Private Eye cartoonist Wilbur Dawbarn joins New British Comics line up

The latest issue of New British Comics, edited by Karol Wisniewski, co-creator of the upcoming Harbor Moon graphic novel published by Arcana, will soon go on sale, featuring the work of creators such as Dan White, Paul O'Connell and Lawrence Elwick, who provides the stunning cover featuring "Charlie Parker - Handyman".

Also in the line up are strips by Warwick Johnson Cadwell, artist on Tag Team Tastic for The Dandy, and Wonderland by top cartoonist Wilbur Dawbarn, who has had hundreds of cartoons published in such diverse titles as Private Eye, The Sun, New Statesman, The Oldie and many others. He also created the comedy adventure strip Bodkin and the Bear for The DFC.

As with past issues, New British Comics Issue 3 will be available in both English and Polish.

The full line up is as follows:

• Cindy & Biscuit Save The World (again) by Dan White

• Alfred Hitchcock: Master of Suspense by Lawrence Elwick & Paul O'Connell

• Ink vs Paper by John Miers

• Charlie Parker "Handyman": Animal Magnetism by Lawrence Elwick & Paul O'Connell

• Here Comes The Neighbourhood by Matthew Craig & Richard Johnson

• Better Living Through Distance by Dave Thomson

• The Quiet Burden by Craig Collins & Iain Lauire

• Luvvable Lex: Dirty 'N' Down by Rob Miller

• Wonderland by Wilbur Dawbarn

• Charlie Parker "Handyman": Skyscraper Lunch by Lawrence Elwick & Paul O'Connell

• (crack) by Van Nim

• A Complex Machine by David Ziggy Greene

• Von Trapp by Warwick Johnson Cadwell (WJC)

• For more information and stockists visit: http://newbritishcomics.blogspot.com

"It's... Jokes" is latest Signature Publishing title for kids

Signature Publishing, whose titles include Dinosaur King and Dinomite, are to release It's... Jokes magazine later this month.

The new magazine is the fourth in their successful “It’s…” series, aimed at 5 to 10 year olds and, say the publishers, will feature "tonnes of side-splitting gags, crazy puzzles and sneaky pranks.

"Every issue comes with a mega-mischievous joke pack, containing five free tricks; a whoopee cushion, fake spilled glue, pretend nail through the finger, a creepy cockroach, snappy chewing gum plus a free packet of Haribo sweets."

There's no indication from their press information on whether the title will include strip material, but you'd at least expect some cartoons with a name like that.

Signature Publishing’s portfolio includes Dinomite, Turbo Xtreme, Easy Peazy, Fantastic Funworld.

• It’s… Jokes Issue 1 goes on sale 22nd February 2011 for 8 weeks and priced at £3.99

Classics from the Comics plays Cops and Robbers

Issue 169 DC Thomson's Classics from the Comics is now on sale in all good newsagents -- another gem of a 68-page retro monthly, full of comic classics from the publisher of The Beano and The Dandy.

Humour strips in this 'Cops and Robbers'-themed issue include 'Little Plum', 'The Sparky People' (the bumbling office staff of the much-missed Sparky comic, terrorised by an always unseen editor), 'Dennis the Menace', 'The Jocks and the Geordies', 'PC Big Ears' (followed immediately in the comic by 'Bill the Burglar' - surely that should be the other way around?), 'L Cars', 'Baby Face Finlayson' and more.

There's also a number of adventure strips including more from 'General Jumbo' and 'The Truth About Wilson'

For fans nostalgic for an era when comics appealed not just to the very young, this is another great collection of yesteryear merriment.

• Click here for subscription information

In Review: New British Comics #2

They've been jolly polite over at New British Comics: editor Karol Wisniewski sent me a copy of #2 eons ago (long before Wasted #3, below!) and again, it's slipped through the cracks. Which it really shouldn't have, because NBC#2 is every bit as good as the first issue, released last April (reviewed here on downthetubes).

