Go Undercover, Low Life!

From the world of Judge Dredd, comes Mega-City Undercover 02 – four tales about the idiosyncratic members of Justice Department undercover unit, known as the ‘Wally Squad’. But they patrol no ordinary patch - this is the Low Life, the nastiest, most crime-infested part of the city.

This band of misfits, nut-jobs and social outcasts – cynical Aimee Nixon, unhinged Dirty Frank, adult baby Eric ‘Mortal’ Coil, and their controller Thora – try and administer something akin to justice in the city’s darkest corners.

From bizarre biblical plagues to dockside revolutions and huge sinister conspiracies, these gritty, noir and darkly humourous tales reject Dredd’s black-and-white instant justice and instead bring to life a nasty, vicious underworld full of terrible deprivation, larger-than-life mob bosses, petty criminals, cowardly informants, and muddied waters.

This stunning second volume of tales from the pen of Rob Williams (Cla$$war, Ghost Rider, The Iron Age) features artwork from D’Israeli (SVK), Rufus Dayglo (Judge Dredd, Tank Girl), and Smudge (Chiaroscuro) that captures both the decaying grandeur and the dark desperation of the Low Life.

This edition comes with a brand new wraparound cover from Rufus Dayglo.

Discover the darker side of Judge Dredd’s world - take a trip through the Low Life...

 

Happy Birthday, 2000AD! From art droid Rufus Dayglo

Name: Rufus Dayglo, artdroid

Tumblr: http://rufusdayglo.tumblr.com/
Blog: http://rufusdayglo.blogspot.com/
Web: solidgolddeathmask.com/

Currently working on:

I’m working on my new creator owned series Solid Gold Death Mask, which you’ll be able to get free from the website, solidgolddeathmask.com/, so bookmark it now!

I’m also drawing Judge Dredd for 2000AD, working on The Unwritten for Vertigo (DC Comics), and designing 2000AD toys for 3A Toys.

First memory of 2000AD?

It was one of the first comics I read…. I loved Ramon Sola’s Flesh strip, and later Mick McMahon’s Judge Dredd, and Carlos Ezquerra’s Strontium Dog. It completely informed my opinion of comics, and art!

Favourite Character or Story?

Judge Dredd, the first comic character I wanted to draw.

Sooner or Later, and Swifty’s Return, for Brendan McCarty and Jamie Hewlett’s excellent art, and Pete Milligan’s script.

Bad Company, Future war, monsters, and Ewins and Milligan at their best.

Flesh… you're reading it, they’re eating it! Ramon Sola doing what he does best, Killer Dinosaurs and ripped up cowboys.

What do you like most about the 2000AD?

The diversity, and inconsistency, and the chances they’ve taken …on series, artists, and writers. It's got so many worlds, and creators can play with them all.

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

Online, weekly episodes, to download, and custom printable Trade Paper Backs from the archives… (You picking the content from the vast library, like buying an ipod collection)

Do you have an anecdote you'd like to share about your experience of Tharg and his minions?

Brett Ewins and I started working on a short prequel to Bad Company, I’d still love to finish it…

• 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

STRIP Magazine #2 on sale now in the UK

STRIP Magazine #2 is on sale now in all good UK comic shops, including many offering mail order.

STRIP Magazine Issue Two, the first comics title from Print Media Productions, features a Hook Jaw cover by Rufus Dayglo, which has also been included as a free promotional poster with the issue.

This issue's line-up is as follows:

• Black Ops Xtreme Part 2, written by John Freeman and drawn by PJ Holden: the team are sent to South America to kill a dangerous terrorist!
• Warpaint Part 2 by Phil Hester and John McCrea: Mia learns more about an ancient war!
• Age of Heroes Part 2 by James Hudnall and John Ridgway: the magician Wex battles for his life against deadly monsters!
• Recovery Inc. by Michael Penick and Dean Deckard: the company is hired to retrieve a top secret stolen prototype!
• Hook Jaw, re-mastered by Jim Campbell and Gary Caldwell: Joy over an oil strike turns sour as the great white shark Hook Jaw attacks!
• 'Cold Hard Facts' - a man from the 20th Century finds the future is not the paradise he expected
• The second winner of our 'Strip Challenge' - "The Citadel Codex", set in ancient Mexico

PLUS - an exclusive interview with comic artist John McCrea, British comics news, a competition to win copies of Paul Gravett's new book 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die and the new collection of Alan Grant and Arthur Ranson's Mazeworld; and a sneak preview of Crucible, one of the new strips coming up next year STRIP Magazine!

