Merry Christmas: 6 Days To Go

As the 25th of December rapidly bears down on us, each day for the next week downthetubes will be taking a look at a selection of comics and magazines from past Christmases.

Speed and Power was Look and Learn's sibling, using much the same format but leaning more towards the technological than its older brother. It lasted for 87 issues from March 1974 to November 1975 before being amalgamated into Look and Learn, initially as a separate pull out section.

The end of 1974 saw this unusual 48 page magazine format Christmas Special which they tried their best to give a Christmas cover to. Indeed each of the three subjects that artist Wilf Hardy illustrates are included in the contents - from the (sort of Christmassy) snowmobile racing to the RAF's then new Hawk trainer aircraft to the Soviet rocket launching a Mars probe.

The Christmas Special was as close as Speed and Power got to an annual during its lifetime although three Look and Learn Books of Speed and Power appeared after the two titles were amalgamated.

As for the weekly magazine the Christmas issue was hardly that Christmassy with a half hearted attempt at putting some holly and a "Happy Christmas!" on the front cover which featured a less than wintry dune buggy racer and a Royal Marines Commando Dory rigid raider.

More Christmas covers tomorrow.

Strip! - Cartoons in Classrooms

In the last of this month's shows looking at the use of comics in education, the Strip! radio show, broadcast on Resonance FM and now available as a podcast, have interviews with a variety of practitioners and tutors with an interest in the subject.

Sarah Lightman visits the Eastside Educational Trust in Hackney and talks to two of the tutors / mentors from the organisation - Rakhee Jasani and Truly Johnston - who have set up a project called 'Graphic Truths' as a way of engaging young people with comic book creation to tell stories that are personal to them. Sarah also talks to four of the young creators - Chantelle, Shantel, Leke and Nickita - who have worked on the project and are seeing their comics printed in an anthology called Tales of Diversity being launched next month.

Also, Alex Fitch talks to V for Vendetta illustrator David Lloyd and cartoonist Steve Marchant about the project Cartoon Classroom they've set up with the help of Paul Gravett; a not-for-profit website that aims to inspire the next generation of cartoonists and make the art form more accessible to children and adults who want to be more proficient at creating comic-strips and drawing cartoons. www.cartoonclassroom.co.uk is also designed as a gateway and information resource for studying cartoon and sequential art in schools, colleges, libraries and museums across the UK and Ireland.

Strip! Cartoons in the Classrooms is available as a podcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com. Strip! airs initially on Resonance 104.4 FM (London) on Thursdays and is streamed at www.resonancefm.com

Tube Surfing: Mike Collins Draws New Who, Harker, Alternative Press News...

Some quick, short items today, as I'm immersed in some research for Titan and other things...


• A slew of updates from ever busy comics artist Mike Collins, which are mostly Doctor Who related, including an original graphic novel for BBC Books, and drawing Matt Smith's debut for Doctor Who Magazine. Mike also some GI Joe stuff for Panini that's just come out with Gary Erskine on inks.
"He did a fab job!," enthuses Mike. "Kev Hopgood did some too -- it was like slipping back two decades...."


For those of you who may have missed it, in September Alladin Books (part of Simon&Schuster) released a pre-teen graphic novel about the young King Arthur Mike illustrated. Finally, while it was released back in 2008, what better time to re-plug A Christmas Carol: The Graphic Novel, drawn by Mike and published by Classical Comics? Go get it...

• Alternative Press Festival organiser Jimi Gherkin is still accepting submissions for the APF2010 poster. Blue biro images, no more than 70mmx70mm please to jimigherkin(at)yahoo.co.uk

• Omnivistacope cover artist Paul McCaffrey is currently working on a strip for IDW, Masques, to run in Zombies Vs Robots: Adventure #1-4. Check out his work at: www.coroflot.com/paul_mccaffrey.

• Harker creators Roger Gibson and Vincent Danks are official guests at Hi-Ex comic convention, Eden Court, Inverness, on 27th-28th March. Find out more here.

• Martin Conaghan and artist Will Pickering will be appearing at Forbidden Planet Edinburgh on Thursday 28 January 2010 from 4.30-5.30pm to sign copies of their graphic novel, Burke & Hare.

• Rainbow Orchid creator Garen Ewing has cut prices of his signed and sketched-in books, as well as t-shirts, by £4 for the duration of December 2009. See the shop page here.

Simon Mackie: Positively Christmas

downthetubes gets a lot of eCards, and we put all the artist contributuons here on Flickr, because we can't think of anywhere else to display them. But this year Simon Mackie has again outdone others with a whole Christmas-inspired comic strip...

• View Simon Mackie: Positively Christmas