Panel Borders: Dan Dare in the 20th Century

Continuing Panel Borders month of shows about collectives and anthologies, the team have a recording of a panel discussion from Sci-Fi London in 2010, celebrating the continuing popularity of the iconic British Space Hero Dan Dare, whose first appearance in The Eagle was published in April 1950. Comics editor and writer John Freeman (The Science Service / Ex Astris) talks to a quartet of artists and writers who have created new adventures for the lantern jawed pilot in more recent years.

These include: Garry Leach, who drew Dan’s return to print in 2000AD, ten years after the end of the original Eagle, in the late 1970s and more recently covers for Virgin comics’ revival of the ‘Pilot of the future’ in 2008; Rian Hughes, who drew the Eagle inspired comic The Science Service in 1989 and then the Mekon’s final revenge in the Thatcherite satire Dare in the adult comics Revolver and Crisis a year later; Gary Erskine, who drew Dan Dare’s most recent official comic book adventures in the Virgin Comics periodical of the same name; and
Rod Barzilay, the then editor and one of the writers of Spaceship Away, the officially licensed Dan Dare magazine that has continued the original adventures of Spacefleet where the 1950s Eagle left off over the past decade.

This recording covers Dare's appearance in print from the 1950s to the 1980s. (Recorded and edited by Alex Fitch).

• Panel Borders: Dan Dare in the 20th Century airs at 5.00pm today on Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Garry Leach Marvelman art auction begins

British comics guru Dez Skinn is running an auction for a rare piece of Marvelman art by Garry Leach.

On offer is Marvelman Episode 3, page 1 (which first appeared in Warrior Issue 3).

"As an experiment, partially because of resenting the massive percentage eBay takes and partially because it's on behalf of a friend, this will be a public auction done through my Wall on Facebook, along with Paypal for the winner," says Dez. "Once in Facebook, enter "Dez Skinn" to view.

The auction is now open and will finish on August 8th at 10.00pm (British Summer Time).

"It's an experimental use of Facebook Events, so apologies in advance if you encounter any difficulties finding it," says Dez. "If you don't wish to join Facebook, email me directly for progress reports [via Dezskinn1ATyahoo.co.uk] and bidding information. Updates to all interested parties who ask for such will be sent out every few days."

The opening bid for is £200.

• This auction will close promptly at 10.00pm British Summer Time, Sunday August 8, 2010. Payment by Paypal only. Post free internationally, recorded delivery. For more info on the auction outside Facebook, visit Dez's blog here

Sci-Fi London Lines Up Comic Creator events

Garry Leach, Rian Hughes, Dez Skinn, Gary Erskine, Emma Vieceli and Simon Furman are just some of the comic creators who will be appearing at this year's SCI-FI-LONDON event on Saturday 1st May.

At last year’s SCI-FI-LONDON (www.sci-fi-london.com) the organisers added the notion of Sci-Fi Labs to the festival line-up: panel discussions which mixed artists, writers, scientists and cultural commentators to explore various SF themed topics. This format and a screening of Hardware introduced comic book creators such as Kevin O’Neill, Bryan Talbot, Paul Cornell, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey and Paul Duffiel to SCI-FI-LONDON in 2009 and this year's event sees an increase in the number of events featuring top British graphic novelists which are sure to interest downthetubes readers.

Now in its ninth year, SCI-FI-LONDON is the UK's only dedicated Sci-Fi and Fantasy film festival, screening world and UK film premieres, documentaries and a selection of classic SF titles. SCI-FI-LONDON also has a strong international shorts programme and screens a short film with every feature screening. It also holds a film school and filmmaking competitions to encourage more science fiction films to be made in the UK.

This year's comic-related events are as follows:

Screening: The Hospital Of Transfiguration - Thursday 29 April 6.30pm

Country: Poland, Year: 1979, Dir: Edward Zebrowski, Runtime: 90mins, Language: Polish/English subtitles
Format: 35mm, Source: Polish Cultural Institute

Set in 1943, this film is based on Stanislaw Lem’s first novel, and chronicles the experiences of a young doctor starting out in a mental hospital. But who is more crazy here the patients or the doctors? Semi-autobiographical, the controversial nature of the story led to the book being suppressed by the authorities in the 1950s.


