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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Jean Giraud/Moebius: May 8th 1938 - March 10th 2012
Posted: March 10, 2012
We have lost one great man and two outstanding comics artists. The sad news has come through of the death today at the age of 73 of the visionary innovator of French comics, Jean Giraud, aka Moebius. Here is a photo of him with Aya author Margeurite Abouet at the 2011 Angoulême Comics Festival. It was an honour and delight for me to meet him and interview him in Paris. You can read my articles based on this conversation, Leading A Double Life Part 1 and Part 2. To see him drawing with American artists Joe Kubert and Neal Adams in 1972 on the live French TV show Tac au Tac, see this wonderful YouTube video.
As Joann Sfar tweeted, ‘On existe grace à Moebius’ (We exist thanks to Moebius). Jean Giraud and Moebius lived a double life; he left us too soon but has left us so much.
Jean Giraud - Moebius © Nicolas Guérin / la Cité
Battle Of The Eyes presents: Planet of the Jackanapes
Posted: March 9, 2012
This year’s Norfolk and Norwich Festival have just announced their packed programme for this coming May and among the Visual Arts attractions is an exciting ‘Pop-Up Exhibition’ commission, which I am curating, by Savage Pencil (Edwin Pouncey) and Eyeball (Chris Long) working together as Battle Of The Eyes.
For their first solo show entitled Planet of the Jackanapes, the Art Gallery at Norwich Castle will become their studio during the festival and a public arena where you can watch their unique collaborative performances. Painting in response to each other, a dialogue in paint ensues as brushes and crayons are passed back and forth between the artists creating large, explorative paintings in acrylics and charcoal. Crossing the boundaries between fine art and music, comics and grafitti, the work is intensely collaborative and subversive in style. Take a look at this video of the duo in action.
In addition to all these newly penned action-paintings, the exhibition will also feature paintings from the Predatory Life series, projection of films of their performances, and there are plans for related taxidermy displays customised from the Castle’s Natural History archives.
See the Planet Of The Jackanapes takes shape LIVE during performances in the gallery on Saturday & Sunday May 12th & 13th, and 20th & 26th, from 1pm to 4pm, and on Saturday 19th from 5pm to 10pm as part of Museums at Night event. The exhibition runs at Norwich Castle Art Gallery from May 12th to 27th, open Monday to Saturday 10am-4.30pm & Sunday 1pm-4.30pm. Tickets cost £2, or £1 concessions.
Ware’s World: Inside the Home of Cartoonist Chris Ware
Posted: March 8, 2012
Photographer Seth Kushner has posted a set of photographs taking you inside the home and workplace of Chicago cartoonist extraordinaire, Chris Ware, part of Kushner’s forthcoming book with Christopher Irvine, Leaping Tall Buildings. Check out the online photo album for shots of Ware in his studio and in his natural habitat surrounded by some lovely George Herriman, Frank King and other comics treasures.
Comics and Philosophy: From Maus to She-Hulk
Posted: March 8, 2012
Further evidence of the unstoppable ascendency of comics as a valid, indeed vital arena of academic interest comes with the news of a free event run by Comics Forum and Thought Bubble entitled Comics and Philosophy: From Maus to She-Hulk. Aaron Meskin and Roy Cook, editors of The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach will appear in conversation on the philosophical questions posed by comics. The event will take place from 5 to 6pm on Thursday March 29th at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds. Entry is free but registration is required. To register, send your name to comicsforum[at]hotmail.co.uk and the number of seats you would like.
French Signings of 1001 BD in Paris & Angoulême
Posted: March 6, 2012
1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die is gradually spreading around the globe. The French and Spanish editions are being published this month by Flammarion and Grijalbo respectively. The Spanish version is a straight translation of the English-language British original though in hardback, whereas the French paperback version has replaced around 100 entries with different French choices, co-ordinated by collaborator and co-author Nicolas Finet, and substituted Terry Gilliam’s Foreword for a new introduction by writer, theorist and historian Benoît Peeters. It also goes by the slightly more optimistic title of the ‘1001 Comics You Must Have Read In Your Life’. Shortly, within the 1001 Comics section of this site, I will be adding a translation of Peeters’ introductory text and details of these fascinating French additions.
Meantime, I will be joining Peeters and Finet on the Flammarion publisher’s stand, N63, at the Salon du Livre in Paris on Saturday March 17th, from 11.30am to 1.30pm, for a signing session and celebration of the book’s release. It’s already garnered some glowing critiques. Then on the following Wednesday March 21st , while I am back in the International City of Comics, Angoulême, to give some lectures to students at the Ecole Supérieure de l’Image, I will talking about and signing copies from 5pm in the wonderful Bookshop at the Musée de la Bande Dessinée. I then jet off to Madrid to help launch the Spanish edition at the Museo ABC on Saturday March 24th as part of The British Council’s UK Comics promotion. I am looking forward to meeting and making friends through comics during this exciting three-city European mini-tour!
Time Out Guide to Comics in London
Posted: March 5, 2012
Karrie Fransman, author of the gripping Square Peg graphic novel, The House That Groaned, has cartooned a handy, one-stop introductory guide for Time Out’s website to the comics scene in London, in which she mentions among others both the Comica Festival and this very site. Many thanks, Karrie, and hope this helps bring more people into our city’s thriving comics culture.
