Sex, Drugs & Comic Books

Comicgate Interview about Erotic Comics

2012-01-30T08:50:00.000Z

LastMarch I was interviewed by the very charming Daniel Wüllner for Germany’sComicgate Magazin (an excellent publication). Theinterview appeared in issue 6 (you can read a very nice review of the German edition of Erotic Comics they did online here). But they very kindlygave me permission to reprint the English version of the interview, so here itis!

Comicgate: Tim, we contacted you today,because Comicgate is doing a special feature issue exclusively on sex. That'swhy we wanted to talk to a specialist in the field. Could you tell our readers alittle bit about yourself? When did you start out reading comics?

TimPilcher: I've always read comics ever since I was a kid, like most people in Britain. Igrew up Beano, Dandy, Krazy, Whizzer & Chips, and similar titles. In Britain youcould buy comics for toddlers and as they grew older there was another comic tobuy, which would be aimed at the slightly older group. You would move onnaturally to magazines like Battle, Starlord, and 2000 AD, which is still going today.In the Eighties, I discovered magazines like Warrior magazine – which included theoriginal V for Vendetta – and Epic Illustrated, a marvel magazine edited by ArchieGoodwin. Afterwards, I discovered Heavy Metal magazine. I've always read comics andI've always loved them and in a professional sense—I always wanted to work incomics.

CG: That sounds like an organicprogress?

TP: Exactly, a very nicely tieredstructure. Sadly this is all gone now, because the British comic industrycollapsed. Today, there is a big gap between kid's stuff and adult stuff.Nowadays, most people in Britain read up to a certain level of 2000 AD and than jump over toAmerican comics.

CG: When did you actually decideto earn money with comics?

TP: Probably, when I was fromabout 16 or 17. I started to realize that there are people making this stuff. Inever thought I was good enough to be an artist, but maybe I could have a crackat writing or editing.

CG: You stuck to editing. Did youever write a comic book?

TP: I never did a full-lengthcomic book, but I have written a few strips for The Young Telegraph, which werebiographical strips about famous people throughout history. I also put togethera package for DeAgostini UK, which was a whole load of Marvel superhero strips.So, although I have officially written some Iron Man and Spider-Man stories,those projects never took off! So I have written comics, but I amprimarily an editor.

CG: How did you become an editor?

TP: When I started working, itwas very clear from the beginning: It’s not what you know, but who you know. Ithought about how to get to know everybody. With some luck I got a job at ComicShowcase back in 1988. My basic work included sitting in the back and baggingcomics. Very boring, but I meet a lot of professionals there. Regulars in theshop were people like Kevin O'Neil, Dave Gibbons, Brendan McCarthy, and NeilGaiman.

CG:That is quitean impressive line-up. Is it a famous store?

TP:It was prettywell known, although it is no longer in existence, sadly. It shut down a fewyears ago. It was well regarded, like Gosh Comics, they were kissing cousins.We used to hang out together a lot. But Showcase had more space and so we couldsell original art that was on display. Naturally the artists dropped by moreoften. And we were certainly NOT Forbidden Planet, we had friendly staff!

CG:How did youchange from comic clerk to comic editor?

TP:A friend ofmine, Paul Johnson, who was a comic artist at the time, introduced me to ArtYoung. At the time, Young had left DC Comics in order to build his own line atDisney’s Touchmark comics. He was halfway through—looking for Britishcreators—when the whole project fell down. Right then, DC was setting upVertigo. So they said, bring all your projects to Vertigo and we will give youyour job back. He asked for a London office, because a lot of the creators likePeter Milligan and Grant Morrison were from the UK. It just made more sense. Hewas looking for an assistant, but he didn’t want the person he was looking tobe trained up by Marvel UK, DC, or a similar British company. He wantedsomebody with no experience, so he could train him the way he wanted. He did afew interviews and I was just lucky enough to get the job. I was always a DCfan. It was fantastic. It got a lot of experience there. I learned all of myeditorial skills in that time.

CG: How long did you work there?

TP:Unfortunately,it lasted only 18 months, but it was a very intense. When you work with peoplelike Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly on a regular basis, you learn a lot. Thenthe office shut down due to economic hardship. It was kind of an experimentthat did not work out. The next five years I moved on to book publishing anddid a whole range of different things: From Penguin Children’s Books to DorlingKindersely.

CG: ... and then you decided tobecome an author?

TP:Writing wassomething I always wanted to do, but when you work with people like GrantMorrison or Garth Ennis—one of my best friends—it is quite intimidating to dofiction. ‘Cause you know your peers are the top of their game. And you askyourself, “How can I compete with them?” So I steered clear of that and wentinto non-fiction. I was writing about comics rather than actually writingcomics per se. Just because I felt more comfortable doing that. My first bookwas called The Complete Cartooning Course (co-written with Brad Brooks) and waspublished in 2001. We explained the basic rules of cartooning like expressivefigure-work, setting up mid-grounds and backgrounds, and showed how pacingworks. We also included a lot of digital material, reproducing on the web,before it became as prelevant as it is now. It did very well in Germany,actually.

CG:Tim, whilealmost every teenager has his hidden stack of Playboys somewhere under his bed, didyou have many erotic comics on your desk? How did you decide on erotic comicsas a research project?

TP:It was alwaysin the background, but not in a conscious kind of way. Comics like Heavy Metal or Epic Illustrated had an adult sensibility withtheir bare-breasted women. In my time at Comic Showcase we had Richard Corben'sDen comingin. It was like "Conan on Viagra". That’s slightly disingenuous, buthopefully you know what I mean. I was aware that erotic comics were alwaysaround. Then I came across Maurice Horn's book Sex in the Comics. Suddenly, I realized thatnobody else examined erotica as a comic book genre, since Horn. His book waspublished in 1988, when the big erotic comic explosion was just about tohappen. Fantagraphics started their Eros line (1990) and Jim Lee did his first X-Men (1991). Horn's book was alsoquite coy.

CG: You finally found your ownniche as an author?

TP:I justthought that it was a subject that was interesting enough and I was curious aswhy people hadn't examined it. The starting point was the historic research andI found a huge amount of "normal" comic artists, who have all beentouched by erotic comics. Jack Kirby, for example, did these barely erotic two-page-things,but in the end he was obviously not comfortable with it. It was a more obviousfit for people like Howard Chaykin and Gilbert Hernandez. Although you wouldnever think that Hernandez with his pro-feminist stuff, would do a hardcoreerotic comic like Birdland.

CG: In your first chapter of EroticComics Vol.1,entitled "foreplay", you use a different approach and show tijuanabibles, pin-ups and Shunga-woodprints. On your blog I found pictures of Indianstatues with explicit erotic content. Are these examples similar to thesequential art of a comic? Or let me phrase it differently, are erotic comicscomparable to any other erotic art form?

TP: I think they are, purely onthe basis of the content, they are all forms of erotica. Just a slightlydifferent delivery format. A Shunga-woodprint and a erotic statue or carvinghave a connection as both deal with, or express, human sexuality. Yes, comicsare an art form. Yes, they are dealing with erotica. The very reason I put inthese other art forms is because I wanted people to realize that nothing existsin a vacuum. It shows a natural progression of this genre. The Tijuana Biblesdid not materialize out of nothing in the 1930s. You can't look at eroticcomics in isolation.

CG: The sequential form in itselfis important to the portrayal of erotica. The sequence of images gives you theoption to show everything there is, or to hide the act in the gutter. In acomic you don't have to actually show someone caught in the act.

TP: Your remark touches upon thedifference between the two volumes. In the first volume the material was muchmore implicit. But as time went on a vast cultural changes had begun thatdidn't restrict themselves to just comics. The second volume portrays adifferent time frame and shows a culture that developed towards more explicitforms of expression. I am personally not a big fan of that. I would much ratherhave a little bit more imagination left, or a little bit more subtlety. Butobviously I am in the minority!

CG: ... but you have chosen thetopic, so it is your duty to look at everything there is. Do you think thatsociety has developed an interest in the extreme, even in the display ofsexuality?

TP: It depends on what sort oftime scale you put this on. If you go way back you can see that the socialmorals have always evolved, altered and adapted – depending on the culture. Youcan see quite explicit Indian carvings in full public view, yet you wouldn'texpect to see a similar hardcore sex act as a giant billboard today anywhere(but I suspect that it’s only a matter of time). You can say that our ancestorshad a very liberated sense of sexuality back then. I think we go throughcycles. There were, are, and will be, periods throughout history when it isokay to talk openly and frankly about sex. In other periods, such as theVictorian Age, it is deeply repressed.

CG: Let us talk about the thinred line you are drawing between pornography and erotica in both volumes . Isthere any difference between the two terms?

TP: I actually think there is noreal difference. Alan Moore makes that quite clear in the foreword of thesecond volume. He only uses the term pornography, because it creates animmediate reaction. The two words are certainly both loaded, but with differentmeanings: If you say the word pornography, it has an implication that somethingis dirty, wrong, seedy, not very nice, dangerous, and possibly even illegal. Ifyou put the word erotica on it has the inverse meaning: slightly romantic,sexy, also dangerous, but in a good way, and with a little bit more class.

CG: Isn't gender also an issue inthis debate? When you think of pornography, you have a male readership in mind,whereas erotica denotes the female in a more positive way, especially in theact of gazing or participating?

TP: I think you are absolutelyright, that's a very good analogy: a split between the two terms, andrespectively the two genders. There is a difference in act of viewing theseimages. When you use the word erotica it describes the upper class look at thesubject and it would be more implicit, that's why women tend to favor erotica.Whereas, the lower the class, and the more “masculine” the reader is, the moreexplicit the material subsequently is. The reason for that comes from a two-foldthing—but these are just my generalizations: Women are mostly motivated bysuggestion, mind, and words. Men on the other hand are more aroused by visualstimuli. The readership of erotic comics is primarily a male readership. Thereare still women out there who read erotic comics and I know there are women whocreate erotic comics, but the female artists are seldom that explicit in theirportrayal of erotica or they place a stronger emphasis on character and storyrather than focusing primarily on the sex act itself. It is the same with theporn-film-industry. Women make erotic films for other women. Those films arecompletely different from the sort of standard material that is created by maleproducers in L.A. There are two different aesthetic approaches and you couldeasily split those in "erotica" and "pornography". Butultimately they are the same thing: They are stories and images designed tocreate arousal within the reader.

CG: In your books you address gayand lesbian comics, too. Heterosexual female writers seem to be in theminority. How would you explain that?

TP: The movement is growing. Theexcellent Jess Fink’s erotic graphic novel, Chester 5000, has just been published byTop Shelf and there is a post-feminist erotic comics movement happening rightnow in Sweden. I came across some titles, when I visited Stockholm last year,which were really interesting. They were doing erotic comics with a strongfemale slant: The female characters are pretty much in control of thesituations and they are using the men for their own gratification, throwingthem aside afterwards. It’s a very deliberate inversion of porn tropes. Thesecomics are very clever and very good. There is for example a good graphic novelcalled Driftby Liv Strömquist and Jan Bileckli. It has sexual scenes in it, but isprimarily character-driven.

CG: Sounds quite similar toAlison Bechdel's Fun Home?

TP: Yeah, exactly. When you lookin Dykes to Watch Out For you find sex scenes and sexual descriptions. Butultimately, it’s about characters and shows the connection between two humanbeings, rather than just people having sex. Women are much more interested inan emotional attachment, and rightly so.

CG: In the second volume, theword censorship is printed in capital letters. Obviously, a quite importantissue to you, and to Alan Moore. Do you think there are still comics thatdefinitely cross the line of good taste?

TP: I think there definitely aresuch comics. I would not necessary want to read them.

CG: Are some of them included inyour books?

