Panel Borders: Big Questions

Starting a month of shows about anthropomorphic comics on radio show Panel Borders - comics about animals with human attributes - Alex Fitch talks to American cartoonist Anders Nilsen about his epic 658 page graphic novel Big Questions.

The book, originally serialised as 15 comics, first self-published by Nilsen and then continued by Drawn and Quarterly, tells the tale of the pilot of a crashed bomber and his relationship with a colony of birds and local wildlife in the countryside where his plane went down.

The artist also discusses his award winning graphic novella Dogs and water and why he is often drawn to animals as the subject matter of his comics books.

• Panel Borders: Big Questions airs at 8.00pm, Sunday 5th August, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Panel Borders: Manchester strips

Continuing a month of shows about comic communities around the UK, Alex Fitch travels to Manchester to talk to four local creators on Sunday's Panel Borders. Adam (Blood Blokes) Cadwell, John (Bad Machinery) Allison, Joe (Freak Leap) List and Chris (Video Nasties) Doherty talk about self publishing, the influence of other media on their work, using the internet to promote their comics, plus the experience of living and working in the North West of England. 

- Panel Borders: Manchester strips airs at 8.00pm, Sunday 17th June 2012, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

 

 

Panel Borders: Young Graphic Novelists, Spring 2012

Art by and © Warwck Johnson Cadwell

As part of the Panel Borders radio show's month of episodes on British comics, they're having their twice yearly look at a pair of young graphic novelists this weekend.

Warwick Johnson Cadwell has garnered a great reputation for his small press work and contributions to short story collections, and Dickon Harris talks to him about his first graphic novel, Gungle, to be published in the near future by Blank Slate Books.

Also, Alex Fitch talks to artist Jennie Gyllblad who, following a number of web comics and self-published collaborations with writer Corey Brotherson, has just finished The Arrival, the first of a three volume steam-punk graphic novel series Clockwork Watch curated by film-maker Yomi Ayeni.

• Panel Borders: Young Graphic Novelists, Spring 2012 airs at 8.00pm, Sunday 22nd April, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com/ podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Panel Borders: Gods and Monsters by Bernie Wrightson and Rebekah Isaacs

Concluding radio show Panel Borders month of shows about iconoclastic American comic book artists, Alex Fitch talks to a master of horror comics, Bernie Wrightson, and a relative newcomer, Rebekah Isaacs who has made a name for herself in deftly rendered comics in a variety of genres.

Alex talks to Bernie about his work on Warren Comics' horror titles and Swamp Thing in the 1970s, on collaborating with Stephen King in the 1980s and more recently working with Steve Niles at IDW including their new project, Frankenstein Alive, alive.

Alex and Rebekah chat about her career so far, working on superhero comics like Age of Iron and DV8 with Brian Wood and the horror titles that have made her name, The Twilight Zone and the ongoing Panel Borders: Gods and Monsters by Bernie Wrightson and Rebekah Isaacs.

• Panel Borders: Gods and Monsters by Bernie Wrightson and Rebekah Isaacs airs at 8.00pm, Sunday 25th March, Resonance FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

I'm ready for my close-up: Autumn Sci-Fi

As the Autumn nights start to draw in, ace podcast Panel Borders - who normally do comics stuff, but we think this item will appeal to our readers, too - has a couple of recommendations of DVDs worth staying in for, as Alex Fitch interviews a pair of directors who have both earned cult followings for their work in the SF genre.

Duncan Jones talks about his new film Source Code, a time travel thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal and about how themes in his new movie consciously and unconsciously reflect some of his concerns of humanity dislocated by technology in his debut Moon.

Alex also chats to John Hough, director of the classic Disney film Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), starring Ray Milland and Donald Pleasance. Hough followed his first family film with a couple more for Disney – Return from Witch Mountain and The Watcher in the Woods – and talks about how the company’s approach to live-action film making has changed over the years.

• I'm ready for my close-up: Autumn Sci-Fi airs tonight at 6.30pm, Wednesday 6th September 2011 on Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / extended podcast online, featuring an additional interview with John Hough on Sunday 10th September at www.scifilondon.com/podcast

Radio Show spotlights Rude Britannia exhibition

Opening today at Tate Britain in London is the new exhibition 'Rude Britannia', which traces the history of British comic art from Hogarth to the present day.

