Co-presenter / producer of "Panel Borders", Thursdays 5pm Resonance 104.4 FM. Film reviewer for www.electricsheepmagazine.com Podcaster for www.sci-fi-london.com
Continuing a month of shows about webcomics, Alex Fitch talks to screenwriter James Moran (Cockneys vs Zombies, Torchwood) about his new webcomic Day + Night, an urban vampire tale that casts the creatures of the night as ‘sharks on legs’ rather than the sparkly urbane figures found elsewhere. Also, in a panel recorded at Thought Bubble 2012, Vs Comics editor Mike Garley talks about the strip he’s writing – Eponymous – and introduces creators Nich Angell (Tabby and Trout), Ned Hartley (Ghost Club), Adam Christopher (The Sentinel) and Sally Jane Thompson (Happy Birthday) who present the strips they’re contributing to the online anthology comic, with the help of designer Mike Stock. (Originally broadcast Sunday 17th March 2013 on Resonance 104.4 FM)
Adverts for six Vs Comics: Night + Day, Eponymous, Happy Birthday, The Sentinal, Tabby and Trout, Ghost Club by various creators
For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.orgContinue reading →
Continuing a month of shows looking at webcomics, Alex Fitch talks to the creators of a popular online steampunk strip that combines Victoriana, mad scientists, fantasy and strong female characters. Phil and Kaja Foglio discuss the history of Girl Genius, their careers before the start of their most famous comic and why they prefer the term ‘gaslamp fantasy’ for their niche in the science-fiction subgenre. (Recorded at Congenial, Role-Playing Unicon, Cambridge 2012)
Originally broadcast Sunday 10th March 2013 on Resonance 104.4 FM
Interior art and cover of Girl Genius omnibus / cover of Agatha H volume 1
For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org
Alex Fitch talks to the directors of two new cutting-edge animated films which mix animation and live action footage to beguiling effect. In a Q and A recorded at SCI-FI-LONDON, the London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film, Zoltan Sostai discusses his film Cycle, a spiritual successor to Tron and The Matrix, which sees a nameless astronaut trying to escape a bleak urban landscape which twists and loops back on itself, creating an endless maze he can’t find the exit from.
Also, British animator Paul Bush talks about his first feature film Babledom which looks into the layers of history and potential future that are unearthed by explorers of the modern city. Mixing a dialogue between two residents of a dystopian city in the style of Chris Marker’s La Jetée, with visuals that recall the architecture of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Babledom is an evocative look at mankind’s varied relationships with the crowded spaces we inhabit.
Still from Babledom and poster for Cycle
Cycle was released in Hungarian cinemas on 21st February 2013 following its London première at SCI-FI-LONDON in 2012 / Babledom is released in UK cinemas on 8th March 2013. (Expanded podcast of an episode of I’m ready for my close-up, broadcast 01/03/13 on Resonance 104.4 FM)
In the first of a series of shows looking at comics serialised on the internet, Alex Fitch talks to a quintet of young British webcomic creators about their work. In a Q and A recorded at Comica Comiket (2011), John Allison discusses his webcomic Bad Machinery, his reasons for choosing the internet as a form of delivery and the lessons he’s learned as a comic book creator over the last decade.
Also, as we draw to the end of the first Webcomic Artist Swap Project week (February 25th – March 3rd, 2013), Nich Angell (Cat and Meringue), Zarina Liew (Le Mime), Naniiebim (Mephistos) and project originator Richy K. Chandler (Lucy the Octopus), talk about their musical chairs experiment which saw thirteen creators write and draw each others’ strips in order to bring new readers to stories they may not have previously encountered, and raise awareness of the British webcomic scene in general. (Originally broadcast 3rd March 2013 on Resonance 104.4 FM)
Webcomics by Richy K. Chandler, Zarina Liew, Nich Angell, Namiiebim and John Allison
For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.orgContinue reading →
Concluding our month of shows looking at the connections between comics and literature, Alex Fitch talks to a pair of authors who have used graphic novels and comics to update classic literature. Mike Carey discusses his comic The Unwritten which sees characters from classic literature – such as Frankenstein‘s monster – and authors – like Mark Twain – being caught up in a fantastical conspiracy through the ages; Alex and Mike also discuss how the latter’s parallel career as a novelist effects his comic book writing.
