Bear Alley

• 15 May. In the wake of the problems at Diamond Distributors, Rebellion has signed a deal with Lunar Distribution in addition to their deal with Diamond Distributors which will expand their reach in the US Direct Market. Selected titles will begin appearing in Lunar's catalogues from June. Meanwhile, Universal Distribution and Ad Populum have completed their acquisition of Diamond Comic Distributors and assets. Rumours of massive layoffs have begun circulating.
• 13 May. Congratulations to Jamie Smart, whose Bunny vs Monkey was the joint winner in the Audiobook Fiction section of the Bookseller's British Book Awards. "Jamie Smart also takes the crown in this category for Bolinda's “breathtaking” audio adaptation of his anarchic comic book, Bunny vs Monkey. The iconic duo are brought to life by voiceover artist Ciaran Saward, who infuses his narration with all the energy and verve of Smart’s text. Our judges were blown away by the “effort, skill and detail” to transform Smart’s comic into an audiobook, declaring it a "fantastic” triumph of ingenuity. Bolinda collaborated closely with Smart to distil the essence of his comic panels into key sounds and phrases that would capture both the action and the characters’ personalities in audio format. The result is an immersive audio experience that successfully translates the joy and chaos of the print edition."
• 11 May. P. Craig Russell discusses the title page of Elric The Dreaming City, the 1980 Marvel graphic novel based on the Elric saga by Michael Moorcock. The page is to be auctioned in June.
• 10 May. Interview: Hunt Emerson, who will be attending Lawless: "I’ll have my books for sale, along with a file of artwork, and some prints. I’ll be happy to do sketches, though previous experience is that I don’t draw the sort of characters people want. I never know what Wolverine or Deadpool or whoever look like..."
• 10 May. Interview: Liam Sharp. "I’m always very slightly reticent around the question of how long a piece of art takes, because the value in art shouldn’t have any kinds of bias based on the perception of effort. Kirby could do four pages a day. Don Lawrence would spend sometimes two weeks or more on a page. It’s a little bit of a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question..."
• 10 May. Andrew Knighton offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at his latest issue of Commando. "Issues of Commando are written up to a year in advance, so that there’s plenty of time for the editing, art, and everything else that’s involved in creating a comic. That means I don’t write them close to the anniversaries, when everyone else is talking about them. So 79 years after Operation Plunder rolled into action, I started on “Operation Write About Operation Plunder”, which eventually led to this story…"
• 9 May. We mentioned some while ago that Darryl Cunningham had found it impossible to find a UK publisher for his biography Elon Musk—American Oligarch... well, he has one now and Seven Stories Press will publish the book in September.
  
• 6 May. Alan Moore is interviewed by smoky man about writing, magic, politics... everything you'd expect from an Alan Moore interview. "If I understand the subject correctly, magic begins hundreds of thousands of years ago with some clumsiness involving a potato."
• 1 May. An interview with Dandy and Beano artist Andy Fanton on the  eve of him attending Portsmouth Comic Con. "It’s still wild to me that anyone would be traveling to see me! I don’t feel particularly legendary on a day-to-day business, unless we’re talking about legends being old and ancient, in which case bang on!"
• 30 Apr. The modernist aesthetic of Tove Jansson's Moomin comic strip. "As Elina Drucker has documented, Jansson was among a number of Nordic authors of formally innovative experimental picture books, including Egon Møller-Nielsen and Egon Mathiesen. For these artists, picture books presented an opportunity to test the boundaries between media."
• 29 Apr. Just when you thought the whole Diamond Comic Distributors Chapter 11 saga could have no more twists, Alliance filed a notice that they were "terminating the previously executed Asset Purchase Agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Diamond." No reason was given. Diamond had previously made it clear they preferred the offer from another source, Universal Distribution and Ad Populum, and that offer has now [see here] be taken up. Meanwhile, a trustee in Diamond's bankruptcy case has filed a motion asking the judge to convert the case to a Chapter 7 liquidation or dismiss the Chapter 11 case. And. just to add to the chaos, Alliance is now suing  Diamond for fraud and deception, saying they hid the fact that an agreement to distribute product from Wizards of the Coast was about to end.

• 22 Apr. Titan Comics is asking for clarity over their contract with Diamond Comic Distributors, who have recently been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and have now been purchased by Alliance Entertainment. Rich Johnson has the details.
  
