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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Sonny Liew & The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye
Posted: April 25, 2015
Singapore gained its independence in 1965. Without doubt the most surprising and perceptive account of the five subsequent decades comes as a graphic biography of one extraordinary comics artist, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (Epigram Books, 2015 and Pantheon, 2016). At over 300 pages, this metatextual memoir is the most ambitious project yet by Sonny Liew. Read my profile about and interview with Sonny here together with his brand-new two-page comic…
From Tintin to Persepolis, Five Politically Significant Comics
Posted: April 24, 2015
To accompany Catherine Nixey’s cover-featured lead article about the goals and controversies surrounding the Islamic superhero team The 99, as featured in The Times’ Arts Section on Friday April 10th 2015, I was commissioned to pick out five significant previous examples of politically significant comics and graphic novels for a sidebar. Here are the ones The Times chose… More…
Meet The Authors of Pablo, A Graphic Biography of Picasso!
Posted: April 14, 2015
A gorgeous collection is out now from SelfMadeHero of Julie Birmant and Clément Oubrerie’s four-volume graphic biography of Picasso, entitled Pablo. Taking in Picasso’s early life among the bohemians of Montmartre and his turbulent relationship with his model and lover Fernande, this stunning book shows how the artist’s style developed in response to his friendships and rivalries and follows the artist’s career from his origins in penury to the advent of modern art.
Birmant and Oubrerie are guests at the London Book Fair, where I’ll be interviewing them on a panel discussion about ‘The Art of The Graphic Novel’, 4-5pm tomorrow, Wednesday April 15th, and then later that evening the two of them will be in a Comica Conversation at the Institut Français with me and signing their book. This is a free event but you need to RSVP please to book a place by email to: box.office [at] institutfrancais.org.uk - see you there!
This event is co-hosted by COMICA Festival, the Institut Français, SelfMadeHero and the London Book and Screen Week.
How I Got To Now: Paul B Rainey Interview
Posted: March 28, 2015
Over on Escape Books website, I’ve just started posting ‘How I Got To Now’, a six-part interview with brilliant British author Paul B Rainey. The first episode is entitled ‘Teatime On The Planet of the Apes’ and begins his travels and travails through comics, culminating in his graphic novel There’s No Time Like The Present, published in a handsome hardcover dustjacketed edition on April 1st. To celebrate this and hear Paul in conversation with Steve Walsh, come to Gosh! Comics this Wednesday from 7pm for the 25th Process meet-up - free, all welcome and followed by book signing. See you there!
Malcy Duff: Playing With The Rubble
Posted: March 22, 2015
Not uncommon in Japan in modern manga, the three dots of an ellipsis are used inside an otherwise blank thought balloon to convey a person’s innermost, inexpressible thinking process. In I Trimmed A Tree So A Lorry Could Pass (Good Press, April 2015), Malcy Duff takes those dots from balloons above his character who is brushing his teeth, then standing on his lawn, and enlarges them so they occupy a whole page. These three dots almost symbolise the Edinburgh-based artist’s own associative approach to stretching, deforming, even breaking the medium’s visual storytelling. “Narrative is a very dangerous thing”, comments Duff. “So it is gravely important we continually blow it to smithereens and play with rubble.” Read Malcy’s profile, interview and new two-page comic here…
Ken Niimura: Global Mangaka
Posted: March 17, 2015
José María Ken Niimura del Barrio is a citizen of today’s truly international, transnational comics world. Born in Madrid in 1981, he’s lived and worked in Brussels, Paris, Montreal and Madrid under the pen-name Ken Niimura. Three years ago he moved to Tokyo. I first met him when I helped select him to come to London for Comica Festival in 2007 as part of the innovative Asia-Europe Foundation’s cultural exchange project through comics called Lingua Comica. His latest book is the utterly charming and moving collection of thirteen short stories entitled Henshin, published first in Japan, then in Spain and most recently in English, once more from Image Comics (all three editions below). I caught up with Niimura again to find out how his manga and his life are going in Tokyo. Read my interview with him here…
