Gromit gets "Beano-fied" in a good cause!

The Beano is letting loose Dennis the Menace’s trusty sidekick Gnasher, to raise funds for the Bristol Children’s Hospital this summer, as the famous cartoon dog joins forces with Aardman’s triple Oscar-winning character Gromit, for charity initiative Gromit Unleashed.

Extracts of original Beano artwork featuring Dennis and Gnasher have transformed a giant five foot high Gromit sculpture that will feature as part of a high profile public arts trail, hitting the streets of Bristol and beyond for ten weeks from Monday 1st July.

The Beano’s ‘Gnashional Gromit’ is one of 80 giant Gromit sculptures to be featured in the ground-breaking Gromit Unleashed event, organised by Aardman and the children’s hospital charity, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal. The cartoon design has been created by the team behind The Beano, led by Editor-in-Chief Mike Stirling and legendary artist David Sutherland.

David was the Dennis the Menace artist from 1969-1998 and it was he who gave Gnasher his trademark look. In his career, he has also drawn other legendary Beano characters, including Biffo the Bear and The Bash Street Kids, for whom he has now drawn a whopping 2180 weekly comic strips – a unique achievement in the cartoon world. He has also worked with all six editors of The Beano.

The Beano editor Craig Graham said: “The whole Beano team has had an absolute blast working with David on this project. David is truly one of The Beano greats and ‘Gnashional Gromit’ is testament to this. We hope the public enjoy our Gromit.”

Gromit’s creator Nick Park grew up an avid reader of The Beano and is a massive fan of David’s work, attributing him as a major influence at Aardman and an early inspiration for himself. At 10 years old, smitten by the characters in the comic, Nick Park started drawing his own cartoon strip, which led to the creation of Wallace & Gromit.



Nick Park said: “As a life-long fan of The Beano, I am thrilled that Gromit and Gnasher, two of the world’s most iconic canine characters, are getting together. To have Gromit receive a Gnasher makeover from the comic which inspired Gromit’s creation is pretty amazing!

“I am sure that Gnasher will get his teeth into the project in the nicest possible way and help raise lots of money for this fantastic cause!”

Nick Park guest-edited the 70th anniversary issue of The Beano, which this year celebrates 75 years in production.

The Beano joins a prestigious line-up of famous names including Nick Park, Sir Quentin Blake, Raymond Briggs, Cath Kidston, Sir Paul Smith and Harry Hill, each transforming the five foot statues with their individual designs, alongside local artists from the Bristol area.

Organisers will be revealing further famous names and unveiling more finished designs in the lead up to the public arts trail.

After the public arts trail, the Gromit Unleashed sculptures, which have been individually sponsored by businesses, will be auctioned to raise funds towards Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal’s campaign to support the expansion of Bristol Children’s Hospital, one of the leading multi-disciplinary children’s hospitals in the UK. The Grand Appeal has pledged to raise an initial £3.5 million for state-of-the-art equipment, including an intraoperative MRI scanner, family facilities and child-friendly artwork to enhance the £30 million investment by the NHS.

The Grand Appeal is working with Wild in Art, a leading arts and education company that produces mass participation events in cities, to deliver Gromit Unleashed.

Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Appeal has already raised over £22 million for Bristol Children's Hospital, one of only a few specialist children's hospitals in the UK providing life-saving surgery, care and treatment to children on a local, national and international scale.

With the support of tourism agencies VisitEngland and Destination Bristol, Gromit Unleashed will help raise the profile of the city to tourists across the UK and beyond.

• For more information and the latest news on the project, visit www.gromitunleashed.org.uk. To register your interest in bidding, please email auction@gromitunleashed.org.uk.

• For information on events and activities taking place in Bristol during Gromit Unleashed, plus details on accommodation options in the city, visit www.visitbristol.co.uk.

Radio shows on experimental animation / British webcomics

I'm ready for my close-up: Animating the city

Alex Fitch talks to the directors of two new cutting-edge animated films which mix animation and live action footage to beguiling effect. Zoltan Sostai discusses his film Cycle, a spiritual successor to Tron and The Matrix, which sees an astronaut trying to escape a bleak urban landscape which twists and loops back on itself, creating a maze he can't escape.
Also, British animator Paul Bush talks about his first feature film Babledom which looks into the layers of history and potential future that are unearthed by explorers of the modern city.
Cycle was released in Hungarian cinemas on 21st February 2013 following its London première at SCI-FI-LONDON in 2012 / Babledom is released in UK cinemas on 8th March 2013.

5pm, Friday 1st March 2013 / repeated 8am Tuesday 5th March, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Panel Borders: Young British Webcomic creators

In the first of a series of shows looking at comics serialised on the internet, Alex Fitch talks to a quintet of young British webcomic creators about their work. In a Q and A recorded at Comica Comiket (2011), John Allison discusses his webcomic Bad Machinery, his reasons for choosing the internet as a form of delivery and the lessons he's learned as a comic book creator over the last decade.
Also, at the end of the first Webcomic Artist Swap Project week (February 25th - March 3rd, 2013), Nich Angell (Cat and Meringue), Zarina Liew (Le Mime), Naniiebim (Mephistos) and project originator Richy K. Chandler (Lucy the Octopus), talk about their musical chairs experiment which saw thirteen creators write and draw each others' strips in order to bring new readers to stories they may not have previously encountered, and raise awareness of the British webcomic scene in general.

