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 this month’s series of shows on horror and dark fantasy comics, Alex Fitch talks to Roger Gibson and Vince Danks, creators of the ‘Fortean’ murder mystery comic Harker and the forthcoming Gravestown and to Alex De Campi, film-maker and writer of the e-comic Valentine.
Alex discusses with the creators the importance of a good location in comics, whether it’s the real world locations of Harker or the fictional haunted every town of Roger and Vince’s new project and the reasons that Alex chose Russia in 1812 as the initial location of Valentine and the various formats you can download the periodical in.
The interview with Roger and Vince was recorded at this year’s British International Comics Show in Birmingham.
3 pages from Valentine by Alex de Campi and Christine Larsen, 3 panels from Harker by Roger Gibson and Vince Danks
Panel Borders: Books of Magic and Spirits of the Earth
Continuing our month of shows looking at horror and dark fantasy comics, in a pair of interviews recorded at this year’s British International Comics Show in Birmingham, Alex Fitch talks to artists Charles Vess and Peter Gross about their work. Charles is the World Fantasy Award winning illustrator of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust (adapted into a film in 2007), two issues of Sandman featuring William Shakespeare and an unusual graphic novel that saw Marvel Comics’ most famous character visit Scotland in Spider-man: Spirits of the Earth. Peter was the main artist (and later writer) of the much loved American fantasy series The Books of Magic which was probably a major influence on Harry Potter and more recently has worked on Vertigo titles Lucifer and The Unwritten with Mike Carey.
(Originally broadcast 21st October 2010 on Resonance 104.4 FM)
Rose by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess plus The Unwritten by Mike Carey, Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly
Laydeez do comics: Erotic art and graphic literature
The monthly meeting for female comics creators, fans of female comic creators and men who don’t feel intimidated by a reading group dominated by women!
This month’s subject: Art, erotica or p0rn…Discuss!
Monday 25 October, 6.30-9.30pm
The Rag Factory, 16-18 Heneage Street, London E1 5L
Cost: £1.50 payable on the door
Guest Speakers:
MELINDA GEBBIE
American comics artist and author. Contributor to Wimmen’s Comix, Collaborator on ‘Lost Girls’ with Alan Moore.
Lisa Gornick
London based filmmaker who keeps a blog of daily drawings about her film making.
Sina Shamsavari
Autobiographical comics artist currently working on a PhD about queer alternative comics at Goldsmiths College, London.
I’m ready for my close-up: Hammer and Tongs and a Town called Panic
Alex Fitch talks to film-makers Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith (a.k.a. Hammer and Tongs) about their promotion of the new Belgian feature length animation A Town called Panic which shows stop frame animated toys going on a wild adventure that involves mermen, mad scientists and a giant robot penguin. Alex also talks to Garth and Nick about the aesthetic of their films Son of Rambow and The Hitch-hiker’s guide to the Galaxy and how the demise of the UK Film Council is affecting their work and promotion of European films in the UK.
Nick Goldsmith and Garth Jennings at the cinema, Cowboy and Indian at the North Pole
To download / stream this radio interview in a variety of formats, please visit www.archive.org
THE ROYAL SOCIETY plays host to an unashamedly robotic evening of discussion, demonstrations and drama. Tom Hunter is joined by Tony Ballantyne, author of Twisted Metal and Prof. Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Hertfordshire.
Kerstin is a pioneering researcher in robot social learning and imitation whose research interests include Human-Robot Interaction, Social Robotics, Socially Intelligent Agents and Artificial Life. Kerstin and her colleagues will also introduce us to two KASPAR robots (Kinesics and Synchronisation in Personal Assistant Robotics).
Following the discussion: We will be treated to a rehearsed reading of extracts from Karel Capek’s 1921 play R.U.R. (ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS), which is noted for introducing the term, ‘ROBOT’.
SCI-FI-LONDON has commissioned a modernisation of the work for the 10th annual festival in April 2011. This will be the first public preview of the work-in-progress.
This fabulous evening is in collaboration with the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary celebrations in 2010.
6:30PM The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG (FREE!)
Technotise: Edit and I
Serbia’s first animated feature film – an eye-popping cyberpunk ride that’s calibrated to knock your socks off. Think GHOST IN THE SHELL meets WALTZ WITH BASHIR.
We are delighted to screen a newly-restored cult classic of a spin-off from the children’s television series, THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT, but this feature is an altogether darker affair (+ FREE BEER!)
9:30PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street
Saturday 16th October
Robots
Saturday morning kids screening of the popular CGI cartoon.