TP: No, if they were that bad, myeditors wouldn't have allowed me to put them in. I have read some Japanesestuff, which has made me feel very uncomfortable—rape-fantasies and the like. Iknow perfectly well that there are some people out there with such fantasiesand it is all perfectly fine in a controlled adult environment. I am notcriticizing people reading these comics, but when it is put into a certaincontext, it might be damaging if that is the only information the reader gets.I would certainly not be happy to put these in my books. I think Voltaireapocryphally once said: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to thedeath your right to say it.” That is very much my attitude towards censorship.I don't want to look at it and I don't want to read it, but I won't preventsomebody from drawing it. There is definitely an argument for keeping certainmaterial from getting into certain people's hands. Kids and others who would bedisturbed by those images should not be able to get that stuff. But if you arean adult in a sound state of mind, then you are just looking at “lines onpaper” (as Robert Crumb constantly reminds us) it should be your choice to doso, and not the state's decision. We have some quarrels in the UK quite recentlyabout the Coroners and Justice Act in 2009. They passed an insane law, which weare trying to get appealed, but that’s looking increasingly unlikely. Itbasically states: It is prohibited to depict a comic character that looks under18 – the emphasis is on the physical appearance – in a scene where two adultsare having sex. A good example for that would be the flashback-sequence from Watchmen, when Rorschach stumblesacross his mum having sex. So, technically, it is illegal to own a copy of Watchmenin Britaintoday.

CG: How would the prosecutionlook like?

TP: We haven't had our test caseyet. There’s a strong likelihood that such a case could come along in the nearfuture. The Comic Book Alliance is already collecting money for such cases. Weare basically the British version of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Thesentence could be anything from a fine to at least three months in prison, ormore. It would really depend on the Judge's opinion. We are quite set up on thelegal side, but I hope we can avoid such cases.

CG: In your second book there arearticles on Japanese censorship, on the German debate about Ralf König'scomics, and on the British censorship regarding the homophobic Clause 28. Areerotic comics books a good parameter in order to compare different cultureswith each other?

TP:Yes, I thinkthey are. It certainly gives you a good idea of country's morale and socialstandpoints. If you look at the Latin-based language countries like France,Spain, and Italy, they are much more relaxed and open about this sort ofmaterial than puritanical UK and USA. The latter is still trying to suppress itor ignore it. If you look in the book for the material from Spain, you will seethat there’s a huge amount of erotic comics appeared shortly after Franco diedin the ’70s. They were incredibly explicit. You won't get that stuff inAmerican, even nowadays.

CG: In an interview I talked toMax and he mentioned that he was so fed up with the Franco regime and hiscatholic upbringing. He used comics as a way to express his anger.

TP: That’s exactly what I wastrying to say! When such cultural repressions cease to exist, people arefinally free to express themselves, in a way quite similar to the 1960sunderground comix in the US. There was that sudden sense of liberation. Thetechnical abilities of the artists were not that great, almost like the TijuanaBibles. The simple concept of a penis and a vagina coming together was almostenough. Nobody was interested in the aesthetics or how well it was drawn. Buterotic comic draftsmanship has certainly improved drastically over the last 25or 30 years. The quality of the storytelling and artwork is generally farhigher nowadays.

CG: I would like to come back tosomething you said earlier about prudish comic book nations. Could you give usan example?

TP: In India, there areinteresting online web-comics, which they call "Kirtu", which isIndian for erotic comics. Present day India—moralistically and socially—is verymuch like Victorian England. They’ve kept the strict English principles, whichwe have thrown out of the window and mixed that with a strong Hindu/Muslimmoralistic ethos. To actually produce erotic comics in print form would beunthinkable in India. More than anything, pornography is technically illegal,although it is widely available: A lot of softcore, but very little hardcore.There is a healthy comics industry, but it’s primary target audience is a youngreadership, but country is on the tip of a cultural comics revolution, wherethey are starting to produce publications for an older readership.. There’s anonline webcomic called Savita Bhabhi, about an archetypal frustratedhousewife, who has these worldly sexcapades with various men. Because she isunhappily married, this is incredibly scandalous. That is a very revolutionaryconcept for a prudish country like India. A country where no woman would wear abikini on the beach. Men and women swim fully clothed. It is quite bizarre,when you see it. And they stare at Westerners stripped down to their bikinisand swim-shorts. So Savita Bhabhi has caused huge scandal, and along withthat, obviously, a huge readership. They got around sixteen million visitors amonth. In 2009, the website was shut down by the Indian government, but theyreopened another, shortly afterwards. It was originally started by a BritishIndian businessman—so it was actually produced in the UK, but aimed at theIndian market. That guy knew exactly what he was doing. Culturally, he wouldn’thave been able to do that if he was an Indian businessman in India. The shamewould be too great.

CG: Let us jump over the ocean toanother quite prudish comic country, America. In an interview, Milo Manaraexplained how he coped with the American prudishness and how he was still ableto draw the X-Women in his own fashion. He just sketched the women naked andpainted on the costumes afterwards, skintight. Is America a country that ishiding its sexuality out in the open with their spandex-costumed superheroes?

TP: Absolutely, when you start tolook at it, every single aspect of superheroes is about sex. The idea topretend it isn't, is just ridiculous. The whole concept of superheroes isadolescent power fantasies. What do adolescents think about 95% of the time ifis not football or comics? It's sex. When you see how female superheroes areportrayed in American comics it is in this super-porn manner: Huge tits, bums,and long legs. They are all bending over, showing their cleavage. These arequite provocative sexual positions. And it is done primarily for a young malereadership. I think it’s got worse in the last ten to twenty years. From the1990s onwards, when Jim Lee's early X-Men came out. That was when the realcheesecake was taking off. As Manara says, they were all just painting oncostumes. In fact, at this year’s Rio carnival there were a whole lot of womenwho were "dressed" as superheroes. There was a Wonder Woman incostume, but it was all just body paint! Look at characters like DC'sPowergirl. She is fetishised because of the fact that she has enormous tits andthat’s almost treated as her character trait! It’s the only thing anyone evertalks about!

Themale superhero on the other hand has become this male idealised god. But theyare not drawn as being sexualized. Imagine, if they were drawn by Tom ofFinland: They would all be bending over all the time, showing their cute bubblebutts, and huge bulges in the front of their costumes! But you never get thatin superhero comics. When you look at all the things that William MoultonMarston had Wonder Woman do. It is just pure S&M bondage. People were justvery naive and innocent back then and didn't get what he was doing. When youlook back with a bit of hindsight now it is all about sexual control and tyingpeople up. For example, we have Wonder Woman tying up a villainess saying"On Paradise Island, where we play many binding games, this is consideredthe safest method of tying a girl's arms." That’s something you’d expectto see in a fetish club! It’s an instructional guide to bondage in a superherocomic.

Butsex and superheroes have always been intertwined. There’s Marshall Law by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neilland The BoysGarth Ennis and Darick Robertson. Particularly The Boys’ Herogasm spin-off miniseries, whereyou have all these superheroes going off and having sex and mass orgies on atropical island. It’s just the sort of thing you would suspect somebody withthat much power would do. They can, and they do. Superheroes nowadays are lesslikely to play gods and are more likely to become part of the BabylonianHollywood system, acting like self-indulgent celebrities of theCharlie-Sheen-cocaine-sniffing ilk. That's how superheroes are being portrayedthese days. I would definitely say that Americans hide their sex out in the open.It seems to be okay, if you do a lot of cheesecake and soft porn as long asthey are not having sex. But even that is changing now as well. In the DarkKnight Returns 2 Frank Miller had Superman and Wonder Woman actually rock theearth with their sexual antics, with the diabolically corny line, “Why Mr.Kent, you could populate a planet.” So even DC Comics have moved into thesuperhero sex area.

CG: I had a final questionwrapping it up. You have been looking at a lot of erotic comics for your research.But what would you say is your favorite erotic comic?

TP: Probably my favorite artistis Giovanna Cassotto. Because a) she is a woman, so she has a much moreintelligent approach to things b) she has a great sense of humor and c) shedraws incredibly sexy women. That seems to cover all the bases. Because it’s nogood just having a sexy picture of a woman unless there is a good storyline toit. I mean sex is quite a ridiculous thing in a lot of ways. It’s veryimportant to retain a sense of humor about it all! And of course, Manara—I havebeen a fan of his work for years—along with Jess Fink (another female creator)and Franco Saudelli. Rather than one particular publication, I’d say these fourartists cover what interests me the most in erotic comics.

CG: Thank you very much for yourtime, Tim.

TP: Thanks.

As a quick footnote. Since the ARTE documentary aired I noticed that Volume One of Erotic Comics shot to #721 in the Amazon.de charts (It has since dropped to #969) so thank you to Les Bon Clients for the sales boost, and all my German readers for picking up the book! Now go buy Volume 2 (which is languishing at #1,518)!

Angouleme, Mon Amour (UPDATED)

2012-01-26T10:54:00.000Z

Today the Angouleme comics festival starts. It's one of my favourite festivals of the year and I don't get to go to it nearly enough (invite me as a guest, damn you!). Typically, I'm not there now, but a lot of friends are. Sigh.

To add insult to injury, the documentary that I was interviewed for last summer in Paris, Sex in the Comix, has a special preview tomorrow night (Friday 27 January) at 20:00 at the festival, and airs on on ARTE on Saturday 28 January at 22:30 in France, and at 22:00 in Germany. There's some previews to watch here.

SEX IN THE COMIX - documentary from Les Bons Clients on Vimeo.

Here's what the press release has to say (badly paraphrased from the French!):

"Comics and sex? There's so much more to the history of eroticism! A new wind is blowing in this universe, and journey could be full of surprises... Leafing through the beautiful pages of an erotic comic, Molly Crabapple, a young New York artist, takes us on a discovery of the greatest erotic comic artists: Milo Manara, Robert Crumb, Zep, Maruo, and also investigates rising young talents, such as Aude Picault and Bastien Vives [Whose graphic novel, A Taste of Chlorine came out from Jonathan Cape last year]. We discover that sex makes excellent bedfellows with humour; that erotic comics have been driven by social protest with artists exploring intimacy and flirting with censorship. This examination reveals this art in a new light and explodes some myths, such as the role played by the women, which is more central than one might imagine."

Above: Some of Bastien Vives erotic work focuses on the manga fetish Bakunyu or "Bursting breasts."

Above: Aude Picault's sweet and saucy sketches are a delight!

So, if any Erotic Comics fans out there manage to catch this do let me know what you thought of it, as I haven't seen it myself, and I can't get ARTE in the UK!
Hopefully the lovely production team, Les Bon Clients, or director, Joëlle Oosterlinck, will send me a DVD. In the meantime below is the original French press release and a picture of the gorgeous Molly Crabapple (founder of Dr. Sketchy's) who acts as a guide for the show.

Above: The delightful Ms. Crabapple

UPDATE: I just discovered the poster advertising last night's screening on Molly's blog featuring me with some seriously big names! Very honoured by such company and not to end up on the cutting room floor!

Exclusive Interview with Rick Veitch about War Comics

2012-01-11T09:00:00.000Z

At Bristol ComicExpo last year I managed to briefly interview one of my comic book heroes, Rick Veitch. Veitch has been at the forefront of experimental comics for over 25years, consistently pushing the boundaries of the medium, in terms of subjectmatter, art and design. I first discovered his work in the pages of Epic Illustrated with hispsychedelic retelling of Moby Dick, Abraxas and the Earthman. Then I devoured his “trilogy” ofdeconstructions of the superhero genre; The One (which predated Watchmen by a year); Brat Pack (an examination of sidekick culture); andMaximortal (a viciousSuperman satire). And yet these are often unjustly forgotten and left of thelists of important graphic novels and I urge everyone interested in the comicsmedium to seek them out and buy them.

Anothercriminally overlooked book of Veitch’s is the 2007-2008 series, Army@Loveand the 2008-2009 sequel, Army@Love: The Art of War, both inked by my good friend Gary Erskine, andpublished by Vertigo.

Above: Cover to Army@Love #1 by Veitch and Erskine

The story told the misadventures of a unit of New Jersey National Guardin "Afbaghistan," a fictional Middle Eastern country based on Iraq/Afghanistan. It was asavage satire on the futility of war and how it could become comodified in thefuture and sold as a desirable, sexy career move to a US public. The title isobviously a spin on DC Comics’ Our Army at War—whichbecame Sgt. Rockin 1977—and this war comic was a strong influence on Veitch who explained tome, “To some extent, me and war comics go back to mybeginnings…”

At the time ofthis interview (15 May 2011) US troops were still in Iraq. Since then, the lastof the armed forces have left the country, although there are still US forcesactive in Afghanistan and Pakistan at time of writing. I originally was lookingto use the interview as part of a paper I presented at the Imperial War Museumabout comic creators and personal experiences of war, but sadly it was neverused. So, never wanting to waste anything, here it is…

Army@Love was a return to war comics for Veitch,who grew up reading and loving them, “[Sgt. Rock artist, Joe] Kubert’s work was incredibly importantto me. I sort of understood it was on simplistic level, but his illustrationswere so gritty and what he was able to do with a pen and brush was sointeresting to me. I studied it and I worked from it, even before I went to hisschool. And Russ Heath’s work, he just knocked me out, what that guy could do.The tightness of it all, and the savage beauty he could make from a tank.Really, really great stuff.”

