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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Open Illustration Forum 2011
Posted: February 5, 2011
At last! Just released by Fantagraphics is Stigmata by Lorenzo Mattotti, one of the finest, previously untranslated, European modern masterpieces. If you thought Mattotti was already a grand maestro of colour in Fires and Jekyll & Hyde, wait till you see him unleash his passions in pen and ink linework, and see him excelling across a spectrum from feverish frenzies to the most delicate traceries.
So I’m thrilled to announce that you can spend the whole day with Lorenzo Mattotti at Open Illustration Forum 2011 run by University College Falmouth on Friday, 11 March. I’ll be chairing a day of presentations and discussion exploring the illustrator as interpreter and adaptor of texts and ideas, and this year’s other guest speakers include George Hardie, John Vernon Lord and Orly Orbach. Tickets cost £25 for external visitors. Don’t miss out, book your place now!
New Creator Profiles
Posted: February 4, 2011
I was stung by this criticism of the launch of this site’s new Creator Profile feature. I hope you all forgive the oversight and to make amends I’ve just added four more profiles to this section: Julie Doucet, Melinda Gebbie, Rutu Modan and Marjane Satrapi. Broaden your reading horizons and see what books should be on your Essential Reading list.
A Valentine’s Day Soirée
Posted: February 3, 2011
Wondering where to take your loved-one on Valentine’s Day? Why not spend the evening with José-Luis Bocquet and Catherine Muller - author and illustrator of the Angoulême award-winning Kiki de Montparnasse - at their book launch soirée at Hardy’s Brasserie in Marylebone. Each diner will be served a complimentary cherry bellini and be given a signed copy of Kiki as Valentine’s gift from publisher SelfMadeHero. Full details here….
Kiki de Montparnasse is a graphic biography that celebrates the life of an exceptional artist, model, painter and bohemian fixture of 1920s Paris. Kiki escaped poverty to become one of the most charismatic figures of the avant-garde years between the wars. Partner to Man Ray, she would be immortalised by Kisling, Foujita, Per Krohg, Calder, Utrillo and Léger. The muse of a generation, she was one of the first emancipated women of the 20th century, making her mark with her freedom of style, word and thought learned from the school of life.
Angoulême Festival 2011: Publishers Panel
Posted: February 3, 2011
The above photo is me hosting a panel discussion at the Angoulême Festival last week on the subject of The Market And Opportunities For BD in UK and North America. Joining me on stage were publishers Mark Smylie (Archaia); Calista Brill (First Second); Carol Burrell (Graphic Universe); Peggy Burns (Drawn & Quarterly); Todd Martinez (Image); and Alex Bowler (Jonathan Cape). This event wasn’t open to the public but I’ve found two write-ups of the event online:
If there was one lesson Calista Brill from First Second had learned, it’s the simple fact that it is impossible to predict whether a graphic novel will be a success or not. Still, there are a few factors that can contribute to that success, as she explained with the example of Guiberts Le Photographe. That book was very timely and topical when it was published, and the author was available to promote it himself. In order for the American market to pick them up, books have to deal with subject matter that Americans are familiar with, or that at least has a global feel to it. Read more at the FPI Blog…
Paul Gravett naturally moderated and discussion centered around the trials of translation, new book covers for different markets, and the love of being flown to another country to talk about comics. Is it a European show without Paul moderating a panel on english comics? Read more at the D&Q Blog…
If You’re In Margate This Friday…
Posted: February 1, 2011
I’ll be speaking at the opening of the Adventures In Comics exhibition this Friday (4 February) being held at the Marine Studios in Margate, Kent. Doors open at 6.30pm, the talk begins at 7pm, and if you are in the local area I hope to see you there. The exhibition itself is free and is open between 4 and 20 February and will reshow some work from last years Comica That’s Novel exhibition, alongside new local artists. It will be well worth a trip down to the coast to see.
This Week’s Article: George Luks, A Comics Pioneer
Posted: January 30, 2011
It is not uncommon for the output of comic strip creators who take on another’s major oeuvre to be minimised, from Leslie Turner on Captain Easy or George Wunder on Terry And The Pirates. George Luks (1866-1933) has not fared a great deal better at the hands of most comics historians, who have tended to celebrate Richard F. Outcault as the more important originator of The Yellow Kid and marginalise the contributions of Luks, his successor, who continued with his own version of Hogan’s Alley, after Outcault was lured from Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World to William Randolph Hearst’s more lucrative New York Journal. Read the full article here…
New Web-Site Feature: Creator Profiles
Posted: January 26, 2011
Entering the world of graphic novels, comics and manga for the first time can be daunting. Finding titles that appeal to you from the flood of graphic novels now widely available can be difficult. It’s easy for even the most experienced comic reader to absent-mindedly pass over the work of a comic creator they would enjoy.
Obviously, nobody should be without a copy of my own indispensible guide to this world, Graphic Novels: Stories To Change Your Life (still available in all good bookstores!), but further help is now at hand.
