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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Article: Awards Season
Posted: December 1, 2012
The end of the year draws near and Awards Season is upon us once again, with the inaugural British Comic Awards announced at Thought Bubble Festival last month. They went to John Allison for Bad Machinery, to the excellent Nelson as Best Book (above), Josceline Fenton got Emerging Talent, Luke Pearson’s Hilda and the Midnight Giant was chosen by local children, and Raymond Briggs entered the Hall of Fame. Five worthy winners all, but some puzzling oversights in their shortlist.
Three days later came the pleasant surprise of two graphic novels, both entered by publishers Jonathan Cape and neither of them picked out by the British Comic Awards, being nominated for the first time in the 2012 Costa Book Awards: Joff Winterhart’s Days of Bagnold Summer (read Rachel Cooke’s commentary for The Observer) for best novel, and Mary & Bryan Talbot’s Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes (which I reviewed for the Times Literary Supplement) for best biography. The media has been abuzz about this “arrival” of graphic novels, as another tipping point in the rising literary credibility of the medium in Britain. Read the rest of my new Article here…
Spain Rodriguez
Posted: November 29, 2012
Very sad news that the American underground comix giant and graphic novelist extraordinaire Spain Rodriguez died yesterday, November 28th. I first met Spain at the Semana Negra festival in Gijon in Northern Spain and had a great time with him in the company of Phoebe Gloeckner and Fabrice Neaud. In 2008, with her from his UK publishers Verso, Spain came to Comica Festival at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London to launch his graphic biography of Che Guevara and took part in a rare reunion and three-way Comica Conversation with fellow underground pioneers Art Spiegelman (below) and Gilbert Shelton (further down). These photos were taken during their lengthy signing sessions afterwards.
Back in June, I joined critics Tom Spurgeon and Joe McCulloch for a Roundtable discussion on Robin McConnell’s excellent radio podcast Inkstuds, where we reviewed Spain’s latest Fantagraphics compilation of autobiographical flashbacks, Cruisin’ with the Hound, which comes highly recommended. Spain leaves us some amazing comics to read and re-read, enjoy and admire. He will be much missed.
Calling Artists & Writers for © Science Comic!
Posted: November 28, 2012
Science Meets Comics, and Comics Meets Science! The British Science Festival in September 2013 at Newcastle University wants to create a comic book anthology that will talk with children about science. They want artists and writers to collaborate with scientists (and they will provide the scientists!). It will be a one-off comic aimed at 8-14 year olds who come to the festival and will be a free giveaway, likely to be 40 pages full colour on newsprint. If you would like to be involved, please fill in an expression of interest form and return it to Lydia at this address (newcastlesciencecomic[at]gmail.com). You can find this and lots more info about the project and the sort of contributions they are looking for on the Newcastle Science Comic Website.
They are also hosting a SUPER MASH-UP event at Tyneside Cinema on 16th January 2013, 5:30-7pm to get scientists talking with artists and writers, to match up potential collaborators, and brainstorm for ideas. A full brief will be made available to scientists and comic artists/writers as the project develops. Please fill in this online booking form for the SUPER MASH-UP event, so they know how many refreshments to order. Image © Cuttlefish Comics.
Article: PG Previews January 2013
Posted: November 25, 2012
The old year has yet to wrap up and we’re already casting the crystal ball into the new year ahead. For your consideration, fourteen of the most interesting offerings to start 2013, ranging from newspaper strip masters of the past to webcomics innovators of today, taking in some Great British Comics and some first-class translations from Belgium, Japan and France to boot. I’m especially pleased to see the long-overdue, English-language debut of Etienne Davodeau, whose NBM graphic novel The Initiates is probably my highlight this month. Take a browse and see what strikes your fancy for your New Year’s Comics-Reading Resolutions! Read the rest of my Article here…
Battle Of The Eyes New Video: What We Do
Posted: November 23, 2012
Last May I curated Battle Of The Eyes’ first major gallery exhibition, Planet of the Jackanapes, at Norwich Castle, as part of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival. BOTE, aka Chris Long and Edwin Pouncey, have just released a brand new short movie, What We Do, to demonstrate just that - their highly physical collaborative picture-making process. Take a look!
