Panel Borders: The Danger of Romance

Concluding a months of shows about genre in comics, Panel Borders Alex Fitch talks to writer and manga translator Sean Michael Wilson and lecturer and author Ian Rakoff about romance comics this Sunday.

Sean is the editor of AX Volume 1: A collection of Alternative Manga and author of The Story of Lee and Yakuza Moon, two manga novels with varying degrees of biography about the fortunes of young women encountering different cultures across Asia.

Ian is about to give his latest lecture about comics (on 30th November) at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and this month is discussing the subject of romance comics, with a focus on how they were an antidote to McCarthyism in 1950s America.

Online later this month from panel Borders are three sperate talks recorded at Laydeez do Comics - cartoonists Woodrow Phoenix, Kripa Joshi and Mawil (Markus Witzel) discussing their work. If there is a common theme between the three, it's a sense of magical realism in their art which juxtaposes the ordinary with the out of the ordinary, from Woodrow's use of road furniture in Rumble Strip, to Kripa's use of Indian mythology in her tales of domestic incidents and Mawil's blue collar stories of life in Germany through the lens of his alter-ego Sparky O'Hare.

The interviews were recorded by Nicola Streeten and Alex Fitch and are introduced by Nicola Streeten.

• Panel Borders: The Danger of Romance airs at 8.00pm, 27th November 2011, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / extended podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

• Laydeez do comics: Magical Realism is online from 29th November 2011 at laydeezdopodcasts.wordpress.com

In Review: Wuthering Heights

By Emily Brontë
Adapted by Sean Michael Wilson (script), John M. Burns (Art), Jim Campbell (Letters)
Publisher: Classical Comics
Out: Now:


The Book: Emily Brontë's only novel is famous the world over and is the favourite classic of many readers. It is easy to see why, with hardship, insanity, cruelty, frustrated love, and ghosts. What more could anyone want from a book?

The Review: All right, confession time: I have never read Wuthering Heights as a novel, for all its worldwide reknown. It's known for being a complex tale of mental and physical cruelty but as far as I'm concerned, the Brontës are up their with Thomas Hardy as hard going, reading-wise. When it comes to classic writing, give me Dickens or Marlowe.

So I suppose on that basis, I'm the perfect reader for this new Classical Comics adaptation, even though it's a story that has been adapted into comic form many times, most recently by Classical Comics but in the past by Classics Illustrated (a hardback edition of their version is due out at the end of this month) and and Graffex, that edition featuring art by Nick Spender. After all, these comics versions of classic literature are aimed at the reluctant reader and any publisher that hires John M. Burns to draw Wuthering Heights was bound to gain my attention (just as they did by having John Stokes draw Great Expectations, Mike Collins A Christmas Carol and Jon Haward The Tempest).

The original novel is a complex affair with characters to match, but Burns brings them all to life with aplomb, also creating stunning backgrounds to this tale sent in the Yorkshire Moors. There are scenes where he's managed to perfectly capture a moment in the text with consummate style - a look from Cathy Linton on Page 135 being one fine example of his skill.

Sean Michael Wilson also plays his part, adapting such a well-loved tale with care. His breakdown of the novel lends much to Burns vision.

I have but one gripe about the storytelling - the use of what are known in the trade as 'Buscema layouts', where two panels are stacked on each other on left of page with a third, vertical, on the right, making for confusing story flow. I was a bit surprised by the number of these, given the desire to make the story easy to understand.

That aside, this is a terrific piece of work. To the publisher's credit, they also remain true to their mandate and deliver you the full Wuthering Heights novel - unlike many film adaptations, the story of the younger generations affected by the doomed love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earshaw is included in this mammoth story.

Overall, for those of us who may never have picked up a romantic novel in their lives, Burns and the creative team deliver a knock out job with this new Wuthering Heights adaptation - one that actually sent me off to track down a copy of the original.

Classical Comics will, I'm sure, be pleased to hear this.


