Strip! – Ctrl Alt Shift: Lightspeed Champion and Savage Messiah, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM, podcast afterwards at Panel Borders

Continuing ‘British Mavericks’ month on the show, Alex Fitch looks at the new charity anthology: “Ctrl Alt Shift unmasks corruption”, a collection of short comic strips that mixes seasoned professionals with the work of small press artists and creators from other media who are less well known for working in comics. From the latter group, Alex is talking to Dev Hynes*, better known as the musician Lightspeed Champion, who has a sincere interest in comics that led to the creation of two strips in the anthology. Alex also talks to the cover illustrator Laura Oldfield Ford, whose work can normally be found in fine art galleries in the fields of collage and traditional illustration, but also creates sequential art ‘zines under the name of Savage Messiah…

*(If you want to quibble, Dev was born in Texas but raised in Essex since the age of 2, so he’s an honorary British Maverick)

I’m ready for my close-up: The films of Joseph Strick, Firday 20th at 5pm on Resonance FM

To coincide with the ‘Directorspective’ of the work of Joseph Strick, currently at The Barbican centre in London, Alex Fitch talks to the Oscar Winning director about his career from working as a U.S. Airforce photographer during the Second World War to directing adaptations of challenging texts such as James Joyce’s Ulysses and Portrait of the artist as a young man, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and Jean Genet’s The Balcony. A selection of six of Strick’s films will be screened on consecutive days at The Barbican from 19/11/09 and there is also an additional daily screening of a new print of Ulysses (1967) until 26/11/09.

Recent podcasts:

Panel Borders: Doctor Who and The Spiral Cage

Continuing our month look long at ‘British Mavericks’ – interviews with artists whose work brings aspects of the avant-garde to mainstream comics – Alex Fitch talks to artist Al Davison about his career so far, from early graphic novels based on autobiography such as The Spiral Cage and The Minotaur’s Tale which depict Al’s struggle with his identity as an artist with spina bifida to his most recent book Hokusai: Demons which explores Japanese erotic art and bestiaries based on the artist’s dreams; and also writer Tony Lee joins Alex and Al to discuss the latter’s collaboration with the artist on the American Doctor Who comic which depicts David Tennant’s alter-ego having adventures in 1920s Hollywood. Interviews recorded last month at the British International Comics Show in Birmingham.

Panel Borders: Lost gloves, types of women and a (comic) Book of lists

In the first of two episodes recorded at this summer’s Alternative Press week, ‘zine creator Dickon Harris talks to a couple of small press creators about their work: writer / artist Paul Rainey, whose comic book paperback The Book of Lists sees the cartoonist collating events from his life into thematic order and poet Ceri May who self publishes her writing at alt. press events. The podcast includes Ceri’s reading of the poems: “All the lost gloves of London”, “There are two types of women” and “When I grow up” and was recorded at The Miller pub on Snowsfield, Borough during Collaborama!… (Edited by Alex Fitch)

Panel Borders: The art of Paul Ashley Brown

In the second of two interviews recorded during the Alternative Press Fair, Dickon Harris talks to comic book writer and artist Paul Ashley Brown about his work outside the St. Aloysius Social Club in Somers Town, London. Dickon and Paul discuss the latter’s latest small press comic – Browner Knowle – and the small press scene in London from Fast Fiction in the 1980s to the present day.

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Strip! – Doctor Who and The Spiral Cage, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM, podcast afterwards on Panel Borders

Continuing our month look long at ‘British Mavericks’ – interviews with artists whose work brings aspects of the avant-garde to mainstream comics – Alex Fitch talks to artist Al Davison about his career so far, from early graphic novels based on autobiography such as The Spiral Cage and The Minotaur’s Tale which depict Al’s struggle with his identity as an artist with spina bifida to his most recent book Hokusai: Demons which explores Japanese erotic art and bestiaries based on the artist’s dreams. Alex and Al are also joined by writer Tony Lee to discuss the latter’s collaboration with the artist on the American Doctor Who comic which depicts David Tennant’s alter-ego having adventures in 1920s Hollywood. Today’s interviews were recorded last month at the British International Comics Show in Birmingham.

Clear Spot – The Alternative Press Fair, tonight at 8pm on Resonance FM, podcast afterwards on Panel Borders

In an hour-long collection of interviews recorded at a couple of events during August’s Alternative Press week in London, ‘zine creator Dickon Harris talks to a trio of small press creators about their work; these include Paul Rainey, whose comic book paperback The Book of Lists sees the writer / artist collating events from his life into thematic order, poet Ceri May who self publishes and performs her work at alt. press events and accomplished illustrator Paul Ashley Brown who creates a bitter sweet, whimsical ‘zine called Browner Knowle based on observation from life. The broadcast compliments the event “Are you ‘zine friendly?” which is taking place at the same time as the programme at The Foundry in Hoxton.

