Tube Surfing: TOXIC's new strips, Mudman and STRIP Magazine news

Here's a quick round up of British comics news courtesy of various sources...

Bro vs. Bro by Laura Howell

• Lew Stringer reports the website for Egmont's popular TOXIC magazine for boys has recently had a revamp. Although some of the older items such as the Joke Machine have gone, the site now offers a bunch of new features, including one of his Team Toxic stories, Butt of the Joke, that you can read online for free.

The magazine itself also has two new strips this week (Issue 189), in addition to the ongoing Busted Bieber, stinky superhero Captain Gross and Lew's long-running Team Toxic. Luke's Spooks features a boy haunted by a couple of gross ghosts, and Bro vs Bro, drawn by Laura Howell, is about the rivalry of two brothers, one a boy genius, the other a sports jock.

"Hmm, thinking about it, a scenario about belligerent youths isn't much of a departure from BBC News 24 at all is it," Laura notes wryly on her blog. "Ahem, let's move on.."

• Print Media Productions STRIP Magazine is on course for an October launch - still no actual date yet - and the first three strips in the STRIP Challenge, seeking to spotlight new talent, have been chosen. As the title's editor, I can report we had a terrific selection to choose from and while there were some entries that strayed wildly from the declared content of the magazine most of the submissions were in the right ball park as regards content. The first three creative teams have been informed of their success, but we still have to decide the next three.

STRIP Magazine, a monthly anthology adventure title, will include stories by Phil Hester, John McCrea, PJ Holden, James Hudnall and John Ridgway (among others). More information at http://www.printmediaproductions.com/ (currently re-directing to the title's blog)

Paul Temple © London Evening News

• Steve Holland is currently publishing episodes of the newspaper strip Paul Temple on his wonderful Bear Alley blog. Based on the BBC radio character of the same name and published in London's Evening News from 19th November 1951 until 1st May 1971, it's the adventures of an amateur detective told with typical derring-do of the period, and was drawn by a variety of artists - Alfred Sindall, Bill Bailey and John McNamara.

There's more about Paul Temple character here on the Thrilling Detective web site , but Steve has plenty more about the comic and Paul Temple's creator on Bear Alley.

• Bryan Talbot, creator of Luther Arkwright and much more, has dropped us a line to say that his wife, Dr Mary Talbot, an internationally acclaimed scholar in her own right with published works on language, gender and power has a web site live dedicated to her upcoming graphic novel (drawn by Bryan), Dotter Of Her Father’s Eyes, which will be published by Cape in February 2012. Part personal history, part biography, Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes contrasts two coming of age narratives: that of Lucia, the daughter of James Joyce, and that of author Mary Talbot, daughter of the eminent Joycean scholar James S Atherton. ... a fine addition to the evolving genre of graphic memoir.

“I think what’s been most distinctive about this project is that I haven’t just completed a script and then passed it over to an artist. We’ve been able to work on the book together, with an intensive and ongoing creative interaction that’s usually missing from writer/artist collaborations.”

There are preview pages from Dotter on Mary’s website, © 2011 Mary M. Talbot. You can pre-order Dotter of Her Father's Eyes from amazon.co.uk now

• A quick reminder about the the upcoming Comics and Conflict conference which is being held in the Imperial War Museum on 19th-20th August, which will include panel discussion, workshops and a film screening, as well as boasting some terrific guests such as Pat Mills, Roger Sabin and Garth Ennis - among others. If you're a war comics fan and in London that weekend it's not to be missed.

• Talking of events. don't forget the Edinburgh Book Festival has started. Our own Jeremy Briggs has already brought us a run down of this year's comics-related events, which include appearances by the Etherington Brothers, Pat Mills, Tony Lee, Dan Boultwood, Emma Vicelli and many others.

There are more details of all the talks at the Edinburgh International Book Festival website where tickets can also be purchased.

• US publisher Image Comics have announced the upcoming publication of Mudman by Paul Grist. After self-publishing for much of the 1990s, Paul Grist brought two critically acclaimed original titles to Image Comics in 2002: the crime drama Kane and then the eclectic superhero series Jack Staff. Recently, Grist has been using his sparse, signature style to develop this new superhero that will be introduced to the world this November.