6pm, Sunday 3rd March 2013 / repeated 4.30pm Tuesday 5th March, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

In Review: The Random Adventures of Brandon Generator

Writer / Director: Edgar Writer
Artist / Animator: Tommy Lee Edwards
Narrator: Julian Barratt
Music: Unloved (David Holmes, Keefus Green and Jade Vincent)
Publisher: Microsoft

4 online episodes, approx 7 mins each

The plot: Brandon Generator, a freelance writer with writer's block, overdoes on 13 cups of espresso and blacks out. He awakens in a world similar to our own, but bits of reality disappear into a white void. Threatened by a giant four eyed monster made of coffee he tries to escape back to reality, deal with mysterious pieces of writing and voice mails that have arrived from the aether and track down a mysterious girl.

The Review: An excellent piece of comic book story-telling that sits in the middle ground between animation and motion comic; Brandon Generator tells a whimsical fantasy story that mixes Hoxton creative navel gazing with crowd sourced fantasy elements. The casting of Julian Barratt as the narrator is perfect – bringing to mind both the lo-fi fantasy of The Mighty Boosh and the satirised media world of Nathan Barley. As a disembodied voice, Barratt also sounds quite similar to regular Edgar Wright collaborator Simon Pegg (who, ironically, is currently starring in A Fantastic Fear of Everything, which is also a comedic, urban fantasy about an agoraphobic, paranoid writer).
I spoke to Wright at the launch event of the fourth and final episode of  Brandon Generator and told him that it also reminded me of Jackanory, a comparison he was quite pleased with, and he suggested Barratt's soothing, laconic tones are ideal to listen to just before bed!

Commissioned by Microsoft to promote their latest internet browser IE9, the project also exists partially as a tech-demo, and while it also plays fine in other browsers, the website encourages users to upgrade to the latest Internet Explorer to use all of the interactive features. This may be less of a concern now for anyone who hasn't seen the story yet, as the interactive nature of the project has concluded – cliffhangers at the ends of the first three instalments encouraged the public to send in lines of dialogue, sketches of creatures and plot elements – and the way I experienced Brandon Generator at the launch event was projected onto a big screen, a closer experience to Wright's usual cinematic work, and one that didn't diminish the quality of Tommy Lee Edwards' art. David Holmes' ambient score is also very enjoyable, awaiting a full album release in due course.
The animation ranges from simple pans across Edwards' drawings to multi-layered moments where flashing messages sit on top of scrolling text on top of background images to reflect the lead character's disorientation, but rarely goes as far as fully animated characters. In any case, Edwards has experience in moving pictures, such as The Book of Eli, so he's better placed than many other comic creators in animating his own work. This means, while the project is more sophisticated than every motion comic that has preceded it, you can still imagine the possibility of it being printed as a regular graphic novel – something the creators refrained from promoting when asked about this at the launch, as it might detract from the novelty of it being an online experience. The possibility of an eventual graphic novel and the creators' love of print comics is evident in certain scenes where three or four panel borders are combined with the mise-en-scene.

The crowd sourced elements incorporated into later episodes work well, from the design of the coffee monster and its name “Caffiendo” to the random lines of text the lead character is assaulted with as he tries to escape the monster, one of which was contributed by Erotic Comics author Tim Pilcher, who receives a credit at the end of episode 3. Hopefully this means other online projects by A list comic creators might also be willing to incorporate suggestions by their readers, without the usual fear of being sued by anyone on the unsolicited 'slush pile'.
Overall, Brandon Generator is worth checking out for fans of any of the creators' work and anyone curious about the possible future of online comics.

You can find the animated comic plus a plethora of behind the scenes information at http://www.brandongenerator.com

Doctor Who-inspired Star Tigers returns as animated fan project

Altered Vistas, an amateur production company dedicated to creating Doctor Who-related features from the "fringes" of the franchise, has just released its twenty-first animated CGI release - the first chapter of an all-new Star Tigers adventure, plucked from the pages of Doctor Who Weekly. It's a fan project written and fully supported by original Abslom Daak: Dalek Killer and Star Tigers creator and writer Steve Moore himself.

Set in the 26th century universe first seen on Doctor Who in Frontier in Space on TV back in the 1970s, Star Tigers was a follow up story published in Doctor Who Weekly to the hugely popular Abslom Daak - Dalek Killer.

The new animated story sees the Daleks' second greatest enemy heading into Draconian space in an attempt to find help for Princess Taiyin. There, he is taken under the wing of Prince Salander, noble of the Draconian royal court, but their association leads them both into a web of intrigue, bribery, corruption and jealousy that will inevitably end in tragedy.

Steve Moore has also been interviewed by AV for their web site, and has nothing but praise for the Star Tigers project. "I’ve never seen [animator Stuart Palmer] on better form than he is here," he enthuses in a on-site review. "We all know that everything he does is a labour of love, but this is just downright Herculean... The whole thing looks absolutely stunning, and there are some sequences, like the scene where the Killwagon first takes off and heads for space, or the meeting with Vol Mercurius on Dispater, which are just so perfect they make an old fogey like me quite emotional... and that’s to say nothing of the fantastic sets on Draconia and Paradise, where Stuart has picked up the original designs by Steve Dillon and David Lloyd and extended them into wonderful new areas.

"And for all you fans of dead women (!), Taiyin just looks fabulous... what a babe!"