• Wuthering Heights is available now in the UK and on sale in the US in March 2012

• Wuthering Heights is also available as a 'Quick Text' in modern English

• More about Classical Comics' Wuthering Heights on the official web site

• Wuthering Heights Wikipedia Page
Includes details of many other adaptations of the story, with a more detailed list here

Harvey Award Nom for Sean Michael Wilson and Mitsuhiro Asakawa's 'Ax'

Ax: Alternate Manga edited by Sean Michael Wilson and Mitsuhiro Asakawa and published by Top Shelf Publishing, has been nominated for a Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material.

"The Harvey Awards are one of the comic book industry's oldest and most respected awards," says Sean, who was born in Scotland but now lives in Japan and has several British titles to his credit, including A Christmas Carol for Classical Comics and Iraq: Operation Takeover, which was drawn by Lee O'Connor, as well as published work for Kodansha and NBM.

"The Harveys recognize outstanding achievements in over 20 categories," he continues. "They are the only industry awards both nominated by and selected by the full body of comic book professionals. So, it's very pleasing for us all that Ax has been selected by comic book professionals, hopefully recognising the significant step forward it is in showing the work of individual, mature style manga artists from Japan.

"Past winners in this category include Lone Wolf and Cub, Moebius, Akira and Persepolis - good company to be in!

"Just to get the nomination, from out of hundreds of possible books, is great, especially as this is a kind of democratic vote system choice, not a 'panel of judges' way. So, hopefully that should help with also getting interest in our other book plans."

Britain-based talent also up for an award includes New Zealander Roger Langridge for his work on BOOM! Studios The Muppet Show (and also for best writer, on Thor: The Mighty Avenger); Duncan Fergedo for his work on Hellboy; Frank Quitely for Best Cover Artist (for his work on Batman and Robin); and Northern Ireland's Garth Ennis for The Darkness.

• Any comic book professionals who feel like voting for Ax book for the final winner can do so on the Harvey website: http://www.harveyawards.org/The deadline for voting is 6th August 2011

Sean Michael Wilson's Hagakure manga debuts in Japan

British comics creator Sean Michael Wilson is clearly a happy man - and has every right to be after his new book, Hagakure: The Manga Edition, went on sale in Japanese bookshops this week.

Written by Sean, art is by Japanese creator Chie Kutsuwada and the book, which will also be published in the UK and US, is out now in shops like Kinokuniya and Tsutaya, the big highstreet bookshops in Japan.

"This is the first original manga that Kodansha's International department has ever done," he told downthetubes. "It's amazing that in its 50 year history it has only ever repackaged existing ones from the wider Kodansha family.

"But now Kodansha International have started an original mature manga line, and Hagakure is the first. So it's something of importance."

Sean, who first sprang into the comics limelight with his self-published and critically-acclaimed Angel in the Woods back in 2003, describes the story as "a closely authentic adaptation of the classic samurai book from the 17th century." It's a collection of tales and anecdotes by the real-life samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo, who lived between 1659-1719, and  the manga is based on William Scott Wilson's English translation of the original book, which was compiled towards the end of Yamamoto's life.

In addition to Hagakure, Sean has been busy in other arenas, scripting an adaptation of the recently-released The Canterville Ghost for British publisher Classical Comics (as well as Wuthering Heights, released in the summer).


• Hagakure: The Manga Edition is available in Japan in Kinokuniya, Tsutaya bookstores, etc. Price 1500 yen. 

• Hagakure is released 1st November 2010 in the UK (and in January in North America) by Kodansha International Ltd - and will have a launch event as part of London's ComICA Festival.

• The Canterville Ghost, drawn by Steve Bryant, is on sale now from amazon.co.uk

Crawford Coutts On The Spot

Insomina Publications is fast becoming something of a rising star in the UK indie publishing press, with graphic novels such as Cancertown and the upcoming Burke & Hare just some of its well-received titles. As the company prepares to launch its much-anticipated Vigil range - graphic novels re-telling the events, lives and stories of famous men and women - David Hailwood chats with with Crawford Coutts, Insomnia Publications Managing Director...

downthetubes: When was Insomnia first formed, and how did you get involved?

