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.

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.

Dave Gibbons guests at Dundee Literary Festival

Another reminder about events in Dundee next weekend, that are part of the Dundee Literary Festival.

On Saturday 27th October Dundee University welcomes special guest Dave Gibbons, one of the most famous comics artists in the world, and best known as the co-creator of Watchmen, the ground-breaking graphic novel written by Alan Moore and drawn by Gibbons.

Gibbons will deliver a talk on the theme of Creating Comics, and will discuss his own methods for producing comic art, and in particular, his use of Manga Studio, which he will demonstrate. He will also lead a workshop on this theme, which anyone can participate in, but would be particularly useful for anyone who has ever considered creating a comic.

Dr Chris Murray, lecturer in Comics Studies at the School of Humanities and Director of the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies said “it is a tremendous honour for us to host a workshop with Dave Gibbons. He is a hugely talented and influential figure”. He added, “to have Dave Gibbons and Grant Morrison in Dundee on the same weekend is astounding - we are very proud that comics creators of this calibre are supportive of the Comics Studies courses and events that the University of Dundee is leading”.

Phil Vaughan, lecturer at DJCAD added, “comics students at the Art College and in Humanities will benefit enormously from meeting Dave Gibbons and Grant Morrison, and hearing about their creative processes”.

"It's also good to see such interest from the general public in these events," notes Chris, "as this demonstrates that for many Dundee’s proud history as one of the homes of comics production is still something that has a great deal of resonance”.

The talk and workshop are open to the general public, but are ticketed (£15 full price, £7.50 concession). This ticket also allows access to Dundee Comics Day on Sunday 28th October, which features comics superstar Grant Morrison, along with several of his collaborators, including Frank Quietly, Peter Doherty, Rian Hughes, Frazer Irving and Cameron Stewart. The events will be held in the D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre and Baxter Suite, Tower Building, University of Dundee. More information is available here: http://on.fb.me/WgJH1t

To buy tickets, please visit www.literarydundee.co.uk or http://bit.ly/SXEityTickets are also available from Literary Dundee, 6th floor, Tower Building, University of Dundee, tel. 01382 384413. Please note, this workshop and talk is part of a wider event called “The Comics of Grant Morrison”, so that should be selected. One ticket allows access to all events on Saturday 27th and 28th October.

 

Grant Morrison headlnes Dundee Comics Day

A reminder that one of the world’s most successful comics writers, Grant Morrison, heads the stellar line-up of top industry talent appearing at this year’s Dundee Comics Day.

The annual event, part of the Dundee Literary Festival, takes place on Sunday, 28th October and this year’s programme, entitled ‘Invisible Symmetries: The Comics of Grant Morrison’, celebrates the work of the Glasgow-born writer.

It will be preceded by two special events in the run-up to Comics Day – a screening of the documentary ‘Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods’ at Dundee Contemporary Arts on Friday 26th, and a two-hour workshop on creating comics using Manga Studio on Saturday 27th. This workshop will be delivered by Dave Gibbons, the co-creator of Watchmen and one of the world’s most respected comics artists.

Grant Morrison began his career at the famous Dundee publishers DC Thomson before going on to work for Marvel and DC Comics and write for many of the world’s best-loved publications, including Superman, Batman and X-Men.

He will be discussing his approach to writing comics, his thoughts about superheroes (as expressed in his recent book Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero), and his experience of working with some of the best comics artists in the world.

Joining him at the event will be several of his collaborators, including Frank Quietly, Peter Doherty, Rian Hughes, Frazer Irving and Cameron Stewart. They will talk about their experience of working with Grant Morrison, as well as discussing their wider careers and future projects.

Dr Chris Murray, event organiser and one of the UK's foremost authorities on the subject, said Grant Morrison’s upcoming appearance was causing a great deal of excitement among comics fans.

“Grant Morrison is, quite simply, a legend in the world of comics,” he said. “Having him come here is a real honour and we are absolutely delighted to be able to pay tribute to a truly great comics writer.

“The fact he is Scottish and began his career with DC Thomson is testament to the great comics tradition here. We have a fantastic line up of other artists and writers and this is an event no true comics fan should miss. We know that people are planning to travel considerable distances for this year’s Dundee Comics Day so I’d advise people to get their tickets fast.”

Dundee is one of the great powerhouses of comics production, not just in the UK, but internationally. The publisher DC Thomson is at the heart of the city, with its long running comics, The Beano and The Dandy, and a host of beloved characters, such as Dennis the Menace, Desperate Dan, and the Bash Street Kids.

Building on this local tradition and expertise, the University of Dundee is currently leading the way in this emerging academic field, with modules on comics at undergraduate level and the UK’s first Masters course in Comics Studies.

