Kevin Colden drops us a line to say that “ACT-I-VATORS Molly Crabapple, John Leavitt and I will be joining ChemSetter, current Zuda contestant (and my Todt Hill co-creator) Neil Kleid on the Comic Book Club tonight live in NYC.” From what Kevin tells me this is part of a regular weekly talk show about the comics medium, hosted by Justin Tyler, Pete LePage and Alex Zalben and takes place in The Peoples Improv Theater, 154 West 29th Street, 2nd Floor, NYC at 8pm tonight (tickets $5). Next week sees Ron Marz and Cliff Chiang paying a visit (so presumably emerald archery will feature on next week’s discussions) - check out the official site for more information and further links.

(panel from Fishtown, serialised on the top webcomics collective Act-I-Vate!, art and (c) Kevin Colden; you can also read it via Kevin’s LiveJournal here)

When someone tries to whack a superhero by vaporising your whole city with a nuke it is bound to cause a little upset…

As Darryl takes us from his Orange to his Blue Period I have to say I love this growing cast of gangsters, each one nice and freaky, like the villains of Dick Tracy - looking forward to seeing more of them cropping up in future episodes!

(click the pic to visit full-size version and the complete archive of Darryl’s previous Super-Sam and John-of-the-night strips. Art ©2008 Darryl Cunningham; if you want permission to reproduce any part of it you should ask him)

RASL # 1

by Jeff Smith

Where do you go if you are Jeff Smith, creator of one of the most important comics of the last decade? Well, after a minor (but very acceptable) diversion writing Shazam for DC, it seems the answer is to get as far away from Bone as you can. There are no funny animals or Lord of the Rings style fantasy in RASL. It’s a modern sci-fi crime tale of a time travelling, dimension hopping art thief.

RASL is a thief who has a special dimension hopping suit that allows him to pop to and fro between dimensions. If you pay him enough money he’ll pick up a little priceless artwork for you as he goes.
Smith cuts forward and back, showing the thief marooned in the desert before cutting back to an earlier, daring art theft where the thief uses something called “the drift” to switch in and out of the here and now. But something is obviously wrong; “Dylan isn’t Dylan” and RASL has to make his way home.

It’s a first issue and as such is obviously a mere setup for the rest of the series, but unlike many a first issue, RASL actually works as a single comic. It’s exciting, mysterious and fun. And perhaps most importantly for an introductory issue, makes you want to find out what happens next.

The great thing about Smith, often overlooked in Bone, was his sense of timing. The way he can guide a reader through his panels is a joy. And so it is with RASL. The book shifts from moments of slow quiet contemplation to scenes of frenetic action. Each scene is beautifully storyboarded and exquisitely paced. There’s a chase scene in the second half of this first issue that’s quite wonderfully done. And his artwork is, as always, a joy to behold.

So RASL is a brave departure for Jeff Smith, but one we should applaud. It would be ridiculously easy for him to just sit back at this stage and let Bone become his life’s work. But he’s decided that he wants to do more. RASL is a good comic which may develop into a great comic. Whatever happens, Smith’s done enough with this first issue to get me onboard for the ride.

RASL issue 2 is out in May 2008. Jeff Smith’s website is Boneville.com and his wonderful series Bone is required reading for all ages.

Richard Bruton is a lifelong comics fan and former Comic Book Store Guy; you can read more of his thoughts on comics and life on his blog Fictions.

Mike Conroy has been in touch to say that the full official list of winners for the Eagle Awards, announced at the Bristol comics bash at the weekend, should be going up shortly (in fact, hopefully tomorrow). There’s been a bit of a re-organisation behind the scenes of the awards, with Mike not being able to dedicate as much time to it as before due to his own work and the fact that both the Eagles and the Bristol Expo seem to grow bigger each year, although he said that the exhibitors he spoke to seemed to think they still hadn’t lost the fannish roots. Likewise retailers he spoke to there all seem to have had a very worthwhile time amidst the heaving crowds (in fact Mike mentioned that the doors had to be closed for two brief periods because so many visitors came in they were pushing the maximum amount of bodies allowed in the main exhibition space! Now that’s quite a turnout!). Mike’s daughter Cassandra will be taking on much more of a role with the Eagles and hopefully we should hear an official list of this year’s winners shortly.