Above: Joe Kubert's cover to Our Army at War #107

But Veitch wasequally enamoured with the writing as well as the art, “[Robert] Kanigher wasthe writer of it all, of course. I got to meet him when I was at Kubert School[Kanigher taught for a year there in 1977]. He’s a really interesting hiddencultural figure, because a lot of his panels were picked up by Roy Lichtensteinand became these well-known images, but they came right out of Kanigher. So hewas like this underground poet whose thoughts and images ended up out in theworld. When I met him in person, I was struck by how much he was like [his DCcharacter] Hans Von Hammer, Enemy Ace. His character was like that, and the whole schtickof Von Hammer—he doesn’t have any friends and he’s a lone wolf…he’s out there…he’s a killing machine—that’s a metaphor for Kanigher.” Coincidentally this year is the 10th anniversary of Kanigher's death.

Above: Robert Kanigher and Hans von Hammer

“Because Istudied with Joe Kubert at his school [Veitch was in the first class tograduate, alongside Stephen R. Bissetteand TomYeates in 1978] some of my first professional jobs were drawingback-up stories for Sgt. Rock comics. There’s acertain way that a Kubert/DC war comic is structured and I assimilated thatorganically at a very young age.”

Many comicshistorians have discussed the anti-war sub-texts in Kanigher and Kubert’s work,but Veitch remains sceptical, “I don’t know how anti-war he was. They didplenty of flag-waving, let’s-throw-ourselves-on-the-grenade-and-save-everybodytype stories. I knew people in Vietnam who used the slang ‘Sgt. Rock’ for anidiot. The kind of person who’d do something stupid, like run in front of amachine gun because they’d read too many Sgt. Rock comics. They just didn’t know any better.It just seemed like ‘Well, this is what we do.’ And they’d run into the fire,because it worked for Sgt Rock.” The thought that Kanigher and Kubert may havebeen indirectly responsible for young, naïve men dying in a South East Asianjungle is a sobering one, to say the least.

Rick’s olderbrother, Tom Veitch, wrote many left-leaning, anti-Vietnam War undergroundcomix—most notably Legion of Charlies, drawn by Greg Irons—in the lateSixties/early Seventies and was a strong influence on his younger sibling. “Iwas inspired by him. Interestingly enough he’s become extremely right wing inhis old age. So he and I are always in conflict [laughs]. We never stopbickering!”

Above: The original cover art to Legion of Charlies by Greg Irons

Regardless, ofthe misinterpreted jingoism in Our Army at War, Kanigher and Kubert’s work had an importantgrounding on Veitch’s own, later work, “By the time I reached Army@Love I was much more advanced, and my thinkingwas progressively leftist. I was outraged at how the American government hadpushed the war [the 2003-2011 Iraq War] and created it out of falseinformation. It was around 2005/2006 and the war was going really badly, therewere lots of bombings, civilians being killed right and left, and I wasoutraged by it. So I wanted to speak to it through my art form, which iscomics, and through satire. I think I was trying to do a Catch-22, but about a war that was going on, ratherthan doing it 10 years later, which is what most people do. So it might havebeen a little too early for people to digest, because the experience was justtoo horrible, and the political confrontation in the Untied States was stillongoing. There were these ‘cultural wars’ going on about what the ‘truth’ was… Ifyou didn’t believe the right-wing politicians you were considered a traitor!Really strange times. So I felt I had to stand up and speak with my voice.”

Certainly, thisclimate of ‘My country, right or wrong’ succeeded in drowning out many liberal,more temperate, voices at the time, and almost certainly affected Army@Love’s sales. No one wanted to look at thecurrent situation and ask the awkward question, ‘Is this war justified?’ whenit was so evidently not.

How Veitchstarted exploring the modern military and the war in Iraq was typicallyunconventional. “I started researching the weapons themselves and the researchthat was being done into weapons of the future—because Army@Love was actually set five years in thefuture, that’s the schtick. So I thought it would be interesting to imagine howthose weapons would change combat and the culture of people who were in it. Italso looked, at the time, as if no one would ever join the army again, becauseit was such a mess in 2005, so I was imagining what kind of marketing themilitary would have to do, to bring young people into it. So Army@Love is as much about public relations andmarketing as it is about combat.”

Above: Army@Love #9 cover. Name that homage!

As the seriesprogressed troops serving in Iraq started contacting Veitch, “I got letters frompeople who were serving there. They would say I somehow caught exactly whatthey were feeling. I don’t know how I did that, because I hadn’t spoken to anyof them, it was all imaginary, it came out of me! At one point I was contactedby the guys who publish the U.S. military’s newspaper, Army Times, who said,‘This is exactly what’s going on over there. You really caught it! I don’t knowhow you did it!’ They did a whole write-up of me. They sent it to Joe Kubertand I don’t think he liked it. He’s a staunch believer in the Government. Whenwe were all at school [another classmate was John Totleben], we were young anddidn’t believe what the government was telling us, whereas he [Kubert] wasstaunchly establishment, so there was that conflict. Not that it destroyed ourfriendship or anything, but there was always a friendly conflict of ideas andI’m sure he wondered what he let loose by sending us out to do war comics!”[Laughs]

Above: Cover to Army@Love #2 parodying Abu Ghraib prison

I queried whetherVeitch had enough information to be able to write accurately about a war thatwas happening thousands of miles away, and whether he’d considered visiting, asJoe Sacco did. “I’m sure it would’ve been a much deeper piece of work if I’d beout there, and at the same time I might have come back traumatised and unableto work it up. Army@Loveis a work of the imagination by a civilian looking in horror at what we wereseeing at the time. Literally, everyday there would be these bombings ofcivilians—hundreds of people being killed. I still don’t understand what it wasall about. Who these guys were who were fighting for power and using thecivilian population as innocent victims? But I wish the people who started thewar, the Bush Administration, had thought about that. Or if they had thought about it, and still let ithappen, then I consider that a war crime. I think the lower estimates of civilian deaths in Iraq are100,000. Some of the higher estimates are half a million people.” [Note: TheIraq Body Count and Iraq War Logs combined give a figure of 128,842, whereasthe British medical journal, The Lancet put the figure at 654,965 civilians dead.]

Yet, howevercritical Veitch is of the architects of the Iraq War, he is more respectful ofthose that actually had to fight it, “I wasn’t trying to criticise the soldiersor the military itself, rather the situation that I found intolerable, and howwe got there.”

Above: Army@Love: The Art of War #3's cover parodies Manet's classic Le déjeuner sur l'herbe painting

The writer/artistmused of the nature of conflict in general, and tying in with the theme of the second series, Army@Love: The Art of War, “War is the ultimate surrealism ina modern civilisation, because it takes all these things we’ve built—theseproducts and these architectural structures—and it blows them to shit. And so,to walk into a city square that’s just been bombed and all the products thrownand ripped all over it, it’s surreal. It is surreal.”

“It’s outside the‘norm’,” I ventured.

“Except the‘norm’ is false. It’s consumer products. These structures, that are notorganic, are false and then it all gets blown up. Maybe it’s the ultimate artform, I dunno.” We both paused to consider the massive ramifications of thatstatement, that war could be the final nihilistic/artistic endeavour, and sadlywe realised that we didn’t have the time to fully explore it.

There’s amuch-lauded phrase “Never meet your heroes, they’ll only disappoint you.”However, just like his comics work, I’m very glad that Rick flew in the face ofthis, and so many other perceived wisdoms. He was an absolute gent and afriendly, intelligent and fascinating interviewee, and I only wish we’d hadmore time and that I was better prepared! His latest attack on the Neo-Cons ofAmerica, The Big Lie, published in September 2011, is an interesting examination of the 9/11 conspiracy theories. Here’shoping well see a lot more intriguing and groundbreaking work from Mr Veitch inthe next few years.

Above: Thomas Yeates' cover to The Big Lie

V for Vendetta Meme

2012-01-10T17:29:00.000Z

Looks like the V for Vendetta/Occupy/Anonymous mask meme, designed by artist and Brighton resident, David Lloyd, continues to evolve and adapt. I spotted this stencil art on a bin in a park in Hove at the weekend. You don't think David's been out with his spray can do you? If so, he needs to work on his lettering.

Erotic Comics: A Graphic History Go Digital!

2012-01-04T08:20:00.000Z

Well, I've finally joined the digital publishing revolution (a little late perhaps!) as both volumes of Erotic Comics: A Graphic History 1 & 2 are now available in an electronic version on the Kindle on Amazon.com at $18.14 for Volume 1 and $20.27 for Volume 2, while on Amazon.co.uk they are available for the bargain price of £11.64 and £13 each. The digital versions have errors corrected and updated as well! Now you can buy your comic smut even more securely, secretly and speedily! I previewed it on my iPhone, and it didn't really work, but having seen it on an iPad and Kindle it looks pretty good. Sigh, yet another reason to get an iPad (as if I needed one!)

Kalifornia by Duncan Fegredo & Chuck Dixon

2011-12-31T09:00:00.000Z

Above: Duncan Fegredo's preliminary sketch for the cover.

To celebrate New Year's Eve, this evening, I've another unseen "blast from the past" treat for you. This time it's DC Comics' adaptation of the 1993 movie, Kalifornia, starring Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny and Michelle Forbes. According to IMDB, Duchovny "...Played a journalist who goes on a cross-country tour of famous murder sites with his girlfriend (Forbes) as research for a book he is writing about serial killers. He takes Pitt's character along to help pay the bills, unaware that Pitt's character is in fact a serial killer himself. Although it did not do much business at the box office, it is still a great film and has become somewhat of a cult favorite among fans." The comic was adapted from the film by me old mate Duncan Fegredo. Here's what he has to say about the project:

"I'd not long finished Enigma when I got a call from DC Comics Special Projects about an adaptation of Kalifornia, a new flick from Gramercy Pictures. I remember DC running the poster on the flip side of their monthlies, sepia tinted, moody shots of a bearded Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis in a flimsy dress [Below].

"That was all I knew, that and comic book adaptations of movies came in two flavours, mostly inedible. A few exceptions to that rule of course, Alien by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson, Outland by Jim Steranko and Dune by Ralph Macchio and Bill Sienkiewicz.... Okay now I'm I'm remembering a few others, Al Williamson Star Wars sequels, Bladerunner, but look, the point is with the exception of Alien, most comic book adaptations were at best pretty pictures with barely functioning storylines.

"Kalifornia would change all that! We had fan favourite Peter David handling the adaptation of the script! We had glorious cinematography to be transcribed by an artist who'd just recently learned to draw coherently! We had... What? We didn't have Peter David? Apparently not, Mr David was replaced by Chuck Dixon and having watched the movie I think Mr Dixon did a bang up job, particularly considering the other thing we had, 32 pages in which to compress the entire movie!

"As I remember it the script was broken down into panels leaving me to choose my own page breaks, it was cramped but seemed to come together pretty well. I probably could have given myself a lot more room elsewhere in the book but I wanted to squander precious space on a few extra panels here and there, making a moody opening for the opening splash for example.

"The rest is a blur of me trying to capture likenesses of the characters without resorting to poorly copied photos and oh yes, I had to squeeze in likeness of a competition prize winner. I was provided with a cheesy fake baseball card featuring prize winner Tom, told to fit him into a scene somewhere. He's not hard to spot, not because of my perfect portrait but rather because I put him in a vest emblazoned with his name, just to make sure! [Ed's note: Page 13, Panel 5]

"I think the book was at least partly coloured by Danny Vozzo, but I didn't get to see it. Well, no one did, obviously. I believe the book was intended to be a pack incentive with the video release but it never happened. Various editors have enquired over the years about releasing the book but with the demise of Gramercy Pictures ownership was mired in confusion.

"The biggest mystery remaining of course is why Kalifornia? I have no idea.

"Enjoy the book and please don't tell me you prefer my old stuff :)

"Duncan Fegredo, 5am, 19th December 2011"

So for the first time in public, anywhere, after 18 years in the "One that got away" files, I present to you the 32-page comic adaptation of Kalifornia by Duncan Fegredo & Chuck Dixon (not Peter David)...

