Two UK comics to close

Cover of No.8 from the DC Thomson website.

I'm very sorry to hear that both D.C. Thomson's Danger Mouse and Panini UK's Doctor Who Adventures are to cease publication with their current issues. (Danger Mouse with No.12, and DWA with No.24). Both were excellent magazines, with originated comic strips and features. I really thought they would last longer but the children's market is a very competitive area, with numerous titles packed into the shelves, fighting for attention.

There is hope that both might return though. I understand Danger Mouse ended because of its short-term licensing contract, so I suppose it's possible it might be renewed one day. Likewise, Panini say that Doctor Who Adventures is only on hiatus, so perhaps that will be revived when the new series of Doctor Who begins on TV later next year.

For more about the DWA hiatus, see John Freeman's report on the Down the Tubes blog:
http://downthetubes.net/?p=38607

Here comes STRAX!

Panini's junior Doctor Who title Doctor Who Adventures adds a new comics page this month with the arrival of humour strip The Adventures of Strax and the Time Shark featuring the Sontaran from recent seasons of the Doctor Who TV series. The full pager is written and drawn by Grant Perkins, who also contributes a two page puzzle spread Strax's Holiday Snaps.

Plus the magazine also features the regular nine-page 12th Doctor strip of course and the three page prose story, plus various features, pin-ups and puzzles. To find out more, see the report on Down the Tubes at this link:
http://downthetubes.net/?p=30906

More info about Grant Perkins' work at his website:
https://www.patreon.com/thegrantperkins?ty=h

Doctor Who Adventures No.14, in the shops now!

This week's UK comics (Updated)

Another bunch of comics have arrived in newsagents this week. First up is Thunderbirds Are Go No.5 from DC Thomson. Admittedly some people don't consider this a comic as it's mostly photo strips from screen grabs of the episodes. However in that case it's closer to the Italian fumetti, which they consider to be comics so that's good enough for me. I only wish they'd create new stories by using screen grabs from different episodes, as I did for Egmont's CiTV Tellytots magazine years ago.

This month's issue continues its line of free Thunderbirds models and this time it's the new Thunderbird 5 which comes as a little four section kit to clip together. Next month presents a free Thunderbird S model, which I'm sure will be very collectable. 

Also from DC Thomson of course is the latest Beano, No.3820, with 36 pages packed with all-new fun from top creators such as Nigel Parkinson, Laura Howell, Hunt Emerson, Paul Palmer, David Sutherland, and many more. 

2000AD Prog 1966 continues its line up of strips that began in the Christmas issue. A striking cover by Neil Roberts this week. There's some fantastic work on view in this comic these days proving that today's artists can easily hold their own against the veteran greats of the past. Richard Elson's artwork on Kingdom continues to impress me more every week.

Doctor Who Magazine No.496 should please fans of brilliant cartoonist Roger Langridge as it contains a new 12 page strip, Theatre of the Mind, written and drawn by him. (There's also my regular Daft Dimension strip in there too.) 

There's also a new issue of Doctor Who Adventures (No.11) out now, with more brilliant artwork by Russ Leach.

The Phoenix No.214 is also out now. You'll find issues in WH Smith and selected branches of Waitrose and Waterstones. There's some cracking talent in its pages including Jamie Smart, James Turner, and Long Gone Don by the Etherington Brothers.

On the reprint front, there's Marvel Legends No.18 from Panini, The Flash No.5,  Batman Gotham Central No.1, and Batman/Superman No.14 (now monthly) from Titan Comics. 

Also available is the latest volume of the DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection from Eaglemoss. This time it's a nice hardback of JLA: Earth 2 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, originally published in the USA 16 years ago.

The back up in the book is a reprint of The Flash of Two Worlds; the first meeting of The Flash with his Golden Age Earth 2 counterpart from way back in 1961. There's also a few bonus features, making this a very nice collection indeed. I picked up my copy from WH Smith but you'll also find it in Asda and elsewhere. 

All the above are available in newsagents (limited to WH Smith in the case of The Phoenix). However, on sale in comic shops right now is the 4th issue of Johnny Red from Titan Comics. Another splendid issue by Garth Ennis and Keith Burns, with a guest cover by Kev Walker. 

