Comic Book Babylon project announced, probing "British Vertigo"

Author Tim Pilcher has announced a Kickstarter campaign to publish Comic Book Babylon: A Cautionary Tale of Sex, Drugs & Comics, probing a bizarre period when, to outsiders, British creators looked set to take over American comics.

Tim Pilcher’s shocking, revealing and completely unofficial memoir of DC Comics' legendary London office, will, he hopes, celebrate the Vertigo imprint's 20th anniversary, lifting the lid on an intriguing part of British comics history.

“For a few glorious years only, before cost-cutting set in, there was Vertigo's 'British Office' - the comics equivalent of the Loaded HQ in the 1990s," recalls Grant Morrison, author of Supergods, All Star Superman, Batman Inc. and The Invisibles. "Vodka, mushrooms, Es, sex, money, travel and the pure unleashed creativity of young people having a good time together."

Comic Book Babylon is the candid, uncensored and utterly unofficial of story of DC Comic’s infamous Vertigo UK office, written by one who was the heart of the drug-fuelled, creative whirlwind. It’s the odyssey of how comic fan Tim, in pursuit of his dream job, became the first British member of the DC editorial staff, and learning the harsh realities of publishing life.

Along the way he meets comics professionals and celebrities including Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Jamie Hewlett, Mark Millar, Garth Ennis, Philip Bond, Paul Gambaccini, Glyn Dillon, Jonathan Ross, The Spice Girls, Blur, Adam Ant, and many, many more. Revealing the crazy, halcyon days of the British comics publishing in the mid-Nineties, it blows the lid off the debauchery and excess that was part and parcel of the industry.

When you reach such dizzy heights, there’s only one place to go.

“It was an incredibly exciting time to be in comics," Tim recalls of his time in the offices of "British Vertigo". "We felt we could achieve anything at the Vertigo office, and things got a little crazy. This is the book I’ve been threatening to write for the past 20 years! I suspect the first people wanting to pick this up will be all the comics professionals, to see what I said about them. There should be some very worried writers, artists and editors out there!”

Revealing the reason for writing this latest book - as well as many articles for a huge range of magazines, he's written books like Erotic Com­ics: A Graphic His­tory and The Essen­tial Guide to World Com­ics (with Brad Brooks) - Tim says he wanted to let the world know that the comics industry is not all geeky and nerdy as some might think.

"In fact it’s every bit as hedonistic as the music business," he declares. "If Paul Gravett is ‘The Man at the Crossroads’, then I’m ‘The Man at the Centre of a 15-Car Pile-Up’!”.

Tim's first job in the industry was at Comic Show­case, starting as a shop assistant but eventually becoming its man­ager. After four and a half years of that he worked as an assist­ant editor for Art Young at the Vertigo UK office on titles like Kill Your Boy­friend by Grant Morrison & Phillip Bond, Enigma by Peter Milligan & Duncan Fegredo, The Extrem­ist by Peter Milligan & Ted McKeever, The Mystery Play by Grant Morrison & Jon J Muth and Rogan Gosh by Peter Milligan & Brendan McCarthy. He was a founder mem­ber of the Les Car­toon­istes Dangereux col­lect­ive, along with Brad Brooks, Roger Lan­gridge, Charlie Adlard, Paul Peart, Faz Choudhury, Jonathan Edwards, and Dylan Hor­rocks.

"Then I moved to Pen­guin Children’s Books, Dorling Kinder­s­ley, and then as asso­ci­ate editor on Com­ics Interna­tional for a few years with Dez Skinn," he told Comics Bureau in 2011. More recently he's been an editor at Ilex Press, where he has comm­iss­ioned a whole range of pop cul­ture and comic-related books such as War Com­ics: A Graphic His­tory by Mike Con­roy, the Eisner-nominated and Har­vey Award-winning Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga by Helen McCarthy and the brilliant Alan Moore: Storyteller by Gary Spen­cer Mil­lidge. He also commissioned me to edit SciFi Art Now, a collection of science fiction art, published in 2010.

He's also one of the founding members of the Comic Book Alliance, (www.comicbookalliance.co.uk), a not-for-profit organisation and "The Voice of the British Comics Industry" promoting books, graphic novels, webcomics and sequential art in its many forms.