"This is my 'Back to Basics' superhero comic," explained Grist. "It's not about alien menaces or cosmic powers (though they may pop up once in a while); it's all about growing up and finding your way in the world, and how the decisions that you make can affect others. In a way, it's probably the most autobiographical comic I've ever done. But with added mud." There's more information here on the Image Comics web site.

I'll round off this Tube Surf with news of another event, again north of the border. An exhibition of paintings by HI-Ex co-organiser Vicky Stonebridge - well known for her indie comics work on titles such as Slaughterman's Creed - and artist John Mikietyn, and a ceramic sculpture by Allison Weightman, will open at the Scotland Russia Forum’s Edinburgh premises at 6.00pm tonight, Friday 12th August, attended by Sergei Krutikov, the Russian Consul General.

The week long exhibition - "Reactions to Vysotsky" - accompanies music by Scottish singer, songwriter and translator, Tommy Beavitt, whose long-term project to interpret and perform the work of the Russian Bard, Vladimir Vysotsky (1938-1980), in English and Russian, has been an inspiration for the work displayed. Alongside the artworks, the exhibition will present Tommy’s performances in Russian and English of some of Vysotsky’s songs, which feature universal themes of faith, conflict and individual freedom.

After closing in Edinburgh on the 18th, the exhibition will then re-open at the Inchmore Gallery, near Inverness, on the 19th August. Full details here on Vicky's Balnacra Arts web site

More Jack Staff issues released for iPhone

A quick plug, courtesy of digital comics distributor Comixology, to remind folk here that Paul Grist's wonderful Jack Staff is available on iPhone and more.

Out now are Issue 9 and 10, with Issue 9 offering "Titanic team-up action as Britain's Greatest Hero, Jack Staff, and Castletown's Cast Iron Champrion, Tom Tom the Robot Man, join forces in the hunt for superhero-hating Detective Inspector Maveryk!

You'll also learn the full details of the Freedom Fighters' battle to halt the Nazi invasion of Castletown in 1942.

In Issue 10, it's time for more action from Karl Stringer, a man who was just a thief until he stole the Claw, a strange metal glove that bonded with his own hand and gave him the power of invisibility! He became the mysterious Super Villain known as The Claw - until the police caught up with him.

Right now he's called Ben Kurmer and he's part of Q, the enigmatic investigators of the Question Mark Crimes – only when he gets caught up in a diamond robbery, he has to decide if he's really a hero or a villain!


• More info on Issue 9 of Jack Staff on the Comixology site


• More info on Issue 10 of Jack Staff on the Comixology site

• More about Jack Staff on Wikipedia

UK Comics Undercover In The USA

In the week that the USA sent back ten Russian agents who had been living undercover in the USA, two British comics that operate under the cover of American publishers have arrived on our shores.

First is Paul Grist's The Weird World of Jack Staff and this third issue of the third generation of Grist's tribute to old British anthology comics and their characters even comes with three staples. Tom Tom The Robot Man, who is really a little girl called Trisha, appears to save builder John Smith, who has forgotten that he is Jack Staff, from the Skull whilst Professor Fate looks on before he goes to visit Morlan The Mystic. Grist's Jack Staff can take a little getting used to, between the stylised art and the anthology style storyline, but it definitely rewards those who stick with it.

Also available is the first of Marvel's use of the old L Miller and Sons character of Marvelman. The first part of a six issue limited series entitled Marvelman Family's Finest, the 44 page comic reprints four individual stories, one from each of the Marvelman characters and a combined one, plus the start of a serial featuring just Marvelman. All the stories are in their original black and white and, other than the glossy cover, the comic is printed on newsprint paper. With all the stories credited to Mick Anglo, the artists are Trigan Empire's Don Lawrence as well as Norman Light, George Parlett and Mick Anglo himself. Art-wise Lawrence's two strips are nice but the best must be Norman Light's 1957 Marvelman And The Acid Vapour despite its ridiculous plotline - and perhaps that is the main problem with these old Marvelmans.

Much had been said on the subject of Marvel reprinting Marvelman. The vast majority of fans want the Warrior/ Miracleman version of the character and are going to have little interest in childish storylines and variable artwork from the mid 1950s which is what is available here. It will be interesting to watch the sale figures for this six issue limited series as I suspect that while the first will be purchased out of curiosity, there will be little here to draw many readers back for the next five issues.