• 21 Apr. Neil Gaiman is suing Caroline Wallner, one of his accusers in recent sexual assault allegations, over breaking her NDA relating to a payment Gaiman made to her (reportedly $275,000) in exchange for her silence about his alleged misconduct.
• 17 Apr. Comicbook Couples Counseling Podcast has a special guest to help it celebrate Superman's 87th birthday. It's Grant Morrison. "We're positively chuffed to chat Superman with Grant Morrison. We discuss their approach to the character in All-Star Superman and how it differs from the version they wrote in JLA, Action Comics, Final Crisis, and other stories." (audio, 1h 19m)
• 16 Apr. The sale price being asked for a Frank Quitely Superman cover is causing some argument over the value of art. Nick Pitarra argues: "I think this All-Star Superman trade cover not only says it all, it ends the conversation. When Grant and Vin wrapped their acclaimed run, Vin drew one final image—crystallizing their story and Superman forever. This image."
• 16 Apr. Anderson Entertainment have announced a timeline for the 60th anniversary celebrations for Thunderbirds, which includes two volumes collecting the entirety of the comic strip that appeared in TV Century 21, with restored artwork and additional features. Thunderbirds Comic Anthology Volume 1 will be available to pre-order in June with Volume 2 following in October. A series under the title Thunderbirds: Hidden Dangers, will begin in September, telling new stories in various formats, including novels and comic strips.
• 15 Apr. The world's oldest comic, the Glasgow Looking-Glass, has its 200th anniversary celebrated in a new exhibition at the Mitchell Library between 1 May and 31 July. John Freeman's report also covers news of a Kickstarter for a New Glasgow Looking-Glass comic.
• 13 Apr. Peter Richardson on the origins of 'Annie Droid', the newspaper strip he wrote for Ian Gibson that appeared in The Times in 1998-2000. "I soon realised that Ian wanted as little input from me as possible on “Annie Droid”. To put it bluntly, he was extremely underwhelmed by my drawing abilities and seemed to resent that I was able to make a comfortable living from my illustration."
• 12 Apr. The Baltimore Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Court has issued an order that approves the purchase agreement between Alliance Entertainment and Diamond Comics, Alliance recognised as the winners of an asset auction in March. A bid by Universal Distribution and Ad Populum earlier this month was dismissed, which should now end Diamond's four months in Chapter 11. Diamond Comic Distributors (popularly known as Diamond UK) is a subsidiary of the American company.
• 11 Apr. Carlos Ezquerra discusses his work on designing Judge Dredd in an old interview. just as Heritage Auctions offers the artwork for sale. "The eagle was in part inspired by the Harley Davidson image attached to the page. The Eagle is the national bird of America, but it is also the fascist symbol of Franco as well as other fascist orders like Mussolini’s Italy and Nazi Germany. And of course, Rome. This is also why Dredd’s suit is black, it’s symbolic"
• 7 Apr. The meticulous art of Roy Wilson is celebrated over at downthetubes. "I think there are two striking things here. Firstly, how any one of these panels would have been absolutely fine to use, but still he saw something he didn’t like in each and started again from scratch."
• 4 Apr. John Wagner and Dan Cornwell discuss Spector, the last strip drawn by Carlos Ezquerra which appeared in 2000AD and is shortly to be collected by Rebellion.Cornwell: "Take Robocop and have it written by John Wagner, add some Wagner action, dialogue, scene setting and humour and you know you’re onto a winner."
• 4 Apr. John Freeman has a round-up of recent news items on his Substack page.
• 4 Apr. The next issue of Judge Dredd Megazine will drop its page count from 128 to 96 and refocus on new material.  An email sent out to subscribers says: "...we’re retooling the Megazine to focus on its core mission of publishing new and exciting comics. Starting from April’s issue #479, the number of pages in each issue will reduce, however the number of pages of new comics will remain exactly the same.
• 26 Mar. Wordballoon talks to Bryan Hitch about Redcoat and Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor. (video, 2h 30m)
• 23 Mar. Alan Moore looks back at the Art's Lab and how it was revived in Northampton ten years ago. "The precarious scaffolding on which I climbed to my career – underground publications, Arts Labs, fanzines, music weeklies, local newspapers – is mostly vanished, with art education cut back to the bone, leaving those who might have a hankering to paint, or write, or act, or to perform their music, or to make a film, pretty much out of options."
• 15 Mar. Gail Simone has revealed that her brief run on The Legion was not intended to bring the series to an end, and she believed she was just standing in to give Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning a break. "That editor is long since gone but that was a really mean thing to do to the regular creative team. And it was the first time I'd ever been manipulated like that."
• 10 Mar. British cartoonist R.E. (Becky) Burke has been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during her four-month backpacking trip around North America. She tried to cross the border into Canada on February 26, but was denied entry due to a visa issue. Returning to the US, she was arrested as an illegal alien and has been held in detention in Tacoma, Washington. Her father has written an urgent appeal (available at the second link). "Burke is known in the comics community, setting up at Thought Bubble, writing for Broken Frontier and making some pretty good comics." An update has revealed that her troubles began when she mentioned at the Canadian border that she was staying with a family "in exchange for doing light household duties", which constituted work under the letter of the law. UPDATE: Becky has now been safely returned to the UK.
• 5 Mar. More on the Neil Gaiman allegations as he tries to have the court dismiss the case. "[His accuser, Scarlett] Pavlovich filed her lawsuit to district courts in Wisconsin, New York and Massachusetts; Gaiman filed the motion to dismiss in Wisconsin."
• 3 Mar. Frank Quitely has been drawing a series of illustrations based on myth for Bowmore since 2021 which are used across labels and boxes for their whisky
• 25 Feb. Geek Retrospective has an interview with Mike Collins who "has worked for some of the biggest names in comic publishing (Marvel, DC Comics, and 2000 AD). He has illustrated such characters as Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Judge Dredd, Sláine, and Rogue Trooper. As well as a series based on Star Trek, Doctor Who, Transformers, Zoids and… Well the list goes on and on!" (video, 46m)
• 24 Feb. Bill Morrison has posted a fascinating article about the highs and lows of his adaptation of Yellow Submarine (Titan, 2018), first mooted for publication on the film's 30th anniversary, later expanded for the 50th anniversary and still missing pages from a planned expanded version. "I decided that if I could make certain pages of the book resemble psychedelic posters in their design, I might be able to create an adaptation of Yellow Submarine that would be faithful, but also offer Beatles fans something new and exciting."
• 18 Feb. A look at Steven Appleby's latest exhibition. "Steven has had many solo shows but this is the biggest to date and covers all aspects over such a long and varied career."
• 16 Feb. Keir Starmer has said that his favourite "book" was Roy of the Rovers, while visiting a Ukrainian school. "It's a fabulous book—well known in Anfield. I love football, so all my books are about football."
• 16 Feb. Want to know some of the financial details about Diamond Comic Distributors (UK), formerly Titan Distributors... their 62 staff distribute comics and other goods to 400 accounts in the UK, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. More at Rich Johnson's Bleeding Cool website.
• 15 Feb. Martin Rowson explains why he is cutting back on his committments to The Guardian and announces a new subscription service to obtain prints of his cartoons. "Given that half the UK’s national daily newspapers now no longer publish a daily political cartoon, the Guardian’s commitment to and support for cartoons needs acknowledging, as does their quiet nurturing of new and diverse cartooning talent."
• 14 Feb. Forbidden Planet has bought out Mega City Comics from retiring Martin Kravetz. The Camden Town store will close briefly for a refit before reopening in a few week's time as Forbidden Planet Camden.
• 13 Feb. The Comics Journal's Tom Shapira looks at the collaborations of Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows, who have worked together on The Punisher, Ribbon Queen and 303. "These comics are as grimly written and they are drawn, some of them are the closest approximation I’ve seen on the comics page to Cormac McCarthy."
• 12 Feb. Tripwire interviews Pat Mills about his new Great War comic, Ragtime Soldier, currently a Kickstarter project. "The name Ragtime Soldier comes from how the British soldiers sang, ‘We are Fred Karno’s Army, The Ragtime Infantry, we cannot fight, we cannot shoot, what earthly use are we?’ They sang it to the hymn The Church’s One Foundation!  That’s so Monty Python! Fred Karno was the king of slapstick and promoter of Charlie Chaplin."
• 6 Feb. The fallout from Diamond Distributors going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy has affected deliveries to Diamond UK (which is unconnected and a going concern); a deal is now in place with Image, who are exclusively distributed by Lunar in the US. However, Diamond will no longer carry titles by Mad Cave Studios or TwoMorrows, who are also distributed by Lunar. The latter in particular is a pain in the bum as they publish quite a few decent magazines and reference books like AlterEgo and The Jack Kirby Collector. Rich Johnson has more.
• 3 Feb. After months of allegations, a civil lawsuit has been filed against Neil Gaiman, suing him on counts of rape, human trafficking and more by a former nanny, Scarlett Pavlovich. The lawsuit also names Amanda Palmer for her role in "procuring" Pavlovich. I would suggest that you think carefully before you read the 28-page complaint, which is graphic and detailed.
• 31 Jan. Variety has confirmed that the second season of the Netflix series The Sandman will be the last. Episodes are set for 2025 release. DC Comics subsequently announced that they were cancelling the released of a facsimile edition of Sandman #8 (first appearance of Death)
• 30 Jan. Another day, another cancellation for Neil Gaiman. Today its news that his UK agent, Casarotto Ramsay has dropped him. "Gaiman's profile was quietly scrubbed from Casarotto Ramsay & Associates’ website, meaning he no longer appears on pages listing its film, TV, and theatre clients." It has also been confirmed that Gaiman will not benefit financially from the Kickstarter project to turn Good Omens into a graphic novel. Coleen Doran has also issued an update.
• 30 Jan. Rich Johnson reports that Titan Comics has joined the Committee of Unsecured Creditors for Diamond Comic Distributors' bankruptcy. According to Johnson, Titan are owned half a million dollars by Diamond.
• 29 Jan. Tripwire magazine interviews Liam Sharp about the future of Starhenge. "I didn’t do it for a mainstream audience, I did it for a Liam Sharp audience. But you never know what’s going to land until it either does or doesn’t fly." Sharp has a Substack newsletter where you can learn more.
  
• 29 Jan. More fallout from the accusations against Neil Gaiman: a stage adaptation of Coraline that was to debut in April has been cancelled. "We have decided our production of Coraline – a Musical will not proceed. After careful consideration, we feel it would be impossible to continue in the context of the allegations against its original author."
  
• 26 Jan. Dark Horse have cut ties with Neil Gaiman over the sexual abuse allegations that have been in the news lately. This means their Anansi Boys adaptation will come to an end. "Dark Horse takes seriously the allegations against Neil Gaiman and we are no longer publishing his works. Confirming that the Anansi Boys comic series and collected volume have been cancelled.”
  
• 15 Jan. Book For Keeps has an interview (by Paul Gravett) with Jamie Smart. "I was exceedingly lucky growing up in the 1980s, when I could go into a newsagents and buy loads of different comics. But then we abandoned the kids in the 1990s and early 2000s, because publishers wanted to turn their comics into magazines."
  
• 13 Jan. The New York Magazine has a lengthy article about the accusations made against Neil Gaiman, up to and including graphic allegations of sexual assault. More accusers have come forward since the story broke in July, so I'd seriously suggest caution if you follow the link. The Beat has a summary of the accusations and also Gaiman's response.
• 11 Jan. The new Doctor Who Panel to Panel podcast has been interviewing contributors to Doctor Who Magazine over the past few months, including Dez Skinn, Adrian Salmon and Martin Geraghty.
  
• 10 Jan. A new interview, this time with Liam Sharp about Starhenge. "The premise is that in the deep future there is a galactic battle going on between the sentient living worlds, and the CAST, which are AI robots that regard life as a scourge upon the natural order of things - pretty much a virus - so they want to wipe out all life."
  
