Temple's Third Outing Online

The third Temple APA anthology, a collection of work from one of Britain's longest-running Amateur Press Associations, is available for download (PDF format).

Featuring work by Adam Grose, Dave Hailwood, Malcolm Kirk, Simon Mackie, Tony Suleri, Paul Eldridge and Jim Stewart, the anthology is intended as a platform to promote the creators and deliver some darn fine comics fun along the way. It also includes a new Small Press Directory.

My favourite parts of this issue have to be Simon Mackie's autobiographical strip and Tony Suleri's increasingly confident work - strip and illustration samples with simply stunning vibrancy. And, of course, it was great to read Paul Edridge's smashing strips he originally created over on the ROK Comics platform again -- both very funny! -- as is Malcolm Kirk's Stick Man.

"I'd like to attract some new and old faces for the next issue," says Dave Hailwood. "So if you're an old Temple member please send in a couple pages and if you can't spread the word!"

The next deadline is 22nd June 2009.

• Templeapa at: http://templeapa.ning.com

Rich Johnston scripts Doctor Who one-shot from IDW

(with thanks to Matthew Badham): A new Doctor Who one shot from US publisher IDW, Room With A Deja View, is in the pipeline, written by British comics columnist Rich Johnston and drawn by Rex Mundi artist EricJ, with a cover by Grimjack artist Tom Mandrake.

It’s described as "an internally complex time travel story, a good third of which happens backwards," by Johnston, "set on a patchwork space station filled with multiple races all hiding from the rest of the galaxy.

"This was a story I’ve had knocking around my head for far too long (most British writers, hell, most British people have at least one Doctor Who story inside them)," he reveals, "and I was stunned that it breezed through the IDW and BBC approval processes as easily as it did.

"I was offered the gig a month ago, on the day I was made redundant. No wonder I went a bit doolally."

• Doctor Who: A Room With A Deja View is published by IDW this July, alongside the first issue of the ongoing series. Read more about the project on Lying in the Gutters

Tube Surfing: 6 April 2009

• We're sorry to report US comics artist Frank Springer died at his home in Damariscotta, Maine on Thursday aged 79. His credits include work for Marvel, including issues of Thundercats and Transformers - reprinted by Marvel UK - and Man from Atlantis. He also worked for DC Comics and on the newspaper strips Terry and the Pirates and Rex Morgan, M.D. Newsday.com reports Springer was a gregarious and practical man who laboured for hours a day in his backyard studio, said his son, Jon Springer of Brooklyn. "He'd be out there basically all day long, morning until dinnertime."
Lambiek notes his most lasting fame was for drawing The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist, written by Michael O'Donoghue and published in Evergreen Review in 1965-66. Sexy cartoon albums were not new in Europe, but 'Phoebe Zeit-Geist' was a sensation in the United States.
"Very few people could surpass him as an artist, as a gentleman, and as a true gentleman in my field," said Stan Goldberg, who draws the Archie comics. "When you see a Frank Springer job, you know it's going to be the best job in the world."

• Accent UK's 192-page 2009 anthology Western is available now, price just £7.99. It features a plethora of new and established talent, including Kieron Gillen, John Reppion & Leah Moore, Andy Bloor, Dwight MacPherson, Kirk Manley and Steve Bissette, and A Fistful Of Steam Valves written by Lee Robson, with art by Bryan Coyle. "The story is a Steam Punk Spaghetti Western," says Lee, "so it became paramount to create some stand out characters that would be both recognisable and completely unique. Fortunately, we had the amazing Billy Armstrong on hand to help us out with that..."

• Simon Furman has written a Transformers story for IDW’s post-All Hail Megatron series Coda. "And a lot of fun I had with it too," he says. Without giving too much away (after all, it’s only 11-pages!), it revolves around the longstanding relationship/friendship between battle-scarred veteran soldier Ironhide and Autobot leader Optimus Prime." The first issue of All Hail Megatron: Coda goes on sale in July. For more details check out the IDW website here.

