Image Duplicator exhibition opens this week at Orbital Comics

Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein currently has a show on at the Tate Modern. While the public is
intimately familiar with his work, what they may be unaware of is that many of his images were directly “appropriated” from comic artists like Irv Novick, Russ Heath, Jack Kirby, John Romita and Joe Kubert, who received no fee or credit.

Is this an act of brilliant recontexturalisation? The elevation of commercial “low” art to “high” art? Art world snobbery? Artistic licence? Gallery shortsightedness? Cultural annexation? Or something else entirely?

Image Duplicator, a new show at Orbital Comics in London which opens later this week, brings together real comic-book artists and other “commercial artists” – illustrators, designers, cartoonists – to ask these kinds of questions and share their views, via their work.

Each artist was asked to “re-reappropriate” one of the comic images Lichtenstein used: to go back to the source material and twist it into something interesting and original, and in the process to comment on the act of appropriation.

Money raised from selling prints and originals will be donated to the Hero Initiative, which helps down-on-their-luck comic book veterans: www.heroinitiative.org.

Take Back the Art!

“I’ve spoken out in the past about my dislike, on both aesthetic and ethical grounds, of the “appropriation” of comic strip images by 'pop art', says Dave Gibbons. "The feeling amongst the comics community is pretty much unanimous: we feel patronised, and we feel that several of our revered elders have been, frankly, robbed.


“To us, their creativity and skilled labour has been discounted by considering their work as being merely, in the jargon of the art world, “found”, and they have received no credit or recompense for what amounts to celebrated and expensive copies of their creations.


“The current exhibition of such images at the Tate Modern in London has prompted a new
consideration of these matters, and I was invited to speak on a recent TV show about my views.

”However, it was Rian Hughes, another vociferous critic of the art establishment’s attitude who came up with the brilliant idea of our comic community using its own medium to make the point. Under the title Image Duplicator, the response has been very heartening and we are staging an exhibition of several dozen images in the gallery space at Orbital Comics.


“Naturally, I’m very pleased to support this project and have created an image for exhibition and subsequent auction sale.  (Artwork above).

"Entitled “WHAAT?”, it’s framed in diptych format, measuring 41" x 94", and is my very own “re-reappropriation” of an image originally created by Irv Novick.

“Whilst he and nearly all of the artists mistreated in the past are no longer with us to benefit, all profits from the Image Duplicator venture will, appropriately, be donated to the Hero Initiative.

"This is a US-based charity which exists to help living comic artists and their families who find themselves in financial difficulty due to age or ill-health.


“So, not only will IMAGE DUPLICATOR make a cultural statement on behalf of the medium which we love but will also have a positive and practical benefit for those in our community who have given of their creativity for often poor rewards.”


Prints of WHAAT? will be available as a signed and numbered edition up to 16th May. Dave Gibbons will also be signing copies at the IMAGE DUPLICATOR launch night at Orbital Comics. After this date, the print is still available in an unsigned, unnumbered edition, but the numbered and signed version will be no longer available.

All prints will be shipped and dispatched week commencing 20th May. For print sales and enquires, please email blam@print-process.com


• Image Duplicator: 16 to 31 May 2013,  Orbital Comics Gallery, 8 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7JA

Opening night: 16 May 7.30 - 9.30pm
Tel: 0207 240 0591
Web: www.orbitalcomics.com
Image: Dave Gibbons after Irv Novick
Curated by Rian Hughes and Jason Atomic

Digital prints kindly provided by Mark Blamire at www.print-process.com

Prints of the images areavailable for purchase: http://tinyurl.com/ckxtjwf

For catalogue enquiries, please email infoATdevicefonts.co.uk

Caption, the comics creator’s convention, returns in August

This summer, the East Oxford Community Centre is once again host to the comics festival ‘Caption’, Britain's longest continuously-running comics convention

Comic cons have been popping up left, right and centre like mushrooms recently with the larger London shows taking their cue from American cons like San Diego. But it's easy to forget that it was the UK that started the phenomenon and indeed it is Oxford that is proud to boast the longest running convention in the UK.

The festival established itself from the outset as the comics creator’s convention. The emphasis on workshops, panels and social interaction has meant that over the years some of the biggest names in the business have been drawn to Oxford to talk about their work, whilst at the same time new creators have been given a chance to be involved in the festival and rub shoulders with successful writers and artists.

