In Review: Iznogoud The Infamous

The Grand Vizier of Baghdad, who's one desire in life is "to be Caliph instead of the Caliph", returns in Iznogoud The Infamous, his seventh book published by Cinebook. Written by Asterix's Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Jean Tabary, this book was originally published as the French album Iznogoud l'Infâme in 1969 and has previously been published in the UK by Methuen in 1977.

As is usual for Iznogoud books, it consists of several different stories. In The Sinister Liquidator he persuades a water demon to dissolve the Caliph, but will there be enough water left in the bucket for the demon to live in by the time Iznogoud and his man-servant Wa'at Alahf trek across the desert and reach the palace? In The Invisible Menace Iznogoud attempts to make the Caliph invisible so that his people will forget about him. In The Unlucky Diamond Iznogoud's greed over the diamond backfires badly on him. In The Magic Doll an African witch doctor shows Iznogoud how to make a voodoo doll that he decides to use against the Caliph. Finally in The Mysterious Billposter Iznogoud imprisons the Caliph in an enchanted holiday poster.

Is there really anything new that can be said about each Iznogoud book? In each story the character's motivation is the same, he goes about his current method of achieving his task in the most extreme way, he fails, he suffers his comeuppance and by the next story the situation has defaulted back to the status quo again. It sounds repetitive and basically it is.

However these are stories written by Goscinny which means that while the motivation and outcome is repetitive, the methods Iznogoud employs to dethrone the Caliph are wild and wonderful and Tabary's artwork is equally wild and wonderful. Perhaps the best example in this book is in The Mysterious Billposter in which our main characters are pushed into a magical wall poster of a holiday beach from which they cannot escape and climbing the palm tree to the top of the poster's scene brings them back out of the hole they have just dug in the sand below themselves. It is all quite surreal but intriguing as to how they could finally escape.

Iznogoud The Infamous is a quick fun read for adults and, with its selection of short stories, would be a good introduction to humorous graphic novels for youngsters who as yet would find the 48 pages of an Asterix story too long.

There are more details of the current British Iznogoud books on the Cinebook website.

There are more details of the French Iznogoud books at the Tabary Editions website (in French).

There are more details of Iznogoud around the world at the Iznogoud World website.

Bristol Expo Line Up continues to grow as weekend nears

An exclusive Watchmen print by Dave Gibbons and John Higgins will be on sale
at the Bristol International Comic Expo

A quick reminder - as if you needed one - that the Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo takes place this weekend (14 -15th May 2011) at the Ramada City Inn & the Mercure Holland House Hotels.

Guest of Honour for the weekend in Rick Veitch, who will be joined by a host of other comic creators, including Sydney Jordan and Martin Asbury, along with publishers large and small.

There's a host of EXpo EXclusives that will be available to visitors, including the free STRIP Magazine Issue Zero and the chance to buy limited edition Watchmen and Razorjack prints.

Up for grabs will be...

• A very special free ashcan edition of the forthcoming UK Anthology, Nelson from Blank Slate Books featuring the work of 50 top creators at work on one single narrative (see news story).

• A special Watchmen print by Dave Gibbons and John Higgins, on sale for £15 and limited to just 75 pieces, marking the 25th birthday of the ground-breaking comic by Alan Moore: proceeds will go to the Draw The World Together Charity.(Pre-order on comicexpo@hotmail.co.uk).

The original artwork has been kindly donated by Dave Gibbons and will be auctioned for the Draw the World Together Charity. This is by sealed bids only and bidding forms will only be available from the Info Desk at the Ramada.

• John Higgins is offering a limited edition Foruli print at the event - limited to just 50 pieces - from his stand at the Ramada. (Pre-order email comicexpo@hotmail.co.uk). That's part of the 'Razorjack Attack' launch, which includes the release of Double Crossing from Com.X, the first novel by Michael Carroll.

• The Etherington Brothers - Bristol Expo regulars - will have30 copies of the 140 page limited edition sketch book El Sketchbook Lorenzo volume F.I.V.E. on sale at the Mercure. The book will be a limited run of only 60 copies in total, with the other 30 going on sale online after the show, but Bristol Expo is the only show they'll be available at, ever!

• Rogue Trooper, the world's greatest Genetic Infantryman, celebrates his 30th birthday at Expo thanks to John McCrea, who is producing a Signed & Numbered
Limited Edition Print which will also feature another legend from 2000AD.

• Markosia will be launching Slaughterman’s Creed by Cy Dethan and Stephen Downey, Quarantined by Michael Moreci and Monty Borror and they'll have copies of their Royal Wedding comics by Rich Johnston, Gary Erskine and Mike Collins for sale.

• SelfMadeHero will be exhibiting at Bristol with a range of new and signed copies of it's latest graphic novels and graphic novel biographies. They'll also be celebrating the launch of the first volume of their The Lovecraft Anthology with a special Lovecraft panel featuring SelfMadeHero creators and a signing featuring as many creators as we can lay our hands on.

They'll have creators sketching and signing at their tables throughout the weekend, so pop by and say hello.

Creators Rob Deas and Ian Edginton will also be on hand to talk about their new graphic adaptation of Pride & Prejudice.

• Print Media Productions will announce the launch date of Strip Magazine, a new monthly comic magazine for the UK, part of a range of comics projects. STRIP MAGAZINE Issue Zero will be given
away free to Expo visitors, featuring background on key strips in the new comic magazine such as Black Ops Extreme by John Freeman and PJ Holden, Warpaint by Phil Hester and John McCrea, Age of Heroes by James Hudnall and John Ridgway, Savant by Jim Alexander and Ferrer and Carlos Vila - plus some highlights of Print Media Productions graphic album range.

