This year was a really fun trip.

I had decided beforehand to try and have a more rounded festival experience and combine time behind our author table with attending talks and exhibitions. With that in mind I only travelled to the con with a bunch of mini – comics, which traditionally do sell well. This year the crew consisted of myself, Francesca Cassavetti, Sally Anne Hickman and Oliver Lambden. We have retired the Bastards name and went along as Azfab.

We met Stephen Betts, Ellen Lindner, Gary Northfield And Lauren O’Farell at Eurostar, and then travelled first leg with Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury. In Lille we met the Nobrow crew and Martin Steenton who I was sharing a Tumblr blog that was initiated by Dan Berry.

Straight of the train and to the tent we set up the table and met our neighbours Tom and Chris from AdHouse books. Then off to the house for a night of food and wine (well, when in France…). Thursday was creators meet and greet, so a relaxed day. I went to the Spiegelman exhibition that was split over two sites, the Castro building and the museum. It was great. I actually got the random chance to speak to him, congratulated him on his exhibition. I managed to remain conversational and not gush or ask to have a photo taken with him or give him comics. Later there was an evening of parties; the stand out was at La Maison des Auteurs, which always exhibits excellent work.

Friday was a busier day but took the time out to go to the Eddie Campbell talk. On returning to the table it was obvious that my comics were not going to sell in any great number. So I decided to just relax and enjoy the event. I took a bunch of mini comics round for review, had an accidental  ‘folio review with l’association who liked my drawings. That was an amazingly good feeling.

(pics all by Sean and taken from his Flickr)

Saturday was madness – so many people. This was Francesca’s day as she sold loads. There was no Chris Ware, and the Charles Burns talk was full when we got there. I also got to meet Wim (our very own Continental Correspondent – Joe), which was nice. The Raw talk was held in a cupboard-sized room, so that was a blow-out as well.

Sunday was a more sedate day and this was Sally’s day. I took another look round the Spiegelman exhibition and almost got knocked over by the man himself, a huge media scrum and, apparently, President Sarkozy. It was insane. I just love the whole craziness of this type of large-scale event. It’s like living in a cartoon village, with NO spandex heroes – bliss! After I tried to get into the Fred exhibition but there was just no chance, it was rammed.

If I have a complaint at all, it is that the programming with the venues seemed perhaps a bit lopsided. Overall though my Angoulême 2012 experience was really good. I still feel restricted by language when dealing with publishers, so it’s back to French classes for me. I always return from this festival full of inspiration. It’s such an amazing experience and if any cartoonist is serious about the medium then they have to visit.

Simple.

FPI would like to thank Sean for his time and report – you can follow more of Sean’s work on his own site here and as we mentioned yesterday he has already uploaded a pile of photographs from this year’s festival onto Flickr. Stay tuned for more on this year’s festival from Wim shortly.

“Every now and then, when a new publishing concern pops up, one wonders how it’s possible they weren’t there all along. Some publishers fill a niche that one didn’t even know existed, and as a reader you’re the richer for having been exposed to it. Sparkplug Comic Books, PictureBox, and Secret Acres are three American companies that immediately come to mind, though all three were obviously strongly influenced by the aesthetic (if not economic) model blazed by Tom Devlin’s Highwater Books. Koyama Press has a similar role in Canada. Both of these countries have strong alt-cartooning traditions. England is a country that historically has seemed way behind the US, Canada, and Europe in terms of publishing and appreciating art comics, but two burgeoning publishing concerns are filling that gap. Nobrow Press and Blank Slate Books bear little resemblance to each other in terms of design and aesthetic focus, but both are playing a role in not only providing a place for young British artists to publish their work, but also in bringing the work of European artists to English-speaking audiences for the first time.”

I notice too that Rob likens Britain’s Blank Slate to the US’s Top Shelf, a comparison I know without even asking will delight our own and Blank Slate big cheese Kenny Penman’s comic soul. (link via the indispensable Tom Spurgeon)

Lew Stringer notes that the Royal Mail will have a series of stamps out this March celebrating the rich heritage of something close to our hearts, British comics, with a range of stamps showcasing some famous comics that many of us grew up reading, with an image of the comic cover and a headshot of a famous characters from it. The Dandy one boasts Desperate Dan, the Beano, of course, has Dennis the Menace, The Valiant is represented by one time villain turned hero The Steel Claw and 2000 AD has, naturally enough,  Judge Dredd. And from the image behind Dredd’s head looks to me to be the (in) famous Jigsaw Man with his bizarre alien disease (still a memorable image all these years later).

