Birmingham Show Goodies!

With the Birmingham International Comic Show just a couple of weeks to go, it seems like a good idea to bring readers a small sampling of just some of the indie press titles on sale at the event. (And we do mean small -- the number is likely to be huge!)

While the event is going to be packed with creators working in the mainstream and will play host to stands from several top publishers including The DFC, the event is also going to be packed with indie creators selling their wares, trading ideas and generally pushing the British comics industry further forward.

• First, a plug for Bulletproof #2, published by Bulletproof Comics (www.bulletproofcomics.co.uk), the brainchild of TOXIC editor Matt Yeo. The 80-page issue, 33 pages in full colour includes contributions from Dave Hailwood & Tony Suleri, Jim Alexander & Jon Haward, Paul Harrison-Davies, Bulent Yusef & Dave Thomson, Alan Grant & Alan Burrows, Stuart Giddings, Lee Langford & Klaus Belarski, John Freeman & Mike Nicoll, Rik Hoskin, Thomas Crielly & John Doran. Check the Bulletproof web site for more details, web comics and more.

• Daniel Fish's latest Minicomic will be making its official debut at the Show in Birmingham. For a sneak peak and some info go to fish1000.blogspot.com/2008/09/stuff-for-you.html

• Lee Thacker has two new books that will be on sale at at BICS and can also be purchased online at www.lulu.com/leethacker. The first is his response to the Holocaust, Yellow Stars. The other is the first annual Raw Shark anthology which includes work I've been doing for other people, including indie legends The Wedding Present. Look out too for the first issue of Succubus. (His 800-page graphic novel One For Sorrow, introduced by Dave Sim, and other titles by Lee are also available from www.lulu.com/leethacker. Page samples can be found at www.comicspace.com/leethacker).

TimeBomb Comics, headed up by Steve Tanner, will have its second title, Dick Turpin And The Restless Dead drawn Andy Dodd on sale. (They have several more projects in the works, too). When notorious highwayman Dick Turpin stumbles across a deserted village following his latest highway robbery it seems the ideal place to hide out. But the village is not as empty as it first appears – and Turpin soon finds himself surrounded by hordes of rotting, hungry zombies! You can read the first five pages of the strip in their ComicSpace gallery.
“This release is our take on the zombie comics bandwagon that’s been steadily trundling through the last few year,” explains Steve, “and after the time-bending mind-twister that was our first comic Ragamuffins: Stitches in Time, Andy and I both readily agreed that our next one-shot should be something completely different, if only to prove to ourselves we weren’t a couple of lame one-trick ponies.
“I fancied doing something historical, Andy wanted to draw horses, but something extra needed to be added to the mix., he adds. "The missing ingredient came from my catching sight of a one-off promotional piece that Andy had done a few years ago featuring a zombie infested sewer, and the realisation that not only could Andy draw zombies – he could draw great zombies.
"The comic is a real historical romp which features all what you’d expect from a comic featuring the iconic legendary highwayman: Black Bess, highway robberies, Flintlock pistols, the immortal line ‘Stand and Deliver!’, and zombies. Lots of zombies!”

• Indiemanga, a group of artists and a writer based in the UK and Ireland will be launching its first book, Origins, at the Comics Expo: this is an anthology of comics as well as one prose story. "It features several manga which got to the finalist stage of Tokyopop's Rising Stars of manga," says group member Azure, "as well as all new material." More information from the Indiemanga web site.

• Keep a look out for Tim Perkins, whose Wizards Keep project is the culmination of many years spent working in Comic Books, Children's Books, Theme Park Conceptualisation, and Animation Conceptualisation. Check out the stunning Worlds End Ashcan here.

• As I said above this is a handful of what will be available at BICS. If you miss any of the great independent comics on sale at the event, you can always almost certainly find copies via Smallzone, read by BICS co-organiser Shance Chebsey. Visit their main website at www.smallzone.co.uk

Tube Surfing: 10 September 2008

• Catching up with comics news after a (very wet) short break, Bryan Talbot's re-released The Tale of One Bad Rat has just had a rightfully glowing review in The Times, describing it as "an incontrovertible and blazing masterpiece." There's also high praise for the new edition of Raymond Briggs' Gentleman Jim and Debbie Drechsler's Daddy's Girl.

• To celebrate 40 years of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, the most popular underground comics in the world,
Gilbert Shelton will be signing copies of the new 624 page Freak Brothers Omnibus at Gosh, 39 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3NZ this Saturday September 13th from 2pm. For more information call Gosh on 0207 636 1011.

• The Forbidden Planet International blog reports on the launch of a new anthology I’m sorry I can’t take your call right now but I’m off saving the world which will be getting its big release in Ireland this coming weekend, with contributors including Sarah McIntyre, Bridgeen Gillespie, Lee Thacker and many more.

The release party for the anthology will take place on Saturday 13th of September at 9pm, Skeahan’s pub, Liberty Sq, Thurles, Co. Tipperary. The book will be available to purchase from several locations in Ireland and via the website from the 20th September. It will also be sold at the Birmingham International Comics Show in October and in November at the Thought Bubble comics show in Leeds. (Check the anthology website in the coming weeks for a full list of sale locations).

The book contains over 90 pages of art - 30 artists contributing to 25 stories. Each artist was given the phrase “I’m sorry I can’t take your call right now but I’m off saving the world” to interpret however they wished. The result is a mixture of stories that range from the serious to the silly, the factual to the abstract but all sharing a common thread.

The book is dedicated to Conor Lyons who past away in September 2007 while working for the United Nations in Sri Lanka and all money raised from the sale of the book will be donated to GOAL in his memory.

• During a dig around looking for information on the newspaper strips he's been running recently, ove on Bear Alley Steve Holland recently came across a couple of examples of a science fiction strip, Captain Universe, that appeared in the Daily Herald back in 1952. "Judging by the numbering (it ran in issues Monday through Saturday), it began on 28 January 1952. I've no idea how long it ran for," he says. The artist was Terry Maloney who, sadly, died earlier this year. The anonymous author was Herbert James Campbell, who was at that time editing the science fiction magazine Authentic Science Fiction.

• Over on Comics Village Andrew Luke has posted up an unabridged version of his ‘State of the Union’ talk at the recent Caption small press event, discussing ways in which our small press creators can get out there and sell comics cheaply but directly, holding up the London Underground Comics model as one way of doing this.

• Artist Eddie Campbell reports that illustrator Pete Mullins has started a blog. "He's using it to showcase his work both old and new and make passing comments as he goes along," Eddie notes on his own blog. "It was great to see some of the stuff he's been up to of late. Long time readers here will recall that Pete and I worked closely together for a few years in the 1990s. You can see his work in Bacchus volumes 7-10 and From Hell. You'll probably have trouble separating his from mine back then, as we often do ourselves, and as Lambiek does, surprising given that he does work as flash as these character designs for an animated series where the characters are all constructed from old socks and stuff."

• And finally... it looks like both Rentaghost and Worzel Gummidge will follow Doctor Who to TV revival after the rights holders new owners announced plans for a comeback. Come on, will no-one pick up Sapphire and Steel or UFO?