Breaking talent to be showcased at Kendal-based comic art festival’s Clock Tower

Some of the UK’s best emerging and established comic art talent will be showcasing their skills at the specially-dedicated Comics Clock Tower venue as part of Kendal's The Lakes International Comic Art Festival in October, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Print Media, publishers of STRIP: The Adventure Comics Magazine.

The festival will run from 18-20th October in Kendal in Cumbria. Held beneath the landmark tower of Kendal Town Hall, the Comics Clock Tower venue will be a vibrant mash-up of writers and artists from a wide variety of styles and genres, who will be signing, sketching and selling their original creations.

Occult antiquarians will rub shoulders with urban teen vigilantes. Slacker vampires will size-up the romantic poets in a venue that promises to have something for comic fans and those who may not have read comics since they were kids.

The aim of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival’s Comics Clock Tower is to champion some of the breaking talent of comic art, as well as some of the industry’s more established names. The focus is on writers and artists who are pioneers of new styles in the field of comics and graphic storytelling. The venue will celebrate and introduce their work to a new audience.

Owen Johnson, co-ordinator of the Comics Clock Tower, said: “We’re thrilled to be able to reveal some of the comic creators and publishers taking part in the three-day marketplace.  These are some of the brightest, freshest names in British comics and it really is a privilege to present them to a wider audience.

“In the lead up to the show, we plan to use our various social media platforms to present interviews and artwork from these guests in order to explore them and their work in graphic novels.”

There will be an emphasis on creators working or living in the North of England. These will be joined by a selection of cutting-edge names from across the country, as well as leading UK publishers.

Guests who will be appearing at the Comics Clock Tower include:

• Emma Vieceli, 33, from Cambridge, who has worked on the Manga Shakespeare series for SelfMadeHero, Girl Comics for Marvel, Violet for The DFC, My Little Pony for Hasbro, and Comic Book Tatoo for Image Comics.
  Her more recent work includes The Avalon Chronicles, the award winning Vampire Academy and the graphic novel adaptations of the Anthony Horowitz Alex Rider series.
• Great Beast, a publishing house which is dedicated to making fun, creative, accessible and pop-culture inspired comics.
• Black Hearted Press – Scotland’s leading independent comic book publisher. The publisher’s leading title School of the Damned has been optioned to be made into a motion picture.
• Andrew Tunney (aka 2hands) – Manchester-based, Andrew’s debut self-published comic GIRL&BOY was nominated for Best Comic in the first ever British Comic Awards in 2012. He is also the colourist for Peabody & D’gorath.
• Nich Angell – Nich has been drawing explosive, vibrant and colourful comics for clients such as Mattel, Hasbro, WWF, Titan and the BBC for more than seven years. He has also recently produced concepts and games for an animated series for Nickelodeon UK.

Many of the more than 50 special guest writers and artists who will be appearing at the festival will also make appearances within the Comics Clock Tower., which will give an opportunity to people to buy from a wide range of new and existing comic art of all genres.

Names already announced as attending the festival include founder patrons Bryan and Mary Talbot and as well as Sean Philips, Ed Brubaker, Charlie Adlard, Posy Simmonds, Kurt Busiek, Joe Sacco and many others.

Julie Tait, festival director, said: “We want to give comic fans the chance to discover something new and also encourage others, who may perhaps think comics are just for kids, to pick up a graphic novel and find out what they are missing.

“The Lakes International Comic Art Festival wants to highlight the diversity of the UK comic arts community. One of the ways we will be doing this is through the Comics Clock Tower – our version of a comics’ marketplace.”

• More details about the new event are available at www.comicartfestival.com.

Thrill Electric now on iTunes

At long last the wait is over. The Thrill Electric is now free to read on iPad and iPhone via iTunes.

This free ten-part (150 page) enhanced comic is set in Victorian Manchester and demonstrates the extraordinary parallels between the Internet Age and the Telegraph Age.

Beautifully realised by Emma Vieceli, Windflower Studio, and LittleLoud,  and scripted by Leah Moore and John Reppion, the story weaves around the exciting lives of the young women and men working at The Electrical and International Telegraph Company and tackles 21st Century issues such as gang culture, cyber bullying, coming out and on-line flirtations!

Produced by Hat Trick Productions for Channel 4 education, The Thrill Electric also features stunning animations, loads of contextual information, and a secret code that unlocks a hidden storyline.


• Grab The Thrill Electric from iTunes

Channel 4 launched The Thrill Electric web and mobile comic

Channel 4 Education has announced details of its launch of The Thrill Electric – a 10-part enhanced comic series written by Leah Moore and John Reppion, designed by Emma Vieceli, illustrated by the all-female comic book studio Windflower and produced by Hat Trick Productions.

It's a story in the Victorian era that demonstrates the extraordinary parallels between the telegraph age and the internet age.

“Teenagers may be surprised to hear that online gaming, personal messaging, cyber-bullying and online profiles are all an invention of the Victorian telegraph, not the internet,” says executive producer Jonathan Davenport. “By setting our story in the sprawling metropolis of Victorian Manchester, we are taking the concerns and issues of young people today and playing them out in an atmospheric setting that will seem both exciting and strangely familiar to our readers.”