Introduction and Q&A with Andrzej Klimowski, a world-renowned film poster designer and graphic novelist. In the UK, his visual style proved too controversial when his poster for Luis Buñuel’s The Phantom of Liberty was banned by the London Underground. As a writer and artist, he has authored three graphic novels, The Secret, The Depository and Horace Dorlan. With his wife, Danusia Schebal he has adapted Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde and The Master and Margarita to comic book format. Andrzej and Danusia were active participants in the Warsaw film scene in the late 1970s and Professor Klimowski chose The Hospital Of Transfiguration from our ‘Focus on Poland’ to introduce, as an example of how genre films from that period stand up today.

Girl Geek Dinners: British Women Of Manga Panel – Thursday 29th April 7.00pm


Although there have been notable and successful female comic book creators on both sides of the Atlantic over the last half century, it is the translation of Japanese Manga in the West that has seen considerably more female comics creators join the medium in recent years. This is possibly a combination of Manga having a greater female appeal than traditional Western comics and original Japanese Manga being already created by women in Japan.

To discuss these issues SCI-FI-LONDON have a trio of up and coming UK Manga creators:

• Kate Brown illustrated the Manga Shakespeare adaptation A Midsummer Night’s Dream


• Emma Vieceli is contributing to the comic strip adaptations of the songs of Tori Amos, Comic Book Tattoo and continues to draw an online Manga story, Dragon Heir.

• Karen Rubins found early acclaim for her selfpublished graphic novel The Dark,

Chair: Judith Lewis, one of the founders of Geek Girl Dinners is a veteran of anime conventions and has hosted Shinnenkai events

This is a free event for women only. Men are allowed as guests of a LGGD member. To get your tickets register at http://scifi-london.eventbrite.com

60 Years of Dan Dare - Saturday 1st May 10:30am


Celebrating the continuing popularity of the iconic British Space Hero whose first appearance in the Eagle was published in April 1950, Sci-Fi London presents a quartet of artists who have created new adventures for the lantern jawed pilot in more recent years. Panellists include:

• Garry Leach drew Dan’s return to print in 2000AD for two stories: "The Doomsday Machine" and "Visco", ten years after the end of the original Eagle in the late 1970s and more recently covers for Virgin comics’ revival of the ‘Pilot of the future’ in 2008.

• Rian Hughes drew the Eagle-inspired comic The Science Service in 1989 and then the Mekon’s final revenge in the Thatcherite satire Dare, written by Grant Morrison, in the adult comics Revolver and Crisis a year later.

• Gary Erskine drew Dan Dare’s most recent official comic book adventures in the Virgin Comics periodical of the same name.

• John Freeman is a comics historian and writer, webmaster of downthetubes and the current editor of Titan Books Dan Dare collections. He previous wrote The Science Service and now writes the strip Ex Astris in the Dan Dare-inspired magazine Spaceship Away.

Chair: Duncan Nott historian and presenter on Resonance 104.4 FM, the Arts Council radio station.

Manga Mashup: Make A Comic In A Couple Of Hours - Sat 1st May 11:00am


Inspired by Manga? Want to make a comic of your own? You can do it in just a couple of hours - and you don’t have to draw a line unless you want to! Come and try out comic-making hints, tips and techniques that work for any kind of artist and any style of art. Letraset has provided all the materials, Helen McCarthy provides the method and oils the wheels of your genius if you get stuck, and you bring whatever’s in your head for inspiration. Solo artists/writers, duos and small circles welcome.

FREE EVENT at Project Space, BFI Southbank Limited to 15 places.

What A Marvel - Saturday 1st May 11:45am


With Marvel comic book heroes such as Iron Man and Spider-Man more popular than ever, we look at home-grown additions to the Marvel Universe. Marvel UK was founded in the early 1970s as a British affiliate to the US company, but in 1976 they added original material to their newsagent reprints, starting with Captain Britain and a new pantheon of popular characters over the next three decades. Panellists include:

• Dez Skinn is a pioneering Marvel UK editor who launched titles such as Hulk Comic and Doctor Who Weekly, which featured early work by Alan Moore, David Lloyd, Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons.