Recent podcasts:

Reality Check: Time travelling Hobbits and other paradoxes, online at Sci-Fi London

In a pair of Q & As recorded in front of a live cinema audience at this year’s Sci-Fi London Film Festival, Alex Fitch talks to the directors of two new low budget films: The Hunt for Gollum and Cryptic. Joining Alex and director Chris Bouchard on stage, members of the cast and crew of The Hunt for Gollum talk about making an extended short film that stands up to the quality of the official Lord of the Rings movies, in an adaptation of material by J.R.R. Tolkein that was a labour of love for all involved, even when recreating Middle Earth in Epping Forest on limited resources. Alex also talks to producer / co-director Danny Kuchuck about his film Cryptic which mixes teen therapy with tropes of murder mysteries, revenge thrillers and time paradoxes to create an intriguing Sci-Fi drama .

Panel Borders: The Art of Brendan McCarthy

Starting ‘British Mavericks’ month on the show – a series of conversations with illustrators whose work is surprisingly avant-garde for mainstream comics – we have an interview with pop art surrealist Brendan McCarthy. Appropriately for Guy Fawkes’ Night, Brendan’s work is the comic strip equivalent of fireworks, mixing lurid colours with hallucinogenic rendering that he has managed to smuggle into British periodicals such as 2000AD and Crisis and more recently has led to work in the field of film and animation design, working on TV series such as Reboot and the new film ‘Mad Max 4: Fury Road’. Today’s interview was conducted by author and librarian Pedro Galvao in front of an audience of Graphic Novel fans at Minet Library in Camberwell as part of Lambeth Readers and Writers Festival during the summer. (The episode was recorded and edited by Alex Fitch)

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Strip!: The Art of Brendan McCarthy, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM, podcast afterwards on Panel Borders

Starting ‘British Mavericks’ month on the show – a series of conversations with illustrators whose work is surprisingly avant-garde for mainstream comics – we have an interview with pop art surrealist Brendan McCarthy. Appropriately for Guy Fawkes’ Night, Brendan’s work is the comic strip equivalent of fireworks, mixing lurid colours with hallucinogenic rendering that he has managed to smuggle into British periodicals such as 2000AD and Crisis and more recently has led to work in the field of film and animation design, working on TV series such as Reboot and the new film ‘Mad Max 4: Fury Road’. Today’s interview was conducted by author and librarian Pedro Galvao in front of an audience of Graphic Novel fans at Minet Library in Camberwell as part of Lambeth Readers and Writers Festival during the summer. (The episode was recorded and edited by Alex Fitch)

(some fantastic art by Brendan McCarthy for Doctor Strange, due next year from Marvel; pic via Heidi at The Beat)

ELECTRIC SHEEP SUBTERRANEA: Marebito (2004) + The Phantom Empire: The Thunder Riders (1935)

Electric Sheep presents subterranean screenings of minor masterpieces, oddball B-movies and genre classics in the convivial surroundings of Cinéphilia West. Join us every second Sunday of the month for a feature film and a chat, preceded by an episode from a serial or series, which will be shown over a season of screenings. On Sunday 8th November, as part of our season of underground-related films, we will be screening Takashi Shimizu’s Marebito (Stranger from Afar, 2004), a deeply sinister exploration of fear, obsession and urban paranoia, set in the Tokyo netherworld. This will be preceded by the second episode from the sci-fi Western musical The Phantom Empire (1935), in which a cowboy, who is also a radio show host, stumbles upon an ancient but highly advanced civilisation living under his ranch… Has to be seen to be believed! If you missed last month’s instalment and want to catch up, you can do so here: http://www.archive.org/details/phantom_empire_chapter_1

Previous podcasts:

Reality Check: Time travelling Hobbits and other paradoxes

In a pair of Q & As recorded in front of a live cinema audience at this year’s Sci-Fi London Film Festival, Alex Fitch talks to the directors of two new low budget films: The Hunt for Gollum and Cryptic. Joining Alex and director Chris Bouchard on stage, members of the cast and crew of The Hunt for Gollum talk about making an extended short film that stands up to the quality of the official Lord of the Rings movies, in an adaptation of material by J.R.R. Tolkein that was a labour of love for all involved, even when recreating Middle Earth in Epping Forest on limited resources. Alex also talks to producer / co-director Danny Kuchuck about his film Cryptic which mixes teen therapy with tropes of murder mysteries, revenge thrillers and time paradoxes to create an intriguing Sci-Fi drama .

