A reminder to London peeps, the excellent Nick Abdzis has been sent back to these shores for a short while and will be in Gosh in London tomorrow, Saturday May 12th from 7 to 9pm for the launch of the much anticipated new collected edition of his Hugo Tate series by Blank Slate Books.

Coming on June 17th the first East London Comics and Arts Festival, ELCAF! Splendid Brit Indy comics publisher Nobrow asks “With a poster like this how can you not all want to come?” And you know what, they’re right! And if the art isn’t enough to get you going, how about this – from the description on the official site: “McBess as the artist in residence; live drawing relay races from Luke Pearson, Jack Teagle, Kyle Platts, and many more; a process talk by the unbelievable award winning talent that is BLEXBOLEX, chaired by the man at the crossroads himself Paul Gravett; 600 second interviews from Avoid the Future; a kids workshop organised by Anorak; Screenings by Nexus; panel discussions with Karrie Fransman, Darryl Cunningham and Simone Lia; stalls from the very best comics publishers, including Jonathan Cape, SelfMadeHero, Blank Slate, Nobrow (of course!), Knockabout, Landfill Editions, Solopsistic Pop, WAWAP, the list goes on…; AND!!! a ticketed concert featuring the Dead Pirates, the Vuvuvultures and a special guest running from 8 ’til late, there is honestly nothing to top it! “

Comics peeps in that London – Comiket tomorrow from 11am to 6pm, admission free: top indy comics, living drawing and more, a perfect day out no matter the weather, if you’re in town give ‘em some love.

The site for this year’s BD Passion event celebrating French and British comics culture is now live and choc-full of details of some great bande dessinee gigs in the heart of London. Taking place over May 24th to the 27th, the festival will include a reading group with Paul Gravett (doubtless in his full Jackanory mode), comics workshops with Christophe Arleston and Luke Pearson, talks by the acclaimed creator David B, Tom Gauld and Guy Delisle (how much do I want to be at that gig?!), Rosinski talking Thorgal, workshops on digital comics, Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill talking, Karrie Fransman holding a masterclass, broadcaster and comics lover Jonathan Ross discussing his love for the medium and more. Last year’s event was very well received and this year sounds even better, so if you are in the area you are going to want to get along to some of it. The events are again in the London Institut Français, 17 Queensberry Place, SW7 (nearest tube: South Kensington)

The fine Nobrow comics and art folks are hosting an exhibition of crafted work by Louise Evans, better known to many of us as the Felt Mistress, in their London outlet. Not strictly comics, but Louise has a big following among many of the UK comics creators on the scene because she creates such fab work; the exhibition runs from May 18th to June 23rd, more details on her site here.

The brilliant Tom Gauld will be in fine London comics emporium Gosh! this Friday, 9th March, from 6.30pm to celebrate the publication of his new book from Drawn & Quarterly, Goliath; he’s already popped into the store to create some fab artwork on the shop windows and even do a quick interview:

And the very next day the splendid Joel Meadows and his wandering camera are the subject of a new photographic exhibition at Gosh! with the Tripwire exhibition, which includes some cracking portraits of comics and science fiction creators on Saturday 10th March at 7pm (the exhibition runs until the 29th):

And another must-attend for your diary if you’re in London – Simone Lia (creator of the fab Fluffy) launches Please, God, Find Me a Husband on Tuesday 10th of April from 6.30pm at Gosh!:

And a reminder that Karrie’s The House That Groaned was published just a few weeks ago; you can read her guest post Commentary talking us through some of it here on the blog.

We’ve been blogging about how delighted we are at the prospect of a long-overdue collection being published of Nick Abadzis‘ brilliant Deadline strip Hugo Tate (available now for pre-order) – the nice folks at Blank Slate are bringing this unusual slice of Brit comics history out this spring and the equally nice folks at Gosh! in London are hosting a launch night, promising “booze and signed copies aplenty”, on Saturday May 12th from 7 to 9pm, check the Gosh blog for more details. And stay tuned here, we hope to have something pretty cool on Hugo Tate coming up in the near future for your reading delight.

The third issue of the very fine Comix Reader collection is being launched at London comics landmark Gosh! on Friday 2nd of March from 7 to 9pm, along with an exhibition which runs from March 2nd to the 9th. Paul O’Connell kindly sends us along a sneak peek at the collaborative contribution he made to the new issue with the wonderfully freaky looking Carousel (see below):