Panel Borders: Team Batman, Robin and Catman

Starting a month of shows looking at unique renderings of superheroes, this episode is about depictions of masculinity in superhero comics via a pair of interviews recorded at the British International Comics Show in Birmingham last month. Alex Fitch talks to Nicola Scott, an Australian artist who has previously drawn half a dozen issues of Wonder Woman but who also draws male characters such as anti-hero Catman in the Secret Six and the Teen Titans which has drawn new female readers to those titles; also: Dickon Harris talks to Canadian artist Yanick Paquette who is also associated with drawing iconic male comic book characters such as Wolverine and Batman and is continuing his burgeoning association with Grant Morrison on the new title Batman Incorporated which launches this month.

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

Recommended events:

Panel Borders at Comica:

Nov 6th: Charlie Adlard and The Walking Dead

Alex Fitch hosts an hour long talk with British artist Charlie Adlard about drawing various strips for 2000AD including Savage, Nikolai Dante and Judge Dredd plus his ongoing commitment to the monthly American survival horror comic The Walking Dead which he has been drawing since 2004 and has just been turned into a new TV series produced by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption). Followed by a signing with the artist.

Saturday, November 6th, 4.30pm
London Print Studio, 425 Harrow Rd, London W10 4RE
(nearest tube: Warwick Avenue / Westbourne Park)

Nov 10th: Comic Cuts – controversial comic books and banned periodicals

Alex Fitch discusses examples of banned and censored comic books in the last quarter of the 20th Century with publisher Tony Bennett and (via speaker phone) writer / artist Rick Veitch.

Tony’s publishing company Knockabout has seen its titles seized by British Customs, has been taken to court for publishing “drug related titles”, and for promoting the work of Robert Crumb. Knockabout have also commissioned comic book adaptations of previously banned novels such as Lady Chatterly’s Lover.
Rick is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, including the drawing of an issue of Moore’s Miracleman comic in the 1980s which was withdrawn from many shops due to its “graphic depictions of childbirth” and then when he took over as writer on another Moore comic – Swamp Thing – left the periodical when the publisher refused to print a certain issue.

Wednesday, November 10, 6pm
Whitechapel Idea Store, 321 Whitechapel Road, London, E1 1BU
(nearest tube: Whitechapel / Bethnal Green)

Nov 5th: Transitions Conference at Birkbeck College

Alex Fitch will be chairing a session on comics and academia at the Transitions multi-disciplinary research conference on comics and graphic novels with Laydeez do Comics’ Sarah Lightman and Nicola Streeten

Friday, November 5th, 1.30pm (TBC) / conference starts at 9.30am
Birkbeck College, Clore Centre, 25-27 Torrington Square, London WC1E 7JL
(nearest tube: Russell Square / Goodge Street)

Also:

Nov 6th: Frames of Mind: Brick and Darryl Cunningham

What role can comics play in mental illness? A conversation between Brick, author of Depresso, and Darryl Cunningham, author of Psychiatric Tales, about their moving (semi) autobiographical graphic novels dealing with depression and other issues and how creating these comics has helped both themselves and others.

Saturday, November 6th, 2.30pm
London Print Studio, 425 Harrow Rd, London W10 4RE
(nearest tube: Warwick Avenue / Westbourne Park)

Nov 7th: Comica Comiket: Independent Comics Fair

Comica Comiket, the independent comics fair, teams up with the popular, long-running National Collectors Marketplace at the Royal National Hotel, Russell Square, and taking over its own dedicated space, the plush Ellis Room from 12-5pm. The legendary Fast Fiction Table was started by Paul Gravett at the Westminster Central Hall Comic Marts in 1981 and grew into the regular hub of the UK small press scene of the 1980s and birthplace of Escape Magazine. A limited number of exhibitor tables for the Comiket will be available at affordable prices and Charlie Adlard, Darryl Cunningham, Paul Duffield, Hunt Emerson, Garen Ewing, Paul Grist, Roger Langridge, Ellen Lindner, Woodrow Phoenix and others will draw live and sign books during the afternoon. The public are admitted free.

Sunday, November 7, 2010 – Noon to 5pm
Royal National Hotel, 38-51 Bedford Way, London WC1H ODG
(Nearest tube: Euston / St. Pancras)

J.H. Williams III signing at Orbital Comics

Modern master of off-beat superheroes, J.H. Williams III is signing copies of the recently released Batwoman hardback in advance of the new issue #0 of her ongoing series, and will also being singing copies of Promethia his epic work with Alan Moore and his collaborations with Grant Morrison on Batman and Seven Soldiers of Victory…

Orbital Comics,
8 Gt Newport Street
London WC2H 7JA,
United Kingdom

Pickled Ink’s search for a comics artist

Art illustration agency Pickled Ink has launched a new award in a bid to find an artist to draw a new graphic novel by Super Gran creator and writer Jenny McDade.

Working with Jenny, the creator/writer of the TV series Super Gran, who cut her teeth writing strips for the British girls comic Tammy, and comic book author and editor Pat Mills, the agency is searching for an outstanding character-led artist to illustrate Jenny’s first graphic novel script, Party Girls. The winner will be awarded £1000.00 and a contract of representation at Pickled Ink, whose current artists include Hanako Clulow, Hattie Newman, Hannah Bagshaw and many others.

In brief, they’re asking for: character design of two lead characters; and a 20 frame sample sequence and a front cover design. The winning artist must be an existing or recent graduate from the last 12 months only, able to draw modern fashion, facial expression, great storytelling, and be generally ‘2011’.

The deadline for entries is Monday 8th November 2010, more info at www.pickledink.com where you can download a PDF of the full rules and conditions