FRED EGG COMICS

2012-01-21T14:50:00.000-08:00

ELMER

I'd recommend this comic by Gerry Alanguilan. The story is clever and amusingly written. The artwork is clear, detailed and has real personality. It reminds me of Kevin Maguire and/or Jason Lutes.

Here's a link to a trailer for it. A relatively new kind of selling tool for comics, and an interesting one.

Read the book, it's great.

2011-12-24T14:34:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS COMICS: Spider-man

Here is a lovely painting by Bob Wakelin published in the Marvel UK Spider-Man Christmas Special 1984.

Have a Merry Christmas!

2011-12-21T13:41:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS COMICS: Prison Funnies

Yippee! It's nearly Christmas. Here's a festive four page tale by Chip Zdarsky. This is from The Collected Prison Funnies, published in 2003. Click for the larger versions...

2011-12-17T15:11:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS COMICS: Doomlord

Heading towards Christmas, so I've scanned a festive cover and story featuring Doomlord, from a December 1983 edition of Eagle.

Doomlord began as a photo strip. In the early 80s, Eagle had a few photo strips alongside its drawn ones. These were in genres such as football, western, etc. Doomlord was sci-fi made with photos of someone in a rubber mask.

It was witty though, and dealt with moral and philosophical issues. It was also popular which meant when the photo strips were done away with, Doomlord continued with artwork from Eric Bradbury and Heinzl among others. The scale of the science fiction action could be expanded outwith having to photograph it.

Alan Grant wrote both the photo and drawn versions, so there's a real continuity to the entire series.

So anyway, here's a Christmas themed pause in the earth-shattering main storyline.

2011-12-13T14:59:00.000-08:00

COMICS STAMPEDE 5: DC Comics

This lovely set featuring artwork direct from the comics was released in 2006. The set is split into covers and images.

The strange thing is I have precisely one Aquaman comic, purchased in the late 70s, and its cover is the image used for his stamp. There must be thousands of Aquaman comics out there.

2011-12-07T13:56:00.000-08:00

TRANSFORMERS CLASSICS UK

In the interests of full disclosure, I must write that I was involved in a small way during the production of this book. However I would have written favourably on it even if I hadn’t been. This book is a collection of comics which were produced by the Marvel UK office in the mid 1980s. I enjoyed the initial run at the time, as mentioned here.

As well as the stories themselves, with terrific artwork from John Ridgway, Geoff Senior, and many others, there are really fascinating behind the scenes articles. These include photos of the offices, and new interviews with most of the artist and editorial staff involved. Lots of artwork produced for poster, sticker and transfer giveaways is reproduced.

It was interesting to note that so many of the team producing the comic were practically novices, learning their craft on the job. Amazing, when you consider the big success Transformers quickly became, and the all-conquering multimedia franchise it has ended up as.

It’s also amusing to see British pop culture explained for an American audience. Hence the description of British annuals as being hardback books that come out close to Christmas and bear the following year’s date on them.

One gripe I would have is that as someone that read the original comics, I am used to seeing these stories in their original dimensions, as opposed to their new smaller size here. I imagine this shrinkage wouldn’t bother you if you hadn’t seen them before in the first place.

The volume is sizable, just shy of 300 pages. A lot of love has gone into the production, as evidenced in IDW editor James Roberts’ introduction. A terrific volume.

2011-11-15T14:11:00.000-08:00

IT'S CERVANTES IN THE BOX

I've been reading Rob Davis' adaptation of Don Quixote. The original is one of my favourite books.

I was struck by the page shown here. It's near the start of the book. Cervantes is talking to the reader to introduce the story. It's a nice page, and artistically done. It does read like an afterthought though. The page could easily have been inserted once the book was finished. I wonder if it was? It's as if Davis is worried that readers really would not understand that the narrator was the person speaking in the boxes. Is it a subtler version of the guide to comics grammar as seen in the Evanovitch book?

Interesting times when comics are explaining themselves to readers who may not know how to read comics.

2011-10-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

COMMANDO 50th ANNIVERSARY - and Doctor Who in Comics.

The University of Dundee has an exhibition on of artwork from Commando comics, currently in its 50th year of publication.

Ian Kennedy gets his own frame with four covers.

The covers are certainly impressive. So are the pages themselves.

There are also scripts on show.

A piece that struck me was Jordi Penalva's "Noose for a Hero" cover. I already liked it, but to see those vivid red clouds in the original painting was impressive.

The exhibition runs until 19th November and is well worth a visit.

There's another on at the National Army Museum in London too, which has huge Ian Kennedy banners outside.

I also recently visited the Doctor Who in Comics 1964-2011 exhibition at London's Cartoon Museum. They have terrific John Ridgway and Roger Langridge pages. John Ross' work was interesting - he doesn't use any black space at all on the artwork itself. I was especially impressed by a fully painted Ron Turner page. I love his Journey to the Stars stories from Speed comic.

I haven't been to the Museum before so the regular material on show was all new to me too. Highlights for me were pages of Frank Hampson Dan Dare, David Lloyd V For Vendetta and Joe Colquhoun Charley's War. It was also interesting to see the Charles Schulz original, with all its erased pencils under the inks. He really worked hard at making Peanuts look effortless.

2011-10-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

HOW TO READ A GRAPHIC NOVEL

Here is a preface to Troublemaker by Janet and Alex Evanovich. Like comics work from novelists such as Denise Mina, James Patterson and Ian Rankine, Dark Horse Comics (or Dark Horse Books as they refer to themselves on the spine of this work) publish work by these authors in an understandable and laudable attempt to attract readers who would usually not read comics. It's the first such crossover book to include an instruction manual on how to follow a comics page though.

It does seem kind of ridiculous, especially to someone such as I who has read comics all my days, but I think they may be onto something. I have seen people look at comics pages and just think "No, I don't want to deal with this". This "comics are too difficult for people to read" argument has rumbled along for at least a couple of decades, and I've heard plenty of skeptical views towards it from learned comics individuals.

But consider this: I think it may be similar the disconnect felt when Yoof TV show Network 7 started putting words running along the screen in one or more places while a presenter was talking. The mix of looking and reading was confusing! It's now the norm and difficult to remember what was so jarring about it.

2011-10-08T15:33:00.000-07:00

SCOTLAND IN COMICS 10: THE JOCKS AND THE GEORDIES

This story is from #1929 of The Dandy, published in November 1978. It's one of the oldest comics I have. More specifically, it's one of the oldest I have that I got when it actually came out.

I liked The Jocks and The Geordies at the time, along with all the other strips in the comic. My enjoyment was very innocent - I had no idea what a Jock or a Geordie was at the time of reading.

I don't know who wrote or drew this, due to D.C.Thomson's policy of giving no credits.

The Dandy continues to come out after 74 years. The latest issue is #3539.

Click on images for larger versions.

2011-09-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

STAR WARS BLU-RAY

There's another release of the Star Wars movies imminent, this time on Blu-ray. There have been more changes made to the films and also included is a selection of deleted scenes. Posted online is an alternative take of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher on Hoth. Watch it here. I checked it out and realised that I was familiar with the deleted dialogue. A lot of it was in the comic adaptation from 1980.

These comics took a long time to do, and so the writer Archie Goodwin and artist Al Williamson would work from scripts and reference photos, so as to have the comic ready at the same time as the movie was released. By this time, dialogue had changed and scenes had been cut, but they were still in the comics. I remember there was much more to Luke's training with Yoda in the comic, for instance.

This black and white artwork really shows up Williamson's work nicely. The writing at the bottom, "Next week! Re-Enter: Obi-Wan Kenobi! Miss it not!" is there because this page is from the UK weekly reprint comic. As six pages had gone by, it was time for a break until the next issue. I can still remember the anticipation for the next instalment. The arm bursting through the wall at the end is a wampa monster, in a scene that was cut from the movie but is also in the deleted scenes now offered.

2011-09-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

THE SIXPENNY MURDER

The Sixpenny Murder is a new British comic written by John A. Short and drawn by David Hitchcock. Originally part of a project named Changing Places+ devised by a psychologist, it's now available from John's own comics company, Kult Kreations and in comic stores nationwide.

I recently interviewed John and it’s now been published over at the Down the Tubes UK comics website. Have a read here.

