Tube Surfing: 9 November 2008

• Forbidden Planet International has posted up a new competition to win one of five copies of the new Vertigo Encyclopedia. "It's pretty good," feels FPI's Joe Gordon, "obviously no in depth on each series, but it’s a good a-z reference guide and the usual Dorling Kindersley style with lots of illustrations.The competition runs until Sunday 16th November. More details, link and potted review on the blog now: http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog.

• Comics artist Jon Haward, currently busy adapting Shakesepare's The Tempest into a graphic novel for Classical Comics, tells us their Macbeth original text graphic novel is getting a second printing. "This is great news," Jon told downthetubes. "I'm very pleased it seems to be a commercial as well as critical success." American versions of the Plain and Quick Text editions of Macbeth are now also available.

• (via Doctor Who fan site Kasteroberous): The Mail on Sunday has run a feature on classic Doctor Who toys, ranging back to the Dalek explosion of the 1960s, and covering props and costumes. East Ham's The Who Shop takes centre stage in the feature, with co-owner (and Who convention regular) Alexandra Looseley-Saul revealing that Doctor Who merchandise isn't affected by market forces in troubled times. "The economy is suffering and markets are falling, but Time Lord values still grow. Though Doctor Who is the driving force of the show, it is the Daleks that excite most interest."

• Talking of Doctor Who, Grant Morrison has been talking to MTV about his work on the comic strip for Doctor Who Magazine (just reprinted in the US by IDW) and says he'd love to write more Who, but probably for TV if given chance -- although he's yet to be approached. “I love the character,” Morrison he said. “Jon Pertwee [the Third Doctor], was my favourite, I was really fond of Colin Baker [Sixth Doctor], he was a great actor, a great Doctor, but he had a terrible storyline, which kind of killed that one. I like Christopher Eccleston [Ninth Doctor] as well. He didn’t get enough of a shot at it. But I’ve kinda grown fond of David Tennant [Tenth Doctor] now."

• London's Orbital Comics at 148 Charing Cross Road have been in touch to say that Daredevil artist Alex Maleev will be signing copies of the various trades and comics on Tuesday November 18th between 5pm and 7.00pm. Maleev will also be making an appearance at this year's Comica Festival running from 14th - 26th of November, which starts with an all day symposium at the V&A and continues for the next 12 days at the ICA.

• Maleev will also be at the upcoming Thought Bubble Sequential Art Festival in Leeds, which takes place from 13th - 16th November and includes a one day comic convention on Saturday 15th November. Other guests include Mark Millar, Mike Carey, Cy Dethan, Nigel Dobbyn, Paul Gravett, Staz Johnson, Leah Moore and John Reppion, Declan Shalvey and many more.

• Bryan Talbot will be taking part in the Hertfordshire Library Graphic Novel Festival, appearing in the Cheshunt Library on Monday 10th November at 8pm. He'll also be at the Infinity & Beyond comic shop in Shrewsbury on 29 November from 1.30 to 5.00pm, signing many of his books old and new, with special prices available on titles like Naked Artist.

• (via Matthew Badham): Comics writer Dan Abnett has just been interviewed (in English) at the SubRosa Polish Warhammer fansite and talks about his influences and what he does when not wrting comics and novels (which he appears to do some 26 hours a day judging by his impressive and dedicated output...). The questions are worth the entry price alone.

• Bugpowder has just published an interview with comics creator Marc Ellerby, who mostly produces auto-bio, slice of life comics, but is also working on a fantasy series. He tells Bugpowder about balancing paid and unpaid art gigs, making his own mini comics and why the worst thing that can possibly happen to a monster hunter is that she misses the bus!

• In a list of a "Dozen Comics I'm Reading On-Line", Comic Reporter's Tom Spurgeon cites Super-Sam and John Of The Night by Darryl Cunningham at Number 6, which "runs on the Forbidden Planet International blog, but I also catch up with it at times on Cunningham's own journal. I like looking at it, and I also like that I have no idea how Cunningham is going to end it." Other web comic recomendations include mysery comic Sin Titulo by Cameron Stewart and Cul De Sac by Richard Thompson.

• The Independent's Ian Birrell has interviewed Jamie Hewlett, the artist who went from Gorillaz to Monkey. As the hit Chinese opera opens in London, Hewlett reveals unpublished images from his work – and discusses the many faces of his anti-hero.

• (via Bad Librarianship): Comics artist Kev O'Neill is the focus of two video interviews on the GOSH! Comics' blog. Part one is titled The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen; part two, Nemesis The Warlock. Check out the League one for some preview art from Volume 3: Century. And there's another two of these to come, too.

Compiled with thanks to Matthew Badham.

Andy Capp, Jane and More Now Available Online

Newspaper strips from a range of British daily newspaper strips are now available to view online as part of the newly launched UK Press Online web site, a vast subscription-based PDF archive.

The archive features PDF versions of the Daily Mirror from 1903 to the present day, and issues of the Daily and Sunday Express and the Daily and Sunday Star but for these papers only from 2000 onwards (details here).

