Latest comic events

Here's some worthwhile comic events happening in the next month:

That's Novel! Exhibition at London Print Studio. 22nd Oct-18th December

Following the huge success of the Hypercomics exhibition ( which was Time Out's exhibition of the week, and got a pretty rave review from Canadian comics critic Bart Beaty) Paul Gravett is curating what will no doubt be another fantastic exhibition entitled That's Novel! Featuring work from international stars like Ho Che Anderson (artist and author behind the Martin Luther King graphic biography) and Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) as well as members of the British small press scene Paul Rainey, Savage Pencil, Darryl Cunningham, Philippa Rice, etc
Also featuring work from the artists of illustration/comics publisher Nobrow and a first chance to see the work of Argentian artist Carlos Nine. Like Hypercomics this exhibition will also be free!

Paul Gravett hosts comics panel at DSC South Asian Literature Festival. Sat Oct 23rd. Q Forum, London. 7pm


Paul Gravett will be hosting a panel discussion called A Visual Renaissance: The Rise of Graphic Novels in South Asia. Joining him on the panel will be Mustashrik who was the artist for Julius Ceaser for SelfMadeHero's Manga Shakesphere line as well as being a very successful commercial artist in his own right, working with Coca Cola, Stella Artois and The Department for Transport.
Also joining him and representing the small press scene will be Kripa Joshi a former graduate of New York's School of Visual Arts from Nepal whose folk art inspired comic adventures of Miss Motti are available for purchase in Gosh Comics and The Cartoon Museum in London. Finally the third panellist will be British talent and author of Rumble Strip Woodrow Phoenix, who visited India last November through The British Council to lead comics workshop, meet graphic novelists, and check out the current comic scene (lucky git!). The panel will be held at Q Forum, and tickets will cost £8 including drinks.

Melinda Gebbe @ Laydeez Do Comics Monday 25th October The Rag Factory, Brick Lane, London. 6.30pm-9.30pm

Having immensely enjoyed the atmosphere of their last meeting, a special talk given by underground comix legend Trina Robbins, I look forward to taking the trip up to London again this month. This months meeting returns to its usual multi-speaker format but is headed by another pioneering figure in the wimmin's comix movement, Melinda Gebbe, who is now based in Nottingham with husband Alan Moore with whom she collaborated on the jaw-dropping three volume ode to Victorian porn and childhood fairy tales, Lost Girls. Also speaking will be Lisa Gornick, a London based filmmaker who keeps a blog of daily drawings about her film making, Sina Shamsavari, an autobiographical comic artist currently doing a PhD about queer alternative comics at Goldsmiths in London, and artist Michael O'Mahony. It costs a measly £1.50 to get in and you get free homemade cookies in the bargain, plus you're welcome to join them for curry in brick lane afterwards.

Spice Arthur 702. Live manga storytelling with instrumental accompaniment. 26th October. Soho Theater, Dean Street, London. 8pm.


A modern take on the traditional Japanese art form of picture storytelling Kamishibai which gave birth to Manga as we know it today. Although this is all in Japanese, an English synopsis will be provided for each tale, and the combination of crazy voices, sound effects, and trumpet and drum accompaniment should make this an exciting and once in a lifetime event. Click here to view a YouTube video of the group in action.

Thought Bubble Leeds & Women In Comics Conference II. 18th November. Leeds Art Gallery, Lecture Theater, Henry Moore Room. 10.30am-5pm.

As part of the annual Thought Bubble sequential art festival in Leeds which takes place between the 18th and the 21st of November, there will be an all day academic conference concerning the role of women in the comics industry, and the representation of women in comics, amongst other things. The guest speaker of the conference will be Suzy Varty who published the first all women comic in the UK (Heroine) in 1977. Email i.hague@chi.ac.uk for tickets. For more information of the rest of the Thought Bubble events click here.

You did what to my comics?!

Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik has made an art show out of every comic geeks worse nightmare, the destruction of their prize Marvels. He has made collages/paintings from the panels of Marvel comics such as The Incredible Hulk, The Sub-Mariner, Green Lantern, and The Fantastic Four.


Unfortunately it's in Santa Carlita in California, but it's a nice idea.
Check out his art blog here.

Comica Festival 2010: Trina Robbins and Roger Sabin

Copied directly from the Comica site incase you miss it are two forthcoming events that have got me very excited indeed:


Comica & Laydeez Do Comics Present: Trina Robbins

For the first time, Comica Festival and Laydeez Do Comics are thrilled to be teaming up to invite to London the important comic artist and writer, from the seminal underground comix of the Seventies to such icons as Wonder Woman, Barbie, Powerpuff Girls and her own GoGirl!, lecturer, curator and America’s foremost comics ‘herstorian’, Trina Robbins. She is coming over to present a paper at the academic conference Motherhoods, Markets, and Consumption at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford on Monday 13 September and has kindly agreed to visit London for this special extra event on Tuesday 21 September.

