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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Article: Diabolik & Fumetti Neri - Italian Comics
Posted: December 30, 2012
As my final Article of 2012, let’s celebrate this year’s Golden Anniversary of an iconic comic character, who if he had been less adult and complex, and all-American, would probably be a global media phenomenon by now as big as Spider-Man. Looking back fifty years, one revolution in comic books was already gaining momentum in New York City at the Marvel Comics offices with the debut of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man, the first solo teenage superhero with believable hang-ups and self-doubts. By humanising their pantheon and connecting them within one shared universe, the Marvel Age of Comics would redefine the genre. But elsewhere in that same year, 1962, another daring and disturbing revolution in costumed characters was being triggered in Milan, Italy, by a small publishing house called Astorina, run by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani. Read the rest of this Article here… - and let me wish you a Very Happy New Year!
Raymond Briggs Documentary on Channel 4 Sunday 30th!
Posted: December 29, 2012
Be sure to catch How the Snowman Came Back to Life, Rareday’s new documentary about Raymond Briggs and the new Snowman animation, The Snowman and The Snowdog. It is screening on Channel 4 tomorrow, Sunday December 30th, at 6.05pm. As well as Briggs himself, contributors include newly-knighted Sir Quentin Blake, Posy Simmonds and Shaun Tan. The interview filmed with me talking about Briggs’ own work on The Snowman book was dropped in the end, because Channel 4 wanted the documentary to focus on the animation. Of course, there would be no animation without his wonderful silent comic in the original book. Still, it will be well worth watching!
Watch Tove Jansson TV Documentary Online!
Posted: December 28, 2012
There are still five more days to catch Eleanor Yule’s excellent one-hour BBC4 TV documentary Moominland Tales: The Life of Tove Jansson on the BBC iPlayer online. It’s a truly revealing and moving portrait of this remarkable woman. It was a personal delight for me to be included in this myself, discussing briefly some of the unique qualities of her Moomin newsppaper strip. Here’s the BBC’s blurb for the programme:
“Moomintroll and the Moomin family are characters loved by children and parents worldwide who have grown up listening to Finnish writer Tove Jansson’s delightful stories about a group of philosophical trolls who face a range of adventures in Moominland. This documentary reveals the strong autobiographical slant in the Moomins series as it traces the author’s own extraordinary story from living the bohemian life of an artist in war-torn Helsinki to becoming a recluse on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland. Enjoying unprecedented access to Jansson’s personal archive, the film reveals an unconventional, brave and compelling woman whose creative genius extended beyond Moominland to satire, fine art and masterful adult fiction - not least her highly-regarded The Summer Book. With home movie footage shot by her long-term female lover and companion, it offers a unique glimpse of an uncompromising fun-loving woman who developed love as the central theme of her work.”
Final Reminder: Call for Papers for 2013 Conference!
Posted: December 20, 2012
The Fourth International Graphic Novel and International Bande Dessinée Society Conference will take place in Glasgow and Dundee for five days, June 24th to 28th 2013. The deadline for abstracts on all areas of comic / BD studies is 31 December 2012. The conference’s theme will pay particular, but not exclusive, attention to national traditions within comics and BD. Abstracts and/or inquiries should be sent to : laurence.grove[at]glasgow.ac.uk Click here to see the full Call for Papers.
Glasgow is served by three international airports (Glasgow GLA, Glasgow Prestwick, Edinburgh) and thus easily accessible from worldwide destinations. Low-cost direct flights to a wide range of European centres also make Glasgow the ideal springboard for a summer of research. Thanks to generous support from the University of Glasgow’s Chancellor’s Fund fees for the five-day conference will be under £100 (including a year’s journal subscription) or £50 for students/unwaged. Conference accommodation will range from en-suite facilities at under £32 per night to five star hotel options.
Enter Adventures In Comics 3 Competition!
Posted: December 19, 2012
For the third year, the enterprising folks at Marine Studios in Margate are organising this great comics competition, Adventures in Comics, which it’s a pleasure and privilege for me to judge (though it’s not easy picking a winner!). To enter all you have to do is create a 2-page-comic (each page maximum A4 size (210 x 297 mm) in either landscape or portrait format) in response to this year’s theme: THE GREAT TREE. All entries will be showcased in an exhibition and free printed publication in February 2013. To enter, send your 2-page-comic to: Kam[at]hkd.uk.com or Rick[at]hkd.uk.com Deadline for submissions is January 25th 2013 - best of luck!
Dazed Digital Interview Zoom Rockman & Me at Gosh!
Posted: December 18, 2012
For quite some time. I’ve been mightily impressed with the fast-developing comics-making skills of Zoom Rockman, a London lad only 12 years young but already getting lots of well-deserved attention and a Spirit of London Award for his inventive, funny and surprising comic, The Zoom! Dazed Digital have just interviewed Zoom and me at Soho’s classiest sequential art emporium Gosh! - take a look and read here.
