British Comics

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/26424306

Grant Morrison's Captain Clyde was the comic book writer's first published superhero work, which they also drew. A local superhero to the Clyde area, it ran in the Govan Press and the Clydebank & Renfrewshire Presses from 1979 to 1982 on the TV listings pages. It also included some proto-superhero revisionist ideas and superheroes dealing with real-life situations and locations. Captain Clyde was Chris Melville, an unemployed Glaswegian who was transformed by the standing stones of the Orkneys, granted magical powers by the goddess Elen, and would defend Glasgow against villains such as Quasar and Deros and would finally meet his end after a fight to the death with the devil.

Fellow Scot Etienne Kubwabo is a film director who has also created comics, including the first Black Scottish superhero DJ ET in his comic book Beats of War, which was part of the Black Lives Matter Mural Trail, with a large-scale artwork installed at Platform Arts Centre in Glasgow's East End. He has toured Scotland with the comic to inspire the next generation through superhero-themed workshops.

And now Grant Morrison and Etienne Kubwabo are bringing their superheroes, created half a century apart, together, for a new comic book project, Worlds Collide with Captain Clyde and DJ ET, with art by Ben Wilsonham.

Details as they stand are rather scant. But we look forward to finding out more…

In a cryptic announcement Tuesday, 2000AD announced a new Judge Dredd story called Death of a Judge, coming soon from artist Mike Perkins and the character’s co-creator, John Wagner.

But that’s really all the information that the U.K. publisher shared, other than it will appear in the pages of 2000 AD. We don’t, however, yet know when the story will begin.

A story dubbed Death of a Judge with Wagner attached as writer does feel like a big deal, though. Potentially. Judge Dredd ages more than your normal well-known comics character, and so it doesn’t feel like a major jump to presume this story might actually kill Judge Dredd. Unlikely? Perhaps! But who really knows.

Wagner is always liable to switch up the Judge Dredd status quo with a consequential story arc. Death of a Judge will mark his first new work with the character since last year’s Judge Dredd: Machine Rule (read Wagner talking about it here), which wrapped up in September. That arc had more consequences for (robot) characters around Dredd than for Dredd himself, so maybe this one is due.

The makers of comic book heroes from Dennis the Menace to Judge Dredd are banding together to take on their biggest enemy yet — AI copycats.

A newly formed trade association, Comic Book UK, will bring together companies such as DC Thomson, which publishes the Beano, and Rebellion Entertainment, which makes 2000AD.

Other members will include The Phoenix Comic, which has published the Bunny vs Monkey series, graphic novel company Avery Hill Publishing and Fable, a digital comics platform.

The group will lobby for government and investor recognition that UK comics are an important export industry and develop valuable intellectual property.

One of the most immediate issues will be securing the industry’s future as the UK government considers proposals to relax copyright laws to train AI models.

...

Comic Book UK says the industry produces hundreds of thousands of pages of comic book content every year and has extensive archives of historic content.

British publishers are behind some of the most recognisable comic characters in titles “enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of readers every week and graphic novels read by millions more each year”, it says. These characters are often used in films, TV programmes and video games. Comic book content is particularly valuable for generative AI training because it is both highly visual and narrative driven, it argues.

The group warns that exemption proposals are not feasible in practice and will fail to provide rights holders with appropriate control over and means to seek remuneration for the use of their content and IP in AI training.

This will inhibit the growth of the comics industry, it said.

Archive

People who enjoy science fiction love to imagine the future: time travel, spaceships, something wobbly with a green face. But what if those fans really had access to it – the future, I mean – courtesy of something very similar to the internet? This is the possibility Paul B Rainey floats in There’s No Time Like the Present, in which a crowd of misfits from Milton Keynes (once the future itself) are able, if not to visit Mars, then at least to watch episodes of Doctor Who that have not yet been screened.

Mordant and misanthropic in almost equal measure, Rainey’s book has three central characters, each one somewhat stuck, unable fully to escape their childhood. Barry, an obnoxious lazybones, still lives at home with his parents; he makes his living selling bootleg recordings of TV shows he has lifted from the “ultranet”, which provides entry to the future. Cliff, Barry’s friend, and a yoghurt-addicted woman called Kelly live together in her new house, but they’re not a couple; while he secretly pines for her, he’s only her tenant. In the evenings, they watch, with varying degrees of guilt, future episodes of their favourite series (Doctor Who in his case, Emmerdale in hers): tapes pressed on them by the grisly Barry.

...

