons and Paul Gravett discussing what a graphic novel is, the relationship to Hollywood and more. Here's the BBC's listen again link, which will be live for seven days.

• With Hallowe'en on its way, regular Forbidden Planet International contributor and top cartoonist Rod McKie and the FPI team have published The Ballad of Jack Palance, a little spooky tale of tall tales , movie stars, ghosts, an ancient churchyard and, this being set in Edinburgh, a good pub. For those who have never visited the city, Greyfriar’s Bobby is an old pub only a few minutes walk from the Forbidden Planet store in Edinburgh’s Old Town, named for the famously loyal dog who stayed by the grave of his master until his own death, eventually being adopted by the city so he wouldn’t be treated as a stray under law.
Rod’s put it into a good resolution PDF which you can grab from the FPI site and read free online or download it and print it off to read; there's also a Comic Book Reader version (as a mini comic) so if you use the CBR viewer or GonVisor you can use those to download it here. (Downloadable files are by and © Rod McKie).