Charlie Adlard, Viz creators and more join Lakes Festival line up

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has revealed more of the writers and artists who will be taking part in the event later this year.

The festival, which will run from 18-20th October 2013 in Kendal in Cumbria, has a guest list running to more than 50 writers and artists from the United States, Europe, South America and the UK, who work in a wide range of different genres.

The latest group of guests range from Charlie Adlard, the artist on the hugely popular zombie comics The Walking Dead, to the men who created Britain’s most irreverent comic Viz, and American cartoonist Gilbert Shelton.

Charlie Adlard currently works with American writer Robert Kirkman on The Walking Dead, which dominates the list of US best selling graphic novels month in and month out.  It has been turned into a popular TV series, which is currently being broadcast on FX UK, with the third series due to start on Channel 5 around late spring.

Charlie says: “I'm very much looking forward to the event, particularly because the organisers are trying to style it on an Angouleme-style show, which I'm a big fan of.”

Simon Thorp and Graham Dury are two of the people who created Viz, which introduced characters like Raffles the Gentleman Thug, The Fat Slags, Felix and his Amazing Underpants and Roger Mellie the Man on the Telly to the world.

Viz parodies British comics like The Beano and The Dandy, with crude toilet humour, black comedy and surreal jokes. This will be the first comic event they have attended for more than 25 years (as far as they can remember!)

After a period producing underground comix in the sixties American Gilbert Shelton created The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy’s Cat. Unlike many cults from the sixties which have since faded away, The Freak Brothers are still going from strength to strength and are acquiring new fans all the time. They are published in 15 languages and worldwide sales are now over forty million copies.

Bryan Talbot, who is a patron of the new festival, says: "Gilbert Shelton is a comedy genius and a true original. His strips furnished catchphrases to the entire underground counterculture."

Hannah Berry is one of the talented young artists at the forefront of the new golden age for British comic art.  Her first graphic novel, Britten and Brulightly, was published by Jonathan Cape while she was still studying.  The Daily Telegraph said it was ‘superb’.  The New Statesman described her second graphic novel Adamtine as doing 'horror in the traditional way, while using the quirks of the medium to ratchet up the fear'.

Hannah says: "Just as comics are finally creeping into the public consciousness in the UK, The Lakes International Comic Art Festival takes the stage as the biggest, boldest and brightest celebration of their place in our culture. Long may it continue!"

The prize winning Argentine writer and illustrator Oscar Zarate has created two graphic novels with comedian Alexei Sayle - Geoffrey The Tube Train and The Fat Comedian.  He has also worked with Alan Moore on A Small Killing and produced several graphic novels with Carlos Sampayo. He will be celebrating his new book The Park at the festival as well as running an exclusive masterclass.

Karrie Fransman's autobiographical comic strips were published in The Guardian and her comic serial The Night I Lost My Love ran in The Times. Her graphic novel, The House That Groaned has been praised by film director Nicolas Roeg and was chosen as Graphic Novel of the Month in The Observer.

Robbie Morrison is best known for the Eagle award-winning Nikolai Dante saga which was serialised in 2000AD and, as we reported recently, he has written Drowntown, an epic adventure set in a flooded, futuristic London, which will be published by Jonathan Cape in the summer.  He is also a regular writer on Judge Dredd, and has scripted Batman and Spider-Man.

Spanish cartoonist Pau has won The Oscarcomix children's comics award, the Luis Molina International contests award (Italy) as well as the Haxtur Award for Humor, for his daily editorial cartoon Pau Per Tots.

Ravi Thornton is a multi-award-winning fiction writer whose work often involves a mix of different artistic approaches including graphic novels, sound and theatre.  Her work deals with adult subject matter and ranges from dark and disturbing, through wickedly outlandish, to heartbreakingly insightful. Her graphic novel The Tale of Brin and Brent and Minno Marylebone, published by Jonathan Cape, has been nominated for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards by the Horror Writers of America

Ravi says: "As a cross-media writer, I think very visually. I don't, however, draw. This means people who do draw are one of my most favourite things. At The Lakes International Comic Art Festival I'll be surrounded by them. It doesn't really get any better than that."