Working with the very best names in the British comic’s industry and award-winning digital agency Littleloud, The Thrill Electric tells the story of Emily Bagley, a sassy and intelligent young woman who breaks with tradition and becomes a telegraph worker. In addition, there’s a whole host of characters to follow through the series as they tackle issues of sexual identity at a time when it was illegal to be gay; trying your best to better yourself in the face of peer pressure from gangs; the dangers of creating a false impression of who you are online; and female issues of body image and sexual inequality. And for eagle eyed readers, there’s a secret storyline hidden in the code.

The Thrill Electric is written by comic writing duo Leah Moore and John Reppion, designed by Manga aficionado Emma Vieceli, drawn by the Windflower team and produced by Tracy Beaker and Young Dracula’s Mia Jupp.

“When we discovered that the Telegraph system in the Nineteenth Century was to all intents and purposes a Victorian Internet, it really caught our imaginations,” says Leah Moore.  “A young woman could, with the right skills, join a predominantly male workforce and become part of the rapidly growing online international community.

"There is a strong resonance between the story in The Thrill Electric and the team helping to create it - lots of talented women working in a male dominated industry but rising to the surface despite that.”

The Thrill Electric tells its story in the form of an enhanced comic with layered panels and atmospheric animations and comes packed full of contextual issue-led information threaded throughout the story. 

"Littleloud created the technical framework and animations, with a view to explore and push what comics can be in the digital age," explains Darren Garrett, the agency’s Creative Director, "and how they can connect with new audiences. The technical framework we've built is all about exploring those possibilities and giving writers and artists tools to do this."

Commissioning editor, Jo Twist, says, “After reading comics on the iPad, I really wanted us to transform the way you could read them online, and what the team have done is a joy to experience. This is the first use of Unity player in comics and the innovative way the narrative is combined with real historical fact, the illustration and the animations with contemporary music makes this something quite unique.”

• The Thrill Electric will be released weekly from 27th October 2011 and experienced via a bespoke comic reader available online at this address www.thethrillelectric.com and on iPod and iPhone devices.

Phoenix: a new British comic rises from the ashes of The DFC

A new British comic is in the offing, edited by former The DFC editor Ben Sharpe.

Contrary to earlier reports on Lew Stringer's blog, bleedingcool.com and elsewhere, Ben says The Phoenix is not a revival of The DFC, although its editorial team will include Will Fickling, who was heavily involved in that weekly subscription title.

"The Phoenix isn't affiliated to David Fickling Books or any other publisher," says Ben, who clearly enjoyed his time on The DFC, which gave him the chance, we gather, to look at wonderful artwork all day, and have vital conversations like 'how many nipples is it appropriate to show on strips about 30s-era crime-fighting dogs', 'do sheep really have the lung capacity to master the tuba' and 'does super-strength make a schoolgirl super-fast or actually a little bit ponderous'.

There's scant details of what format the title will take but it does seem that several DFC contributors will be involved, including Gary Northfield and Emma Vieceli.

They will be looking for submissions: Ben says he will post info on what they're particularly looking for as soon as the comic's main website goes live.

More news as we get it!

UPDATE 5 MARCH 2011: The Phoenix comic now has a website.

On a related note, three more books based strips from The DFC are due to be published in late 2011 from the David Fickling Library: Baggage from the Etherington Brothers; The Boss by John and Patrice Aggs; and Jame's Turner's marvellous Super Animal Adventure Squad.

• If you'd like to be on the early mailing list for The Phoneix, DM Ben Sharpe on Twitter

• Track news of The Phoenix comic on Twitter: http://twitter.com/search?q=thephoenixcomic

Moore and Reppion announce steampunk motion comic "The Thrill Electric"

"We are very pleased to say we are now officially allowed to talk about a very exciting new project we have coming up in 2011," the writing team announced on their blog.

"This project came about from a writing cliché, in that it is the very first idea I have had which was so good and so obviously needing writing, that I had to sit up in bed, grab a pen and start making notes," says John. "This has never happened to me before or since, and in fact I never actually believed it did happen to writers. But now it has, and a bloody good job too. Hattrick Productions liked it, and 4education liked it enough to commission it!"

The team are now writing a ten part motion comic series set in the fast paced world of the Victorian Internet.

"We have the lovely and talented Emma Vieceli on board, giving the whole series her drop dead gorgeous signature style, and making sure it all has a smooth cohesive look and feel and then we have the combined force of Windflower Studio on art chores for the series. We managed to get these girls before the ink was even dry on their animation degree certificates, so we have the pleasure of saying 'you saw them here first kids!'"

The Thrill Electric revolves around the office of the International and Electric Telegraph Company in Manchester in 1871 and follows the fortunes of a gang of young adults who connect with wires. They have the day to day data of the city, of the world even, flowing through their telegraph keys and millions of people relying on the telegraph for news of wars, the prices of their stocks, the news of a loved one’s birth, or marriage or death. All of this responsibility heaped on those young shoulders and they still manage to find time to slack off, play games, bitch about each other and fall madly passionately in love, all at the lightning  speed of the telegraph.

