MCM and Eagle Awards Debut New Comics Talent Competition

For almost a decade the MCM London Comic Con has been a haven for comics, movies, games and anime – and now, together with the Eagle Awards and upcoming Universal Pictures blockbuster Snow White And The Huntsman, they’re looking to the next decade with a prestigious competition for new comic artists and writers.

Judged by Titan Publishing senior editor Steve White, bestselling writer Tony Lee and Eisner-winning artist Mark Buckingham, the ‘Huntsman's Challenge’ competition calls on comic creators to come up with a fully finished, coloured and lettered five page story with a plot relevant to a dark fantasy setting.

“In just a few years we've seen our small Artists Alley turn into a full scale Comic Village, with hundreds of comic creators now attending and exhibiting,” said MCM marketing director Bryan Cooney. “Many of today's best UK creators started with a table at our shows, growing as we have. We'd like to give that opportunity to the next generation of creative teams.”

Submissions will be accepted from 1-29th February 2012 and our judges will select two winners: one for best design and art, the other for best writing quality. Both creative teams will be nominated for a new Eagle Award, the MCM Expo Award For New Visionaries and have their story included in May’s MCM London Comic Con show programme, printed in conjunction with Snow White And The Huntsman from Universal Pictures, who will also provide a selection of prizes.

Both winners will also receive invites to the 2012 Eagle Awards ceremony and after-party on the Friday of the MCM London Comic Con, along with industry passes to the full London Comic Con weekend and signing slots in the show’s Comic Village.

"Winning an Eagle on your first time out is a story worth telling in its own right," Cooney commented. "Having tens of thousands of people read your story and having it in print alongside a movie like Snow White And The Huntsman is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

All accepted entries will receive audience invitations to the May 2012 Eagle Awards.

Competition Rules and How to Enter

Entries for the 'Huntsman's Challenge' will be accepted 1-29th February 2012. Entrants must submit a fully finished, coloured and lettered five page story as a 300 dpi jpg or pdf with a page dimension of 170mm (w) x 230mm (h). These entries must have a beginning, middle and end within these pages, with a story relevant to a dark fantasy setting. To find out how to enter the contest, visit www.eagleawards.co.uk

Panel of Industry Judges

STEVE WHITE: Senior Editor, Titan Publishing: An editor of many of Titan's top comics and graphic novels including the UK Transformers comic, Steve is also an artist, writer and colourist of over 20 years’ experience.

MARK BUCKINGHAM: Artist: A multiple Eisner winning artist of over twenty five years standing, Mark is best known for his work on Hellblazer, Miracleman, Doctor Who and his award winning run as the primary artist on Fables for DC/Vertigo.

TONY LEE: Writer: A #1 New York Times Best-selling Author, Tony has been a freelance writer for 25 years, and a comic writer for nine of those. Best known as author and ‘showrunner’ of the Doctor Who comic for IDW, Tony's creator-owned comic Hope Falls is currently being adapted into a movie by Future Films.

MCM Expo Award For New Visionaries Voting

When the two stories shortlisted for the MCM Expo Award For New Visionaries have been selected, members of the public will be able to read both and vote for their favourite by visiting either http://www.londoncomiccon.net/ or http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/

• To buy tickets for the MCM London Comic Con at Excel London on 26-28 May, please visit: https://www.mcmexpostore.com/store

Wasted ends print edition with Issue 8, going digital

A quick reminder that the latest issue of adult comic WASTED is out now featuring  a stellar line up of talent including Kelly Jones, Mark Buckingham, Jason Brashill, Norm Breyfogle, John Wagner and Cam Kennedy.

Sadly, the WASTED team tell us this is the last print edition of the adult title - a combination of print and delivery costs and reduced sales mean they're moving to digital only editions in future.

"Terrestrial publication of WASTED ended with Issue 8," publisher Alan Grant told downthetubes.net. "From next issue on it'll be digital only, carried by DriveThru.

"A sad day, but still optimistic."



DriveThru already sell British titles such as 2000AD and Markosia, as well as many US comics.

Contributors to this final print issue also include (in no particular order): Tom Carney, Alex Ronald, Jon Haward, Gibson Quarter, Dave Alexander, Jamie Grant, Jason Wilson, Jim Devlin, Jules Boyle, Craig Collins, Curt Sibling, Martin Smith, Will Pickering, Alan Grant, Rob Baker, John Miller, Chaos Alexander, Adam Smith, Jane Turnbull, Paul McCann, Tom Green, Garry McLaughlin, Kent Tayler, Russ McPherson, Tony Rollinson and Adam Ford.