• 10 Jan. Also from the archive, an interview with Martin Asbury. "I had had a spell in hospital when I was a kid, and I think it was my mum who gave me some large pulp reprints of, especially, Tarzan by Burne Hogarth. These just blew me away, and from that moment on I wanted to draw and wanted to draw comics especially."
  
• 9 Jan. From the archive, an interview with Mike Noble. "For the Gerry Anderson series, I gave the characters more realism than the puppets on TV, which the editor wanted – after all, it was worth taking advantage of the flexibility of drawing over the constraints imposed by the TV screen."
  
• 7 Jan. Encore – The Art of Liam Sharp Exhibition opened in Madeira at the Centro Cultural e de Investigação do Funchal in December and runs until 18 Feb. Curated by Roberto Macedo Alves of local comic publisher Sétima Dimensão, it features 71 pieces including original art. "The exhibition’s goal is to celebrate Liam Sharp’s creativity and highlight the breadth and depth of his work, a creator internationally recognised for his groundbreaking work in comics. The display balances his commercially successful projects for Marvel and DC with his independent, experimental, and creator-owned endeavours."
• 6 Jan. Posy Simmonds MBE was crowned winner of Angoulême International Comics Festival (FIBD) 2024’s Grand Prix. Now she has an exhibition called Posy Simmonds. Herself. which will celebrate her work once more during the 52nd edition of the FIBD Jan 30–Feb 2. "Angoulême is the great Mecca for comics and the French love of bandes dessinées is terrific. So, of course, I'm really pleased and honoured that they like my work."
• 3 Jan. Entertainment Weekly interviews Alan Moore. "I conceive of what we call reality as having two major components, at least for us sentient human beings. There is the physical world, where we do physical things like hitting our shin on a door edge, but we equally exist in the world of the mind."
  
• 3 Jan. Bryan Talbot talks about his new graphic novel, The Legend of Luther Arkwright. "It must be hard now for readers to imagine what the US and UK comic world was like back in the late 70s when, except for the relatively few underground publications, comics were produced solely for a young adolescent target audience. The vast majority were bland, repetitive fare. There  was no blood, no swearing, no sex, no politics, religion, philosophy etc etc. There were no equivalents to adult novels and films in comics. That’s what I tried to do."
  
• 1 Jan. As Tintin enters the public domain in the USA, Rich Johnson covers the first of what might be many modern revivals in Fabrice Sapolsky's The Big Lie.
  
• 1 Jan 2025. The Beat takes a look back over the past year in 2000AD, reviewing a year of of Progs from 2024.
• 26 Dec. Mail on Sunday cartoonist Stan 'Mac' McMurtry wins the Oldie's Lead in his Pencil Award. The Oldie of the Year win is also celebrated by MailOnline. "Receiving his special ‘old lead in his pencil’ honour at a ceremony in London, Mac said: ‘You’ve made an oldie feel very much a youngie.’"
  
• 25 Dec. Dave Gibbons' Christmas Day Message. "In FP's answer to the annual UK Royal Christmas Message, Andrew Sumner is joined [by] his old pal Dave Gibbons, to talk about many festive things, including: Dave's recent status as a freshly-minted grandfather; Dave's wonderful Illustrated memoir (CONFABULATION!); [and] his all-new book EARLY GIGS: UNDERGROUND COMICS 1970-1973 (collecting the comics that Dave cut his teeth on)"
• .... a year old, but here's an interview with Dave Gibbons about his career, from teaching himself to draw to becoming Britain's Comics' Laureate.
  
• 23 Dec Forbidden Planet TV interviews Michael Moorcock about Saga Press's new edition of the Von Bek stories, Titan's recent archive editions of Moorcock's Multiverse, and to announce an upcoming graphic novel version of The Warhound and the World's Pain.
  
• 23 Dec. Tripwire interviews David Roach. "The image that sticks in mind the most is a Sanjulian Christmas cover that appeared on Creepy #59, featuring Santa with a large bloody axe…once seen never forgotten!"
  
• 17 Dec. Forbidden Planet have posted footage of the recent Battle Action signing with Garth Ennis, John Macrea, Rob Williams, Keith Burns, Torunn Grønbekk and Steve White. (video, 17m)
  
• 6 Dec. Winners of the 2024 Ellwood Atfield Political Cartoon of the Year. Jeremy Banx was named Pocket Cartoonist of the Year.
  
• 5 Dec. Virtual Memories has an interview with Eddie Campbell, talking about his new book Kate Carew: America's First Great Woman Cartoonist  "which explores turn-of-the-(20th)-century artist, cartoonist, illustrator, caricaturist, interviewer & journalist Kate Carew. We get into how Eddie discovered Kate’s work while researching The Goat-Getters, how Kate wound up interviewing the  likes of Mark Twain, Picasso, the Wright Brothers, and other celebs (& non-celebs) of her time... and why he had to pull a page from this book due to a complaint from the printer. " (1h 27m)
  
• 26 Nov. Cartoonist Steve Bell unveils a new exbibition at the London Cartoon Museum, showcasing 40 years of King Charles III cartoons, styled like the Bayeux Tapestry. A walkthrough of The Windsor Tapestry on its private view night is available at the link. (5m)
• 21 Nov. Paul Gravett is "the man at the crossroads " according to Eddie Campbell. The Robots from Tomorrow podcast interviews Gravett about the touring exhibition 'Asian Comics: Evolution of an Art Form'. (1h 7m)
  
• 21 Nov. Bryan Talbot's Grandville: Force Majeure has been shortlisted as an official selection of the Festival international de la bande dessinée d’Angoulême. Full list of nominees at Down the Tubes (just follow the link above).
• 17 Nov. Alan Moore on life, nuclear war and the coming AI apolcalypse.
• 16 Nov. Fans of Hilda rejoice, Luke Pearson has just published a new book about Hilda and Twig. Here he talks about the end of the animated series and how this left something missing from his life. "I just had this strong feeling of I don’t actually want to be done with this."
  
• 13 Nov. Who's afraid of Elon Musk? English language publishers, that's who... according to Darryl Cunningham, whose  book, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter has only been published in France. "I’m told that there was interest from various international publishers at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, but there was concern over possible legal consequences. This shouldn’t be a problem as I was careful not to write anything that hadn’t already been published elsewhere and Delcourt’s lawyers examined every word and line for problems. Nevertheless, we live now in a climate of fear where the worst people have immense power, and because of this there’s going to be a tendency for individuals, institutions, businesses, and the state to run for cover." The Guardian have subsequently picked up the story.
• 13 Nov. Mike Moorcock, who hates nostalgia, looks back on 60 years since he took over New Worlds in 1964. (43m)
  
• 11 Nov. It's Millartime... that's Mark Millar and he's talking to John McShane, comic shop owner and an important figure in Scottish comic culture. (video, 1h 14m)
• 6 Nov. Mark Baumgarten, Vicky Jakubowski and Ben Cullis chat to Pat Mills on the latest episode of MarkWHO77 about his upcoming kickstarter, Sha!, and his 50-year career. (video, 1h 20m)
  
• 6 Nov. Book Palace are to publish a collection of sample strips produced by John M. Burns and John Dakin over a period of 15 years.  JMB: The Unseen Art of John M. Burns is 68 pages and includes the 25-page unfinished epic 'A Surfeit of Assassins'.
  
• 4 Nov. Scott Edelman feasts on fish and chips with Paul Cornell on his latest Eating the Fantastic podcast. "We discuss where he stands on the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby debate, how his UK mind was blown the first time he saw a U.S. issue of The Avengers, why fannish history fascinates him, the reason he went the self-funding route for Who Killed Nessie (and what that did to his blood pressure), how some of his Doctor Who fan fiction eventually became canon, the reason he's suspicious of nostalgia, how he knows when ideas pop into his head which of his many projects they're right for, the legacy comics characters he'd love to write more of, what he learned from the great Terrance Dicks, how he manages to collaborate while remaining friends with his co-creators, his fascination with Charles Fort, why he announced there'd be no more Doctor Who in his future, and much more." (1h 8m)
  
• 3 Nov. Questions, questions: was Bernie Jaye the first British female writer for Marvel?  Or is it Alison Sampson, whose upcoming She-Devils project will appear in 2025? Rich Johnson sets out the arguments.
  
