(EIBF director Nick Barley combining cosplaying as one of the Reservoir Dogs with telling us about some of the highlights in this year’s programme at the launch in Edinburgh’s lovely Central Library, pic from my Flickr)

Some of the blog crew’s very favourites will be there – Sarah McIntyre and Metaphrog mentioned to me that they will be there showing younger readers how to make art and comics, the Etherington Brothers will be serving up some Monkey Nuts, the brand new Children’s Laureate, the wonderful Julia Donaldson will be in charge of her own strand, including an event that will appeal to lovers of kid’s books and great illustration alike, when she talks with her three principal artists from her books, Nick Sharrat, David Roberts and Axel Scheffler (and as our own Richard has been pointing out, there in an increasing crossover between picture books and comics for younger readers). Writer and cartoonist John Fardell will discuss the art and craft of Herge’s immortal Tintin, while  Doctor Mel Gibson, one of the great British academic champion of the value of comics, will be explaining just how valuable the medium can be for getting younger readers into book, alongside Emma Vieceli.

(the sparkly Sarah McIntyre at the 2010 Book Fest, pic from my Flickr)

Two artists who debuted very fine graphic novels from Jonathan Cape earlier this year, William Goldsmith (the remarkable and very unusual Vignettes of Ystov, a visually unique series of interconnected short tales in a fictional eastern European city) and Nick Hayes (The Rime of the Modern Mariner, which Nick was good enough to give us a Director’s Commentary on just recently), will be there, and, as with a brace of new authors who have debut books this year at the Book Festival, they will be entered into the longlist of the Newton First Book Award. The mighty Steve Bell returns after his very fine strand last year at the Book Fest, to discuss political cartooning.

(new education and children’s programme director Janet Smyth unveils some of the delights for younger readers and young adults, including some comics workshops, pic from my Flickr)

The internationally acclaimed Shaun Tan will be in Charlotte Square, whole Kelly Link will be talking with Audrey Niffenegger (who also has her own strand of guest programming) about science fiction, fantasy and realism. Audrey will also be talking about her own work, including the SF romance The Time Traveller’s Wife and her graphic novel The Night Bookmobile. Oh, and in her guest strand Audrey will be talking to a certain gentleman of letters who will be paying a welcome return visit to the festival, comics scribe, novelist, scriptwriter (most recently for Doctor Who), the one and only Neil Gaiman, which should be a superb evening. And Scotland’s own comics superstar scribe Grant Morrison will be there to discuss his new book, out next month from Cape, Supergods, a combination of history of superhero comics and autobiography.

(Neil Gaiman at his first EIBF appearance in 2009 where he appeared with Ian Rankin – you can read a report from that event here on the blog, pic from my Flickr)

And that’s just me doing a rapid scan through the two-week plus programme after the launch and picking out some of the graphic novel and SF events – there’s an enormous amount of other events in there, including a homage to the brilliant Scots writer and artist Alasdair Gray (a national treasure), which will include acting out one of his works with fellow authors joining the actors on stage. There are literally hundreds of book events for children, young adults and the grown-up adults: poets, historians, politicians (top SF author and local lad Iain Banks will be in conversation with Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond), reporters, scientists, novelists, artists… Well, the list goes on. And the on-site bookstore will supply you with much enjoyable browsing and the chance to pick up all sorts of work (and if you are lucky get them signed by the authors), including a selection of graphic novels (which I am pleased to say we’ve been able to help with). And yes, I know I do go on a bit about it each year, but seriously, if you love reading then this is the Mecca for the book lover, the biggest festival to celebrate the remarkable world of books of all sorts. It’s a delight and I hope some of you will be making the trip to Edinburgh this August to enjoy it (and all the rest of the festivals and this incredibly beautiful city). Fingers crossed I’ll be hoping to attend some of the events myself and report them on there as usual. The Edinburgh International Book Festival takes place from the 13th to the 29th of August and you can explore all the many events (including a number of special free ones) on the EIBF website.

