FPI: Can you pick three comics/webcomics/graphic novels which you especially enjoyed over the last twelve months and tell us why you singled them out?

Matthew: Journey Into Mystery: I’ve got an unhealthy cynicism about most of the Big Two’s output, fueled in part by trading in some two thousand comics earlier this year. I’d enjoyed Kieron’s run on Thor, but the big crossover and interruptions frustrated me a little, and I sort of expected The Adventures of Kid Loki to be similarly hobbled. But from the off it blew me away, happily riffing off of the likes of Sandman while slinging Actual Teen Dialogue the reader’s way every few pages, it’s been a proper treat to see it play out month after month

(Journey into Mystery #625 by Kieron Gillen and Doug Braithwaite, cover art by Stephanie Hans, (c) Marvel)

Drawing The Line: London During The Student Protests (posted on Cartoon Movement). It’s worth noting that despite being a bit of a lefty I was actually deeply skeptical about the student protests. But I thought this ten page strip for Cartoon Movement was a really elegant meander through a few perspectives by Humberstone and Holiday. I really want to see more by them.

(a scene from Drawing the Line: London During the Student Protests by and (c) Anne Holiday and Tom Humberstone)

Don Quixote, book one (SelfMadeHero). I saw some of Rob’s artwork for this at Thought Bubble 2010 and knew it’d be great. I picked it up a year later and started laughing out loud as I read it on the train home. He treats Quixote and Panza very tenderly, and exploits the best elements of the medium to ‘bring the laffs’.

(the famous windmills scene from Cervantes’ remarkable Don Quixote, adapted by the excellent Rob Davis, published SelfMadeHero)

FPI: Can you pick three books which you especially enjoyed over the last twelve months and tell us why you singled them out?

Matthew: Rockall. Great book from 1956 about the history of “the most isolated small rock in the oceans of the world”.

Do It For Your Mum. Former British Sea Power manger Roy Wilkinson’s book about the trials of being part of a touring band and the inspirational impact rock music had on his seventy seven year old father.

On Nature. A collection of articles from contributors to the blog ‘Caught By The River‘. Part of the book’s magic was reading it while on holiday in Norway, under a sun that never set, surrounded by incredible scenery.

FPI: Can you pick three TV shows and/or movies which you especially enjoyed over the last twelve months and tell us why you singled them out?

Matthew: Doctor Who. I know it went off the boil a bit this year – the arc and the Neil Gaiman episode were a bit weak by my reckoning – but Night Terrors was tremendous and Matt Smith just got more and more compelling to watch. (Actually, you know, I’m gonna get some flak for the Gaiman comment, so let me explain it: the TARDIS has endured for almost 50 years because it’s a mystery. ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ was just a 45minute series of answers to questions best left unasked.)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Grand romp. Just complex enough. Plus Toby Jones is in it, and I bloody love that guy.

Drive. Moody, brilliant, boasts a soundtrack I still haven’t quite shaken from the back of my brain. Superb violence and some of the most touching shots of two people falling in love I’ve seen on camera. Just fabulous.

FPI: How did 2011 go for you as a creator? Are you happy with the way you got your work out this year?

Matthew: Hard to answer; I certainly did a bunch of very different things. Comics wise we took Paper Science quarterly for a year, a terrific experiment that paid off spectacularly well. On the other hand I’ve only written two comics, and people know me more for We Are Words + Pictures and editing Paper Science than as a writer, which is something I want to address next year. At the other end of the spectrum, my day job included standing up in front of about 1’000 designers and developers and giving a talk which featured me repairing my laptop with a sonic screwdriver. That was pretty sweet.

FPI: What can we look forward to from you in 2012?

Matthew:2012′s going to be a ‘knuckling down’ sort of year. January sees Paper Science 7, with Paper Science 8 likely to come in time for Free Comic Book Day before it goes on hiatus. In between I’ll be writing and listening to Kate Bush records, the fruits of which won’t see the light of day until Thought Bubble at the earliest. I’ll also be learning how to program an Arduino.

