2009 Graphic Short Story Competition Launched

UK Sunday newspaper The Observer has just launched this year's Graphic Short Story competition, part of the activities of the ComiICA Festival.

The winner of last year's Graphic Short Story prize, Julian Hanshaw, is about to publish a book, so the competition is definitely one to consider entering - and the £1000 top prize shouldn't be sniffed at, either!

The deadline for submissions is 25th September 2009 and the winning entry - judged by artists Joe Sacco and Simone Lia, Rachel Cooke from The Observer, Dan Franklin (Publisher, Jonathan Cape), Comica Festival Director Paul Gravett and (Random House Creative Director Suzanne Dean - will be published in the Observer Magazine on 1st November and the prize, a cheque for £1,000, will be awarded at the Comica Festival at the ICA on 8th November 2009.

Now in its third year, the competition attracted some 240 entries, and the standard was so incredibly high that the judges decided to award two runners-up, as well as a winner. So perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that Julian Hanshaw, the West Sussex-based animator who took the overall prize for his haunting story, Sand Dunes & Sonic Booms, has since sold his first book to Cape, The Art of Pho, will be published next March.

Pho, a kind of noodle soup, is the national dish of Vietnam - tells the story of Little Blue who, abandoned by a mysterious man with a red car in Ho Chi Minh City (“Count to 500,” he is told), finds salvation in his own mobile pho stand: cue much slurping. At last! A graphic novel with recipes.

• For full competition information visit the ComiICA web site

Graeme Neil Reid: Walking on the Moon

Here's the latest contribution to our marking of the 40th Anniversary of the first Moon Landing: "Walking on the Moon", a stunning piece of art by top Scottish illustrator and comics artist Graeme Neil Reid, whose credits include the Radio Times and is one of the contributors to Scotch Corner, a new combi-blog for Scottish artists.

Graeme is a freelance illustrator based in Edinburgh, Scotland, mostly known for comic work for various publishers including Image Comics and Caliber Comics. He's also worked in the advertising and marketing industry for over 15 years. Working with both traditional tools and computer software such as Photoshop, Painter and Illustrator, Graeme is probably best known for his strong ink line and computer colouring - but he's also happy to get his hands dirty with oil paints when needed!

His illustration will soon join our "Moon Landing 40th Anniversary: A Comics Celebration" - a gallery of illustrations and comic art inspired by space exploration - which includes art by Martin Baines, Nick Abadzis, Colin Howard, Mike Nicoll and others.

Further contributions are very welcome: if you don't want to join our forum and upload art but would like to join in with the celebrations, simply send your work to johnfreeman6-moonlandinganniversaryart@yahoo.co.uk.

Please ensure images are no larger than 2MB in size and include a brief bio and web link so we can give you deserved credit.

On today, the actual anniversary of the landing, our thanks to everyone who found time to contribute in their busy schedules so far!

• Read the latest news on the work of much-in-demand artist Graeme Neil Reid on his blog at www.gnreid.blogspot.com

Moon Landing: T Minus 0 Days - The Eagle Has Landed

Forty years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin boarded the Lunar Module, Eagle, and undocked from the Command Service Module, Columbia. Leaving Mike Collins alone in the CSM in lunar orbit, they descended towards the Moon's surface where Eagle safely touched down in the Sea of Tranquility at 8:17pm GMT.

Wilf Hardy's illustration from Look and Learn issue 907, dated 19 May 1979, shows the Lunar Module flying separately from the CSM as it descends towards the Moon's surface while this illustration from him shows the LM the moment before touchdown.

This is the cover for the LP recording of Journey To The Moon, a factual album from Gerry Anderson's Century 21 organisation which used the cast of Fireball XL5 to tell what was to them the historical event of the first moon landing. Today it makes for an interesting listen as its writer, Alan Fennell, has to put into the past tense events that were still in the future as far as its young listeners in 1965 were concerned. This album is better known from its rerelease in the 7 inch EP format by Century 21 records as the first of their "21 Minutes Of Adventure" mini albums and it has also been remastered recently onto CD by the Gerry Anderson club Fanderson. As such it has shrunk in size as recording technology has changed in the last four decades.

The final illustration is from Rockets and Spacecraft Book 1 and shows an early concept of how the Lander would have looked on the surface. As this book was published early in the Apollo program and as with the record sleeve above, it shows the then current design of a circular hatchway for the astronauts to exit the vehicle through, which was soon changed to a more rectangular design to allow the astronauts to get their backpacks through it more easily. Interestingly, the uncredited artist does not include a ladder for the astronauts to descend to the surface on...

Americans would have us believe that Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the Moon on 20 July 1969 because they saw it happen in their late evening. However British television audiences saw it happen in the early hours of Monday 21 July 1969. Since NASA operates on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which to all intensive purposes is Greenwich Mean Time, they also consider that the first footsteps on the Moon took place on 21 July.

Yesterday – What Could Go Wrong
Tomorrow - First Footsteps

• Coinciding with Jeremy's countdown to the 40th Anniversary of the first Moon Landing, downthetubes is publishing "Moon Landing 40th Anniversary: A Comics Celebration" - a gallery of illustrations and comic art inspired by space exploration.
Contributions are very welcome: if you don't want to join our forum and upload art but would like to join in with the celebrations, simply send your work to johnfreeman6-moonlandinganniversaryart@yahoo.co.uk. Please ensure images are no larger than 2MB in size and include a brief bio and web link so we can give you deserved credit.

Moon Landing: T Minus 1 Days - What Could Go Wrong

Forty years ago today, the crew of Apollo 11 were almost at the Moon with their mission progressing smoothly.

The crew of Apollo 13 were not so lucky when, on 14th April 1970, an explosion occurred in their Service Module 55 hours and 55 minutes into their journey to the Moon. Orbital mechanics prevented them just turning around and coming home and they had to use their Lunar Module as a lifeboat to fly around the Moon and back again to the Earth before returning to their damaged CSM and a nervous re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere.

Look and Learn artist Wilf Hardy catches the moment of the explosion on the front cover of the magazine's issue 450, dated 29 August 1970. The Apollo 13 crew did return home safely and intricacies of their mission is now well known due to the Apollo 13 film.

Yesterday - The Command and Service Module
Tomorrow - The Eagle Has Landed

• Look and Learn Official Web Site: www.lookandlearn.com

• Coinciding with Jeremy's countdown to the 40th Anniversary of the first Moon Landing, downthetubes is publishing "Moon Landing 40th Anniversary: A Comics Celebration" - a gallery of illusrtrations and comic art inspired by space exploration.
Contributions are very welcome: if you don't want to join our forum and upload art but would like to join in with the celebrations, simply send your work to johnfreeman6-moonlandinganniversaryart@yahoo.co.uk. Please ensure images are no larger than 2MB in size and include a brief bio and web link so we can give you deserved credit.