(some of the literary community at the programme launch this morning in the splendid environs of Edinburgh’s Central Library – a great venue to launch a book festival programme in and also affording an appropriate spot for the speakers to make clear their support for the value of our public libraries in the face of government cuts. In the left of centre you can see Sandra and John from Metaphrog, creators of the lovely Louis graphic novels, pic from my Flickr)

“Myriad Editions is pleased to announce the first ever competition for a first graphic novel in progress. The entry may be by a single author or may be a collaboration between a writer and artist.

The winner will have the opportunity to develop their work in progress with Myriad’s creative and editorial team with a view to being offered a contract and publication by Myriad in 2012/13.

The winner will be announced in January 2012 at the First Fictions Festival.

The closing date is Monday 1st October 2011.

The winning entry will be an extract from a narrative work in progress – fiction or non-fiction – and will be chosen purely on the strength and promise of the art and writing by a panel of expert judges.”

Aforementioned judging panel include bestselling crime novelist and longtime comics fan Ian Rankin, the Guardian’s mighty bearded cartooning colossus Steve Bell, top comics creator Ilya, artist Hannah Berry, the redoubtable Bryan Talbot and Myriad’s Corrine Pearlman. Sounds interesting and potentially a useful foot in the door with a publisher for new comics talent. Full entry details can be downloaded from Myriad’s site, so get cracking!

The Edinburgh Forbidden Planet International was host to the excellent Bryan Talbot on Saturday afternoon, back up for a return visit to sign copies of his brilliant Grandville graphic novels and other works (yes, of course I got my copies signed!). Over a quick post signing drink before he had to head to Glasgow for a second event at Plan B’s store Bryan was generous enough to give a couple of us a peek at some pages he had printed out from the work he has been collaborating on with his wife Mary, Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes,which looked extremely interesting. I believe it is due from Jonathan Cape late on this year (and Dark Horse in the US) and of course we’ll talk to Bryan about it a bit later in the year and try and bring you more on that closer to the publication – you can read a little about it just now on Bryan’s site. Meantime enjoy a few more pics from Saturday:

(and now you know how Alan Moore came by his hirsute appearance! The Rarebit Fiend by the great Winsor McCay, image purloined from Jody’s blog)

It’s an interesting list – of course everyone will have their own opinions on books that should have been in there or shouldn’t be included, that’s always the way of any such list, but regardless of quibbling over some individual choices (which is, after all, a matter of personal taste) there are some great suggestions in there for anyone who loves quality comics reading, from Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto X to Jason Lutes’ Berlin, Eddie Campbell’s Alec to Gillen and McKelvie’s Phonogram, Guy Delisle’s Pyongyan to Gaiman’s Sandman. Jody tells me that the home stretch is now in sight and the countdown into the final ten has begun, with the aforementioned Rarebit Fiend. Go and have a look and cheer a happy but exhausted Jody over the finishing line. And of course you can share your own suggestions for any such list in the comments.

A new collection of Daniel Clowes work coming soon from Jonathan Cape? Oh yes, indeedy! Mister Wonderful: a Love Story, collects the tale first serialised in the New York Times Magazine, plus some forty pages of new material, following Marshall: middle-aged, unemployed and divorced, waiting nervously for a blind date with Natalie, a woman his sole remaining friend (his ex-wife having taken the rest) has set him up with. Except she doesn’t appear after ten minutes, twenty, half an hour, an hour… Marshall finds himself looking at any single woman coming in wondering if one may be Natalie, wondering if the entire thing was a mistake to even try, when she finally does arrive late, apologising. And it’s then that things really start to begin.

Well, that’s what they tell us about the story, but let’s be honest -  they had us at new Daniel Clowes collection, didn’t they?

(all art by and (c) Daniel Clowes, Mister Wonderful published in the UK by Jonathan Cape in April)

The seeds for Louis – Night Salad were sown back in 2003, when we worked on several short stories for different publishers, and also on submission to various anthologies. One story, Louis – The Round the World Rug Race, was accepted by SPX for their travel themed collection.

With Louis – The Round the World Rug Race the story had come relatively quickly and we’d had great fun doing it. Peppered with literary allusions (Round the World in Eighty Days is an obvious one) the travel and adventure theme was something we’d loved working with and had in mind to develop for a future, bigger project.