All this has been happening under the very noses of Oxonians for years in the unpretentious surroundings of East Oxford Community Centre.

To quote Paul Cornell, a guest at Caption 2010: “It's good to have a comics event that feels right in a church hall with a tea urn!”

Creators from Oxford based comics companies 2000AD and The Phoenix will be in attendance, there will be fun workshops and activities for anyone who wants to get involved and a wide variety of comics will be available to buy from the Caption table.

(Don’t expect a dealer’s hall with endless merchandise and back issues - do expect fascinating panel discussions and excellent workshops all in an informal friendly environment).

Caption is proud to announce that guests include Rian Hughes (Dan Dare), Andrzej Klimowski (Stanisław Lem’s Robot…), Danusia Schebal (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde graphic novel), Al Davison (Doctor Who comics), Paul Collicutt (Robot City Adventures), Karen Rubins (Victoria & Albert Museum comic artist in residence), Ian Rakoff (V & A comics lecturer, writer The Prisoner: Welcome to Harmony) and Charles Cutting ( artist for The Doings of Vincent John McKeown, Poet), with more to be announced in the weeks to come.

The convention will take place on 24th-25th of August and tickets are £6 per day or £10 for both days, so get yourself along! The EOCC bar will be open from noon to 5.00pm, for drinks and crisps as well, what more could you want?

• Caption, East Oxford Community Centre, 44 Princes St, Oxford OX4 1DD - 11am – 11pm Saturday 24th August / 11am – 5pm Sunday 25th August. More info at www.caption.org

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

Dave Gibbons 'Whaat' art challenges Lichtenstein's dubious 'legacy'

'Whaat' by Dave Gibbons, after Irv Norvick

Watchmen artist and co-creator Dave Gibbons was interviewed on a recent BBC TV documentary about the Pop Art painting 'WHAAM!' by Roy Lichtenstein, which is currently on show in a major retrospective at Tate Modern, London.

Gibbons was probably the only dissenting voice in the documentary, critical of Lichtenstein's appropriation of comic art In some of his 1960s work - and has now created a piece of art honouring the original comic panel by American artist Irv Norvick that inspired 'WHAAM'.

Dave hopes the eventual sale of his canvas will raise funds for the Hero Initiative, a US-based charity that dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need.

Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterdays' creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work.

While Gibbons refuted accusations that Lichtenstein was a plagiarist - as suggested in an article headline from the period the painting was released, ‘Pop Artists All Copycats’ - he said he would describe him as a "copycat".

"In music for instance, you can’t just whistle somebody else’s tune or perform somebody else’s tune, no matter how badly, without somehow crediting and giving payment to the original artist," Dave argued. "That’s to say, this is ‘WHAAM! by Roy Lichtenstein, after Irv Novick’.”

"From the point of view that I come from, I find there’s something slightly dishonest about it, there’s something that is trying to be ironic that I think doesn’t actually work," Gibbons said later in the interview. "It seems to be doing a disservice to comic art because of that.”

Comics expert and advocate Paul Gravett reports on Dave's interview in a detailed piece on his blog here, which also throws a thought provoking spotlight on how modern artists are still appropriating comic imagery, some to the point of outright plagiarism.

"Another disappointing legacy is the continuing widespread public assumption that Lichtenstein’s paintings still sum up and represent what comics art looks like today," Paul notes, "when the range of media, techniques and approaches is actually more diverse than ever.

"Astonishingly, I heard about someone who owns a print of ‘WHAAM!’ and had absolutely no idea that it came from comic books at all! When they were told, not only were they horrified, but they also treasured the piece less as a result. The stigma of ‘despicable’ comics lingers on."

Gibbons has now responded further by going back to Lichtenstein's original source, a DC war comics panel drawn by Irv Novick, to create a brilliant satirical 're-purposing' of this iconic image, now titled 'WHAAT?'

"I intend to do a huge stretched canvas version," he reveals. "The idea would be to present it in as much the same way as the Lichtenstein version as we could. I would then sell it and donate the profits to the Hero Initiative.”

Meanwhile, Paul wonders if the art world will continue to turn a blind eye to image appropriation. "Perhaps it can, as long as these works sell and nobody makes an issue of it. But is it now time for this practice to stop or at least be debated, for the sake of comics and for the sake of contemporary art? One idea might be to regulate this process, perhaps requiring artists to pay for their samples in the same way that musicians already do."