Luke Pearson is the writer and artist behind the highly-acclaimed Hilda series of comics published by Nobrow, which are aimed at both children and adults, and the short graphic novel Everything We Miss.

INJ Culbard won the award for Best Graphic Novel or Comic at the 2011 British Fantasy Awards for At the Mountains of Madness, published by SelfMadeHero.  He has also illustrated Deadbeats, which was published by SelfMadeHero late last year, in which a trio of 1920s Chicago jazz musicians find themselves battling with monsters, moonshiners and mobsters.

Inko is a Japanese Manga artist who now lives in the UK.  Her work includes Milk The Cat Comix and MangaQuake. She was also commissioned to create 19 Manga posters at Embankment Station in London as part of Art on the Underground.

Hannah Eaton was shortlisted for the First Graphic Novel competition in 2012 for Naming Monsters, which was published by Myriad Editions, the story of Fran a keen amateur crypto-zoologist – an expert in the study of animals that may not exist.

Kate Evans is an environmental campaigner who marries words and images for political effect.  Her latest book The Food of Love, published by Myriad Editions, is an ironic, self-deprecating view of the impossibility of perfection in an imperfect world.

They join founder patrons Bryan and Mary Talbot, and Sean Phillips, as well as writers and artists like Ed Brubaker, Jose Munoz, Posy Simmonds, John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra and Joe Sacco.

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is modelled on the European comic festivals rather than comic conventions that UK audiences are more familiar with.

The aim is create an ‘en fete’ atmosphere, making the whole town part of the festival.  There will be a much bigger emphasis on the range of talks, special live drawing events, workshops, films, exhibitions and a kids’ zone.  Some of the events, including the exhibitions and the kids’ zone will also be free.

There will be a marketplace – The Comics Clock-tower - in Kendal Town Hall, where people will be able to buy comics and where authors and artists will be signing copies of their work. It will be smaller than at most comic conventions and will focus on writers, artists and publishers who are pioneers of a new wave of innovators in the field of comics and graphic storytelling.

Festival Director Julie Tait says: “We’ve now revealed more than half the line up for this year’s festival, so hopefully people have a real sense of the range and quality of what will be on offer later this year.   There’s an exciting mix of some of the big names from the world of comic art over the last few decades, as well as some of the best up-and-coming young writers and artists working in comics.

“We want to create something that is modelled on the European comic art festivals rather than the comic conventions that UK audiences will be more familiar with.

“We hope to take Kendal over for the weekend with comic art and we’ll be putting a lot of effort into individual events to give visitors a special experience.

“So people should expect something a bit different from most other comic events.  We hope it will not only appeal to the fans but also help to bring a new audience to comics, including many local people who may still be wondering what it’s all about!”
          
• More details about the new event are available at www.comicartfestival.com.  It is also possible to keep up to date with plans for the festival by following @comicartfest on Twitter or by liking the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Facebook page. Tickets will go on sale 7th May 2013.

Comics: Refreshing Parts Other Literature Can’t Reach!

Hot on the heels of Thought Bubble in Leeds this weekend, there's an amazing event on Monday (19th November), brought to you by the Comica Festival with Book Trust at Free Word Centre in London.

At Comics: Refreshing Parts Other Literature Can’t Reach!, graphic novelist and Booktrust online writer in residence Hannah Berry, author of the Jonathan Cape graphic novels Britten and Brulightly and Adamtine will invite you to try a comic or two on for size, presenting two hours and two panels hosted by Hannah and Paul Gravett in conversation with some of the country’s best graphic novelists.

