Tube Surfing: Phoenix, Jamie Smart, Commando and The Broons

It has been a while since we have had a Tube Surf so…

The Phoenix had a bumpier than expected take-off when their distribution deal through Waitrose supermarkets left many potential readers puzzled when no Waitrose had copies of the new comic. We are glad to say that our network of twitchers are now reported sightings of Phoenixes nesting on the shelves of many different Waitrose stores so, if you have a nearby store, this is a nest site that we would be happy for you to raid. It you don't have a nearby Waitrose there is still the option of a taster subscription which gets you five issues (worth £14.95) delivered to your door for just £10. Our review of Phoenix issue 1 is here and the Phoenix website with subscription details is here.

Dandy, Phoenix, Corporate Skull Who et al artist and writer Jamie Smart has recently been on the receiving end of criticism of his work that has too often crossed the line into some disgracefully personal attacks. Jamie takes the time to write a very well thought-out and articulated FAQ-style piece on what artists, professional or amateur, should expect when they release their work out into a harsh, cruel world. Jamie's blog piece is here.

On a similar note, while we don't hang out on forums much, we have noticed that comics professionals seem to be quietly withdrawing from many of the various comics forums. While such places are poorer when they leave, it is understandable if, for instance, a forum member posts that they hate a particular artist when what they actually mean is that they dislike that artist's work. To a certain extent Facebook has replaced the work of a lot of the forums, as forums previously replaced Yahoo groups. downthetubes gets more comments about our blog pieces on Facebook than on the blog itself and it is a much more pleasant place to be than some forums as people appear to think twice about what they say when they cannot hide behind cryptic nicknames.

Last year Carlton books issued a set of four Commando paperbacks each containing 3 Commando reprints which were reminiscent of the IPC War and Battle Picture Library Summer Specials from the 1970s and 1980s. They were also considerably cheaper (and lighter) than the big 10 and 12 story oversized reprint books of previous years. The four titles have proved popular enough that Carlton are issuing a second set of four, each themed around a particular military subject and with stories chosen by Commando editor Calum Laird. The titles are Bombs Away!, Desert Rats, Dive! Dive! Dive! and Who Dares Wins and they are due to be published on 12 April 2012 at a cover price of £4.99 each.

Sticking with a DC Thomson theme, the company now has a Broons and Oor Wullie on-line shop, separate from the main DC Thomson e-shop. They have also expanded their range of Broons and Oor Wullie merchandise from the familiar softcover bi-annuals, hardcover reprint books and Ma's cookbooks to include, amongst other things, scarfs, flat caps and baseball caps in the official Broons and Oor Wullie tartans plus a range of jute shopping bags with Broons images on them. With DC Thomson's hometown of Dundee known for its three J's of Jute, Jam and Journalism our favourite of the new items would have to be the shopping bag, showing Ma Broon despairing of the cost of her groceries, which covers the jute and journalism of the three J's and allows you to add the jam yourself.

The Independent has an interesting piece on book illustrators and how, in modern book publishing, internal book illustration has become the preserve of children's books when, in the past, major authors writing for an adult audience such as Charles Dickens would work closely with an artist to illustrate their work. With quotes from the likes of Gerald Scarfe and Posy Simmonds, it is worth a read.

Tube Surfing: Dan Dare, Death's Head and World Book Night outrage

Some quick news items...

• (via the Dan Dare Yahoo Group) A bust of Dan Dare is now sitting comfortably on a beautifully made plinth in a prominent position in the library of Southport College (where his creator, Frank Hampson and other original Dare team members, studied) as an inspiration to future budding Hampsons, Harold Johns or Eric Edens.

Once the library has been refurbished next year there is an intention to bring together a collection of Eagle-related material and have a special section set aside to display it.

• Paul Birch has posted an entertaining review of the Death's Head Volume 2 collection on Speech Balloons, noting the history of Marvel UK as both a publisher of licensed comics and publisher of many US format comics during Paul Neary's tenure as Editorial Director. "How many of the countless Marvel UK superheroes pumped out during that time can anyone remember fondly?" he challenges. "Aside from Death's Head II by Dan Abnett and Liam Sharp that is? Not many, I'm sure..."

