2013 Comics !



Forbidden Planet's 2013 logo

Inching towards the end of the year and I'm pretty pleased on the whole with 2013, although it really zoomed by, but maybe that's just my age!

Anyway last year I posted my favourite comics of the year (see 2012 here) but as the eagle-eyed may  have noticed that the, always interesting, Forbidden Planet blog have already done the job by asking me to contribute to their annual 'best of' postings which you can read here.

It is quite an honour to be included so thanks to Joe and Richard for the invite and it'll be interesting to see what the 'poll of polls' will reveal about what caught people's imaginations this year. Looking at my list, my 'best-of' and honourable mentions were all graphic novels and perhaps more oddly, all my choices were by a single writer/artist creator and also all ones that I'd been fortunate enough to meet at various comic shows I'd attended, probably just coincidence but the truth is I do most of my buying at shows these days as a great way to both discover new works and meet creators in person.

Anyway here's my full choices with a page of their interior art to encourage you to check them out for yourself if you haven't already;

The Nieuport Gathering - Ivan Petrus

Sailor Twain - Mark Siegel

 

 

The Great War - Joe Sacco

Cursed Pirate Girl - Jeremy Bastion

 

 Gigantic Beard That Was Evil - Stephen Collins

 Pachyderme - Frederik Peeters

There was a great many more that I enjoyed last year including finally catching up with Posy Simmonds Tamara Drewe, Cinebooks excellent Scorpion and Spooks series, re-reads of Charley's War and new to me 'discoverys' Kings in Disguise and Freddy Lombard.

 

I once again didn't read any traditional 'pamphlet' comics from the so called mainstream publishers, but instead picked up and enjoyed new works from the likes of Doug Noble, Rob Jackson, Connor & Lizzie Boyle, Ellen Lindner, Jim Alexander, Boulet and latest find, Jessica Martin and no doubt others that slip my mind at the moment.

 

There is thankfully a host of great comics out there and hopefully you've found some time to catch up with some of them yourself, if not what are you waiting for!

Best wishes and See You in 2014 !

The Lakes Comic Festival!

 

Wow, well that was The Lakes last weekend or I should say The Lakes International Comic Art Festival to give it its full Sunday name, but 'The Lakes' will do just fine I think, although 'The Rain' would also be a close second!

 

Actually its maybe a bit unfair to mention the weather for a comic show, however when that show takes over the whole lake district market town of Kendal and involves a wee bit of walking around, the weather plays its part, more so than the normal convention centre set show that we're used to. However although the frequent drizzly rain did its best, it failed to dampen the spirits of attendees, guests, exhibitors and volunteers as we encountered probably the friendliest and best-run debut show we've ever attended - no mean feat when we recall the previous contenders.

 

The Comics Clock Tower & some of Kendal's Signage!

But its true, the enthusiasm of the organisers and volunteers was infectious and helped overcome the few teething problems and the vagrancy's of the local weather. Our location, The Comics Clock Tower was in fact Kendal's town hall and as such, slap bang in the centre and not one you could really miss and ideal for reaching the nearby Brewery Arts Centre where most of the talks and events were held. I'm reliably informed that it was pretty close to the various other exhibition sites, library and 'pop-up' shops too etc but we didn't venture too far from the Clock Tower so sadly missed out on much of what else was going on but that tends to happen when you're exhibiting, but for attendees there was a lot more to see to keep you fully occupied both fun packed days and evenings!

 

John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra take the stage

And that was true of Accent UK too, we had a fun, enjoyable time at the show and in Kendal, with this, like the recent Glasgow MCM show being accompanied by (some of ) our families which is good to all get away and share the comics fun. We were delighted to also be accompanied by long term friend Garen Ewing of Rainbow Orchid fame and I note that Garen has already posted his thoughts on the show here before scooting of to Essen in Germany for another show, busy man!

Dave, Garen and Col - add your own caption!

Its always fun sharing time with Garen and as he was also staying with us en-route before and after the show, we had plenty of time to catch up which was great and that's one thing that perhaps Dave and I have missed a bit in more recent comic shows, in terms of catching up properly with other comic folks. Too often its just a quick hello and wave then you're busy behind your table and before you know where you are, the shows over and you've still not had a decent chat with these seldom seen friends.

