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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Matilda Tristram - Probably Nothing, Definitely Something
Posted: August 9, 2014
Coping with either pregnancy or cancer would be enough for most people, but in February 2013, when Matilda Tristram was 18 weeks pregnant with her first child, she was diagnosed with bowel cancer. That month, she began keeping a diary in comics form of her experiences and feelings and made them public online to a growing global readership as Probably Nothing. Read the rest of my profile of Matilda and her brand-new postscript, a two-page comic entitled ‘Definitely Something’, commissioned by ArtReview magazine, here…
Live on Art Beat with Holly & Orla on Soho Radio!
Posted: August 6, 2014
Holly Lander and Orla Bennett run the wonderful cult art emporium Atomica Gallery, recently relocated to fabulous premises at 29 Shorts Gardens in Covent Garden. They’ve kindly invited me onto their Soho Radio show ArtBeat to share our obsessions about comics of course, tomorrow morning Thursday August 7th, from 9am, so do tune and listen live if you can. Otherwise it is re-listenable online here.
Jacques Tardi: Goddamn This War!
Posted: August 4, 2014
On today of all days, the centenary of Britain’s declaration of war against Germany in 1914, Jacques Tardi stands as one of the most insistent and clear voices in modern French comics and graphic novels recording and criticising the horrors of this ‘war to ends all wars’, and of other wars since. To mark this, here is my profile of Tardi from Escape Magazine No. 8 (1987). Let me urge you to seek out his remarkable oeuvre made available in English by Fantagraphics. Read this Article here…
Who’s Taking Part in The Drawing Parade Saturday August 16th?
Posted: August 3, 2014
On Saturday 16th August 2014, a Cavalcade of Crazy Cartoonists will razzle-dazzle us all by drawing live, projected onto big plasma screens in the Comica Drawing Parade, an all-day highlight of the free Comica Comiket from 10.30 to 16.30 at The British Library, King’s Cross, London, introduced by our special guest Bryan Lee O’Malley of Scott Pilgrim and Seconds fame!
Here are our esteemed Guests lining up for the Drawing Parade, in order of performance:
10.30-11.00: Willem Samuel (Mengelmoes from Soaring Penguin Press)
11.00-11.30: Andrew Rae(Moonhead and the Music Machine from Nobrow)
11.30-12.00: Asia Alfasi (Best New Manga from Constable & Robinson)
12.00-12.30: Al Davison (Hokusai Dreams and Muscle Memory from Astral Gypsy)
12.30-1.00: Mark Buckingham (Fables and Dead Boy Detectives from Vertigo)
1.00-1.30: Francesca Dare (Penny Blackfeather from Sloth Publishing)
1.30-2.00: Jan Cleijne (Legends of the Tour from Head of Zeus)
2.00-2.30: Warren Pleece (The Great Unwashed from Escape Books, Alby Figgs from Blank Slate)
2.30-3.00: Jade Sarson (For The Love Of God, Marie!, Winner of the First Graphic Novel award, forthcoming from Myriad)
3.00-3.30: Emmanuel Guibert (The Photographer, Alan’s War and How The World Was from First Second)
3.30-4.00: Ian Williams (The Bad Doctor from Myriad)
Don’t miss these amazing Drawing Paraders drawing live before your very eyes and signing and sketching in their comics for you afterwards!
My Independent Reviews of Seconds, Fatherland & More!
Posted: August 3, 2014
Once more I’ve been lucky enough to write my latest Graphic Novels Round-Up for the Saturday Independent newspaper. Read my reviews here of Seconds, Through The Woods, Fatherland, Probably Nothing, How The World Was, and To End All Wars here…
Kevin O’Neill’s Original Art from League: Century 2009!
Posted: August 3, 2014
2009 is the third part of the Century trilogy, the latest cycle of the The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, now compiled into one hardcover edition by Top Shelf Productions and Knockabout Comics. The climax of this mythic story by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill plunges contemporary London into a surreal and apocalyptic drama. Through an online exhibition, Galerie Champaka is offering for sale the entirety of this last book’s pages, as well as the cover, drawn by Kevin O’Neill. Take a look at scans of his stunning pen-and-ink originals here…
My Final Co-Curator’s Tours for Comics Unmasked!
Posted: July 31, 2014
The hugely popular and acclaimed exhibition Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK closes at The British Library on Tuesday August 19th. I’m giving two more Co-Curator’s Tours, free with your ticket but you must book. The first is next Tuesday August 5th at 6.30pm, and the second is on the closing night itself, August 19th again from 6.30pm. And on this historic last night, co-curator John Harris Dunning will be joining me for a grand finale double-act performance not to be missed. Hope to see some of you there.
Books To Read: Best Graphic Novels October 2014
Posted: July 31, 2014
The range and ambition of comics today continue to surprise and impress, as my personally recommended titles prove again this month. Biographies of Marx, Stefan Zweig or Michael Jordan, a thrilling expansion of Richard McGuire’s seminal “Here” short story into a 320-page tour de force, a Jim Henson lost story rediscovered, the welcome returns of Euro-stars Winshluss, Schrauwen and Schuiten & Peeters, exciting upcoming talents and some vintage treasures reprinted, with a focus on comic-book women from the Golden Age - and even a horror yarn set in an Ikea-style furniture store and packaged like one of their catalogues!
Among so many delights, I want to highlight the important solo debut by Rob Davis, whose Don Quixote stands as one of the finest and wittiest literary adaptations into comics I’ve every enjoyed. In the footsteps of SelfMadeHero’s other break-out original graphic novels like Glynn Dillon’s The Nao of Brown, Ilya’s Room For Love, Oscar Zarate’s The Park and I.N.J Culbard’s Celeste, now The Motherless Oven looks like being one of the most unpredictable and provocative parables of the season, the arrival of Davis as a major complete auteur and visionary voice. Not to be overlooked! Clear some more shelf space, it’s another bumper crop this October. Read about all my recommendations here…
Don’t Miss Guardian Graphic Novel Masterclass This Sunday!
Posted: July 24, 2014
I am opening this Sunday’s How To Create And Publish A Graphic Novel one-day masterclass. I will then be joined by Toby Litt, Stephen Appleby and Karrie Fransman who are sure to inform and inspire. Two days to go to book, hope to see some of you there!
Batman’s 75th Birthday on Radio One’s Mark Forrest Show!
Posted: July 24, 2014
I was interviewed on Radio One’s Mark Forrest Show to discuss Batman’s 75th Birthday on Wednesday night. You can listen in from 01:04:25 to 01:12:40 and hear me give due credit to the original Batman writer and co-creator Bill Finger, and then I rattle on as well about Tintin, Thunderbirds and of course the amazing Comics Unmasked exhibition at The British Library!