Steve is, perhaps understandably given the passage of time and the sheer volume of material he wrote for various comics back in the 1970s, vague on the origins of Abslom Daak for Doctor Who Weekly. "I’d done a couple of stories about Kroton the Cyberman, and Dez Skinn asked me to come up with a character that would be an independent creation of the magazine, even though it was still set in the Doctor Who universe. Whether it was his idea or mine to include the Daleks, I really can’t remember... it could just have been that it was their 'turn', after we’d worked through some of the other alien races, and so they got included."

Even today, Moore sites Abslom Daak: Dalek Killer and Star Tigers as some of his favourite creations. "I’d been writing for seven or eight years," he reveals, "and, although I’d come up with characters like Kroton the Cyberman, who was still first and foremost a Cyberman, this was the first time since I’d got some experience behind me that someone actually asked me to create my own character. So in many ways it was a breakthrough strip for me.

"It was also very personal. At the time I was deeply depressed over a broken romance, and a lot of that angst went into the first Daak story... it wasn’t just Daak who was feeling suicidal and betrayed. And as I was still carrying around a lot of grief about the lady in question by the time I began writing Star Tigers, so Daak carried the dead Taiyin round with him too, in hope of reviving their love."

Talking about his attitude to "readership ages" - often a bugbear with modern British comic fans bemoaning the patronising format of some modern comic strip story telling in news stand publications, Moore reveals he never used to think about the readership at all, let alone their age when he wrote his many stories for various comics in the 1970s.

"You know, when you’re up against deadlines, all you think is: ‘Come up with a story that works… and before you go to bed this evening.’", he says, answering questions about the Doctor Who strip "K9's Finest Hour". "Naturally I knew I couldn’t handle adult themes like sex or excess violence, but apart from that all my attention was on the story and just getting it done.

"Looking back, I doubt that K9 would have been my first choice of character, so it may have been suggested to me by Dez that we should do a story about him. And once you’ve decided to do a solo story about a robot dog, it pretty much asks for a more humorous treatment. That may be what made the story different from the others, rather than any intention to write for a younger audience."

Also included in the interview is a synopsis for a ten issue mini-series of an Abslom Daak story, After Dark, written by Steve which would have concluded Daak’s story as Steve wanted to tell it.

First discussed at a time when Dan Abnett was heading up new project development at Marvel UK, Moore describes it as "the most complex plot I’d ever come up with, and the outline was written in minute detail."

Unfortunately, Moore notes, the idea was savaged by another Marvel UK editor, John Freeman...

"[He] asked me to cut the story down from ten issues to four, which was absurd, and to concentrate on 'what Daak does best'.. in other words, he wanted a thug with a chainsaw. I wasn’t prepared to chop After Daak about like that, so I made a compromise offer that we’d put that story to one side and I’d write another outline for a four-issue series, which would concentrate on Daak’s youth and early exploits with Mercurius and Selene, for which I jotted down a couple of paragraphs. If that went well, I suggested, we might do After Daak afterwards. But nothing ever came of that idea either, and everything just sort of fizzled out."

John's recollection of events is that both Dan and discussed several ideas for limited series Marvel UK projects. "We shared the same office space at the time," he recalls. "The word came down from Marvel US - probably from either Tom de Falco or Carol Kalish - that ten issue mini series were no longer favoured for costs reasons, and Marvel was seeking to publish four-issue mini series instead to try out new characters. (Proposed projects included a Death's Head revival and a try out for Rourke, a character created by Freeman and Liam Sharp for the Strip comic magazine). The emphasis for these projects also had to be very much on the action, rather than what might have been described as the cereberal."

"Four issues were the minimum Marvel could publish - there was some legal or distribution restriction in the US on publishing three-part mini series, which the company would have preferred."

In the end, neither Steve's ten-part or four-part proposal was ever taken up, although both treatments would almost certainly have been seen by Paul Neary when he took up the reins as Editorial Director at Marvel UK in the 1990s. By that time, Marvel US considered Doctor Who a 'dead' franchise and there was no value to Marvel in seeking to extend a brand they did not themselves own. Instead, Paul developed a range of new characters for the company while also revamping Death's Head, drawn by Liam Sharp.

Daak has, of course, returned to the pages of Doctor Who Magazine several times since his Star Tigers appearance, always to fan enthusiasm.

Unlike other fan groups dedicated to creating additional adventures for the good Doctor, Altered Vistas is dedicated to adapting and bringing to life stories that already exist on the fringes of Who-lore. That covers a broad spectrum of stories, and they're hoping to adapt for the screen as many of them as they can using animated CGI, blended with high quality 2D animation, screen grabs (where appropriate) and high quality stills taken from CGI source, and all assembled against a high quality soundtrack with music, sound effects and the best amateur actors they can get our hands on.

• The second chapter of Star Tigers will be released later in the year. Check out the site www.alteredvistas.co.uk for details of the Star Tigers project and Steve's revealing interview

Daleks: Animated!

Inspired by Big Finish's Dalek Empire audio series, here's an animated version of the opening scenes from the first story, animated using Carrara 6, Daz studio and Crazytalk 6.

After centuries of peace, the galaxy is invaded by the Daleks. And nothing will ever be the same again... the first story, Dalek Empire I: Invasion of the Daleks, written and directed by Nicholas Briggs stars Sarah Mowat, Mark McDonnell and Gareth Thomas. The narrator, who isn't listed in the animation's credits, is Joyce Gibbs.