• 26 Oct. Alan Moore ponders on fandom, superheros and Trump. "The only thing uniting the assembly was its passion for an undervalued storytelling medium and, for the record, the consensus verdict of the gathered 15-year-old cognoscenti was that costumed musclemen were the main obstacle preventing adult audiences from taking comics seriously."
  
• 24 Oct. Good Omens will no longer have a third season, but will be ending with a 90-minute episode. Neil Gaiman is stepping back and will no longer be involved with the production in order for it to go forward and conclude the story. Filming will begin in Scotland next year. The Hollywood Reporter also reports that Anansi Boys has completed production nad is likely to be some time in 2025.
  
• 23 Oct. John Freeman has expanded his comprehensive look at the history of the Dan Dare TV show proposed by ATV in the late 1970s and how it tied in with the DD strip in 2000AD. Plus production art by Brendan McCarthy and Brian Bolland amongst others. Andrew Pixley has established that some test footage was shot: "An initial day in Studio A on Monday 8th September 1980 was cancelled, but two more test days were apparently spent recording in Studio B on Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th." I wonder if that footage will ever surface?
• 17 Oct. Yet another interview with Garth Ennis, with more about 'Johnny Red', 'Strontium Dog' and 2000AD. "I do enjoy the shorter episodes on Battle Action and 2000 AD– less space means more focus, and it’s nice to exercise that particular muscle again. That doesn’t mean I don’t write with the eventual collection in mind- that’s how stories like Rogue Trooper and Johnny Red are going to exist long-term, after all- but there’s still a particular pleasure to be found writing one-offs like Dredger, Hellman, or Strontium Dog/Robo Hunter."
  
• 15 Oct. Garth Ennis discusses bringing together two of 2000AD's most iconic characters, Strontium Dog and Robo-Hunter.  "John [Wagner] put enough original ideas into both characters that readers were constantly curious about them, we were always left wanting more. Their personalities, settings, supporting casts, technology and so on were endlessly intriguing, and their individual motivation meant we'd be getting plenty more."
• ... Garth is also interviewed on Word Balloon, the vodcast by John Siuntres. Follow along with the transcript. (video, 1h 4m)
  
• 15 Oct. Dave Gibbons is interviewed about 'For The Man Who Has Everything', the Alan Moore-scripted Superman story. “We sort of brought our own British sensibility towards the American material. So although we loved the notion of this distant Babylon that was New York City where you could make comic books, we rather liked being the people outside the city throwing rocks at it.”
• 6 Oct. Bleeding Cool reports that Mark Millar is planning to start a film studio once his deal with Netflix ends. Miller's deal means that he would lose control of certain characters. "I would be starting from scratch. I wouldn't be able to write those characters because they're owned by another company but there's something exciting about starting over doing something else. I maybe do something outside of comics too, you know maybe do a smaller batch of comics, start a film production company, which I'll probably do at some point. I'm joining the board of a big theatre here as well, so I'm going to be involved in theatre and everything too. A book publisher has asked me to do some stuff there . When you're a writer, there's lots of different things you can do."
  
• 4 Oct. Andrew Sumner's Forbidden Planet TV interviewed Sean Phillips at  the recent Lakes International Comic Art Festival. "Andrew Sumner talks to best-selling British artist Sean Phillips about the evolution of his award-winning career - and Sean's wildly-successful twenty-five year creative partnership with Ed Brubaker - before examining his [REDACTED] observations, experiences & reactions to the evolution of CRIMINAL as an Amazon Prime Video series debuting in 2025 - and to the planned filming of ED & Sean's Eisner award-winning graphic novel PULP (for which they are executive producers)." (video, 36m)
  
• 4 Oct. Forbes magazine takes a look at Rebellion. "Kingsley said the [acquisition of Fleetway] represented a long term strategy of ensuring high quality throughout the media development process. 'When you work on licensed IP, it’s limiting because it’s other people’s property, but when you create your own licenses like Sniper Elite, Rogue Warrior or Zombie Army, you build.'"
• 28 Sep. Kevin Hall has posted interviews with and Arthur Wyatt and Nick Percival on his Facebook page. Hall runs the 2000AD Review Page, and often has mini interviews relating to the latest issues of 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine.
  
• 27 Sep. Dave Elliott (ex-Atomeka, Penthouse Comix, etc.) returns to comics as publisher and editor-in-chief of Mechanical Cake, which counts Ridley Scott as CEO along with Jesse Negron, and involves artists Bill Sienkiewicz, Dan Panosian and Chris Weston, working on three graphic novels.
  
• 27 Sep. Garth Ennis is joined by Torunn Grønbekk, Chris Burnham, Rob Williams, Keith Burns and Brian K. Vaughan, on the latst episode from Forbidden Planet TV. "This dirty half-dozen of world-class comic-book creators join Andrew Sumner to celebrate Rebellion's ten-part third volume of legendary UK war/action title Battle Action, featuring Garth & Keith on Johnny Red, Brian & Chris on Kids Rule OK, Torunn on Nina Petrova (with Patrick Goddard) and Rob on Major Eazy (with PJ Holden) and El Mestizo (with Henry Flint)." (video, 44m)
• 26 Sep. A new horror publisher—Ninth Circle, to be published via Image—has been set up by Garth Ennis. Ram V and others. The first release will be Freddie the Fix by Ennis and Mike Perkins, the story of a Hollywood fixer who cleans up the messes left behind by Tinseltown’s vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural denizens."
• 26 Sep. John Wagner returned to Judge Dredd with 'Machine Rule' this summer and to 'HMS Nightshade' in Battle Action #2. "I was probably in my umpteenth attempt at retiring," he says of previously revealing it would end the storyline begun with 'Machine Law' in 2019. "[I]t would be unwise to think that the story had concluded. In fact, I'm currently pumping myself up to work on the sequel."
  
• 24 Sep. Paul Slade has collected together and published eight essays about comics, with the lead essay taking up nearly half the book and giving it its title: The Redemption of Andy Capp. The essay reasses the famous Daily Mirror strip which was a huge global success and its artist, Reg Smythe. ”When Homer Simpson called Andy a ‘wife beating drunk’ in a 1993 episode of The Simpsons, it convinced a whole generation there was no more to Smythe’s work than crude misogynist jokes. I wanted to show people that simply wasn’t true.”
• 17 Sep. The Bookseller's graphic novel spotlight issue (13 Sept.) has been used to announce the launch in January 2025 of The Phoenix Comic Books, a new imprint from David Fickling Books, which ties their book line to their comic The Phoenix. John Freeman has more details.
  
• 16 Sep. Philip Boyce pays tribute to Mark Rodgers, the co-creator of Oink! comic, on what would have been his birthday. "To say Mark was a prolific comics writer is probably the largest understatement I could make. Working across a multitude of titles for the likes of IPC/Fleetway, he’d often write up to a dozen scripts a week."
  
• 14 Sep. Down the Tubes has details of the Alan Grant Memorial Scholarship at the Tallaght Academy of Sequential Art, Dublin, which will cover the tuition fees of one lucky scholar.
  