You can now subscribe to Strip Magazine online at www.printmediaproductions.com at our introductory rates as advertised in Issue 1 of our new magazine.

• STRIP Magazine #2 is also available digitally from iTunes, published in partnership with ROK Comics

• Buy STRIP Magazine #2 from ForbiddenPlanet.com

• Buy STRIP Magazine #1 from ForbiddenPlanet.com

STRIP Magazine #2 digital edition now on sale

The iPad-only digital edition of STRIP Magazine #2 is now on sale from iTunes - again in advance of the print edition.

Due to a small but unexpected delivery delay from Bosnia, the print edition will not be on sale until 14th December, for which publishers Print Media Productions have apologized.

Featuring a cover by Rufus Dayglo the issue includes:

• Black Ops Xtreme Part 2, written by John Freeman and drawn by PJ Holden: the team are sent to South America to kill a dangerous terrorist!
• Warpaint Part 2 by Phil Hester and John McCrea: Mia learns more about an ancient war!
• Age of Heroes Part 2 by James Hudnall and John Ridgway: the magician Wex battles for his life against deadly monsters!
• Recovery Inc. by Michael Penick and Dean Deckard: the company is hired to retrieve a top secret stolen prototype!
• Hook Jaw, re-mastered by Jim Campbell and Gary Caldwell: Joy over an oil strike turns sour as the great white shark Hook Jaw attacks!
• 'Cold Hard Facts' - a man from the 20th Century finds the future is not the paradise he expected
• The second winner of our 'Strip Challenge' - "The Citadel Codex", set in ancient Mexico
• An exclusive interview with comic artist John McCrea, British comics news, a competition to win copies of Paul Gravett's new book 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die and the new collection of Alan Grant and Arthur Ranson's Mazeworld; and a sneak preview of Crucible, one of the new strips coming up next year STRIP Magazine.

You can now subscribe to Strip Magazine online at www.printmediaproductions.com at the introductory rates as advertised in Issue 1.Until 15th December 2011, a six-issue subscription costs £14.99 including handling and a 12-issue subscription costs £25.99.

From 15th December 2011 subscriptions to the Magazine will be at the normal rate of £16.90 (6 issues) and £33.90 (12 issues).

• Visit www.printmediaproductions.com to subscribe 

• Buy STRIP Magazine #2 from iTunes

Quitely does it - New X-Men artist latest Expo guest

Renowned comic book artist Frank Quitely will be joining the hundreds of top comic artists and writers assembling at MCM Expo’s famous Comic Village this weekend. Best known for his collaborations with Grant Morrison on titles such as New X-Men, WE3, All-Star Superman and Batman and Robin as well as his work with Mark Millar on The Authority, Quitely will be attending the show on Saturday to meet fans and sign autographs.

The Expo has also announced that two more top comic creators, David Hine and Rufus Dayglo, will be at the London Comic Con on Sunday.

David Hine is best known as a writer on Marvel titles such as X-Men: The 198, Civil War: X-Men and Silent War, while he also worked on manga series Poison Candy and the Two-Face issue of DC’s Joker's Asylum.

Currently working alongside Alan Martin as the main artist on the Tank Girl series, Rufus Dayglo draws for 2000 AD and Titan Books in the UK as well as IDW Publishing and Image Comics in the United States.

• The downthetubes review of the MCM Expo held in May 2010 is here.

• For more Comic Village info, visit: www.londonexpo.com/comicvillage

• For London MCM Expo tickets please visit: www.mcmexpogroup.com/store

• To stay up-to-date with Expo news, follow us on www.twitter.com/mcmexpo and facebook.com/mcmexpo

Alan Martin and Rufus Dayglo Signing at Forbidden Planet

Alan Martin and Rufus Dayglo (pictured), creators of Tank Girl Skidmarks, will be signing Skidmarks #2 at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR, on Saturday 5th December 1 - 2pm.

Alan and artist Jamie Hewlett created Tank Girl in 1988 for Deadline magazine. Their anarchic heroine is now a cult icon that has given us strips, monthly comics, graphic novels, prose novels and a Hollywood movie. Rufus Dayglo is now working with Alan on Skidmarks - a riotous, all-new Tank Girl mini-series.

Skidmarks is set in Australia in the near future: a post-apocalyptic, but still rather picturesque wasteland. The former bounty hunter turned outlaw known as Tank Girl spends her days drinking, fighting and getting up to all manner of mischief - until she's forced to give up her life of semi-retirement and climb back into the saddle to save the life of her best friend, Barney.