The Scottish Centre for Comics Studies (SCCS) is based at the University, bringing together researchers, teachers, archivists, artists and writers, industry professionals, and others involved in the promotion of Comics Studies.

Comics Day has been held annually since 2007 and has attracted some of the biggest names in the industry, including artists, historians, scholars and writers, in that time. It is designed to appeal to anyone with an interest in comics, and will be accompanied by an exhibition of comic art work. Book signings, talks and the announcement of the Dundee Comics Prize winners will also take place.

The events will be held in the D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre and Baxter Suite, Tower Building, University of Dundee. More information about any of the events is available by contacting Dr Murray at c.murrayATdundee.ac.uk.

• To buy tickets, please visit www.literarydundee.co.uk. Tickets are also available from Literary Dundee, 6th floor, Tower Building, University of Dundee, tel 01382 384413.

 

Dave Gibbons Comics Workshop In Dundee

The fifth annual Dundee Comics Day will be taking place at the University of Dundee on Sunday 28th October 2012 and, as previous reported, will be dedicated to talks by writer Grant Morrison and his artistic collaborators Cameron Stewart (Batman), Frazer Irving (Batman), Frank Quitely (All Star Superman), Rian Hughes (Dare) and Jill Thompson (The Invisibles).

An added extra to the event is what was initially vaguely described as a two hour comics workshop on the Saturday afternoon. The details of this have now been confirmed and it has turned out to be rather more impressive than originally envisioned.

Saturday 27th October 2012 sees artist and writer Dave Gibbons giving a two hour show and tell about his work plus giving a demo of the Manga Studio artist's tool. This will begin at 2pm on the Saturday and the cost of entrance is included in the ticket for the main Dundee Comics Day, meaning the the £15 ticket covers the holder for entry to both the Dave Gibbons presentation on the Saturday and the full day of Grant Morrison goodness on the Sunday.

• There are more details of the Dave Gibbons event on its Facebook page.

• There are more details of the Dundee Comics Day on its Facebook page and the Dundee Literary Festival website: www.dundee.ac.uk/literarydundee

Tickets for the Dundee Comics Day cost £15 for adults and £7.50 for children and are available via the Dundee Literary Festival website

Grant Morrison Takes Over Dundee Comics Day

The Dundee Comics Day, organised by Dr Chris Murray at Dundee University, is now in its fifth year as part of the Dundee Literary Festival - although the current DCD name only came into effect in 2010 and there was a two day comics conference at the University under the rather unacademic name of Biff! Bam!! Crikey!!! in 2007, the year prior to the first Lit Fest.

Last year the theme of the Dundee Comics Day was Wot I Learnt From Comics and attracted a bigger number of attendees than usual due perhaps to the change of date of the Lit Fest to term time and also due to the fact that virtually every speaker was an art- or script-droid for 2000AD.

In 2012 the event takes this one step further and doesn't just concentrate its guests on one title but on one creator, writer Grant Morrison, with a day entitled Invisible Symmetries, The Comics Of Grant Morrison. Grant received a MBE in the 2012 Birthday Honours list having worked on such British titles as Near Myths (below), Starblazer, Warrior, A1, Doctor Who Magazine, Trident, 2000AD, Revolver and Crisis (and has apparently even written some of those superhero-chappie stories that our colonial cousins are so obsessed by).

Grant will be attending the Dundee Comics Day on Sunday 28 October along with his artistic collaborators Cameron Stewart (Batman), Frazer Irving (Batman), Frank Quitely (All Star Superman), Rian Hughes (Dare) and Jill Thompson (The Invisibles). Each creator will be giving a talk followed by a QandA session as well as signing autographs and taking part in a roundtable discussion. The day will conclude at 1800 with a wine reception and the announcement of the Dundee Comics Prize winners.

The Dundee Comics Day takes place in the Tower Building of the University of Dundee beginning with registration at 1030 on Sunday 28 October 2012 and will run until after 1800. There are more details of the Dundee Comics Day at the Literary Dundee website were tickets, which cost £15 per adult and £7.50 per child, can also be purchased.

A Comics Workshop will take place in the Tower Building of the University of Dundee from 1400 to 1600 on Saturday 27 October 2012 and the cost of the workshop is included in the Dundee Comics Day ticket price.

There is a separately ticketed screening of the documentary Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods at the Dundee Contemporary Arts cinema and introduced by Dr Chris Murray beginning at 2045 on Friday 26 October 2012. Tickets for this screening cost £6.50 and are available from the DCA website.