"Comics were undoubtedly in my blood from day one," Tim says of his love of comics."I had 'four colour funnies' running through my veins before I’d even heard the expression. Cut me and I bled cyan, magenta, yellow and black. I inhaled the musty smell of old comics, as if they were perfume. I sweated Indian ink and I came in process white. It was my destiny to work in comics."

There are three versions of Comic Book Babylon planned: an eBook (with additional images), paperback, and 200 limited edition hardbacks, with covers created by design genius and comic book artist Rian Hughes.

“Rian’s out done himself,” said an impressed Pilcher, “The punky/acid house colours perfectly reflect the rave mood of the times in the book.” Hughes has also designed a limited edition print and three “Sex, Drugs and Comic Books” badges as incentives.

• Comic Book Babylon: A Cautionary Tale of Sex, Drugs & Comics launches Kickstarter on Thursday 4 April, 2013. See a preview of it here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/2016810024/1303051881?token=bb3f146a

• Website: sexdrugsandcomicbooks.blogspot.com

Tripwire seeks Kickstarter funding for 21st anniversary project

In 2013, Britain's logest-running comics and genre magazine Tripwire celebrates its 21st birthday and, to commemorate, publisher and editor is planning to publish a must-buy book.

Tripwire has been Britain's only features-driven comics and genre magazine which has published since 1992 and with 2013 being the magazine's 21st anniversary - its coming of age if you like - the publishers thought it would be remiss if they didn't do something to commemorate it.

The book - if successful in its Kickstarter funding - will come in regular paperback and in a limited hardcover edition. "Between its covers will be a selection of new material," says Joel Meadows, "including art either never seen before or rarely seen."

This includes work by the likes of Drew Struzan (poster artist for Indiana Jones, The Shawshank Redemption, Star Wars), Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Phil Hale (award-winning portrait painter), Howard Chaykin (American Flagg, The Shadow, Blackhawk), Frank Quitely (Batman & Robin, All-Star Superman), Walter Simonson (Elric, Thor), Dave Taylor (Batman, Tongue Lash) and many more.

It will also include features looking at the trends and issues that have played a major part in comics and genre over the past 21 years, including the best and worst comic and genre movies 1992-2013, the 21 most important creators to come to the fore in the last twenty-one years, the 21 best graphic novels (mainstream and independent) and much more. It will also include the best content from twenty-one years of Tripwire, a magazine which has covered the cream of comics and genre and will include the likes of Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Guillermo Del Toro, Mike Mignola, Joss Whedon, Joe Kubert, Will Eisner to name but a few.

It will also include a selection of photos pulled from the magazine of genre movers and shakers. It will be a must-buy for fans and aficionados of comics and genre, approached with the same level of professionalism and quality that people have come to expect from the magazine.

• View the Kickstarter page: www.kickstarter.com/projects/154246759/tripwire-21st-anniversary

On the trail of Erin Starfox

Writer-Artist Will Jarvis has just launched his new sci-fi novel Erin Starfox on Kickstarter, illustrated science fiction that's just a little different.

"It's not a comic or graphic novel exactly, but it shares some elements of that form," Will told downthetubes, "and some of the folks who worked on it also toil in the comics field, so there might be some interest from the comics community. Some of the writers and artists are British, others are from the USA and Australia."

Written by Will along with Simon Guerrier (writer of Doctor Who and Professor Bernice Summerfield stories), Tessa Schlesinger and others, with art by Frank Brunner (Marvel Comics artist of Doctor Strange and Howard the Duck), plus Carolyn Edwards, Marcus Jenkins and others, the book explores life and relationships in the far future.

"Erin appeared in my mind one day and I haven't stopped writing about her since," Will says. "She's a multifaceted character with wit and charm and love of life. Her stories are timeless and endless, and the world (the universe) she inhabits abounds with wonder and delight, and is a joy to explore in words and pictures.

"The book was inspired by stories that influenced me as a reader such as Home From The Shore by Gordon R. Dickson (writer) and James R. Odbert (artist); Dan Day's illustrated versions of the Sherlock Holmes stories; Gil Kane's Blackmark; and Jim Steranko's Chandler graphic novel, and other works of visual literature."

Will is a published author and artist, with experience as a magazine and book editor. "I know the steps necessary to take a project like this from start to finish, " he says of the project. "I've done it before. The first and most important challenge I faced with this project was coming up with something different, something worth publishing.