• Dan Abnett gave Captain Britain a darker spin in the 1990s by adding him to a new team of heroes with:

• Gary Erskine co-creator of the popular SF / Arthurian themed Knights of Pendragon.

• John Freeman was editor on many of Marvel UK’s early 1990s titles such as weekly comic Overkill, Death’s Head II, Warheads, Killpower and Motormouth, contributing strips to several issues, and was one of the longest-serving editors on the award-winning Doctor Who Magazine.

• Simon Furman was the primary writer for Marvel’s Transformers, a dozen issues of Doctor Who Magazine and creator of Marvel UK’s most memorable SF titles including Dragon Claws and the original Death’s Head.

Chair: Alex Fitch, presenter of the UK’s only weekly radio show on comics, ‘Panel Borders’, broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM, the Arts Council radio station in London.

Future Publishing? - Sat 1st May 1:00pm


The publishing industry is coming under assault from all sides. Are Kindles, iPads and smartphones signalling the end of traditional paper publishing? Customers no longer believe publishers can justify the prices they charge, not just for books, newspapers, magazines and periodicals are also suffering. How will the publishing industry re-shape itself for 2050? Will Apple and Google become the new big publishing houses? And if ubiquitous digital delivery means anyone can be a publisher, will we even need the big guns anymore?

• Paul Graham-Raven is a freelance writer, editor and webgeek, genre fiction reviewer and editor-in-chief of the near-future science fiction webzine Futurismic.

• Paul Rainey is a cartoonist, illustrator and creator of diary-comic-strip-in-list-form Book of Lists. He is currently serialising his graphic novel, or ‘thick comic book’, There’s No Time Like The Present.

• Mark Charan-Newton is a Blogger, Tweeter and author of debut novel Nights of Villjamur, one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy works of 2009.

• Dave Bradley is Editor-in-Chief of SFX magazine, Europe’s best-selling sci-fi and fantasy title and a fan of all forms of science fiction and fantasy.

Chair: Tom Hunter, Award Administrator for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction Literature.

Comics And Film - Mon 3rd May 4:00pm


While the cinema seems to be obsessed with comic book adaptations in recent years, this panel looks at the more general phenomenon of the dialogue between comics and film as comic book creators help design movies and draw storyboards for moving pictures and in turn, film has started to dictate the format of modern comics. Panellists include:

• Woodrow Phoenix started off as a small press comic book creator in the vibrant British scene of the 1980s before becoming a popular kids illustrator that lead to such unlikely collaborations as with Mark (Kick-Ass) Millar on Sonic the Comic and lettering Alan Moore's A Small Killing. More recently he has seen his comic Pants Ant turned into an animated pilot by The Cartoon Network and produced the acclaimed graphic novel Rumble Strip which was influenced by film noir and road movies.

• Howard Webster is an award-winning photographer who has combined film and sequential art in the web comic. The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore, which combines comic book art with both images and action movie sequences starring Colin Salmon.

• Cyriak Harris is one of the hottest viral animation creators in the UK and an ident designer for E4. He comes from a background drawing underground comics and sees a direct link with the creation of his CGI cartoons.

Chair: Alex Fitch

• With the exception of the MANGA MASHUP event, all events and screenings take place at the Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, 19 Lower Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4LR.

• Web Link:
www.apollocinemas.com/apollo-piccadilly-circus.aspx

It's Fantastic: Johnny Future Flies in from the Sixties

Never before reprinted, Bear Alley Books have just announced they are to reprint the complete adventures of Johnny Future, a stunning British superhero strip which first appeared in 1960s comic Fantastic. The stories, featuring art by Luis Bermejo, will be published in two volumes this October.

Published in 1967 and 1968, Johnny Future's origin springs from Bull Belson's hunt in deep African jungle for a creature known to natives as the Link -- the missing step between ape and man in human evolution. Captured, the creature is brought to England, where he breaks loose. Striking out across country, the Link hides for the night at a top secret research station, little knowing that an experiment to produce a new form of nuclear energy is underway... and out of control!

Professor Richard Allen's assistant has his own ideas about this energy source. An agent of a foreign power, he knocks out the professor and leaves, fast, before the rising radiation levels cause the nuclear-testing machine to reach critical mass.

