SPACESHIP AWAY

The latest issue of the Dan Dare and science fiction magazine Spaceship Away is out. Issue 23 is the first under new editor Des Shaw, and features an article by me. It covers my lifelong admiration of Ian Kennedy's work, my interviewing him and my commissioning him to do a Dan Dare painting.

The artwork is printed in the magazine too. As a taster, here are the pencils.

More details on Spaceship Away can be found here.

While we're on Ian Kennedy, do look out for his gatefold cover for Commando #4376 - a science fiction story! It's almost like having a new issue of much-missed Starblazer come out.

SCOTLAND IN COMICS 7

Scottish Comics is a nice journal put out by Napier University recently. It is well illustrated with lots of D.C. Thomson comics pages. The writing includes pieces from Alan Grant and Mel Gibson who are always worth reading.

The preface from Alistair McCleery contains this sentence; "Are we claiming that comics are literature? No, simply that they carry meaning beyond their basic narrative." which lets you know where they're coming from.

Here are some of the selections (click for larger versions):

I remember Wilson fondly from when he was revived in Spike in the 1980s as "The Man in Black". Ian Kennedy does his usual great job on Tough of the Pool. And The Four Marys seems to be known by every woman in Britain of a certain age.

You can order a copy of Scottish Comics here.

KRAZY KAT by Sherrie Levine

I picked up a book by the name of "Objects for the Ideal Home: The Legacy of Pop Art" recently.
In it was this piece:

This is not by George Herriman, but by Sherrie Levine. As with Lichenstein's work, I am quite ignorant as to why I should be impressed by this. They handily explain what Levine is up to though. For a larger version, click on this image...

Nope. I don't get it. I'm too invested in the original material to take this seriously. I love Herriman, and consider his Tiger Tea storyline somewhat of a masterpiece.

I can understand Pop Art when Warhol is blowing up washing powder boxes as I don't consider them art in the first place, but when the process is performed on Herriman, it's an insult.