FPI: Anyone you think is a name we should be watching out for next year?

Matthew:Adam Cadwell. He’s stepped up his game massively in the last twelve months, and his professionalism puts most of his contemporaries to shame. Also Andrew Tunney’s Girl & Boy looks great.

(“We fight crime and loneliness” opening scenes from Girl & Boy by and (c) Andrew Tunney)

Good chum of the blog Sean Azzopardi drops us a line to let us know that the very funky We Are Words + Pictures crew are planning a new exhibition and it sounds oh so damned cool: comics inspired by music. Among those with work on display will be Adam Cadwell, John Cei Douglas, Julia Scheele, Jamie McKelvie, Francesca Cassavetti, Marc Ellerby, Kristyna Baczynski, Tom Humberstone and Sean himself; I am informed, however,  that this exhibition will not include the many volumes of artwork Sean has drawn over the years as part of his ongoing obsession with Rod, Jane & Freddy. The show kicks off on September 23rd at top Indie music store Flashback Records, 144 Crouch Hill, London, check the WAWAP blog for more.

By Philippa Rice, Marc Ellerby, Hannah Donovan, Edward Ross, Sarah Gordon, Josceline Fenton, Hugh ‘Shug’ Raine, Geof Banyard and Adam Cadwell. Cover by Kristyna Baczynski.

Edited By Matthew Sheret

The latest of the We Are Words + Pictures produced comic newspaper is a fittingly summery music special. 10 artists take a shot at something I think is monumentally difficult; getting music down on a page, capturing what it is that makes music so important, so vibrant, so essential. And you know what…. they all do rather well.

First up is the highlight of the issue; My Cardboard Life artist Philippa Rice with Julian Steals The Show:

But this loose flowing piece, delivering a pitch perfect distillation of the feeling of music on a page couldn’t be further from her normal, structured collage work in My Cardboard Life. This is sketchy, loose and perfect for the theme. As the musical notes drift across the page, the artwork follows, loose pencil lines and simple colours tell a tale of musical inspiration, musical theft and Julian, quite literally stealing his ideas, his show, back from it’s thief.

Meanwhile, underneath what Pulp once referred to as “20,000 people standing in a field”, we have Joceline Fenton’s strange little creature, rather peturbed and aggravated by all that bloody festival noise going on above his head.

And did I say Rice’s strip was my favourite? Maybe joint favourite – because Fenton’s single pager is just gorgeous. I’d seen bits of her work here and there before, and always meant to look into it more, but as is the way, never got round to it. That’s a shame, and something I intend to rectify very soon.

Because her art looks great, very similar in style I thought to Posy Simmonds – her people have the same look, and that’s no bad thing at all.

Edward Ross’ Dust is a different style and theme again, this time we’re on a small desert landscape, where something small and alien finds a musical box and is deeply affected by the music…. although as it touches his heart, the transformative power of music in this case may not be for the best.

Ross gets bonus points for really working his page well, with varying panel sizes maximising the amount of story he gets across. It’s sweet and rather touching and does a great job of illustrating the transcendent nature of music… just look at that tear. Joe’s looked at Ross’ Filmish comic film zine before and says it’s very good indeed.

Adam Cadwell’s The King Of Things, because it’s a continuing strip, gets a bye on needing to include music somewhere. This episode we rejoing the King at the top of the beanstalk he discovered last episode, and he gfinds himself in the realm of the giants and we discover exactly how he came across that giant penny. How on earth he’s going to get it home is one for future episodes though.

Just as last time, King is sweet, brightly coloured, all ages stuff, with Cadwell showing a different and most enjoyable side to his artwork.

Sarah Gordon’s Pirate Radio is a funny, sexy, twist in it’s fishy tale strip, a great single pager telling of a trio of really rubbish sirens. A couple of slapstick gags, a great verbal gag – and all from just a single page – class.