• Buy Wasted: www.badpressltd.com 

Tony Lee, Mark Buckingham and Richard Piers Rayner take on more TARDIS tales for IDW

A British creator line up that includes writer Tony Lee and artist Mark Buckingham will keep US Publisher IDW's Doctor Who comics afloat in the coming months.

While the Eleventh Doctor has already had several comic strip adventures in Britain's Doctor Who Adventures and Doctor Who Magazine, IDW Publishing's first title featuring all-new adventures of Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor, will not be released until January 2011 in a new ongoing series.

The new title comes as US screenings of Doctor Who on BBC America delivered record ratings for the channel, with episodes reaching  the top spot on the iTunes TV chart.

Doctor Who #1 is written by Tony Lee and will see  the Doctor and his new companions, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, battling holographic spam and 'friending' requests on a planet that's hours from destruction by an alien race.

Artist Andrew Currie brings this debut adventure to life, with the ever-busy Tommy Lee Edwards offering eye-catching covers on each issue. Eisner Award winning Fables superstar Mark Buckingham also offers an incentive cover for Issue 1, and will provide interior art on an upcoming issue, as well. Kelley Yates will also provide an incentive cover for Issue 1, featuring a die-cut gatefold image that allows fans to open the TARDIS and see the Doctor inside.

Joining IDW's Doctor Who comic book series for art duties is Richard Piers Rayner (who first drew Doctor Who in Evening's Empire for DWM, a strip that eventually appeared in a special edition due to deadline problems), who will tackle a run-in between The Doctor and Jack the Ripper in issues #2-4. Artists Matthew Dow Smith (Doctor Who, Starman) and Chris Samnee (Thor: The Mighty Avenger) will also be featured for special story arcs.

Storylines for the new book include holographic spam fighting Mad Max-esque mercenaries, Victorian Jack The Ripper suspense, penalty shoot-outs against Vikings and Cybernetic Space Pirate Dinosaurs. Said IDW's Doctor Who editor Denton J. Tipton: "There's going to be something for everyone in this story. For example, fans of the classic series should be on the look out for a classic Doctor Who villain!"

"I could tell you who they are, but I'd have to kill you," adds Lee. "Let's just say we've been given special dispensation to use them, and we have a killer story – in all senses of the word!"

• Doctor Who #1 ($3.99, 32 pages, full color) will be available in US stores in January. Technically the title is not available in the UK for licensing reasons but copies do reach some specialist stores. No UK publisher seems to have picked up distribution rights to IDW's Doctor Who collections.

Tube Surfing: Chief Judges, Troll Bridge and 100 Days of Winter

Just spotted this ace 'brief history' of the various chief judges of Mega-City one over at the 2000AD Covers Uncovered blog. Well worth a read.

Cartoonist Sean Azzopardi sent me his 100 Days of Winter collection. It's great and reviewer Richard Bruton of the Forbidden Planet International blog agrees with me:

"It’s Azzopardi’s skill in communicating the day to day ups and downs of everyday life, his worries and his eventual withdrawal from the project, that really makes the whole thing," writes Bruton, "especially the difficult and heartbreaking task of being forced to find a home for his aging and ill cat, incredibly engrossing and absorbing. As Azzopardi opens up and reveals himself he delivers a very touching and interesting autobiographical comic."

The Forbidden Planet International blog also draws our attention to this fun strip by Tom Gauld. Tom's work is always worth your time...

Johnathan Ross has interviewed comics legend Jim Steranko for the Guardian. Ross will also be blogging from the San Diego Comic-Con for that paper this weekend.

Something else I've only just noticed. Steve Holland has posted two beautiful illustrations by Mark Buckingham over at Bear Alley. These were published in Comic World,(edited by Steve) in 1994 to accompany Troll Bridge, a story by Neil Gaiman.

And finally, have you checked out the (previously mentioned) Fractal Fiction web-comic yet?

Bye for now!

Marvelman - Copyright Marvel Comics

British superhero character Marvelman is a character that had become mired in a legal quagmire for years, his modern re-telling and reinvention by Alan Moore and others forcing a name change to Miracle Man thanks to Marvel legal concerns. It seemed that in the ongoing confusion over rights to material and who exactly owned the 1950s hero created by Mick Anglo, there would never be a Marvelman adventure. Until now...

