They said it couldn’t be done! So we did this, instead…

The 13th issue of Crikey! is on sale from next week (25 January, 2010), featuring an exclusive interview with Kevin O’Neill (Nemesis, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Marshal Law, more other stuff than you can count) and Mike Higgs discussing his fondly remembered creation, The Cloak, plus a brand new and exclusive four page, full colour Cloak adventure drawn by Mike just for us–the black clad crime buster’s first proper outing in decades! We also have a preview of Project Luna, a new graphic novel by Martin Hayes and Jim Boswell, plus a look at the violent and frequently baffling misadventures of Tank Girl, the latest chapter in our ongoing history of Marvel UK, a look at the ever controversial Action, and more of the comic strip life of Doctor Who! Four D Jones continues his journey through time and everybody's favourite alien 'Hatch' gets hit by his own personal tsunami! Plus, all your favourite regular features, news and reviews.

It’s taken awhile longer than usual to get this issue out due to circumstances beyond our control, but we got there in the end–so what are you waiting for?

Order it! You won’t be disappointed…

‘Great news, chums’, of course, was the phrase which every British comics fan dreaded seeing, as it inevitably meant anything but; usually, it would be followed by the unwelcome news that one’s favourite title was being ‘merged’ with another. Or, to put it another way, cancelled.

Well, Crikey! is not being cancelled. But there is news and chums, sadly it isn’t great.

Some months ago now, we finally launched our grand plan to get Crikey! out of the shadows and into the high street. We moved to a new format, a higher print run, and full colour, and we signed a deal with Borders UK, one of the largest chains in the country, to get distribution in all their stores and affiliates. And it worked. Against all the odds-but not against our expectations, since we had faith in it all along-Crikey! sold. Sales were certainly above the expectations of our investors, feedback was positive, and it was all looking good. The future, it seemed, was assured.

And then Borders UK went bust. Which caused us something of a problem on several fronts.

The most cruciall aspect was the collapse of Borders and those outlets linked to them means that a huge chunk of our distribution has gone. We can still afford to print the next issue in the same numbers as the last two, but we can’t actually do that as we’d have nowhere to send about half of them. We tried talking to another distributor who specializes in comics and the like, but it was a no go, and having invested heavily in getting into Borders only months ago, we simply don’t have the several thousand pounds it would cost to get into another high street chain right now. So, if we maintained our current print run, we’d have thousands of copies bought and paid for simply sitting in storage, which costs money. Not an option. And while the printers could reduce the number printed, they have a minimum order below which it is not economical to go, and that minimum would still be more copies than we could currently place. Again, not an option.

So, we had a choice. We could simply stop, give it all up and give our subscribers their money back. But that wasn’t something we wanted to do, not least because some very talented people have done a lot of sterling work scheduled to appear in the next few issues. Or, we could scale down, which would mean returning to our previous format; 52 pages, black & white. And to our previous level of distribution, which to be fair is still pretty respectable. No contest, really.

So: the thirteenth issue of Crikey! will appear in the new year, a couple of weeks later than originally planned. But it will be in the same format as #1-10 and probably in black & white, unless we can pull off a miracle. Naturally, that will come as a disappointment to some (it certainly comes as a disappointment to us) but naturally, we hope you’ll stick around for the long haul. We still have a lot of great stuff lined up in the near future, including a brand new and exclusive strip adventure of sixties favourite The Cloak by his creator, Mike Higgs, interviews with some of the industry’s best and brightest such as the legendary Bryan Talbot and Kevin O’Neill, and of course all our regular features, plus a few treats we’re keeping under wraps for now.

And, and I really want to stress this, we’re not beaten yet. Crikey!'s push into the high street could easily have failed, we could have sold not one additional copy, but it didn’t; it succeeded. And while Borders’ collapse has left us high and dry, the fact remains that we have here something that people genuinely seem to want, so we’re treating this as what it is, a temporary setback. We’re retrenching and regrouping and looking for another opportunity. With any luck, it won’t be too long before that opportunity arises, and then we’ll be back out there in glorious Technicolor next to What Car magazine again. And in the meantime, we’ll just keep on doing what we do best, which is hopefully putting out the best magazine we can. Some of the wonderful material created in colour for #13 & #14 will still be available in that format on the Crikey! website, and speaking of online shenanigans, the more observant among you may have noticed that we now have our own Crikey! chat forum, accessible from this very page, so please, come in and join us! Also, the second issue of our companion title Super Spies & Secret Agents is now finally available as a downloadable PDF. We’re not standing still. We may have taken a step backward in one respect, but we’re still marching on!

In the words of classic song ‘Star Trekking’ by The Firm, boldly going forward 'cause we can’t find reverse…

Back by popular demand!

Britains greatest Spy Mag!

... for only £2.99!

Simply send £2.99 via PayPal (go to 'Subscriptions' at the top of the page) and we will send you 60 Full Colour PDF files direct to your mail box!

This ALL NEW issue contains top secret reports on:

Jack Bauer

The Man from O.R.G.Y.

HYDRA

Danger Man

Secret Squirrel

Jack Kirby's vision of The Prisoner

and much, much, more!