Crawford Coutts: Since as long as I can remember, I’d always wanted to start-up and run my own business. When I was completing my degree at Dundee University back in 2005, Alasdair Duncan approached me with a screenplay script. I had been reading a lot of independent comics, such as 30 Days of Night from IDW, by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, and The Red Star by Archangel Studio’s by Christian Gossett and noticed that there was an increase in creator-owned work which was being aimed at mature readers with more novel-style themes and content, which was appealing to a wider audience.

By the time I'd graduated, I suggested to Alasdair that we should adapt his script into a six-issue mini-series and try something different with it, but first of all, we had to undertake a huge amount of research to ensure we were starting from the strongest possible position.

I began my comics career by illustrating our first series, Daemon, which was released in January 2007. Unfortunately, due to the demand on my time required to run the business, I had to stop only three issues in to the six issue series.

We wanted to emphasize that Insomnia was not just another indie "company" which would produce one product and then disappear like so many people trying to self-publish, I wanted the company to grow into a publishing house, and with the interest and success of our Layer Zero anthology series we had started this process.

The decision to take on the role of "Managing Director" rather than "artist" was very difficult, but incidentally came at a crucial time and has since enabled us to get our products into the high street bookstore as well as online shops like Amazon and we are becoming more accepted by the general public rather than purely comic-book fans.

downthetubes: What type of material is Insomnia most likely to publish? Is there any particular genre you would avoid, or have a personal disliking for?

We produce a wide range of Urban Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror titles. With each of our products, we look to publish something which is unusual, literate, challenging and thought provoking. Most of our books are aimed at teen/mature readers and most have an 18+ age rating so we're not limiting our content and restricting character development.

We're pretty open to most genres, as long as it's meets some (or all) of the above criteria. Readers of the likes of From Hell, A History of Violence, Road to Perdition, Fell and Nightly News will undoubtedly like our titles.

downthetubes: Which small press/independent titles would you recommend, and why?


Crawford: Unfortunately, I don’t really get a chance to read many other titles these days, and if I do it's mainly researching what the "competition" is up to! I do have a huge "to-read" pile sitting by the bedside, which is ever increasing!

I’ve been paying close attention to C2D4 and their new Graphic Novel, Jack in the Box, which looks stunning. I picked up some of the individual issues by Tony Wicks and Martin Buxton and I’m looking forward to seeing how the full book has turned out. Martin’s created a wonderful mix of sci-fi and the surreal complimented by Tony’s exceptional art style.

There’s some pretty good looking books from Studio 407 which I’d like to get my hands on as well, along with (Bob) Heske Horror's award winning Bone Chiller Anthology series which I’ve heard great things about.

Incidentally, Bob is currently producing another anthology, entitled 2012 which will be one to watch out for. Many of the Insomnia creators have been involved with this project, including Stephen “Cancertown” Downey. In fact many of the Insomnia creators have lots other projects on the go, either self-published or with other indie companies.

downthetubes: What advice would you offer aspiring comic artists and writers?


Crawford: Keep writing, drawing, inking, colouring, and generally "creating" as much as possible. Practice when you can and don’t be afraid to submit your work to publishers. Be sure to check out submissions guidelines and look at the current products they have to see if your ideas will fit in with what they produce.

There are many small press and indie publishers out there who are looking for contributions to anthology series, showcases, magazines etc and they’re great places to get initial feedback, constructive criticism and hopefully exposure which unfortunately the larger, mainstream publishers just can’t do.

downthetubes: Which of the upcoming Insomnia releases are you most excited about?


Crawofrd: There’s so many books currently in production it’s very hard to pick any particular titles, and to be honest, I’m very excited about them all. Next month, we're launching our first title from our new Bio-Graphic Novel imprint, Vigil (which is very exciting in itself).

