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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Article: PG Previews December 2013
Posted: September 28, 2013
It’s always time for great comics and graphic novels, even in the run-up to Christmas and the New Year. Here are my picks of what this December will bring, from compendia of two wonderful American newspaper strips to new graphic novels. Of them all, I’m singling out this month the opening episode of a truly classy period murder mystery set in the Twenties by Ellen Lindner. By an American ex-Londoner, now based in Brooklyn, The Black Feather Falls almost reads like a love-letter to the London and Britain she misses so fondly. Her title is not a reference to some waterfall, but describes the feathery clue which drops from a Holy Bible. This is one of the few possessions of a down-and-out double-amputee, apparently a survivor of World War I, who is found beaten to death in Jermyn Street in London’s fashionable St James’s district. Witness to this horror is American optician’s assistant and our narrator Tina Swift. When the police dismiss the case as accidental death, Tina is determined to get to the truth behind it, with help from sensible stenographer Miss McInteer, whose boss has been sent a black feather and has now disappeared. Chillingly, during the Great War a white feather, a symbol of cowardice, was given to men who did not enlist.
Sharply dialogued and elegantly designed and coloured, with a keen eye for period locations, manners and fashions, notably her passions for eyewear and knitwear, Lindner’s mystery entices and intrigues in the very best Agatha Christie tradition. Like me, you’ll find yourself hooked as it is serialised first online at Act-i-vate Comix and then in print in four parts by UK publishers Soaring Penguin Press. Read the rest of my PG Previews here…
Article: Marc-Antoine Mathieu - Prisoner of Dreams
Posted: September 27, 2013
Somehow Marc-Antoine Mathieu was fated to become a comics artist. As he explains to fellow artist Étienne Davodeau in Davodeau’s charming autobiographical graphic novel The Initiates (NBM Publishing, 2013), “I was born into a family without television. That was my parents’ choice. But books were everywhere, and images were a family thing. My brothers draw too.” His parents also rarely took their children to the cinema. Instead, the whole family enjoyed reading and that included comics or bandes dessinées, subscribing to the weeklies Tintin, Spirou and Pilote, home to Asterix who was born in 1959, the same year as Marc-Antoine. Rather timid and withdrawn, the youngest of four sons was initiated by his father and three brothers from the age of five into making comics of his own. Panels and balloons became one way for him to share and communicate with others. Read the rest of my new Article here…
What Comics Events Are YOU Going To Next?
Posted: September 26, 2013
What amazing times these are! It’s getting tricky to keep up with all the great comics-related events going on in London and elsewhere these days. Be sure to keep a regular eye on my Things To Do events listings and do please send me news of any events, exhibitions and competitions you are running or know about, so I can list and link them there. Here are just a few highlights over the coming days:
Isabel Greenberg launches her debut graphic novel at Gosh! Comics in Soho this Friday evening.
Work in Progress celebrate the print publication of their first anthology, Ye Olde Axe, on Saturday 28th afternoon from 2pm.
Hunt Emerson, John Spelling and Ben Dickson are at Fight The Power!, the new graphic novel from Seven Stories and New Internationalist about the history of people’s protest movements. (Gnash also have Jock signing Savage Wolverine for them on Wednesday October 2nd from 4pm).
Digital comics pioneer Aces Weekly holds a party in London for its 1st Birthday on the evening of Monday 30th with David Lloyd and other contributors.
Pinch and punch on Tuesday, October 1st evening when Queen Spark Books in Brighton launch their Arts Council-funded graphic novel anthology all about…and called ... Brighton: The Graphic Novel!
On Wednesday October 2nd, Ian Rakoff gives a free lunchtime lecture at the Victoria & Albert Museum from 1pm.
And on Friday October 4th, again at Gosh! Comics, come to the launch for Katie Green’s remarkable autobiographical graphic novel Lighter Than My Shadow, from 7-9pm.
Whichever and wherever you get to, enjoy meeting friends old and new, who love comics just like you (hey, that rhymes!).
Paul Gravett Website’s 8th Birthday!
Posted: September 24, 2013
Tomorrow, Wednesday September 25th, marks the 8th Birthday of http://www.paulgravett.com! I’m eternally grateful to Tim Webber for initiating this project and steering it through its early years. Every week I’ve been posting new Articles so that makes over four hundred so far.
I’ll be celebrating this anniversary tomorrow at Comica Social Club, held from 6pm to about 10pm on the last Wednesday of the month. From 7pm, I am also taking part in the Club’s new feature, Chatterbox, offering three ten-minute presentations. Mine will be previewing my new book Comics Art (cover below), coming out from Tate Publishing on November 7th. There will also be a graphic novel raffle with some fab prizes to win. For more details, join the Comica Social Club Facebook page and spot the man in the green fez. I look forward to meeting some of you there.
Article: Isabel Greenberg - The Encyclopedia of Everything
Posted: September 19, 2013
The Encyclopedia of Early Earth is sure to confound librarians. It’s not a learned encyclopedia at all, but a playful yet wise debut graphic novel, in which Isabel Greenberg rewrites humankind’s origins. In her appendices she claims to document an unrecorded period pre-dating the Permian and Mesozoic Eras, before the first reptiles, when our planet had three moons, and a civilisation of which no trace survives, except for some supposed ‘incredible subterranean cave paintings’.