Article: Jordi Bernet
Posted: November 20, 2012
Better late than never, acclaim in America for one of Spain’s most prolific and distinctive comics illustrators has finally come, largely thanks to his electrifying renditions of DC Comics’ scarred gunman Jonah Hex, as well as a recent story arc on Scott Snyder’s American Vampire. Before this, Jordi Bernet has had a long and fruitful career, not only in his native Spain but across Europe, including Britain. His magnum opus, with writer Enrique Sanchez Abuli, is the venal killer-for-hire Torpedo, cover-featured on my Mammoth Book of Best Crimes Comics anthology (above), and available again from IDW since 2010 in fresh translations, handsome hardbacks, previously untranslated episodes and now in paperback. Read the rest of my Article here…
Kevin O’Neill’s Extraordinary Sale of 2009 Originals
Posted: November 20, 2012
Following the success of his first gallery show last year at Galerie Champaka in Brussels, Kevin O’Neill is putting his original artworks for 2009, the third and final part of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century, on sale in a virtual selling show. Co-created with writer Alan Moore, the conclusion of the latest League cycle was published earlier this year in English by Top Shelf Productions and Knockabout Comics. The climax of this mythic story plunges contemporary London into a surreal and apocalyptic drama. Through an online exhibition, Galerie Champaka is offering for sale the entirety of this book’s pages, as well as the front cover and frontispiece, from November 21st to December 31st 2012. A rare chance to purchase a piece of a comics landmark.
Article: Hannah Berry
Posted: November 11, 2012
Hannah Berry was taken on earlier this year as The Book Trust’s first graphic novel online writer in residence’ and ever since, she’s been posting some highly entertaining and illuminating commentaries on their website - read her whole blog here. As her residency draws to a close this month, Hannah has curated The Book Trust’s first evening dedicated to the graphic novel, organised in association with Comica 2012, the 9th London International Comics Festival.
Under her cheeky title, Comics: Refreshing Parts Literature Can’t Reach, she has convened some of the UK’s brightest and best comics creators for a two-hour, double bill of panel discussions on Monday November 19th at the the Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA, to introduce newcomers and connoisseurs alike to what makes the medium so rewarding to create and to read. Joining her and Paul Gravett as chairs will be Glyn Dillon, Karrie Fransman, Rian Hughes, Simone Lia, Sarah McIntyre, Dave McKean and a special surprise guest to be announced later this week. Tickets cost a mere £6 online or on the door (subject to capacity!). Hannah’s own work has shone out from the start, so here’s a look at her two Cape graphic novels, Britten and Brülightly and Adamtine, plus an exclusive new two-page comic she has created for the latest issue of ArtReview magazine. And be sure to meet Hannah and her guests on the 19th - see you there! Read the rest of my new Article here…
Bechdel, Talbot, Dillon & More at Drawing Parade!
Posted: November 9, 2012
Here is the full line-ip and schedule of the astounding superstar artists, whose live drawings will be projected onto a giant screen at the free Comica Comiket Independent Comics Fair, tomorrow Saturday November 10th, from 11am to 7pm at the Great Hall of Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4QH! All of them will be signing their comics on the day. Come and gaze in awe and wonder as their artworks - including scraperboard and cut-‘out paper drawings - take form before your very eyes!
11.00-11.30: Alison Bechdel - Fun Home, Are You My Mother, Essential Dykes To Watch Out For (Cape)
11.30-12.00: Ellen Lindner - Strumpet and Undertow (Soaring Penguin)
12.00-12.30: Bryan Talbot - Grandville & Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes with Mary Talbot (Cape)
12.30-1.00: Nye Wright - Things To Do In A Retirement Home Trailer Park (Myriad)
1.00-1.30: Zarina Liew - The Art of Sleep, Le Mime, Rosie & Jacinda (Cobalt Cafe)
1.30-2.00: Kripa Joshi - Miss Moti (Kripa Kreations)
2.00-2.30: Jaromir 99 - Alois Nebel (Czech graphic novels, now an animated movie)
2.30-3.00: Steven Appleby - Loomus, Coffee Table Book of Doom, Captain Star (Guardian Books)
3.00-3.30: Glyn Dillon - The Nao of Brown (SelfMadeHero)
3.30-4.00: Line Hoven - Love Looks Aways (Blank Slate)
4.00-4.30: Kyle Platts - Megaskull (Nobrow)
4.30-5.00: Doctor Simpo - Ker-Splat!, Things & Stuff, Menshies 3D (Doctor Simpo Comics)
5.00-5.30: Rian Hughes - Yesterday’s Tomorrows, On The Line (Knockabout/Image)
5.30-6.00: Tobias Tak - Gaboon’s Daymare, The Comix Reader (Comix Reader)
6.00-6.30: Hunt Emerson - Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Dante’s Inferno (Knockabout)
See you there!
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Article: Line Hoven
Posted: November 7, 2012
Where do you belong, where is your true home, when your parents come from two sides of the Atlantic, and your grandparents from two sides of the Second World War? Perhaps one way to understand yourself is to understand where your parents came from and what made them who they are. Line Hoven is the daughter of a German father and an American mother. She appears in person only on the last two pages of this collection as a puzzled little girl who asks, “When are we going back home, Mommy?” and is reassured, “We are at home, honey.” More a work of family history than autobiography, the quartet of tales illustrated in scraperboard in Liebe Schaut Weg (to be published by Blank Slate Books as Love Looks Away) record one daughter’s attempt to document how her parents grew up, met and married, and after her father’s struggles to cope with the English language, settled in Germany. Read the rest of my Article here…