Dan Abnett and Colin MacNeil

2000 AD/Rebellion

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Patrick Henry.

Mining Colony K-Alpha 61, a mineral working remote space outpost for Mega City One. Except the colony no longer considers itself a colony of the distant Big Meg. The colony has declared independence and renamed itself Liberty. And the Judges are not happy about it. Abnett and MacNeil set up the backstory very quickly, economically and efficiently, with a single page showing the senior Judge Marshall for the colony, Karel Luther delivering his statement of intent and the reasons for this radical – especially for a trained Judge – move:

An alien species invaded and when despite repeated requests for help from Earth no assistance arrived the Marshals knew they needed everyone on the colony to fight the vicious Zhind, not just Judges and citizens, but also the large underclass which the majority of the workload – vital to the Big Meg’s industries and economy – relies on, the mutants, sentient robots and genetically uplifted apes, to take up arms. As these being have no real rights under Mega City Law (we’ve known since Dredd’s earliest days how the law disparages the Mutie and the robot) why would they fight for the colony? The Marshals have been granted leave to confer full rights of citizenship on them, giving them the same rights and freedoms of any other person in the colony. And just as the freed black slaves flocked to join the Union banner after the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War this underclass is not only willing to join up and fight, they are if anything more determined than anyone else to prove themselves, even at the cost of their lives.

Then when the desperate struggle is won with no help from Mega City One word comes from Earth, well done, now the threat is over you can go ahead and revoke their citizenship.

Luther and fellow Marshals like Freely are trained Judges, it is against all they believe in to rebel even against such a tyrannical, immoral order. But their first loyalty, Luther explains, isn’t to the law it is to justice. And to go back on the citizenship deal after so many fought and died for it would be unjust. So he tells MC-1 where to go, knowing full well this time they will come out to the colony that they failed to help before. And in a force that he knows he cannot beat, but there comes a time when a person has to take a stand, regardless of the odds, for what they believe in…

It’s a great set up, the struggling underdogs, heroic and with right on their side but with little chance of success, up against an unjust, inflexible, greater power; not the first time the Dredd universe has painted the Judges as complete fascist bully boys, of course, but it works so very well and it means we get some serious future space-war combat action thrills but as it comes with a strong moral-political imperative we can enjoy the spectacular action (and MacNeil gives us some cracking big scenes, from a fleet of vicious judicial starships to ground action as the Special Judical Squad – the feared SJS who deal with other Judges – come in force) and feel no guilt over the violence.

(all art in this post by Colin MacNeill, (c) Rebellion)

Of course one long fight on Liberty against the odds could become a bit repetitive, and it is to Abnett’s credit that he anticipates this, so the doomed fight for Liberty is only the opening third of the tale. From the start the Marshals know that no matter how hard they and their ragtag army fights this is one battle they simply cannot win; it is clear that the SJS would be quite prepared to blast the entire colony from orbit and wipe it out if the assault fails. So when massive civilian casualties are threatened Luther has no option but to offer a surrender; he has given the SJS the biggest bloody nose it ever took in its history, he made a point, made a stand. And although Liberty has fallen under their jackboot the struggle itself goes on. Other colonies are slowly hearing about this, other worlds with their own large underclasses of robots, muties and uplifts, not to mention humans that MC-1 care nothing for really, as long as the raw materials are shipped back to Earth. Why should they be beholden to a power that doesn’t protect them, doesn’t care for them, doesn’t even recognise many of them in law with any rights? And so a few of them escape the surrender to carry on the new war, the ideological war – and another colony starts to turn, renaming itself, in honour of the French revolution, Fraternity, to stand morally alongside Liberty…

Now I won’t go on into this second part of the book because I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I will tell you that is is, if anything, even more gripping than the first half. Abnett and MacNeil move on to a classic guerilla campaign for freedom and also a war of ideals. But it isn’t entirely straightforward good freedom fighters versus evil imperial power, Abnett is too canny and experienced a writer for that, and he mixes in some shades of gray too. Although I suspect most readers will still predominantly have their sympathies on the side of the rebels, the guys introduce some other elements, not least the SJS leader’s argument to Luther as to why not just MC-1 but the entire Earth desperately needs the colonies as they are, which does muddy the formerly clear moral waters a little. It’s a fine combination of science fiction, war action, morality, ideology and heroism that makes for a gripping, absorbing tale that draws you right in, deftly weaving in references to other fights for freedom, such as the French and American Revolutions as well as more recent history (you could read part of it as a comment on fighting foreign wars largely based on the chance to exploit the natural resources of another land, dressed up in ideology to mask naked greed).