2011-08-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL

In amongst all the revamped DC Comics, there is a series of one-shots called Retroactive, giving popular creators of the past another bash at the characters they've previously worked on.
I was delighted to see that Keith Giffen, J.M.DeMatties and Kevin Maguire have done another issue of Justice League International.
I really liked this series during its 1987-1992 run, and also the follow-ups Formerly Known as The Justice League in 2003, and I Can't Believe it's not the Justice League in 2005.
Unlike those latter two series which updated the storyline to the present day, this new issue takes place during the original storyline. It's a blast.
Personally I never tire of this trio's work. I was gutted when it finished in 1992, and have lapped up every revamp since. This issue was good too. Giffen's plots and situations are imaginative, clever and quite ludicrous at times. DeMatteis is very witty and keeps all the individuals in character. Maguire is a classy superhero artist.
The funny thing this go around is the computer colouring (as with the recent Ditko Hulk book). It just swamps the line art in my opinion. I guess I'm old fashioned and I want flat colours!

2011-08-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

SUPERHERO MOVIE EXCITEMENT

I'm looking forward to seeing the new Superman film when it's on Channel 4 Sunday night in four years.

2011-08-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMIC ART: MOORE/O'NEILL

The new edition of The International Journal of Comic Art is out now. It has an article by myself in it. A report on a talk given by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, discussing their careers and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

More details can be found here.

2011-07-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

GET THEE TO A LIBRARY: GORGO

This is the BIG one!

Another great thing to do at your local library is have a dig through the newspaper collections. On a recent look through local press I found this 1962 advertising strip for the monster movie "Gorgo"

Quite nice actually. I wonder who drew it? I remember strips like this advertising movies 20 years later for things like "Clash of the Titans".

This paper had another delighful feature. Design Gorgo's head.

Looks like the same artist. I got curious and a referral to Phil Hardy's Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies got me a look at a photo of the big monster.

Comics were used a lot more in the past to advertise anything and everything. I'm looking forward to chancing upon more of them.

2011-07-13T03:12:00.000-07:00

SCOTLAND IN COMICS 9

A new documentary aired Monday past. Have a look here.

2011-07-08T14:48:00.000-07:00

NEW DITKO HULK BOOK

There's a nice Marvel comic out now called "Incredible Hulk & The Human Torch: From the Marvel Vault". It's a first printing for a story pencilled by Steve Ditko in the 1980s to serve as a filler for when the regular arist on Marvel Team-Up missed a deadline. However it was never needed before that series came to an end in 1985.

So now it's out and has been re-scripted by Karl Kesel who also inked it - recently. He writes a suitably gushing and proud introduction wherein he tells of his excitement at drawing over Ditko. He also says he's very fond of the character Johnny Storm and misses him now that he's gone, so he must be dead currently in Marvel Comics. It's great to see Ditko's Hulk back in sequences like the first one shown here (click for larger version).

I found the computer colouring really strange over Ditko's work. The story looks like his 80s work apart from that. The new writing from Kesel too throws in modern references - such as the one shown here to Youtube.

A lovely wee comic for Ditko fans.

P.S. Bonus bemused chuckle: The numbering on Marvel comics has become rather convoluted. There's an ad in this mag for a comic called Iron Man 2.0 #7.1

2011-06-24T15:19:00.000-07:00

GENE COLAN

Gene Colan has died.

I remember his work from childhood days of reading Doctor Strange. He did beautiful work on Howard the Duck, Daredevil, Iron Man, Dracula, Spectre. Loads more.

In the 80s he did Nathaniel Dusk - a series which reproduced his pencils without any inks. Very interesting work.

I last saw work by him on a rock album cover in the late 90s/early 2000s. At first I thought someone was ripping him off, but no, it was the real deal.

A true original. One of the great American comic artists.

2011-06-03T13:53:00.000-07:00

BARBIE

I picked up a book called "The Art of Barbie" recently. It's edited by Craig Yoe, who has put together many fine books on comics, so I figured there would be a good representation of cartoonists in there.

And indeed there is. The comic shown here is by Jay Lynch. The book also features Charles Burns, Guido Crepax, Chuck Jones and Milo Manara amongst others. Worth a look if you get a chance.

2011-06-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

SUPERHERO MOVIE EXCITEMENT

I'm looking forward to seeing Thor, Green Lantern and X-Men 1st Class when they're on Channel 4 Sunday night in a couple of years.

2011-05-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

WRITING FOR ANOTHER ARTIST.

Last night I rewrote an already finished script called "A Book with Death in the Title" for another artist to draw. It was the first time I've done that as I usually do my own stuff.

It took 3 hours to rewrite 6 pages with notes so that he'll be able to follow it and give me what I want. An interesting process.

Very curious to see what he comes up with.

2011-04-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

SCOTLAND IN COMICS 8

Batman's been to Scotland a couple of times. In 1953 he visited in a Detectve Comics story by Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back co-writer Leigh Brackett and Ed Hamilton. Bob Kane is credited, but who knows what he did on the story? As ever, click on the images for a larger view.
"Batmanor" is quite good, isn't it? I like that.

Batman gives Robin duff information concerning Scottish tartans. They both put kilts on with their superhero outfits.

Robin has a go on the bagpipes and then it looks like the Loch Ness Monster appears.
Batman returned to Scotland in 1998. The Scottish Connection is written by Alan Grant, so no dodgy Scots accents. Nice artwork by Frank Quitely. Look at the Forth Rail Bridge page.

Batman doesn't wear his tartan this time, but he does fight a kilted weirdo.

Grant reveals that Batman is part Scottish in this story.

These stories have recently been reprinted. The Lord of Batmanor is in "DC Comics Classics Library: The Batman Annuals Volume One". The Scottish Connection is in "Batman International".

2011-04-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

KA-POW!

I just got back from Ka-Pow! I didn’t take any notes or record anything, so here are my recollections.

It’s been an enjoyable day. I arrived at the venue 20 minutes early to find a massive queue. In the line, various characters appeared in their costumes – The Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Harley Quinn, etc. My favourite was a slightly chubby Blue Beetle, reminiscent of the Adam Hughes rendition for the 1980s Justice League when Blue Beetle sat around eating too many cookies. I did wonder why on Earth people dress up like this, but then I saw a little kid shout to his parents “Look! The Joker”, to which the lanky green villain tipped his hat and winked at the wee one, making his day. Respect due there. At around 20 past 9, I got in. Stewart Lee ran into me, shouting “I’m sorry, it’s all my fault” to a lady. I picked up a program to get a bearing on what was coming up. There was lots on, often simultaneously, so you had to pick and choose.

First up for me was a talk by Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill. It was ostensibly to mark DC’s plans to publish Marshal Law, but it covered lots of their 2000ad work too. The higher ups at DC have changed, meaning the pair do not forsee any problems (as O’Neill experienced with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).

Next, a panel with 2000ad creators old and new. Main draws for me here were Dave Gibbons, Brendan McCarthy and Brian Bolland. In the event though Bolland did not show up. It was an interesting talk, Gibbons talked about the beginnings of the comic, and McCarthy mentioned that he’s doing a new strip about Judge Dredd becoming a zombie – “The Walking Dredd”. What really excited the audience more than the comic talk though was when conversation turned to the forthcoming Judge Dredd movie (yep, another one). Ka-Pow is billed as “an event dedicated to the comicbooks and the films, TV shows and games they inspire.” I am very interested in comics, and not very much in the other stuff at all. Talk of how Dredd’s movie bike and costume looks cool, how violent and dark it is, and how the screenplay is great but it depends on many factors, all of that bores me to tears and gets in the way of talking about 2000ad.

Next was a talk called “Meet the Creators of Clint”. It coincided with a DC Comics panel which I toyed with going to, but I decided to keep it British so to speak and check out this. No panel members were listed in the program, but I imagined Jonathon Ross, Mark Millar, John Romita Jr. and Frankie Boyle would be there. Out of those three only Mark Millar appeared. No explanation was forthcoming on Romita and Ross, but Millar did say that Boyle “couldn’t be arsed”. Stewart Lee was along though, and was his usual entertaining self. The whole talk was informal, and they made it seem like they were chatting and we just happened to be there.
I spent the next couple of hours checking out the stalls and picked up some nice bargains. These marts are amazing. You can literally pick up a comic for 50p and a stall around the corner is selling the same thing for £15. I bumped into Paul Gravett, who was going into The Stan Lee Awards with his VIP badge.

