Preview: THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR HOME SWEET HOME special

Next Wednesday sees the publication of Rebellion's final special (for this year) and it's a suitable horror offering for Halloween month. Instead of the Scream! and Misty Special we've had the previous two years, this time it focuses on one item, The Thirteenth Floor (which originated in Scream! back in the 1980s). 

The Thirteenth Floor Home Sweet Home special is 52 pages of twists and turns with artwork from a variety of creators such as John Stokes, Frazer Irving and Tom Paterson! Here's the PR from Rebellion...

• PRINT and DIGITAL: 16th October 2019 £4.99/$7.99
• DIAMOND: JUL192145
• COVER: KYLE HOTZ
In this issue:
HOME SWEET HOME by Guy Adams (w) John Stokes, Henrik Sahlström, Tom Paterson, Abigail Harding, Frazer Irving, Vince Locke, Jimmy Broxton, V.V. Glass, Kelley Jones (a) Quinton Winter (c) Simon Bowland (l)
THE ROMANTIC by Ghastly McNasty (w) Andreas Butzbach (a)
THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR by John Wagner, Alan Grant (w) José Ortiz (a) Mike Peters (l)

Available in print from: newsagents and comic book stores via Diamond Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop and apps for iPad, Android, Windows 10

Misty and Scream Special - webshop exclusive cover

As previously reported, following last year's successful Scream and Misty Halloween Special, Rebellion will be publishing another all-new edition for this Halloween. 

The standard cover will be by Kyle Hotz (below) and sold in newsagents and comic shops from October 17th, but there's also a variant Misty cover edition by Lenka Šimečková that you can only obtain by ordering it directly from the publisher at this link:
https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/RCS1853


With more treats than tricks, this issue features Black Max by Kek-W and Simon Coleby, 13th Floor by Guy Adams, John Stokes and Frazer Irving, Black Beth by Alec Worley and DaNi, Best Friends Forever by Lizzie Boyle and Yishan Li, and Decomposition Jones by Richard McAuliffe and Steve Mannion.

There'll be more details about this hotly anticipated special next month!

The SCREAM AND MISTY special returns for Halloween

Following the success of last year's revival, Rebellion are once again publishing a Scream and Misty Halloween Special this October. It will feature all new material from today's creators. 

It's great to see the title return, and it would be even better if it became more frequent (even as a quarterly, if not a monthly). I still have hopes that a humour title might be revived as a one-off special one of these years too, although there doesn't appear to be anything on the horizon yet. Admittedly, humour is a harder sell for the market that Rebellion has nurtured, and therefore a bigger risk, but maybe one day...

Anyway, back to the Scream and Misty special, and here's the solicitation from the Previews website. Order your copy now from your local comic shop to ensure you don't miss out! 

Following the success of last year's fright-filled outing, the Scream and Misty Special returns for 2018! Two of Britain's best loved comics have reunited offering an anthology of brand new tales, guaranteed to terrify and entertain you this Halloween! Featuring more treats than tricks, including the further misdemeanours of Max the computer in The 13th Floor, ghoulish goings on with the undead WW1 pilot the Black Max, zombie and vampire DNA combine to create a brand new horror sensation called Decomposition Jones plus a tomb full of other tales from the realms of the Mist.

In Shops: Oct 31, 2018

Preview: THE DRACULA FILE

This Thursday, 19th October, Rebellion publishes the fourth in its Treasury of British Comics books with The Dracula File collected from the pages of Scream! (and Scream! Holiday Specials). As well as the strips, it features a brand new cover by Chris Weston, an introduction by Scream! editor Ian Rimmer, A gallery of Scream! covers that featured Dracula, and a back up article by Dave McDonald charting the history of the path that led IPC to publish Scream!

Here's more info and images, courtesy of Rebellion...

