Erotic Comics, Round Two

Picking up from where the international best-selling Erotic Comics: A Graphic History (Volume 1) left off, Ilex press have just announced Volume 2 will reveal how European, American and Asian artists have explored the possibility of the form in the years since the explosion of the Sixties’ underground comix.

Written by Tim Pilcher with a witty foreword from Alan Moore, Erotic Comics: A Graphic History - Volume 2, due for release in January 2009, examines how the form has become an international publishing phenomenon by showcasing artwork that has inflamed desires, incensed censors, and caused controversy.

This provocative title covers everything: the erotic comics explosion in America in the mid-’80s; the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender comics scene; UK and European erotic comic creators since the ’70s; and the Japanese hentai phenomenon. The future of erotic comics online is also explored in this fascinating and surprising volume.

In the first survey of its kind in over 20 years, this second volume completes this fascinating two-part chronicle with previously unpublished, rare and out-of-print material, featuring insights from key artists, editors, and publishers.

The book comes fully illustrated with stunning, rare, and seldom-seen art by Howard Cruse, Gengoroh Tagame, Melinda Gebbie, Hunt Emerson, Howard Chaykin, Giovanna Casotto (whose work graces the cover, above), Tom of Finland, Milo Manara, Junko Mizuno, and many other top erotic cartoonists. The informative text provides a sexy, intriguing, and entertaining tour through the origins of an often-overlooked art form and comic book genre.

• Tim will be hosting a talk about Erotic Comics at an event at this year's ComICA in London on Sunday 23 November. Guests are Erich Von Gotha, Lynn Paul Meadows, Garry Leach and Wicked Wanda writer Frederic Mullaly.

• Erotic Comics: A Graphic History (Volume 2) by Tim Pilcher, with additional research by Gene Kannenberg, Jr, and a witty and insightful foreword by Alan Moore will be published by Ilex Press in the UK on 8 January 2009 and by Abrams ComicArts in the USA, on 1 March 2009

• Erotic Comics: A Graphic History (Volume 1) is published by Ilex Press in the UK, and Abrams in the USA, and is available now.

In Review: Charley's War Volume 5 - Return to the Front

In the week of Armistice 90, the arrival of the latest collection of Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun's brilliant First World War series Charley's War, first published in Battle Picture Weekly in 1981, seems more than apt.

Return to the Front finds World War One soldier Charley Bourne returning to the western front after home leave - an aspect of the war Mills notes he would like to have written more about in his notes on the stories. Reunited with old comrades Weeper and Old Bill - and, unfortunately, enemies like the bully, Grogan and the vile Lieutenant Snell - it's not long before he's back in the thick of the sickening devastation of the Western Front.

He and his friends are soon at the mercy of both inept leadership and enemy bullets alike, as Mills and Colquhoun once again deliver a powerful anti war drama that was, incredibly, first published in a war comic.

Colquhoun's art throughout is a delight, his use of contemporary photographs and other source material to portray the horror (and the occasional humour) of the trenches truly remarkable. While some of the reproduction of some pages -- particularly a few of the covers -- is in places a little disappointing, overall the work done to repackage this excellent story is a real treat. Of particular note are the supporting features, including Jane Colquhoun's memories of her father, Mill's notes on the story and Steve White's well-researched essay on the life in the trenches.

Mills script, written for a weekly title, sometimes sits uneasily in a longform collection, but has lost none of its bite for that: even a forced march down the Menin Road toward Hellfire Corner becomes a genuinely harrowing episode in the story, as Snell ignores the complaints and suffering of his thirsty men while revelling in the pomp and circumstance of warfare only he is able to enjoy, leading them confortably on the back of a horse.

While freely admitting to embellishing and inventing some aspects of the story, much of the tale is inspired from Mills' meticulous research of the war years, much in evidence throughout. The cricket match played as the Germans attack is a particularly savage observation of class.

