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.

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.

JOHN RIDGWAY PART TWO

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

JOHN RIDGWAY

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

ALAN MOORE ON LIBRARIES

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.

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:

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.

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...