There’s No Time Like the Present isn’t a new book; it came out originally in 2015. But Rainey’s career has taken an extraordinary turn. In 2020, he won the Observer/Faber graphic short story prize, after many decades of making comics (he’s a regular contributor to Viz, the influence of which is sometimes detectable in his work). In 2023, Drawn & Quarterly published his graphic novel Why Don’t You Love Me?, and soon afterwards it was announced that Jennifer Lawrence was to develop it as a feature film. Now D&Q has stepped in with this beautiful new edition of an old book – which is neat in the context of its subject.

Comic creator and illustrator R. E. Burke is currently being held in a US detention centre, after being detained at the US-Canada border due to visa issues while on a backpacking holiday. Now, a GoFundMe campaign organised by Jade Upshall is raising money to help her and Becky’s family, to get a lawyer who can fight for Becky’s release, get her a flight home, and finance other costs.

Becky’s detention is the result of a visa mix-up, her plight widely reported by the BBC and other mainstream news services, and by Broken Frontier.

...

Supporters have rallied under the banner of #BringBeckyHome in the hope of speeding up the process through a GoFundMe campaign to get Becky safely back to the UK as soon as possible. As of Wednesday 12th March 2025, the campaign had raised over £4000 of its £5000 target.

London Book Fair, kicking off today, has a greater graphic novel and comic book presence than ever, and it's not hard to see why. Publishers and presses at the IPG Conference at the end of last month saw Wilson talk about a shrinking children's book market in the UK as birth rates fall, cost-of-living pressures rise, and kids' literacy levels decline. Kate Wilson of book and graphic novel publisher Nosy Crow stated that some books are more effective in getting children and young people reading, noting the increasing popularity of graphic novels. "These are very visually literate children. We're finding that what is working are shorter books with greater illustrative support."

Nielsen's BookScan reports that the biggest sub-categories in kids publishing in the UK was in Children's Comic Strip Fiction & Graphic Novels, increasing sales from 2023 by 18.3% recording total sales of £19.8m, four times the £5 million it was getting back in 2019. Kids graphic novel mainstays Dav Pilkey of Dog Man and Jamie Smart of Bunny vs Monkey saw their UK sales up 41% and 74 and their combined £14.4 million sales were responsible for 75% of the kids graphic novel sector. Add the £1.3 million of sales from Alice Oseman's Heartstopper series earned, and that would be 81%. While John Patrick Green's InvestiGators and spin-off Agents of S.U.I.T series, earned a million in sales as well, with the four authors claiming a whopping 85% of the $20 million of UK kids graphic novel sales between them.

Yesterday, Bleeding Cool reported on London-based comic book creator R.E. Burke, or Becky Burke, whose family is in Portskewett, Monmouthshire in Wales, being held in detention by I.C.E. in Washington state in the USA, after she crossed from the US to Canada and back again on a tourist visa, as part of a four-month backpacking trip across North America. Despite attempts to get her released and sent home, she has remained in confinement in onerous conditions for the past eleven days.

Her father, Paul Burke, talking to BBC Wales told them that R.E. Burke had been exchanging accommodation for helping host families "around the house", and he believes authorities may have suspected she broke the terms of her tourist visa. In his appeal, published by Bleeding Cool, he asked for UK authorities to get involved, and it seems that this is now happening, as the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) have confirmed to the BBC that they are supporting a British national in this situation and were "in contact with the local authorities".

Paul Burke advised travellers to be "very careful" about their visa requirements but says he could not understand why she was "locked up and she's in an orange prison jumpsuit whilst the paperwork gets sorted out" and that what was meant to be a life-changing backpacking trip "has turned into a nightmare". Previously, he states that R.E. Burke had visited New York and Portland, where she spent time with a host family, helping with household chores in return for accommodation. She then travelled to Seattle with plans to travel to Vancouver in Canada to stay with another family, "just like a cultural exchange". But the Canadian authorities then denied her entry as they were concerned she may try to work illegally and returned her across the border. It was then that US officials told her she was being detained as, according to her father, they considered "that host family cultural exchange to be work… So basically she couldn't go into Canada, she wasn't allowed in the US". That led to her being taken by US Homeland Security to an immigration detention centre in Tacoma, Washington. Paul Burke says that R.E. Burke has described the conditions in the immigration centre as "horrendous… at first she was just distraught. She was inconsolable. She is allowed to ring out using a shared iPad but we can't call her." And because their family is not American, they cannot add money to her inmate account for her to buy essentials, so have reached out to American friends for help. Paul Burke says that R.E. Burke has told him that she just wants to come home and has requested voluntary departure but has received "radio silence". They have been told voluntary departure has to be approved by a judge, but do not know "how to make that happen". Her parents are in daily contact with the British consulate in San Francisco, the nearest one to the detention facility, but "official channels can't get a clear answer about what is going on".

