Strip!: Yetis, ghosts and other things that go bump in the night!, tonight at 5pm on Resonance FM, podcast after transmission at Panel Borders

Continuing children’s book month on the show, Alex Fitch talks to two creators of atypical titles for kids, which are being published by Walker Books. John Dunning is the writer of Salem Brownstone: All along the watchtowers, a Graphic Album in the European format which combines his script in the style of American horror writers H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe with Nikhil Singh’s elegant artwork, reminiscent of Victorian illustrators such as Aubrey Beardsley. Salem Brownstone was originally serialised in the small press anthology Sturgeon White Moss and Alex talks to John about the process of creating this unusual title.

Alex Milway is the author of The Mousehunter trilogy of pirate novels for young adults and in his new series of books – The Mythical 9th Division – which tell the tales of a trio of crimefighting Yetis who work for the British government, he is pioneering a new kind of storytelling in which every chapter of the books segues from sequential art into more traditional text. The two Alexs talk about the first of the Yeti books – Operation Robot Storm – which is being released in June and how comics can be used as another device to get kids into reading.

Clear Spot: Directing low budget Science-Fiction films, on Resonance FM on the 17th at 8pm, first segment now online at SciFi London

In an hour long panel discussion recorded live at last year’s London Science-Fiction and Fantastic Film Festival, Alex Fitch discusses the many aspects of creating engaging and convincing SF scenarios on film with a quartet of eminent low budget film directors – Marc Caro (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children), Stuart Hazeldine (Exam), Cory McAbee (Stingray Sam), Gerald McMorrow (Franklyn) and Richard Jobson (A Woman in Winter). The panel was sponsored by The Directors Guild of Great Britain and Mr Caro’s translator was Virginie Selavy.

Recent podcasts:

Panel Borders: Robots of various sizes

Starting Children’s Books month on the show, Alex Fitch talks to two artists who have inadvertently found themselves making comics for younger audiences. Joe List is a graphic designer and animator who, with his first collection of comic strips inspired by Saturday morning cartoons – Freak Leap – has compiled a whimsical series of adventures starring pirates, monsters and giant robots with spindly legs suitable for all ages. Paul Collicutt is a children’s book illustrator who has previously been engaged in fully pained artwork for traditional picture books but now, as the creator of a series of Robot City Adventures, is telling tales of a Retro Sci-Fi future where robot Private Detectives and coastguards mix with humans and sea monsters alike.

Lucky Cat podcast: The films of Park Chan-Wook

Episode 4.6 of Resonance FM’s Asian culture show presented by Zoe Baxter. This episode is a Park Chan-Wook special to coincide with the UK DVD release of the Korean auteur’s vampire film Thirst. Zoë Baxter is joined in the studio by Mira Stout (author of bestselling novel “One Thousand Chestnut Trees”, playwright, and film critic) and Alex Fitch (broadcaster and assistant editor of Electric Sheep film magazine) to discuss Thirst and Chan-Wook’s oeuvre.

* Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter by David Crompton

* The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease by Ellen Scherl and Marla Dubinsky

* Collectible Spoons of the 3rd Reich by James A Yannes

* Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes by Daina Taimina

* Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots by Ronald C Arkin

* What Kind of Bean is this Chihuahua? by Tara Jansen-Meyer

“Selecting a shortlist proved a Herculean task, as many books carried titles that furrowed the brow—not least How YOU™ Are Like Shampoo, and Map-based Comparative Genomics in Legumes. However, the vast sum of submissions has, in my humble opinion, created one of the most competitive shortlists in the 32 years of the prize. And I look forward with incalculable anticipation to the result of the public vote,” organiser Horace Bent.

Forget the Hugos, the Eisners, heck forget the Oscars, this is the important award of the season, folks! The winner will be announced on March 26th. (via the BBC)

“Can things only get better or do we have to look over a mountain of rubble to see beyond the next fifty years?  Scottish writers are leading a renaissance in British speculative fiction, but does our national identity have any future at all?” If you’re going to be in Glasgow then that’s a brilliant gig to get along to, my own bookshelves all have space dedicated to each of those writers and I’d recommend them all (I find it amusing that Morgan who established himself with hardboiled SF has now moved into hardboiled fantasy while Cobley who made a name in fantasy has now moved into an excellent SF series). Brit science fiction in general has been producing some simply fabulous work in recent years – as with a lot of recent comics we’re spoiled with an embarassment of riches to choose from – and for reasons we’ve never quite understood the Scottish scene has been particularly spectacular. Must be something in the water. Like the single malt.

You should check out the programme because there are some great authors appearing during the festival, including Bryan Talbot who will be in conversation with Denise Mina on Friday 12th of March at 7.30pm; check the Aye Write site for full details of all events

The London Book Fair takes place 19th – 21st April. This annual trade event has decided that comics and graphic novels are worth some attention as well and tells us so on the specially created Comic & Graphic Novel Pavillion:

“Comic books, graphic novels, manga and animé have finally emerged as a serious part of the publishing industry. To embrace this LBF has introduced a Comic & Graphic Novel Pavilion. Discover the latest titles, key players and watch celebrated illustrators creating new work live in the ‘studio’. There will also be a number of seminars discussing the opportunities available within these markets.“

Well, that’s nice. Serious part of the publishing industry indeed. It will be interesting to see all those anime books – I always thought they were movies. The exhibitor list currently looks a bit sparse right now (Diamond Distributors, SelfMadeHero and Highland Books – a Christian book publisher with a couple of cartoon collections rather than comics). But, being less snarky, it is a good thing for comics to get a higher profile at the LBF since it’s a major publishers event, with over 23,000 industry professionals in attendance. Deals are done and books are sold.