For those unfamiliar with Dundee, the Tower Building of the University of Dundee and the Dundee Contemporary Arts cinema are within a few minutes' walk of each other and are an approximately 10 minute walk from both Dundee's train station and bus station, and a five minute taxi ride from Dundee's airport.

downthetubes reviews of the previous Dundee Comics Days -

• 2008
• 2009
• 2010
• 2011

Treating Comics Seriously: Six Questions For Lecturer Phillip Vaughan

Phillip Vaughan is a lecturer at the University of Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art And Design (DJCAD) with a background in 3D animation for the television, film and games industry. At DJCAD he teaches graphic design and has run the first module on Comic Art and Graphic Novels, the results of which have just been published in the Anthology One book from the new UniVerse imprint. Jeremy Briggs talks to Phillip about his work teaching the new generation of animators and graphic artists.

What comics did you grow up reading and what do you read now?
Being brought up near Dundee, it was inevitable that my first comics were The Beano and The Dandy. I soon graduated to more 'adult' comics such as The Victor, Warlord, Commando, Starblazer, Spike, Buddy and Champ, all DC Thomson stalwarts. In 1982 I picked up the new Eagle, but wasn’t impressed with the photo strips (bar Doomlord!), really I bought it for Dan Dare, especially the early Ian Kennedy run. A slow adopter, I moved onto 2000AD in 1984. Also around this time I discovered Marvel and DC Comics imports in my local newsagents. Sporadic though these imports were, I managed to collect runs of Uncanny X-Men, Peter David's run on the Hulk, John Byrne's run on Superman and some of Alan Moore's stint on Swamp Thing.

These days, I have stuck with 2000AD through thick and thin, and like the sentiment of anthologies such as Strip and Clint. I dip my toes into the American mainstream now and then, currently reading Hellblazer, Fatale, Action Comics and Captain America (mainly for the Alan Davis art). I have also been picking up Requiem by Pat Mills and Oliver Ledroit.

You lecture at DJCAD, could you tell us a little about what you cover and how comics came to be in the curriculum?
For the past 7 years I have lectured part-time in Graphic Design, mostly covering On-Screen and Motion Graphics, and I have also taught 3D Animation. We restructured our courses last summer, and as part of the new Communication Design umbrella, we were invited to pitch new expansive modules. I proposed the Comic Art and Graphic Novels Module, and was happy when this was picked up for Level 3 students to participate in.

Dr. Chris Murray, Lecturer & Programme Convenor at the School of Humanities (left, with Phillip Vaughan, centre, and Cam Kennedy, right), was a great help in the preparation of this module, as he had undergone the same process in the School of Humanities a couple of years before. The first cohort of students signed up for the module last year, and we are expanding to offer the module to other undergraduate areas of the art college next year.

You have had a number of comics creators give talks to the pupils as part of the course - who has done this and do the students value these talks?
So far we have been very lucky to welcome David Bishop, Colin MacNeil (a DJCAD graduate and cover artist of Anthology One), Frank Quitely, Cam Kennedy and the guys from DC Thomson, Calum Laird, George Low and a childhood favourite of mine, Ian Kennedy! Phew! This year, as well as returning guests, I have a few more very special creators up my sleeve, who have agreed to come in and impart their considerable knowledge! The students have given very positive feedback, and I can't wait to reveal who we have coming this year!

How did you get involved with the Dundee Comics Day?
Dr. Chris asked me! No seriously, me and Chris had been having several planning meetings with regard to my module and Chris's Comic Studies MLitt in Humanities. We dreamed up a wish list, that just so happened to include a lot of 2000AD alumni and I had a few contacts, Chris had his contacts and we managed to get a stellar line up of guests for Dundee Comics Day 2012. Again we are looking to push the boundaries for this year’s Comics Day…stay tuned!

How did Anthology come about and is it something that we can expect from each year of the course?
The Anthology was always part of the brief for the DJCAD Comic Art and Graphic Novels module, where the students were asked to produce between 2-6 finished pages of comic art, on a subject of their choice, for publication. The final book, Anthology One, features the best of the work from the module, and runs to 72 pages of full colour artwork. Colin MacNeil has provided a stunning cover for the first issue. The book costs £5.95 and is non-profit, with costs just covering printing, and it will be used to support and promote the students hard work!

We will be launching the book at Hi-Ex on the 31st March. Everyone who has seen the finished product has been very impressed with the work, which was produced in a very short space of time. Anthology Two will feature the work of students from the Comic Studies MLitt, and then we will keep the book running as a biannual affair! These publications will all be published under the UniVerse imprint which we have recently set up.

Could you tell us a little about your work outside of the university?
When I am not teaching, I work as a freelance designer/animator. Over the last 16 years I have worked on many different projects including 3D animated sequences for Deathtrap Dungeon, Star Trek, Farscape, Tom & Jerry, Wallace & Gromit, Teletubbies(!), Braveheart, plus a couple of original computer game concepts for various publishers such as Eidos and Sony. Most recently I completed the character design, animation and front end work on an iOS Superman Game App for DC Comics/ Warner Bros, which was nice! In the little spare time that I have I produce comic work just for fun and have had a couple of strips in Zarjaz, with the next one appearing in issue 15, out in July. The next project on the table is a comic book collaboration with Dr. Chris Murray.