Also, newspaper cartoonist Martin Rowson discusses his graphic novel adaptation and updating of Gulliver’s Travels, with its art and content reflecting current political leaders and situations. (Originally broadcast 24/02/13 on Resonance 104.4 FM)
Interior art and cover of Gulliver’s Travels by Martin Rowson, cover of Vicious Circle and interior art from The Unwritten, written by Mike Carey
For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org
Listen to Alex’s previous interview with Martin Rowson here and to Alex’s interview with Mike’s regular collaborator Peter Gross, here… Continue reading →
Panel Borders: Inhumanity and darkness in literature
Continuing our month of shows about comics and literature, Alex Fitch talks to a trio of graphic novelists about adapting classic 19th century novels as sequential art. In a panel discussion recorded at Comica Comiket in 2011, David Hine and Mark Stafford discuss their adaptation of Victor Hugo’s The Man who Laughs, a tale that has already cast a long shadow over comics, as the lead character Gwynplaine was supposedly an influence on the creation of The Joker. Also, fine artist Catherine Anyango discusses her visual approach to her 2010 adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, best known as the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, which sees her intricate pencilling style married with both text from the original novel and also Conrad’s The Congo Diary. (Originally broadcast 17/02/13 on Resonance 104.4 FM)
Cover of The Man who Laughs / sketch of Gwynplaine by Mark Stafford / interior art and cover of Heart of Darkness by Catherine Anyango
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness adapted by David Zane Mairowitz and Catherine Anyango is available now from SelfMadeHero / Victor Hugo’s The Man who Laughs adapted by David Hine and Mark Stafford is released in April 2013.
For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org
Resonance FM is currently running its annual fundraiser to help pay for the station’s continuing programme of refurbishments. As well as variety of film and music related items in the auction, comic books and graphic novels include a hardcover omnibus of Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars which includes a unique sketch of The Hulk by David Lloyd, a 1st edition UK TPB of Watchmen including a sketch by John Higgins and framed signed comics by Gail Simone, Dave Gibbons, Jonathan Ross, Frazer Irving and many more. Please visit resonancefm.com for more info.
Panel Borders: The Amazing Adventures of Fraction and Chabon
Continuing a month of shows looking at the connections between sequential art and literature, Alex Fitch talks to writers Matt Fraction and Michael Chabon about their friendship, reading experiences outside of graphic novels and mutual love of comics. Matt Fraction is an award winning writer who has become one of the most important contributors to Marvel’s range of superhero comics, with runs on Iron Fist, Thor and Iron Man under his belt, his new assignment is the continuing adventures of The Fantastic Four and their extended family. Fraction also has indie credentials from his ongoing European style spy series Casanova. Michael Chabon is the Pulitizer Prize winning author of “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay”, a chronicle of the comic book industry in the middle decades of the 20th Century, which he continued in the pages of the comic book series The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, that saw the author write his first comic book script, plus the publication of Will Eisner’s final story to feature The Spirit.
(Originally broadcast in an edited form on Resonance 104.4 FM (London), 10/02/13
Covers of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay / …of The Escapist by Michael Chabon, Casanova / Fantastic Four / FF by Matt Fraction et al.
For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org
In a show looking at the possible consequences of computer technology and Artificial Intelligence on humanity, Alex Fitch talks to the directors of two new films that address these themes and how it might impact on peoples lives and after-lives. Kareem Gray discusses his movie Zero One, a cross between Knight Rider and The Terminator in which a couple of hackers discover a sentient intelligence on the internet with the power to download itself into robots and other machines; Martin Gooch and members of the cast of Death discuss this new British fantasy film starring Leslie Philips in which a pair of siblings return to their family manse after the death of their father and discover he had been working on a computer programme that allows people to converse with the dead…
Both interviews recorded in front of a live cinema audience at SCI-FI-LONDON, the London Science Fiction and Fantastic Film Festival, April 2012.
Originally broadcast Friday 1st February 2013, on Resonance 104.4 FM (London)
Panel Borders: Swedish thrillers and dark Sci-Fi fantasy
Starting a month about the links between comics and literature, Alex Fitch looks at an example of a series of books that are being adapted for comics and comics that are being continued as novels. Scots novelist Denise Mina discusses her adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy as a series of graphic novels for DC Comics, starting with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and writer / artist John Higgins explains the transition of his SF / horror comic series Razorjack into a series of books written by himself and other authors.
Originally broadcast Sunday 3rd February 2013 / Tuesday 5th February 2013, Resonance 104.4 FM (London)
Covers of A Sickness in the family, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo parts 1 and 2 by Denise Mina et al., Razorjack issue 1 and Com.X collected edition by John Higgins, Double-Crossing novel by Michael Carroll
For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org
As we enter Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary year, Reality Check investigates a radio drama series tangentially connected to the franchise. The Scarifyers is a horror / black comedy series, with new instalments broadcast each year on BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC 7) and released on CD and concern the adventures of an elderly horror writer and his retired police sidekick as they investigate supernatural crimes and occurrences in 1950s Britain. Alex Fitch talks to series writer and producer Simon Barnard and CD cover artist Garen Ewing about the genre crossing narrative, their love of old SF and horror and the use of iconic actors in new serialised roles in a series whose cast includes Terry Molloy (Doctor Who‘s Davros), Nicholas Courtney (Doctor Who‘s Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) and David Warner (Time Bandits et al.). The supporting cast includes actors famous for roles in Doctor Who and other Sci-Fi dramas such as Gabriel Woolf, Philip Madoc, Gareth David-Lloyd and Brian Blessed.
Promo material for The Thirteen Hallows, David Warner and Terry Molloy, cover of The Scarifyers comic no.1
(Expanded podcast of an episode of I’m ready for my close-up, broadcast 25/01/13 on Resonance 104.4 FM)