I went in there too, after seeing that the queue wasn’t impossibly huge. After ten minutes of everyone standing around, John Romita Jr took the initiative and to the mic and started telling stories and answering questions. He was a real crowd-pleaser and was obviously loved by the audience. I have to admit to being a bit starstruck myself. He has been drawing comics I was reading since I was a nipper, after all. That along with his family heritage in comics make him a bit of a legend. There was a comedian host onstage getting loads of laughs as he announced winners’ names, and they were not there to pick up the awards (Grant Morrison was nowhere to be seen, and was apparently in the pub and wouldn’t leave according to Millar). There was no-one to present half the time either. At one stage Romita Jr was called up to present an award for best movie in a category that Kick Ass was a contender in. He didn’t win. He presented it to no-one and the host took it from him. Awkward. The host asked someone from SFX to present an award. He did not appear and after a while Frank Quitely came down to do the honours. Comedian guy did not know who Quitely was and talked to him as if he was SFX guy. It was all farcical. Romita Jr. did receive an award for best artist and in his speech said this was the first award he’d ever won and that it genuinely meant a lot to him. A big round of applause for that one. Stan Lee won Man of the Year and had recorded a video message saying it should have been Man of the Century. Excelsior!

After all that fun, I had a coffee. It became apparent that Thor and Loki were about to appear on the IGN stage. The two actors were 45 minutes late and appeared just before closing time. I can’t remember their names because the IGN host kept saying “Thor and Loki are on their way” and “Let Thor in, dude, he’s Thor!” I think he was that guy who used to do “Rad” on Saturdays on Channel 5 about 12 years ago. He sounded like him. At one point it was announced that we now had on stage “the guy who designed Thor’s costume”. It wasn’t Jack Kirby.

I had another little browse around and met Dan Lester, the cartoonist who does Monkeys Might Puke. We’ve e-mailed back and forth and I was in an anthology that he put together. We’ve never actually met though, he seems like a cool guy. A dedicated small presser doing it for the love of comics.

So by this time the attendants were telling everyone to please make their way to the doors. It was a good event, I’d like to see another. But Mark Millar did mention that he’d lost a fortune today, so I wouldn’t count on it.

2011-03-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-03-13T15:36:00.000-07:00

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 on 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.

2011-03-06T13:44:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-02-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

IAN KENNEDY: THE COURIER

Dundee local paper The Courier carried an interview with Ian Kennedy a couple of weeks ago. It's online now. The Courier is put out by D.C. Thomson's, so there's only the work they published. In fact, only Commando art. Surely a Starblazer cover would have been nice? Anyway, have a read here.

2011-02-23T13:05:00.000-08:00

JOHN RIDGWAY PART TWO

The second instalment of my interview with John Ridgway is now up at tcj.com

2011-02-22T13:47:00.000-08:00

JOHN RIDGWAY

The Comics Journal website is running part one of an interview I conducted recently with artist John Ridgway. Have a look here.

2011-02-12T15:09:00.001-08:00

ALAN MOORE ON LIBRARIES

2011-02-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

THE TENTH CIRCLE

Flicking through Judi Picoult's The Tenth Circle I saw these comics pages:

Well, that's a surprise. Not what I would have expected. A character in this book is a comic book artist, and there are examples of his work throughout.

The art is by Dustin Weaver, who has drawn Star Wars and X-Men comics. He seems to have been inspired by the 2003 Hulk movie in this work. Especially the panel in the middle of the page with the guy looking in the mirror, which is very like Eric Bana in the trailer.

It would seem that Picoult has done some research into comics fandom, referencing Wizard magazine and Lying in the Gutters. She has some knowledge, and so comes up with some hilarious scenarios, my favourite being Alan Moore, Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman all hanging out together at a deli.

You maybe know all this anyway! The book was a bestseller in 2006.

2011-01-15T14:09:00.000-08:00

COMICS STAMPEDE 4

I was looking through a promotional booklet concerning the latest stamps from Royal Mail, which feature Gerry Anderson programmes. I knew I wanted those, but there were so many collector’s packs and what have you to choose from. It would cost a fortune if you were someone who had to have everything.

I spotted one presentation pack listing the contents (stamps, miniature sheet, etc.) with the following words: “There’s even a four page ‘comic’ in the style of the 60s kids magazine TV Century 21”. OK, so my mind was made up about which set I was buying. I don’t know why the text wrote ‘comic’ like that. It made me wonder if it would be a comic or something else more like a magazine.

I bought the pack today, and was pleased to see the ‘comic’ was indeed a comic, and furthermore a comic by Gerry Embleton. I well remember his art on Dan Dare in the 1980s, very nice stuff. I had been thinking about it lately actually, reminded of Embleton’s flying shark by a similar creature in the latest Doctor Who TV episode.

The comic focuses on the making of Thunderbirds. Here’s a page from it:

2010-12-18T13:29:00.000-08:00

COMIC HEROES 4

About a year ago I was in a newsagents and spied a magazine sealed in a cardboard packet called Comic...something or other. I couldn’t make it out at first. I was definitely intrigued though, of course. When I looked more closely, I saw it was called SFX Presents Comic Heroes. Hmm. On the front were three movie heroes – the 2002 Spider-Man, 2008 Iron Man and another one I can’t remember. SFX is a glossy sci-fi magazine that also brings out other specials, along the lines of SFX Presents Vampires and things of that nature. So it seemed that this was their superhero movies one. I didn’t want to buy that, and certainly not for £8 without being able to look over the thing.

Months later I saw another Comic Heroes. This one had a picture of a recent incarnation of Captain America (possibly by Bryan Hitch), who is soon to be in his own movie. Cap is currently alive again after being dead, or missing, or not called Captain America any more, or no longer wearing the suit, or someone else is Captain America, or something.

By the time I saw a third edition, it had Alan Moore on front being interviewed. The taglines were (paraphrasing) "I don’t like the movies they make of my comics" and "I’m giving up comics". Moore is always an interesting interview subject, but neither idea/headline is particulary new. Again I wasn't going to buy this without seeing more.

When I was at a comics event in Edinburgh last Summer, someone mentioned Comic Heroes. Did I buy it? No. The Eddie Campbell comic inside was great.

Pardon?

I spent the next couple of weeks trying to find issue three to no avail. The Eddie Campbell bit was in a preview comic inside the sealed pack called “Sidekick” (groan).

It seemed the comic was not solely about superhero movies with a smattering of comics related material. It is a bona fide comics magazine on sale in regular newsagents. Bravo.

So I picked up the latest last week. The packet has an image from the forthcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1969, and the cover itself features the Nautilis from that series. Nice preview pages too and a Kevin O’Neill interview. Paul Gravett is involved, with an article on Moebius. Dandy editor Craig Graham talks about the recent revamp. Dez Skinn writes about Doctor Who comics. Lew Stringer writes about British superheroes. Warren Ellis, Walt Simonson and others feature. The bias is definitely on US superhero comics, with some other genres covered. Nothing is particularly in-depth, but it’s all good fun.

It’s funny how the packaging gave me the wrong idea. Maybe they really should stop sealing it shut.

I’ll be picking it up from now on. I might even subscribe.

2010-12-12T15:34:00.001-08:00

TARDI

I never read much in the way of war comics while growing up. Probably one of the few comics genres I did miss out on.
I've had occassion to look into comics based on World War I lately though. I decided to check out the new collection of Jacques Tardi's It Was the War of the Trenches. I've read the bits of Tardi that were in Raw years ago and so was pretty sure this would be good.
Well, it is a very powerful piece of work indeed. Many many haunting scenes. Beautifully drawn images. It's exemplary.

As a taster here is a video of Tardi working on just one of the panels in the book...

2010-11-27T13:08:00.000-08:00

GERALD SCARFE and DUNDEE COMICS DAY

The latest International Journal of Comic Art (Volume 12, No. 2/3) has been published. I have a couple of articles in there.

They’re reviews of two events from The University of Dundee. One is on Gerald Scarfe’s illustrated talk, and the other is on the third Dundee Comics Day. The latter featured David Bishop, Crawford Coutts, Warren Ellis, Gary Erskine, Mel Gibson, Alan Grant, Ian Hague, Peter Hughes Jachimiak, Ian Kennedy, Bill McLoughlin, Keith Robson, Julia Round, Roger Sabin and Emma Vieceli. More information can be found here.

2010-11-20T15:21:00.000-08:00

GUEST POST: STUART MUDIE

I am writing this with a comic on my desk - more precisely, a calendar featuring a single-frame cartoon taken from what is undoubtedly my favourite comic strip ever, The Broons.

