Colin Wilson, Frank Bellamy and Dan Dare

Evan Jenkins with his mystery Colin Wilson Dan Dare mural

Several years ago comic fan Matt Emery, who writes the Pikitia Press blog dedicated to the work of Australian and New Zealand cartoonists, had the opportunity to have a rummage through artist Colin Wilson's studio.

"Amongst his fine collection of European comics and art I found a folder of clippings from Frank Bellamy's run on Dan Dare from the Eagle in the late fifties," he notes in a recent post he's kindly allowed us to share here at downthetubes. "Colin professed to being a big fan Bellamy's work particularly another serial from Eagle, Fraser of Africa.

"Recently Colin was contacted by Evan Jenkins in New Zealand who had bought a residence Colin rented in the late seventies. Jenkins discovered a large mural on one of the walls of the house, a recreation of a panel of Bellamy's Dan Dare.

"Someone told Jenkins 'some comic guy' did it and Jenkins liked the painting so much he had it removed when he sold the house and it now resides in his garage down the other end of the country in Queenstown.

"Colin remarked on the painting, 'It's obviously me copying a Bellamy Dan Dare panel from Eagle - November 7, 1959 to be exact - but how the hell could I have done this and not remember anything about it? And it turns up 35 years later in some guy's garage!'"

• Matt has just posted a new interview with Colin Wilson, talking about the past year and his upcoming projects for French publisher Delcourt on his blog, which you can read here: http://pikitiapress.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/2012-in-review-colin-wilson.html

A 2012 Dan Dare commission by Colin Wilson

British Zombie-guests galore at F.A.C.T.S. 2012

While the Mayan civilization has proclaimed 2012 to be the end of the world, F.A.C.T.S. – a Belgian convention  organized once a year by Con-Fuse bvba, an organisation promoting Science Fiction, Comics, Fantasy and Japanese animation – found it appropriate to invite "zombie-guests" for 20th - 21st October 2012 and to celebrate the event even more F.A.C.T.S. has developed a ZOMBIE-COMIC with the help of the artists invited to the show.

"I really do not care much about this heralded End of the World so inviting Zombies - or rather guests in movie and comics, who have something to do with the zombie-phenomena - is entirely making sense to me, in a 'living life on the edge' kinda way", said Emmanuel van Melkebeke, F.A.C.T.S. Convention Director. "and this year we have something amazing, as many artists have supported the idea to publish a Zombie Comic – with all profit going to charity!"

Artists included are Sean Philips, Paul Duffield, Dean Yeagle, Colin Wilson, Tyler Kirkham, Lectrr, Romano Molenaar, Louis & Lamirand, XA, Emmanuel Nhieu, Popescu, Kristof Spaey and Sophian Cholet.

The cover will be provided by Guest Of Honor Charlie Adlard, who also provided an introduction as well as picked Greenpeace as beneficiary to the proceedings of this special edition, called “Dead Cold… zombie art”.

F.A.C.T.S Convention is the signature pop culture event of the Benelux, presenting guests and programming to cater for the top segments of the comics, anime, sci-fi, film, TV, and gaming industries.

Entering its 22th edition, F.A.C.T.S. is expected to draw over 21,000+ attendees to its October 21-22, 2012 convention held at the Gent Flanders Expo Convention Center located in Gent, Belgium.

The show will sport 3,000 extra meters compared to its last edition and will now have 15,000 square meters. FACTS will host over a mile of dealers of toys, comics, movie merchandise, fantasy merchandise, manga and will see 2,500+ cosplayers and a cosplay competition, life size props, model kit exhibitions, an entire fan-village, a Japanese Village, a huge game zone with dozens of consoles, as well as loads of surprises, to brighten up the already amazing venue!

• For more information, please go to http://www.facts.be

Tube Surfing 6 July 2009: Scotch Corner, Harker, Tom Baker, Bodysnatchers and Cricket

• Those pesky Scottish creators are attempting another coup of downthetubes with a reminder that Scotch Corner, a collection of Scottish artists, is up and running. The fine team from north of the border include Thomas Crielly, Gary Erskine, Andy Hepworth, Jon Hodgson and Graeme Neil Reid.
"Every day there will be a new piece of art posted, each artist posting on a certain day," says Thomas" We kicked off last Wednesday so have a look and feel free to comment on the images."
The blog will also feature the work of guest artists: on Sunday, Leigh Gallagher kindly provided this splendid 2000AD-inspired image.