A new feature for this web-site, Creator Profiles, launches today starting with a diverse selection of twenty comic creators, each with an accompanying Essential Reading list highlighting the very best from their back catalogue, together with web-links for further reading. Please do take a look and see if you can find an Essential book for your reading list.
In addition to my regular weekly web-articles, I’ll be adding more Creator Profiles in the weeks ahead, so do keep checking back for further reading ideas.
Manga Book Banned… Again
Posted: January 24, 2011
Dear Mr. Gravett,
I come from Malta, where currently a great stink on the subject of censorship is going on… you might tell me the topic does not effect you (and you’d be right, mostly), until a list of books sectioned at the University of Malta‘s library (as in put in a “naughty cabinet” and one requires permission to access them) has been revealed. Your book Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics is in the list, alongside the likes of the Marquis de Sade and texts on pornography. Just thought you’d find it interesting to know.
Keep up the good work,
Marco Attard
My thanks to Marco for the above email and for drawing my attention to this sad development in Malta. He also provides links to the reporting of this incident at Malta Today - the main articles here and here, and the full list of banned books in question.
Some of you may recall a similar example of censorship in 2006 when my Manga book was removed from the shelves of the public libraries in San Bernardino County, California - as detailed by the National Coalition Against Censorship. It is very sad to see history repeating itself. However, while these specific examples of censorship are troubling, I think we should not forget that a great many public libraries, particularly here in the UK, are embracing graphic novels, comics and manga in all their forms and using them as a means of encouraging reading across all ages groups. As Neil Gaiman said in support back in 2006, “I think that removing reference books from libraries is a very silly thing to do.”
I do hope commonsense prevails over in Malta and it is heartening to see that readers of Malta Today are already lodging their protests with well reasoned arguments on that site, as in the following example:
This censorship is ridiculous, especially at a higher learning institution like the university. Just for comparison one should see if University of Cambridge, or Oxford take similar approaches. From what are we trying to protect people? Their own body? What is so wrong with the human body to hide it from oneself!!! If one studies the real situation there are things that should better be censored but are taken for granted. E.g. extreme violence in films, killings and executions, wars and all the evil man invented to harm others!!! Just as a example take this government who gave its members of parliament a euro 600 rise per week whilst the middle class and lower class can barely make ends meet, BWSC contract. These are the real disgraces that should be censored!!! But no in Malta we are filled with pious religious fakes and fanatics who cannot see anything except their own self imposed limitations. These people try to decide what is good for others but in their own hearts and minds they are greatly confused and sad. It seems in Malta people are still living in the past middle ages! It also seems that under the current Gonzi government many forms of censorship are being enforced blindly down people’s throats. It was not so bad under the previous prime minister!
joezghir
This Week’s Article: An International ‘Best Of 2010’
Posted: January 23, 2011
Although my 2010 Best Of The Year article was focused mainly on American, Canadian and British comics with a few other comics translated into English, we shouldn’t forget that there is a big, wide world out there. So for the third year running, I’ve asked some of my friends from across the globe to pick their favourite comics of the year just gone. Many thanks to everyone who took part. Read the full article here…
My Angoulême Festival Events
Posted: January 22, 2011
What a buzz to be asked to do three ‘gigs’ as part of the biggest (excluding Comiket in Japan!) and in my view best International Comics Festival in the world! If any of you are coming to the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France next week, I do hope you can come to one or more of my three events.
First, I’m thrilled to be invited to lecture (in French) about the British genius of uninhibited comedy comics for kids of all ages, Leo Baxendale! My illustrated talk takes place on Thursday 27 January from 1-2.30pm in the Gershwin Room at the Conservatoire Gabriel Fauré. As well as talking about Baxendale’s career from The Beano to Wham!, Monster Fun to Willy the Kid, and more classic favourites, I’ll also touch on the surprising French versions of some of his best-loved creations. Full details here.
Secondly, I am chairing a panel entitled The market and opportunities for BD in UK and North America’ also on Thursday 27 January from 4-5pm in the Rights Market on the Champs de Mars (this is a pros and press venue only, sorry!). Joining me will be leading figures from the US, Canadian and British comics industry: Mark Smylie (Archaia); Tim Weisch (Dark Horse); Peggy Burns (Drawn & Quarterly); Calista Brill (First Second); Carol Burrell (Graphic Universe); Todd Martinez (Image); and Alex Bowler (Jonathan Cape). We’ll be discussing: can bandes dessinées compete in the world market with the phenomena of manga from Japan or superheroes from America? Tintin took over twenty years to cross the Channel for the first time into English. Asterix had to wait a whole decade to be faithfully translated. In the 21st century, certain French-language comics can be exported much more rapidly, but how many others may never be find their Anglophone readership? Discover the current approaches and policies of several leading North American and British publishers towards their importing and promoting of bandes dessinées.
And thirdly, on Saturday 29 January 5-6.30pm I’ll give a lecture (again in French) on The Appearance of Autobiography in Comics, that’s the subtitle to what I am calling Autobiofictionalography, to use Lynda Barry’s wonderful neologism! That also takes place in the Gershwin Room at the Conservatoire Gabriel Fauré. Full details here. Hope to see some of you there!