Bathed in radiation, the Link begins to evolve at unbelievable speed until, lying unconscious before the machine, is a man of superhuman intelligence and animal strength... a man who will become known to the world as Johnny Future.

Johnny Future is described as one of the most memorable strips of the 1960s. Debuting in the very first issue of Fantastic, rubbing shoulders with reprints of US superhero comics, The Missing Link became Johnny Future after 15 issues and ran for a total of 51 episodes, the only originated strip in the 40-page comic. The Bear Alley Books collection reprints all 51 episodes and a scarce one-off 14-page story from the pages of Fantastic Annual.

"The Missing Link/Johnny Future is a fondly remembered strip by many readers who grew up with comics in the Sixties," says cartoonist Lew Stringer in a blog post about the project, "including Alan Moore, who was inspired enough to name one of his characters Jonni Future when he created the anthology Tomorrow Stories for Wildstorm Comics."

"In many ways, the story that began as The Missing Link was just that: a now-forgotten bridge between old-style British comics and the American superhero formula (and it has to be said that there are some of us who still prefer the former)," says ace British comics writer Steve Moore in his foreword to the collections and was one of the team who put together Fantastic every week. "It was written by Alf Wallace, then the managing editor of the Odhams group, and drawn by Spanish artist Luis Bermejo (who I never met, the artwork always being delivered by his London agent).

"The most obvious thing that strikes one about the story is the beauty of Bermejo’s black-and-white artwork," he continues. "In many ways, this was the stand-out artwork in the magazine, as the Marvel superhero strips, despite being drawn by the likes of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, were always intended for overlaid colour reproduction and suffered considerably from being printed in black line alone.

"The story itself is very much a child of its time and circumstances," Steve feels. "Wallace’s influences are obvious... a little King Kong, a little Hulk, a fair amount of general Marvel Comics "superhero angst". The villains, however, and the way Johnny Future deals with them, are much more in the British style: not so much page after page of costumed punch-ups, but a more science-fiction approach where the conflicts are between heroes and villains of considerable or frankly impossible intelligence that I, for one, find far more satisfying."

Both volumes will feature covers by Garry Leach and Una Fricker, the team behind the cover for Titan Books' The Spider: King of Crooks volume. Individually their credits range from Marvelman and 2000AD to the Magic the Gathering RPG game and countless comics and book covers.

"Johnny Future is a classic," Steve Holland enthuses. "A mere 51 episodes appeared in [Fantastic] but the storylines spanned everything you could ever want: supervillains and Sex, Killer Robots and Renusians... and heroes punching leopards!

"I still need to work out the final price of the books and we won't be taking pre-orders for at least a month," Steve adds. "So you've still got plenty of time to buy the first two Bear Alley books before you need to start saving your pennies!"

• Cursitor Doom and The Phantom Patrol are on sale now from Bear Alley Books: bearalleybooks.blogspot.com


Johnny Future: The Missing Link


Featuring art by Luis Bermejo from scripts by Alf Wallace; cover by Garry Leach/Una Fricker, foreword by Steve Moore. ISBN 978-1-907081-53-8: to be published in October 2009

Johnny Future vs. The Secret Society of Science


Featuring art by Luis Bermejo from scripts by Alf Wallace; cover by Garry Leach/Una Fricker, introduction by Steve Holland. ISBN 978-1-907081-54-5: to be published in October 2009



All images © IPC Media

Time Capsule: The Origin of "Miracleman"

When Alan Moore and Garry Leach revived Mick Anglo's Marvelman for Warrior back in the 1980s, the treatment proved a spectacular success. But when Eclipse Comics secured the rights to publishing Marvelman in the US, the name of the character ran afoul of litigation from US publisher Marvel Comics, who demanded it be changed.

(This unpleasant incident, as you can imagine, caused much acrimony between all parties and led to Alan Moore refusing to ever countenance working for Marvel. For more information on the entire history of Marvelman, visit this page on the World's Greatest Critic site).

While the whole matter did nothing to improve US-Anglo comic relations but Eclipse still had to come up with a new name for the character if they wanted to publish the comics in the UK. As J.C. Maçek III notes on his Marvelman page, they decided on "Miracleman" to satisfy Marvel Comics (but still ensure that the "MM" logo didn't have to be changed).

