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I hope you will join me and enjoy exploring the worlds of comics, graphic novels and manga at the annual Comica Festival and other special Comica events held throughout the year.Paul Gravett, Comica Director
COMICA NEWS
Comica: Dazed & Confused
Posted: November 18, 2009
Comica Director Paul Gravett talks comics with Dazed Digital in an online interview about the Comica Festival and his future plans for Escape Books, as well as featuring the comics anthology launched at Comica ‘09, Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption. Also online at Dazed Digital, manga expert Helen McCarthy explores the work of the Japanese Walt Disney, Osamu Tezuka.
...and over at the Ctrl.Alt.Shift Blog, Dave McKean discusses his contribution to Unmasks Corruption.
This Week At Comica ‘09
Posted: November 15, 2009
The Comica Festival continues its London events this week:
Monday, 16 November, at the ICA:
7.30pm Cameron Stewart, Karl Kerschl & Ramon Perez
Tuesday, 17 November, at the ICA:
7.45pm The Uncle Hans-Peter Party
Wednesday, 18 November, at The Book Club:
7.00pm Ctrl.Alt.Shift: Political Poster Making Workshop
Thursday, 19 November:
5-7pm Orbital Comics: Cameron Stewart, Karl Kerschl & Ramon Perez
Saturday, 21 November:
1.15pm British Museum: Helen McCarthy on Hoshino Yukinobu
1-2pm Forbidden Planet: Reinhard Kleist
Sunday, 22 November, at the ICA:
7.00pm Richard Kleist - Johnny Cash, I See A Darkness
Comic exhibitions continue showing across the capital:
30 Years of Viz
Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption
Evolution Of The American Comic Book: 1894-1956 (closes 18th)
Hoshino Yukinobu: Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure
John Miers: Babel
Philip Marsden: True Stories
R. Crumb Uncovered
Stories for Humans: Contemporary Comics
War: The Human Cost
...and the Busted Jesus Comix play continues its run in Victoria.
Comica ‘09: Reviews (Updated)
Posted: November 15, 2009
If you’ve attended a Comica event this year and have posted about your experience online, we’d love to hear from you. Send us your links and photos. Here’s what we’ve tracked down so far:
Conversations:
Bleeding Cool: Black Powers Panel
Bleeding Cool: The Birth Of American Comics Fandom In Britain
Bleeding Cool: Eddie Campbell
Bleeding Cool: James Jean & Tara McPherson
Bleeding Cool: Cameron, Kerschl & Pérez
Ctrl.Alt.Shift Blog: Comics Art Propaganda
Martin Eden: James Jean & Tara McPherson
Mike Leader: Dark We Were & Golden Eyed
Joel Meadows: Dark We Were & Golden Eyed / Bryan Talbot
Matthew Rees: Dark We Were & Golden Eyed
Matthew Rees: Bryan Talbot
Matthew Rees: Kevin O’Neill
Matthew Rees: Logicomix
Fredrik Stromberg: Black Powers Panel
Events:
Ctrl.Alt.Shift Blog: Music & Comics Night
Sarah McIntyre: Little Pencil
Sarah McIntyre: Ctrl.Alt.Shift Music & Comics Night
Sarah McIntyre: Conference - Comics For Young People
Exhibitions:
Ctrl.Alt.Shift Blog: Unmasking Corruption
Ken Russell: Professor Munakata at the British Museum
Fredrik Stromberg: Professor Munakata at the British Museum
Fredrik Stromberg: Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption
Comica Comiket:
Sean Azzopardi
Dan Berry
The Guardian
Ink Soup
Sarah McIntyre
Solipsistic Pop
Matthew Sheret
Daniel Shields
Fredrik Stromberg
Ushio
We Are Words + Pictures
...and if you entered the Graphic Short Story Prize this year and have posted your comic online, send us the link so we can list it here.