Sotheby’s Comics Art Auction: Nearly Four Million Euros of Originals
Posted: March 8, 2015
Sotheby’s Paris staged their major auction sale of 288 lots of Bande Dessinée, offering a stellar A to Z of classic and contemporary artists, mainly French, with some from the rest of Europe and the USA, from Alex Alice to Yslaire. The sale total has been announced as 3,821,947 euros, nor far off 4 million based on hammer prices plus buyer’s premium. I’ve picked out the most revealing and surprising results from this landmark auction. Read my report here…
Remembering Yoshihiro Tatsumi (June 10, 1935 - March 7, 2015)
Posted: March 8, 2015
The news came through to me in a short email yesterday, March 7th 2015: “Sensei passed away today.” Yoshihiro Tatsumi is the ‘sensei’ or grand master of ‘gekiga’, a term he coined for the darker, more dramatic form of manga in Japan. His innovations were vitally important for Japanese comics and his lifetime’s work stands as some of the most psychologically powerful and humane narratives, not only in manga but in global comics culture. To mark his passing, I am re-presenting an interview with Eric Khoo, director of the Tatsumi animated documentary, and a close friend of Tatsumi’s, who emailed me the sad news. Read this article and interview here…
Pass The Bechdel Test on International Women’s Day!
Posted: March 8, 2015
Today is International Women’s Day and there’s been some mention, for example by Scott McCloud at his British Library conversation with me, and yesterday on Matthew Sweet’s Sound of Cinema on Radio 3, of ‘The Bechdel Test’. Not everyone citing this test will know or acknowledge that it originates from the American lesbian graphic novelist Alison Bechdel, acclaimed for her Dykes to Watch Out For comic strip serial and her autobiographical works Fun Home and Are You My Mother?, highly recommended reads published in the UK by Jonathan Cape.
To pass her ‘test’ in whatever narrative medium, you need to include conversations between two women who are not discussing a man. While boyfriend/partner troubles do figure in some of the stories, the latest issue of The Strumpet celebrates all kinds of female friendships in new comics by diverse and talented ‘Lady Comix’ creators from the UK, US and beyond. It definitely passes The Bechdel Test in style!
Great Britain Guest Country At Munich Comic Festival June 4-7!
Posted: March 7, 2015
Great Britain is the guest country at this year’s Munich Comic Festival, the second largest comic event of its kind in Germany, alternating every other year with the Comic Salon in Erlangen. In 2015 it takes place over the weekend of June 4 to June 7. Among the British guests joining me there will be Mark Buckingham, Rob Davis, Rufus Dayglo, Jock, Dave McKean, Mike Perkins (who illustrated the festival poster, above), Frank Quitely, Declan Shalvey, Posy Simmonds and Mary & Bryan Talbot.
As well as a featured exhibition of original artwork by British creators, there will also be a British theme to from May 7 to June 9 in the exhibition The Beatles in Comics on view in the Valentin-Karlstadt-Musäum. Other exhibitions to be shown deal with Will Eisner at the Jewish Museum, Paco Roca and Jordi Lafebre will present their artwork in person at the Instituto Cervantes, and Tom Bunk, who will be awarded our Peng! Award, will show his artwork in the Amerikahaus. And finally, the quaint Beer and Octoberfest Museum in the oldest private house of Munich will be part of the Festival.
The main location of the Festival from June 4 to 7 is the Alte Kongresshalle (Old Congress Hall) neighbouring the Oktoberfest site. Here, among other things, you’ll find the book fair of all the comic publishers under one roof. Also there will be drawing workshops and prominent comics creators will be available for autographs. There will also be various presentations and lectures as well as exhibits and a cosplay contest. Many prominent German and international artists will be guests at the Festival, including Don Rosa, Paco Roca, Julie Birmant & Clément Oubrerie, Reinhard Kleist, François Walthér, Denis Kitchen and Barbara Yelin. The updated full guest-list is here… Click the poster below to see a larger version…
Munich Comic Festival 2015 Poster
Click image to enlarge…