• 13 Sep. The latest report from the US website Deadline on Neil Gaiman's various screen adaptations says that production on the third and final season of Good Omens has been paused by Netflix.
• 9 Sep. Mark Millar's Millar Time features an interview with John McCrea. (video 1h 20m)
  
• 6 Sep. Alan Moore has a new novel due out on 1st October, a historical fantasy. "The Great When departs from Moore’s beloved Northampton—the “obvious centre of the universe”—and settles in London in 1949, when the city and its populace are physically and psychologically “in pieces”. This precarity provides a fertile backdrop for the misadventures of the novel’s protagonist, the hapless Dennis Knuckleyard, a motherless 18-year-old living and working with the profoundly grotesque bookshop owner, Coffin Ada."
• 6 Sep. Given the shitstorm that is currently surrounding Neil Gaiman, it's no surprise that decisions are being made about various properties connected to him. Warner Bros., for instance, have announced that Dead Boy Detectives (Netflix) won't be getting a second season; a movie adaptation of The Graveyard Book is on hold at Disney; but Good Omens 3 is moving ahead, although this report reveals that with filming not due to start until next year, it will be 2026 at the earliest before we see the results.
• 4 Sep. Si Spurrier is interviewed at the Ideas Don't Bleed podcast. "I was very excited to finally get Si on the show. In addition to being friends for years, he is a writer who constantly gets me excited about comics. From character defining runs on X-MEN books and HELLBLAZER, to groundbreaking creator owned books like CODA, ANGELIC, GODSHAPER, CRY HAVOC, THE SPIRE, STEP BY BLOODY STEP, and DAMN THEM ALL, each new title changes and reinvents what I think I know about his work. So it was a blast to get to catch up, and even more fun to get to pick his brain about how he does what he does." (podcast, part one, 34m)
  
• 4 Sep. Telos Publishing are now taking orders for The Fantastic Art of Ron Turner by John Lawrence, completed with the assistance of Phil Harbottle and due to be published in November. Phil has been interviewed by Sequential 21. "Shortly before Turner had died in 1997, John had told him in hospital that he planned to write a book about his life and work, and he had said, “Oh really. Do you think anyone would be interested?” When John responded “Yes, of course!” Ron’s rather self-deprecating reply as he shook his head was, “I can’t think why!”"
  
• 30 Aug. Garth Ennis has another new mini-series on the way, a piss-take on all things sword & sorcery entitled Babs. "Babs follows the titular heroine, described in the book’s opening sequence as “raven haired, suspicious minded, wielder of an okay sword… fair of face yet shit of luck…” on a series of misadventures in a typical medieval-style fantasy setting."
  
• 27 Aug. Simon's Cat, which began life on YouTube in 2008, had become a huge brand and is about to become a Meme Token, $CAT. "$CAT, will be the cornerstone of the Simon’s Cat Web3 community, presenting the brand to a whole new audience of crypto enthusiasts, while introducing existing fans to the benefits of blockchain technology." Simon Tofield's hugely popular creation has also benefited Cats Protection, who have received a healthy donation.
• 26 Aug. Comic Beat has a preview of Alan Moore's The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic. "Messrs. Steve and Alan Moore, proprietors of the celebrated Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels (sorcery by appointment since circa 150 AD), have produced a clear and practical grimoire of the occult sciences that offers endless necromantic fun for all the family. Exquisitely illuminated by a host of adepts including Kevin O’Neill, John Coulthart, Steve Parkhouse, Rick Veitch, Melinda Gebbie, and Ben Wickey, this marvellous and unprecedented tome promises to provide all that the reader could conceivably need in order to commence a fulfilling new career as a diabolist."
  
• 22 Aug.  Garth Ennis has rounded up a crack team of creators for the new Battle Action volume. "Volume Three features best-in class machine-gun-toting creative work from Garth himself and a specially-selected crack squad of his favourite creators: Brian K. Vaughan, Chris Burnham, Keith Burns, Rob Williams, John Higgins, Torunn Grønbekk, John Wagner, Dan Abnett, Steve White, Henry Flint, John McCrea, Tom Foster, PJ Holden, Dan Cornwell, Mike Dorey and Patrick Goddard!" (video, 22m)
  
• 21 Aug. Producer/director Brandon Vietti and actors Katee Sackhoff and Titus Welliver discuss the animated adaptation of Watchmen Chapter 1. "Dave’s art is so solid and strong and beautiful. A lot of us had to raise our art game to find a way to try to duplicate what he did seemingly so easy in the Watchmen book and all throughout his career. It was kind of a gift for a lot of us to go to the Dave Gibbons school while making this movie."
• 20 Aug. Gary Groth presents an extract from his upcoming interview for The Comics Journal #310. "At around the same time, in response to a call for amateur artists to submit samples, he sent a drawing to Eagle, a (presumably) humorous drawing of a line-up of its comics characters with mismatched heads and bodies, which they published in the November 7, 1952 issue (vol. 3, #31). More significantly, Scarfe entered a drawing competition in Eagle in which readers were invited to draw an advertisement for Ingersoll watches — and won first place! Eagle published his drawing in its December 19, 1952 issue (vol. 3, #37). He takes great pride and amusement in pointing out that one of the runners-up in the same contest was none other than David Hockney."
  
• 17 Aug.  Backed by independent Six Studios, Garth Ennis has adapted his comic Crossed (2008-10) as a screenplay for a $2-3 million movie. "Six Studios’ [Carl] Choi says the script is an intimate, human story. “It was the most faithful adaptation possible,” says Choi, who likens it to Contagion meets The Walking Dead, with hints of Alex Garland’s Civil War, in that it’s a road movie across a ravaged United States."
  
• 17 Aug. Andrew Knighton offers an author's commentary on his latest Commando book, 'Twenty-Five Flights'. "Members of bomber crews were allowed to go home once they survived a certain number of flights, but the work was so dangerous that most of them never made it. How would it feel to be on your final flight, to know that you would soon be out of the war, while also knowing that almost everyone died before they hit that point?"
  
• 10 Aug.  Jamie Smart is Britain's best-selling comic creator, his Bunny vs. Monkey selling 355,412 copies between January and June 2024. "Julia Donaldson, creator of The Gruffalo, soared over them all, however, selling 1.25 million books for £6.7 million, twice that of second place's Sarah J Maas ... Alice Oseman, Jamie Smart's closest British graphic novelist rival, was just off the chart at number 21."
• 5 Aug. The 54th and final issue of Alan Austin's Fantasy Unlimited is now available,  celebrating the work of Alan Austin, who died in 2017. Alan was a long-time fan of comics.Publisher Nigel Brown says: "I was doubtful it was a practical project after fifty years gone by, but I’ve been delighted at the response from names that will be familiar to regular readers of the fanzine."
  
• 5 Aug. Al Ewing is writing a complete re-imagining of the Green Lantern concept. "While concrete details of Absolute Green Lantern were scarce and DC has not yet provided us with any imagery (though you can see some photos from the panel by @dcuworld on Twitter here, which give a hint at [Jahnoy] Lindsay's art), the series was described by Scott Snyder as a "first contact story" that will incorporate multiple Lanterns."
  
• 4 Aug. The family of John McLusky have donated some of his James Bond strips to the Margaret Herrick library in Beverly Hills, an archive run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
• 1 Aug. Byron Brewer interviews Sean Phillips about the upcoming Houses of the Unholy, his latest collaboration with Ed Brubaker. "The Satanic Panic didn’t reach the UK back then. Not many people here actually believe in the devil and the occult and stuff like that. But in the U.S., it came about as some children accused their parents or teachers or scout leaders or priests of using them in devil-summoning rituals. We took those ludicrous accusations and hung a story on them."
• 1 Aug. James Robinson discusses 'Patra, his new Eighties horror-inspired series from mDark Horse. "I’ve been away from comics for a while with TV and prose, but I wanted to return and in a way that I felt mattered to me on a truly personal level. By this I mean that after many years with DC and Marvel, my own original ideas had been left in a bottom drawer for too long."
• 26 Jul. Garth Ennis returns to Forbidden Planet TV to discuss the DC Omnibus return of Gotham City's Tommy Monagham, aka Hitman, the character he co-created with John McCrea. (video, 17m)
• 23 Jul. Gail Simone says she wants to write Misty forever... in the latest 2000 AD Thrill-Cast, available from all your usual pod-broadcasters and online at YouTube. This week's pod also talks to Sarah Gordon, one of the artists on 'Roxy'. (video, 1h 17m)
  
• 23 Jul. Thinking Critical's Wes catches up with Mark Millar to talk about his new Millarworld comics from Dark Horse. Including Nemesis: Rogues Gallery, the direct sequel to Millarworld' first crossover event Big Game. Mark also discusses his plans to finally write Superman and where he feels the comic book industry is heading in 2024. (video, 1h 26m)
  
• 19 Jul. Garth Ennis and Patrick Goddard talk time-twisting frontline combat in Rogue Trooper: Blighty Valley. (video, 19m)
• 17 Jul. "Horror comics in the UK indie scene are doing some amazing things"—Aly Fell and Letty Wilson discuss working on the Misty Special. "I loved so many of the “Beasts” type stories, such as those by Jordi Badia Romero with all their murky fairytale settings and ravenous, but often also fairly affable werewolves and vampires."
  