Not only does it have a terrific line up of creators, culled from indie talent in the UK and Poland, including Dan White, Dave Thomson, Pawel Gierczak, David Hailwood, Tony Suleri, Maddku, Jacek Zabawa, Paul O’Connell and Rob Miller; it also features a great range of strips.

Highlights of this collection, for me, are White's (biographical?) 'Last Summer'; Dave Thomson's phantasmagorical 'Feeding Spiders', worthy, surely of much wider exposure; Hailwood and Suleri's SF shocker 'Spare Parts', first seen in the Temple APA but well deserving second exposure here; and David Robetrtson and Frank Lamour's 'Under the Rainbow: Mercy' a disturbing tale of voodoo. But there is even more to enjoy in this fine mix of styles and genres.

Published in Poland in both a Polish and English edition by Wisniewski, the contents and strips are the same in both editions but the only difference is language. Once again, this is a brilliant project, truly deserving support from the comic community. So, what are you waiting for? (Other than this review, of course...)

• New British Comics is now available through SmallZone's online shop - smallzone-shop.co.uk

• There's now a new web site about the project at: newbritishcomics.blogspot.com


• More information and sample pages visit: www.polygobooks.com/newbritishcomics

• In addition to the book a Polish website dedicated to comics - www.komiks.nast.pl - has started publishing online British comics (click here for these)

Tube Surfing: Awards, Thought Bubble Signings and Hi-Ex

• Leonie O'Moore, Tony Hitchman and WJC from the "New British Comics" anthology will be present at Thought Bubble convention (Saturday, November 21st) and they will be happy to sign your NBC copies. Signing will be available throughout pretty much whole day - you can leave a book on Leonie's Moore stall and pick it up later when it will be signed for you. Also, both issues of NBC should be available for purchase at Smallzone stall during the convention.

• Talking of Thought Bubble, 'Possibilities and Perspectives: A Conference on Comics', an academic event, is also coming up in Leeds this weekend. Tickets are £8 and include entry to the conference and the Thought Bubble Festival's one day comic convention. The conference will take place at the Alea Casino in Leeds, near the Royal Armouries (a 30 second walk from the Thought Bubble Convention venue, Saviles Hall). For a map and directions, visit: www.aleacasinos.com/alea/leeds/location.php. The event includes a Keynote Speech from Bryan Talbot on "The Use of Style and Storytelling Techniques in The Tale of One Bad Rat".

• The 15th Cartoon Trust Awards will be presented at an entertaining fundraising dinner at The Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1 tonight (18th November 2009). The dinner, whose guests and award presentes include Barry Cryer and Steve Bell, celebrates and coincides with the 21^st birthday of the Cartoon Art Trust, the charity behind the Cartoon Museum. The winners will be announced on the Trust's web site at: www.cartoonmuseum.org

• Eden Court Theatre in Inverness will play host to the third HiEx International Comic Convention on the 27th-28th March 2010.

“The first two years where such a success that we really had no choice but to do it again," explained organiser Vicky Stonebridge.

Co-organiser Richmond Clements adds: "We have some very exciting guests already confirmed- among them the incredible John Higgins, Gary Erskine, Colin MacNeil, Asia Alfasi, Alan Grant. Many more artists and writers will be coming along, as well as the popular stormtroopers from the 501st UK garrison. Keep checking the HiEx website, (www.hi-ex.co.uk) as we’re adding all the time." Over the course of the weekend, visitors can expect a range of events. “Our children’s workshops have proved to be very popular, and we’re planning to run even more of them this time around," Vicky said. "There will also be workshops for both art and writing, for adults.

Tickets go on sale soon, with a special discount for early booking through the HiEx website.

• After 18 months, many conventions and quite a few web sales UK indi publisher CD24 is finally down to the last few issues of Last of the Chickenheads issues 1 and 2, and Crowman issue 1. As in the future they're going to be concentrating on publishing graphic novels, they’ve decided to host a quick fire sale and are offering them for £1 an issue. So this is your final chance to get your hands on these titles in the single issue format as once the only way you'll be able to get them is in a graphic novel format (at some point in the future).

