The Return of Garth

Earlier this month, after a long gestation period, adventure hero Garth returned to British newspaper The Mirror - albeit, for now, only on the publication's web site.

Now, in an exclusive interview for downthetubes, artist Huw-J of Hayena Studios talks to John Freeman about the new strip and his many plans for the character's ongoing revival, including graphic novels.

The feature includes behind the scenes designs and other images by Huw-J, plus revelations about the next steps for the revival.

• Read the interview
• Discuss this feature in the downthetubes forum

Garth Returns!

Sneaked onto the Daily Mirror web site with very little publicity is something pretty momentous for British comics fans -- the return of the adventure strip Garth!

Artist Huw-J called us earlier last week to tell us of its long-awaited arrival but this is the first chance I've had to report on it, so apologies to him and the team at Hayena Studios for the tardy reporting.

The new Garth project, revamping the often time and space travelling hero who first appeared in the Daily Mirror in 1943, has been in the offing for a while. (some readers will recall advertisements for the new Garth in Comics International many months ago. The Gold of Ragnorak, what will eventually be a 64-page story (which will be collected by an as-yet-unannounced publisher on completion), is now up and running, with Garth summoned to the Arctic for a mission of dangerous exploration.

Quite apart from the lack of fanfare -- unless it was noted in the Mirror itself -- publicity for the return of one of Britain's finest comics heros, previously drawn by the likes of Frank Bellamy and Martin Asbury, has been sadly lacking, so pass the word around and perhaps the Mirror will give it some better promotion in due course. The presentation of the strip is also a little disappointing but it's great to see the strip back. (The Mirror also offers online presentation of its other comics such as Andy Capp and Scorer).

The art for the new version of Garth is by Huw-J, who has his studio over at the Animation Art Gallery in the Movieum of London at County Hall, Westminster, also home of the Masterclass where he teaches the foundations of character and comic related art and storytelling.

Huw says he lives on a diet of old Edgar Rice Bourroughs, Arthur Conan-Doyle , Jack Kirby and an unhealthy dose of Silent Bob. "I draw everything with my 1 favorite clutch pencil and have a strange attraction to snow globes," he reveals via his MySpace site.

"One of my favorite comic book mini series was Hero Bear and the Kid by Mike Kunkle, because it took me back to the newspaper funnies and Calvin and Hobbes."

• Read Garth at: www.mirror.co.uk/fun-games/cartoons/garth
• Read other Mirror strips such as Andy Capp and Scorer
• More about Garth on and more links on the downthtubes site

BBC Issue a Comics Challenge

(with thanks to Robin Ashwell): The BBC online News Magazine has just published an article on newspaper comic strips -- and is challenging readers to send in their own four panel creations.

The article, published to publicise self-taught artist (and occasisonal DJ, raconteur etc) Phill Jupitus' documentary Comic Love on Radio 4 (available at Radio 4's Listen Again site), notes that for as long as there has been the concept of daily newspapers, there has been the political cartoon. And in the 20th Century there has been a natural symbiosis between the modern newspaper and one particular form of cartoon, the four-panel strip.

The article notes the work of the creators of the Daily Telegraph's Alex strip, the controversy caused by Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury - including audio interviews with the US cartoonist - and features an exclsuive strip by Phil Jupitus himself (first panel above).

Readers -- and several have already commented on the article noting their favourite strips -- are also challenged to send in their own four-panel strips:

• Email: yourpics@bbc.co.uk, subject CARTOON
• MMS from UK: 61124
• Int MMS: +44 7725 100100
• Click here for terms and conditions

Abadzis in The Guardian

Nick Abadzis, whose book Laika has drawn deserved critical acclaim from many quarter of late, has just announced that he has a a three-page strip in The Guardian from this Saturday (19th April)that runs for six weeks (every Saturday in the Family section).

Called Cora’s Breakfast, you will also be able to download the strip at some point, probably on this page, as you can with most recently-published Guardian strips such as Monkey Nuts, Go Fish, Robot Girl and Good Dog, Bad Dog.

Cora’s Breakfast is part of a longer story that will eventually be serialised and then collected by an as yet unnamed publisher. Check out Nick's blog to keep abreast of further news.

Laika is the story of the world's first space traveller, a dog sent up in the Soviet space program. Nick was interviewed about the project for the Comics Reporter site earlier this year. It's a wonderful take and well worth checking out.

(If you need another excuse to buy this Saturday's Guardian, Paul Gravett written an article on superheroes and their role as propaganda for the Guardian Guide. This ties in with the Iron Man movie looming, and the story of the United Nations working with Marvel on a comic
book with their superheroes to show what the UN does).

Modesty's Yellowstone Booty

The dark underworld of espionage and crime is lit up once more by the fatal charms of the gorgeous Modesty Blaise — high priestess of pulp crime and goddess of cult thrillers.

Titan Books collects three more classic, hard-to-find stories in Modesty Blaise: Yellowstone Booty, on sale from 23 May 2008:

In Idaho George, Modesty is forced to escape from kidnappers when she is taken hostage along with a con artist, while in Yellowstone Booty she must thwart would-be thieves from stealing a stash of treasure from its rightful Native American owners; and in The Golden Frog, the fighting femme must journey to Cambodia, to rescue the master who trained her from the clutches of an evil regime.

