A Tribute to Neil Emery, who helped bring back Charley's War

Here at downthetubes we were sorry to learn this week of the death of Charley's War fan site runner Neil Emery, who his partner tells us passed suddenly and unexpectedly, cause unknown, at the far too early age of 39 in June.

Charley's War co-creator Pat Mills campaigned for some time for the re-publication of the critically-acclaimd World War One series first published in Battle Picture Weekly. But it was Neil's interest in the saga, creating a small but fascinating web site devoted to the saga (that grew very quickly), which played a significant role in revitalising interest in the series and persuading Titan Books to reprint it.

Recently, after a long absence from the web following the death of his mother in 2006, Neil 'rebooted' the site and both he and I (as the current editor of Titan's Charley's War books) talked about expanding the resource, giving it a higher profile it fully deserved. Sadly, shockingly, those plans are, for now, in abeyance.

I had only limited contact with Neil and did not know him well, but he was always helpful in all our correspondence and I wish I'd known him better. ("I'm currently finding myself," he noted on his Blogger profile. "I did see myself in Ealing Broadway once, but couldn't find me in the crowd.")

downthetubes extends our sympathies to all those who knew Neil well at this time.

Here, Catherine Marie Gypsy Glenton, Neil's partner, pays tribute to him. in a piece she fully admits is "written from the heart"....

A dedication to Neil Emery


It is with great sorrow and heartache that I bring you the news, that my partner Neil Emery, who most of you here will know as the author and creater of the stunning Charley's War website charleyswar.tripod.com died suddenly on 18th June 2010.

He died in my arms, cause of death not yet determind, aged just 39.

Those of you familar with the Charley's War site will know how passionate Neil was on the subject and the time and effort he put in to making the site shows his dedication and love for the comic and World War 1.

The best tribute I can give you on Neil and give you a little of Neil's background, is by way of a few excerpts from the eulogy myself and my daughter wrote and read out at Neil's funeral...

We will never meet anyone like Neil again. Some people are lucky enough to be blessed with one gift in life: Neil was multi talented. A draughtsman by trade, he was an amazing artist, musician and historian, particularly of World War 1. A prolific writer and journalist admired by people around the globe for his articles and blogs, but mostly for his intelligence, wit and humour, he was a comedy genius.

Often referring to himself as an "anorak", his knowledge on subjects he was passionate about was infinite. He would have made a great teacher.

Those who were lucky enough to meet Neil in person would find the most polite, warm, quiet, unassuming man. He had a beautiful presence about him: he would always try to think for others. He was often shy, but if you were privileged enough to get close to Neil, the wall of shyness fell and there would be the most amazing character that could fill a stadium.

Neil was brilliant, articulate, a complex and a unique individual, misunderstood at times, but the good soul always shone through. Honest and deep, yet forthright and modest, he was a no nonsense person who wouldn't suffer a fool, yet was fiercely loyal to those he cared about.

He is idolized and loved by many for his wit and warmth. His real father Pete Townshend (that’s an in joke) described Neil as ‘The Legend’, and he was to so many, he captured the hearts of so many people it is no exaggeration to say that tears are falling all around the world for Neil today.

• Visit Neil's site at: charleyswar.tripod.com. Be aware that the site has limited bandwidth and traffic is likely to be high over the next few days.

• Pat Mills has initiated a comments thread on his Facebook page, Pat Mills Political Comics


• A tribute to Neil by 'Amanda and Super Amanda'

The Best Of The Victor Due For Release

The Titan Books publications of Best Of Battle along with the individual Battle character books of Johnny Red, Rat Pack and Darkie's Mob have obviously not gone unnoticed by other publishers and, with a lull in publication of their thick Commando reprint books, Carlton have now scheduled The Best Of The Victor.

The Victor was first published by DC Thomson in February 1961 and was a boy's adventure weekly perhaps best known for featuring true stories of men at war on its front and back covers. Yet despite this regular cover feature it was by no means a war comic with other regular stories involving runner Alf Tupper, the Tough Of The Track, footballer Gorgeous Gus and DCT's long running Tarzan character, Morgyn The Mighty.

The Victor was by far the longest running of any of DCT's boy's picture strip weeklies and it was also the "last man standing" having absorbed Wizard, Hotspur, Scoop, Buddy, Champ and Warlord along the way before it came to an end in November 1992.

