Get Wasted! Issue 4 hits the stands

Issue 4 of adult humour magazine Wasted is on sale now, featuring a sexy cover by the ever-brilliant Dave Taylor.

This issue features more War On Drugs, Alan Kerr's absolutely superb Lusi Sulfura ("She was sent to Earth to drag souls to hell... but couldn't be bothered!"), and three fab Tales of the Buddha before he got enlightened strips by Alan Grant, drawn Jon Haward - always a highlight of each issue of the adults-only magazine.

"Buddha is bonkers stuff," admits Jon, "but every one I know say they like it – even Buddhists!"

This issue also see the debut of Adventures in Sherweed Forest: Robin Head and his Merrywanna Men, again written by Alan and drawn by Jon

"I decided to draw this strip in a homage style to humour comic greats Ken Reid and R.T.Nixon," says Jon, "who drew British humour kids comics that I read growing up in comics like Cor!, Buster, Shiver and Shake and Whizzer and Chips.

"All these stories were great fun to draw as they made me laugh all the time as I was drawing them," he adds, and given the above line-up of characters on Robin Head, we can see why!

• Wasted costs £3.25, ISSN 1751-2522 and is available in all disreputable comic stores across the country or you can buy it on line via http://badpressltd.com/buy-wasted.php or subscribe via http://badpressltd.com/subscriptions.php. We're sure copies will also be on sale at the upcoming Comics Expo in Bristol later this month, too.

• Read our review of Wasted Issue 3

• Read our review of Wasted Issue 2

• Tales of the Buddha: a WASTED gem!

In Review: Psychiatric Tales by Darryl Cunningham

By: Darryl Cunningham
Publisher: Blank Slate

The Book: Psychiatric Tales delves inside the mysteries of mental disorders – presenting explanations and recollections using the cartoonist’s own experiences as both a psychiatric and care nurse and as someone who himself has suffered from depression.

Being able to see the issue from both sides allows Darryl to present matters in a forthright and instantly accessible way which will allow many to understand the trials of both sufferers and those connected to them – perhaps for the first time. Topics covered include bi-polar disorder, self harming, suicide, depression and theauthor also shows how for some famous people mental disorders were part of what may have made them great.

"Media representations of people who suffer mental illness tend to be appalling," notes Darryl on his blog, announcing the launch of the book. "We live in an age where racism and sexism is considered unacceptable. Yet the mentally ill are still considered fair game for ridicule and are subject to the worst kind of prejudice. I had an e-mail recently from a young man who intended to buy two copies of the book when it came out. One for his mother, and one for his step-father. He wanted to show his family that the bipolar disorder he'd been diagnosed with, was a real illness, and that he needed their understanding not hostility"

The Review: Thank you, Darryl Cunningham. Thank you, just for your general talent and hugely enjoyable cartoons, for which the Forbidden Planet International web site has been such a great platform. But thank you, this week, for what publisher Blank Slate rightfully describe as the "frank, hard hitting and moving" Psychiatric Tales: one of the more difficult, more challenging 'comic books' I have read down the years, but a positive experience.

My wife works in care, but she rarely talks much about the clients, respecting their need for anonimity. Yes, she has her favourites - even the difficult individuals have some redeeming factor, occasionally. But she rarely talks about the general 'malaise' of those clients.

In a series of short stories, some of which have appeared online down the years, Psychiatric Tales throws light not just on some of the things she has to deal with, even these days just as an assistant rather than nurse, but also how the work impacts on Carers. How the diseases of the mind affect us all, one way or another.

This is a brilliant, hugely uplifting and thougtbprovoking collection of stories and I heartily endorse it. Congratulations to Darryl on bringinging it to print and top marks to Blank Slate for publishing it.

• Buy Psychiatric Tales from amazon.co.uk

• Buy Psychiatric Tales from amazon.com
(A US edition will be published in 2011)

• Darryl Cunningham's Blog
Darryl Cunningham is the creator of the book Psychiatric Tales, and the web-comics, Super-Sam and John-of-the-Night  and The Streets of San Diablo. A prolific cartoonist, sculptor and photographer, Darryl's work can also be found at his Flickr page.