• For more more about The Thrill Electric, check out this post on John and Leah's official blog

Tube Surfing: Comic Heroes, Jon Haward, Dragons and Night Salad

We've run Mr Matthew Badham ragged with our demands on his multi-layered brain, so he's taking a little break. You will, instead, have to put up with my meanderings around various British comic creators equally meandering (at times, anyway) web site... Special thanks to Matt for doing such a great job - check out his ace article on independent press comics in the UK in the latest Comics Now mag from Future Publishing!

(Which also features a great column on the loneliness of the long-distance comics freelancer by Dez Skinn)

• Jon Haward is one of Britain's best comics artists, with credits aplenty for his work for almost every British comics publisher. Sadly, he's the latest victim of the economic downturn and he's giving up on his freelancing and is looking to relocate to find a full time job. Anyone after an in house concept illustrator /storyboard artist or art director should contact him via his Facebook page before he gets snapped up.

• The Forbidden Planet International blog reports that American cartoonist and respected commentator on the scene Daryl Cagle recently posted a comment about US editorial cartooning and ‘the rest of the world’ which has stirred some debate, not least on the blog of the UK professional cartoonist’s association, the Bloghorn, who have taken exception to Cagle painting the rest of the cartooning world outside the syndicated US mainstream with the same brush, his post appearing to infer that ‘world cartoonists’ spend all their time doing relatively obscure works with the aim of getting them into international competitions, while US cartoonists are busy earning a wage and creating cartoons that use both words and pictures to make a point and create humour.

• Emma Viceli's fab manga adventure Dragon Heir: Reborn is now available to buy online from the Sweatdrop store. For direct copies, you can either contact Emma via her blog, or get along to shows like the MCM Expo, London, where she'll be selling the book at the Sweatdrop stand. "If you pick up a copy, whether online or in person, you have my heartfelt thanks and sincere hopes that you enjoy your purchase," she says.

• Warren Ellis joined in with the 'Influence Map' meme that has been doing the rounds among creators for a few weeks now. While he didn't create this one himself, he says it's "very close"...

• A quick plug now for the latest issue of the newly Hugo Award-winning StarShipSofa Stories (volume 2) which features an illustration by Leigh Gallagher. "Quite a while back Dee Cunniffe got in touch to see if I'd like to do an illustration to go with one of the many prose pieces, of which I picked a story called 'Bitterseed' written by Ted Kosmatka," he reports via his blog. "They have an impressive line up of talent of this book -- Neil Gaiman for one -- but what's also cool is this nifty trailer which you can find on Youtube here!"

• Metaphrog reports their new graphic album Louis - Night Salad was featured in The Scotsman on Saturday.

• Writer Dan Abnett clearly had a great time at Games Day along with Jim Swallow and many other ace creators and has written up a photoblog entry here.

• And finally... Sarah McIntyre's Vern & Lettuce has just been voted a young girl's favourite comic of the moment over on the Forbidden Planet International blog, which is good enough for us. It's out soon and we've interviewed Sarah here and will be posting our own review later this week...

Sci-Fi London Lines Up Comic Creator events

Garry Leach, Rian Hughes, Dez Skinn, Gary Erskine, Emma Vieceli and Simon Furman are just some of the comic creators who will be appearing at this year's SCI-FI-LONDON event on Saturday 1st May.

At last year’s SCI-FI-LONDON (www.sci-fi-london.com) the organisers added the notion of Sci-Fi Labs to the festival line-up: panel discussions which mixed artists, writers, scientists and cultural commentators to explore various SF themed topics. This format and a screening of Hardware introduced comic book creators such as Kevin O’Neill, Bryan Talbot, Paul Cornell, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey and Paul Duffiel to SCI-FI-LONDON in 2009 and this year's event sees an increase in the number of events featuring top British graphic novelists which are sure to interest downthetubes readers.

Now in its ninth year, SCI-FI-LONDON is the UK's only dedicated Sci-Fi and Fantasy film festival, screening world and UK film premieres, documentaries and a selection of classic SF titles. SCI-FI-LONDON also has a strong international shorts programme and screens a short film with every feature screening. It also holds a film school and filmmaking competitions to encourage more science fiction films to be made in the UK.

This year's comic-related events are as follows:

Screening: The Hospital Of Transfiguration - Thursday 29 April 6.30pm

Country: Poland, Year: 1979, Dir: Edward Zebrowski, Runtime: 90mins, Language: Polish/English subtitles
Format: 35mm, Source: Polish Cultural Institute

Set in 1943, this film is based on Stanislaw Lem’s first novel, and chronicles the experiences of a young doctor starting out in a mental hospital. But who is more crazy here the patients or the doctors? Semi-autobiographical, the controversial nature of the story led to the book being suppressed by the authorities in the 1950s.


Introduction and Q&A with Andrzej Klimowski, a world-renowned film poster designer and graphic novelist. In the UK, his visual style proved too controversial when his poster for Luis Buñuel’s The Phantom of Liberty was banned by the London Underground. As a writer and artist, he has authored three graphic novels, The Secret, The Depository and Horace Dorlan. With his wife, Danusia Schebal he has adapted Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde and The Master and Margarita to comic book format. Andrzej and Danusia were active participants in the Warsaw film scene in the late 1970s and Professor Klimowski chose The Hospital Of Transfiguration from our ‘Focus on Poland’ to introduce, as an example of how genre films from that period stand up today.