And throughout Colin MacNeil’s art is superb. The Dredd Megazine has, like its 2000 AD parent, been fortunate in having had a roster of extremely fine artists over the years and MacNeil has long been a fan favourite. I’ve admired Colin’s art for many years myself, not least for his ability to create quite different styles to suit different tales – he’s a brush jockey who can go from the very cartoony to the highly stylised to the realistic as the story he’s working on demands. And here he has created a visually stunning wash of monochromatic art that is as at home depicting epic starship fleets as it is individuals, giving real character to the human and the uplift, mutie and robots alike, while also treating us to some brilliant large splash pages showing vast colonial landscapes and action scenes.

The monochromatic nature of the art suits the story perfectly, both visually stunning and clear and yet still moody and atmospheric at the same time. I look forward to more of this intriguing new aspect to the expanded Dredd universe.

Edited by Rob Davis and Woodrow Phoenix, contributions by over 50 UK based creators.

Blank Slate Books

It’s 1968; Jim and Rita Baker are eagerly awaiting their first child. In a sequence evoking that long-gone swinging Sixties era, Rob Davis’ lovely art sees Jim puttering around town on his scooter, a cool, hip 60s young man, trying to find a Nelson statuette for his imminently arriving child as a gift. He had a large figure of Britain’s greatest naval hero as a kid and he plans to call his son (he’s sure it will be a boy) Nelson, and he wants his wee lad to have his own Nelson figure right from birth as a keepsake, going through a succession of shops, explaining it to them, telling them he is about to be a dad (the shop assistants in turn either bored, disinterested or amused), being told to try here, there and everywhere, going to one store after the other on his scooter.

(Rob Davis’ cool art for the start of Nelson, evoking London, the Swinging Sixties, the cool young lad-about-town with his scooter, about to become more than a hip young lad, about to become a dad…)

He succeeds but by the time he returns he finds Rita has gone into labour and been rushed to hospital. All a-fluster he heads double time for the hospital and, in an amazingly simple yet touching scene opens the ward door to see his wife holding their baby child in her arms. “Nelson?” he says softly, Davis deftly conveying the astonishment, wonder and terror that comes with the arrival of a child into your life in one frame.

(new dad, gobsmacked in the doorway to the ward – is that really my child? Oh my god, I’m a dad, I have to look after this tiny life for as long as I can. Terrifying and wonderful, all caught in one simple scene by Rob)

Nelson is a remarkably unusual creature – it is an anthology, but not the sort we normally see, where each creator tells their own short tale. It takes in over 50 of the UK’s finest comics creators – Davis himself, Woodrow Phoenix (who co-edits with Davis), Sarah McIntyre, D’Israeli, Jamie Smart, Posy Simmonds, Hunt Emerson, Rian Hughes, INJ Culbard, Darryl Cunningham, Simone Lia, Duncan Fegredo, Garen Ewing. Paul Grist and many more – but they are all telling the same story and it is the one story that each and every one of us has: the story of our life. Each artist takes a moment in Nel’s life, a different day and time, each in a different style, progressing through from her birth, through the 70s, 80s, 90s and up to the present day, from birth to middle age and all that comes in between, the wonderful little discoveries (beautiful books, being able to draw, ice-cream, friends) and all the little heartaches we endure along the way (a lost sibling, trying to define who you are, failed romances, life being unfair).

You might think that changing artistic styles every few pages would be confusing, but actually it suits the story extremely well; each new artist is dealing with a different part of Nel’s life and we, those around us, and the world itself, are always in flux, constantly changing (we need only look through old family photo albums to see that; a common thread we can discern, of course, but run through the endless loom of change, because life is change), with styles ranging from Davis’ lovely rendering of a hip, cool 60s (so effortlessly evoking the era) to the delightful (and very appropriate for the age of Nel) more joyful cartoonish style of Sarah McIntyre depicting Nel’s first day at school (complete with Space Hopper – remember those?), which I defy you not to smile at. In fact the whole story has much in common with a family album, offering us glimpses into certain moments of time, leaving us to fill in the narrative in-between those moments of frozen time and memory; the reader and their imagination here are trusted to be a part of the experience. Some moments are large, but others are simply that elusive, ever-changing beast, everyday life; all are compelling.