In an hour-long Clear Spot radio show from the Strip! radio show team, looking at the art on display and related topics, you'll hear an extract of a tour of the gallery conducted by curator Martin Myrone. Along with one of the contributors to the exhibition - Gerald Scarfe - he'll be talking to Alex Fitch about the choices that went into curating the show and the crossover between fine art and 'low brow' satirical drawings.

Alex also talks to cartoonist Martin Rowson - who is currently exhibiting his illustrations for New Humanist magazine at Menier Gallery (51 Southwark Street until 12th June) - about his adaptation of the humorous and experimental Eighteenth century novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman into graphic novel format.

Dickon Harris also talks to comedienne Josie Long about creating 'zines and comics for distribution at her gigs and contributing comic strips to Alan Moore's new magazine Dodgem Logic...

• Clear Spot airs tonight, Wednesday 9th June at 8.00pm on Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast in three parts at www.panelborders.wordpress.com on Thursdays 10th / 17th / 24th June

• Tate Britain is at Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Tel: 020 7887 8888 E-mail: visiting.britain@tate.org.uk. Web: www.tate.org.uk/britain/. Entry is free except for major exhibitions: Entrance to Rude Britannia is £10, Concessions £6. Open every day 10.00–18.00. Last admission to exhibitions

Strip! Goes Manga, Mills talks French (comics, that is)

Continuing ‘cross cultural comics month’ on the show, the Strip! radio show this week is looking at the winners of last year’s Manga Jiman (Pride in Manga) competiton run by the Japanese Embassy in London to find the best new Japanese style comics made in the UK.

Dickon Harris talks to the runners up – Zarina Liew and David Lander - about their entries to the competition and the crossover between British small press and manga styles in their work; while Alex Fitch talks to Yuri Kore about her winning entry “The boy who runs from the sun” and drawing comics again, having moved to Britain from the Manhwa industry in Korea, where she had seven books published.

Fans of 2000AD co-creator Pat Mills' work might also want to check out the Panel Borders archive. Continuing the podcast's month long look at 'cross-cultural comics', Alex Fitch talks to Pat about his forays into the French market over the last 15 years, writing such titles as Sha and Requiem Vampire Knight illustrated by Olivier Ledroit, which have only been released in English in the last couple of years by Heaby Metal and Panini.

Alex and Pat also talk about the latter's collaborations with the late artist John Hicklenton which have found a greater and more appreciative audience in Europe, translated into French and other European language and released as Graphic Albums than they did in their country of origin.

• Strip! - Manga Jiman 2010 will air tonight at 5.00pm, Thursday 20th May on Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast shortly after transmission at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Losers on My Radio!

Concluding their month long look at the crossover between comics and film, Resonance FM broadcasts Strip! - The Art of The Losers this evening.

Alex Fitch interviews Jock, the main illustrator of The Losers by Andy Diggle, the 32 issue comic book series published by Vertigo that has just been turned into an action film of the same name, based on the first half dozen issues of the comic.

"It totally was [my big break],” Jock recently told web site Comic Book Resources. “Andy [Diggle] had done one little miniseries and I had done an issue of Hellblazer, but that was purely, Will Dennis said to me, to give me some kind of profile in the States. It was really just gearing up for The Losers. It was our first baby, really.

"I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Vertigo for giving two unknowns a chance because they basically gave us the steering wheel of an ongoing series. Luckily, it went down okay."

Alex also talks to Jock about his career so far, working on such characters as Lenny Zero and Green Arrow as well as Judge Dredd, both in print and on the forthcoming movie written by Alex Garland.

• Strip! - The art of The Losers airs at 5.00pm, Thursday 29th April, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast shortly after transmission at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Strip!: Fab Toons and Splendid Zines

London's Resonance FM continues its ongoing coverage of comics with several shows from the Panel Borders team.

Strip! Fab Toons and Splendid Zines
: Starting ‘women in comics’ month on the show, Panel Borders have a couple of interviews with small press creators who are selling their self published periodicals at festivals and competitions around the country. Dickon Harris talks to Bea, a.k.a. Beatrice Lane, in an interview recorded at the Bristol Small Press expo and Alex Fitch talks to Francesca Cassavetti in an interview recorded at “Schmurgen con” in Mile End.