While resolution is not high quality, the archive offers a pay per view opportunity to read some of Britain's best newspaper strips such as Jane, which began in 1932. by Norman Pett and whose artists during its run include John M Burns; the recently revived science fiction and fantasy adventurer Garth, which began in 1943 and was drawn by the likes of Frank Bellamy and Martin Asbury; and humour strips such as Andy Capp by Reg Smythe, The Fosdyke Saga by Bill Tidy and the ever wonderful The Perishers by Maurice Dodd.

Further back in time are strips such as the 1920s strip Pip, Squeak and Wilfred, written by Bertram J. Lamb and drawn by Austin B. Payne, which was one of the first British comics to gain a huge fan following, the Wilfredian League of Gugnuncs; Ruggles, written by Frank Dowling and Ian Gammidge, drawn by Steve Dowling, which lasted from March 1935 until August 1957; and Humours of History by Arthur Moreland, one of the first strips published by the Daily Mirror.

Comics creator Lew Stringer has given the archive a guarded thumbs up in a review for his Blimey! It's a A Blog About Comics, although he notes that the search function doesn't seem to allow you to run through issue by issue, which means reading consecutive strips is difficult. (I found the basic search facility offered to those who don't register is pretty uelsess).

"I found one way of doing it, by advancing the date in the URL, but it's a laborious process and doesn't always work," he comments. "(Some issues seem to be missing, or perhaps there's a technical glitch.)

"Clearly the site is aimed more at people searching for specific reference keywords in articles rather than following daily strips," he notes. "However, it is fascinating to find old Mirror strips by putting in a search for The Flutters or [private investigator] Buck Ryan for example within certain time periods. Some pages are more pixelated than others, and the linework of strips isn't as smooth as should be, but they're still legible."

UK Press Online explains that the “pre-computer” pages in UKPressOnline – from 1900 to 2001 – are scanned from the original paper editions and have been ‘OCR’d’ (Optical Character Recognition) to make the text available, so images are dependent on the quality of the original. It also means the originals have probably not been scanned at a very high resolution since they are intended only for online viewing.

• UKPressOnline subscriptions are designed primarily for Education and Library institutions on annual contract, but Personal access is also available by short-term, monthly and annual contract. While many newspapers have now made their archive free to view, 48 hour personal access to the site costs £5.

• The full Daily Mirror archive 1903-current is presently restricted to Education and Library institution users. The Daily Express 20th Century archive is now under construction (180,000+ pages increasing daily) and is being offered free with Express Group 21st Century access (May2000 - current) until complete.

Dave Stevens Bio Gets Publication Date

After the untimely death of iconic US comics artist Dave Stevens earlier this year (see news story), there was some doubt his planned collection of his work, tentatively titled Dave Stevens: A Creative Life, would see publication.

There was no need to worry: the team at Undrewood Books have now scheduled release of Brush with Passion: The Life and Art of Dave Stevens for February 2009, described as an introduction to the first retrospective popular comic film illustrator David Stevens.

Brush with Passion charts Stevens' career, encouraged by legendary creators like Jack Kirby, Milton Caniff, and Burne Hogarth. Stevens talks about his work as a storyboard artist for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video and Raiders of the Lost Ark, his days drawing comics, and the trials and tribulations of bringing The Rocketeer to the big screen.

Renowned for his wink-and-flirt pin-up art, Stevens is credited with revitalizing interest in, championing the rights of, and befriending the reclusive 1950s model Bettie Page and he recounts their first meeting and subsequent adventures together - including a trip to the Playboy Mansion.

Featuring a wealth of iconic paintings and previously unpublished art, Brush with Passion also features commentary by comic book greats Todd Schorr, Richard Hescox, Michael William Kaluta and William Stout.

The book is edited by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner, recipients of the Locus Award and World Fantasy Award for Spectrum as Best Art Book.

Daleks: Invasion Leicester 2008AD

(Report originally filed by Jeremy Briggs): The National Space Centre in Leicester will be opening a new exhibition next Friday, 14 November 2008, running until 11 January 2009 entitled Invasion: The Fact Of Fiction, which will look at the science behind science fiction movies and include props and costumes from various films.

On the weekend of 15 and 16 November they will be holding their Movie Mania Weekend with appearances from Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Ian Whyte (Predator) Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Warwick Davis (Star Wars and Harry Potter) and Rusty Goffe (Star Wars and Willy Wonka), as well as Star Wars author Karen Traviss and armourer Terry English.

Also in attendance will be the UK Garrison with outfits from Star Wars, Predator, Stargate, Aliens, Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones, amongst others.

If that isn't enough, on Saturday 29 November they will be presenting Exterminate 45, a celebration of all things Dalek. With Davros actor Terry Malloy and BBC special effects man Matt Irvine the museum will have exhibitions of Doctor Who and Dalek memorabilia.

Project Dalek, an online information resource aimed at anyone interested in building a Dalek, and the Dalek Builders Guild will both take part in an attempt to create the largest gathering of Daleks ever seen. Attendees are being encouraged to take part by creating their own Dalek outfits.

The National Space Centre is an interactive museum recording the history of space travel and includes the impressive Rocket Tower in which a real British Blue Streak and an American Thor Able rocket are mounted in a vertical launch position.

The Centre's cafe is situated under the two rockets allowing visitors a unique view with the two rockets hanging above them as they eat their food.

• More details are available at the National Space Centre website.