Furman Turns Japanese!

After years of writing Transformers stories for the UK and US, writer Simon Furman has finally broken into one of the most notoriously difficult comic markets: Japan.

This is no small achievement: very few Westerners have broken into the world of Japanese manga publishing in recent years. (Off the top of my head so early on a Sunday I can only think of Sean Michael Wilson right now)

Simon's first all-Japanese writing credit comes courtesy of Million Publishing (Japanese site), publishers of the Transformers: Generations 2009 magazine series.

"Volume 3 of said publication features an all-new two-page comic strip story written by me with art by fan favourite Guido Guidi," Simon reveals via his blog.

"Interestingly, and with a kind of uncanny synergy, the story idea I initially submitted to Million Publishing employed elements from the two previous manga strips (in Transformers: Generations 2009 #1 & 2), to such an extent we were able to fuse everything together in a way that continues and wraps up that storyline. I hadn’t even seen those strips, let alone understood them, when I first pitched the idea to Million, so it all fitted together oh so very neatly.

•Transformers: Generations 2009 vol 3 is out later this year. More info via Simon's blog

Cameron's A-Z of Awesomeness

(via FPI Blog); Neill Cameron is hard at work on his latest project: The A-Z of Awesomeness. Well into its stride (he's just delivered "Nina and the Neurons Neutralising the Ninky-Nonk with Nitrogen", it was originally inspired by Garen Ewing’s A-Z of Comic Book Characters.

"That was fantastic and looked like a lot of fun to do," Neill says of Garen's project, but he widened the remit for his attempt, from comic strips to the wider world of pop cultural entertainment.

Neill’s taking a letter a day and welcomes suggestions via his weblog, the project's facebook group or his twitter.

You may suggest characters from film, animation, TV, literature... "anything, really, so long as it is awesome," says Neill.

Comics Artist In Residence at the V&A

(via ComicBitsonline): Award-winning comics artist and animator Karin Rubins, whose work includes the indie mini-series Dark, Urban Beasts and Tales by Ghost Light, takes up her post as Comics Artist in Residence at London's prestigious V&A Museum next week.

Working at the Museum until the end of December, Karin is keen to gain support for what she sees as an exciting link between the comics community, the mainstream,
and our huge potential audience, so check out her web site, www.kazmantra.co.uk for news on how things develop, which include Open Studio days from 1.00 - 4.00pm at the Museum.

Karen will also be delivering news via her own blog and writing a Residency blog for the V&A website.

• Karin's web site: www.kazmantra.co.uk

• Karin's blog: kazmantra.wordpress.com

Temple APA Issue 4 Online

The indie British creators group known as the Temple APA has just released the fourth issue of their 'portfolio' comic, available free in hi-res PDF format from their Forum here.

Intended as a digital showcase of British comic writers and artists both amateur and professional and also UK small press comics the comic, this stonking 132 page edition also includes an interview with Accent Press masterminds Dave West and Colin Mathieson.

Creators such as Tony Suleri, Dave Hailwood, Adam Grose, Paul Eldridge, Dave Thomson, John Kirkham and Jim Stewart; Malcolm Kirk, have all contributed material to the issue, ranging from full page comic strip to portfolio work. Adam Grose' work grows with confidence every time I see it, and his sample pages from new project, Time Wave Zero, are no exception. I definitely want to see more of Dave Thomson's work -- why isn't someone of this standard getting more notice from publishers? -- while Malcolm Kirk's parody of the sadly-missed Junior TV Times, Look-In, (or Pyook-In, as Malcom has re-named it), is a delight. Plus, with more great stuff from the likes of Paul Eldridge, Paul Harrison-Davies, Simon Mackie and others, this portfolio edition is well worth taking time to download.

That said, I think the team are missing a trick by not giving this quarterly outing a bit more structure: it might be worth considering making it more of a comic event, as sketch book pages and single page samples tend to be a little out of place. By taking a leaf from Accent Press' anthologies - extensively featured in this issue - and sticking to an overall theme for portfolio pieces -- SF, for example, heroes, steampunk or horror -- the Temple APA might prove an even nore attractive digital release.

The next issue is due in September and the team invite all British comic creators to join the APA and contribute via templeapa.ning.com

One great item in this edition is the ever-growing British Small Press Directory, useful for those of you trying to track down some of the higher profile indie titles at comics events or online. That this regular section has even more page dedicated to covering these is testament to the energy of the indie scene at the moment (and, of course, an indication of how ill-served our comic creators are by the sheer lack of professional outlets for their work...)

• Download Temple APA Issue Four

• Feedback on the work is always welcomed. Post any comments or feedback on the Temple APA forum here