Above: A more detailed montage cover sketch.

Above: Fegredo's finished cover painting. Funnily enough, I think his line work capture's the actors' likenesses better than the painting.

Below: Here are the finished pages of the entire comic adaptation of Kalifornia, minus Danny Vozzo's colours:

Hope you enjoyed that! I hope you all have a Very Happy, Prosperous and Wonderful 2012! There'll be a lot more postings from me in the next 12 months!

The Rites of Alchemy: Epilogue

2011-12-25T09:00:00.000Z

Paul Johnson always worked from photographs (just like Dan Bereton, Alex Ross and many other comic creators) and The Rites of Alchemy was no exception. Often he'd use friends who would pose for many characters, so in the style of Dad's Army...

YOU HAVE BEEN WATCHING...

Richard Barker

Dick Hansom

Giovanni Tarquini
Jackson Kirk didn't appear in the first four issues.

Tim Pilcher

Above: The Comte de St. Germain only appeared in the first issue, page 5, panels 3-4.

Above: Sanders never appeared in the first four issues.

Woodrow Phoenix

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this peek behind the curtain at a 20-year-old Vertigo project that never saw the light of day.

Merry Christmas to you all, and "Gawd bless us, everyone!"
— Not So Tiny Tim.

The Rites of Alchemy: In The Garden of The Philosophers (Part 4)

2011-12-23T09:00:00.000Z

This is the final part of the artwork for The Rites of Alchemy. Although the series was supposed to run to 12 issues, only eight of them were scripted by Dick Foreman and four were drawn by Paul Johnson before Vertigo pulled the plug on the project. But even then, the last episode Paul drew was incomplete and he only managed to draw 11 pages (1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 22) and these weren't lettered by Ellie DeVille.

Hopefully, by now, you'll recognise most of the characters. In this episode Trismosin recruits another alchemist to his side and he takes Wesley Cale on a journey to the other dimension known as The Garden of the Philosophers'...

Next: We'll look at some more of the preliminary character sketches that Paul did and discuss the cast members.

The Rites of Alchemy: Engulfed! (Part 3)

2011-12-19T09:00:00.000Z

Welcome to the third part of The Rites of Alchemy by Dick Foreman and Paul Johnson.

Next: In The Garden of The Philosphers

The Rites of Alchemy: All That Glitters... (Part 2)

2011-12-16T09:00:00.000Z

And we're back! Hope you enjoyed part one. If you missed it click on the link and catch up! Man, I just realised, this series is 20 years old! Where does the time go?

Anyway... Last time we saw our "hero" ex-cop Wesley Cale (above), he was throwing himself out a window...

Next: Engulfed! (Back here on Monday 19th!)

From the WTF? Files

2011-12-15T08:49:00.000Z

Here's perhaps the truth of what Superboy would really be like, with all those Kryptonian hormones raging as a young man! It's from a classic Thirties/Forties Tijuana Bible.

On the third day of Christmas, Lana Lang gave to me...

The Rites of Alchemy: Big Bang... And Theories (Part 1)

2011-12-09T09:00:00.000Z

As previously seen on earlier blogs, there are plenty of comics that never get published or see the light of day for various reasons. As part of a pre-Christmas special "The One That Got Away" series, I'm going to be publishing, for the first time anywhere, the cancelled series, The Rites of Alchemy by writer Dick (now Richard) Foreman and artist Paul Johnson. I was the assistant editor on the series and it was one of the last projects I worked on before leaving DC. Here's the original blurb that was put to promote the series:

And here's writer, Richard Foreman's take on the whole series:

"Rites of Alchemy was to have been a 12 issue mini-series for DC’s Vertigo line. 8 issues got scripted and I think Paul Johnson, the artist, got as far as #6 [Editor's note: Actually, the last issue Paul drew was #4, and only 11 pages of it]. The plot concerned a retired cop (Wesley Cale) who gets drawn into opposing an apocalyptic conspiracy.

"There is a belief that those who successfully complete the lengthy and abstruse process of alchemical transmutation achieve immortality and superhuman abilities. This was posited in the storyline. Cale gets involved at the climax of centuries of conflict between a loose affinity of good-guy immortals and a cabal of bad-guy immortals who intend to make a transmutation of the entire planet. As is the way of these things, Cale becomes a linchpin in the struggle. In order to thwart the conspiracy, he must first himself perform the ‘great work’ and achieve immortality, while the cabal throw everything they’ve got against him.

"Paul was turning out some great artwork and it was a bit of a shock when DC dropped it. I think it was an accountants-led decision. Comics sales were declining at the time, and my ongoing series, Black Orchid, although one of the better selling Vertigo titles, wasn’t doing as well as hoped. It was a time of sink or swim. I sank.

"Looking back on it after 17 years, I have continuing doubts about the way the story was to end. The more I got into it, the more I began to think that maybe the ‘bad guys’ had the right idea."

Please bear in mind that Paul drew the series with the intention that it would be coloured by Tom McCraw, but the project never got that far. Clicking on the pages below will provide you with larger, more legible, artwork. So, without any further ado, here is the first issue of The Rites of Alchemy:

These postings will be happening right up to Christmas morning so stay tuned!

Next: All That Glitters...

My Monthly Curse: A Personal Comic Book History Review

2011-10-18T22:22:00.000+01:00

Wow.

Wow! I’ve just readPhill Hall’s book, My Monthly Curse: A Personal Comic Book History and all I can say is WOW! I have never read such avitriolic and nasty attack on comics in all my life!

Hall was a comic shop owner,and is a respected comics journalist who worked on Comics International longer than practically anyone, apart from theowner/publisher Dez Skinn. He then set up his own format-pioneering PDF comicsmagazine, Borderline.

With My Monthly Curse he explores what’s right and wrong (oh, alright,just what’s wrong) with the comics industry. The intense minutiae he goes intofor the first third of the book is mind-numbing. He delves in-depth into theworkings of retail and the history and reasons for the direct market of comicshops and his own experiences owning a shop. It was an incredible slog.

But… If you can drag yourself through the mire of the first 500 pages (on theiPhone version), then there’s some real buried treasure in the swamp. Namely,his 11 years working on Comics International. Hall paints a picture of the Cl offices, and it ain’t a pretty one.

According to Hall, the CI/Quality Communications head office in Finchely wasone horrific, back-stabbing, highly dysfunctional family that make the Borgiaslook like the Waltons. Petty grievances, office politics, sexual politics,one-up-manship and rampant egos constantly undermined the entire operation tothe point that it’s a miracle that a single issue of the “trade paper”/”fanzine”ever made it on to the shelves.

I personally know themajority of the people in this story, although not Hall, who I’m pretty sure Ihaven’t met—which is strange considering the amount of mutual acquaintances wehave—but then again, maybe we have. My memory is terrible. Apparently, Hall wasa bit of a Bette Noir in thenascent online comics community, but having only dipped my toe into these murkywaters I decided that, like Garth Ennis and Alan Moore, it simply isn’t worthmy time and energy to get sucked into utterly futile flame wars with peoplewho’s opinion I simply don’t care about. Life’s too short.

The fact that Dez or any ofthe other protagonists in this sorry tale haven’t yet sued Hall for libel isincredible. The venom with which these grisly tableaus are portrayed obviouslyreveal an acrimonious feud between Hall and Skinn that has spanned decades, andthat very fact alone should call into question the veracity of Hall’s accusations.

Except. Except… It all feelsso desperately, sadly plausible. Having known Dez for over 15 years, and workedwith him as Associate Editor on Comics International for almost two of them… I can see some harsh truthshiding in amongst the bile. While I have to state for the record that I neverreceived any bullying, belittling or sexual harassment allegedly meted out toprevious staff members, there was one occasion where I was very close topunching Dez in the face at 4am in the office. I just made sure neither of us ended upin that situation again. For both our sakes.

Make no mistake, this is nota well-written book by any stretch of the imagination. By his own admission,Hall’s writing is erratic, inconsistent and scattershot. He’ll be halfwaythrough an anecdote then suddenly switch track, only returning to the originaltopic 20 pages later, making it hard to follow. His turns of phrase are triteand his examination of the comics industry is tedious beyond belief. Aroundpage 14 or so he says, "I don't want to bore you toolong" and I thought, "Too late!" I almost gave up on the book onseveral occasions, and I live, love and breathe comics!

Hall accuses many people ofsexism in the book, but (probably inadvertently) engages in it himself onnumerous occasions. The very fact that he used the faintly misogynistic title, My Monthly Curse (he equates workingfor Dez once a month as his “period”) didn’t impress me either. Not funny. Not clever.

The most annoying aspect ofthe book is the constant whining and self-pity that is marbled throughout. Therife “poor me”-isms don’t endear Hall at all, and I just wanted to shake him bythe lapels and shout, “Yes, things are tough. Yes, you had a shit deal, and yesyou were allegedly treated diabolically, but buck up! Get over it! Move on.”

The other overriding tone,alongside the wailing and gnashing of teeth, is that of anger. The book couldbe best encapsulated as “The comics industry is run by big corporations who arefucking evil. If you want to run a comic shop you’re a fucking idiot. I triedit and failed, and therefore no one else can succeed. ALL comic fans arefucking freaks, nerds and mentally unstable morons with poor personal hygiene.I hate everything about the fucking comics industry. But, hey, I’m not bitter.”

The very fact that he wrote169,000 words of this rant means he obviously cares passionately about comics,but they’ve hurt him so much that he can’t admit it publicly. Hall alludesthroughout the book that being a comics fan is like being a junkie—a commonanalogy—and this book reads like someone who’s going through cold turkey,trying to rid themselves of their illness, but secretly knowing they’ll be backon the smack within a fortnight.

What’s truly sad is that noone comes out of this sorry tale well, least of all Skinn and Hall. It’s thistype of exposé that, while important, ultimately belittles the industry andmakes everyone feel just that little bit grubbier after having read it. This is“mis lit” writing at it’s worst. Doing more harm than good, except perhaps for the cathartic process for the author. I was always taught that if youcan’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. Something both Phill andDez could’ve learnt from. And no, the irony of that statement hadn’t escapedme.

I make an oblique appearanceon page 1018, when Hall describes his attempts at trying to get his comicproposal, Dead Girls, to my ex-boss,Art Young, at Vertigo; “I had a letter from Young’s assistant saying DC wascutting back on new projects for the time being, but keep on trying. I don’tthink it was ever looked at.” I can state now, Phill—if you are readingthis—that I never sent a letter out without reading the submission first. I hada constant stack of proposals on my desk that was a least a foot high, but Iwas careful never to dismiss anyone offhand. If it makes you feel better, Inever got a single green light for any submissions I suggested to Art, so youwere in good company. Why didn’t you keep trying? I’ve lost count at the amountof book submissions I’ve had knocked back. It’s part and parcel of being awriter.

Now, I’ll have to enter adisclaimer. I’m also currently working on my own memoir book about life in theVertigo UK office, inspired by Grant Morrison’s considerably more optimistic Supergods, rather than Phill’s book. Hopefully, it won’t bequite as boring or as full of recriminations, but I’m the last person to judgemy own work. I’ll let Phill do that it when it comes out.

But despite all my nitpicking (I’ve come neither to praise or bury anyone here), My Monthly Curse does have some nuggets hidden in there (althoughthey are few and far between) and it’s definitely an important book worthtrying to read. After all, it could well be that—for a change—history has beenwritten by the loser.

You can read it serialised here.

From the WTF files and an apology

2011-08-25T16:15:00.002+01:00

Dear Lovely Readers,
Please accept my apology for the paucity of postings recent, caused due to my life being so frantic I haven't had time to blog about it (given a talk at the Playgroup Festival and the Imperial War Museum)! However, rest assured there will be some more interesting comic-related postings coming shortly. In the meantime, I've been trawling through a ton of old Fifties comics for an up coming project and these caught my eye. They speaks for themselves really!

From the WTF files: We Can Stop The Enemies of Youth

2011-07-28T09:05:00.004+01:00

At last, something on drugs...

Here's an interesting public service announcement (drawn by the late, great Frank Frazetta) from a 1950s' romance comic that was paid for by the New York City Youth Board and The Association of Comics Magazine Publishers. What's bizarre about this is that it only refers to a generic drug known as "Dope". I'm assuming this is relating to marijuana, but to be honest it could be anything! As public services go, it's pretty bloody vague and spurious to say the least!