There is more information about Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design on their website.

For more information about the Comic Art and Graphic Novels Module at DJCAD e-mail Phillip Vaughan at p.b.vaughan@dundee.ac.uk

For information about ordering Anthology One email: universecomic@gmail.com

There is more information about the University Of Dundee's MLitt in Comics Studies on the university website.

There are more details of Phillip Vaughan’s freelance work on his website, V14 Studios.

Phillip Vaugan will be at the Hi-Ex Comics Convention in Inverness on Saturday 31 March and Sunday 1 April 2012 where he will have copies of Anthology One for sale.

Anthology One Due From Dundee's UniVerse(ity)

Due out later this month is the first issue of a new comics series, Anthology, published under the new UniVerse imprint, which will showcase the best creative work that is emerging from the new comics courses at the University of Dundee and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.

Dundee has long been a haven for comics creation due largely to the city being home to DC Thomson. However in recent years the University of Dundee and its related colleges, specifically Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD), have been taking more of an interest in comics creation due in no small part to Dr Chris Murray of the University's School of Humanities. This has lead to various comic art exhibitions, often in association with DC Thomson, and the annual Dundee Comics Day, a full day of talks from a wide variety of British comics creators, as part of the Dundee Literary Festival.

With a cover by DJCAD alumnus Colin MacNeil, Anthology One, is the first issue and features work from the students on DJCAD's Comic Art and Graphic Novels Module. Module Leader and co-organiser of the Dundee Comics Day Phillip Vaughan said, "We have created an imprint called UniVerse to promote and publish up and coming work from the next generation of comic creators. This is the best of the work from the first cohort of the module, which (staggeringly) was run over 12 weeks for one day a week during Semester 1 of Communication Design Level 3 (encompassing Animation, Graphic Design and Illustration undergraduates). This year we plan to roll the module out to other undergraduate areas of the art college."

Chris Murray (far left, with Phillip Vaughan, centre, and Cam Kennedy, right) is course leader of the Comics Studies MLitt at the university and director of the newly formed Scottish Centre for Comics Studies and helped to deliver the course. Chris said, "It is an exciting time for Comics Studies at Dundee, and the DJCAD module has been even more successful than we'd hoped - the results are impressive, and the students clearly benefited from workshops with industry professionals such as Frank Quitely, Cam Kennedy, Colin MacNeil and others".

Anthology One will be available at the Hi-Ex comics convention in Inverness on Saturday 31 March and Sunday 1 April.

The downthetubes review of the 2011 Dundee Comics Day is here.

Links to the various comic art exhibitions that have taken place at the University Of Dundee since 2007 are here.

downthetubes interviewed Dr Chris Murray about his comics work here.

Tartan Bucket Prize Winning Strip In The New Beano

About this time last year the Dundee University Humanities Department, in conjunction with DC Thomson, launched the Tartan Bucket Prize competition to create, write and illustrate a new Beano and Dandy style children's humour comic strip.

At the conclusion of the Dundee Comics Day at Dundee University in October last year, Steve English was announced as the winner of the Tartan Bucket Prize. In addition to a cheque for £1000 and, quite literally, a tartan covered bucket full of DC Thomson goodies, its was also announced there that his strip, Belle's Magic Mobile, was to be published in The Beano.

Three months on and Belle's Magic Mobile is in the current issue of The Beano, number 3621, which has a cover price of £1.50.

There are more details about Steve English's work at his Football Earth website.

There are more details about The Beano at its website.

Dundee Comics Day 2011 - Other Voices

downthetubes has been reviewing the Dundee University comics events run by Dr Chris Murray for many years, long before they were labelled as the Dundee Comics Day, and those reviews were often the only independent record of those events. Indeed Dundee University regarded those reviews highly enough to link through to them from their own website. So it is good to see that this year's Dundee Comics Day has generated many more reviews and comments than normal.

Laura Sneddon at Comic Book Resources provides a detailed review of the event talks with lots of quotes from the guests.

Ariadne Cass-Maran at Graphic Scotland reviews the event and points out the lack of female guests without actually suggesting any female creators that could have been invited. Indeed this is the first Dundee event for many years not to have any female guests who, in the past, have included The Beano's Laura Howell, Vampire Academy's Emma Vieceli, Manga Shakespeare's Nana Li and Metaphrog's Sandra Marrs as well as Northumbria University's Dr Mel Gibson.

Rich Clements and Vicky Stonebridge of Inverness' Hi-Ex comics convention show the sense of community that exists amongst comics fans in Scotland by giving DCD a glowing review on the Hi-Ex blog.