Girl Geek Dinners: British Women Of Manga Panel – Thursday 29th April 7.00pm


Although there have been notable and successful female comic book creators on both sides of the Atlantic over the last half century, it is the translation of Japanese Manga in the West that has seen considerably more female comics creators join the medium in recent years. This is possibly a combination of Manga having a greater female appeal than traditional Western comics and original Japanese Manga being already created by women in Japan.

To discuss these issues SCI-FI-LONDON have a trio of up and coming UK Manga creators:

• Kate Brown illustrated the Manga Shakespeare adaptation A Midsummer Night’s Dream


• Emma Vieceli is contributing to the comic strip adaptations of the songs of Tori Amos, Comic Book Tattoo and continues to draw an online Manga story, Dragon Heir.

• Karen Rubins found early acclaim for her selfpublished graphic novel The Dark,

Chair: Judith Lewis, one of the founders of Geek Girl Dinners is a veteran of anime conventions and has hosted Shinnenkai events

This is a free event for women only. Men are allowed as guests of a LGGD member. To get your tickets register at http://scifi-london.eventbrite.com

60 Years of Dan Dare - Saturday 1st May 10:30am


Celebrating the continuing popularity of the iconic British Space Hero whose first appearance in the Eagle was published in April 1950, Sci-Fi London presents a quartet of artists who have created new adventures for the lantern jawed pilot in more recent years. Panellists include:

• Garry Leach drew Dan’s return to print in 2000AD for two stories: "The Doomsday Machine" and "Visco", ten years after the end of the original Eagle in the late 1970s and more recently covers for Virgin comics’ revival of the ‘Pilot of the future’ in 2008.

• Rian Hughes drew the Eagle-inspired comic The Science Service in 1989 and then the Mekon’s final revenge in the Thatcherite satire Dare, written by Grant Morrison, in the adult comics Revolver and Crisis a year later.

• Gary Erskine drew Dan Dare’s most recent official comic book adventures in the Virgin Comics periodical of the same name.

• John Freeman is a comics historian and writer, webmaster of downthetubes and the current editor of Titan Books Dan Dare collections. He previous wrote The Science Service and now writes the strip Ex Astris in the Dan Dare-inspired magazine Spaceship Away.

Chair: Duncan Nott historian and presenter on Resonance 104.4 FM, the Arts Council radio station.

Manga Mashup: Make A Comic In A Couple Of Hours - Sat 1st May 11:00am


Inspired by Manga? Want to make a comic of your own? You can do it in just a couple of hours - and you don’t have to draw a line unless you want to! Come and try out comic-making hints, tips and techniques that work for any kind of artist and any style of art. Letraset has provided all the materials, Helen McCarthy provides the method and oils the wheels of your genius if you get stuck, and you bring whatever’s in your head for inspiration. Solo artists/writers, duos and small circles welcome.

FREE EVENT at Project Space, BFI Southbank Limited to 15 places.

What A Marvel - Saturday 1st May 11:45am


With Marvel comic book heroes such as Iron Man and Spider-Man more popular than ever, we look at home-grown additions to the Marvel Universe. Marvel UK was founded in the early 1970s as a British affiliate to the US company, but in 1976 they added original material to their newsagent reprints, starting with Captain Britain and a new pantheon of popular characters over the next three decades. Panellists include:

• Dez Skinn is a pioneering Marvel UK editor who launched titles such as Hulk Comic and Doctor Who Weekly, which featured early work by Alan Moore, David Lloyd, Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons.

• Dan Abnett gave Captain Britain a darker spin in the 1990s by adding him to a new team of heroes with:

• Gary Erskine co-creator of the popular SF / Arthurian themed Knights of Pendragon.

• John Freeman was editor on many of Marvel UK’s early 1990s titles such as weekly comic Overkill, Death’s Head II, Warheads, Killpower and Motormouth, contributing strips to several issues, and was one of the longest-serving editors on the award-winning Doctor Who Magazine.

• Simon Furman was the primary writer for Marvel’s Transformers, a dozen issues of Doctor Who Magazine and creator of Marvel UK’s most memorable SF titles including Dragon Claws and the original Death’s Head.

Chair: Alex Fitch, presenter of the UK’s only weekly radio show on comics, ‘Panel Borders’, broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM, the Arts Council radio station in London.

Future Publishing? - Sat 1st May 1:00pm


The publishing industry is coming under assault from all sides. Are Kindles, iPads and smartphones signalling the end of traditional paper publishing? Customers no longer believe publishers can justify the prices they charge, not just for books, newspapers, magazines and periodicals are also suffering. How will the publishing industry re-shape itself for 2050? Will Apple and Google become the new big publishing houses? And if ubiquitous digital delivery means anyone can be a publisher, will we even need the big guns anymore?

• Paul Graham-Raven is a freelance writer, editor and webgeek, genre fiction reviewer and editor-in-chief of the near-future science fiction webzine Futurismic.

• Paul Rainey is a cartoonist, illustrator and creator of diary-comic-strip-in-list-form Book of Lists. He is currently serialising his graphic novel, or ‘thick comic book’, There’s No Time Like The Present.

