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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Come to The Great Unwashed London Launch!
Posted: September 23, 2012
Come and join me at this launch party in London for The Great Unwashed with both Warren and his brother Gary Pleece. We’re encouraging you to buy this 256-page hardback graphic novel initially direct from Escape Books (we’re not offering it via Amazon, Diamond or other distributors), so do drop by next Wednesday September 26th at the suitably red-velvety Phoenix Artist Club, 1 Phoenix Street, London WC2H 8BU, just off Charing Cross Road and opposite Foyles. And the Pig Custard is on me!
Article: PG Previews For November 2012
Posted: September 23, 2012
Welcome back to my monthly survey of what’s in store and in stores in two months time or so. November 2012 kicks of with perhaps an atypical choice, the extravagent widescreen science-fiction volume Anomaly, which does look like living up to its name by incorporating ‘augmented reality’ effects within its pages. I’ve experienced these for myself elsewhere, for example on François Schuiten’s first solo graphic novel La Douce from Casterman (not yet translated into English). This technology could seem gimmicky but I suspect it will push comics into some unexpected and intriguing directions. I’m also buzzed to see two chunky volumes of great manga by women out this month, from Moto Hagio’s Seventies classic (as featured in my 2004 book Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics), to Mari Yamazaki’s current best-seller about Ancient Roman baths (I saw her on a public panel at the Paris Salon du Livre last March for the French edition). My PG Tips range from single stapled comics books to ginormous bricks of graphic novels like Ulli Lust’s punk-era autobio gem, from the latest in IDW’s astonishing life-size facsimile books of the finest in American comic book artwork shot in hi-res direct from the originals to Chris Ware’s make-your-own-building cardboard model portfolio. The variety and quality here are really exciting. I hope you enjoy exploring my suggestions and discover some upcoming items to delight you, augmented or not! Read the rest of my Article here…
Have a N.I.C.E. time in Kettering this weekend!
Posted: September 21, 2012
This Saturday, September 22nd, I’ll be heading up to the first Northants International Comics Expo or N.I.C.E. in funky Kettering! As well as chairing a panel with Melinda Gebbie and Tony Bennett from Knockabout on Erotic Comics and Censorship from 3.30 to 4.10pm, I’ll also be with Warren Pleece on the Escape Books stand, where he will be signing copies of the first Escape graphic novel, The Great Unwashed. Don’t miss this opportunity to pick up this moody, hilarious ‘End-of-the-Pier’ show in its 256-page handsome hardback first edition and get a personalised sketch by Warren. Another reason to go of course is all of the great comics creators participating, including local hero Alan Moore who will give a talk on writing comics and a Q&A from 6pm. So hope to see you there.
Article: Milo Manara & Federico Fellini
Posted: September 14, 2012
Milo Manara and Federico Fellini (1920-1993) are acclaimed worldwide as two of Italy’s greatest maestros of their respective artforms. The universal media of comics and film have often been compared, as if comics can be reduced simply to films on paper, as if sequential panels equate with the preparatory storyboards for a movie, whereas there are probably many more differences between them than similarities. What is clear is that there has been a long and continuing cross-pollination in both directions between comics and cinema and this has hugely informed and influenced both Manara and Fellini. Read the rest of my Article here…
Escape Books Launches The Great Unwashed!
Posted: September 11, 2012
Escape is back! That’s right, Escape Books, the publishing company I co-founded with Peter Stanbury which revolutionised British comics in the Eighties, is back in business. We’re about to launch the first in our new line of quality graphic novels, namely The Great Unwashed by Warren Pleece and Gary Pleece. Step up, step up, for their bleakly hilarious end-of-the-pier cabaret of dreamers and lost souls, spanning eras and locales from Brighton and back again!
As Brighton-based creators, the Pleece Brothers naturally incorporate plenty of local colour into their comics, so their first signing, and the first place to purchase a limited supply of this gorgeous 256-page hardback book, will be at Dave’s Comics in Brighton on Saturday September 15th, from 1pm to 3pm. Don’t miss this chance to be among the first people anywhere to own this gem, hailed by Warren Ellis himself as “vividly brilliant, some of the best works of indie-comics Britain.”
If you can’t pick up your copy there, Warren will be travelling with me to N.I.C.E., the Northants International Comics Expo on Saturday September 22nd to sign copies on the Escape Books stand at this new festival in Alan Moore’s hometown of Northampton. Warren and Gary will also be joining the book’s London launch party on Wednesday September 26th at the suitably sleazy, red-velvety Phoenix Artist Club on Charing Cross Road from 6-9pm, coinciding with the monthly Comica Social Club.
