Burns Nicht the Nicht!

Today's 'Burns Nicht' when folks celebrate the life of Scotland's National poet, Robert 'Rabbie' Burns and as tradition demands we will be tucking into some home cooked haggis tonight, as freshly caught during my last trip home :)

We generally are away at Burns night (and have a trip planned this weekend) and am reminded of a couple of years ago in 2013 when we managed to be in Edinburgh for Burn's night when thankfully the weather was fairly mild. The City though had several Burn's celebratory events on including a couple of costumed readings of his work which I though would be good to share here, including a willing volunteer to a reading of 'A Red Red Rose'!

At the Museum of Scotland the same day, they also had several events including a lively re-enactment of Tam o'Shanter, readings and a wee concert from Amy MacDonald! Enjoy your own Burns nicht, however you celebrate it!

 

Oh and keeping with comics, this recent graphic novel lifts the lid on the bard's previously unknown life as Scotland's Witch Hunter! It's delightful riotous fun, find out more from the BBC and order it here!

2013 Moments in Music

I mentioned that I wasn't quite done with 2013 so here's my wee list of favourite CD's from last year, not necessarily released in 2013 but they all helped form my soundtrack to the year, (and checkout 2012's list here!);

1. DAVID SYLVIAN: Gone To Earth (2006)

2. DEAD CAN DANCE: Anastasis (2012)
3. THE BLUE NILE: Walk Across Rooftops (2012)

4. DEAD CAN DANCE: Wake (2003)

5. DAVID BOWIE: The Next Day (2013)

6. DAVID SYLVIAN: Brilliant Trees (2006)
7. PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING: IEE (2013)

8. LONDON GRAMMAR: If You Wait (2013)

9. ENNIO MORRICONE: Good, Bad & Ugly (1967)
10. THOMAS DOLBY: Floating City (2011)

I came comparatively late to David Sylvian's solo career via his first excellent retrospective Everything & Nothing (2000) and resisted his earlier works thinking that all the best tracks were already on this collection and its ambient companion Camphor (2002) but finally succumbed in 2013 and while there is a little overlap with those releases, both the Gone To Earth and Brilliant Trees remasters are  unexpectedly wonderful and kept me returning to them many times during the year.

 

As did the remaster of The Blue Nile's debut which I'd never previously had on CD despite proudly owning on vinyl back in the day! I would still say that Hats is their best but I was surprised how fresh Rooftops sounded, including the various bonus tracks.

 

After the excellent Albert Hall gig last year I continued my fascination with Dead Can Dance but so far have not dipped into their back catalogue thinking again that Wake will have all the best tracks, but maybe like with David Sylvian, I'll be proved wrong?

 

My other favourites, with the exception of Ennio Morricone, were all pretty much contemporary releases for me headed of course by Mr Bowie!  What a wonderful surprise his return was and while not a true classic, The Next Day is a strong contender and contains many worthy additions to the Bowie songbook. It was also a great reaction by the man himself to move forward while everyone else was looking back at the excellent V&A retrospective, proving that as usual Bowie's at least one step ahead!

 

My other 2013 favourites were mainly discoveries through the increasingly essential BBC 6 Music shows and the live circuit where I managed to see both Public Service Broadcasting and Thomas Dolby perform, separately I should add! P.S.B kept in character during their performance accompanied by the vintage information films which give them their name and are well worth checking out as is their earlier The War Room E.P which preceded their Inform, Educate and Entertain album.

 

 

We caught erstwhile 80's star and pop eccentric/genius Thomas Dolby at a small local intimate venue with maybe 100 or so people on his short Invisible Lighthouse Tour where he provided a live narrative and soundtrack to his recently completed movie about the closure of his local lighthouse and it was really quite something special. He even took a short Q&A session in between encores talking about his inspiration, his music and experiences, a humble and very talented man who, perhaps like Mr Bowie (who Dolby of course accompanied at Live Aid), has not yet turned his back on creating inventive music.

 

  

Moments on the Radio!

 

Okay forgive me for being a wee bit 'starstruck' as earlier today I had my name read out on BBC Radio 2 and a question I'd raised asked of author Joseph Boyden who was being interviewed about his new book The Orenda!

 

Hey okay in the scheme of things its pretty minor but I'm pretty chuffed to say the least and impressed that the 'interactiveness' of such things actually works!

 

I'd been listening to the Simon Mayo show early evening when my ears pricked up during his Book Club feature when the author interviewed mentioned the Iroquois and Huron tribes of Southern Canada and their interaction with the Jesuit priests being the setting of his new novel. While no expert, I'd an interest and awareness of this subject after visiting a reconstruction of a site founded by the Jesuits during our trip to Canada last year. I listened intently and became more interested in the story being described but I'd missed the author's name and wasn't sure of the book's title so logged on to the BBC Radio 2 website and found that I was listening to Joseph Boyden describing his new novel, The Orenda.

 

 

I then noticed the BBC's invitation to 'interact' with the programme by texting or emailing the presenters so while thinking 'yeah right' I bashed off a short question name checking the Sainte-Marie among the Huron site we'd visited and asked if the author had drawn on its location at all? Well you can imagine my complete shock and surprise when mere moments later, Simon Mayo name checked me and read out my question! Even more pleasing was that the author was not only familiar with the location but that it had indeed featured in his thinking as the story's "ground zero" setting - gulp!

 

You can hear the clip yourself here for the next 7 days - try around the 1:22:10 mark - and you can also read an extract from Joseph's book here!

 

Yep I was - and still am - pretty flabbergasted about this, maybe its just me as not being part of the smart phone/twitter generation, I'm not used to this instant interaction but hey I'm impressed, thank you Simon Mayo and BBC and I reckon the least I can do is buy Joseph's book now!