Off the top of my head? Warheads, Digitek, Motormouth and Killpower, Hell's Angel (re-named Dark Angel after legal threats from the Hells Angels), Gene Dogs, Shadow Riders. Admittedly, I did edit some of those titles so my memory might be better than others. More important, perhaps, than the characters, was the sheer number of talented folk Paul and the MUK team nurtured between them, now widely known to the general comic audience: artists like Bryan Hitch who had worked for MUK for some time but was rightly given the limelight along with Liam Sharp, Gary Frank and many more.

• Let me join in with the widespread disappointment at the BBC's decision to totally ignore readers of science fiction and fantasy on World Book Night in its BBC2 show, The Books We Really Read: a Culture Show Special (currently available here on iPlayer). Over on the Forbidden Planet International blog, Joe Gordon notes there was "outraged chatter on Twitter about this over the weekend" over the slight.

"The simple fact is that SF&F novels absolutely dominate the bestseller charts and have done for a couple of decades now," notes Joe. "Terry Pratchett, Peter F Hamilton, Iain M Banks and many more almost always go right into the top ten national bestselling hardback list when their new books come out. You can’t do that if you are just a small, easily ignorable niche market." Too right.

Joe reports that long time SF&F commentator (and bestselling author in his own right now) Stephen Hunt (founder of ace SF web site www.sfcrowsnest.com) has decided that instead of our usual moaning of the mainstream media’s dismissive and ignorant approach to our beloved genre that something should actually be done and the BBC made aware of how poor their decision was and how it meant they failed to serve the interest of a large percentage of viewers (who are the ones who fund the Corporation, after all). He has a fairly flaming response to the lack of coverage on his blog already.

"As the hour went by, strangely absent from this detailed parade of what people actually like to read was “a certain” genre, you know… the unclean one, speculative fiction, as in fantasy/horror/science fiction… which together accounts for between 20/30 per cent of the fiction market, depending on what measure you choose to believe.

"I can forgive the committee of World Book Night itself, whose selection of 25 titles to give one millions free copies away was made by a board which clearly apes the views of the Booker panel – which is that fantasy, horror and sci-fi, much like hardcore porn, has no place in any respectable fiction list, but the BBC?" (Philip Pulman's Northern Lights was on the World Book Night list, but only, the BBC made clear, as an example of Young Adult-crossover – heaven forbid it should be an actual example of fantasy).

Outraged, Stephen has set up a Facebook page as well as planning a petition of Brit SF&F authors to complain at the complete lack of coverage by the BBC. So if, as individual viewers based in the UK, you want to complain to the BBC about failing to cover a single fantasy, horror or science fiction novel, the online form to do this is located at... https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/ ... the more complaints, the better! Don't forget to mention the snobby show that started all this.


Perhaps, if enough people write in, we'll get a decent SF show on TV - and no, I'm not talking about Outcasts, which made it clear it was more about the "human condition" than SF, and has rightly bombed in the ratings as a result of boring its audience to death...

Tube Surfing : Country Surfing with Commando, Marvelman & Rainbow Orchid

Scotland: One of the latest batch of Commandos, issue 4329 Divided Aces, written by Scot Ferg Handley and illustrated by Argentinian Jose Maria Jorge, is set in and around Edinburgh and includes the familiar Forth Rail Bridge on its cover. Unsurprisingly this was picked up in the Scottish press with a long piece on Ferg and the story in the Edinburgh Evening News.

America: Back when we mentioned Marvelman Family's Finest issue 1, the first Marvel publication of Mick Anglo's Marvelman character, we suggested that it would be interesting to see the difference in the sales figures between issue 1 and further issues to see if readers expecting to read Warrior/Miracleman style stories would remain interested in the juvenile 1950s stories that the comic reprinted.