• 13 Jul. The 2000 AD Thrill-Cast talks to writer Al Ewing and artist Boo Cook about jamming together two Thrill-powered classics: Harlem Heroes and Zombo! The gang also delve into the allure and challenges of sports comics, and whether Ewing might soon return to the pages of 2000 AD! A second interview looks at the swashbuckling 2000 AD adventure, The Red Seas. (audio from your usual provider, video at the link, 1h 12m)
  
• 11 Jul. Forbidden Planet TV interviews Mike Moorcock who discusses the new Titan Books reprint of Moorcock's Multiverse and the JG Ballard-inspired anthology Reports from the Deep End.
  
• 9 Jul. Dave McKean returns to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival this September to perform Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash. Paul Nash "went into the war a young, idealistic, romantic, rather wishy-washy symbolist, and emerged the other side a hardened, angry, expressive and committed socialist”, says McKean. “He didn’t label himself an ‘artist’, he had become a ‘messenger’."
  
• 9 Jul. Mark Millar interviews Brian Bolland. (video, 1h 38m) 
• 8 Jul. Simon Bisley and Lew Stringer are among the inductees into the second annual London Film and Comic Con's Hall of Fame. They join last year's inductees, Brian Bolland and Hunt Emerson.
• 26 Jun. The latest 2000AD Thrill-Cast is a lengthy interview with John Higgins. "From drawing dead bodies to colouring two of the biggest graphic novels of all time, the artistic career of John Higgins can only be described as unique. Even after decades in the industry, the 2000 AD great is still hard at work – with the second book of Judge Dredd prequel series 'Dreadnoughts' underway, John talks to the 2000 AD Thrill-Cast about his work, from his thoughts on 'Watchmen' and 'Batman: The Killing Joke' to 'Judge Dredd' and beyond..." Available as a podcast and also as a video (2h).
  
• 19 Jun. Tom Shapira reviews Rebellion's Hugo Pratt collection The Iron Fist. "Other than Corto Maltese, a series that was fully translated by IDW / EuroComics in one of the noblest efforts for bettering the world of English-speaking comics, and the single-volume graphic novel The Man from the Great North, most of Pratt’s work remains untranslated. I’ll take the scraps offered by War Picture Library over staying hungry."
  
• 18 Jun. Due to appear perhaps as early as August, Watchmen a two-movie adaptation of the Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons series, with the second part due in 2025.
  
• ... and if you want to hear what Alan Moore sounds like playing Rorschach, you only have to look here. (video, 2m)
  
• 13 Jun. Garth Ennis talks Battle Action with Nick Fausti of Previews. "What I always liked about the classic Rogue Trooper was the sense of tragedy hanging in the background - the godawful massacre of his entire regiment that drove his quest for revenge, his only comrades now dead men encoded on microchips in his equipment. You always knew that Gunnar, Bagman and Helm were that bit more determined to find the Traitor General than Rogue."
• ... Talking of Garth, Eric Kripke has announced that Prime Video's adaptation of The Boys will end with season five, tweeting "Seaon 4 Premiere Week is a good time to announce: Season 5 will be the Final Season. Always my plan. I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought."
• 8 Jun. Rich Johnston's Bleeding Cool  news website is fifteen years old this month.
  
• 6 Jun. An interview with Andy Diggle at Word Balloon. (video, 1h 2m)
  
• 4 Jun. Pat Mills reveals how a rejected story from 2000 AD turned into international best-seller Requiem Vampire Knight. "All the core ideas of Requiem are in my story treatments from 1997 and 1998, featuring  a world where time runs backwards."
• 1 Jun. Dundee University has scrapped five masters degree courses in including courses in comics and graphic novels, drawing, and arts and humanities, all taught at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. A spokesperson for Dundee University said that some courses were withdrawn "partly due to low applicant numbers at this point in the recruitment cycle."
  
• 1 Jun. Charlie Hunnam is to star in Amazon's adaptation of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Criminal, described as "an interlocking universe of crime stories" which Brubaker is working on as co-showrunner with Jordan Harper. (Brubaker and Phillips are exec. producers.)
  
• 1 Jun. Scott Cederlund at From Cover to Cover looks at Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham's Miracleman: The Silver Age. "After 30 years between issues, Buckingham and Gaiman return to explore “The Golden Age,'' but this time they narrow their point of view to one person – the resurrected Dickie Dauntless, aka Young Miracleman ... This is a superman seeing the world molded by the vision of a superman for the first time. And as he finds out, this was not the future that he was fighting for all those decades ago."
  
• 31 May. Representatives of Bedford School, where Post Office scandal-hit Paula Vennells was a governor until 2021, have cancelled an appearance of Kev F. Sutherland's Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, who were due to perform Post Office Scandal: The Musical at Bedfringe, a comedy festival at the Quarry Theatre (owned by Bedford School), in July. Bleeding Cool quotes Sutherland as saying: "Obviously having a comedy show all about the Post Office Scandal performed at a school whose governor was a key player in the Post Office Scandal would be embarrassing to the school. Luckily, having nipped it in the bud and, to all intents and purposes, covered it up, there's no danger of anyone making any association between the Post Office Scandal and Bedford School. Phew."
• 30 May. A walk across Northampton to visit Alan Moore with Iain Sinclair. "A fascinating walk exploring elements of the deep history of Northampton with writer Iain Sinclair on the way to a conversation with Alan Moore ... Our route takes in St Peter's Church, Gold Street, All Saints Church, the Guildhall, St Andrew's Hospital, and the County Ground. The cast of characters mentioned include John Clare, William Smith, Lucia Joyce, Samuel Becket, John Deakin and more." (video, 37m)
• ... incidentally, the long-awaited Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic by Steve Moore & Alan Moore, with art by Kevin O'Neill, John Couthart, Steve Parkhouse, Rick Veitch, Melinda Gebbie and Ben Wickey, will be released as a 352-page hardcover in October 2024 from Top Shelf Pructions & Knockabout Ltd.
  
• 21 May. A Better World, the Judge Dredd epic by Rob Williams and Arthur Wyatt is reviewed at length in The Comics Journal. With the brief space afforded any Dredd story, only six pages per weekly chapter, the pair successfully incorporates into the plot the dynamics and contradictions that form the police-industrial complex, and then movingly underscore the role that power and the perception of power plays in the idea and practice of policing."
  
• 21 May. Mike Carroll and John Higgins talk 'Dreadnoughts', now running in Judge Dredd Megazine. "Dreadnoughts – which is set in the mid-2030s – explores the introduction of the first Judges and the massive social and political impact they have on the people of the USA. So Dreadnoughts is pretty much the USA that we know today but with a couple of steps taken in the direction Dredd’s world. And unfortunately not the fun steps… Everyone wants the “flying cars and robot butlers” future, but the “brutal fascism masquerading as benevolence: future is more likely. There’s not a lot of room for whimsy here!"
• 17 May. The Will Eisner Awards nominees have been announced with quite a few British contributors recognised. Best Comics-Related Book is dominated by Brits: Bryan Talbot: Father of the British Graphic Novel by J. D. Harlock & Bryan Talbot, Confabulation: An Anecdotal Autobiography by Dave Gibbons, I Am the Law: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future by Michael Molchar and Thalamus: The Art by David McKean by Dave McKean – four out of six entries. Liam Sharp is in the running in the Best Painter/Multimedia artist (Interior Art) category, while The Ballad of Halo Jones Full Colour Omnibus by Alan Moore & Ian Gibson is up for Best Archival Collection/Project – Comic Books.
  
• 16 May. Jamie Smart has won the British Book Awards' Book of the Year – Children's Illustrated for Bunny vs Monkey: Multiverse Mix-Up! from David Fickling Books. One judge called the anarchic Bunny vs Monkey series a "game changer". It is "undiluted reading for pleasure", added another.
  