Ms. Robbins will present a lively and provocative illustrated lecture entitled: HERE ARE THE GREAT WOMEN COMIC ARTISTS, in which she introduces a whole slew of brilliant and talented women cartoonists from the early 20th century who are not included in histories and major exhibits by men, and explains why. Among others, she will be speaking about Nell Brinkley, the proto-feminist whose sumptuous portrayals of women inspired Mae West’s screen persona, as collected in the acclaimed deluxe edition from Fantagraphics, The Brinkley Girls. Her earlier biography of Brinkley was reviewed by Comica Festival director Paul Gravett here. She has also just written the introduction to Fantagraphics’ first edition of Moto Hagio’s historic shojo or girls’ manga entitled A Drunken Dream & Other Stories.

Doors open at 6.30pm and Trina Robbins will be speaking from 7pm. Following this, there will be an informal discussion and Q&A session and conclude by 9.30pm after a book signing and refreshments. The evening will be held at the regular venue for Laydeez Do Comics, The Rag Factory , 16-18 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ. For directions: Nearest Tube: Aldgate East. Follow the exit which directs you to the Whitechapel Art Gallery. Turn LEFT out of the tube into Whitechapel High Street. Take the first left into Osborne Street and carry straight on into Brick Lane. Take the fourth turning on the right into Heneage Street and The Rag Factory is a little way up, on the right.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear and meet a pre-eminent figure in contemporary American comic books, graphic novels and comics studies. To help cover costs, there will be a modest charge of £5 for a ticket, which you can pay on the door on the night. As we expect a lot of interest and places are limited, you can reserve your tickets by emailing Nicola Streeten at: info@laydeezdocomics.com. Sarah Lightman and Nicola Streeten from Laydeez Do Comics and Paul Gravett from Comica Festival look forward to welcoming you on Tuesday 21 September for a truly memorable evening.

Comica 2010 Festival opens with Free Exhibition, Symposium & Comiket

Here’s the first news about this year’s exciting edition of Comica, the London International Comics Festival, back for its 7th annual season. A major new element will be a three-month exhibition curated by Comica director Paul Gravett entitled ‘That’s Novel : Graphic Novels Now’ which will celebrate current innovations in the comics medium in Britain and internationally, both on and off the page. This evolving show will be held at The London Print Studio Gallery and tap into their amazing printing facilities, from etching and lithography to silkscreening and the latest digital methods, to offer invited artists the chance to work on special new works and in media they may never have tried before. Admission to the exhibition will be free and a variety of talks, panels, workshops, masterclasses and more will also be taking place at the Gallery.

To kick off Comica 2010, the festival is collaborating with The School of Arts at Birkbeck, University of London, in association with the British journals Studies in Comics, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics and European Comic Art, to hold a one-day Comica Symposium on Friday 5 November in a 180-seater conference room shown below. Entitled ‘Transitions’, this will promote multi-disciplinary research of comics and graphic novels, manga, bande dessinée, webcomics and other forms of sequential art.

Rather than being restricted by a specific theme, the aim of the symposium is to highlight research from postgraduate research students and early career lecturers bringing together different perspectives and methodologies, whether cultural, historical, or formal, thereby mapping new trends and providing a space for dialogue and further collaboration to emerge. Dr Roger Sabin, Reader in Popular Culture at Central St. Martins and author of Adult Comics and Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels, will introduce the event and respond to the panel papers. Following the papers and response, there will be a roundtable discussion from artists/scholars who will reflect on the links between the two practices. Work will be on display throughout the event. Organised with Tony Venezia, the day will conclude with a wine reception. Details of how to register and participate will follow soon. And best of all, the whole event is free!

And Sunday 7 November brings the next Comica Comiket Independent Comics Fair, teaming up with the popular, long-running National Collectors Marketplace at the Royal National Hotel, Russell Square, and taking over the (Warren) Ellis Room from 12-5pm. A limited number of exhibitor tables will be available at affordable prices and there will be several special events and surprise guests throughout the afternoon. The public are admitted free. Booking arrangements for tables will be announced shortly, along with much more of the Comica 2010 Festival programme. Meanwhile, put these dates in your diary now and tell all your friends!

Considering this is just a taste of things to come, we can except an even better Comica Festival this year! Also if you haven't done so already, you should check out the Hypercomics exhibit running until the 26th of September at the Pumphouse Gallery in London's Battersea Park. Featuring boundary pushing work from the likes of Dave McKean, Adam Dant, and Warren Pleece, you check out the exhibitions mini site here for more info.

Date for your diary: Comica Argentina

On Friday the 2nd of July at Kings Place, St Pancras (London) 'Man at the crossroads' Paul Gravett will give a talk about the history of comic art in Argentina to accompany an exhibition and the screening of a animated short 'For a tango' by Sylvia Libedinsky. Tickets for the event cost £6.50. For more details, click here.