The work of "android65mar", the animator says he's always had an interest in animation and a fascination with science fiction, particularly Doctor Who and particularly at the moment it seems Daleks. "It must be my age, which I have now decided with all my vanity to be a bit coy about..."

More info about the Dalek Empire audio releases here on the Big Finish web site

Mad Web Finds: Klingon TV

Described as " A transmission recently received from an extraterrestrial source. Prepare for battle...", we're with the commentators who think this may be a clever bit of promotion for the upcoming Star Trek MMO and not an early trailer for the next film.

Either way, we know it's not our usual fare but I think you'll agree it's pretty clever stuff...

ABC Warriors Animated

2000AD ABC Warriors from Firestep Films on Vimeo.

Found on Vimeo by Paul Eldridge, this is an animation trailer for ABC Warriors, created by Firestep with the full cooperation of Rebellion Games, the Rights Holders to the 2000AD catalogue.

Impossible Pictures animation subsidiary Firestep have announced plans to develop full motion comics for TV in collaboration with Rebellion back in April (see press release here on 2000AD Forum)

Then, Jason Kingsley, CEO and creative director of Rebellion said he was delighted to be working with Firestep. "Whilst we are at the top of our field in developing computer games and in comics publishing, Impossible and Firestep are at the top of theirs in TV production where they have an enviable level of success, expertise and experience.

"We sincerely hope that we can create a new generation of fans for 2000AD’s iconic characters and make great TV too.”

The innovative concept of a full motion comic aims to bring 2000AD to a broader, younger audience whilst still engaging its core fan base.

“We have an enviable creative challenge ahead of us in translating the extraordinarily diverse visual and narrative worlds of the 2000AD originals into animation," said Firestep’s Steve Maher.

"Beyond that, we also want to structure the series in a way that mirrors the comic book - several short fully animated TV episodes of ongoing adventures, each starring a different 2000AD hero, each contained within a single show – a full motion comic.”

Impossible Pictures and Firestep MD Jonathan Drake adds “Step one is about selecting properties that can chime with a whole new generation whilst satisfying existing fans.”

There's no indication which other characters are being developed, although both Judge Dredd and Nemesis the Warlock were mentioned in the initial release.

Dennis De-Menacing Denounced

(Updated 24/8/09): CCBC's revamp of The Beano's Dennis the Menace, which launches next month on the TV channel, has been given the big thumbs down by his creator's family.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Rosemary Moffat and Alison Gardiner, the daughters of the late David Law who created Dennis back in 1951, said their father would have been horrified by the transformation.

According to the newspaper, the 52-part cartoon series features a more 'caring' Dennis - no, really - without his trademark catapult, peashooter or water pistol, his trademark scowl replaced with a boyish grin, and he won't be allowed to bully Walter the Softie.

And, instead of allowing his dog Gnasher to bite people, Dennis will now be more creative, getting into scrapes when his imaginative inventions go wrong.

(Since we first published this story, top British cartoonist and comics expert Lew Stringer has carefully deconstructed this and other press reports about the new show, poting out many inaccuracies in some newspapers coverage).

Upping the ante on earlier reports claiming the CBBC version was 'political correctness gone mad', the Telegraph reports the decision to “re-imagine” Dennis for the “iPod generation” has disappointed Law's daughters.

”I think my father would feel they are downgrading him to make him quite ordinary,” said 63-year-old Mrs Moffat, while Mrs Gardiner, who was given a preview screening of the cartoon, said it was nothing like the real Dennis the Menace.

The makeover hasn't gone down well with some Dennis fans, either. Talking to The Bristol Evening Post, comics writer and artist Kev F. Sutherland said "I think it's probably a bad idea but you cannot do anything about it. I think perhaps they could have targeted a slightly older audience with the cartoon.

"You can do humour and sophisticated comedy without scaring the horses. If you pander too much to over-sensitive parents you will end with not very funny comedy."

DC Thomson, which collaborated on Dennis's new look with Red Kite, an animation company, said it “wanted to remove any traces of nastiness”, while the BBC argues that like many cartoon characters, Dennis the Menace has been evolving ever since its creation in 1951, so changes are nothing new.

"The Beano comic book style of the 1950's is very different to children's expectations for their entertainment heroes today," said the corporation, while in another statement reported by Pink News over a week ago, they did argue the changes to Dennis wouldn't make dull.

"Although the stories and animation have been updated to appeal to current CBBC viewers, his character has not changed significantly and Dennis remains as boisterous and mischievous as ever."

Pink News readers found the idea that Dennis' traditional enemy Walter was potentially gay, which had resulted in the ban on him getting beaten up for fear of accusations of homophobia, laughable.

"By doing this the BBC are just pandering to the typical stereotype that gay men are pathetic wimps who'll get bullied," said one.

"The children of today are going to turn into a nation of 'Walters'," said another. "I read Dennis the Menace as a kid, and all the others.

"Kids like to be anti-social and rude and anti-establishment and making fart noises behind teachers backs. You haven't grown up until you've had a scrap and a bloody nose.

There is some good news: the Beano editors apparently have no plans to make Dennis a softie in the comic itself.