• 16 May. The Guardian reviews Kathryn Hughes' Catland, which weaves in the life of Louis Wain, the Victorian artist, to a study of our attitudes to cats. "For much of human history, cats were nameless creatures who lived on scraps, caught mice and unsightly diseases, yowled in streets, were familiars of witches and had fireworks stuffed up their bums by cruel children. Now, flesh-and-blood cats are beloved family pets..."
• 14 May. There's a new Asterix movie being touted at Cannes Film Market, the animated Asterix and the Kingdom of Nubia, which is expected to arrive in 2026.
• 12 May. Researcher Leo de Sa notes that the Sunday Express has finally finished serialising 'Casino Royale', having begun this James Bond reprint back on 26 September 2021. The 138 strips originally appeared in the Daily Mail and has taken over 2 1/2 years, one strip at a time, to run in its Sunday counterpart.
  
• 9 May. Publisher's Weekly discusses with Mark Millar his upcoming Library Edition of The Magic Order. "I’ve slightly rethought the way I release my work, and instead of doing that dribble of comics every month, I’m quite excited by the idea of occasional hurricanes."
  
• 7 May. There have been a couple—here and here—of articles lately asking why nobody seems to be excited by the arrival, thirty years late, of the conclusion to the Miracleman story 'The Silver Age' by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham and the announcement of a new upcoming series, 'The Dark Age'.
  
• 7 May. The Beano is launching its first ever comic strip supporting visually impaired children featuring a guide dog named Chance in a special edition to be published tomorrow (Wednesday, 8th May). 'A Buddy for Life' was created in partnership with the Guide Dog charity to highlight the role guide dogs can play in people's lives. The article quotes Beano Studios' Editorial Director, Craig Grham (sic), presumably pronounced "Grrrr"ham.
  
• 5 May. The touring Raymond Briggs exhibition has reached the end of its journey and will now rest for five months at Ditchling Museum, two miles from Briggs's home in East Sussex. Because of its proximity, the estate has allowed some personal items to be shown that haven't appeared elsewhere. Roughly a third of the exhibits are new for Ditchling. You can see a little of the exhibition in this ITV news report.
  
• 14 Apr. Mark Millar has said that he intends writing Superman stories that he will then publish when Superman enters the public domain in 2033. As Rich Johnston points out, Millar is well known for headline-grabbing announcements and this might just be one more. "In a decade, DC Comics will lose the copyright on those first issues of Action Comics which established so much about the character. So yes, Mark Millar could absolutely publish Superman comics, though it would have to be under a different name, as DC/Warner Bros still owns the trademark."
  
• 7 Apr. The BBC celebrates the work of Bryan Talbot. "Making up the story is the fun bit, the best bit really," Bryan says, adding: "Drawing it is the hard part."
• 5 Apr. Steve Bell discusses getting fired from The Guardian in epsiode 41 of Caglecast with Daryl Cagle. "We get the whole story from Steve, at a time when more cartoonists who are critical of Israel or Netanyahu are being accused of drawing anti-Semitic cartoons. We also have two of Israel's top editorial cartoonists to discuss Steve's cartoon." (video, 20m)
• 30 Mar. Comic Artist Bryan Hitch joined Bill Cox live at the Comic Art LIVE channel last Saturday (23 March). "Bryan has been an Artist and Writer of comics for over thirty years, on books such as the Authority, Ultimates, JLA, , Hawkman, Batman's Grave, Venom, Ultimate Invasion and now, GHOST MACHINE! For the art sale we'll have published pieces available for some of Bryan's most recent works and many from early in his career, and we'll also be taking on some commission opportunities." (video, 2hr 21m)
  
• 27 Mar. Writer Paul Cornell and artist Rachael Smith have teamed up for a graphic novel whodunnit, Who Killed Nessie? and have launched a crowdfunding campaign at Zoop to find backers. According to Paul, "I was talking with some creator friends and just suddenly came out with this title and the idea for a cover. It’s one of those things that was just sitting there out in the ether waiting to happen. I’ve been reading about cryptids (largely under the bedclothes, the reading not the cryptids) since I was a kid, and sometimes Rachael’s amazing cartooning just connects with an idea I have in my head and I can see how her characters would look doing this stuff. Hence: this!"
  
• 23 Mar. Dark Horse kicks off its Millarworld titles with Nemesis: Rogues Gallery, a 5-issue mini-series written by Mark Millar with art by Valerio Giangiodano & Lee Loughridge.. "Kicking it all off with Nemesis just feels right as it’s been the most asked about character since our Big game crossover concluded at Christmas."
  
• 22 Mar. Neil Gaiman's recent Heritage Auctions sale raised over $1m. Of the 125 items that were sold, the top seller was a page of art from Watchmen #7 that had been gifted to Gaiman by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, which sold for $132,000. "A portion of the proceeds will be donated to The Hero Initiative, which provides medical and other assistance to veteran comic creators in need, and the Authors League Fund, which helps professional authors, journalists, critics, poets, and dramatists in need of assistance.  Gaiman also plans to share a portion of the proceeds with the artists whose work is auctioned."
• ... and in more Neil Gaiman news, his Dead Boy Detectives is getting the Netflix treatment. The streaming platform is already producing The Sandman, and will add the new show on 25 April. "The Flight Attendant’s Steve Yockey developed the series, and he is co-showrunning it with Beth Schwartz of The CW’s Arrowverse fame. The ensemble cast also includes Briana Cuoco, Ruth Connell, Jenn Lyon, Yuyu Kitamura, Lukas Gage, and Lindsey Gort."
  
• 18 Mar. Andrew Sumner interviews Michael Moorcock about the second volume of Moorcock's Multiverse from Titan. "Moorcock and Sumner, as usual, also chat about a whole bunch of other things, including: the dark side of late stage capitalism; Moorcock's upcoming short story Wigan (plus Wigan the northern English town, Bowen's chunky steak pie and pie-coveting canine Alfie Evans); J.G Ballard; the Three Peaks Challenge; the sheer brilliance of Walter Simonson, the whereabouts of Mike's voucher copies, dream couches, Moorcock & Sumner's Hyperbolic Chambers (TM); Moorcock's undiminished singing voice; Tony Bennett, Johnny Cash & Joan Baez; Blossom Dearie's last gig, the unique nature of Moorcock's career, more on his association with Hawkwind & The Deep Fix, the foresight of Mike's beloved claw-hammer-wielding mother; Italian actress Silvano Manga, Taylor Walker beer barrels, Mike's upcoming novel The Wounds of Albion, Mike's relationship with Arthur C. Clarke, Philip José Farmer & Leigh Brackett; Jack Vance's The Dragon Masters; Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword; the influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs; old-school Republicans; The Scaffold's Lily the Pink and Roger McGough's poetry; Pete Brown & His Battered Ornaments; Mal Dean's Amazing Band; the glory of Liverpool's science-fiction & music scene; watching the boxing at Liverpool Stadium; visiting Apple Corps Ltd and turning down George Harrison's money!" (video, 1h 9m)
  
• 12 Mar. Shining Spotlights casts a... spotlight on Paul Gravett. "Today we sit among an industry legend. He's written and recorded of comic industry for several decades. Interviewed industry giants such as Alan Moore, and even launched magazines such as Escape. Historical books such as Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. The list goes on." (video, 1h 15m)
• 8 Mar. Joel Meadows talks to Bleeding Cool about his book Face to Face. "For me creating a portrait is intended to be a piece that reflects the essence of the subject that I have shot and that is why I like to photograph people that I have interviewed as I already have a rapport with the subject."
•  
• 7 Mar. Susannah Clapp reviews Posy Simmonds at the Pompidou. "Two things​ you will see in Paris but not in London: the word ‘culture’ on a banner at a demo, and a major exhibition by an English artist and writer who has for half a century made the Brits roll their eyes at themselves."
  
• 7 Mar. Chris Weston discusses Time Breakers being collected, Akira and not getting credit for his bat-suit designs. "I was inspired by Jim Holdaway‘s art at the time. Unfortunately, I got too inspired, perhaps; I’d made the lead character, Angela Attenborough, look almost identical to Jim’s version of Modesty Blaise. Stuart Moore, the editor, fearing we might get sued, asked me to change her hairstyle in every panel." The big news is that Chris has a new creator-owned series coming out from Dark Horse shortly. "It’s a very big-name writer so I’m quite exited! It should be announced imminently!"
  
