Panel Borders: Totnes Comics

Starting a month of shows about communities of comic book creators around England*, Alex Fitch travels to Devon to interview artists and writers who live and work in Totnes. Jock, Lee O’Connor, John Spelling and Dom Reardon talk about their experiences in the South West, breaking into comics, the importance of 2000AD to their careers and future projects.
(* when Alex has a larger travel budget, expect Celtic comics communities at some point in the future)
Originally broadcast 03/06/12 on Resonance 104.4 FM

Extracts from comics by Lee O’Connor, Jock, John Spelling and Dom Reardon

Originally broadcast 03/06/12 on Resonance 104.4 FM

Visit www.archive.org, for more info and formats you can stream / download.

Links: Jock’s website
Lee O’Connor’s website
Dom Reardon’s page on comicvine.com
John Spelling’s wordpress site

Listen to Alex’s interview with John Spelling and Lee O’Connor
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Panel Borders: Blue Pills and Sandcastles

Continuing our month of shows on international creators, Alex Fitch talks to Swiss graphic novelist Frederik Peeters about his latest comic Sandcastle, published by SelfMadeHero and based on a script by filmmaker Pierre-Oscar Lévy. Sandcastle is a Twilight Zone style narrative about a group of strangers trapped on a beach where time moves at different rates; Alex and Frederik talk about the influence of science fiction on his work and his interest in autobiography which led to his award winning graphic novel Blue Pills – A Positive Love Story. (The interview was recorded at Gosh! Comics, London in October 2011)
Originally broadcast 20/05/12 on Resonance 104.4 FM

Excerpts from Sandcastle and Blue pills – a positive love story by Frederik Peeters

Visit www.archive.org, for more info and formats you can stream / download.

Links: More info about Sandcastle at www.selfmadehero.com
Reviews of Sandcastle by Ernesto Priego and Richard Bruton
Interview with Frederik Peeters in The Guardian
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Panel Borders: European adventure comics

Continuing our trio of shows looking at international comics we have interviews with a couple of European adventure comics creators. In an interview recorded at last year’s BD & Comics Passion festival at the Institut Français, Dickon Harris talks to Yves Sente, one of the current authors of the classic Franco-Belgian strip Blake and Mortimer, who has penned stories set in the current chronology of the comic as well as flashback tales that depict the characters in their youth. Also, in a pair of interviews recorded at Gosh! comics and Laydeez do comics, Alex Fitch talks to Uli Oesterle about his graphic novel Hector Umbra, a surrealist detective story which follows the travails of a painter who investigates the underworld of modern day Munich.

Excerpts from Blake and Mortimer Vol.11: The Gondwana Shrine by Yves Sente and André Juillard / Hector Umbra by Uli Oesterle

Originally broadcast 13/05/12 on Resonance 104.4 FM Continue reading →

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Panel Borders: Belgian graphic novelists

Starting a trio of shows about international comics, Alex Fitch talks to a pair of Belgian graphic novelists about their work. Creator Ivan Petrus discusses The Neuport Gathering, his moving and harrowing tale of Allied soldiers during the First World War, and in an interview recorded at last month’s Comica Comiket, Alex talks to artist Maarten Van Wieleabout his ‘graphic trash novel’ Paris which features sex, drugs and degradation in the French fashion industry.

Excerpt from Paris by Maarten Van Wiele / The Neuport Gathering by Ivan Petrus

Originally broadcast 06/05/12 on Resonance 104.4 FM Continue reading →

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Panel Borders: John Higgins – Before (and after) Watchmen

Concluding our month of shows about British comics, Alex Fitch talks to writer, artist and occasional self-publisher John Higgins about his career so far. Alex and John talk about the latter’s first experiences in comics, being published in Bryan Talbot’s Brainstorm and 2000AD, his landmark collaboration with Alan Moore on Watchmen and his new strip The Crimson Corsair, which is being serialised in prequel series Before Watchmen.

Future Shock, Judge Dredd, Watchmen and Before Watchmen art by John Higgins (copyright Rebellion / DC Comics 2012)

Visit www.archive.org, for more info and formats you can stream / download.

Links: John Higgins’ website: turmoilcolour.com
Art by John Higgins at www.comicartfans.com
Info about Before Watchmen at digitalspy.co.uk
Articles about John on the Forbidden Planet International blog
Listen to Alex Fitch’s interview with Dave Gibbons about Watchmen and other comics work and various interviews with Alan Moore

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