Bea publishes Bear Cave ‘zines on a variety of subjects from short fiction to music reviews, with her latest issue The most splendid bands I know due out shortly, while Francesca’s Fab Toons comics tell a variety of autobiographical stories from her life, in strip format, from her days at art school to dating a former punk star and the birth of her first child.

• Strip! Fab Toons and Splendid Zines airs at 5.00pm Resonance 104.4 FM (London) 03/09/09 / streamed at www.resonancefm.com/ podcast after transmission at www.panelborders.wordpress.com


(N.B. There is no Sunday repeat this week as Resonance is broadcasting live from 'Pestival' at The South Bank Centre from Friday evening to Midnight on Sunday)

Recent podcasts from Panel Borders include The Art of Jill Thompson, concluding children’s comics month. It's the belated podcast of Alex Fitch’s interview with Jill Thompson which sees Alex and Jill talk about her career so far, from drawing popular DC comics such as Wonder Woman and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman to creating her own children’s books, Scary Godmother and Magic Trixie.

Jill also talks about her influences, her early work on Mike Baron’s Badger and her latest project Beasts of Burden.

• The Art of Jill Thompson, arranged in conjunction with Gosh! Comics and originally broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM can be found here on the Panel Borders web site
 

Panel Borders: Octopi, dogs and bears, oh my!

Originally broadcast 13/08/09 as an episode of Strip! on Resonance 104.4 FM, Panel Borders continues its month devoted to childrens' comics with an interview with artists Henri Goldsmann and Richy K. Chandler about their work.

Henri is the author of a new picture book - Harold (a dog’s best friend) - and has a successful career as a caricaturist, having dabbled in graphic novels such as Secret Agent Spanky Sheep on the side. He's also created titles such as Henri and the Hidden Veggie Garden, as part of the Love Your Veggies campaign. Richy has produced ten terrific mini comics such as Lucy the Octopus and Govinda the Meditating Rabbit over the last couple of years which, as we previously reported, are now available in a cute bear shaped box set

• Strip! Octopi, dogs and bears, oh my! is available from the Panel Borders archive on www.archive.org


Web Links:

• Henri Goldsmann's official web site: www.bluntpencil.com

• youtube video of Henri drawing

• Review of Henry and the Hidden Veggie Garden

• Buy Henri’s books:

• Secret Agent Spanky Sheep

• Henry and the Hidden Veggie Garden

• Harold (A dog’s best friend)


• Richy K. Chandler's myspace pages for comics and music

• Watch a video of Richy constructing the mini-comics box set


• Info about Richy at factorfictionpress.co.uk

• Join the Panel Borders facebook group

• Follow Panel Borders on Twitter: twitter.com/panelborders

Children's Comics Fortnight for Resonance FM

Starting children's comics fortnight on London-based radio station Resonance FM, Alex Fitch talks to writer Terry Deary and cartoonist Martin Brown for his Strip! radio show this week. It's a chance to find out more about their hugely successful Horrible Histories range of children's books, also published in part work comics form and which have inspired a "Terrible Trenches" exhibition that's just opened at the Imperial War Museum, London and runs until the end of October.

Horrible Histories has also been turned into a popular show on CBBC and Terry is busy working on another TV show, Terry's True Time Tales, with partners Green Leaf. The storyteller is based on Terry himself and will broadcast from Autumn 2010.

Also this week, in Clear Spot: In search of the Atom Style, Alex talks to artists Woodrow Phoenix and Garen Ewing about their work and the influence of the Atom Style / ligne claire tradition on their comics, which was most famously exemplified in the art of Hergé's Adventures of Tintin. Also (to be confirmed), Alex talks to comics historian Paul Gravett about his exhibition on the movement which is currently showing at The Atomium in Brussels until 20th September.