10 or even 5 years ago, there weren't that many comic shows in the UK so you could almost guarantee that 'everyone' would be there and you'd usually see them about town or in the same hotel etc but since those heady heights of Bristol and Birmingham, the UK has seen an explosion of shows so there's less need to chase round the country when you can just as easily stay closer to home, meaning though that the UK comics 'scene' has arguably become more splintered than it ever was, albeit independent comics are themselves possibly more accessible than ever before?



However, The Lakes had that good old fashioned feel of 'everyone' being there as you could hardly walk down the street without bumping into familiar comic faces in unfamiliar surroundings which was nice, seeing how many people had made the effort to travel to the show.

Still I heard of a possible 3 new UK shows next year and its unclear whether the UK can really support them all? Anyway The Lakes should have no such worries, confidently announcing its 2014 dates alongside its debut programming. With the promise of even better to come, it could really become the jewel in the UK comics' crown with the real potential to match France's revered Angouleme Festival which it is using as its model.




The view of the Clock Tower first floor from the gallery

While we happily give The Lakes a positive endorsement, it was difficult to say just how busy it was with actual attendees as judging purely from our Clock Tower view, it was steady footfall without being spectacular - bear in mind our last show was MCM Glasgow's amazing 20,000 crowd! - and sales, particularly during Saturday were slow but unusually almost busier on the Sunday and while overall, our sales were respectful, they were not the high numbers we'd recently encountered. That in some ways is to be expected in a new show when really everyone is investing in the shows future and of course there was a great choice available for the punter's pound - I won't list everyone here or all our shout outs as it would take too long, but have a look again at the Clock Tower's floorplan for the names of many great creators, publishers and dealers! 

Ivan and his Elsie and Mairi new book

One special 'shout-out' I will give is to Ivan Petrus, he of 'The Nieuport Gathering' book I picked up when first meeting him at the London Super Comic Convention earlier this year. Ivan had bravely driven from his home in Belgium to Kendal, which is a long, long way and he didn't have the best of journeys but accompanied by his very good friend Gert, he settled into the show and again turned out some wonderful full water coloured paintings in his books. Sadly although he had finished the next book in his World War 1 series, Elsie en Mairi, the English version is not yet available but I had a good look at the Dutch version Ivan had brought with him, which again looks great, so fingers-crossed I won't have too long to read it, if not I may just have to try and learn Dutch!



The Brewery Arts Centre

The Graphic Memoir panel

The Lakes was also special for the fact that both Dave and I took the opportunity to attend a couple of the talks, one each each day which was a rare treat with it being years since we'd done so but The Lakes programme was so good we couldn't resist! I saw the 'Graphic Memoir' panel with Al Davison, Katie Green, Nye Wright and Mary Talbot which was very good, moving and thought provoking in places with the panelists being very open with their experiences behind their very personnel stories and the reactions they'd encountered. Ably chaired by Nicola Streeten, the hour flew by very quickly.

 

Joe Sacco with Steve Bell (can you spot Tin Tin!) 

The following day was the Joe Sacco in conversation with political cartoonist Steve Bell event which I was very excited about, I am a huge admirer of Joe's work and was genuinely excited about the prospect of hearing him talk. I was pleased to again bump into Jeremy Briggs of comics news blog Down The Tubes (see Jeremy's own Kendal photo report here) amongst the packed audience and we greatly enjoyed the casual and revealing discussion between these two talented artists as they explored each others creative styles, deadlines and sensitivities in dealing with often challenging material. Their talk veered around different subjects in the same way that a conversation between two friends does and while always interesting I would have liked to hear a bit more about the nuts and bolts of Joe's techniques but I did learn that he kept very detailed journals which he carefully indexed, the art for a finished page usually takes him 2.5 days to complete and with a book like Footnotes in Gaza taking some 7 years to complete, he's now turning his attention to shorter form stories as seen in the recent Journalism collection.
 

One of Joe Sacco's amazing panoramas from his new Great War book

I was though very delighted to meet Joe at his signing afterwards and spend a few moments with him as he kindly signed my books, he was indeed as gracious as I'd hoped and, as far as I could see, made time for everyone who queued for him, a real gent and a real joy.

And that joy was mirrored around everyone I encountered at The Lakes, chatting to volunteers, strangers in event queues, signings, the locals and is a major factor in the success of the show. Despite the weather and the respectful sales, this was a timely reminder that a true comics festival is more about the experience rather than just numbers and on that level The Lakes is a major success and one we hope becomes a regular fixture of the UK calendar, so congratulations and thanks to all involved, see you next year please!



The Lakes Haul

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!