Burke & Hare will be released at the British International Comics Show (BICS) followed closely with several signing events in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The book is completely research-based on the historical facts, written by Martin Conaghan, illustrated by Will Pickering, with letters by Paul McLaren and a cover by Rian Hughes.

It also has a wonderful foreword from Alan Grant where he says, "Martin and Will have produced something of which they and their publisher - the relative newcomer, Insomnia - can be very proud. As well as being educational and entertaining, they've gone one better and given us something important. Hopefully, the Universe will ripple and change for a great many of their readers."

We'll be releasing a Special Convention Edition of Buskers at BICS. Earlier in the year we were approached by Sean Michael Wilson and Jeymes Samuel with this offbeat tale set in contemporary London with an array of odd but realistic characters.

The comic book is based on a story by Jeymes (who incidentally is the brother of the singer SEAL), which is being created both in graphic novel form and as a film. Buskers is written by Sean and illustrated by Michiru Morikawa, an incredibly talented Japanese artist who won the International Manga and Anime Festival Award a few years back.

Jeymes is currently working on the film version of Buskers with a cast including Kevin Spacey and Mos Def, and the different versions will complement each other. [Read our news item on this project here - Ed]

The Special Signed Convention Edition will be limited to 100 copies and includes a CD with exclusive music from the OST and bonus features.

downthetubes: Could you tell us a little about the new Vigil imprint?


Crawford: Vigil specifically deals with historical graphic novels and stories of a biographical nature. Think along the lines of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell or Frank Miller’s 300; we’re looking for rich stories based on fact, not facts dressed up as fiction.

The stories published under Vigil can be about a significant global event, the life of a famous personality or historical figure, cultural events, political scandals, wars, assassinations, rock stars, miscarriages of justice, cover-ups, conspiracies or inspirational tales from ordinary lives.

Biopics like Ali, Ray, Valkyrie, Frost/Nixon, JFK, Persepolis, Braveheart, Wyatt Earp, Apollo 13, Gandhi and Chariots of Fire are all similar to what we’re publishing. Each one tells a story about the life of someone unique, or chronicles events so dramatic and inspirational that they almost seem entirely fictional or unbelievable.

Historical accuracy was paramount in the development of Burke & Hare. Martin and Will spent much of the last year waist-deep in research material: original documents, biographies, contemporary maps, portraits, street scenes, architectural drawings, fashion illustrations, photos of antique furnishings and fireplaces - all to ensure that the representation of history in a comic offers something that cannot be achieved in any other medium.

This amount of effort is put into each Vigil title so that every book is as much a work of scholarship as entertainment and readers will almost be able to smell the setting every time they turn a page.

The next books we have signed for the line are Crowley: Wandering The Wastes by Martin Hayes, and Allen Pinkerton by Richmond Clements. We'll have more information on these at BICS.

downthetubes: Do Insomnia’s publications have a following in the US and other countries, or are you mostly concentrating on building up a UK fan base first?


Crawford: In the UK our titles are available in Waterstones, Borders and other good book stores, most of the independent comic shops including Forbidden Planet International and available online from Amazon.co.uk.

In France, our titles are available from Album and exclusively on sale from our independent stockist - Librairie Delvaux, 17 rue du Val, 77160, Provins.

Now that we're one of the largest Independent publishers in the UK and we have a pretty solid grounding in the market, we're currently researching distribution avenues to tap into the North American market - speaking with various shops, distributors and shipping companies. By early 2010, readers will hopefully be able to purchase our books from many of the book stores and comic shops.

Of course our books can currently be bought for international delivery from various online stores. If you want an excellent personal service, try Whatever Comics who are not only a fantastic comic shop providing international shipping, but who are also the sponsors of Cancertown.

downthetubes: I believe you also have plans to option movie rights for various comic projects; any luck generating interest so far?