Concluding children's comics fortnight next week is Strip!: Octopi, dogs and bears, oh my!, in which artists Henri Goldsmann and Richy K. Chandler about their work. Henri is the author of a new picture book - Harold (a dog's best friend) - and has a successful career as a caricaturist, having dabbled in graphic novels such as Secret Agent Spanky Sheep on the side. Richy has produced ten terrific mini comics such as Lucy the Octopus and Govinda the Meditating Rabbit over the last couple of years which are now available in a cute bear shaped box set (see news story)

(This is the last in the current series of Strip! and the show will return in September)

• Strip!: Horrible Histories airs at 5.00pm on Thursday 6th August, repeated 11.30pm Sunday 9th August Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com/ podcast soon after transmission at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

• Horrible Histories Terrible Trenches Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum runs until 31 October 2010. Relive the terrors of the trenches at the nasty new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. Discover all the dire details of life in the blood and mud of the First World War trenches... from both sides of the barbed wire. More info from http://trenches.iwm.org.uk/-Splash

• Clear Spot: In search of the Atom Style broadcasts at 8.00pm on Thursday 6th August / streamed at www.resonancefm.com/ podcast 20th August www.panelborders.wordpress.com


• Strip!: Octopi, dogs and bears, oh my! broadcasts at 5.00pm Thursday 13th August, repeated 11.30pm Sunday 16th August Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com/ podcast soon after transmission at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Panel Borders Goes SciFi Mad!

We don't often cover every podcast or radio show Alex Fitch and his team are about to broadcast, but he's got plenty lined up we think downthetubes fans will want to check out, so hold on to your hats...


• This week's Strip! show is titled Doctor Who comics now... in which Alex Fitch talks to the creators of a couple of recent innovative Doctor Who comics about bringing a new angle to the popular franchise. Leah Moore and John Reppion wrote the recent one off comic The Whispering Gallery for IDW, which saw the Doctor and Martha exploring a terrifying museum on an alien planet.

Alex also talks to Richard Morris, creator of the popular and unauthorised web comic, The Ten Doctors - an epic serialised graphic novel which celebrates almost every aspect you can think of from 46 years of the Time Lord's adventures.
 
Strip! Doctor Who comics now airs at 5.00pm on Thursday 16the July, repeated 11.30pm Sunday 19th July on Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast soon after transmission at www.panelborders.wordpress.com
 
Alex is also celebrating the Moon Landing anniversary with I'm ready for my close-up: Fly me to the Moon, featuring interviews with astronomer and broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore and Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson.
 
Sir Patrick Moore was one of many who covered the events of the Apollo 11 mission live on TV and discusses the events of that day with Alex as well as the highlights of his six decades presenting The Sky at Night.

Alex also talks to Gerry Anderson about how the space race and technological innovations of the 1960s inspired such shows as Fireball XL5 and Thunderbirds.

Network DVD recently released a special collector's edition of the entire Fireball XL5 series, which is well worth tracking down, since in addition to all the show's episodes - including a specially colourized episode - it features a new, exclusive documentary, Drawn in Supermarionation chronicling the comic strip adaptations of the early AP Films series and features contributions from director of merchandising Keith Shackleton and artists Bill Mevin, Mike Noble and Colin Page (See full news story).
 
The interview with Sir Patrick is available to download now from www.sci-fi-london.com/audio and the interview with Gerry Anderson will be broadcast on Thursday 16th July at 10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com
 
Online from 19th July (also at www.sci-fi-london.com/audio) is Reality Check: Torchwood in Print. In a panel discussion recorded live at a meeting of the British Fantasy Society, late 1980s Doctor Who script editor Andrew Cartmel talks to a quartet of Torchwood novelists - Mark Morris, Sarah Pinborough, Guy Adams and Joe Lidster - about bringing the show to the printed page and expanding the adventures of Captain Jack, Ianto and Gwen to the length of a hardback novel.

Finally, if your interest in science fiction and fantasy goes wider than stories inspired by TV shows, then check out Panel Borders: Small press Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Continuing the podcaster's Sci-Fi comics month on the show, this features a couple of interviews recorded at comic book conventions with small press creators who are working in the SF and Fantasy genres.

In an interview recorded at this year's Bristol Comics Expo, Dickon Harris talks to comic book creator and musician Dave Lander who contributes to the anthology comic Decadence which in the last couple of instalments has been heavily SF themed. Dave also produced a CD soundtrack to go with recent issues and there are extracts in the podcast.