Designer and comics creator Rian Hughes, who has previously commented on the issue of plagiarism of pop culture imagery, is now responding by co-ordinating an exhibition called Image Duplicator from 16th - 31st May at the Orbital Gallery in London. He's inviting comics artists to follow Dave Gibbons’ lead and consider such questions as: ‘Is this an act of brilliant recontexturalisation? The elevation of commercial “low” art to “high” art? Art world snobbery? Artistic licence? Cultural annexation? Gallery shortsightedness? Or something else?’. And then to share their views by making new works.

“Every interested comic artist should 're-reappropriate' one of the comic images Lichtenstein used, and rework it," Rian proposes, "using some of their ‘commercial art’ drawing skills, to warp and twist it into something interesting and original,
 and in the process to comment on this type of appropriation.

"The important thing to stress is that you’d be going back to the source material and re-reappropriating Coletta, Novick, Kirby et al – not copying Lichtenstein, as we don’t want copyright issues from the Lichtenstein estate. Take Back the Art!"

• You can choose your images here, at this handy “compare and contrast” site: Deconstructing Lichtenstein. Please give credit to the original artist: “Artist Name after Irv Novick”, for example. The new work could be shown next to the original, so viewers could compare and contrast. See this as a celebratory, positive show which aims to get the point across that the original artists deserve credit and respect.

• Read more of Dave Gibbons interview comments and find out about Lichtenstein's sources and legacy, including current fine artists who continue to copy from comics artists such as Brian Bolland, here: http://paulgravett.com/index.php/articles/article/the_principality_of_lichtenstein

 

SciFi Art Postcard book on sale now

The long-awaited SciFi Art Postcard title from ILEX, compiled by myself with wonderful support from Tim Pilcher and all the artists involved - including many British comic artists - is now officially on sale in all good bookshops and online.

With a cover by Patrick J. Jones, the title comprises a selection of ace science fiction art also featured in my 2010 book, Sci-Fi Art Now and some other art specially selected for this project, too - 30 gorgeous SF-inspired postcards in total.

British artists featured are: Rian Hughes, Stuart Jennett, Paul McCaffrey, Steve Sampson, Smuzz (who I'm working with on the Crucible comic) and Dave Taylor. 

Other artists work in the book are: Larry Blamire, Matt Gaser,  Aaron Jasinski, Patrick J. Jones, Michael Kaluta & Lee Moyer, Tom Kelly, Yigit Koroglu, John Malcolm, Sergey Musin, Nemons, 2012 Hugo and Chelsey Award-winning John Picacio, Neil Roberts,  Jon Sullivan, and Oliver Wetter.

The book looks great and joins a number of similar titles from ILEX, more information here in an earlier post.

Thanks to all involved - the creators and the ILEX production team, headed up by Tim Pilcher.

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)

 

Photo Review: Dundee Comics Day 2012 - Part 2

The Dundee Comics Day has been running as part of the Dundee Literary Festival at Dundee University since 2008 under the guiding hand of Dr Chris Murray of the School of Humanities (above). The event treads the fine line between the accessibility of a public Lit Fest and the seriousness of an academic conference and now, with comics courses being run at the university, it now adds an educational element for the course students. While the main day of this year's DCD was, as usual, on the Sunday, this year the event did expand out somewhat with a screening of the documentary Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods at the Dundee Contemporary Arts cinema on the Friday night and a talk and signing session with artist Dave Gibbons on the Saturday afternoon. The downthetubes photo review of the Dave Gibbons event is here.

The main day however was Sunday 28 October 2012 under the titleInvisible Symmetries: The Comics Of Grant Morrison, with Grant Morrison himself and a selection of his British and Canadian artistic collaborators. The number of attendees at Dundee Comics Day has increased over the years as the guest list has increased and as more people hear about the event. Last year's DCD, with its predominance of 2000AD art and script droids, had perhaps the largest turnout to date but the Dave Gibbons talk on the Saturday appeared to match that turnout while the appearance of Grant Morrison on the Sunday easily brought DCD's largest turnout in all the years that it has been running.

The hour long morning session was devoted to Chris Murray interviewing Grant at the front of the large and well equipped lecture theatre before opening the discussion out to include questions from the audience. This took in his earliest work on Near Myths and Starblazer, through his IPC and Marvel UK work and onto his better known American superhero work. While the difference between Chris' academic questions and the audience's more fannish questions was noticeable, Grant took them all in his stride and, for all the adulation he receives from some sections of comics fandom, he quickly relaxed into the interview and came across as a regular guy.

