Will Dundee Get A Real Bash Street?

(Updated 11/12/12): Class 2B of Bash Street School, otherwise known as The Bash Street Kids, have been entertaining us in The Beano since the strip first appeared under its original title of When The Bell Rings in the issue dated 13 February 1954. Beano editor George Moonie was inspired by the antics of the children of the High School Of Dundee, the playground of which could be seen from the windows of the Beano office, and he passed the idea to artist Leo Baxendale whose imagination did the rest.

The street and school as seen in the comic do not exist in reality in Dundee but with the major redevelopment work that is going on in the city at the moment the opportunity has arisen to name a new street and the proposal that will be going in front of Dundee City Council is that it should be called Bash Street.

The consultation letter from Dundee City Council's Street Naming and Numbering Team states: "There is a proposal for a children's soft play area withinthe former works buildings off West Marketgait. As part of this development DC Thomson is in discussions with a local developer re licensing the Beano IP within thebranded children’s soft play centre. Planning consent has been granted for thesoft play centre.

"The Bash Street Kids will feature heavily in the new centrealongside Dennis the Menace, Gnasher, Minnie the Minx, Roger the Dodgerand The Beano logo. Dundee City Council has received a request from DCThomson to allocate the name Bash Street to the street adjacent to 142/144 WestMarketgait which currently has no name. This is to tie-in with the proposed newbuild and to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of The Beano in 2013 in the comic’s hometown."

The as yet unnamed new street is beside a Travelodge hotel off West Marketgait and between the West Port Roundabout and Guthrie Street where DC Thomson used to have their printing works. Indeed the area is only a short walk from DC Thomson's Courier Building and the High School Of Dundee itself.

At the moment the name is at the proposal stage however Councillor Fraser MacPherson, who represents the area in the city council, has stated on his blog, "I think this is a superb proposal." He goes on to say, "Dundee having its very own Bash Street seems very appropriate and I'm very pleased that Bash Street will be in the West End Ward!"

There are more details of the High School Of Dundee's connection with The Bash Street Kids over on Bear Alley.


Update, 11th December 2012: The BBC reports Dundee Council has now approved these plans. See: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-20672645

Truffle Shuffle launches Thunderbirds t-shirt range

Truffle Shuffle and Peter Black Footwear and Accessories have recently launched Thunderbirds lines either directly or in partnership with retailers.

Truffle Shuffle's "Classic Thunderbirds" inspired line of T-shirts for men and women, and sweaters for men, all featuring various characters from the series. The products are available now exclusively online from www.truffleshuffle.com and include Lady Penelope, Parker and Brains t-shirts and a Virgil Tracy Thunderbirds fancy dress costume.

Peter Black Footwear and Accessories, who also hold licenses for Marvel-related products, Wallace & Gromit and Top Gear, has released a limited edition gift line for men, exclusive to Marks & Spencer, including sound key chains, wash bags, mugs and egg cup sets.

ITV Studios Global Entertainment, which licenses Thunderbirds, is apparently in discussion with a number of other potential licensees as it grows the licensing program for the Classic Thunderbirds brand.

What's intriguing us of course is that the franchise is being defined as "Classic Thunderbirds", suggesting a "New Thunderbirds" is still on its way...

 

Gosh London's 'Phoenix Activity Day' kicks off at 1.00pm today

Back on Free Comic Book Day, Gosh Comics in London got a bunch of artists to come in with their pencil cases, draw all over their windows then sit down at the big Gosh! table and drew cartoons with kids all day. Sarah McIntyre (Vern & Lettuce) was one of those amazing pen-wielders and has some pictures over at her blog.

If you missed it, then never fear, because today (Saturday 3rd November) Gosh are doing it again, this time to promote stellar weekly kids’ mag The Phoenix.

