The excellent downthetubes blog (a must for lovers of British cult SF) reports that Virgin Comics will be publishing a new DAN DARE title starting in November.

On a personal note, while it’s great to see Dan Dare back in comics, I have doubts if a post-apocalyptic Dare written by Garth Ennis will be my cup-of-tea. I was raised on The Eagle and the 1950s style Pilot Of The Future. I also hope that Virgin’s acquisition of the Dare license won;t adversely affect the new old-style Dare stories being presented in the excellent Spaceship Away.

I just came across this site today, that apparently has been in existence in various forms since 1998.

Hey Oscar Wilde! It’s Clobberin’ Time!! is a collection of various artists interpreting their favorite literary figure/author/character.

Much time can be wasted browsing..

As a sample,, here is Bruce Timm’s rendition of Lovecraft

In a piece on the crime fiction market the BBC online magazine leads with HarperCollins plans to issue the classic Agatha Christie mysteries in graphic novel format. The series is scheduled to debut next month during Agatha Christie Week.

Their hope is that this will open up the Christie books to the hip young things that read graphic novels. Maybe it will also open up traditional mystery readers to the possibilities of the graphic novel format too.

The BBC story includes a link to a short gallery featuring some art samples.

Well that didn’t last long did it? A brave attempt to get the fantasy book reading crowd into the comic book stores, that never quite seemed to find a place in either market.

The official press release is rambling and vague, so here is the best summary from Tom McLean at Variety’s Bags & Boards comics blog.

From Newsarama.

Not much to add except – Damn!

It seems like my debut as a James Bond feature article writer will be delayed a bit more, at least in the UK. JAMES BOND: DEATH WING was to have shipped on July 29th in the UK, but it looks like it has now been put back to match the American on-sale date. Look for 007 to arrive in stores on both sides of the Atlantic on 11th September.

In the interim here’s a look at the cover art.

The Chemist
Image Comics (32 pages / 3.50)

Writer / Artist: Jay Boose

I must admit I am totally unfamiliar with writer / artists Jay Boose’s work*, but after picking up the first issue of The Chemist I will definitely be looking out for more. The European style of the cover called out to me from the rack. A quick flick through reinforced that opinion as the art showed strong influence from French bandes dessinées (BD) albums – mixing urban noir crime drama with slick stylish protagonists and a realist, almost illustrative, approach to detailing backgrounds. And anybody that can accurately illustrate a 1967 Renault Alpine sports car scores immediate points with a gear head like me.

The story in this first issue is a simple tale of man meets woman, they get shot at, and escape over the Canadian border. But the man is a drug dealer with a neat twist, he doesn’t dispense heroin – he reverse engineers, manufacturers and sells prescription drugs on the black market. While the woman is a decoy set up by the mob, an alluring companion with what will undoubtedly be an equally alluring back story to unfold. The action runs from Boston to Montreal and reflects the different feel and sensibilities of both locations. It’s fast, witty, sexy and enthralling.

The book is literally crammed with story as both the inside front and back covers as well as every page are used for art rather than adverts – such a simple and seemingly obvious way of getting more story for your money, that I’m amazed that other publishers haven’t used it before.

This will be one I will definitely be buying when a hardback collection is published (please make sure that happens Image) and will happily rack it alongside my European BD albumes.

* It seems that Jay Boose is an animator at PIXAR – so I must have seen his work before.

Just received this from my good friend Jay Willson, who once more took my scribbled pencils for the back cover of Comicopia #103 (due out in October) and transformed them with his inking into something more intense and dramatic than I’d ever imagined.

Seems there a possibility that this may end up as the front cover instead.

Back from the madness that was this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego.

As most of my time was spent meeting with, and pitching to, editors I don’t have too much in the way of convention report; and let’s face it the web is full of those at the moment.

Instead here’s a few photos just to give you a flavor.

The ComicCon flags flying from lamposts all over San Diego’s Gas Lamp district.

The line to get in – this was two hours before opening time for Wednesday evening’s Preview Night.

Wednesday evening at Door D entrance looking left.

Same spot looking right…