Most of all, we want to get this wonderful book to you directly by building up a community of graphic novel readers and connoisseurs worldwide, who come to Escape Books for the finest in comics. This is a new model of publishing, so The Great Unwashed is primarily available for online purchase from the totally revamped Escape Books website launching on September 15th. Pay a visit, see previews, samples and all sorts of Escape Extras, and order your copies without delay.
Article: Amruta Patil on Adi Parva: Churning of the Ocean
Posted: September 6, 2012
Here is a brand new exclusive interview with Indian writer, artist and graphic novelist Amruta Patil, in which she discusses her mind-expanding new work, Adi Parva, out in October from Harper Collins India and launching in London at a special Comica Conversation at Foyles booksop, her first and only UK speaking engagement. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity! Read this interview here…
Article: Amruta Patil
Posted: September 4, 2012
On Friday September 28th, 6.30-7.30pm at Foyles Bookshop, Charing Cross Road, London, Comica at Foyles presents ‘Visions of India’, the first and only UK speaking engagement by the acclaimed Indian graphic novelist Amruta Patil, in a Comica Conversation with novelist Neel Mukherjee. She will also be launching her new work, Adi Parva, out in October from Harper Collins India. Tickets are available for £6 each online. To learn more about this remarkable new voice in comics, read my Article about her and her powerful debut Kari here.
Article: Glyn Dillon & The Nao of Brown
Posted: August 30, 2012
A little imagination can be a dangerous thing. What if you snapped your taxi driver’s neck? Stabbed your meditation instructor in the jugular with your pen? Mowed down a kid with your bike? Or opened the emergency door on a plane and let all the passengers be sucked out to their deaths? Nao (pronounced like ‘now’) is a ‘hafu’, the petite daughter of an English mother and an absentee Japanese father, and she has a secret: violent notions unexpectedly swamp her mind. As she confesses, “I get awful thoughts ...… that just hit me ...… like a fucking hammer to the head.” To protect herself, and others, from her Purely Obsessional Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (POCD), Nao hides behind rituals, like repeating the mantra “Mum loves me” or locking the cutlery drawer. She is also trying meditation, though she is always judging herself so harshly, while idealising her teachers and fellow students as wholly and impossibly good. A dazzling, daring graphic novel of over 200 pages, The Nao of Brown marks the return to comics of Glyn Dillon after 15 years of mainly storyboarding and concept design, and struggling to get personal film and TV proposals to the screen. This is also his first work in the medium as a writer. What started in 2008 as an idea for a spare-time project mushroomed into a year’s obsession, filling almost every waking hour, requiring such intensive work that Dillon wound up in hospital two weeks after completing it. Read the rest of my article plus an interview & exclusive extra strip here…
Article: PG Previews For October 2012
Posted: August 26, 2012
This October, while Marvel and DC offer us such essential household implements as the Captain America’s Shield Bottle Opener and the Watchmen Rorschach Toaster (no, I am not making these tacky merchandise items up), fortunately there are more than enough quality comics to engage your interest, from new comic-book serials to chunky graphic novels, from Anglo-American creations to translations of Austrian, Danish, French, Japanese and Spanish gems, from classics like The Heap to debuts by brand-new authors. Of special note this month is Frederik Peeters’ mind-warping Pachyderme, whose original artworks will be exhibited during the Comica Festival this November, with Frederik hopefully making a return visit to London. Bryan Talbot’s third Grandville adventure is another highlight and he will also be a Comica guest, where we hope to hold the world premiere of a new documentary movie about his life and career. Fellow Brits Steven Appleby, Luke Pearson, Jon McNaught and Will Morris are also being invited to promote their great new books as part of our Comica @ Foyles season. I hope you’ll find an item or two here to suit your taste - happy comics-reading! Read my PG Previews here…
Article: Pushwagner & Soft City
Posted: August 17, 2012
It seems oddly fitting that it is Harriton Pushwagner (above, real name Terje Brofos, born 1940 in Oslo) who has brought me to Milton Keynes to visit his first British exhibition. No disrespect, but being here seemed as if I had stepped inside the story and world of Soft City (above), the Norwegian artist’s foundational opus, which he worked on in fits and starts in Oslo and London between 1969 and 1975. I couldn’t help feeling like one of the hapless, hopeless, office-worker drones in their Magritte-esque bowler hats. Perhaps my limited first impressions had been coloured by my re-readings of this 154-page graphic novel. It all seemed so ‘soft’ here, so thought-out, as if I was walking inside somebody else’s thoughts, somehow subtly controlling. As Pushwagner warns, ‘Who controls the controller?’ The show is in its final days, concluding Sunday September 2nd - it’s really worth the trip to Milton Keynes’ MK Gallery to see it. Read the rest of my new Article here…