Panel Borders: Banal Pigs, borrowed toilets and other manly anthologies

Continuing ‘anthologies and collectives month’ on the show, in an interview recorded at this year’s Small Press Expo in Bristol, Dickon Harris talks to Steve Tillotson and Gareth Brookes about their self published comics, including The Manly Boys Annual, Can I borrow your toilet? and The Banal Pig Landscape anthology; Dickon then catches up with Gareth again at the Alternative Press Fair Collaborama! in Borough to talk about performing small press comics as poetry.

Panel Borders: Inside the Fleece Station

Concluding ‘anthologies and collectives month’ on the show, in an interview recorded on location at the Old Police Station The Fleece Station in Deptford, Alex Fitch talks to artists Sarah McIntyre and Viviane Schwartz about their work including books such as Morris the Mankiest Monster and There are Cats in this book plus the benefits of sharing a studio that has a web and public presence.

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Strip!: Banal Pigs and Constabulary Sheep, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM, podcast afterwards on Panel Borders

Concluding* this month’s series of shows on “collectives and anthologies”, we’re looking at two very different animal themed collectives. In an interview recorded at this year’s Small Press Expo in Bristol, Dickon Harris talks to Steve Tillotson and Gareth Brookes about their self published comics, including The Manly Boys Annual, Can I borrow your toilet? and The Banal Pig Landscape anthology; while in an interview recorded in the Old Police Station, Deptford, Alex Fitch talks to Sarah McIntyre and Viviane Schwartz, who illustrate books for children such as Morris the Mankiest Monster and There are cats in this book respectively, and share a studio with Beano artist Gary Northfield that they affectionately call The Fleece Station…
(*an additional clear spot about the Alternative Press Fair will be broadcast in the second week of November)

Reality Check: Time travelling Hobbits and other paradoxes

In a pair of Q & As recorded in front of a live cinema audience at this year’s Sci-Fi London Film Festival, Alex Fitch talks to the directors of two new low budget films: The Hunt for Gollum and Cryptic. Joining Alex and director Chris Bouchard on stage, members of the cast and crew of The Hunt for Gollum talk about making an extended short film that stands up to the quality of the official Lord of the Rings movies, in an adaptation of material by J.R.R. Tolkein that was a labour of love for all involved, even when recreating Middle Earth in Epping Forest on limited resources. Alex also talks to producer / co-director Danny Kuchuck about his film Cryptic which mixes teen therapy with tropes of murder mysteries, revenge thrillers and time paradoxes to create an intriguing Sci-Fi drama .

Previous podcasts:

Electric Sheep Magazine podcast: New approaches to Zombie cinema

In a special early Halloween special, Alex Fitch talks to Jeffrey Coghlan, the producer of the innovative Canadian Horror film Pontypool and Marc Price, director of the excellent British living dead film Colin about their new approaches to the zombie genre on a limited budget.
Pontypool and Colin are currently on limited release in the UK, and are an ideal way to spend Halloween in the cinema… The October online edition of Electric Sheep Magazine is available to download or purchase now

Panel Borders: Eclectic Micks and stars of Solipsistic Pop

Continuing ‘anthologies and collectives month’ on the show, Alex Fitch talks to four members of a group of Irish comic book artists – Stephen Mooney, PJ Holden, Will Sliney and Declan Shalvey – who work for a variety of British and American comic publishers and collectively promote their work through a blog with the title “Eclectic Micks”.
Alex also talks to the creator and editor – Tom Humberstone – and some of the contributors – Julia Scheele, Matthew Sheret and Stephen Collins – of the new anthology “Solipsistic Pop” which intends to bring the sensibilities of high-end American Indie comic anthologies to the under represented world of British small press creators. Julia and Matthew also talk about disseminating their own self published comics – “We are words and pictures” – to the public via market stalls and club nights

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(cover to Unwritten Volume 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity, written by Mike Carey, art by Peter Gross, cover by Yuko Shimizu, published DC)

On a related topic Mike’s latest prose novel with his freelance exorcist Felix Castor came out very recently from Orbit; The Naming of the Beasts. That makes five books in the series so far and I stand by my previous assertion that it’s one of the best series going at the moment. In fact I’d have to say each new installment has drawn me in deeper and deeper – the damned things are addictive! While each volume has its own main story there is a strong feeling of continuity from novel to novel (so its best to start at the beginning with Devil You Know) and the background details that have been hinting at a larger picture developing across each novel are getting stronger with each book, which just makes them even more absorbing. Highly recommended.

