ROK releases first Beatles audio comic in new eight-issue series

ROK Mobile Comics has released the first issue of its new audio comic The Beatles Story for iPad, iPhone and other mobile devices.

The eight-issue digital series collects, for the first time in its entirety, the classic and highly-acclaimed Beatles strip created by the late Angus Allan and Arthur Ranson for the British weekly comic, Look-In.

With new covers by Martin Baines, the digitally-enhanced audio comic also includes rare Beatles videos and other material to complement the comic, including audio commentary memories from writer and radio broadcaster Angie McCartney.

Working closely with artist Arthur Ranson - with some pages scanned from original artwork - and the estate of writer Angus Allan, the eight-issue digital audio comic is available for for iPad, iPhone, Android and other mobile devices, the strip complemented by fully authored audio enhancements that further bring this unique comic biography of The Beatles to life.

The launch coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four's beginnings back in 1962, when The Beatles - John, Paul, George and Ringo - took the charts by storm in 1962 with their first official release, "Love Me Do", quickly followed by "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You". Beatlemania soon swept across the globe as the Fab Four recorded a staggering 12 studio albums, 13 EPs and 22 singles from 1962 to 1970.

It is estimated they have sold over one billion records worldwide and The Beatles continue to influence many musicians and artists today, attracting a new generation of fans.

Beautifully realized, The Beatles Story charts the history of the band from their struggle for success in the early 1960s through their entire career until the band's split in 1970.

DJ Mike Read has called the strip "the only worthwhile strip record of the Beatles" and the creator-owned comic, first published in British comic Look-In has only ever been reprinted in an abridged form, both in the UK and in Europe.

The opening page of The Beatles Story
© Angus Allan & Arthur Ranson

"Before The Beatles - Their Story in Pictures strip, Angus Allan, comic-book and Paperback Writer, and I had been teamed up by Look-in Editor Colin Shelbourn to do The Elvis Story," recalls Arthur Ranson of the origins of his acclaimed Beatles comic strip. "Like Dreamers Do I suggested to Angus that we might retain the copyright - prompted by belief in its future possibilities and thinking possible returns When I'm Sixty-Four.

"Rather than just the Money there was also pride in ownership and an interest in creators rights. Creator ownership was at that time even less usual then it is now and Nobody I Know at the time had done that. Can’t now imagine the hubris that made me pushy so don’t Ask Me Why.

"When Angus heard the idea he was nervous about it," Arthur continues. "Apart from the gamble that a reduction in fee would later be recouped I think it ran against his idea of how professional comics guys worked and he might be seen as a  Bad Boy. I convinced Angus We Can Work It Out and the Two of Us took the proposal to Colin. I said I would not draw the strip on any other terms. (How was it I was so cocky?) With much less argument than I expected Colin agreed. Thank you, Colin.

"When Colin wanted The Beatles strip it was more or less understood that the same terms would apply. At Look-in’s expense Angus and I became Day Trippers, took A Ticket to Ride and went to Liverpool for research, visiting  Penny Lane and all.

"ITV Publications reproduced the strip as a paper book only four months after its first appearance in Look-In, hardly Any Time at All. The impression I was left with was that whoever organised the reprint was so miffed when he discovered that Angus and I had the copyright that he made no attempt to sell it on so it wasn’t exactly Here, There, and Everywhere. Angus and I took on an agent to act on our behalf and he landed some foreign versions.

"Some of the artwork was displayed at the Walker Art Gallery in their 1984 'Art of the Beatles' exhibition."

"Do You Want to Know a Secret? Drawing a weekly story with the hope of seeing it reappearing in a complete continuous format did need some thinking about," Arthur reveals. "The space where the title would go required filling, but not with anything that was essential. For new readers the breaks are then not apparent and the story will move without interruption, Act Naturally..." 

The Beatles Story is the latest audio comic project from ROK, who launched their first audio adventure comic Team M.O.B.I.L.E. earlier this year, with several new titles, including Houdini, new adventures of the world's greatest escape artist soon to follow, along with spy adventure Tomorrow We Live, written and drawn by Mike Collins.

