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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
A Conversation With Shaun Tan
Posted: August 26, 2011
I’m looking forward immensely to interviewing Shaun Tan this coming Tuesday, August 30th, up on the top floor at Waterstone’s Piccadilly.
Tan is probably best known for the multi-award-winning wordless graphic novel The Arrival, chosen as book of the year by the Angoulême International Comics Festival and now also available as a lavish boxed set with a complete second volume, Scenes From A Nameless Land, full of preparatory drawings and detailing his creative process. He has also scooped an Oscar no less for his animated adaptation of his own book The Lost Thing from 2000, reissued this year along with The Red Tree (2001) and The Rabbits (1998), the latter written by John Marsden, in the compilation Lost & Found from Arthur A. Levine Books. Tan is over here this month from Australia for the Edinburgh International Book Fair and for a selling exhibition in London at The Illustration Cupboard. He is also launching the UK edition of The Bird King, a beautiful new gatherum of sketches, projects and personal artworks published by Templar, who also released Tales from Outer Suburbia in Britain.
Tickets for my conversation with Shaun can be booked online for £5 (or £3 for Waterstone’s Loyalty Cardholders) or you can get more info on 0207 851 2400. Don’t miss this chance to meet one of the world’s most gifted and sensitive graphic storytellers.
Favourite Comics From The Fabulous Fifties!
Posted: August 25, 2011
Ah those Fabulous Fifties! To tie in with the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain and to preview one tumultuous decade from my massive forthcoming book, 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die, I’ll be giving an illustrated lecture about such revolutionary Fifties comics characters as Dan Dare, Dennis the Menace, Astro Boy, Asterix, Andy Capp, the new Green Lantern, and many more at Wokingham Library in Berkshire. Admission is free, so I look forward to see you on September 8th at 7pm.
This Week’s Article: Previews For October 2011
Posted: August 23, 2011
Now I do understand that publishers are looking for the safe bets and surefire bestsellers to stay in business, that creators need to earn a living and pay the mortgage somehow, even if it means not working on concepts they have originated or derivative wannabe imitations, and that readers often much prefer to stay inside their comfort zones and follow fan-favourite characters or spin-off crossovers from other media they know and love. So, for some, the prospect of yet another first issue of Wolverine & X-Men or a Star Trek mindmeld with the Legion of Super-Heroes for goodness sake is thrilling stuff. But what really excites me are those comics, manga and graphic novels that push me into my “discomfort zone”, that surprise, provoke and engage me, that affirm that this medium is wide open, forward-looking and determined to tackle anything and everything. So I’ve gleaned these goodies for you from what’s lined up to be released in October 2011 (although actual dates may vary) based on publisher advance listings. Forget Stan Lee’s dead-end promise of “The Illusion of Change”, this is “Real Change” and it’s happening right now. Join me, take a chance and take a step into the future of comics. Read the full article here…
Comics & Conflicts On The Radio!
Posted: August 18, 2011
Here are photos from the Resonance FM studios Tuesday night (August 16th), after the one-hour special programme previewing this Friday and Saturday’s Comics & Conflicts events at the Imperial War Museum in London. Photos taken by Nicky Tesco.
Back Row: Alex Fitch, Ariel Kahn and me
Front Row: Eileen and Francesca Cassavetti
L to R: Me, Francesca Cassavetti, Eileen Cassavetti & Ariel Kahn
Alex Fitch talked to Comics & Conflicts organisers Paul Gravett and Ariel Kahn, and to mother and daughter Eileen and Francesca Cassavetti, who are presenting their comic Philip and Helena, about the importance of war comics in culture and bringing the experience of war and conflict to new readers in a way that text alone can’t fully realise. The show also included extracts from episodes of Panel Borders featuring Garth Ennis and Pat Mills who are both talking at the IWM comics events. A downloadable or streamable podcast of the hour-long radio show is available to listen to on Panel Borders now.
New Creator Profiles Added
Posted: August 17, 2011
I’ve added four new creators to the growing Profiles section of this site, where I identify the books I consider to be essential reading for each artist. You can find out more about the new profiled artists at the following events:
Emmanuel Guibert‘s graphic novels The Photographer and Alan’s War are both being discussed this Friday at the Comics & Conflicts Conference at the Imperial War Museum London.
Kevin O’Neill will be joining Melinda Gebbie to talk with me at the Soho Literary Festival on Sunday September 25th at the Soho Theatre.
Dave Gibbons will be talking to Jean-Claude Mézières at the BD & Comics Passion weekend at the French Institute, London October 7-9, in association with Comica Festival.
And Anders Nilsen will be over in London and in conversation with Tom Gauld at an upcoming Comica event this October, so sign up for the Newsletter to get first details of date, venue and how to book.
