Standby For... Andersonic 15

The latest issue of the independent Gerry Anderson fanzine, Andersonic, is now out.

Issue 15 includes -

Tony Harding interview - a new interview with Century 21's Effects Assistant on Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, Secret Service and UFO. Tony talks about his time at the studio, what he thought of the set-up, the changes made for UFO, as well as his time on Doctor Who for which he designed K9.

Tony Roper Interview - Sound Editor from Captain Scarlet up to UFO. Tony talks about his duties, how they fitted the sound effects to the episodes and just how powerful Derek Meddings' explosions really were.

Stingray: Treasure Down Below - a look at the original script of this early colour episode  written by Dennis Spooner, with comparisons to the finished episode. And find out what Parker had to do with selling fake treasure maps in Casablanca...

Gerry Anderson Tributes - following the passing of Gerry Anderson, Andersonic writers recall what Gerry's work has meant to them.

Flights Of Fancy Event review - a look back at the 'Flights of Fantasy' exhibition held at the RAF Museum at Cosford in November 2012.

UFO: The Responsibility Seat - a look at an underrated UFO episode and find there's more to it than meets the eye. Sam Denham separates the UFOs from the weather balloons.

Paperback Writers - a look at the range of Thunderbirds novels currently available and talk to writers Joan Marie Verba and Anthony Taylor along with illustrator Steve Kyte.

Strip Story - in the first of a (probably) regular feature looking at an individual comic strip story to see what makes it tick. This issue - Countdown's 'Return of the Rock Snakes'.

Andersonic issue 15 costs £2.45 including UK postage. 

More details of the issue and how to order it, as well as back issues, are available on the Anderosnic Facebook page and website.

Plaything Of Sutekh Issue 2 Now Available

The new issue of Doctor Who fanzine Plaything of Sutekh, edited by Richard Farrell and John Connors, is now available to order. Featured in the 40-page, colour covered A5 fanzine are:

Five Star! A look at 2012's new episodes, which saw the return of the Weeping Angels and the departure of Amy and Rory. There is also a short Q&A with director Saul Metzstein.
Coming Of Age: A look at Season 18 when Doctor Who got told to grow up by new producer John Nathan-Turner.
Opening The Gate: David Rolinson dodges a few Gundans to unravel one of Season 18's finest stories, Warriors' Gate.
Tardis Radio: Oliver Wake looks at the untransmitted pilot radio episode featuring Peter Cushing.
Strip For The Doctor: The Doctor materialised in the pages of Countdown comic in the early 1970s. Richard Farrell looks at the work of Harry Lindfield and Gerry Haylock on the Doctor Who comic strip and examines their influences and source of reference.
Secret Who: Time to dust off the oil lamp as a fresh look is taken at 1974's Death To The Daleks.
DWDVD: John Connors reviews the recent DVD releases Ace Adventures, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy and The Ambassadors of Death.

Ordering details of Plaything Of Sutekh are available on the Plaything Of Sutekh blog.

Planet of the Apes Zine Free Online

A new issue of the popular UK Planet of the Apes fanzine, Simian Scrolls, along with some of the previous issues, is available to download free online.

Edited by John Roche, the summer 2012 issue (issue 17) is available here along with issues one to six.

A sequel to the recent (and very successful) apes film Rise of the Planet of the Apes is currently in the works, entitled Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Eagle-eyed apes fans may have seen a brief clip from the original Charlton Heston apes movie as part of the London Olympics opening ceremony on Friday evening.

There have been numerous comic strip adaptations of the Apes saga over the years. A tie-in to the 2001 Tim Burton-directed apes movie was published in the UK by Titan and edited by dtb's John Freeman.

Plaything Of Sutekh: New Who Zine

In these days of the internet blogs having taken over the position of the old fanzines, it is always good to see a new printed fanzine appear. Plaything of Sutekh is a 40 page, A5, black and white, Doctor Who fanzine with a colour cover, edited by John Connors and Richard Farell. John Connors is a name familiar to Doctor Who fans as he held various posts in the Doctor Who Appreciation Society in the 1980s while Richard is the editor of the long running Gerry Anderson fanzine Andersonic.