As far as digital comics go, this week's Aces Weekly awaits you in cyberspace. Visit http://www.acesweekly.co.uk and subscribe at only £6.99 for 7 weekly issues!

There may even be more British comics out now but the above are the ones that I bought or that sprang to mind. Most comics are monthly or 4-weekly now of course, which means there'll be several different titles out next week, the week after and so on. And this doesn't even cover any new independent comics and graphic novels that may have been published this month. Are British comics dead? Not on your nellie! 

The Christmas DOCTOR WHO ADVENTURES

Out today is the 9th issue of Panini UK's Doctor Who Adventures, which has a festive touch to several features. Admittedly the bag (above) isn't Christmassy but open it up and the cover of the magazine reveals snow on the logo and more of a seasonal feel.

Inside the mag, there's the regular 9 page Doctor Who comic strip with script by Tommy Donbavand and superb art by the regular illustrator Russ Leach (with John Burns on colours). 

There's also the regular three page text story featuring The Paternoster Gang, written by James Peaty with illustrations by Russ Leach.

Festive features include a retrospective of past Doctor Who Christmas episodes, puzzles, activity pages, and a game...

There's also two free gifts; a Dalek Blaster and a fantastic giant Dalek poster, exclusive to this magazine and illustrated by Paul Collicut.

Doctor Who Adventures is a great comic magazine for younger fans of the show and well worth buying if you have kids or are interested in the current UK comics scene. Panini have really improved on the title since taking it over nine months ago, with editor Jason Quinn adding more strip pages, a text story, and better feature pages. Issue 9 is in the shops now, priced £3.99. 

Mega busy MCM show

I had a good day at the MCM London Comic Con yesterday. A massive show with a huge attendance (rumoured to be 100,000) with visitors of all ages. The great thing about modern conventions is there's a much better balance of male and female attendees these days. Comic and cult media shows are no longer mainly the domain of the male 'geek' and the occasional female fan or bored girlfriend as they were 30 years ago. There are many young women now who are as passionate about comics and sf as their male counterparts, and this applies to the creatives as well as the fans. Whatever changed things (and I suspect it was mainly Manga, Animie, and stronger female characters in comics and sf) it's done the comics community a power of good. 

I spent the day at Panini's Doctor Who tables, doing a few sketches. It was great to see Tom Spilsbury (my editor on Doctor Who Magazine), Scott Gray (Panini editor and writer), and Jason Quinn (writer/editor of Doctor Who Adventures), and to meet Russ Leach (artist, Doctor Who Adventures, see his Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/The-Art-of-Russ-Leach-295669653824411/) and John Ainsworth (editor, Doctor Who The Complete History). A few other Doctor Who folk dropped by too, including artist Rachael Stott, showrunner Steven Moffat, director Rachel Talalay, writer Sarah Dollard, and even 7th Doctor Sylvester McCoy. 

Editors Scott Gray and Tom Spilsbury.

Artist Russ Leach, with editor Jason Quinn looking on.

Next door, in Panini's Marvel booth were editors Brady Webb and Ed Hammond who had brisk trade on the Marvel graphic novels. One thing that occurred to me was where were all the other mainstream UK comics publishers? There were many families in attendance and this would have been the perfect opportunity for D.C. Thomson to promote their new Thunderbirds Are Go comic and the latest Beano and Dandy annuals, or for Egmont to promote Toxic and their other magazines. (Update: D.C. Thomson were at a different event on the same day, so fair enough.)

To infinity and beyond!

One drawback to being at a con is you don't get much exercise sitting behind a table so I took a few breaks to walk around the massive hall and take some shots of other guests...

Mighty Grant Perkins was there, showcasing some of his excellent artwork. Check out his website here: 
http://www.thegrantperkins.com/

Grant Perkins.

Very nice to see Paulina Vassileva again. A fantastic artist who often attends these shows. Visit her website here: http://pauscorpi.daportfolio.com/ 
and follow her on Twitter here:
https://twitter.com/pauscorpi?lang=en-gb

Paulina Vassileva.

Time Bomb Comics had a stand, with publisher Steve Tanner launching the latest book, Bomb Scares 2015. (Which I'll review on this blog later this week.) See their website here, and support British indie comics:
http://www.timebombcomics.com/

Steve Tanner.