• CREATIVE TEAM:  Gerry Finley-Day, Simon Furman, Ken Noble (w) Eric Bradbury, Geoff Senior, Keith Page (a) John Aldrich, Peter Knight (l)
• REGIONS: UK, worldwide digital
• RELEASE DATE: 19 October 2017
• PAPERBACK - 101 pages
• PRICE: £15.99 (UK) $19.99 (US)
• ISBN: 9781781085998
• DIAMOND: AUG171921

Fleeing vampire hunters from behind the iron Curtain, Count Dracula returns to Great Britain with an unquenchable thirst for blood! Unable to accept that the supernatural defector has slipped through his fingers, Rumanian KGB officer Stakis decides to defy his disbelieving superiors and destroy the unholy horror that has plagued the world for centuries. Will 1980s London become the Count’s permanent, new feeding ground? Written by 2000 AD stalwart Gerry Finley-Day and featuring Eric Bradbury’s nightmarish vision of horror’s greatest icon, The Dracula File is a book that you can really sink your teeth into!

Available in print from: book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond Available in digital from: Treasury of British Comics webshop

Preview: SCREAM! AND MISTY HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

Maximum Chill-Power! My thanks to Rebellion for a PDF preview of the special that will arrive in newsagents and comic shops this Wednesday, 18th October. Newsagents will have the Scream dominant cover, whilst comic shops will have the Misty variant. The interiors of both versions are identical. 

It's a very slickly produced 52 page comic, with some great artwork from veterans such as the amazing John Stokes to fantastic newcomers such as DaNi. There's a few very unexpected surprises too! I really hope it sells well so there'll be more next year.

Without further ado, here's a few preview pages to whet your appetites...

• UK & DIGITAL: 18th October 2017 £3.99
• NORTH AMERICA: 18th October 2017 $7.99
• DIAMOND CODE: AUG171919
• COVER: HENRY FLINT
        •       VARIANT COVER: GLENN FABRY/ ADAM BROWN

In this issue:
THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR by Guy Adams (w) John Stokes, Frazer Irving (a) Simon Bowland (l)

THE DRACULA FILE by Grainne McEntee (w) Tristan Jones (a) SG (l)

DEATH-MAN: THE GATHERING by Feek (w) Henry Flint (a) SG (l)

BLACK MAX by Kek-W (w) Simon Coleby (a) Len O'Grady (c) Jim Campbell (l)

RETURN OF THE SENTINELS by Hannah Berry (w) Ben Willsher (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)

FATE OF THE FAIRY HUNTER by Alec Worley (w) DaNi (a) Maz Smith (l)

plus: Pin-ups by Warwick Fraser-Coombe and Mike Hoffman 

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

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

Video ad for Scream and Misty Special!

Back in the heyday of British comics, every new launch (and many free gift issues) from the mainstream publishers was advertised on TV in short, snappy ads. Now, Rebellion have replicated that to an extent with an online ad for the upcoming Scream and Misty Halloween Special, out on 18th October. 

You can see the ad on You Tube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1x_L6HqlfM

More info on the comic here:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/variant-cover-for-misty-and-scream.html

Variant cover for the Misty and Scream Special

 As you may have already seen on the Forbidden Planet website and other places, the Scream and Misty Halloween Special out next month will now have a variant cover by Glenn Fabry and Adam Brown, which features a title switch to Misty and Scream Halloween Special. 

The variant edition will only be on sale from comics speciality shops, while the standard edition (shown below) will be on sale in newsagents. Collect 'em both!

Cover by Henry Flint.

When originally announced, the cover logos caused some controversy because the Misty logo was so small, despite Misty being the longest running of the two comics. Perhaps this variant cover will balance things a little.

The contents are...

The Thirteenth Floor by Guy Adams, John Stokes and Frazer Irving.
The Dracula File by Grainne McEntee and Tristan Jones.
Death-Man: The Gathering by Henry Flint.
Black Max by Kek-W and Simon Coleby.
Return of the Sentinels by Hannah Berry and Ben Willsher.
Fate of the Fairy Hunter by Alec Worley and DaNi.

The special goes on sale on October 18th for £3.99.

NEW! The Scream and Misty Special is coming this Halloween!

Just like a good spooky story, this was unexpected! Classic supernatural comics Scream! and Misty return this October in one combined Halloween special, featuring all-new stories! (Cover by Henry Flint.) The two comics never merged back in the day (they weren't even around at the same time) but they're a perfect match for this special! 

Cover image taken from Facebook's Hibernia Comics page. Seems it's public knowledge now so I thought readers of this blog would be interested.

Scream! and Misty are just two of the fan-favourite comic titles that Rebellion acquired a while back. Until now, Rebellion have been reprinting classic strips in their Treasury of British Comics books, so it's fantastic news that the Scream and Misty Special will contain brand new stories! 