• The Weird World Of Jack Staff is published by Image with a cover price of $3.50.

• Marvelman Family's Finest is published by Marvel with a cover price of $3.99

• Read Lew Stringer's review of Marvelman's Family's Finest on Blimey! It's Another Blog about Comics

Tube Surfing: Eternal Warrior, Enid Blyton and Kit Williams

• It's about time we re-plugged the Eternal Warrior, Paul Grist's pastiche on British comics hero Adam Eterno, who first appeared in Thunder back in the early 1970s. Over on the Bleeding Cool forum, some Americans have started screaming that he's grabbed the name from an old US Valiant Comics title: whatever the case, you can enjoy the Eternal Warrior for yourself at Paul Grist's Big Cosmic Comic...

• There's a short interview with 2000AD co-creator Pat Mills about his zombie-filled 2000AD project, Defoe, drawn by Leigh Gallagher, over on 2000AD Review. Over on his blog, Leigh says he's heard back from a couple of retailers that the collection of Defoe 1666 is selling well, with one on their third re-order.

• The Zocalo reports that while fans and critics debate whether the SciFi Channel's name change helped Syfy's new series Warehouse 13 achieve record ratings, SciFiWire uncovered a video that includes Harlan Ellison, J. Michael Straczynski and others discussing the difference between "sci-fi" and "science fiction" on Sci-Fi Vortex 12 years ago. Click here to watch the exchange on YouTube. (The UK SciFi Channel has yet to be re-branded by the way - when we last asked them about a possible name change they didn't have an answer).

• The BBC has announced a lot of new programming for its autumn season, including a BBC4 drama documentary to watch out for starring Helena Bonham Carter as Enid Blyton, asking what drove this iconic woman at the peak of her artistic power. The drama looks behind Blyton's public persona and explores the relationship between her art and private life.

• Also in BBC4's line-up is a documentary reuniting artist Kit Williams with the Golden Hare, the treasure featured in Masquerade, an exquisitely illustrated children's story which contained clues to where the author had buried the priceless bejewelled charm. 30 years ago, his idea took the public by storm and catapulted him to fame but it also destroyed his artistic credibility, dashing his promising career as a painter, and forcing him to live as a virtual recluse. He has not set eyes on the hare since, but BBC4 reunited him with the charm at their press launch for their new season this week. Read the full story over on SciFiPulse

Nick Abadzis Torchwood comic strip reaches finale

The latest Torchwood magazine, on sale tomorrow in the UK, features the final part of award-winning British comic book creator Nick Abadzis's story for the title.

Abadzis, creator of the acclaimed graphic novel Laika and a contributor to The Times and Guardian’s comic sections, writes part three of Broken for the hit BBC show's official tie-in publication. In the story, the team are trapped in a mysterious hotel – Gwen Cooper is plagued by the ghosts of Torchwood past, while Captain Jack and Ianto must face Bilis Manger.

Acclaimed artist Paul Grist, creator of Jack Staff and Kane and a regular contributor to the Torchwood title, provides the art.

Abadzis joins a long list of stellar talent to have contributed to the Torchwood comic, including Tommy Lee Edwards, Simon Furman, Ian Edginton, D'Israeli and, recently, Carole and John Barrowman.

• Torchwood Magazine Issue #17 is on sale in the UK and Ireland tomorrow, 20th August and in the US on 15th September.

Tube Surfing: Harker, Comic Book Signings, Manwha UK and a Creators Union

• Brilliant news! The much-praised indie title written by Roger Gibson and drawn by Vincent Danks, Harker - described by one reader as a detective series with an X-Files/Avengers twist, which doesn't do it justice - is now available in 15 comic shops across the UK, with more about to jump on board. More info here on the Harker and Critchley blog

• New Scottish comic store Kingdom of Adventure has announced somme upcoming signing events: on 1st August Al Ewing and Colin MacNeill will be making the trip to Kirkcaldy, quickly followed on 8th August by Gary Erskine and Gordon Rennie.
Kingdom Of Adventure is a games and comic book shop in Kirkcaldy, Scotland and can be found at 21-23 Whytescauseway, Kirkcaldy, KY1 1XF. Tel: 01592 328121 Web: www.kingdomofadventure.co.uk

• (via the FPI Blog): Talking of signings, Forbidden Planet International Belfast plays host to two local artists, PJ Holden and John McCrea on Saturday 15th August. PJ, of course, has carved himself a good (and growing) rep with his work for Image and 2000AD, while John has worked on Garth Ennis’ Hitman, Captain America and The Boys spin-off Herogasm. John and PJ will be in the Belfast FPI, 52-54 Ann Street (phone 028 9043 8744) from 2 to 4.00pm.