Not content with blagging his way to a video endorsement of the London Underground Comics stall at Camden market by Alan Moore, Oli Smith overcomes his habitual shyness to post up a video of the LUC crew’s trip to the Bristol International Comics Expo, complete with an onscreen endorsement by a certain gentleman of arts and letters we know as Dave Gibbons. Now if only someone would post up a list of the Eagle winners from the weekend’s bash…

Just ahead of the launch of the launch of the new DFC comic Tom Gatti talks to publisher David Fickling in the Times about his love of the medium and why he decided to embark on an ambitious new comic, especially at a time when traditional younger reader’s comics seem to be declining:

“I have always loved comics and wanted to make them. But I’m not really interested in reviving comics, I’m much more interested in restoring them to where they should be. I have no doubt that the form is still loved by children: Asterix and Tintin are hugely popular despite being 50 to 80 years old. We have comics in Japan, in France, throughout Europe. We just don’t have them in this country… D.C. Thomson [publisher of The Beano and The Dandy] is one of the largest companies in the world and only a tiny bit of it is comic-making. Why aren’t they making more? We don’t have a car industry, we don’t have a comics industry: we should do!”

(Sausage and Carrots from the DFC, written and illustrated by Simone Lia, borrowed from the DFC previews site)

As the article and Fickling both point out it isn’t a lack of homegrown talent which has caused problems in the British comics biz, as we boast an impressive array of talent, from names admired worldwide to the vibrant small press scene. As Fickling goes on to say, when word got around that he was planning the DFC and looking for contributors there was no shortage of gifted and enthusiastic creators to draw on. How the comic will actually be received by the intended target audience is anyone’s guess - the cynic in me worries it won’t make the impact it deserves to with today’s kids and that if it doesn’t it will put off anyone else contemplating new comics publication in the UK. But the optimist in me is hoping it really does take flight, especially given some of the talent involved in creating it. Fingers crossed for them. You can take a peek at some previews on the DFC site, including work from Simone Lia, Neill Cameron, Laura Howell, Jason Cobley, Woodrow Phoenix and more.

From May 29th to the 31st, the crème de la crème of the French small press will gather at the Festival Des Mots Des Bulles Des Péliculles in Carcassonne, France. This very modest, small-scale festival promises to be quite interesting, if only because of the publishers that will be present.

The festival starts on the evening of May 29th, with an as-yet-unidentified film, but on May 30th the party really kicks off with the opening of the Misma exhibition, showing works from the very colourful catalogue of French publisher Misma. On Sunday, a similar event about the equally strange and wonderful Les Requins Marteaux. I saw the Winschluz and Schizo exhibition in Turnhout last December, and it was one of the most amazing fantasies I have ever seen.

(a page from Gousse Gigot published by Misma, art and (c) Anne Simon)

Also on Saturday, an action comics event is being organized, with improvisation matches, constraint comics, cadavres exquis, etc. Oubapo in the flesh, as it were.

Next to these two publishers, the festival also welcomes Les Editions de la Cérise, the Belgian L’Employé Du Moi, the ever-present and ever-energetic Lapin and two-men-shop Bicéphale.

(a page from Promethee Voyageur by Bicephale)

I doubt many people will make the détour (as the Guide Michelin would say), but if you happen to be in the South-West of France, you may want to try this cosy and friendly festival.

Via Boing Boing comes news of Shake Girl, a collaborative 224-page graphic novel involving seventeen people at Stanford and created over a mere six weeks. The subject matter of the abuse of women in Cambodia - including deliberate scarring with acid - sounds like it should belong in a bad horror exploitation tale but, dreadfully, it is drawn from real life incidents - Eric Pape’s afterword explaining more is bloody hard reading, but despite the vile acts described being hard to read I say good on them for putting this online and raising the profile of abuses I had never even heard of before. Seems no matter how many human rights we put forward there’s an endless procession of human wrongs; painful but something that should be exposed to the light and not hidden away:

“Shake Girl is a massive collaborative effort between fifteen students and two instructors over the course of one quarter (Winter 2008). These students comprise the first edition of the Stanford Graphic Novel Project — a group dedicated to acheiving this monumental task on an annual basis. The Stanford Graphic Novel Project independently published several hundred copies of Shake Girl that we are using to create awareness about the issues of violence against women, and more specifically, the phenomenon of acid attacks in Cambodia. For these same reasons, we are publishing Shake Girl for free on the web. — though we encourage readers to donate to charities that help amend the human right violations that currently occur in Cambodia.”