Crawford: With the huge amount of interest from film studios in the comic industry, especially with the recent news of Disney and Time Warner acquiring Marvel and DC respectively, we believe our titles are well suited to adaptation into these areas.

We have a dedicated Agent based in New York who actively looks into optioning Film and TV rights for us so we’ll keep you posted of any news further down the line!

• A list of Insomnia's creators and their personal sites and blogs can be found on the official Insomnia blog: www.TheRedEye.co.uk


• Read David Hailwood's review of the upcoming Burke & Hare


• Read David Hailwood's review of Milk by Stref


• Read the downthetubes review of Cancertown

Insomnia Joins "Buskers" Project

Popquiz, hotshots: What do Mos Def, Kevin Spacey, former Blur front man Damon Albarn, musician Ian Brown, comic writer and publisher Sean Michael Wilson and Japanese cartoonist and illustrator Michiru Morikawa have in common with Insomnia Publications?

Answer: the fledgling British publisher has just announced all of the above are involved in some way in with Jeymes Samuel's multimedia Buskers project: some with the comic, some with the music, some with the independent film.


Buskers is an offbeat tale set in contemporary London with an array of odd but realistic characters. The comic book is based closely on a screenplay written by singer and writer Jeymes Samuel (who might be tired of being refered to as the brother of the singer Seal, but just so those not familiar can get an idea) .

It's written by Sean Michael Wilson and is illustrated by Michiru Morikawa, an incredibly talented Japanese artist who won the International Manga and Anime Festival Award a few years back.

Jeymes is currently working on the film version of Buskers and the different versions will complement each other.

"I was a comic geek since I've been able to read," he says, "so it was an absolute necessity for me to have a graphic novel of Buskers, whether I was making a film or not.

"I liaised with Mike Lake [co-founder of Forbidden Planet and now engaged in several top secret comic projects - Ed], who then introduced me to the the cult pen-man Sean Michael Wilson, who in turn brought on the IMAF Award winning Manga artist Michiru Morikawa. Thus began the creation of Buskers: The manga graphic novel."

You can find out more about the film version, and its soundtrack, on the Buskers Movie Blog, but this is how Jeymes summarises the story:

"Timothy Book is considered a big success amongst his peers - a high ranking job in banking, plush city apartment and trophy girlfriend to top it off. He's on top of the world - until he crashes back down to earth with an almighty bang!

"After underhand dealings at work lead to a police escort off the premises and a botched suicide attempt on the Thames, he turns up on the doorstep of ex best friend Cabbage, a streetwise busker who Timothy fell out with many years ago.

"Cabbage inhabits the exciting underbelly of London's colourful busking scene and Timothy is introduced to a side of life that he has never experienced.

"As he tries to claw his way back to his previous self he becomes embroiled in Cabbage's eventful and often dangerous lifestyle and begins to fall for the lovely Variniana - Cabbage's beautiful girlfriend.

"Timothy falls deeper into the busking scene and is forced to re-evaluate his former existence, friendships and relationships while embarking on an eventful journey back to the real Timothy Book."

Buskers the comic will be launched at British International Comic Show 2009 in Birmingham in October, where Insomnia will have a very special edition of the book (signed and limited to 100 copies), including a "Buskers Demo CD", with previews of a number of songs from the incredible soundtrack by The Bullitts.

If you can't get to the show this year there will a number of books set aside for pre-order by Paypal. You will need to email Insomnia at nichola[at]insomniapublications.com for details.

Also, if you want to be sure of getting your hands on one at the show, you can reserve your copy for pick up on the day.

The creators will be on the Insomnia stand at various points throughout the weekend: Sean is a special guest of the show and will also be speaking on a panel showcasing his AX: Alternative Manga work for the godfather of indie publishers, Top Shelf.