• A quick reminder that the London Film and Comic Con takes place later this month (Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th July) at Earl's Court 2. As well as media guests such as Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap, Star Trek: Enterprise), Tom Baker (Doctor Who), Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5, Heroes) and Eve Myles (Torchwood), comics creators such as Spider-Man artist Lee Townsend, The Beano's Henry Davies, Doctor Who Magazine's Mike Collins, John Charles and Al Davison are also on the guest list, as well as publishers such as Orang Utan Comics. More info via www.londonfilmandcomiccon.com/.

• ComicBitsOnline has a round up of all the new Classics Illustrated titles now on sale in British newsagents, which include digitally enhanced editions of Mutiny on the Bounty, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. You can also subscribe to the series online via the official web site at: http://www.classicsillustrated.co.uk

• Brilliant British cartoonists news site Bloghorn - for some reason, often a breed apart from comics artists, although I'm never sure why or how that happened - reports the Chris Beetles Gallery in London will stage A Celebration of Cricket: From Ashes to Zooter from 15th July 15 until 8th August.
Encompassing 200 years of cricket and featuring illustrations and watercolours, more than half the show will be devoted to cartoons, including the work of Glen Baxter, Mark Boxer, Tony Husband, Jak, John Jensen, Larry, Nick Newman and many more.
The Chris Beetles Gallery, is at 8 and 10 Ryder Street, St James’s, London (nearest Tube Green Park or Piccadilly Circus) is open Monday to Saturday, 10am – 5.30pm. The gallery’s website can be found at www.chrisbeetles.com

• 2000AD and Star Wars artist Colin Wilson reports he's got his own web site. "After 14 years of maintaining a website, I've finally got myself a domain name. With my old ISP cutting me off a lot quicker than expected, thanks to Wolfgang at Gestalt my comic work, in all its glory, can now be found here (http://web.mac.com/wilco440). Who knows, I might even have the time to update the site one day...."

• Over on the Forbidden Planet International blog, Richard Bruton has given a glowing review to the latest issues of indie detective comic treat Harker, the work of York-basd publishers Ariel Press, which we had no hesitation in plugging earlier in the year. "Harker issue 1 & 2 were reviewed a few weeks back. The verdict: I thought it was great," he opens. "So with issues 3 & 4 I was really hoping it was going to live up to the promise of the first issues. Well, [Roger] Gibson & [Vince] Danks have taken that promise and really gone for it. If 1 & 2 established the characters and setting and dastardly plot, then 3 & 4 are where they relax and open out into the story some more. It’s still completely fantastic genre stuff but it just gets better and better and better here."
Issue 5 is already on the shelves at Traveling Man in York and is winging its way to the other stores Ariel supply over the next day or so. If your local comic shop doesn't supply it, please ask them to drop me an email: roggibson1@aol.com - we'd be very happy to supply them, and will make it very easy for them (and even offer them a really good rate). Read the full review here or find out more about the comic at www.arielpress.com

• Talking of indie publishers, head over to Insomnia Publications blog where, after a whole host of new titles and projects were announced last week, various art trailers for them also now feature. Upcoming titles include Burke and Hare by Martin Conaghan (interviewed about the project here) and Will Pickering, Oz: Fall Of The Scarecrow King by Barry McGowan, Damaged Goods: Manifestation by Mark Chilcott and Butterflies and Moths by Jennie Gyllblad. Head there now, or take a gander at their Burke and Hare preview on myebook...

Wilson's Star Wars Project Revealed

We've previously mentioned in passing 2000AD artist Colin Wilson's upcoming Star Wars project for US publisher Dark Horse, but now details about Star Wars: Invasion, which launches online in May, have been officially announced.

The series, set 25 years after the Battle of Yavin (when the first Death Star was destroyed, as seen in the original Star Wars film), kicks off in print on 1 July from Dark Horse.

The series features an older Luke Skywalker and other long established characters.