• The UK edition of Wired is on sale in all good newsagents now and includes a column by Warren Ellis. "I’m somewhere in the back, where they keep the mad people, apparently.." he notes. "Please buy one, and prove that the UK can support a magazine about the future.

• New episodes of the goregous sort of steampunk strip with fantasy thrown in, Mirabilis, which began running in the already-missed The DFC, are now appearing online: Episodes 11 and 12 on the main Mirabilis site. "This brings us up to 'Standing on the Shoulders of Giants' which introduces Inspector Primo Simeon and his loyal, long-suffering sidekick, Officer Caitou," says Dave Morris.
"Ideally we're going to have episodes 1 to 13 all available to read online before too long, though that's something we will need to agree with David Fickling and Random House. (Is it a good idea effectively to give away half of your graphic novel for reading online? Some current thinking would say it is.")

• Talking of Dave Morris, remember we plugged a recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine and a brilliant article by Andrew Pixley, illustrated by Brian Williamson, revealing how a Dalek TV series came close to being made in the 1960s? Dave revealed recently that he actually did try (here's hubris) to get a Dalek TV movie going with the Sci-Fi Channel. "This was before Russell T Davies's reimagining of Doctor Who, so not quite as long a shot as it sounds - the Daleks hadn't been on air for years," he reveals. "But Nation's agent explained that the BBC, although not actually having the rights, could stick their oar in to any production involving Daleks. Well, I've had some dealings with the BBC and I knew enough to drop the idea right there..."

Time Bomb's Talent Search Announced

British indie Time Bomb Comics has announced it is looking for new talent - and will be on the hunt for creators at the upcoming Bristol Comics Small Press Expo next month.

Formed two years ago, Time Bomb's latest one-shot – The Sisterhood: Morningstar – will be officially launching at this year’s Bristol SPExpo on 9th May, a full colour dystopian science-fiction story features stunning artwork by Leeds-based comics newcomer Dan Barritt.

“We discovered Dan at the 2007 Thoughtbubble Convention,” explains Time Bomb Comics Publisher Steve Tanner, ”and the forthcoming release of The Sisterhood: Morningstar firmly cements our intention to publish quality work by up and coming creators.

“Time Bomb Comics has always had an open submissions policy, but we’re now looking for more talent and the SPExpo seems an ideal way to achieve that," he adds. "We’d therefore like to invite any comics creators who may be interested in working with Time Bomb Comics to make themselves known to us at the show, and share with us their samples and ideas.

“This is an opportunity for exposure, not riches,” stresses Tanner. “Time Bomb Comics is a labour of love so we don’t offer page rates, but we do offer a professional platform to showcase a creator’s work along with a percentage of profit, and of course all creators receive full credit and ownership on what they produce.”

In particular the Leicester-based company would like to find some talented up and coming artists who, like Dan Barritt, could work closely with one of their existing writers on a wide range of future one-shots they have in development.

• For more information please contact stevetanner@timebombcomics.com or visit www.timebombcomics.com

Tube Surfing: 5 April 2009

• The Independent on Sunday carried a two-page 'interview' with Roy "Roy of the Rovers" Race today, a splendid piece of well-researched work about the character and his history by writer Cole Morton. The piece not only promoted the new Classic Comic released last week (see news story) but revealed Egmont's new online Roy of the Rovers project, which gives Racey fans the chance to play alongside Roy, and score the winning goal in a cup final. Choose a look, type in your name online and Egmont will print a comic that looks and feels like the one you remember, but has you as the star. This internet-age wish-fulfilment will become possible in the coming weeks. Read the full 'interview'

• Some bad news for fans of comics in newspapers: in the aftermath of the closure of subscription comic The DFC it seems The Guardian has cut its entire Comic Supplement from its Saturday edition. So no Vern and Lettuce or Super Animal Adventure Squad -- or any Comic for that matter! Let's hope readers complain...

• A quick reminder that the online strip Huzzah!, which features contributions from Dan McDaid, Dylan Teague, Rob Davis, Faz Choudhury, Dave Taylor, Paul Harrison-Davies and D'Israeli, among others, is cracking along nicely here. We gather there is talk of a print collection...

