Alex Fitch talks to a pair of directors of innovative short animated films; to Oscar winner (2011 co-director Short Animated film) Shaun Tan about the adaptation of his acclaimed picture book The Lost Thing and to web animator Jonti Picking about his cult animated series Weebl and Bob as well as his adverts for Cadbury’s Creme Eggs (is it that time of year already?) and Anchor Butter.

Alex Fitch interviews Shaun Tan / Weebl and Bob re-enact Raiders of the Lost Ark

Visit www.archive.org, for more info and formats you can stream / download. (Broadcast 10/01/12 on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Watch an extract of the Shaun Tan interview / Listen to Alex’s 2009 interview with Tan

Links: Wikipedia pages on Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Eric Khoo, Shaun Tan and Jonti Picking
Eric’s website
Jonti’s website
Shaun’s website
Official Soda Pictures Tatsumi website
Illustration Cupboard website

Recommended events:

GOSH! – UPCOMING EVENTS

COMIC GOSH!P
Free ‘Thinking Comics’ reading group discusses Phonogram: The Singles Club & Hitsville Uk by John Riordan and Dan Cox. All welcome.
January 11, 2012 – 7.15-9pm

CRAIG THOMPSON signing copies of Habibi, Blankets and more, 5pm-7pm,
Saturday 21st January

EDDIE CAMPBELL signing at 6:30pm, Friday 3rd February
1, Berwick Street, London W1F 0DR / www.goshlondon.com
Nearest tube: Picadilly Circus / Leicester Square

Other comics events:

Course: Drawing For The Graphic Novel
Stephen Marchant’s 11-week course on Thursday evenings run by Birkbeck College in association with the Cartoon Museum.
Where: Cartoon Museum, London
When: January 12, 2012

Rethinking the History of Childhood: Narratives, Sources, Debates
The history of childhood is now ripe for re-evaluation. The conference will
debate existing paradigms while welcoming the work of new scholars.
Where: University of Greenwich, Centre for the Study of Play and Recreation
When: January 14, 2012

For more info: www.paulgravett.com

Storytelling for Comics and Graphic Novels course

You will learn about comic and graphic novel storytelling techniques, and how to create your own visual narrative. Everyone will end the course with one completed comic page, and the skills to continue their work for themselves. We will look at comic and graphic novel art styles, the use of text and images, the “grammar” of comic art, use of sound effects, abstraction, and styles. You provide a story from your own experience, or one you wish to adapt into the medium.

West Dean College, Chichester (Suitable for all levels)
2nd – 4th March 2012
Details here: www.westdean.org.uk

Alex Fitch talks to director Tom Guerrier about his short film Cleaning Up, featuring Doctor Who stars Mark Gatiss and Louise Jameson as a hitman and his landlady; and to Adam Hamdy, co-director, and actors Jay Sutherland, Gavin Molloy, Simon Burbage and Lee Ravitz, about Pulp, a caper movie set in the small press comic community. Both films are starting to tour festivals and Alex talks to their creators about the making of each project and their ambitions to get the films to larger audiences.

Cleaning Up will be screening next on 10/01/12 at the London Short Film Festival at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith.
Pulp receives its UK premiere on 02/02/12 at SFX Weekender Sci-Fi convention, Prestatyn Sands, Wales.

Simon Burbage, John Thomson and Gavin Molloy in Pulp / Tom Guerrier helps Mark Gatiss get into character for Cleaning Up

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

In association with

Links: Tom and Simon Guerrier’s website, featuring info on Cleaning Up
Pulp movie website
SFX Weekender site
London Short Film Festival site

Recommended events:

Laydeez do comics, December 2011

In the last LDC of 2011, Laydeez curators Nicola and Sarah talk about their work and how it has evolved since the first LDC meeting in 2009 + a couple of designers talk about their comics.

Guests:
Rachel Abrams, designer and writer, Brooklyn NY
Sarah Lightman, artist, curator and researcher
Marcia Mihotich, graphic designer and illustrator
Nicola Streeten, illustrator and author of graphic memoir Billy, Me & You

Recommended Read:
Billy, Me & You by Nicola Streeten, published by Myriad Editions

Monday 5 December
Time: 6.30 – 9.30pm
Venue: The Rag Factory, 16-18 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ

Comics Gosh!p

Another monthly event, in which hosts Mike Medaglia and Mark Haylock pick a ‘mainstream’ and small press comic to discuss in this free reading group in Gosh Comics!, Soho

This month they’re looking at “Understanding Comics” by Scott McCloud and John Miers‘ treatment of The Tower of Babel in his book “A Collection of Comics”
All books will be available at Gosh! and you can read ‘The Tower of Babel’ online (however the book is really nice to have!)

Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Time: 19:00 until 21:00
Gosh! Comics, 1 Berwick Street, London W1F ODR

More info: http://www.facebook.com/thinkingcomics

Continuing our month of shows about genre, it’s a science fiction double feature as Alex Fitch chats to author Neil Gaiman about examples of SF in his work such as Doctor Who, American Gods, Babylon 5 and Sandman: Endless Nights. Plus, in an extract from a talk at the British Library, Neil discusses his experiences of the genre around the world from China to Tasmania.

