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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Article: Anne Opotowsky - The Walled City Trilogy
Posted: June 15, 2014
Buried today beneath a park in Hong Kong sleeps Kowloon Walled City, once home to the poor, the criminal, the innocent and the secretive, no bigger than a few city blocks and flourishing outside all conventions and laws. For the Emmy Award-winning American writer of books, films and documentaries, Anne Opotowsky, the vanished Walled City struck deep emotional chords. “It created incredible echoes in all I knew about human history. I see The Walled City in Imperialism, Orientalism, in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Africa, the American South and American West. The city, with its story, its people, their need to find a place, which though utterly anarchic, was home, became a powerful muse.” Read the rest of my Article here…
Ally Sloper in British Folk Art at Tate Britain
Posted: June 15, 2014
The Bellamy Quilt (1890-1)
Click detail to see the whole.
Are comics art? Are comics folk art? Either way, the hugely popular Victorian comic character Ally Sloper features in Tate Britain’s fascinating British Folk Art exhibition (on till August 31st) in a humorous snowball assault which is at the centre of the Bellamy Quilt (1890-1) by Herbert Bellamy and Charlotte Alice Springall, borrowed from Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery. Only one erratum: in the accompanying catalogue Sloper is credited as first appearing in 1884. That is the year his weekly, Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday, was launched, but he’d actually debuted in 1867 in the magazine Judy. Ally Sloper also features, by the way, in Comics Unmasked at The British Library till August 19th, both in printed form and in a rare surviving ventriloquist’s dummy (below, kindly lent by Sloper researcher Roger Sabin). It’s good that the old rascal is being remembered in these two very British exhibits.
Article: Books To Read: Best Graphic Novels August 2014
Posted: June 9, 2014
It’s not every month that we get a major new book by the amazing Jules Feiffer and his Kill My Mother is only one of a plethora of much-anticipated summer reading I am picking and previewing for you here. There are plenty of others I am looking forward to, including Nina Bunjevac’s powerful, exquisitely rendered Fatherland, and Emmanuel Guibert’s How The World Was (cover above), just about my favourite French graphic novel of 2012, translated at last.
The great news is that French genius Emmanuel Guibert, also creator of Alan’s War and The Photographer and other titles from FirstSecond, is coming over again to London. Thanks to the Institut Français he will take part in an exclusive Comica Conversation at The British Library, as well as demonstrating his astonishing virtuosity live in the Drawing Parade. It’s part of the Comica Festival weekend of August 15th, 16th and 17th, over the closing Friday to Sunday of the massive British comics exhibition Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK, which I have co-curated with John Harris Dunning. Details as ever on our sister site, Comica Festival! Read about all the rest of my recommendations here…
Article: Coco Wang - Comics Made in China
Posted: May 29, 2014
Based between Beijing, Hong Kong and London, Coco Wang thrives as an extraordinary fusion of Chinese and British cultures and as a bridge between the two. Having received a thoroughly British education, starting at Queen Ethelburga’s College in North Yorkshire, Wang translated her experiences into a ‘TuWen’ or autobiographical diary-style comic, Coco Goes to Study in England, published in both China and Hong Kong. For the 2008 exhibition Manhua! China Comics Now in London, part of Britain’s China Now festival ahead of the Bejing Olympics and the first of its kind in the country, Wang was an ambassador for her upcoming generation of experimental, underground Chinese comics creators, several in collectives like Special Comics and Cult Youth. She also edited, translated, published and contributed to an impressive anthology of these cutting-edge innovators’ stories entitled Freedom. Some of her most deeply moving and widely seen work was a series of documentary webcomics telling the under-reported human stories of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake (more of these are still online at this website). Wang’s talents have crossed over into a variety of fields, from assisting theatre director and writer Robert Wilson on his musical production The Black Rider at the Barbican to developing acclaimed projects in animation and children’s books. Read my new Article and Coco Wang’s brand-new two-page Comic here…
Who Will Win The Myriad First Graphic Novel Prize?
Posted: May 21, 2014
This Friday May 23rd, Myriad Editions will announce the winner of this year’s First Graphic Novel Competition and I’ll be hosting the exciting Award Evening with the finalists and judges in the Conference Centre at the British Library as part of the events programme for the Comics Unmasked exhibition. You can book tickets here for £5/£4/£3 - hope to see you there!
The Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition is a biennial competition open to all previously unpublished cartoonists, writers and artists. Following the 2012 success of Gareth Brookes’ The Black Project, the winner of the latest competition is announced at this special event in the presence of the judges, who include novelist Meg Rosoff, critic Andy Oliver and cartoonist Woodrow Phoenix. The prize is publication by Myriad and a week-long artist’s retreat. Check out the six finalists’ entries here!
10th Beja International Comics Festival in Portugal!
Posted: May 21, 2014
Here’s the spiffing poster for the 10th Beja International Comics Festival in Portugal, where I’ve been invited to join local and international guests over the weekend at the very end of May. I’ll be giving some talks and joining some panels, alongside exhibitions including a retrospective and tribute about the late, great Italian maestro Guido Crepax, with his son and daughter attending. Looking forward to the festival enormously, as there’s a new wave of brilliant Portuguese creators emerging right now, including London-based Francisco Sousa Lobo. Hope to meet some of you there and I’ll be reporting back here on my discoveries.
Article: Books To Read: Best Graphic Novels July 2014
Posted: May 10, 2014
Coming up in July 2014 are these wonderfully diverse and diverting graphic novels, comics and manga for your comics-reading pleasure. And the creative roster comes from far and wide: America, Austria, Britain, China, Finland, France, Italy, Japan and Singapore. There really is a whole world of great comics being made out there and available in English. Explore and expand your horizons! Read my PG Previews here…
Alternative Press Takeover Tomorrow!
Posted: May 9, 2014
What are you doing tomorrow? One unmissable comics event is the Alternative Press Fair who ‘take over’ the London Radical Bookfair at the palatial Bishopsgate Institute close to Liverpool Street station. Several comics creators and self-publishers will be exhibiting and participating from 10am to 5pm Saturday May 10th, and best of all, admission is free!
Comics Unmasked on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch!
Posted: May 9, 2014
I’ve been invited to join Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer this Sunday May 11th on the Channel 4 morning show Sunday Brunch to talk about Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK, the exhibition I have co-curated with John Harris Dunning which is now running till August 19th at The British Library. Joining me will be Beano, Dandy, The DFC, Phoenix and Private Eye cartoonist Wilbur Dawbarn who will be drawing comics live and giving some tips to the presenters. If all goes to plan, we should be on live around 9.55am. Hope some of you can catch this, or catch up with it later on 4OD!
Comics Unmasked on BBC Breakfast News!
Posted: May 7, 2014
Thanks to John Freeman for this screen shot of my appearance last Sunday morning May 5th on BBC Breakfast News with Dr David Huxley to talk about the Comics Unmasked exhibition at The British Library.