Originally published in the Evening Standard in the 1960s, Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise provides crime thriller storylines with sass, wit and a touch of glamour, that has wooed celebrity fans such as Quentin Tarantino.

• Pre-order Yellowstone Booty from amazon.co.uk

The Flash Gordon story retold

Comics International editor Mike Conroy is one of many contributors to a Flash Gordon documentary being screened on the the UK Sci-Fi Channel tonight (Monday 25 February) at 8.00pm.

Scheduled to air ahead of the series pilot, the programme provides insight from a variety of comedians (Colin Hoult, Emma Kennedy), actors (Brian Blessed, Paul Duncan and Paul Darrow), journalists (Kim Newman, Karen Krizanovich) and comic book aficionados (Paul Gambaccini and Mike), who all talk about the evolution of Flash through the ages.

Further screenings of the documentary are planned.

Since his first appearance in the 1930s and right up until the present day, Flash Gordon has enraptured successive generations of fans through numerous adaptations including films, radio, television and animated series. This hour-long documentary covers Flash Gordon's history in comics and on screen and is a promo for the new TV series which airs from Monday 3 March in the UK - but you can view the first episode online via the scifiuk web site.

Eric Johnson (Smallville) stars as Flash, alongside Gina Holden (Final Destination 3) as Dale Arden in a rip-roaring adventure across Earth and Mongo alike.

Flash Gordon first sprung into life courtesy of award-winning comic strip artist Alex Raymond in 1934 and was created as a response to the Buck Rogers strip - with Flash as a professional polo player of all things. The strip ran until 2003 but continues to be reprinted.

More Carol Day Online, Appeal for Art

The Carol Day website devoted to the long-running Daily Mail newspaper strip has just been updated with some great new material, including two complete stories, including the last one completed by series creator David Wright.

Also on offer is new original art for sale, additions to the cast section and a near-complete story guide listing the episode numbers corresponding to each story.

"We've had a nice response to this wonderful strip so far," says webmaster Roger Clark who runs Roger Clark Art, "and we really appreciate all the encouragment and words of support we've gotten."

Carol Day ran for over 10 years from 1956 to 1967 in The Daily Mail, garnered a fanatical following, appeared in 22 countries, and then quietly disappeared as if it had never existed. The web site utilizes strips from scrapbooks of the strip.

"We are still missing a bunch of strips," Roger told downthetubes. "These are 1-99, 639-1048, and 2529-2948. If any downthetubes readers have Carol Day tearsheets they would be willing to sell, trade, rent or lend we'll work out any arrangement they would like."

It's believed a couple of the missing scrapbooks were possibly sold on ebay a few years ago. "We would love to be able to track those down and scan them," says Roger.

"Our biggest barrier right now for print publication is lack of quality source material," he admits. "We have a publisher who would like to do it, but the material in the scrapbooks just isn't good enough to print from. If by some miracle any of your readers have runs of high quality Carol Day material, again we would love to hear from them."

• If you can help, contact Roger via info AT carol-day.com

Europe's Last Newspaper Adventure Strip Cancelled

(via David Lloyd's lforlloyd web site): For those of us sad at the loss of the once-plentiful adventure strips that used to appear in our newspapers - especially original ones not tied in to some licenced product - there was more saddening news to bear earlier this month, picked up by artist David Lloyd, but which I've only just read.

Nicky Saxx - possibly the only originated adventure strip still existing in a European newspaper - was cancelled earlier this month. "Its last three panels halted an adventure, leaving the strip's heroine lost somewhere at the bottom of the ocean," David related.

The Nicky Saxx strip has been running for some years now as a daily in Holland's largest-selling newspaper, De Telegraaf. Nicky and her friend, Elsa Steiner, are globe-trotting adventurers with a taste for danger, hiring themselves out as troubleshooters and investigators of the paranormal via their organisation, Room 666, which is located in a disused lighthouse on the East Coast of America. Aided by computer expert and technical wizard, Ben Folds, the duo specialise in helping all those people the conventional law-enforcement bodies cannot assist.

"The artist of Saxx, Minck Oosterveer, is a friend of mine," David comments. "Without him telling me about the death of this gloriously sexy adventurer he'd created many years ago with his writer colleague, Willem Ritstier, I'd never have known anything about it. News like it rarely reaches any comics trade periodicals or sites, whose only interest in newspaper strips now relates to honouring the past glories of such figures as Milton Caniff or Noel Sickles.

"Go to the graveyard, folks. See them spinning there!"

• More on Nicky and on Minck at his website: www.minckoosterveer.com

Doonesburyland

On Thursday morning this week (10th Jan) Radio 4 (11:30am-noon) will be broadcasting Doonesburyland.

Joe Queenan conducts a rare interview with Gary Trudeau, creator of the Doonesbury cartoon strip and in many ways the most high profile chronicler of the American left.

Queenan also speaks to the Guardian's former features editor Ian Katz, who dropped the strip from the paper only to have to it reinstated after a wave of mass outrage from readers. Quite right to.

If you've never read Doonesbury it can be hard to know where to start (other than at the beginning) with a soap opera that has been running daily (apart from a long sabbatical c.1980) since 1970. Hopefully this programme will provide a 'jumping on' point for new readers.

Doonesbury appears daily in The Guardian newspaper in the UK, and the Sunday strip runs in The Independent. Doonesbury is also available on mobile in some countries for mobile via ROK Comics.