RSS Feed
Facebook
Twitter
THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Interviewing Scott McCloud Tonight on Will Eisner’s Birthday!
Posted: March 6, 2015
I’m really looking forward to talking with Scott McCloud tonight at the latest Comica Conversation to be held at The British Library. McCloud is over on a UK tour to publicise his much-anticipated graphic novel The Sculptor, published here by SelfMadeHero, as well as covering his earlier graphic novels and his landmark explanation of the medium Understanding Comics. It’s a sold-out event tonight but is being recorded. And as it happens, this very appropriately coincides with the birthday of the late comics legend and sequential art theorist Will Eisner and is a part of Will Eisner Week, a worldwide series of events celebrating Eisner’s legacy. Photo of McCloud courtesy of & © Seth Kushner.
Books To Read: Best Graphic Novels May 2015
Posted: March 2, 2015
Welcome back! Just for you I’ve once again rummaged through publishers’ solicitations for new releases due to be published this coming May or soon after, to arrive at this more manageable shortlist of the most intriguing and promising titles. Plenty to look forward to here, from masters like Philippe Druillet, Wally Wood, Shotaro Ishinomori, Alex Toth and Satoshi Kon (Japanese cover of Dream Fossil above) to some of today’s very brightest sparks. As usual. I’ve given you where available links to more images and info, and this time added a few interior sample pages to give you a flavour.
One inescapable landmark this month is the first monthly instalment of the new 12-part mini-series Providence by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows (wraparound cover below). Horror is a genre that Moore has startlingly revolutionised in comics before, from Swamp Thing to From Hell, among others. His return to the unspeakable terrors of H.P. Lovecraft looks set to warp all expectations all over again.
Maurice Vellekoop’s Guided Tour To His Solo London Show!
Posted: February 26, 2015
From Vellevision to Gloria Badcock, acclaimed Toronto illustrator and comics creator is over here tonight for his first solo exhibition in London, Cockadoodle: The Erogenous Art of Maurice Vellekoop. He will be giving a guided tour of his show in conversation with me this evening, so do come and join us for the launch party from 6.30-8.30 at Space Station 65 near Oval, all are welcome.
The exhibition of his joyful erotica, and other artworks like this concept sketch for a production of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutti, continues until May 2nd, admission free. You can read more about Vellekoop on my site here… And as Bren O’Callaghan, Curator of the show, sums up so well:
“Vellekoop’s brush tips plant the seeds of a vibrant, luscious wonderland that recreate a pre-fall state, before the crunch of sour apple introduced the bitter taint of shame. His work is essential de-programming, like that for cult escapees, for anyone who wishes to entertain the subversive idea that fantasy and desire might actually be a joyful and life-enhancing salve, not an impulse to be starved or stifled”
My Top Ten Sheep Comics for Chinese New Year!
Posted: February 22, 2015
As a bit of fun to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Sheep - and the release of the Aardman Animation movie version of Shaun the Sheep - here are my Top Ten Sheep Comics. Among these that didn’t make it to the top are Marvel’s Sheep-Boy (below), the Spider-Man of Earth-9792 whose Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive sheep in What If? #100, appearing only in a mock-up cover created by Andrew Pepoy, or Marvel’s funny animal version of super-spy organisation S.H.I.E.L.D., known as S.H.E.E.P. on Earth-8311. So without further ado, here’s my Top Ten Sheep Comics. counting down in reverse, and let me know what are your favourite sheep in comics!
Enter Your Comic To 2015 Animate Europe Competition!
Posted: February 20, 2015
‘Europe Fast Forward’ is the theme of the 2nd Animate Europe Comics Competition, organised by the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit and open to creators all over the world.
Anyone can enter by sending in your draft proposal for your comics. The shortlisted finalists get money and editorial feedback to complete their comic with a prize for the very best entries, as well as an awards ceremony and exhibition at the Belgian Comics Centre in Brussels and publication in a quality hardback album. You can get a flavour from the video above with vox pops from finalists, organisers and me!
Once again, I am joining the international panel of judges to pick who goes through. Full details and specs are on the website. The deadline is March 15th so you still have plenty of time to get your entry together. Watch the video clip below - and have a go and best of luck!
And you can download five of the finalists’ entries here to get a flavour of the diversity and quality from the first Animate Europe competition in 2013 and get inspired.