The Broons is a comic that is published every week in the Scottish newspaper "The Sunday Post". It first appeared on 8 March 1936 and, while I haven't been reading it for as long as that, I have been reading it for as long as I can remember. The Broons, along with its sister comic Oor Wullie, plays a big part in many Scottish childhoods, and their Annuals are an eagerly awaited Christmas gift in many households, including my own.

For me, the success of these comics - both The Broons and Oor Wullie are veritable Scottish institutions - is all down to nostalgia: nostalgia for a working-class past in which large families all lived on top of each other in tenement flats that were, I'm sure, considerably less charming to live in at the time. Even when modern life creeps into the stories from time to time, we are often still left with the impression that "the good old days" were best. In my case, the comics remind me a little of my own upbringing, a little more about the stories my parents used to tell about their childhoods, and a lot about the joy I used to feel on reading them as a boy.

I am also a huge fan of the language used in the comics, since they are written in Scots (although depending on the period, it is often a highly anglicised version of Scots) and it is rare if not unique for the language to have such widespread, national exposure over such a long period of time.

And what a long period of time it is! Next year will see the 75th anniversary of the first Broons comics. How much of the work of today's comic book artists will, like these characters created by Dudley Watkins, still be being read every week three quarters of a century after their birth? Not many, I suspect.

For more on my good friend Stuart check out his website here and his blog here.

2010-11-13T11:49:00.000-08:00

GARFIELD DISSES REMEMBRANCE DAY

Jim Davis’ Garfield is deliberately designed to be completely inoffensive, so as to run in as many papers as possible. It has become something that can be depended on to be innocuous. This week I opened up the local paper and found this on Thursday past – Remembrance Day:

One could be forgiven for thinking Davis had thrown a wobbler and put a political viewpoint into his cartoon. A contentious one, at that. But no, as far as I understand, Davis writes them a long time in advance. It would seem the distributors and newspaper teams have learned to trust Garfield so much that they don’t bother reading it.

2010-07-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

HARVEY PEKAR

I didn't see this coming at all. Harvey Pekar - author of American Splendor - has died. It was a unique comic which deliberately chronicled the mundane aspects of life.

He reached a wider audience through the American Splendor movie in 2003. In June this year, Dougie Anderson wrote an article showing how a non-comics reader came to appreciate Pekar's work. Have a read here.

To get an idea of where Pekar was coming from, here is an interview from April 2010.

His influence on comics is profound, if subtle. Pekar was never shouting, and he could all too easily be overlooked, or disregarded after one reading. The effect of his stories has been cumulative - his tenacity meant that he amassed a sizeable body of work that did shape what succeeding generations of cartoonists thought was possible.

The world of comics is a poorer place now he's gone.

2010-07-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

SHIOT CROCK 16

The latest Shiot Crock anthology is out now and available here. It has an eight page story by myself in.

2010-06-30T13:52:00.001-07:00

BERSERKOTRON page 38 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Page 38 is uploaded now. Have a look here.

2010-06-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

R.I.P. AL WILLIAMSON

Al Williamson has died.

He'd worked in comics since the 1940s. He became part of the legendary EC comics stable. His longevity has meant that he has had an impact on many generations. I became aware of him when he did the Marvel Comics adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back in 1980:

Back then I could instinctively tell that this artwork was superior to other stuff being published. It’s classical style clicked with me, and coupled with the excitement about a new Star Wars, it was irresistible.

Williamson drew some of the spin-off Star Wars comics Marvel published too. This is from 1981, issue 50:

He’d been well known for his work on Flash Gordon in the 1960s, taking over the character drawn by Alex Raymond – himself a big influence on the young Williamson. The Flash Gordon movie of 1980 certainly had a different tone than the comics, but the adaptation was handed over to Williamson to draw, a choice which delighted fans:

I first saw Blade Runner on video in 1983 and was excited about a new film with Han Solo in it. However I quickly grew tired of it and went off to play with my cousins instead. A couple of years later Return of the Jedi Weekly in the UK began running Williamson’s Blade Runner adaptation as a back up strip. Wow – what artwork once again by this guy. I had to see the film again to re-evaluate it. The comic is beautiful:

By 1983 Return of the Jedi was ready to come out. The comic was advertised showing parts of Williamson’s artwork. It’s dynamite:

So he’d done Empire and Jedi, but not the first movie. If only he could have a go at adapting the original Star Wars, I thought to myself. There was another Star Wars comic by Williamson in Star Wars issue 98 in 1985. Bonus greatness:

I got my first taste of Williamson’s original Flash Gordon work in one of the Alan Class UK black and white collections. These were little treasure troves with plenty of prime Ditko, Kirby and other great little stories from the 50s and 60s. But what did I spot in the newsagent one day in the mid 80s? An Amazing Stories of Suspense cover featuring Flash Gordon which was unmistakably by Williamson:

An Art of Al Williamson book was released in 1983. I finally got a hold of it years later. It contained something I didn’t know had existed. Previously unpublished Star Wars strips drawn in 1978 chronicling the first movie:

After the Empire adaptation, Williamson got the job of doing the Star Wars newspaper strips. I cut a bunch of them out of a huge pile of Sunday Express magazines that were sat in the back on my biology classroom in the late 80s. They really are beautiful:

In the early 90s, Dark Horse Comics re-jigged and reprinted the strips, editing them so as to fit a standard comic book format, with Williamson expanding on his artwork and sometimes drawing entirely new pictures. So, for instance, the preceding Sunday strip became a two pager:

Another reprint came in 1992. Excellent EC work by Williamson - The Sound of Thunder from 1954:

Beginning in the late 80s Williamson put more time into inking comics. He made everybody he inked look better. Williamson’s work with John Romita JR. on Daredevil is generally regarded to be the latter’s best:

In 1995 Marvel put out a new Flash Gordon two part series by Williamson. Great stuff once again:

The last published new work by Williamson that I’m aware of was a Sub-Mariner story from last year:

Great to see those evocative lines in the sea background, and lithe figure work too.

Another strip he drew for many years was Secret Agent Corrigan, which is all going to be collected soon. Here’s a nice moody three panel sequence:

I’ve picked up other Williamson comics over the years. As much as I could growing up in a town without a comic shop.

Here’s a nice page from Alien Worlds in 1984:

There have been many more books on Williamson since The Art of... in 1983:

There has also been a collection of all his Flash Gordon work which looks tremendous. I’ve mock-complained with my friends that every time I turn around, someone else has brought out a book on Al Williamson! Didn’t stop me buying and enjoying them though…

I had just ordered The Al Williamson Archives which is due out in September. It’ll be a bittersweet experience looking through it now.

For many years my admiration of Williamson was such that I thought the best word to describe his work was “impossible”. How could anyone draw entire comic books to that standard? It just seemed impossibly good. As I got older I realised that it came down to bloody hard work. Williamson didn’t have a magic paintbrush that produced this stuff, he had talent and had to sit down and put the hours in to make it all look so good.

I was paralysed in my own drawing by Williamson. For a long time, I thought I had to measure myself against him. I could never reach that level (no-one did), so I was stuck. I finally had to throw him away completely from my thinking when drawing my own stuff, which finally liberated me.

Now I’m free to enjoy and marvel at the beautiful artwork that is still there on the page.

Thank you, Al Williamson.

2010-06-05T14:35:00.001-07:00

BERSERKOTRON page 37 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here.

2010-06-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

MEDIA SCANS MAY 2010

The Observer 2nd May runs a review of David Small's Stitches...

Financial Times 8th May on Tin Tin's owners...

TV chat show host Jonathon Ross has written a comic. An interview from The Times 8th May...

The Courier 10th May has an interview with Dundee Literary Festival Director Anna Day, stating that Pat Mills is "a massive artist", and that the festival will attract "people who have a historical interest or an intellectual interest in comics as pieces of art almost..."

A review of Philippa Perry and Junko Graat's Couch Fiction in The Guardian 15th May...

From The Times 21st May, Molly Norris starts "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day"...

...and so Pakistan blocks Facebook and YouTube...

Woodrow Phoenix's favourite toys. The Guardian 22nd May...

Who knows why certain books are picked up by newspapers? Here's The Times from 22nd May. They've got Alain de Botton to review Couch Fiction too...

Tin Tin for sale. Daily Telegraph 25th May:

2010-05-30T15:05:00.001-07:00

BERSERKOTRON page 36 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here.

2010-05-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

COMICS STAMPEDE 3

Well, here he is...

A nice Hulk sheet from Madagascar in 1999.

