News in June

Crikey! #10 is now on sale, and the great British comics magazine's thematically uncovers the stories behind a bevy of comic strip beauties.

These range from the classic Jane newspaper strip that debuted in The Daily Mirror back in 1932 through to two popular series that ran in The Sun, namely the long-running married couple George & Lynne, plus Spanish artist Enrique Romero's Axa science fiction series.

There are also articles on Carrie and Connie from the pages of men's magazine Mayfair, and Ron Embleton's Wicked Wanda as seen in Penthouse, both from the seventies, and both featuring strategically "censored" boxes across the more adult drawings.

Other features include how the Americans created Captain Britain and how our boys took it over to make it popular, plus retrospectives on 2000AD's Rogue Trooper, Polystyle's Countdown, and more besides.

Crikey #11 will be in full colour, and from then on the magazine returns to bi-monthly publication, and on sale in Borders' bookshops, alongside all good comic shops, plus subscriptions available from the publisher at www.crikeyuk.co.uk

the monkey-head complaint is the latest miniature masterpiece from Ireland's John Robbins. A tale of a relationship gone sour mixed with touches of surreal introspection.

As a writer Robbins has always been an observer of life who shows how the mundane is hardly ever commonplace, yet what appear major tragedies can be just another day in your life, with the darkest of humour present. As an artist, his cartooning worked fine while his straighter tales mainly just serviced the story. Robbins may not appreciate his own work on the children's entertainment pages of Dublin's The Evening Echo newspaper from the last few years, but it has helped refine and define his art. At times figures may look like they've used photo-reference but I doubt this to be the case, more likely his storytelling choice as a form of documentation.

Robbins should be writing one-off plays and short contemporary series for television. The fact that he likes to produce his own comics proves that this medium can do anything.

To find out about the availability of publications written by John Robbins email: rhubarb108@hotmail.com

Tripwire Annual 2009 is imminent. To order copies through Diamond, the item number is MAY091149, or copies can be purchased direct from the publisher.

Inside are articles and/or interviews with Guillermo Del Toro, Stan Lee, Bill Morrison and Frank Quitely, alongside anniversary features on Alien and Batman.