Tag Archive | "Books"

What’s the Point of the Arts and Humanities?

Friday, March 9, 2012

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What’s the Point of the Arts and Humanities? is the title of a discussion at the Oxford Literary Festival, which will include in the panel Josie Long, Stewart Lee and a certain Mr Alan Moore, on Monday 26th of March at 2pm (full details on the Festival site here). (cover to Alan Moore: Storyteller by [...]

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China Mieville on freedom of speech, offensive words and that Tintin book

Thursday, March 1, 2012

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We’ve remarked several times over the last couple of years on here about the Belgian court case alleging racism in Tintin in the Congo and demanding a ban on the book (the case was dismissed just recently as judges felt given the time it was created there was no intention to offend or incite racism, [...]

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LA Times Book Awards

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

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The LA Times Book Prize shortlists have been announced and for the third year they include a category for graphic novels, with several intersting titles contending for the top gong this year: I Will Bite You! And Other Stories, Joseph Lambert (Secret Acres) Celluloid, Dave McKean (Fantagraphics) Finder: Voice, Carla Speed McNeil (Dark Horse) Congress [...]

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Nebula Awards shortlist

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

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The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America organisation has announced the shortlist for the 2011 Nebula Awards; the contenders for this prestigious SF&F award this year are: Novel Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor) Embassytown, China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Del Rey; Subterranean Press) Firebird, Jack McDevitt (Ace Books) God’s War, Kameron Hurley (Night Shade Books) [...]

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User Design offer little thoughts on life, words, and punctuation

Monday, February 20, 2012

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Punctuation…?, Life, The journey of larks – Three books from User design Some of the things I get sent writing here at the FPI blog really do surprise. And here’s a case in point … three books, or more precisely three booklets. Not really comics, not really illustrated books….. weird, but interestingly weird, definitely interestingly [...]

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Denise Mina talks comics

Thursday, February 16, 2012

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(Denise Mina, Ian Rankin and Alan Grant at the Edinburgh Book Festival a couple of years ago, pic from my Flickr) Bestselling Scottish author Denise Mina has a new crime paperback about to hit the shelves from Orion Publishers, The End of the Wasp Season, and her publishers took the opportunity to talk to Denise [...]

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Tintin in the Congo not racist

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

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Missed this the other day on the BBC site, but the long brewing row in Belgium, home of Hergé, over the alleged racism in the album Tintin in the Congo, has been dismissed by the courts. We first mentioned this row quite some time ago – a lot of modern publishers, librarians, readers and others [...]

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A treasure trove of Steadman covers

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

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The Caustic Cover Critic has posted up a virtual treasure trove of book cover artwork by the great artist and cartoonist Ralph Steadman, go and enjoy a damned good bit of literary ogling! (tip of the hat to Adam Roberts for the link)

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Happy birthday, Mr Dickens

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

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One of the most beloved authors in the world, Charles Dickens, would have been 200 years old today, were he still alive in the physical sense (he is, of course, still alive in spirit through his books). I always liked the Doctor Who episode where Dickens asks our time travelling hero if his books survive, [...]

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Why I Like Books

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

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The excellent comics creator and artist Al Davison explains why he likes books, spurred on by the early destruction of their family books by his father and his own youthful experimenting by cutting and pasting different parts of different books together to make something new (I’ll forgive him for cutting into books, something of a [...]

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Badger’s Diary

Monday, January 30, 2012

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Badger’s Diary By Howard Hardiman On one hand, it simply confuses, this prose with illustrations little non-comic with the name of an old, old friend written on the front. This is Badger’s Dairy. It says so on the front cover. And there he is again on the back cover…. that’s the little critter I remember [...]

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New to The Phoenix – McIntyre & Reeve…..

Sunday, January 22, 2012

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When The Phoenix comic was announced, Molly had one question – “is Sarah in it?”. And it seemed weird that Sarah McIntyre wasn’t part of the comic to be honest. After all, it was in The DFC, with her brilliant  Vern & Lettuce, that she first showed us how good a comic-er she was, and [...]

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First Fictions & First Graphic Novel Prize this weekend

Friday, January 20, 2012

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This weekend sees the First Fictions literary festival at the University of Sussex, in conjunction with the publishers Myriad Editions (home to graphic novel works like Woodrow Phoenix’s Rumble Strip and Darryl Cunningham’s upcoming Science Tales). The festival will also see the announcement of the winner of the First Graphic Novel Competition; as we mentioned [...]

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Philip K Dick shortlist announced

Friday, January 20, 2012

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The British Fantasy Society notes that the shortlist is out for the nominees for the prestigious Philip K Dick award for science fiction. Actually it’s been up for a few days, I think, but I seem to have missed it somehow. Those in the running this year are: The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett [...]

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Best of the Year – Joe’s picks

Thursday, January 12, 2012

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It’s been another quite superb year for good reading and, like last year’s Best Of selection, I’ve been delighted at the diversity and quality of comics work coming out of the UK publishing scene, which seems to be going from strength to strength and like the more established science fiction and fantasy publishing in the [...]

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