Panel Borders: Collier’s War

Continuing our month of shows on biography and autobiography, Alex Fitch talks to Canadian cartoonist David Collier about his work, from his Collier’s self published comics to graphic novels such as Chimo released by Conundrum Press and various titles distributed by Drawn and Quarterly. Alex and David also talk about the latter’s experiences serving in the army and getting advice from Robert Crumb. (Recorded live in front of an audience at the Imperial War Museum, London)

Panel from Chimo by David Collier, published by Conundrum Press

Links: Info about Chimo at www.conundrumpress.com
Work by David Collier published by Drawn and Quarterly
More podcasts recorded at the Imperial War Museum, London

Recommended events:

GOSH! – UPCOMING EVENTS

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

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Panel Borders: Animating Tatsumi

Starting a month of shows on biography and autobiography, Alex Fitch and Dickon Harris interview comic creator turned animator Eric Khoo who’s directed a portmanteau film called Tatsumi (released 13/01/12), based on the work of mangaka Yoshihiro Tatsumi, including five of his gekiga short stories with bookends adapting his autobiography A Drifting Life.

Still from Tatsumi, directed by Eric Khoo

(Broadcast 10/01/12 on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org, for more info and a variety of formats you can stream / download. Continue reading →

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Panel Borders: Unnamable horrors in genre comics by Brubaker, Abnett and Lanning

Concluding our series of shows about H.P. Lovecraft, Alex Fitch talks to three creators who have recently penned comics inspired by his monsters and scenarios. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning talk about adding a Lovecraftian twist to Marvel Superheroes in their titles Realm of Kings and The Thanos Imperative, which feature alternative versions of Captain Marvel and the Avengers possessed by the ‘Many-angled Ones’. Also Ed Brubaker discusses Fatale, his latest collaboration with artist Sean Phillips, following Sleeper, Criminal and Incognito, which mixes noir storytelling with occult ceremonies and tentacle faced Nazis.

Fatale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the Marvel Cancerverse by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning in Realm of Kings, drawn by Leonardo Manco and The Thanos Imperative drawn by Miguel Sepulveda

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

Alex Fitch interviews Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning

Also available: video podcast with Abnett and Lanning about their Marvel ‘Space Opera’ titles…

Links: Wikipedia pages on Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Realm of Kings and The Thanos Imperative

Buy Realm of Kings, The Thanos Imperative, Criminal, Incognito and Sleeper from amazon.co.uk

Previous interviews about H.P. Lovecraft: Alan Moore, I.N.J. Culbard, panel discussion featuring China Mieville and Denise Mina

Panel Borders: Unnamable horrors in genre comics by Brubaker, Abnett and Lanning [ 29:30 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders episode 250 – Alan Moore: The Horrors at Red Hook

Continuing our month of shows about H.P. Lovecraft, Alex Fitch talks to Alan Moore about his final graphic novel that isn’t part of the continuing League of Extraordinary Gentlemen narrative – Neonomicon – which has just been published, along with its prequel The Courtyard, as a graphic novel by Avatar Press. Both comics follow on from Lovecraft’s tale ‘The Horror at Red Hook’ and Alan discusses why he chose that story in particular to explore further, plus the origins of The Courtyard in an abandoned short story collection called ‘Yuggoth Cultures’, and examples of Lovecraftian imagery in his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen saga.

Wrap covers of The Courtyard and Neonomicon by Alan Moore, Anthony Johnson and Jacen Burrows

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: Info about The Courtyard and Neonomicon
Order the short story collections: The Starry Wisdom (prose) and Yuggoth Cultures (comics) featuring Alan Moore and The graphic novel The Courtyard / Neonomicon from amazon.co.uk
Read H.P. Lovecraft’s The Horror at Red Hook
Youtube analysis of Neonomicon: part one / two

Listen to Alex’s discussion with Antony Johnson about adapting The Courtyard and other prose fiction for comics
Download previous interviews with Alan Moore

Recommended events:

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
Continue reading →

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Panel Borders: Illustrating the Mountains of Madness

Beginning a trio of shows about the influence of writer H.P.Lovecraft on comics, Alex Fitch talks to I.N.J. Culbard about his graphic novel adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness and forthcoming adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward for Self Made Hero. Cartoonist Rob Davis briefly joins the conversation (recorded at last month’s Thought Bubble convention) as Alex, Rob and Ian discuss Lovecraft’s short stories and the difficulty of illustrating prose that is alternatively wordy, obtuse and unnamable.