Indeed Plaything Of Sutekh, which derives its name from the popular fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane 1975 adventure Pyramids Of Mars, comes across as a Doctor Who version of Andersonic in both its format and contents.

Issue one costs £2.35 including UK postage and features -
What Did the Sixties Do For Who? – a look at how the Troughton era of Doctor Who reflected the changes facing Britain in the late 60s
Frank’s Who – the lasting influence of Frank Bellamy’s Radio Times art on Doctor Who illustration.
Secret Who – a re-evaluation of a clutch of less popular stories: Underworld, The Krotons and The Android Invasion.
Accidental Art – while Terry Nation and Douglas Adams were pulling in opposite directions, Ken Grieve’s innovative approach raised Destiny of the Daleks above the norm.
A New Direction? – a look at the evolution of Doctor Who under Steven Moffat
Return of the King – a look at and a listen to Tom Baker’s return as the Doctor in the Big Finish audio adventures.

There are more details of the first issue of Plaything of Sutekh and how to purchase it on the fanzine's blog and Facebook page.

The Sloperian: A New Fanzine About Old Comics

The style of British comics has changed many times over the years. The type that we grew up with were the picture strip weeklies which were heavy on comic strip pages and light on non-strip pages, while today many British children's comics are light on comic strip pages and heavy on non-strip pages be they quiz, info or pin-up pages.

While weekly humour comics always had a lot of comic strip pages, in the days before original Eagle appeared in 1950, boys weekly adventure comics were light on comic strip pages and heavy on text story pages and were known as "the story papers".

Yet for most comics fans the story paper era is an all but forgotten mystery, dating as it does from the time when their grandparents were young, while the intervening years, as well as wartime paper recycling, have left few copies of the titles available for collectors to find.

Information on them is equally hard to find and much of it comes from the older comics fanzines such as Alan Clark's Golden Fun which ran on and off for 19 issues between 1974 and 1989. Alan also wrote various comics reference books published in the 1980s and 1990s.

So it came as something of a surprise that now, over twenty years after the last issue of Golden Fun appeared, Alan is back with a new comics fanzine entitled The Sloperian which concentrates on those early days of British comics.

Taking its title from the first recurring British comics character, Ally Sloper, The Sloperian is an A4, mainly black and white, highly illustrated 44 page fanzine. Issue 1 has articles on Ally Sloper artist WG Baxter, early 20th century humour artist Harry O'Neill, humour artist and scripter AT "Charlie" Pease, DC Thomson adventure writer Gilbert Dalton, Black Bob artist Jack Prout, and Illustrated Chips' various tramp characters. In its style and content issue 1 of The Sloperian is effectively issue 20 of Golden Fun and, like Golden Fun, it will be published occasionally.

At the moment, The Sloperian is only available from Alan Clark via eBay and the cost is £5 including UK postage. Hopefully it will soon have a website or a blog that we can point you to but, until then, if this eBay link is outdated by the time you use it just try searching for 'Sloperian' on the sales site - we doubt that much else other than this fanzine will appear for that search.

New Crikey! special available

(Updated 27/8/11): The popular Crikey! fanzine (which takes a nostalgic look at classic British comics) may no longer be available as a print publication but the editors have just released a new special (comprising over 100 pages) which is available to buy on disc at the Crikey! website and via download on yudu.com.

Whilst purists might bemoan the demise of the old magazine format, it's a sign of the times that the Crikey! team have gone down this route and printed or not, the new special is absolutely crammed with material and is arguably Crikey!'s strongest offering yet.

Articles include a look at the Eagle photo-stories of the 1980s, an overview of the often-overlooked DC Thomsom comic Sparky, the Marvel UK Action Force comic, Death's Head remembered, the short lived IPC publication Supernaturals, the British Invasion of DC Comics, a Planet of the Apes mystery from the 1970s, a Bryan and Mary Talbot interview, a look back at Whoopee! and, as they say, much much more.

The Crikey! editors Glenn Fleming and Tony Ingram deserve credit for soldiering on in difficult financial times so please give them your support!