There's also a special competition in the sampler which will offer comic creators the chance to have their work in the title when it launches later in 2011.

Confirmed guests include: Henry Flint; Lee O'Connor; Dom Reardon; Simon Bisley; Paul Cornell; Stephen Baskerville; Laurence Campbell; Alan Davis; Dave Gibbons; John Higgins; Charles Adlard; Mark Buckingham; Richard Starkings; Sally Hurst; Lee Garbett; Ian Churchill; Gary Erskine; Rob Williams; Si Spencer; Neil Edwards; Ian Edginton; D’israeli; David Hine; Shaky Kane; Neil Roberts; Dylan Teague; Phil Winslade; Al Davison; Mike Collins; Gary Spencer Millidge; Andrew Wildman; Jasper Bark; Dylan Teague; Roger Gibson; Vince Danks; Martin Fisher; Simon Williams Rob Davis; Simon Gane; Neil Edwards; Sean Phillips; Michael Carroll; Patrick Goddard; Gordon Rennie; Emma Beeby; Paul Ridgon; Lew Stringer; Mike Molcher; Laura Howell; Jim Campbell; Kev Hopgood; John A. Short; Luca Erbetta; Graham Bleathman; Webley Wildfoot; Boo Cook; Bob Wayne; Tim Pilcher; Dave Lota; GM Jordan; Bryan Talbot; John Watson; Colin McNeil; Andi Ewington; Cosmo White; Jock; Tony Lee; Dan Boultwood; Serge Pelle; John M. Burns; Syd Jordan; Cy Dethan; Stephen Downey; Vicky Stonebridge; Nic Wilkinson; Ben Oliver; Dan Lockwood; Inj Culbard; James Hodgkins; Mike Bowden; Rob Deas; Jimmy Broxton; David Roach; Kat Nicholson; Jason Cardy; Al Ewing; Tom Eglington; Dean Beattie; Dave Shelton; and Adrian Salmon

Exhibitors include Com.X. Forbidden Planet London, Incognito Comics, Panini Comics, Self Made Hero, Reed Comics, Markosia, PsiCollectables, Genki Gear, The Comic Man, Astral Gypsy and Tripwire (who recently launched their digital edition).
• For more information on Exhibitors click HERE

• Pre-sales for Expo Tickets are now closed, but organisers tell us that if you want to avoid large queues then tickets will be available at 09.30 from the Ticket Desk in the downstairs foyer of the Ramada on Saturday and 10.00 on the Sunday.

Please note that the event does not open until 10.00 on Saturday and 10.30 on Sunday.

David Attenborough inspires new horror web comic

London journalist Paul Slade has just posted an unusual and exclusive  six-page comics story drawn by Hans Rickheit - inspired by a story recounted by world-renowned naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough.

Paul, whose credits include The Daily Telegraph, Mojo, Fortean Times, Time Out and a host of other publications and who makes occasional documentaries for BBC Radio 4, commissioned Hans Rickheit to draw the story for him earlier this year.

After listening to Attenborough talk about the strange breeding strategy of Britain's Large Blue butterfly and its dependence on ants to complete it - a tale that "utterly captivated" the journalist - Paul came up with an idea for a script.

"This particular project began in June 2010, when I heard Attenborough describe how the UK’s Large Blue butterfly, the Sabuleti ant and the Ichneumon wasp engage in a constant dance of violence and deception to ensure their respective children survive.

"The story began with fratricide, cannibalism and addiction, then moved on to include a spot of mind-control, forced pregnancy and hundreds of dead babies. Naturally, I was hooked. 

"... I could see every stage of it playing out as a series of comics panels in my head," he continues. "...Comics, I thought again, would be perfect. I knew I couldn't hope to draw the strip I envisaged myself, so that meant I'd have to find a more accomplished artist to draw it for me."

Coming across Hans Rickheit's "magnificently creepy" webcomic Ectopiary on the Fantagraphics website by chance, Paul then commissioned him to draw the creepy tale, turning the butterfly's bizarre life story to the comics page.

"When I discovered Hans’ magnificently creepy art, I managed to persuade him to take the strip on, and he did a great job," says Paul.

We agree - and you can check the complete story via the links below.


• To read the full six pages of Paul Slade and Hans Rickheit's Mother's Day in comics form, click here.

• To read Hans Rickheit's on-going webcomic Ectopiary, or to buy his books and original art, visit www.ectopiary.com 

Glasgow comic talent cameo in All Star Superman

(With thanks to Adam Thewlis and the team at the Italian 'All Star' blog): Here's a fun item for the weekend. There's a long tradition of artists featuring friends in comic strips as an in joke: Bryan Talbot, for example, regularly featured his friends from the Preston SF Club in The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and I know I made a one frame appearance in Death's Head II, drawn by Liam Sharp, as an AIM lab tech.

Here's a recent find, from DC Comics All Star Superman Issue 10 where, thanks to artist Frank Quitely, nestling on Page 14 are a group of Scottish comics talents. (For once, Grant Morrison hasn't written himself into a comic as he did most famously with Animal Man #25).

Gazing up at a mashed up Forth Bridge are, we're told, members or people connected with Frank's Glasgow Studio, some of them instrumental in the Bad Press publishing house that produces adult comic Wasted. From left to right in the panel above we have 1) Mal Young and his son, Angus; 2) David Boyd; 3) artist Dom Regan and his son Vincent; 4) Rob Miller (one of the contributors to the now-defunct comic zine Khaki Shorts); and
5) Jamie Grant.

Also in the frame, but not pictured above, are David Peter Kerr and Paul McCann.

Anyone else know of similar panels in recent British comics? (Alan Davis fun inclusions of Dan Dare and other heroes in his strips doesn't count!).