It was great to see Rachael Smith again, one of the top new comics talents of recent years with a very appealing style. I'll be reviewing her new book, The Rabbit, soon. Visit her blog here: 
http://rachaelsmithillustration.blogspot.co.uk/

Rachael Smith.

I also had a quick chat with writer Tony Lee, artist Gary Erskine, and a few other comic pals, and it was good to finally meet artist Lynne Triplett, whose Far From Faith comic I'll show here soon. 

This was my first visit to an MCM London show. It's quite a trek getting there by train as it's about half an hour or more on the tube from Euston, but shows like this and the London Film and Comic Con attract so many people they have to use huge 'out of town' venues to accommodate everyone. There were also other conventions around the country on the same weekend, as there are nearly every weekend these days, and they're also well attended, so it's clear to see that the interest in comics and sf/fantasy media is growing exponentially. Long may it continue!

Doctor Who Magazine website:
http://www.doctorwhomagazine.com/

Panini Comics website:
http://www.paninicomics.co.uk/web/guest/home

Into the time vortex

The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine is out today, with another 84 pages of great material. Amongst the many features there's the regular 12 page comic strip of course, with part two of Spirits of the Jungle by Jonathan Morris and John Ross (with colours by James Offredi). Anyone who believes the myth that British comics don't have the standard of artwork they used to needs to look at this. Fantastic work by John Ross.

There's also another Daft Dimension strip by me, in which you'll meet this trio...

Plus illustrations for The Time Team feature by Adrian Salmon...

Doctor Who Magazine No.490 is in the shops today, priced £4.99.

Let's not forget DWM's companion mag for younger readers. Doctor Who Adventures No.5 came out last week with 36 pages of stories, features, and fun, plus free gifts. 

There's a complete 9 page comic strip featuring the 12th Doctor and Clara in Trust by Jason Quinn and Russ Leach...

...plus a three page text story featuring The Paternoster Gang. 

Doctor Who Adventures No.5, out now, £3.99.

Support UK comics!

New Adventures for the Doctor

As reported here a few weeks ago, Panini UK now have the licence to publish Doctor Who Adventures, a magazine previously published by Immediate Media Ltd. Panini's new version launched today with a new first issue.

Doctor Who Adventures is pitched at a younger target reader than Panini's long-running Doctor Who Magazine. The contents of DWA had previously been very lightweight, mostly featuring puzzle pages and pin-ups, and, frankly, quite a breezy read. Panini's revamp, edited by Jason Quinn, retains a few puzzle pages and pin-ups but offers the readers better value for money with more story pages and interesting features. 

Previously, DWA had just featured a 4 page Doctor Who strip. The revamp increases it to a 9 page strip plus a three page text story. For a kids magazine to include 12 pages of fiction these days is quite impressive. The articles also offer a bit more to read than before, and there's a good science feature on how to make a battery out of lemons and coins. Don't get me wrong; DWA is still not as sophisticated as Countdown was, but it's a welcome step in the right direction away from magazines that dumb down (or 'young up' as one editor called it). 

Good quality free gifts too, with plastic framed 3-D glasses, a note pad, and plenty of stickers. 

A few days ago, John Freeman's Down the Tubes website featured an interview with DWA editor/writer Jason Quinn and you can read that here:
http://downthetubes.net/?p=21447

Doctor Who Adventures No.1, 36 pages, out now, £3.99.

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Also from Panini UK today, The Incredible Hulks No.14 is a good 'jumping on point' with the start of a new Hulk saga and the return of the She-Hulk in a new series. 

And what may interest long-time readers is that the back up strip is a reprint of X-Men No.66 from 1970. The story will be serialized across three issues in seven page episodes, just like Fantastic used to do back in 1968. Good to see some classic material again. 

The Incredible Hulks No.14, 76 pages, £3.50.

(Yes, it's not a typo. The comic is indeed using the plural Hulks, - because it features more than one Hulk. Yeah, irritating I know, as it's the character's name. It's as daft as if they had a comic called Thors. Well, I'm afraid Marvel in America are doing just that with Thors No.1 out soon! With more than one Cap around now can Captain Americas be far behind?)