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THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
See you in Margate for Adventures in Comics 2!
Posted: February 1, 2012
After the success of last year’s pilot, Marine Studios in bracing Margate, Kent have secured Arts Council funding to stage a bigger and better programme celebrating local, national and global comics under the sequel-movie title, Adventures in Comics 2. I’ll be there near the seafront for the opening night this Friday February 3rd and giving a free talk from 7pm to tie in with 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die. I’ll be asking, ‘Who are the Five Geniuses who Changed Comics Forever?’ Who would you nominate? I’ll share some of my candidates who appear in the 1001 Comics Guide and signing copies afterwards!
You will also be able to see the finalists of their 2-page-comic-challenge to create a story under this year’s theme: ‘Life Boat’. I’m really looking forward to somehow picking a winner or two. The standard looks pretty high to me. Here’s the short intro I wrote for the newsprinted anthology collecting some of the best entries and on sale for a mere £2.50 (see cover below):
“If you are looking for proof of the talent in the contemporary British comics scene, take a look here at the diversity and inventiveness of creative responses to what might seem the simplest of brief, namely to craft a two-page comic on the theme ‘Life Boat’. These selected entries to the Adventures in Comics 2 contest demonstrate an impressive variety of approaches, settings, genres, styles, media, layouts and interactions between the visual and verbal, from wordless, apart from graphic symbols, to highly textual.
“The assorted takes on the actual title range from the literal representation of an RNLI lifeboat rescuing an unlikely coupling of species or a Close Encounters-style mother ship to a lethal beetle or the Moon itself as the origin of life on Earth. Are you ready to be transported to a terrifying gondola plying the nocturnal canals of Venice or a beached armour-plated destroyer that was once a ship of death? In the imaginary storyworlds of comics, anything is possible, from a grassy backyard transforming into a stormy seascape to a park statue coming to life.
“Other contributors revisit and revise timeless myths. The Biblical tale of Noah’s Ark lives on in a desiccated dystopia, while Superman’s Kryptonian origin gets an illuminating twist. And others cartoonists serve up comic, tragic and tragi-comic tales of survivors, saved at sea from death by drowning, although not every survivor is happy about their new lease of life. So climb on board right now and set off into an uncharted ocean of vibrant graphic narratives!”
Adventures in Comics 2 also offers the chance to sign up for some great Inspiration/Perspiration Workshops in crafting your own comics with the brilliant Karrie Fransman, Merlin Evans, Chie Kutsuwada and Ai Takita-Lucas, and thanks to the Arts Council, they come at the affordable price of £10 each for a substantial session, usually 11am to 4pm. You can download the whole programme and link to the online booking form here with dates and details. Just complete it and email to Kam Rehal: kam[at]hkd.uk.com If you don’t make it to the opening on the 3rd, AIC2 continues till February 26th.
Read The Blog At The Crossroads here.
