Women in Comics project gets European face

A number of women comic creators have set up a European arm of the Women in Comics project, with a public page on Facebook and a private group for further discussion of the industry.

Set up by comics journalist Laura Sneddon and comics, prose and screenplay writer Maura McHugh, the public page will promote work by women in the Comic Book Industry in Europe, as well as sharing information and resources of interest to everyone.

This is the public face of the private group, Women in Comics, Europe, where the creators plan to share information with everyone about what women in the comic book industry are doing, and circulate articles and resources of interest to everyone.

So far these include such things as links to a recent Los Angeles Times feature on women's contribution to comics, particularly on the indie scene with links to follow up posts;a plug for Karrie Fransman's The House That Groaned; and plugs for upcoming Laydeez do Comics meetings.

The team at British publishers Blank Slate have popped by in the past few days to promote their plans to publish work by plenty of European women artists including British artist Donya Todd, Nine Antico (from France), Line Hoven, Anke Feuchtenberger (five books in the works), Marijpol, Isabelle Kreitz and Brigit Weyhe (all German). 

"Europe is overflowing with talented female comic makers," enthuses publisher Kenny Penman. "Blank Slate Books is determined to continue to present their work to English speaking audiences."

They welcome thoughtful discussion of posts.

• If you are a woman working in the comic book industry in any capacity (journalist, academic, writer, publisher, letterer, comic book seller) why not apply to join the group? https://www.facebook.com/groups/341472425930685/

Blank Slate pride at Eisner award nomination for 'Nelson'

Comic-Con International have announced that Blank Slate's Nelson has been nominated for the Best Anthology honour in the 2012 edition of the the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards.

Created by a team of 54 of the UK’s most prominent comic creators, Nelson was devised as a celebration of the incredible diversity of talent within the rapidly growing British comics industry. Envisioned and edited by veteran UK creators Rob Davis and Woodrow Phoenix, the book unites a dynamic range of literary, mainstream, independent and small-press talent to tell the story of protagonist Nel Baker from her birth in 1968 to the present day.

Comprised of yearly snapshots, Nelson combines a myriad of stylistic approaches and decades of British history in one compelling, beautifully-rendered graphic novel.

For Blank Slate, Nelson presents a great opportunity to promote the rapidly expanding comics scene in Britain. Speaking on the book's Eisner nomination, Editor Rob Davis states “It's great to see Nelson getting this recognition, not just because it shines a light on the mind-boggling profusion of talent in British comics right now, but because it's a unique experiment that takes the anthology format and uses it to create a genuine novel.

"Everyone involved has a shared belief in the power of comics to make stories come alive."

Co-editor Woodrow Phoenix added "I'm really proud of what we achieved with this book. It proves that you don't need guns, superpowers, zombies or swords to make a story compelling”.

Met with international acclaim from both mainstream and specialist book reviewers when released in November 2011, Nelson quickly sold out of its initial run, all profits from which will be donated to Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity.

- ISBN: 978-1-906653-23-1 | 252 pages | 236 x 178mm softcover with flaps, full colour | £18.99

• More about Nelson on the Blank Slate web site her • Order Nelson from Blank Slate

In Review: Psychiatric Tales by Darryl Cunningham

By: Darryl Cunningham
Publisher: Blank Slate

The Book: Psychiatric Tales delves inside the mysteries of mental disorders – presenting explanations and recollections using the cartoonist’s own experiences as both a psychiatric and care nurse and as someone who himself has suffered from depression.

Being able to see the issue from both sides allows Darryl to present matters in a forthright and instantly accessible way which will allow many to understand the trials of both sufferers and those connected to them – perhaps for the first time. Topics covered include bi-polar disorder, self harming, suicide, depression and theauthor also shows how for some famous people mental disorders were part of what may have made them great.