• Voting in the TOXIC Comic Special Poll has gathered apace, with Dave Hailwood and Paul Harrison-Davies' Hoaxers now neck and neck with Jamie Smart's Count Von Poo...

• Paul Birch reports, in his latest Speech Ballons column for the Birmingham Mail, that Borders' Bookstores UK now has a graphic novel section specifically for children's titles. "Publishers likely to benefit over the coming months include Walker Books, Penguin, Classical Comics, and Cinebook," he notes. "The latter specialise in bringing best-selling European comic books to an English-speaking readership and reviews of some of their titles will be appearing at Speech Balloons soon." Read the full column...

• Adam Cadwell has posted a report on the indie comics event Thing 2009 over on the Manchester Comics Collective forum, revealing it would seem that offering biscuits and cakes is a good way to help sell comics and thoriughly recommending Roger Langridge's Mugwhump the Great over on Act-i-vate. "It's wonderful stuff," says Adam, "So while I was disappointed that Langridge's new The Muppet Show comic wasn't available due to UK licensing reasons, I was consoled by picking up a handmade minicomic of the first chapter of the Mugwhump story. Excellent." He has plenty of other good-looking recommendations from the like of Paul Rainey and others, too.

• We're sorry to hear of the death of comic creator Ron "Nobby" Clark, who has died aged 85. "Nobby was one of the important figures in moving the action story away from historicals to more modern adventures," notes Steve Holland in a detailed tribute to the creator on Bear Alley. "Although his first action strip was a Western, he took over the writing of "Captain Phantom", a wartime spystrip featuring a "man of a thousand disguises". These were fast-moving and entertaining yarns which helped establish a more modern style of adventure strip in the UK with writers like Nobby Clark and Mike Butterworth ushering in the kind of strips that would dominate during the 1960s..." Read the full tribute on Bear Alley

• And finally for today... Brickman, Lew Stringer's classic cartoon character, is currently appearing in US title Elephantmen, and, mirroring the fate of the well known comics character he's inspired by, he's killing him off! "It's been 30 years since Brickman first appeared and I'm marking the anniversary year by killing him off!" Lew confirms. "Yep, don't miss Elephantmen 17 for the first part of Brickman R.I.P.! Coming up in future months, the Battle for the Trowel and the NEW Brickman!" For more details on Elephantmen visit the official website here:
http://www.hipflask.com/issues/elephantmen17/ or the official Brickman website at: brickmancomics.tripod.com

Who Gazes Upon The Watchmen?

Now that the fuss about the movie has died down and you have treated yourself to the absolute edition of the graphic novel, to the definitive companion to the graphic novel, to the companion to the film, to the art of the film, to the portraits book, let alone any of the toy figures, how about a page of original artwork of the Watchmen graphic novel to complete the collection?

Pages of Watchmen illustrated by Dave Gibbons have been appearing on eBay and selling for amounts that defy any thoughts of a credit crunch. In recent weeks four pages have appeared, most combined with the original colour guide for the page by John Higgins.

Chapter 2 page 26 which has Rorschach visiting the Comedian's grave went for £4800 plus an extra £250 if you wanted the colour guide page.

Chapter 3 page 5 which has Laurie in her dressing gown trying to deal with multiple Doctor Manhattans sold for £5001.77.

Chapter 3 page 27 which has Doctor Manhattan walking on the surface of Mars whilst President Nixon contemplates the losses suffered in a nuclear war sold for £4058.

However those pale in comparison to chapter 3 page 20 in which Doctor Manhattan walks into the deserted Gila Flats Test Base and finds the Polaroid photo. Along with its colour guide it sold for a whopping £5600.

What did appear but did not sell was the original cover for the graphic novel. If you think that the new "group shot" cover to the graphic novel isn't quite as classy as the old "blood splash" cover then you could have bought the art for that original cover as well for less than one thousand pounds. However since it was only 1p less than one thousand pounds no one was interested. Perhaps sanity has prevailed after all.

Andrew Skilleter Narnia Artwork Exhibition

Today saw the opening of The Wonder Of Illustration art exhibition at the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum.