(The Naming of the Beasts, the fifth Felix Castor novel from Mike Carey, published  Orbit)

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Strip!: Eclectic Micks and stars of Solipsistic Pop, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM, podcast after transmission on Panel Borders

Continuing ‘anthologies and collectives month’ on the show, Alex Fitch talks to four members of a group of Irish comic book artists – Stephen Mooney, PJ Holden, Will Sliney and Declan Shalvey – who work for a variety of British and American comic publishers and collectively promote their work through a blog with the title “Eclectic Micks”.

Alex also talks to the creator and editor – Tom Humberstone – and some of the contributors – Julia Scheele, Matthew Sheret and Stephen Collins – of the new anthology “Solipsistic Pop” which intends to bring the sensibilities of high-end American Indie comic anthologies to the under represented world of British small press creators. Julia and Matthew also talk about disseminating their own self published comics – “We are words and pictures” – to the public via market stalls and club nights.

Sci-Fi London Oktoberfest

The second of this year’s Sci-Fi London festivals is shorter but perfectly formed, taking place over two nights in two different locations…  Friday 23rd October at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich:  As part of the International Year of Astronomy celebrations, SFL have teamed up with the Royal Observatory Greenwich to create a brand new Planetarium show: SCI-FI-UNIVERSE where we look at the night sky from a sci-fi perspective. Do you know where Space 1999’s Moonbase Alpha was located? In Hitchhikers’ Zaphod and Ford came from Betelgeuse, but do you know where that is in the night sky? And what would the sky look like from Vulcan? Find out which stars and planets in science fiction films and literature are real or simply journey to a ‘galaxy far far away’ in this unique planetarium experience.

Plus: panels and talks by space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, writers Paul Cornell, Simon Guerrier and Paul McAuley, journalist and film maker Timandra Harkness and many more, as well as special screenings of STAR TREK (2009) and FOR ALL MANKIND (1989)

Saturday 24th October at the Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, Lower Regent Street:

Our legendary ‘all nighters’ return with anime – including the UK premieres of Evangelion 1.0: You are (not) alone and Mamoru Oshii’s The Sky Crawlers – Aliens vs.Predator and MST3K strands. Also, following the success of the live improv redub of Labyrinth at our Spring festival, we are proud to present live stand-up comedy curated by Alex Fitch and Jessica Fostekew, featuring Sara Pascoe (Free Agents / In the thick of it), Mould and Arrowsmith, Lou Sanders, Rob Deb, Mark Restuccia and MC James Acaster.

Women in Comics conference, Sunday 25th October, Cambridge

A one day conference at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge featuring Belgian-based artist Dominique Goblet in conversation with Paul Gravett, Helen McCarthy on women and gender roles in the work of Osamu Tezuka, and other talks by Melinda Gebbie, Sarah McIntyre and Asia Alfasi.

Resonance FM journalist Alex Fitch will be chairing the panel on autobiographical comics featuring Kate Evans, Woodrow Phoenix & Corinne Pearlman.

Recent podcasts:

Panel Borders: Swedish Manga

Continuing ‘anthologies and collectives month’ on the show, Dickon Harris presents Fredrik Strömberg and Sofia Falkenhem’s panel on Swedish Manga from the 2008 Bristol International Comics Expo, about a Manga studio (Yokaj) imported to Europe from Japan! Since this panel was recorded Yokaj studio have gone on to win the 2008 award for best Swedish comic book…

Electric Sheep Magazine podcast: New approaches to Zombie cinema

In a special early Halloween special, Alex Fitch talks to Jeffrey Coghlan, the producer of the innovative Canadian Horror film Pontypool and Marc Price, director of the excellent British living dead film Colin about their new approaches to the zombie genre on a limited budget. Pontypool is currently on limited release in the UK, while Colin is released on 23rd October.

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(cover to volume 3 of Paul Cornell’s Captain Britain, cover at by Stuart Immonen, published and (C) Marvel)

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(a suitably armed and armoured James Bradley as Arthur in Merlin, (c) BBC)

In other news Barry tells me that top science fiction mag SFX has teamed up with the Geek Syndicate to run a competition offering a chance to win free accommodation and signing passes at the upcoming (and rather exciting looking) SFX Weekender con in February.

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