ARCHIVED NEWS - JUNE 2006
THE SMALL PRESS ARE NOT FORBIDDEN…
29/6/06: Forbidden Planet International (www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk) is
about to open its online retail store to the independent UK small press.
The company is planning a British comics month in July and will feature
some story about British comics every day on their Blog. Side by side with
this FPI are also offering to list any and all comics being produced in the
UK on their site.
“FPI sells a lot of comics but mostly this is superheroes and, to a lesser
extent, product from the bigger alternative comics houses like Fantagraphics
and Drawn and Quarterly,” Kenny Penman, FPI’s Director Internet
Services explains. “I know some of our stores run locally produced comics
on a one to one basis between managers and producers (though I couldn’t
tell you which ones and what they carry).
“It occurred to us that we can however carry everything online, and should,
as we try to expand the range of comics product we carry. “
British features on the FPI blog will range from a feature on 2000AD or
Beano through to interviews/features on smaller UK producers, says Kenny,
like Typocrat and the small press community.
“We would run a picture of [an indie’s] cover and a synopsis of
the story and make them available to buy,” Kenny continues. “In
truth we aren’t looking to make a lot of money out of this - we see it
as a way of just making us truly live up to the tag of UK’s largest comics
seller by expanding the range to feature all comics.
If you’re a small press publisher interested in taking up FPI’s
offer, get in touch with him via MANPEN@aol.com or call 01708 346305.
Kenny says margins still need to be negotiated “but I’m probably
willing to work on something that merely covers our costs - listing, packing
etc so we aren’t necessarily looking for 50%+ discounts here.”
The move to embrace the small press isn’t entirely philanthropic. “We
expect that down the line some of these producers will become bigger names,
new customers will be attracted who also buy other items,” says Kenny, “But
in truth it’s more a currying favour exercise and an attempt to make
us a more prominent player in the ‘whole’ comics scene rather
than our own little mostly superheroic backwater.
“We have over 100,000 visitors to the site monthly (not all for comics
of course) and it could become a place where people’s work would get
seen by a greater number.
“We also would be happy to blog any upcoming small press events if people
just let us know what they have coming up."
BRICKMAN RETURNS! AGAIN!
A brand-new series of full-colour Brickman comic
strips will begin starting in issue #2 of Elephantmen,
the new title by Richard Starkings and Moritat and published by Image Comics.
Entitled Brickman Returns, it marks the latest adventures
of Brickman by Lew Stringer, a spoof of a certain caped crusader who first
appeared 27 years ago in the British small press. Brickman is also the star
of Brickman Begins!,
published by Active Images last year.
"I'm having a lot of fun," said Lew, whose credits include ongoing strips for Egmont's TOXIC. "The
short self-contained humour strips will initially expand on the early years of
Brickman's crime-fighting career for the benefit of the majority of readers who
will be unfamiliar with our zero, um, Hero!. This will be Brickman's largest
readership to date."
"I love Brickman, me... and I love Lew, because he's so much bolder than I am," says
Active Images publisher and Elephantmen writer and former Marvel UK Editor in
Chief, Richard Starkings. "Oh,
sorry! I mean balder than I am...
"I'm thrilled to be able to bring Lew's work to so many new readers. I know they'll
fall in love with the adventures of Loose Brayne and his alter-ego Brickman as
he fumbles his way through story after story."
Brickman first appeared in 1979 in Stringer's small press 'zine After
Image,
and then appeared in a string of, er, Lew Stringer mini-comics throughout the
1980s. In 1986 the character appeared in a special black and white one-shot,
then vanished from the scene for ten years before returning in Yampy Tales in
1996. Brickman finally returned in the 152-page collection, Brickman Begins!
Elephantmen (Image Comics,
$2.99, 32 pages, ongoing monthly series) is written and edited by Richard Starkings
with art by Moritat. The new series begins this July. Future issues will feature
such artists as Henry "Dredd/Aliens" Flint,
Tom "Godland" Scioli,
Duncan "The Nightmarist" Rouleau,
David "Spawn" Hine, and a whole issue by Joe "Supergirl" Kelly and Chris "X-Men" Bachalo
.
