Tuesday 26 January 2010

Sunday 24 January 2010

Alternative Press FAIR - Free For All!



Zarina Liew



J Homersham

13th February at :
St Aloysius Social Club
20 Phoenix Road
London
NW1 1TA

Nearest tube Euston

Website.

Friday 22 January 2010

Sorry for the the dearth of posts recently. Just had too much work to do... not fun stuff either like drawing (note to self: renew efforts to get paid illustration and cartooning jobs). God I hate to work... When I think of most people getting up early every day, going to the same place, tolerating people they hate. Suicide would be preferable. Hopefully my life of indolence will resume shortly.

Meanwhile, Dodgem Logic No.2 is nearly with us, with 3 covers to choose from :










































This is the cover I'll be hoping to get for myself :






















Also, check out the Alan Moore interview on the Dodgem Logic website.

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Saturday 16 January 2010

Alternative Press Fair




Alternative Press Fair
Saturday 13th February
St. Aloysius' Social Club
Corner of Eversholt Street and Phoenix Road
London NW1 1TA
Nearest Tube: Euston
12 pm - midnight (FREE)
A day of zines, comix, poetry, radical literature, printmaking and anything else self-published! Then from 6pm there will be a birthday party to celebrate our 1st year - with music, spoken work, DJ's and open mic. So come along and be a part of the day.

www.alternativepress.org.uk

Friday 15 January 2010

Suzie the Cowgirl

There's a great new strip up on Pappy's blog zine. It's from Suzie #60, 1947.










































The rest of the pages are on Pappy's.

Thursday 14 January 2010

Wednesday 13 January 2010

Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s

I think this is the book I'm MOST looking forward to in 2010!



More info on the Fanta site.

Sunday 10 January 2010

TCJ #300 is online!

"The online serialization of The Comics Journal #300 is now complete. Here’s a handy table of contents, with links to everything."

Be sure to check out this great cartoon interview with Gary Groth, as drawn by Noah Van Sciver. The complete strip is here.

Saturday 9 January 2010

Friday 8 January 2010

Best of the Year – Richard Cowdry’s picks

Originally published by Joe Gordon on the Forbidden Planet Blog.

The latest guest post in our annual Best of the Year comes from a well known creator on the UK scene (I think I first became aware of his work with the interesting Bedsit Journal anthologies) and our current cartoonist in virtual residence here on the blog with the weekly Somersault strip (archived here), Richard Cowdry:

FPI: Can you pick three comics/webcomics/graphic novels which you especially enjoyed over the last twelve months and tell us why you singled them out?

Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics Spiegelman Mouly

Richard: The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics. I’m still working through this, and it’s so much fun! I don’t how much of it is nostalgia, or the appeal of older styles of cartooning, but these early children’s comics have such energy and life. I’d even say there’s an “edge” to some of the humour, and there’s a wide range of mood and emotion on display, which actually makes the stories seem more grown up than some modern adult comics! This book was also my introduction to John Stanley’s wonderful “Melvin Monster”.

Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye

Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye; beautiful depression era comics by E.C.Segar. We’re always hearing how comics are finally reaching an adult audience, but back in the 1920’s, 30’s, 40’s, comics HAD an adult audience. The likes of Popeye and Dick Tracy were hugely popular with newspaper readers. If they’d been collected into albums, like TinTin was in Europe, maybe America (and the UK) would have developed a similar comics culture!

Prison Pit OTT comics violance by Johnny Ryan

Prison Pit, in which Johnny Ryan takes ideas and styles that have been knocking around the art comics scene for the last few years, and injects them with gallons of fun, attitude and humour. My favourite new comic of the year!

Honorary mentions to Dash Shaw and Nate Neal’s work in Mome, and Citizen Rex by Gilbert and Mario Hernandez. I’ve only read the first issue of Citizen Rex so far, but picking it up and turning it’s pages reminded me just how beautiful an object the floppy, stapled comic book is. It’s just the right weight and size, both high and low art, disposable yet collectible, and I was able to read it in 15 minutes while sitting in the park. Yet this format has almost disappeared for alternative comics beyond the small press.