Out and About in Paris & London

2011-07-08T17:02:00.000+01:00

Last Tuesday I went to the very excellent Foyle's Bookshop on the Charing Cross Road, London for the launch of Grant Morrison's first non-fiction prose book, Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero.

Above and Below: Grant specifically asked for no photos or recording of the talk, so here's a photo of the book and the chair he sat in!

The talk was hosted by the very charming journalist/writer Sam Leith and excellently reported by Rich Johnston on Bleeding Cool.com so I'm not going to repeat that, and you can read about it here anyway. The book is a thorough examination of the superhero phenomena combined with a part-memoir. Flicking through I noticed he name-checks by old boss, Art Young, and describes the Vertigo UK office as "a glittering mirror-ball where the future of comics was cooked and served by cackling pranksters on shiny chemicals." So, so true. As Grant signed my copy of the book he gave me one of the best bits of "damming-with-faint-praise" I've heard for a while, "Oh, you're nearly in this!"

Afterwards, I had a quick few glasses of wine with Kristan, Grant's wife, Sam, and I met the lovely Adam Narkiewicz AKA Akira the Don, who makes some very interesting music (sort of a cross between Beck and The Streets with a more upbeat tempo) before we were all eventually hustled out by the staff who wanted to go home! Foyle's has a very impressive graphic novel section and they stock Ilex books, which is great!

The reason for me attending was to hopefully develop a forthcoming project with Grant. Remember waaay back when I told you about the project I was developing with Alan Moore and Gary Spencer Millidge? Well, as with Grant, watch this space...

Yesterday I went to Paris for the day to take part in an interesting documentary all about erotic comics. It's being put together by Les Bon Clients, a Parisian production company for the French/German channel Arte. The very lovely crew, including director Joelle and producer Gilles, met me at Art Generation, a fantastic gallery space stacked with tons of Pop Art by rising French artists. While there were some heavy-handed swipes in a lot of the work (everyone from The Simpsons, Fifties' romance comics, Batman, Captain America, etc.) there were also some truly beautiful paintings inspired by manga and anime. If you are ever in Paris and in the Hôtel de Ville area (just round the back of the Georges Pompidou Centre) I thoroughly recommend a browse. You could pick up some excellent art at very reasonable prices.

The interview itself was long and thorough, and it was a joy to see that Joelle really knew her stuff and was very keen to get an excellent documentary out of the subject. The crew had already been to Italy to interview Milo Manara, Germany to see Ralf Koenig and they had just interviewed Zep (who's turning his phenomenally bestselling graphic novel, Happy Sex, into a live action movie!) before me. With so many excellent creators involved, I'm sure I'll end up on the cutting room floor, but we'll see. Hopefully it'll boost sales of Erotic Comics: A Graphic History in both France and Germany (not that they need that much help)!

Above: The crew get ready. The director, Joelle, in the middle.

Above: A Manga inspired painting called GBH by Y.A.K

Above: The Les Bon Clients team set-up the shot, using Dorian as a stand-in for me.

Above and below: Interesting pop art (or swipes as we call them) featuring Power Girl, Lucky Luke, Sponge Bob Squarepants, and the Power Puff Girls by the prolific Rico Sab.

The plan is for Arte to air the documentary simultaneously in France and Germany on Saturday 28 January 2012, with a special live screening at Angouleme. So looks like I need to head to my favourite French town once more! Further information on this as it happens!

The seven hours I spent on trains yesterday were put to good use and I've been ploughing through Grant's book, which is a cracking read and I thoroughly recommend it.

My Life as a Comic Character (Part 2)

2011-07-01T09:00:00.002+01:00

Of course, I didn’t always actually appear in comics , but rather lurked in the back of them. Me old mucker, Garth Ennis had Tulip’s friend Amy teach at Pilcher High School in Preacher as a kind nod.

And in Hitman I was the oft-discussed, but never seen, “Timmy the Fish” (based on the wearisome “joke” than my last name sounds a bit like pilchard—a cross I bear to this day).

Timmy the Fish was Tommy Monahagn and Nat the Hat’s arms dealer, supplying them with all the weapons they need to enact bloody vengeance upon all those that cross them. Here's just a few of my non-appearances (all artwork either by John McCrea and Garry Leach, or just John).

I sold Tommy his first gun:

When not arms-dealing I would act as a local snitch and informer with delusions of gradeur.

But I was a reliable informer:

OK, so maybe my equipment wasn't as always reliable as my information. Occasionally things went wrong with the supplies (sorry fellas!):

And here’s the book I “wrote” about Tommy, Nat, Sean, Ringo, Hacken and the rest of the Noonan’s gang:

So if you ever need to stage a small coup, or just holding up a grocery store, give me a shout. We do everything from small handguns right up to tanks. And we’ve got an excellent deal on 9mm Glocks this week. Come see Timmy the Fish – He’ll see you right. Because “Forearmed is not to be fucked with.”

My Life as a Comic Character

2011-06-30T11:27:00.000+01:00

Back in the late Eighties and early Nineties, when I was working in Comic Showcase, I got to meet a lot of established and rising stars of comics. One of the loveliest people I met was the artist Paul Johnson. I remember going round to Paul’s flat in Borehamwood in 1990 to interview him for a magazine when he asked if I would pose for him, as he worked from photographs. Flattered, I obliged and the results appeared in the Hellraiser/Nightbreed: Jihad two-parter written by Dan Chichester (above and below). That was the start of a long “working” relationship and close friendship with Paul, posing for a whole range of comics, which spanned seven years. Those sessions were always lots of fun and often involved copious beers and holding brooms or toy guns, as if being attacked by some monster, or dangling off stepladders in awkward and uncomfortable positions, while Paul got the right shot. But he was always an excellent director, explaining the story and getting the best emotive reactions.

I wasn’t the only one who modelled for Paul, and if fact nearly everyone I knew back then posed at some point including Woodrow Phoenix, Ilya, my old boss Art Young, Dick Hansom, my other old boss Paul Hudson, my ex-girlfriend Yasmin. You name it, we’re all in there!

We were generously “paid” with free beer all evening, a meal out after the session and a page of artwork. More than fair compensation!

Below: Books of Magic #4 (1991)

Written by Neil Gaiman, this introduced the young spectacled apprentice wizard, and his owl, to the world. No, not Harry Potter, but Tim Hunter. This came out a whole six years before Mr Potter appeared on the scene, yet no court case has arisen. Warner Bros. own DC Comics, as well as the HP movie and merchandising franchise, so it would be a bit like suing themselves, so that’s probably why it’s all played down! Anyway, I played the older, evil Tim Hunter killing all the DC magical heroes in the future. Mwhahaha! Ahem. Paul very kindly gave me the page below as payment for posing (I suspect I got the better part of that deal).

Below: The Invisibles #16 (January 1996)

In this story I played Dane McGowan (aka Jack Frost), the angry and confused Invisibles neophyte who finds his way and becomes a potent force in the team. This issue was a turning point for the character as he cuts his hair and returns home after a year's adventuring.

It’s well documented that Grant Morrison adopted the persona of The Invisibles' leader King Mob (or vice versa?) and that bizarre things began to befall him. In an equally strangely prescient moment I ended up suffering from alopecia areata and cut my hair short and dyed it blonde in an effort to hide the damage, three years after posing for this. Just like Dane. This was something I would never even considered previously. Life imitating art, or art dictating my destiny? If the latter, a quick appeal to Grant: Can you write a story where I become a multimillionaire global adventurer? Ta!

I also appeared as Dane in the “sequel” to this issue, Liverpool, in Invisibles #21 (June 1996) below:

OK, OK! I'll stop going on about my hair!

Below: Tharg's Terror Tales: The Devil You Know (1995)

This strip appeared in 200AD Prog 936 and was written by another friend, the wonderful Nick Abadzis. Here I play a cross between two of Harry Enfield's characters: Tim Nice But Dim and Tory Boy. Basically, I'm a Conservative twat you gets his comeuppance underneath a tube train. If only real world politics was so simple.

Below: Janus, PSI 2000 AD Progs 1024-1031 (1997)

I played 17-year-old Judge Mookie in this short story written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar. Interestingly, Helen Craven, who plays the bald Judge Janus here, took over my roll as assistant editor at Vertigo UK (but that's a long story for another time).

Below: The Rites of Alchemy #1 (1994)

This is me playing Fulcanelli in Dick Foreman and Paul's unpublished Vertigo miniseries. I seem to recall having to hang upside down, half off a bed, for this shot. Not only was I posing for one of the main characters, but I was also the assistant editor on the book, plus Paul's then-partner, Ellie was the letterer. How's that nepotism for you? More on this series in a future blog.

Paul eventually gave up on comics and became a well-respected acupuncturist. Our loss was medicine's gain!

Jeff Lint's The Caterer

2011-06-28T10:40:00.086+01:00

I first came across Jeff Lint’s The Caterer comic when trawling through the endless mish mash of bargain comics in Notting Hill’s infamous Comic & Book Exchange in the summer of 1996.

Above: The cover to The Caterer #3 by Brandon Sienkel

Initially, it looked just like the other endless crappy Seventies' comics out there, but after surruptisously opening the bag (this was verboten in the shop) I flicked through and had my mind blown. The seemingly random “dialogue”, long rambling monologues, and erractic plotting gave the comic a surreal and disturbing quality. It was like a William Burroughs’ comic mashed-up with Vinnie Colletta and Herb Trimpe at a Temazepam party.

I bought that issue (#7) and read, and reread it, trying to decipher the hidden meaning and depth behind all this talk of goats, "stillness" and hallucinations. Lint was definitely trying to tell me something, I just wasn’t sure what it was. Alan Moore described the series as "the holy barnacle of failure" and that's a fair assessment. It was certainly ahead of its time. In fact I think it still is. Actually, I'm not sure if time will ever be able to catch up with it.

Above: The initial reaction to most The Caterer stories is WTF?!

I tried hunting down other issues of The Caterer in Gosh, Forbidden Planet and Comic Showcase, but bizarrely no one had heard of it and eventually I gave up trying. Around 2001 I had a massive clean out of my comic collection and got rid of a whole load of titles, including The Caterer #7 (a rash move that still haunts me to this day). So I was delighted when in 2008, Floating World Comics reprinted The Caterer #3. This was possible even more disturbing that #7 and I’ve since spent long hours anlaysing the meaning behind the chief protaganist Jack Marsden’s off-colour and enigmatic remarks.

Above: Unusually, for American comics, the cover, pencils and inks were done by

the same artist, Brandon Sienkel.

It was through this reprint that I discovered more about the insane genius that was Jeff Lint. Apparently there was a biography written by Sci-Fi novelist Steve Ayett in 2005. I picked that up and devoured every page (click here to buy it on Amazon).

It was incredible that here was a man who had been at all the key pivotal points of popular fiction, yet history had chosen to ignore, like a smelly tramp muttering to himself at the back of the bus. Lint not only wrote pulp fiction and comics, but also scripted an unfilmed episode of the classic Star Trek (which gave rise to the classic catchphrase, "Flirting with McCoy") and a Hawkwind-eque concept album, The Energy Draining Church Bazaar by The Unofficial Smile Group. Yet Lint’s obscurity makes Thomas Pychon and J.D. Salinger look like a publicity hungry gloryhounds on I’m A Celebrity...

So I was delighted that—15 years after first stumbling across the work of Lint—last Sunday I managed to see the world premire of Lint: The Movie in Brighton. The film was made and presented by Aylett and it stars a plethora of pop culture pundits such as Alan Moore and Stewart Lee along with famous Lint fans such as Robin Ince and Josie Long. The documentary is a fascinating insight into the enigma that is Lint and I urge everyone to see it. While it’s fair to say that it perhaps could be 15-20 mins shorter, it’s also fair to say that if you have even the slightest interest in science-fiction, comics and popular culture then you owe it to yourself to see this film.

As smirking Jack Marsden says, “Stick with me. Stick with me. Stick with me.”

Above: A panel from The Caterer #9 when Jack Marsden visits a Disneyland cypher and machine guns down every costumed character mercilessly. The ensuing law suit from Disney meant the death of Lint's publisher, Pearl Comics—who filed for bankruptcy in 1976—and this was the last issue of The Caterer ever created.

