Anthology One Due From Dundee's UniVerse(ity)

Due out later this month is the first issue of a new comics series, Anthology, published under the new UniVerse imprint, which will showcase the best creative work that is emerging from the new comics courses at the University of Dundee and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.

Dundee has long been a haven for comics creation due largely to the city being home to DC Thomson. However in recent years the University of Dundee and its related colleges, specifically Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD), have been taking more of an interest in comics creation due in no small part to Dr Chris Murray of the University's School of Humanities. This has lead to various comic art exhibitions, often in association with DC Thomson, and the annual Dundee Comics Day, a full day of talks from a wide variety of British comics creators, as part of the Dundee Literary Festival.

With a cover by DJCAD alumnus Colin MacNeil, Anthology One, is the first issue and features work from the students on DJCAD's Comic Art and Graphic Novels Module. Module Leader and co-organiser of the Dundee Comics Day Phillip Vaughan said, "We have created an imprint called UniVerse to promote and publish up and coming work from the next generation of comic creators. This is the best of the work from the first cohort of the module, which (staggeringly) was run over 12 weeks for one day a week during Semester 1 of Communication Design Level 3 (encompassing Animation, Graphic Design and Illustration undergraduates). This year we plan to roll the module out to other undergraduate areas of the art college."

Chris Murray (far left, with Phillip Vaughan, centre, and Cam Kennedy, right) is course leader of the Comics Studies MLitt at the university and director of the newly formed Scottish Centre for Comics Studies and helped to deliver the course. Chris said, "It is an exciting time for Comics Studies at Dundee, and the DJCAD module has been even more successful than we'd hoped - the results are impressive, and the students clearly benefited from workshops with industry professionals such as Frank Quitely, Cam Kennedy, Colin MacNeil and others".

Anthology One will be available at the Hi-Ex comics convention in Inverness on Saturday 31 March and Sunday 1 April.

The downthetubes review of the 2011 Dundee Comics Day is here.

Links to the various comic art exhibitions that have taken place at the University Of Dundee since 2007 are here.

downthetubes interviewed Dr Chris Murray about his comics work here.

Paul Rainey's Thunder Brother: Soap Division returns

Not a dream, not a hoax, not a shameless boast that creator Paul Rainey hopes if enough people believe will come true; his marvllous web strip Thunder Brother: Soap Division returns in a new story called The Two Ronnies this Sunday (4th March).

And that's not all; Paul says his much-praised TBSD will not break between stories as it has been but appear every Sunday, without fail, until the whole saga has run its course in who knows how many weeks, months, years time!

Make sure that you subscribe.

Why the delay to the strip? "Some people have been asking me when will Thunder Brother: Soap Division return and I answered them, 'soon, soon,' he says. "I've been rethinking my strategy for the strip.

"Previously, I would release a page twice a week until the story is finished whereupon I would take a break for a couple of weeks or so before serialising the next tale in the same manner. I have decided instead to release a page every Sunday without any breaks between episodes at all.

"I hope you won't see it on a break before the entire saga has run it's course. Unless I go on holiday. Or somebody offers me a deal to publish it. Or I die."

If you're new to Thunder Brother Soap Division then you still have a chance to catch up on the story so far for free for a limited period. Read The Apprentice here and Going Straight here.

Remember, the first page appears at the bottom and you need to read upwards for it to make sense!

Cartoonist, illustrator and Panic Coordinator to Breakfast television since 1992, Paul Rainey is all this and less. He is the creator of online hit diary comic strip Book of Lists, a full colour book collection of which is now available. He recently completed his graphic novel There's No Time Like The Present and a collection of that will be published during 2012. 

He's also just been told this morning that Body Pop, a short story created with Robert Wells, will feature in STRIP Magazine Issue 6, on sale in April. Which we think made him rather happy.

• Chck out the's strip at http://thunderbrother-soapdivision.blogspot.com/

• Read Richard Bruton’s review of the first two stories on the Forbidden Planet Blog: “Rainey perfectly plays off the bizarre and incredible with the mundane and down to earth stuff, and it’s a lovely concept, all executed with flair and style”. 

Panel Borders: Laura and Mike Allred - Pop Art Comics

Starting a month of shows about iconoclastic American comic artists, Panel Borders Alex Fitch talks to husband and wife art team Mike and Laura Allred about their work together from their long running Madman comic, to X-Statics and I, Zombie.

The Allreds' style has been often described as pop art and Alex discusses the development of this as well as its representation in adaptations of their work such as Christopher Coppola's film G-Men from Hell.

• Panel Borders: Laura and Mike Allred - Pop Art Comics airs at 8.00pm, Sunday 4th March, Resonance FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

New Comical Animal released in the wild (web, that is)

Happy Kitty Spa Holistic Day Spa, by Gemma Correll

(with thanks to Matt Badham): The latest online edition of Comical Animal is online now, a diverse compendium of animal-inspired comic strips and cartoons.

Released quarterly, Issue 7 includes tributes to the Pink Panther and features contributions from Fred Blunt, Gemma Correll, Spirou comic's Geoffrey Alistair Coupland, Rob Jackson, Lizz Lunney, Jim Medway, Piotr Nowacki, Alex Potts, Ryan Taylor and others.

A quarterly online publication for comic, cartoon and kids books afficianados, the next issue is out on 1st June. 

 

• Check out Issue 7 at http://comicalanimal.com