2000 AD: The Deep Dive returns with a flourish, a mint julip, and a quick nap before dinner – it’s 2000 AD‘s own gay vamire exorcist, Devlin Waugh!

This month, ST33V is joined by critic, academic and podcaster Anna Peppard to chat about this charming occult investigator, worldwide celebrity, and full-time vampire, who was one of the first openly gay characters in British comics. The invention of writer John Smith (Indigo Prime) and artist Sean Phillips (Criminal), Devlin is best described as a mix of Noel Coward and Arnold Schwarzenegger, he is a witty and verbose character, who tracks down rare art pieces in between dispensing justice on otherworldly and demonic foes. He enjoys both body-building and flower arranging, and is one of the most famous (and lusted-after) gay celebrities in the world.

Podcast on YouTube

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/25218368

If you subscribe to my newsletter, you already know I include a spreadsheet with a list of comic book conventions in the UK, including dates, locations, and links to the organiser’s page. In some cases, I even include deadlines to submit for artist alley, as well as table prices (building it as I go).

...

Who is this article’s intended audience?

• comic book creators who want to know which cons to apply to.
• comic book readers who want to know which cons to go to to find cool comics.
• conventions organisers who are willing to read some unsolicited feedback / advice 😅

Why the last one?

I only started exhibiting at conventions last year, but I’ve been attending for many years. The current state of comic book conventions worries me. Most are increasingly less friendly to independent comic book creators (and readers). I’m hoping to address some of those concerns with this article.

...

ThoughtBubble

In my opinion, by far THE BEST comic book convention in the UK. There’s no other like it.

100% focused on comics. No movie and TV celebrities, no cosplayers, no funko-pops, no fan-art of Baldur’s Gate 3 or whatever. Nothing against those, but it’s nice to have a convention that truly focus on original content by amazing creators. And this convention has no lack of top names in the comic books industry.

On the Margins: Comics, Gender, Identity & Subversion is an upcoming two-day conference about comics at Ulster University in Northern Ireland in May, “Exploring Why Comics Matter”. BEANO artist Nigel Parkinson is among the speakers, addressing the success of DC Thomson’s surviving humour weekly.

Other comic creators taking part include artist and writer John Farrelly, writer Mark McCann, and Andrew Pope, editor of Local Colour Comics,

This two-day event will focus on exploring the intersections of comics, gender, identity, and subversion, bringing together academics, artists, writers, and industry professionals to discuss how comics shape and reflect cultural narratives.

...

On the Margins: Comics, Gender, Identity & Subversion Friday 2nd – Saturday 3rd May 2025, Ulster University Cromore Road Coleraine BT52 1SA | Full Programme Here | Free, but Booking Requested via EventBrite

Bryan Talbot’s new graphic novel, The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor, a prequel to his Grandville saga, will be published in September in France and in November in the UK.

With top-hat and cane in hand, Detective Inspector Stamford Hawksmoor shadows the murky backstreets of London on the hunt for a sadistic serial killer.

In the dying days of the French occupation of Britain, through gaslit, cobbled streets and squalid alleyways, stalks the great eagle Detective Stamford Hawksmoor in search of the homicidal manic whose killing spree claims dozens of seemingly unconnected victims, from random murders to targeted political assassinations.

Although cover dated 26th February 1977, today marks the 48th Anniversary of the launch of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, 2000AD! I think most readers of downthetubes will agree it’s one of the most vital and important British comics in the history of the medium, and one which still publishes mind-blowing new stories – every single week.

That said, the team behind the comic are often asked, “How do I start reading 2000AD?” and you can see why – it can be daunting to look at Rebellion’s vast library and wonder where you should actually start! With that in mind, they’ve curated a “starter pack” list of their finest current collections, available from all good book and comic shops, and digitally, too. If you want to try 2000AD, start with any of these!

Alongside, Rebellion have also included classic stories featuring some of our most famous characters, purely in the interest of looking to spread the word of 2000AD further, of course, and not because they want to give anyone a real dose of Thrill Power Overload….

So, let’s see what the team picked. Which 2000AD thrills would you choose to introduce new readers to the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic? Ace Garp? Dan Dare? The Ballad of Halo Jones? RoboHunter? Ian Why not comment below?

