Radio interviews with Tim Pilcher, Graham Rawle and Paul Magrs

Book List: Celebrating Ephemera

Starting a new series of the bimonthly show on books, Alex Fitch talks to three authors whose work celebrates ephemera and pop culture detritus. 'Graphic Novelist' Graham Rawle discusses his latest novel The Card, which follows the journey of a man who believes he is being employed by the secret service to protect Princess Diana, via playing cards, bubble-gum cards and cigarette cards that are left in his path. Rawle is an author and University of Brighton lecturer who uses graphic design and typography in his work, including collage of text from magazines (Woman's World) and photographic montages (Lost Consonants et al.).

Also, Tim Pilcher talks about his crowd-funded memoir Comic Book Babylon which documents his time working at DC Comics' London office in the 90s, meeting pop culture celebrities such as Grant Morrison, Jonathan Ross, The Spice Girls and Adam Ant; while Paul Magrs chats about his novels and audio plays set around the fringes of Doctor Who, including his latest release Vince Cosmos, Glam Rock Detective where a Ziggy Stardust style pop star turns out to be engaged in an on-going war with aliens on Earth. Magrs also discusses his popular ‘Brenda and Effie’ series of books about the Bride of Frankenstein and a white witch running a B & B in Whitby.

8pm 'Clear Spot', Wednesday 1st May 2013, repeated 9am, Thursday 2nd May, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast at https://panelborders.wordpress.com/category/book-list

Comic Book Babylon project announced, probing "British Vertigo"

Author Tim Pilcher has announced a Kickstarter campaign to publish Comic Book Babylon: A Cautionary Tale of Sex, Drugs & Comics, probing a bizarre period when, to outsiders, British creators looked set to take over American comics.

Tim Pilcher’s shocking, revealing and completely unofficial memoir of DC Comics' legendary London office, will, he hopes, celebrate the Vertigo imprint's 20th anniversary, lifting the lid on an intriguing part of British comics history.

“For a few glorious years only, before cost-cutting set in, there was Vertigo's 'British Office' - the comics equivalent of the Loaded HQ in the 1990s," recalls Grant Morrison, author of Supergods, All Star Superman, Batman Inc. and The Invisibles. "Vodka, mushrooms, Es, sex, money, travel and the pure unleashed creativity of young people having a good time together."

Comic Book Babylon is the candid, uncensored and utterly unofficial of story of DC Comic’s infamous Vertigo UK office, written by one who was the heart of the drug-fuelled, creative whirlwind. It’s the odyssey of how comic fan Tim, in pursuit of his dream job, became the first British member of the DC editorial staff, and learning the harsh realities of publishing life.

Along the way he meets comics professionals and celebrities including Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan, Jamie Hewlett, Mark Millar, Garth Ennis, Philip Bond, Paul Gambaccini, Glyn Dillon, Jonathan Ross, The Spice Girls, Blur, Adam Ant, and many, many more. Revealing the crazy, halcyon days of the British comics publishing in the mid-Nineties, it blows the lid off the debauchery and excess that was part and parcel of the industry.

When you reach such dizzy heights, there’s only one place to go.

“It was an incredibly exciting time to be in comics," Tim recalls of his time in the offices of "British Vertigo". "We felt we could achieve anything at the Vertigo office, and things got a little crazy. This is the book I’ve been threatening to write for the past 20 years! I suspect the first people wanting to pick this up will be all the comics professionals, to see what I said about them. There should be some very worried writers, artists and editors out there!”

Revealing the reason for writing this latest book - as well as many articles for a huge range of magazines, he's written books like Erotic Com­ics: A Graphic His­tory and The Essen­tial Guide to World Com­ics (with Brad Brooks) - Tim says he wanted to let the world know that the comics industry is not all geeky and nerdy as some might think.

"In fact it’s every bit as hedonistic as the music business," he declares. "If Paul Gravett is ‘The Man at the Crossroads’, then I’m ‘The Man at the Centre of a 15-Car Pile-Up’!”.

Tim's first job in the industry was at Comic Show­case, starting as a shop assistant but eventually becoming its man­ager. After four and a half years of that he worked as an assist­ant editor for Art Young at the Vertigo UK office on titles like Kill Your Boy­friend by Grant Morrison & Phillip Bond, Enigma by Peter Milligan & Duncan Fegredo, The Extrem­ist by Peter Milligan & Ted McKeever, The Mystery Play by Grant Morrison & Jon J Muth and Rogan Gosh by Peter Milligan & Brendan McCarthy. He was a founder mem­ber of the Les Car­toon­istes Dangereux col­lect­ive, along with Brad Brooks, Roger Lan­gridge, Charlie Adlard, Paul Peart, Faz Choudhury, Jonathan Edwards, and Dylan Hor­rocks.