• Online, the Facebook Comic Con Summer Gala scheduled to start on Thursday 13th August gathers pace, with an impressive line up of talent due to take part, including Paul Grist and Strangehaven creator Gary Spencer Millidge heading up the British Comics Panel. More info on the entire weekend, which will include Art Jams, contests, competitions and the launch of the Comic Book Creators Union, a coalescence of industry fans and professionals striving to improve conditions under which comic book creators work here on Facebook

• ComicBitsOnline reports on Seoul Graphics, a company aiming to get Korean Manhwa graphic novels onto the English speaking market, starting with the UK. The company is fronted by Dr. Jeeyeon Kim (BA, MA, PhD), Managing Director of Seoul Graphics and Korean / English Translator, who is looking for a British co-publisher.
One of the main projects is Hong’s Classical Mythology. Official site (under construction):
www.seoulgraphics.com

In Review: Torchwood - Rift War

When Titan Magazines launched Torchwood The Official Magazine in January 2008, they chose to follow the example of Panini's Doctor Who Magazine and include a comic strip. While the Doctor Who comic strip is an historical remnant of Doctor Who Magazine's beginnings as the Doctor Who Weekly comic, a comic strip in the magazine of the more adult orientated Torchwood was seen as a brave move on editor Simon Hugo's part. It did raise a few eyebrows when in the first issue's comic strip The Legacy Of Torchwood One artist SL Gallant drew the story's main guest star as actor and comedian Bill Bailey while the lack of a comic strip in issue 2 left readers wondering just what was going on. However it was back in issue 3 while issue 4 began the ten part Rift War story arc. Titan's Rift War graphic novel is the first compilation of that comic strip and features the ten part story of the same title plus Jetsam, the Brian Williamson written and illustrated story from issue 3 concerning gigantic alien motorcycles.

Despite the photographic front cover only featuring the season three cast, the stories are set before the deaths of Owen and Toshiko in season two. Cardiff is attacked by the Harrowkind alien warriors who came through the Rift and as the Torchwood operatives battle them they soon realise that it is a diversionary tactic to steal the Rift Manipulator from the Hub. Tosh recovers the manipulator with the help of the alien Vox who remains at Torchwood as he is on the run from the Harrowkind's masters, the Sanctified. After a few less violent Rift disturbances the Sanctified attack once again and Torchwood have to decide if their enemy's enemy can really be called their friend.

While the ten episodes are all called Rift War this is more of a story arc than one subdivided story with some of the episodes in the middle having little to do with the main plot. Of the different episodes the odd Funhouse, in which a giant alien baby is cared for by Gwen and Rhys, sits most uncomfortably amongst the rest while Dino Crisis, as fun as it is, would have made a better Primeval story that a Torchwood one. However the stories are at their best when in full Rift War mode with each eleven page monthly episode becoming part of the greater story as our heroes battle their unseen enemies. The stories here depend more on the full team than the TV series, with its emphasis on Gwen's character, does and while some episodes feel that they could be made on a television budget others are deliberately more outlandish.

The original publication in the then monthly magazine was A4 size but here the pages have been reduced to an American size for this softcover graphic novel. While it therefore sits comfortably with the modern American IDW Doctor Who reprint books, it feels out of place beside the British Panini Doctor Who Magazine reprints that you would have expected it to fit better with. In addition to this, while the creators of the strips are all credited at the front of the book there is no credit breakdown per episode. Since most episodes are preceded by an effectively blank page it would have taken little extra effort to credit the writers and artists at the beginning of each section that they worked on the in the same way that, for instance, Rebellion does in their Nikolai Dante reprint books.