Lunch gave the attendees a chance to inspect the entries in the Dundee Comics Prize competition for a 3 page story and cover for an update of the 1940s DC Thomson superhero character Mister X which were in the corridor outside the main lecture theatre or the original 2000AD and Megazine artwork on display upstairs in the Baxter Suite exhibition The Art Of Judge Dredd. The cold buffet selection for lunch was included in the cost of the £15 ticket which covered both the Saturday and Sunday events.

After lunch came five of Grant's artists in a run of half hour talks which normally included a QandA element at the end. First up was Rian Hughes (below) who has previously appeared at DCD several years back. He covered the Grant Morrison Dan Dare series in Revolver and Crisis that he had illustrated plus he gave a general overview of his work including a vast selection of logos for various DC comics as well as stylised versions of Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Supergirl for DC 's merchandising arm.

Next up was Frazer Irving (below) who concentrated on displaying and talking about the covers that he has produced for 2000AD and DC Wildstorm. Fraser was the first of the guests to connected his iPad to the lecture theatre's main screen and it proved to be an interesting and much more dynamic and interactive experience than the more traditional Power Point presentations as he zoomed into the specific covers and then into details on the given cover before moving on to his next subject.

The second break of the day allowed the first of the two signing sessions to take place in the Baxter Suite. The increased number of attendees did put a strain on what in previous years had been relatively quick signing queues and this first signing session ran over so badly that it had to be curtailed to allow the next batch of guests to give their talks. While it may not have been obvious to the academic organisers, perhaps not being used to such behaviour, it was obvious to those of us in the audience that some attendees were expecting to get serious numbers of books and comics autographed based on the piles of items that they were arranging and rearranging during the talks. Indeed an announcement had to be made prior to the second signing session that only one or two items should be presented for signature.

The third session of guest talks brought Frank Quitely (above) back to Dundee having appeared at DCD last year. With pages of the newly remastered Flex Mentallo on the screen behind him, he talked and took questions about his work with Grant and his current artistic style. For someone perhaps best known for his DC work, when asked what characters he would like to work he he listed Spiderman, Daredevil and the Hulk.

Next up was Canadian Cameron Stewart (above) who pointed out that his first "collaboration" with Grant Morrison was when he donned a Zenith outfit for a costume party in Canada many years before. As with some of the other guests, Cameron described the differences he had experienced between working traditionally with paper and then moving on to creating his art digitally.

The final guest of the day was artist and colourist Peter Doherty (below) who chose, perhaps wisely as the fifth of five artists talking that day, to concentrate on his colouring work showing examples of his Judge Dredd work as well as, of course, Flex Mentallo. Peter's laid back presentation concluded the guest's individual talks for the day after which most attendees made for the Baxter Suite again to join the long signing queue as the scheduled time of the concluding roundtable discussion came and went.

Indeed while the Dave Gibbons signing on the Saturday was scheduled at the end of Dave's talk with nothing due after it, the length of it was never really going to be an issue. However it was the signing sessions, more than the couple of technical glitches with the presentation equipment, that proved the most problematic for Sunday's schedule. The scheduling and control of the signing sessions is something that, while never really a problem before at the Dundee Comics Day, will need to be reconsidered for the future.

That said the weekend's events were interesting mixture with a good selection of presentations and presenting styles and all the guests seemingly relaxed about answering questions about their work. It certainly was something of a coup for Dundee to get both Dave Gibbons and Grant Morrison, as well as so many of Grant's artistic collaborators, to take the time to attend this year.

Indeed given that this year the event had Dave Gibbons, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely appearing, there is really only one other British comics creator that could top those names for next year - but no pressure there Chris!

There are more details of the Dundee Comics Day on its Facebook page.

There are more details of comics studies at the University Of Dundee at the University's website.

Grant Morrison headlnes Dundee Comics Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Dave Gibbons Comics Workshop In Dundee

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

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

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

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

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

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

SciFi Postcard Book to be released in January 2013

Just through my door this weekend: an advance copy of the Sci-Fi Art Now postcard book ILEX asked me to compile earlier this year, which features illustrations by a number of British comic artists, including Rian Hughes, Smuzz and Dave Taylor.

