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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
My Best Comics & Manga of 2014: Year in Review
Posted: December 31, 2014
There’s much more to comics than long-form, single-volume graphic novels (much as I really enjoy them and set out my personal Best of 2014 of them from Britain, North America and Europe here…). So in this part of my Year in Review, I’ve picked out my favourite, most interesting superhero-related comics, translated manga and books about comics. Read my PG Tips here…
Enjoy My Complete Kosmopolis Lecture On UK Comics
Posted: December 30, 2014
Last year thanks to the British Council, I was a guest at the Kosmopolis Festival in Barcelona, with Karrie Fransman, Dave McKean, Paul Rainey and Peter Stanbury. I gave a lecture about the developments and current scene in British comics. I’m so pleased to discover that Spanish expert Breixo Harguindey has kindly summarised my speech and provided a complete video of my one-hour, unscripted live presentation Infinite Canvases: 21st Century British Comics for you all to watch. I do encourage you to fast forward the MC’s eloquent seven-minute biographical introduction, if you don’t understand Spanish! The images I am projecting appear cropped and small bottom right, so a bit small but visible, and you can find out more about these creators and their works here on my website, of course.
KOSMOPOLIS 2013 // Llenços infinits. Còmics del segle XXI. Paul Gravett (VO En)
Happy Holidays!
Posted: December 24, 2014
It’s that time of year, so let me thank you for visiting my website, I hope you’ve found it fun and informative. To wish you the jolliest of holidays, I’d like to share with you a French children’s comic I was drawn to at a BD collectors’ fair a few weeks ago in Paris. This is a telling front-cover image of ‘Noël 1914’ in this centenary year of the outbreak of the First World War and the kind of little-known (at least to me) item of comics history that I love coming across.
This eleventh issue of the bi-monthly IMA, L’Ami des jeunes actually dates from December 1955, and ties in to the opening two-page illustrated text story.Thanks to Bernard Joubert, I’ve learnt that this cover signed ‘A.G.’ is by André Galland, an illustrator who died in 1963 and is now largely forgotten. The tale of ‘Noël 1914’ inside is written by ‘A.Y.L.’ , alias A.Y. Lopin, director/editor of the publication. Not surprisingly, his story is highly sentimentalised, as the elderly Breton couple Tonton and Tatie (Uncle and Auntie) reminisce about the little girl Geneviève whom Tonton as a young soldier or ‘poilu’ on patrol found on a farm on Christmas Eve 1914, hiding under her bed, since her parents had been dragged away by ‘les Prussiens’. Geneviève dreams of Santa bringing her parents back and bringing her a doll.
So for Christmas morning, the soldiers make a Christmas tree from three guns and decorate it with candles and on the floor the simple wooden doll that Tonton has carved for her. Geneviève ends up being cared for and raised by the country couple for five years, and the story closes years later with the adult Geneviève paying a return visit and bringing her childhood doll with her.
For all its slushiness, this vignette does demonstrate to its readers that by 1955, those young French adults who had survived the horrors of the First World War would have been in their Sixties, like Tonton and Tatie, and show how the traumas of that conflict continued to echo long after.
Manga Jiman 2014 Shortlist Announced
Posted: December 23, 2014
The Embassy of Japan in London organises an annual competition called Manga Jiman, inviting artists in the UK to submit their comics on a set theme. Once again, The Embassy joined Kiriko Kubo, Ilya, Maya Gartner and myself to select the shortlist of winning entries for this year’s Manga Jiman and the new four-panel comic-strip Yonkoma Manga competitions.
The Embassy has now posted the entries online in alphabetical order by title. The position of each entrant will be announced at an invitation-only awards ceremony in March 2015 at the Embassy of Japan, with the top prize of two plane tickets to Japan! You’ll also be able to see all the entries in a free exhibition at the Embassy through March.
What Are My Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2014?