• Buy Brickman Begins! from Amazon.com: Click Here
•
Lew Stringer's Official web site: lewcomix.tripod.com
•
For more on Elephantmen visit: www.hipflask.com/issues/elephantmen01
Issue
#2 (Aug 2006) features a flip cover by Ian Churchill. To see it, go to www.hipflask.com/issues/elephantmen02/cover.html
MIKE COLLINS DOES TELLY!
24/6/06: Doctor Who comic artist Mike Collins will be appearing on CBBC's Totally
Doctor Who show this Thursday (29 June). Mike will be
discussing drawing monsters and comics, although we don't know how long
the item will be but judging by other items on the show, not long...
ENTER THE FREY!
24/6/06: An Eagle and Trigan Empire artist is the focus of a new book from Thalamus Publishing, The
Fantasy Art of Oliver Frey.
Described as one of the most important artists working in the medium of
commercial illustration, Frey worked on some of Britain’s greatest comic
institutions -- the Fleetway War Picture Library, Dan Dare in Eagle,
and The Trigan Empire in
Look & Learn following
the departure of Don Lawrence. He also created the 1930s-style opening
sequence for the film Superman:
The Movie. But for
an entire generation of boys in the 1980s, it is Frey’s exuberant art on
the covers of cult computer games magazines that came to express the sheer
excitement of the games they played — heroes,
space ships, villains and action!
The Fantasy Art of Oliver Frey by Roger
Michael Kean, who has been a friend and colleague of Frey for over 30 years,
documents his work between the 1970s and today. The prime focus is on his
staggering output in the 1980s and early 1990s, when he produced hundreds
of computer game magazine covers, software games inlays and incidental
illustrations that set the international video games market alight.
While the paintings will be familiar to many magazine readers, few will
have ever seen the originals as beautifully reproduced as this, and free
of the commercial sales lines and slogans that cluttered them as magazine
covers.
•
Buy the book from Amazon.co.uk: Click Here
• Read
more about the book and view sample pages on the Thalmus Publishing site
TABLOID HYSTERIA MOUNTS OVER PETER PAN
'PORN'
23/6/06: Sections of Britain's mainstream press could be about to
get themselves into a lather over Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's upcoming graphic
novel, Lost
Girls.
While publishers Top Shelf and the creators of the book have made no secret of its erotic content, controversy is being stirred because it centres on the sexual awakenings of Alice (of Alice in Wonderland), Wendy (of Peter Pan) and Dorothy (from The Wizard of Oz).
Associated Press reported this week that Great Ormond Street Hospital, which holds the copyright to Peter Pan in the UK, has criticised the appropriateness of a book "that portrays the character Wendy exploring her sexuality."
In a press statement, the Hospital commented: "We understand this graphic novel involves characters from the story of J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan & Wendy," which is, of course, in copyright in the UK and EU.
"In order to be published or distributed in these territories, Alan Moore's title would need our permission or license. From press coverage, we understand it deals with sensitive subject matter which does not initially seem appropriate to be associated with the hospital and with J.M. Barrie's legacy to us."
Lost
Girls has been praised by various creators and critics who have actually
read it, including Publisher's Weekly, who called
it "Beautiful, literary and
moving."
Author Neil Gaiman commented: "As an exercise in the formal bounds
of pure comics, Lost Girls is remarkable, as good as anything Moore has done
in his career. ... Whatever you call it, there has never been anything quite
like this in the world before, and I find myself extraordinarily pleased that
someone of Moore's ability actually has written that sort of comics for adults."
The Lost
Girls is, as you'd expect from Moore and Gebbie, a complex work, and "the sex may be less interesting than what it is being used to say," says Adi Tantimedh, writing for Comic
Book Resources.
In publicity for the new story, Alice, Wendy and Dorothy are described as "our guides through the Wonderland, Neverland and Land of Oz of our childhoods. Now like us, these three lost girls have grown up and are ready to guide us again, this time through the realms of our sexual awakening and fulfillment.