I understand the special will be on sale in newsagents and has a cover price of £3.99. According to the date on the bar code it'll be on sale from 18th October until 13th December.

Here's the story info. (Thanks to Neil Taylor for sourcing this.)

Two of Britain's best-loved supernatural comics have been resurrected this Halloween and merged into one terrifying tome featuring all-new stories! 

Max the crazy computer makes a welcome return in The Thirteenth Floor by Guy Adams, John Stokes and Frazer Irving; the fangs are out in The Dracula File by Grainne McEntee and Tristan Jones; weirdos, warriors and weasels plucked from the pages of various 70s and 80s British comics congregate in Death-Man: The Gathering by Henry Flint; Kek-W and Simon Coleby collaborate on Black Max, the German World War One fighter pilot that's descended from a race of bat-people; the high-rise horrors of Birdwood are back in Return of the Sentinels by Hannah Berry and Ben Willsher; and fairies can be frightening in Fate of the Fairy Hunter by Alec Worley and DaNi.

It sounds like quite a variety, and of course Black Max is a character that used to appear in Thunder (and later Lion and Thunder). It'll be great to see him back! 

I'm sure this comic will be greeted very enthusiastically by fans old and new! Great news, chums!

Fang-tastic cover for The Dracula File collection

In case you missed the news on the Down the Tubes blog last week, here's Chris Weston's stunning new cover for The Dracula File, an upcoming book in Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics line.

The Dracula Files was a strip by Gerry Finley-Day, Simon Furman and Eric Bradbury that ran in the short-lived Scream! weekly in the 1980s. For more information, and exclusive interior pages, visit Down the Tubes today:
http://downthetubes.net/?p=38730 

It's GHASTLY!

It's Ghastly! No, that's not some out of touch middle-aged herbert's view of modern comics, but the title of a brand new publication covering the history of the short-lived Scream! comic. Out now from Hibernia Comics, the 64 page magazine is packed with features and interviews, all well illustrated with permission from Scream's copyright holders Rebellion. 

Here's the contents page to whet your appetite...

Scream! was published back in 1984 by IPC but only lasted a short time before falling victim to industrial action that affected its printers. (Along with some other IPC titles, Scream! was off the shelves for a few weeks but never returned when the others did. It was later merged into Eagle.) As well as the articles, there's also exclusive gems such as the covers that were never published...

...and the strip The Nightcomers that never made it to print...

I'll be reviewing It's Ghastly when I've more time next week, but in the meantime here's the link for you to buy a copy of this excellent publication:
http://www.comicsy.co.uk/hibernia/

More classics from the 1980s collected

Ireland-based publishers Hibernia Comics, who have previously published collections of strips such as The Tower King and The Thirteenth Floor (see here) have recently released two more books, - and they're the best yet. 

First up is The Best of Library of Death, which reprints the short self-contained horror shockers from 1980s weekly Scream! As the comic's editor Ian Rimmer explains in his introduction, the beauty of these stories is that he was able to commission a variety of writers and artists. And what talent! In this collection there are strips by Ron Smith, Mike Western, Cam Kennedy, Steve Parkhouse, José Casanovas and more. There's a couple of early Dave Gibbons strips too, which although used in the 1986 Scream! Holiday Special had originally been commissioned in 1973 for an aborted IPC horror comic.

I'd forgotten what a high standard of work had appeared in Scream! Although it wasn't a 'blood and gore' horror comic it certainly had some creepy moments of terror in its strips such as The Punch and Judy Horror Show illustrated by Brendan McCarthy.

Fans of Steve Dillon should be interested in this too, with the five page Beware the Werewolf strip illustrated by the artist from a script by Simon Furman.

The other book published by Hibernia this week is Baker's Half-Dozen, collecting the complete war serial from Speed comic (1980). 

Although 2000AD was already running credits at the time, Speed had more of a 'traditional' (ie: old fashioned) attitude about it and the creators of the strip were uncredited. There's no certainty who wrote Baker's Half-Dozen (possibly Angus Allen) but there's no mistaking the dynamic artwork by the excellent Mike Western.

