Cartoon Museum to exhibit 'Doctor Who in Comics'

(Updated with thanks to Anita O'Brien): London's Cartoon Museum has announced it will host an exhibition of art charting Doctor Who's career in comics, from his very first appearances in TV Comic in 1964 through to the present day.

Doctor Who may not have had an unbroken run on television since the character's debut in November 1963, but his adventures have continued in comics since 1964, spanning titles such as TV Comic, Countdown, TV Action, Doctor Who Weekly and, more recently, Doctor Who Adventures and IDW's US comics.

Doctor Who in Comics: 1964 - 2011 will encompass one of the Museum's three galleries and the venue will also host tie-in classes.

There's no details yet on which artists' work will feature in the exhibition, but the character has been drawn by a huge number of talents, including Dave Gibbons, John Ridgway, Richard Piers Rayner, Adrian Salmon (who has drawn the latest adventure in Doctor Who Magazine), Jamie Smart (currently busy working on a new Doctor Who part work), Lee Sullivan, Roger Langridge, Mike McMahon, Gerry Haylock, John Canning and many others.

• For up to date information on the Exhibition, which will run from 27th July - 31st October 2011 visit www.cartoonmuseum.org

The Strange Attractions of Alan Moore

(with thanks to Pádraig Ó Méalóid): The most recent issue of Strange Attractor Journal contains, amongst much else, the text for Alan Moore's unfinished John Dee opera, focusing on the life of the well known English mage, which he was originally meant to be developing alongside Damon Albarn and Gorillaz, before they went their seperate ways on this.

"I believe that, besides the complete unfinished text for the opera - if you see what I mean - there are also notes on staging and other aspects of the project," Pádraig Ó Méalóid tells us.

"In some ways, the most fascinating of Alan's works are the unfinished ones, as the potential they represent will always be just outside our reach," feels Pádraig. "However, more information is coming about about some of these: for my own part, I was thrilled to be able to publish the pages from Big Numbers #3 online (here on Padraig's LiveJournal), and Gary Spencer Millidge's upcoming biography of Alan contains a copy of the legendary Big Numbers wall chart, so much that was once unknown will now be revealed.

"Alan also spoke to me recently about how Halo Jones would have finished up, and now we have this piece about his John Dee opera.

Who knows? The 1963 annual might be next. OK, maybe not..."

As well as its Alan Moore conetnt, the eagerly awaited fourth edition of the acclaimed anthology series, featuring nearly 20 new articles exploring the outer shores of culture, history and experience.

First appearing in 2004, Strange Attractor Journal has been described as "one of the most weirdly beautiful, beautifully weird magazines of the past hundred-odd years" (by the Independent on Sunday) and "what you get when poetic archaeologists of the imagination gather their finest jewels" (by Erik Davis).

• Strange Attractor Journal Four is edited by Mark Pilkington
320pp, A5 paperback, £14.99. ISBN 9780954805463
Available now from Strange Attractor Press, publishers of Medical London, Welcome to Mars and Austin Osman Spare.


• You can buy Strange Attractor Journal #4 via: http://strangeattractor.co.uk/books/strange-attractor-journal-four

• Read Big Numbers #3 on Padraig's LiveJournal 

Panel Borders: Newspaper Comics

This week’s Panel Borders radio show begins a month about anthologies and collectives; Alex Fitch talks to the editors of two comic book anthologies which are printed in newspaper form; Richard Cowdry about his anthology, The Comix Reader, a new 24 page newspaper anthology inspired by his love of old newspaper strips, cinema cartoons and his connections with the alternate press scene; and Matthew Sheret about his twice yearly anthology Paper Science, published through his company We are words and pictures, an anthology which showcases brilliant design and the best up-and-coming comic book creators.

Panel Borders: Newspaper Comics airs at 5pm, Thursday April 7th 2011, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / resonancefm.com / panelborders.wordpress.com

MCM Expo London Comic Con Records Best Ever Ticket Sales

Advance ticket sales for next month’s MCM Expo London Comic Con - which includes the presentation of the Eagle Awards - have just topped an incredible 15,000, the highest recorded at this stage in the show’s decade-long history.

The event's organisers say that with demand for advance tickets skyrocketing, the MCM Expo is expected to hit the 60,000 visitor mark for the first time this May; 10,000 more than the total number of people coming through the doors at October’s show.

“We are absolutely delighted to see advance sales so high eight weeks ahead of this year’s show given that most of our sales usually happen in the two months running up to the event,” said MCM Expo co-organiser Bryan Cooney.

“One possible reason for this unprecedented public interest is our recent media partnership with GameSpot UK. As London’s Comic Con, we were already the UK’s leading show for comics, movies, anime and manga, and this partnership ensures that the Expo delivers the best games content as well.”

As well as teaming up with GameSpot UK, the upcoming MCM Expo London Comic Con will sport superhero movie Green Lantern as its official title sponsor, play host the prestigious Eagle comics awards and welcome X-Men: First Class and Thor writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz as special guests.

• Industry and press registration for the MCM Expo London Comic Con on 27-29 May is set to open Monday 11 April – for details visit www.londonexpo.com


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


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