Comics Launch Pad

2011-06-21T13:12:00.001+01:00

Last weekend I went up to Birmingham to talk at the Ingural Comics Launch Pad event. This excellent one day seminar is the first of it's kind in the UK and is long, long overdue. There were talks and workshops from a whole range of writers artists, editors and the like, including Tony Lee, Emma Vieceli and many more.

Me, the lovely and obscenely talented Simon Gane, and the very affiable DC editor, Joey Cavalieri

My talk was on Being a Competitive Creative in a Global Market and was a look at how creatives can behave and act in ways that make them desirable to editors. Considering I was up against Al Davison teaching fight coreography in comics, Klaus Janson, and Mike Carey talking about writing, I had a reasonable and enthusiastic crowd of 15-20 people!

We had a whole room devoted to the Comic Book Alliance—promoting the organisation and our forthcoming Spirit of Hope charity anthology. It was great to see the team of GM Jordan, Eva and Grant Perkins and the rest of the CBA crew working hard there! I spent the afternoon going through people's scripts with them, which was a doubled-edged sword as it meant that I got to help out some very talented writers, but at the expense of not seeing a single panel. Again! Sigh. One day I'll go to a show as a punter and just enjoy it! This is what the astute Bryan Talbot did over the weekend.

Me and my old mates John & Rachel McCrea. I love the way Rachel is looking to escape and someone's failing to give me bunny ears!

I was really impressed with the venue, the organisation and the feedback was all very positive. The question now, is how to up the game for next year? Kudos to James, Shane and Andy as ever. Already regretting that I can't make Birmingham Comicon on 27 August.

Me and Dr Bryan Talbot. We share a common love of red wine and black shirts.

Which makes us sound like we're Oswald Mosely fans, which we're not, I assure you!

From the WTF? Files

2011-06-13T15:35:00.004+01:00

One of the things I love about living in Brighton is stuff like this:

A work colleague, James Holywell, snapped this in a shop called Sixtyseven in Seven Dials. Actually, I have conflicting emotions about it. While I think it's a nice piece of work that perfectly blends sex and comics, the sad fanboy part of me still screams inside, "But they cut up all those comics"! Even if they were some trashy Avengers comics from the Eighties/Nineties. A no-prize to anyone who can name some of the comics used and who actually made this!

Superhero Sex Video and Forthcoming Appearances

2011-06-03T19:21:00.012+01:00

On Thursday 5th May I did a talk for one of the Catalyst Club's Brighton Festival specials, Sex, Death, Hell and Superheroes. I was preceeded Hayley Campbell's talk on From Hell and horror comics. This was the same talk as we did at The Last Tuesday Society.
Unfortunately, there were a few technical hitches (at 3:05) which meant we had to restart, and some of my intended images mysteriously disappeared, but the audience was very generous and forgiving. The whole event was filmed by Tim Pieracchi who very kindly edited out the worst bits and has given me permission to show it here in all its bumbling glory. Grab a cuppa settle down and enjoy 45mins of spandex sex talk.

A quick disclaimer: Apologies for any historical inaccuracies in the above clip which were caused completely by me being nervous and befuddled due to the presentation going tits up just after I'd started!

Rather embarrasingly I hold the dubious honour of having done the most talks at the eight year-old Catalyst Club (everything from Fifties Men's Magazines, The Great Cannabis Conspiricy, and The History of Ecstasy, to Indian Comics, John Willie, and Why Reunions are Not a Good Idea, and many more besides). Basically, it means they just can't shut me up! It happens on the first Thursday of every month. Check out the website and come along next time you're in Brighton!

Other forthcoming appearances where I'll be talking include:
The Catalyst Club: The Japanese Edition
Thursday 23 June, 7.30 to 11pm

The Festival Hub, Outside Moshi Moshi, Bartholomew Square, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1JS

I'm doing a brief talk on Osamu Tezuka: The God of Manga as part of the Brighton Japan Festival. There's a week of events based around Japanese pop culture including lots on Manga and Anime.

Comics and Conflict at the Imperial War museum
19 August 2011, 10am to 5pm
I'll be giving a brief talk about war comics as part of the museum's Children’s Literature Festival. Comics and Conflicts is conference that explores the ways in which comics around the world represent and articulate the experience and impact of war and conflict. Speakers include Pat Mills writer of Charley’s War; Garth Ennis writer of Battlefields; Mikkel Sommer writer and illustrator of Obsolete; Francesca Cassavetti who has republished her mother's wartime diary as a comic and Martin Barker and Roger Sabin who'll be talking about the depiction of war in the Guardian’s comic strip Doonesbury. Admission £30/students £15 (includes tea & coffee and entrance to the exhibition). Suitable for 16 years+

Other comics-related events happening at IWM include:
In Conversation with Pat Mills
19 August 2011, 4pm Author Pat Mills has been a pioneer and major contributor to British comics since the 1970s. He co-created Battle Picture Weekly in 1975 and returned to the title in 1979 to write the ground-breaking serialised strip of Charley’s War. Pat will be talking about the creation ofCharley’s War and the research that he and the late illustrator Joe Colquhoun undertook throughout the run of the comic. Admission £6.(Free to Comic and Conflict Conference ticket-holders) Suitable for 16 years+

In Conversation with Garth Ennis
20 August 2011, 3pm A rare opportunity to meet the author of Unknown Soldier, War is Hell, Enemy Ace, War Stories and Battlefields. New Yorker Garth Ennis has been a major contributor to British and American comic books since 1989, following the publication of his strip Troubled Souls about the conflict in 1980s Ireland. Admission £6. Suitable for ages 16 years+

...Icky Comics (UPDATED)

2011-05-26T09:00:00.002+01:00

Sometimes seredipity is a wonderfully humourous event. Witness Volvox Globator's version of Erotic Comics: A Graphic History Vol 1, which in Czech is translated as Erotický Komiks, out now! If you happen to be in Prague. And speak Czech. It's translated by Radovan Zitko, who I'm sure has done an excellent job!

UPDATE:

For those of you who are stuck in England and find you can no longer get hold of a hardback edition of Volume 1, panic no longer! The paperback edition is now out and you can buy it here. But you better get there fast, as they're flying off the virtual shelves!

And here's the cover to the Polish edition, Komiks Erotyczny: Historia W Obrazach Volume 1, which was just published in March 2011:

Best news of all, the German edition has just gone to reprint, so a big thank you to my publisher Knesbeck and all my deviant Deutschland fans out there!

The Extremist: Credit where credit’s due.

2011-05-25T09:00:00.000+01:00

My first professional job in publishing was as an assistant editor at Vertigo UK back in 1993. It was the best job ever and I got to work with some incredible creatives. When I started, I was on a probationary period (like most jobs) and consequently, for the first three months I didn’t get any credits in the books, despite having worked on the last four issues of Enigma (By Peter Milligan and Duncan Fregredo), and the last issue of Sebastian O (By Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell). So it was a real buzz to final see my first official DC Comics credit in print in The Extremist #1. Written by Peter Milligan and drawn by Ted McKeever, The Extremist was at least 10 years ahead of its time. It discussed the nature of sex, sexuality and moral ambiguity without being titillating. No mean feat. Pete’s clever use of jumping around the timeline made for some excellently complex cliffhangers and Ted’s art (which I fortunately have a page of) was just sublime.

I finally caught up with Ted after a decade of being out of touch, and we discussed doing a deluxe collected hardcover version with extra sketches and background material. The book was creator-owned and it hadn’t been in print for over a decade—despite Ted approaching them a couple of times—so technically he and Pete had the right to shop it around to other publishers. Unfortunately, this never came to pass, but always felt the series deserved to be one of those important graphic novels that people talk about. The same way they don’t about Face (Milligan and Fegredo’s masterpiece).

So I was gutted to see when DC Comics released a collected version of The Extremist under their Vertigo Resurrected banner (worryingly implying that the imprint is now some bloated corpse exhumed for today’s ignorant readers to gawp at) last November. It was so obviously cobbled together purely so DC could retain the publishing rights. The format was just a thick comic (100 pages) with cheap quality cover (less than 200gsm for all you publishing nerds out there); they only reprinted one cover; and lost all the beautiful design panache that Ted and John Costanza had put into the original series. Plus, there are no natural breaks in the storytelling, making the whole collection unnecessarily complicated. In the original miniseries, the story jumps backwards by several weeks between issues #1 and #2, but you’d never know that from the collection, as the front pieces with the dates on have been removed, making the storytelling difficult to follow. Sloppy workmanship, Mr. Hamboussi.

Now, let's see if we can start a petition to DC to get the book the treatment it deserves, in a nice, leatherbound edition with all the covers and the extra material.

Worst of all, my credit line had been removed from the collected edition. Sigh.

Lanarkshire Larks: What I did Last Weekend

2011-05-24T09:44:00.000+01:00

Just got back from a fantastic weekend in Glasgow (despite the torrential rain!) where I was up for Gary and Mhairi Erskine-Stewarts’ wedding cledigh. The do was attended by a whole host of comics people who'd travelled from as afar afield as France and Spain, including Mark Buckingham, Martin Conaghan, Vicky Stonebridge, Leigh Gallagher, all of whom, coincidently, contributed to the Comic Book Alliance’s forthcoming Spirit of Hope anthology.

Above: Steve Pugh, Comic God.

Above: Patrick Chaduc, Frenchman in a kilt.

Above: Gary Erskine looking extraordinarily happy. Can't imagine why!

Above: The ever delightful Cindy and Julien Hugonnard-Bert

Plus, there was Hi-Ex Con co-organiser Richmond Clements, Steve Pugh, Frank Quietly, Ferg Handley (who I completely failed to talk to! Sorry, Ferg!) publisher Patrick Chaduc, Julien Hugonnard-Bert, and SFX blogger Stacey Whittle. There was much drunken dancing had by all, and one of the highlights for me was meeting Gary’s model for Digby—in his and Garth Ennis’ Dan Dare miniseries—no less than Mhairi’s dad, Fergus!

Above: Dan Dare meets Fergus Stewart

Above: Digby at the cledigh (photo by Vicky Stonebridge)

The evening was preceded by a delicious Chinese lunch with the lovely Grant and Kristan Morrison, who I hadn’t seen in a decade! Where does the time go? Saturday was filled with seeing sights and museum visits in the pouring rain.

Below: The beautiful St. Mungo's Cathedral, the oldest building in Glasgow (over 800 years old)

Below: Some art from the "Glasgow Boys" in the Kelvingrove museum

Below: The Last king of Scotland

Below: Nihilist graffiti.

Sadly I didn’t manage to get to Plan B Books, or catch up with Jim Stewart (Ganjaman) or John McShane (next time, fellas)!

Bristol Expo Report

2011-05-22T16:49:00.001+01:00

Bristol is one of my favourite shows on the convention circuit. Not because of the big announcements, huge guest names or flashiness you’d expect from MCM Expo or the recent Kapow, but precisely because of it’s small nature. It’s very much a creator’s con and feels like a fun clubhouse for a weekend. Unfortunately, this year saw it squeezed between the aforementioned giants, and I fear for it’s future, as attendance definitely felt down on last year. However, sometimes quality wins out over quantity, the there was spades of the former over the weekend.

Below: A lovely dinner with (left to right) Gary Spencer Millidge, Dave Shelton, Flix, Joseph Melchior and Roger Langridge's forehead.

Highlights for me were hosting the Alan Moore: Storyteller panel with my old mate Gary Spencer Millidge (see above) who has written the definitive book on the titular bearded one. I would defy anyone to write a more comprehensive and fascinating book on the man. The panel showed spreads from the book and we discussed everything from Alan’s sense of humour to magical practices in his work. You can tell if you’ve managed to get everything across in a talk by the lack of questions, and we only had three, which means we must’ve covered pretty much all the bases! The book comes out on 18 July and comes with a CD of Alan’s performances and music. Even if you have just a passing interest in comics, or in the creative process in general, I can’t recommend it highly enough, and you can pre-order it here. Plus, here's a video of us in action, talking about Alan's involvement with the book and his schooldays. More Moore videos to come.