"Media representations of people who suffer mental illness tend to be appalling," notes Darryl on his blog, announcing the launch of the book. "We live in an age where racism and sexism is considered unacceptable. Yet the mentally ill are still considered fair game for ridicule and are subject to the worst kind of prejudice. I had an e-mail recently from a young man who intended to buy two copies of the book when it came out. One for his mother, and one for his step-father. He wanted to show his family that the bipolar disorder he'd been diagnosed with, was a real illness, and that he needed their understanding not hostility"

The Review: Thank you, Darryl Cunningham. Thank you, just for your general talent and hugely enjoyable cartoons, for which the Forbidden Planet International web site has been such a great platform. But thank you, this week, for what publisher Blank Slate rightfully describe as the "frank, hard hitting and moving" Psychiatric Tales: one of the more difficult, more challenging 'comic books' I have read down the years, but a positive experience.

My wife works in care, but she rarely talks much about the clients, respecting their need for anonimity. Yes, she has her favourites - even the difficult individuals have some redeeming factor, occasionally. But she rarely talks about the general 'malaise' of those clients.

In a series of short stories, some of which have appeared online down the years, Psychiatric Tales throws light not just on some of the things she has to deal with, even these days just as an assistant rather than nurse, but also how the work impacts on Carers. How the diseases of the mind affect us all, one way or another.

This is a brilliant, hugely uplifting and thougtbprovoking collection of stories and I heartily endorse it. Congratulations to Darryl on bringinging it to print and top marks to Blank Slate for publishing it.

• Buy Psychiatric Tales from amazon.co.uk

• Buy Psychiatric Tales from amazon.com
(A US edition will be published in 2011)

• Darryl Cunningham's Blog
Darryl Cunningham is the creator of the book Psychiatric Tales, and the web-comics, Super-Sam and John-of-the-Night  and The Streets of San Diablo. A prolific cartoonist, sculptor and photographer, Darryl's work can also be found at his Flickr page.

• Interview with Darryl by Matthew Badham on his darn fine Blog

• Blank Slate Books

Psychiatric Tales Online

Sample chapters from the book:

• People With Mental Illness Enhance Our Lives

• Dementia Ward

• Suicide

• Schizophrenia

• Cut and Delusions

Strip!: Publishing a Blank Slate

Concluding comic book publishing month on radio show and podcast Strip!, Alex Fitch interviews Kenny Penman who runs Blank Slate Books, a new British publishing company that has been around for just under a year and have four books to their name so far, including Eisner award nominee Trains are... Mint by Oliver East and and Mawli's We can Still be Friends.

Alex and Kenny talk about what factors decide the choice of books he publishes, the travails of finding a market for new graphic novels in the middle of a credit crunch and how his history as one of the founders of Forbidden Planet International has helped his new career as a publisher.

Trains are... Mint received high praise from several quarters on release. It's a diary of walks tracing the train tracks between Manchester and Blackpool in the northwest of England, the comic dispensing with word balloons in favour of text and speech written in longhand superimposed upon the images.

"Oliver East has produced one of the most unique works to come out of the UK small press scene," says Kenny Penman, "and one that I believe has a chance of crossing over to a much wider audience."

• Strip!: Publishing a Blank Slate airs later today, Thursday 30th April 2009, at 5.30pm, repeated Sunday 3rd May 11.30pm, onResonance 104.4 FM (London), streamed at www.resonancefm.com, extended podcast online now at http://panelborders.wordpress.com

Tube Surfing: 19 July 2008

Tom Spurgeon of the Comics Reporter interviews British comic creator Daniel Merlin Goodbrey here. 'What little I know about the writer and cartoonist Daniel Merlin Goodbrey intrigues in a way that it's surprising I didn't interview him a long time ago,' confesses Spurgeon, in his introduction to the interview. 'He's a considerable presence within webcomics and is a generally prolific cartoonist in that realm, perhaps best known in the on-line world for developing the Tarquin Engine. Goodbrey's a "new media lecturer" -- which sounds fantastic -- and done a number of works in hypercomics, yet he's also written an old-school, print-bound Avengers short story, and has just completed another such assignment for Marvel.' (Above right: a page from Necessary Monsters by Goodbrey and Sean Azzopardi)

Richard Bruton has written 100 comic reviews for the Forbidden Planet International Blog. To celebrate this feat, he's created an index of his reviews, which you can find here.