The credits are not as straight forward as you would expect, with Paul Grist illustrating six of the ten parts while only writing four, Simon Furman providing the scripts for the others, while one of Ian Edgington's three stories is with SL Gallant rather than long time collaborator D'Israeli who does the other two. Wikipedia provides a better credit source than Titan do for the reprints in this book.

No doubt the photographic cover will have more people in shops picking the book up to browse through it than a comics cover would have, while the changing of artists throughout the book may prove to be a drawback for the non-comics fans. SL Gallant's art would be the most accessible while Paul Grist's and D'Israeli's more extreme styles may prove to be a turn off to the non-comics reader, yet for the comics reader the opposite will probably be true. Indeed the story is at is best when Paul Grist is both writing and illustrating and this book really should be considered a must-buy for Grist fans.

Overall, the book makes a welcome addition to the comics Whoniverse particularly for those who are not quite interested enough to pay the monthly magazine's cover price just for the comic strip.

In Review: Doctor Who - The Time Machination

Writer Tony Lee knows his Doctor Who - inside out, back to front, old and new, spin-offs and original.

It is ten years since Queen Victoria banished Sir Doctor Of Tardis and the Lady Rose from the Empire and the Torchwood Institute is now on the track of the Doctor. With the help of not-so-aspiring author Herbert George Wells, our time travelling hero attempts to save London as well as avoiding Torchwood and one of his earlier selves.

Indeed the sheer amount of continuity in this 22-page one-shot is dizzying. This is a Tenth Doctor story which is a sequel to a Fourth Doctor story, except it is set chronologically before it so it is really a prequel, but just to confuse matters further it is takes place after a Sixth Doctor story. Still with me? If you are a fan and I told you which Fourth Doctor story it was set after it would spoil the ending: if you aren't enough of a fan to get the clues dropped in as the plot develops then there is no point telling you which story it is anyway.

And yet the plot is only half the fun, the rest comes with Paul Grist's artwork. Be it the familiar -the Fourth Doctor, Sixth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, the TARDIS, Sonic Screwdriver and an old series companion - or the new such as Torchwood operatives armed with the Victorian equivalent of tasers complete with twin prongs, the artwork is just a delight to behold. Of course it isn't the first time that Grist has visited Torchwood, having both written and illustrated a Torchwood magazine comic strip that included a Victorian as well as the modern Torchwood team, but here he gets to add in David Tennant, Colin Baker and Tom Baker as well.

IDW Doctor Who comics are contractually only available in the USA and Canada, but they are readily available to the UK over the internet and it's common knowldege that most UK comic shops carry them as "grey imports". Even if you are not that interested in the on-going IDW series, this one off special is well worth the effort of hunting down.

• More Paul Grist artwork can be found at Paul Grist's Big Cosmic Comic. More details of the comic are on Tony Lee's website.

Tube Surfing: 4 March 2009

• This is the 1500th Post to the downthetubes blog! Some sort of milestone. downthetubes itself has been going in varied forms since 1999. Special thanks to all our contributors, old and new!

• Erik Salholm has just posted a short interview with Kane and Jack Staff creator Paul Grist in which the creator talks more about his new comic, Eternal Warrior, which is now online. “Each story needs a different approach," he sasy of the styling to the new strip. "I think my ‘style’ is distinctive, without being the same regardless of the story. I'm trying to work my way through different story genres - humour, crime, superhero and now fantasy (for want of a better word) - eventually I'll find something I'm good at!”

• Tony Lee's MILF Magnet hit stores in America today. "It's out from Moonstone, and people who have read it think it's quite funny," he says, "But then they're not allowed out much, and when they're in their rooms they scream a lot. It's a story that Moonstone offered to me a couple of years ago with the line 'You might want to write this under a fake name' and has one of my favourite lines of dialogue ever in it..." Tony was interviewed last year by The Pulse about the project here.

• Belated birthday wishes to Ronald Searle, veteran British cartoonist and comics guy, who was 89 yesterday...

• Manga expert and former Titan Magazines co-worker Jonathan Clements reveals he is now avalable in podcast form, courtesy of the people from the Right Stuf, who interview him on their latest Anime Today show about anime, manga, and the difficulties of getting Chinese waiters to sing Help Me Rhonda.

• (with thanks to Eddie Campbell): Just found Larry Latham's fab web site Lovecraft is Missing, which not only features his eponymous, gorgeous comic that he both writes and draws, and has been running since last August but a host of other visual goodies, too. The colouring on the pages is by Eric Lee (who has his own web strip here) and Tony Johnson.