Gillian Hatcher of Team Girl Comic, who just might have managed a sneak preview of one of the runner-up entries in the Tartan Bucket Prize, enjoyed her day and hopefully made some useful contacts as well.

Writer and former Tharg David Bishop remembers John Wagner's words of wisdom.

Artist Katie Morrison reviews the day with a good selection of photos.

And finally, a selection of people from the 2000AD Online forum discuss the day.

Photo Review: Dundee Comics Day 2011

"The Dundee Comics Day has been the highlight of my comics year so far and I look forward in anticipation to what Chris Murray and his team have in store for next year" was how I ended my review of the 2010 Dundee Comics Day some 16 months ago, so this year's event had a lot to live up to.

As part of the Dundee Literary Festival organised by Dundee University, the Comics Day had to move with the festival from its normal timeslot in June to October putting it close to Thoughtbubble, and its academic conference, and clashing with London's MCM Expo. Yet, other than the fact that it was too cold to eat lunch outside on the front lawn, the date change does not seem to have negatively affected the event or the attendance, indeed the turnout was noticeably larger than in previous years. Whether this was down to the fact that it was term time and Dundee's students were around, or that the 2000AD fans realised that it was worth attending due to the number of script and art droids due to be there, or even that the Glasgow Comic Con in July had opened Glaswegian comics fans eyes to what was going on in the rest of Scotland, is open to debate.

In previous years the day has begun with a morning workshop but this year the workshop was done away with and the pre-lunch session was expanded into a series of talks beginning at 11am with comics historian and author Paul Gravett (above). Paul has been to Dundee before and this year his talk was based around his new book 1001 Comic Books You Must Read Before You Die as he suggested a fairly long list of comics creators, several of which I hadn't heard of, from which to chose five.

Next up were Burke and Hare writer Martin Conaghan and artist Will Pickering, talking about their graphic novel, originally published by Edinburgh's Insomnia, and which won the Best Graphic Novel, and Conaghan best writer, at the inaugural Scottish Independent Comic Awards at the Glasgow Comic Con in July. They discussed the background to the book, their inspiration for it in the form of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell, plus the amount of research that they put into it to avoid the many myths that have grown up around the two murderers.

The morning session came to an end with a short talk by artist Jimmy O'Ready about his new comic Death Sentence which he writes under the pen name Montynero and which has art by Rex Royd's Mike Dowling. The audience showed their interest after this talk by buying every copy of the comic that Jimmy had with him.

A light buffet lunch was proved as part of the day's entrance cost of £10 after which the early afternoon session took on a heavily 2000AD feel. Yet for all the fact that John Wagner is associated with 2000AD and his co-creation of Judge Dredd, he began his talk with his time at DC Thomson and showed photos of Pat Mills' former garden shed where the pair of DC Thomson men had written 23 scripts for IPC's Cor! humour comic and had 12 of them accepted. They wrote IPC humour characters such as Jack Pott and Tom Boy. He then moved on to the creation of Battle Picture Weekly as a competitor to DCT's Warlord and the attempts to shore up the falling sales of Valiant before it was amalgamated into Battle. One of the Valiant characters was the Dirty Harry-esque One Eyed Jack who mutated with the arrival of 2000AD into Judge Dredd.

Robbie Morrison was next who has been writing Nikolai Dante in 2000AD for the last 16 years as well as creating Shimura and Shakara which, it was pointed out, sound similar but aren't. Of the two very different artists on Dante, Robbie said that he wrote to their strengths with John M Burns preferring adventure over science-fiction and Simon Fraser getting the more SF and emotionally charged stories. One snippet that I hadn't heard before was that his first professional script sale was to DCT's SF digest Starblazer and that he had written some 4 or 5 scripts for the title, none of which were used before Starblazer was cancelled in 1991. Chances are those scripts are still sitting in DC Thomson's archive.

Finally in this session was artist Colin MacNeil, another of the Starblazer alumni who pointed out that he was "not a comics artist, just an artist who draws comics." Stating that he was more at home with pictures than words, Colin then went on to give a very thoughtful talk about his work over the years, his influences including his very close encounter with Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch' in Holland and his plans for a Battle of the Somme graphic novel to come out in 2016. Colin was followed by a break for refreshments and a signing session in the foyer.

The final session of the day began with Matthew Jarron of the university's Museum Services introducing Commando editor Calum Laird (right), deputy editor Scott Montgomery (left) and former editor George Low (centre) for a short talk about the Commando Battlelines exhibition that was displaying original cover and internal artwork from the comic in the foyer. They gave a good-natured talk and answered questions about one of the great survivors of British comics during which they got what was perhaps the most off-the-wall question of the day when they were asked how much of their readership was female. Surprisingly it is 2%, or 1 in 50, which may not sound like much but it is much higher than I would have expected it to be.

