Starting a new series of the bimonthly show on books, Alex Fitch talks to three authors whose work celebrates ephemera and pop culture detritus. ‘Graphic Novelist’ Graham Rawle discusses his latest novel The Card, which follows the journey of a man who believes he is being employed by the secret service to protect Princess Diana, via playing cards, bubble-gum cards and cigarette cards that are left in his path. Rawle is an author and University of Brighton lecturer who uses graphic design and typography in his work, including collage of text from magazines (Woman’s World) and photographic montages (Lost Consonants et al.). Also, Tim Pilcher talks about his crowd-funded memoir Comic Book Babylon which documents his time working at DC Comics’ London office in the 90s, meeting pop culture celebrities such as Grant Morrison, Jonathan Ross, The Spice Girls and Adam Ant; while Paul Magrs chats about his novels and audio plays set around the fringes of Doctor Who, including his latest release Vince Cosmos, Glam Rock Detective where a Ziggy Stardust style pop star turns out to be engaged in an on-going war with aliens on Earth. Magrs also discusses his popular ‘Brenda and Effie’ series of books about the Bride of Frankenstein and a white witch running a B+B in Whitby. (Originally broadcast Wednesday 1st May 2013, on Resonance 104.4 FM)

For more info about this podcast and a variety of other formats you can download / stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.org

Links: Paul Magrs’ blog
Graham Rawle’s website
Comic Book Bablyon Kickstarter campaign

Recommended events:

Help fund COMIC BOOK BABYLON: A Cautionary Tale of Sex, Drugs and Comics on Kickstarter

Tim (Erotic Comics) Pilcher’s memoir about the years he spent working at DC Comics’ Vertigo office in the mid-Ninties. The book has reached its target of raising £3,850, but the printer has increased costs since the kickster campaign began – the new “Stretch Target” is now £5,500.

“…For a few glorious years only, before cost-cutting set in, there was Vertigo’s ‘British Office’ – the comics equivalent of the Loaded HQ in the ‘90s. Vodka, mushrooms, Es, sex, money, travel and the pure unleashed creativity of young people having a good time together.”—Grant Morrison, author of Supergods, All Star Superman, Batman Inc. and The Invisibles.

There are three versions of Comic Book Babylon available: eBook (with additional images), paperback, and 200 limited edition hardbacks, with covers created by design genius and comic book artist Rian Hughes. “Rian’s out done himself,” said an impressed Pilcher, “The punky/acid house colours perfectly reflect the rave mood of the times in the book.” Hughes has also designed a limited edition print and three “Sex, Drugs and Comic Books” badges as incentives.

Comic Book Babylon: A Cautionary Tale of Sex, Drugs & Comics ENDS on Kickstarter on Thursday 3 May, 2013. See it here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2016810024/comic-book-babylon-a-cautionary-tale-of-sex-drugs

50 years of Doctor Who spin-offs, at SCI-FI-LONDON

As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Doctor Who, SCI-FI-LONDON is proud to host an event looking at some of the under appreciated aspects of the franchise.

12.30pm: Novelists Paul Cornell (Scream of the Shalka), J.T. Colgan (Dark Horizons), Terrance Dicks (Players, Doctor Who and the Giant Robot) and Tommy Donbavand (Shroud of Sorrow) talk about continuing the Doctor’s trips in prose fiction and why they wanted to tell tales of the thousand-year-old time traveller…

1.15pm: Comic book writers Andrew Cartmel and Scott Gray, and artists Mark Buckingham and Adrian Salmon, discuss their serialised strip adventures of the TARDIS, printed in Doctor Who Magazine, the American Doctor Who comic and fanzines.

The need for Doctor Who spin-offs became increasingly important since the end of the original series in 1989, with both novels and comics filling the gap when the show was off air, with many writers of the modern TV show being strip and book alumni. Print stories have also been used as the inspiration for TV episodes in the 21st century, such as the memorable David Tennant dramatisations of Cornell’s novel Human Nature and Doctor Who Magazine comic, The Lodger.

2pm: Followed by a screening of the 1965 film DR WHO AND THE DALEKS, starring Peter Cushing in the lead role.

More info / book tickets at: http://www.sci-fi-london.com/festival/2013

Exhibitions at Orbital Comics

Andrew Hickinbottom

is a digital 3D illustrator who specialises in stylised pinups. His work has been showcased on the internet over 60 times, and has been featured in many international books and magazines, appearing on 4 covers. Some of his clients include EA, Tassimo, Seat, Intel and The international Olympic Committee.

This exhibition of his personal works features a wide range of his appealing female character illustrations, with signed prints, an artbook and even a VERY limited edition figurine for sale.

17th April – 10th May

Reappropriating Lichtenstein

Artists Jason Atomic and Rian Hughes are curating an exhibtion at Orbital Comics, on the subject of Reappropriating Lichtenstein to coincide with the final weeks of the exhibtion at Tate Modern in May. Any practising comic book artists who would like to trace back one of Lichtenstein’s images to its original source, crediting the original artist in the process, and produce a new version themselves are invited to submit proposal for exhibition by April 6th.
More info here: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/19/a-call-for-comic-artists-to-respond-to-roy-lichtenstein

Orbital Comics, 8 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7JA

Free Comic Book day at Gosh! Comics

As well as all the comics that will be available for free on Free Comics Day, come down to Gosh! Comics on Saturday 4th May between noon and 4pm to hang out with artists Mark Buckingham (Fables), Laurence Campbell(The Punisher), Isabel Greenberg (Observer short story winner), Warwick Johnson-Cadwell (Tank Girl), David O’Connell (Tozo – the Public Servant), Gary Northfield (The Beano), Adrian Salmon (Doctor Who), Vivian Schwarz (There are cats in this book) and Dan White (Cindy and Biscuit) who will be sketching and drawing for kids.

From noon, Saturday 4th May 2013, 1 Berwick Street, London W1F 0DR
More info at www.goshlondon.com

Help launch The Black Cloud

Support Charles Cutting’s new graphic short story compilation… If you think it’s the kind of thing you would be cool with posting about, liking and sharing on Facespace and Twitter, Charlie would be most grateful…

Over the last year and a half Charles has produced three short stories in graphic form for three different authors.

‘After The End’ is penned by Tauriq Moosa and deals with a secret scientific experiment.

‘Two Little Boys’ concerns an intriguing coincidence linking the lives of Adolf Hitler and Ludwig Wittgenstein and is written by Christian David. It first appeared in Issue 29 of The Illustrated Ape.

The final story ‘The Bleeding Horse’ is an adaptation of a macabre story by Brian J Showers about a haunted Irish pub.

Charlie needs $2000 to cover the printing and shipping costs. By pre-ordering a copy of Black Cloud via Indiegogo you will be entitled to various perks depending on how much you wish to chip in to the campaign. These cost between $15 and $200 and include sketches, advertising space and original artwork.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/black-cloud