These include Glyn Dillon (The Nao of Brown), Karrie Fransman (The House That Groaned), Rian Hughes (Yesterday’s Tomorrows, On The Line), Simone Lia (Fluffy, Please God, Find Me A Husband), Sarah McIntyre (Vern and Lettuce, Nelson, Airship) and Dave McKean (Cages, Celluloid, Pictures That Tick) and a special appearance by Posy Simmonds (Gemma Bovery, Tamara Drewe).

They will tell you why they love the funny books. You can ask them questions about comics. We can all rejoice in graphic novels. The world can watch as we present to you just why graphic novels are just as good as literary fiction. Get along!

• Comics: Refreshing Parts Other Literature Can’t Reach!: Monday 19th November 2012 6.30 for 7-9.00pm, the Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3GA. Tickets: £6 Click to book or pay on the door (subject to capacity)

 

Women in Comics project gets European face

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

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

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

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

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

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

They welcome thoughtful discussion of posts.

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

London's BD & Comics Passion Festival a huge success

Jonathan Ross at BD and Comics Passion 2012
Photo: BD and Comics Passion

The weekend has passed, the temperatures soared and London's BD & Comics Passion's second festival came and went with an enormous bang.

The extended weekend of celebrations saw some of the biggest names in European Comics pass through L'Institut francais to offer the public some exceptional events. The Friday night's drawing duo between Tom Gauld and Guy Delisle was truly heart warming. With a play list created by the two illustrators, attendees found themselves following pages of funny narrative and free hand sketches that led us into their strange but wonderful minds. What a way to kick start the festival!

And what a festival it was. Grzegorz Rosinski let people into the very personal world of Thorgal, Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill talked about London’s architecture and the back drop of the city in comics, Jonathan Ross was both “refreshing and self deprecating” as he spoke about the medium, Alessandro Barbucci and Luke Pearson fought monsters to the sound of orchestral crescendo’s, the Trolls animated corridors as they amble about L’Institut, Christophe Arleston lit the way for young writers on their quest to comics stardom, David B. gave insightful commentary on his works The Best of Enemies and Karrie Fransman excited a lot of up and coming illustrators though her ideas and input on their work.

Paul Gravett and Dominique Poncet enjoy a glass of wine at the Festival.
Looks it's a French festival - of course there was wine!
Photo: BD and Comics Passion

And that’s not even the half of it. There were more talks, workshops, signings, the concert (which we will no doubt have to do again) the party, screenings, Q & A’s and generally a lot of fun and laughter.

Guy DeLisle on stage.
Photo: BD and Comics Passion

"We are so thrilled to have been able to create and host something of this scale and cannot thank enough all the brilliant authors, journalists, publishers, bloggers, students, teachers and fans who made this festival absolutely spectacular," Joséphine Seblon told DownTheTubes. "So, after a very long weekend, we are getting ready to re-build, re-vamp and start anew for the next!"

• Have a look at the Festival's Facebook page for all the pictures, sketches, comments and updates on the weekend just been: https://www.facebook.com/BDandComicsPassion

BD and Comics Passion Festival returns to London in May

I don't know, you don't have a comics gathering to go to and then three come along at once. In addition to the long-announced Bristol International Comic Expo (12th-13th May) and Kapow (19th-20th) in London next month, we've just had word that the BD and Comics Passion Festival is back between 24th - 27th May.

This is the second festival organised by London's L’Insitiut Francais in association with Comica Festival, it's intended for fans of comic books, graphic novels and bandes dessinées.

The festival features a terrific line-up of extraordinary creators (Christophe Arleston and Jean-Louis Mourier, David B., Guy Delisle, Karrie Fransman, Tom Gauld, Pat Mills, Kevin O’Neill, Luke Pearson, Grzegorz Rosinski, Jonathan Ross), music (Mesparrow), performances (Freeeks Factory), films and the best booksellers (Gosh!, La Page, Cinebook).

With nearly thirty events including live drawing, talks, exhibitions, workshops, a drawing jam with Mesparrow and a dress-up party, the team behind it say this innovative festival will have something for everyone.