Images from Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman and Miguelanxo Prado

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

Listen to the the 75 min panel discussion with Neil Gaiman, Peter F. Hamilton, Rachel Armstrong, Kari Sperring and (chair) Farah Mendlesohn

Links: Original listing for the event on The British Library website
Write up of the event on the Margo’s Musings blog
Neil Gaiman’s journal
Art by Miguelanxo Prado

Recommended events:

Laydeez do comics – Internation Comica special

The monthly meeting Laydeez Do Comics links up again with Comica Festival to present special guests from Canada, the USA and Germany. Sarah Leavitt launches Tangles, her graphic memoir of her mother’s Alzheimer’s disease, published by Jonathan Cape. MK Czerwiec, aka ‘Comic Nurse’, presents her unique medical comics and cartoons from a nurse’s perspective. German guests Mawil and Uli Oesterle discuss their careers and latest albums translated into English courtesy of Blank Slate.

Tickets: £1.50
Where: The Rag Factory, 16-18 Heneage St, London E1 5LJ
When: Monday, November 21, 2011 – 6.30pm to 9.30pm

History and Future of Superheroes Comica talk

Secret Origins are exposed and Secret Identities are unmasked in Paul Gravett’s illustrated overview of how the superhero genre was born and has evolved, and where it is heading next. By the co-author and editor of 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die. 

Tickets: Admission free
Where: Islington Central Library, Fieldway Cresent N5
When: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 – From 7pm

Events at Gosh! Comics

November 25: Nelson launch party, signing and art show. Exclusive Gosh! Bookplate Edition by Frank Quitely available on the night!

November 26: Luke Pearson signing copies of his new Hilda book from Nobrow + art show (all pieces are up and on sale now)

Gosh! Comics, 1 Berwick Street, London W1F 0DR

In this special Halloween themed episode of the Electric Sheep Magazine podcast, Alex Fitch talks to three directors who have made films about man’s relationship with the land.
At this year’s Frightfest, Robin Hardy discusses his classic horror film The Wicker Man and its new, belated thematic sequel The Wicker Tree, a pair of films about fertility and terrifying pagan rites, while Larry Fessenden talks about his eco-themed monster movies No Telling, Wendigo and The Last Winter. Also, in a Q and A recorded at the East End Film Festival, Alex interviews Steven Eastwood, co-director of Buried Land, a ‘mockumentary’ / docudrama about the real-life discovery in a small town in Bosnia of an ancient, buried pyramid which may reinvent mankind’s knowledge of pre-Christian architecture and empire building, but in the short term has changed the fortunes of people in the area.

Figures in a landscape: The Wicker Tree, The Last Winter, Buried Land

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

In association with

Links: Official Buried land, The Last Winter and The Wicker Tree websites

Electric Sheep Magazine reviews of The Last Winter, The Wicker Tree and the songs of The Wicker Man

Info about the Buried Land screening at the East End Film Festival

Recommended events:

Mike and Laura Allred signing

At Orbital Comics on Great Newport Street in London, on Sunday 29th October, Mike and Laura Allred will be doing a signing of their work, including the pop art classics Madman and X-Statics

5pm, 29th October, Orbital Comics, 8 Great Newport Street

Nobrow anthology launch

On Thursday November 3rd at the impossibly fashionable bar Jaguar Shoes, 32 Kingsland Rd, Shoreditch, the pubishers of Luke Pearson’s books Nowbrow press will be launching their new anthology from 6.30pm.

More info: www.comicafestival.com

Virginie Selavy talks to Simon Rumley, director of the excellent, unpredictable murder ballad Red White and Blue, which tells the complex, violent tale of an emotionally reluctant girl and an edgy loner. One of the best thrillers of 2010 and a great take on screwed up love and serial killers.

Still from Red, White and Blue

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

In association with

For more info about Electric Sheep podcasts and events, please visit www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/events

As the Autumn nights start to draw in, we have a couple of recommendations of DVDs worth staying in for, as Alex Fitch interviews a pair of directors who have both earned cult followings for their work in the SF genre. Duncan Jones talks about his new film Source Code, a time travel thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal and about how themes in his new movie consciously and unconsciously reflect some of his concerns of humanity dislocated by technology in his debut Moon. Alex also chats, alongside SCI-FI-LONDON’s newest interviewer Lily Savy-Gorman, to John Hough, director of the classic Disney film Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), starring Ray Milland and Donald Pleasance. Hough followed his first family film with a couple more for Disney – Return from Witch Mountain and The Watcher in the Woods – and talks about how the company’s approach to live-action filmmaking has changed over the years.

In a glass brightly - Source Code and Escape to Witch Mountain

For more info about this podcast and a variety of other episodes you can download, please visit the home of this episode at www.sci-fi-london.com

Links: Read a transcript of Alex’s interview with Duncan Jones
Info about the Escape to Witch Mountain screening at SCI-FI-LONDON

Recommended events:

New Science Fiction Reading Group

In discussion: Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon (we have some copies for loan).
1st meeting on Wednesday 21st September @ 7pm
Streatham Library
63 Streatham High Road
London SW16 1PL

For more info contact 020 7926 6768 and ask for Pat / e-mail: pdunne@lambeth.gov.uk

Concluding our month of shows looking at comic book shops, Alex Fitch talks to Andrew Salmond and Josh Palmano, the proprietors of Gosh! Comics in London which, after 25 years, has relocated from Great Russell Street to the heart of Soho and to Dave Barras, director, and Scott Mackay, co-writer, of the new UK comedy film Electric Man about a rare stolen comic, set in the Edinburgh independent shop, Deadhead comics…

Exterior of Gosh! Comics, Soho + interior of Deadhead Comics, Edinburgh, as featured in Electric Man

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

Links: Gosh! website
Interview with Josh at dazeddigital.com
Interview with Andrew at thecomicsbureau.co.uk

Electric Man website and production blog
Review of Deadhead comics at www.itchyedinburgh.co.uk
Preview of Electric Man at Forbidden International Blog

Recommended events:

Belfast Comics ‘Barcamp”

The date has been confirmed for the second Comics Barcamp in the English speaking world – essentially an “unconference”, a creative business brainstorming seminar, run along communal lines.