Here at downthetubes though, we wonder whether if Eclipse or those advising them knew whether Mick Anglo also created a super-powered character called Miracleman?

In addition to his work on titles such as Marvelman in the 1950s for Len Miller and Sons, Mick was asked to create a superhero comic for the Spanish market. What he did was to use a similar method he had used when Miller lost the rights to publish DC Comics Captain Marvel in the UK, and adapted (and redrew) some of his Marvelman stories under the name Super Hombre. The character appeared in Editorial Ferma, which ran for 68 issues from 1958.

Mick then resold these strips back to the UK, using the name Miracleman. The character was sold through Top Sellers comics and ran for 13 issues beginning in 1965.

Top Sellers titles were black and white American comics, running for 60 odd pages and in addition to the Miracleman stories featured reprints of DC Comics Blackhawk.

Miracleman was also sold in Germany (see info here) and Holland (where he was known as "Mirakel Man").

Like Marvelman, Miracleman's alter ego, cub reporter John Chapman, became super powered by uttering a special phrase: "Sun Disc", rather than "Kimota". His powers seem more akin to DC Comics Superman than Marvelman however, and also dependent on him actually holding the ancient "sun disc". In one of the issues we've come across -- Miracleman #11 - it seems anyone can become a "Miracleman" by holding the artefact... including villains!

Miracleman was also aided in his battles against evil by Supercoat - yes, powers borne of putting on a special coat. Surely one of the oddest superhero names ever?

An entertaining gem of British comics history, nonetheless, and one we thought you'd enjoy.

• As we reported last month, TwoMorrows Publishing is to publish an issue of Alter Ego magazine dedicated to Marvelman soon. Wrapped in a cover by Rick Veitch, #87 of the magazine, edited by Roy Thomas, presents an overview of the original 1954-1963 saga of Marvelman, Marvelman Jr. and Kid Marvelman and will include an interview with writer/artist/co-creator Mick Anglo. The issue, due for publication in July, will also feature rare Marvelman/Miracleman work by Alan Davis, Alan Moore and others. More info here on the TwoMorrow web site

• Special thanks to Alan Wright for imagery used in this item. For more information about Marvelman, check out the International Hero web site, or track down a copy of Dennis Gifford's Complete Catalogue of British Comics.

Marvelman Special from Alter Ego, Film Touted?

US publisher TwoMorrows Publishing is to release an issue of Alter Ego magazine dedicated to British 1950s hero Marvelman, a character revived by Alan Moore, Garry Leach and others in Warrior magazine in the 1980s. Since then, the character has suffered the ignominy of having to be re-named Miracleman at the insistence of Marvel Comcs and then been consigned to comics limbo, the result of further legal battles.

Wrapped in a cover by Rick Veitch, the magazine, edited by Roy Thomas, presents an overview of the original 1954-1963 saga of Marvelman, Marvelman Jr. and Kid Marvelman and will include an interview with writer/artist/co-creator Mick Anglo. The issue, due for publication in July, will also feature rare Marvelman/Miracleman work by Alan Davis, Alan Moore and others. More info here on the TwoMorrow web site

The current question of who owns Marvelman is covered in a very good round-up of recent developments on BobH's Four Realities site here. New developments indicating a company called Emotiv has bought the rights comes from Pádraig Ó Méalóid.

Further, the film rights to Marvelman/Miracleman are being shopped around and, as Padraig notes, there is an ugly rumour that the format for the film will again plunder Alan Moore's work but with revamped designs. More on this from Padraig on LiveJournal...

Moore himself insists Mick Anglo is the sole owner of Marvelman. "I was happy to do everything that I could to help Mick Anglo, who is the person who has always owned all of the rights to Marvelman, as far as I now understand it, that we never had the rights to do those stories [in Warrior], even though Mick really liked the stories that we did," Moore told Padraig in the interview recently published on Forbidden Planet International's blog. "We didn’t understand at the time that Mick Anglo was the sole owner of the rights. We were misled. So I’ve done everything that I can to clear all that up."

(With thanks to Padraig for the links and information)