Posted: December 21, 2014
In an abundant year of veterans’ career highpoints and newcomers’ remarkable debuts, covered in my previous round-ups for The Independent newspaper in April, June, August, and October, I’ve selected my favourite, most interesting reads, all of them works which demonstrate how the medium at its most innovative and individualistic can stretch the multi-layered, visual-verbal experience of comics far beyond mere films on paper. I’ve organised my Year in Review’s Top Tens more or less by creators from/based in Britain, North America and Europe, and you can click on the links to read my reviews and articles about them. Find out what I’ve chosen as my Best of 2014 here…
Graphics Up For Grabs: The Booming Market for Comics Art
Posted: December 16, 2014
Once despised and disposed of as worthless, comics art has become highly collectable and coveted by collectors and investors. For example, this Indian ink drawing made by Hergé in 1937 for the flyleaves for the Adventures of Tintin albums, published between 1937 and 1958 (© HERGE MOULINSART 2014) sold for 2,654,400 euros, a world record for a piece of original comics art. Tonight at the Institut Français in South Kensington, London, Eric Leroy from Paris auction house ArtCurial gives a fascinating illustrated presentation about the booming market in France for comics originals, from past masters like Hergé to today’s superstars like Moebius and Bilal. The event is free in the Mediatheque from 7.30pm, full details here… and please book your place by emailing box.office[at]institutfrancais.org.uk
And as further evidence of this growth, Sotheby’s Paris is holding its next major sale of artworks on March 7th 2015. Among the items going under the hammer are fine pieces by Hergé, Hugo Pratt, Peyo, Gir-Moebius, Enki Bilal and François Schuiten, alongside American masters like Winsor McCay and Milton Caniff. This McCay Little Nemo is estimated at 42-46,000 euros Sunday page and a classic Pratt Corto Maltese front cover is estimated as 200-250,000 euros. Going… going… gone!
The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil at Bristol Old Vic
Posted: December 15, 2014
The Young Company at Bristol Old Vi have adapted Stephen Collins’ best-selling, award-winning graphic novel The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil into a play, directed by Stephanie Kempson and performed from January 7th to 10th 2015. Don’t miss this world-premiere theatrical experience!
Vishwajyoti Ghosh: Comics From A Changing India
Posted: December 13, 2014
A culture rooted in traditions as well as a rapidly growing economic power, India is facing many changes and challenges as it opens up to the modern world. As a political cartoonist based in New Delhi, producing until recently the weekly ‘Full Toss’ column in The Hindustan Times, and as an acclaimed graphic novelist, Vishwajyoti Ghosh confronts these issues by engaging head on with his nation’s history and society, past and present. Read my new Article here…
Preview Paul B Rainey’s Graphic Novel at Orbital Comics
Posted: December 10, 2014
‘This moment has been a long time coming.’ Tomorrow, Thursday December 11th, Paul B Rainey is previewing his acclaimed graphic novel There’s No Time Like The Present, revised, toned and collected into a handsome hardcover edition with dustjacket from Escape Books. He’ll be signing advance copies of the book from 6.30pm at Orbital Comics, 8 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7JA, right next to Leicester Square tube, and then from 7.30pm Paul will be talking with Chris Thompson in an illustrated interview about the creation and themes of his epic seven-year serial exploring the mysteries of time. This whole entertaining and edifying evening is free and all are welcome!
Books To Read: Best Graphic Novels - February 2015
Posted: December 2, 2014
Welcome back to my monthly analysis of the most interesting new publications coming into shops and online starting from two months ahead. As eclectic as ever, February 2015’s PG Tips range from reprints of comic books starring Black Americans and two British adaptations of an adventure classic, to brand-new graphic novels by Andi Watson about a delightful vampire chef with a sweet tooth and by sophisticated French auteur Annie Goetzinger about the fashion legend of Dior. My pick of the bunch, though, is Nocturne (wraparound cover above) by Anne Opotowsky and Angie Hoffmeister, the second in Anne’s ambitious Walled City Trilogy after the first volume, His Dream Of Skyland. Published by Australia’s Gestalt Comics, it’s a massive, mesmerising 456-page collaboration between an American writer and German illustrator, set in the Hong Kong of the 1930’s. You can’t get much more transnational than that. Join me as we explore today’s global comics medium at its finest! Read my latest Article here…