• Order the new digital Crikey! from www.crikeyuk.co.uk; or send £5.00 via PayPal to glennbflemingATgmx.com; or buy it via yudu.com for £2.99

New Issue of Who Fanzine Panic Moon On Sale

There's a mini-revival of Doctor Who fanzines at the moment (something dtb welcomes) with many Who fans still enjoying the experience of reading something on paper rather than just looking at all the assorted Doctor Who websites that are around these days.

An honourable mention, then, for Panic Moon, a terrific little 'zine which is worthy of widespread support. We say 'little' because the publication is A6 in format. Yes, A6, but believe us, it works. Each issue is absolutely packed with well-written commentary and illustrative material that wouldn't look out of place in DWM.

The latest issue has a lovely mix of stuff with a look at the Richard E Grant version of the Doctor, the Silver Nemesis 'Making of' documentary, a tribute to Nicholas Courtney and (as they say) much much more!

At £1.20 an issue, it's worth a punt surely? Get a copy and let's help keep printed 'zines alive.

The website for the publication is here.

New Issue of Whotopia Celebrates David Tennant Years

A quick mention for the latest issue of Whotopia, the Canadian Doctor Who fan magazine, which is a David Tennant special.

Amongst the varied content is 'The Tennant Legacy', a look at how the David Tennant episodes have changed the show forever, by downthetubes contributor Ian Wheeler.

The great thing about Whotopia is that is is available online and is absolutely free for everyone - check it out here.

New Columbo Fanzine from Eagle Flies Again Editor

downthtubes contributor Ian Wheeler is hoping to launch a new fanzine based on the hugely successful American detective show Columbo which continues to be popular on both sides of the Atlantic - and, while we'll admit there's only a tenuous connection with comics, the show was  parodied in MAD and Cracked, so we're happy to plug his plans here.

Ian's last fanzine, Eagle Flies Again, co-produced with John Freeman, covered the wide topic of British comics (with a bias towars Eagle and Dan Dare) and met with some success - it was twice nominated Fanzine of the Month in SFX Magazine.

"Columbo is equal in my affections to Doctor Who," says Ian, a former Coordinator of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society.

"Although there is a terrific fan website about the show, I can't find any evidence of there ever being a fanzine. I'd like to rectify this.

"With constant repeats, the recent UK stage show (which is reteruning in 2011) and a new short story collection, the time is right. I'm therefore hoping to launch This Old Man - the fanzine of Columbo. We'll start modestly - it's likely to be a photocopied affair and, like any fanzine, contributors will not get paid. But hopefully it will be fun to do and fun to read.

"Although many printed fanzines have long-since vanished to be replaced by internet-based content, there are still many people who prefer to actually hold something in their hands they can read and there appears to be a minor revival of A5 photocopied zines, particularly based on Doctor Who." 

• Anyone interested in contributing to the zine should contact Ian at columbozine@hotmail.co.uk

Please note: the cover shown is provisional.

Tube Surfing: Dez Skinn, Fanzines Galore and Simone Lia

Right, what's happening out there...

Lew Stringer's ace comics blog informs us that Dez Skinn has a new website. Dez was, of course, the man behind such titles as Warrior, Comics International and Doctor Who Weekly (still with us as Doctor Who Magazine).

Warwick Johnson Cadwell has posted his ace A.B.C Warriors strip from new 2000 AD fanzine, Nu Earth online at his blog. Warwick sent me a copy of the fanzine and I have to say it's, well, zarjaz. Will Kirkby has done the same with the pencils for his cracking contribution, a fab Rogue Trooper strip. Tharg, employ these men now!!!

Paul Gravett's new article about and interview with cartoonist Simone Lia is well worth checking out. In the interview, Simone talks about various topics, including her new work-in-progress, a graphic novel about her relationship with God:

"I was passing through Leicester Square almost three years ago and the bubbling inspiration came to me and I had a fuzzy vision of the completed story whilst standing near a red telephone box," she explains. "I was so excited and happy to be suddenly inspired again, I had a sense the book would be about an adventure with God. When it came to starting the work however I really didn’t know how to go about having an adventure with God and how I might show it in a comic. Showing that relationship is such a personal thing. Part of me definitely did not want to open that up for everyone to see but the feeling to make the book didn’t go away. It’s been taking a long time to produce partly because of that uncertainty of depicting this personal area of my life and also because the story in real life has had to unravel."