With a cover by Patrick J. Jones, it features some art used in the Sci-Fi Art Now book and other illustrations - 30 gorgeous SF-inspired postcards in total.

The artists featured are: Larry Blamire, Matt Gaser, Rian Hughes, Stuart Jennett, Paul McCaffrey, Aaron Jasinski, Patrick J. Jones, Michael Kaluta & Lee Moyer, Tom Kelly, Yigit Koroglu, John Malcolm, Sergey Musin, Nemons, 2012 Hugo and Chelsey Award-winning John Picacio, Neil Roberts, Steve Sampson, Smuzz (who I'm working with on the Crucible comic), John Sullivan, Dave Taylor and Oliver Wetter.

My thanks to them all for being part of this spin-off, which is set to be published in January and looks absolutely fantastic! Thanks also to editor Tim Pilcher and the ILEX team for creating another great book.

The collection is one of a series of Postcard books published by ILEX, which have been well received and sold very well in the UK. They include:  

• Army Camp! 30 Postcards That Do Ask and Do Tell! - A riotous introduction to the unintentionally homoerotic side of military life. Classic images date from between 1914 to 1946, when armies everywhere were crying out for fit, toned men to join up, bond together and make the world a better place.  

• Fantasy Art - Includes art by Robert Chang, Matt Dixon, Raymond Swanland and Matt Gaser featuring modern twists on traditional themes such as dragons, orcs, fairies and adventurers.  

• Lovelorn - 30 of the very best in cult romance comics of the 1950s. From Brides in Love and Romantic Hearts to G.I. Sweethearts and Romantic Adventures there are dozens of romantically quirky postcards ready for you to send to your beloved!  

• Tales of Terror - 30 of the scariest, most bizarre and downright strange horror comics covers. These pre-code horror comics make an ideal gift and are perfect to send chills in the post, or to simply keep and laugh at the uncanny covers. Each cult postcard includes the title, artist, publisher and publication date on the back.  

• Tattoos: 30 Postcards to Colour and Send - A fun, interactive postcard set includes 30 of the coolest designs by top manga artist and tattooist, Jian Yi. All the designs are clear line drawings of everything from fairies and flowers to dragons and tigers, and are easy to complete and colour, before wowing friends and family with a piece of original art through the post.  

• Vampires: 30 Postcards - Artists from different backgrounds and cultures share their versions of the vampire in their chosen medium. Each postcard includes the titles, artist, publisher and publication date on the back.  

• More about Sci-Fi Art Now on its dedicated blog here

Rian Hughes brings British science fiction comics to Image

US publisher Image Comics will present Tales from Beyond Science, an outrageously pulpy collection of science fiction short stories in December in one hardcover volume, all drawn by Rian Hughes and written by some of Britain’s finest comic writers, including Mark Millar (Kick Ass and WANTED), Alan McKenzie (The Harrison Ford Story) and John Smith (Devin Waugh), all together in one colorful oversized hardcover, specially designed by Rian.

Rian began his career as a designer working for Smash Hits, i-D magazine and a series of record sleeve design companies. His early comic strip work appeared in the alternative press magazine Escape, and this led to work for Belgian art-house publisher Magic Strip. His first mainstream UK comic work was Dan Dare with Grant Morrison for Fleetway’s short-lived Revolver title, and from there he moved to 2000AD, illustrating such series as 'Really and Truly', again with Morrison, and 'Robo-Hunter' with Peter Hogan.

Dividing his time between illustration and design, he has provided design, custom type and illustration for advertising campaigns, CD and record sleeves, book jackets and graphic novels, and numerous comic book logos for mainstream comic publishers such as DC Comics and Marvel. Recent publications include Cult-ure: Ideas can be Dangerous (Fiell) and Yesterday’s Tomorrows, published by Knockabout in the UK and Image in the US.

Tales from Beyond Science will invite readers to follow Hilary Tremayne on eight surreal journeys into the unknown, where they may discover the truth behind the mysteries of spontaneous human combustion, the Bermuda Triangle, the lost 13th month, and the real reason men have nipples.

"I worked with some great writers on these stories," said Hughes. "And it's nice to be bringing all these tales together in one beautiful volume, with all-new material, via Image."

- Tales from Beyond Science (OCT110500, ISBN: 978-1-60706-471-8), an 88-page full-colour sci-fi mystery and suspense hardcover for $16.99, will be on sale in US stores 21st December and is available for order in the upcoming October issue of Previews.