The company is also working on a number of music comics featuring up and coming bands, and a collection of Angus Allan and Arthur Ranson's other creator-owned strip for Look-In, The Elvis Story.

• The Beatles Story by Angus Allan and Arthur Ranson, with new covers by Martin Baines

• From iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/app/the-beatles-story/id569176209?mt=8

• Android Edition: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rok.comics.beatles001

Spaceship Away 27 on sale now

Issue 27 of the Eagle-inspired comic magazine Spaceship Away is available now, this time with a background theme drawing on the Dan Dare story The Red Moon, featuring a number of paintings relating to that story from both Don Harley and Tim Booth.

Most importantly, aside from ne Dan Dare and other comic strips, the issue pays tribute to, and has last words from artist Bruce Cornwell, who sadly passed away earlier this year.

The strip line up is as follows:

• "Dan Dare: Parsecular Tales" by Tim Booth - part four of an epic new adventure continuing the original Dan Dare legend
• "Shadow over Britain", a Journey into Space story by Charles Chilton, based on the 1950s radio show
• “Thoughts That Kill” by Ron Turner, coloured by Martin Baines, a short one off story of the danges of telepathic civillisation
  
• "Dan Dare: Amberlint" (Part One) written and drawn by Nick Spender, an ex-student of Dan Dare's original creator Frank Hampson
• "Garth: Finality Factor" (Part Four) by Jim Edgar and John Allard, art by Martin Asbury

Alongside tributes to Bruce Cornwell, features this issue include 

• ‘Diego Valor’: downthetubes contributor Jeremy Briggs reveals the history of a Spanish spin off of Dan Dare.
  
• Graham Bleathman has produced a cutaway of Dan’s apartment, based on Eagle published frames and notes by Greta Tomlinson, who was a member of the strip's original studio
  

Looking ahead, the editorial team tell us they have some amazing items coming up in our autumn issue, including a Jeff Hawke / Dan Dare strip by Sydney Jordan and Don Harley. Issue 28 is due in November.

- To get Spaceship Away delivered to your door, head over to the official website: http://spaceshipaway.org.uk

Happy Birthday, 2000AD! From artist and colourist Martin Baines

Along with artist Martin Baines' birthday wishes for 2000AD, we're also delighted to publish his vrsion of the original Judge Dredd script, 'Court Room'.

Martin tells us this was the script for what was originally to have been the first ever 2000AD Judge Dredd story, but it was considered too violent.

"I think it would be interesting for readers and would really help me," he says. Let us know what you think...

Name: Martin Baines

Web Site: 
www.smudgepencil.co.uk/portfolio/martin-b 

Currently working on: 

Colouring Garth in the Mirror and working on adverts

First memory of 2000AD? 

Seeing it on the school coach and reading the annual.

Favourite characters or story? 

Nikolai Dante, The Romanov Empire - Brilliant story that kept me guessing right the end with amazing art by the great John M Burns who remains at the top of his field

Strontium Dog  - Everything created in the classic black and white period,  Real Class!

What do you like most about the 2000AD?

Always inventive! Britain will be a poorer place if it lost 2000AD.

What would you most like to see in 2000AD as it heads to its Forties?

To continue to see classic work by the master artists and writers and hopefully one day to see my work in it as well...  

• This post is one in a series of tributes to 2000AD to mark its 35th birthday on 26th February 2012. More about 2000AD at www.2000adonline.com  

2000AD © Rebellion

Tube Surfing: British Artists - Interviews and Unpublished Art

There has been a small flurry of British artists getting interviewed recently.

Alex Ronald, who has worked as an artdroid for 2000AD in the past and is now getting a lot of attention for the Vampire Vixens Of The Wehrmacht strip just started in Wasted, talks about VVW on the the Wasted blog.

Also short and sweet is an interview by Lew Stringer over on Blimey with Commando and Spaceship Away artist Martin Baines about the colouring work he has done on the Frank Bellamy Garth strips now being published by the Daily Mirror.