• Anyone wanting to purchase these issues, or Jack in the Box, can get them at www.c2d4.com.

New British Comics #2 Released

The second issue of anthology title "New British Comics" is now on sale, available, just like the first issue in both English and Polish.

Edited by Karol Wisniewski, the new edition comes wrapped in a superb cover by Nelson Evergreen, this issue includes strips by the likes of Dan White, Leonie O'Moore, Dave Thomson and a few new faces such as downthetubes contributor David Hailwood, Craig Collins and Iain Laurie.

The Polish edition has already successfully premiered at the 2009 International Festival of Comics in Lodz, again raising awareness of the UK indie comic scene and the concept of exchanging work between both countries.

Retailing at £4.00, "New British Comics" issue #2 is approximately B5-ish format - well, it is made in Poland - with 84 b/w pages and is available from Badpressltd.com and SmallZone.co.uk

• For further information and to view sample pages, visit the totally revamped web site at www.polygobooks.com/newbritishcomics/

• Blog: http://newbritishcomics.blogspot.com

New British Comics #2 On Its Way

The second issue of indie anthology title New British Comics, featuring this spiffing cover by Nelson Evergreen, should be published in October.

Contributors for the 84-page anthology, which will be published by Karol Wisniewski in both English and Polish, include Dan White, Dave Thomson, Paweł Gierczak, David Hailwood, Tony Suleri, Maddku, Jacek Zabawa, David Robertson, Frank Lamour, Rob Miller, WJC, Jon Edwards, Tony Hitchman, Lawrence Elwick, Paul O’Connell, Leonie O'Moore, Iain Laurie, Craig Collins and Nelson Evergreen.

"I hope I've quietly perverted the idea of 'Britishness' here," says Nelson of his fab cover, "what with the tea drinkers, bowler hatted gent and ominous skies rendered in a vaguely European sort of style and topped off with a decidedly shop-soiled Union Jack."

UK Indie distributor SmallZone is still selling the first issue of New British Comics, which features 13 stories and 17 artists including Dave Thomson, Malcy Duff, Paul O’Connell and Rob Miller. The contents and strips are the same in both editions but the only difference is language.

The comic is also available from Bad Press (UK & Worldwide) and Centrum Komiksu,Imago.com.pl, Incal.com.pl and SklepKomiksowy.pl (Poland)

• Read our review of Issue 1

• Visit the blog about the project at: newbritishcomics.blogspot.com

New British Comics Gets UK Distribution

UK Indie distributor Smallzone is now selling the first issue of New British Comics, an 80-page comics anthology featuring, 13 stories and 17 artists including Dave Thomson, Malcy Duff, Paul O’Connell and Rob Miller.

Reviewed by us here last month, the book has been self-published in Poland in both a Polish and English edition by Karol Wisniewski, the contents and strips are the same in both editions but the only difference is language.

New British Comics is now available through SmallZone's online shop - smallzone-shop.co.uk, and Karol tells us that other UK
shops should soon be distributing the book, too.

The book will be sold at Bristol Comics Expo at the SmallZone stand.

• There's now a new web site about the project at: newbritishcomics.blogspot.com

In Review: New British Comics

Last month we gave a quick plug for the first issue of New British Comics, an 80-page comics anthology featuring, 13 stories and 17 artists including Dave Thomson, Malcy Duff, Paul O’Connell and Rob Miller.

The book has been self-published in Poland in both a Polish and English edition by Karol Wisniewski, the contents and strips are the same in both editions but the only difference is language.

Karol kindly sent us a copy of both editions to review and I have to say that I really enjoyed reading the English edition. (Lancaster has a large Polish community, so we plan to donate that one to the Library here when it re-opens after some Lottery-funded refurbishment -- they have a good comic collection for lendng).