To take place at Blick Studios in Belfast in September, who are also co-sponsors of the event, this free gathering is aimed at anyone who likes or creates small press/ underground comix or who simply enjoys non-hierarchical events with an emphasis on spirit of creativity, alternatives and co-operation.

Blick Studios, Belfast, Saturday 3rd September

More info at http://comicsbarcampbelfast.pbworks.com

New Comic Internship at londonprintstudio for 21-25 Year Olds

Do you enjoy telling tall tales or scribbling stories? Do you love reading graphic novels, comics or picture books? Then look no further!

londonprintstudio is offering five carefully chosen 21-25 year olds the chance to…

-Run comic workshops for 16-20 year olds.
-Receive mentoring from top professional comic artists, anthology makers, screenwriters, print makers, comic publishers and art educators.
-Develop your own artistic comic projects with supervision from mentors and feedback from your fellow interns..
-Be introduced to the London comic scene, attend events, give presentations, network and meet publishers, editors and creators in the comic industry.
-Take part in editing, planning and creating work for a comic anthology publication and a comic exhibition at londonprintstudio.

The course is run by professional comic creator Karrie Fransman whose comics have appeared in The Times, The Guardian and who is currently working on her first graphic novel due to be published by Random House.

2 days (14 hours) per week for a six-months. Interns will receive a travel and food expenses budget for two days per week. All londonprintstudio staff and volunteers are required to have a Criminal Records Bureau Check.

Deadline for return of application form: Monday 5th September 2011
Interviews: Tuesday 13th September 2011
Start date: Tuesday 20th September 2011

For job description and application click here: http://www.londonprintstudio.org.uk/F13-intern.html
For more information on the project click here: http://www.londonprintstudiocomics.blogspot.com/

Electric Sheep Magazine editor Virginie Sélavy talks to Russian scholar Sergei Kapterev (Institute of Cinema Art in Moscow) about Soviet science fiction and the connection between SF cinema and politics, the impact of the space race and the Cold War period, and Roger Corman’s re-edits of popular Soviet SF films. (Originally broadcast 15/07/11 on Resonance FM)

Plus, in a Q and A recorded at SCI-FI-LONDON, April, 2010, Alex Fitch talks to Polish poster designer Andrzej Klimowski and SF writer / journalist Wojciech Orlinski about cinematic adaptations of the work of Stanislaw Lem from Steven Soderbergh and Andrei Tarkovsky’s adaptations of Solaris to more offbeat films such as Edward Zebrowski’s The Hospital of Transfiguration.

Stills from The Interrogation of Pilot Pirx and Icarus XB-1 based on the work of Stanislaw Lem

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

In association with

Info about the partial broadcast of this show
Buy tickets for the Kosmos season at BFI Southbank
Info on British Library Lem event
Buy DVD box sets: Pojechane w kosmos – Masterpieces of Polish SF Cinema (including Test Pilot Pirxa [1978]) / the films of Piotr Szulkin (including Golem [1980] and War of the Worlds: Next Century [1981]) and the book Lemistry: A Celebration of the Work of Stanislaw Lem from amazon.co.uk
Read a discussion of Polish cinema on DVD at criterionforum.org
Previous interviews with Andrzej Klimowski
June 2010 Electric Sheep podcast with Klimowski and Andrzej ?u?awski about ‘the Polish New Wave’
Info about the 2010 SCI-FI-LONDON screening of The Hospital of Transfiguration

Recommended events:

Caption Comics festival 2011

Oxford’s small press comics festival is taking place this weekend, the 6th and 7th of August at the East Oxford Community centre.
Guests include Al Davison, Ian Culbard, Kate Brown, Paul Rainey, David O’Connell and Paul Duffield and tickets are a very reasonable five pounds per day, plus workshops on comic book creating, the annual Caption auction featuring original art pages and new pieces by attending creators and much, much more…

Find more info at www.caption.org

New Comic Internship at londonprintstudio for 21-25 Year Olds

Do you enjoy telling tall tales or scribbling stories? Do you love reading graphic novels, comics or picture books? Then look no further!
londonprintstudio is offering five carefully chosen 21-25 year olds the chance to:

-Run comic workshops for 16-20 year olds.
-Receive mentoring from top professional comic artists, anthology makers, screenwriters, print makers, comic publishers and art educators.
-Develop your own artistic comic projects with supervision from mentors and feedback from your fellow interns..
-Be introduced to the London comic scene, attend events, give presentations, network and meet publishers, editors and creators in the comic industry.
-Take part in editing, planning and creating work for a comic anthology publication and a comic exhibition at londonprintstudio.

The course is run by professional comic creator Karrie Fransman whose comics have appeared in The Times, The Guardian and who is currently working on her first graphic novel due to be published by Random House.

2 days (14 hours) per week for a six-months. Interns will receive a travel and food expenses budget for two days per week. All londonprintstudio staff and volunteers are required to have a Criminal Records Bureau Check.

Deadline for return of application form: Monday 5th September 2011
Interviews: Tuesday 13th September 2011
Start date: Tuesday 20th September 2011

For job description and application click here: http://www.londonprintstudio.org.uk/F13-intern.html
For more information on the project click here: http://www.londonprintstudiocomics.blogspot.com/

Gosh! comics events

Gosh! Comics have outgrown their happy home of 25 years and are moving to new, bigger premises in Soho!