This is everything you ever wanted to know about Tank Girl’s schooldays – and everything you didn’t!

• Read the downthetubes interview with Rufus Dayglo

The Adventures of Tank Boy

Based on an interview conducted last year, we're delighted to present an interview by Matthew Badham with London-based comic book artist and British comics aficionado Rufus Dayglo, whose credits include animation, work for IDW Comics in the US and 2000AD in the UK.

He's the artist on the new Tank Girl, drawn Judge Dredd and Low Life for 2000AD and is a mine of information about British comics and has some fascinating insights into creating comics and applying yourself to the comic freelance way of life...

• Read the Interview on the main downthetubes web site

Tube Surfing: 2 March 2009

• The Century 21 hardbacks -- TV Century 21 and Lady Penelope comic collections lovingly put together by British publisher Reynolds & Hearn (see news story) featuring art by the likes of Frank Bellamy, Mike Noble and others -- are now available for pre-order from their website (www.rhbooks.com).

• Stickleback artist D'Israeli (aka Matt Brooker), currently working on a new project, Lowlife: Creation, has been discovering an old dog can learn new tricks thanks to an old book, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way - funnily enough, a book I regularly recommend to aspiring artists, not talents like Mr D!

• Artist Andrew Wildman tells us there's an exhibition of art from his Frontier comic, which is running in The DFC at present. The exhibition is being held at Jaffe&Neale Bookshop in Chipping Norton and will run until 24th April. On 28th March Andrew and writer Jason Cobley will be at the shop answering questions and signing copies of The DFC.

• No comic strip in this mag, but a quick plug for the latest issue of the really bizarre title The Chap, which features a fab feature on steampunk and a chap's guide to Doctor Who, "maddest of all scientists". Plus, Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore tackles The Chap questionnaire. If you think you might be a Chap, send them a photograph and they'll assess your Chappist credentials and may feature it in the mag. There are some comic creators who definitely qualify...

• Caption 2009 will be happening on Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th August at the East Oxford Community Centre in erm, Oxford. Mark your diaries now!

• Congratulations to former 2000AD editor and flat mate David Bishop (no, we never had Tharg round for tea), who has just penned his 40th issue of The Phantom, and completed the first draft of a talking book project for Big Finish. He says he can't reveal any more details about the latter job yet, "but it proved to be more fun than I'd expected."

• Rufus Dayglo has moved house and finished a Tank Girl cover for Judge Dredd: The Megazine. How organised is that?

• 2000AD artist Cliff Robinson is featuring the pencils and final inks of a 2007 Judge Dredd story he did with Mike Collins on his blog. "Mike and I had talked about working on a strip together for years and it was good to eventually team up with him on this Dredd story," he reveals. "I had an absolute blast working over Mike's blue line printed pencils ( I also had photo-copies of the 'normal' pencils for reference). We've also just recently finished collaborating on another Dredd strip which was just as much fun."

• Matt Badham points us to Guardian cartoonist Tom Gauld’s work is now up to browse at your leisure on Flickr. Ace!

• Warren Ellis reports that Angel of Death, a tv series for the net written and created by Ed Brubaker, starts today over on the Crackle web site. A new seven-minute episode every weekday for the next two weeks.

• Do you live in the North East and make comics? If so, comic artist, illustrator, shark wrangler, intrepid explorer, professional ninja and fighter pilot Leonie is keen to make contact with small press or self publishers. Contact her via her blog and spread the word. (Some of the description for her may not be true, but you'll have to visit her main web site to find out which at: www.lomoore.com.

• And finally... there's a review of Rian Hughes Yesterday's Tomorrows collection from Knockabout on Hipster Dad, praising the Dare strip but noting The Science Service script by one John Freeman "left me a little cold, as though it was waiting for a good deal more meat and background before letting readers embrace it..." Hey! I wrote that over 20 years ago. I think I'm a littel better now!

Tube Surfing: 6 February 2009

• The Rogue Trooper: Quartz Zone Massacre compueterr game based on the popular 2000AD character will be launched across Europe on Friday 27th February 2009. Rogue Trooper, a genetically engineered super-soldier, represents Reef’s first foray onto the Nintendo Wii platform. The supporting website www.roguetrooper.com is now live and provides a truly in-depth introduction to the game.