If you’re yet to pick up a copy of The Phoenix, Gosh urge you do so so forthwith for the benefit of your wee one, especially if you’re still mourning the loss of the much-loved DFC. "As they say on their website, it’s aimed at 8 to 11 year olds but they’ve got fans as young as three and I’ve seen dudes in suits buying it for themselves," a Gosh spokesperson declares on the fab shop's blog. It’s full of weekly strips, long-running stories, one-off strips, competitions and all sorts, by the likes of Jamie Smart, Dave Shelton, Nick Abadzis, Kate Brown, Simone Lia, Chris Riddell and more, for £2.99 a pop."

this afternoon frm 1.00pm, Gosh Londn play host to three Phoenix artists – Neill Cameron, Lorenzo Etherington and Gary Northfield who will be there to agan plaster the shop's windows in cartoons and ink.

If you’re aged between 6 and 13, come on down and draw some stuff with people who get to draw stuff as their actual job. It’s free! And you can ask them how to be a cartoonist. They’re captive and have to be nice to you.

• Gosh London is at www.goshlndon.com online

 

Largo Winch Artist Philippe Francq Signing In London

Belgian artist Philippe Francq, best known in the UK for his Largo Winch series with writer Jean Van Hamme published by Cinebook, will be doing a signing in London later in the month.

The French Bookshop in South Kensington, who had a signing event with Jean Van Hamme in 2010, will be hosting Philippe for a signing on Saturday 24 November 2012 from 1130 to 1300. He will be signing the latest French Largo Winch hardback, Colere Rouge, which is the recently released 18th book in the series and the second part of the story begun in Mer Noire. Neither of these latest two Largo Winch books have been translated into English by Cinebook.

There are more details of the signing at The French Bookshop's website.

Largo Winch reviews on downthetubes:

• See Venice... / ...And Die
• Golden Gate / Shadow
• The Price Of Money / The Law Of The Dollar

Mark Millar on Panel Borders

Panel Borders: Millar World

Starting a month of shows on Panel Borders about the art of writing superhero comics, Alex Fitch talks to Mark Millar, a 2000AD alumnus who now has his own anthology comic CLiNT, featuring popular alt-superhero saga Kick-Ass and other strips intended for forthcoming movie adaptations. Alex and Mark discuss the latter's experiences in British and American comics, the relationship of his Catholic faith to strips American Jesus and Saviour, and the genesis of super-villain heist caper Super Crooks with film maker Nacho Vigalondo.

8pm, Sunday 4th November 2012, Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

East meets West: Manhwha talents in London for Comics

If you're free on Sunday 4th November and live in London, you may be interested in this event – Korean Manhwa and British Comics NetWorkShop – at Foyles Bookshop in Charing Cross Road.

Five top comics creators from Korea and five from the UK meet and share their projects and experiences in an interactive cultural and creative exchange, hosted by Comica Co-Director Paul Gravett and organised in association with KOCCA and a major manhwa exhibition at the Korean Cultural Centre in London.

Min-Woo Hyung, super-star creator of the international best-seller Priest, adapted into a Hollywood movie starring Paul Bethany, meets David Hine, writer of The Darkness and creator of Strange Embrace.

Respected pioneer Doo-Ho Lee, who contributed to the Korea: As Viewed By 12 Creators comics anthology available in English from Fanfare/Ponent Mon (below), will be meeting British comics virtuoso Ilya, creator of Skidmarks, End of the Century Club and and widely published in the UK, USA, Europe and Japan.

Other modern manhwa masters coming to London include Jeong-Taek Chae (Mr. Kimchi), Jung-hyun Suk (The Ghost) and popular webtoonist Jude Friday, along with another great British talent, Ed Hillyer.

The event will be followed by a signing event of by five Korean artists, with 100 free copies of manhwa books to be handed out to the audience.

Postcards of original artworks from prominent Korean illustrators will be sold in aid of charity.

Entry is free, but do e-mail comicafestival@gmail.com to let them know you're coming.
Free panel, free comics, free drinks and snacks. Foyles, 113 - 119 Charing X Rd, from 2 - 4.00pm.