Hannah Donovan delivers a page of single illustration; The Irrational Geographic Presents: Oceanestra. And although it’s mildly funny, in a project like this there’s part of me that thinks the page could have been better used as a page full of comics, rather than the indulgence of a full page illo. Likewise Geof Banyard’s poster – except that’s two story pages wasted. Nice poster, just as Donovan’s is a nice piece, just a waste…. give me more comics instead.

Right, back to the comics. What can I really say about Marc Ellerby’s Chloe Noonan that I haven’t already in the reviews of issues one, two and three? Not a lot, here’s four panels instead:

It’s Marc Ellerby, it’s Chloe Noonan. Her and Zoe are at a festival, Zoe gets pissed off at the ice cream prices, Noonan gets pissed off at being continually hit on. And it’s great, rally really great. Noonan gets to pull her nonplussed, pissed off face a lot and I get to have a great laugh. Brilliant. But you knew I would say that. I do want more though…. get drawing Ellerby.

Rounding the whole thing off we have another full pager on the back cover by Hugh Raine. But this is no waste of space thing, this is packed with Ribena berries at a gig, funny dialogue all over the place, to be read any which way, laughed at, and enjoyed even more.

Paper Science 5  has, I think, the best mix of artists I’ve seen yet for this project. Every comic strip was really enjoyable, there was no filler (aside from the issues with those wasted pages – but even they were well done). I’m liking the newspaper format as usual. All in all, a damn fine publication, well worth the £3 price of admission.

The next issue of paper Science, after the musical summer special is a back down to Earth with a bang, oh my God, it’s October and I can’t pay the rent after spending so much, Jobs special. More news on that from the Words + Pictures site.

The latest We Are Words + Pictures radio show is up online – this time round it’s Howard Hardiman, artist of The Lengths and Badger:

“Spring has passed, and now we’re in tropical monsoon season here in WAW+P-land. So WAW+P Radio host Michael Leader took shelter at the Old Police Station in Deptford, in order to chat with Howard Hardiman, the artist behind The Lengths.”

You can listen to the episode here. Damn good choice of music as well – full playlist and show notes at the London Fields Radio Mixcloud page.

(pics all from Sean’s Flickr and (c) Sean Azzopardi)

A few years ago I was active with LUC (London Underground Comics), and there are a few similarities, I think. An important one is engagement with people. To draw in participants and audiences for events, encouraging new collaborations, energy, ideas. Compared to when I first started making comics there are now more venues for events. Or maybe venues are more receptive to the medium. Libraries, independent bookshops, the increase in retail units emptying and the rise of pop up venues, there is a healthy list of possible places for an event.

Aligned with online networking I believe that it’s an exciting time to be making and meeting. For me personally it’s changed my outlook. I was really focused on the whole getting-a-book deal; for my comic output that seemed to be the only real goal. Now? It’s only a small part of what is possible. As a self-publisher I make books anyway, so what more can be achieved? The only way to find out is to keep meeting, keep organising and keep supporting.

FPI would like to thank Sean very much for sending us in a report and his pics from the event, looks terrific! And more comics events in the ‘real’ world is a great thing to see. You can keep up with Sean’s latest news and work via his site here.

Happening right now.. … We Are Words + Pictures collective is at Interesting 2011 doing an all day Drop In & Draw event:

“Interesting is one of a string of day-long conferences held at Conway Hall in London that feature the best and brightest of the internet getting on stage and revealing a bit about what makes them tick. This year’s event, held on June 18th, is going to be a little different; a hands-on day of workshops, demonstrations and rolling events that’ll get people’s fingers dirty.”

“We’re delighted to reveal that We Are Words + Pictures are going to be there! We’ll be creating a giant-sized comic through the day, an adaptation of one of Marc Ellerby‘s Chloe Noonan stories, which we’ll be creating panel-by-panel with the help of everyone coming along to the event.”

Photo from Marc Ellerby’s Tumblr

UPDATE 19th June: Full report and lots of pics at Ellerby’s site.