Images from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, At the Mountains of Madness and Deadbeats by I.N.J Culbard

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: Ian’s blog strangeplanetstories.blogspot.com
Info about the Lovecraft Anthology, At the Mountains of Madness and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Preview pages from Ian’s forthcoming Lovecraftian comic Deadbeats
Listen to Alex’s previous interview with Ian Culbard about Sherlock Holmes and The Picture of Dorian Grey / with China Miéville, Denise Mina, Mark Stafford and Alice Duke about H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe

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

Canny Comics

On Friday 9th and Saturday 10th December, listeners in the North of England might like to go along to the Newcastle Comic Convention, Canny Comics which is taking place at Tyneside Cinema and Newcastle City Library – events include a free screening of George lucas’ magnum opus, Howard the Duck, signings, a drink and draw session and guests include Mary and Bryan Talbot, Doug Braithwaite, Gary Erskine and Al Ewing…
09/12/11 – 7pm till late, Tyneside Cinema, 10 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne And Wear NE1 6QG
10/12/11 – 10am – 5.30pm, Newcastle City Library, 33 New Bridge Street West, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8AX
More info can be found at cannycomiccon.blogspot.com

Continue reading →

Panel Borders: Illustrating the Mountains of Madness [ 31:34 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In a pair of talks recorded at Laydeez do comics, cartoonists Kripa Joshi and Mawil (Markus Witzel) discuss their work, plus Alex Fitch visits Woodrow Phoenix in his studio to discuss his editing of the new graphic novel Nelson. If there is a common theme between the three, it’s a sense of magical realism in their art which juxtaposes the ordinary with the out of the ordinary, from Woodrow’s use of road furniture in Rumble Strip, to Kripa’s use of Indian mythology in her tales of domestic incidents and Mawil’s blue collar stories of life in Germany through the lens of his alter-ego Sparky O’Hare.
Recorded by Nicola Streeten and Alex Fitch, introduced and edited by Alex Fitch.

Sparky O Hare by Mawil, Nelson by Woodrow Phoenix, Miss Moti by Kripa Joshi

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

Links: Kripa Joshi‘s website and Miss Moti comics
Mawil‘s website
Woodrow Phoenix‘s online portfolio
More info about Nelson

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

Continue reading →

Laydeez do (comics) podcast: Magical realism [ 59:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: The danger of Romance

Concluding our month of shows about genre in comics, Alex Fitch talks to writer and manga translator Sean Michael Wilson and lecturer and author Ian Rakoff about romance comics. Sean is the editor of AX vol.1: A collection of Alternative Manga and author of The Story of Lee and adaptor of Yakuza Moon, two manga novels with varying degrees of biography about the fortunes of young women encountering different cultures across Asia.
Ian is about to give his latest lecture about comics (30/11) at the Victoria and Albert museum, and this month is discussing the subject of romance comics, with a focus on how they were an antidote to McCarthyism in 1950s America.

covers of Young Romance #12 (Aug 1949, art by Jack Kirby, Joe Simon and Bill Draut) / First Romance #17 (Sep 1952, artist unknown), pages from The Story of Lee by Sean Michael Wilson and Chie Kutsuwada / Yakuza Moon by Shoko Tendo, Sean Michael Wilson and Michiru Morikawa

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: Info about Ian Rakoff‘s talk on Romance Comics on his blog
Event listing on the Victoria and Albert Museum’s website
Alex’s previous interviews with Ian about Social Realism, Westerns and cultural stereotypes in comics

Sean Michael Wilson‘s blog, including info on the books discussed in this interview
Read various manga by Wilson at www.webcomicsnation.com including an earlier adaptation of The Story of Lee illustrated by Yishan Li
Interview with Wilson at www.scotsman.com

Recommended events:

Blame it on Romance: What Frightened Senator Joe McCarthy

LUNCHTIME LECTURE: Join Ian Rakoff, screenwriter, editor and author, to look at the significance of politics and gender in relation to popular romance comic books.

Romance comic books selling over 30 million monthly issues and featuring influential heroines dominated the market from 1949 to 1954. At the same time, real women continued to experience gender discrimination and disempowerment. Ian Rakoff draws new connections between the content of romance comic books and 1950s anti-communist McCarthy witch-hunts.

Wed 30 November 2011, 1pm, Victoria and Albert Museum, Hochhauser Auditorium, Sackler Centre, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2RL
More info: www.vam.ac.uk/whatson

The National Collectors Marketplace Comics Fair – London

The National Collectors Marketplace, with 130 tables, is the largest regular marketplace for comicbook and trading card collectors in the UK. You will also find a whole range of related materials including Sci-fi, Fantasy, Film, TV and Toys from leading National & International dealers. A refreshments counter and pub will be open next to the venue.

12:00 PM – 4:00 PM Dec 04, 2011
Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London WC1

More info: londoncomicmart.co.uk

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