Also, Alex Fitch talks to Rob Jackson about his fantasy comics, Random Journeys and Bog Wizards, which combine unreliable narrators, humour and magical landscapes, in an interview recorded at a pub in the East End after the UK Web & Mini Comix Thing.
 
Originally broadcast on 9th July check it out vial this link. (And don't forget Alex has also interviewed the brilliant Paul Rainey as part of this thread - check that out here)

• For a full list of all Panel Borders comics podcasts to date, visit: www.tinyurl.com/panelborders
 
• Follow Panel Borders on twitter: http://twitter.com/panelborders and facebook: http://tinyurl.com/facebookborders

Strip!: The Art of Rutu Modan

Concluding cross cultural comics month on Resonance FM's Strip! radio show, Roehampton University Illustration lecturer Ariel Kahn talks to award-winning graphic novelist Rutu Modan about her work, in an interview conducted live at the Jewish Community Centre in North London.

Illustrator and comic book creator Rutu Modan is a chosen artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation. She's created comic strips for the Israeli newpapers Yedioth Acharonot and Ma’ariv and illustrations for The New Yorker, Le Monde, The New York Times, along with many other publications. Her first graphic novel, Exit Wounds, received much critical acclaim and she's had equally postive reviews for her new collection Jamilti and Other Stories.

Discussing her career, from Exit Wounds to Jamilti and Other Stories, released in April, Rutu and Ariel talk about her influences, the difficulties in depicting a city as rich and diverse as Tel Aviv in print and adjusting to life in England.

• Strip!: The Art of Rutu Modan is broadcast today, Thursday 25th June on Resonance 104.4 FM (London), streamed at www.resonancefm.com, repeated 11.30pm Sunday 28th June. An extended podcast of the first half of the interview is online now on Panel Borders, with Part Two to follow after the Resonance broadcast.

• Read an online strip by Rutu Modan, Honey Talks, on Stripburger

Manhwa Galleries, Mixed Media Graduates and Manga Girls…

Starting cross cultural comics month on Resonance FM's Strip! comic show, Dickon Harris introduces the 100 years of Manhwa exhibition at the London Korean Cultural Centre (see our report, here) and talks to a couple of recent illustration graduates this eveing (Thursday 4th June).

Alex Fitch also interviews a couple of female indie manga creators – Sally Jane Thompson and Kate Holden – at the Docklands Manga Expo and discusses the brutality of nature with Melody Lee, whose comics depict woodland animals in the style of Beatrix Potter but who also shoot and swear like troopers and are, shall we say, not shy when it comes to under the sheets activity!

Sally Jane Thompson is a postgraduate student who grew up in South Africa and was one of the finalists in TokyoPop's 2007 Rising Stars of Manga Contest.

"Manga was essentially my first exposure to comics that covered a wider range of genres, and showed me how much scope comics have to communicate!" she said in in an interview back in 2008. "So it’s been a fantastic influence, and I’ve learned a lot through it. But I wouldn’t class my work as anything more than manga influenced. As manga has become a more prevalent influence over western comics, there is of course lots of debate over what counts as manga and so on, but I think the more varied influences people have, the better, and I’m glad to see the comics world opening up like this."

Kate Holden is just one of the team involved in IndieManga.com, a grup of people who crate comics with a manga influence. A "freelance sequential artist" and Designer and MA Video Game Design student, her credits include a webcomic called FanDanGo about magical knights in a retro-punk setting (retro-punk being my word for a 1960’s influenced Fantasy world).

• Strip!: Manhwa Galleries, Mixed media Graduates and Manga Girls… will be broadcast at 5.00pm today, 4th June, repeated 11.30pm 7th June on, Resonance 104.4 FM (London). The show will also bestreamed at www.resonancefm.com and extended podcast online at www.panelborders.wordpress.com after broadcast…

Anthony Johnston Strips!

Concluding adaptation and inspiration month on his Strip! radio show for London's Resonance FM, Alex Fitch talks to writer and graphic designer Antony Johnston about combining text and image in comics and other media from his illustrated novella Frightening Curves to enriching the computer game he scripted - Dead Space - with a comic book prequel and interactive websites. Alex and Antony also talk about the latter's influences, writing the new Wolverine Manga and adapting the prose work of Alan Moore and Anthony Horowitz into comic book format.