• Comics writer Tony Lee is in New York along with many British creators, with the New York Comic Con taking place this weekend. Aside from reeling at the cost of using his iPhone, the run up to the event has been a mix of business and pleasure: expect more bulletins on this massive event through the weekend on his blog.

• Andy Diggle is another British creator in New York, with several signings lined up during the weelend, as is Grant Morrison, who is one of several Guests of Honour, and Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland, Dan Abnett, Dave Elliott, James Robinson and many others. Guest of Honour and Thor writer J. Michael Straczynski (who is not British, but freeely admits to being influenced by British TV shows) had to cancel his appearance due to his nomination for a BAFTA Award, so he's actually in London... Click here for more about JMS’s cancellation.

• Rufus Dayglo, is, as far as we know, not in New York, but is posting some fab new Tank Girl images on his blog.

• Frank Quitely, who is just one of many guests at next weekend’s HI-Ex 2 Comic Convention at Eden Court, Inverness, has just been interviewed by the Highland News, talking about his work on Electric Soup and The X-Men. "I’ve never been desperately into the whole superhero thing," he reveals. "It’s always been more about the quality of the story for me, so if people like Alan Moore or Grant were writing it, I would pick it up. But with the X Men, they wear these dayglo spandex jumpsuits with huge Xs on them. And I tried to argue with Grant that if I had superpowers, the last thing I would want would be to have to go out in a garish costume as well! But Grant said if he had superpowers, he’d want to wear an outrageous costume to show them off!” Read the inteview in full here

• The thought-provoking documentary about 2000AD artist Johnny Hicklenton, Here's Johnny, about his battle with multiple sclerosis, will air at 10.00pm on More4 on Thursday 17th February. As we reported early last year, previously renowned for his work in Judge Dredd and 2000AD, Johnny now lives in an increasing state of immobility and frustration. He escapes the confines of his front room by drawing, and through the expression of his brilliant, and sometimes troubled, imagination we learn about the disease that he is forced to co exist with. For Johnny, to draw is to live.

Tube Surfing: 21 January 2009

• Comics Bulletin have run the first review of Thunderbolts #128, writen by Andy Diggle and drawn by Roberto de la Torre, on sale today in the US, which sees Black Widow and Ant-Man engaged in covert ops aboard Air Force One. "Writer Andy Diggle uses dialogue quite well, with the entire cast sounding unique and true to their character. The art is excellent, both the consistent and sharp pencils and the mood setting colors," they say. The issue is already selling for $20 on eBay. Read the whole review, plus a six-page preview, at Comics Bulletin.

• IDW's Doctor Who: The Forgotten #6 is also on sale now in North America (technically, the only place they're on sale...), written by Tony Lee with art by Kelly Yates. It's Timelord vs. Timelord in this final issue as The Doctor takes on the Clockwork Droids and the Robots of Death! But, weakened and disorientated, can the Doctor really beat him this time? Or will he need a little help from each of his prior incarnations… and a variety of previous companions including Sarah Jane, Harry, Kamelion and Adric? Ben Templesmith provides a special cover for this concluding issue.

• (via Forbidden Planet International): Continuing the theme of Brits Abroad, over on his blog, artist JH Williams reveals what we’d all been suspecting: there will be an Absolute Promethea from DC Wildstorm in October 2009, as confirmed tonight by the DC solicits that have just been released. Promethea, for those who came in late, was of course written by Alan Moore.

• Insomnia Publications has now posted its 2009 brochure on MyEbook.com. "It's an impressive line-up, and endorsements from industry figures like Alan Grant and Ben Templesmith speak volumes about the company's commitment to putting out high-quality books," says writer Cy Dethan.

• Talking of e-publications and variants, Warren Ellis kicked off a discussion about Print on Demand services on his Whitechapel site. Check out the debate here. Views on services such as Lulu, Ka-Blam.com, blurb.com and others feature.

• Rufus Dayglo has posted a stunning cover rough for The Mythid, a project he's working on with done with Brett Ewins and Scott Brown, on his blog.

• Tim Perkins has released the first of his Fantasy Bookmarks based on his Wizards Keep project, that only folks that have visited the Wizards Keep stand over the past couple of years at Comics Conventions here in the UK have seen, or you may have seen on his Blog. The Troll bookmark is on sale from his website, under the Fantasy Bookmarks section of his Shop.

