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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Best Graphic Novels of 2015: An International Perspective
Posted: February 9, 2016
Once a year, I get the privilege and pleasure of asking my international correspondents to review their pick of the best graphic novels and comics from their respective countries over the past year. I am always so grateful to them for sending me their considered choices and their commentaries about them. They never fail to surprise me with the sheer variety and quality of what is being created around the globe. A good many of these works will get little if any coverage in the English language, which makes this annual round-up all the more valuable and revelatory. To me, it’s a handy reminder not to simply sit back and soak up the loud hype and hyperbole about the so-called ‘hot’ creators and ‘cool’ books which we hear too much about, but to stay curious and open-minded and never stop exploring this truly international, transnational medium we love… Read these reviews here…
The Secret History of Wonder Woman
Posted: January 19, 2016
From Michael Fleisher’s obsessively detailed Wonder Woman: The Encyclopedia Of Comic Book Heroes, Vol. 2 in 1976 (re-issued in 2007 & 2010) to Les Daniel’s ground-breaking Wonder Woman: The Complete History in 2000 which first revealed how her creator, William Moulton Marston, lived with both his wife and another woman, our Amazonian princess has been the subject of plentiful research and analysis. As part of her 75th anniversary in 2016, several further fascinating studies have also appeared in the last few years. One study in particular that has garnered much attention and acclaim is The Secret History of Wonder Woman (Knopf/Scribe), in which Harvard historian and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore digs deep into the story behind the superheroine’s unconventional, pro-feminist creator, William Moulton Marston. Lepore kindly answered my questions here… .
My Top Ten Comics Of 2015
Posted: January 1, 2016
Drawing from this year’s overflowing cup of strong, striking, often demanding comics, manga and graphic novels, and books about them, here are my personal Top Tens organised into seven categories. Read them all here…
Pablo Holmberg aka Kioskerman: Re-Entering The Gates of Eden
Posted: December 29, 2015
“The strip format doesn’t belong to newspapers. It is simply a short format and people should do with it whatever they please.” This call-to-arms from Kioskerman, pen-name of Pablo Holmberg, is precisely what the internet enabled him to try when he began his weekly webcomics in 2004. Born in Buenos Aires in 1979, Holmberg avoided using the regular, merchandisable characters and undemanding, repetitive formulas which some cartoonists have traditionally relied on to maintain the productivity and public appeal of their daily episodes. The conventional gag-a-day or cliffhanger narrative of a strip might seem too confining, but in Holmberg’s hands four square images, clustered two-by-two, relate and resonate with each other to become an underlying rhythm and leitmotiv. In their duality and parallelism, the words and pictures in Edén reinforce each other rather than decorate each other. By stretching this apparently simple format to new limits of emotion and depth, Holmberg demonstrates that it offers more than enough space to build up over time into a world of ideas and feelings. Read my profile and Holmberg’s new 2-page comic for ArtReview magazine here…
Top 17 Graphic Novels: March 2016
Posted: December 26, 2015
Graphic biographies fill this month’s list of my recommendations, visualising the extraordinary lives of Thoreau, Turing, Belushi and The Smiths. First-person autobiographical accounts include Sam Glanzman’s diaries of his World War II service on board the USS Stevens and Carlos Giménez’s insights into post-war orphans in Franco’s Spain. On the fiction front, Daniel Clowes serves up his first new graphic novel in more than half a decade in Patience, while Hubert announces the dazzling debut of Flemish wunderkind Ben Gijsemans. There’s plenty more to pique your interest here, such as Jacky Fleming’s ferociously funny The Trouble With Women, but my Top Tip has to be Igort’s triumphal achievement, The Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks, giving voice at last to the unheard and suppressed victims in the Ukraine and Russia in two major albums, now combined and translated into one significant epic of humane testimony. Surely a graphic novel of the year… Read my latest recommendations here…
Miriam Katin: Coming To Terms
Posted: December 19, 2015
The Second World War has cast a long shadow over the life of Miriam Katin, born in Budapest in 1942. “The stories my mother told me about our life and survival and the fate of our family, they were always with me. A daily uninvited and unwanted presence.” Read my profile and interview with Miriam and her new two-page comic here…
Top 14 Best Graphic Novels for February 2016!
Posted: December 10, 2015
Welcome back, time to take a look through my next batch of PG Tips, all due out for February 2016. Sonny Liew’s extraordinary blending of biography, art book and national history is one stand-out and there are some great manga kicking off this month as well. Lots to explore, lots to enjoy, but if I am forced to choose to one, I am most intrigued by Mirror by Spanish writer-artist Emma Rios teaming up with sublime Malaysian artist Hwei Lim. Looks like some magic is abrewing here! Read my latest recommendations here…
What Girls Want: Shojo Manga Superstar Hanamura Eiko
Posted: December 4, 2015
On December 14th, 6.30-8pm, I am hosting ‘What Girls Want’, a special free evening at Foyles Bookshop in Charing Cross Road, London, offering you the rare chance to meet Shojo Manga pioneer Hanamura Eiko, as well as noted Associate Professor Masuda Nozomi from Konan Women’s University in Japan.
Professor Masuda will trace the origins of Shojo Manga, Japanese comics for girls, from their beginnings in girls’ magazine through to its more recent transformations, questioning what significance the genre has in Japanese society, and what it has been expressing over its diverse and complex themes. Then Hanamura Eiko will have a conversation with Masuda and me, looking into Hanamura’s work, reflecting on her illustrious career of over half a century in the Manga industry, and discussing the phenomenon of Shojo Manga and its impact on Japanese culture and beyond.
Presented by the Japan Foundation. Admission is free, but please RSVP to this link. See you there!
Meeting Barroux: Live Drawing Event at South Ken Kids Festival
Posted: November 13, 2015
Meet Barroux, the innovative French illustrator of the First World War French soldier’s memoir Line of Fire is among the guests at this year’s South Ken Kids Festival at the Institut Français in London. He will be talking with me at a special live-drawing event on Saturday November 21st. At an earlier Translation Machine event with translator Sarah Ardizzone, Barroux’s latest graphic novel Alpha: Abidjan-Gare du Nord. The story written by Bessora follows the journey of Alpha, a man from the Ivory Coast, who decides to leave his homeland and head for Paris without a visa in search of his family. This powerful tale from today’s headlines is being translated collaboratively during the Festival into English. Barroux will be discussing this with Sarah and me and demonstrating his drawing process and techniques in an exciting SKKF event Meeting Barroux from 4-4.45pm on Saturday afternoon - book your tickets here…
The Zoom! Show: Zoom Rockman’s Launch Party, Exhibition & Interview
Posted: November 9, 2015
To celebrate the launch of the 11th issue of The Zoom!, Westminster Reference Library off Leicester Square are holding The Zoom Show, a free exhibition of artwork, comics and Zoom-erabilia till November 21st. On Tuesday November 10th, Zoom will be talking to me about his passion for making and publishing comics starting from a very early age, his breakthrough into the pages of The Beano and what this fifteen-year-old Londoner has in mind for the future. Book your free place here and join us both from 6.30pm, interview starts 7.30pm.