• Mark Charan-Newton is a Blogger, Tweeter and author of debut novel Nights of Villjamur, one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy works of 2009.

• Dave Bradley is Editor-in-Chief of SFX magazine, Europe’s best-selling sci-fi and fantasy title and a fan of all forms of science fiction and fantasy.

Chair: Tom Hunter, Award Administrator for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction Literature.

Comics And Film - Mon 3rd May 4:00pm


While the cinema seems to be obsessed with comic book adaptations in recent years, this panel looks at the more general phenomenon of the dialogue between comics and film as comic book creators help design movies and draw storyboards for moving pictures and in turn, film has started to dictate the format of modern comics. Panellists include:

• Woodrow Phoenix started off as a small press comic book creator in the vibrant British scene of the 1980s before becoming a popular kids illustrator that lead to such unlikely collaborations as with Mark (Kick-Ass) Millar on Sonic the Comic and lettering Alan Moore's A Small Killing. More recently he has seen his comic Pants Ant turned into an animated pilot by The Cartoon Network and produced the acclaimed graphic novel Rumble Strip which was influenced by film noir and road movies.

• Howard Webster is an award-winning photographer who has combined film and sequential art in the web comic. The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore, which combines comic book art with both images and action movie sequences starring Colin Salmon.

• Cyriak Harris is one of the hottest viral animation creators in the UK and an ident designer for E4. He comes from a background drawing underground comics and sees a direct link with the creation of his CGI cartoons.

Chair: Alex Fitch

• With the exception of the MANGA MASHUP event, all events and screenings take place at the Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, 19 Lower Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4LR.

• Web Link:
www.apollocinemas.com/apollo-piccadilly-circus.aspx

Emma Vieceli's Dragon Heir: Reborn

British artist, writer and general ambassador for all things Manga, Emma Vieceli, has added a webcomic to her website.

Dragon Heir was the first comic series that she worked on providing the story and art with Andrew Ruddick providing the script. The 32 page B&W fantasy comic has reached issue 9 with the first three print issues now sold out. The first six original issues have been collected into a 168 page graphic novel which is available direct from Sweatdrop Studios.

In the story of Dragon Heir, Protus sets out on a journey to find the other three Dargon Heirs and take them to the location chosen for Spiratu's Ritual of Transcendence. This act will leave the four young men free of the dangerous dragon spirits they have harboured since they were born; free to begin their mortal lives with Spiratu's blessing.

"However", says Emma on her site, "the original pages had begun to show their age. I am currently working to smarten up and rework the first 5 issues to bring some cohesion to the series." She goes on to say, "The story that was told in the first five issues of the comic is being redrawn and in some places entirely rewritten, so even the Dragon Heir veterans amongst you should find interest here."

These reworked pages are now becoming available on her website with new ones being put on at a rate of five pages per week. In addition Emma will be providing a blog post for each new batch to allow readers to leave their comments on the Reborn version of her tale.

Dragon Heir: Reborn webcomic begins on Emma's website.

Original Dragon Heir comics and the graphic novel are available from the Sweatdrop Studios webshop.

Emma Vieceli will be appearing in the Comic Village at the MCM Expo next weekend, 25 and 26 October, in the Excel Centre in London and at the Thought Bubble comics convention at Saviles Hall, Leeds, on 21 November 2009.

Panel Borders: Emma Vieceli, promoting new British Manga

Continuing ‘Women in Comics’ month on podcast Panel Borders - and originally broadcast on Resonance FM - this week Alex Fitch talks to Emma Vieceli, illustrator of the Manga Shakespeare adaptations of Hamlet and Much ado about Nothing who has also contributed to the graphic anthology ‘Comic Book Tattoo’ which adapts the songs of Tori Amos into strip format.

Alex and Emma also talk about the crossover between traditional Western comics and Manga as a new generation of small press creators in the UK experiment with both forms, a practice that is encouraged by the ‘Artists Alley’ that Emma helps organise at the twice yearly MCM Expos in the Docklands and the publishing collective ‘Sweatdrop studios’ that she’s a member of.

• For more info about this podcast and a variety of formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.org

Links:

• Emma’s website and livejournal


• More info about Manga Shakespeare

• ‘Sweatdrop studios’: website and Manga day at the V & A


• Vote for Sweatdrop and Leek and Sushi’s Manga Show in the NEO Awards

• Panel Border on Facebook / follow Panel Borders on twitter

Tube Surfing, 11 July 2009: Starblazer Sculptures, Moon Landings and an Oxfam ComicFest

• Dundee-based artist Trevor Gordon has been in touch, to let you us of a collaborative art project going ahead in Dundee at the Mills Observatory. "I am working with archival material from DC Thomsons and creating sculptural pieces influenced by the work," he reveals. "There will a number of original Starblazer works on display and a number of strange sculptural pieces in a range of mediums.
"[DC Thomson staffer and former Starblazer editor] Bill McLoughlin has been extremely friendly and supportive throughout the process and it has been a joy to get my hands on these cherished images," Trevor reveals, " and [artist] Enrique Alcatena has also been a delight and there will be a wee note on his thoughts on Starblazer also." More details as soon as we get them: meanwhle, check out Trevor's work at www.trevoragordon.com

• Jeremy Briggs has completed a series of Moon Landing Anniversary posts for downthetubes, which will be published daily starting on Wednesday (15th July). The posts feature art and comics work published during or after the first Moon Landing. Meanwhile, our Comics Celebration of the 40th Anniversary gathers pace, with our album of art now featuring work by Adam Grose, Martin Baines, Ian Duerden and others. The album can be embedded on any web site to help celebrate this major endeavour of human exploration. Further art - illustration, strip, cartoons is welcome: If you don't want to join our forum and upload art but would like to join in with the celebrations, simply send your work to johnfreeman6-moonlandinganniversaryart@yahoo.co.uk. Please ensure images are no larger than 2MB in size.

