New Hi8us Comic Scheme Launched

If you’re 16 plus, with a passion for comic art and live in the West Midlands, then Hi8us Midlands’ latest free comic art scheme, called Comix, could be for you. Applications for the competitive scheme, are now being accepted for consideration.

All the lucky winners will get to work with people on similar schemes across Europe and get a supported trip to a comic art festival in Spain and the Birmingham’s International Comics Show.

20 talented individuals will get the opportunity to develop their skills with John McCrea (X-Men, Spider-Man and The Hulk), Hunt Emerson (The Beano, Fortean Times), Laura Howell (The Beano, The DFC), IMAF winner for Best New Manga Asia Alfasi and Andi Watson (Geisha, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) amongst others.

Comix is a competitive scheme with only 20 places available for anyone 16+ who lives in the West Midlands and welcomes applications from all groups. (Women are particularly encouraged as they're still under-represented in the comics industry). If you're interested in submitting, applicants don't need any previous qualifications -- just passion, talent/potential and commitment to work hard!

To submit for the chance to participate, send Hi8us examples of your best and most recent work. They're looking for good photocopies of two to four pages of pencilled, original continuous comic-strip preferably without lettering (they don’t want pictures of single characters standing around). In other words, they want you to illustrate a comic story without drawing the words or speech bubbles (if you’ve already put text on your artwork they will however accept it). The most improtant thing about your subission is to show how you draw and also how you tell a story in pictures.

• At the latest, submissions must reach Hi8us by 6.00pm on Monday 1st June 2009.

• A full application pack with guidelines is available to download from the Hi8us web site: www.hi8us.co.uk

• An informal recruitment session will take place on Tuesday 26th May, offering an introduction to the scheme and opportunity to meet the lead artists, John McCrea and Hunt Emerson. Hi8us strongly recommend anyone wishing to apply to bring their submission artwork and application form to the recruitment session or, at the very least, examples of work. Contact Hi8us via email (kulwant@hi8us.co.uk) or telephone (0121 753 7700) as soon as possible to book your place at the Recruitment Session.

Commando Webbing: 20 May 2009

• After all the talk over the last four months about the new set of Ramsey's Raiders stories in Commando, the current batch of issues on sale includes the latest in another long-running Commando series: the H-Boat stories, written by Alan Hebden and illustrated by John Ridgway.

These are set during the Second World War and involve military hydrofoils operated by Britain and Germany - boats which rise out of the water on aircraft-like wings attached under their hulls allowing them to travel much faster than normal. In reality, while hydrofoils are a practical design, military applications were only investigated during the Cold War which, technically, makes Commando's tales retro-history science-fiction. The latest is H-Boat Versus H-Boat: Duel To The Death, Commando issue 4196.

• Following on from our recent item about British comics that have run for the longest amount of time versus the longest number of issues, the next batch of four Commandos, which are out next week, will include issue 4200. Assuming that the Beano continues to be published at one issue a week, it will take until the year 2023 for it to reach issue 4200. Of course, if Commando continues at its current eight issues a month until 2023 it will have reached issue 5500!

• Returning to 2009 and this year is the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy that was the beginning of the end of the war against Germany. The current Commando reprint book, D-Day Fight Or Die! published by Carlton, is now available and reprints 12 Commando stories set during D-Day, 6 June 1944.

These reprints cover a wide range of years from Big Joe, Issue 92, published in November 1963 to Normandy Drop, Issue 4011, published in June 2007. The cover, by Ian Kennedy, has been modified somewhat from its original appearance as a Commando cover by the addition of landing craft.

• As well as the reprint book, as we reported yesterday, all eight Commando issues published in June will feature D-Day stories and as usual four issues will be new stories while four will be reprints. Included in the reprints is D-Day Plus, Issue 4205, which reprints issue 187 originally published in November 1965.

This one is notable as it features a colour cover by artist Mike Dorey which is not from the story's original 1965 publication but from its 1994 reprint marking the 50th anniversary of D-Day. Mike Dorey is better known for his work on Invasion and Rogue Trooper in 2000AD, Iron Annie and Sgt Rayker in Warlord and Computer Warrior and Ultimate Warrior in new Eagle. Dorey's cover is also being used for the D-Day 65 Commando advert.

• More details of these D-Day 65 issues are available on the official Commando website: http://www.commandomag.com/

City of Heroes Sketchbook Auctioned

Draw the World Together, an organisation created to unite arts communities in providing possibilities for children who live in communities where they do not have the opportunity for basic healthcare and education, is auctioning a limited edition City of Heroes sketchbook on eBay to raise funds.

This latest item - #4 of 10 - is again signed by several artists: Dave Gibbons (who provided the cover), Doug Braithwaite, Misako Rocks, Mark Buckingham, Andie Tong, Phil Winslade, Jon Haward, Mike Collins, Bryan Talbot, Simon Williams, Andrew Wildman, Neil Edwards, Al (Astral Gypsy) Davidson and Boo Cook.

If you don't want to make a bid yourselves you can help out by posting a link to the auction on any forums or blogs that you are active in.

Visit Draw the World Together at: http://drawtheworldtogether.ning.com

• Sketchbook Auction on Ebay

Captain Britain Cancelled

Marvel has cancelled Captain Britain and MI:13 with #15, writer Paul Cornell reports.

"As you may have noticed, there’s no solicitation today for #16 of Captain Britain and MI-13," he notes on his blog. "That, unfortunately, is because #15 is the last issue."

There had previously been unfounded rumours of the book's cancellation, but with estimated sales of just over 17,700 for #11 (see icv2), the well-received title may have been gaining deserved critical acclaim but not the sales needed to keep it afloat.

Thanking fans of the book and its various creative art teams, especially Leonard Kirk, Paul held out the hope that it’s entirely possible his working relationship with him was not over, indicating Marvel still had scripting work for him in the pipeline.

"One of the lovely things about this book is watching everyone step up, from colourists like Eager Beaver Brian Reber and Canny Christina Strain to our many talented inkers and letterers," Paul enthuses. "Maybe it’s the effort it takes to make the British visuals work that does it. It’s been a delight to see so many people taking their work so seriously."

Paul also insists that the book coming to an end now isn’t a revelation that earlier rumours the book had been cancelled were "true all along.

"If it had been true then, I’d have told you then," he says. "I think that controversy, and the extremely welcome reaction from fans, ended up doing a lot of good."

The good news is, there may yet be more Captain Britain from Paul, who says he has enjoyed writing a monthly comic more than almost anything else he's done as a writer. "While we didn’t know this would be the last arc until comparatively recently, I had it in mind that it was possible it would be from the time I started plotting it," he reveals. "Indeed, the end of this arc marks the end of what I had planned for the book when I started. One of the images right at the finish is what I always felt I was heading towards, and I’m very pleased I got there.

"So: you will get a real, thorough, proper, ending, not just of [storyline] ‘Vampire State’, but of the whole run. It hasn’t been rushed to fit the space, it hasn’t been compromised, it won’t just suddenly cut off: it’s what I intended. I think the Annual and the two remaining issues finish off one of my best stories in any media, and that story is actually the entirety of Captain Britain and MI-13... This is a comic with a proper ending."

• Read Paul's Goodbye, Captain Britain Tribute in full on his blog