This Weekend At Comica ‘09
Posted: November 13, 2009
Comica ‘09 events and exhibitions this weekend are:
Friday, 13 November, at the ICA:
7.00pm James Jean & Tara McPherson
Saturday, 14 November:
Conference: Comics & Graphic Novels For Young People
Workshop: Create Your Own True Stories
Gilbert Shelton signing at Gosh Comics 3-5pm
Sunday, 15 November, at the ICA:
7.30pm Graphic Novelist Award with Pat Mills & Posy Simmonds
Comic exhibitions continue showing across the capital:
30 Years of Viz
Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption
Evolution Of The American Comic Book: 1894-1956
Hoshino Yukinobu: Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure
John Miers: Babel (opens 15 November)
Philip Marsden: True Stories
R. Crumb Uncovered
Stories for Humans: Contemporary Comics
War: The Human Cost
...and the Busted Jesus Comix play continues its run in Victoria.
BBC World Service: The Strand
Posted: November 12, 2009
The Wednesday, 11 November, edition of The Strand on the BBC World Service radio featured a report on the Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption comic and exhibition, featuring interviews with Paul Gravett, Asia Alfasi and Ben Dickson. The programme is currently available to listen to on the BBC iPlayer.
Scott McCloud at Comica ‘09
Posted: November 12, 2009
Comics guru Scott McCloud was the surprise guest (pictured above with Paul Gravett and Woodrow Phoenix) at the Ctrl.Alt.Shift: Music & Comics Night on Tuesday at the ICA. Sarah McIntyre reports the details on her blog (scroll down for more pictures after the exciting news about the DFC collections):
“Scott McCloud! If you’re at all into comics, you will know him as the author of what have been come to be seen as the most definitive comics handbooks written so far, and created in comics format, Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics and Making Comics. Scott said he’d flown to London from L.A. just to do a talk the next day at the Skype headquarters (whom, ironically, are known for their video conferencing). He’s currently working on a huge 400+ page graphic novel and says the book will come out in a couple years if he manages to do a page every two days.”
...and Fredrik Stomberg reports on Comica ‘09 here, here, here and here.
Comica ‘09: The Superhuman Condition
Posted: November 12, 2009
Interviewing artists Cameron Stewart, Karl Kerschl and Ramon Perez at Comica ‘09, on Monday 16 November at the ICA, will be Rich Johnston from comic news site Bleeding Cool, formerly scoop-meister of Lying in the Gutters. As well as covering their mainstream and superhero print comics productions, our North American guests will also be discussing their independent projects including developing their own innovative webcomics: Cameron Stewart’s Sin Titulo (winner of the 2009 Joe Shuster Award for Best Webcomic), Karl Kerschl’s The Abominable Charles Christopher, Ramon Perez’s Kuku Buri. More event details here…
Comica ‘09: The Uncle Hans-Peter Party
Posted: November 12, 2009
As director of Comica, I’m always looking at different ways to connect comics with other artforms, whether it’s linking them to the music of comics creators like Jeffrey Willis, Daniel Johnston or this year Lightspeed Champion, or to performance and theatre, like Stephen Appleby’s surreal play Crocs and Frocks or this year’s thought-provoking Busted Jesus Comix. So when the twisted genius behind the Let Me Feel Your Finger First comics and animated films like Francis approached me about making his latest participatory live-art production part of Comica 09, I jumped at the chance.
This is precisely the sort of hybrid crossover between adult comix and quirky, edgy theatrical experience which fits so well with the spirit of Comica at the ICA. As well as a free copy of a brand new specially-created comic Das Familienoberhaupt, and a CD featuring Escapade, the Uncle Hans-Peter Theme by Fil OK, members of the public will be given a disturbing hand-painted mask of Uncle Hans which the whole audience will be sporting in the Nash Room as they join in with the party-games atmosphere, anonymous and unanimous as they collectively assume the persona of this Austrian uncle-figure. The Uncle Hans-Peter Party is being held at the ICA on Tuesday 17 November.
Oliver Spall over at Flavorpill sums it up succinctly:
“Uncle Hans-Peter heads the motley crew of characters escaped from the Let Me Feel Your Finger First comic strip for this night at the ICA. Hansi - as he is known to his entourage - is a strange bristly Austrian with a penchant for the lewd and crude. This month, with a whole party to himself, he’s likely to wreak havoc. Part curious, pseudo-incestuousl ho-down and part “live” comic strip, the evening sees each guest assuming the Tyrolian gent’s unusual life as they party away. LMFYFF has yet to disappoint in its doses of uncomfortable hilarity, and this evening promises to change lives - irrevocably.”