Books To Read: Best Graphic Novels April 2015
Posted: February 15, 2015
Blimey! April is bursting with alluring releases, and here’s my cull, an attempt to narrow the choices down to a more manageable shortlist for your consideration. You might choose biographies, here of Pablo Picasso, Gavrilo Princip, The Smiths or Han Shan and Shih Te, two of China’s greatest poets, or a fanciful alternative past of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage.
Or if you prefer first-person autobiography, this month’s offering range from the classic naval gazing (sorry!) of sailor Sam Glanzman, to Israeli newspaper strip cartoonist Asaf Hanuka’s The Realist (above, from Archaia Press), recording life’s moments big and small, one page at a time. And of course, there’s plenty of ‘pure’ fiction and fantasy transporting you back to the American Civil War to very possible near-futures of overcrowding or rising sea levels. Take a stroll and a scroll through my A to Z of April’s absolute showers, and join me each month as we take a glance ahead together. Read my recommendations for April 2015 here…
Maurice Vellekoop: Cockadoodle - Erogenous Art
Posted: February 14, 2015
Following along the trail blazed by lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel in Fun Home and Are You My Mother?, Toronto native Maurice Vellekoop is gestating a combined coming-out and coming-of-age graphic memoir of his own for Pantheon entitled I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together.
Cockadoodle: The Erogenous Art of Maurice Vellekoop is a flamboyant new exhibition curated by Bren O’Callaghan (see his introductory video below), that uncorks the Canadian artist’s contribution to illustration, underground comics and contemporary erotica. It is Vellekoop’s first London solo exhibition with a wide selection of his erotic output on show alongside other work. All are welcome to the Opening Night on Thursday 26th February, 18.30-20.30, when acclaimed British comics artist and author Woodrow Phoenix will guide the audience around the exhibition, in conversation with the artist, Maurice Vellekoop. The exhibition runs from February 27th to May 2nd 2015 at Space Station Sixty-Five, Building One, 373 Kennington Road, London SE11 4PS.
Read Vellekoop’s profile, interview and brand new comic here…
Valentine Day Highlight: The Girl Who Tempted Me
Posted: February 12, 2015
“I knew Lola would cause TROUBLE the first day she came to the farm!”
In The Girl Who Tempted Me! Kirby with Simon subverts several prejudices many modern comics readers have about the romance genre. Roy Lichtenstein is a lot to blame for this disdain, I think. His paintings of jilted women gushing waterfalls of tears supports the cliché that all love comics were formulaic tear-jerkers, where weak women pined for boyfriends and marriage and showed no hint of real passion. Having read a few more pre-Code romance comics thanks to my friend Ian Rakoff, I’ve found that the best can be as raw and vital as the best crime or horror comics of the early Fifties. READ FULL STORY…
Richard McGuire In Conversation With Paul Gravett in the House Of Illustration
Posted: February 8, 2015
Richard McGuire is here. Here in London, with his widely acclaimed graphic novel Here released by Hamish Hamilton. I’m really looking forward to talking with him this coming Tuesday February 10th about how he developed, expanded and reimagined his original short black-and-white comic ‘Here’ into this full-length, full-colour graphic novel. Our conversation runs from 11.30am to 12.30pm at the House of Illustration at 2 Granary Square, King’s Cross, London N1C 4BH, next door to Central Saint Martins. And best of all it’s completely free, though you will have to email to reserve your place to: rsvp [at] houseofillustration.org.uk Hope you can make it along and there will be time for Q&A and book signing too. The wonderful Steinberg-esque photo portrait of McGuire above is by and © Sarah Shatz.
Best Graphic Novels of 2014: An International Perspective
Posted: February 8, 2015
Fasten your seatbelts as we traverse the planet for a second time and catch up with my amazing 1001 Comics correspondents from Australia, Belgium, Finland, Italy, New Zealand, Poland and Spain. They each pick their favourite graphic novels created and published in their countries last year (cover above from Quiet little Melody by Sebastian Skrobol from Poland). Huge thanks once again to these international connoisseurs for their discrimination and insight. How could anyone ever get bored with comics, when there is this much diversity and creativity enriching the medium all around the world, just waiting to be discovered? All you need to do is stay curious… Read this second part of the Best Graphic Novels 2014: An International Perspective here…