• 7 Mar. Busy Garth Ennis chats about the new Battle Action volume from Rebellion and reveals that there is a third series in the works. (video, 18m)
• 2 Mar. Garth Ennis and Axel Alonso have announced a Kickstarter for Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal with one of the rewards being that contributors can be drawn into the story. (video, 3m). The Kickstarter itself has already hit its target.
  
• 2 Mar. The announcement that a Criminal TV series is in development led to the collections of the series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips selling out. The Amazon Prime series was announced on 8 January and Brubaker reported that “What happened was we were preparing new printings of the entire series, planning a slow rollout, assuming the real interest in the books would happen closer to the show hitting… but instead the day after the announcement of the Amazon greenlight, all the books we had in stock sold out. So we rushed them back to press immediately, and if they’re not already at the distributors they will be soon.” 
• Here's another interview with Brubaker that dives into his work with Sean: "We work exactly the same as we have for 20 years. It’s a very steady collaboration. I don’t know if there’s anybody else in comics who’s ever really done what we do for this long."
  
• 1 Mar. Bryan Talbot is one of 19 comics' creators who have been inducted into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame for 2024.
  
• 29 Feb. Earlier this month, Dave Gibbons dropped hints that  Martha Washington might be reaching our screens in the future during a talk at Sheffield Hallam University. 'Comics Up Close – Origin Stories' was a one-day academic event also featuring Stephen Appleby and Karrie Fransman. 
• 24 Feb. Neil Gaiman is auctioning off a bunch of stuff at Heritage Auctions. Here he talks about why he's selling. (video, 6m)
  
• 21 Feb. Dave McKean is interviewed at The Comics Journal. "I don’t dream very much, certainly nothing I remember very clearly. I used to dream a lot more, and I tend to link dreams to anxiety - I’m just not that anxious these days."
• 19 Feb. Knockabout and Top Shelf have announced the upcoming release – in October 2024 – of  the long, long-awaited The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic by Alan Moore and Steve Moore. Chris Staros, editor-in-chief at Top Shelf, says the books "represents an amazing capstone, created by Alan and Steve, and brilliantly brought to life by five unforgettable artists. It’s been a privilege to watch those magical minds spend years building this grimoire, and I’m proud to join Knockabout in finally sharing it with the world." The five artists include the late Kevin O'Neill, John Coulthart, Steve Parkhouse, Rick Veitch and Ben Wickey.
• 13 Feb. Tripwire interviews Doctor Who artist Lee Sullivan. "I embraced digital art as soon as I saw Dave Gibbons demonstrating a high-definition Wacom tablet, and since Doctor Who – Prisoners in Time for IDW, I have been drawing fully digital finished art for comics and latterly have learned to paint and colour in Photoshop. I saw straight away how much more streamlined and flexible digital could be."
• 9 Feb. Brian Bolland is looking for his original artwork from The Killing Joke for a new Artists Edition-style reprinting of the famous Alan Moore-penned Batman story from Graphitti's Gallery Editions, to be published this autumn.
  
• 8 Feb. Paul Cornell is interviewed at Word Balloon about Saucer Country, Dr Who, Hammer Holmes and more. (video, 1h 15m)
  
• 7 Feb. Tony Foster has announced the 2023 ComicScene Award winners. You can find a full breakdown here. The winners include 2000AD (Best UK Comic), The 77 (Best Indie Comic), The Daleks (Best Comic Collection UK), Garth Ennis (Comic Creator of 2023), Neil Gaiman (Best Writer of All Time)... plenty more at the link. Congratulations to all winners and runners-up... and, yes, I spotted Bear Alley nestling in the lower regions of the Best Comic Media category. Your vote(s) are very welcome.
  
• 6 Feb. Cartoon historian Mark Bryant is campaigning to have a Blue Plaque recognised by Southwark Heritage for James Henderson, publisher of numerous comic weeklies in the 19th century, including Funny Folksand Lot-o'-Fun. Henderson is one of eight nominees, the list including missionary John Davis, Francis Rossi of Status Quo, songwriters Stock, Aitken & Waterman, and artist Brian Catling.
  
• 3 Feb. Jamie Smart, The Phoenix and other young creators of graphic novels all get a positive mention in an article about David Walliams writing a graphic novel for children. "I think it’s a shame that we live in a world where, in order to get a break in publishing, people from under-represented backgrounds have to first go to all the trouble of winning a TV cooking show, developing a successful pop career or becoming an international footballer."
  
• 1 Feb. The Top 20 Superhero graphic novels list compiled by Circana BookScan, is dominated by two British writers. Although not holding the top spot (which went to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin (hc) by Kevin Eastman (IDW Publishing), Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman filled a significant number -- almost a third -- of places: 3) Watchmen (2019 edition, DC Comics); 4) The Sandman Book One (DC Comics); 8) Batman: The Killing Joke (deluxe hc ed., DC Comics); 11) Watchmen (Deluxe edition hc, DC Comics); 12) V For Vendetta (DC Comics); 19) The Sandman Book Two (DC Comics).
• 25 Jan. Posy Simmonds has won the Grand Prix at Angouleme. She is the first Briton to win and only the fifth woman in the festival's 51-year history. The Pompidou Centre in Paris is currently hosting a retrospective of her work. The prize comes as the Pompidou Centre in Paris is staging a retrospective exhibition of Simmonds’ work. “Comics weren’t really approved of at home, but my parents allowed them as long as we continued to read novels” she said in a recent interview.
  
• 22 Jan. Garth Ennis talks about writing James Bond for Dynamite Entertainment. "What inspired me more than anything else was Bond himself; the notion of a guy alternating casual charm with utter ruthlessness as necessary. Ultimately, he’s the British establishment’s killing machine, and as such extremely interesting." And here's someone who thinks he got it right.
  
• 18 Jan. The Folio Society has issued a limited edition of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy, introduced by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean. At £745 I'm thinking I might have to give this a miss, but you can see some of the illustrations in a brief (4m) video interview with McKean at the link above and it is a thing of beauty. There is a very brief extract from the introduction here. "Gormenghast is, to my mind and to my taste, a perfect creation ... There are no other characters in literature who live so visually in my mind as the inhabitants of Gormenghast."
• 16 Jan. American comics' scholar David Kunzle passed away on January 1, aged 87. His interest in early comic strips meant that his books included a good deal of scholarship and study of British comics, including Ally Sloper. The Comics Journal has a fine obituary and tribute.
• 16 Jan. Susanna Clarke converses with Alan Moore over Zoom. Moore reads from one of his stories. (video, 1h 16m)
  
• 15 Jan. Dave Gibbons confesses "I've had the life that I wanted when I was 10 years old". "It was definitely a formative event for me because nothing could have made me want to do comics more than having these people that I despised doing something like burning them. In a nutshell, I very much thought looking at these people burning these comic books, "If people like you hate comics, then I love them.""
• 15 Jan. Part two of the Al Ewing interview has been released at the Ideas Don't Bleed podcast site. (41m) see 8 Jan for part 1.
  
• 8 Jan. Criminal, the crime series by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips, has been picked up by Amazon MGM Studios. Brubaker and crime writer Jordan Harper will be showrunners, while Phillips will be an executive producer. “Sean and I have been building this world in our books for over a decade, and now to be able to bring it to life for Amazon is just incredible. And to have Amazon support the project the way they have and show so much faith in my and Jordan’s vision for the show is even more incredible,” Brubaker is interviewed on Comic Book Club about his latest collaboration with Phillips, Where the Body Was. (video, 1h 23m)
  
• 8 Jan. Ideas Don't Bleed podcast interviews Al Ewing. "We’re joined by Al Ewing (The Ultimates / We Only Find Them When They’re Dead) as we discuss his comics origins, his process, writing The Immortal Thor for Marvel Comics, and more!" (41m)
  
• 4 Jan 2024. Missed this from last month: Cavan Scott and Luke Horsman discuss bringing 'Enemy Earth' to a close in 2000AD Xmas Special (Prog 2362). "We're racing toward the conclusion, and the reveal of what actually caused Earth's flora and fauna to turn against humanity."