"I thought long and hard for a couple of years, let various ideas percolate around in my brain. When the characters and concepts coalesced, I wrote a Writer's Guide and then invited other writers, and artists, to contribute to the saga. The positive response from them, plus the positive response I got from speculative fiction fans when I took the Starfox concept to SF conventions convinced me that Starfox was something that should be pursued.

"I raised the money to pay the writers and artists for their work, then set about editing the manuscript. Once I was sure that we really had something, I began looking into options to get the book printed and published. A friend of mine, who had successfully funded her book via Kickstarter, suggested I give it a try. Starfox has been a group effort practically from the start, so crowdfunding seems quite appropriate."

"I believe in the message of hope and promise in Starfox," enthuses Terry Brussel, co-founder of Live The Dream (a Los Angeles area sci-fi group), "and believe that message could be as important as the message in Star Trek. Polyamorous civilizations, human drama, great characters, amazing stories, beautiful illustrations; Starfox has it all."

• The Kickstarter page is here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/2049996496/erin-starfox

• More about Erin Starfox: www.erinstarfox.com

Nich Angell Becomes First of Few on Kickstarter UK

Following a recent publishing deal with Zeta Comics, 27-year-old artist and writer Nich Angell has become one of the first British comic creators to launch a Kickstarter campaign, to fund the second installment of his book 7String.

Aimed at a 12+ readership but enjoyed by people of all ages, 7String is a full colour adventure graphic novel about a boy with a guitar sword, heading out on an epic quest into a world of music. Wielding a guitar-sword, Zach fights to defend everything he loves by using tempo, volume and genre against instrument-wielding foes.

Aside from his own comics Nich, who lives in Salisbury, produces work for Titan Magazines, VS Comics, Mattel, features in various exhibitions, and has worked with the BBC. He's been touring comic conventions to promote 7String since the beginning of last year, and says he has received fantastic feedback from consumers, reviewers and fellow comic creators. 7String is currently stocked in a number of stores nationwide and Nich signed on with Canadian publisher Zeta Comics in August 2011, and the first volume of 7String was published in July 2012.

The first book has already received rave reviews from peers and critics alike, and now Nich's hoping to continue the success by appealing for fans worldwide to collectively donate £10,000 to fund the making of Volume 2.

Kickstarter is a crowd-funding website that can be used to gather any sum of money to fund a range of projects and products.Previously it was primarily for projects in America, it opened its doors to UK-based projects earlier this month.

Funding is normally open for one or two months, and curators are able to set their own target amounts. If they fail to reach that amount, the project is not funded and nobody is charged. If the project surpasses its target, there is no ceiling on how much can be raised in the time limit.

Nich is hoping to be one of the first few in the UK to successfully achieve his target goal before the month-long opportunity closes on 9th December.

He's at Thought Bubble this weekend, where he will be exhibiting his work and also taking part in a question and answer panel about upcoming series VS Comics.

• The Kickstarter Project can be found at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/234373302/7string-volume-2?ref=live

• For more information on Nich and his work, visit www.nichangell.co.uk

 

Team Girl Comic Kickstarted

A week ago we mentioned the Kickstarter campaign that Glasgow's Team Girl Comic collective were running to finance the publication of TGC issue 5 and possibly reprint some of their sold-out back issues. It has been the most viewed blog piece on downthetubes over the last week even if the Kickstarter video, featuring TGC editor Gillian Hatcher and issue 5 cover artist Coleen Campbell, was incompatible with our Blogspot format. Our thanks to Gillian for pointing us towards the YouTube version.

So we are very pleased to hear that only a week into their campaign they haven't just reached their target of $1000 but are now over the $1200 mark. This will allow them to reprint issues 1, 2 and 3 as well as finance their attendance at more conventions and comic marts over the next year.

The Kickstarter campaign will continue to run until Friday 8 June 2012 so there is still time for more backers to jump on and plenty of Team Girl rewards still to choose from with the top reward, of the offer of a night on the town with the team for an $80 pledge, having so far been taken up by three backers.

Of the 48 backers so far registered, some come from as far as France, Portugal and the United States while, based on their first names, there is approximately a 60/40 female/male split.

There are more details on the Team Girl Comic Kickstarter page.

There are more details of Team Girl Comic on their website and Facebook page.

Team Girl Comic editor Gillian Hatcher talked to downthetubes about the title here.