Comparing the sales figures for July and August on ICv2 shows a 48% reduction in sales for issue 2 when compared with issue 1. Now while ICv2's sales figures are for Diamond US and do not include Diamond UK and we would expect any given issue 1 to sell more than an issue 2, loosing almost half your readers is a big drop.

Holland: Rainbow Orchid writer and artist Garen Ewing reports that the first volume of the adventures of Julius Chancer will be released in Dutch by publisher Silvester Strips under the title De Regenboog Orchidee. There was some debate as to whether the main character would be renamed to Tom Tipps which apparently is easier for the Dutch to pronounce but it seems as if the publisher has decided to stick with Julius Chancer. Of course it could have been worse and they could have decided to call him PG Tipps. In the meantime over on his blog, Garen has started to show specially selected panels from the final book in The Rainbow Orchid trilogy which is due to be published in 2011.

Tube Surfing: Mazeworld, Mad Science and Harvey Pekar

Does the sporadically torrential rain of the last few days mean that's all the summer we're going to get? I hope not.

Onto the Tube Surf...

• Arthur Ranson sends word that Daniel Clifford, a fan of the artist's Mazeworld strip (produced in collaboration with writer Alan Grant), has set up a Facebook petition to get the strip re-published.

Arthur has written about Daniel's efforts over at his blog. "I, of course, believe a collection of the entire Mazeworld in one fat edition would be a nice thing to have," he notes, "but the reason this petition thing excites me is the thought of a social network of fans using their connection to create an outcome.

"Coincidentally in Saturday’s Guardian Review section there was a review of Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age by Clay Shirkey whose suggestion is that the brainpower wasted with passive entertainment watching might be used via the internet to organise and do something in concert. Shirkey quotes examples of charities that have been set up. A Mazeworld reprint doesn’t have that significance but hey, we can be shallow too."

If you want to check out some pages from Mazeworld, you can do so at Arthur Ranson's website.

• Meanwhile, in Manchester, there are two events with British comic connections happening at the Lass O'Gowrie pub over the weekend as part of their epic Lass fest event.

The first, The Hammer House of Dezza, kicks off on Saturday at 3.00pm. It features veteran British comics editor Dez Skinn, who will be talking about his time at the helm of Hammer House of Horror Magazine, which included in its pages comic strips.

The second is on Sunday. It's Vworp 3, a one-day Doctor Who convention that numbers among its guests the aforementioned Dez Skinn and comic artist Adrian Salmon, alongside the likes of Doctor Who writers Terrance Dicks, Andrew Cartmel, Rob Shearman and actress Sophie Aldred, who played companion Ace alongside Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy.

• Speaking of events, there's lots forthcoming from the folks at Alternative Press (who describe themselves as "...a group of artists, comix creators, writers and poets dedicated to encouraging creativity through self-publishing").

The group has lots of exciting news, available via the above link, of fairs and exhibitions, including the Alternative Press Fair in November, Tunbridge Wells Zine Fest in August and much, much more.

Hang on, if I'm mentioning events, surely I've got to talk about Caption... I know John's plugged it recently, but it's well worth a reminder. Oxford's annual convention celebrates all things comics, but primarily the small press, with the theme of 'Mad Science' this year.

It looks like it's going to be another cracking event, with guests such as Melinda Gebbie, Jeremy Day, Al Davison and Darryl Cunningham all attending. I'll be along too as a punter and I can't wait!

Caption 2010 is held over two days on the weekend of 31st July.

This Tube Surf has been a bit verbose. Let's go for some quick hits:

• Rob Jackson makes ice cream and comics, and his blog is always worth a look.

• Dan McDaid goes all 'TV Action' for a pal, with a page of art homaging Doctor Who as he appeared in the 1970s comic Countdown. Oh yes!

• Adam Cadwell pays tribute to the recently deceased Harvey Pekar. He's also set up a Flickr group for pictorial tributes to Harvey. R.I.P. Mr Pekar...

And on that sad note, it's goodbye until my next Tube Surf...

Tube Surfing: Dan McDaid, Madame Tussauds and Zine Fayre News

Right, let's see what's out there...

