Geek Culture Reviews

ComicScene set to publish ‘Tara Togs - The Silence of Unicorns’ graphic novel… Our friends over at ComicScene.org have teamed up with former Oor Wullie artist Stephen White to bring the 68-page graphic novel, Tara Togs - The Silence of Unicorns to life. Partly funded by Creative Scotland, White who goes under the pen name of Stef has been inspired by the likes of TinTin, Indiana Jones, and Lara Croft in creating his Edinburgh based tale.  Stref said today “ The project took three years to complete, mostly as a covid lockdown project, in between my current ongoing work for Viz Comic.   Tara dreams of becoming a professional photographer and her knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time lands her smack-bang in the middle of a gang of ruthless criminals and their plot to steal a valuable piece of art.    Armed only with her quick wits and unfailing bravery, she sets out to bring the gang to justice.  She manages to make a few friends on her adven...

Is digital the new comic book store? To support the indie press, and to encourage more accessible ways to read comics online, ComicScene has expanded its website. The recently launched ComicScene+ Digital Comics allows creators and publishers to showcase their work to those who wish to pay the very generous entry fee.  Coming in at £20 for a whole year, ComicScene+ allows worldwide 24/7 access to the annuals, graphic novels, magazines, and comics that will be uploaded onto the site across 2023. To make it attractive to indie creators, ComicScene will also pass on a percentage of the subscription fee to those who have their work featured on the site, as well as acting as a storefront for readers to buy physical copies too.  Currently, the storefront is in its infancy and as such, there isn't a great deal of work on there. So far subscribers can delve into the  Kirknewton Story by Colin Maxwell and the pupils of Kirknewton Primary School...

Rob Lake reviews ComicScene Annual 2021... Remember when you'd wake up on Chistmas morning and there would be a classic hardback comic annual sitting under the tree? Well,  ComicScene does, and they've taken a trip back in time with the ComicScene Annual 2021. It's a tradition that's been around for donkey's years. My parents brought me an annual every year, and I do to my kids too. With the discovery of the  ComicScene Annual, I now have the excuse to buy my very own. The ComicScene Annual 2021 features twenty all-new stories from a variety of writers and artists. These stories are all told within a gorgeous 116-page hardback annual (also available in softback). On opening the cover it was great to see the amount of variety on offer. There were a few names I was familiar with such as Sarah Millman, Samuel George London,  and both (friends of Geek Culture Reviews ) Alan Holloway and Ed Doyle . But there were more than a few writers and ar...

Back in 2020 ComicScene released the first batch of their incredibly ambitious History of Comics series. The project is made up of a series of books that will chart comic history from 1930 to the present day. The project plans to end in 2030 and with it the completion of the most definitive edition of comic history that's ever been made. Fast forward to 2021, ComicScene are back with the next four issues in the series; 1971 , 1976 , 1991 and 2000.  As I write this article the crowdfunding campaign currently stands at £5,529 which has been pledged by 87 backers. With 13 days left to go the project needs to reach £9,000 to be funded. So what's the History of Comics all about? (The following is taken from the official Kickstarter page)  " Launched in 2020 the History of Comics is a 100 issue partwork covering comics from 1930 to the present day. The project is scheduled to end in 2030 with the definitive collection of comic history ever made. The fifth book, T...

So the good folk over at ComicScene (comicscene.org) asked its fans to vote for their top ten comics of the last year.  With 2020 being the washout that it was, with the fallout continuing today - I write this currently sitting in yet another UK national lockdown. A fair few of us took up new past times or rediscovered old loves to past the time.  With voting for the top 10, everything was to play for. There was no shortlist, just an option to input YOUR top comics of 2020. Naturally, I had to vote for the three comics that I have a soft spot for  2000AD , The77 and Sentinel (reviews coming soon). And it seems that I wasn't alone in voting this way too!  What came as a surprise was that there was one single Marvel offering ( Immortal Hulk ) and nothing from DC in the top 10. What we did get however was a nice nod to British comics from Pat Mills - Spacewarp (No.9) to Shift (No.8) and even Drok of the Reds (No.7). It's great to see that the UK comic...