APEngine ran an interview with LMFYFF and here’s an extract:
What or who is Let Me Feel Your Finger First?
I suppose it’s a pseudonym - and a family of drawn comic characters. It’s a kind of sham production company as well. It was originally a way of self-publishing comics, so comics were the start of it. And it’s just kind of developed from that. It exists now partly as a pseudonym, partly as a comic art project which is part of my practice.
A comic art project that which has expanded to films, a website, products and live events and performance.
It started as name and a comic. And from the comics I started with the animation because that seemed like a very logical step - to animate some of the characters. Then I started producing narratives for the online comic and it’s just continuing to evolve. The latest area is these live events which will involve some kind of animation, some kind of performance aspect, but will always involve the characters. The characters are at the forefront of our work.
How would you describe them? You call them a family.
It’s a family of misfits; a group of characters who all have a very antagonistic relationship to each other. The family exists in couples, or they couple up all the time, in a very classic cartoon way - Bugs Bunny versus Elmer Fudd kind of thing. And the characters are either manipulated or manipulative or sometimes both.
What can people expect at the Uncle Hans-Peter Party?
It’s part of the Comica Festival and very much going back to the comic as the first point of departure. So it’s in some sense a live comic in that the audience all assume the persona of the protagonist Uncle Hans-Peter.
Everybody has an Uncle Hans-Peter mask and they’re in a space where they hear a story, a narrative which examines Hans-Peter’s persona in some sense. They’re also introduced to Uwe at this point. So that’s one element of it. And then there’s a theme tune - Uncle Hans-Peter’s theme tune - which is part of the event. And he is also present in animated form and he addresses the audience, partly on the nature of the re-producible artwork but he’s also suggesting perhaps how they might read their role in this work. So he’s in some way he’s kind of intervening as well I suppose.
And is there jelly?
No. But it’s a good idea. No unfortunately there’s no jelly.
To find out more check out the event’s Facebook page.
Comica ‘09: Links!
Posted: November 9, 2009
If you’ve attended a Comica event this year and have posted about your experience online, we’d love to hear from you. Send us your links and photos. Here’s what we’ve tracked down so far:
Conversations:
Bleeding Cool: Black Powers Panel
Bleeding Cool: The Birth Of American Comics Fandom In Britain
Bleeding Cool: Eddie Campbell
Matthew Rees: Bryan Talbot
Matthew Rees: Kevin O’Neill
Events:
Sarah McIntyre: Little Pencil
Exhibitions:
Ken Russell: Professor Munakata at the British Museum
Comica Comiket:
The Guardian
Ink Soup
Sarah McIntyre
Solipsistic Pop
Matthew Sheret
Ushio
We Are Words + Pictures
...and if you entered the Graphic Short Story Prize this year and have posted your comic online, send us the link so we can list it here.
Next Week At Comica ‘09
Posted: November 8, 2009
After a packed opening weekend, Comica events continue next week:
Monday, 9 November, at Islington Central Library:
6pm-8pm Kevin O’Neill
Tuesday, 10 November, at The British Museum:
1.15pm to 2pm Paul Gravett on Hoshino Yukinobu
Tuesday, 10 November, at the ICA:
7pm-1am Ctrl.Alt.Shift Music & Comics Night
Thursday, 12 November, at the ICA:
7.00pm Logicomix with Apostolos Doxiadis
Friday, 13 November, at the ICA:
7.00pm James Jean & Tara McPherson
Saturday, 14 November:
Conference: Comics & Graphic Novels For Young People
Workshop: Create Your Own True Stories
Gilbert Shelton signing at Gosh Comics 3-5pm
Sunday, 15 November, at the ICA:
7.30pm Graphic Novelist Award with Pat Mills & Posy Simmonds
Comic exhibitions continue showing across the capital:
30 Years of Viz
Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption
Evolution Of The American Comic Book: 1894-1956
Hoshino Yukinobu: Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure
Philip Marsden: True Stories
R. Crumb Uncovered (from 13 November)
Stories for Humans: Contemporary Comics
The Joy Of Toy
War: The Human Cost
...and the Busted Jesus Comix play continues its run in Victoria.
