Article: PG Previews For May 2012

Posted: March 26, 2012

Welcome back, here’s a round-up of my recommendations for new comics, manga and graphic novels due out during May or soon after, sifted for you from publishers’ advance listings. Highlights this month include: the long-overdue debut in full book form by the remarkable Italian maestro Sergio Toppi; new graphic novels by Eddie Campbell, Jaime Hernandez & David B. (who is among the guests at this year’s BD & Comics Passion festival at the French Institute in London, in association with Comica, on May 24th to 27th); great global comics from Japan, Egypt, Sweden, Belgium and Spain; some classy first-time complete compilations from Gary Panter, Howard Cruse, Jeremy Bastian & Doug Wildey; the surprise return of horror-meister Wrightson on Mary Shelley’s man-made monster; and a massive artbook on Marvel artist John Buscema (I have the bi-lingual Spanish original of this and it is stunning).

I hope I’ve found you one or two treats to look forward to. And by the way, Flemish artist Maarten Vande Wiele is one of the special guests taking part in our live Drawing Parade at the Spring Comica Comiket in London on Saturday April 21st, where the English edition of Paris will be launched. Read the rest of my new Article here…

Article: British Comics Stamps

Posted: March 16, 2012

The Royal Mail is issuing a set of ten stamps celebrating British comics on March 20th 2012, each showing a much-loved character with a cover of the comic they appeared in behind them. Here’s the cover-featured four-page article I was asked to write about these for the March issue of The British Philatelic Bulletin, Volume 49, Number 7, under the title ‘High jinx and spiffing fun!’ and illustrated here with images from the original artwork and comics. To discover much more about British comics, be sure to check out my profusely illustrated, oversized book with Peter Stanbury, Great British Comics: A Century of Ripping Yarns and Wizard Wheezes. Read my article here….

Noam Chomsky Supports Parecomic Documentary Graphic Novel

Posted: March 12, 2012

News in from Japan-based Scottish Sean Michael Wilson, editor of Top Shelf’s excellent AX Anthology, about his exciting new project, Parecomic: Michael Albert and the Story of Participatory Economics. Sean explains that this documentary graphic novel with artist Carl Thompson “... is about something that affects us all: the system we live in - what’s wrong with it, and how we might be able change it for the better! The recent upsurge in popular protest in the USA and around the world shows that people are not happy with the state of things. The Occupy movements show us that many people would prefer a better system, a model that will work for the 99%, not just the 1%.”

Sean explains further: “It’s being published by Seven Stories Press, a social issues NY publisher who put out Michael Albert’s Remembering Tomorrow biography. Our graphic version draws on Michael’s own story, his political ideas and experiences to present a picture of not just one man’s life as a left wing activist, but also wider ideas of anti-capitalism, socialism, anarchism, and what kind of alternative society there is open to us. It’s written by myself, with the close help and permission of Michael Albert. Respected critic Noam Chomsky has agreed to write the intro.”

You can support it as well through Kickstarter to make it into print. To find out more, to watch a video all about it, and to pledge something if you like the Parecomic project, check out here at Kickstarter. Here’s a sample below and you can also read the first four pages online on Sean’s blog. This publication is an ideal vehicle for communicating Albert’s urgent, timely information through the uniquely accessible medium of the graphic novel.

Article: Arvon Foundation Graphic Novel Courses

Posted: March 11, 2012

One of the more significant examples of the many ‘tipping points’ in the continuing progress of comics in Britain was the first time that the prestigious Arvon Foundation piloted one of their intensive residential writing courses specifically focussed on graphic novels in 2006. Since then, Arvon have developed this specialisation into an annual course which has proved hugely popular and productive. This June 25th to 30th at The Hurst in Shropshire (below) brings the opportunity to sign up for their latest Graphic Novels Course with tutors Bryan Talbot and Hannah Berry, herself a student on that very first course and now a successful graphic novelists published by Jonathan Cape, and guest Mary Talbot. Later, from August 13th to 18th, Graham Rawle and Margaret Huber are the tutors for a related course on Text and Image, with guest George Hardie. To find out more about what it’s like to take part in these courses, I have asked two other former Arvon attendees, Katie Green and Paula Knight, to reveal their experiences and how it has affected their comics-making. Read my interviews with them both here…

Jean Giraud/Moebius: May 8th 1938 - March 10th 2012

Posted: March 10, 2012

We have lost one great man and two outstanding comics artists. The sad news has come through of the death today at the age of 73 of the visionary innovator of French comics, Jean Giraud, aka Moebius. Here is a photo of him with Aya author Margeurite Abouet at the 2011 Angoulême Comics Festival. It was an honour and delight for me to meet him and interview him in Paris. You can read my articles based on this conversation, Leading A Double Life Part 1 and Part 2. To see him drawing with American artists Joe Kubert and Neal Adams in 1972 on the live French TV show Tac au Tac, see this wonderful YouTube video.