Photo Review: Dundee Comics Day 2012 - Part 2

The Dundee Comics Day has been running as part of the Dundee Literary Festival at Dundee University since 2008 under the guiding hand of Dr Chris Murray of the School of Humanities (above). The event treads the fine line between the accessibility of a public Lit Fest and the seriousness of an academic conference and now, with comics courses being run at the university, it now adds an educational element for the course students. While the main day of this year's DCD was, as usual, on the Sunday, this year the event did expand out somewhat with a screening of the documentary Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods at the Dundee Contemporary Arts cinema on the Friday night and a talk and signing session with artist Dave Gibbons on the Saturday afternoon. The downthetubes photo review of the Dave Gibbons event is here.

The main day however was Sunday 28 October 2012 under the titleInvisible Symmetries: The Comics Of Grant Morrison, with Grant Morrison himself and a selection of his British and Canadian artistic collaborators. The number of attendees at Dundee Comics Day has increased over the years as the guest list has increased and as more people hear about the event. Last year's DCD, with its predominance of 2000AD art and script droids, had perhaps the largest turnout to date but the Dave Gibbons talk on the Saturday appeared to match that turnout while the appearance of Grant Morrison on the Sunday easily brought DCD's largest turnout in all the years that it has been running.

The hour long morning session was devoted to Chris Murray interviewing Grant at the front of the large and well equipped lecture theatre before opening the discussion out to include questions from the audience. This took in his earliest work on Near Myths and Starblazer, through his IPC and Marvel UK work and onto his better known American superhero work. While the difference between Chris' academic questions and the audience's more fannish questions was noticeable, Grant took them all in his stride and, for all the adulation he receives from some sections of comics fandom, he quickly relaxed into the interview and came across as a regular guy.

Lunch gave the attendees a chance to inspect the entries in the Dundee Comics Prize competition for a 3 page story and cover for an update of the 1940s DC Thomson superhero character Mister X which were in the corridor outside the main lecture theatre or the original 2000AD and Megazine artwork on display upstairs in the Baxter Suite exhibition The Art Of Judge Dredd. The cold buffet selection for lunch was included in the cost of the £15 ticket which covered both the Saturday and Sunday events.

After lunch came five of Grant's artists in a run of half hour talks which normally included a QandA element at the end. First up was Rian Hughes (below) who has previously appeared at DCD several years back. He covered the Grant Morrison Dan Dare series in Revolver and Crisis that he had illustrated plus he gave a general overview of his work including a vast selection of logos for various DC comics as well as stylised versions of Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Supergirl for DC 's merchandising arm.

Next up was Frazer Irving (below) who concentrated on displaying and talking about the covers that he has produced for 2000AD and DC Wildstorm. Fraser was the first of the guests to connected his iPad to the lecture theatre's main screen and it proved to be an interesting and much more dynamic and interactive experience than the more traditional Power Point presentations as he zoomed into the specific covers and then into details on the given cover before moving on to his next subject.

The second break of the day allowed the first of the two signing sessions to take place in the Baxter Suite. The increased number of attendees did put a strain on what in previous years had been relatively quick signing queues and this first signing session ran over so badly that it had to be curtailed to allow the next batch of guests to give their talks. While it may not have been obvious to the academic organisers, perhaps not being used to such behaviour, it was obvious to those of us in the audience that some attendees were expecting to get serious numbers of books and comics autographed based on the piles of items that they were arranging and rearranging during the talks. Indeed an announcement had to be made prior to the second signing session that only one or two items should be presented for signature.

The third session of guest talks brought Frank Quitely (above) back to Dundee having appeared at DCD last year. With pages of the newly remastered Flex Mentallo on the screen behind him, he talked and took questions about his work with Grant and his current artistic style. For someone perhaps best known for his DC work, when asked what characters he would like to work he he listed Spiderman, Daredevil and the Hulk.

Next up was Canadian Cameron Stewart (above) who pointed out that his first "collaboration" with Grant Morrison was when he donned a Zenith outfit for a costume party in Canada many years before. As with some of the other guests, Cameron described the differences he had experienced between working traditionally with paper and then moving on to creating his art digitally.

