The Forbidden Planet International Blog

It’s the start of a new year and Alex Fitch has details of his first Panel Borders show of 2013 (and what a line up of talent he has featured on it), which now moves to an earlier slot on Sunday evenings; as ever check the Panel Borders site for more details:

Panel Borders – 25 years of John Constantine: Hellblazer, Sunday 13th January 1t 6pm on Resonance FM, podcast afterwards on Panel Borders

Panel Borders returns after the Christmas break for a new series at an earlier slot on Sunday evenings. Starting a series of shows about the 25th anniversary of the occult detective John Constantine’s first appearance in his own solo comic book, Alex Fitch talks to writers Jamie Delano, Andy Diggle and Peter Milligan, and artist David Lloyd, about creating issues of Hellblazer from its first issue to the present day. Jamie and David discuss the early days of the comic, launched as a spin off from Alan Moore’s acclaimed run on Swamp Thing while Andy and Peter talk about bringing the character into the 21st Century. (Recorded in front of a live audience at SCI-FI-LONDON, Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, April 2011)

Recent shows

Laydeez Do Podcasts: Alison Bechdel

An episode of the Laydeez do comics podcast, recorded at Comica Festival 2012 – graphic novelist Alison Bechdel reads from her new book Are you my mother? and answers questions from the audience about her debut Fun Home, and long running comic strip Dykes to watch out for.

Panel Borders: Brown, Nao/Bagnold Summer

Brown, Nao / Bagnold Summer: In the 3rd in a trilogy of shows looking at depictions of lives on the page, Alex Fitch talks to the authors of two of 2012′s most acclaimed graphic novels. Glyn Dillon discusses The Nao of Brown,  his long awaited return to comics after much loved contributions to strips published by Deadline and Vertigo in the 1990s. Dillon’s graphic novel depicts the life of an OCD sufferer who channels her creativity into toys, relationships and storytelling…

Alex also talks to Joff Winterhart, writer / artist of Days of the Bagnold Summer, an affectionate, warts and all depiction of six weeks in the life of a dissolutioned 15 year old and his long suffering mother  as they try to endure the summer holidays together. Joff discusses the history of the book, how it relates to his animation work and music, and his feelings about the book’s nomination as one of the first two graphic novels to be short listed for the Costa Book Awards.