Sneek Peek: X-Men versus Dracula by John Royle

Here's a sneek peek at an upcoming cover for Panini's Marvel Heroes title by fab artist John Royle.

John's also penciled the upcoming  X-Men and Dracula strip from what he tells us is a great script by Mitchel Scanlon, with inks by David Roach and "lovely colour" by John Charles.

"I'm just working on a two-issue Spider-Man story for Panini's Spectacular Spider-Man," he tells downthetubes. "It's a great action adventure featuring Spidey, Dormammu, Doctor Strange, Captain Britain, Spitfire, Union Jack and Megan!"

When not drawing Spider-Man or X-Men, John's also been busy this year for a variety of commercial clients.

A recent job was a one page comic strip ad for Benylin, commissioned by top ad agency JWT, which is now running in various magazines in the UK such as Closer and marks another appearance of "Chester the Mucous Monkey" seen in the brand's recent TV ads, brought to CGI life for the small screen by Leigh Brett.

The page went through several changes at art and lettering stages, but JWT and the client are delighted with the final look, which was deliberately intended to 'homage' classic comic storytelling, right down to the "Editor's note" in the main panel.

• Check out John's work at: www.johnroyleart.com

Doctor Who Magazine features first Eleventh Doctor strip

The latest issue of Panini UK's Doctor Who Magazine (Issue 421) sees the debut of the Eleventh Doctor in its comic strip pages, with the delectable Amy Pond in tow to boot.

While Matt Smith's Doctor has already appeared in the BBC title Doctor Who Adventures, this is the first comic to feature him in DWM, in a story titled Supernature set on a distant, jungle-dominated alien world - the location of a penal colony where the human residents are turning alien themselves.

The story by Jonathan Morris, who has written several Doctor Who stories for audio drama producers Big Finish, is drawn by veteran Who comics artist Mike Collins, with David Roach providing some superb inks on the opening episode.

Fans will also enjoy a feature offering a guide to the TARDIS - reminding readers of rooms rarely or only ever seen once or twice on TV, including the infamous 'Boot Cupboard' (a full Regncy-style dining room) and the bath (a full-size swimming pool). While the TARDIS has been covered before in features, this is a pretty exhaustive and entertaining item, just part of another great issue of the Magazine.

• There's more information here on the Panini UK web site (although this is actually a 'pop up', you may want to navigate to it from the main site at www.paninicomics.co.uk). Alternatively, check out the latest news from the Magazine team on Facebook.


The latest issue of Doctor Who Adventures - which now has its very own official web site at www.dwamag.com - features the usual mix of features and comic strip aimed at a younger audience than Panini's Doctor Who Magazine including a fantastic FREE Weeping Angel mask.

This week's monster mag is crawling with Weeping Angels and comes with a Angel mask... don't blink!

Along with the usual comic strip, features include top moments from The Time of Angels, hilarious bits from the Eleventh Doctor's first adventure (involving a lot of food he can't stand) and a lowdown on the new Doctor Who Adventure Games, a Dalek quiz and am exclusive competition to become the editor of Doctor Who Adventures for the day.

• More info at: www.dwamag.com

In Review: Misty Comic Special

What It Is: Not to be confused with the Egmont WH Smiths special released recently, this is an entirely new fan-produced title published by the official Misty web site, comprising all-new strips by a wide range of creators including 2000AD artist SMS, who provides the cover, Dave Roach, Mike Nicoll, Terry Wiley and many others.

The Review by Paul Harrison-Davies: It's immediately obvious that this Misty Special is a labour of love: it's such a well put together comic with colour interiors and a fantastic cover.

The trouble with small press/independent anthologies is that they are often a mixed bag when it comes to ability, and that's the case with Misty. Yet it hardly seems fair to judge some creators harshly against others, and I found that Misty had enough heart and soul to gloss over any of the hiccups of creators with less experience than others. In fact, without naming names, I found that although the writing of one author seemed the least professional it was more than made up for by the emotion of the script, and actually felt like the most 'Misty' of all the stories.

Great work from the always excellent Terry Wiley, a change of pace from the shiny colour work of Ex Astris from Mike Nicoll and some lovely artwork from J.P. Sewell were the stand outs for me, with downthetubes very own John Freeman and someone simply called 'Amelia' providing scripts for a couple for my favourite strips: 'Time School', 'Dreamcatching' and 'A Waltz Out of Time'.

All told, there was only a few strips that just didn't grab me, and that's not bad for a comic that feature sixteen tales and a great interview with original Misty artist John Armstrong, who also provides a 'Bella' poster for buyers of the Special.

Unfortunately, the Misty Special is not cheap. I can understand why it's priced highly, but I think that it may put many possible readers off. Also, it just didn't feel like a 1970s/80s comic, possibly due to the glossy paper and use of colour. I'd have rather seen something that more directly tried to emulate the look and design of a comic of that time, maybe even down to artificially yellowing the pages. Still that's a personal preference, and obviously not one shared by the creators and publisher.

Chances are if you were a fan of Misty, you'll be buying this, and I doubt you'll be disappointed.

