The Prisoner returns - Bid on an exclusive cartoon!

Rumours of a remake of Patrick McGoohan's classic 1967/68 tv series The Prisoner have been circulating for many years, all of which proved to be unfounded. However, the new series is now definitely on, co-produced between ITV Productions, Granada International and AMC, the US cable network behind the critically acclaimed Mad Men. Starring Jim Caviziel (Passion of the Christ) as Number Six and Sir Ian McKellen (X-Men) as Number Two, the six part mini-series begins filming in August in Africa and is expected to premiere worldwide early in 2009. (More info at AMC's official blog: http://blogs.amctv.com/the-prisoner/)

In response to the news of the new Prisoner series, I've produced a one-off Prisoner cartoon (shown above) exclusively for the upcoming Prisoner convention PM2008 at Portmeirion, North Wales (the original location for the Sixties series). The original A4 sized artwork will be auctioned off on the day.

As with the three previous annual "PM" events, PM2008 will feature guests from the series interviewed on stage, plus screenings of related tv shows by official permission of Granada. As a bonus, this year, Fox have given official permission for a screening of The Simpsons episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" which features a Prisoner parody and includes Patrick McGoohan voicing a reprised role as Number Six.

Speaking of the man himself, although Patrick McGoohan never attends Prisoner events he has kindly donated two autographed photographs for the PM2008 auction. All profits from the event go to a very worthy cause: the Hope House Children's Hospice. So far, over £2,700 has been raised by previous "PM" conventions and The Prisoner News Website, The Unmutual.


The series' aspects of individuality versus social control have always intrigued me since I first saw the original series of The Prisoner as a child 40 years ago. I later parodied the show in several of my comic strips, the most prominent being a Combat Colin serial (Prisoners of the Place of No Return) in Marvel UK's Transformers No.244 to 248 (1989). Part one of which is shown here:


The serial appears in full (retitled Village of the Doomed) in the trade paperback Brickman Begins available from me at http://brickmancomics.tripod.com/.

If you're interested in The Prisoner old and new (and any breaking news on the new series) and you'd like to bid on the cartoon at the top of this blog entry (or any other items at the event), make your way to Portmeirion on Sunday July 13th. If you can't get to the event you can place a bid online before the convention.

Full details of PM2008 including the ticket price and timetable of events can be found here:

http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/pm2008.htm

Items in the auction
http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/pm2008auction.htm

To bid online see contact details here.

The Prisoner News Website:

http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/

Cartoon Museum to celebrate Dandy and Beano

The Cartoon Museum (35 Little Russell Street, London) is putting on an exhibition to celebrate the 70th anniversary of The Beano and The Dandy. It opens on the 30th July and runs until 2 November.

It will feature original artwork by all the greats, past and present including the following:

Leo Baxendale, Paddy Brennan, Sandy Calder, James Crighton, Hunt Emerson, Sam Fair, John Geering, Laura Howell, Ken Harrison, Jimmy Hughes, Malcolm Judge, David Law, Ken Prout, Ken Reid, David Parkins, Nigel Parkinson, Tom Paterson, Eric Roberts, David Sutherland, Kev Sutherland, Wayne Thompson, Dudley D. Watkins.

Sounds like a fantastic chance to view original art that is rarely seen outside of the DC Thomson archives! A definite "must" for all fans of British comics.

More details of the event will appear here in due course. The Cartoon Museum's website can be visited by following this link:
http://www.cartoonmuseum.org

Best of Battle is coming!

As you may know, Titan Books recently acquired the rights to reprint more Egmont comic material. The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s is already out, and there are some exciting books to come.

The Best of Battle is scheduled for October 2008: "Over 300 pages of relentless action are collected here, from the desperate dogfights of Johnny Red to the down-and-dirty Rat Pack, the reflective, critically acclaimed Charley's War and the uncompromising Hellman of Hammer Force! Created and drawn by some of the biggest names in British comics, including Pat Mills and John Wagner (co-creators of 2000AD), Joe Colquhoun ("Charley's War", "Johnny Red") and more, this is the ultimate gift for fans of blazing battle action!"

Information taken from Steve Holland's excellent blog, which is always worth checking out regularly. Steve knows his stuff, and researches his comic history very diligently. Bookmark his blog now if you haven't already: http://bearalley.blogspot.com/

Bad Wolf!

Not strictly a comic, but Doctor Who Magazine does feature a nine page Doctor Who strip every month (and it did start life as Doctor Who Weekly back in 1979 which was definitely a comic back then).

Anyway, just an excuse to give you an advance look at Doctor Who Magazine No.397 (above) which hits newsagents this coming Thursday, 26th June. As well as features on the series Dalek-dominated finalé the issue includes part three of the Doctor Who strip The Widow's Curse by Rob Davis and Martin Geraghty.

UPDATE: The above image is the design of the bag the magazine is in. This is the actual cover of this month's Doctor Who Magazine...


(Bad Wolf? Anyone familiar with the series will get the joke of course, and I suspect this will become a real collector's item amongst Whovians!)

As for the red Dalek; something never seen on tv before, but it dates back to the Technicolour Doctor Who film of 1965, the numerous toys, and of course the TV Century 21 comic strip from the same period. And with its huge head-lights the tv red Dalek looks somewhat like Ron Turner's 1966 comic version...


Here's the new BBC trailer for next Saturday's episode:

Bill Everett's Sub-Mariner returns in September

When I was a kid in the Sixties one of my favourite Marvel comics was Fantasy Masterpieces which reprinted the 1940s adventures of Captain America, Sub-Mariner and The Human Torch. Then with issue 12 FM changed its title to Marvel Super-Heroes and although it showcased a brand new strip up front, its reprint section continued with Marvel strips from the 1950s.
Marvel Super-Heroes soon shifted its focus solely on Sixties reprints, leaving us with only a taster of their 1950s material. In recent years, Marvel have rectified this with quality hardback collections in their Atlas Heroes Masterworks line, as reported on this blog here.


Come September, Marvel will publish the third and final collection of their "big three" 1950s heroes compilations with Atlas Era Heroes volume 3 featuring all 10 issues of the Fifties revival of Sub-Mariner comics. The book features artwork by Sub-Mariner's original artist Bill Everett, arguably at the peak of his career. I've always been an admirer of Everett's sharp semi-cartoony style and, since the days of Marvel Super-Heroes always wished to see more of his distinctive work.

The book will also include the Human Torch back up strips that appeared in Sub-Mariner, drawn by Dick Ayers.

As was typical of most Marvel superhero strips of the period, the stories in Atlas Era Heroes are short, simple, and largely anti-Communist, - but that's all part of the historical attraction of these comics.

For more details visit the excellent marvelmasterworks.com website that has exclusive previews of some of the digitally remastered pages:
http://www.marvelmasterworks.com/marvel/mm/atlas/heroes/heroes_mm03.html