Next up was at talk by Jamie Bryan (left) of computer game firm Tiger Games who, along with the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design lecturer and one of the organisers of the Dundee Comics Day Phillip Vaughn (right), talked about their new Superman game for iPads and iPhones which has not been released yet. While it was an interesting talk, it was definitely the odd-man-out of all the talks during the day.

Things got back on a comics track with artist Cam Kennedy who stood at the front with the microphone and, rather than giving a talk, immediately asked for questions. Cam has a dry humour and it came across well here as questions set him off on amusing anecdotes about his career as he told the audience about his time in France and America as well as his disregard for Star Wars. After the success of his two Dark Empire series when Dark Horse asked for a third he turned them down as he was "fed up drawing a big carpet and a dustbin." When pressed by them he said that he would do a series on Boba Fett as long as John Wagner wrote it and they agreed - not realising that John Wagner hadn't even seen Star Wars at that point. With his art on the screen behind him and the chance of a sketch book of his work being published in Europe (we can but hope), Cam's session was one of the highlights of the day.

After the energy and humour of Cam came one of the most highly regarded comic strip artists of modern times, Frank Quitely, whose 'secret identity' just happens to be a quietly spoken bloke from Glasgow called Vincent Deighan. Unlike most artists who prefer their artwork to do the talking, Vinnie is at home in front of an audience and he sat at the front cradling the mic and talked about his work and career. Like Colin MacNeil, as a child he had considered books were something for school and it was comics that he read for fun at home, while his favourite pastime even then was drawing.

The audience were then invited to move out to the foyer for the Tartan Bucket awards presentation. In association with DC Thomson the university had run a competition to create a new 1 or 2 page humour strip in the vein of Beano and Dandy. With a honourable mention for Craig Balmer, the four runners up who received a cheque for £250 each were Steven Baskerville, Jamie Huxtable, Paul Rainey and Adam Smith while the tartan Bucket Prize was won by Steve English (below) with his two page strip Belle's Magic Mobile. As well as a cheque for £1000 and, quite literally, a bucket full of DC Thomson merchandise, Steve's strip will be published in the Beano in the new year.


Finally, and a surprise to most not least of all Cam Kennedy, there was a short presentation by Calum Laird about the two unrelated Kennedy "brothers", Cam and Ian. Artist Ian Kennedy had quietly joined the audience towards the end of the day which meant that he was there for Calum presenting him, and John Wagner presenting Cam, with lifetime achievement awards which, it has to be said, were both very richly deserved. Despite both being Scottish, Cam (left) and Ian (right) had never met before and this candid photo below shows the moment when the men were introduced to each other for the first time by a delighted Phillip Vaughn.


The day's talks were themed as 'Wot I Learnt From Comics' and two fairly consistent things came from that. Firstly comics creators don't read many comics (and why would they when they spend all day working on them?) and secondly, and more importantly for budding creators in the audience, if you want to make a comic just go ahead and do it - practice may not make perfect but it can only benefit you in the long run.

Practice has pretty much made perfect when it comes to the Dundee Comics Day and congratulations must go to Dr Chris Murray and his team for yet another excellent event covering both old and modern British comics and their creators. Long may it continue.

Death Sentence for Dundee! (courtesy of Montynero and Mike Dowling)

Death Sentence is a five issue series by Montynero and Mike Dowling which debuts this weekend at Dundee Comics Day

Described as "the best idea I've seen for a comic in years" and "Genuinely original," by none other than Mark Millar, the comic is about an STD that enhances your abilities but kills you in six months. It documents the chaotic final months of an artist, a musician, and a comedian who find themselves with unwanted super-abilities.

Artists and writer Montynero creates 2d and 3d artwork and writes, mostly for computer games, and spend a bit of time each year teaching digital painting/3d modelling at computertrainingacademy.co.uk.

Mike Dowling is a London-based comic book artist who has previously published work with Insomnia and Ubisoft, and was a regular illustrator on Torchwood Magazine from 2008 onwards. His first story for 2000 AD, ‘Six Brothers’ written by Alec Worley, came out in August 2011, progs 1743-5.

He's been drawing ‘Rex Royd’, written by Frankie Boyle, for CLiNT magazine and is involved in several independent projects in development.

We caught up with Montynero for a brief chat about the Death Sentence project...

downthetubes: What's the point of the comic?
 
Montynero: To entertain, firstly, and then to explore some fine sequential storytelling. The idea's interesting enough, but really its all about how you tell the story.

Mike and I both got into comics for the love of the medium, and its narrative possibilities - so we spend ages fine tuning the sequentials to make them as punchy and poetic as possible. But its commercial entertainment, not high art.

downthetubes: Who are the characters?