• Interview with Darryl by Matthew Badham on his darn fine Blog

• Blank Slate Books

Psychiatric Tales Online

Sample chapters from the book:

• People With Mental Illness Enhance Our Lives

• Dementia Ward

• Suicide

• Schizophrenia

• Cut and Delusions

Cinebook Announces Titles For Late 2010

Cinebook, the Canterbury based publisher of translated Franco-Belgian graphic novels, have released their catalogue for the second half of 2010 and it includes new series that haven't been translated into English before.

These new series are Long John Silver, written by Xavier Dorison with art by Mathieu Lauffrey, and Crusade, written by Jean Dufaux with art by Phillippe Xavier. Long John Silver is, as you would expect, a sequel to Robert Louis Stephenson's novel Treasure Island set 20 years later while Crusade is a supernatural tale set in the middle ages during a forgotten crusade to the Holy Land. The first Crusade title is Simoun Dja and will be released in October while the first Long John Silver title is Lady Vivian Hastings and it is released in November. Both series are rated 15+ by Cinebook.

The first book in the contemporary thriller XIII series, The Day Of The Black Sun, written by Jean Van Hamme with art by William Vance, is due to be published in May and the new catalogue shows that they will continue to be published at a rate of one book every other month. The series runs to 19 albums and while the first three have previously been translated into English and published in America, Cinebook intend to publish the complete set with the fourth book, SPADS, due in November 2010, the first time that it will have been published in English.

The other big series that Cinebook are be starting is Valerian and Laureline. This is one of the best known and highly regarded Franco-Belgian science-fiction series running to 23 albums. Written by Pierre Christin with art by Jean-Claude Mezieres, the books tell the stories of two spatio-temporal agents, the 28th century born Valerian and his female companion Laureline who comes from the Middle Ages. With both spacecraft and time machines available to them the series has the same potential as Doctor Who for a vast range of settings.

The Valerian and Laureline books have had sporadic English language releases before with the only UK publications being four books published by Hodder-Dargaud in the mid-1980s. Cinebook will be starting with The City Of Shifting Waters which is the first book in the French series although, confusingly, there is a prequel 'Book Zero' that was published afterwards. While the story originally began in Pilote magazine in November 1967 this will be the first time that this particular story has been published in English and Cinebook are releasing it in July.

More details of each series are available on the Cinebook website where the new catalogue is available as a PDF download.

Comics @ Belfast Urban Arts Academy

With its own comics convention, 2-D, at the start of June and the Belfast Telegraph newspaper having just given away a second set of free DC Thomson reprint comics over the course of a week, Northern Ireland has an active comics culture. To add to this the Urban Arts Academy are running a summer course in comic book art.

Taking place at the impressive Waterfront Hall in Belfast from 19-23 July 2010 the Urban Arts Academy Comicbook Illustration course will be lead by brothers William and Ken Simpson of Rogue Rocket who produce animation, storyboards and comic strips. Will Simpson of course has worked on titles such as Warrior, 2000AD, Batman and Hellblazer as well as storyboards for films shot in Northern Ireland such as City Of Ember and Closing The Ring.

The course is aimed at participants of 15 years and older with some experience of storytelling, design and drawing and will teach the students not just penciling and inking techniques but character development and storytelling as well. The cost is £60 and more details can be found on the Belfast Waterfront website.

In addition there will be short comicbook illustration workshops for children at the Belfast Waterfront on the weekend of 29/30 May 2010 as part of the Festival in a Weekend Urban Arts Akidemy. These four workshops run for half a day each and allow the children to design their own comic book hero and story. The two workshops on the Saturday are for ages 8-11 and on the Sunday for ages 12-14 and tickets are £7 for each workshop. Again more details are available on the Belfast Waterfront website.

Will Simpson will also be appearing at the free 2-D Comics Festival which takes place at the Verbal Arts Centre in Londonderry from 3-5 June 2010.