"We've been working really hard over the last few months to give Londoners L’Insitiut Francais’ second comics book festival and have managed to get our hands on some real treats," Angela Sangma Francis told downthtubes.

"We’re also still trying to spread the word to all that may want to join in, from the comic curious to die hard fans, so if you think it's something to write home about... then please do!"

In addition to the official web site (www.bdandcomicspassion.co.uk)  there’s also a Facebook page for the Festival.


• Check out the event's special new passes! (The Fan: 5 events for only £15, The Addict: 10 events for only £25)

• Download the full programme in pdf

londonprintstudio Comic Workshops continue

Comics interns at the londonprintstudio, funded by the John Lyon's Charity are still running free comic workshops tailored towards 16-20 year olds, as a youth project.

Working under the mentor-ship of artist Karrie Fransman, the project is also offering the chance to have work created during these sessions exhibited at londonprintstudio.

The interns - Abraham Christie, Jade Sarson, Lily-Rose Beardshaw, Merlin Evans, Shamisa Debroey and Susan Yan Mach - are also woking on the production of a comics anthology in March entitled Parallel Lives, featuring comics made by them and the youngsters they're teaching. (More about anthology here

- The dates of upcoming workshops are listed here http://londonprintstudiocomics.blogspot.com/2011/10/workshop-dates.html

londonprintstudio offers five internships in comics for 21-25 year olds

Al Davison at a londonprintstudio comic workshop

Do you enjoy telling tall tales or scribbling stories? Do you love reading graphic novels, comics or picture books? Then look no further - londonprintstudio is offering five carefully chosen 21-25 year olds the chance to:

• Run comic workshops for 16-20 year olds
• Receive mentoring from top professional comic artists, anthology makers, screenwriters, print makers, comic publishers and art educators
• Develop your own artistic comic projects with supervision from mentors and feedback from your fellow interns
• Be introduced to the London comic scene, attend events, give presentations, network and meet publishers, editors and creators in the comic industry
• Take part in editing, planning and creating work for a comic anthology publication and a comic exhibition at londonprintstudio.

The course is run by professional comic creator Karrie Fransman, whose comics have appeared in The Times and The Guardian and who is currently working on her first graphic novel due to be published by Random House.

The internships run for two days (14 hours) per week for  six months. Interns will receive a travel and food expenses budget for two days per week. All londonprintstudio staff and volunteers are required to have a Criminal Records Bureau Check.

The deadline for return of application form is Monday 5th September 2011, with interviews set to take place on Tuesday 13th September 2011. The intrnships will then start on Tuesday 20th September 2011

• For job description and application visit: www.londonprintstudio.org.uk/F13-intern.html

• For more information on the project visit: www.londonprintstudiocomics.blogspot.com

Imagined Cities: New londonprintstudio exhibition

Imagined Cities, a new exhibtion at lononprintstudio, opens this week (17th June) and features the work of a number of great British comic artists including Al Davison and Karrie Fransman.

The exhibition will launch with a party on 16th June - more details on Facebook (although it's listed as 'Private View' it's also been classified as a Public Event).

From mad bird gods to man-eating women, from a run down Northern suburb to an Eastern block city; the work you will see in the Imagined Cities exhibition showcases the varied imaginations of some of the best young, British comic artists.

This exhibition is the culmination of a six month internship run by the londonprintstudio where five interns (Rachel Taylor, William Goldsmith, Isabel Greenberg, Freya Harrison and Joe Kelly) mentored local teenagers, ran workshops and created an anthology. 

Their work, and that of the 16-20 year old students, is displayed alongside professional British comic artists who have acted as project mentors: Al Davison (Vertigo), Ellen Lindner (Whores of Mensa), Karrie Fransman (Random House) and publisher SelfMadeHero. 

The book also features a foreword from Posy Simmonds, creator of Tamara Drewe.