Paul Grist's Big Cosmic Comic

(with thanks to "The Cap): Paul Grist, whose other credits include the fabulous Jack Staff comic, has begun to run his Big Cosmic Comic, subtitled "The Continuing Adventures of the Eternal Warrior", as a blog.

The strip is a homage, of course, to a well known immortal British comics hero and other things...

"This is something I've had in the back of my head for a year or so now, and I keep coming back to it then going away again.

"This a work in progress - all comments are welcome - I hope to add at least one new page every week, depending on what else I'm doing! We'll see how it goes."

Tube Surfing: 16 January 2009

• The Cybermen have taken over and 'upgraded' Doctor Who Adventures. Issue 98, out now in newsagents, features an extra-tall cover, a free set of Cyberman figures and the second part of a double-sided poster. There's plenty more Cyber-stuff inside, along with the usual comic strip.

• Frazer Irving is interviewed by the Barking and Dagenham Record this week, the interviewer, Navtej Johal, noting 37-year-old "Frazer is something of an enigma - he is renowned for being a comic artist who works with elements of horror and, in his own words 'the dark and diabolical', yet throughout our interview he remains candid and is constantly breaking into a beaming smile.' The artist is conscious of how quickly life as a freelance artist can change. "I have made so many epiphanies," he says. "You know that saying 'you don't know what you got 'til it's gone'? Well, I always thought that applied to objects or people, but it can also be applied to artistic ability. The fuel for my art, my motivation, was taken away last year when I was going through a rough time. So now I put a lot more into my work."

• 2000AD have posted a teaser of the D'Israeli's Lowlife series this week. "This one stars my (and Dr. F's) favourite, Dirty Frank," the creator reveals on his blog. "A bit daunting to be following in the footsteps of Henry Flint and Simon Coleby, but it's huge fun, and I've been trying to work with Rob Williams for a couple of years now.
"As of writing, I'm finishing episode 5 of 8, and it's madder than a snake's armpit with a bag of hammers, I can tell you. I don't think I've ever laughed out loud so many times reading a set of scripts."

• Talking of D'Israeli, and we are, the collected Torchwood: Rift War is now on pre-order from Amazon.co.uk. Due for release in April, the Titan collection comprises the whole of the Rift War story arc that ran in Torchwood Magazine, the work of Paul Grist, Ian Edginton, D'Israeli, Brian Williamson and Simon Furman.

• The London Underground Comics website has a new look, and a mysterious teaser, above. LUC had its last stall ever in Camden Market in December and seems set for a change of direction in 2009 while still doing its best to promote comics. We're looking forward to developments.

• David Bishop has just posted a short but useful post offering advice on writing story treatments. "Treatments are something that vex a lot of writers," he notes. "They resent spending time on treatments, let alone polishing a treatment until it shine. Audiences never see treatments, the logic seems to be, so why bother making them exciting or fun? But treatments are seen by those with the power to advance your work - editors, script executives, producers and literary agents." Read the post

• Al Ewing is among the guests at Hi-Ex 2 convention in Inverness next month "...where, presumably among other duties, I'll apparently be doing a panel on How To Break Into Comics with Frank Quitely and Graham Neil Reid." For details of more guests and the charity auction, see our earlier story

• Anthony Johnson's Wasteland #23, Hounds of Love, is now on sale. Johnson urges his fans not to forget to pre-order issue #25, a special double-length, full colour anniversary issue. Anine-page preview of the issue can be found on Comic Book Resources.

• Writing team Leah Moore and John Reppion have been technomaging and fiddling with spells that means the domain name www.moorereppion.com is now showing a placeholder. "We have switched from Godaddy to One.com for our domain name hosting, and from Geocities for our web storage," Leah explains. "We discovered we were paying tons to Godaddy and Geocities for all the different bits and bobs of the website, and it was cheaper and simpler to have it all in one place.
"We should have a proper placeholder up soon, and then we can get the new website underway. In the mean time, the forum is still the same, and this blog will be the same so we can let you know whats going on as it happens." So all you really need to know is, they're doing there technomagic and the Reppion-Moore mayhem will continue...