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2009 Ignatz Awards

26. August 2009

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Everyone has posted the nominees now – so you should know what’s what. At the danger of putting my head above the trench I’ll give you my idea of who may, or who I think should, win. Outstanding Artist Tim Hensley, Mome (Fantagraphics), Kramer’s Ergot #7 (Buenaventura) Nate Powell, Swallow Me Whole (Top Shelf) Richard Sala, Delphine (Fantagraphics/Coconino) Josh Simmons, [...]

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Neil Gaiman at the Pen World Voices Five

24. August 2009

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Tim Ogline has posted up some good coverage of Neil Gaiman’s appearance at the Fifth Annual Pen World Voices Festival on the Wild River Review, talking with World Voices director Caro Llewellyn; its an interesting read and a nice sequel of sorts to Tim’s previous chat with Neil we linked to a couple of [...]

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New Dennis & Gnasher coming on the Beeb …. Softies beware! (maybe)

21. August 2009

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The new Dennis The Menace & Gnasher TV series on children’s BBC starts on September 7th (just in time for back to school). It looks and sounds a lot better than the 1996 25 minute per episode version which was a rather too diluted thing altogether.No doubt it will be less anarchic than Dennis at [...]

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Here’s an idea – what would you recommend?

9. August 2009

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(On the left, possibly a good idea for first comic. On the right, definitely not.) The Onion AV Club has another interesting comics related post, this time asking the important question: “If someone asked you to recommend a first comic or graphic novel, what would you recommend?” (via LMG) The AV Club opens this out to it’s [...]

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A nice John Hughes tribute from Cliff Chiang

8. August 2009

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Writer and director John Hughes sadly passed away this week at a far too young 59 (BBC story and links). He was responsible for some of the most memorable and era-defining movies of the 80s, particularly for those of us growing up at the time. It doesn’t really matter whether you like them or not [...]

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Terry Pratchett: I live in hope I can jump before I am pushed.’

7. August 2009

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(Sir Terry Pratchett. In the garden with the brandy. From his article in the Daily Mail. Photograph copyright Les Wilson.) There’s a Terry Pratchett feature and article on the Daily Mail website written earlier this week dealing with the difficult and emotive issue of assisted suicide. His comments come in the wake of the ruling in [...]

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Jim Baen’s Universe mag closing

6. August 2009

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SF Signal reports that the online Jim Baen’s Universe science fiction magazine is to close. Over on the JBU site they explain that they simply don’t have the subscriber numbers to keep the mag as a worthwhile concern – the JBU pays SF&F writers properly for the fiction they contribute, which obviously means they need [...]

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Scotch Corner

4. August 2009

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Graeme Neil Reid tells me that over on the Scotch Corner blog (a Scottish comics collective consisting of Graeme, Thomas Crielly, Gary Erskine, Andy Hepworth and Jon Hodgson) they’ve decided to start a monthly competition for their readers, with the August competition offering a chance to win a gorgeous piece of fantasy artwork by Jon [...]

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Emma Vieceli en Francais

3. August 2009

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Emma Vieceli is rather delighted to be one of the contributors to a newly launched comic in France, Princesse Miya, which, as she notes gleefully, comes with free gifts! Tres bon, Emma!

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Comics quilting

29. July 2009

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Insomnia’s Red Eye blog has a photograph of a “double page bedspread” (as author Cy Dethan described it) – its a 90″ by 70″ quilt based on Stephen Downey’s artwork from Cancertown. There’s more on this bed linen/comics crossover on the blog of the quilter responsible, Ferret. That’s one of the more unusual and cooler [...]

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From our continental correspondent – festival news

27. July 2009

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With summer only half-way, it might be the right time to start thinking of how to spend the second half of the year. What better way to do that than by checking what the festival calendar has to offer for the next few months ? A few highlights : On the 28th, 29th and [...]

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Google goes Comics

26. July 2009

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Google search pages earlier this week were showing this Jim Lee designed DC heroes icon piece. It’s partly because of their teamup with the San Diego Comic Con (happening right now) and partly because of a recent expansion of the iGoogle themes to include various comic artists and characters. Should you wish you can have [...]

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Birmingham/British International Comics Show – now with added arts council backing….

26. July 2009

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Shane Chebsey emailed us earlier this week with the great news that the annual BICS comic convention in Birmingham has secured a grant from The Arts Council of England to help further their work in bringing the medium of comics to a wider audience. “We are very honoured to receive this funding from the Arts Council. [...]

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Mustard – a funny comedy mag – now there’s original for you….

18. July 2009

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Mustard # 4 Editor / Designer Alex Musson Self Published. (Kevin O’Neill’s great Alan Moore illstration against a backdrop of Moore comics) I Came to this one rather late after reading about the big Alan Moore interview in this issue somewhere online. I’m even later reviewing it. So late in fact that by now it’s well into it’s recession [...]

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On this day…

16. July 2009

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On this day, forty years ago, human beings began the great odyssey to the Moon. The enormous engines on one of the largest craft ever built ignited and a huge Saturn V ascended into the skies on a blistering column of fire. Take a moment to just think about that. Its too easy now for [...]

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