Tripwire, Thor, Dandy, Dredd and more!

A quick round up of some titles available now...

Tripwire magazine has returned for its annual outing and it's a great issue! 124 pages covering a wide variety of media subjects including interviews with Michael Moorcock (mentioning his Tarzan and Fleetway comics work), Roger Langridge, Garen Ewing, Dave McKean, Paul Cornell, Mark Schultz and others plus features on DC Comics, Futurama, the sfx of Iron Man 2 and lots more. Editor Joel Meadows is doing a fantastic job on this and Tripwire is a maturely written, laid back magazine with clear layouts that's a pleasure to read. £6.95 UK / $9.99 US / $10.95 Canada. The issue is ready for the San Diego Comic Con this weekend (hence the cover) so if you're attending have a great show and pick up a copy there.


Judge Dredd Megazine celebrates 300 issues this month with a bumper 84 page issue. It's an admirable achievement for any comic to last so long these days, especially a UK adventure title. Within its covers (by Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague) are five new originated strips plus a host of features including the first part of a lengthy retrospective on Carlos Ezquerra. If that wasn't enough the comic comes bagged with a 64 page collection of the complete Armageddon series by Alan Grant and Ezquerra. All in all a bargain at £5.99. For more details visit:
http://www.2000adonline.com/

Fans of vintage UK comics will be pleased to hear that the latest issue of Classics from the Comics is out now (No.172) and its 64 pages include a spotlight on strips from 1956. Until several issues ago the limit on Classics' nostalgia was 1960 so it's good to see the comic venturing further into the rich archive of D.C. Thomson material. The issue is £2 but if you have difficulty finding it you can subscribe by clicking HERE.


A more recent classic is reprinted in a free 56 page comic in the latest Dandy Xtreme. Jamie Smart's My Own Genie is a brilliant compendium of his creator-owned strip and is genuinely funny. The rest of Dandy Xtreme No.3501 is a lively mix too, with work by Nigel Parkinson, Wayne Thomson, that man Smart again and others. £2.50 from newsagents.


Summer Specials may be obsolete today but D.C. Thomson have instead channeled their seaside muse into this week's Beano which is the first of six "Summer of Fun" issues. Despite the beach scene on the cover the strips themselves don't have a seaside theme but the idea is to give readers a good package for the six week holiday. This issue features five gifts including cut-out cardboard masks, a Flick-A-Disc-Shooter, and a poster of the cover of Beano No.1.

The strips include artwork by Nigel Parkinson, Hunt Emerson, Nick Brennan, Dave Sutherland, myself and others. It also features the winner of the recent Comic Idol poll, which is the funny and fast paced cat vs dog strip Meebo & Zuky by Iain McLaughlin and Laura Howell. (Si Co came a surprising third, which will no doubt please the scaremongers at the News of the World.)
The Beano No.3544 is £2.50 from newsagents.

Also out now is The Beano's "big brother" BeanoMAX, the monthly companion comic to the weekly, which is bagged with four free gifts.


Over at Egmont, the latest issue of Toxic (No.166) celebrates the summer with an inflatable giant eyeball! (A blow-up beach ball.) Other gifts include a Shrek sticker album and stickers to tie in with the movie and a pull out Shrek puzzle mag.


Inside Toxic itself, my Team Toxic strip sees the crew take their annual holiday to Skegpool with disastrous consequences for Skegpool Tower. Other strips in this issue include Robin Hoodie by Laura Howell.


More humour, but of an adult nature, in the latest edition of Khaki Shorts, the A5 sized small press comic. The irreverent funnymag has now notched up 25 issues and copies of the self-proclaimed "finger tingling, lip licking, back slapping, chop busting bonanza" can be yours for a mere pound plus postage from:
http://www.badpressltd.com/buy-evil.php
or: http://www.myspace.com/khakishorts


Want more barmy comedy? Check out The Carrotty Kid, a brilliantly funny web-strip by Andy Fanton. This is destined for greatness, I can feel it in me ink.
http://www.carrottykid.com/


Across the Atlantic the current issue of Thor features the artwork of an artist who'll be familiar to readers of Sonic the Comic and 2000AD. It's Richard Elson proving himself to be a natural for Marvel. By the power of Odin, Thor No.611 is $2.99 (about £2.25 in UK comic shops).


Finally, the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine (No.425) is out this week, featuring news, interviews and reviews and a brand new comic strip.