Tube Surfing: 2000 AD, Posy Simmonds, Radio 4 and comics events too!

To celebrate the release of Prog 1700 of 2000AD, fan Jason Garrattley is posting '...a week of rare bits and pieces from the archives (well, some old fanzines from the loft) from some of the cornerstone creators of the magazines' early years...' over at his blog.

He's started with (excellent) posts on Brian Bolland and Ian Gibson.

• Speaking of 2000AD, over at the Forbidden Planet International blog Joe Gordon has posted an insightful article about the early Judge Dredd strips.

• Meanwhile, Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool makes us aware of the second season of Pilgrim on Radio 4. He says that the series is the closest thing to Hellblazer you'll get on the radio...

• Acclaimed artist Declan Shalvey (who's currently working on Marvel's Thunderbolts) will be signing at Forbidden Planet International in Dublin on September 16th.

• Paul Gravett is chatting to comics legend Trina Robbins in London on September 21st:

For the first time, Comica Festival and Laydeez Do Comics are thrilled to be teaming up to invite to London the important comic artist and writer, from the seminal underground comix of the Seventies to such icons as Wonder Woman, Barbie, Powerpuff Girls and her own GoGirl!, lecturer, curator and America’s foremost comics ‘herstorian’, Trina Robbins. She is coming over to present a paper at the academic conference Motherhoods, Markets and Consumption at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford on Monday 13 September and has kindly agreed to visit London for this special extra event on Tuesday 21 September.


• Hey, the Guardian interviewed cartoonist Posy Simmonds on Saturday.

Here's a brief excerpt:

She says the current state of newspaper illustration is encouraging in that "there is more of it, because papers are bigger and reproduction is so much better". But she worries that computer generated work is becoming "samey", and about the decline of political cartoons. "It is very sad, although the great Steve Bell and a few others are notable exceptions. But maybe it's a sign of the times. How interested are people in politics? Are they getting their satire on jokey emails?"

Anyway, that's all for now, folks. See you at my next Tube Surf!