Dark Roasted Blend has posted up a whole bunch of classic Soviet-era science fiction images, mostly by Yury Markov for a series of books by Alexander Kazantsev from the 50s to 70s. Rocket ships, robots, aliens and men smoking pipes - its great stuff! (link via Boing Boing)

(is it just me or does the chap here look a bit like an old version of Brains from Thunderbirds?)

Demo was the great Brian Wood book that never did as well as many believed it deserved to. With Brian now at home at DC’s Vertigo imprint it seemed only a matter of time before some of his earlier material was reprinted and reissued. As so it proves, with this reprinting of Demo being the first time it’s all available at the original comic size.

Comic Book Resources has a great interview with Brian where he talks of all these things and more. Including the great news is that Brian Wood and the artist on Demo; Becky Cloonan are reuniting for Demo 2, coming out this year from Vertigo:

“Demo” opened the door to DC Comics for Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan, both of whom went on to produce their most famous works for the publisher, so it is appropriate that Vertigo is expected to release by the end of 2008 an all-new six-issue “Demo” miniseries. “’’Demo’s’ what got me in at Vertigo, and Becky as well (we came in on parallel but separate paths). And I think when we launch the second series, it’ll be the biggest launch of my career so far.”

The Open Rights Group has posted a disheartening story of the BBC stopping a fan from posting knitting patterns based on characters from the show. The knitting and Who fan who goes by the web name Mazzmatazz has been creating interesting knitted versions of characters from the popular show and decided to share the knitting patterns online. The Beeb decided this contravened their copyright and asked them to stop; the patterns have now been removed due to fear of possible legal action.

As the ORG notes it is possible that technically Mazz may have inadvertently infringed the BBC’s rights slightly, but since these were non-commerical sites, a fan of knitting sharing patterns from a popular show with other fans to make themselves it is hard to see why they would be so bothered about it - it would be different if they were being sold (obviously they have to protect their rights against that kind of thing), but they weren’t and so as the ORG site observes “it’s hard to see how Mazz’s non-commercial knitting patterns actually damage the commercial interests of the BBC.” Does this mean the Tom Baker scarf my aunt knitted for me in the 70s is illegal and will I be busted next time I wear it? Come to that does it mean John Culshaw breaks copyright whenever he does his impression of Tom Baker’s Doctor? (link via Boing Boing)

Reading British comics – especially old British comics – can do serious damage to your mind. At least that’s the findings from my recent survey… Okay – that survey consisted of me talking to myself; but it did provide some insight into the collective mind of British comics fandom.

After several years of reading the mostly bizarre, often grotesque, always unusual and let’s be honest, downright weird strips in what were once household names (well, maybe not Emma, Hoot or Jag) you get to the stage where you start to take for granted certain behaviours that in the ‘real’ world could be seen as, well, a bit peculiar.

(an airborne scene from “My Pal Ropey”, published in the Beezer)

For instance, take my Saturday morning habit. I like to start the weekend with a quick trip back to the comics of my childhood. So just before I go to bed on Friday night, I drop this week’s comic on the carpet behind the mailbox. Of course, it’s not actually this week’s comic. At the moment I am reading my way through Valiant (the home of strips like ‘Steel Claw’, ‘Captain Hurricane’, ‘The Wild Wonders’ and, by the by, early Seventies, ‘Star Trek’). To someone brought up in the company of weird delights such as a chap who has a piece of rope for their best mate (‘My Pal Ropey’ in The Beezer) or ‘Fishboy – Denizen of the Deep’ (boy stranded on an island, learns to breathe underwater – Buster) my little something for the weekend seems quite harmless.

(Buster’s Fishboy, the boy who can, er, swim like a fish...)

