A Night in a Harem

By Lotte Reiniger.
Part 1:

Part 2:

Art Spiegelman on Resonance FM

Grant Rogers talks to Art Spiegelman.



(Photo by Seth Kushner)

It's All Happening Somewhere Else

Kim Deitch at MoCCA

And ...

The Rainbow Orchid

By Garen Ewing.

Being At Work

by Matilda Tristram (first published in Bad Idea magazine, 2006).

S. Clay Wilson out of intensive care

Click image for the full story.

Manhole issue 3

"Bittersweet, funny and real" is what hobocomics.com says about the new issue from Mardou.



I'll just say I loved it, but you can read more about it on sequart.

Alternative Press Expo in London

Comics, zines, artists books, etc...

More details here : comicsandzines.wordpress.com

Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, Art Spiegelman at the ICA.

This is a treat. The three alt.comics legends are giving a talk together at the ICA this Sunday as part of the Comica festival. Hopefully they'll tell few stories about the underground comix days... a period of history that seems ever more exciting as I read about it.

I've been a fan of Spain's work for a long time, there's really no one else like him in comics. There's a physicality in his work, an edge of "realness" that few cartoonists achieve. When there's violence, you know it's based on experience... it's not the fantasy violence seen in superhero comics. Anyone wishing to check out his stuff might want to look at:


This classic underground adventure strip includes characters based on Robert Crumb and Spain himself. It's also full of hilarious, raunchy humour. Fight the oppressor!


Some of Spain's best autobiographical and historical strips are collected in this book, including three of his great Road Vultures stories, and the classic "Chicago '68".


Zap Comix issues 13 & 15 feature more great autobiographical strips from Spain's Road Vulture days. While Zap 14 features the great historical strip "The Churl".


Every strip Spain draws is "political", but political issues are dealt with directly in "One Nation Under God" from Weirdo no.28 and "Faith-Based Terrorism" in Mineshaft no.20. Neither of these strips appear anywhere else (that I know of).

Spain has also appeared in pretty much every issue of Blab!, contributing some of the best work he's ever done (see "The Fighting Poets" (#9), and "Carny"(#10) for example). Hopefully these stories will be collected together in their own volume some day.


And of course there's the new book "Che". I wasn't sure if this would be an illustrated biography in the same vein as Mairowitz and Crumb's Kafka book, but I'm pleased to say it's a whole new 100 pages of comics, both written and drawn by Spain. Yeah!

And finally, for those who can't make it to the ICA on Sunday, here's an interview with Spain, conducted by Jon Ascher in 1998.

Mr. Mostyn's Monsterama

From Mr. Mostyn's new blog (via Eaten By Ducks).

SPEED date

Scott Smith's entry to the Jonathan Cape/ Observer/ Comica Graphic short-story prize.



Page 1 , Page 2.

More great art by Matt Furie

Check out his website. There's a lot more still to see!

Saffron Reichenbacker

I first noticed Saffron's sculptures when she was an undergraduate at Brighton University and I was still sneaking back in there to use their colour photocopier (for comics purposes). A couple of years later, her prints lent a touch of class to the STRIP exhibition that Dan Locke and I curated in 2006. I like to look at her site now and again to see if she has anything new, and I still get a kick out of her artwork.

In Yesterday's Guardian

COMICA 2008



And this ...

S. Clay Wilson in intensive care

From Journalista.
The underground-comix legend, hospitalized over the weekend with severe head trauma of unknown origin, is in stable but horrible condition. More information here.

R.Crumb vs. The Rolling Stones

Go Robert!
After watching this video, I feel it's time to reignite the war between cartoonists and musicians.
Those musicians get away with murder...
think about it : they get more funding (cartoonists get none, but you can do a degree in music), it's more sociable, it's seen as cooler. And some of them are real jerks too!
Well I say enough is enough! Maybe it's not their fault that being a cartoonist sucks, but I say we take it out of their hides anyway. And those of you who are cartoonists AND musicians better start choosing sides, because this is gonna go down pretty damn soon. I intend to flick ink at the next person I see carrying a guitar.

Matt Furie

The artist discusses Boys Club issue 2 on Comic Book Resources.

Steve Tillotson's Banal Pig 4...

... debuts this Saturday at the Thought Bubble Comics Festival in Leeds. Judging by the amazing back cover shown below, it should be damn fine.

I just ordered the Banal Pig book that collects issues 1 - 3. Only £5! Including postage!!
More info at www.banalpig.com

Gilbert Hernandez

In case anyone hasn't seen this.... it's great!
(And the reference to manga... whatever could he mean?)

UK Comics Alternative Press

Photo taken last Saturday at Handmade & Bound.

Kirby cover of the month

A couple of nice portraits from Sean Duffield.

On order.... The Comics Journal #293

Before Johnny Ryan, before Mike Diana, before Dan Clowes and Pete Bagge, before even Robert Crumb began exploring his id in his comic book stories, there was S.Clay Wilson, the dark heart of underground comix.
Wilson appeared on the early underground comix scene with a totally original style, reminiscent of densely packed medieval woodcuts, and soon created some of the most outrageously unrestrained comics ever drawn. His freewheeling stories about pirates, demons, dykes, zombies, & bikers, influenced the whole direction that underground comics (and hence alternative comics) then took. Yet there is no collection of his comics work still in print!

Even more outrageous and powerful are his paintings, and these you CAN see, in this totally eye popping book from Ten Speed Press.



Anyone wishing to check out his comics work would do well to pick up Zap Comix issues 2 & 5, and Weirdo issues 14, 15 & 19 (the "Meadows" trilogy).

...and here's a couple of odd strips I found online - no idea what comics they're from, but it looks like early work.





And here's an excerpt from Bob Levin's interview with Wilson in the new Comics Journal.
It's good to hear mention of a new issue of Zap Comix!

Final reminder for.... Handmade & Bound

McGillesque cartoon on the side of a cafe in Walton, Essex.