Reality Check: Inception / Monsters special effects special
In this edition of the Sci-Fi London Podcast, SFL web editor Chris Patmore guest hosts to bring interviews with two people working and different ends of the special effects budgetary scale. First we speak to Paul Franklin, visual effects supervisor on Chris Nolan’s Inception, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, as well as on the two latest Harry Potter movies.
Then we speak with Gareth Edwards about his debut feature Monsters, and how he got to make it, and doing special effects on his home computer. Gareth was the winner of the first SCI-FI-LONDON 48 Hour Film Challenge, and his feature film is garnering rave reviews around the world. Gareth will be holding a director’s masterclass after the screening of Monsters at Oktoberfest 2010 (see below).
Paul Franklin contemplates the VFX of Inception, Gareth Edwards prepares to shoot Monsters
Links: Interviews with Paul Franklin about Batman Begins and Inception
Pre-order a special Limited Edition of Inception on DVD/Blu-ray (December 6) from Play.com
Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (42 day) screening
To those of us who got beyond banging the rocks together, 42 is represented in binary as 101010. And so, just in case nothing remarkable happens on the tenth of October 2010, SCI-FI-LONDON will be showing the film.
Evening event at Royal Greenwich Observatory: Life, but as we know it?
A SPECIAL NIGHT investigating Extraterrestrial life in science, fiction and comedy.
We start the evening with a live Planetarium show: Astrobiology – the new science of life in the universe, created in conjunction with astrobiologist Dr Lewis Dartnell, this unique planetarium show will take you on a tour of the planets and moons of our Solar System to ask: are we alone?
On the night we will also be screening a special preview of MONSTERS by Gareth Edward on the planetarium dome. Seats are limited and we will be picking ticket holders to the Astrobiology show at random and offering them a chance to also see the film!
Also: Join some of the activities around the Observatory site. / Touch some real-life visitors from space with a tour of the Observatory’s meteorite collection. / Find out the latest news from NASA’s mission to detect Earth-like worlds and watch a live demo of how we might scan them for signs of life. / Good monster/bad monster – scientists and writers discuss what makes a believable alien lifeform. With Simon Guerrier and Dr Zita Martins / Weather permitting, a chance to see Jupiter’s moon Europa – most likely home of alien life in our Solar System. / Alien Among Us – a real-world game. You’ll need to think, plan, sneak, and escape. It’ll be a blast… REGISTER ON THE NIGHT
Panel Borders: The Sound of Drowning and Gentlemen Corpses
In the first of a month of shows looking at horror comics, a pair of guest presenters talk to a couple of independent creators whose comics deal with the darker aspects of the human condition, in interviews recorded earlier this year at comic book conventions which help promote small press creators.
Dickon Harris talks to Paul O’Connell, a UK creator who writes and sometimes draws the anthology title The Sound of Drowning and most recently became an internet cause célèbre with his fumetti style mash-up of two very different British cult favourites in A Muppet Wicker Man, in an interview recorded at the Alternative Press Fair.
Liz Lutgendorff talks to Ben Templesmith, an Australian comic book creator best known for his work on titles such as Hellspawn and 30 Days of Night about his creator owned title Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse and his interest in religion and mythology, in an interview recorded at the MCM Expo in London’s Docklands.
Edited and introduced by Alex Fitch.
(Originally broadcast 7th October 2010 on Resonance 104.4 FM)
Concluding our month of shows looking at British writers of superhero titles, Alex Fitch talks to comic book writer and novelist Simon Spurrier about the Marvel comics character the Silver Surfer, who he penned in a recent mini-series called ‘In Thy Name’. Alex and Simon will be discussing the character’s origins on and off the page, the genius of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original creation and aspects of space opera and messianic eschatology in his appearances!
Recorded in front of a live audience as part of a fund raising night to support London radio station Resonance FM, themed around the subject of silver, at The Vortex Jazz Club, 11 Gillett Square, London
Panel from Silver Surfer: In thy name by Simon Spurrier and Tan Eng Huat
Lecture on Ethnicity in 20th Century American Comics
The Victoria and Albert Museum’s resident comic book expert Ian Rakoff will be giving a talk on Ethnicity in 20th Century American Comics from The Yellow Kid to Tarzan at Oxford University’s Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology on Friday 15th October 2010.
Ian looks at representations of race and gender in early American comic strips, taking in Little Orphan Annie, Buster Brown and Little Nemo in Slumberland.
