Its January 25th and that means this evening Burns Night will be celebrated in Scotland and indeed across the world (its not just our comics writers and artists we’ve exported into the global culture!), as we honour our national bard, Robert Burns. Last year the long-running Scottish comic strip The Broons had the Scottish Parliament’s First Minister Alex Salmond and Westminster parliament’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown (as the most famous of ‘the Broons’!) visit the family in Glebe Street for a Burns Supper. Having a cameo in Paul Cornell’s Captain Britain is one thing but an appearance in the Broons? That’s something else! I wonder what they’re doing this Burns Night…
(Gordon Brown and his wife enjoying Burns Night with The Broons; art by Peter Davidson (thanks to Jeremy Briggs for that info) – copyright DC Thomson, image borrowed from Frank Owens’ blog)
And not comics related but since its Burns Night I thought I’d share this lovely 19th century artwork by J.M Wright from an 1842 edition of the Complete Burns (engraved by S. Smith), depicting the witches’ dance in one of Burns’ most famous works, Tam O’Shanter, a grand example of the book illustrator – and the engraver’s - art (image borrowed from the Sexy Witch blog):
Mon, Jan 25, 2010
Books, Comics and cartoons