This Week’s Article: Marjane Satrapi
Posted: August 14, 2011
Marjane Satrapi is a charismatic Iranian exile and gifted cartoonist living in Paris. In Persepolis she relates with great humanity and humour how she grew up in Tehran under the Islamic regime and the Iran-Iraq war. From the book’s modest origins in French from the alternative creator-run collective L’Association, its first volume sold out of four printings totalling 16,000 copies. After 9/11, as Satrapi completed her story in four volumes, Persepolis would take off and sweep the world, topping two million copies and counting. It has even been taught to cadets at America’s military academy West Point. Read the full article here…
So what are you doing this Saturday?
Posted: August 12, 2011
Orbital and Gosh!, two great neighbouring comics emporia in central London, are putting on some appealing free events tomorrow, Saturday August 13th.
You can drop by Orbital between 1 and 5pm and catch their Zine Swap session, where you can sample and exchange zines from all over the world and watch or take part in creating a zine on the day.
After that, you could amble over to nearby Gosh! in their palatial, expanded premises and celebrate the London launch party from 6-9pm with drinks and nibbles for Luke Pearson‘s breakthrough graphic novella from Nobrow, Everything We Miss, which I’ve just rave-reviewed for the Times Literary Supplement and an upcoming article on this site. Luke will happily sign and dedicate your copies and lucky buyers can also pick up a limited-edition Pearson poster while stocks last.
Luke has been a busy boy elsewhere, designing cool characters and backgrounds for The End, a free, online web-game commissioned by Channel 4 Education designed to get teenagers talking about what happens at the end of life, released this month. Pearson’s graphics fit perfectly with the game’s metaphysical themes and philosophical questions, exploring a range of commonly (or less commonly) held views about death, belief and science. After the recent riots and looting in UK cities, this is the sort of game that might help people think more deeply about life, death and adulthood. As one 14 year-old schoolboy from Thomas Tallis School in Blackheath commented: “The questions are great - other games are afraid to ask questions like that, and it makes you think about life instead of just shooting things.” The End is produced by award-winning games studio Preloaded with Tom Chatfield (author of Fun INC), Nigel Warburton (creator of the successful Philosophy Bites podcasts) and an original score composed by Phonotheque.
This Week’s Article: Comics & Conflicts
Posted: August 9, 2011
Pat Mills is one of the guests at Comics & Conflicts, two days of exceptional events at the prestigious Imperial War Museum London, on Friday and Saturday, August 19th and 20th. It marks the IWM London’s first major acknowledgment of the significance of comics to report and represent stories of war, combining a day-long international academic conference with one-off in-conversations, panels, a workshop, a free screening of the excellent documentary Comics Go To War, book signings and exhibits, including original artworks by the late great Joe Colquhoun from Charley’s War, generously loaned by his widow. Read the full article here…
A Year In The Life Of Paul Gravett
Posted: August 5, 2011
A while ago, David O’Connell, mastermind behind Tozo and the forthcoming, mouth-watering chunky anthology Ink + Paper, mentioned to me that he’s always seeing me interview other people, but he never gets to hear much about what Paul Gravett gets up to himself. So thanks to Jay, Selina and all at Caption, Oxford’s comics convention and the longest-running of its kind in the UK, have invited me to be interviewed this Saturday, 1-2pm. Don’t worry, I won’t show too many of my holiday snaps.
And later I’ll be interviewing hard-working INJ Culbard, self-styled ‘Mountain of Madness’, about his Lovecraftian and Sherlockian graphic adaptations for SelfMadeHero and his snazzy new project Deadbeats, that’s from 6-7pm. Other Captioneers at this year’s aptly themed Austerity edition include Jeremy Day, Paul Grist, Al Davison, Paul Duffield, Kate Brown, Alex Fitch and Andy Luke. See some of you there, I hope!
Anyone not making it to Oxford but in or near London, be sure not to miss the signing and exhibition opening by Dave McKean at the brand-spanking-new Berwick Street, Soho premises of Gosh! this Saturday.
Belgrade Calling!
Posted: August 1, 2011
In late September, I’ll be making my first trip to Serbia, as I’ve been generously invited to the Salon Stripa or International Comics Festival there. Other guests include two top Italian comic artists Marco Nizzoli, whose Humanoids series Day of the Magicians was recently released in an English-language compilation, and Luca Enoch, famed for his Sprayliz series from Star Comics and currently the Bonelli series Legs Weaver and Gea. Also joining me from London will be Laurence Heyworth, in charge of the Look & Learn archive and educational picture library, and Zika Tamburic, co-author of the highly recommended artbook-survey of Yugoslavian comics creators, The Comics We Loved. Nizzoli has illustrated this fantastical poster for the festival. I’m really looking forward to meeting creators and fellow enthusiasts in Belgrade next month and I’ll be reporting here in full on my Serbian comics discoveries later this year.