• Insomnia Publications Official Web Site: www.insomniapublications.com

• Insomnia Publications Blog: theredeyed.blogspot.com

Tube Surfing: Saturday 28th March 2009

• British comics creator Sean Michael Wilson, whose recent credits include writer for Classicial Comics upcoming Canterville Ghost (out in November) and Sweeney Todd (out next year) adaptations, has become, we believe, perhaps the first British creator to have a comic on Japanese mobile phones (comic strip on mobile is known as Keitai manga in Japan).
"A Japanese language version of my Lafcadio Hearns Japanese Ghost Stories book is now out in Japan, in two formats," Sean, who lives in Japan, told downthetubes. "As an e-book and an edition for mobile phones. Both formats are big business in Japan." More on this story on our dedicated Mobile Comics blog

• Eddie Campbell has posted a snippet of an interview with Alan Moore from back in 2000 in which he talks about his take on what happened to Big Numbers, whose never-published third issue surfaced on e-bay in January, albeit only as photocopies (see news story). Alan seems to clearly have wanted to try again with the project with issue 1, but also recognizes the impracticalities of that. "I don't see any way that I can resurrect it as a comic strip," he told Blather.net. "I mean, what do I do? Do I actually sort of say "Yeah, we've got a great new artist, are we going to start from #1 again but this time, no, buy it, because this time we really will get to issue #12." I mean, I wouldn't buy that if I heard it from somebody who'd kind of failed twice to do what he said he was going to do." Eddie also thinks he's uncovered art from #4, featured in this post on his blog.

• Talking of Alan Moore, Pádraig Ó Méalóid has transcribed and kindly sent us a draft copy of his wide-ranging interview with the comic creator, scheduled to feature on the Forbidden Planet International blog soon. It's a doozy, with plenty on the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen including plans for the next tale to centre on a group of superheroes, projects such as The Bumper Book of Magic, his novel, Jerusalem and confirms that a new Bojeffries Saga, which is being right now by Steve Parkhouse, is in the works and will be released as part of a collection of al the Bojeffries strips!

• DFC contributor Sarah McIntyre has offered a bit of 'Vern and Lettuce' back story on her LiveJournal, and tells us an Oxford Literature Festival panel on Saturday 4 April about the project is still going ahead. It should a chance to ask questions of David Fickling and several creators (Robin and Lorenzo Etherington, Sarah and John Aggs) what happens next... All participating children will receive a free copy of The DFC. More info here

• (via Kasterberous): How do you know if you’re in a parallel world? This week’s issue of Doctor Who Adventures, out now, is a parallel worlds special. Discover what happened when a sinister fortune teller made Donna rewrite history in last year’s episode Turn Left. You can also find out about all the weird alternate realities in Doctor Who – and learn how to see if you have strayed into one by accident. The issue comes with a free set of badges and a model time watch as worn by companion Donna.

• With Accent UK's 2009 graphic anthology Western now available (buy a copy now), Lee Robson has decided to indulge in some some shameless self-promotion for the the strip A Fistful Of Steam Valves (by him and Bryan Coyle) which features in the very pages of that book and featured a couple of the story's steampunk designs on his blog.

• And finally... London-based publisher NoBrow has released its first book, Gods and Monsters, and is running an exhibition in May of some of the art. More info here. The diverse contributors were hand picked for their unique styles and all were invited to generate work based on the theme. Some are up and coming, others are plucked from unexpected places, but as you'll see if you follow some of the liks below, all are talented: Dave Taylor, Alex Spiro, Sam Arthur, Jordan Crane, Emiliano Ponzi, A. Richard Allen, Jens Harder, Reuben Rude, Benjamin Guedel, Eda Akaltun, Matthieu Bessudo, Caspar Williamson, Toby Leigh, Alex Bland, Ben Newman, Nick White, Stuart Kolakovic, Sarah King, Leah Hayes, Paul Blow, Bjorn Rune Lie, Brett Ryder , Carl Johanson and Blexbolex.

(Compiled with thanks to Matthew Badham, Sarah McIntyre and Pádraig Ó Méalóid)