And if you haven’t had the pleasure of reading Ellerby’s Chloe Noonan series yet… have a read of this review and then get yourself over to Ellerby’s store.

The fourth issue of Paper Science is heading our way very soon. Sporting a splendid Luke Pearson cover and featuring lots of very good, some very familiar artists the whole thing has a Science Fiction theme.

Editor Matt Sheret is promising an improved paper Science building on the success and making the planned four issues in 2011 better and better. That cover, and the impressive redesign is certainly a statement of intent.

Line up details here and here. Ways to order right here.

(cover to the previous issue – No 3 – of Paper Science)

(Comics at Latitude or We Are Words In Picture Go Mad In the Countryside, by and (c) Tom Humberstone, shamelessly borrowed from his blog)

Published by We Are Words + Pictures

Paper Science is a comic anthology newspaper by the We Are Words + Pictures collective. Think of it as a newspaper sized relative to Solipsistic Pop and you’re along the right lines. Or just take a look at that gorgeous cover by Phillipa Rice and it pretty much tells you most of what you need to know – because Paper Science is every bit the full colour, joyous explosion of comics that Rice’s cover image promises.

Contributors include many familiar names from the UK comics scene including:

Francesca Cassavetti, Joe Decie, Octavia Raitt, Becky Barnicoat, Daniel Locke, Anne Holiday, Matthew Sheret, Tom Humberstone, Luke Pearson, Adam Cadwell, Geof Banyard, Mark Oliver, Liz Lunney, Douglas Noble, Kristyna Baczynski, Anna Saunders, Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Sean Azzopardi, Edward Ross and Marc Ellerby.

There’s, as you might expect from that list of names, many, many great strips in the newspaper sized anthology, far too many to show you.

Familiar names to the FPI blog are there with some great work; Francesca Cassavetti’s gorgeous lines and sentimental story of her 15 year old self on a camping trip through France, the return of Ellerby’s stupidly funny penguins in Polar Opposites, Douglas Noble playing with colour in his typically complex style and Tom Humberstone’s gorgeous artwork in two tone glory illustrating a Magnetic Fields lyric.

But it’s some of the new names, or maybe new to the blog I want to point out and showcase. That in itself should give you an idea of the depth of quality that Paper Science has to offer. But first a mention of the format. The full colour newspaper form gives Paper Science a wonderfully tactile appeal – this really is something to stretch out with, to absorb and luxuriate in. The throwaway aspect of newpaper print combined with the sheer craft and artistry on display makes this something really nice.

Now, onto those examples….

Luke Pearson’s Equine Prophet is a full page of gorgeous art and wordless, worrisome story.

Octavia Raitt’s Selective Retrospective takes an interesting and very satisfyingly stylised look at a day in her life.

Daniel Locke’s highly stylised piece is so wonderfully striking, and makes such great use of the full colour page.

Fetishman’s full page of mock silhouette recognition guide is packed with funny stuff, and almost cries out to be made into a poster of it’s own.

But any anthology has to have something that stands out as special, something wonderful, hopefully something new to me, something I can grab hold of and start enjoying fresh.

And in Paper Science it’s the work of Phillipa Rice. If the beautiful cover wasn’t enough, she’s also included a strip from her webcomic My Cardboard Life. I’d heard about it, seen a couple of examples and stupidly had made note of it to go and look at when I had time. But I never seem to have enough time to investigate the webcomics I really should. So seeing her work in Paper Science really brought it home to me just how energetic, bright and enjoyable her work is:

I’ve gone and spent a while perusing past strips of My Cardboard Life now and every one of them is an absolute joy. A great concept, such a simple idea, both in story and art but carried out brilliantly, executed with joy and style. Phillipa Rice – definitely someone I’ll be talking about again.

Paper Science was a fantastic idea for Free Comic Book Day, but if you didn’t manage to get hold of a copy, there’s still hope for you – We Are Words + Pictures are offering a PDF version of Paper Science on their website.