As Joann Sfar tweeted, ‘On existe grace à Moebius’ (We exist thanks to Moebius). Jean Giraud and Moebius lived a double life; he left us too soon but has left us so much.

Jean Giraud - Moebius © Nicolas Guérin / la Cité

Battle Of The Eyes presents: Planet of the Jackanapes

Posted: March 9, 2012

This year’s Norfolk and Norwich Festival have just announced their packed programme for this coming May and among the Visual Arts attractions is an exciting ‘Pop-Up Exhibition’ commission, which I am curating, by Savage Pencil (Edwin Pouncey) and Eyeball (Chris Long) working together as Battle Of The Eyes.

For their first solo show entitled Planet of the Jackanapes, the Art Gallery at Norwich Castle will become their studio during the festival and a public arena where you can watch their unique collaborative performances. Painting in response to each other, a dialogue in paint ensues as brushes and crayons are passed back and forth between the artists creating large, explorative paintings in acrylics and charcoal. Crossing the boundaries between fine art and music, comics and grafitti, the work is intensely collaborative and subversive in style. Take a look at this video of the duo in action.

In addition to all these newly penned action-paintings, the exhibition will also feature paintings from the Predatory Life series, projection of films of their performances, and there are plans for related taxidermy displays customised from the Castle’s Natural History archives.

See the Planet Of The Jackanapes takes shape LIVE during performances in the gallery on Saturday & Sunday May 12th & 13th, and 20th & 26th, from 1pm to 4pm, and on Saturday 19th from 5pm to 10pm as part of Museums at Night event. The exhibition runs at Norwich Castle Art Gallery from May 12th to 27th, open Monday to Saturday 10am-4.30pm & Sunday 1pm-4.30pm. Tickets cost £2, or £1 concessions.

Ware’s World: Inside the Home of Cartoonist Chris Ware

Posted: March 8, 2012

Photographer Seth Kushner has posted a set of photographs taking you inside the home and workplace of Chicago cartoonist extraordinaire, Chris Ware, part of Kushner’s forthcoming book with Christopher Irvine, Leaping Tall Buildings. Check out the online photo album for shots of Ware in his studio and in his natural habitat surrounded by some lovely George Herriman, Frank King and other comics treasures.

Comics and Philosophy: From Maus to She-Hulk

Posted: March 8, 2012

Further evidence of the unstoppable ascendency of comics as a valid, indeed vital arena of academic interest comes with the news of a free event run by Comics Forum and Thought Bubble entitled Comics and Philosophy: From Maus to She-Hulk. Aaron Meskin and Roy Cook, editors of The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach will appear in conversation on the philosophical questions posed by comics. The event will take place from 5 to 6pm on Thursday March 29th at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds. Entry is free but registration is required. To register, send your name to comicsforum[at]hotmail.co.uk and the number of seats you would like.

French Signings of 1001 BD in Paris & Angoulême

Posted: March 6, 2012

1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die is gradually spreading around the globe. The French and Spanish editions are being published this month by Flammarion and Grijalbo respectively. The Spanish version is a straight translation of the English-language British original though in hardback, whereas the French paperback version has replaced around 100 entries with different French choices, co-ordinated by collaborator and co-author Nicolas Finet, and substituted Terry Gilliam’s Foreword for a new introduction by writer, theorist and historian Benoît Peeters. It also goes by the slightly more optimistic title of the ‘1001 Comics You Must Have Read In Your Life’. Shortly, within the 1001 Comics section of this site, I will be adding a translation of Peeters’ introductory text and details of these fascinating French additions.

Meantime, I will be joining Peeters and Finet on the Flammarion publisher’s stand, N63, at the Salon du Livre in Paris on Saturday March 17th, from 11.30am to 1.30pm, for a signing session and celebration of the book’s release. It’s already garnered some glowing critiques. Then on the following Wednesday March 21st , while I am back in the International City of Comics, Angoulême, to give some lectures to students at the Ecole Supérieure de l’Image, I will talking about and signing copies from 5pm in the wonderful Bookshop at the Musée de la Bande Dessinée. I then jet off to Madrid to help launch the Spanish edition at the Museo ABC on Saturday March 24th as part of The British Council’s UK Comics promotion. I am looking forward to meeting and making friends through comics during this exciting three-city European mini-tour!

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