And congrats to British cartoonist Jim Medway. He's a dad! Down the Tubes wishes Jim and his family all the best. Jim Medway self-publishes via his own Paw Quality Comics and is a regular contributor to children's comic The DFC.

Cartoonist Oliver East has posted the cover to his second book, Proper Go Well High, over at his blog. Proper Go Well High will be released by new British independent comics publisher Blank Slate Books, the company that released East's first collection, Trains are Mint, reviewed here by Down the Tubes.

More from Blank Slate

New UK publisher Blank Slate has announced a further four graphic collections, following hot on the heels of their release of Oliver East's Trains Are Mint and Mawli's We Can Still be Friends.

All four stick to the publishers hoped for model of a mixture of new, young, UK talent and translated cartoonists.

Proper Go Well High is a new project from Oliver East, a mammoth undertaking of some 100-plus pages, scheduled for October release.

October also sees the release of a second collection from Mawil, and if it's as good as We Can Still Be Friends, you should pre-order now. In Germany it was called Meister Lampe but in the UK it will be titled Sparky O'Hare - Master Electrician. Publisher Kenny Penman reveals a number of the translated strips will be appearing on the Forbidden Planet International blog and website in advance of publication.

"There are about 80 cartoons in total and essentially they are mostly one page gag cartoons about an electrician Bunny and the chaos that swirls around his every move," he says. "We hope they will build an online following on the FPI sites as we think they are charming, super-cute and very funny.

Also in the pipeline is an English translation of the award winning book Slaapkoppen by Belgian artist Randall C, described as a highly original and funny juggling comix game of clouds and words, dream and reality, poetry and humour, philosophy and absurdity. The book title means Sleepy Heads and it's a multilayered exploration of dreams and reality.

"It's an amazingly beautifully drawn book and has won two major awards on the continent in the last 12 months," says Kenny. "Most recently it won the best debut comic award at the highly prestigious Stripdagen Haarlem comix festival.
Check out Randall's website and you can see a good number of the original pages, of course still in their native Flemish. Randall will be entirely re-lettering the book for its English debut, probably in 2009.

Finally, for now, comes an as-yet untitled book from Stuart Kolakovic, described by Paul Gravett as "the future of British comics".
"Stuart is not only a remarkably talented artist but he's also a scholar of comics," says Kenny, "and after spending a day with him last week talking comics and looking through his work I think people are going to be totally blown away when they see his first books."

Stuart's book will be based on Eastern European folk tales and fairy stories. "I think the outline for the book is a story which will touch people deeply," feels Kenny. "If you have a romantic soul this is going to be a book for you."

There's no set publication date for the title as yet. "We are allowing it to develop at its own pace," Kenny explains.

Blank Slate Are Mint!

New British publisher Blank Slate (www.blankslatebooks.co.uk), the brainchild of Forbidden Planet International founders James Hamilton and Kenny Penman, kindly sent us review copies of the first two graphic collections in their range.

The new company has an ambitious publishing program, with half a dozen more titles to be announced very soon. For the latest news, check their official blog.

Trains are... Mint by Oliver East (ISBN 9781906653002) has received high praise from several quarters in recent months. It's a diary of walks tracing the train tracks between Manchester and Blackpool in the northwest of England, the comic dispensing with word balloons in favour of text and speech written in longhand superimposed upon the images.

"Oliver East has produced one of the most unique works to come out of the UK small press scene," says Kenny Penman, "and one that I believe has a chance of crossing over to a much wider audience.

"The story is told in deceptively simple watercolours that many will see as childlike (somewhat like the work of a young John Porcellino) although in fact they convey not only the narrative but also the spontaneity of sketches - which seems highly appropriate to a diary."

The graphical diary does not present the glowing picture of, say, Bill Bryson's book Notes from a Small Island or BBC TV's Coast documenntaries. "It also serves as eyewitness to what modern Britain is like behind the tourist posters," feels Kenny, "showing the everyday lives of small towns and people, and the often deep drabness at their centre, it reminds me in feel of the films of Shane Meadows."