• (via Jon Haward): John McShane started a new Scottish cartoonists site and forum over on Ning (scottishcartoonists.ning.com). Talking of Ning, the downthubes forum's membership has had a flurry of new members after Andrew Wildman very kindly went on a recruiting drive off his own bat, including The DFC's publisher David Fickling and son Will, comic creators Sarah Macintyre, Laura Howell, Stephen Baskerville, Izzie Tun and Richard Starkings. Why not sign up and join in the fun?

• Long-time readers of Bear Alley, the blog of British comics expert and writer Steve Holland will know he's a big fan of Roland Davies, whose "Come On, Steve!" strip has been mentioned there quite a few times over the years, so you can imagine how pleased he was to have stumbled across a previously unrecorded strip by Davies in the pages of Everybody's: "Sporty Shorty"— or "Sporting Shorty" as the title seemed to change each week. Read more...

• Happy Birthday for yesterday to former Doctor Who Tom Baker (although you never really escape that role), who is now 75. Star of television, time, space and everything, one of my favourite interviews I did while editor of Doctor Who Magazine was spending a couple of hours in his bonker presence. I shall also never forget that at a US Who convention, his minder was armed. That was scary...

• And finally, while not comics related, I note with some irony that having made the vast majority of its technical staff redundant, my former employers ROK Entertainment (the company behind ROK Comics, which it's good to see is still live) have launched the ROK Developer Challenge with an open invitation to developers around the world to submit their ideas with a view to partnering with ROK on the commercial deployment of the best and most innovative new applications received. It's one way to keep innovating, I suppose...

New Judge Dredd Movie: First Look

(via Rufus Dayglo and I09): 2000AD artist Jock has posted some designs for the new Judge Dredd film online, prompting excitement from fans hoping this time round the movie won't turn into the disappointment for many of the Sylvester Stallone version (although, considering what Hollywood could have done to it, was it really that bad?).

Jock (aka Mark Simpson) started working 2000AD and Judge Dredd: The Megazine in late 1999; his credits include Judge Dredd strips and Lenny Zero: Mega City Undercover, a character he created with writer Andy Diggle. Winning a National Comic Award for best newcomer in 2001, he's drawn Andy's the Eisner award-nominated The Losers, Hellblazer and Green Arrow: Year One for DC Comics, as well as covers for Batman and Detective comics. Nominated for 'Best Cover Artist' in the 2006 Eisner Awards, his other credits include work on the Batman Begins film.

"I'm so happy and relieved it's Jock who's on board to design this film," opines fellow artist Rufus Dayglo. "His design ability is outstanding, he truly loves the characters and concept, and he has such a clarity in his art. His work is utterly inspiring."

• Jock's Offical Web Site (warning: the site caused some browser crashes when visited)

Tube Surfing: 21 November 2008

• King Features Syndicate, the world’s premier distributor of comics (including Hagar the Horrible, Popeye and more), columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to newspapers worldwide, is launching Comics Kingdom, a first-of-its-kind digital platform it says provides a revenue-driving business service to help local news web site publishers foster user engagement and attract marketers.

• Meanwhile, rival US didgital comics distributor UClick Digital Entertainment, considered America’s top provider of comics on mobile phones recently launched Jeff Smith's Bone, the first of many graphic novels planned for release on the iPhone. Uclick say they have tailored series like Bone and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles specifically for the iPhone, taking full advantage of the full-color LCD screen and Multi-touch display. Fans can move back and forth through stories with a simple swipe of their finger. To learn more Bone and other iPhone releases from Uclick, visit their store on iTunes

• Not all is good in the world of digital comics. Website Fleen notes the news from Comic Book Resources that Platinum Studios, owmers of the Druk Duck webcomics site, have entered into a deal to produce a Hero By Night TV show. If you you haven't heard of Hero By Night, it's a very successful web comic on the Drunk Duck service created by a guy named DJ Coffman... who, as of this writing, hasn’t actually been contacted by Platinum regarding said deal. Needless to say, it's made Coffman even nore upset about Platinum's antics than before, and that must have been really hard...