- For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com

Panel Borders: Dan Dare in the 20th Century

Continuing Panel Borders month of shows about collectives and anthologies, the team have a recording of a panel discussion from Sci-Fi London in 2010, celebrating the continuing popularity of the iconic British Space Hero Dan Dare, whose first appearance in The Eagle was published in April 1950. Comics editor and writer John Freeman (The Science Service / Ex Astris) talks to a quartet of artists and writers who have created new adventures for the lantern jawed pilot in more recent years.

These include: Garry Leach, who drew Dan’s return to print in 2000AD, 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, who drew the Eagle inspired comic The Science Service in 1989 and then the Mekon’s final revenge in the Thatcherite satire Dare in the adult comics Revolver and Crisis a year later; Gary Erskine, who drew Dan Dare’s most recent official comic book adventures in the Virgin Comics periodical of the same name; and
Rod Barzilay, the then editor and one of the writers of Spaceship Away, the officially licensed Dan Dare magazine that has continued the original adventures of Spacefleet where the 1950s Eagle left off over the past decade.

This recording covers Dare's appearance in print from the 1950s to the 1980s. (Recorded and edited by Alex Fitch).

• Panel Borders: Dan Dare in the 20th Century airs at 5.00pm today on Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Spaceship Away 22 soars to the shelves

Spaceship Away Part 22, the comics magazine inspired by Eagle and featuring all-new Dan Dare advntures is now available from publisher Rod Barzilay.

This issue features a simply glorious wrap-around cover from Ian Kennedy and the Dan Dare adventure, Green Nemesis, has more pages than usual. Plus there's the usual selection of great comic strips including the start of a new Journey into Space tale, more of Frank Bellamy's Garth, coloured by John Ridgway, and another fine cutaway from Graham Bleathman.

Features include an article and more artwork from Eagle and Dan Dare artist Don Harley; while artists Bruce Cornwell contributes his own full Venus Shuttle colour cutaway development page from 1950 and Tim Booth gives an insight into his world.

Continuing the exploration of the history of Britain's favourite space hero, Pat Mills gives readers a behind the scenes, low-down on the later Dan Dares; Gary Erskine talks about the Virgin Dan Dare; and Rian Hughes is answering questions about his Dare, written by Grant Morrison. It's another cracking issue, so order now!

• To get Spaceship Away delivered to your door, simply go to www.spaceshipaway.org.uk and follow the links. Spaceship Away is also available in some specialist magazine shops.

Image publishes US edition of Rian Hughes Yesterday's Tomorrows

Yesterday's Tomorrows, a collection of comics by "luminescent pop culture demon" Rian Hughes spanning over two decades of his career, is being re-published in the US by Image Comics in November.

Previously published by Knockabout Comics in the UK in 2007, the 264-page collection features two infamous and hard-to-find collaborations with Eisner Award winner Grant Morrison: Dan Dare, a post-modern classic that sets the aging and retired iconic British character Dare against a modern British landscape he no longer understands; and Really and Truly, a high-octane psychedelic road-trip torn from the pages of cult comic 2000AD.

Also included is one of Hughes’ first longform comic tales - The Science Service, also the first professional commission written by John Freeman back in the 1980s, created in duotone for Magic Strip; while Hughes explores an evocative noir palette replete with dramatic angular lighting for Raymond Chandler's Goldfish, adapted by It’s Superman author Tom DeHaven; and The Lighted Cities by acclaimed comics creator Chris Reynolds.

Rian is an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator, comic artist, logo designer and typographer. He studied graphic design at the London College of Printing before working for an advertising agency, i-D magazine and a series of record sleeve design companies. In 1994, he founded his own studio, Device, and has since worked with a wide range of international clients in publishing, advertising, music and fashion. He has also worked extensively for the British and American comic book industries, both as artist and designer. 

In addition to sketchbook pages, merchandise and rare strips Yesterday's Tomorrows features an introduction by comics guru Paul Gravett, who published Hughes’ very first strips in his seminal independent comics magazine Escape.

Rian also has a number of books about different aspects of 20th century design scheduled for release from Fiell Publishing Limited, either already published this year or due for publication soon. Out now is Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s (Amazon UK link), a survey of magazine artwork from the Swinging Sixties. Featuring over 1,000 gloriously inventive and stylistically diverse illustrations, it offers a fascinating insight into the extraordinary artistic talents of the illustrators featured, it also reveals the social aspirations of this unprecedented era of political optimism and sexual freedom.