To coincide with the start of a month of horror film releases in the cinema and on DVD in the run up to Halloween, Alex Fitch interviews two veterans of horror cinema, Joe Dante and Tobe Hooper. Alex and Joe talk about the director’s two latest projects, Splatter, starting on the Horror Channel (Sky / Virgin / Freesat) 24/09/10 and continues over the next two Fridays, and his new 3D film currently in UK cinemas The Hole. Also, in an interview recorded at last month’s Frightfest horror festival in London, Alex talks to Tobe Hooper, following a retrospective screening of his first two films Eggshells and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre which depict the end of the summer of love and the loss of America’s innocence in the 1970s; Eggshells received its UK premiere at Frightfest and will be released on Blu-Ray / DVD towards the end of the year.
Original poster for Eggshells by Tobe Hooper, Corey Feldman and Tara Leigh discuss their motivation with director Joe Dante on the set of Splatter
More for more information and a variety of formats you can stream / download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org
The monthly meeting for female comics creators, fans of female comic creators and female comic book fans (men allowed also!)…
Next Meeting: Monday 27 September, 6.30-9.30pm
VENUE: The Rag Factory
Guest Speakers:
Ellen Lindner (Whores of Mensa) / Patrice Aggs (The DFC) / Steve White (I Drink Coffee and Draw Press LTD) / Charlie Bowden from Pickled Ink Illustration Agency, to discuss a call for entries for The Pickled Award for graduate illustrator.
Recommended Read: Mome Vol 19. Summer 2010, the latest edition of Fantagraphics’ twice yearly anthology…
The Rag Factory
16-18 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ
Continuing our month of shows looking at British writers of superhero titles, Alex Fitch talks to the current writers of two of the longest running American comics – Action Comics (which normally features Superman) and Detective Comics (which generally features Batman), Paul Cornell and David Hine.
Alex talks to Paul about his sojourn on the book which will detail a year long quest by Lex Luthor to gain superpowers and about his forthcoming titles Knight and Squire – a British set spin off of Batman – and Soldier One, a Science-Fiction title for Boom! comics, based on an idea by Stan Lee, and to David about exploring light and darkness in Gotham City, the joy of writing the psychopaths in Arkham Asylum and his surrealistic pop art Image comic The Bulletproof Coffin.
Action Comics #690 and 691 by Paul Cornell and Pete Woods, Detective Comics #864 and 867 by David Hine, Jeremy Haun and Scott McDaniel
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 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’.
To coincide with the release of his new zombie novel for young adults, The Dead, Alex Fitch talks to comedian turned novelist, Charlie Higson about his survival horror novels set in London, whose locations take in such notable locations as Buckingham Palace, The Tower of London, the Imperial War Museum and Waitrose! Alex and Charlie discuss what led him to write the first book in the series, The Enemy and how that led to a prequel, his disappointment at the cancellation of Randall and Hopkirk (deceased) on TV, the difference in writing novels such as King of the Ants for adults and writing about zombies for younger readers plus his fascination in giving nightmares to children…
Originally broadcast 17th September 2010 as part of a ‘Clear Spot’ on Resonance 104.4 FM
Extracts of the covers from The Enemy and The Dead by Charlie Higson
Orbital BECKY CLOONAN EXHIBITION EXTENDED TO SEP. 30th
Due to the big success of Becky Cloonan‘s show at the Orbital Gallery, we have extended the exhibition dates until the end of this month.
The show features original artwork from Demo, Pixu, the upcoming series Wolves and East Coast Rising, as well as limited screenprints, postcard sets and a hand-painted guitar.
The Orbital Gallery is open on our usual shop hours, from 10:30 to 19:00 Monday to Saturday and 11:30 to 17:00 on Sundays.
Continuing our month long look at British creators who have written and drawn superhero comics, (in a panel recorded in front of a live audience at the London Science-Fiction Film Festival) Alex Fitch concludes his talk with a quartet of Marvel UK luminaries who were responsible for some of the best British action / adventure titles in the 1980s and 90s.
Alex discusses with artist Gary Erskine and writers Dan Abnett, Simon Furman and John Freeman, the decline in fortunes of Marvel UK as a publisher in the 1990s – despite their creation of memorable titles such as Knights of Pendragon, Dragon’s Claws and popular Transformers spin-off title Death’s Head – due to changing market pressures. (Part 2 of 2)
4 covers of Marvel UK titles from the late 80s and early 90s - Dragon's Claws #1, Death's Head #9, The Knights of Pendragon #6, Warheads #1
