Striker comic to go free-to-view online in July

The entire 25-year archive of the football strip Striker, first published in The Sun and now featuring in mens magazine Nuts, is to be available online as free to view comics on the Striker website when it relaunches in early July.

Creator Pete Nash told fans via the Strkerworld forum (registartion required) earlier this week that the stories will be released in stages of at least one page a day, seven days a week, with five strips to a page.

"The rationale for doing this is to build up as big an audience as possible so that potential licensees in publishing, computer games and film/TV can assess Striker’s appeal through its website following," Pete explained. He says there is strong interest from a film company that’s seeking to raise finance for a film or TV series but it’s making slow progress so far. Similarly, there is keen interest in creating a computer game from three developers - but once again the problem is raising finance.

"To print and market the entire Striker archive as a series of books would cost well into six figures and publishers are cautious about taking this on without an idea of how many books would sell," Pete adds.

"We know Striker is read by over 200,000 people who buy Nuts - but what we don’t know is how many people will visit the Striker website every day to read the free strips. It’s this figure that will be so important to potential investors in the Striker brand."

"I've met many licensing agents who want to represent and market Striker but they would all like to know just how many fans – both existing and potential – are out there. That’s what we shall start to find out by the end of this year."

The web archive will include the first Striker story that was reprinted in the comic, which was the shortened version that was created for the Striker annual published in 1989. The story that will be released on the website will feature the original Sun strips that have never been seen since 1985.

The availability of the archive will be promoted through the Striker page in Nuts and also on Facebook and Youtube in order to reach a global audience.

Folk to watch out for at the Bristol Comic Expo

(with thanks to Bryan Talbot, who can't be there due to deadlines - but Watch the Grandville trailer!): Here's a list of just some of the comics creators at the Bristol Comic Expo this weekend to look out for if you're going...

Running from 22-23 May at two venues in Bristol (the Ramada and the Mercure), this year's Expo includes Chris Claremont, Pat Mills, Alan Davis, Mike Carey, Charles Adlard, David Hine, Shaky Kane, Phil Winslade, Ian Churchill, Jock, Mark Buckingham, John Higgins, Doug Braithewaite, Paul Grist, Emma Vieceli, Lee O'Connor, Ian Edginton, Andy Diggle, Sean Phillips, Clint Langley, Steve Yeowell, Paul Cornell, John McCrea, Ian Culbard, Kev Hopgood, Kieron Gillen, Simon Bisley, Mike Ploog, Al Ewing, Garen Ewing, Steve Pugh, Rian Hughes, Gary Erskine, David Roach, Greg Staples, Lew Stringer, Ilya and many more.

The bad news is, the event is sold out, and no news if there will be tickets on the door.

The next major comics event in the UK is the MCM Expo in London at the end of this month. See our events page for information, or scroll down the listing on the right had side of this page

Clint: The Origin of Mark Millar's new comic title

For those not already wondering, veteran publisher and editor Dez Skinn has just explained the origins of Mark Millar's new comic title, CLINT, which Titan Magazines launch later this year.

If you're easily offended by bad language, don't read on.

"Back in the 1970s when IPC was rocking saleswise, there were two words you could never use in print in their holier-than-thou weekly comics: FLICK and CLINT," Dez notes in a posting to his Quality Communications group on Yahoo.

"Because Gravesend's letterpress printing was so blotchy the space between the capital letters L and I was virtually non-existent, so LI looked far more like a U.

"Hence the adage oft-heard in the corridors of Fleetway House..., FLICK OFF CLINT!

"It gives a whole new meaning to the old book/film/TV series My Friend Flicka," he adds wryly.

Doctor Who Live: Tour Details

Tickets for the BBC Worldwide Doctor Who Live - The Monsters Are Coming! are now on sale.

The show will be a  spectacular audio-visual experience - think their successful stage show version of Walking with Dinosaurs but with Doctor Who instead - featuring live music, special effects and appearances from the show's most popular monsters including the Daleks, the Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Judoon and Oods, to name but a few.

Taking in nine cities and 25 dates, Doctor Who Live kicks off in London at Wembley Arena on 8 October 2010, and will visit Sheffield, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Cardiff and Liverpool, culminating in Belfast on 7 November.

With an out-of-this-world set, Doctor Who Live promises the same excitement, adventure and suspense that viewers have come to expect from the TV programme.

Although actors from the TV series will not be appearing live on stage, it will feature specially filmed new video scenes including an exclusive from Matt Smith's Doctor.

• More info and ticket sales on the Doctor Who Live web site

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