MODERN 2000AD CLASSICS:

• Brink: Book One
• Devlin Waugh: Blood Debt
• Dreadnoughts: Book One
• Judge Dredd: A Penitent Man
• Lawless: Book One
• The Out: Book One
• Thistlebone: Book One

CLASSIC CHARACTERS

• Judge Anderson: Satan
• Judge Dredd: Vs Death
• Nemesis The Warlock: The World of Termight
• Rogue Trooper: Genetic Infantryman
• Sláine: The Horned God
• Strontium Dog: The Galaxy Killers
• Zenith: Phase One

Celebrating 50 years of Battle in 2025, Pat Mills, the creator of 2000AD, has launched his successor to “Charley’s War”, “Ragtime Soldier”, drawn by Gary Welsh and Phillip Vaughan, which first appeared in an eleven-page story in the Great War Dundee anthology, published in 2019.

The crowdfunder continues the story, including the original tale (still available to download from Millsverse here), delivering a 48 page adventure in the style of “Charley’s War” the groundbreaking antiwar story first published in Battle.

The Kickstarter offers the best price for this book, which is curated by ComicScene.

...

“I had discovered so much more since writing ‘Charley’s War’, “Pat reveals. “So in Ragtime Soldier we relate these new and darkest stories of World War One. Stories that no one has dared to tell before and will never be dramatized anywhere else. How our soldiers were given drugs to send them over the top, and how they became desperate addicts after the war. How there was provable trading between the British and the German enemy, in order to keep a conflict going that made millions in profits for the arms manufacturers.

“Ragtime Soldier has the same comedy, comradeship, heroism and tragedy as ‘Charley’, but it has exciting differences too,” Pat continues. “We now see the war from a heart-warming Scottish and Dundee perspective, the city where I started my writing career, and with a Scottish creative and publishing team behind it. And we also discover the sinister events that happened after the war on the Home Front.

A 17-year-old from Barnstaple has had a graphic novel commissioned by a Devon arts organisation.

Aaban Aslam was doing work experience in Beaford Arts' photographic archive when staff realised he had a talent for drawing.

Beaford has paid him to create the first chapter of The Widening Gyre as a pilot, and has published it on its website.

The adventure story is inspired by the North Devon landscape and folklore, in addition to the photographic work of James Ravillious and the Oscar-winning cinematographer Sir Roger Deakins, whose early works are in Beaford's collection.

...

When Aaban started his work experience in Year 10, he was not doing GCSE art.

The education team at Beaford spoke to the art teacher at his college and he submitted his work for the graphic novel as coursework and completed the course in just four months, gaining top marks.

Beaford Arts director Mark Wallace said when people came for work experience staff asked them what they wanted to be after school.

Aaban was very clear he wanted to work for Marvel Comics.

After looking at his portfolio, Mr Wallace said: "It's astonishing work... His sketches really capture North Devon in graphic novel form.

"We realised there was an opportunity there."

...

Staff at Beaford Arts are looking for a publisher to work with them on the book when it is complete.

People can read the first chapter Beaford's website for free.

The organisation also plans to hold an exhibition of his work next year, once a new cultural hub it is developing with other partners in Barnstaple opens to the public.

This March, Stanley Arts are hosting Yo Comics!, the first South London Comics & Zine Fair for kids and by kids.

A free entry, family friendly event, Yo! Comics will be a day full of free workshops, free giveaways and the chance to meet some of your favourite kids comic book creators.

Comic creator stars from The Phoenix and published authors of your favourite comics will be at this special new event, including Gary Northfield, creator of “Derek the Sheep”, Neill Cameron (Mega Robo Bros, Donut High), Tor Freeman Marc Jackson, Woodrow Phoenix, and many more. Also at the event is The Cartoon Museum, Comics Youth and other brilliant comics educators.

In a first for comics fairs, young people will also be joining in with these fine creators to sell their comics, with local schools and youth groups taking part.

The day’s workshops are hosted by the professionals themselves and will be for the 7-14 age range. The workshops will allow kids to make their own comics and cartoons which they can trade with other young comics creators.

For the best part of two decades now John-Paul Kamath’s London Horror Comic has been a staple of the UK small press circuit. Kamath’s stories have been illustrated by a number of collaborators, with the bulk of the issues providing complete-in-one tales. A rare thing for a numbered genre comic and something that makes LHC an easily accessible series for new readers.

...

