New UK comic in development

[Lew Stringer]

I don't know anything about this beyond what's in the article but it sounds interesting:

http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/ ... strip.html

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

looks weird-n-wonderful: shades of 2000AD, which is no bad thing...hopefully it will carve it's own identity.

[steelclaw]

This looks good, it could be the new Valiant I've been waiting for

[STARBOY]

Yep this sounds the best proposal for a new UK comic in al long time. Good to see its not going to be padded out with reprints of Superhero stuff (as much as I enjoy them , but enough is enough already). It's looking good for UK newstand comics at the moment with "Clint" and now this - personally I hope its not to much like 2000AD,-the new "Valiant" if only - but that would be great .

[felneymike]

"between 2000AD and Superheroes" initially put me off as a i hate superheroes and barely tolerate 2000AD simply to keep such a long running title propped up (though am never too fussed if i miss an issue!).

BUT that was probably just marketing spiel, naming things that yer man on the street will have actually heard of in recent times. The stuff he then goes on to name like Jet Ace Logan and Frank Hampson makes this very, very promising indeed! Certianly sounds a lot better than a certain other one in the pipeline with a 'hilarious' name ( )

Only the other day i was thinking back to seeing that steampunk story Iron Moon previewed on Keith Page's blog and wondering what became of it... Now i need to track down that other thing with "Ferret" from Commando's childhood and cameos from the characters of Oliver Twist!

[colcool007]

OOOOH! That looks seriously good. I hope it doesn't suffer from spotty circulation which seems to plague most comics. I still haven't seen a copy of the ROTR comic that is out at the moment and it is not from lack of looking.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

2000 AD in it's heyday was a brilliant, eccentric comic crammed with invention and verve. Sadly the comic lost most of it's best creators, which co-incided with an 'arty' approach which heralded in the creative death-knell of the publication, which is the point where myself and many other former fans lost interest.

If this new comic can rekindle the glories of 2000 AD at it's best [without merely carbon-copying it, of course, and introducing good original characters/stories] then hopefully it can be a success.

[Lew Stringer]

OOOOH! That looks seriously good. I hope it doesn't suffer from spotty circulation which seems to plague most comics. I still haven't seen a copy of the ROTR comic that is out at the moment and it is not from lack of looking.

Have you had a good rummage through the children's comics and activity mags in Smiths? That's where I've seen the RotR comic, - hidden well behind copies of Tinkerbell or something.

Comic displays are getting worse. The Beano now has its own display box but my local Smiths keeps putting other comics in it, totally obscuring The Beano. Yesterday several copies of Transformers and Beano Max were in the box, with the usual small quota of weekly Beanos right behind them.

Another local newsagent has now decided that Doctor Who Adventures and Classics Illustrated should be on the top shelf next to Private Eye, Viz and the adult mags, for whatever reason.

It's certainly a hard struggle getting comics noticed when many retailers seem to be uncaring and clueless in displaying them! The public attitude to comics seems to be getting worse in my experience. It took me several minutes to find Dandy Xtreme in Smiths yesterday. Every copy was racked upside down and back to front, AND shelved behind some Titan comic. It was only by a process of elimination that I guessed the bagged comic barely peeking out from behind some Simpsons comic MIGHT be Xtreme. A casual browser wouldn't have bothered, and Xtreme would lose another customer.

Do publishers send out their reps or sales people to CHECK on how badly their stock is displayed? (And I mean turning up on spec, not announced in advance to give the staff chance to tidy up the shelves.) Staff blame customers for making shelves untidy but that's not entirely true. I've watched shelf-fillers cram comics into the shelves upside down on several occasions.

Bad displays are a huge threat to the UK comic industry in my opinion.

[Digifiend]

I saw a whole stack (at least 20 copies I reckon) of the ROTR special neatly displayed among the kids comics in Asda yesterday (seen them in Tesco as well, so Colin, try your local supermarket) - it looked like they'd just been put out. The section was a lot tidier than usual. Oddly there was only one Beano Fun-Size and no Dandy ones, despite the fact new issues would've come out the previous day. They can't have sold out that quickly.

You mention that DWA got put on a top shelf - did they get it mixed up with Doctor Who Magazine or what? Not that that should be on the top shelf either.

[big bad bri]

first time in ages i have been back on here but my love for comics just wont go away no matter how hard i try.I cant see any new weekly lasting i hope im wrong though,Striker RIP.as comic displays are getting worse in smiths as i never see the dandy there at all now (even though it is crap now) all there seem to be is an abundance of those nursery titles with so called free gifts.take note beano when i was young free meant free, not putting the cover price up all the time there is a toy or sweets or cards no one wants.
brian

[Digifiend]

I agree with you about the Beano charging for gifts... but at least they don't call them free gifts.

[moose]

But surely the word gift can't be applied to something you have to pay for...?

[Digifiend]

You'd think so, but the Advertising Standards Authority can only jump on them about it if they actually mislead people by calling them free.