Incredibly, those problems (quickly revisited here and in more detail here by Rich Johnston) have now been solved with a solution no-one expected - Marvel has bought the character and made him their own and the 1980s Miracleman adventures written by Neil Gaiman and drawn by Mark Buckingham look set to soon be back in print. Whether this also means Alan Moore's original re-invention stories will also be republished has yet to be confirmed but it seems a safe bet.

T-shirts featuring the original 1950s Marvelman logo are already available from the online Marvel Comics shop, and a Marvelman poster drawn by Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada (above) - will be released in September. Quesada says that in designing it he had to keep in mind that there would be other pieces that connected to it, but what those are we’ll just have to wait and see.

"Very few things in all my years as Editor-in-Chief and all my years in comics has thrilled me to the point that this has," says Quesada. "[Marvelman] has finally found a home where it can get published and we can see new stories.

"What sort of incarnation he will take within Marvel publishing? That's stuff that we'll discuss in the future."

"I did not think it would ever happen," says Mick Anglo of the news. "It's a wonderful thing to see my creation finally back."

downthetubes is as stunned as others by this news, although given the number of people contacting us recently to try and locate Mick Anglo, our news senses must have been set to "duh" for not realizing something was up.

"Obviously, for Neil and I this is a wonderful opportunity for us to finally get the material that we were doing back in the early 1990s back in print again because it's been 16 years since our last issue hit the stands," Mark Buckingham told US comic news site CBR moments after the announcement by Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada at the San Diego Comic Con, where he also revealed his first new official art for the character (above). "Beyond anything else, we can get that stuff back in print now. There's material that was produced that's never been published, so from a fan's point of view that's fantastic. There's more Gaiman and Buckingham just waiting for printing already."

Trawling through the legal tangles surrounding the character cannot have been easy but Marvel's lawyers have done it, cutting a deal with the character's 93-year-old creator Mick Anglo and Anglo's representatives, Emotiv Records, a Glasgow-based company who, Steve Holland explains on his Bear Alley blog, purchased Mick Anglo Limited, a company incorporated by Anglo on 21 August 1954 for the purpose of "Artistic and literary creation", possibly around the time that Emotiv Records and Products Limited was incorporated (11 February 2009).

Steve also notes that that, according to UK Data, an application to have the company struck from the register was made on 16 July. Emotiv's involvement with Anglo dates back to at least 2006 when Jon Campbell of Emotiv was involved in putting together the documentary about Marvelman. A website was set up in 2007 which still announces that Who Stole Marvelman a.k.a. Miracleman? is "coming soon" to DVD: we imagine that will soon be re-directing to the Marvel Comics site.

"It is an honour to work with Mick Anglo to bring his creation to a larger audience than ever before," says Dan Buckley, CEO & Publisher, Print, Animation & Digital Media, Marvel Entertainment Inc. "Fans are in for something special as they discover just what makes Marvelman such an important character in comic book history.

"I'm pretty sure if you go on the internet right now, within the next five minutes you'll hear every rumour associated with this character from the 1950s through the '80s to the '90s,: Buckley said during the ComicCon panel where the deal was announced. Describing the process behind the purchase he revealed Marvel started talking to Mick Anglo's people in 2007 "and it was a very exciting prospect.

"I first became aware of it through our relationship with Neil Gaiman," CBR reports. "I really didn't know much about Marvelman at that time, but the conversation started about how we could get involved with the character and bring him back. Mick Anglo and his folks are great to work with."

Buckley also said Marvel was "reaching out" to all the creators involved in the 1980s reinvention of Marvelman, said new publishing connected with the character would begin next year.

"The impact of this story that the character had on the industry is akin to what happened with Watchmen, and we're very excited about it," he commented. "We'll have a lot more details in the near future."

• To find out what’s next for Mick Anglo’s legendary creation, link to this Marvel.Com news thread (http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.8869) for all the news on Marvelman


• Joe Quesada on creating the new Marvelman poster: visit the Marvel Shop to purchase limited edition Marvelman t-shirts

• Mark Buckingham on Marvelman

• Bear Alley: I'm Marvelman - And I'm Back!

• Marvelman © Marvel Entertainment. Like Steve Holland we never expected to write that!