My wife did draw the line at getting up before me to surprise me with a ‘comic of the week’. I guess those wedding vows weren’t taken as seriously as I thought (I don’t know, she’s still putting up with you! - Joe).

Another strange comicy habit of mine is trying to work out what voice certain characters would have. I work in theatre and occasionally I will show a comic strip to an actor and ask them to interpret the character. As you can see, it’s a wizard hoot being around me when things get quiet. “So James, this animated man-shape made out of a pile of magical bubbles (‘Mr Bubbles’ – Sparky), what would he sound like?”

Some voices have been done for us. Both Big Finish and Sly Stallone have given us their versions of Judge Dredd. TV has given us Banana Man and a host of other comicy characters. Recent DVDs have given us many DC Thomson characters (all wrong according to my head, by the way).

Some characters are relatively easy – Desperate Dan (to my mind) has a deep, slow American west voice – with a hint of Scots thrown in to match the syntax. ‘Adam Eterno’ (Lion) I imagined with a soft Dorset accent – a bit like ‘Master of the Marsh’ from Smash comic. Buster from er, Buster, was a Geordie. Minnie the Minx is an Essex girl. Dan Dare, no matter which incarnation we talk about, always has that reassuring Dirk Bogarde/Kenneth More voice (Jack Hawkins for Sir Hubert? - Joe).

Anyway, enough of my babbling – I’ve just noticed that there’s a surprise comic on the carpet behind the letterbox. This could turn out to be a very good weekend.

Just for the record – Crikey! Magazine has a whole section in each issue looking at Nutty Notions from bygone comics. Order your copy on-line from the website or pop down to your local FPI shop.

It seems that Dark Horse Comics have a MySpace page. And instead of filling it with make believe friends and lists of all the rubbish they like in music, TV and movies they’ve taken the great step of filling it with quality web only comics.

There are all sorts of creators on there; Peter Bagge, Mike Mignola, Ian Edginton, John Arcudi, Gabriel Ba and most importantly to me: Evan Dorkin. I love Evan Dorkin. I worry about his mental health, but I love reading about it. But the most wonderful Evan Dorkin comic is also the simplest Evan Dorkin comic. A milk carton and a slab of cheese hit things. Repeatedly. Comedy ensues. Blood flows.
This is Milk and Cheese. They are very funny. You must agree. This time they’re off to a furrie convention in “The Fursuit of Happiness”:

One of these days I keep telling myself I’ll get around to reviewing Milk and Cheese. But this is one of those occasions when all you need can be done in just one picture:

That should be enough to get the entire gag over to you. Milk and Cheese is just simple funny. There’s Milk. There’s Cheese. A carton of hate and a wedge of spite. Dairy products gone bad. They both hate you and would dearly love to set about you with all manner of sharp objects. Now, what could be funnier than that?

The Dark Horse MySpace page with Milk and Cheese is here. Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer blog and have a website at the House of Fun. All images belong to Evan Dorkin. Hands off or the dairy produce will be coming for a visit.

Boing Boing has a link to a video made in 2003 to promote Rebel Visions: the Underground Comix Revolution. With a new (and somewhat overdue) edition of the book by Paul Rosenkranz coming shortly from the good folks at Fantagraphics the old video has been resurrected via the magic of the web and features interviews with some legendary names, including Gilbert Shelton, Rick Griffin, Robert Crumb and others. I should point out for the benefit of younger readers that the term Underground Comix does not mean publishers beavering away in the bowels of the London tube system - that doesn’t happen too often because as those of us who know our Donald Pleasance movies are aware there are mad cannibals down there who would eat the publishers.

The BBC reports that a portrait of the late Heath Ledger, shortly to be seen posthumously in the new Batman movie, has won a people’s choice award in Australia. The portrait by Vincent Fantauzzo was shortlisted for the prestigious Archibald Prize, the biggest Australian award for portraiture; it didn’t land the top gong but it did obviously appeal to the ordinary voting public who selected it in their people’s choice award. The artist has donated the painting of the young Australian actor - completed only shortly before his early death this year - to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The main Archibald award went to Del Kathryn Barton for “You are what is most beautiful about me”, a self portrait with Kell and Arella, a self portrait of the artist with her children.