“On the Road becomes On the Track as Oliver tramps, traipses, strolls and slogs from station to station, says Paul Gravett of the book, organiser of the ICA Comics Festival and author of numerous books including Great British Comics. "It's a unique use of comics, almost a time capsule of the unrecorded, everyday provinces.”

Personally, Trains Are Mint is a good read but I felt slightly bemused by the lack of trains in the book (one!) which makes for a strange chpice of title (but perhaps that was the point?). That said, for all the warts and all approach to documenting the walks, which include several train stations I'd rather not ever see again (Preston many look grand, but it's never appealed to me having been stuck on it once too often), there's a undefinable joy to the storytelling and a strong sense of observation that I think will develop over time.

We can Still be Friends by Mawil (ISBN 9781906653019) has a much more definable quality, centring on a young man's tried and failed approach to win the heart of various girls.

You sit next to her in Sunday School, meet her at Summer camp, spend the first year away from home with her as a flatmate. You're intoxicated, excited, obsessional - you're in love. Then come the dreaded words "we can still be friends"...

In four very funny, bittersweet episodes Mawil explores that crushing moment we've all experienced when our hopes and dreams are dashed, our stomachs turned inside out and we want the ground to swallow us up.

Widely held to be Germany's favourite Graphic Novel/Comics creator Mawil's works have won numerous awards over the last six years and have been translated into French, Spanish and Polish. This is his first book to be published in the UK in English and marks a terrific debut for one of Europe's best cartoonists.

For me, this was the more enjoyable release of Blank Slate's first two books, evoking memories of the non-Spirit stories by Will Eisner and others. The art is accomplished, the storytelling detailed but beautifully relaized and there's a genuine feeling of identification with the principal character as he careers from one almost entirely disastrous encounter with the opposte encounter to the next, much to the amusement of his drinking buddies as he recounts the experiences.

These two Blank Slate titles offer two very different graphic storytelling styles and are a good start for the fledgling company. I'm looking forward to seeing what else they have up their collective sleeves.

• Visit the Blank Slate web site
• The Blank Slate titles are available from several good graphic novel stockists including Forbidden Planet International, Gosh, Nostalgia and Comics, Page 45 and Smallzone

Tube Surfing: 13 June 2008

• We're pleased to report that our report by David Baillie on the recent No Barcodes event in Camden Market, organised by London Underground Comics is online. You can read it here.
Don't forget LUC are at Camden Market every Saturday.

• The Forbidden Planet International blog features the first part of a major interview with writer and mage, Alan Moore: a second part will follow sometime next week. Moore talks about reaction to The Lost Girls, his views on the changing face of comics (and the treatment of comics creators by publishers) and the upcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century.

• Debate continues to rage about the new DFC comic in several quarters: on the downthetubes Ning forum (membership required to comment), discussion has just turned to the issue of bad language in the John Blake strip by Phillip Pullman...

• New British publisher Blank Slate, whose titles include Oliver East's Trains are Mint and Mawil's We can Still Be Friends has a new blog. They've kindly sent us copies of both books and we should have reviews up next week, along with more details about their publishing plans.

• Lew Stringer reports that while, traditionally, the publication time for Christmas annuals is late August / early September, in a canny move to cash in on this year's blockbuster movies, Panini UK have released two of their 2009 dated annuals early. Read his review on Blimey! It's Another Blog About Comics where he also writes about some rare advertising for the very first issue of Valiant comic back in the 1960s.

• Over on Bear Alley, Steve Holland has posted his review of The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s, now on sale (don't forget to enter our competition!). "The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s is a bit of a misnomer for a book that reprints a straight two-year run of stories," he writes. "Ironically, it is one of the strengths of the Roy of the Rovers strip that is proving to be a pain from a marketing point of view—the Roy strip was a soap-opera with a series of storylines that would dramatically (often very dramatically) reboot the strip.
"You cannot easily choose a random group of episodes as representative because overarching plots would sometimes take a whole season to unfold, come to fruition and reach some sort of resolution; the resolution could very well involve the demise of major characters in the best soap-opera tradition of, say, EastEnders. Unlike EastEnders, however (and, it must be said, American comics), dead characters were never brought back to life in desperate grabs for ratings or sales. Read the full review