Panel Borders: Comix Creatrix and The Black Feather Falls

Alex Fitch talks to a pair of comic book creators featured in the all female exhibition Comix Creatrix, on display at House of Illustration, Granary Square, London which includes work by 100 artists from the Eighteenth Century to the present day.

Ellen Lindner discusses her latest graphic novel, the Edwardian Murder Mystery The Black Feather Falls published by Soaring Penguin Press, in a Q and A recorded at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, in Brew Brothers Tea Shop, Kendal.

Also: Tula Lotay (a.k.a. Lisa Wood) explores her work in serialised comics such as Image Comics’ Elephantmen and Supreme: Blue Rose, her stewardship of the Leeds comics festival, Thought Bubble, and her thoughts on the importance of the Comix Creatrix Exhibition.

(Panel Borders continues on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 8pm, repeated the following day at 9am. Originally broadcast as the first half of a Clear Spot on Resonance 104.4 FM, 9th February 2016)

Covers of Undertow and The Black Feather Falls by Ellen Lindner, photo of The House of Illustration, covers of Supreme: Blue Rose #1 and Vision #2 by Tula Lotay

For more info and a variety of formats to stream or download this podcast, please visit archive.org

Links: Tula Lotay’s website
Ellen Lindner’s website
Order The Black Feather Falls and Undertow from Soaring Penguin Press
Info about Supreme: Blue Rose and other Image Comics by Tula Lotay
Listen to Alex’s interviews with Elephantmen creators Richard Starkings and Ian Churchill: Part one / part two

Panel Borders: Comix Creatrix and The Black Feather Falls [ 47:18 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Fumio Obata

In a Q and A recorded at Cartoon County, Brighton, Alex Fitch talks to Fumio Obata about his graphic novel Just so happens, which fictionalises his experiences of working as an artist in England and Japan, and his web comics about the Fukushima disaster. (Panel Borders continues on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 8pm, repeated the following day at 9am. Originally broadcast as the first second of a Clear Spot on Resonance 104.4 FM, 14th January 2016)

Excerpts from webcomics by Fumio Obata, at Cartoon County with Alex Fitch (photo by Corinne Pearlman), Observer competition entry and cover of Just So Happens

Links: Fumio Obata’s website
Review of Just So Happens in The Guardian
Listen to Paul Gravett discussing webcomics with P.J. Holden, Liz Lunney, Tim Winchester, Philipa Rice, David O’Connell and Sydney Padua

Panel Borders: Fumio Obata [ 53:30 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Drawn from life

In the first Panel Borders of 2016, Alex Fitch talks to three cartoonists who work in biography and autobiography. Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal discuss their memoir about life in 1970s communist Warsaw – Behind the Curtain – and Sydney Padua explores her fictionalised account of the birth of computing – The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage – in a panel discussion recorded at Stoke Newington Literary Festival, 2015. (Originally broadcast as the first half of a Clear Spot on Resonance 104.4 FM, 14th January 2016)

Excerpts from Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua, Behind the Curtain by Klimowski and Schejbal

For more info and a variety of formats to stream or download this podcast, please visit archive.org

Links: Info about the event at Stoke Newington Literary Festival
More info about Behind the Curtain by Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal
More info about The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua
Listen to Paul Gravett discusses webcomics with P.J. Holden, Liz Lunney, Tim Winchester, Philipa Rice, David O’Connell and Sydney Padua
Listen to Alex’s previous interviews with Andrzej Klimowski amd Danuscia Schejbal

Panel Borders: Drawn from life [ 46:13 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Drawing The Beano

Alex Fitch talks to writers / artists Laura Howell and Hunt Emerson who have contributed a number of strips to The Beano since 2002, including Little Plum, Ratz, Minnie the Minx and more, in an interview recorded at Caption comics festival, Coventry. Laura discusses moving from the small press to mainstream comics, and Hunt talks about the challenges of drawing kids comics after a career of adaptations of adult literature.