The final guest of the day was artist and colourist Peter Doherty (below) who chose, perhaps wisely as the fifth of five artists talking that day, to concentrate on his colouring work showing examples of his Judge Dredd work as well as, of course, Flex Mentallo. Peter's laid back presentation concluded the guest's individual talks for the day after which most attendees made for the Baxter Suite again to join the long signing queue as the scheduled time of the concluding roundtable discussion came and went.

Indeed while the Dave Gibbons signing on the Saturday was scheduled at the end of Dave's talk with nothing due after it, the length of it was never really going to be an issue. However it was the signing sessions, more than the couple of technical glitches with the presentation equipment, that proved the most problematic for Sunday's schedule. The scheduling and control of the signing sessions is something that, while never really a problem before at the Dundee Comics Day, will need to be reconsidered for the future.

That said the weekend's events were interesting mixture with a good selection of presentations and presenting styles and all the guests seemingly relaxed about answering questions about their work. It certainly was something of a coup for Dundee to get both Dave Gibbons and Grant Morrison, as well as so many of Grant's artistic collaborators, to take the time to attend this year.

Indeed given that this year the event had Dave Gibbons, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely appearing, there is really only one other British comics creator that could top those names for next year - but no pressure there Chris!

There are more details of the Dundee Comics Day on its Facebook page.

There are more details of comics studies at the University Of Dundee at the University's website.

German comic artists in the spotlight at new exhibition

Art by Reinhard Kleist

The University of Dundee's Matthew Gallery is hosting a new comics exhibition in November, in partnership with Germany's Goethe Institute and there's an artist's talk to open it this evening (Wednesday 31st October).

Comics, Manga & Co. – The New Culture of German Comics will be previewed tomorrow, Thursday 1st November between 5 - 7.00pm and the exhibition itself runs from  Friday 2nd November until 8th December.

The Matthew Gallery at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design is to be the only UK venue to host this exceptional exhibition of works from the leading lights of German comic book art. It includes autobiographical, surrealist, and historical narratives alongside comic reportages and literary adaptations, reinforces Comics and Graphic Novels as a hugely important part of contemporary art, literature and popular culture.

Featured artists are Arne Bellstorf, Martin Tom Dieck, Anke Feuchtenberger, Flix, Jens Harder, Sascha Hommer, Line Hoven, Ulf K., Reinhard Kleist, Isabel Kreitz, Mawil, Christina Plaka and Henning Wagenbreth.

Dundee’s history of great character development from the infamous DC Thomson comic strip favourites Dennis and Gnasher, Desperate Dan and Minnie the Minx through to the internationally known blockbuster computer games such as Lemmings, Grand Theft Auto and Mortal Kombat, makes it the perfect city to host this exhibition.

Today, Dundee continues to be prominent, not only in the publishing and gaming industries connected to comics but also in education relating to this important area of popular culture. There is an undergraduate elective module at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Comics Design and the University of Dundee’s MLitt in Comics Studies is the only one of its kind in the UK. This one-year course examines comics and graphic novels in terms of genre, style, formal properties and history, and also provides the opportunity to work on the creative aspects of comics production.   

Comics, Manga & Co. with its focus on two generations of German comics artists: the avant-garde that paved the way for the emergence of an independent culture of German comics, and a generation of younger comics artists whose work embraces new aesthetic and narrative aspects, is an ideal compliment to one of the MLitt core modules on international comics traditions.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an Artist’s Talk event this evening featuring the influential German comic book artist Anke Feuchtenberger. Feuchtenberger is one of the best known German comic artists and has been publishing comics, drawing and illustrations since 1993. She has influenced and nurtured a new generator of illustrators and comic book artists, including Sascha Hommer, Arne Bellstorf and Line Hoven, who are also included in the exhibition.

Born in East Berlin in 1963, Feuchtenberger studied graphic design and sculpture at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee (1983–1988). In 1989 she co-founded the short-lived artists’ collective PGH Glühende Zukunft as a freelance comics artist and illustrator. Since 1997 she has been a Professor of illustration in the Design Department of the Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften in Hamburg. In 2008 Feuchtenberger co-founded the publishing house MamiVerlag with Stefano Ricci. She lives and works in Hamburg and Quilow.