Paul also sends word of an opportunity for creators of humorous zines and comics to have their work displayed in the reading room at Tate Britain as part of their Rude Britannia exhibition.

Here's the skinny, from the Tate's website:

"Help us curate the reading room of the Rude Britannia exhibition with an array of humorous fanzines, comics and home made publications. Rude Britannia: British Comic Art celebrates all that is comical, satirical, political, absurd and bawdy in British art from 1600s to today and we would like you to respond to these themes. The best fanzines will be selected by curator Cedar Lewisohn and placed in the exhibition space for a period of time. Please only send publications that you think are funny. We will notify you if your publication has been selected, but we cannot commit to sending your publication back to you."

And finally, small press comics news blog Bugpower draws our attention to another opportunity for self-publishers:

"Cerebus.TV are starting a "Small Press Comics Focus" feature, and they are looking for submissions for future episodes. Email indie@exoss.net for details. You can see a promo for the first one HERE. The 'pilot' has been put together by the guys at Cerebus.tv and features the minicomics of Dan Fish (Hey, that's ME). It appears as part of Episode 30, which streams online starting Friday 18th June and 24/7 all week long."

Poopsheet Wants Your Comics!

The Poopsheet Foundation, a US-based organisation whose primary focus is mini-comics and their history, from their underground/new wave "birth" in the 1970s to the current scene of today, is actively seeking comics collections both for use in their web site's History Archive and for the Poopsheet Shop (the part of the site that ultimately allows the rest to exist).

Wanted are mini-comics, underground comix, alternative comics, fanzines, APAs and mainstream comics. "Generally speaking, we're looking for material published in the 1980s or earlier," says founder Rick Bradford, "but there are always exceptions.

"We pay in cash or trade."

If you're a fan of fanzines or worked on them either now or in the past it's worth checking out the Foundation web site.

• Drop Poopsheet a line and let them know what you've got

Eagle Times Vol 21 No 3 Available

The latest issue of Britain's longest running comics fanzine, Eagle Times, is now available.

After downthetubes contributor Richard Sheaf's article on the newly discovered dummy issue of Eagle number 2 in the last issue, downthetube's contributions to the 54 page A4 fanzine continue with the first part of Jeremy Briggs' major article on artist Ian Kennedy which covers his career from the 1950s to the 1970s and so sets the scene for his work on new Eagle's Dan Dare in the 1980s.

The new issue also features more on the Eagle issue 2 dummy as well as articles on artist Tony Weare, who turned down the offer to work on Dan Dare, Ron Embleton's Heroes of the West series for Kellogg's cereal boxes, and Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson's time working at NESCOT college. Reviews include the Virgin Dan Dare comic and the Orion Dan Dare audio book Voyage To Venus Part 1.

Eagle Times is published quarterly and is available from the Eagle Society. Current subscription rates are UK £22, overseas £26. More details are available on the Eagle Times Blog.

Solar Wind: The Last Hurrah

The are some constants in life: night follows day, the episode written by Steven Moffat will be the best story in any given season of new Doctor Who, and original Eagle fans will always hate any new version of Dan Dare.

Here is another one - Paul Von Scott will send a copy of his latest fanzine to SFX magazine and they will make it Fanzine Of The Month.

We have reported before that each of the four issues of his excellent A4 SF anthology title Omnivistascope have received the award, while his previous humorous title Solar Wind was also well received by the magazine's reviewers as well as winning a National Comic Award in 2004 and being an Eagle Award nominee in 2005.

The latest issue of SFX, number 175, has the Bumper Book Of Solar Wind as the Fanzine Of The Month. The pair of softcover annual size books between them reprint the entire 500+ pages of the long running fanzine and are available from the Omnivistascope page at Lulu.com. Priced at less than £6 each these are remarkably good value and don't be put off by the print-to-order supplier as the print quality is excellent.

In the meantime Paul plans to have issue 5 of Omnivistascope available in time for the Hi-Ex comics convention in February 2009. We are looking forward to both it and the convention.

The Bumper Book Of Solar Wind Volumes 1 and 2 are available at Lulu.com

Omnivistascope issue 1 to 4 and the few remaining back issues of Solar Wind are available direct from Paul at the Omnivistascope website.