Over at the Forbidden Planet International blog, downthetubes contributor Matt Badham (that's me) talks to cartoonist Dan McDaid about his work on the comic strip in Doctor Who Magazine and Image Comics' Jersey Gods. In the interview, Dan reveals what finally made him pursue his dream of working as a comics writer and artist.

"I lost my job," he says, "and there was pretty much nowhere else to go. I’d been itching to write or draw something Who-shaped for a long, long time. Since I was a boy, in fact. And losing my job with... Scots publisher DC Thomson gave me the kick up the arse necessary to send out some samples." (Above: A page from Dan McDaid's Hotel Historia strip from Doctor Who Magazine)

Matt has also recently interviewed comics writer Jason Cobley, over at top blog (Conflict of interest alert!) Citizen Badham. In the interview, Jason talks about creating small press icon Winston Bulldog and gives his thoughts on the current state of the British comics industry:

"I’m optimistic about comics as a medium – I think graphic novels do well in bookshops now and kids really do like reading them – but I don’t know whether there is an ‘industry’ anymore."

One part of the industry that is thriving is the self-publishing scene, which will no doubt receive some representation at the forthcoming Bradford Zine Fayre. The Forbidden Planet International blog has details:

"The event is scheduled for Sunday the 20th of June at the Impressions Gallery on Centenary Square, with evening shenanigans to follow at the 1 in 12 Club on Bradford’s Albion Street afterwards; check the sites or contact them at bradfordzines (at) hotmail dot co dot uk for more details or to take part."

Meanwhile, those comics fans whose tastes are for super hero slugfests and in particular the four-colour antics of Marvel heroes such as Captain America, Spider Man and the Hulk, could do worse than check out the new Madame Tussauds’ Marvel Superheroes 4D Exhibition, which we've already mentioned here and is, according to a review at Rich Johnston's Bleeding Cool, worth a look:

"...overall: its fun," writes Hannah Brown for Bleeding Cool. "Hands up who doesn’t want their picture taken hanging off the ceiling with Spiderman, who hasn’t idly wondered what it would be like to have those claws or join in an epic superhero battle. Anyone? Didn’t think so. Well worth a visit." (Look out for a competition to win tickets here later in the week)

And finally, cartoonist Marc Ellerby has posted (a few weeks ago, but I've only just spotted it) a comprehensive account of his visit to Toronto, Canada to attend TCAF (the Toronto Comics Art Festival). In his report, Ellerby bemoans the state of British cons, which he finds sadly lacking in comparison to their Canadian counterpart:

"The thing with British shows is that there's very few that I actually want to attend nowadays. Previous trips to Bristol and Birmingham have been expensive and without much reward as they're catering for a mainstream, diehard comic audience who are very happy to pay £12 a day just to get into the venue."

The whole report is definitely worth reading, even if you don't entirely agree with what this promising cartoonist is saying...

Tube Surfing: A Thought Bubble Comic Con Special

It's been a week since the Thought Bubble comic con' in Leeds and it seems that the fuss is only just beginning to die down, with many exhibitors and punters naming it as their con of the year!

"There was a great atmosphere to the day, loads of great exhibitors, a varied, chatty and interested crowd and events and talks aplenty," says Manchester-based cartoonist Adam Cadwell. "I had a brilliant day."

Meanwhile, for those who didn't make the con (or even those who did and want a different perspective on the event) a whole host of reports have sprung up online. Comics reviewer Richard Bruton, writing at his own blog Fictions and at the Forbidden Planet International Blog, calls Thought Bubble "...a triumph of a con." He also noted how much his daughter Molly enjoyed the day (she managed to pick up some great sketches from several ace cartoonists including Dave Windett, Oliver East and Simone Lia; said sketches are posted at Fictions here).

Writer Kieron Gillen also had a great time. He was a little worried that after he'd bigged up last year's event to all his comics mates, this year might prove to be a bit of a let-down. But, at least as far as he was concerned, it wasn't.

"It was just really fun," writes Kieron over at his blog. "The one day model struck me as perfect for England. You’d think the 2 day would be better, but with a country our size, it’s about all it can support. Also, it works towards creating a critical mass of people."