Artists include Sal Buscema, Steve Ditko, Gary Frank, Ron Garney, Dale Keown, Jack Kirby, Adam Kubert, Marie Severin and Herb Trimpe.

2010-05-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

BERSERKOTRON pg35 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here.

2010-05-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

GUEST BLOG: ANNA ZANFEI

I met Anna Zanfei in 2007 at a comics conference, where she gave a talk on webcomics. She had interesting and new things to say about the medium. We got chatting after the event, had a good laugh and argued about Eddie Campbell - I said he was great, she said he was brilliant.

We’ve kept in touch since then, and she’s been kind enough to say nice things about my comics. She’s done it again here. Modesty should dictate that I don’t publish it, but my ego is too pleased – if slightly embarrassed.

As with my previous guest, I asked Anna to write anything she wanted as long as it was comics based. She hasn’t previously made any comics as far as I’m aware, so what she sent me was a bit of a surprise...

Hi . My name is Anna and I'm Italian. I live in the North of Italy not too far from Austria. In my area people love skiing and hiking and in the summer they usually like swimming in one of the hundreds of natural lakes of the surroundings. Trento is a nice, clean and very old city. I basically teach English as a foreign language to students of literature, printing, arts and linguistics. To find a common ground for students in my courses I use comics and editorial cartoons as well as graphic novel dedicated to Shakespeare. Let me explain: when I talk about comics I can talk about the power of a graphic interpretation of Shakespearian original texts; I can also speak about typography as an evocative and iconographic tool and how web comics work; I can speak about the way editorial cartoons can use language, colours and caricatures and compress a whole story and a critique in a single panel; and finally I can look at the dialogue and the titles and speak about language creativity. In this way all my students can be interested and because I'm using the tools of their professions to explain how English works. Out of the classroom I have the chance of presenting at conferences and I publish articles on web comics and also regular comic books.

I love autobiographical comics and comics that look at how young people, and of course women of all ages, communicate. I'm a fan of Jessica Abel for her dialogues, of Posy Simmonds for her multimodal graphic novels and of course I love the work of David Robertson because of his elegant, almost abstract way of drawing and his impressive creativity.

This comic strip is representing myself when I began studying linguistic creativity and I was wondering if comics could be of any use to understand how language creativity works.

(Click on comic strip for larger image)

2010-05-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

BERSERKOTRON pg34 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here.

2010-05-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

TURDSWORTH

My boss is well aware that I read comics.

I was on holiday, came back to work, and he'd left this William Wordsworth poem out for me...

?

2010-05-09T15:53:00.001-07:00

BERSERKOTRON page 33 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here.

2010-05-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

MEDIA SCANS: APRIL 2010

Here’s my round-up for the month:

First, a review of the Kick-Ass movie from the April edition of The Scene. Worth keeping, due to the ignorance of the reviewer betrayed in the opening sentence: “Most comic book stories follow the same premise”...

People often write about "comic books" when they should write "superhero comics". It shows their lack of knowledge of the variety of work in comics.

Cartoons are quickly being killed off at The Observer according to Private Eye 2^nd April 2010...

The Daily Record 14^th April reports on a copy of Beano Annual 1939 found in a pile of items donated to a charity shop...

The Independent 16^th April on rapper Scroobius Pip’s graphic novel...

More musicians getting involved in comics in the Financial Times from 17^th April...

Rosemary Goring in The Herald 17^th April on “graphic artist” Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass...

Could the comics in your loft be worth a fortune? The Guardian 20^th April...

Jeff Oaks’ book on Wonder Woman reviewed by Sarah Vine in The Times 23^rd April...

Peanuts is sold for $175 million. No word on how this will affect Fantagraphics’ book collections. Hopefully not at all. The comics themselves are probably beneath the notice of the new owners...

2010-05-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

BERSERKOTRON page 32 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Check it out here. If you don't like sweary words, you'd best cover your ears.

2010-04-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

STOOL PIGEON

Whilst out and about last week I picked up a free music paper called Stool Pigeon in a FOPP store. It turned out to have an eight page comics section in the middle...

Here are excerpts from all the strips in the section. They're reproduced very large, and the stuff is good...

Pick up a copy if you see one, it's well worth it. Further details on Stool Pigeon can be found here.

2010-04-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

BERSERKOTRON Page 31 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here.

2010-04-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL

At the weekend I usually stick up a new page of Berserkotron at Webcomics Nation. My scanner is not working today, so here's something else...

Over at the Backlash website, they've posted an article called The Dangerous Cartoons Act. It's concerns new laws which have come into effect. Have a look here.

From what I can tell, it appears if you have "images" of underage characters engaged in sexual situations you can be fined, put in jail and stuck on the sex offenders list. By "images" it does not necessarily mean photos, it includes drawings - lines on paper. By underage it means "can be construed as underage" by an ignoramus with power.

This applies to England and Wales, so if you have copies of those excellent Robert Crumb comics or Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls, you better keep them well hidden.

Very worrying.

2010-04-16T14:04:00.000-07:00

COMICS STAMPEDE 2

Tin Tin and Snowy have a run on this French stamp from 2000.

Tin Tin has been on loads of stamps from across the world throughout the years. I have another one from Belgium that I’ll post here one of these days.

2010-04-11T14:18:00.001-07:00

BERSERKOTRON page 30 at WEBCOMICS NATION

It's online now. Have a look here.

2010-04-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

DOCTOR WHO ADVENTURES

For those of you not in the know, every few years the lead character in the British TV science fiction series Doctor Who changes. The physiological change is part of the narrative, in that the Doctor has 13 “lives”. This aspect of the story was brought in when William Hartnell, the first actor to play the role, wanted to leave in 1966.

During the final minutes of January 1^st 2010’s episode, the 10^th version of the Doctor (David Tennant) changed into the 11^th (Matt Smith). After a few months recess, the series returned last weekend with the first full episode featuring the 11^th.

Now, concurrent to all this, there is a weekly magazine called Doctor Who Adventures. It runs a 4 page comic strip drawn in a neat way by John Ross. Here’s his take on the interior of The Doctor’s TARDIS time machine...

As the strip runs alongside the series and then continues while it is off air, it has to follow the events of the show. So, while Catherine Tate’s Donna was his companion onscreen, so was she in the comic too...

Lavender Hill Blob, funny. After the TV series dispensed with Donna and the Doctor spent most of 2009 without a regular companion, the comic created its own characters to keep him company, Heather and Wolfgang...

After New Year’s Day and the 11^th Doctor's 2 minute TV debut showed that the character no longer looked like Tennant, the comic still had to run for four months before Smith established himself. So the continuing tales now had to be subtitled “The Tenth Doctor’s Untold Stories”...

Nice idea, going back to the millennium celebration. Going into 2000 still seems like the future somehow.

These “untold stories” lasted until 2 weeks ago when the comic presented an enigmatic goodbye to Heather and Wolfgang, in much the same way as the TV Doctor had done with his onscreen companions...

Note at the bottom right: “NEXT WEEK: New comic action with the Eleventh Doctor”. This struck me as odd, in that it meant the 11^th Doctor’s 1^st comic story was going to appear before his 1^st TV one.

I looked forward to seeing how John Ross drew the 11^th Doctor. I also hoped they kept Ross on – they may well decide now was a good time for a change.

I keenly perused the next week’s issue, flicked through the opening 3 pages detailing an alien invasion in London, then turned the page to see this...

“NEXT WEEK: Find out what happens when Stephen meets the Doctor and Amy!” What a tease. They got me! I was on the edge of my seat reading this weekly comic, just like a ten year old boy! Good job!

Matt Smith’s first story appeared on TV last Saturday, and this week he’s up and running in the comic. It’s still Ross and here he is...

2010-04-04T12:25:00.000-07:00

BERSERKOTRON page 29 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here.

2010-04-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

MEDIA SCANS: MARCH 2010

Here's what I spotted last month.

The Herald on 6th March ran an interview with Mark Millar, who is busily plugging the Kick-Ass movie...

What a nice surprise on the cover of The Times Playlist magazine for 13th March - Jack Kirby greatness...

However the article had nothing to do with Kirby and was another piece on the Kick-Ass movie...

TV prankster Dom Joly fronted a show wherein he dressed up as Tin Tin and visited locations from The Black Island. The Guardian 20th March ran a review...

The Times 26th March on manga reflecting the social climate in Japan...

Money! The Times on how a copy of Action Comics hidden inside a magazine for half a century sold for a million pounds...

2010-03-28T13:47:00.001-07:00

BERSERKOTRON page 28 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here.