The exhibition features original Alice's Adventures In Wonderland artwork by Spanish artist Angel Dominguez and original Chronicles Of Narnia artwork by Britain's Andrew Skilleter.

Skilleter's artwork was originally created for the BBC Radio Collection's releases of the BBC Radio 4 adaptations of the seven Narnia books by CS Lewis. The exhibition runs until 4 July 2009 and all pieces of art on display are for sale. The exhibition is included in the museum admission charge.

To coincide with the opening of the exhibition, Andrew Skilleter has revamped his website at andrewskilleter.com. The site now features galleries of the many book covers that he has produced over the years. While Skilleter may still be best known for his Doctor Who covers, the site also features galleries of his Ruth Rendell covers and his fantasy art as well as showing that his science-fiction art was not just limited to the Doctor and his enemies.

The SF gallery features subjects as diverse as Journey Into Space, Dan Dare, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Star Wars saga.

Details of The Wonder Of Illustration exhibition are here.

Andrew Skilleter's new website is here.

TOXIC Comics Special Out Now

TOXIC Issue 137 with the Comic Supplement featuring work from a host of great creators is on sale now in all good newsagents. So go and buy a copy and support British Comics!

If sales are strong it will encourage Egmont to develop its comics brands further, perhaps not just in TOXIC but other projects.

Readers can vote for their favourite strip online and the winner will potentially get a full-time slot in the magazine.

So far, Jamie Smart's Count von Poo is well ahead in the online poll, followed by Zombie Nation by Luke Paton and Laura Howell.

• TOXIC Issue 137 is on sale for the next three weeks.

The Strip Line Up

• Count Von Poo
By Jamie Smart (writer/artist)

One boy and his poo! Jamie is of course, perhaps best known for his 10-issue comic Bear and My Own Genie in The Dandy.

• Zombie Nation
By Luke Paton (writer) and Laura Howell (artist)

Zombies aren't all bad... the ones in this strip just want to be your friend.

Luke is the creator of the web comic, The Adventures of Kez and Luke, while Laura is of course a firm favourite with TOXIC readers as the artist on Robin Hoodie for the title, and also draws Ratz for The Beano and strips for The DFC.

Spooks In Space
By Paul H Birch (writer) and Steve Harrison (artist)

Silly spooks board a spae rocket and head into cosmic capers.

Paul's the brains behind the Birmingham Mail's Speech Balloons blog, delivering the latest word on comics in the Midlands

Bovver Baby
By John Freeman (writer) and Paul J Palmer (artist)

This baby is sweetness and light -- until you turn your back!

John Freeman is the creator of downthetubes and has written for Marvel, Judge Dredd: The Magezaine, The Real Ghostbusters and more.

As well as drawing strips for TOXIC and other comics, Paul also drew The Underversity, a six part story featuring characters from The Really Heavy Greatcoat.

HoaXers
By David Hailwood (writer) and Paul Harrison-Davies (artist)

A gang of sleuthers tries to avert disaster with cunning plans that end up proving even more disastrous!

David Hailwood has been championing the British small press through the Temple APA for years. Having enjoyed reading from an early age, Paul Harrison-Davies says he’s never forgotten the impact children's books and comics had on him, so much so that he started making his own. From early days self publishing comics using a photocopier he eventually got short comics accepted in small publisher titles such as Zombie Tales, and Best New Manga. Paul works in a bookshop and it's his dream to have a child come to the counter holding one his children's books.

WereWilf
By Paul H Birch & Shane Oakley (writers) and John Erasmus (artist)

WereWilf first appeared March 1976, one of three strips introduced to Whoopee! to mark the comic's second birthday. (The others were Smiler and Gook the TV Spook). This updating introduces a modern day WereWilf.

Shane has worked on and off in the comics industry, writing and drawing for some of the big guys, and some of the microscopic. John Erasmus credits include Desperate Dan, Accident Man (for the original Toxic comic), Dervish Ropey in the Amazon, and much, much more.

Clump
By Lew Stringer (writer/artist)

Manic monster on the loose!

