Today's podcast from Ian Cullen's cult web site SciFiPulse.net features an exclusive interview with comic writer Tony Lee, who talks about his career and his latest graphic novel, Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Harker, which is being published by Markosia. The book features art by Peter-Davis Douglas and Neil Antwerpen.
The DFC comic writer and award-winning author Philip Pullman and fantasy author JK Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, have been listed as two of the UK book trade's elite, in a definitive list published by The Bookseller magazine."Everyone connected with the comic hopes that The DFC will rise again one day, and so do thousands of readers," he noted on his official web site, "but the story of John Blake must be told. So I’m going to write it as a film and as a graphic novel."
"This is a significant and long overdue moment for us and for the trade, a rigorous and thought-provoking selection of the decision-makers and innovators that make the book trade tick," argues Bookseller's editor-in-chief Neill Denny.
One of my 'day' jobs is reviewing Star Trek comics for Titan's Star Trek Magazine - and I was recently thrilled to see US artist JK Woodward's work grace the latest IDW-published Star Trek: Klingons title.
Comic creator and Temple APA member Paul Eldridge has recently compiled a collection of the strips that he originally created on mobile comic creation service ROK Comics.
Self Made Hero is a relatively new publishing company who have made a name for themselves with their range of Manga Shakespeare adaptations and are now doing European style graphic novels of literary classics. Alex talks to Ian Culbard, artist of Ian Edginton's adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes stories The Picture of Dorian Grey and The Hound of the Baskervilles and to Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal, illustrators and adaptors of The Master and Margarita and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
• ComicBitsOnline is wondering why Britain's biggest comic publisher has not been nominated for an Eagle Award -- and it's not DC Thomson, Panini or Titan but Cinebooks Ltd., which now publishes some 40 top quality comic albums a year and exports them globally.
• Ace cartoonist Roger Langridge has published a teaser image from an upcoming Mugwhump story for something called the Act-i-Vate Primer, which is pretty much what the title says it is - a print introduction to the work of various Act-i-Vate cartoonists. "One for the Mugwhump fans who might be getting itchy during the hiatus," he says. "My story consists of six densely-packed (12-panel) pages showing events before the current strip began. Roger is busy drawing The Muppet Show comic for Boom! Studios and also reports issues - not licensed for sale in the UK - are selling for ridiculous amounts on the InterWeb. "Wait for the book collection, folks!" he notes. "The whole collectors' market is a cesspool of poisonous idiocy..."
For the first time ever, a selection of Alan Moore’s earliest comic-strip creations Future Shocks from 2000AD are now available globally via the Apple iTunes App Store.
One thing I missed about not getting to this year's Bristol Comic Expo was the chance to catch up with writer Roger Gibson and artist Vincent Danks, the team from York-based Ariel Press, who always have a gem of a title on offer at the event.
Book One: The Key of Solomon, beautifully renedered in a realistic style Vince has mastered over many years of hard work and fine tuning of his skills, features Harker and Critchley on the trail of ritualistic satanic murders - a complex web of lies, deceit and ghoulish horror, taking place in a Secret London of catacombs, blood soaked churches and Satanic Lodges.
After this initial flurry failed to set the world alight, Vince and Roger returned under the Ariel Press banner with their Raven anthology, containing Vince's continuation of Sapphire, (still available in three collected editions) along with Roger and Mark's Dan Druff, and Roger's The Bishop, Mad Girl and Griffin.• Order Harker direct from: www.arielpress.com
(Updated 22/5/09): Network DVD has announced a "Special Edition" release of one of Gerry Anderson’s most cherished fantasy series, Fireball XL5, next month - and released a clip from a colourized episode.
If you’re 16 plus, with a passion for comic art and live in the West Midlands, then Hi8us Midlands’ latest free comic art scheme, called Comix, could be for you. Applications for the competitive scheme, are now being accepted for consideration.
These are set during the Second World War and involve military hydrofoils operated by Britain and Germany - boats which rise out of the water on aircraft-like wings attached under their hulls allowing them to travel much faster than normal. In reality, while hydrofoils are a practical design, military applications were only investigated during the Cold War which, technically, makes Commando's tales retro-history science-fiction. The latest is H-Boat Versus H-Boat: Duel To The Death, Commando issue 4196.
• Returning to 2009 and this year is the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy that was the beginning of the end of the war against Germany. The current Commando reprint book, D-Day Fight Or Die! published by Carlton, is now available and reprints 12 Commando stories set during D-Day, 6 June 1944.
• As well as the reprint book, as we reported yesterday, all eight Commando issues published in June will feature D-Day stories and as usual four issues will be new stories while four will be reprints. Included in the reprints is D-Day Plus, Issue 4205, which reprints issue 187 originally published in November 1965.
Draw the World Together, an organisation created to unite arts communities in providing possibilities for children who live in communities where they do not have the opportunity for basic healthcare and education, is auctioning a limited edition City of Heroes sketchbook on eBay to raise funds.
Marvel has cancelled Captain Britain and MI:13 with #15, writer Paul Cornell reports.
Thinking of hitting the beach this summer? Why not go Commando?
“Had we not had the benefit of the selfless efforts of the huge number of soldiers, sailors and airmen involved on that day, history would have been much blacker. Our eight stories, though fictional, are our way of saluting that generation while spreading the story of what they did. And what we owe them.”
Launched by Dundee-based publisher DC Thomson & Co Ltd in June 1961, Commando's very first issue was Walk – Or Die!, illustrated by Amador Garcia. It sported the first of many garish, exciting covers by artist Ken Barr, one amongst many early artists who set the visual tone for the ensuing five decades of comic strips, many with hard-hitting titles like Blood River and Cold Steel.
To begin with, Commando almost always carried stories about the Second World War. Now, though, the reader can expect tales from almost any conflict, from Roman times to the first Gulf War. As long as there is an exciting action yarn with a morally-minded hero at its core, any time period will be considered. In the age of Blu-Ray, Playstation and iPod, Commando survives, stubbornly refusing to surrender in the dwindling comics market place.
Calum Laird also notes that this much-loved, comic institution has avid readers amongst members of the Armed Forces. Apparently, they are the ideal size for combat trouser pockets. 
“Commando may have been at the heart of many a battle for 48 years, a veteran by anyone's standards, but it's not ready to throw in the towel just yet,” concludes Laird.
Mooching through some piles of old comics over the weekend, one of our readers noticed a 2007 issue of The Dandy (Issue 3007) proudly proclaimed the title was now a "record breaking longest running comic ever!"
So The Dandy is the world's oldest longest-running comic? Well, we're pretty sure that The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, originally published in several languages in Europe in 1837, is no no longer in circulation, or Japan's Shiji no yukikai, first published in 1798. Britain's Boy's Own Paper, first published in 1891, is long gone, as is Australia's The Kookaburra, first published in 1931.
Milk is Stephen's first published graphic novel and will soon be available from Insomnia Publications. Highly praised by comics writer Alan Grant, it's a collection of short stories, but unlike most anthology strip titles they're all the work of one man - 'Stref', each piece is masterfully executed in a completely different style.
As previously noted, Panini UK has just released Cold Day in Hell, its first collection of Doctor Who strips featuring the Seventh Doctor, played on TV by Sylvester McCoy, in May 2009.