• Read Lew Stringer's brilliant expose of how the British press has wilfully mis-reported this story here

CBBC Revamps Short Form Animation Portal

The award-winning British channel CBBC has reinforced its commitment to British animation, announcing its online portal Cartoon Works is expanding to become a new destination to premiere short-form content from the UK animation industry.

CBBC has also commissioned brand new animation Muddle Earth based on the much-loved children’s books by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell and Shaun the Sheep returns to screens this autumn in a series of new exploits.

"We're very excited by Cartoon Works which we hope will act as a creative cartoon playground for the UK animation industry," commented Steven Andrew, Head of Drama, Animation and Acquisition for CBBC.

"These new commissions are testament to the talented and creative community working in UK animation today, and the wonderful content that is being produced across the country."

Cartoon Works – CBBC’s popular online portal for animation which launched in 2008 – will premiere new and exciting short-form content made by British animators.

From autumn 2009, the online interactive creative playground will showcase brand new animation from budding under 18 amateurs through to established professionals.

• Cartoon Works Site: www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/cartoonworks

(Be warned, this site take ages to load because of its structure to actually get to the animation gallery!)

• Anyone can submit animation, the best of which will be selected and showcased on www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc and then transmitted on the CBBC Channel in spring 2010.


• Further information will be available soon for animators interested in submitting projects.

Futurama Films Air as Episodics on Sky1 in UK

Futurama, the quick-witted animation from the mastermind behind The Simpsons, makes a much anticipated television return on Sunday 30th August at 6pm only on Sky1 in the UK, with the channel's screening of the episodes originally released as direct-to-DVD films.

The screenings come just as Fox has inked deals with the original cast for a new series that will start airing on Comedy Central in the US next year.

Set in the 31st century, Matt Groening’s Futurama - also available in comics from from Titan Magazines - is sci-fi comedy at its very best. Billy West voices Fry, the 20th century pizza delivery boy who awoke in the year 3000. Katey Sagal voices Leela, the sexy cyclops who captains the Planet Express ship and is the object of Fry’s affections; and John DiMaggio voices Bender, the crude, rude alcohol-fueled robot. As the Planet Express crew explore New New York City and the universe beyond, the latest Futurama episodes promise to be as spectacularly silly as ever.

In Bender’s Game, with fuel prices skyrocketing, the Planet Express crew set off on a dangerous mission: to infiltrate the world's only dark-matter mine, source of all spaceship fuel. But deep beneath the surface lies a far stranger place... a medieval land of dragons and sorcery and intoxicated knights who look suspiciously like Bender. With Leela transformed into a centaur, the gang soon become embroiled in a Lord of the Rings-esque mission in one of Futurama's greatest adventures.

The galactical laughs continue with Into The Wild Green Yonder where dark forces older than time itself are on the attack, hell-bent on stopping the dawn of a wondrous new green age. Even more shocking: Bender's in love with a married fembot, and Leela's on the run from the law - Zapp Brannigan's law! Fry is the last hope of the universe, recruited for an ultra top-secret mission. Could this be the end of the Planet Express crew forever?

These Futurama adventures feature guest appearances from a whole host of celebrities including Star Trek's George Takei, rapper Snoop Dogg and Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy).

Screenings begin on Sunday 30th August at 6pm only on Sky1.

Tube Surfing: Cursitor Doom, Nitro!, More Moon Stuff and Comics in Limbo...

• Bear Alley Books has just published the first inked and colour 'rough' for their upcoming Cursitor Doom collection. "I've put this together from a low-res scan e-mailed by artist John Ridgway, so this isn't the final version," says publisher Steve Holland, "But I probably won't change much. I was going to try and do something clever with the original logo but it's not something I ever particularly liked and I do like the elegant simplicity of the type."
You can now pre-order both Phantom Patrol (which features a cover by Chris Weston) and Cursitor Doom, due for relase in August, from the Bear Alley Books web site.

• UK publisher Future is to re-launch its UK boys 5-13 targeted Official Jetix Magazine as Nitro! in September. The first issue will feature kid-related news, toys, comic strips and features, covering characters from TV, movies and games. It's expected to have a 45,000 copy launch run and will offer at least four 'covermounted' gifts per foil-bagged issue.

• More Moon stuff: The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has created a website that allows visitors to relive the flight of Apollo 11 and the Moon landing. Called We Choose the Moon, you can follow the mission from pre-launch to blast-off to the actual Moon landing on Monday.

• BleedingCool has a another feature on Comics We Just Can't Wait For – But Have To, including Warren Ellis and Colleen Doran’s Stealth Tribes – a sci-fi cloudsourcing cyberpunk original graphic novel Collen is still apparently drawing it for Vertigo - but has been for five years; and Warchild by Alan Moore, a series script bought by Rob Liefeld, he hasn’t progressed publication because he says he hasn’t found an artists who is up to the script.

• The Forbidden Planet International blog reports that comics creator Simon Gurr, who collaborated with Eugene Byrne on the special (and well received) Darwin graphic biography for the great scientist’s 200th anniversary earlier this year, has been chosen for a high profile public artwork celebrating famous Bristolians.
Bristol Festival of Ideas and Bristol Cultural Development Partnership recently announced that Simon Gurr, Bristol artist and illustrator, has been chosen to create a new permanent artwork on the theme of Some Who Have Made Bristol Famous, following a citywide call for ideas and submission of proposals. The commission, worth £10,000, is funded by donations from two Bristol patrons. Read the full FPI piece here

• Good news for Futurama fans. Not only is it be returning to our small screens, but more toys are on the way. io9 reports KidRobot is coming out with this cute line of Futurama dolls, due for release next month.