To celebrate the opening of Gosh! Comics’ new store on Berwick Street and the opening of their new gallery space, the first event in the new premises is a signing and exhibition by celebrated comic book artist Dave McKean of his new graphic novel Celluloid.

Dave McKean will be signing at Gosh! from 2pm ‘til 4pm on Saturday the 6th of August. The exhibition runs until the 6th of September.

Then on the following week, acclaimed indie comics creator Luke Pearson will be launching his new title Everything We Miss, a book about the breakdown of a relationship and the infinitesimal events we would notice if our attention wasn’t directed elsewhere.

6pm – 8pm, Saturday 13th August, 2011

1 Berwick Street, London W1F 0DR

More info: www.goshlondon.com

In a pair of Q and As recorded at Sci-Fi London 10 (April 2011), Alex Fitch talks to the directors of two very different SF movies about the pilots of spaceships and their relationships with the craft and crew. Nydenion, directed by Jack Moik is a new German ‘Space Opera’ that borrows from the aesthetics of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica to create a crowd pleasing saga of ships and men in interstellar battle; and Atlantis Down, directed by Max Bartoli is a Twilight Zone influenced SF / Horror film about the crew of a space shuttle who on encountering a mysterious orbital event, find themselves on a planet full of death traps and and uncanny encounters. Alex talks to Jack and Max about their two films and the different ways they have re-imagined classic Science Fiction tropes in the 21st Century.

Images from Nydenion and Atlantis Down

For more info about this podcast and a variety of other episodes you can download, please visit the home of this episode at www.sci-fi-london.com

Links: Official film websites – www.nydenion.com / www.atlantisdown.com
Info about SCI-FI-LONDON 10 screenings of Nydenion and Atlantis Down

NASA website about the actual Space Shuttle Atlantis

In a pair of on stage interviews recorded at this year’s Sci-Fi London festival, Alex Fitch talks to a couple of film makers about their recent takes on the apocalypse in film; Dekker Dreyer whose film The Arcadian stars Lance Henriksen and Brian Thompson, and mixes the iconography of shamanism with elements of the road movie in a post-apocalyptic setting and Maxì Dejoie whose film The Gerber Syndrome is an Italian take on 28 Days Later…, using a pseudo-documentary style to follow a member of a biohazard clean-up crew who is scouring the streets looking for the contagious and is the first overtly political zombie film in a long time. Alex and Maxi are also joined by Gerber producers Claudio Bronzo and Lorenzo Lotti (in Italian and English).

Stills from The Gerber Syndrome and The Arcadian

For more info about this podcast and a variety of other episodes you can download, please visit the home of this episode at www.sci-fi-london.com

Links: Directors’ websites – www.dekkerdreyer.com and www.maxidejoie.com
Trailers: The Arcadian / The Gerber Syndrome

Horror maestro Kim Newman discusses the new, updated edition of his essential book Nightmare Movies: Horror on the Screen since the 1960s with Electric Sheep editor Virginie Sélavy; Kim and Virginie discuss seminal modern horror movies such as Night of the Living Dead. (Previously broadcast 20/05/11 as an episode of “I’m ready for my close-up” on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Nightmare Movies by Kim Newman, 2011 edition, published by Bloomsbury

In association with

Info about the broadcast of this show
Visit the page at bloomsbury.cm about Nightmare Movies
Kim Newman’s website: www.johnnyalucard.com
Listen to Alex Fitch’s interview with Kim Newman about Doctor Who

Alex Fitch talks to internationally renowned designer Javier Mariscal about his career so far from drawing sketches in bars which got picked up by the design community as the basis of everything from chairs to Olympic Mascots to his comic strip Los Garriris, the subject of a recent exhibition in Brussels. Alex and Javier also discus the designer’s recent role as animator and co-director of the cartoon feature film Chico and Rita and how the movie was subsequently adapted into a graphic novel.

Still from Chico and Rito by Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba

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

Links: Info about the Chico and Rita graphic novel from Self Made Hero
Chico and Rita official film website
Wikipedia pages on Javier Mariscal and Chico and Rita
Info about Mariscal’s Los Garriris exhibition in Brussels

Recommended events:

International Alternative Press Festival 2011

Friday 27th May
Festival Opening Party!
The Miller, London Bridge
Performance by Resonance Radio Orchestra; an ensemble of musicians and actors from Resonance 104.4FM, London’s independent arts radio station. Collaborating with live illustration by artists from home and overseas.

Saturday 28th – Sunday 29th May
Alternative Press Fair
Conway Hall, London
A fair where artists will be exhibiting and selling their self-published comix, zines, art books, prints, radical literature and poetry. Three rooms of workshops and talks including Andy Simons from the British Library, screen-printing workshops and a reading area with Zine Swap.

Saturday 28th May – 13th June 2011
Free Exhibition
Stripburger – A Taste of Slovenia’s Premier Comics Zine

Orbital Comics, London
Artists, workshops, talks and more TBC

Monday 30th May – 5th June 2011
Exhibition and Events
New Gallery London
Including a film night, storytelling, poetry and zine sleep- over! With a live printing event at the end of the week. (Artists TBC)

Monday 30th May – 5th June 2011
Exhibition/ Live collaborative art project
Sassoon Gallery, London
For more info about all the events taking place at International Alternative Press Festival please go to http://comicsandzines.wordpress.com

MCM EXPO

Starting on Friday 27th May and running to Sunday 29th, this three day event celebrating Movies, Comics and Manga takes place at the Excel Centre, Docklands.