Article: Angoulême Comics Festival Report
Posted: March 4, 2012
Why does a modest city some two hours from Paris in southwest France attract almost a quarter of a million visitors from all over the world for four days at the end of January? It all began in 1974 when their shared passions for comics and cognac brought crowds of France’s creators, publishers and readers of ‘bandes dessinées’ (comics) flocking to Angoulême in the bleak midwinter for the city’s first annual Comics Festival. Thirty-nine festivals later, it has mushroomed into by far the medium’s biggest and most international celebration in the world, not counting Asia. While San Diego’s Comic-Con in July may get more exposure in the English-speaking media, mainly for hyping the next Hollywood fantasy genre blockbusters to diehard fans, Angoulême puts ‘the 9th Art’ (as the French consider comics) firmly centre stage and appeals to every public. Read my Report on the 2012 Festival here…
British Council & Museo ABC promote UK Comics in Madrid
Posted: March 1, 2012
Over two weekends this month, March 16th & 17th and March 23rd & 24th, The British Council is collaborating with the prestigious museum of art, drawing and illustration, Museo ABC in Madrid and cultural facilitators Ubik to celebrate contemporary UK Comics in a programme of talks, workshops and events. The Spanish public will be able to enjoy discovering Rob Davis’s hilarious graphic adaptation of Cervantes’ Don Quixote, with Doug Wallace from the publisher SelfMadeHero. Joining them will be illustrator William Goldsmith who will show his work from his Vignettes of Ystov and give a workshop for graphic creation.
On the second weekend, the renowned author Posy Simmonds will present her latest works, while the specialist Paul Gravett will talk about the Spanish edition of the 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die (Editorial Grijalbo, 2012). Also taking part will be the Manga Shakespeare illustrator Emma Vieceli, who will share her personal experience of adapting a classic of universal literature to comics, and writer and artist Woodrow Phoenix of Rumble Strip and Nelson, who will explain why these new graphic novels need new readers. All meetings will be moderated by expert Pablo Dopico de Godos and translated into Castilian. You can check out the whole programme (in Spanish) here.
Article: PG Previews For April 2012
Posted: February 26, 2012
I do this, so you don’t have to. My trawling through all the massive amount of upcoming comics product can be a daunting and sometimes disappointing task. Every month brings more ‘properties’, more old but recognisable characters, dusted off in another attempt to sell us more of what we bought before, more of the same.
So for example in April alone, The Shadow, Popeye, Airboy, and Ming the Merciless, for goodness sake, are among the supposedly thrilling franchises to be re-licensed to publishers. Now these are being crafted by appropriate professionals, like writers Garth Ennis and Roger Langridge, but aside from their die-hard collectors’ fan-base, they are really of only passing interest to anyone who believes comics can be an innovative, creator-owned, creator-driven, expansive medium, rather than some subsidiary offshoot in cross-platform marketing of yet another ‘brand’ that must be sold to us yet again. Everything seems to come back again eventually, as I’ve noticed the once-dead Human Torch has ‘flamed on’ again at Marvel, while next month brings the long-unawaited resuscitation of the largely forgotten and forgettable Valiant superheroes. And the announced prequels to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ stand-alone work of genius are sadly probably not the last straw.
As for what pass for ‘new’ and ‘original’ offerings, many smack of savvy, button-pushing predictability with a steely stare fixed on that movie and game development deal. Luckily, I managed to find that small, special seam of individuality, creativity, quality and quirkiness, hand-picked here for you and based on publishers’ advance listings (actual release dates may vary and my further commentaries will follow). And what a month this is, including major new titles to look forward to by Alison Bechdel, Guy Delisle, Simone Lia, Peter Bagge and Darryl Cunningham, amongst others. Happy reading ahead! Read this Article here…
Revolutions of the Night: The Enigma of Henry Darger
Posted: February 21, 2012
Tomorrow night, Wednesday February 22nd, from 6.45pm, brings the world-premiere screening of an unmissable new documentary movie, Revolutions of the Night: The Enigma of Henry Darger, at The Prince’s Drawing School, 19-22 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3SG, nearest tube Old Street. Tickets cost £7 or £3.50 concessions and must be purchased on the door (no advance or online bookings). Special guest at this screening will be Kiyoko Lerner, guardian of Henry Darger’s amazing works, whose first-hand recollections form an essential part of the documentary.
Revolutions of the Night tells the story of the amazing discovery of Henry Darger’s secret world of writings, paintings, objects and collections, created and collected over decades in his one room apartment in Chicago: apocalyptic visions of an imaginary war-torn planet in which children are pursued and enslaved by a race of evil adults. Darger died unmourned in 1973 and was buried in a pauper’s grave. As far as anyone knew, he had led an anonymous and isolated life, doing so-called menial jobs in hospitals on the north side of Chicago. This documentary charts Darger’s journey from obscurity to what the New York Times has called his ‘almost van Gogh-like mythic stature.’
The documentary reveals the untold truth behind the Darger discovery and captures the confusion, shock and astonishment of residents, landlords and neighbours, artists and students, even visiting psychiatrists who pored over the mysterious contents of Darger’s room at 851 Webster Avenue. Among those appearing in the film is comic artist Chris Ware. For more info and stills, see the Darger Film’s website.