(Extract from Louis – The Round the World Rug Race by metaphrog)

That was the plan at least when we began to incubate a new graphic novel as we were finishing the Louis – Dreams Never Die project working with FatCat. Then, John’s dad died, and shortly after his mum had to go into hospital. This had an inevitable impact on our lives and on our work. It isn’t possible to avoid writing about one’s own life so the book took a different direction. But, it isn’t just a big book about death for kids! More than anything it’s about the power books have to transport and transform the reader. And, the original story thread of a journey, or an adventure, was retained.

We hoped that the story would open doors to many potential stories, and story archetypes, with a nod to the idea of a quest: as if a window were opened up to a world of possible stories. A real adventure…

(Louis – Night Salad by metaphrog)

The romantic notion of the explorer and of travel has always informed our work but here it is present more clearly than ever. Books are important as they fuel the reader’s inner world, but of course equally important is life experience and although we wanted to allude to books, we also wanted to express the importance of the individual in society and of individual thinking.

Putting literary allusions into a graphic novel is strange and can be great fun because naturally you can use both the words and the images. For example, the caterpillar is not the one that Alice met, but we wanted to suggest Alice In Wonderland, classics of literature and children’s literature… also, with the changes of scale that occur when Louis is feverish, there is the suggestion again of Lewis Carroll’s book but also Gulliver’s Travels.

(Showing why Louis failed the audition to replace Alan Titchmarsh for the BBC’s gardening programmes. Extract from Louis – Night Salad by metaphrog)

Definitely the most personal and probably the most influential book was one that not many readers will have heard of and that is the diary that John’s father, David Chalmers, kept while he was on an ordinance survey expedition in Antarctica in the 1950s.

When we first met we had worked together making durable copies of the fragile, original diary and also producing photographs from old slides, involving John’s parents in the process and in so doing allowing others, friends, and family to read the book itself.

(Photo of David Chalmers and extracts from his Antarctic diary)

Perhaps the influence of this can be most clearly seen here, in a scene, which also commemorates the fact John’s father was a tent maker.

(Louis and friend find an unusual way of earning their camping merit badges. Extract from Louis – Night Salad by metaphrog)

Louis – Night Salad is the book we have worked longest on, and we have both contributed to different aspects of the storytelling: John getting involved in the visual side of the layout and Sandra in the writing itself, as we tried to optimise or maximise the emotional strength of the story, as well as find solutions to the challenges each scene and every page of the book presented.

Where Louis – The Round the World Rug Race had felt enjoyable and relatively easy to realise, Louis – Night Salad was at times darker and more difficult. Pages were worked and reworked, layout was reconsidered until we were both happy with the story fluidity and emotional charge.

(Layout pages from Louis – Night Salad by metaphrog. On the left: layout pages that were used, on the right: only some of the unused layout pages!)

More than one third of the book was completely repainted, sometime several times. Some pages, such as the underground city took nearly two weeks to complete!

(the incredibly beautiful, Arabian Nights-esque underground city. Extract from Louis – Night Salad by metaphrog)

With every Louis book, the bright superficial colours are set in stark contrast to the dark machinations of the system Louis is forced to inhabit. This is particularly true in Hamlet where the fences and houses represent a façade of pleasantness and underline the difficulties people have in communicating with each other. The world has become increasingly a place of barriers and fences often separating wealth from poverty, opportunity from disease… With the look of the books being that of children’s books: the little squares of the nine panel comic grid serve to emphasise the childlike appeal and echo the square book shape, but also help establish a reading rhythm. Sometimes in the telling of Louis – Night Salad we wanted to experiment with the form in order to serve the telling of the story. That sounds pretentious and confusing and is probably better explained with a couple of pages.

(Sandra’s art can make even falling ill look beautiful. Extract from Louis – Night Salad by metaphrog)

To focus on Louis and the fact he is falling ill, the most effective method seemed to be that of completely removing the panel backgrounds and borders, thus also trying to generate the feeling illness brings of not being quite able to sense the world around you. It seemed appropriate too as a way to freeze time, or to attempt to suggest timelessness.

Panel shape and size are paramount, of course, in comic storytelling, and we like to compare the visual rhythm with that of music and song structure. You can see this here with the repetition of panels, worry, worry, worry, like musical notes repeated, and the changing water level showing time passing.