The exhibition is a Goethe-Institut touring exhibition and is presented in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Glasgow.

The exhibition Comics, manga & co. The new culture of German comics and the catalogue, which includes additional texts by Matthias Schneider, the curator of the exhibition, aims to provide insight into the diverse world of German comics.

• The Matthew Gallery is on Level 5 of Matthew Building at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design.The gallery is open Monday – Friday 9.30am – 5pm, Saturday 10.30am – 4.30pm. Exhibition info here online

• An Artist’s Talk by Anke Feuchtenberger, chaired by Dr. Christopher Murray will take place tonight, 31st October, 5.30 – 7pm. Please book online for this free event as spaces are limited and the demand has been high: http://ankecomics.eventbrite.com

• Further information about the exhibition can also be found on the Goethe-Institut website at www.goethe.de/comics

Organisers celebrate MCM Expo success

Last weekend's MCM London Comic Con smashed all previous attendance records, with more than 70,000 visitors coming through the doors of ExCel.

Claimed by the organisers as Europe's equivalent to San Diego Comic Con, MCM London Comic Con the team behind it say it has gone from strength to strength over recent years, and the latest show has seen another substantial hike in visitor numbers - 70,200 compared to the 64,000 attendees at the previous event back in May, which was itself a record figure.

"We are amazed by the turnout; we expanded the show floor space by 5,000 m2 from the May event and we were still packed," said show co-organiser Bryan Cooney. "It is wonderful to have so many attendees and companies like BBC, C4, Universal, Nintendo and Microsoft supporting our show. We are now looking to add a further 4,000m2 for May bringing us to 21,000 m2.

"We are also looking to the future and planning alongside our venue partner to make MCM London Comic Con the biggest show of its kind in Europe."

Running from Friday 26 to Sunday 28th October, Britain's biggest pop culture event welcomed special guests from a host of movies, TV series and SF shows, including Doctor Who's Matt Smith, Hollywood legend Bill Paxton and stars from shows such as Misfits, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Primeval: New World, Warehouse 13 and Continuum.

The MCM London Comic Con also played host to top games publishers such as Nintendo; Namco Bandai; Square Enix; Tecmo Koie Ubisoft; 2K Games; NIS; Konami and Microsoft. Show goers also explored the brand new VidFest UK zone celebrating online video; the UK's largest gathering of comic artists and writers; an expanded JapanEX zone and a colourful variety of costume competitions and fashion shows, including the finals of EuroCosplay 2012.

MCM London Comic Con returns to ExCel on 24-26th May 2013. The next MCM event is the UK's largest collectors' show, Memorabilia, held at NEC Birmingham on 24-25th November with special guest David Hasselhoff.

• You can find more about the event at www.londonexpo.com; on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mcmexpo; on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mcmexpo and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/mcmexpo

 

STRIP Magazine #5/6 finally arrives in UK comic shops tomorrow

After several frustrating delays due to shipping issues, Strip Magazine Issue 5/6 - a giant-size double issue of Print Media's action anthology - will finally reach UK comic shops tomorrow (Wednesday 31st October 2012).

Priced at £4.99, the 96 page special features a cover by John Ridgway and is another comic shop-only issue and wraps the first Black Ops Extreme story arc by John Freeman and PJ Holden and concludes James Hudnall and John Ridgway's Age of Heroes fantasy adventure - for now.

This special giant size edition has even more comic strip action and adventure than ever, with almost a dirty dozen pages of Black Ops Extreme as the the do-or-die military team try to end an embassy siege in London - and confront a ghost from their past.

Also in the issue, the battle for the future of Earth hits the streets of Houston in Warpaint (by Phil Hester and John McCrea); the gripping conclusion to the first Devil's Heritage adventure (by Jerome Felix and Paul Gastine), as dangerous Nazis hunt a diabolic treasure; elven magic in Age of Heroes; and not one, but two STRIP CHALLENGE winning stories, one by Stephen Baskerville and the other by Paul Rainey and Robert Wells; and two episodes of classic Action comic strip Hook Jaw.