• Comics artist Rufus Dayglo has posted a report and pictures from the Opening Night of the Mutate Britain exhibition we plugged earlier this month. "You've got to go and check it out, he urges, enthusing about the exhibtion which is spread over four floors."It's on for a month, and is incredible." Mutate Button: Behind the Shutters takes place at Cordy House 87-95 Curtain Rd London EC2A 3BS More information about the Mutate Britain Exhibition on MySpace

• WallaceAndGromit.com Gets Baking! To celebrate the impending release of A Matter of Loaf and Death this Christmas, the official Wallace & Gromit website has had a design "bake-over". Packed with information about the new film, brand new downloads and cracking recipes, make sure you visit the site at: www.wallaceandgromit.com

• Warren Ellis has taken time out of comics writing to deny, utterly and completely, rumours that he has been asked to write for the Heroes TV series. "I don’t know where this has sprung from, but for the last week I’ve been fielding emails and MySpace messages asking me if it’s true that I’ve been asked to work on the American tv series Heroes as a writer," he says. "Even stranger to me is that when I dismiss it with 'I don’t even watch the show' or similar, that’s somehow taken (three times now) as cryptic assent.
"So listen. No, I haven’t been approached to write an episode of Heroes. In no way shape or form has there been any kind of contact from the Heroes production. I doubt anyone working there has even heard of me..."

• The next UK Comic Expo Bristol will be 9th - 10th May 2009. With the credit crunch biting and potential sponsorship on the wane, organiser Mike Allwood has announced the event will only take place in the Ramada Hotel.
The time it takes to organise the event is also causing probelms. "My spare time in the foreseeable future is going to limited owing to my real job," Mike told Terry Hooper, "and the Expo takes forever to put together. Rather than the show being less than the sum of its parts owing to my commitments we are taking a step back for 2009 and are co-producing with Fantasy Events for this one." For more information visit www.fantasyevents.org

Tank Girl: More Preview Art Online

(with thanks to Mattew Badham): Chris Ryall, Editor in Chief at US publisher IDW, has just posted a selection of art from their new Tank Girl series on his personal blog.

Written by creator Alan C. Martin and drawn by Rufus Dayglo and Christian Krank (who Chris describes as "the best-named art team in comics"), the pages are from Issue 3, mentioned in an earlier post here.

Chris syas he's delighted with the work, describing it as "a great mix of Jamie Hewlett's style and a look and feel all their own, too."

Tube Surfing: 12 July 2008

• Artist Rufus Dayglo has posted a message on the official 2000AD Forum revealing the new Tank Girl: Skidmarks series will begin will be making its debut in Judge Dredd Megazine #275.
Meanwhile, Tank Girl - Visions of Booga #3 will be out soon from US publisher IDW Comics. "Go get it!" he demands. "It's definitely the one I'm happiest with!"

• The Daily Telegraph reports that whether alien activity or natural phenomena, reports of UFOs have flooded in this summer from across the UK. Plotted on a map of Britain, the sightings can be seen to stretch from Liverpool to Dover and from Llanelli to Derby. (This is what happens when too many people are allowed to watch Doctor Who).

• Cartoonist Lew Stringer is celebrating 25 years of professional comics work this week. His first work published in a professional comic was in Marvel UK's Eagle Award-winning The Daredevils and the job was a pocket cartoon entitled What If Iron Man Really Lived up to his Name? He recalls he was paid the princely sum of £5 for the cartoon.
"Looking at it now, the style is crude and the gag very lame, but seeing it in print back in 1983 gave me a huge boost to my self esteem. At the time I was on the dole, having quit a dead-end office job, and had been trying to break into comics for a couple of years with no luck."

• As part of British comic magazine Crikey's continuing contributions to the Forbidden Planet International blog, there's a new post on some of the first appearances of Marvel Comics characters in British comics such as Pow!, noting the different layouts of the strips compared with their original US publication and more.

• UK national newspaper The Guardian continues its impressive support for the comics medium with the arrival of cartoonist Laura Howell today, with her new strip The Mighty M, part of the comic section delivered by the team behind The DFC. Most of The Guardian's strips also feature online, available as downloadable PDFs, but unlike the newspaper, your really have to search hard to find the comics page. I suggest you bookmark this link!

• Over on Bear Alley, Steve Holland reports Panini UK have a handful of interesting books coming up. September sees the release of Marvel Masters: The British Invasion Volume 2 celebrates the nation's greatest comics artists, including stories illustrated by such renowned artists as Dave Gibbons, Alan Davis, Bryan Hitch, Steve Dillon, Barry Windsor-Smith, Paul Neary, Frank Quitely and Mark Buckingham. (Marvel Masters: The British Invasion Volume 1, released late last year, focused on the best of the UK's writers to have worked for the House of Ideas and included the work of Neil Gaiman, Alan Davis, Mark Millar, Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison, Alan Grant, Paul Jenkins, Peter Milligan and Warren Ellis.
Also of note are releases for a collection of Dragon's Claws, Marvel UK's first foray into US comic format and a further volume of early Captain Britain adventures.