The Just a Comic Pickin’ Minute panel exceeded all my expectations and hopes and was a thing of hilarity to behold. Taking part were Gary Erskine, Jimmy Broxton, Paul Cornell, Si Spencer, with Joseph Melchior taking scores, timekeeping and blowing his whistle with much aplomb. The whole show rattled along at a rate and it was hard to keep the whole thing on track as I was laughing so hard most of the time. Topics including Hostess Twinkies, The Strangest Event I Ever Witnessed at a Convention and The Cosmic Cube. Gary went to some dark places revealing he delayed paying his mortgage so he could buy a Milo Manara book, and Paul’s excellent verbosity and way of weaving every single element of each subject into a longer narrative was wondrous. The final scores were James Hodgkins: 4 (but I put that down to his cow buzzer not working properly), Gary Erskine: 11, Si Spencer: 22 and Paul Cornell: 24. So, a very close match with the latter two really wanting to win, which added an excellent frisson to the proceedings! It was so good and so much fun, that I’d like to do it at every con!

Other highlights for me were interviewing the lovely Rick Vietch, a creator who’s work I have loved and admired for years, and seeing the whole Comic Book Alliance team growing, developing and really becoming a solid organisation. Good stuff.

Saw loads of old friends and made some new ones, like Stuart of UKComics, who’ll be printing the CBA’s Spirit of Hope anthology, and rising star Des Taylor, who I'd finally—but briefly—met previously at Kapow.

Above: A beautiful Vesha Valentine sketch that the ever smiling Des Taylor gave me. What a gent! Check out his brilliant work below and here

Below: An exquisite piece of art by Glyn Dillon from the Ashcan edition of the forthcoming Nelson anthology from Blank Slate books. I consider myself very lucky to personally know 27 of the talented 50 artists contributing to this unique Sisterson-like experiment that follows the life of a girl from 1968 to the present day. This is what makes British comics great—experimentation, original creations and a wide range of creators at the top of their game! This amazing book will be out in November 2011 and the profits go to the homeless charity, Shelter.

I managed to pick up David Hine and Shaky Kane's very excellent The Bulletproof Coffin, which I must admit, had me worried that it was going to be a case of style-over-content. Happily I was proved wrong and it is a fantastic piece of metafiction that really delivers an excellent punchline. Thoroughly recommended, but I suspect I'm preaching to the converted here as I appear to be about the last person on the planet to have read it! Sorry, guys!

Overall I had an excellent time, despite getting wrecked in the bar with Simon Bisley (again)!

Brand Spanking New Release

2011-05-01T08:00:00.005+01:00

This month sees the launch of the new Erotic Comics: A Graphic History Volume 1 in paperback. You can buy it here. To celebrate this momentous event here's a range of classic spanking comics and cartoons by the likes of Dan De Carlo and Bill Wezel, who appear in the book. Plus a fantastic Betty & Veronica cartoon I'd love to have included in the book, except I suspect Archie Comics would have sued my arse off (and probably spanked it as well).

There’s never been a better time for British comics than right now!

2011-04-04T22:13:00.001+01:00

OK, maybe my hyperbolic headline is a little OTT—as we did have and incredibly vibrant and diverse comics industry for over 100 years, which we woefully squandered—but I truly believe that we have, right now, an excellent chance to rebuild the business from scratch.

Just taking an overview on the scene right now, we have: Clint magazine, a revitalised and refreshingly original Dandy; at least 11 major comic conventions or event in the UK and Ireland lined up this year (two of which are brand new), the (literal) Phoenix anthology soon to be rising from the ashes of The DFC; regular panels and a comic pavilion as part of the London Book Fair... I could go on.

Another example of this potentially bright future fell through my letterbox the other day in the shape of the third issue of the New British Comics. It’s to my deep shame that I actually missed issues 1 and 2, and judging by this one, that’s my big loss.

The sheer breadth of quality inside, both in storytelling and artwork is mightily impressive, from the superbly crafted Simpsons-esque Charlie Parker “Handyman” by Lawrence Elwick and Paul O’Connell (who also drew the above cover), through the brutally hilarious Cindy & Biscuit Save The World by Dan White, right up to Wilbur Dawbarn’s spin on Narnia, Wonderland.

WJC’s superb supernatural western, Von Trapp (above), is a joy to behold (with only half a point lost for slightly confusing storytelling) and David Ziggy Greene’s A Complex Machine, a creepy tale of alternative therapies, will put you off having massages for the rest of your life. Invariably with an anthology there are always weaker strips, but they are too few to mention here. Ironic, then, that it takes Pole, Karol Wisniewski, to pull all these British talents together and edit such a quality publication.

It seems we are learning from the mistakes of the past. Of course, there are always a few cul de sacs (after all, some of us remember the false dawn of the early 1990s which promised, but never delivered, respect from literati) but generally speaking we are forging ahead with cautious optimism, as opposed to blind enthusiasm.

Here’s to the future of British comics and publications like New British Comics that herald it.

From the WTF Dept.

2011-03-30T17:30:00.001+01:00

Just another day in the Pilcher/Bradley household. Click to enlarge.

(I'm going to get into so much trouble for this.)

From the WTF Dept.

2011-03-30T13:00:00.000+01:00

How Sue and I met.

From the WTF Dept.

2011-03-30T09:53:00.001+01:00

It's true, I am "a rather nice fellow" but the "comfortable bank account" is a red herring. Hey! Where's my factory?!! And more importantly what do we make there? Best answers posted here win a comic book-related ilex book!

Chad's, Quite Frankly, Beautiful Prize!

2011-03-29T09:37:00.003+01:00

Well, our other main prize winner in December's Comic Book Alliance auction, Chad, has finally seen the personalised caricature of him drawn by Frank Quitely. What I love about this picture is that in incorporates a lot of Chad's interests and loves into one pure, distilled image (Sergio Leone movies, street art, snowboarding and the way Frank draws pinstripe trousers!)

Chad put it best when he said, "Most definitly worth the wait... Thank you so much for putting this auction together... its a great feeling being immoritilized by one of your favorite artists, I dont think it could have turned out any better... This has been a great experience."

Well it's a HUGE thank you back to Chad for bidding for the prize and an even bigger one for Frank for doing such a beautiful piece. Now Frank just has to hand it over to Chad at WonderCon this weekend. If you see either of them, stop them and they may just show you the thing of beauty in real life!

Comic Book Alliance/Batman Winner!

2011-03-24T14:02:00.000Z

Well, Batman Inc. #4 finally made it to the shops yesterday and was extra special because it featured a guest appearance by Aldrin Stoja, who won the Comic Book Alliance auction to appear in the comic. Here he is, getting the red carpet treatment he deserves, and then being rescued by Batman (as requested):

I'd just like to say a massive thank you to Aldrin, writer Grant Morrison, artist Chris Burnham, and DC Comics editor Mike Marts for making this happen and raising much needed funds for the CBA! Good work fellas!

Personal Appearances

2011-03-20T15:05:00.003Z

Man, I thought 2010 was a busy year, but this one's gone ballistic! Barely time to keep the blog up to date. Just to let you know, I'm making a couple of appearances early next month. I'm going to be doing a talk at the Last Tuesday Society on sex and death in comics. I'll be talking about:

SUPER SEX
Ever since Superman first appeared on the scene in 1938, superheroes have all been about sex. From Wonder Woman's 1940s bondage fantasies, through to costume fetishism, right up to the logical conclusion of the LA porn industry making "superhero porn parodies" Tim Pilcher takes you on a turgid tour through 70 years of carnal caped comics.

I'll be accompanied by the statuesque and self-effacing Hayley Campbell (daughter of Eddie—and that's the last time I'm going to say or write that, because she has easily stepped out from behind her father's shadow a long time ago) who will be discussing all manner of dark things such as horror comics and how her dad's work on From Hell fucked her in the head for life (or words to that effect).

I commissioned Hayley to write the forthcoming (eventually) biography of her Godfather, Neil Gaiman, for Ilex Press, and—as she put it—I'm apparently constantly dropping her in it!

So come along and join the "fun" in Hackney on Friday 8 April at 6pm onwards!

The following two days (Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 April) I will be on the Comic Book Alliance stand at the Kapow Comic Con, so pop by and say hi; find out how you can get involved in the CBA; and see preview art from the Alliance's forthcoming The Spirit of Hope, a charity comic for victims of the New Zealand and Japanese earthquake/tsunami disasters. Plus, enter our raffle to win some great comic book prizes, kindly donated by Diamond distributors!

Should all be a right old larf! See you there!

End of an Indian Era

2011-02-26T11:20:00.002Z

Typical isn't it? I just post something up on Indian comics and Anant Pai, creator of Amar Chitra Katha—and the founding father of Indian comics in general—gets honoured with the lifetime achievement award at the first Indian Comic Con in Delhi, and then he goes and dies on us! Tragically he died of a heart attack—after going into hospital for an operation that went wrong for a fractured foot—on 24 February. He was only 81.

Pai was a cross between Stan Lee and Osamu Tezuka, but to fully comprehend Pai's influence and the affection the sub-continent holds for him, one only needs to read this clip from The Times of India, on 22 November, 1999, "Anant Pai or Uncle Pai as he is known, must be the most popular 'Chacha' in post independent India, after Jawaharlal Nehru. He has made Amar Chitra Katha a household name in all corners of the country."

That's a national newspaper comparing a comic writer, editor and publisher to the first, and longest serving, Prime Minister of India! That's like comparing Will Eisner to George Washington or Leo Baxendale to Winston Churchill! BTW - "Chacha" is a Hindi term of endearment and refers to a paternal uncle.

Pai's career started off working as a junior executive in theTimes of India books division, putting him in the thick of it when long-running Indrajal comics were launched by the Times Group, reprinting classic Phantom comics by Lee Falk.

In 1967—after watching a kid's TV quiz show and realising the contestant didn't know who the Hindu god Rama's mother was—Pai was shocked and decided to create a line of comics retelling all the classic Hindi myths and stories such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and called the line Amar Chitra Katha. The publishing house would go on to create over 400 titles in 20 languages and sell over 90 million copies!

In 1969, Pai then founded Rang Rekha Features, India's first comic and cartoon syndicate, and started the children's anthology magazine Tinkle in 1980.

Pai's comics educated and entertained generations of Indian children for over four decades and they are an integral part of many childhoods, with the original readers passing the comics on to their own kids. He also wrote several child-development books and cared passionately about their upbringing and welfare.

I had always hoped to meet and interview Pai, but sadly that will never happen now. He's gone up to the "great studio in the sky" along with Jack Kirby, Will Eisner and all the other greats. Ironically, for a man who was so dedicated to educating and improving children's lives, he never had any kids of his own, but in a sense every Indian girl and boy was his daughter and son. Amar Chitra Katha means "Immortal Picture Stories" and I suspect that is exactly how they will remain, long after his death. In fact, part of his legacy can be read about here. Farewell, Uncle Pai.

From the WTF? Files

2011-02-22T16:28:00.000Z

You wouldn't believe that amount of times I've confused a small furry woodland creature for a woman. At least that's what I told the judge.

Indian Comics Scene

2011-02-20T23:16:00.004Z

I’ve just got back from two and a half weeks of beautiful sunshine, curries and Kingfisher beer in India. While the beaches were very relaxing, the highlight of the trip was a visit to the ruined Hindu city of Vijayanager (aka Hampi) in Karnataka state.

This incredible site stretches over 9 square miles and is packed with ruined temples, palaces, elephant stables and so much more. Some of it was little more than piles of stone, while other buildings look just 50-100 years old. Hampi’s glory days were between 1336–1565 and it had a population of half a million, before it finally fell into wrack and ruin and was abandoned after two major sackings by Muslims.

“But what’s this got to do with sex, drugs and comic books?” I hear you cry. Well, on the first topic, one of the temples had some very interesting erotic sculptures. All manner of scenes of congress are portrayed, from masturbation to bestiality. I was surprised by their frankness on such sacred sites, but it just goes to show that India’s ancestors weren’t as hung up about sex as ours were. God knows what Victorian explorer Robert Sewells must’ve thought when he rediscovered the city in the mid-1800s. But if he was anything like fellow explorer Richard Burton, I suspect is ardour was aroused.

So here are a few of the more interesting erotic artworks:

At the Hazararama Temple the walls are covered with the classic mythological story of the Ramayana. This epic poem was composed between 500 BC and 100 BC and recounts the tale of Rama and his brother, Lakshmana, rescuing Sita from the Demon King Ravana’s castle with the help of Hanuman and his fellow monkeys. The whole story is there to read slab by slab, creating the effect of the saga told panel by panel. This early proto-comic breaks the scenes up neatly and logically and progresses one of the sacred Hindu texts in a form most comic fans are familiar with.