• Imagined Cities runs at the londonprintstudio from 17th- 25th June. More information: www.londonprintstudio.org.uk

• Imagined Cities preview Blog

Panel Borders: The Art of Karrie Fransman

Continuing podcast Panel Borders month of shows looking at newspaper comics, Alex Fitch talks to cartoonist Karrie Fransman about her work which has been serialised in The Guardian and The Times.

Karrie started her comics career making self published autobiographical titles and these transferred to the G2 in 2008 as a weekly strip followed by a more ambitious David Lynch inspired full page comic in Times2 a year later. Alex and Karrie talk about all these projects as well as her mentoring of interns at the London Print Studio and her forthcoming graphic novel to be published by Random House.

• Panel Borders: The Art of Karrie Fransman airs at 5.00pm, Thursday 10th March 2011 on Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / extended podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Art © 2011 Karrie Fransman

Arts Foundation Graphic Novelist Awards: Shortlist Announced

The Arts Foundation has just announced that Spider Moon creator Kate Brown, Bill Bragg, Karrie Fransman and James McKay have been shortlisted for the Graphic Novelist awards.

Established 18 years ago, the Arts Foundation (www.artsfoundation.co.uk) has awarded over £1.5 million pounds in fellowships to artists who work in the areas of craft, fine art, performing arts, film, design and new media. Worth £10,000, their award is the biggest of its kind in the UK for graphic novels and is awarded to emerging talent for their past work and future potential.

The Foundation says the shortlist exemplifies the diversity of graphic novelists producing outstanding work in Britain today, with techniques varying from pencil and charcoal hand drawings to pen and acrylics to mixed-media.

During her time at secondary school and then on into University, Oxford-based comicker and illustrator Kate Brown became fascinated by European comic art. She was captivated by the variety of ways of portraying art and the story, so far removed from franchise comics and their restrictive styles. Kate has always found her emotions easier to express in the form of pictures and finds looking back on short fables or stories that she’s written give her a better insight into her feelings and how she relates generally to the world.

Hans Christian Andersen and J.M Barry hail as two of Kate’s major influences, an artist inspired by the idea that children’s books can work on a variety of levels for both children and adults. This dual audience is evident in The Spider Moon, a work she created for the children’s comic weekly, The DFC, which wil be released as a collection next year (see news story) and has also been adapted into a stageplay. As she began putting her work in the public arena, she was constantly surprised and fascinated by how others interpreted her work, that the role of the ‘audience’ has become key to the development of her work.

Brown takes inspiration from a variety of artforms including physical theatre, film, song writing and prose to develop work with a universal edge. "Almost 100% of my drawings are 'purpose-driven', she says. "I can’t draw randomly, I always feel way out of my depth, because everything I want to do needs to be for a comic. Same with writing. I find it near-impossible to think any other way. I realise that these things supplement work for a comic in an invaluable way, but for me... I need to have that end-goal or drive or specific vision in order for me to feel good about something I’ve done, and for it to feel like a stepping stone to something."

Kate has been published in magazines and books including Accent UK’s Western Anthology, The Girly Comic as well as The Best New Manga book. Her characters range from mystifying girls to bonnet wearing monsters. Kate’s goal is always to create work that can be appreciated by a wide range of people, that each person can take away something individual from reading the comics.

Bill Bragg has been working as a freelance illustrator since 1998 and this, combined with a long-time love of reading graphic novels, led him to apply to the RCA in 2003 where he spent two years experimenting with the form and developing stories of his own. Whilst there he also founded Le Gun magazine with a group of friends, initially as a place to publish all the exciting work they saw happening around them. The magazine is now an established art annual.

An important piece of work for Bragg was a wordless novel he drew during his MA, Journey of a Stranger, inspired following a trip to East Berlin in 2004 when he had the idea of someone not being about to turn left out of their front door for 30 years. The resulting story is about a man who leaves his flat and takes a train journey out of the city for the first time in 30 years and the thoughts and memories this unearths as a consequence.

