Archive | January, 2008

From Our Continental Correspondent – Getting animated in Belgium

24. January 2008

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From February 1st to 9th, the historic Flagey building in the middle of Brussels will host the 2008 edition of the Anima festival, Belgium’s largest festival for animated films. That means nine days filled to the brim with screenings, master classes, special features, etc. Plenty to live on the rest of the day. The [...]

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Dave McKean to guest at Fantasycon

24. January 2008

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Writer, illustrator, comics artist and film director – the multi-talented Dave McKean has just been announced by the British Fantasy Society as a Guest of Honour for this year’s Fantasycon, which takes place in Nottingham from the 19th to 21st September. Top fantasy author James Barclay has also been confirmed as a Guest of Honour, [...]

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New Yeni Akrep online

24. January 2008

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The latest edition of the international cartooning journal Yeni Akrep is now available online as a free PDF. This edition contains the usual mix of articles, cartoons and news of international cartoon competitions and awards (some in English, some not, but you can still admire the art in the non-English sections) as well as memorial [...]

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BSFA Shortlist 2008

23. January 2008

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It’s New Year so it must be time for some literary science fiction awards shortlists to appear – and indeed Science Fiction Awards Watch posted up the final shortlist for the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA)’s nominees. Along with the Arthur C Clarke Awards the BSFAs are a very prestigious British award for science fiction [...]

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Oscars nominations announced

23. January 2008

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The final shortlist nominations for the 80th annual Academy Awards – better known as the Oscars – have been announced. As with this year’s BAFTAs and Golden Globes there isn’t much from the fantastic or comics-based genres, which are mostly confined to the more technical awards such as Best Visual Effects (Transformers, the Golden Compass [...]

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Heath Ledger found dead

23. January 2008

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Some dreadfully sad and shocking news today as it is announced that the Australian actor Heath Ledger was discovered dead in his New York apartment yesterday afternoon. Authorities are investigating and no cause has yet been confirmed, although they are considering the possibility the young actor may have accidentally taken more of his prescription medicine [...]

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Alan Grant, Denise Mina and Ian Rankin get graphic at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

22. January 2008

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In August 2007 the prestigious Edinburgh International Book Festival held its first ever events discussing graphic novels, with a major, hour-long discussion – entitled “Graphic Novels – Literature of Pulp Fiction” – held between three Scottish authors: British comics legend Alan Grant, bestselling crime novelist-turned comics scribe Denise Mina and the incredibly popular crime writer, [...]

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Super-Sam met a pie-man…

22. January 2008

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(click the pic to visit full-size version and the archive of Darryl’s Super-Sam and other John-of-the-night strips. Art ©2008 Darryl Cunningham; if you want permission to reproduce any part of it you should ask him) When Darryl sent in this week’s Super-Sam cartoon he commented “a cake in the face is always funny, I reckon.” And [...]

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Selling at conventions

22. January 2008

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A number of comics sites have been debating the merits of an argument put forward by the ComicsPro organisation which has attacked publishers for direct sales of their titles – especially brand-new debut titles – at comics conventions, arguing that it often takes sales out of the pockets of the retailers who sell their works [...]

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Nicholas Cage in the running for the Razzies

22. January 2008

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The annual awards list that few celebs in Tinsel Town want to be on has just released this year’s nominees – yes, it’s Golden Raspberry Awards time! The Razzies are the antidote to Hollywood’s annual back-slapping fest of self congratulation during the awards season which takes in the Golden Globes and, of course, the Oscars. [...]

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Metronome

21. January 2008

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Back in the summer of 2006, towards the end of an interview with Bryan Talbot I asked him about an artist he was working with, Véronique Tanaka, who had approached him at Angoulême and was creating Metronome, which had been described as a ‘graphic poem’. Bryan replied :”It’s actually much more like music than a [...]

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Propaganda pulls the Sword from the stone – then puts it back

21. January 2008

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This is Propaganda, I’m Richard Bruton and this is what I’ve been reading lately: The Sword By the Luna Brothers A long time ago, I was handed the first two series by the Luna Brothers; Ultra and Girls. Ultra was a fun, if clichéd book that can easily and conveniently summed up as a “Superhero Sex in the [...]

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Bart Beatty talks Angoulême

21. January 2008

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Over on the indispensable Comics Reporter Bart Beatty discusses the famous Angoulême festival, one of the most highly regarded – if not the most highly regarded – comics festivals in Europe, which begins on the 24th, focusing on this year’s crop of awards nominees. Bart seems reasonably pleased with the way there is a mix [...]

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Watchmen storyboards

21. January 2008

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The official Watchmen movie blog posts up some storyboards and an insight into how they – along with the original graphic novel – are used to help create the film: “Storyboards play a vital part in my process long before I start sharing them with my team. I’ve always storyboarded my commercials and movies. It is [...]

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The Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy

21. January 2008

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Top comics artist, designer and illustrator Brendan McCarthy has a new blog, The Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy. And with a body of work which goes from Judge Dredd to Rogan Gosh and Skin (which I still think is one of the most in-your-face British graphic novels that everyone should read, if only it would get [...]

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