• Strip!: Adapting prose for manga, games and genre comics airs today at 5.00pm (28/05/09), repeated 11.30pm 31/05/09, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com, extended podcast online at www.panelborders.wordpress.com after broadcast…

Muppets, Giant Cuboid Chickens and Other Weird Creatures

Starting an "adaptation and inspiration" month on the Strip! radio show on ResonanceFM, Alex Fitch and Robin Warren talk to two humour cartoonists - Roger Langridge and Hugh Raine (a.k.a. Shug) - about their work.

As we've previously reported, Roger has just started drawing the new The Muppet Show comic for Boom Studios! (Just a quick reminder, this title is not on sale in the UK for licensing reasons).

Born in New Zealand in 1967, Roger, who lives in London, says he decided to become a cartoonist when he was six years old; for some reason it stuck (perhaps because it was more attainable than his previous career goal of "mad scientist"). Roger drew a lot of comics with his brother Andrew when he was growing up. Eventually one of these evolved into Art Dekko (later "Art d'Ecco"), which was his first minicomic, in 1988. And things sort of rolled on from there...

He moved to the UK in 1990 to try and go professional, and has worked for most major comic publishers since then, including drawing strips for Doctor Who Magazine, DC Comics, Marvel Comics and Dark Horse.

Hugh, who hails from Dewsbury, has just completed the 37th and final issue of his comic REET!. By day, he's an illustrator and designer at UK Greetings and makes comics in his spare time.

As well as meaning 'arse' in Dutch, REET! was a free monthly comic distributed around Leeds and Hull until August 2008. Hugh drew most of the strips but the title gained a growing number of contributors, who offered a mix of styles, from 'slice of life' to the absurd. The REET! name continues through various comic projects. All 37 issues of REET! are available to read here for free.

Alex and Robin talk to Roger about his career so far and bringing Jim Henson's beloved creations to the page, while Alex talks to Hugh about Northern humour, self-publishing and his influences...

• Strip!: Muppets, Giant Cuboid Chickens and Other Weird Creatures is broadcast at 5.00pm on Thursday 7th May and 11.30pm Sunday 10th May on Resonance 104.4 FM (London), streamed at www.resonancefm.com, podcast soon after transmission at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

• REET! is a good ol'-fashioned Yorkshire word, the meaning of which can be found here!

Strip!: Publishing a Blank Slate

Concluding comic book publishing month on radio show and podcast Strip!, Alex Fitch interviews Kenny Penman who runs Blank Slate Books, a new British publishing company that has been around for just under a year and have four books to their name so far, including Eisner award nominee Trains are... Mint by Oliver East and and Mawli's We can Still be Friends.

Alex and Kenny talk about what factors decide the choice of books he publishes, the travails of finding a market for new graphic novels in the middle of a credit crunch and how his history as one of the founders of Forbidden Planet International has helped his new career as a publisher.

Trains are... Mint received high praise from several quarters on release. It's a diary of walks tracing the train tracks between Manchester and Blackpool in the northwest of England, the comic dispensing with word balloons in favour of text and speech written in longhand superimposed upon the images.

"Oliver East has produced one of the most unique works to come out of the UK small press scene," says Kenny Penman, "and one that I believe has a chance of crossing over to a much wider audience."

• Strip!: Publishing a Blank Slate airs later today, Thursday 30th April 2009, at 5.30pm, repeated Sunday 3rd May 11.30pm, onResonance 104.4 FM (London), streamed at www.resonancefm.com, extended podcast online now at http://panelborders.wordpress.com

Strip!: Ed Pinsent and Fast Fiction

Continuing comic book publishing month on his Strip! radio show on London-based art radio station Resonance FM, Alex Fitch talks to comics creator Ed Pinsent, the second editor of the 1980s small press anthology Fast Fiction which was a ground breaking publication in the history of British comics.

As well as the magazine and small press distribution service - a precursor to today's Smallzone, run by Shane Chebsey - Fast Fiction also had a regular stand at the legendary Westminster Comic Marts in the 1980s, selling the small press works of the likes of Warren Ellis, SMS, Glen Dakin, Phil Elliott, Rian Hughes and many other top talents. It helped launch their careers in comics and illustration.

