Happy Halloween

Read the rest on Stanley Stories.

Saban Kazim

Quality art from the Alternative Press Site.

Coming in April 2010...

... and already available to pre-order.

Ahhh.... Herriman

From FLOG! (Not sure if this is a complete strip, but it's still cool).

This weeks Somersault

Written by Cowdry & Locke. Art by Cowdry. © 2009.
See the Somersault Archive.

Comics College featuring Jack Kirby

Chris Mautner provides an introductory guide to the work of one of comics greatest creators, Jack Kirby (I have to disagree with his assessment of Lee and Kirby's X-Men though). Link.

Dudley D. Watkins

"Scotland's Greatest Cartoonist, Dudley D. Watkins". An interesting article by the interesting Rod McKie.
(Link via Forbidden Planet).

New Somersaults

Written by Cowdry & Locke, drawn by Cowdry, © 2009.














Richard Cowdry © 2009.

See the Somersault Archive.

For Now I Am One

Yes, Love The Line is one year old today!

Dodgem Logic

From thedailycrosshatch.com : Alan Moore resurrects the spirit of the zine with Dodgem Logic, debuting next month.

Some quotes :

A sort of alternative press?

Well, we’ve tried to resurrect a spirit of the 60s underground papers, but without the look or ambience or some of the oversights. There were a lot of very good ideas that emerged from the 60s underground. It was the first place I heard about women’s liberation – as we used to call it then – or gay liberation. They were fanatically anti-war. Many of their most extreme political statements, such as the fact that sometimes the police kill people, or that sometimes we make deals with dictators and criminal governments that we keep quiet about – these things are pretty much standard stuff of conversation these days and not reserved purely for bearded wild-eyed burbling radicals (chuckles).

Certainly the response that we’ve had to the bits of news about Dodgem Logic that have leaked out has been very, very positive. People seem to have been waiting a long time for Dodgem Logic, or at least what they hope Dodgem Logic is going to be. We’ll either manage to offend nobody or everybody – that’s okay, as long as it’s all encompassing.

You’re writing the lead article in the first issue?

Yes, quite a beefy article on the underground press, beginning with its inception in, surprisingly, the 13th century. I wouldn’t have thought it went back any further than the printing press, but apparently there were handwritten pamphlets that were being circulated amongst the plague carts in the 1200s.

So it’s about the history of the alternative press running up to the modern day. The article’s about six pages long and we’ve taken care to illustrate it with some of the most objectionable bits of the underground mags, just to get us into trouble so we can say we’re starting from the point where they left off (chuckles).

Is doing Dodgem Logic going to slow down your work on the League comics and your prose novel Jerusalem?

I’m just writing the last-but-one page of League: Century at the moment, then I’ll have written all three parts and I won’t have to think about League for another year, at least. I will be getting back on with Jerusalem and the Book of Magic, which are both paused, but I’m pretty certain I can do these things with Dodgem Logic going on as well.

And I’m even getting to do a little bit of drawing again. For the first issue I’ve done a page of comic strip, my first underground comic for about 25 years. I always wanted to be an underground cartoonist, y’know – I just got sidetracked.

Comica ‘09: R Crumb Uncovered

"As part of Comica ‘09, from 12 November to 12 December, the Scream Gallery at 34 Bruton Street, London, will be exhibiting rare original art by Robert Crumb, many pieces seen for the first time in the UK."

More info on Comica.

Milton Glaser on Drawing

An interesting film that was recently posted on The Comics Bureau.

Bagge News

Oh man, I love Peter Bagge's comics! And this a good time for Bagge fans... as with his recent "Everyone Is Stupid Except For Me" collection of political opinion pieces still fresh on the shelves, there is now news of a whole new original graphic novel, "Different Lives" to be published by Vertigo next spring, the follow up I guess, to last years great Apocalypse Nerd, which was serialized and collected by Dark Horse. This will be the first time I've had a whole book of new Bagge material to enjoy in one go since .... sitting on my bedroom floor in my parents old house, being amazed by the first Bradleys collection. And speaking of The Bradleys, Fox network has just ordered a pilot episode for a Bradleys TV show, while Buddy's more recent adventures will continue in the new Hate Annual, due early next year!






















Also, as most people reading this will know, Marvel has finally gotten round to publishing Bagge's Incorrigible Hulk oneshot, which has been shelved since around 2002! It's a shame the story is being portioned out over three issues, but mainly I'm glad it's seeing print at last.






















And for those living in the Seattle area, get this : Peter Bagge is actually teaching a class on how to write graphic novels!!

Professor Bagge discusses the above projects in The Backroom, in a 2 part online video interview :





And finally, Bagge answers 20 Questions with Kevin Fagan, while on this page here on the Fantagraphics site you can download a PDF of a Bagge interview from 1993. I haven't read it yet, as I've just discovered it myself!

More Early Animation

The Enchanted Drawing (1900) James Stuart Blackton.



Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) James Stuart Blackton.



Fantasmagorie (1908) Emile Cohl



The Hasher's Delirium (1910) Emile Cohl

Windsor McKay

A movie by the comics and animation pioneer. 1911!!

(Via the Forbidden Planet blog and Comics Reporter).

Kirby Cover Of Last Month

A Conversation with Jimi Gherkin

Jimi Gherkin has been promoting and revitalizing the UK small press scene over the last year, generally making it a friendlier, more interesting place. He's interviewed by Matt Badham over on the Forbidden Planet blog.

Link via The Comics Bureau.

The Naked Cosmos

Anyone seen this? A TV show written, directed, and starring Gilbert Hernandez (of Love & Rockets fame)!

From the Press Release :

THE NAKED COSMOS is a TV show from another planet, maybe even another universe! The first-ever DVD to come with a free 20-page comic inside, it contains four episodes, hosted by the enigmatic Quintas, a TV prophet promoting his cosmic connections to the collective mind stream. It is like nothing you've seen, unless you are regularly tuning in to television from another galaxy.

Like "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" if Uri Geller produced it on Saturn, THE NAKED COSMOS is a fond homage to the kid's show and horror hosts who have long disappeared from the UHF bands, and a love poem to the B-movie science fiction and monster films that used to play late at night when you should have been sleeping.

This Weeks Somersault

I Have A New Blog...

... about my own work!! Find out who I am!!!

Dodgem Logic

This looks interesting! A new bimonthly magazine featuring work by Alan Moore, Melinda Gebbie, Kev O’Neill, and published by Knockabout Comix.
Read more about it on the Forbidden Planet blog.

Are you zine friendly?

A new event and a new blog from the Jimi G and the gang.

"Now I'll Tell One!" by Ed Schwab

This is the inside front cover of Marvel Comics issue 1, October 1939.