2010-03-26T13:16:00.000-07:00

SCHOOL TALK

I was at a local high school this week speaking with the pupils about comics. Specific examples I looked at were Jeff Smith’s Bone, and the upcoming Twilight series.

Twilight seems to be Marmite for teenagers. I also took a selection of library books including Alex Ross’ Marvels, Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, Matt Groening’s School is Hell, Alan Moore and David Gibbons’ Watchmen.

They were good bunch of kids. They were not all that clued up on comics. I started with “Does everyone know what a comic is?” and “Can you name three comics?” Answers given were “anime”, “Spider-Man”, “Beano”, “Marvel”. There was one enthusiastic cry of “I love manga”.

I also took them through a five minute exercise – using a 9 panel page to do a comic translating a movie.

I handed out some books for the last ten minutes so they could peruse them. They also each got a copy of Metaphrog’s First Men on Mercury to keep. This got quite a few laughs when they were reading it.

The talk went well, apparently the kids told their teachers it was “awesome”, so they were definitely interested.

2010-03-21T14:15:00.001-07:00

BERSERKOTRON Page 27 at WEBCOMICSNATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here.

2010-03-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

JUSTICE LEAGUE INVERTED

I’ve been sick all week. In-between shaking, coughing, headaches and the rest, I’ve been lying in bed reading some Justice Leagues from the late 80s.

The trend for revamps really got going in the late eighties. Monthly comics that had been regularly running since the '30s were renumbered, starting again from #1. The companies like doing this as there is always a sales spike with a new number one as readers pick it up to be in at the start of something new. I recall John Byrne taking over Superman with a new number 1 (after Alan Moore and Curt Swan’s enjoyable two-part “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” in Superman #423 and Action Comics#583). Byrne’s book looked pretty mundane to me, but this revamped Justice League series looked good.

The cover sat on the shelf, the team looked tough and confident and a bit threatening. Anyway it was enough to make me pay up 40p in John Menzies. When I got it home I really enjoyed it. Plotter/layout artist Keith Giffen was a writer I’d enjoyed before on his Ambush Bug comics. I thought scripter J.M.DeMatteis was worth watching too, as he’d written the Kraven’s Last Hunt story for Spider-Man a year or so before. I viewed that as a take-off on Frank Miller, in that it dropped the thought balloons and put loads of disjointed stream of consciousness into boxes instead. Justice League #1 was the first time I’d seen penciller Kevin Maguire’s art too, and I really liked his work. The Justice League comic went on to be a consistently good comic for the next five years.

So. In issue 23, January 1989, the story ends with Green Lantern (Guy Gardner) and Mister Miracle (Scott Free) arguing, and an “atmospheric inversion” taking place – portrayed by printing the artwork in negative:

It was an intriguing way to end an issue. I always thought it would be good to see the art as it must have been drawn though. Eleven years later I got a scanner at home and thought about doing this every so often. And now ten years on, an enforced time-out has given me the impetus to do this:

Seeing those images at last has tickled me!

PS. I still don’t know what “the deadly secret of the atmospheric inversion” was. You’ll note it says “Revealed in Invasion Book Three (on sale now)”. I refused to buy any of these tie-in issues on principle – and due to budgetary reasons. The next issue of Justice League started with another story entirely.

2010-03-14T13:04:00.001-07:00

BERSERKOTRON page 26 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here.

2010-03-11T15:11:00.000-08:00

TRUE STORY, SWEAR TO GOD

True Story, Swear to God #12 is finally out, a year and a half after #11. Cartoonist Tom Beland fell down some stairs and has been recovering the use of his drawing hand.

It was particularly bad timing as Beland’s story was reaching somewhat of a climax before it disappeared. The comic is biographical, with the story’s backbone being his relationship with his girlfriend Lily. Issue 12 promised their wedding. Their wedding which took place at Disneyland.

I’ve been aware of Beland’s work for almost ten years, since he took part in Shiot Crock – the Amateur Press Anthology based at tcj.com (still going, the next one is being set up here, and is open to everyone). Tom has always had an extremely assured inking style. His brush work is very appealing. His strips in Shiot Crock were slice of life gags, with an extended story about a party of stoners being paranoid about a pizza delivery boy at their door. The emergence of his romantic style over these kind of stories seemed to come as a surprise to him. He was just carrying on depicting his own life, and began writing more and more about Lily.

Beland used to send out his comics free via e-mail to subscribers. I was on his list circa 2001, and as well as his cartoons he also wrote little diary style entries. I remember him getting married and sending out his photo from the Magic Kingdom.

Quite soon, he began self-publishing his own series under the company name, “Clib’s Boy Comics”, touchingly named after his Dad who himself nursed cartooning ambitions. I sent off for 7 issues of his original True Stories Swear to God mini, but was sent 2 #6s and no #5! The 17^th issue of the Clib’s Boy series was the last, as Image took over publishing with a new #1.

His comic has serialised his initial meeting with Lily at Disneyland, his move to Puerto Rico to be with her, and has now caught up with the time I was receiving e-mails from him. But I remembered something else while reading this latest issue.

On the following page Beland writes on how he is physically shaken when he meets a woman wearing a burqa:

As you can see, the sequence is written to show you how he manages to get over his prejudice and admit his own shortcomings. But “Taliban uniforms” is a strikingly bad interpretation. Beland writes like this a lot, along the lines of “Here’s why I’m an asshole. But I’m trying my best / have learned better”. I often think of him as the opposite of Peep Show’s Joe Matt , who writes more along the lines of “Here’s why I’m an asshole. No, the biggest asshole ever.”

But what this reminded me of was a cartoon Beland sent out after the 9/11 attacks. It was a single panel with Uncle Sam’s hands opening up a can with “Whup-Ass” written on it . I remember this panel affected me a lot. It symbolised a feeling among the American public that I thought could easily be manipulated into committing terrible acts. It genuinely stopped me in my tracks and made me worry about the future.

It's now nine years later, and I can still enjoy Beland’s work. I do like the romantic storylines, and his work remains funny. He’s always willing to put his personal feelings out there, and it will be interesting to see where his storyline goes now that he’s portrayed the wedding.

And if anyone has a spare copy of True Stories Swear to God #5, let me know. I’ll pay!

2010-03-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

BERSERKOTRON page 25 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here.

2010-03-01T13:45:00.000-08:00

MEDIA SCANS: FEBRUARY 2010

The Scotsman 01/02/10 carried an obituary for Bill Ritchie:

"Ker-pow!" - The Times 05/02/10 on studying comics academically. If you can't be bothered reading the whole article , here is the one comics sentence: "Many Shakespeare tales have been published as comic books in recent years."

TV funnyman Peter Serafinowicz expresses his admiration for Michael Kupperman's Tales Designed to Thrizzle in the pages of The Times 06/02/10:

Film director Mike Leigh writes on cartoonist Ronald Searle in The Daily Telegraph 27/02/10:

And while Peter Serafinowicz is in mind, have a look at this...

Kitchen Gun

2010-02-28T13:51:00.001-08:00

BERSERKOTRON page 24 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded today. Have a look here.

2010-02-25T14:38:00.000-08:00

TODD McFARLANE

In the early 1990s, Todd McFarlane was the hottest artist working at Marvel Comics. He worked on the long-running Amazing Spider-Man title, catapulting it to massive success. After a while, a new Spider-Man title was created and sold on McFarlane’s name (and new status as writer/artist). That first issue sold somewhere around 2-3 million copies. Which seems ridiculous, especially by today’s standards, where the most successful Marvel Comics sell about 100k. But apparently that is the amount the title sold.

After that, he left Marvel altogether, taking 5 or 6 other “hot” artists with him to create a new company – Image Comics. Would readers go with the superstar writer/artists on new characters, or stick with the characters Spider-Man, The Hulk and X-Men at Marvel?

Well, for a time, Image was a sales phenomenon. McFarlane’s own Spawn was another million-seller, the other books were big hits too, and the DC / Marvel domination of the US industry was substantially cracked.

Personally, I never liked McFarlane’s style. Before he did Spider-Man, he drew The Hulk, and I didn’t like him on there. His rise to comics superstardom was a mystery to me.

So, why am I devoting time to the guy?

This is all a mere preamble to an interview I’d recommend you give a listen. In 1992, at the height of McFarlane’s success, Gary Groth spoke with him. They are living in different worlds, and it’s a fabulous meeting of minds.

Check it out here.