Complementing this release is Lifestyle Illustration of the 50s (Amazon UK link), also due for release in November, an overview of the astonishing artistic skill of the leading lifestyle illustrators of the period, revealing the changing social aspirations of the post-war generation and their growing optimism for the future.

Out in October is Custom Lettering of the 40s and 50s (Amazon UK link) is a celebration of the stunning and stylistically varied headline lettering that predated modern computer type. Each a unique one-off, custom hand-drawn lettering had a stylistic freedom and creative energy unfettered by traditional typographic rules and regulations.

The handbook features over 4,500 examples of custom lettering - from urgent rough block capitals to sophisticated looping copperplate scripts, elegant fashion brush scripts and dynamic illustrative sans serifs, the extraordinary range of graphic styles is as exciting as it is stylistically diverse. It should appeal to typographers, graphic designers and, of course, retro culture fans, lettering aficionados and printed ephemera collectors.

• More information about Image Comics new US edition on the Image Comics web site

• Buy the Knockabout Comics edition from Amazon UK

• Rian Hughes official web site: www.devicefonts.co.uk 

• Fiell Publishing Limited 

Photo Review: Dundee Comics Day 2010

Now in its fourth year, the Dundee Comics Day treads the fine line between the accessibility of a public lit fest, as it is part of the Dundee Literary Festival, and the sensibilities of an academic conference since it is located in Dundee university and run by academics. This year it hit the balance perfectly.

Run by Dr Chris Murray of the University's Humanities department, each Comics Day has a theme and this year's was Creating Comics, from writing and illustrating, via editing and designing, through to publishing. As well as organising the Comics Day, Chris is co-editor, along with Julia Round of Bournemouth University, of the new academic journal Studies In Comics and free copies of the first issue of this 186 page, oversized A5, landscape magazine were available to those attendees who were interested. The first issue is also available free online from its publishers, Intellect Books. Those of us who have been to many of Chris' events in the past are aware of his line in sartorial elegance and this year he didn't disappoint with a day-glo green tie against a red shirt.

The day began at 11am in the university's spacious and well equipped D'Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre with a one hour workshop on drawing manga run by Manga Shakespeare artist Nana Li who went on to join the signing sessions later on in the afternoon. Dundee University runs a popular annual manga/anime convention called D-Con so it was surprising that this manga workshop wasn't better attended but then the Dundee Comics Day is normally a small, intimate affair and it would perhaps lose some of its friendliness if it had a much bigger turnout.



As well as the friendliness, the other plus point for Dundee is that the cost for the entire day was £10, which included an ongoing supply of refreshments. While this is a fairly standard price for a single day at a comics convention, for a literary festival it is a bargain. The Edinburgh International Book Festival this year would charge £54 plus booking fees for five guest talks and an art workshop, with refreshments extra and the guests escorted to and from their talks leaving the only chance to talk to them being at any post talk signing sessions. Things are rather different in Dundee.

The main afternoon session began with artist and designer Rian Hughes. While Rian has various comic strips to his credit, including Grant Morrison's Dare, 2000AD's Robo-Hunter and The Science Service by downthetubes' own John Freeman, he spends most of his time as a graphic designer so his talk had the potential to be perhaps the least interesting of the day. However as he took us through the type of work he does, including advertising posters for The Body Shop, point of sale illustrations for Clark's Shoes, designs for Swatch Watches, and a multitude of book illustrations including those for Geri Halliwell's children's books, his ability to articulate his design choices and his enthusiasm for what he does shone through and made for a very interesting talk.



Marvelman and Excalibur artist Alan Davis was next with a heavily illustrated talk on how he creates a page of comic art from the initial thumb nail sketches, through pencilling and inking to the final coloured product. He explained how he saw some pages as being 'silent' despite them having text boxes and speech balloons because the artwork was enough to explain the story of the page, compared to those pages that needed the text for the reader to understand what was happening. As a superhero artist he explained why he believed in "swoosh" lines to indicate movement and how they could be incorporated without being overly distracting by drawing the character's anatomy around the movement lines. Since Alan chose to sit at the lecturers desk at the front of the large lecture theatre there was no distraction of him walking around as he presented page after page of his superb art to the rapt audience and I'm sure that I wasn't the only one with a pang of disappointment when he announced that he had reached his final page. Questions for Alan followed before a break during which there was a signing session in the Tower Building's reception area by Rian and Alan.