If those two have whetted your appetite then David Robertson, of Fred Egg Comics and organiser of the war comics exhibition now touring Angus Council libraries, presents an absolute beanfeast of an interview with Doctor Who and Hellblazer artist John Ridgway over on The Comics Journal. The interview is so long and detailed that TCJ split it over two postings, here and here (and managed to spell David's surname wrong in the title of the first one).

And finally... Our brothers in arms in the Commando office have discovered some unpublished art in their files by the late Jeff Bevan whose favourite subject to illustrate was ships. Pre-internet, when references for ships were less easy to come by, Commando used DC Thomson staff artist Bevan to create ship reference art that could be sent out to freelancer artists to use when drawing their Commando stories. The artwork has been declassified for the first time and is available to view on the Commando website, here and here.

Apollo 11: Behind the Scenes?

Contributions to our 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing Comics Celebration album on the downthetubes forum are coming in daily, with this latest gem from comics, storyboard artist and illustrator Martin Baines, a tongue-in-cheek tip of the hat to the film Capricorn One, which capitalised on deeply ingrained claims that the moon landings never happened by positing a faked landing on Mars, all shot in a remote film studio.

Martin's credits include work for Match of the Day Magazine, Spaceship Away and many other magazines: he's represented by Smudged Pencil.

Here at downthetubes we're unconvinced by sceptics - given voice recently by character Tyrone Dobbs in Coronation Street, of all places - that the moon landings never happened, but Martin's art gave us a laugh.

Other contributors so far include Bugpowder contributor Dan Fish with a strip called "The Moon's A Balloon", the Etherington Brothers, Mike Nicoll, Malcolm Kirk, Doctor Who illustrator Colin Howard, games artist Gary Hall and Bob Bello.

More contributions from comics artists and illustrators to help mark this major anniversary for space exploration are very welcome: we see it as an opportunity to present a portfolio of themed work based on space and space exploration (real or imagined) that should generate press interest given the upcoming anniversary.

The album can be “embedded” on any web site. If there’s a strong response to this, we may also do a MyEbook version.

Text pieces are also welcomed: we're not quite sure how to present those yet, perhaps in another part of the downthetubes forum. We don’t want writers to be left out.

If you don't want to join our forum and upload art but would like to join in with the celebrations, simply send your work to johnfreeman6-moonlandinganniversaryart@yahoo.co.uk. Please ensure images are no larger than 2MB in size.

• Visit the downthetubes forum at: http://downthetubes.ning.com

Martin's Match of the Day

Artist Martin Baines, whose work includes strips for Spaceship Away, DC Thomson and work on Titan's Wallace & Gromit, is busy working on the BBC's new, weekly, Match of the Day magazine, which has just launched.

The title features a comic series drawn by Martin which tells the lives of famous footballers for the magazine, which is aimed at the 8-12 market.

Inspired by the iconic programme, Match of the Day magazine aims to position itself as the must-read title for all young football fans and will be packed with star interviews, match results and tables from the weekend, the hottest football gossip, posters, quizzes and competitions.

The magazine also includes an eight-page pull-out skills guide, encouraging children to get active and to increase their chances of becoming a star of the future.

The first issue features an exclusive interview with Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo.

Supporting the magazine, motdmag.com will feature bespoke football games and up to the minute statistics, which users can personalise to their own team.

"Match of the Day is one of the biggest brands in sport," says publisher Duncan Gray says, "and we’re hoping to build on this success with Match of the Day magazine.

"Research has shown there is significant demand for a title aimed at 8-14 year olds focused not only on the star teams and players, but also encouraging young football fans to increase their own knowledge and improve their own game."

"I'm very excited about the launch of Match of the Day magazine," says Editor Ian Foster, "and am confident that the mix of star interviews, results, gossip and skills advice will prove hugely popular with football-mad youngsters."

• Match of the Day magazine is on sale every Tuesday