The foundation story of the city Vijayanager is told in Amar Chitra Katha (ACK)’s Heroes of Hampi comic, which I picked up.

In it two brother chieftains, Hakka & Bukka, are hunting a rabbit, who when cornered, turns and snarls at them. Somewhat taken aback at this (they’ve obviously never met our rabbits!) Vidyaranya, the guru, explains that the place is very special and asks them to establish their capital city at the location. The only reference I could find in the architecture to back up this story was this depiction of a rabbit fighting two snakes in the roof of a gateway. Otherwise, there were no rabbits depicted anywhere, which seemed a tad unfair, considering it was the sole influence of founding the city there!

The Heroes of Hampi was one of several ACK comics I picked up, and I’ve been a fan of Indian comics ever since Brendan McCarthy introduced them to me, back when we were putting the Rogan Gosh collection together at Vertigo back in 1993. Many of ACK’s comics deal with classic mythology like the Mahabharata, whilst others are biographies of famous Indian leaders and gurus like Sai Baba, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, and Sri Ramakrishna. ACK proudly claim that they’ve sold 90 million copies of 400 titles over the last 40 years, which averages out at 5,625 copies per title per year, which are small potatoes in country with a population of nearly 1.2 Billion!

ACK’s long-running children's monthly anthology Tinkle “Where learning meets fun,” has some excellent cartooning in it (better than expected), but also has Tantri the Mantri, a blatant rip-off of Goscinny and Tabary’s excellent Iznogoud series (which was released in India in 2009 by Euro Books India). Apart from having exactly the same premise (Grand Vizier/assistant tries to get rid of King/Caliph) the characters even look the same!

The Indian comics industry is going through a minor boom at the moment, but considering the size of the population it’s still relatively small. This increased interest in comics was highlighted in the first issue of aspirational lifestyle magazine ForbesLife India (Jan/Feb ’11) that featured a fully painted comic strip, Atlantis by Amruta Patil. It also had a feature, erroneously titled The Toon Collector, on 22-year-old Aalok Joshi from Mumbai who has apparently a collection of 7,000 comics and 920 graphic novels “one of the biggest collections in India.” The size of his collection may seem paltry to Western comic fans but this fails to take into account that the very act of collecting is a relatively new concept in India. There, comics are for reading and passing on, not for hoarding and double-bagging. According to the article Joshi is primarily a DC Comics and Indrajal fan who got into comics reading translations of Phantom comics (Just like Scandinavia and Australia, Lee Falk’s character is unaccountably popular in India).

What the ForbesLife India article did reveal was the cost of average comics, which range from 600-900Rs (£8-£12) for a graphic novel down to 30Rs (40p) for a single issue. That may sound like a pittance to Western eyes, but it is still quite expensive by Indian standards and still the majority of readers are rich middle class kids and adults.

With this in mind two young entrepreneurs, Bidisha Basu and Visa Shom have set up Leaping Windows, a graphic novel library (in a similar vein to Japan’s manga libaries) to allow the less well off access to a wealth of sequential art. The two are also organising fund-raising events and auctions, as Mumbai fandom finds its feet.

According to Aalok Joshi the best place to dig out second hand comics and graphic novels in Mumbai is the renowned Matunga’s Kings Circle, a book trading area similar to Delhi’s Connaught Place that was featured in the 2004 Indian graphic novel, Corridor by Sarnath Banerjee, published by Penguin Books India.

Interestingly, Penguin Books India has been ramping up their output of graphic novels of late. In 2009 they released Parismita Singh’s Hotel at the End of The World. This lovely collection of interlocking short stories is reminiscent of The Canterbury Tales, and other similar “traveller’s parables”. Set in a tiny inn in the Himalayas, it recounts how the various occupants came to be there. Singh’s simplistic art style conceals sophisticated storytelling and she generates great empathy for her cast of lost souls. Her influences range from Buddhist and Hindu myths to old Commando comics!

The most recent release by Penguin has been the sumptuous looking first volume of Prince of Ayodhya. Written by Ashok K. Banker—and based on his own best-selling prose novels retelling the legend of the Ramayana—this graphic novel is rather bizarrely drawn by an established Argentine (and DC Comics) artist, Enrique Alcatena, rather than an Indian one. But the art is very beautiful, even if the story suffers somewhat in this truncated form.

Banker is a dyed-in-the-wool comic fan, stating in the forward, “…I never stopped longing to put my love for the graphic storytelling medium to use telling Indian stories for Indian readers.” Banker even funded the graphic novel, paying Alcatena out of his own pocket.

Ashok K. Banker also wrote the forward to Vimanika Comics’ slightly long-winded title, Karan Vir’s The Sixth: The Legend of Karna Book 1. Again, based on classic Hindu mythology (a very deep and rich seam to mine), Karan Vir Arora updates the classic texts to the present day and the comic feels closer to an American comic than it’s Indian peers, a deliberate marketing ploy, as the cover states: "First Indian Graphic Novel in US."

And speaking of US publishers, Marvel comics are reprinted by Kids Animation India, with titles like Marvel Adventures Spider-Man combined as two-issues-in-one, retailing for 35Rs (47p). Apparently these have a circulation of 40,000, which is enough to make many US publishers envious.

One thing to note is that ALL these comics are in English, as it is the one language that unifies the vast global diaspora of Indians, which makes the market very accessible to Western readers.

If additional proof were required that Indian fandom was in the ascendent, this weekend saw the launch of the first Indian Comic Con in Delhi and I hope it was a big success, as I’d personally like to see some cultural exchanges taking place with The Comic Book Alliance and various Indian publishers and organisations in the future.

Of course, you can find out a bit more about Indian comics in my, and Brad Brooks’, book The Essential Guide to World Comics.

Interview with a Comic Book Guy

2011-02-16T08:40:00.002Z

Just in case you missed it (I know I did, as I was away) there’s an interview with me by cartoonist, lecturer and all-round decent chap Dan Berry on The Comics Bureau website. I waffle on about the importance of community in comics and the potential future of sequential art. You might find it of interest. Or not.

From the WTF? Files.

2010-12-23T11:04:00.004Z

Rich Johnston posted up a few of these "inspirational posters" on his excellent website, Bleeding Cool, but I thought I'd share my favourites with you here, in case you hadn't seen them. First up is a big bugbear of mine, crap "English" in comics and popular culture. I ranted about this when Frank Miller's The Spirit move came out, but below is the same sort of issue.

It simply doesn't make sense! It's like that other crap phrase, "My bad." Your bad what? It's an incomplete sentence with no meaning! "Shame by you English?" You bloody should be! Grrr! —Ranty Claus.
Which leads neatly onto this one, which just made me laugh:

And finally, here's one that combines two of this blog's subject matters in one. If only he were naked, then we'd have the hat-trick!

Grant Morrison, Batman and the CBA Auction Results: £3,000 and rising!

2010-12-20T23:38:00.001Z

Christmas came early to Aldrin Stoja (above) when he won the auction of a lifetime, getting to star alongside his favourite superhero, Batman, in the Dark Knight’s new comic, Batman Incorporated.

Aldrin won this incredible experience in the Comic Book Alliance’s first fundraising auction, bidding an impressive £1,127 for the honour. Aldrin said, “I totally support the work that the Comic Book Alliance does, and I am hopeful that my contribution will help make a difference in 2011.”

The story will be written by "the man who killed Batman" award-winning scribe and comics legend, Grant Morrison, and will drawn by Chris Burnham.

“When I heard about the auction, I knew I had to win!” enthused Aldrin. “The chance to be written as a character by Grant Morrison, to be rescued by Batman, and to be able to donate to a very worthy cause—the Comic Book Alliance—made it an absolute in my book. I have been in love with the heroes at DC Comics as far back as I can remember, and to be written and drawn into an issue of Batman Incorporated. is the next best thing to writing and/or drawing the book myself.”

BATMAN INCORPORATED is the new best-selling comic book from Grant Morrison (above) highlighting the new status quo in the BATMAN series, as Bruce Wayne takes the Bat-franchise global. Batman will dramatically rescue Aldrin in a story that takes Batman in a desperate race across two continents and two decades in a spectacular battle to save the world from a terrifying new threat. Aldrin Stoja will feature in BATMAN INC. #4 (below) on sale 16th February 2011.

The Comic Book Alliance (CBA) “The Voice of the British Comics Industry” also had other items in their very first fundraising auction including a personalised portrait by Frank Quitely—winner of four 2010 Eagle Awards and one of the hottest artists in comics (All Star Superman, Batman & Robin), and co-designer of Robbie William’s album, Intensive Care—which went for £370.96. The money raised in the auction was an impressive total of over £3,000!

The CBA supports and promotes comic creators, publishers, retailers and distributors, both in the UK and abroad, At the heart of the Alliance, fellow founders Shane Chebsey, GM Jordan, and I, have assembled an Advisory Board made up of leading academics and professionals from a wide spectrum including chat show host, turned comic book writer, Jonathan Ross and V for Vendetta artist David Lloyd. In the last year we've helped organise and promote major exhibitions and sent thousands of free comic books to the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. We also run a website that helps the general public find their local comic book retailer (www.comicshops.co.uk) and with over 1.5m visitors.

It’s been wonderfully overwhelming to see so many British comic creators and publishers generously donating their time and items to this very worthy cause—and the fans bidding so much for them. A huge thank you to everyone for coming together to support the medium they love. This money will allow us to do some very important work to secure the future of British comics. We have plans for a second auction in the New Year with some exciting donations from Mark Millar. We've only just begun.

Watch this space!

The One That Got Away (Part 6)—The Weldon Owen years (Part 2)

2010-12-18T23:38:00.004Z

Here's another strip that I wrote for Weldon Owen. It was drawn by 2000 AD artist Adrian Bamforth, who I'd never worked with before, but he did a great job. The challenge here was to do a story about the infamous "Perfect Storm" that hit the North East coast of America in 1991. Lots of people were sadly killed in the storm and the incidents were recorded in the semi-factual film, The Perfect Storm starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. But whereas they had 130 minutes to tell the story, we had just two pages! I think we did a reasonable job considering the space and deadline. Click on the pages to enlarge them. Hope you enjoy it.

Erotic Comics Volume 1: Slight Return

2010-12-06T21:19:00.002Z

Sometimes you can be too successful. Take my book, Erotic Comics: A Graphic History Vol. 1. Or rather you can't take it, because it's been out of print for the last 6 months in the UK. The book has done so well that it's impossible to get anywhere without pay silly money for it (I've seen the first printing going for £80 on Amazon.co.uk!). Which must've been very frustrating for those Brits who bought Vol 2 (still in print) but couldn't get the first book. But now the wait is over! Ilex Press are now bringing out a paperback edition in May 2011 at the very reasonably priced £16.99. The slightly revised cover is above and you can pre-order the book here for an even more reasonable £14.44. Do it now before it goes out of print again! Oh, and I just heard a Polish edition is on the cards. Still, it's strange that no Italian or Spanish publishers have picked it up yet! Come on fellas, I practically wrote the books with you hot-blooded Lantinos in mind. You've got a passionate reputation to uphold.

Grant Morrison, Batman and You!

2010-12-01T14:16:00.002Z

Here's an update on the Comic Book Alliance's auction tomorrow (at 7pm GMT), more specifically about that guest appearance in Batman Inc.:

The auction will see the highest bidder guest-starring alongside The Dark Knight in his very own comic! Not only will the winner's name be included, but Chris Burnham (not Yanick Paquette as stated in DC Comics listings) will also draw their likeness into the story as well. All written by "the man who killed Batman"—no less—award-winning scribe and comics legend, Grant Morrison!

BATMAN INCORPORATED is the new best-selling comic book from Grant Morrison highlighting the new status quo in the BATMAN series as Bruce Wayne takes the Bat-franchise global.

Morrison explains "The winner will have the choice to be brutally slain by the villain or dramatically rescued by Batman in a story that takes Batman in a desperate race across two continents and two decades in a spectacular battle to save the world from a terrifying new threat."

The winner will feature in BATMAN INC. #4 on sale 16th February 2011.

Courtesy of Grant Morrison, DC Comics and the Comic Book Alliance.