• Talking of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, we spotted a reprint of the Daily Mirror for 21 July or thereabouts in WH Smiths today, complete with DVD of footage of the Apollo landing: it will be interesting to see what Garth was up to (and The Perishers!) on that momentous day in 1969...

• The British Film Institute's "One Giant Leap" season in London continues this coming week with screenings of the films 2001: A Space Odyssey, Countdown and Moonwalk One, the premiere of newly remastered Director's Cut in high definition of Theo Kamecke's film, commissioned by NASA to cover their historic Apollo 11 moonshot. With an atmospheric original score by Charles Morrow and a moody narration by Laurence Luckinbill, Kamecke's documentary has been described as perhaps the most significant time-capsule record of Apollo 11 ever made.

• Our thanks to comic creator Emma Vieceli, who kindly gave downthtubes a positive plug on her blog (despite Jeremy Briggs saying that she looked like a Manga character...) - view her comments here. Emma was recently interviewed for BBC Blast, revealing How To Get Creative!

• Graeme Neil Reid has announced he will be joining a huge number of comic creators at the Thought Bubble in Leeds at the end of November, so if you are thinking of going to any comic cons this year that would be one to consider.

• Talking of events, Insomnia Publications will be part of the line up at the Oxfam Comics Fest on 18th July at Macdonald Road, Edinburgh from 12 noon to 3.00pm. We've given this a plug recently, but Oxfam has been in touch with an update, reporting there will be discussion panels on Comics In Scotland and The Ups And Downs Of Small Press Publishing, featuring writers Ferg Handley (Marvel Heroes, Commando) and David Bishop (2000AD, Doctor Who) and other guests.
"We'll be holding a silent auction of some great comic book related merchandise, including a piece of original artwork from Spectacular Spider-Man," reveals organiser James McConnell, "signed by the artist, presented with a page of the script, signed by the writer, and other excellent items.
"There will also be an exclusive sneak peek at some never before seen pages from the upcoming Burke & Hare graphic novel from Insomnia Publications, and a stall selling comics and graphic novels."
•Tickets are £3.00 at all Oxfam Bookshops in Edinburgh, on sale now!

In Review: Timeframes Dundee

Now in its third year, Dundee University's comics conference has become established as a regular part of the British comics year and both the number and the recognition factor of the comics creators who attend has increased year on year. Under the auspices of the Dundee Literary Festival, this year's Sunday conference had the theme of how comics both deal with, and subvert, the passage of time within their stories.

Prefaced by a morning workshop on writing for graphic novels by ex-2000AD editor David Bishop, the main conference began after lunch with an introduction by organiser Dr Chris Murray of the university's English department. After the pink Hawaiian shirt that he sported at the Beano celebration last year, Chris' shirt this time was a more ecological themed lime green. It is worth reiterating that Timeframes was set in a university and billed as a conference rather than a convention and so the first two speakers were academics with what was, to many in the audience, an over analysis of how time passes between the panels of a comic strip and how Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean used time in both the real and fictional worlds in the graphic novel of Signal To Noise.

The dryness of the initial two topics was brought into sharp perspective with the first talk by a comics creator. Manga Shakespeare artist Emma Vieceli bounded to the front of the lecture theatre in an explosion of enthusiasm that lifted the mood of the room considerably. Looking for all the world like a Manga character herself, with her long hair and black and white outfit, she took the audience through her adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing showing the real Italian locations that she had used as well as her more unusual graphical trickery to illustrate parts of the narrative. Borders, who were running the bookstall in the reception area, definitely missed out here as they did not have any copies of Much Ado About Nothing of sale on their stall which would have sold well for them based on the first enthusiastic applause of the day from the audience. The final speaker of the first section was Dr Mel Gibson, who regularly gives talks to non-academic audiences, covered how Bryan Talbot dealt with different time periods and the story-within-a-story concepts of Alice In Sunderland. While the earlier talk didn't inspire me to read Signal To Noise this did make me want to return to Talbot's book and the number of people looking at it on the bookstall afterwards suggested that I was not alone.

The break after this allowed for free refreshments before the audience moved upstairs to the Lamb Gallery where the exhibition of artwork from DC Thomson's Starblazer digest was formally opened. Starblazer editor Bill McLoughlin gave the attendees a gallery talk as he walked around the exhibits pointing out details and relating tales of his time on the title. Also at the gallery talk were artists Ian Kennedy, Keith Robson and Colin MacNeil with cover artists Kennedy and Robson each getting a wall of the gallery devoted to their work while one of MacNeil's covers had been blown up into an enormous poster sized print. This free exhibition is now open to the public until 22 August 2009.

