Are you ready for Christmas?

Spring is in the air and the first batch of children's annuals cover dated 2018 are ready for pre-order on Amazon. These days, annuals are mainly for the very young end of the market, with recognisable titles from film and tv. Alas, the days of adventure annuals for the 7 to 13 age group faded away decades ago so those of us of a certain age were fortunate to experience our Lion and Smash! annuals. Still, at least there'll be Rebellion's line of graphic novel reprints to cater for a similar market soon (and for nostalgists of course).

Most of these annuals will be published around August, traditionally intended for Christmas presents (or perhaps for birthdays in the latter half of the year). The Dandy and Beano Annuals are ready for pre-order too, although no cover images have been released yet. Here's a selection of covers that have been revealed. Are you feeling festive yet? :)

A sunny day in Sheffield

I had a pleasant day at the Robot: Illustration and Creative Arts Convention yesterday. I had to get up at 5.30am for an early start but after train delays I didn't arrive until just after 10am. Fortunately, the Millennium Gallery venue was only a short walk from the station. When I arrived, there were already some people waiting for sketches so it was a matter of setting up quickly and getting right into drawing. It was good to meet artist Ed Syder, who had the table next to mine. Check out his site here:
http://cargocollective.com/edsyder

The pace slowed down as the day went on and the glorious weather may have played a part in that, but there seemed to be a constant flow of attendees visiting the event, attracting people of varied interests. As always at such shows, some were just out for a browse, but it was good to do some sketching and signings and to gain new readers for my Derek the Troll comic. 

It was great to meet up with old friends and familiar faces from the comics industry too. Good to see artist Peter Doherty looking well again after his recent spell in hospital. Also great to catch up with David Leach, Bambos Georgiou, Fiona Stephenson, Mychailo Kazybrid, and Carl Flint. 

Artist and colourist Pete Doherty.

Mychailo, Bambos, Darryl, and two young attendees.

It was a relatively short event, only running from 10am to 4pm, so afterwards, myself and David Leach, Bambos and his wife Jane, Pete Doherty, his daughter and her boyfriend had a walk to a nearby Chinese buffet bar.

100 years of comics experience between us. David Leach, Bambos Georgiou, and me.

Although I've visited Sheffield twice before for conventions on the outskirts of town, this was the first time I'd had the opportunity to stroll around the town itself, thanks to Robotcon being so central. I was very impressed with the place and I hope there's another event there next year. 

My thanks to my comic pals for being brilliant company as always, and special thanks to convention organiser Darryl Robson for inviting me and putting on the event. There's a very good video news item about it on the Sheffield Live! website that includes interviews with Darryl Robson, Mychailo Kazybrid, and Bambos Georgiou:
http://web.sheffieldlive.org/millennium-gallery-hosts-robot-con-return/

More photos from the event can be found on the convention's Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/robotconsheffield/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1872170106355040

Here's a few photos I took around Sheffield after the convention...

Prog Preview: 2000AD Prog 2024

Here's your weekly advance look at the next issue of 2000AD! On sale Wednesday! Very few of you comment on these Prog Previews which does make me wonder how many of you buy 2000AD. Are you interested in these weekly advance peeks (which usually appear before anyone else shows them) or do you skim past these posts? (And I suppose if you do skim past them you won't see the question. Hmm, if a bear falls on a cat in the woods and there's no one to hear it, is it alive or dead? Or something like that.

• UK & DIGITAL: 27 March 2017 £2.65
• NORTH AMERICA: 27 April 2017 $7.99
• DIAMOND CODE: JAN171931
• COVER: JOHN MCCREA & MIKE SPICER


In this issue:
Judge Dredd: Harvey by John Wagner (w) John McCrea (a) Mike Spicer (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)

Brink: Skeleton Life by Dan Abnett (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)

Future Shocks: Family Time by Rory McConville (w) Nick Dyer (a) Ellie De Ville (l)

Scarlet Traces: Cold War - Book 2 by Ian Edginton (w)  D'Israeli (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)

Cursed: The Fall of Deadworld by Kek-W (w) Dave Kendall (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)

Available in print from: UK newsagents and all good comic book stores via Diamond 

Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop, 2000 AD iPad app, 2000 AD Android app, 2000 AD Windows 10 app

Thunderbooks no more

©Bill Hughes, Bill Hughes Photo.

I'm sorry to hear that Blackpool's comic shop Thunderbooks is no more after nearly 30 years. It's now under new management and has been completely refurbished and renamed Infinity Comics. I wish the new owner and his shop well, but I'll definitely miss Thunderbooks. It was one of the last of the old style comic shops and I always dropped in on my visits to the seaside resort every summer. 

At least, for now, Thunderbooks still exists on Instant Street View, and you can have a virtual reality cyber-walk around the shop as it was in Summer 2012. Click on the following link for a tour...
https://www.instantstreetview.com/@53.798617,-3.050182,155.95h,-5.16p,1z,Nhqgvq_UDoCOB7HGRhxw2A

©Bill Hughes, Bill Hughes Photo

It looks like the mail order arm of Thunderbooks, Star Trader, is still trading though, and you can find their website here:

http://new.startrader.co.uk/acatalog/home.html

The Facebook page of the new Infinity Comics store is here:

https://en-gb.facebook.com/InfinityComicsUK/

Essential Doctor Who No.10

The 10th issue of The Essential Doctor Who has just been published; the thrice-yearly companion to the monthly Doctor Who Magazine. This time the theme is Robots, looking at the various Doctor Who stories that have featured such artificial intelligence over the years. 

An essential buy for Doctor Who fans to be sure, but this issue may also be of interest to comics historians. There's a feature on the Mechonoids that includes their comic strip appearances....

...and a six page article entitled Comic Strip Robots that covers robots in the numerous Doctor Who comic strips, from TV Comic to Doctor Who Magazine.

The 116 page Essential Doctor Who No.10 is published by Panini UK and is out now at £9.99.