From cave art it’s a relatively short jump to comics art. Illustrated in woodcut-like black ink accented in grey and sporadic colours, Greenberg’s stories feel familiar but quirkily altered, because she builds them from her researches into legends, world religions and folklore. As she explains, “I liked how many of their themes were universal - competitive siblings, jealous lovers, childless parents, parentless children - and crop up over and over, because they are fundamentally human.” Read the rest of my Article and see Isabel’s new strip for ArtReview here…
Raptus 2013: Bergen International Comics Festival
Posted: September 14, 2013
I’m here this weekend in Bergen on the west coast of Norway for the 18th Raptus Festival which this year celebrates the Norwegian centenary of women being given the vote (so that’s way ahead of the UK!) by inviting lots of amazing women creators to the festival, including Isabel Greenberg and Yishan Li from the UK, Gail Simone from the USA, Emily Carroll from Canada, Emma Rios from Spain, Nina Bunjevac from Croatia via Canada, Lucie Lomova from the Czech Republic and many more. Today I am chatting for half an hour from 1pm, interviewing Emma Rios from 3pm, and presenting 1001 Comics from 5pm, and tomorrow Sunday I interview Nina Bunjevac from 11am and discuss the UK comics with Mike Collins from 1pm. Hope to see some of you here!
London is Comics City: Things To Do This Week!
Posted: September 9, 2013
There’s no shortage of fantastic comics culture events over the coming week here in the capital. Tomorrow, on Tuesday 10th, The Special Relationship offers Hot Live Graphic Novel Action at this monthly literary evening with William Goldsmith, Hannah Berry, S.J. Harris, Tom Humberstone & Toby Litt at The Book Club, 100 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4RH. Doors open 7.15 for 7.30pm start and tickets cost £5.
Wednesday 9/11 brings the first Graphic Justice Conference organised by Thom Giddens during the day, as well as Comics Gosh!p graphic novel reading group at Gosh! in Soho from 7pm, looking at Glyn Dillon’s Nao of Brown & new anthology Wu Wei. Gosh! also has a signing Friday 3-4pm with Oliver Jeffers, while on Saturday with Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy are signing 1-2pm at Forbidden Planet.
Saturday 14th is also the date for your diary for the opening of Unfold, a celebration of contemporary artist books and book design at London Print Studio on the Harrow Road as part of London Design Festival. Meet artists 2-6pm and party at the opening 6-8.30pm. And the Whitechapel Gallery from September 13-15 hosts the London Artists Book Fair. Who wants a quiet weekend?!
And next Monday September 16th, comics finally invade the classy London Design Festival, with Baxter & Bailey’s exhibition Sequential City, from September 16 to 22 (excl 21) at 6 Hoxton Square, London, N1 6NU. Originals and prints by 2012 Costa biography prize-winner Bryan Talbot, Hannah Berry, Woodrow Phoenix, Rian Hughes, Gary Northfield, Sarah Mcintyre, Garen Ewing, Robert Ball, Simone Lia, Paul Duffield and Kate Brown. All their work is on the theme of London and many of the artists contribute to a short film to accompany the exhibition by Rob Chan at Bokeh.tv. Read Creative Boom‘s preview here.
Later on Monday evening, you could go along to Laydeez Do Comics back at Foyles in Charing Cross Road with guest presenters Ginny and Penelope Skinner, collaborators on Briony Hatch from Limehouse Books, writer and artist Wallis Eates, and from Beijing comic artist Coco Wang.
To keep up with the busy, buzzing scene, in London and also across the UK, Europe and elsewhere, check out the constantly-updated Things To Do Events Listings Page on this site. And if you want your comics event listed and linked there, contact me via this site with details.
Video of Gareth Brookes Interview on The Black Project
Posted: September 9, 2013
Myriad Editions have posted a video of my interview with Gareth Brookes at the opening night of his exhibition of lino cuts and embroideries from his graphic novel debut, The Black ProjectM, last week at the London Print Studio. Enjoy!
And I am interviewing Gareth again at the Manchester Literature Festival on Monday October 7th along with Isabel Greenberg. It’s free but you need to book a place here. See you there!
Article: Katushiro Otomo - Post-Apocalypse Now
Posted: September 7, 2013
As The Japan Times recently put it, ‘Without Akira there would be no ‘Cool Japan’.” Manga get taken for granted today, widely available as English paperbacks and inspiring global artists with their dynamic styles and techniques. But twenty-five years ago, what would become a tsunami of Japanese comics was barely a ripple. In May 1987, independent U.S. publishers First and Eclipse instigated the first wave by serving up lengthy historical epics Lone Wolf and Cub and Kamui, among others, in monthly or fortnightly slices as American comic books. But the big impact came in 1988, when Marvel’s creator-owned imprint Epic unleashed Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, in prestige, squarebound comics. His black-and-white pages were put into colour, making the first use of a vibrant, sophisticated computer palette devised by Steve Oliff. Here was a gripping, fast-paced science fiction manga that would truly cross over to Western audiences on a massive scale. Akira would send shockwaves worldwide. Read the rest of my article here…
Dylan Dog on 1001 Fumetti Cover Revealed!
Posted: September 2, 2013
Grazie mille to my Italian Team 1001 Correspondent Matteo Stefanelli, who has just sent me the stylish cover featuring Dylan Dog for the Italian edition of 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die, coming out this autumn from Atlante. That ‘Before You Die’ line takes on an added significance when put next to this investigator of the supernatural! Read about all the 1001 Comics international editions here…