How Much Is A Fanzine Worth?

Just how much is a fanzine worth? For the buyer, in theory, it is worth the amount of money that he has just paid for it. If it wasn't that good and the buyer believes that it is worth less than what he paid for it then he probably won't be buying any more. On the other hand, if he liked it he will be happy to pay the money for the next issue.

How much are old fanzines worth? Since there are never that many copies of a given issue of a fanzine printed they are, by definition, rare. Of course just because they are rare it doesn't necessarily follow that they are valuable. The amount that you are willing to pay rather depends on how badly you want a copy and how many other people also want it.

So how much for a copy of a British fanzine called Seminar from 1970? Issue 2 has articles on Batman, Doc Savage and Stan Lee. It has artwork by Paul Neary and Trev Goring and a pencil sketch of Captain America by Gene Colan. It has just sold on eBay for £325.00 plus postage.

Why £325? Of course there has to be a very good reason - the issue also has a two page article by a teenage writer about the character The Shadow. The teenager would dabble in artwork as well as non-fiction before moving on to write fiction. His name? Alan Moore.

Keep Me In Caramacs!

Sparked by a quick debate on a Yahoo comics group comes news that the British small press might be failing in its legal obligations by not sending copies of their magazines - however short the print run - to the British Library.

Publishers and distributors in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland have a legal obligation to send one copy of each of their publications to the Legal Deposit Office of the British Library within one month of publication.

Paul Scott, editor of UK fanzines Solar Wind and Omnivistascope, reports he recently received a letter from the Agent for Legal Deposit Libraries in London demanding five copies of each issue of his comics "for various institutions", as well as a copy for the British Library.

In addition to the British Library, there is a legal requirement to send copies to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the University Library, Cambridge, National Library of Scotland, Library of Trinity College, Dublin and the National Library of Wales.

While the Legal Deposit office offers no compensation the National Library of Scotland has, apparently, contacted Paul separately and has offered some payment for past issues.

The request has Paul steamed up on the Omnivistascope blog.

"The Cambridge and Oxford libraries should go on and get on with some real work instead of bothering me because they want the status of having all this crap in their basement," he feels. "Birmingham University, the redbrick I went to certainly doesn't care - they just want to know how much I'm earning so they can sell me a credit card.

"The National Libraries of Wales and Scotland I can understand [but] Trinity College in Ireland is completely beyond me - that's a completely different country!

"Under the Legal deposit law of the UK the British Library should receive two copies of all publication published in the UK. Who knows why. Perhaps its for posterity, perhaps it's just in case the government wants to know what you're up to?

"If they are kept for the rare moment when someone wants to read the comic while I'm alive, then they should help to keep me in sugar free Red Bull and Caramacs and buy one," he fumes.

Still, Paul wonders just what will happen if he doesn't comply. "Perhaps they'll send uniformed officers to comic conventions to seize these comics that have print runs in double figures," he suggests. "I feel a Space Lord story coming on..."

The Legal Deposit Office make it clear on its advice page that, within the terms of the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, a 'publisher' is to be understood as anyone who issues or distributes publications to the public. Items published in the United Kingdom and in Ireland are liable for deposit, as are items originally published elsewhere but distributed in the United Kingdom and in Ireland.

The requirement for deposit remains, irrespective of the place of publication or printing, the nature and size of the imprint, or the extent of its distribution.

It also claims there are several advantages to pubishers, no matter how small, to fulfilling the requirrments.

• Publications deposited with the British Library are made available to users in its various Reading Rooms, are preserved for the benefit of future generations, and become part of the national heritage.
• Publications are recorded in the online catalogue, and will remain an essential research tool for generations to come.
• Most of the books and new serial titles are listed in the British National Bibliography (BNB), which is used by librarians and the book trade for stock selection, is available in printed, CD-ROM and MARC Exchange formats, and has a world-wide distribution.

It would certainly be interesting to hear if fanzine editors now plan to comply with the law and innudate the Deposit Office with their publications. You have to wonder what they'll make of Solar Wind, FutureQuake, Zarjaz and Tozzer, to name but a few!

"These libraries would have to build a new wing if they took all of the small press publications produced in the UK in comics alone," Paul Scott suggests.