Guests include the cast of Futurama, X-Men: First Class writers and the cream of British comics including Warren Ellis, Keiron Gillan, Jamie McKelvie, Emma Vieceli and many more…

More info: www.londonexpo.com

Virginie Selavy hosts a discussion on secret societies to tie in with the East End Film Festival’s themed day of screenings on May 2. With her guests, Strange Attractor Press editor Mark Pilkington and horror film expert Richard Bancroft, they discuss the links between crime and the occult, looking at Jack the Ripper and the Masons theory and other filmed examples of the arcane and conspiratorial. (Previously broadcast 22/04/11 as an episode of “I’m ready for my close-up” on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Johnny Depp on the set of From Hell

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

In association with

Info about the broadcast of this show
Read other articles on Secret Societies in Electric Sheep Magazine
Listen to Alex Fitch’s interview with Alan Moore about From Hell

Virtual worlds on the big screen vary from the most escapist to the increasingly relevant and in this episode of Sci-Fi London’s podcast we look at two very different representations of these on screen. Alex Fitch talks to Nicolas Alberny and Jean Mach, the directors of 8th Wonderland, a film about a virtual community declaring themselves to be a new country with rights and influence on the rest of the world, and the agit-prop antics of the members of this virtual country on film proved prophetic compared to recent events in the Middle East and demonstrations on the streets of London. Also, we have an extract from the Tron: Legacy press conference in which director Joseph Kosinski, stars Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde and others talk about their sequel to a VR film classic.
(Tron: Legacy is released on DVD 18/04/11 and 8th Wonderland in June)

Robert Bradford in 8th Wonderland / Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy

For more info about this podcast and a variety of other episodes you can download, please visit the home of this episode at www.sci-fi-london.com

Links: Official 8th Wonderland and Tron: Legacy websites
Download 8th Wonderland from iTunes

Recommended events:

25 years of John Constantine: Hellblazer at SCI-FI-LONDON

To belatedly celebrate the 25th anniversary of the start of the ongoing Hellblazer comic, for the inaugural event of this year’s London International Science-Fiction and Fantastic Film Festival, Sci-Fi London is proud to present a panel of Constantine creators – Jamie Delano, David Lloyd, Andy Diggle and Peter Milligan – in an on stage Q and A about their experiences of working on the comic and related graphic novels.
The panel is followed by a screening of the movie Constantine (2005).
5pm, Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street, London.

Tickets / more info: www.sci-fi-london.com/festival

With more and more people wanting to download movies off the internet, a new company has come along to help people do this legally with a wide range of films that include British gems and cult classics. Alex Fitch talks to James Rowley-Ashwood about indiemoviesonline.com: how the collection of films on the site were curated – from Evil Aliens to the site’s one playing movie A Serbian Film, short films by Lotte Reiniger and the Brothers Quay and back catalogue titles from Peter Greenaway and Alex Cox, some of which are out of print on DVD – and how the site’s funding and distribution are achieved.

Links: indiemoviesonline.com
Watch A Serbian Film

Read Virginie Selavy’s article about the censorship of A Serbian Film and interview with the director
Recent articles by Alex Fitch at Electric Sheep: the Halloween franchise / Source Code review

In the third Electric Sheep Podcast of 2011, to coincide with the Birds Eye View Film Festival’s focus on women in horror, Electric Sheep editor Virginie Sélavy leads a discussion with three women filmmakers working in this traditionally male-dominated genre. Her guests are: Melanie Light, director of Switch, Kate Shenton, director of Bon Appetit, and Jennifer Eiss, co-director of Short Lease. All three shorts screened as part of the Horror Shorts programme of B.E.V. on Saturday 12 March at the ICA.

Still from Switch by Melanie Light

More info: www.birds-eye-view.co.uk

Read Eleanor McKeown’s rarticle about new female horror directors.

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

In association with

The latest issue of Electric Sheep Magazine looks at women in horror with articles on Ingrid Pitt, Amber Heard, Alien‘s Ripley and emerging UK female horror directors. Clouzot’s noir masterpiece Les diaboliques and intriguing Korean revenge tale Bedevilled are on cinema screens. Comedian Jessica Fostekew explores the horror genre and we have a Reel Sounds column on Delia Derbyshire’s score for The Legend of Hell House while writer Sarah Pinborough tells us why her horror alter ego would have to be Ripley.

To mark the Nic Roeg season at the BFI we have a feature on the Venice of Don’t Look Now. Also on cinema screens this month are Haruki Murakami adaptation Norwegian Wood and controversial Japanese corruption saga Confessions of a Dog – read the interview with director Gen Takahashi.

New DVDs include Czech 60s political satire Larks on a String and Lucio Fulci’s surreal zombie shocker The Beyond. We look at 70s British filmmaker Richard Woolley and we have an interview with Clio Barnard about The Arbor. Our Online Movie column looks at paper theatre and spirited indie five-piece combo Pete and the Pirates pick their favourite films in the Film Jukebox. In the Blog, we report on the Rotterdam Festival. ?

In the second Electric Sheep Podcast of 2011, Alex Fitch talks to director Ivo van Hove about his innovative theatrical production The Antonioni Project, being staged at The Barbican, City of London, a play that combines elements of cinema and theatre as it blends three screenplays by Michelangelo Antonioni with the latest technological achievements.