• Buy the Misty Special online here on the official Misty comic web site


Creator Check List


Cover / Super Misty Poster

Art: SMS

Welcome Page Portrait

Art: David Roach (from an unpublished painting by Shirley Bellwood)

Mint Condition


Story / Art: SMS

Dreamcatching

Story: Alison Jones / Art: Mike Nicoll

A Waltz Out Of Time

Story: Alison Jones / Art: J P Sewell

The Eyes

Story: Colin Noble / Art: Terry Wiley

Misty’s Mysteries

Concept / Art: Douglas Noble

Come To Stay

Story: Briony Coote / Art: Carl Lavin

Lost Lover

Poem: Anne-Marie Marquess / Art: James Battersby

Good Ol’ Santa!

Story: Briony Coote / Art: Mike Nicoll

Camper Van Helsing

Story / Art: Vallely

Bullied To Death

Story: Briony Coote / Art: Carl Lavin

Vampire King

Poem: Anne-Marie Marquess / Art: Noel Baxter

Time School - Teacher’s Pet!

Story: John Freeman / Art: Mike Nicoll

Once Too Often

Story: Briony Coote / Art: Vicky Stonebridge /

Letters: Bolt-01

John Armstrong Interview

Interview: Chris Lillyman / Art: John Armstrong

The Poustinia

Story: Martin Jones / Art: J P Sewell

The Cult Of The Cat

Story: Charles Ellis / Art: Johnny McMonagle

Free Gift Poster: John Armstrong

MistyComic Fan Special Finally Published

A not-for-profit second Mistycomic.co.uk Special, inspired by the 1970s British girls comic, Misty, is now available from the official Misty Comic web site.

Not to be confused with the recent Egmont Misty Classic Comic on sale now in WH Smiths (see news story), this new anthology full of new and original artwork and stories comes in at a bumper 80 pages wrapped in a stunning cover by Interzone illustrator and and former 2000AD artists SMS, plus a free "Bella" poster from original Misty comic artist John Armstrong (who is also interviewed in the magazine), the Special includes an illustration by the brilliant David Roach (from an unpublished painting by Shirley Bellwood) plus comic strips inspired by Misty, including "Mint Condition", written and drawn by SMS; "Dreamcatching", written by Amaliia, illustrated by Ex Astris artist Mike Nicoll; "The Eyes", written by Colin Noble with art by Terry Wiley; "Time School - Teacher’s Pet!", written by John Freeman, again with art by Mike Nicoll.

Along with more strips there are also poems and stories from a host of other creators including artists J P Sewell, Terry Wiley, Douglas Noble, Carl Lavin, Johnny McMonagle and James Battersby and writers Briony Coote and Charles Ellis.

"I want to thank all the contributors for making this possible (again)," comments editor Chris Lillyman, who has been assembling this Special for the past three years.

• Full details of the Special, which costs £9.99 in the UK via PayPal and £14.99 overseas, can be found at: http://mistycomic.co.uk/Mistycomic_Special_2009.html

The Art of War

On sale now in all good bookshops is the simply gorgeous The Art of War by David Roach, featuring almost 1000 fabulous full-colour artworks created for the covers of Fleetway/IPC’s classic War, Battle, Air Ace and War at Sea Picture Libraries published from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The beautifully illustrated book comes with a foreword by Top Gear presenter and war comic book aficionado James May.

From the 1950s to the 1970s Fleetway and its successor, IPC, was the world's biggest comic-book publisher and its line of digest-sized Picture Libraries was the jewel in their crown. The most popular and longest lasting titles were War, Battle, Air Ace and War at Sea, which ran for a combined total of over four and a half thousand issues. This is a collection of over 400 of the finest covers, digitally remastered from the original archived artwork in a lavish format with the finest quality reproduction.

Over on the Today's Inspiration blog, David - an artist, illustrator, writer and historian with 20 years experience in the comics industry whose credits include Doctor Who, Batman and Star Wars - has written a series of posts (listed below) tying in with the launch of the book, and this post, "A warehouse full of art - dear God!" by blog owner Lief Peng outlines how, back in 2005, David and Rufus Dayglo uncovered a treasure trove of some 26,000 comic book pages from British girls and boys comics published by IPC, as well as about 10,000 Nursery pages, which they proceeded to catalogue*. Around 1400 war covers had survived, the best of which are in David's books.

"Rufus... has said on several occasions that it was the best summer of his life," David told Lief, "and you can bet the same goes for me - I was in heaven."

David's first post outlines the history of the comic and the art of Giorgio DeGaspari (already a legend in Italy by the time he started work for the UK market), with subsequent posts featuring the work of different artists: Pino Dell’orco, Allessandro Biffignandi, Jordi Penalva (who also drew covers for US titles such as Eerie), and, finally a round up of other artists who worked on the books such as Nino Caroseli, Graham Coton and Ian Kennedy.

• Buy The Art of War from amazon.co.uk

Art of War Features on Today's Inspiration - Direct Links:

• A Warehouse Full of Art
• The Cover Art of British War Comics Day 1 (Overview)
• The Cover Art of British War Comics Day 2 (the art of Pino Dell’orco)
• The Cover Art of British War Comics Day 3 (the art of Allessandro Biffignandi)
• The Cover Art of British War Comics Day 4 (the art of Jordi Penalva)
• The Cover Art of British War Comics Day 5 (the art of various artists)

* Unfortunately, in my opinion, while these war covers have been scanned for posterity, IPC made the decision to sell off the archive before digitally scanning much of it, meaning many of the pages are now scattered across the globe. Given the huge interest in these comics, this seems unwise as it would have made for much higher quality collections of archive Fleetway and IPC comics material and reduced the need for extensive digital restoration work on pages scanned from printed comics.