Tony and I recently had a short chat. We have lots of short chats. And lots of long chats for that matter. But this latest chat raised an intriguing question:
Should a magazine about comics have its own comic section?
As I said, this was a short chat. And it didn’t take us long to make up our minds. With the success and positive feedback we have received since the debut of ‘Hatch’ in Crikey! 11, the next questions were: How many pages should we devote to that section? What would we put in that section? Who would produce the scripts and artwork for that section? Our little chat had suddenly turned into a large project. We hit on the idea that the ‘Comics Section’ should have a mix of new stuff, old stuff, and be a showcase for up and coming stuff. So, Crikey! 12 quickly had eight pages set aside featuring first Hatch, and then ‘Miranda’ - a new cartoon strip written by John Dakin and drawn by comic’s legend John M Burns. They don’t get much better than that. Then Pat Mills mentioned his ‘Requiem’ graphic novels (now being reprinted in Britain by Panini) in his interview. We just had to get some of that stuff in and Graphic Novels editor Brady Webb at Panini kindly sent us some glorious ‘Requiem’ artwork by the strips French artist, Olivier Ledroit. And, to end it all (but not literally) we got in touch with newspaper strip veteran Peter Maddocks (now residing in semi-retirement in sunny Spain) and he gave us permission to reproduce his classic 60s strip ‘Four D Jones’.
So from that short chat, has come a new string to the bow of the Great British Comic Magazine.  Were we on target, or have we shot ourselves in the foot? Let us know, OK?

Another addition to the website is a different view of comics from newcomer Alex Wiggan. Check out his debut in the 'Features' section. Alex is a name you'll be hearing more of in the future…where, we're not sure–but you get my drift!

Glenn B Fleming
Publisher

Crikey! The Great British Comics Magazine

We’ve a bit of a coup in Crikey! #12, and it’s one we’re rather pleased about. Of all the talented individuals to have worked in British comics over the years, few have contributed quite so much as Pat Mills. The man created 2000AD, for Pete’s sake. And Action. And Battle Picture Weekly. And…well, you get the idea. Anyway, this issue we’re proud to present an in depth interview with Pat, and as if that weren’t enough we also have a teaser for his latest project, ‘Stars’, illustrated by Lee O’Connor (who-surprise surprise-is also in there, talking about the creation of the strip and his work in general).

And speaking of talented individuals, we also have Leah Moore and John Reppion discussing their revival of IPC’s stars of yesteryear in Albion, and the legendary Frank McDiarmid (creator of characters such as the unforgettable ‘Cheeky’) discussing a life spent in comics.
Chuck in features on the aforementioned Albion, D-Day Dawson and the Persuaders, amongst others, plus our brand new and exclusive comics section, the latest part of our ongoing look at Marvel UK and the first of a two part look at the comic strip life of our cover star(s), the ever incorrigible Doctor(s) Who, and I think we have the makings of a damn fine issue.
But then I would say that, wouldn’t I?

Tony Ingram
Co Editor

Crikey! The Great British Comics Magazine

So, at last it's here–the new 84 page, full colour, bi–monthly Crikey!. This landmark issue boasts some of the best talents around: we have interviews with Dez Skinn, legendary publisher of such notables as Warrior and Comics International; Steve Holland talks to Crikey! about Bear Alley Books; Beano editor Euan Kerr takes a bow as he leaves Beanotown but not before giving us an exclusive interview about his life at DC Thomson and last, but certainly not least, Pete Nash gives us an insight to Striker, one of the longest running comic strips ever produced. Also featured are the usual favourites: Nutty Notions and My Comicy Saturday, while Glenn B Fleming's strip cartoon 'Hatch' makes its debut. Articles on David Wright's 'Carol Day'; Sydney Jordan's 'Jeff Hawke', and the one and only Dennis the Menace are also in this issue along with other bits and pieces we're pretty sure you'll want to read!
So, pick up your copy at your nearest Borders or Forbidden Planet and a host of other comic outlets thoughout the UK or order thorough this website...

Crikey! is still The Great British Comics Magazine!

Go on, give it a try!

Glenn B Fleming
Publisher Crikey! Magazine

(The editors of Crikey! would like to give a big thanks to Nigel Fleming and Pete Moore for all their help and support...)

The Crikey! word is spreading! Look closely at the photo below and you'll recognise the person in the photograph is none other than Alan (Watchmen) Moore!! Comics fan Pådraig O Mealoid was over in Liverpool recently for a book launch and was staying at the home of Leah Moore (Alan's daughter and a comics writer herself). To Pådraig's great surprise, Alan Moore was there too! Pådraig took out his (unread) ever present copy of Crikey! Alan was so taken with it Pådraig told him to keep it! It would seem that Alan still enjoys reading good stuff (!) and here he is absorbing the contents of Crikey! 5.

A HUGE Crikey! thanks goes to Brian Showers and Pådraig for permission to use the photograph and to Joe Gordon at Forbidden Planet.

Go to:

www.slovobooks.com

http://slovobooks.livejournal.com/

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowserPhotos.jsp?UV294080442148_880327925209&co

http://www.kodakgallery.com/photos4802/2/25/96/13/46/6/646139625209_0_ALB

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?cat=24

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=8288

http://www.moorereppion.com/

for more!!!!!