Archive | May, 2009

Happy 150th birthday, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

22. May 2009

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Today marks the 150th anniversary of one of the more celebrated of my fellow Edinburgh residents, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote adventure fantasies (such as the cracking The Lost World, which was the theme for this year’s major literature campaign in Edinburgh and further afield) and historical novels, but he is, of course, most [...]

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Bloody murder and thievery. Just your average day in Viking issue 1

22. May 2009

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Viking issue 1 by Ivan Brandon and Nic Klein Image Comics It’s been trailed as a “9th Century Crime Book” and on the strength of just this first issue Viking seems to have a lot going for it. It’s wonderfully no-concept simple stuff. No high art here, no deeper meaning and pretty much summed up [...]

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Drew Friedman’s beer label

22. May 2009

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Artist Drew Friedman (who created the Old Jewish Comedians caricature books among others) has illustrated the label for bottles of McSorley’s Irish Lager; Drew asked to be paid in beer. A man after my own liver.(link via Boing Boing)

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Craig airs his fetish

22. May 2009

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It’s been a pretty good week for Craig Yoe – Tom Spurgeon posted one of his famous Sunday Interviews on Comics Reporter with Craig at the start of the week, his new book Secret Identity: the Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster has been getting noticed (Craig tells me he’s especially chuffed with this [...]

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Dracula competition

22. May 2009

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Leah Moore and John Reppion are celebrating the first issue of their Complete Dracula coming out this week from Dyanamite with a competition to win signed copies; check out their website for more details.

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Alex’s Thursday audio round-up

21. May 2009

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Another Thursday whistles past us and as we dodge from sunshine to showers in the time honoured British Summer Time tradition Alex Fitch dons rainproof suntan lotion and updates us with the shows he’s involved with this week; as usual for more details and archived podcasts of previous shows check the Panel Borders website: Strip!: [...]

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It’s only the end of the world again…. From The Ashes

21. May 2009

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From The Ashes issue 1 by Bob Fingerman IDW Comics I like Fingerman, his comics are consistently funny and interesting and he never sticks too long to any one subject. And seeing From The Ashes on the racks this week was a pleasant surprise. End of the world tales are hardly new, but a fictional [...]

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Scrolling tales

21. May 2009

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David Baillie pointed me in the direction of this unusual comics work by Tymothi J. Godek – you have to scroll along horizontally to follow the story. Its an interesting and unusual approach, although I have to say I’m with Down The Tube’s John Freeman in finding it rather unsuitable to the computer screen; I [...]

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Manga Shakespeare Day at the London Cartoon Museum

21. May 2009

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Ilya and Emma Vieceli will be at the London Cartoon Museum (35 Little Russell Street) on May 30th from 1.30 to 4pm to celebrate their work in Self Made Heroes’ well received Manga Shakespeare graphic novels, with exhibits, talks and a slideshow presentation. On a related note if you are in London and looking for [...]

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The Wossy Book Club

20. May 2009

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Jonathan Ross has started a book group on his Twitter; tracking down details involves going through an awful lot of Tweets, bu the hashtag to watch for is ‘#wossybookclub’ and he announced “First book is Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson. At weekend we will all post reviews and chat. Most probably here [...]

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Kevin O’Neill talks to the Mindless Ones

20. May 2009

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The one and only Kev O’Neill talks to the Mindless Ones about the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century 1910; the podcast is online now, go and enjoy a listen.

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From Our Continental Correspondent – French cartoonists go small

20. May 2009

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Dissatisfied with the glitz and the sheer scale of modern-day comics festivals, two French comics creators have founded a new festival on a more human scale, the Plus Petit et Plus Informel Festival de Bande Dessinée du Monde, or Smallest and Most Informal Comics Festival In the World. To the French comics magazine BoDoï, which [...]

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“Giant steps are what you take, walking on the moon…”

20. May 2009

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I’ve been a real space exploration geek for as long as I’ve been a fan of the fictional space adventures and in my experience quite a lot of SF fans are also fascinated with real life space exploration and astronomy. So I’ve been following with great interest a series of posts on the BBC website [...]

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New V poster

20. May 2009

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Via Whedonesque comes a link to the Visitor  Site and this poster for the reworked new version of the 80s science fiction hit V, a serial which may look pretty cheesy now but which was a huge TV phenomenon back in the day, drawing in a wider TV audience and not just the SF regulars. [...]

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Manhwa 100 exhibition opening in London this week

19. May 2009

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The Korean Cultural Centre drops us a line about a series of events and exhibitions they have planned starting this week to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of manhwa, Korean comics: “Manhwa celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2009. This popular art form holds a long and cherished history that began with the first publication of [...]

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