Glory Be! creator joins Who actors for Harlow Sci-Fi weekend

Writer and artist David C Hill will be attending the renowned Comic Book & Sci-Fi Weekend at the Harvey Centre in Harlow, Essex to sign copies of his esteemed yet off-beat comic, Glory Be! – and is offering fans the chance to grab an exclusive ‘Norton Mouse’ mini-comic.

The bank holiday weekend also kick-starts a fantastic new competition, open to every reader who purchases a copy of the comic between 1st May and 1st July 2010 (either at the event or via the website). By answering the set question correctly, one lucky winner will be immortalised in comic book form and featured as a guest character in the next issue of Glory Be! - "an accolade that money just can’t buy," say the publishers

Glory Be! is an 84 page full-colour comic book set within the fictional community of Riverdale Church. Not a traditional comic per se it is, for the most part, a series of extraordinarily random "off-the-wall" email exchanges between a charismatic church pastor and his Machiavellian band of troubled sheep.

Albeit that there is a clear Christian premise within the story, Glory Be! is designed to appeal as much to non-believers as to avid church-goers.

Taken from the main Glory Be! comic, Norton Mouse is a particularly popular character with his own fansite and ever-spiralling fan base on Facebook and Twitter. Followers include television legend Jonathan Ross, Peter Serafinowicz and he natters with Christine Hamilton, Murray Gold and Josie D’Arby – to name a few.

The Comic Book & Sci-Fi Weekend, hosted by 3 Darths Comics and Collectables, is the second comic book and SF weekend in the Harvey Centre, with a host of special guests and events line up. Visitors can collect a free comic and meet the Stormtroopers from the UK Garrison who will be on hand to meet and greet Star Wars fans and will be collecting for their nominated charity NSPCC.

As well as David, other guests at the Bank Holiday weekend event include (subject to work commitments): Sixth Doctor Colin Baker, from Doctor Who; Warwick Davis (Wicket the Ewok in Star Wars VI: The Return of the Jedi and Professor Flitwick in the Harry Potter films); R2D2 actor Kenny Baker; Scott Capurro (Beed’ in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace); plus Tim Rose, Mike Edmonds and Nick Briggs, who supply the voices of the Daleks, Cybermen and other monsters in Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

• Glory Be! Magazine web iste: glorybemagazine.tumblr.com

• Glory Be! on Twitter: www.twitter.com/glorybemagazine


Where: The Harvey Centre, Harlow, Essex, CM20 1XR
When: Bank Holiday 1st – 3rd May 2010 – 10am to 5.30pm (4pm Sunday)

• For more information and guest listings/timings please visit this page on the Harvey Centre web site

Classic Bible Stories from The Eagle

Some of Britain’s finest English comics artists of all time, including Frank Hampson (co-creator of Dan Dare) and Frank Bellamy (creator of Heros the Spartan and one of the key artists on another comic, TV Century 21) also produced strips for the classic British comic Eagle based on stories from the Bible.

I'm pleased to report that Titan Books is collecting these stories for the first time ever in collector editions of Classic Bible Stories - the first book edited by myself on sale now, produced with more than a little help from David Leach and the rest of the Titan Books team, and Spaceship Away's Dez Shaw, the latter doing all the scans of the comics pages. This volume comprises Frank Hampson’s critically-acclaimed Road of Courage, the life story of Jesus, and Mark: The Youngest Disciple, drawn by Giorgio Bellavitis.

A second volume, comprising The Shepherd King (written by Clifford Makins and drawn by Frank Bellamy) and The Great Adventurer, the story of Saint Paul (written by Chad Varah, drawn by Frank Hampson) is scheduled for Easter 2011.

While planned background feature material - including images of the sculpted head of Jesus Hampson used as reference, right) - was dropped from the publication, the strips themselves, I think, speak for themselves and Dez's scans are superb given the age of the source material.

The Road of Courage (Credited as being written by Marcus Morris and drawn by Frank Hampson) ran in Eagle from Volume 11, issue 12 to Volume 12, issue 14 (19/03/60 – 08/04/61) and comprises 56 episodes. Told in a way that focuses on the human rather than the miraculous or religious, it features every major incident in the biblical life of Jesus including the flight from Egypt, Jesus’ early life (based on apochryphal gospels), Jesus’ fights against the Pharisees, Palm Sunday, throwing the money lenders out of the temple, the Last Supper and Jesus carrying the cross and rising from the dead.

The Road of Courage has only been published in a collection once before (in 1981, by Dragon’s Dream) as The Road of Courage – The Story of Jesus of Nazareth. It was also published in Dutch and French. That collection is long out of print and commands a considerable premium on ebay etc. when copies are for sale.

Mark, The Youngest Disciple (Written by Chad Varah the founder of the Samaritans, who died in 2007 and drawn by Giorgio Bellavitis (who died very recently, see Bear Alley for more details) ran in Eagle from volume 5, issue 46 to volume 6, issue 26 (12/11/54 – 01/07/55) over 34 episodes. The timeframe over which this tale is told is different from every other normal back page Eagle “True Life” story. Normally, they covered a lifetime but in the case of Mark, the tale spans just over seven weeks, from Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter) until Whit Monday (seven weeks after Easter). Even then, most of the action takes place on just a few days.

The story is based around Mark rushing around Jerusalem getting into scrapes as he follows Jesus through this momentous time in Jesus’s life, opening with the Last Supper before moving quickly to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. It features the trial of Jesus, setting Barabbas free, Jesus carrying the cross, his rising from the dead, the founding of the Christian church and the first baptisms, ending with Peter agreeing to let Mark work with him as a missionary.

Hampson's Road of Courage is a superb piece of work, his art the inspiration for an upcoming animated feature based on the story from Bill Melendez Productions; and Mark, The Youngest Disciple is, for me, a gem well deserving of republication, drawn by a fine Italian artist who went on to become a world-renowned architect. I hope you'll give it a try.


CLASSIC BIBLE STORIES

JESUS – THE ROAD OF COURAGE / MARK: THE YOUNGEST DISCIPLE
By Frank Hampson, Marcus Morris, Chad Varah, Giorgio Bellavitas

Saints Be Praised! It's the Dead Sea Comic...

Straight from the caves of Qumran, missed by Bedouan and archaeologists alike, comes the Dead Sea Comic filled with fun, facts and figures from Bible times, from the downright bizarre to the truly incredible. Did you know that Abraham married his sister, or that it took Noah 120 years to build the ark!? Well you do now -- and it's all in here.

The Dead Sea Comic is the brainchild of top cartoonist Steve English and looks at the Bible from an observational view point, focusing on the people of the time, the narrative, and the writers who wrote it. Comic characters guide you through the stories. Professor Skeet teaches you ways to remember the facts and figures, Agony Ant explains how they tie in with other parts of the Bible, and Peter's Cat and the Entertaining Angels, among others, give their own offbeat interpretation of events.

As well as cartoons, maps, games and puzzles, there are also pull-out pages to use with your own Bible to make it more fun to own and use.

The comic is also supported by a website www.deadseacomics.co.uk which includes extra fun and resources to download.

Each issue of the Dead Sea comic focusses on a single topic from the Bible: Issue One covered the book of Judges, Issue Two, Noah and the Flood. The current Issue 3 is all about Daniel and the up and coming issue 4 will see the birth of Jesus - well in time for Christmas.

• The Dead Sea Comic is published bi-monthly at £1.99 and is available from Good News Books who can be found at www.goodnewsbooks.net. For more information you can also contact Steve at steve_englishATtiscali.co.uk.