• Gaming news site Kaoktu reports that 2000AD owners Rebellion have been picking through the remains of games company Vivendi’s old portfolio of intellectual property, discarded amidst the company’s merger with Activision, and have found a number of bargains. Among the unwanted, unloved IPs now obtained are Ground Control, Evil Genius, Empire Earth, Lords of the Realm and Lords of Magic. They just can't seem to stop buying stuff, can they? But surely they must now have enough cool properties to launch a game title-based comic as well as 2000AD?

The Trouble with Twitter...

(With thanks to Ron Callari) You can catch SuperNews!, which this sketch is part of, on the CurrentTV website at this link: http://current.com/topics/76254232/supernews/new/0.htm

Saturday Morning Watchmen!

If Alan Moore is annoyed about the new Watchmen film, just wait until he sees this -- although, actually, this hilarious Saturday Morning Watchmen, the creation of British animator Harry Partridge, is the kind of parody he might just like...

Since it was first published on top Flash portal NewGrounds the film has been watched by over 143,00 people. "It was created for as a piece of work to be sold off to a certain company but I wanted to keep the rights to it, and I have done," Harry says, who admits to being "chilled" that over 100,00 people have heard him singing his 'Watchmen theme tune'. "Sometimes you gotta go with your gut.

"This combines two huge passions of mine, one being the comic genius that is Alan Moore and the other being kids programming from the late 1980s which I would say is my biggest animation inspiration.

"Believe it or not, one of the first ever things I ever animated/programmed was a crappy side scrolling Rorschach game where you go around beating up street punks. It was not only a f****** awful game but totally and unironically misinterpreted the source material. I would like to think I've grown somewhat since then but here I am, five years later, doing exactly the same thing! Perhaps just a bit more knowingly..."

• You'll find more of Harry's work here

Some 500,000 unique visitors visit the Newgrounds site.

Tube Surfing: 25 February 2008

• Comics artist Doug Noble, whose past works include work for Marvel, Live Static and The Silent Choir and who was recently interviewed by fellow creator Sean Azzopardi, is about to launch a new longform strip called Complex. "Hopefully some of you will be interested in checking it out once it starts," he pitches. "It’s going to be fairly interesting, I hope. An end of the world story, a love story, a murder mystery." Check it out from Monday on www.strip-for-me.com
Doug is currently working with Daniel Merlin Goodbrey on the webcomic The Rule Of Death at serializer.net.

• Fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be pleased to hear the Cartoon Network has announced a second season is in the works. Now showing on Cartoon Network UK, the series features in Titan Magazines' Star Wars Comic, available in all good newsagents. The latest issue sees the start of Shipyard of Doom, an epic Clone Wars action spectacular... As the Republic and Separatist forces race to build their armies, a desperate battle rages at the crossroads of the hyperspace lanes of Nexus Ortai. Our heroes, meanwhile, head beyond droid enemy lines…

• Happy Birthday to the Forbidden Planet International blog! The team there, headed up by Joe Gordon, celebrate four years of comics and genre news blogging, encompassing US and European comics as well as British coverage. "Growing out of our increasing online presence we wanted a way that we could discuss and highlight good comics, graphic novels, SF&F, cool merch - all the things we do through our stores and the webstore and our catalogues," Joe says of the blog's aims. "Mostly we wanted to be able to use it as a platform where we could share our love of comics and SF; we’ve posted news, reviews and interviews and some great comics art, we’ve talked to folks who make comics in their bedroom in their spare time and make up part of the vibrant small press and we’ve talked to some of the best known creators and all of them have been interesting, all of them a part of the medium we love." Never mind all that, where's the cake?

• Dynamite writers Leah Moore and John Reppion will be giving a talk on their latest project The Complete Dracula, a new five issue comic book version of Stoker’s novel illustrated by Colton Worley, at the prestigious Dublin Writers Museum on Saturday 18th April. The talk will begin at 3.00 pm. More details here

• As reported previously, Captain Jack Harkness actor John Barrowman has written a Torchwood comic strip with his sister Carole Barrowman - and she's been interviewed by the Newsarama.com guys about the story that appears in current issues of Torchwood Magazine.

• The Times features an interview with Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons this week. Dave reveals that he was not involved in any earlier attempts to turn the comic into a film but when it came to the eagerly-anticipated Zach Snyder film, it was the top British comics artist who approached him about making it. "I’d been invited along to the London premiere of 300," he tells Michael Moran, "which was based on the graphic novel by my friend Frank Miller. I thought it was a fantastic, a wonderful, true adaptation of Frank’s work. I think it had been announced then that Zach was in the frame to direct Watchmen, so I thought, I’ll have to go and shake him by the hand. I grabbed him on his way to the VIP enclosure at the premiere party and shook him by the hand and introduced myself. I just really wanted to say hello but we ended up talking for half an hour. I realised then that he did understand Watchmen. I got such a gut feeling that he could do it justice.” Read More...

• Talking of Watchmen, Bear Alley notes that the graphic novel has sold around 750,000 copies since it was first published in 1986. Following its appearance in Time magazine's Top 100 English Novels since 1923 and the release of the Watchmen movie trailer, it has been racking up sales at an astonishing rate these past few months and was the highest-selling graphic novel in the USA in 2008. "Brian Hibbs revealing recently that Bookscan figures put the 2008 US sales at 308,396 copies," notes Steve Holland, "and that's probably a low figure as Bookscan does not cover all outlets)." Read More...