Article: PG Previews February 2013
Posted: December 15, 2012
As we end 2012, here are my next monthly PG Tips for forthcoming titles, these all due out in February 2013, though publishers’ schedules may vary. Among my choices there are: some great brand-new originals by such talents as Graham Chaffee, the UK’s Famicon group & Joe Sparrow, Miriam Katin, and Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill delivering a new one-shot League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel; some translations from French comics, including the long-overdue English version of Franquin’s Idées Noires, another masterpiece now available that’s was picked for my guide 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die; some excellent re-editions, including John Kricfalusi’s total wackiness and Marshal Law‘s savage superhero satire; and some studies about comics, from the biography of the complex creator of L’il Abner to insights into the works of Daniel Clowes. I hope you’ll find one or two items amongst them that appeal to you. Read the rest of my Article here…
A Bloomin’ Moomin & Snowman Christmas To You!
Posted: December 10, 2012
This Boxing Day, December 26th, at 9pm on BBC4, you can enjoy a new one-hour television documentary entitled Moominland Tales: The Life of Tove Jansson. The Radio Times bills it as: “A profile of the author behind the well-loved Moomins series about a family of trolls facing a range of adventures. The programme traces how Jansson lived a bohemian existence as an artist in Helsinki, before becoming a recluse on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland, and reveals how her creative genius extended beyond her popular characters to satire, fine art and adult fiction.” As well as a contribution from me, others taking part include my fine Finnish friend and Moomin expert Juhani Tolvanen whose thoroughly researched study into the birth and success of the Tove Jansson’s newspaper strip for the London Evening News, entitled Moomin Every Day, is coming out early next year in English from Drawn & Quarterly. Meanwhile, why not re-visit the Tove Jansson exhibition I curated for the Belgian Comics Centre in Brussels in 2010.
And the following Sunday, December 30th, to tie in with The Snowman and The Snowdog, Channel 4’s new sequel to the animated version of The Snowman, there’s a ‘making of’ documentary called How the Snowman Came Back to Life on Channel 4 at 6.05pm, following the sequel’s repeat showing at 5.35pm. As well as an interview with Raymond Briggs, his many admirers including Posy Simmonds, Quentin Blake and Shaun Tan will be joining in and you might spot me among them too. Happy holiday viewing!
Article: John Miers - Score and Script
Posted: December 6, 2012
As part of Comica 2012, the 9th London International Comics Festival, the Score and Script Exhibition opened last month at the Centre for Recent Drawing (C4RD), 2-4 Highbury Station Road, Islington, N1 1SB (a few minutes from Highbury & Islington rail & tube). This fascinating exhibition is free and continues until Saturday December 15th, open Thurs to Sat, 1-6pm, admission free. In comics, visual form and narrative content constantly inform and imply one another. But what could be revealed about the process of visual storytelling if an attempt were made to perform that separation? In the Score and Script exhibition, devised by cartoonist & researcher John Miers and co-curated by Megan Donnolley, 23 cartoonists, working either from an entirely verbal description of a single-page story, or a visual diagram based on that same page, present a unique set of answers to that question.
The featured artists are: Andrew Godfrey, Andy Bleck, Andy Poyiadgi, Dan Berry, Daniel Fennings, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, David O’Connell, Douglas Noble, Elliot Baggott, Gary Northfield, James Hickman, John Cei Douglas, John Miers, John Riordan, Karen Rubins, Kripa Joshi, Mike Medaglia, Richy K. Chandler, Sally-Anne Hickman, Sean Azzopardi, Stuart Medley, Tanya Meditzky and Woodrow Phoenix.
Many of these artists will be taking part on Saturday December 8th, 1-6pm, in a “Santa’s Ghetto” Fair Day at C4RD, where, as well as seeing the exhibition, you will be able to buy comics, graphic novels, zines, objets d’art, hand made box sets of mini-comics, bags, badges, cards, signed prints and art du jour! In anticipation of that, I talked to John about the aims and challenges of this collaborative experiment. See the stages and some of the results, and read my interview with him here…
Warren Pleece Signs The Great Unwashed at Gosh!
Posted: December 4, 2012
This coming Saturday, the 8th of December, British comics dude Warren Pleece (one half of the Pleece brothers) will be at Gosh! Comics, 1 Berwick Street, London W1F 0DR, from 5 to 6pm, signing copies of his new book The Great Unwashed – a hardcover anthology 25 years in the making.
The Great Unwashed by Gary and Warren Pleece, published by Escape Books, brings together comically poignant and darkly sarcastic stories of washed-up comedians, prancing rock stars, obsessive compulsive collectors, terrible teenage poets, dead souls, dysfunctional double-acts and decaying sea-side splendour, all into one ‘bumper-packed’, ink laden graphic novel.
Featuring works originally seen in their very own comic mag Velocity, Escape, Crisis, Revolver and other anthologies, alongside previously unpublished and new work spanning over twenty years, the Pleece Brothers bring you their own slanted take on popular (and unpopular) culture, in glorious black and white and worn out watercolours.
There’s a preview over at Warren’s site and here is the Facebook event page. If you’d like to reserve a copy or want to arrange a signed book/mail order, send an email to info[at]goshlondon.com and they’ll sort one out for you.
Also, while you are out and about this Saturday, don’t miss the Santa’s Ghetto Fair Day at Comica Festival’s Score and Script Exhibition at the Centre for Recent Drawing close to Highbury & Islington rail and tube station, a great way to meet the 23 exhibiting artists and buy comics and other treats direct from them. It’s free and runs from 1-6pm, so you can easily go to both!