Photo of The Antonioni Project, directed by Ivo van Hove

The Barbican are also showing all three of the films which inspired The Antonioni Project:
L’Avventura (The Adventure) / 5 Feb 2011 / 15:45 / Cinema 1
La Notte (The Night) / 13 Feb 2011 / 13:30 / Cinema 1
L’eclisse (The Eclipse) / 20 Feb 2011 / 16:00 / Cinema 1

More info: www.barbican.org.uk

More for more information and a variety of formats you can stream / download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

In association with

Links: Info about The Antonioni Project at The Barbican
Review round-up of the production on current.com
Toneelgroep Amsterdam website
Wikipedia page on Michelangelo Antonioni

The latest issue of Electric Sheep Magazine is now online, and is concerned with confessions -
Tricky revelations, poetic admissions and Catholic guilt – inspired by the brilliant, devilishly twisted revenge tale Confessions – read our interview with director Tetsuya Nakashima, who also made Kamikaze Girls and Memories of Matsuko, and watch the trailer. Also on cinema screens this month, Howl explores Allen Ginsberg’s revolutionary confessional poem and the obscenity trial against its publisher. We also have articles on nunsploitation, and on faith and guilt in William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist, The Ninth Configuration and Exorcist III, as well as a Reel Sounds column on I Walked with a Zombie.

Other cinema releases include elegant nightmare Never Let Me Go, adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro by Alex Garland, intense Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom and Mohamed Al-Daradji’s Son of Babylon. In the DVDs, we review eerie French psycho-thriller In Their Sleep, Miloš Forman’s 60s Czech New Wave classic A Blonde in Love and Fritz Lang’s 1941 espionage thriller Man Hunt, and we have a Comic Strip Review by Hannah Berry of The Last Lovecraft.

Excerpt from The Last Lovecraft review by Hannah Berry

In Short Cuts, we report on the music programme of the London Short Film Festival while writer Mary Horlock chooses an animated furry creature as her filmic alter ego. In the blog, you can read about Diana Thater’s video installation Chernobyl, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure, which is part of the Japan Foundation Touring Programme, and the Berlinale

In the first Electric Sheep Podcast of 2011, Alex Fitch presents a Q and A conducted by Jasper Sharp with director Tetsuaki Matsue recorded at the Zipangu festival at London University School of Oriental and African Studies, November 2010. Jasper and Tetsuaki discuss the director’s work in independent documentary cinema, focussing on his two most recent films – Annyong Yumika (2009), a documentary portrait of the adult performer Yumika Hayashi following the discovery after her death of an obscure low-budget Korean oddity in which she starred, Junko the Tokyo Housewife, and Live Tape (2009), the one guitar, one camera, one tape and one take live concert film of Kenta Maeno’s street performance that won the 2009 ‘Japanese Eyes’ Best Picture Award at Tokyo International Film Festival.

Left to right, film director Tetsuaki Matsue, actress Yumika Hayashi in the film Annyong Yumika and musician Kenta Maeno in the film Live Tape

More for more information and a variety of formats you can stream / download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

In association with

Links: Zipangu Festival website +
pages on Tetsuaki Matsue, Annyong Yumika and Live Tape
SOAS (London University School of Oriental and African Studies) website

The latest issue of Electric Sheep Magazine is now online, and is concerned with Fallen women, sour love and toxic memories …
Dreamy Belgian neo-giallo Amer leads us to ponder cinematic bitterness with articles on Mizoguchi’s Street of Shame and Michael Haneke’s anatomy of hatred.

In cinemas, we review the extravagant ballet melodrama Black Swan and you can read our interview with director Darren Aronofsky while John Carpenter perfects his B-movie recipe with The Ward .

Extract of Breakfast at Tiffanys review by Francesca Cassavetti

Susannha York in The Battle of Britain

Recommended events:

Screenings at The Alibi

The fun ‘Film Club’ at The Alibi in Dalston continues with more free, classic movies on the big screen in January. Now with an earlier start time of 8pm.

24th Jan // Vengeance of the Zombies (1973)
31st Jan // American Movie (1999)

Free Every Monday from 7pm (film at 8pm)
The Alibi, 91 Kingsland High St

More info: www.thealibilondon.co.uk/filmclub

Call for Mechanical Elephant strips

As part of their ‘First Fridays’ events, Marine Studios in Margate are putting together an exhibition that looks at comics, graphic novels and sequential art.

Featuring work from a range of local and international artists and writers, live talk from guest speaker Paul Gravett, more comics than you can stand, and the chance to discuss your work and ideas.

To kick start proceedings prior to the show they are inviting submissions for a two page comic under the title: ‘Mechanical Elephant’. All ideas are welcome to inspire, amuse, terrify and entertain. There are no limits other than sticking to the two page rule (206 x 280 mm each, in either portrait or landscape), and of course, don’t forget the Mechanical Elephant!
Send your entries (jpeg, pdf, tif, eps or mov format) with the subject ‘Mechanical Elephant’ to: Kam [at] hkd.uk.com or Rick [at] hkd.uk.com

The deadline for entries is 21st January 2011. Marine Studios will display the finished artwork and as much of the preparatory work as possible in their show beginning 4th February 2011 at Marine Studios, Margate.

More info at www.marinestudios.co.uk/gallery/events/

Laydeez do Comics January meeting

Guest Speakers:

Corinne Pearlman: Cartoonist, designer and illustrator.
Co-coordinator of Cartoon County, the Sussex Association of Cartoonists and Comic Strip Artists.
Creative Director of Comic Company, and Myriad Editions

Erica Smith: Editor and Creator of Girl Frenzy, the UK’s only underground girl zine. First Published in ’91.

Ilya: British comic book writer and artist.
Creator of Bic who appeared in a self-published series of comics (now collected as Skidmarks). His first (not graphic) novel The Clay Dreaming was published in 2010.