There's been a lot of talk in this Armistice Week that younger people don't understand the meaning of the occasion: the BBC even took two teenagers to France to show them their great grandfather's grave, a both sobering and illuminating experience for the pair. To me, though, making Charley's War required reading in all British schools would be another way to keep the memories and the experiences of the First World War soldiers alive in many minds.

Charley's War is another excellent collection series from Titan Books and deserves as wide a readership as possible.

• Buy Charley's War: Return to the Front from amazon.co.uk
• Buy Charley's War: Return to the Front from amazon.com

• Pat Mills also praises the work of British artist Steven Beeny in his notes for this book, for his graphic novel Rebellion 1920, a fictional work based on the history of British Royal Air Force during its control of early Iraq in the 1920s.

The story focuses on the experiences of a young airman who has been posted to Iraq, as he comes to terms with the complications and morality surrounding the British occupation. Eleswhere Mills describes Rebellion 1920 as "The only genuine successor to Charley's War and what that series stood for that I am aware of... It's an awesomely researched story, enthrallingly written which totally held my attention. Steven Beeny shows remarkable courage in telling this story. It dramatises in fair, balanced and non-political way our shameful imperial past and and is tragically relevant to today.

"There are readers of Persepolis, Maus and Joe Sacco's work who will be interested in stories about Britain, too. This is the only one I know of that is out there." For more information visit Steve's web site at www.nazcastudios.com. The first chapter is available digitally and in print from lulu.com

Moore's 'Beat Poem' Finally Published

US publisher Avatar Press has announced publication of Light of Thy Countenance, an adaptation of Alan Moore’s damning poem/essay on television, fully painted by Felipe Massafera, five years after the script was written.

Moore wrote might best be described as a freestyle beat poem for the anthology Forbidden Acts in 1995, which was adapted five years ago by Antony Johnson, who describes it as a damning essay and historical treatise all in one, "condemning both the bland, commercial and hypocritical disgrace that has usurped the medium's potential, and the sheep who accept such dross without criticism.

"I wasn’t sure would ever see the light of day (no pun intended)," he comments on his web site, after Avatar Creative Director Mark Seifert announced the book would be published in January 2009 in a thread on Whitechapel, Warren Ellis’ message board.

"[It's] a piece which is both enlightening and disturbing," says Antony, whose numerous credits include Wasteland, Dead Space and other adaptations of Moore's work such as The Hypothetical Lizard and The Courtyard. "I actually finished the script for this book more than five years ago but finding someone capable of illustrating it has been tough -- it’s a very demanding script that requires a fanatical attention to detail, enormous amounts of visual research, and a somewhat surrealist imagination. I’m glad to see it’s finally on the way."

Artist Felipe Massafera also painted the cover to The Hypothetical Lizard: he's a hugely talented painter whose work includes covers of Doktor Sleepless, Lady Death and more. He recently donated a painting of Bizarro to the Siegel & Shuster Society, to save the house in which Superman was created for more access to the site, which sold for $255 on eBay. More information on that campaign on the OrdinaryPeopleChangeTheWorld web site.

• More information on Antony Johnson's web site
• Flickr gallery for Light of the Countenance

Cosmos Fireworks

The latest issue of the Jeff Hawke magazine Cosmos is now available from the Jeff Hawke Fan Club (www.jeffhawkeclub.com)

Issue One of the fifth volume of the magazine edited by William Rudling features several stories, including Uncanny Deep, plus features on the strips and more.

• A subscription to Volume 5 costs £18.50 in the UK, £28 overseas. Overseas members £28. Please send your cheques made payable to Jeff Hawke Club with a stamped addressed envelope to: The Jeff Hawke Club, 6 The Close, Alwoodley, Leeds LS17 7RD United Kingdom

• Also available are slipcases to contain your back issues of the Magazine. Stylish and durable, they'll protect your club magazines for light years. Price £8.50p, including postage and packing. Overseas members; Europe £9.80, World £11.80.