And what about downthetubes. What did our roving reporter, Matt Badham, make of the event?

"I hate cons," says Matt, "so imagine my surprise when I had a ball. It just had the best atmosphere, with cosplayers and small pressers and industry pro's all seemingly intent on pursuing one goal: having fun. Throw in some small press wrestling hi-jinks and an impromptu disco that took place at the after party (with the 'cooler people' preferring to drink and gamble downstairs in the main casino area) and the con completely defied my expectations by just being a blast. And the fact that the party took place in a porntastic, Ocean's 11-style casino that had to be seen to be believed was inspired!

"Even the official hotel screwing up my booking and then giving us a room with dirty sheets couldn't spoil the weekend," he added.

• Further Thought Bubble con reports and photos can be found at the following links from Ben Powis, Gronk Comics (who actually didn't have a good day), Cy Dethan, Darth Mongoose, D'Israeli, Francesca Cassaveti, Flying Monkey Comics, John Scrivens, Insominia Comics, Marc Ellerby, Leigh Gallagher, Oliver East and Rob Jackson.

Tube Surfing: 3 July 2008

• Steve Holland of Bear Alley reviews Paul Gravett's Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics here. He dubs it a 'must-have collection.'
  
  


• Over at the Forbidden Planet Blog, Alex Fitch gives us the lowdown on many of the neat podcasts coming up on Internet radio station Resonance FM. Some real aural delights there, including a selection of interviews with comics folk recorded at this year's Bristol International Comics Expo and an interview with Doctor Who legend, scriptwriter and script editor Terrance Dicks. Head over and check it all out. You won't be disappointed.
  
  


• Bugpowder is a communal news blog for the British small press comics scene. Cartoonist, activist and small press comics journalist Andy Luke has posted A Guide to Bugpowder for Resource Users and Bugbloggers. It rambles and jumps about a bit, and will possibly lose you in places, but stick with it...there's gold in them thar hills! If you're not familiar with Bugpowder, then check out the site itself before reading Andy's guide. Might also be an idea to read this first too.
  


• The BBC are giving you lucky people the opportunity to put your questions to Russell T Davies. Davies is, of course, the man behind the newly revamped Doctor Who, which debuted in 2005, but now he's moving on. Steven Moffatt, who created hit sitcom Coupling and has written several highly-acclaimed episodes of new Who, will take over from Davies in 2010.
  
  


• Richard Johnston of Lying in the Gutters gives the world ten top facts about Scottish comics scribe Mark Millar (you'll have to scroll down a bit). Our favourite: '9) He once tried a moustache and regretted it.'
  
  


• Comic artist Rufus Dayglo works seven days a week and the results are good. He's a busy, busy man (just an excuse to link to Tank Girl and pristeen16 art really).
  
  
  
  

Tube Surfing : 7 June 2008

Gerry Anderson fanzine Andersonic, which is currently on issue 5, now has a related website. The site details the current and back issues and will eventually have a shop to allow the issues to be purchased direct.

Issue 6 of Andersonic is due to be released towards the end of the summer.

The Prestonpandemonium 3 comic mart, held in Prestonpans near Edinburgh at the end of May, proved to be a popular part of the Three Harbours Arts Festival. A silent auction was held in aid of the DEC Burma Cyclone Appeal which raised an impressive £176. Paul Scott reviewed the event on his Omnivistascope blog.

Photos from the event are available on the Prestonpandemonium website.

Scotland's newest celebrity chef will be following up her best selling cookbook from last year with a second volume for Christmas 2008. Maw Broon's Cookbook was the surprise hit of the Scottish book charts in the run up to Christmas 2007 and DC Thomson and Waverley Books are looking to repeat that success again this year with Maw Broon's But An' Ben Cookbook due to be published in September 2008. For those readers of doonthatubes of a slightly too Sasenach persuasion, "But An' Ben" is Scottish for a holiday cottage, a "hame fae hame".

Maw Broon's Cookbook and But An'Ben Cookbook are available from Amazon.