An Emu

I'm wondering what to do with this Love The Line blog... I'm wondering what purpose it fills, other than being a collection of things I like. I don't know if I should turn it into a "What I Drew Today" type affair, and have it be about my own work, or focus more on the UK scene, or on small press stuff, or have it be a mixture of all these.
Anyway, here's a picture of an Emu I drew a few weeks ago.

Alternative Press Festival 2009

Wednesday 28th July – Sunday 2nd August 2009
A festival of events over five days celebrating the small press, self publishing and being creative in the print media.

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Anthology Book launch
Wednesday 29th July
7pm – 9pm
Free
We will be launching an Anthology book to showcase some of what’s going on in the small press scene at the moment; it will include work by Mark Pawson as well as a foreword by Roger Sabin and a variety of work from different areas of the scene. The evening will include the declaration of our aims and agendas in the form of a manifesto, as well as talks and discussion on the subject of the contemporary small press scene.

Housmans radical booksellers
5 Caledonian road
London
N1 9DX
http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.housmans.com/
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Are you zine friendly?
Thursday 30th July
7pm – late
Free
At the foundry we will be having an evening to launch our idea of zine friendly events! In the two weeks around this event we will be hosting a zine wall at the Foundry and asking artists and small press creators to come down and contribute to this ongoing exhibition. There will be music and good times, the twist is that Zinesters, comix and small press creators are invited by the foundry’s owner to come along and sell their material. There will be a communal table for individual zines and the selling of zines out of bags, or diy carriers is encouraged! After all, it is a zine friendly event, the question is: are you zine friendly?

The Foundry
86 Great Eastern Street
London
EC2A 3JL
http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.foundry.tv/
Contact – garethbrookes69@hotmail.com

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Spoken Word night out!
Friday 31st July
7pm – Late
Free
In order to promote poetry in the small press, we will be holding an evening of poetry, zine readings, story telling and other performances from artists creating work in the print media themselves.

Venue TBC
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Collaborama!
Saturday 1st August
11am – Late
Free
We hope you’ll join us at the Collaborama (as we’ve affectionately come to know it!) an all day event which will comprise many elements of the small press coming together. Tables will be set out in the main space downstairs at the miller for zinesters, comix and small press creators to exhibit their work. There will also be space where any combination of visitors and exhibitors can get together to create pages which will be used to create a zine of the day. The garden will have a barbeque and the upstairs space will be used for workshops, film screenings and talks. In the evening Resonance FM’s Radio Orchestra will be performing a piece written by Ed Baxter which will be interpreted and illustrated live by two teams of small press artists on overhead projectors!

The Miller
96 Snowsfields road
London Bridge
SE1 3SS
http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.themiller.co.uk
Contact – jimigherkin@yahoo.co.uk
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Alternative Press Fair
Sunday 2nd August
11am- 7pm
Free
We will be returning once more to St Aloysius Social centre, where in February we held the first Alternative Press Fair. We hope you’ll join us once more for chilled out Sunday to celebrate comix, zines, poetry, book arts and radical literature. We will have space for around 80 exhibitors and many more visitors so see you there!

St Aloysius Social Club
20 Phoenix road
London
NW1 1TA
Nearest tube Euston
Map here
Contact – peterlally@gmail.com

Jan Svankmajer - 1966 - Punch And Judy

The Alternative Press Festival

Watch this space...

Bitterkomix

I've been digging this artwork by Anton Kannemeyer (Joe Dog) and Conrad Botes, from their Bitterkomix publication, which is South Africa’s only independent comic magazine.
I've never seen the actual books, because apparently no UK distributor will take them (in fear they'll be stopped by customs).

Find out more on their website, and the links below:

Interview on Stripkap.

Anton Kannemeyer's page on Lambiek.

Conrad Botes page on Lambiek.

Comic Shops Of Paris

I spent last Saturday being blown away by the amazing comic shops of Paris...
Starting with this place (which I think was called Vendor ICI), in the St Michel area of Paris, and whose large first floor was packed with comic albums.



































Just one minute down the road is the large Gibert Jeune bookshop, of which half of the ground floor is given to comics (see below)!

















And a just little further on is the great Aaapoum Bapoum... and there are many, many more shops like these in Paris.

















And get this ... in the Jourdain area where we were staying, there was a pub that had a comics library and comic art on the wall. People sat with a drink and read comics. Magic!

Kuniyoshi at the Royal Academy, London.

"The Royal Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of one of the greatest Japanese print artists, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861). Featuring over 150 works, the exhibition presents Kuniyoshi as a master of imaginative design. It reveals the graphic power and beauty of his prints across an unprecedented range of subjects highlighting his ingenious use of the triptych format."

The exhibition is open until 7 June 2009.

Gabba Gabba

Drew Friedman draws Schlitzie the Pin Head.
(From boingboing.net).

Dan Clowes

New Yorker cover, May 11 2009 issue.

Bimbo's Initiation

Fleischer Brothers, 1931.

Kirby Panel Of The Month

From Captain Victory, 1982.

Les pieds nickelés, le film (1917-1919)

"Adaptation par Emile Cohl et Benjamin Rabier de la célèbre série de bande dessinée créée par Louis Forton." (I think that's saying it's an adaption of a comic by Louis Forton)

Art by Fustine Ferrer, from her myspace page.

Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me

Coming soon...
















Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me and Other Astute Observations by Peter Bagge, collecting a decade of informed, provocative, cantankerous & hilarious cartoon opinion pieces.
Check out this strip for an example. I'm not saying I agree with all Pete Bagge's views and opinions, but this is some AMAZING cartooning.

"The Tale of the Fox" - Ladislas Starevitch

Perhaps the most beautiful stop motion animation ever made : "Le Roman de Renard" ("The Tale of the Fox") by Ladislas Starevitch, a Russian living in France after the Soviet revolution.
Although most of the film was made in Paris from 1929-1931, Ladislas, with his wife and daughter, continued to work on it for years, waiting for sound in the cinema so they could make a soundtrack. It was finally released in Berlin in 1937 and in France in 1941.

Solar Plexis - Interplanetary Messenger

From WEIRD Comics #1 and #2 - Fox Publications, 1939.
Artists unknown.
















































































From Cartoon Snap.

Flowers and Flesh

Betty Boop - Snow White (1933)

The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics

Coming soon....



















"One of the leading artists in American satirical and adult comics... Kurtzman's skills as a writer, artist and editor brought a witty and profound perspective to comics and magazine publishing. The book will include pencil sketches, layouts, inked drawings, colour compositions, correspondence and hundreds of never-before-seen photos and art from the Kurtzman archives."

You can pre-order it on on amazon.co.uk for £10, which includes delivery. Hopefully the book will include a few strips like the one's shown below (found on John K Stuff's blog, where there's also a nice essay on Kurtzman's use of movement):

































































To any publishers who might be reading this : please, please, PLEASE consider reprinting "Hey, Look!"

DC Showcase presents BATGIRL

This cover made me laugh. I'm not sure if it's by Carmine Infantino or Gil Kane.
It's from the sixties anyway.