"Then I moved to Pen­guin Children’s Books, Dorling Kinder­s­ley, and then as asso­ci­ate editor on Com­ics Interna­tional for a few years with Dez Skinn," he told Comics Bureau in 2011. More recently he's been an editor at Ilex Press, where he has comm­iss­ioned a whole range of pop cul­ture and comic-related books such as War Com­ics: A Graphic His­tory by Mike Con­roy, the Eisner-nominated and Har­vey Award-winning Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga by Helen McCarthy and the brilliant Alan Moore: Storyteller by Gary Spen­cer Mil­lidge. He also commissioned me to edit SciFi Art Now, a collection of science fiction art, published in 2010.

He's also one of the founding members of the Comic Book Alliance, (www.comicbookalliance.co.uk), a not-for-profit organisation and "The Voice of the British Comics Industry" promoting books, graphic novels, webcomics and sequential art in its many forms.

"Comics were undoubtedly in my blood from day one," Tim says of his love of comics."I had 'four colour funnies' running through my veins before I’d even heard the expression. Cut me and I bled cyan, magenta, yellow and black. I inhaled the musty smell of old comics, as if they were perfume. I sweated Indian ink and I came in process white. It was my destiny to work in comics."

There are three versions of Comic Book Babylon planned: an eBook (with additional images), paperback, and 200 limited edition hardbacks, with covers created by design genius and comic book artist Rian Hughes.

“Rian’s out done himself,” said an impressed Pilcher, “The punky/acid house colours perfectly reflect the rave mood of the times in the book.” Hughes has also designed a limited edition print and three “Sex, Drugs and Comic Books” badges as incentives.

• Comic Book Babylon: A Cautionary Tale of Sex, Drugs & Comics launches Kickstarter on Thursday 4 April, 2013. See a preview of it here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/2016810024/1303051881?token=bb3f146a

• Website: sexdrugsandcomicbooks.blogspot.com

Radio interview with Steve Bissette

Panel Borders: Creating Constantine

Continuing our month of shows about the 25th anniversary of John Constantine: Hellblazer, Alex Fitch discusses the first appearances of the character with co-creator Steve Bissette. Alex and Steve discuss the artist's tenure as penciller on the acclaimed horror comic Swamp Thing, drawing (the as yet unnamed) Constantine in the background of scenes before Alan Moore gave the character a voice, and Steve's continuing fascination with the monster genre.

6pm, Sunday 20th January 2013 / repeated at 4.30pm, Tuesday 22nd January, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / extended podcast after broadcast 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

Tharg's Head Revisited

In October 2008, occasional downthetubes contributor Matthew Badham interviewed freelance writer Andy Diggle (who is also the ex-editor of 2000AD). An edited 2000 word version of that interview was published in the February edition of the Judge Dredd Megazine.

Now, with the kind permission of Andy and Megazine editor Matt Smith, the full, un-edited transcript of the interview has been posted at Citizen Badham, Matthew's blog.

In the interview, Andy talks about writing comics and video games, editing 2000AD and gives his thoughts on the future of comics and the British comics scene:

"Yeah, I've always enjoyed telling stories. I tend to think very visually, and I was always more drawn to script writing than prose. I remember when I was a kid, back before we had a VCR, I recorded The Empire Strikes Back on audio tape off the TV and then transcribed the asteroid field sequence in screenplay format. Just to get a feel for the medium, I guess.

"Weeding through the submission pile was always grim, but you made up for that when you found the occasional ruby in the dust. Guys like Jock and Frazer Irving were sending me unsolicited submissions; now we're not only working together, we're good mates. A lot of great talent came out of that slush pile: Mike Carey, Ben Oliver, Si Spurrier, Boo Cook, Rob Williams, Ian Edgington, Al Ewing...

"As for British comics, there seems to be quite a thriving small press scene at the moment. So much so that I've been seriously considering setting up a small comic con. Watch this space."

• Read the full interview at Matthew's blog here.

Shades of Milligan

(with thanks to Reuben Willmott): Yesterday, we gave passing mention to Peter Milligan's new project for DC Comics' Vertigo crime line, The Bronx Kill, working with James Romberger.

