Neill Cameron's 'Awesome Japan' project begins to raise funds for tsunami victims

Top comics artist Neill Cameron has begun a comics project on his blog to help raise money for Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims.

Describing the 'Awesome Japan' as "my small bit to help", Neill will be drawing and posting a picture a day, one for every letter of the alphabet, of Things That Are Awesome.

His fans have been invited to join in, by suggesting things for him to draw in comments on his blog,  twitter feed or on the A-Z of Awesomeness Facebook Group. "Feel free to suggest anything you like from the worlds of Manga, Anime, Gaming, Movies, Music," he says, "and I will attempt to draw the best suggestions."

There are bonus points for alliteration, he adds, "and it might be nice to get a bit of cross-cultural exchange going on in there.

"If, for example, for 'D' you were to suggest Doctor Who and Doraemon Dunking Donuts Daintily, well then I would probably have to draw that. You get the idea.

"I did something like this once before and people seemed to like it," he continues, "so I thought I'd try it again but with a couple of differences: 1) this time we'll be focussing on the insanely rich field of Japanese Things That Are Awesome, and 2) I will be asking people to sponsor me in this endeavour.

"Please do chip in if you can! This is going to be rather a lot of work and if no-one sponsors me I'm, uh, going to feel totally stupid.

"I've set up a JustGiving page where you can go and support the project, at http://www.justgiving.com/neillcameron. All money raised will go to GlobalGiving's Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund, where it will be used to support organizations providing relief and aid to victims."

• Check out Awesome Japan on Neill's blog

Four shiny new Commandos including a new Convict Commandos story

Four new shiny Commandos, including a new 'Convict Commados' story, 'Mask of Death' by Alan Hebden with art from Benet, are on sale today - in newsagents and online. As usual, the releases include two carefully selected reprint titles - chosen by the Commando editorial team to mark the title's impressive 50th year.

Commando 4379: Mask Of Death
Story: Alan Hebden Art: Benet Cover Art: Benet

The Convict Commandos - Jelly Jakes, Smiler Dawson, Titch Mooney - and their leader Guy Tenby are back in action. This time they are planning to snatch a scientist from under the noses of the Nazis in occupied Europe. It’s no easy job and, with treachery afoot, the prison sentences they’re trying to avoid begin to look a very tempting alternative.
The second adventure for the latest band of Commando heroes.  

Commando 4380: Attack From The East
Story: Tom Hart Art Rezzonico Cover: Janek Matysiak

Most people would think that nothing much happened in the peaceful village of Helmsbeath, situated on a remote island on Scotland’s North West coast. And most people would have been right to think that…until the fateful day in late 1944 when Helmsbeath was invaded. Invaded by the armed and dangerous crew of a Japanese C3 submarine and the crazed Nazi scientist who was with them!

Would the villagers survive?  

Commando 4381 Jungle Fury
Originally Commando No 9 (October 1961), re-issued as No 2587 (August 1992)
Story: Couglin Art: Cecil Rigby Cover Art: Ken Barr

In the steaming jungles of Burma, man has a thousand enemies… the wild animals, the snakes and poisonous insects, the deadly fevers. But the fighting British jungle patrols had an enemy more deadly that any of these…the creeping Japanese soldiers who could appear from nowhere and sow the lead seeds of death before melting again into the waiting green background. But Sergeant Tom Flynn had his own way of silencing the Banzai cries of those Sons of Nippon. With a handful of men and a heart full of courage he fought his way through them - and with him he brought a strange prize… ten million pounds in solid gold.

"What hits you most about this story is the cover," says Commando editor Calum Laird, who picked out this title for reprint. "Ken Barr’s image leaps clean off the page and you can almost hear that soldier screaming blue murder. Inside, the story is of a jungle trek involving an elephant and train. It shouldn’t work, but it does picking up pace throughout. "Artist Cecil Rigby was a Commando regular from 1961 until No 3272 in late 1999 - a total of around 150 books - and he well captures the atmosphere of the jungle and the fury in this one."

Commando 4382 Six Of The Best
Originally Commando No 490 (July 1970), re-issued as No 1379 (January 1980)
Story: David Motton Art: Ramon de la Fuente Cover Art: Penalva

Six men - five private soldiers who couldn’t do a thing right and a brand-new Second Lieutenant who had never been in action. Left behind as a rearguard just in case the Jerries showed up, they landed in a hotter spot than anyone had bargained for - and became the most unlikely heroes of the Second World War!