New Squaxx on the Block

Over on Comics Village, Shane Chebsey has an interview with the new editors of 2000AD fanzine editor Zarjaz, Dave Evans and Richmond Clements of Futurequake Publishing. The pair take over after a successful run as editor from Colin J Dinnie of Underfire Comics (also interviewed), who is moving on in an effort to devote more time to his writing, as well as have more family hours in his day.

Dinnie talks about regular Zarjaz contributor Nick Dyer's move to the real 2000AD, and other contributors who have gone on to work on Rebellion's flagship title, including Al Ewing - a clear example of how working on a comiucs fanzine can open the door to professional work.

The new editors reveal they aren't planning any changes to what is already a winning formula, although they are looking to increase the page count and frequency. For more information visit a new blog: thequaequamblog.blogspot.com.

Andersonic #5 On Sale via ebay

A quick plug for Andersonic Issue 5, now available via ebay as well as by post, a fanzine dedicated to all things Gerry Anderson that is garnering much praise from fans of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet et al.

This issue comprises 40 A5 pages with colour covers and includes articles on the UFO comic strips, The Females of Century 21, The Investigator, Trapped in the Sky, The Man Who Came Back, Space:1999's connection with 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dorzak, a Captain Scarlet retrospective and even something on Star Maidens.

• Andersonic Issue 5 costs £2.10 incl UK postage from R.Farrell, 11 Stevenson Drive, Spital, Wirral, CH63 9AH or via paypal to straker@merseymail.com; or buy it via ebay

Last Solar Wind Released

The final issue of the award winning parody and homage to British adventure comics of yesteryear Solar Wind has just been released.

Winning National Comic of the Year as well as being nominated for an Eagle Award, it has also won SFX Magazine's fanzine of the month and critical acclaim.

Now, just in time for Christmas, the Solar Wind Summer Special hits the virtual shelves of 21st Century digital newsagents with 68 Pages of frankly irresponsible levels of cosmic energy emanating from the stories, articles and nonsense within.

The Summer Special is the final issue of Solar Wind and features such favourites as Griefbringer, the dramatic end of Deathrunner, as well as the final revelations of Gingerbread Colditz, articles by downthetubes contributor Jeremy Briggs and much much more…

Editor Paul Scott will now be concentrating his creative juices on his SF title Omnivistascope and is full of priase for the the many creators who have helped and contributed to Solar Wind's success over the last five years.

• The Summer Special is available for £3 + £1P&P from Paul Scott, 13 Kiln Crescent, Bishop Middleham, Ferryhill, County Durham, DL17 9AP or by PayPal to paulvonscott@yahoo.co.uk

• Issue 6 of Solar Wind and Issues 1 and 2 of Solar Wind spin-off Sunny for Girls are still available for just £1 (plus £1 P&P) each.

Andersonic

The fourth 'episode' of Richard Farell and Vincent Law’s Gerry Anderson fanzine is now out. Amongst the articles and reviews of the Gerry Anderson series Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, UFO and Space:1999, are articles on the comic strips associated with the Anderson universe.

Frank, Don, Dan and the Traceys covers the Anderson related work of the two Dan Dare artists Frank Bellamy and Don Harley, while Starcruiser: Stripped For Action covers the torturous history of the Starcruiser design concept which ran for two years as a comic strip in Look-In and eventually became an Airfix kit.

Andersonic Four consists of 40 A5 pages with a colour cover. It is £2.00 including UK postage and is available via paypal payment to strakerATmerseymail.com or by cheque or postal order to R.Farrell, 11 Stevenson Drive, Spital, Wirral, CH63 9AH.

Omnivistascope Hat Trick

It has been available for a while, but SFX have just made Omnivistascope 3 their Fanzine Of The Month, giving Paul Scott's big 78 page A4 zine a hat trick with each of the three issues receiving the title. His previous title, Solar Wind, also won SFX Fanzine Of The Month.

Omnivistascope is a square bound anthology science fiction title with a glossy colour cover surrounding black and white art and, beginning in this issue, articles on comics, television and film.

More details can be found at the Omnivistascope website with details on ordering and as well as details of the back issues and the few remaining available copies of Solar Wind.