The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Another Thursday blows in and dragging himself away from indulging in Peanuts style jumping into piles of fallen leaves here’s Alex Fitch with details of the comics and SF shows he’s involved with over the new week; as usual check the Panel Borders site for more details and links to podcasts of previous shows.

Strip!: Talking Teabags and Wishing Wells, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM, podcast after transmission on Panel Borders

Concluding ‘women in comics month’ on the show, Alex Fitch talks to a couple of illustrators about their genre bending work. Hannah Berry’s debut graphic novel Britten and Brülightly tells the tale of a harried private detective with the nickname of ‘The Heartbreaker’ whose final case sees his career catch up with him, in a terrific comic book that combines the tenets of noir with gentle surrealism – his confidant is his pet teabag, Stewart – and assured cinematic visuals. Sally-Anne Hickman is a self-published comic book artist and writer whose work ranges from affectionate parodies of pop culture icons such as Spider-man and the Powerpuff Girls to intricate diary comics that give an intimate portrayal of the self-publishing world, packaged as collectible items with textured covers that incorporate fur, metallic sparkle and googly puppet eyes.

Electric Sheep film club: ROLLERBALL, Wednesday 7th at the Prince Charles Cinema, 8pm,

One of the best dystopian sci-fi movies to come out of the 70s, Rollerball focuses on an ultra-violent sport used to keep an overpopulated planet under control and probes its links to politics, the media and big conglomerates. When a star player refuses to obey the owners of his team, the stage is set for a Gladiator-like confrontation between a rebellious individual and the corporate power that seeks to crush him (with thanks to Park Circus). The film will be followed by informal discussion with Electric Sheep writers in the bar.

FILM WRITING COMPETITION:

We are launching a new competition in connection with our Prince Charles film club for film students and aspiring film writers: to enter the competition, you need to write a 200-word review of Rollerball and send it to ladyvengeance@electricsheepmagazine.com, marked ‘Film writing competition’ in the subject line. An ‘industry’ expert will select the best review, in this case SCI-FI-LONDON director Louis Savy. Deadline: October 21. The selected review will be published on the Electric Sheep website. This is to be a regular addition to the Electric Sheep Film Club.

Recent podcasts:

Panel Borders: Emma Vieceli, promoting new British Manga

Continuing ‘women in comics’ month on the show, Alex Fitch talks to Emma Vieceli, illustrator of the Manga Shakespeare adaptations of Hamlet and Much ado about nothing who has also contributed to the graphic anthology “Comic Book Tattoo” which adapts the songs of Tori Amos into strip format. Alex and Emma also talk about the crossover between traditional Western comics and Manga as a new generation of small press creators in the UK experiment with both forms, a practice that is encouraged by the ‘Artists Alley’ that Emma helps organise at the twice yearly MCM Expos in the Docklands and the publishing collective ‘Sweatdrop studios’ that she’s a member of.