(Compiled with thanks to Matthew Badham)

Coraline Game Released, New Trailer...

Games company D3Publisher, publishers of titles diverse as Shaun the Sheep and Ben 10: Alien Force (due for US launch February 2009) has released the Coraline videogame in the US for Wii, Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2.

Based on Laika's new stop-motion/3D animated movie of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, the game allows players to take on the role of the adventurous Coraline and interact with the characters from the movie. It features the voices of Dakota Fanning (Coraline Jones), Keith David (Cat), and Robert Bailey Jr. (Wybie Lovat).

“The Coraline movie is absolutely mesmerizing," Bill Anker, vice president of business development, D3P said when development of the game was announced last October, "and we feel that the visual style and tone of the game will bring the amazing stop-motion animated film and thrilling storyline to life for players.

“We’re confident that Coraline will offer a truly immersive and interactive gameplay experience that gamers as well as fans of the movie and best-selling book will enjoy.”

Gaiman himself reveals he's been busy for the past few days, promoting the film as part of the international press junket. "While I am completely frazzled and braindead and hoping that room service will come while I am still awake, I am also happy that I can point to twitter.com/neilhimself for today, and to the blog of my ultracompetent assistant Cat Mihos, to tell you what happened," he notes on his blog.

Directed by Henry (The Nightmare Before Christmas) Selick the Coraline movie is released in the US on 6th February and 8th May in the UK. Here's a new trailer for the film...

Sleeze Brothers Return!

The Sleeze Brothers are back! Those anarchic, lunatic and downright shady PIs, the creation of John Carnell and Andy Lanning back in the 1980s, are being given a brush up (and probably, a good spanking) just in time for their 20th anniversary.

The return of the Sleeze Brothers is the work Comicraft's publishing arm, Active Images, which recently remastered David Hine's Strange Embrace for Image Comics and is currently digitally remastering The Sleeze Brothers on the occasion of the book's 20th anniversary.

The Sleeze Brothers, published by Marvel UK in the late 1980's under Archie Goodwin's Epic imprint, was the first (and, sadly, the last) creator owned monthly comic book published by Marvel's British operation. (Some strips published in the title Strip were creator-owned, but despite the best efforts of Dan Abnett while editor at the publisher, planned monthly books featuring them were never realized in favour of projects such as The Knights of Pendragon).

Created by John Carnell and Andy Lanning before, during and after their successful work on the weekly UK comic The Real Ghostbusters for latterday Marvel UK editor (and present day Elephantmen creator, Richard Starkings). "The Sleeze Brothers dared to be funny and a little off the wall in an industry dominated by straight ahead action adventure titles," says Richard today.

Who are the Sleeze Brothers? Well, imagine the bastard offspring of the Blues Brothers and Blade Runner and you're probably halfway there. El Ape and Deadbeat Sleeze have been described as the "wisecracking, dirtiest P.I.s in the Big Apple". They certainly aren't the quickest thinkers in the world, nor the most moral, but they stumbled their way through seven adventures with help from their digitally operated secretary/receptionist, Doris.

Despite building quite a cult following in a pre-Internet age, Marvel UK shelved the series after the sixth issue and -- but for a one shot and short story, Some Like It Fresh, published by Marvel US's Epic imprint and an appearance in a Doctor Who strip -- The Sleeze Brothers seemed destined to be fondly remembered but largely forgotten until the rights reverted to Carnell and Lanning in the late 1990's.

Under the auspices of John Carnell and Andy Banks' Foof Productons, a series of short web cartoons are currently in development (the first directed and scripted by John) and so John and Richard decided the time was right to re-present, and re-master, the original series.

Digitally remastering involves Comicraft's Secret Weapon, John JG Roshell, deleting the lettering from the scans of the original artwork and performing a little digital art restoration so that Ace Colourist, Gregory Wright, can colour the complete art before Richard Starkings adds the digital lettering. (There have been some problems with doing this, as Richard himself relates on the Elephantmen blog...)

The Sleeze Brothers debut in an eight-page prologue in Elephanthmen #16 published by Image Comics this February and feature on a 'flip' cover of the issue (above).

In addition to the Sleeze Brothers animations, John, whose credits also include a graphic novel adaptation of Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and has for the past few years working on film scripts, has revealed Foof Productions also plan to launch another animated series, Animentals, for mobile phones. He's also working on a children's trilogy, The Dingbats, the story of a bunch of dysfunctional homeless bats fighting to save their village sanctuary from ruthless developers.

It's great news that the Brothers are on their way back. While the humour might be offbeat and not to everyone's taste, the characters still has a fan following to this day, and there was such a buzz about this project in the Marvel UK offices when the book was first launched and both John and Andy were -- and still are -- some of the most enthusiastic advocates of comics I can think of.

Those of you who head to your comic shops in February and can't find this new incarnation might need to look out instead for this stunning "A side" cover to Elephantmen #16, surely a reason to buy the comic for that alone...