The Seminars include: Helen McCarthy, Cory Doctorow, Ian Rankin, Paul Gravett, Marco Lupoi (Panini), Emma Hayley (SelfMadeHero), Sophie Castille (Mediatoon) and cover a range of comic publishing topics: Cross-Media Horizons: Graphic Novels & Video Games, Getting Graphic Novels and Manga to the Reader, New Opportunities: Graphic Novels and Digital, Graphic Novel Industry Unveiled.

More details on the LBF Graphic Novels Pavillion website.

(Neil Gaiman signing at last summer’s Edinburgh International Book Festival, pic from my Flickr; you can listen to audio of the entire event with Neil, Ian Rankin and Denise Mina on the blog here)

There was even more exciting Gaiman-related news from the SFX bash though – for years now its been hinted that Neil had been asked to pen a script for the ultra successful revived Doctor Who series. The thought of that made me and many others rather delighted, but so far its been only a teasing fantasy (see Pádraig’s 2008 interview with him here). Last night it came out on Twitter that Neil was indeed to write for the show at last and since Neil later said he’d given the SFX boys a scoop, as Cheryl Morgan notes that sounds like proper confirmation and later SFX posted it on their site too. Neil’s story should appear in an episode due to air in 14 months, so the second Matt Smith season by the sounds of it. Many will recall J Michael Straczynski pestering Neil for years to pen a script for his mould-breaking Babylon 5 series before it eventually happened (”Zooty – Zoot Zoot!”) with the Day of the Dead episode late in the show’s run. Well its something to very much look forward to and since Neil, like many of us of a certain age in the UK, grew up with the original show I’m guessing he’s pretty pleased about a chance to be involved with it too.

(What Maisie Knew by Henry James via Edward Gorey and now channeled by Kate Beaton)

Still, that said all four nominees are, frankly, brilliant authors; China has a deserved reputation for being one of our most innovative fantasy scribes, a clever writer who really does bring something fresh and new to the genre, Stephen is one of the best ‘hard SF’ writers around (its not for nothing he often is referred to as the ‘heir to Arthur C Clarke’), Adam consistently produces fascinting work that is too damned clever by half, with each book quite different from the preceding work and Ursula is simply Ursula, one of the most intelligent, thoughtful, elegant and wonderful writers, in any genre, I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I wouldn’t hesistate to point you to all four if you are looking for some good reading.

On the short fiction front the nominees are Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia – The Beloved Time of Their Lives – The Beloved of My Beloved, Newcon Press, Eugie Foster – Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast – Interzone, Ian Whates – The Assistant – The Solaris Book of Science Fiction Volume 3, Ian McDonald – Vishnu at the Cat Circus, Kim Lakin-Smith – Johnnie and Emmie-Lou Get Married – Interzone and Dave Hutchinson – The Push, Newcon Press. Two noms from Interzone – see, I said its a journal anyone who loves SF writing should be checking out!

(gorgeous cover art for Interzone #225 by Adam Tredowski)

Non fiction noms are Nick Lowe – Mutant Popcorn, Interzone, John Clute – Canary Fever, Beccon, Hal Duncan – Ethics and Enthusiasm, Deepa D – I didn’t Dream of Dragons and Farah Mendlesohn and Edward James – A Short History of Fantasy. Contending for the Art award are Adam Tredowski – covers of Interzone issues 220, 224 and 225, Nitzan Klamer – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Stephanie Pui-Min Law- Emerald, Stephan Martiniere – Cover of Desolation Road by Ian McDonald. As is traditional the awards will be given out at the annual Eastercon, Odyssey, which this year takes place over the weekend of April 2nd to 5th

(Gaiman Photograph by Eric Ogden from the New Yorker)

Neil Gaiman has a write up/profile in the New Yorker this week by Dana Goodyear. Described as “a lengthy, if also gently sniffy, profile” by the Guardian, it’s essentially a bit of a Gaiman primer although interesting for these little snippets, which delve into a little known detail of his background:

“The pivotal fact of Gaiman’s childhood is one that appears nowhere in his fiction and is periodically removed from his Wikipedia page by the site’s editors. When he was five, his family moved to East Grinstead, the center of English Scientology, where his parents began taking Dianetics classes. His father, a real-estate developer, and his mother, a pharmacist, founded a vitamin shop, G & G Foods, which is still operational. (According to its Web site, it supplies the Human Detoxification Programme, a course of vitamins, supplements, and other alleged purification techniques, which Scientology offers at disaster sites like Chernobyl and Ground Zero.) In the seventies, his father, who died last year, began working in Scientology’s public-relations wing and over time rose high in the organization. Gaiman has two younger sisters, both still active in Scientology; one of them works for the church in Los Angeles, and the other helps run the family businesses.”

“These days, Gaiman tends to avoid questions about his faith, but says he is not a Scientologist. Like Judaism, Scientology is the religion of his family, and he feels some solidarity with them. “I will stand with groups when I feel like they’re being properly persecuted,” he told me.”

Charlie Huston interviewed by Keith Rawson, part 1 from Damon Cap on Vimeo.

Charlie Huston interviewed by Keith Rawson part 2 from Damon Cap on Vimeo.