The Rainbow Orchid: Volume 3

The cover image for the third volume of Garen Ewing's The Rainbow Orchid has just been released showing Evelyn and Julius fighting above lava.

This does seems rather at odds with one of the teaser images that Garen has posted over at his blog which shows off the two characters in what appears to be an altogether cosier situation. However it will be a while before we know exactly what is going on and how the story climaxes as the release date for the book is given on Amazon UK as 8 August 2011.

In the meantime Garen has donated signed and sketched versions of the first two Rainbow Orchid books plus their cover posters to the Comic Book Alliance eBay auction which is going on at the moment. In addition to these he has also donated some of his original black and white line art that was used to create the Tayout Soviet flying circus poster in the first book.

There are more details of The Rainbow Orchid on the official website as well as Garen's blog.

The CBA Rainbow Orchid auctions are here : Volume 1, Volume 2 and original artwork.

The downthetubes reviews of the first two books in The Rainbow Orchid trilogy are here : Volume 1 & Volume 2.

Battleships By L Ashwell Wood

It is no secret that the team here on downthetubes are all fans of Eagle comic with John Freeman editing Titan's Dan Dare and Bible Stories reprint books, Jeremy Briggs and Richard Sheaf writing for Eagle Times while Ian Wheeler was the editor of the still missed Eagle Flies Again zine.

Original Eagle's longest serving artist was Leslie Ashwell Wood who is best known for his detailed cutaway paintings that were in around two thirds of all the issues of Eagle published between 1950 and 1969. Wood died in 1973 before Eagle fandom had a chance to talk to him and this has left many questions about this career unanswered.

Recently a selection of his preliminary pencil sketches for various cutaways and other explanatory paintings have come to light and Jeremy Briggs has taken the opportunity to examine these over on Steve Holland's Bear Alley blog. The latest of these prelims is for a King George V Class battleship of the Royal Navy, the type of ship that fought battles again the Bismarck and Scharnhorst in the Atlantic during World War Two. Jeremy compares the seventy year old prelim to its published version and is able to directly link it to a painting by Wood that is held in the UK's National Archives.

There are more details of the battleship pencil prelim by Leslie Ashwell Wood on Bear Alley.

UK indie comics distributor Smallzone launches Print on Demand service

British independent comics distributor Smallzone - also the team behind Scar Comics - has just announced a UK-based Print on Demand service for all UK comic publishers.

The service, arranged in partnership with BookVault, enables publishers to print books and sell them without a huge outlay and the Smallzone service has been deliberately tailored to comics publishers.

"Now - finally - there is a true POD option for UK publishers," enthuses Smallzone's Shane Chebsey, "which means no more expensive shipping from the US and no more having to spend a fortune in big runs of comics just to get a reasonable price per copy.

"We're very excited about this as we think it will enable small publishers to have more choice in their printing options and publish comics and graphic novels without having to break the bank.

"It also means that small publishers will no long be restricted to black and white interior art. Colour printing is now affordable on lower runs."

Smallzone can also intergrate the retail service with the printing service so publishers don't  have to worry about finding storage space for their print run.

"We can print and sell the books for you and you just sit back and enjoy the royalties," says Shane. (The combined service is only open to publishers who qualify for a smallzone listing).

• For more information and to view prices go to: www.smallzone.co.uk/printing.htm

Fay Dalton Scoops Pickled Award

British illustrator Fay Dalton has won the Pickled Ink agency's Pickled Award, launched earlier this year in a bid to find an artist to draw a new graphic novel by Super Gran creator and writer Jenny McDade.

The judges, who included 2000AD co-creator Pat Mills, felt her submission set her apart amongst entries from around the world. "Her photo-realistic characters ooze class, emotion, attitude," they declared, "and have an airbrushed quality that parallels the celebrity photographs splashed over the covers of today’s glossy magazines."

"She's the most exciting female comics artist I’ve seen since the Golden Age of female comics, which was so long ago most people have forgotten it existed (Jackie, Misty, Tammy etc) and that mainstream female comics once outsold male comics by at least a ratio of two to one," says Pat.

Fay, a Portsmouth University graduate with a first class degree in Illustration, is based in London and says she is inspired by a wide range of artists and illustrators like Gerald Scarfe, James Jean and Cindy Sherman. She enjoys illustrating current social issues such as celebrity culture and plastic surgery but also loves illustrating for children's books, and creating character designs.

"I often illustrate serious subjects with a lampoon twist," she says. "However I approach my subjects with an open mind."

“Fay has huge potential," Pat Mills enthuses. "Her work with Jenny’s great story shows that for a female audience there’s finally a British mainstream alternative to American super heroines, female “art house” comics and Manga. It’s cool and sexy, funny and emotional.
So there’s going to be a lot of blokes following it, too.“

Pickled Ink feel Fay's work will provide perfect visual accompaniment to Jenny McDade’s feisty, sexy, insalubrious, glamorous graphic novel script Party Girls and she's a richly deserved winner of the Pickled Award.

More of Fay's submission, which clinched hr win, will be revealed at the London Print Studio on Thursday 16th December where Pickled ink will be hosting a Q&A with Pat Mills and Jenny McDade as part of Comica Festival, an annual comics festival directed by Paul Gravett.

Pat and Jenny will be discussing Party Girls as well as the world of girls’ comics in general, offering an insight into why female comics dropped off the radar in Britain and the efforts that are being made to bring them back

In the meantime, Fay’s full portfolio is available to view at www.pickledink.com and whilst Party Girls is in development, Fay will be available for commissions.

• Q&A with Pat Mills & Jenny McDade: London Print Studios, Thursday 16th December 6.30 - 8.0pm. See www.comicafestival.com for more info