FPI: Can you pick three books which you especially enjoyed over the last twelve months and tell us why you singled them out?

Richard: I’m hoping these don’t have to be new books (no, it can also be works that were new to you in the last year – Joe). The Essential Boswell. I’m still reading this, and am loving it. I’m up to 1780, but it feels so contemporary. Nothing beats an honest diary.

death of bunny monroe nick cave

The Death Of Bunny Munroe by Nick Cave. So bawdy and politically incorrect…. I didn’t stop laughing!

How To Be Free by Tom Hodgkinson Kind of inspiring. It’s about (from their press release) “Throwing off the shackles of anxiety, bureaucracy, debt, governments, housework, moaning, pain, poverty, ugliness, war, waste….”. And contains advice on growing your own food and living without money, which I’m sure will be useful for cartoonists.

FPI: How did 2009 go for you as a creator? Are you happy with the way you got your work out this year?

Richard: I did more work than in 2008, which I think is a good thing : simply learning to be more productive. Having the deadline of a weekly strip is good for me, otherwise procrastination gets out of a control.

Somersault Computer Love Richard Cowdry Forbidden Planet blog

I seem to be learning something… as work I did even earlier this year already looks crude to me. But I’m a slow learner.

FPI: What can we look forward to from you in 2010?

Richard: More weekly strips, hopefully longer stories continuing over several weeks.

I’m also working on a longish story, kind of a short graphic novel, which I’m constantly being pulled away from by other projects, but I’m determined to finish it in 2010.

FPI: Anyone you think is a name we should be watching out for next year?

Richard: Noah Van Sciver, a US underground/alternative cartoonist whose work I first saw in Mome 14. I’m going to order some of his self-published comics.

Worst Winter Noah van Sciver

Saban Kazim, who is a guy from the UK small press scene. I especially like his slice of life pieces. He has these autobiographical stories which he works into stand up comedy sketches, and then makes into comics. His strips are really funny. Check out his story in the Alternative Press “Publish You” book.

FPI: And one final, special question – since its not only the end of the year approaching but also the end of the decade, is there any comics work you’d especially pick out as one of the best you’ve read this decade?

Love and Rockets New Stories 1 Los Bros Hernandez fantagraphics

Richard: Love and Rockets remains jaw-droppingly amazing, that would be my pick for the decade. Also, the Eightball “Icehaven” issue . Apocalypse Nerd by Pete Bagge. Hotwire Comix, edited by Glenn Head. Zap Comix issue 15 was outstanding. Mome is up and down, but the good issues like 11, 12, or 16 (the latest one) were REALLY good. My favourite UK comics were Ethel Sparrowhawk and Whores Of Mensa. Over all though I’d say less good comics were produced this decade than in the 90’s, or at least less of the kind I like (deeply, honest personal stuff, or funny, satirical stuff).

I find myself becoming interested in mainstream comics again, catching up with the likes of Judge Dredd. John Wagner is a national treasure. If the UK had a comics culture to rival France, Dredd would be bigger than Asterix and Tintin combined. Marvel comics have really upped their game too, with the likes of John Hickman and Matt Fraction.

Mostly it was a great decade for reprints : Popeye, Dick Tracy, Fletcher Hanks, all the John Stanley collections, Kirby, Ditko. I just wish I could afford more of them!

Before signing Elvis Presley, manager Colonel Tom Parker achieved minor success with a touring act, Colonel Parker’s Dancing Chickens. How did he get the chickens to dance? He made them stand on a red-hot plate.

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Don't Get Lost

There are some nice pages on Andy Luke's new stripblog (that first part of 300 page story).


Tuesday 5 January 2010

Sunday 3 January 2010

Kirby Story Of The Year













































My favourite "Tale Of Asgard", by Kirby and Lee, recoloured by Matt Milla.

Saturday 2 January 2010

Wim Lockefeer : Best Comics of 2009



In mid-December, Wim Lockefeer composed a great best of 2009 list on the Forbidden Planet blog.