"Through their familiar fairytales they share with us their most intimate revelations of desire in its many forms, revelations that shine out radiantly through the dark clouds of war gathering around a luxury Austrian hotel. Drawing on the rich heritage of erotica, Lost Girls is the rediscovery of the power of ecstatic writing and art in a sublime union that only the medium of comics can achieve. Exquisite, thoughtful, and human, Lost Girls is a work of breathtaking scope that challenges the very notion of art fettered by convention. This is erotic fiction at its finest."
Despite concerns from Great Ormond Street, Alan Moore told the BBC he has no intention of seeking permission from the hospital to use the Wendy character.
"I don't really see that you can ban anything in this day and age. It wasn't our intention to try to provoke a ban," he said in an interview.
"Lost
Girls is, without any shadow of a doubt, pornography," says Newsarama,
who recently
interviewed Moore and Gebbie about the project. "Within its pages,
Alice, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Dorothy, from The
Wizard of Oz,
and Wendy from Peter Pan meet, recount their intimate
backgrounds in graphic detail, and have many sexual adventures together. There
is virtually a graphically depicted sexual act on every page.
"But, as with every
work by Moore, Lost Girls is more than its surface appearance. It's a challenge
to readers and to critics."
• Buy
the book from Amazon.co.uk and decide for yourself (Mature Content)!
• Read
Publishers Weekly's interview and feature on Lost Girls in full
• Visit
the Top Shelf web site for more on the book and links to various online
features including articles on the Comic
Book Resources and Newsarama
• Read Neil Gaiman's review in full
 |
Vivian
Cheung and Nick Landau at Titan Entertainment Group's 25th Anniversary
Party, attended by a wide range of comics creators and other publishing
creatives. Publisher Nick Landau paid tribute to Titanstaff and all those who had made the company the most successful graphic novel publisher in the UK. Picture courtesy Titan Books |
GIBSON ART CD
24/6/06: A new CD of Ian
Gibson original art -- over 1000 original pages of art in the 2000AD artist's
collection, (both for sale and his private collection) has been produced for
potential buyers. The CD also features examples of some of the private commissions
Ian has produced for fans, plus limited edition prints that are for sale (A3
size)
If any fans of Ian's would like a CD sent free of charge to your home for viewing,
e-mail jane AT ian-gibson.com
FRONTLINE LAUNCHED
14/6/06: UK indie comics distributor Smallzone has just launched Frontline
- a catalogue of current titles available from a huge range of creators.
You can order it direct from Smallzone at: www.smallzone.co.uk or,
hopefully, from your local comics retailer.
"There'ss a cover price of £1.50," says Shane of Smallzone, "but if
anyone sends me an s.a.e I'll be happy to send them a free copy."
Web Link: www.smallzone.co.uk/frontline.htm
2000AD CREATOR STEPS FROM THE SHADOWS
8/6/06: 2000AD Review has
just published a
revealing interview with former Titan and 2000AD PR man Igor Goldkind,
charting some of the inside story behind British comics in the late 1980s
and early 1990s, when comics were considered about the hippest art form
in Britain.
Originally from Santa Cruz, California, Goldkind worked in the British
comics industry during the 1980s as a marketing manager and sometime comics
writer for 2000AD, CRISIS and
Revolver. He set
up CD-ROM publishing firm in the early 1990s called Artemis Communications,
then Artemis Interactive providing digital effects for film and TV.
Now running Signa Internet Strategies,
he is probably best known for the quirky tales of The Clown and
the rather grittier Judge Hershey strip.
He talks frankly about his work in the interview, a night of madness involving
pop band Bros and his current projects, which include a horror novella.
Casting a new light on the whole period, Goldkind has kind words for creators
such as Pat Mills and co-workers such as 2000AD's Steve
McManus. "he was always a diamond geezer," Goldkind says, "and
ultimately took hits on his own career (within IPC and later Maxwell) to stand
up for the principle of creators rights in a share of the spoils they generated.
"He doesn’t get any credit for it, but before Steve changed things, writers and artists didn’t
even get credited on the pages of 2000AD, much less
royalties off of their work."
