The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Dragnet had Joe Friday, we have Alex every Thursday, here to update us once more on the shows he is involved in over the next week (just the facts, ma’am). As usual check the Panel Borders site for full details and links to podcast versions of earlier shows:

Strip!: Ed Pinsent and Fast Fiction, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM, extended podcast after transmission on Panel Borders

Continuing comic book publishing month on the show, Alex Fitch talks to Ed Pinsent, the second editor of the 1980s small press anthology Fast Fiction which was a ground breaking publication in the history of British comics. Alex talks to Ed about his comic book work then and now, his processes of including work in the anthology and the reasons it came to an end. Also in this episode we have a competition to win a complete set of Dare Comics’ The Hunter, so tune in / download the podcast for more details!

Midi Clear Spot: Little Nellie and the Robot Zoo!, Monday 27th on Resonance FM at 4.30pm; Jo Hatton interview online at Sci-Fi London

To coinicide with the current “Bond and Beyond” season at the BFI Southbank / IMAX, Alex Fitch talks to Wing Commander Ken Wallis MBE, RAF (ret’d) about building and flying the famous yellow gyro copter “Little Nellie” featured in You only live twice (1967). Ken also performed as Sean Connery’s stunt double in the film and created a gyrocopter for the TV miniseries The Martian Chronicles (1980). (You only live twice is showing at the BFI Southbank 25th / 28th April / 20th May, plus at the BFI IMAX on 3rd May…)
Also, in an interview first podcast at Sci-Fi London, Alex talks to Jo Hatton, keeper of the Robot Zoo at the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill which presents a collection of robotic and animatronic animals to the public and mixes education with the feel of a traveling carnival.

Recent podcasts:Panel Borders: Comic Boom!

Continuing our month long look at comic book publishing: Alex Fitch and Duncan Nott talk to Mark Waid, the editor-in-chief of Boom! Studios, a relatively new American comic book company that is attracting new creators, veterans of the medium and Hollywood screenwriters alike to pen their tales. Waid himself has been writing comics such as Fantastic Four, Captain America and The Flash for over twenty years and Alex, Duncan and Mark talk about the variety of genres Boom! publish, their methods for attracting new readers and their successes so far in publishing comics in print and on the internet.

Panel Borders: Publishing a Blank Slate

Continuing comic book publishing month on Panel Borders: Alex Fitch interviews Kenny Penman who runs Blank Slate books, a new British publishing company that has been around for just under a year and have 4 books to their name so far including Ignatz award nominee Trains are mint. Alex and Kenny talk about what factors decide the choice of books he publishes, the travails of finding a market for new graphic novels in the middle of a credit crunch and how his history as one of the founders of Forbidden Planet International has helped his new career as a publisher.