2010-02-22T13:52:00.000-08:00

COMICS STAMPEDE 1

I've been a bit of a stamp collector on and off over the years. Not in any serious way, I just like the fact that they are little artwork prints.

Some of the stamps I've picked up have been comics related. I thought I'd share them here.

Let's start with Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future from The Eagle...

This stamp is from an early 1990s UK commemorative set. The theme was not comics. It was a series of characters receiving or sending messages. So here we have Dan Dare in the future - in fact the year 2030, as opposed to the 1990s, the time Dare and co. occupied in the original comics - reading a "Cosmic Space Lines Radiostat Message". The Mekon appears to be sneaking a peak at Dare's messages too.

I have no idea who drew this. If anyone does, please let me know.

2010-02-20T13:11:00.000-08:00

BERSERKOTRON page 23 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here.
Warning: Swearies!

2010-02-15T15:30:00.000-08:00

GASEOUS BRAIN REVIEW

The Gaseous Brain website, as written about here, has produced a fanzine, covering a wide range of topics. It includes the following review:

Dump is a small press comic by David Robertson which brings together a number of short pieces most of which were originally produced by the author for other outlets.

The title may lead one to think that the comic contains some scatological humour, and ‘Contemplating Suicide While Someone Else Craps’ is indeed a one page piece with some very black toilet humour.

However, “It’s Delhi Belly”, a piece drawn for an anthology unsubtly called “Crap Your Pants”, is actually a sober tale about someone who finds out they’ve contracted Crohn’s Disease. It’s a factual piece which made me think it was autobiographical, but according to the notes at the back of the comic it was thoroughly researched and written with the truth in mind.

It also contains a story which is itself called ‘Dump’ which is not in fact a bathroom related tale, but about the protagonist of Robertson’s former comic Berserkotron starting a new job at a scrap metal yard / council dump. I sense that this is a story that could follow through to further issues rather than being standalone.

Other tales in the comic include one which considers how positive discrimination would affect humans in a Star Wars style universe where we have a relatively short lifespan, and an undisguised autobiographical account of a single day for the Hourly Comics Day project. Robertson’s unique way of thinking makes each story interesting, and is also evident in the section where he imagines the thoughts of the models from his life drawing class.

There’s something of Harvey Pekar in the straightforward and commonplace nature of many of the events, and the art is simple yet effective which perfectly matches the tone. If Robertson were to weave some more emotional aspects into his stories he could develop to be a storyteller to watch.

The Gaseous Brain fanzine is available now. For details, have a look here.

2010-02-14T11:22:00.001-08:00

BERSERKOTRON page 22 at Webcomics Nation.

Uploaded now. Take a look here.

2010-02-10T14:44:00.001-08:00

SCOTLAND IN COMICS 6

In 1987, a few of my comics reading friends and I grew tired with the dilapidated selection of US comics available in our provincial newsagents. We decided it was time to head off to Edinburgh for a visit to a real life comic shop.

I cobbled together a few weeks' pocket money. One of my mates got a lot more than me on a weekly basis, and then had the temerity to find a tenner in a taxi the day before our trip.

After a couple of hours on the bus and a seemingly endless trek, we finally found our objective: Science Fiction Bookshop, West Cross Causeway.

Entering that shop was unbelievable. It was the first wall of comics I'd ever seen, and I think I just stood and stared for a long time before making any kind of move towards it.

We spent all afternoon there, chatting with one of the young employees. He was very friendly, and went digging in the back shop, looking for items we asked about.

Later that year, in a follow up to the X-Men story I wrote about here, Colossus visited Edinburgh. And guess where he was pictured...

I guess X-Men writer Chris Claremont had visited the shop on a signing tour and promised to feature it. It was great to see these iconic characters in Edinburgh. And so soon after the excitement of discovering my first comic shop, here it was in X-Men, one of the hottest comics around at the time.

The story has many tropes of a foreign portrayal of Scotland. Dodgy accents and all. It also has a rudimentary understanding of the Scottish political mindset. One of the kids shouts as an insult: "Yuir Dad voted for Thatcher" - not a popular political figure in Scotland, despite being the UK's prime minister in 1987.

Good times. Science Fiction Bookshop was bought over by Forbidden Planet a few years later. I still miss that shop I walked into in 1987, but it's a great memory.

Here's to you, Neil, Steve and Chris. We had a blast.

2010-02-07T11:27:00.000-08:00

BERSERKOTRON page 21 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Have a look here. Warning: sweary words.

2010-02-04T12:03:00.000-08:00

GUEST BLOG: MILO McLAUGHLIN

I’ve known Milo McLaughlin for around ten years. He’s a very creative guy. He uses his Gaseous Brain blog to express his huge interest in music, technology and art in general.

I asked him to write something for me, as long as it was comics-related. Being the techno-buff he is, he’s presented me with a video instead of a written piece.

I’ll turn you over to the man himself now...

For some strange reason, I really identified with pigs when I was younger, maybe it was something about them being fat, smelly and funny-looking. As I was also a massive comic fan, Oink! seemed to be designed specifically for me when it came out.

Looking back it was a total anomaly, having an offbeat humour that seemed to be as much for the amusement of the creators, which included Tony Husband, Charlie Brooker and Marc Riley, as it was for the kids.

I'd always remembered the free flexidisc given away with issue one fondly, and at some point even told my girlfriend about it so I was delighted when she bought it me off Ebay for my birthday recently.

Of course the songs are terrible, but I still found them amusing though maybe I was listening to them through a rose-tinted hearing aid. Anyway, this video will give you an idea of what Oink! was all about.

You can also read about it and see some scanned pages via the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oink!_(comic)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A835373

http://www.notbbc.netmx.co.uk/

2010-02-02T11:59:00.000-08:00

MEDIA SCANS: JANUARY 2010

Here are some interesting bits from the press for the past month. Click on the images for larger views.

Cartoonist Kurt Wastergaard managed to get worldwide mainstream attention for himself by drawing pictures of the prophet Muhammad four years ago. Someone broke into his house to kill him while he was babysitting his granddaughter, so The Guardian published the above interview with him on 5th January.

Insomnia Publications are putting out a new comic based on Burke and Hare. It is written by Martin Conaghan and drawn by Will Pickering. This article is from The Scotsman dated 14th January.

In The Times dated 15th January, Jack Malvern writes about a new comic being put together as part of a sales package in order to get a TV series starring Vinnie Jones made. They've managed to get Howard Chaykin involved.

Thanks, Jack.

Private Eye editor Ian Hislop writes about a 1617 Reformation centenary broadsheet for Radio Times from 16th January.

Drawn Out and Painted Pink is an exhibition of gay cartoons showing now at the Drill Hall in London. This feature is from The Times 27th January.

Lastly, a sad end to the month. Bill Ritchie died. He's well known for Baby Crockett from The Beezer. He had a lovely fun style. Here is the notice from The Courier dated 28th February.

2010-01-31T14:45:00.000-08:00

BERSERKOTRON page 20 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Online now. Read it here.

2010-01-27T13:37:00.000-08:00

SCOTLAND IN COMICS 5

The revamped Comics Journal website, as mentioned here, is now up and running.

They've recently posted an article on Scottish Comics. It's worth a read.

Part one is here.

Part two is here.

2010-01-24T14:26:00.000-08:00

BERSERKOTRON page 19 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded to the website now. Take a look here.

2010-01-22T12:47:00.000-08:00

GET THEE TO A LIBRARY: CHRISTIAN COMICS CAVALCADE

The local library has had an influx of Christian books. Apparently a donation was offered and agreed to, and then a shedload of books arrived. In amongst the deluge, I’ve spotted three comic books.

Yun: The Illustrated Story of the Heavenly Man is the only one that I’ve heard of before. The credits are confusing. The cover states Brother Yun with Paul Hattaway, with no mention of who did what. The inside states just Hattaway, again without further detail. Then there’s another listing – Story adaptation and illustration: Rico Rival, Script adaptation: Nate Butler, Ed Morris. If you can make sense of that, well done. There’s an additional credit - Graphic Novel Concept: The Edge Group. So now we know who invented the form.

The art isn't bad. On first impression, it reminds me of Joe Kubert. In other places I see some Will Eisner. The figure in the bottom left panel above looks like Gil Kane / Steve Ditko.

Next up is Manga Bible Volume 2 by Young Shin Lee and Jung Sub Hwang. How many Manga Bibles are there out there? This has to be the third version I’ve seen.