"There are many types of hero but, in my opinion, the most interesting kind is the unlikely hero - the underdog," says Scott Montgomery, Deputy Editor, of this reprint issue. "And, as you may have guessed from the title, in this brilliant tale you get six for the price of one (which, back in 1980 was a mere 12p — even at today’s prices we reckon we’re still good value). "So please join me in rooting for half-a-dozen ordinary (if admittedly a bit useless) blokes, left behind as a desert rearguard, determined to prove that they’ve got what it takes to be the best."  

• Official Commando web site: http://www.commandocomics.com/ 
• Click here for subscription information or write to: D.C. Thomson & Co Ltd, The Subscribers Department, Commando Library, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL or Freephone (UK only) 0800 318846  
• Commando is also available for iPad and iPhone. The apps are free to download through the Apple iTunes App Store and a digital subscription is priced at £4.99 per month, compared to a £99 annual print subscription. For those not sure there are four free issues to download prior to making a purchase.  
• Commando Comics iPhone App on iTunes  
• Commando Comics iPad App on iTunes

In Review: The Bellybuttons - The Bonds Of Friendship

The Bonds Of Friendship sees the return of The Bellybuttons in their third book with high school girl talk, fights over boys, bitchy asides and heavily stylised art. Indeed everything that I would normally avoid like the plague in a graphic novel, except for one vital piece of information - The Bellybuttons is a brilliant series.

High school girl Karine, the tall one, is much put upon by her two malicious friends Vicky, with the blue eyeshadow, and Jenny, with the green eyeshadow, both of whom have been trying to become the girlfriend of the motorbike riding and permanently helmeted John John. The enmity between the two girls over John John in the last couple of books now moves into all out war which Jenny appears to have won while Vicky consoles herself by chasing the hunky new basketball teacher.

In the meantime, Karine's boyfriend Dan is introduced to the pretty and almost too nice to be true Melanie and both Vicky and Jenny use her in their continuing attempts to try to drive a wedge between Karine and Dan.

Published as Les Nombrils in Spirou magazine, The Bellybuttons is created by French-Canadian husband and wife team of writer Maryse Dubuc and artist Marc Delafontaine (Delaf). An ongoing story told in mainly one page segments, The Bonds of Friendship is so well written that you soon forget that it was originally one page per week and get absorbed in Dubuc's story of the ongoing efforts of both Vicky and Jenny to get one over on the other.

Running alongside this is Karine's shock discovery of why John John always wears a helmet which keeps the reader on tenterhooks until literally the last page of the book. If ever there was a book that you cannot flick through because of spoilers then this is it because of that one last page.

Delaf's art suits the story well with the boys all being drawn in a laid back and fairly lifelike style while the girls are drawn in much more extreme styles which suits their characters. He draws the new character of Melanie as less caricatured than the rest of the girls, as suggested by her rather normal and likable character, however as the story progresses and Dubuc throws up questions about her trustworthiness, it will be interesting to see how or if Delaf changes her in the next book.

The Bellybuttons is probably the strongest of all Cinebooks humour titles and certainly one of the newest with this book originally being published as Les Liens De L'Amitie in 2008.

Interestingly Dupuis tag Le Nombrils on their website as "all audience" ie all ages, and it is a strip that appears in Spirou after all, while Cinebook tag the books as for ages 15+. I'm with Cinebook on this one as this is very much a teen book and not for younger readers.


The first book of The Bellybuttons that I read was the second one, It's Ugly Out There!, which surprised me as to just how good it was. The Bonds Of Friendship shows that it was not a fluke and that this superbly written series is definitely one to look out for.  

• There are more details of The Bellybuttons on the Cinebook website. 

• There are more details of Les Nombrils on the Dupuis website (in English).

No More Places for CB Cebulski

David Lloyd has just been in touch to tell us that there are no more places available for Marvel Comics talent scout CB Cebulski's appearance at London's Cartoon Museum (see news story), organised by Cartoon Classroom (www.cartoonclassroom.co.uk).

"I wish we could have offered more time for this service to aspiring Marvel talent from CB, but we've all done our best in this instance," says David.

"Hopefully, we can repeat the event at some convenient time for everyone in the future."

Artists atending the Kapow Comics Convention in London will also of course have a chance to see CB.

• More about the Kapow Con at www.kapowcomiccon.com