One of our 2012 photos of the Sainte-Marie among the Huron site

 

Some chap drafting an email to the Simon Mayo show in Jesuit times!

 

LSCC - Moments of Discovery!

The latest movie & comic crossover?

Personally my LSCC highlights were catching up with familiar faces of Accent UK readers and fellow UK indie-folks including Steve Tanner and his Time-Bomb Comics family, the energetic couple that are   Conor and Lizzie Boyle, (that'll teach you Conor to try and put me off when I'm being interviewed!), The Goodman Brothers, Comic Book Alliances Jordan, John Maybury, John Anderson (who's Soaring Penguin Press imprint have a very ambitious Peter Pan project gathering steam for a May launch, check here) Shane Chebsey, Charles Cutting (Congratulations on getting the first part of 'Carter' published!) Richy Chandler, Jenika Ioffreda and no doubt a few others that I may have missed!

Splash page from PS Artbook's Bryant & May Casebook!
 

My other highlights, apart from the marvellous cosplayers and the chaps at Diamond, was catching up with one of my favourite UK comic artists, Keith Page, perhaps best known for his distinctive Commando book work for D.C Thomson and recent Charlotte Corday graphic novels London Calling and Iron Moon (with a 3rd in the works from the afore-mentioned Time Bomb comics!). He was at the wonderfully friendly PS Artbooks booth promoting his graphic novel of Christopher Fowler's popular detective series, Bryant and May - The Soho Devil, of which I eagerly collected my pre-ordered signed slipcase edition (Thanks Nicky & Peter!).

The book looks great and Keith was a real delight to talk to, easy going and knowledgeable on his history as he and I discussed the Zulu Wars. He also happily agreed to do me a wee sketch in my copy of the Iron Moon book that I'd brought with me, which features a small platoon of the British colonial period soldier I'm so fond of. We chatted so much that Keith put a little too much detail into the drawing which he was gracious over and out of respect I won't show here, but I thought it fun and capped off a memorable meeting, thanks Keith!

 

The book I had perhaps most anticipated at the show was Jeremy Bastian's Cursed Pirate Girl recently collected from Archaia and Dave and I were lucky to spot him at his table very early on the Saturday morning. Not wanting to 'peak' too early I almost turned away thinking we'd all weekend to see him and his wonderful book but thankfully we started talking to Jeremy and both decided to pick up a copy there and then while it was quiet and he had a chance to sketch in them.

A Page from the insanely detailed Cursed Pirate Girl!


Luckily we did as when I caught up with him the following day he said that he'd sold out of all the books by the Saturday lunchtime, leaving only his gorgeous prints which were also very popular. I was delighted for him as he has an amazingly detailed line work to his art which he said takes him an age to produce - an average comic page can take up to a week! - so he deserves all the success that comes his way. He was such a nice chap too and is keeping good company with last year's LSCC guest, David Petersen, contributing to his Legends of the Mouse Guard book. 



A very happy Jeremy Bastian on the Sunday

One of the hoped for joys of attending any show is the discovery of something so good you can't believe you've never heard of it before, sometimes of course, exhibiting yourself, you don't get the chance to look round and head home with nothing particularly new. Thankfully at LSCC we didn't have far to go as we found ourselves next to one Ivan Petrus who had travelled from his native Belgium to showcase the English translation of his quietly wonderful book, The Nieuport Gathering.

Ivan at his table with Dutch & English banners of his 'Gathering' book 

Nieuport (or Nieuwpoort) is located in Flanders and played a vital role in the Battle of the Yser, part of the First Battle of Ypres but don't worry if, like me you're not overly familiar with the detail of this 1914 conflict as Ivan's book cleverly explains what you need to know without being laboured.

The book is based on the true fates of three soldiers, a Belgian, a Brit and a Frenchman during the horrors of the First World War. The factual tales are themselves absorbing but the clever 'framing' device which Ivan uses to bring their stories together lifts everything to a higher level and drew a genuine emotional response from this reader.

The book is lovingly illustrated by Ivan himself in a somewhat simple art style, reminiscent perhaps of children's books, but I have certainly never seen a children's book tackle so effectively this difficult subject. In any case Ivan's art is enhanced by some deft colouring and washes which together with its hardcover and textual pieces provide a quality and informative book.

 

Great examples of Ivan's artwork from ACC Distribution - click image for their website and larger images

Ivan's book and colour dedications received a lot of attention over the weekend and he was pleased with how things had gone with this being I think his first 'proper' UK convention after previously successfully launching the book in Belgium, France and Holland. The First World War remains an unusual subject matter for a comic book but seeing it at LSCC alongside the various indie and artist alley titles on display was a healthy reminder of the true diversity that the comics medium can offer.

By a further happy accident we found that Ivan, together with friend and noted Belgian archivist Patrick Vanleene were also staying at our hotel so we were able to carry on our interesting conversations about comics, history and the state of Belgian and Scottish football! Actually I should note that although he was too modest to say so himself, Patrick is quite an authority in the field of World War One research and was, after the show, going to the National Archives at Kew and had also been one of the advisers to the Parade's End T.V series, starring Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC's Mr Sherlock himself and forthcoming Star Trek baddie!). Apart from being a good friend of Ivan's, Patrick had also translated one of the soldiers diaries featured in The Nieuport Gathering.

I felt suitably inspired by talking to Ivan and Patrick and hope to meet them again in the future with Ivan promising to return to LSCC next year with a new volume in his World War One series, featuring the equally fascinating story of Elsie & Mari - the young British nurses who volunteered for the Ambulance Corps and ended up in Flanders themselves, I can't wait and neither should you!