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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Top 12 Best Graphic Novels for January 2016
Posted: November 8, 2015
Scrupulously and ruthlessly selected for your reading pleasure, here are my dozen top recommendations coming into stores starting in the New Year. American master and pioneer of the form, R.O. Blechman, returns with a major new work, joined by Starr and Drake’s French forays and the recent Kirby exhibition’s catalogue. Plenty more living, human comics to explore here, and my pick of the month is Tom Hart’s Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir. This extraordinary expression of fatherly love whose roots run deep and whose branches will never stop growing will make your spirit run free. Read my latest listing here…
Comica, CityRead & Barbican Library Bring You S.M.A.S.H.!
Posted: November 6, 2015
Come for an afternoon of spirited debate and discussion with makers, readers and critics of comics at the 2nd S.M.A.S.H. session as part of Comica 2015. I’ll be joining an impressive roster of panelists considering three thorny themes: criticism, stories and adaptation. It’s free and runs from 12.30 to 3.30pm at The Barbican Library. Check Comica.London website for more details and links…
Marcello Quintanilha: A Brazilian In Barcelona
Posted: October 29, 2015
In Brazil comics are commonly called quadrinhos or ‘little paintings’. Gaze into each panel of the comics of Marcello Quintanilha and you can see why, as they open onto vignettes of his country’s mixed society and mixed-up psyche. Born the son of a former football player and a schoolteacher in 1971 in Niterói, across the Guanabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro, Quintanilho grew up in the city’s working-class Barreto neighbourhood. He has never forgotten his “permanent contact with things and values in total decay - shops and factories shutting down, old soccer fields closing, workers’ villages disfigured or abandoned, local festivities emptying year after year; everything that represented a more vital, promising and perhaps happier past seemed to be saying goodbye every day.” Read my new profile and interview and Quintanilha’s new Strip for ArtReview here…
Shojo Mangaka Superstar Akiko Hatsu at Lakes Comic Art Festival & British Museum
Posted: October 10, 2015
It is a rare honour to welcome to the UK one of Japan’s greatest authors of girls’ manga, Akiko Hatsu. I have the privilege and pleasure to interview her at two special events, the first at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal, Cumbria at 2.30-3.30pm in the Brewery Arts Centre Screen Two on Saturday October 17th (£8, book tickets here).
The second is a lunchtime talk 1.15-2.00pm on Tuesday October 20th in Room 92 at The British Museum (free, just drop in). Don’t miss the chance to meet this legendary creator on her first British visit, made possible with support from The Japan Foundation.
Ten Best Graphic Novels: December 2015
Posted: October 3, 2015
To celebrate the first ten years of this website, here are my latest Ten Best titles from upcoming releases starting in December 2015 - explore, discover and enjoy! Read my new Article here…
Cheltenham Literature Festival Spotlight On Graphic Novels
Posted: September 25, 2015
Graphic novels are becoming an essential ingredient of any self-respecting, culturally alert literary festival across the UK. I’m delighted to be chairing a panel discussion at this October’s Cheltenham Literary Festival entitled Get Graphic: The World In Words and Pictures, where I’ll be talking with award-winning author Evie Wyld about her graphic memoir Everything is Teeth and with Simon Grennan about how he turned an Anthony Trollope novel into the visual masterpiece Dispossession. It takes place on Wednesday October 7th, 6:30-7:30pm in The Salon, Montpellier Gardens, with live drawing from Joe Sumner. Do join us if you can.
Dave Gibbons Guests at CanalCon Sunday September 20th!
Posted: September 17, 2015
It may just be the world’s first Comic Convention on a canal! CanalCon is this Sunday September 20th on board the Floating Cinema barge and on the astroturfed canalside steps leading up to Granary Square, home of Central Saint Martin’s College of Arts. It’s the finale of the Extra-Terrestrial London four-day programme.
It kicks off from 12 noon with a free Comica Comiket offering the chance to purchase great comics and graphic novels direct from publishers like Rebellion (2000 AD), SelfMadeHero, Knockabout, First Second, Soaring Penguin, Centrala Books, Escape Books and more, while House of Illustration are running a series of workshops on board the barge. Then from 7pm to 8.30pm I will be interviewing Dave Gibbons, stellar writer and artist from Dan Dare and Watchmen to Martha Washington and Kingsman: The Secret Service, live from the barge. He’ll also be answering your questions, drawing live and signing limited edition prints of this Martha Washington pin-up (below) in aid of charities.
Come and join us for CanalCon - it’s going to be Extra-Terrestrial!
Enter the 9th FNAC-Salamandra International Graphic Novel Prize
Posted: August 10, 2015
This competition is open to all nationalities and languages and began in 2007, when Jorge González won it with his masterpiece Fueye. The FNAC-Salamandra International Graphic Novel Prize goes to an original, totally new and completely unpublished graphic novel (so it cannot have been serialised or previewed in print or online, for example), and it must be a project exclusively entered for this competition, of 96 pages in total.
The minimum number of pages to enter is 16, in black and white or in colour, A4 size, with a detailed 2-page synopsis. Deadline is November 27th, announcement in January 2016 and the winner gets 10,000 euros, in two payments, one on winning, the other on publication of the finished graphic novel. The address to send your entry to is: Ediciones Salamandra, c/ Hermosilla, 121, 1o B - 28009 Madrid, Spain.
There are more details in Spanish in this pdf from Salamandra’s website and in a French pdf on the Cité de la BD site. If you have any questions, contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) - best of luck!
Enter the Hibana Global Manga Contest by September 30th!
Posted: August 10, 2015
Hibana (or ‘spark’ in Japanese) is a recently launched monthly manga magazine from Shogakukan, in the spirit of the late, lamented IKKI. And you could have your comics published in this by entering their new manga contest open to creators worldwide. To enter, you have to create a new manga story (in Japanese) of a maximum of 32 pages (or less), or a minimum of 16 pages if it’s a humorous one. You can also enter four-panel vertical strip or ‘yonkoma’ but you need to submit at least 10 of these. Image dimensions of the pages is 180 X 270 mms, while they should be on paper no bigger than 257 X 354 mms. You can submit your entry digitally, but they still need to send in a printed version to enter.
As for the theme, it’s wide open, in any genre you like, but they are after a new character who appeals to both men and women. The deadline is September 30th and there are two prizes, a Grand Prix of 300,000 yen and a Grand Prix Special of 500,000 yen. One or other winner will have their work published in the January 2016 issue of Hibana, and the Special winner gets the amazing opportunity to continue their project professionally.
You need to send your entry to: 101-8001 Chiyoda-ku, Hitotsubashi 2-1, Shogakukan Spirits-zôkan « Hibana » henshûbu, Hibana-Shinjinshô, Japan, and put the title and all your contact details on the back of each page. Also enclose a stamped, addressed envelope to return your entry. The winners will be announced in the December issue of Hibana - and yes, it really could be YOU! More details on their website (in Japanese!).
Barefoot Gen: Hiroshima 70 Years After
Posted: August 5, 2015
It was a Monday morning, 70 years ago. On August 6, 1945, the sun was shining. It seemed like just another ordinary summer day as six-year-old Keiji Nakazawa made his way to school. Looking up, he was surprised to see an American B-29 bomber flying over head. No air-raid warning sirens had sounded. 43 seconds later, a bomb nicknamed ‘Little Boy’ exploded 1,800 feet above him. In an instant, Keiji and thousands of other residents of Hiroshima were hit by an atomic bomb. Read about the powerful manga Barefoot Gen here…