Also in the reception area, along with sales tables from the local comics shop, Black Hole, and local comics merchandiser, Fine and Dandy, was an exhibition of the late Willie Richie's work. Sadly this DC Thomson artist, who was a great comics fan and collector, passed away earlier this year and the exhibition showed the range of his talent using original artwork from the DC Thomson archives. This ranged from his minimalist art for Baby Crockett to the rather more detailed art for Simple Spyman, both from Beezer, as well as covers for Sparky, designed to be coloured as part of the production process, and full colour pages from the nursery comic Bimbo. This free exhibition will remain open until 21 August 2010.


After the refreshment and signing break, former DC Thomson editor Bill Graham gave a talk on Willie's work for DC Thomson concentrating on the work that both men had done for what Thomson's refer to as "Pony Stories", the comic strips they produce for the European Egmont comic Wendy. This explained one of the pages in the exhibition which no one seemed to recognise, a humorous horse strip called Snooty and Scamp. This was created for Wendy with Bill writing and Willie illustrating some 800 pages of the strip over the years which was then translated into German and Swedish amongst other languages. The exhibition, along with Bill's fond memories and amusing anecdotes, were a fitting tribute to his friend and colleague.



The afternoon then continued with a talk from Dez Skinn. Writer, editor, manager, publisher, Dez has had such a varied career that the choice of what he was going to talk about had prompted some discussion between attendees earlier in the day. His decision to tell us the history of fan favourite magazine House Of Hammer was a popular choice with his animated and amusing talk covering artists as diverse as Brian Lewis, Dave Gibbons, Joe Colquhoun, Paul Neary and John Bolton as well as the early concepts for the magazine that we all refer to as HoH but which Dez had originally planned to call Chiller. Dez's recollections on HoH and his other work can also be read on his new website, dezskinn.com.



The final talk of the day was from writer and editor Pat Mills. With a career spanning DC Thomson as well as IPC titles such as Battle, Action and 2000AD, Pat chose to focus on his French bande dessinee series Requiem: Chevalier Vampire. This series with Giger-esque painted art by Olivier Ledroit has reached nine albums in France along with four albums of the spin-off series Claudia: Chevalier Vampire with art by Franck Tacito. The first two Requiem albums have just been released in English by Panini as Requiem: Vampire Knight and Pat took the audience through the creation of the albums and his relationship with its foreign artist. He also emphasised the point that British creators should not just be looking to America to get their work published but to France as well. In addition to allowing creators to retain the rights to their work, French publishers deal with a considerably greater range of titles and styles as well as a much greater volume of published copies. He pointed out that sales in the French language of the first album of Requiem alone were in the region of 100,000 which, while an order of magnitude less than say a Jean Van Hamme title, is easily an order of magnitude more than any UK graphic novel print run. Pat's interesting and thoughtful talk left more than one creator in the audience with the realisation that they should be looking across the Channel as well as the Atlantic with their work.



The day closed with a popular signing session in the reception area from Pat, Dez and Nana. One of the strengths of Dundee is the friendly atmosphere that exists outside the main lecture theatre with sales tables, exhibitions and refreshments all in the same area and the willingness of the guests to stand and chat to the attendees as well as to sign items outside of the slightly more formal signing sessions. Indeed where else could you talk to the editor of Warlord having just spoken to the editor of Battle or, as below, see the current Tharg's newest artdroid, Graeme Neil Reid, share a joke with the original Tharg, Pat Mills.


Fans of older British comics who despair at the dearth of titles on newsagents shelves compared to what there used to be for readers any older than junior primary, or who find the obsession that much of British comics fandom has with imported American superhero product strange, especially given its minuscule UK sales, have long found that mainstream UK comics conventions do not cater for them. These fans are as interested in what has gone before as in what they can get now and they have often bemoaned the fact that there are no "old comics" conventions. This year's Dundee Comics Day was as close to an "old comics" convention that I have come across, yet with a selection of creators with such impressively diverse careers that any mainstream comics convention would have been proud to have had them on their guest list.

The Dundee Comics Day has been the highlight of my comics year so far and I look forward in anticipation to what Chris Murray and his team have in store for next year.

The Dundee Courier newspaper covered the Dundee Comics Day here.