The Best Of The Victor will feature Victor comic strips from the early 1960s and includes a foreword by former SAS soldier Andy McNab and an introduction from DC Thomson's archivist Morris Heggie.

Carlton will be releasing The Best Of The Victor under their Prion label in time for Christmas, with Amazon giving a release date of 4 October 2010. The cover price will be £16.99. (With thanks to Morris Heggie.)

Caption 2010 'Mad Science' Art Appeal and guest update

For anyone interested in exhibiting artwork and/or donating artwork to the Caption auction, part of Mad Science Caption 2010 at the East Oxford Community Centre on 31st July - 2nd August, the organisers tell downthetubes they can accept artwork right up to the opening day of this ace British small press event.

However, if you'd like your artwork to appear in the Mad Science Caption 2010 souvenir printed booklet then they will need a 300dpi scan, or hard copy of the artwork by 13th July. Any queries to jay.ealesATgooglemail.com.

Guests already lined up include Sydney Padua, animator and creator of the superb webcomic, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace & Babbage (sample above), which sees Victorian scientists Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage fighting crime; Al Davison, who will once be providing one of his fabulous drawing workshops, bringing along stock from his Astral Gypsy Comic Shop, and is also designing the Caption t-shirt this year; and John Miers, who will be doing a talk about a large-format project, Babel, exhibited as part of last year's Comica, that uses a wordless pictorial language to interpret the biblical myth.

Jeremy Day will kick Caption off on the Saturday morning with a workshop; Tony Hitchman will be providing us with one of his fun quizzes on the Mad Science theme.

This year's Special Guest is Melinda Gebbie, who started out in the American alternative comics scene in the 1970s and is now best known for her collaboration on Lost Girls with Alan Moore; Sarah McIntyre will be interviewing Darryl Cunningham about his new book Psychiatric Tales and his other work; and 2000AD and incoming Strip Magazine UK artist PJ Holden, will be talking about digital comics.

Other guests are Paul Duffield, artist on Warren Ellis' FreakAngels, who will join the webcomic panel, Neill Cameron and Kate Brown, who will be talking about their DFC Library books, Mobot High and Spider Moon.

• Caption report they are also experiencing a few problems with the Caption website at the moment, so you can also check the Facebook Event page or Livejournal site for the latest news.

Tube Surfing: Monsters, Heroes, Cycling and Moon Hoaxes

I'm really behind with everything. Anyone else behind with their deadlines and work?

Oh, dear, it's all gone a bit Pete Tong...

Anyway, a bit of tube surfing always peps me up. What's out there today?

Ace cartoonist Darryl Cunningham offers previews of the strips he's currently working on over at his blog. He's been doing various science-related strips and the latest one is about the supposed 'moon hoax'. He's also working on an instalment of his rather ace 'Uncle Bob' series. All good stuff!

The Forbidden Planet International blog makes us aware of cartoonist and illustrator Luke Pearson's inclusion in an exhibition hosted by the London Transport Museum (well done, Luke). The exhibition is on the theme of cycling and if you want to check out the art on display, it runs until 22 August. Some of the art is also online at the Guardian website. Go take a look!

Cartoonist Sarah McIntyre has been on holiday to Cornwall and I suspect that in the coming days she'll be posting some cool artwork chronicling her trip. There's already one picture up.

Just stumbled across this 2009 mini-interview with cartoonist James Nash. James is a major talent and the interview is worth a read.

The Manchester Comix Collective has lots of interesting stuff to share with the world, including news of Heroes and Monsters, the summer exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery, which features a mural and workshops by cartoonist Jim Medway. Here’s more information from Manchester Art Gallery’s site:

‘Come and play in our Heroes and Monsters exhibition (20 July – 19 September) and see Jim Medway’s fantastic mural. It brings those Ancient Greek superbeings into our modern world and sends you on a journey of discovery around the gallery. There you can put on your crown and pick up one of Jim’s amazing interactive Hero Quest maps. You are the hero in your own epic story as you play, draw and imagine your way around the gallery, finding mysterious objects, meeting other heroes and immortals and slaying monsters.’

And finally, I wanted to mention the Birmingham Zine Festival. Running from September 10 - 12, it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun, with a zine fair, zine picnic, Atta Girl zine party, exhibitions and also workshops to be announced. (Via Pete Ashton.)