"Although Tom [Taylor]and I have been working together on a variety of projects over the last couple of years, this is the biggie, and we are both giving this new series our best shot," says Colin via his blog. "Invasion introduces the readers to the Galfridian family, and the peace-loving planet of Artoria. Unfortunately the Yuuzhan Vong are about to arrive..."

"The Vong are a real challenge," Colin told Comic Book Resources, "because so little is known about them. But early on I realized that this was also a huge advantage, as well.

"Once I got a good visual handle on these guys, I could pretty much do what I want with them, at least visually. The important thing I’d like to retain about the Vong is their aura of mystery. With these guys, anything can happen, and usually does. Big, bad, threatening... what else does a comic artist need?"

• For more details on the Invasion project, check out the Comic Book Resources New York Comic Con coverage here, and online interviews on CBR with Tom Taylor and Colin Wilson.

• Star Wars: Invasion launches on www.starwars.com in May with an eight-page preview web-only issue, followed by a second eight-page preview web-only issue in June.

Wilson Talks Dredd

Artist Colin Wilson looks set for a busy year, with a new, still secret, Star Wars project in the works, along with his new Judge Dredd strip, his first Dredd work for nearly ten years.

We previously reported on writer Al Ewing's enthusiasm at writing Magic Bullets for the new Judge Dredd Magazine, on sale now in all good newsagents. "I must say I've had a ball drawing Old Stoney Face after all this time," Colin Wilson says of the 20-page story (a further 30-page story will follow later in the year).

Colin's also pleased by Rebellion's release of Judge Dredd: The Colin Wilson Collection which features 50 plus pages of Dredd stories he drew for both 2000AD and The Megazine in the late 1990's.

"A funny though just occurred to me..," the New Zealand-born artist, whose credits also include Lt. Blueberry, Thunderhawk and Battler Britton (see dtb interview), muses on his blog. "if I get the chance to draw something for 2000AD next year, I will have had work published there for each of the last four decades. Scary..."

Tube Surfing: 15 December 2008

• Warren Ellis has announced he will be writing a column for Conde Nast's upcoming Wired UK magazine, edited by David Rowan, which launches next spring. "This attempt involves the services of Ben Hammersley, whose CV is twice as long as mine or yours and eighteen times as mad. And Ben Hammersley has engaged me as a monthly columnist for Wired UK, with an editorial mandate of, well, writing about anything I feel like writing about... This will be massive amounts of fun."

• Hot on the heels of the launch of a web site promoting Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, a new strip for The DFC, comes another trailing Frontier, described as a 'weird wild west' strip by Jason Cobley and Andrew Wildman.

• Talking of Mirabilis, which we plugged last week, there's now a trailer for the strip on YouTube. Just in case you can't see it below...



• Blueberry artist Colin Wilson reveals a limited selection of his earlier art for 2000AD, Blueberry, Point Blank and The Losers etc (but, as yet, no Star Wars art) is now available to buy online. "Royd Burgoyne has kindly agreed to look after this for me," he notes on his blog, "and the first selection of my work to be made available can now be seen at his online Comic Art Shop.

"I've spent a lot of time over the last few weeks sorting and cataloging my artwork from the 80's and 90's," he notes. "There's a lot of it, and I've been discovering things that I can't even remember producing.... things like this."

• Cy Dethan has just posted an early version of Scott James' cover for The Case Files of Harlan Falk #3, to be published next year by Markosia. Read more about this here

• Jennifer Contino of The Pulse has just interviewed Tony Lee on the upcoming MILF Magnet from Moonstone, with five or six teasers from the comic itself.

• (With thanks to Matthew Badham): Top US writer Mark Waid has begun blogging about comics wrting on the Kung Fu Monkey blog, which also features contributions from John Rogers and Michael Alan Nelson. "His first post is f****** gold," enthuses Matt Badham.

• And finally, in my only acknowledgement so far for the season, Paul Cornell has posted a number of Christmas recipes from comic creators. These include suggestions from the likes of Frazer Irving, Andy Diggle and Joe Quesada. My all-time favourite comic creator recipe was that of Martin Skidmore, once editor of Fantasy Advertiser, for a BAPA mailing. "Go to the fish and chip shop. Buy some fish and chips. Eat them..."