The second selection of talks began with editor Bill McLoughlin and artist Keith Robson talking about their work at DC Thomsons in general and on the Starblazer title in particular with some good natured needling of each other over the differences between editorial and artistic concepts of the same idea. As much as they did overrun their time slot, I could have listened to much more of this. Next up was academic Peter Hughes Jachimiack with a presentation given the less than riveting title of "Days Of Future Passed: A 1970s Britain, Economic Downturn An Utopian Futures In Children's Science Fiction Comics". This actually turned out to be an interesting overview of Starlord comic with an emphasis on Ro-busters and in particular the Lep-R rocket/Midpoint Tower collision story, as illustrated by Ian Kennedy, with its 9/11 overtones. Next up was ex-Tharg David Bishop, a university lecturer himself nowadays, with an entertaining look at how Alan Moore dealt with the concept of time in two different 2000AD Future Shocks and the final Halo Jones story. Artist Gary Erskine came next with a heavily illustrated talk on his work on the Virgin Dan Dare series from concept to completion emphasising writer Garth Ennis' attention to visual detail on his designs. A short presentation from Insomnia's Cameron Coutts on the Edinburgh company's current and forthcoming range of graphic novels completed the session.

After more refreshments and a popular signing session from all the professionals still in attendance, the conference moved into its final section with its two keynote speakers. Writer Alan Grant had originally been intending to talk about his career in comics but had been inspired by the academic nature of the event to instead change his theme to his thoughts on the current state of comics aimed at primary school age children. Emphasising the general lack of stories in the titles and the blandness of those that were included, he ranged from Barbie to biblical Armageddon making the point that children just are not interested in bland stories. The conference concluded with a short talk from writer Warren Ellis which had been, if his blog is to be believed, written earlier that day and fuelled by Red Bull and cigarettes. With Ellis seated comfortably at the theatre's microphone he concluded with a long Q&A session allowing the audience more of an interactive opportunity with him than with any of the other guests.

With other literary and book festivals regularly charging upwards of £9 per guest talk, at £10 for the entire day, plus refreshments during each break, Timeframes was an absolute bargain. The university theatre was well equipped and spacious, if a little warm at times, and the reception area outside, with its good selection of graphic novels and comics related books for sale, allowed for socialising between sessions. In addition, with most guests taking the opportunity to chat in the reception area during the breaks, the day had a friendly feel which is what organiser Chris Murray was aiming for.

That said, the extant dichotomy between the erudition quest emanating from the divergent knowledge levels of the independent researchers present and the referential requirements of academic study may always prove to be a cause of concern prior to each Dundee event, treading as it does the fine line in its temporal ratio of conference vs convention, so the event chairs should remain aware that the interest length of the non-academics present will show an inverse ratio to the sentence density of dictionary level words used during the presentation of academic papers.

In other words, as long as the academic presenters remember that they are not presenting to a university level peer review but to a general albeit attentive and knowledgeable audience and that an illustrated conversational style is therefore preferable to reading from sheets of A4 with too many long words and too few full stops, then Dundee will remain as it was this year, an interesting as well as an unique part of the comics events diary.

Starblazer Exhibition Details Announced

As we've previously reported, top comics writer Warren Ellis will be headlining the Comics Conference at this year's Dundee Literary Festival, but the Festival has now also released details of its planned exhibition dedicated to the 1980s SF comic Starblazer, published by DC Thomson.

The exhibition marks the first time artwork from the now defunct, but much missed British sci-fi comic Starblazer has been exhibited, which, in addition to art by the likes of Keith Robson, Jaimie Ortiz, Ian Kennedy and many others featured the early work of Grant Morrison, the hugley successful Glaswegian comics writer. The comic has such a cult status it's even recently spawned its own Roleplaying Game (see news story).

In addition to the exhibition, the publication's editor Bill McLoughlin and artist Keith Robson will discuss their experiences on Starblazer during the day.

Ellis, now best known for his work with US comics giants Marvel and DC, and relative newcomer, Avatar, will be discussing his career when he appears at the third annual Dundee Comics Day, part of the University of Dundee-organised Festival, on Sunday 28th June.

He's just one of a number of star names from the world of comics lined up to take part in the event, which features talks, exhibitions, book signings and workshops.

2000AD writer Alan Grant will also speak about his work while other speakers will discuss 2000AD. David Bishop, former editor of the comic, will discuss the work of Alan Moore, author of Watchmen, while other talks, delivered by scholars researching comics, will address how comics represent time.

The programme will begin with a workshop in Writing for Graphic Novels hosted by Bishop, which will prove an invaluable insight into the process of creating comics. Manga artist Emma Vieceli, creator of the recently released Much Ado About Nothing, a manga version of the Shakespeare play, will also discuss her creative process.

Comics Programme organiser Dr Christopher Murray said he is delighted to have been able to put together such an exciting line-up of authors, artists and writers.

"Comics are a wonderful form of literary and artistic expression," he feels. "They're entertaining for all ages, a unique artform blending words and images, and Dundee is a city with a long and proud history of comics production.