(the early 70s – strikes, 3 day working week, cutbacks, ill-advised facial hair stylings and Nel’s first day at school, complete with Space Hopper. Sarah McIntyre, as usual, makes me smile)

It’s a bold experiment, especially from an independent publisher, but the effect is engrossing, drawing the reader into the wonder and chaos of a life and it is impossible not to identify with Nel and those around her at some points in her life, not least her quest for self identity, not just in her rebellious adolescence but for her whole life (and really, do any of us every finish with that search for who we are?). For those of us of a similar age there is a touch of warm nostalgia to be picked up in the details too – oh, I remember that style, those bikes we rode, that music we listened to – which adds a warm touch, but wisely the book doesn’t trade overly on it, they are there as details, but it never becomes mawkish (which would be so easy to do), instead the primary focus is always on Nel, on growing up, on life.

(ah, sweet nostalgia – it’s 1982, young friends, the ‘tranny’ – transistor radio to you – and the happening pop music that is the soundtrack to your young life in Philip Bond’s segment, the pop culture and teen friendships nicely contrasted with checking out the old Protect & Survive guide to nuclear annihilation, preparation for which was a popular hobby of the period)

Trying to figure out just who you are and where you fit into this crazy world is a Herculean task, made harder for Nel because she has a continual feeling of missing something. Many of us may experience that sort of feeling from time to time, but in her case it is almost literal – as her story unfolds we find out that she was one half of a pair of twins, but Sonny, her brother, passed away not longer after being born. Ellen Lindner reveals this in a beautifully moving scene where Nel’s mum is organising her wee girl’s birthday, all is cakes and balloons and fun, but she is fighting not to break down because – because if it is Nel’s birthday then it should be Sonny’s too, but her wee boy never had the chance to experience birthdays.

(Nel’s mum pours her heart out to her friend over her lost child in a scene by Ellen Lindner)

She’s tried to hold it in, but on this day she turns to her friend Marlene, who also lost a child, and it pours out. Since she was a toddler Nel has talked to this lost brother, almost like an imaginary child, and in her adult years, especially when things aren’t going well for her, she talks still to Sonny. Is the spirit of her twin with her through her convoluted life or is it only in Nel’s mixed up head? We don’t know and really it doesn’t matter, it’s her emotional reaction to Sonny that is important and the way she feels losing him damaged what she was meant to be.

It is a remarkable piece of work, highly unusual and brilliantly done – kudos must go to Woodrow and Rob and all involved, and to Blank Slate for being innovative enough to publish such a work, which I think is destined to become a bit of a landmark British comic publication (I already know it is going straight into my personal Best of the Year list) and frankly if you value quality comics work you have to have a copy in your collection, because it is the book we are all going to be talking about this season and you don’t want to be left out now, do you?

(1986 and it is birthday time, always double edged things, birthdays, especially when you are one of what should have been twins. Add in youth, drinks and sexual tension, mix and stand well back in Ade Salmon’s chapter)

Nel’s story weaves through childhood pranks and games to rejecting the straightjacket of school, exploring friendships, romances, art and herself, from art school rebellion to experiencing her first E and Rave Culture in the 90s, watching those she grew up with get on with their own lives and wondering how her life compares (don’t we all? Especially when the 2000s come along and she can compare lives with friends on Facebook – really, that guy from school is grown up, good job, married, kids? Him? Wow! We’ve all done that…), negotiating her own troubled family life (a small scene on her first school day will later come to have huge significance for their family years later), wondering if she should surrender to the daily job grind or still try and do something with her art.

(a grown up Nel wondering where her life went, who she is now, those dreams of youth battered by real life – often such a bully – drowning it in drink, lost dreams and talking to her long-dead twin Sonny. Is he really there talking to her or just in her head? Does it matter? It’s part of how Nel realises herself, for good or ill)

You may wonder why we aren’t offering as generous a discount on Nelson as we normally do with our graphic novels, especially given how much we like it. There is a good reason for that – Blank Slate is giving the profits on the first print run to the homelessness charity Shelter, and indeed a number of comics retailers, including ourselves, are also donating along with them. So we can’t offer you that little extra we normally would to make it easier to try something new and wonderful. But we can still offer you Nelson – a fascinating, unusual landmark publication in Brit comics, a moving tale that works not only as a snapshot of a woman’s life but as a snapshot of the finest comics talent working in the UK right now (seriously, look at that list of contributors, running the range of age, approach and art styles in British comics right now, and hey, we love British comics right now, we really do, it’s happening) – and as a bonus you get to support a charity that is needed more than ever into the bargain. You get a brilliant book, you support UK independent comics publishing and you get to help someone who really needs a hand too. Go on, buy one for yourself and buy one as a present while you’re at it.