Monday 24 January 2011, 6.30-9.30pm, The Rag Factory, Henage Street (off Brick Lane), London E1 5LJ

More info at: www.laydeezdocomics.com

In a Q and A recorded live at this year’s Sci-Fi London Oktoberfest, Alex Fitch talks to British director Gareth Edwards about his genre crossing feature film Monsters, which features a photo journalist escorting a spoilt rich girl across Mexico following an alien invasion.
Alex and Gareth discuss the latter’s use of special effects that vary from the obvious – creating bio-luminescent floating giant squid – to the invisible – distressed posters advertising the quarantine zone – and the pros and cons of shooting guerrilla style with a small cast and crew South of the Border.

Scoot McNairy in Monsters

To download / stream this radio interview in a variety of formats, please visit www.archive.org

Links: IMDb page on Monsters
Official website
Watch Gareth Edwards’ 48 hour film challenge short Factory Farmed
More info about Sci-Fi London Oktoberfest

Listen to Chris Patmore’s interview with Gareth concentrating on the Special Effects of Monsters

Recommended events:

Christmas screenings at The Alibi

Elf (2003) on 13th December
Die Hard (1988) on 20th December
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) 27th December

Free screenings of some classic movies at a friendly bar – The Alibi, 91 Kingsland High Street, Dalston – at 8pm every Monday!

More info: www.thealibilondon.co.uk/filmclub

Help the Comic Book Alliance raise money for charity

The Comic Book Alliance (CBA) are offering comic fans some very special Christmas treats this week with their very first fundraising auction — including the chance to star alongside Batman in his new comic, Batman Inc!

Grant Morrison will write the winning bidder into an issue of Batman Inc. featuring their name and likeness, courtesy of DC Comics.

Not only that, but Frank Quitely, winner of four 2010 Eagle Awards and one of the hottest artists in comics (All Star Superman, Batman & Robin) will draw a personalised portrait of a winning bidder!

Plus, there are dozens of signed books, comics and graphic novels from high profile creators like Alan Moore (Watchmen), Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys), Charles Vess (Stardust), and John Wagner (Judge Dredd).

And there’s original comic art and signed limited prints by the cream of British artists including zombie art work by Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), Bryan Talbot (Grandville), Sean Phillips (Criminal), John McCrea (Hitman), David Lloyd (V for Vendetta), Mark Buckingham (Fables), Rufus Dayglo (Tank Girl) and Garen Ewing (The Rainbow Orchid).

The auction starts at 19:00 on Thursday 2 December and runs until at 19:00 on Saturday 11 December on www.ebay.co.uk

To compliment this month’s online theme of dangerous and desperate women in the online print magazine, we’re happy to present in the podcast a pair of Q&As recorded at Electric Sheep film club screenings. Alex Fitch talks to Zoe Baxter, the presenter of Resonance FM’s radio show about Asian culture in the UK and discuss the epic ‘wuxia’ film Hero which featured memorable roles for female action heroes Maggie Cheung and Ziyi Zhang, and in the main interview, Electric Sheep magazine editor Virginie Selavy talks to Brixton based film maker Rebecca Johnson about the classic ‘blaxploitation’ film Foxy Brown starring Pam Grier and the various themes and depictions of race and gender that are present in the film.

Pam Grier in Foxy Brown, Ziyi Zhang in Hero

More for more information and a variety of formats you can stream / download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

In association with

Links: IMDb pages on Foxy Brown and Hero

Wikipedia pages on ‘wuxia’ and ‘blaxploitation’

Zoe’s website: http://luckykitty.blogspot.com
More info about Rebecca Johnson’s film Top Girl

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)

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

Links: Wikipedia pages on Hammer and Tongs and
Watch A Town called Panic shorts and movie trailer
Hammer and Tongs’ website
Listen to Alex’s previous interview with Garth Jennings about Son of Rambow

Recommended events:

Sci-Fi London Oktoberfest

Friday 15th October

Rise of the Machines at The Royal Society, London

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.

7:30PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

Dougal and the Blue Cat

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.

10:30AM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

Alien Encounters: Superior Fan Power Since 1979

Documentary about Ridley Scott’s classic Alien film and its contiuning legacy

1:00PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Live action version of the brilliant anime time travel film.

3:00PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

Monsters

Preview of the new British Sci-Fi film by Sci-FI London shorts alumni Gareth Edwards followed by a director’s masterclass hosted by Alex Fitch.

6:00PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

TRON

Screening of the Disney SF classic with a special 8 min preview of the forthcoming Tron: Legacy in 3D, plus special video introductions, short film and an accompanying exhibtion…

9:00PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

SFL All-Nighters

For many people the highlight of our twice yearly festival – all night screenings of your favourite genre films with as much ice cream and energy drinks as you can consume…
Choose from:
Anime / MST3K / the best of Guillemo Del Toro / Studio Ghibli All Nighter

11.30PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

More info at www.sci-fi-london.com

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

Read an interview with Gareth Edwards about Monsters

Recommended events:

Sci-Fi London Oktoberfest

Sunday 10th October

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.

10AM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

Thursday 14th October

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

6:30PM Royal Greenwich Observatory, Greenwich
More…


Friday 15th October

Rise of the Machines at The Royal Society, London

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.

7:30PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

Dougal and the Blue Cat

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.

10:30AM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

Alien Encounters: Superior Fan Power Since 1979

Documentary about Ridley Scott’s classic Alien film and its contiuning legacy

1:00PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Live action version of the brilliant anime time travel film.

3:00PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

Monsters

Preview of the new British Sci-Fi film by Sci-FI London shorts alumni Gareth Edwards followed by a director’s masterclass hosted by Alex Fitch.