Alex talks to Ed about his comic book work then and now, his processes of including work in the Fast Fiction anthology and the reasons it came to an end.

Pinsent has written and drawn his own small press comics since 1982, including characters such as Primitif, Henrietta and Windy Wilberforce. His work also appeared in Escape Magazine, Knockabout Comix, and Fox Comics in Australia. He took over Fast Fiction in 1987, the name taken from a Classics Illustrated knock-off spotted in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. After Fast Fiction closed the mailing list was passed on to Luke Walsh and Mike Kidson, who used it to launch the small press comics review zine Zum!.

He also publishes The Sound Projector Music Magazine, devoted to reviews of experimental music, which launched in 1996.

This episode also features a competition to win a complete set of Dare Comics' The Hunter: tune in / download the podcast for more details!

• Strip! Ed Pinsent and Fast Fiction airs at 5.00pm tonight (Thursday 23rd April) and is repeated at 11.30pm Sunday 26th April on Resonance 104.4 FM (London), streamed at www.resonancefm.com. An extended podcast tonight at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Comic Boom on Panel Borders

Continuing their month long look at comic book publishing Panel Borders Alex Fitch and Duncan Nott talk to Mark Waid, the editor-in-chief of US publisher Boom! Studios for this week's Strip! radio show on Resonance FM.

A relatively new comic book company Boom! is attracting new creators, veterans of the medium and Hollywood screenwriters alike to pen their tales, including UK-based creators such as Alan Grant (whose titles for the company include Jeremiah Harm), Dan Abnett (Warhammer 40,000), Kev Hopgood (Warhammer 40,000), Roger Langridge (The Muppet Show, unfortunately a title not available in the UK for licensing reasons) and many others.

Waid himself has been writing comics such as Fantastic Four, Captain America and The Flash for over twenty years and Alex, Duncan and Mark talk about the variety of genres Boom! publish, their methods for attracting new readers and their successes so far in publishing comics in print and on the internet.

• Strip! is repeated at 11.30pm on Sunday 19th April on Resonance 104.4 FM (London), streamed at www.resonancefm.com, with extended podcast tonight (Thursday 16th April) at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

Simonson On Air and Other Podcasts...

Alex Fitch talks to artist and writer Walter Simonson on Resonance FM which week, the creator whose exceptional four-year run on the Marvel comic The Mighty Thor in the early 1980s remains the most appreciated version of the character since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought the Viking hero to Marvel comics a generation before.

Alex and Walt talk about combining European mythology and space opera, esoteric character design (why does Beta Ray Bill have a face like a horse's skull?), turning the Norse god of war into a talking frog and the joy of revisiting classic heroes.

• Strip!: The Mighty Thor by Walter Simonson airs at 5.00pm Thursday 12/03/09, repeated 11.30pm Sunday 15/03/09, Resonance 104.4 FM (London), streamed at www.resonancefm.com / extended podcast after transmission at www.panelborders.wordpress.com


Also this week, Resonance FM's weekly show about Asian Culture, Lucky Cat: Live Action Manga, regular host Zoe Baxter invites Alex Fitch (Electric Sheep Magazine) and Helen McCarthy (The Animé Encyclopedia) into the studio to discuss live action manga adaptations such as 20th Century Boys and Death Note and how these compare to animé versions and adaptations of Western comic books such as Watchmen. The show includes Zoe's regular eclectic mix of Asian music from the last half century and live tastings from the Dim Sum Lunchbox...

• Lucky Cat: Live action Manga airs at 9.00pm Tuesday 17/03/09, Resonance 104.4 FM (London), streamed at www.resonancefm.com

Online now at www.sci-fi-london.com/audio, downthetubes readers may also be interested in Reality Check: The Invisible Art of Acting for Radio, in which Alex Fitch talks to actor Rupert Degas about his various roles in genre radio and audio dramas such as playing David Warner’s sidekick “Rizla” in the BBC7 adaptation of Robert Rankin’s The Brightonomicon and playing the father of a cyrogenically preserved child in Kim Newman’s Cry-Babies which was recently broadcast on Radio 4. Alex and Rupert also talk about his roles in Dan Dare, Dirk Gently and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy plus his uncredited role voicing the devil in Exorcist: The Beginning…