The plot is typical boys' comic fare; fast moving, uncomplicated and full of potential for action at any given moment. "North Africa, 1942. Six allied soldiers led by the violent and mysterious Sergeant Baker - had formed themselves into a fast-moving desert raiding force." 

It's the powerful, tough artwork of Mike Western that makes the strip memorable. Western was one of Fleetway/IPC's top artists, - and one of the best comic artists the UK has seen. If you're already a fan of his work you'll know this book is essential for your collection. If you're not so familiar with him (he died in 2008) this is the chance to own some of his best material. 

Both The Best of Library of Death and Baker's Half-Dozen have excellent sharp printing and are squarebound softback books. Publisher David McDonald is doing a wonderful job bringing these classics back with the permission of Egmont UK. As I've said before, I think that independently licensed books like these are the only way we'll see certain British strips back in print. Let's hope Hibernia Comics continue to delight us with such productions.

You can order copies of the books from the Hibernia Comics website here:
http://www.comicsy.co.uk/hibernia/

Return to The Thirteenth Floor

Mainstream British publishers may seem cautious about bringing their classic material back into print but thankfully Egmont have allowed independent outfit Hibernia Comics permission to reprint some great material from the past. Previously we've seen collections of Doomlord, The Tower King, and The Thirteenth Floor Volume 1, and this week saw the publication of The Thirteenth Floor Volume 2. 

The Thirteenth Floor was a serial that ran in the very short-lived Scream! weekly in the 1980s. When Scream! was canceled due to a combination of industrial action and a publisher nervous of its horror content, The Thirteenth Floor continued in Eagle comic.

The Thirteenth Floor was written by Alan Grant and John Wagner and illustrated by José Ortiz. It told the story of Max, a sinister sentient computer installed in a tower block, who led criminals and bullies to their fate on the non-existent 13th floor - an apparent gateway into nightmare scenarios.

The superb The Thirteenth Floor Volume 2 is now available to order in print from Hibernia Comics at their online store. It reprints the strips from Scream! Nos.12 to 15 and Eagle Nos.128 to 139. Visit here to buy your copy:
http://www.comicsy.co.uk/hibernia/

Egmont classics now available as digital comics

  
Some of the most fondly remembered adventure strips of the 1970s and 1980s are now available as digital downloads from the iTunes store. Egmont's Classic Comics imprint (using the old 1970 Fleetway "fireball" design for its logo) is re-presenting stories from Battle Picture Weekly, Roy of the Rovers, Misty, and Scream for readers with iPhone or iPad devices at very reasonable prices. 

Here's the official press release:

EGMONT EXPANDS DIGITAL CLASSIC COMICS OFFERING

A collection of fondly-remembered classic comics is now available digitally

London 13th November 2012 - Egmont UK’s Classic Comics imprint was created to re-publish the wealth of classic comics in their archive.

Four volumes of Roy the Rovers kicked off our e-comic publishing in June this year and now we are excited to announce the launch of further classics on popular comic series from the 70s and 80s.

A fifth Roy of the Rovers has been made available along with publications from Misty and The Thirteenth Floor.  From Battle Picture Weekly we will be publishing various strips including Johnny Red, Major Eazy and the ground- breaking Charley’s War.  Some of the biggest names in British comics were involved in the creation of these stories, including Pat Mills and John Wagner.

David Riley, Managing Director of Egmont Publishing Group, said: “Roy, Battle, Misty…these are iconic magazines which still have a place in the national consciousness. They deserve to be brought back; their appeal also has the potential to transcend the generation gap and reach an entirely new, younger audience. With the limitless possibilities offered up by digital publishing, there has never been a better time to bring these comics to the fore.”

Follow these links to obtain your digital downloads:

MISTY: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/misty-comic-tales-from-mist/id573167123?mt=11

MAJOR EAZY: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/major-eazy-comic/id575022887?mt=11

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/major-eazy-comic-part-2/id575022909?mt=11

CHARLEY'S WAR: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/charleys-war/id575535490?mt=11

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/charleys-war-comic-part-two/id575567566?mt=11

ROY OF THE ROVERS: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/roy-rovers-comic-volume-5/id568395894?mt=11

THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/thirteenth-floor-comic-part/id573170121?mt=11

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/thirteenth-floor-comic-part/id573174728?mt=11