Nelson has just been released by Blank Slate and can be found with other Blank Slate titles in your local FPI, on our site and a number of other quality comics stores such as Gosh!, Page 45, Plan B Books and others.  Nelson Week sees some of the team at the excellent Thought Bubble in Leeds this coming weekend, there’s a signing in the London Forbidden Planet Megastore, an exhibition starting in the Cartoon Museum in London and a cracking launch night in Gosh to look forward to as well. In fact a whole brace of new titles has just arrived from Blank Slate alongside Nelson, and this week we’re going to be running a preview of a different one each day – Richard has already posted up a look at Uli Osterle’s fascinating looking Hector Umbra yesterday and we’ll have more all week, so don’t touch that dial.

The Blank Slate Books posse proudly announce Nelson week from the 19th to the 27th of November, taking in a whole pile of exciting events, including a busy signing schedule at the fab Thought Bubble festival in Leeds, original art exhibited in the Cartoon Museum, a signing at the Forbidden Planet megastore in London and and exhibition and signing session in the fab Gosh! Comics too.

Now okay, disclaimer – the blog team are obviously friends with many of the folks involved in Nelson and Blank Slate. But I can honestly say that doesn’t colour my judgement on the book – and I hope that over the years we’ve built a decent rep for being honest here on the blog so when I say that you know we mean it. And my honest opinion is that we should all be damned excited about this. I’ve been lucky enough to get an advance read at Nelson recently and it is a highly unusual and quite engrossing comic, bringing together dozens of brilliant comics creators into one story, the story of a woman’s life from birth in the 60s through the 70s, 80s, 90s and the 2000s, each artist taking a different segment of her life.

(a few panels from Rob Davis’ lovely art in the 1968 chapter, as Nel’s dad looks for just the right item to give to his about to arrive child)

As you’d expect the art styles vary enormously, from delightful, children’s book-like illustrations from Sarah McIntyre and Jamie Smart to the utterly gorgeous 1960s set pages by co-editor Rob Davis as Nel’s dad prepares for her arrival on Planet Earth, followed by another lovely 60s set chapter from co-editor Woodrow Phoenix which also managed to evoke some pop culture nostalgia with the period On The Buses references. Actually I had quite a few surges of nostalgia reading Nelson – we’re almost the same age and more than a few chapters brought a wave of recognition, with scenes like the joyful playing by Nel on her orange Spacehopper by Sarah McIntyre making me smile and reminding me of playing on one of those myself as a kid (way before they were associated with the Meatsafe Murderer!):

(the 1973 segment sees Nel about to have her first day at school, drawn by the wonderful Sarah McIntyre)

You might think that changing artists every few pages might throw you off; normally in a long-form comic we have one or two artists working through the entire story, giving it a uniform look. But to be honest the constant changing suits the story perfectly – each different creator is telling a different, small part of Nel’s life story, from birth through childhood, adolescence and adulthood, the ups and downs of family life, the struggle to define yourself as yourself (do any of us ever really finish that struggle?), and each is in a different time, so the constantly changing art styles actually compliment the idea of snapshots of a person’s life at different times, each having a different look, just as we ourselves and the world around us changes constantly (we only need to flip through old family photo albums to confirm that).

We’re going to be talking more about Nelson on here, I’m sure, but again I’d like to say how cool it is that we have a publisher right here in the UK who will put out a work as unusual and daring as this? It really does deserve your support – the Blank Slaters have been an integral and important part of the strong surge in quality British comics publishing in recent years and I’d like to think most of our readers would strongly support that, especially when they take a chance on something unusual like this; it deserves lots of support. And as if the book being superb isn’t enough motivation, you’re also doing the world some good by buying it as the profits are going to the homeless charity Shelter (and indeed I am delighted to say several comics retailers are also giving profits to the charity from the book too). And for what it is worth I can tell you right now that this book is going straight on to my Best of the Year list in December.