In December 2008, Bragg, who has worked for a variety of publications including The Guardian and The New York Times, started Marcel’s Appendix, a comic strip for Icon magazine which follows the surreal urban wanderings of an overly earnest architect called Marcel Salami. He's also wotrking on further graphic novels and a much longer book since 2007 with writer and fellow Le Gun contributor James Caddick.

Karrie Fransman, who works as a creative advertiser in Soho, writing and art-directing press, poster and TV advertisements, creates imaginative and insightful stories, describing them as  ‘creative autobiography,’ a phrase she coined to describe true tales that all to often spiral into fantasy.

Ranging from psychopaths in ballet slippers to intimate relationships with duvets, her graphic novels use magical realism to explore ways in which inner turmoil is displayed outwardly. She explains her style is influenced by people who sit on the boundary between art and storytelling.

Fransman studied Psychology and Sociology at University, where she began writing her first graphic stories after reading Daniel Clowe’s Ghost World and realising that comics don’t need to be about superheroes. She has always drawn by hand and enjoys the imperfect, handcrafted feel.

Her work regularly reaches a national audience, with her fictional story, The Night I Lost My Love appearing every Monday in Times2 section. Her autobiographical comic strip, My Peculiar World was published in The Guardian’s G2. Karrie just finished building a comic sculpture entitled Death Do Us Part about a lady who, unable to let go, turns her dead husband into a hat stand.

James McKay began producing graphic novels at the age of 15, with a fantasy epic, Stormcrow. He graduated with 1st class honours in illustration and graphic design from Middlesex University in 1998 and has since then worked as a freelance comic artist and illustrator and has published books and graphic novels in collaboration with writers including Gary Spencer Millidge (Strangehaven) and Ben Dickson (Falling Sky).

"To me, any story can be a graphic novel," he told the University of Leeds Reporter paper in 2007. "I don’t feel constrained by any genre when I’m working. You can do psychological thrillers, sci fi, horror, whatever you like. I love to tell stories but I like to tell them through pictures, such as weird dream sequences and strange landscapes. To me, the text gets in the way.

McKay’s most ambitious work to date, La Cité des Secrets (City of Secrets), was presented at the Angouleme festival in France in 2006 following 18 intensive months of work. The series is now published in France by Mosquito Editions, and James attends several of the biggest French graphic novel festivals each year promoting it, and he hopes it will be published in English as well as French.

James’ theme as an artist and storyteller is the age-old conflict between civilisation and the natural world. City of Secrets is the natural culmination of his work to date; it presents a vision of the distant future, where humans have destroyed all life, along with the history of humanity’s desecration of the ancient paradise and a possible redemption. He is currently at work on the third City of Secrets book in the series, Le Chant de la Vie (The Song of Life).

James’ interests lie in European-style graphic novels - especially those in the areas of science fiction, fantasy and historical fiction. He is interested in creating worlds and characters that are unbounded.

As well as his comics work, James teaches the Indonesian martial art ‘Pencak Silat’, and is a keen explorer, amateur paleontologist and underwater photographer.

The finalists have already been through two selection processes. In line with the fellowship procedure the applicants must have been originally nominated by experienced professionals who deemed their work outstanding.

A panel of advisors made up of 2000AD co-creator Pat Mills, Posy Simmonds and Paul Gravett then selected the shortlist.

The public will have a chance to meet the advisors and the four finalists at a prestigious event at the ICA on Sunday 15th November 2009 from 7.30pm, part of the month-long ComICA Festival, when the increasing popularity of the graphic novel and the individual techniques and styles of the finalists will be discussed by looking at their work. This is a free event, but as places are limited you need to book your place by phoning 020 7930 3647.

The winner of the Fellowship will decided on by the Trustees of the Foundation and will be announced along with the other four awards in Textile Art, Cinematography, Jewellery Design and Puppetry on the 28th January 2010 at the Arts Foundation Awards 2010.

• The Arts Foundation: www.artsfoundation.co.uk