It’s really quite remarkable when you consider how LHC has been a constant for so many years in small press circles. Uncountable numbers of series and artists have come and gone in that time yet London Horror Comic has remained throughout. If genre fiction comics in the mould of US periodical comics are your thing, particular horror and supernatural books, then you won’t find a more consistently solid book than London Horror Comic.

Order

A woman from New Zealand has filed a civil lawsuit against bestselling British author Neil Gaiman and his estranged wife, musician Amanda Palmer, accusing Gaiman of repeatedly sexually assaulting her while she was working as the couple’s babysitter and nanny.

Scarlett Pavlovich filed the lawsuit in federal court in Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New York on Monday. Pavlovich previously publicly identified herself in an interview with New York magazine, which published an article in January detailing allegations of assault, abuse and coercion levelled at Gaiman by multiple women.

Pavlovich’s lawsuit also accuses Gaiman of rape, coercion and human trafficking, and Palmer of “procuring and presenting” her to Gaiman “for such abuse”.

...

Pavlovich’s lawsuit states that she filed a police report in New Zealand, accusing Gaiman of sexual assault, but she alleges “the police took no action because Palmer refused to talk to them”.

Gaiman has worked with numerous publishers over the years. Two of them, HarperCollins and WW Norton, have said they have no plans to release his books in the future. Others, including Bloomsbury, have so far declined to comment.

Dark Horse Comics announced in January that it would no longer release its illustrated series based on Gaiman’s novel Anansi Boys. The seventh of eight editions was released earlier that month.

A production of Coraline has been cancelled, while Disney has paused a planned adaptation of Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Netflix is still scheduled to release a second season based on The Sandman, but announced last week it would be the last, in a statement that did not acknowledge the allegations against Gaiman.

The Shrewsbury-based illustrator, who was born in Wolverhampton, has captivated readers worldwide with his stunning artwork and imaginative storytelling, and recently released a number of comic books.

The Batman: First Knight came out in November last year and is available in hardback, in book shops including Waterstones and others including HMV.

Mike also worked with well-known writer Garth Ennis to create 'Freddie The Fix' which was released in December and is already highly-rated, and has worked with Oscar-winning writer John Ridley to release Justice League: The Atom Project, with the second issue set to come out next week after the first released last month.

...

He said: "I was always reading comics, from a very early age I was always picking up comics. It just stemmed from that and I always wanted to do it from when I started reading.

"I think that is where the love of it comes from. A lot of stuff at that time was the Marvel reprint but then 2000 AD came out in 1977 and that was amazing, it blew my brain, especially because it was all done by an English publisher and it emphasised the possibilities.

"Even though I was only seven years old it emphasised in my brain that this is something I could do.

...

Mike is continuing his work with the Justice League series and said he has three comics to complete.

Mike also revealed that there is talk about a sequel to The Batman: First Knight comic which may lead to another exciting project.

Local fans may also get a chance to meet Mike in the flesh this summer, as he is set to make an appearance at an event in Shrewsbury.

Learn more about his work at https://www.mikeperkinsart.com/.

Archive

Marvel Comics recently told the New York Times that they have "no new books forthcoming" from Neil Gaiman. Gaiman had written a number of comic book series for Marvel over the years, including Eternals and 1602. But most recently, that was just the republication, recreation and continuance of the series he had written for Eclipse Comics back in the nineties, Miracleman, and which had been tied up in legal problems for thirty years. After first republishing Alan Moore's original run, Marvel Comics then published Miracleman The Golden Age by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham, as they had originally created it back then, followed by The Silver Age, which had been partially completed. Only for artist Mark Buckingham to radically redraw the entire arc from scratch, and take over more of the writing duties for its conclusion, to much acclaim. This was then to have been followed by the unpublished The Dark Age. Mark Buckingham would take the creative lead on the project, though based on discussions, deliberation and collaboration with Gaiman. But that seems no longer to be the case. I understand Buckingham ceased work on The Dark Age last summer and asked to be reassigned. He has recently been working on Amazing Spider-Man at Marvel Comics instead.

In his new Substack newsletter, Marvel's X-Men Group Editor, Executive Editor and Senior Vice President Tom Brevoort, when asked by Bleeding Cool regular Ray Cornwall, "What is the status of Miracleman: The Dark Age? Has the script been delivered? If so, is Mark currently working on it?" replied "At the moment, Ray, nothing is going on with THE DARK AGE. If something changes in that regard, I'm sure you'll hear about it." But that seems very unlikely right now.

Autistic comic book fans are being invited to participate in a Cambridge University study looking at how best to support neurodivergent people to enjoy cartoons.