Laura Howell draws Minnie the Minx (photo by Coventry Express and Star) / excerpts from Ratz, Little Plum and Freds Bed

For more info and a variety of formats to stream or download this podcast, please visit archive.org

Links: Hunt Emerson’s website
Laura Howell’s website
The Beano website Continue reading →

Panel Borders: Drawing The Beano [ 31:09 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Star Wars and Autobiography

In a seasonal edition of Panel Borders, guest presenter (and cartoonist) Marc Ellerby talks to American graphic novelist Jeffrey Brown whose work varies from self-deprecating autobiographical titles such as Cats are Weird and A Matter of Life, to a variety of Star Wars illustrated books for kids including Jedi Academy and Vader’s Little Princess, in a Q and A recorded at Gosh! Comics, London. (Originally broadcast as the first half of a Clear Spot on Resonance 104.4 FM, 8th December 2015)

Covers and interior art from various books by Jeffrey Brown including Jedi Academy

For more info and a variety of formats to stream or download this podcast, please visit archive.org

Links: Jeffrey Brown’s blog
Info about Brown at starwars.com
Marc Ellerby’s website
Listen to Alex’s 2009 interview with Marc Ellerby

Panel Borders: Star Wars and Autobiography [ 37:46 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Canadian Comics

In a pair of interviews recorded at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal, Alex Fitch talks to a trio of Canadian comic book creators about their work. Husband and wife team Stuart and Kathryn Immonen discuss working together and apart on such Marvel comic books as NextWave, Heralds, HellCat and Fear Itself, and on their more personal projects including the webcomic Moving Pictures and their latest graphic novel Russian Olive To Red King.

Plus, in a live Q and A recorded in front of a select audience, Alex also talks to Quebec based cartoonist Estelle Bachelard, who draws under the pen-name Bach, about her first graphic novel from Soaring Penguin press – It’s Hard to be a Girl – which collects her humorous autobiographical facebook strips, taped in Brew Brothers Tea Shop, Kendal. (Originally broadcast as part of the ‘Clear Spot’, 9th November 2015 on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Cover of Fear Itself by Stuart Immonen, interior art from HellCat by Immonen and Immonen, cover and interior art from Russian Olive by Immomen and Immonen, cover and interior art from Its hard to be a girl by Bach

For more info and a variety of formats to stream or download this podcast, please visit archive.org

Links: Preview of It’s hard to be a girl on the Forbidden Planet International blog and order form on Soaring Penguin website
Info about Russian Olive To Red King on AdHouse Books website
Stuart and Kathryn Immonen’s blog
More info about the Lakes International Comic Art Festival

Panel Borders: Canadian Comics [ 49:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Kate Beaton – Step Aside, Pops!

Alex Fitch talks to New York Times best selling author Kate Beaton about the latest collection of her webcomic Hark! A Vagrant: Step Aside, Pops, plus her children’s book The Princess and the Pony in front of a live audience at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, October 2015. Fitch and Beaton also discuss how the latter started making and disseminating webcomics and the influence of Canadian ‘infomercials’ on her work. (Originally broadcast as part of the ‘Clear Spot’, 9th November 2015 on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Covers of Step Aside, Pops and The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton, Beaton and Alex Fitch at LICAF, photo by Leonard Sultana (An Englishman in San Diego)

For more info and a variety of formats to stream or download this podcast, please visit archive.org

Links: Hark! A Vagrant website and Kate Beaton’s tumblr site
Buy The Princess and the Pony from Walker Books
Round up of LICAF 2015, day 2 by Leonard Sultana on his An Englishman in San Diego website
More info about the Lakes International Comic Art Festival

Panel Borders: Kate Beaton - Step Aside, Pops! [ 54:06 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Big Punch Studios

Alex Fitch talks to a quartet of young graphic novelists – Nich Angell, Lucy Brown, Jon Lock and Alice White – who publish together under the umbrella of Big Punch Studios discuss Big Punch Magazine, and other titles created together and apart, in a panel discussion from the ‘True Believers’ Comic Festival in Cheltenham. Nich and Jon discuss they beginning of their collaborations via the crossover The Heavenly Cord, which mixes their comics 7String and Afterlife Inc., while Lucy explores her story 99 Swords and Alice talks about her design work on the anthology. (Originally broadcast as part of the ‘Clear Spot’, 12th October 2015 on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Issues 1-3 of Big Punch Magazine / Alice White, Nich Angell, (Jon Lock) and Alex Fitch discuss Big Punch studios at True Believers Comic Festival, Cheltenham

For more info and a variety of formats to stream or download this podcast, please visit archive.org

Links: Big Punch Studios website and shop
Listen to Alex’s previous interview with Nich Angell about swapping web comics

Panel Borders: Big Punch Studios [ 38:46 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download