Features this issue are interviews with creators Leo (Mirabilis) Hartas and Nick (Hugo Tate) Abadzis.

A Christmas special is now in production. And yes, several people have asked if PruntMedia mean Christmas 2013... let's hope not, eh?

• Please note that due to the delayed release of this issue, features and information on the future plans of the title printed in the issue are completely at odds with the current aim of a 2013 news stand launch for Volume 2.

• The print edition of STRIP #5/6 was split into two digital editions for iPad, which include a small amount of digital extra material, some of which will be featured in future print issues 

• Buy STRIP Magazine for Issue 5

• Buy STRIP Magazine Issue 6

The previous digital issues of STRIP - for iPad only at present - are also available for just £1.99 each.

• STRIP Magazine for iPad Issue 1

• STRIP Magazine for iPad Issue 2

• STRIP Magazine for iPad Issue 3

• STRIP Magazine for iPad Issue 4

Neil Gibson aims to bring comics into the mainstream

Neil Gibson (right) with actor Samuel L. Jackson

Comic book writer Neil Gibson is to give a talk at the flagship Regent Street Apple Store in London on 15th November 2012 about his passion for the comic book medium, and, like many other creators of the medium, campaign to get people to take graphic novels seriously.

“Comics are often seen as infantile” explains Gibson, whose credits include Twisted Dark, a collection of stories recommended for mature readers. “I intend to completely change the way most people think about comic books, I want to convince people who blindly assume comics aren’t serious literature to actually give them a shot.”

Gibson also promises an exclusive preview of his new comic “Tabatha”, which he describes as his “best yet.”

He will also be signing copies of his Twisted Dark series.

Neil used to have a very different life, travelling the world working as a management consultant. But in February 2011 he made the life changing decision to leave it all behind and follow his love for comic books. The flagship ‘Twisted Dark’ volumes, produced under Neil Gibson Comics, have been praised for their realistic characters, excellent art and thought provoking subject matter.

Each volume contains a selection of stand-alone short stories, but with hidden and subtle interconnections. Compared with TV's The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits by critics, Neil’s stories explore the darker side of the human psyche.

• T-Publications: www.neilgibsoncomics.com T-Publications on Facebook: www.facebook.com/tpublications

CD Comics issues free Hallowe'en sampler

Sheffield-based CDComics is releasing a free 'Taster' of its digital titles free via Amazon on 30th/31st October 2012 - a sneak peek into a world of surreal murders and mysteries from the mind of their creator, Craig Daley.

Whether it’s demons, aliens, monsters or just your average human psycho that whets your appetite, the 30-page full colour digital comic, offered in Kindle format, has them all. It features six front covers and four pages from Meadowhell: The True Horror of Shopping, Spring Heeled Jack: From the Tunnels of Hell, the well-received Football Crazy: The Theatre of Nightmares on the Road to Insanity, CDComics latest title, Carnacki and Hannay: Eyam, the Plague Village UFO Mystery, plus samples from Manhattan 1930: The Man in the White Suit and War Nurse: Alone.

You can grab your copy from amazon.co.uk. The free comic is also available at Amazon.co, USA, Japan, Germany, France, etc.

“CDComics output has been nothing but a treat to read, Daley’s unique, dry wit is the highlight of his writing..." say the reviewers over at HorrorCultFims. "and when it comes to the closing pages, there’s no one else to compare.”

• Download free Kindle reading Apps for Smartphones, Tablets, Macs and PCs

The full versions of all CDComics current titles are available from

• Amazon UK
• Drive Thru Comics
• Smashwords
• Kobo
• Diesel
• Barnes & Noble
• Sony
• Apple

 

Photo Review: Dundee Comics Day 2012 - Part 1

The Dundee Comics Day returned to Dundee University's Tower Building for its fifth year as part of the Dundee Literary Festival and this year the normally one day event spread out over the weekend. Friday 26 October saw a screening of the documentary Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods at the Dundee Contemporary Arts cinema which tied in with the main Sunday event, Invisible Symmetries: The Comics Of Grant Morrison.

