Archive | January, 2006

New graphic novel publisher

12. January 2006

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This May sees the launch of a new range of graphic novels, with First Second Books publishing six titles in their inaugural release schedule. It is an interesting mix, covering from all-ages material in Sardine in Outer Space by Emmanuel Guibert and the always excellent Joann Sfar through to Deogratias by J.P. Stassen, which follows [...]

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Of Gaiman puppets and moving images

11. January 2006

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One of my favourite comic and novel authors, Neil Gaiman, mentions in his journal that MirrorMask, the film he scripted and long-time collaborator, the amazingly imaginative Dave McKean directed, will finally get a UK release in March. Until now its only UK appearances have been at film festivals – I was lucky enough to see [...]

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Designer Gorillaz

11. January 2006

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Jamie Hewlett of Tank Girl and Gorillaz fame has made the shortlist for the £25, 0000 Designer of the Year Award, the UK design world’s equivalent of the Turner Prize (although perhaps not so pretentious). The lad’s come a long way since the days of the old Deadline comic! A show begins in early March [...]

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Rarebit dreams

10. January 2006

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Our chums at Fantagraphics (who have a large number of potential Angoulême winners) pointed us towards a fascinating article on the great Winsor McCay by Jeet Heer in a recent Boston Globe article. McCay is one of those names that some readers will recognise and associate with his Little Nemo in Slumberland tales, referenced by [...]

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Philip K Dick

10. January 2006

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The well-known dancer on the Yellow Brick Road, Cheryl Morgan over at Emerald City brings our attention to the fact that the new Philip K Dick awards shortlist is now out. Typical, wait ages for an awards shortlist, post two in the same morning! Only kidding – it’s a very prestigious prize and as Cheryl [...]

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Angoulême

10. January 2006

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The Angoulême international comics festival will take place at the end of this month in France, from the 26th to 29th of January. Shortlists – or Official Selections as they call them (very Cannes-style!) – for the various awards are now listed on the main site, which is available in French and English. As is [...]

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Piper does Pullman

10. January 2006

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Doctor Who star Billie Piper will be playing the lead role of the orphan Sally Lockhart in a BBC adaptation of one of best-selling author Philip Pullman’s novels. Unfortunately it isn’t an adaptation of Pullman’s quite excellent – if sometimes controversial – Dark Materials trilogy, which some refer to as the thinking man’s Harry Potter [...]

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I come to praise Jeff, not to bury him

9. January 2006

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The press release from Tor/Macmillan books for Jeff VanderMeer’s new novel Shriek arrived on my desk this morning along with a finished copy (hurray!). As with any book PR release it is naturally full of praise for the author’s works (although it fails to mention his charity work in caring for Evil Monkeys). After years [...]

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Trekphobia

9. January 2006

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Pádraig over at Irish SF News draws our attention to an interesting academic article by Aintzane Legarreta Mentxaka on Trekphobia, extracted from a longer paper she gave at University College Dublin. While not to every Star Trek fan’s taste I suspect those who have dabbled in academia and read (or in some cases endured as [...]

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Rosario

9. January 2006

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Rosario Dawson of Sin City and Alexander fame (steady boys, steady now!) is making the move from playing a comics character to creating her own. Along with the writer David Atchison and artist Tony Shasteen (of The Hunger fame) she will be launching the new series Occult Crimes Taskforce in the spring from Speakeasy. As [...]

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Streets of Dublin

7. January 2006

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You may be forgiven for mistaking this for the title of an old Irish folk song, or perhaps the name of the new Roddy Doyle novel. However it is in fact the name of one of the better kept secrets of comicdom, a publication from the Republic of Ireland. In fact I hadn’t come across [...]

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Carl Brandon Awards

5. January 2006

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Pam over at the Carl Brandon Society writes to let us know that nominations process for this year’s awards is now open: “Jan. 4, 2005 – The Carl Brandon Society is now accepting published long and short print speculative fiction in English to be considered for two juried awards designed to recognize excellence in speculative [...]

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Infinity’s End

5. January 2006

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A novel of mind-bending time paradoxes? No. The title for one of the new Doctor Who episodes? No. Alas, the title above refers to another damned fine SF site which is about to shut up shop (and so soon after closure announcement of Ellen Datlow’s). Eileen Gunn – writer, publisher, editor, member of the respected [...]

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What the Author Says – Margo Lanagan

3. January 2006

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The award-winning Australian author Margo Lanagan is the latest writer to send in a nice personal angle on her book for the main FPI webstore’s SF&F novels section for the What The Author Says feature. You can read what Margo said here about Black Juice and I am sure it will titillate your literary tastebuds [...]

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Emerald City

2. January 2006

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Well, while some of us were cooking graphic novels and reading chestnut stuffing over the holidays (or was it the other way around?) others were busy, with our chum Cheryl over on Emerald City posting up that issue #124 is now available, choc-full of goodies as ever, including a piece on Margo Lanagan, author of [...]

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