6:00PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

TRON

Screening of the Disney SF classic with a special 8 min preview of the forthcoming Tron: Legacy in 3D, plus special video introductions, short film and an accompanying exhibtion…

9:00PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

SFL All-Nighters

For many people the highlight of our twice yearly festival – all night screenings of your favourite genre films with as much ice cream and energy drinks as you can consume…
Choose from:
Anime / MST3K / the best of Guillemo Del Toro / Studio Ghibli All Nighter

11.30PM Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street

More info at www.sci-fi-london.com

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

In association with

Listen to Alex’s previous interview with Joe Dante about his debut film The Movie Orgy / read a partial transcript of the interview, focussing on Splatter at www.electricsheepmagazine.com

Recommended events:

Laydeez do Comics September 2010

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

www.ragfactory.org.uk

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 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

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

For more info about this podcast and a variety of other episodes you can download, please visit the home of this episode at www.sci-fi-london.com

Links: Wikipedia page on Charlie Higson
Charlie Higson’s website / The Enemy website
Listen to Alex’s interview with director Stuart Gordon, who adapted Charlie’s novel King of the Ants for the screen

Recommended events:

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.

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

Film Screenings:

Free MEGA SHARK vs GIANT OCTOPUS screening @ THE ALIBI

Skill Wizard proudly presents the original, contemporary mockbuster from Asylum – the makers of MEGA PIRANHA – ignore the groan-worthy other oversized beast movies, all you need is MEGA SHARK vs GIANT OCTOPUS (2009).

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa7ck5mcd1o

The Asylum really know how to make an entertainingly bad, pacy and non-ironic B (actually, more like Z) movie, just add beer.

“WINNER EATS ALL!” We have have some truly awesome MEGA PIRANHA merch to giveaway for the ‘Guess the Deaths’ game and for the most witty Heckle…

- Several Full sized glossy posters / A decent trucker cap / XL t-shirt
*** ALL signed by TIFFANY and PAUL LOGAN (stars of Mega Piranha)***

Mon 20th SEPT, the Alibi, 91 Kingsland High St, London E8 2PB
8pm – 2am (FILM AT 9pm) with DJing Schlock rock and metal…
FREE ENTRY

FilmBar 70 presents Tam Lin (aka The Devil’s Widow)

If you haven’t been to any of the FilmBar 70 nights yet, you’re missing out on an excellent evening of old adverts, trailers, music and some excellent films! One of our favourite nights of the month, check out www.youtube.com/Filmbar70 for the trailer!

Tam Lin (aka The Devil’s Widow) dir: Roddy McDowall (1970)

“Scum! You must treat them like scum!”

Filmbar70 is very proud to present a neglected and under-appreciated classic of British cinema – the magical and mysterious Tam Lin. The only directorial effort from Roddy McDowall (yes, Cornelius from the Planet of the Apes series), the film was unfairly critically mauled upon its release in 1970 and is ripe for re-evaluation. With an unbelievable cast headed by super suave Ian McShane and the alluring Ava Gardner, Tam Lin is sensuous, lyrical and unrepentantly romantic cinema of the highest order.

The indefinably wealthy and enigmatic Michaela (Gardner) lives a life of endless sensual gratification with her young lover Tom (McShane). With an entourage of swinging hipsters in tow, they head north from London for yet more decadent shenanigans. But when Michaela discovers that Tom has fallen for a provincial pastor’s daughter (Stephanie Beacham) and yearns for a simpler, more sedate life, the mood of the party threatens to turn from the celebratory to the downright sinister. As Tom learns the secret behind Michaela’s glamorous façade and the true price of the promise of eternal hedonism, he realises that he too may face the fate met by her myriad former lovers – madness, despair and destruction.

(£3 cover charge / FREE to members)

Roxy Bar and Screen, 128-132 Borough High Street, London SE1 1LB

Robert Rankin signings

ROBERT RANKIN will be signing The Japanese Devil Fish Girl at the Forbidden Planet London Megastore on Saturday 18th September 1:00pm – 2:00pm and The Book of FICTS at The MAGPIE and CROWN public house, Brentford from 7pm

The pickled Martian’s tentacles are fraying at the ends and Professor Coffin’s Most Meritorious Unnatural Attraction is no longer drawing the crowds. It’s 1895; nearly a decade since Mars invaded Earth, chronicled by H.G. Wells’ THE WAR OF THE WORLDS.

Saturday 18 September 13:00 – 14:00, Forbidden Planet London Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR

THEN…come on over to the MAGPIE and CROWN public house for 7pm to celebrate the launch of “The Bumper Book of FICTS”, and buy copies of this 96 page, hardbacked, illustrated wonder… Robert and co-author Neil Gardner will be signing them personally and you’ll even get a limited edition exclusive book plate to commemorate the event.

Saturday 18 September 19:00- 23:00, The Magpie and Crown, 128 High Street, Brentford, Middlesex, TW8 8EW

Alex Fitch interviews producer Eli Roth and director Daniel Stamm about the new ‘mockumentary’ horror film The Last Exorcism which is in UK cinemas now and tells a tale of possession, cattle mutilation and murder in a small rural community. Daniel and Alex talk about how using a documentary style to make supernatural movies helps break the fourth wall for the audience to help draw them into events, while Eli talks about how his experience of producing his own movies Cabin Fever and Hostel differs from his more advisory role on this film.

Patrick Fabian and Ashley Bell in The Last Exorcism

More for more information and a variety of formats you can stream / download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Official The Last Exorcism website
Wikipedia pages on The Last Exorcism and Eli Roth
Interview with Daniel Stamm
Read Alex Fitch’s review of The Last Exorcism at shinyshelf.com

In association with