The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Paul Gravett sends word of this years Comica schedule. For the sixth year in a row Paul is curating a season of fantastic comics related events. Full details at Paul’s Comica website, but the main events are quite impressive. We’ll most likely mention these again nearer the times but here’s the advance notice:

Exhibitions: From Friday, 14 November:
PoCom 2 – Potential Comics Continued
Daniel Merlin Goodbrey and Le Gun’s Neal Fox, Bill Bragg, Emma Rendel and more fill our long wall with a graphic story mind-map.
Incredibly Strange Comics
Reel at the world’s most outrageous, weirdest comics: Amputee Love! The Girl Who Loved The Swastika! Trucker Fags in Denial!
Archetypes v Stereotypes – Post-War Comics & Graphic Novels
Examining the formation and function of archetypes and stereotypes – racial, sexual, social and political – in British and American comics and graphic novels of the post-war period. The day explores the extent to which the images and text associated with this genre can be progressive or reactionary; do they subvert dominant stereotypes or endorse them?
Friday, 14 November, 10am to 5.30pm

Events:

Alan Moore & Melinda Gebbie: Lost Girls
Legendary anarchist, occultist and comics writer Alan Moore is famous for his subversion of the classic American comic book genre and for groundbreaking works such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell. A celebrated recent work is Lost Girls, three volumes portraying the adult erotic lives of storybook characters Alice, Wendy and Dorothy who meet in a pre-World War One Austrian hotel created with the artist Melinda Gebbie. Moore and Gebbie talk about their collaboration with the writer Kevin Jackson. More…
Friday, 14 November, 7pm to 8pm

Dave McKean’s Imaginings
An indefatigable innovator, this year Dave McKean has conjured up The Graveyard Book with Neil Gaiman, The Savage with David Almond, drawing books Squink and Postcard from Paris, and Heston Blumenthal’s huge autobio-cookbook. Take a tour of his newest imaginings and his next solo comics.
Sunday, 16 November, 2pm to 3.30pm

Between The Panels 3
How do you make a graphic short story, and develop it into a graphic novel? Hannah Berry, Paul Duffield, Oliver East and Marcia Williams share their secrets and Rachel Cooke, Dan Franklin and other judges of The Observer/Cape/Comica competition present this year’s winners.
Sunday, 16 November, 4pm to 5.30pm

Turning Classics Into Comics
Shakespeare, Brontë, Wilde and Dickens are getting visual makeovers as comics. How does prose transfer to panels? What is lost, and found, in translation? Richard Appignanesi and Ian Edgington talk with their visualisers Mustashrik, Chie Kutsuwada and Ian Culbard, and John M Burns and Mike Collins discuss their versions of Jane Eyre and A Christmas Carol. Plus signings.
Sunday, 16 November, 4pm to 5.30pm

Ian Rankin: Crime & Comics
The great crime writer’s debut graphic novel, a John Constantine Hellblazer original called Dark Entries, is due next year. Tonight he shares his passion for comics and talks about their role in improving youth literacy.
Monday, 17 November: 7pm to 8.30pm

Alex Maleev: Master of Mood
Maleev has injected atmosphere and realism into Daredevil, cult computer game Halo and an online serial of Stephen King’s N. Tonight he talks to David Hine about his work. Followed by signings alongside French guests Ted Benoit and Emmanuel Guibert.
Supported by Thought Bubble Festival & Orbital Comics
Tuesday, 18 November, 7.15pm to 8.30pm

Ted Benoit & Emmanuel Guibert: The Best of Bande Dessinée
A rare opportunity to encounter two of France’s leading contemporary graphic novelists, now being translated into English. Ted Benoit is one of the greatest exemplars of the “Ligne Claire” and illustrates new tales of Blake and Mortimer, Edgar P. Jacobs’ thoroughly British detectives, written by Jean Van Hamme. Emmanuel Guibert collaborates with Joann Sfar on space pirate Sardine in Space and mummified romantic comedy The Professor’s Daughter and specialises in deeply touching memoirs such as Alan’s War, recounting an American soldier’s life, and The Photographer, about Didier Lefèvre’s reportage on the Afghanistan war. The artists will be interviewed by Ann Miller, author of Reading Bande Dessinée, and Paul Gravett, director of the Comica festival, and will sign their books afterwards.
Wednesday, 19 November, 7.30 to 9pm

Comica Comiket with London Underground Comics
Meet and buy from self-publishing creators of comics and manga, in print, online and for mobiles. Watch them work and join in on workshops. Plus graphic novel signings.
A free event with London Underground Comics.
Saturday, 22 November, 1pm to 7pm

Great British Comics: Past, Present & Future
Boyfriend, Battle, Rick Random, Roy of the Rovers! Steve Holland, David Leach and David Roach re-live childhood favourites with surprise guests, while John and Patricia Aggs, Gary Northfield and Sarah McIntyre look at The DFC, Derek the Sheep and the new worlds of kids’ comics.
Sunday, 23 November, 2pm to 3.30pm

Stripping Off – Erotic Comics
A romp through modern X-rated comics with Erich von Gotha, Lynn Paul Meadows, Garry Leach and Wicked Wanda writer Frederic Mullaly. Hosted by Tim Pilcher, author of Erotic Comics: A Graphic History.
Sunday, 23 November, 4pm to 5pm

Live From Kirby Plaza
Jack Kirby co-created much of the Marvel universe, including Captain America and The X-Men, as well as creating the epic Fourth World series for DC. His work is reappraised by Paul Gambaccini, Mike Lake and Chrissie Harper. Hosted by Paul Gravett, with live transatlantic links to biographer Greg Theakston, artist James Romberger and Kirby Museum archivist Rand Hoppe.
Sunday, 23 November, 5.30pm to 7pm

Art Spiegelman: Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist As A Young %@*!
The Pulitzer-winning creator of Maus returns to autobiography in his latest work, combining reflections on how comics have warped his life with a reprint of Breakdowns, his rare collection of strips from the 1970s.
Sunday, 23 November, 7.30 to 9pm

Shelton, Spain & Spiegelman: Up From The Underground
Three of the greatest members of the US underground comix movement recall the heady daze of their 60s debuts, their cartooning careers and their latest releases: Not Quite Dead by Gilbert Shelton, creator of the Freak Brothers; a strip biography of Che Guevara by Spain, inventor of Trashman; and Breakdowns by Art Spiegelman.
Supported by Knockabout Comics, Verso & Penguin
Monday, 24 November, 6.45pm to 8.15pm