Matt Smith's Doctor Who Covered in New Book

Books about Doctor Who aren't exactly rare these days and downthetubes wouldn't even begin to try to cover all of them. But every so often, a title of particular interest emerges which is worth looking out for. Often these are labours of love from smaller publishers, devoid of official status and the BBC Doctor Who logo.  

The Pandorica Opens by Frank Collins (contributor to the Doctor Who Appreciation Society's Celestial Toyroom magazine and the man behind the excellent Cathode Ray Tube blog) looks like being a highly informative and interesting look at Matt Smith's first season as the Doctor.

This is not a "who directed which scene on which day" kind of book. To quote Frank: "this is not an episode guide. You won't find a minutiae of detail about the production of the series, nor will you find exhaustive cast and crew lists.

"It's not a 'making of', it's more of a 'what does that episode really mean' book."

• Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens is available for pre-order from Classic TV Press.

Academic Comics Forum registration opens

Registration for Comics Forum, a two-day academic event taking place as part of this year’s Thought Bubble Sequential Art Festival in Leeds, is now open.

The Forum includes the Women in Comics II conference on 18th November and Theory and Practice: A Conference on Comics on the 19th.

Taking place at Leeds Art Gallery, Women in Comics II celebrates the contributions of women in comics, noting the increasing number of female artists, writers, scholars and publishers of comics, with guests that include Suzy Varty, who published the very first all-woman comic book in 1977 in the UK, Heroine in the UK, Maureen Burdock and Karen Hansen.

Theory and Practice - A Conference on Comics will investigate the strong ties between production and scholarship of comics, discussing why, for example, creators still work on comics even when they are unprofitable and the work of Grant Morrison.

• For more details see visit: www.thoughtbubblefestival.com/ACADEMIC.asp. To register, please email Ian Hague at: I.HagueATchi.ac.uk and let him know how many tickets you would like. 

• Tickets cost £15; this covers entry on both days and includes lunch. Payment will be taken in cash on the day. You are advised to register as seating in the venue is limited and the organisers cannot guarantee entry to unregistered attendees.

Century 21 Reprint Books To Continue

With the folding of the British book publisher Reynolds and Hearn earlier this year, the continuation of the series of books reprinting comic strips from the 1960s TV Century 21 comic looked to be in severe doubt. Reynolds and Hearne had published four volumes of the series before the company was put into voluntary liquidation and had two further titles scheduled before the end of 2010 - Volume 5: They Walk Among Us and a Gerry Anderson Century 21 annual for 2011 (which was expected to be similar to the main volumes but reprinting annual strips).

Despite Amazon still listing them, these will not now be published - at least not by Reynolds and Hearn.

Marcus Hearn has set up his own publishing company named Signum Books and is planning to continue the Century 21 books at Signum. The first Signum book to be published is an autobiography entitled From Thunderbirds To Pterodactyls by actor Shane Rimmer who was the voice of Thunderbird 1 pilot Scott Tracy in the Thunderbirds TV series as well as appearing in many films over the years including The Spy Who Loved Me and Batman Begins. This book will be launched next weekend, 23-24 October 2010, at the Fanderson convention TV21 being held in Bristol.

As for the Century 21 volumes, the Signum Books website indicates that the series will be relaunched with the full support of Gerry Anderson by Signum in 2011. The website also includes a history of the comic by author Chris Bentley.

There are more details on Signum Books at their website.

Neil Roberts creates Sarah Jane Adventures comic for the BBC

A panel from the BBC's new online Sarah Jane Adventures comic

As Jeremy Briggs notes in his report on Doctor Who Adventures, the BBC have published a new online Sarah Jane Adventures comic.

Although published in a web-friendly 'sliding frame' the original art, downthetubes can reveal Return of the Krulius, drawn top science fiction illustrator and 2000AD stalwart Neil Roberts, has actually been drawn in a standard comic page format. With that in mind, we're wondering if the BBC will eventually consider publishing a print edition of the new adventure.

Recently interviewed on a blog I've created promoting my new art book, SciFi Art Now, Neil reveals comics have always been a source of inspiration for him – of all kinds, from Nutty, Oor Wullie, Victor to Starblazer and Eagle.

"I was really into artists like Ian Kennedy, Gerry Embleton, Mike Noble, Frank Bellamy – although I didn’t know their names at the time," he says. "I came to 2000AD and American comics quite late, but I instantly loved Dave Gibbons and Colin Wilson’s work.

"In addition to that, I remember in one of the 1980’s Eagle annuals there was an article about how computer games were made and that switched a light on in my head. This was quite an exciting moment for me as a young child, as it was around the time Tron came out and my family had just bought a Commodore 64, so the prospect of using computers to make pictures seemed a very real and exciting idea."

• Read the full interview here

• Check out Neil's  online gallery at: www.skinnyelbows.com and his art blog atwww.skinnyelbows.blogspot.com
 
• Read Return of the Krulius