Author Archives | Rod
Rod - who has written 14 posts on The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log.
Rod’s musings – Cartooning in the 21st Century and Beyond
When I blogged about the recent Cartoon Art Trust Awards ceremony (see here), I realised that what irked me, really irked me, was that the ceremony itself was a kind of metaphor for cartooning. It was largely an anonymous affair, of interest only to those already interested in cartoons. In fact I only discovered the [...]
Continue reading...A Lack of Illumination: the difference between the author/illustrator and the illustrator
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
I vaguely remember J.K Rowling talking about an on-screen version of a character from one of her books, and saying, in response to someone who said “that’s not how I imagined him” that he may not be how they had imagined him, but it was how she imagined him. It is, I think, a good [...]
Continue reading...Weekly Shonen Jump versus Brit Comics
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Comments Off
Like many of you, I’ve noticed the similarities between Japanese comics and British comics, or at any rate the sort of comics we used to regularly produce here in Britain, especially girl’s comics like Bunty and Judy, which would have been marketed as Shōjo manga in Japan. I think, before we get too carried away [...]
Continue reading...The Return of the Magician?
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Yet again the rumours abound that Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese, if not his entire body of work, is to be published in English; and that this time the Casterman books will be properly translated. I say ‘yet again’ because the rumours reappear on a regular basis, and I say they will be ‘properly translated’ this [...]
Continue reading...The Changing Face of Minicomics, Part 3
Monday, September 22, 2008
In part one we looked at perhaps the most unloved of “minicomics”, the current crop of “new” minis, which are often viewed as the “wrong size” and too professional-looking by some traditional minicomics creators, and not professional enough by some mainstream publishers. And in part two, we looked at how some creators are developing a [...]
Continue reading...The Changing Face of Minicomics, Part 2
Friday, September 12, 2008
Comments Off
In part one we looked at how perhaps the most unloved of minicomics is the current crop of “new” minis, which are often viewed as too professional-looking by some traditional minicomics creators, and not professional enough by some mainstream publishers. It’s not that these non-traditional minis are a completely new development, they aren’t; Harvey Pekar [...]
Continue reading...The Changing Face of Minicomics, Part 1
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
I have always regarded cartooning as a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Along with the urge to deface any blank sheets of paper, this form of OCD also involves obsessing about and compulsively collecting pencils, rulers, pens and paper, erasers and various other drawing tools, and books and comic books and videos and DVDs [...]
Continue reading...Embracing the Gothic in Batman
Thursday, August 14, 2008
I think it’s only right and proper that there should be an animated debate around the 12A Certificate awarded to the latest Batman movie, Batman: The Dark Knight. It is, after all, a dark and Gothic tale, and the title and Heath Ledger’s terrifying turn as the Joker, alludes to that. Will the 12 year-olds [...]
Continue reading...Rod’s musings – Underground, overground, wombling free, indy comics reading wombles are we…
Monday, July 28, 2008
Comments Off
I was relaxing on Sunday. I was sort of grazing, picking up the newspaper, looking through a magazine, reading a comic, and I found myself dipping in and out of Dez Skinn’s book Comix, The Underground Revolution (2004, Chrysalis Book Group), again. I do this a lot with this sort of book. I read it [...]
Continue reading...Rod’s musings – Danny Hellman’s Typhon
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Comments Off
In Greek mythology, Typhon was all superlatives; he was the largest, the most powerful, and the most grotesque of all creatures that ever lived. His head, covered with a hundred hissing, spitting, serpents, scraped the skies and touched the very stars themselves. Venom dripped from his evil eyes, and red-hot lava poured from his gaping [...]
Continue reading...Rod’s musings – British Comics: the Belgian Connection
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
You can call me slow if you like, but it was only when I started to look up all the old comic characters I loved, The House of Dolmann, Janus Stark, Kelly’s Eye, Galaxus, et al, that I realised that many of the comics I had grown up enjoying so much, had often been drawn [...]
Continue reading...Rod’s musings – It is What it is. Lynda Barry, what’s not to love?
Monday, July 7, 2008
Comments Off
How many of you experienced that sort of nervous, involuntary half-laugh when it transpired that the poor otaku who died during a recent earthquake in Japan might have been killed by his mountain of manga? Hearing that he had his collection of manga in 6ft-high towers probably makes one unfamiliar with the world of comics [...]
Continue reading...Rod’s musings – Manga as metaphor
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
You quite often hear people say they “don’t like” or they “don’t get” manga. Then they go on to tell you the names of the manga they love. What’s happening is that they are using the word ‘manga’ as a metaphor for all Japanese comics and books, except the Japanese comics and books they do [...]
Continue reading...Rod, the musings of a cartoonist – factual fictions
Monday, June 16, 2008
Rod McKie is a British cartoonist and illustrator who has served his time working for British institutions like IPC and Punch; these days Rod has an international reputation, with work regularly appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Playboy, the Harvard Review and many more, while he is also working on a new graphic novel project [...]
Continue reading...
- Bristol show does not impress everyone
- Spirou and Fantasio... reporters and adventurers
- Valerian & Laureline - The Land Without Stars.
- Comics from Le Monde Diplomatique
- Brrrraiiinnnssss!!! Return of the Living Dead returns!
- 2012 2000AD Pledge - Prog 1783
- Grendel Teaser
- The Holy Numbers
- Alex's audio roundup
- 12 Dessins par jour/12 Drawings a day
- Terry Hooper: This was the first year that the Expo did not have...
- Richard: Patric; Nope, not decided to dislike it, but not f...
- Patric Nilsson: You're also judging it like it was a completely ne...
- Martin Wisse: Tome and Janry are quite good as well though and p...
- Martin Wisse: No, you're right, the early volumes of Valerian ar...
- Eagle Awards 2012 – the end of an era….
- The Strong Female Characters are back!
- Morrison Draws …
- The 80s…. more bang for your buck in those days…
- Shia Labeouf makes mini comics?
- Rian Hughes… Threadless think he could do better
- Next up in convention season: London MCM Expo
- Ken Harrison speaks to Alec Worley
- Eat Me!
- Don Depresso meets the Happiness Fairy
Latest Flickr photos
Visit Our Sites
Subscribe
Subscribe to this site's RSS feed.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
10 Comments