Coincidentally, Milligan, whose past work includes 2000AD's Bad Company and Shade: The Changing Man and is currently wirting Hellblazer for Vertigo, has just been interviewed on Standard Attrition, the group blog for Vertigo creators.

There, he enthuses about his other new Vertogo title, Greek Street -- a creator-owned title which Vertigo has been developing for six-to-eight months with Milligan and David Felice, which Milligan describes as an "edgy, violent, very sexy re-imagining of some of the classic tales of ancient Greek drama seen through the prism of a tough modern-day London."

Featured here is a promotional image for the book which Felice drew for the New York Comic Con but was not used during the Vertigo panel where the series was announced.

Milligan also talks his approach to writing comics in the short interview and, in passing, about the controversy caused by his Marvel project, Xstatix, remarikng "...I was disappointed with the people higher in the food chain when the uproar about the Princess Diana story broke, and we had to f*** around with it. I thought, you Americans had a revolution so you didn’t have to worry about what our insane and largely inbred bunch of Royals thought..."

• Read the interview by G. Willow Wilson
• The first issue of Vertigo's Greek Street will be oversized and cost just one dollar. Davide Gianfelice (please note, this blog is in Italian and features adult images), whose credits include Northlanders, will draw the series. "It's fantastic art," Milligan said during a panel at the New York Comic Con

Tube Surfing: 12 February 2009

• Former Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton, now an ardent campaigner for internet rights and longtime blogger has a new short collection of his favorite pieces from his books and blog called Sunken Treasures, including a production diary from his 2008 role in Criminal Minds. We mention it here -- quite apart from the fact that it's sure to be an enjoyable read -- because the cover design is by 2000AD creative D’Israeli. Two editions are avalable: a US Edition and a World Edition both from lulu.com.

• Talking of D'Israeli, the consummate colourist holds his hand up to past mistakes in an honest post on his blog, revealing where his career as a 2000AD colourist jumped the shark. "One of the drawbacks of being a commercial artist is that your mistakes are as public as your triumphs," he notes, on discovering that this month's Judge Dredd: The Megazine is accompanied by a reprint volume of Pussyfoot Five. Read the tale here

• The latest issue of The DFC contains FRONTIER Part Six: 'The Greedy Ground' with art by Andrew Wildman, script by Jason Cobley. Weird goings on down in the mines as Mitch meets the eveil Mr Winchester and Daisy meets the amazing 'Mother'. Who is 'Mother'? Well you will just have to get hold of your copy.

• More news from Jim Boswell: he's drawing a football strip for KiCK! magazine, which is aimed at 6 to 12 year olds. "It's been a lot of work, but surprisingly fun, too," he says. "The editor has been fantastic, sending through a tonne of good ref photos and links to youtube clips of the actual match I've been drawing. These have been invaluable, as they're very keen to get the players' likenesses spot-on."

• In the run up to Christmas, author Iain Rankin was doing the rounds plugging his new book, Doors Open. During the interviews he always mentioned his John Constantine graphic novel featuring the Hellblazer anti hero published by Vertigo, even saying he had finished it. Well, it seems something has changed because when Vertigo's line of crime-driven comics and graphic novels was discussed at last week's New York Comic Con, Constantine did not feature in the Rankin-penned Dark Entries, illustrated by Werther Dell’Edera. Comic Book Resources reports that Rankin, a longtime comics fan, did initially pitch a Hellblazer story, according to the line's editor, Will Dennis, it was more a detective story that fitted well into their ideas for the crime line that centres on a private detective hired as a mole on a reality TV show called Haunted Mansion. Something of a locked room mystery, things outside the producers’ control start to affect the contestants. Dennis said that the book has supernatural elements and though it’s not a Hellblazer story, Constantine fans should enjoy it.

• Former 2000AD creator Peter Milligan, currently writer of Hellblazer and Greek Street, is also involved in the Vertigo crme line, working with James Romberger on a book called The Bronx Kill.

• Sean Azzopardi has just published an interview with critically acclaimed artist Oli Smith, the London based self publisher whose work include titles such as Hazy Thursday, Summer Ball and Weekend friends. He has also written for Doctor Who and illustrates and paints the odd canvas. (Check out Oli's own web site here). Sean, no slouch himself when it comes to cretivity, reports he has just found out that a four page strip he submitted has been accepted for Side B, a music anthology.

• This "Tube Surf" complied with help from Matthew Badham and Reuben Willmott