(Bear Grylls eat your heart out. Extract from Louis – Night Salad by metaphrog)

With the square panels, a feeling of vertigo, or even that of height itself, proved tricky to generate within the square book format, but by breaking the page up vertically and then using oblique panel borders, to generate unease, as well as changing panel sizes and points of view to simulate disorder, we hoped to be able to facilitate reader involvement, empathy and sympathy with Louis, as he experiences disorientation on the cliffs. Placing the page opposite one with broad panoramic views even heightens the effect.

(Double page spread from Louis – Night Salad by metaphrog)

FPI would like to thank John and Sandra for taking the time to share this insight into making the new Louis book. All images are ©metaphrog 2010; Louis – Night Salad is available now.

“We’ve also seen the UK comics channel expand with the fantastic efforts of Self Made Hero and NoBrow – which now sees the market and distributors primed to be more knowledgeable about comics in general – which can only benefit us all. We shouldn’t forget Fanfare or Knockabout either – Fanfare garnered 5 Eisner awards last year which is unprecedented for a UK publisher and Knockabout, long a dormant ‘giant’ of UK comics, have woken from their slumbers and now have editions planned of Maarten Vande Wiele’s collected Paris and the brilliant Pinocchio by Winshluss. All this activity is a bit of a surprise given the economic picture but a raft of publishers covering all ends of the comics spectrum is what the UK scene has needed for a long time. I think some of us who have worked in the business a long time have always thought it would emerge before this but barring some excellent attempts like Slab-O-Concrete it never really happened.

Now almost spontaneously there are a load of new publishers all working at it at the same time. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a time when it’s possible a coherent scene could emerge which is interested in producing comics of quality in the UK, without hoping the moment they got their break they would be on a plane to the DC offices. The surprise is that the major book publishing houses haven’t been the catalyst for this – they have access to the cream of the US production but someone like Cape who should be dominating and growing the UK market aggressively, seem to have paddled their canoe up the cul-de-sac labelled ‘would-be literary progressive’. So those who care about the narrative splendour of comics have decided to get on with it themselves,” Kenny Penman on the Blank Slate site.

It’s true, it does seem to be a very exciting time here at the moment; as I’ve been editing the guest posts for our annual Best of the Year I’ve already seen Blank Slate and SelfMadeHero titles cropping up and as you can imagine while I am editing these guest posts I’m also mentally making notes of the long and doubtless rambling list I’ll be writing up of my own favourites from 2010. And I can tell you Knockabout, SMH and Blank Slate are all figuring heavily in my list. And I’m not just saying that because Kenny is my boss – I think most of our readers know us well enough to know that when any of us on the blog post our thoughts on books and comics we give our honest opinions. I’ll be picking some works by these publishers because they genuinely were among the finest works I read this year. And while you know we do our best to try and bring you news about the wide world of comics and wonderful works from around the globe, I hope you’ll also forgive me for being so delighted that this year I can honestly say some of my best comics reading came from homegrown talent published by homegrown publishers who clearly enjoy bringing us interesting new works that deserve to be seen.

A look down at some of the artists on BSB’s 2011 slate has me equally excited for my reading prospects next year: Peggy Adam, more from Darryl Cunningham and Mawil and Oli East, Warwick J Cadwell, Line Hoven and more. SMH’s catalogue for next year has me similarly excited; I’m now getting the buzz of anticipation over some of our homegrown publishers that I normally get from perusing the catalogues of D&Q, Fantagraphics or Top Shelf. I think we’re going to be talking a lot more about titles from these publishers next year…

(Gungle, one of the forthcoming BSB releases for next year, by and (c) Warwick J Cadwell, borrowed from his blog)

As Kenny notes further on though, for this growth in Brit comics publishing to continue it needs two things: to expand internationally (which has already started with Darryl’s Psychiatric Tales being sold to US and Italian publishers) and to get support from readers. That means buying books from them; at the end of the day that’s how they stay in business and that’s how they keep on picking out great new works to publish for us to read. And I’m not saying buy them just because you should be supporting the homegrown talent who are trying to do something here, I’m saying buy them quite simply because they are good books by interesting artists and you’re going to enjoy them.

Phenomenology of ‘Watchmen’ from sean mattio on Vimeo.