 

Before the main day on the Sunday, Saturday afternoon brought artist Dave Gibbons to Dundee almost forty years after his first DC Thomson strip, The Wriggling Wrecker, was published. With the Lit Fest's programme having to be published before this event was firmed up, it was described very generically as a 'Comics Workshop'.

 

Anyone expecting to be handed a pencil and a piece of paper as they entered was going to be disappointed however - but not for long. On the day Dave Gibbons stood in front of a busy lecture theatre for over one and a half hours talking about his career, his process for taking a script page through to a final coloured and lettered art page (a shortened version of the lecture he had given at Dundee's Duncan Of Jordanstone College of Art and Design the day before), and finally gave a demonstration of the Madefire e-comics app that he is involved with.

 

At ease in front of the audience, and with plenty of anecdotes and humour in his talks, this made for a fascinating and informative event that seemed to go down very well with the audience. When it was announced that there would be the expected signing session afterwards virtually everyone adjourned upstairs to the Baxter Suite (currently the location of the university's Art Of Judge Dredd exhibition).

 

With a queue of people stretching over half way around the suite, Dave started into signing and sometimes sketching in the books presented to him most of which, it has to be said, were various editions of Watchmen. As the good-natured queue slowly worked its way around the room Dave dedicated his signatures and took the time for a quick chat and to shake the hand of each person there.

 

If any criticism could be levelled at the Dundee Comics Days of previous years then it would be the fact that most guests are only allocated 20 minutes to give their talk or presentation followed by 10 minutes of questions from the audience. For guests with decades of experience in British comics, and much to tell, this is simply not long enough. The 1.5 hours of Dave Gibbons' talk showed that this mold can be successfully broken especially with such a interesting, knowledgeable and courteous guest.

You can follow Dave Gibbons on his Twitter Feed.

There are more details of the Madefire App on the Madefire website.

In Memoriam: Jose Luis Ferrer

We're sorry to report the passing of Catalan comics artist and illustrator Jose Luis Ferrer (José Luis Ferrér Rozalen), whose credits included 2000AD, Starlord and many other British comics.

His agent, Esteve Dalmau, told downthetubes he finally succumbed to an aggressive brain tumor earlier today.

A panel from the Future Shock
'Space Bug' for 2000AD
Prog 55

Signing his work as, simply, Ferrer, Jose studied Fine Art but was basically self taught and had been drawing professionally for more than 30 years, half of which have been spent doing comics for various publishers, mostly in Spain.

More recently, he also drew "Horrifying Hijinks at the Haunted Hotel” for Pulp Toons, who pay tribute to him here.

Lambiek notes he began his career drawing for the action comics published by Galaor and Toray in the 1960s. He drew for collections like Batallas Decisivas de la Humanidad, Hazañas del Oeste and Hazañas Bélicas, before turning to agency work.

He was affiliated with studios like Bulls Press, Union Studio (1975-79) and Recreo (1979-82) and worked for publishing houses in France, Britain, Germany, Sweden and the USA.

He worked for several British publishers in the 1970s and 80s: firstly, IPC and Fleetway, drawing strips such as Ants and Robo Hunter for early issues of 2000AD, and Ro Busters for Star Lord.

His first credit for 2000AD was a Tharg Future Shock, 'Times Past', written by Martin Lock for Prog 42.

"I also worked with DC Thomson through Norma Comics on war and science fiction stories, and also in Germany (mainly with Bastei)," he once told me. "Here, I basically did children’s comics, horror comics, and adaptations for TV series such as The Real Ghostbusters and Captain Future." He worked on this last series for five years.

Jose subsequently had worked with TV3 and have published with Norma Comics and have also worked with the principal publishing houses in Spain on projects such as encyclopedias,
text books and more.

• Ferrer's Future Shocks - A List
• Ferrer: A Flickr Gallery
• Lambiek Entry