Goldkind is however, quite savage about US pubishers of the period. "I got really
pissed off at the whole editorial process in the US and in general," he reveals. "Here
I was spouting the virtues of so-called ‘adult comics’ and the publishers were
mouthing the same line in order to make sales but their editors didn’t really
believe in what they were saying. Not only that, but it was becoming more and
more apparent that most of what I was submitting just wasn’t
comprehensible to the people I was submitting to and their confusion was compounded
by the fact that I had a position on the publishing side of the industry. Obviously
there were some outstanding exceptions, but they know who they are."
Link: Click here to read the interview
ARE YOU TWISTED?
7/6/06: ... if so, TWISTED -- a new 68-page title packed
with of anarchic, bizarre and ridiculous cartoon humour -- is looking for
artists and writers to fill its pages.
Published by Media Management, the
magazine will be published monthly from September and feature a pantheon
of surreal, suspicious and just plain stoopid characters.
"Our alternative heroes will live in cartoon strips anywhere between a three frame strip and a four page story," says Media Management's Dave Emerson. "TWISTED is aimed at 18 - 25 year old males and will definitely tend towards explicit themes including sex, drugs and rock & roll.
"TWISTED will have national distribution through WH Smith, John Menzies and Dawson News," says
Dave.
"We're looking for cartoonists who can draw, write or both and want to see their
work published and appreciated by a wider audience."
If you think you fit the requirements, email pdf samples to david@mediamanagement.uk.com or send him details of website addresses where strips can be seen and read.
LASER
ERASER AND PRESS BUTTON - BACK IN ACTION
7/6/06: Comics artist Jon Haward is drawing a new story featuring
Laser Eraser and Pressbutton, characters who sprang from the pages of the
rock music magazine Dark Star in 1979, jumped
to Sounds and from there to comics fame in
the much-missed Warrior comics magazine in
the 1980s.
Written by Steve Moore (aka Pedro Henry) and with his approval the story will
go online on John's website www.jonhawardart.com in
October 2006.
"Let's hope it leads to them getting their own comic again down the road," Jon,
who has just celebrated drawing Spider-Man for Panini UK for five years, told downthetubes.
Jon Haward's past comics credits include Judge Dredd, Thunderbirds and
his own characters The Hell Crew, which were co-created
with Alan Grant and appeared in Frank Frazetta Fantasy
Illustrated Magazine.
BRODIE'S
LAW IS BACK!
7/6/06: #7 of the critically-acclaimed Brodie's
Law is on sale this month from Markosia -
it's on sale in specialist comic shops in the UK. Pulp Entertainment have come up with another
cracking story, in which the 'body-swapping' Jack Brodie has finally
found his missing son, but time is of the essence. He needs to get back
to his hideout in time to get out of the body of Harry Wade. A worried
Tomokai has set out to look for him. Meanwhile, there's an unexpected
visitor who is hell bent on revenge… is
this the end for Brodie -- or a whole new beginning?
• Buy the Brodie's Law trade paperback from Amazon.co.uk: Click Here
• Pulp Theatre: www.pulptheatre.com
• Brodie's Law Site: http://www.brodieslaw.com
BATTLER
BRITON - COVERS ONLINE
7/6/06: Covers for the first issues of Battler Briton, Wildstorm's revival
of the classic wartime hero by Garth Ennis, with art by Colin Wilson,
are now online. The covers are by Garry Leach.
With Issue 1, on sale 5 July in specialist comic shops in the UK,
WildStorm begins its 5-issue miniseries celebration of Battler
Britton's 50th anniversary.
As the Nazis rain terror throughout Europe,
Allied forces are on the run in North Africa. It's October 1942 and Rommel's
Panzers are unrelenting in their pursuit. Wing Commander Robert "Battler" Britton
of the RAF and his squadron have been dispatched to an American airstrip
to spearhead a joint action against Hitler's war machine. Now they must
survive taunts, threats, and assaults...and that's just from the Yanks!
In Issue 2, on sale in August, tempers flare in the wake of repeated clashes
between the Americans and their newly arrived Brit Associates. As Battler
tries to create a new camaraderie, both camps display heroism in the face
of death — and for one of their number, it's too close a call!
• Click here for more info on Issue 1 of Battler Briton
• Click here for more info on Issue 2 of Battler Briton