(that wonderful childish delight of finding something wondrous in a book – a quality some of us never grow out of I’m glad to say – in Nelson’s 1976 chapter by Warwick Johnson-Cadwell)

As I said we’ll be talking more Nelson in the next little while, but meantime let me leave you with several dozen other reasons why you should be buying this fine book: Paul Grist, Rob Davis, Woodrow Phoenix, Ellen Lindner, Jamie Smart, Gary Northfield, Sarah McIntyre, Suzy Varty, Sean Longcroft, Warwick Johnson–Cadwell, Luke Pearson, Paul Harrison–Davies, Katie Green, Paul Peart–Smith, Glyn Dillon, I.N.J.Culbard, John Allison, Philip Bond, D’Israeli, Simone Lia, Darryl Cunningham, Jonathan Edwards, Ade Salmon, Kate Charlesworth, Warren Pleece, Kristyna Baczynski, HarveyJames, Rian Hughes, Sean Phillips & Pete Doree, Kate Brown, Simon Gane, Jon McNaught, Adam Cadwell, Faz Choudhury, JAKe, Jeremy Day, Dan McDaid, Roger Langridge, Will Morris, Dave Shelton, Carol Swain, Hunt Emerson, Duncan Fegredo, Philippa Rice, Josceline Fenton, Garen Ewing, Tom Humberstone , Dan Berry,Alice Duke, Posy Simmonds, Laura Howell, Andi Watson, and Dave Taylor.

(Dan McDaid’s 1997 chapter for Nelson. Black hole sun, won’t you come, won’t you come… )

I mean look at that contributor list! How often do you get Posy Simmonds alongside Tom Humberstone and Sean Phillips and Rian Hughes and Luke Pearson and Paul Grist and Rob Davis and D’Israeli and Hunt Emerson and… okay, you can read the names for yourselves, but you take my point – how often do you get a high quality, unusual comics project with so muchdiverse and brilliant talent in one volume? And published right here in Blighty. In the words of the late, great Sir Jimmy Saville “how’s about that then, boys and gals?”

London peeps, a must-have for your comics diary this month, a lovely part of the larger Comica festival – Comiket, in the Great Hall at the Bishopsgate Institute on Saturday 12th November. The guest list includes Roger Langridge, Luke Pearson, Warren Pleece, James Jarvis, Savage Pencil, Eyeball, Frederik Peeters and Brecht Evens, while the list of those who will be attending includes a veritable who’s who of British Indy comics such as Accent UK, Sean Azzopardi, Dan Berry, the Blank Slate Books posse will be there, the DFC Library crew too, Jonathan Cape, Howard Hardiman, Lizz Lunney, Knockabout Comics, Myriad Editions, Phillipa Rice, david O’Connell, Nobrow, Doug Noble, We Are Words + Pictures, Solipsistic Pop, Kevin Sutherland, Katie Greene and many more. Phew.

And on the subject of Comiket, the Comica site has posted up this video shot by Steve Poulacheris of last year’s Comiket Drawing Parade, featuring the likes of Charlie Adlard, Gary Nothfield, Paul Duffield and more drawing and being interviewed – we’re told a second part is in the works featuring Ellen Lindner, Hunt Emerson and more.

And I just have to post this lovely image up again – Isaac Lenkiewicz’s fabulous-looking poster for this year’s Comica, isn’t it brilliant?

This year’s Comica includes the now customary bevvy of wonderful comics events, including the one and only Warren Ellis in conversation, Laydeez Do Comics will be joining up with Comica to bring guests from the USA, Canada and Germany, Swiss comics creator Frederik Peeters (Sandcastle), launch parties for The Strumpet, Nobrow’s Klaus and Solipsistic Pop 4, talks, lectures, the Graphic Short Story Prize award and so much more – as we say in the trade, check the site for full details.

The launch party for the excellent Solipsistic Pop‘s fourth outing has been announced: Tuesday 8th November from 7.30pm onwards in Concrete, London, E1.  Should be a good night, with live music, drink, various comics bods etc. This fourth Sol Pop has a theme of maps and boasts contributions from thirty top UK artists and writers (including Dan Berry, Rob Davis, Joe Decie, Oli East, Lizz Lunney, Katie Green, Edward Ross, Tom Humberstone and more; it’s effectively become something of a showcase for some of the brilliant talent we know is working in the vibrant British small press scene and it’s well worthy of your support.

British comics institution 2000 AD has announced a new award for loyal readers – - regular readers are already known as Squaxx dek Thargo, or ‘friends of Tharg, the alien editor of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic. The next level up is the coveted Krill Tro Thargo, which will be awarded to those fans who have done the most to spread the word about 2000 AD. Previously announced through the letters page, this year the award goes physical, with the first winners due to be announced at the upcoming Thought Bubble comics bash in Leeds, so there’s another good reason to be at TB! (tip of the hat to PJ Holden for the link, via the always scrotnig Everything Comes Back to 2000 AD blog)