"The Third Annual Comics Day promises to be an important meeting of comics scholars and comics creators, and everyone with an interest in comics is welcome to attend. We're also proud to be be bringing together the considerable talents of writers Warren Ellis and Alan Grant, and artists Emma Vieceli and Keith Robson. Each year the annual Dundee Comics Day grows in profile and it is my intention to make it a staple event, underscoring Dundee's central position as the home of comic culture in the UK.

Comics Day not only gives the Festival a dimension not present in other literary celebrations, but also celebrates the city's position as a world leader in comics, established by the likes of The Beano and The Dandy, published by DC Thomson".

Tickets are priced £10/£5 (concessions) for the entire day's programme including workshops, and £3 for the workshop only.

The Dundee Literary Festival is now in its third year, and is bigger than ever, with star authors from the fields of philosophy, fiction, politics and poetry set to appear in Dundee. They include David Peace, renowned author of The Damned United and the Red-Riding Quartet and Straw Dogs writer John Gray. Talks, book signings, workshops and other events take place across four days.

• Exhibition Web Link: www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/starblazer.htm

• The full programme for the Dundee Literary Festival, and the Comics Day, is available online at www.dundeeliteraryfest.org

• Read our Starblazer feature on the downthetubes main site by Jeremy Briggs

Tube Surfing: Thursday 21 May

• ComicBitsOnline is wondering why Britain's biggest comic publisher has not been nominated for an Eagle Award -- and it's not DC Thomson, Panini or Titan but Cinebooks Ltd., which now publishes some 40 top quality comic albums a year and exports them globally.

Why is it not getting attention? Because its titles are English editions of European titles such as Lucky Luke, Blake and Mortimer, Orbital and The Scorpion - superb comics that have had little exposure because they were originally created in a language other than English.

"Cinebook - The 9th Art is like a fresh breath of air in a stale market," argues CBO author Terry Hooper, "and it’s about time that a “Comic Industry” award realised that they must - must - begin to recognise the company for its publications as well as its commercial value.

"If it doesn’t then it just proves what people have been saying for years; awards are given to mates, mates of mates or given through influence because no one wants to upset Marvel or DC."

• The Forbidden Planet International blog reports Ilya and Emma Vieceli will be at the London Cartoon Museum (35 Little Russell Street) on 30th May to celebrate their work in Self Made Heroes’ well received Manga Shakespeare graphic novels, with exhibits, talks and a slideshow presentation. The event starts at 1.30 and runs until 4.00pm.

• If you are in London and looking for something to divert the kids over the half term or the summer holidays there are a number of activities on the London Cartoon Museum’s events list, from Never Mind the Beano on Wednesday 27th May (learn to draw your own Beano characters) to summer classes in comics drawing and even in clay animation.

• Artist Nelson Evergreen reports he recently created a comic to promote Doublesix Games' comedic PS3 slaughterfest Burn Zombie Burn has been included in an exhibition of videogame inspired art running this weekend at the Brighton Fishing Museum, as part of the Brighton Festival. Opening on Saturday (23rd May), the annex of the Museum will be taken over by a multimedia exhibition of art from, and inspired by, videogames. Award-winning videogames artists will exhibit alongside artists who’s creations are inspired in someway by the world’s largest entertainment industry: videogames.

• Writer Lee Robson has posted a fascinating article titled Writer's Block, admitting that is a little misleading but is a great piece on how easy it is to get, well, distracted by day to day happenings when you're a creator. As for writer's block he opines " I don't believe in the concept... I think it was Warren Ellis who said (and I'm probably misquoting here) that if you want to write for a living, you have to get up every day and actually f****** write, and that's a philosophy that I wholeheartedly subscribe to. Or at least, I'd like to."

• At the last minute DFC top talent James Turner (creator of the wonderful Beaver and Steve) have got a table at the MCM Expo in London this weekend, so if you are going along keep an eye out for him! He'll be printing some more mini comics (with four pages of all-new B&S material!) and have some new badges to sell too.

• Ace cartoonist Roger Langridge has published a teaser image from an upcoming Mugwhump story for something called the Act-i-Vate Primer, which is pretty much what the title says it is - a print introduction to the work of various Act-i-Vate cartoonists. "One for the Mugwhump fans who might be getting itchy during the hiatus," he says. "My story consists of six densely-packed (12-panel) pages showing events before the current strip began. Roger is busy drawing The Muppet Show comic for Boom! Studios and also reports issues - not licensed for sale in the UK - are selling for ridiculous amounts on the InterWeb. "Wait for the book collection, folks!" he notes. "The whole collectors' market is a cesspool of poisonous idiocy..."
Let's hope Titan Books or another UK publisher picks up the rights to that so we can finally read the book in the UK, eh?

• The first issue of Stuart Kolakovic 's Nobrow is out! Printed in two spot colours on heavy paper in an oversized format, Issue 1 from this highly talented creator is available in a numbered edition of only 3000 and available from all sorts of arty outlets, as well as from Nobrow.net.

• And finally... congratulations to ace blog Thrillpowered Thursday, best described as an issue-by-issue review site for 2000AD, which recently celebrated its hundredth post.