Montynero:  Three twentysomethings. Verity's a graphic designer - tattoos - sexually adventurous. Weasel's an addict and a noted singer songwriter. Some call him a genius, others a talentless bullshitter. Monty's a movie star and comedian. They all react to the virus in radically different ways, and the conflict becomes explosive.

downthetubes: How did it come about?

Montynero: A reaction to life, really. I was driving home from a comic con, my wife was three months pregnant, and everyone was telling me my life would no longer be my own when I became a dad. So it felt like I only had six months to do something creative.  

I'm fascinated by the decadent lives people lead, and the nihilistic attitudes pervading Western culture, and we wanted to document and explore that. I mean, It's supposed to be entertaining, funny and irreverent - but by the end of the series you get a very clear idea of what we think about it all.

Ultimately it explores the point of life - though you'll have to read the whole thing to get the big picture.
 
downthetubes: When it coming out?

Montynero: 2012. Though there are advance copies at Dundee Comics Day and Thought Bubble in Leeds in November. Advance purchasers get signed/ personalised editions - and their names enshrined on the Death Sentence website for posterity.

• Montynero's official web site: www.montynero.com


• Mike Dowling's Official web site: www.mikedowling.info

Treating Comics Seriously - Six Questions for Dr Chris Murray

Dr Chris Murray is a lecturer and programme convenor in English for Dundee University's School of Humanities with research interests in comics, film and popular culture. He has contributed articles to the academic International Journal of Comic Art, Gothic Studies, and several books on comics, and has written a book on comics and propaganda. He is also editor of the peer-reviewed comics journal, Studies in Comics.

Chris organises and runs the Dundee Comics Day event, now part of the Literary Dundee festival, that since 2007 has grown out of a purely academic conference to become a day of talks and presentations from comics professionals plus an associated art exhibition.

Beginning with the 2011/2012 academic year, he will be running the post-graduate Master of Literature (MLitt) in Comics Studies at Dundee that was derided by MP Tom Harris, the Labour MP for Glasgow South, when it was announced.

Jeremy Briggs talked to Chris about the reaction to the MLitt announcement as well as his plans for this year's Dundee Comics Day.


downthetubes: Much was said in June about the new MLitt in Comics Studies course at Dundee. Could you tell us what the course is about and the academic requirements needed to take part?

Chris Murray: The course aims to provide a space for the academic appreciation of comics at postgraduate level. I already teach some undergraduate courses on comics, so it seemed time for the next step. There is certainly a gap in the market for this kind of course, and a demand for it. The course, contrary to the views expressed by Tom Harris, has a wide remit, with one module on autobiographical and documentary comics, another comparing various international comics traditions, and a third which is for those with an interest in creating comics. All students also write a dissertation on an aspect of comics history.

The normal entry requirements are the same for any MLitt course in the Humanities (a 2.1 degree), but as it isn’t very likely that anyone will have an undergraduate degree in Comics Studies there has to be some flexibility in terms of the discipline. Some of the students who have been applying have a degree in a Humanities subject, such as English, Film Studies or History, whereas others have Art degrees. One of the applicants who inquired about entry next year has a degree in Astro-Physics but wants to study comics!

The appeal of the course has been quite wide, but the course isn’t just an opportunity to pursue a hobby in a University setting. Many of the students currently on the course want to pursue comics academically, others want to be creators, or work in the creative industries, whereas others are using it as a means of professional development (yes – we have someone who currently works in the comics industry taking the course!).

DTT: MP Tom Harris’ tweets, which rather showed his ignorance about the MLitt, caused a flurry of indignation amongst the British comics community that was picked up on by some of the Scottish press. What was it like to be at the centre of a mini storm?


Chris: I take things like that in my stride these days. I knew there would be some backlash, and there’s been things like that in the media before (Biff! Bam! Crikey! Comics in Universities, eggheads read comics, blah, blah, blah…) but having taught comics and researched comics for several years I don’t feel like I have to prove anything to Tom Harris. I’m part of a growing community of comics scholars, and I can tell you there is some incredible work being done by these highly talented and driven people. Comics Studies is here. We aren’t waiting for the approval for everyone with an opinion and access to a Twitter account.

My abiding memory of that incident was the huge amount of support that came my way, not least from downthetubes, but also from David Lloyd and lots of other people I’d never met who just wrote to me out of the blue to express their support. The University, and Dundee politicians, were also very supportive.

In the end, so much flak was flying in Harris’ direction from so many people that I just stood back and let them set him straight. The most surprising thing was that a politician would believe what was written in a tabloid. Hook, line and sinker. He made his comments based on a tabloid story and didn’t even check his facts. You’d think a politician would be a bit more savvy. Then again, it’s been mentioned to me that certain politicians use Twitter to drop little controversial nuggets out there to generate a bit of hype and to create an image for themselves. Far be it from me to suggest that this was the case here.