This comic incorporates modernisms into the biblical tales. Witness “Are you filming a movie?!” in the following page:

I found the book quite amusing.

Then we have The Lion Graphic Bible by Jeff Anderson and Mike Maddox.

It’s fully painted in the style I always associate with Heavy Metal. Unlike the Manga Bible, The Lion Graphic is very straight. I found it looked very nice, but I didn’t want to read it at all.

In fact the highlight of this library edition was the mood-breaking placement of the barcode and date label:

“In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth. Cultural Services 8046 00951 009 This book is to be returned on or before the last date stamped below.”

These books were an interesting diversion, but it would have been nice to get in a copy of Robert Crumb’s new Book of Genesis Illustrated.

2010-01-16T14:05:00.001-08:00

BERSERKOTRON page 18 at WEBCOMICSNATION

Page 18 is up now. Have a look here.

2010-01-13T13:47:00.000-08:00

INTERESTING

David Mazzucchelli: I think there is often a distrust of pictures to carry content.

Dash Shaw: That makes sense a little bit, because not many people are really interested in dissecting pictures.

DM: I think that's true, and in fact, I don't have the book in front of me, but it would be interesting to see how much of the book has pages with panels in which there are no words.

DS: In Epileptic?

DM: In Epileptic, or in Maus. Because I remember Spiegelman saying when he made Maus, knowing that he was creating it potentially for people who weren't used to reading comics, he made sure that he put all the important information in the text.

DS: That's really weird. That's really weird to me.

DM: Well, that's weird to you because you grew up thinking about comics and how the two feed each other.

2010-01-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

BERSERKOTRON pg. 17 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Have a look at this week's page here.

2010-01-04T14:05:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS COMICS - LATE NEW ENTRY

In W.H.Smith today, I spotted and bought the latest reissue in the British Classics Illustrated series. Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as written by George D. Lipscomb and drawn by Henry Kiefer.

I’m a big fan of Dickens and this book particularly. There have been many re-tellings of the story in comics.

It’s funny that with the nice super-white glossy paper the work loses something for me. I think it would look better on browning old newsprint.

Still, it’s well worth picking this up. Classic Comic Store are doing a good job packaging up these old comics at good prices. It would cost a small fortune to pick up the original 1940s edition today.

2010-01-02T12:36:00.000-08:00

BERSERKOTRON pg16 at WEBCOMICSNATION

This week's page is uploaded now. Have a look here.

2009-12-31T04:45:00.000-08:00

MEDIA SCANS

Some comics related articles from the December press...

Starting off with a bumper review of the year section from The Times 05/12/09. This covers Joe Daly's The Monkey Double Happiness Book, Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadmitirion's Logicomix, Paul Hornschemeier's All and Sundry, Jason's Low Moon, Bruce Paley and Carol Swain's Giraffes in my Hair: A Rock 'n' Roll Life, Harvey Pekar's Working, Nate Powell's Swallow Me Whole and Shaun Tan's Tales from Outer Suburbia.

From The Telegraph 12/12/09, an interview with Alan Moore regarding his Dodgem Logic magazine.

The Guardian 12/12/09 also reviews Logicomix, along with Joe Sacco's Footnotes in Gaza and Gilbert Shelton's Fat Freddy's Cat.

A more lengthy Footnotes in Gaza review from the Scotsman 19/12/09.

2009-12-28T12:54:00.000-08:00

DUMP COMIC REVIEW

A review of Dump from Shannon Smith at Poopsheetfoundation:

"I've been familiar with David Robertson's comics for a while thanks to the Shiot Crock anthologies. I've enjoyed everything I've seen of his so far. His comics are refreshingly void of angst or any sort of obvious agenda. Each story seems to exist solely because Robertson felt like telling and drawing that story at that moment. DUMP is a collection of these random stories. While the stories have next to nothing in common they all share a similar tone and work together for one enjoyable 99 page read. The book has a lot of the standard things you would expect in a one man anthology. Auto-bio, short fiction, parody and sketches. Robertson seems to handle them all with the same observational style and tone. The strongest vibe I get from all of Robertson's stuff is a disconnect. Robertson writes as if he is a foreign observer documenting the events as they unfold without judgment or agenda. The danger in this disengaged writing style is that it can feel stiff but Robertson pulls it off by being clever and fun. A lot of that is his choices in subject matter. A comic that at first seems like a straight up Star Wars parody turns out to be a clever satire on race. A comic that seems to be a set up for the animal tracking adventures of a movie sound man turns out to be a gag about job incompetence.

Robertson's drawing is simple and minimal but his layouts and storytelling chops are just fine. I don't know that more attention to the drawing would make the comics work any better. They would look nicer and it would possibly make them more accessible to a wider audience but that does not necessarily equal being better. Funny is funny regardless of how well it is drawn.

The comic itself looks nice and is a comfortable read at the pamphlet size. Ninety nine pages is a good count for a folded and stapled pamphlet sized comic. A lot of Robertson's pages are in the nine panel grid style which looks better at pamphlet size than at standard minicomic size so I can understand why Robertson whet with this choice. The resolution on the photo cover is a bit off and causes a slightly blurry image. It does not look bad but it draws attention to the less than professional nature of the book. As far as the content of the photo cover goes, I get it. It's an image of a dump and the comic has a story about working at a dump. And there is the idea of a one man anthology book being a dump of stories. I get that. My concern is that if I saw this in a store or at a con I would not have any clear idea what the thing was by looking at the cover. Some people might think 'what the heck is that?' and pick it up out of curiosity. Others might think 'what the heck is that?' and pass it by. I hope they pick it up. It is an enjoyable read."

2009-12-26T11:28:00.001-08:00

BERSERKOTRON page 15 at WEBCOMICSNATION

Page 15 is online now, here.

2009-12-24T13:35:00.001-08:00

CHRISTMAS 3

A nice Christmas cover mast from Eagle, 22 December 1950.

Have a good Christmas, I wish you loads of good comics...

2009-12-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

FUNTIME

The latest edition of Funtime Comics - #23 - has a two pager by myself in.

Funtime is a long running comics anthology, coming out of New Zealand since 1991. More details on the magazine, including ordering details, can be found here.

2009-12-20T15:38:00.001-08:00

BERSERKOTRON page 14 at WEBCOMICS NATION

Uploaded now. Take a look here.

2009-12-19T14:14:00.000-08:00

DAN O'BANNON

Dan O’Bannon has died. He’s well known as a movie writer. Among his credits are Alien, Blue Thunder, Dark Star, Heavy Metal, Invaders from Mars, Lifeforce and Total Recall. He also directed Return of the Living Dead and worked on special effects for Star Wars.

In the 70's, O’Bannon wrote an incredibly influential comic story called The Long Tomorrow. It was drawn by Moebius. The finished comic is acknowledged as being a major influence on Ridley Scott when he was working on Blade Runner, as you can see from these pages...

RIP Dan O’Bannon 1946-2009

2009-12-17T14:48:00.001-08:00

CHRISTMAS COMICS 2

Another cracker...

In 1973 Raymond Briggs depicted Father Christmas as a miserable git who felt well put out by everyone and everything. It's a great comic.

It was no surprise when Briggs declared that he hated Christmas a couple of years ago on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. This book is enjoyable because Father Christmas' bad attitude is presented with Briggs' art, which looks so...warm and inviting. You would give this to a kid quite happily.

2009-12-15T15:20:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS COMICS

I have a liking for Christmas comics. Probably my favourite is Christmas with the Super-Heroes, a DC compilation.

It features Neal Adams, Nick Cardy, Dick Dillin, Mike Friedrich, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Dick Giordano, Bob Haney, Paul Levitz, Frank Miller, Denny O’Neill and others. It was published in 1988, a time when a nostalgic feeling for my own Christmases past was starting to come through.

Mark Waid wrote a nostalgia fuelled editorial for it...

I think my favourite story is the charming Superman and Santa Claus. Written by Len Wein and E. Nelson Bridwell, and drawn by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, it neatly tied together both fictional characters by playing on the idea that they both lived in the North Pole.

Great stuff all round. Pick up a copy if you can find one.

2009-12-12T12:15:00.000-08:00

BERSERKOTRON page 13 at WEBCOMICS NATION

...can now be accessed here.

2009-12-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

MALABAR

Clearing out the loft, I came across these again recently. Bubblegum wrapper inserts given to me in 1986 by visitors to France.

I still think they're really nice...

2009-12-08T09:21:00.000-08:00

WHOHUB

Have a read of my whohub interview here.