The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

It’s a big update from Alex Fitch, alerting us to a series of comics and science fiction related aural pleasures wafting their way to us over the airwaves or via the magic of podcast; over to Alex for the details:

“Strip! – China Comics (in the cities) Now!, 5pm tonight on Resonance FM, podcast on Panel Borders

In the second of this month’s shows about the Manhua! China Comics Now exhibition at the London College of Communications (the first was broadcast 13/03/08 and available to download now in two parts at www.panelborders.com) we’re looking at Chinese comic creators based in the modern metropolis. In the first half of the show Alex Fitch hosts a round table discussion with curator Paul Gravett and Hong Kong artists Chihoi Lee and Hok Tak Yeung and later Alex will be discussing the Beijing underground comics scene with creator and commentator Coco Wang.

Online this weekend – Reality Check: Eastercon ’08 part 1

The first of two shows looking at this year’s Sci-Fi literary convention Orbital ’08 which was held last weekend in Heathrow and features interviews with professional writers and fans. In this week’s episode Alex Fitch is talking to Nickey Barnard, an SF fan who has moved from being a member of the audience at panels to one of the hosts, Christopher Teague, publisher of Pendragon Press which offers a place for first time genre writers to release their books, comic book creator Bryan Talbot (Alice in Sunderland), and science-fiction writer James Swallow (Star Trek: Voyager, Blake’s 7 audio).

Coming soon: over the next month, James DeCarteret (I’m ready for my close-up) will be hosting Strip! as live shows every thursday in April (except the 17th which is part of a special week of programming). In the meantime, so that you don’t have to go without your weekly dose of Panel Borders, I’ll be podcasting as normal, starting with my final (honest!) look at the Manhua! exhibition featuring interviews with ‘Benjamin’, Nie Chongrui and Zhang Xiaoyu translated by Coco Wang. This will be followed in subsequent weeks with interviews with Andy Luke (Comics Village) and Pat Mills (Charley’s War) plus Oliver (Tales from the Flat) Lambden’s report from last weekend’s comics conventions in Mile End and Camden. April’s podcasts will then be paired with new material as episodes of Strip! in May…

In next week’s Reality Check, it’s the second of my Eastercon reports and I’ll be talking to Graham Sleight about the BSFA, Jetse de Vries & Aliette de Bodard about Interzone, John Coxon about ZZ9 – the Douglas Adams appreciation society and author Neil Gaiman about why he loves conventions…”