DTT: In my review of the 2010 Dundee Comics Day, which included talks from Pat Mills, Alan Davis and Dez Skinn, I described it as "the highlight of my comics year so far". How do you plan to top last year's programme?

Chris: Luckily for us the UK is home to an astounding array of comics talent. This year we have John Wagner, Frank Quietly, Cam Kennedy, Robbie Morrison and Colin MacNeil, which I’m sure you’ll agree is a pretty amazing line up.

I’m working with Phil Vaughan this year (he is a lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, where he is delivering some modules on comics). We sat down and came up with our wish list, and they all signed on! Our only concern was what we’d do for 2012. But rest assured, we have something pretty exciting lined up…

DTT: Over the years the exhibitions tying in with the Comics Day and its spin-offs have included original artwork borrowed from the DC Thomson archive, from early pages of the Dandy, Beano and Magic right up to covers and internal artwork from Starblazer on display. Is there an associated exhibition with this year's Comics Day?

Chris: Yes, we have a display of artwork from Commando, which is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. The exhibition, curated by Matthew Jarron (Museum Services, University of Dundee), just went up. It looks great. I love the Ian Kennedy stuff in particular. It was a real treat to go to the Commando offices to pick out the artwork for the exhibition and speak to the editor Calum Laird, who provided us with some great material and some cracking anecdotes!.

DTT: Could you tell us a little about the Studies In Comics journal and how it differs from a commercial comics magazine such as Comics Heroes or a comics fanzine like Crikey?


Chris: Studies in Comics, which I co-edit with my partner-in-crime, Dr Julia Round (University of Bournemouth), is a peer-reviewed academic journal. It comes out twice a year from Intellect. The journal exists to provide a forum for academic work on comics, although that can be from any perspective.

The thing that distinguishes an academic journal from a commercial magazine or a fanzine is that academic work is usually designed to address the subject matter from a theoretical position, or to advance a methodology for criticism and analysis.

I enjoy Comics Heroes, and they’ve had some great articles and interview. Likewise, I thought that (the much-missed) Crikey! had some very well-researched articles on comics history. However, they are not intended to work in the same way as an academic journal. They are different tools for different jobs, although I think that the co-existence of commercial magazines, fanzines and academic journals is great and they all enrich one another.

DTT: Your book Champions of the Oppressed: Superhero Comics, Propaganda and Popular Culture in America During World War Two was recently published by Northampton Press in the USA. Can you tell us a little about it and how your interest in the subject began?

Chris: I’ve always been interested in comics. My earliest memories are of looking at comics and being fascinated by them. This never went away, despite the fact that I also became very interested in literature, especially William Blake, Thomas Hardy, T.S. Eliot, and so on. I also loved film and art. When I was at University I studied literature (after very nearly going to art college). I always felt that there was an undeniable connection between literature, art, film and comics.

When I came to study literature academically I found that any theory or critical position that could be adopted to study literature could be applied just as readily to comics, and the connections between comics and the other mediums were obvious. What was fascinating though were the differences, what comics could do differently, or better.

When I discovered that I could write my undergraduate dissertation on anything I wanted, as long as I could get a tutor to approve it, I lined up my arguments and knocked on Dr Keith Williams’ door. He worked on modernism, media and science fiction, so I though there was a good chance he’d hear me out.

As things went, he was more than happy to discuss the project, and to supervise it. He later supervised my PhD. I have a lot to thank Keith for. He was always encouraging, yet challenged me always to be rigorous and thorough. Likewise Roger Sabin and Paul Gravett, who’ve always been incredibly supportive.

When you have people you respect standing behind you, and colleagues like Julia Round, Billy Grove, and Phil Vaughan, standing beside you, some ill-informed rants on Twitter don’t really add up to much.

The book grew out of the PhD and allowed me to explore the political messages communicated by comics during the Second World War. I argue that comics were able to go a lot further than many other mediums, notably film, in presenting propaganda messages, as they were less regulated by government. It was a fascinating topic to research and gave me a new insight into the power of the superhero as an icon, and as a metaphor for ideological positions.

My current research is on British comic writers and artists, and I’m very much enjoying working on this. As I said earlier, the UK is home to incredible talent. It makes sense to be researching this in Dundee, one of the great homes of British comics publishing, and to be taking this research into the classroom.

DTT: Chris, thank-you for your time.

The Dundee Comics Day will take place in Dundee University on Sunday 30 October 2011 as part of the Literary Dundee festival. More details are available from the Dundee Comics Day Facebook page and tickets are available in advance from the Literary Dundee website

• There are more details of the MLitt in Comics Studies at the Dundee University website

• There are more details of the Studies In Comics journal at the Intellect Books website including a free PDF download of the first issue.

• There are more details of Champions of the Oppressed on the Hampton Press website and the book is available to buy in hardback or softcover on Amazon.