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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Grafixx Celebrates Paper & Print in Antwerp This Weekend
Posted: November 28, 2014
If you are in or near Antwerp this weekend, check out this stimulating celebration of paper and print, young talent and artistic experiment. For the third year in a row, Villanella and Huis Haas bring the most exciting graphic artists and publishers together for Grafixx in the DE Studio in Antwerp, Belgium. Come and browse the best alternative press at their zine fest. Enjoy artist lectures, exhibitions, workshops for young and old, fascinating animation screenings and live performances that combine musicians and illustrators.
British Comics Focus at Salon des Ouvrages sur la BD, Paris!
Posted: November 28, 2014
This weekend brings the 4th SOBD or Salon des Ouvrages sur la Bande Dessinée. Yes, the French create and publish enough of these comics histories, monographs, artbooks, biographies and more to dedicate a whole festival to them and their authors. This year there’s a special spotlight on British comics with a series of panel discussions on the Saturday afternoon with special guests Hannah Berry, Dave McKean, Ann Miller, Pat Mills, Kevin O’Neill and myself. There are also exhibitions (including one on David B. who did the festival poster, above) and forty publishers offering their range and authors signing books. It’s entirely free, just register for your badge - so if you’re in the arrondissement, do drop by!
K: KafKa In KomiKs Launch Party & Live Band
Posted: November 25, 2014
Czech artist Jaromir 99, illustrator of David Zane Mairowitz’s adaptation of The Castle by Franz Kafka, is in London tonight at the Goethe Institut in South Kensington. He will be in conversation with me and later playing live with his band, as part of the launch party for an exhibition about graphic novel versions of Kafka’s writings. All are welcome, refreshments with be served, with thanks to the Czech Centre and it starts at 6.30pm. Hope you can make it! The exhibition, K: KafKa In KomiKs continues till December 19th in the Goethe Institut library.
Art-Comics: Artists’ Lives As Graphic Novels
Posted: November 24, 2014
On Sunday November 23rd, the exhibition Art-Comics: Artists’ Lives As Graphic Novels opened at the Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart in Germany, presenting original comics art and preparatory materials from recent graphic biographies by six comics creators - two from Norway, two from the Netherlands, and two from France - about Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Munch, Schwitters, Gauguin and Schiele. This is my speech which I read in German to introduce the press and public to this significant exhibition. Read it and see artworks and photos from the exhibition here…
Emily Carroll Answers Your Questions In Her Comica Chat
Posted: November 17, 2014
Emily Carroll, the Canadian webcomics innovator and author of Through The Woods from Faber, is in London and will be taking part in a Comica Conversation on The Gothic Graphic Story at The British Library tomorrow from 7.00 to 8.30pm with Isabel Greenberg, winner of the Best Book in the British Comic Awards for The Encyclopedia of Early Earth. Last few tickets remain, so be sure to book here.
Ahead of this, Emily answered your Twitter questions in an exclusive Comica Chat this lunchtime. Above is a photo of her at her Gosh! signing tonight, courtesy of David Clayton.
Max: Comics Art in Spain
Posted: November 16, 2014
For more the four decades, from Spain’s local countercultural margins to international acclaim today, the ever-changing comics of Spanish artist Max, alias Francesc Capdevilla, have responded to his personal perspectives and the spirit of the times. Max emerged under the repressive Franco regime, debuting his work in 1973 in truly subversive ‘underground’ comix which the authorities pounced upon for ‘infringing public morals’. Post-Franco freedoms unleashed his angry radical Gustavo, then his punk distortion of Barrie’s fantasy Peter Pank, and more recently the bizarre, balding Bardin, inheritor of Superrealist powers from Luis Buñuel’s Andalusian Dog. Vapor, Max’s latest graphic novel translated by Fantagraphics, purifies and condenses his cartooning and thinking still further. Read my new article and Max’s new 2-page comic here…
Graphic Chemistry Talk at The Royal Society of Chemistry
Posted: November 16, 2014
It’s a bit of a first really, presenting comics at The Royal Society of Chemistry. On Thursday December 4th from 6.30pm, I am giving an illustrated lecture entitled Graphic Chemistry: The Science in Comics From Fantasy to Factual at Royal Society of Chemistry, The Chemistry Centre, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BA. It’s free, you just need to register online here… COme and join me. Here’s the info:
‘What can we learn about chemistry from its representations in comics and graphic novels? We discover that chemists can transform themselves into superheroes, like Hourman with his sixty-minute Miraclo vitamin or The Human Bomb whose slightest touch can trigger explosions. And that chemical accidents can unleash the stretchable Plastic Man or The Flash, Fastest Man Alive, but also the nastiest Bat-villain, The Joker.
‘The comics medium is also a highly efficient way to convey educational information, from biographies of famous chemists or product promotions for Rayon and rust prevention to surprising and enlightening cartoon strips to engage all ages with the science.
‘The Royal Society of Chemistry itself recognised comics in 2012 when it awarded the Bill Bryson Prize to cartoonist and Oxford chemistry student Jess Hamm for her superhero team Flask in a Mask, starring Agent Reagent, Heatproof Matt, Periodic Mabel and Hazmat Cat.
‘Join Paul Gravett as he gives an illustrated tour of how chemical characters and stories appear across the whole spectrum of comics, everywhere between sheer fantasies and hard facts. Paul is a comics historian, author of Comics Art (Tate) and co-curator of the Comics Unmasked exhibition at The British Library.’
World War One In Comics: Tardi on Mills, Mills on Tardi
Posted: November 8, 2014
Next week, Jacques Tardi will make his first public appearances in London, in fact in Britain, as part of Comica Festival. He’s chosen to be here, rather than say in Paris, over the period of remembrance leading up to Armistice Day, November 11th. Tardi (above) is passionate about exposing the lies and lessons behind the First World War through his remarkable graphic novels, most notably It Was The War of the Trenches and his latest, Goddamn This War! with Jean-Pierre Vernay, both translated into English by Fantagraphics.
On the evening of November 11th itself, Tardi will join his wife, singer-singwriter Dominique Grange, in a riveting audio-visual performance of songs, readings and big-screen projections of artwork, accompanied by accordionists from the Accordzéam ensemble. The evening is based on his graphic novel Putain de Guerre! and takes place in the Ciné Lumière at the Institut Français in London.
The night before, Monday November 10th, Tardi will be in an unmissable Comica Conversation entitled Goddamn This War!, talking with Pat Mills, writer of the acclaimed series Charley’s War, illustrated by the late, great Joe Colquhoun. Read the rest of my Article here…
Savage Pencil’s Freekmeet Exhibition
Posted: November 6, 2014
From his Rock ‘n’ Roll Zoo weekly comics in Sounds to his monthly ongoing strip Trip or Squeek in The Wire, Savage Pencil has chronicled decades of musical satire and rebellion. He has also illustrated numerous longer comics, several for Escape Magazine, as well as eyeball-catching record covers, T-shirts, posters and more.
There’s a rare chance to see and buy assorted artworks from across the ages, including prints and apparel, at his one-man exhibition Freekmeet at Into You, 144 St. John High Street, London EC1X 4UA from November 13th to December 23rd. Christmas shopping sorted!
Bill Watterson’s Angoulême 2015 Festival Poster
Posted: November 5, 2014
The retired, retiring genius behind Calvin & Hobbes, Bill Watterson, is the Grand Prix of next year’s Angoulême International Comic Festival in France. The American newspaper strip cartoonist has drawn this new poster for the festival, taking place from January 29th to February 1st 2015. Watterson won’t be attending in person, but there will be a major exhibition of his original art.