Sleeze Brothers Check List
(1989-91, Epic/Marvel Comics)

• Issue 1: Nice And Sleezy
• Issue 2: Reel To Real
• Issue 3: The Big Leap
• Issue 4: Murder In Space
• Issue 5: Down In The Sewer
• Issue 6: The Maltese Egg
• The Sleeze Brothers: Some Like It Fresh - one off issue for Epic
• The Sleeze Brothers: Saturday Night Special - short story published in Dave Elliot's A1 anthology for Epic.
• The Sleeze Brothers also appeared in Follow That Tardis a strip published in Doctor Who Magazine #147 in April 1989
• The original six-issue series was also collected by Marvel UK in 1990 as The Sleeze Brothers Case Files.
• An early version of The Sleeze Brothers animated show is on YouTube

Wallace & Gromit Game Peek

It seems to be a day for Wallace & Gromit news - no surprise, perhaps, given the ratings success for the pair over the festive season.

Telltale Games have just released the first in-game screenshots from their upcoming new series, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures, which is based on the award-winning franchise.

This new series of interactive Wallace & Gromit stories will be launching in 2009, with players assuming the roles of both the quirky inventor and his faithful canine companion as the duo embarks on a series of ambitious business ventures, then scramble to pick up the scattered pieces when plans go awry.

We’ll have a lot more details later in the year – including the release timeframe and platform announcements – but for now, here's a couple of in-game screenshots...

• For more imagery, information and a game trailer visit: www.telltalegames.com/wallaceandgromit

Gromit Reads The Beagle

Wallace and Gromit had a triumphal Christmas with the new story A Matter Of Loaf And Death topping the TV ratings while their film, Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, made it to number eight. Of course all the publicity surrounding the duo's return didn't hurt with them appearing on the BBC1 Christmas Idents as well as stealing the cover of the Christmas Radio Times away from Doctor Who.

One of the delights of any of the Wallace and Gromit stories is the number of in-jokes that the film makers can incorporate into the plot or, more often, onto the screen. The first was big and, to many, pretty blatant. The co-writer of A Matter Of Loaf And Death with Nick Park was Bob Baker, one of the co-creators of Doctor Who's (or now more accurately Sarah-Jane's) K-9, so it was really no surprise that the first of the bread bakers to be killed off in the story was Baker Bob.

That said the best of the in-jokes for me was when Fluffles the poodle returns Gromits's things to him. In the box amongst vinyl records by Doggy Osmond and McFlea and a soft toy Bagpuss is a comic. Gromit reads The Beagle and the prop is complete with accurate Eagle title box and title font.

It is the little things like this that make Nick Park's two best known characters such a delight to return to time and time again.

Wicked Willie Returns!

Remember Wicked Willie, the creation of Gray Jolliffe? Well, he's back, as right and upright as ever in The Complete Wicked Willie, out on DVD in January.

Based on Jolliffe’s internationally best-selling series of cartoon books about the continuing adventures of a man and his “best friend”, the animated series from Oscar winning animator Bob Godfrey gives a wry and comic look at this evolving partnership, their attitude towards sex and the quest for new experiences.

In addition to the films, Wicked Willie - The Movie and Wicked Willie Rides Again, extras on this DVD include an interview with Gray Jolliffe; Checking the Undercarriage (Joliffe, who is actively involved in the Bob Champion Cancer Charity, has drawn a self-examination guide for men, so that ‘Dr Willie’ can assist in publicising this too often ignored condition); Where’s Willie?, Willie Trivia, biographies of Gray Jolliffe & Bob Godfrey, Early Artwork and more.

Creature Comforts USA Released on DVD

Creature Comforts USA: Complete Series 3 has just been released on DVD in the UK by 2Entertain, offering more unscripted voices of the great American public hilariously brought to life with animated animals and wildlife.

Based on Aardman Animation's original Oscar-winning short and the hit UK TV show, the seven episodes featured on Creature Comforts USA Complete Series 3 have yet to be broadcast in the UK and are exclusive to DVD.

The series first aired on CBS in the US, but the network pulled the show after just only three of its six episodes aired, much to the dismay of many Aardman fans in the States. All of the episodes, including the unaired ones, were then aired on Animal Planet earlier this year.

Animals again give their insightful opinions on some seriously funny subjects in seven brilliant episodes from the show, including views on Pets At The Vet, Winter and Fears & Phobias.

The cast of native American animals who fit the voices include Paul and Glenda the house cats, Jordi the Penguin, Jared and Hannah the Mule & Horse, Mogabe and Tokombu the Street Dogs, Heather the Hippo and Robin the Angel Fish.

• Aardman are currently working on a new Wallace & Gromit film, Trouble At’ Mill, set to air on BBC1 this Christmas. In the new half hour story, Wallace and Gromit have a brand new business: baking bread, with 62 West Wallaby Street now a granary with ovens and robotic kneading arms. Huge mixing bowls are all over the place and everything is covered with a layer of flour. On the roof is a ‘Wallace patent-pending’ old-fashioned windmill. The transformation is perfect.

But, although business is booming, Gromit is concerned by the news that 12 local bakers have ‘disappeared’ this year – but Wallace isn’t worried. He’s too distracted and ‘dough-eyed’ in love with local beauty and bread enthusiast, Piella Bakewell, to be of much help.

While they enjoy being the ‘Toast of the Town’, Gromit, with his master’s life in jeopardy, must be the sleuth and solve the escalating murder mystery - in what quickly becomes a ‘Matter of Loaf and Death’.

• Creature Comforts USA Complete Series 3 is on sale now