Lew should need no introduction to any British comics fan -- his credits include Combat Colin, Brickman and more.

Bad Robots
By John Freeman (writer) and Paul Harrison-Davies (artist)

Accident-prone and very stupid Robots on the run -- even cow pats!

Simon Spectacular
By Luke Paton (writer) and Stuart Arrowsmith (artist)

Stuart is a full-time Designer and Illustrator, producing work ranging from panel cartoons to natural history pieces for commercial use.

• Buy TOXIC In the shops then vote for your favourite strip online

Bristol Expo Tickets - High Demand for PreOrders

Focusing this year mostly on the Best of British Comics around, the Bristol International Comic Expo returns at the Ramada Plaza Hotel on 9th - 10th May 2009, with a special one day extra event on Saturday – the Small Press Expo 2009 at the nearby Mercure Holland House Hotel (full details of both locations at www.fantasyevents.org).

Pre-orders for tickets (which covers both events) are now available via the website, and organisers say these are running so high only limited tickets will be available on the Saturday at least, so booking is highly advised (this also reserves Expo Exclusives book).

Confirmed guests now include: Kevin O’Neil, Alan Davis, Dave Gibbons, Dave Gibbons, Mark Buckingham, John Charles, Mike Collins, Rob Williams, John Higgins, Gary Frank, Ian Gibson, David Hine, Lee Garbett, John M Burns, Lee Bradley, John Watson, Ian Culbard, Phil Winslade, Hunt Emerson, Gilbert Shelton, Simon Bisley, Mike Ploog, Charlie Adlard, Sean Phillips, James A. Hodgkins, Duncan Fegredo, Neil Edwards, Gary Spencer Millidge, Dylan Teague, Tim Pilcher, Joel Meadows, Shaky Kane, Boo Cook, Al Davison, Laurence Campbell, John McCrea, Dave Shelton, Martin Hayes, Jock, Asia Alfasi, Ian Sharman, Tony Lee, Ferg Handley, Peter Hogan, Steve Cook, Robert Deas, Kris Justice, Kat Nicholson, Liam Sharp, Dan Boultwood, Andie Tong, Emma Vieceli, Ian Edginton, Paul Grist, Graham Bleathman, Henry Flint, Lew Stringer, Lee Townsend, Andy Diggle, Siku, Roger Langridge, Jim Boswell, Gary Erskine, Bambos!, Jon Davis-Hunt, Cy Dethan, David Baillie, Kirsty Swan, Paul Gravett, Ilya, Stephen Baskerville, Jason Cardy, Emily Hare and Mike Carey.

SP Expo Comics Guests are Steve Tanner (Time Bomb), Howard Hardiman (Cute But Sad), David Goodman (Zip Gun), John Anderson (Soaring Penguin), Paul Rainey (There’s No Time Like The Present), Tom McNally (Semiotic Cohesion), Willie Lengers (Itch Publishing), Tom Meddings (Unedible), Will Morris-Julien (Butternut), Michael Burness (Unico Comics), Stephen Paul Coffey (Best of What’s Left), Luke Paton (The Adventures Of Kez And Luke), Andrew Cheverton (Angry Candy), Dan Barritt (Ragadabah), Nic Wilkinson (Insomnia Publications), Isaac E C Lenkiewicz (Duh Brain Comics), Amsel Von Speckelsen (Underfire Comics), Chris Denton (Massacre For Boys), Chin-Hsuen Lee (Tpcat Comic), Steve Tillotson (Banal Pig), Geoffrey Banyard (Fetishman), Richard Scott Butler (Cherubs Comics), Sally Jane Thompson (IndieManga), Mathew J Pallett (Stir Fried), Samantha Borras (Inspired) and Chris Lynch (Monkeys With Machineguns)

Panels will run throughout both days, with EXpo EXclusives available at various times (the signed ashcan of the new DC Vertigo comic from Mike Carey and Peter Gross available only at the Vertigo Panel, for example), and a host of signings, sketchings and comics to check out.

Web Link: www.fantasyevents.org