Back in the 1980s, there were numerous independent comic anthologies published in the UK, and the tradition continues with the likes of the brilliant Futurequake and Omnivistascope. But, I'd argue, none of these modern titles have the quirkiness that made long-gone titles like Escape, which was home to creators such as Eddie Campbell, Glen Dakin and Eddie Campbell so distinctly memorable.

Maybe - just maybe - New British Comics will take up the mantle.

Crammed with great strips and a web site to showcase more to back it up, New British Comics doesn't yet have the same voice as Escape - there's no feature material and neither do I expect there will be. But what it does have is a range of challenging, for the most part enjoyable material from a disparate range of comic talents.

I always say this, but an anthology title is never not going to throw up a strip or two that isn't too the reader's personal taste - that's what makes them such a hard sell. But the good outweighs the borderline here, from the opening shot of Brownehayes by Dave Thomson, a bizarre fable about a bizarre prophet; Dan White's illustrated tale, Jackie Goes to Hell, as a girl plunges, Dante-like, into Satan's domain to find her dead boyfriend's soul (the Howling Men are just superb...); and Daniel Locke's woodcut-styled ghost story, No Word of a Lie.

And there's more: Paul O’Connell's edgy one pae strip, The Child Molester and his wonderful creation, Charley Parker, Handyman; Nelson Evergreen's Damieinne Hobbs Reflects, Caroline Parkinson's romance tale, Inner City... the list of notable material stretches on.

In short, if you can track down a copy of New British Comics then buy it. Give this ground-breaking project your support. The fact that this title has been co-published in Poland has helped raise awareness of all these comics talents and fly the flag for British comics on the continent - always something worth doing. Editor Karol Wisniewski has pulled off a remarkable coup in being one of the first independent 'small press' publishers to accomplish something akin to the sort of strip syndication that made giant publishers like IPC, DC Thomson and Egmont so successful. Perhaps others will now take his lead...

• New British Comics is now available through SmallZone's online shop - smallzone-shop.co.uk, and Karol tells us that other UK shops should soon be distributing the book, too.

• There's now a new web site about the project at: newbritishcomics.blogspot.com


• More information and sample pages visit: www.polygobooks.com/newbritishcomics

• In addition to the book a Polish website dedicated to comics - www.komiks.nast.pl - has started publishing online British comics (click here for these)

"New British Comics" Anthology Published

The first issue of New British Comics, an 80-page comics anthology featuring, 13 stories and 17 artists including Dave Thomson, Malcy Duff, Paul O’Connell and Rob Miller has just been published.

The book has been self-published in Poland in two editions by Karol Wisniewski, in English and Polish. "The contents and strips are the same in both editions,," says Karol. "The only difference is language.

"The project sounds a little crazy, but it worked out just fine," he adds. "The Polish edition was a huge success and raised more interest in UK Comics. Now, it's time to present the English edition.

"It doesn't have a theme, Karol continues. "I've gathered great comics from British artists who have trusted me on this crazy idea - and that's the book's real theme. They worked hard on their stories and most of them have even made Polish title pages or handmade Polish lettering.

"The idea was simple: why not publish our stories in more than one language?" he explains of the book. "I can speak only Polish and (so-so) English, but I guess that was enough to make this project work, especially with so many friendly hands that helped me."

He's been greatly encouraged by how the title has come together. "If I can do this, then anyone can," he enthuses. "Even if you know only one language you can always ask your friends to help translate your stuff or make new friends. Either way will work. And it's definitely worth the trouble."

In addition to the book a Polish website dedicated to comics - www.komiks.nast.pl - has started publishing online British comics (click here for these). The first is Paul O'Connell's marvellous short "She's Leaving Home", recently seen in the UK via ROK Comics, and Karol says more are on the way. "Things are getting quite British here," Karol laughs.

• More information and sample pages visit: www.polygobooks.com/newbritishcomics