The project, led by academics at Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, aims to develop guidance to help make comic communities as inclusive and accessible as possible for autistic people.

Autistic people who enjoy comics, who are aged 18 and over and in the UK, are being invited to complete an online survey as the first part of the study.

Research by the Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC) indicates that hundreds of young people self-identifying as neurodivergent are involved in Britain’s comics community, either as fans or creators.

It suggests that neurodivergent comic enthusiasts often find spaces like fan conventions, comic book stores, online communities and the comics industry less than welcoming, and frequently feel “siloed”.

...

“Comics seem to have massive appeal for a surprising number of autistic people, and many of them are not just fans but enormously talented cartoonists, artists and illustrators,” she said.

“This is something the comics community is increasingly aware of, and there is a lot of enthusiasm for becoming better allies for autistic people.

...

The project, called The Collaboration For Comics And Autism, will work with partners including the CCIC and the Lakes International Comic Art Festival.

It will also work with specialist publisher Dekko Comics which supports neurodivergent learners, the Association of Illustrators, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration and autistic cartoonists Bex Ollerton and Eliza Fricker.

To complete the survey, see: https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6F5yYUIr3AQzBky

The Good Omens Kickstarter was set up to fund the creation of a graphic novel adaptation by Colleen Doran of the Good Omens novel by Sir Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. A remarkably successful crowdfunding scheme, it raised £2,419,973 from 36,867 backers. The Terry Pratchett Estate, which runs the Good Omens Kickstarter, had offered refunds to donors after the original Tortoise Media allegations until last November. However, the estate now says that it "will no longer maintain this freeze in light of new articles and allegations. While we cannot speak further on the subject at present, we have chosen to reopen a short refund window for those who would no longer like to support the graphic novel until Friday, 7th February 2025."

They also state that "It has also been agreed that Neil Gaiman will not receive any proceeds from the graphic novel Kickstarter. Given the project management, production and all communication has always been under the jurisdiction of the Estate on behalf of Good Omens at large, this will not fundamentally change the project itself, however we can confirm the Kickstarter and PledgeManager will now fully be an entity run by, and financially connected to, the Terry Pratchett Estate only."

And for those who still want the book but might want to change the donor rewards, they say, "a number of tiers also come with author merchandise and books; we have been working on a system in the back end to remove or swap out particular rewards from tiers, should you wish to continue with the project, but not receive these specific items" and donors are encouraged to contact the Estate with their wishes. However, they state that those who received cameo appearances in the project cannot have them removed at this stage of the production process.

The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, created by writer Mike Butterworth and artist Don Lawrence, is to get its first, stunning-looking new chapter in more than 40 years with New Adventures from the Trigan Empire by Michael Carroll and Tom Foster, launching in November from Rebellion.

Running for almost two decades in the pages of Ranger and Look and Learn, The Trigan Empire has influenced generations of storytellers, including renowned film-maker Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code).

...

And now, for the first time since 1982 – the Trigan Empire rises once again…

From the award-winning creative team of writer Michael Carroll (Judge Dredd, Dreadnoughts) and artist Tom Foster (Judge Dredd), New Adventures from the Trigan Empire picks up the torch to continue the classic, comics story originally told by Butterworth and Lawrence, and others.

This brand new original graphic novel will be published on 18th November in a luxurious hardcover edition, with a special numbered webshop edition available exclusively from the 2000AD and Treasury of British Comics webshops.

The first Mersey Margins Collective Comics Fair taking place next month at Future Yard CIC in Birkenhead is shaping up into a smashing showcase for comic creators.

Organised entirely by young people through the Marginal Changemakers project, the event is set to champion diversity, inclusion, and community within the comics industry.

Tickets are free but must be booked in advance via Comics Youth Eventbrite.

Taking place on Saturday 15th February 2025, the day includes free workshops like “Comics and Mental Health” with Bex Ollerton and “Comics and Climate Justice” with Emma Reynolds. There’s also a panel on “Comics and Identity” featuring creators like Lewis Hancox and Julian Gray (subject of the solo Lowry exhibition “Stories for Us”), delving into how comics empower marginalised voices.

The event will also showcase the work of twelve early-career comics artists from across the Liverpool City Region will exhibit their work, including Cara Brown, named one of Broken Frontier’s 2025 “Six to Watch.”

They are:

• Kusama: Polka Dot Queen.
• Low: Bowie’s Berlin Days
• The Compleat Angler: A Graphic Adaptation