Ah Pook Is Here

I've never been a huge fan of William S Burroughs, finding his cut-up technique of writing a little irritating and overrated, however with the impending release of a once abandoned graphic novel collaboration between himself ,and the artist Malcolm McNeil, I may be forced to reevaluate.
Started in the 70's and originally appearing as a comic strip under the title The Unspeakable Mr Hart in English magazine Cyclops, Ah Pook Is Here, and after seven years of struggles(*1) they finally got the book published in 1979. The idea of a book lenght comic strip, predating Eisner's invention of the term 'graphic novel' (with what is argued(*2) is the first graphic novel, A Contract With God) was a daring move.
It is Fantagraphics Books that will be releasing a restored edition in the summer of 2011. It will be released as a two part book the second part being the artist's own memoir of his working relationship with Burroughs.
Whether or not the text will make me see Burroughs in a different light remains to be seen(*2). However one thing can be said for him is that he certainly has an eye for artistic talent, his only other comics based project that never came to fruition was a science-fiction strip for the dream anthology that never was, Someday funnies(*3)
I can only image how much of a visual delight the full colour reprint of this is going to be just from the samples available on McNeil's website. Luscious horizontal panels of landscapes, stretching out and evolving into surreal masterpieces, reminiscent of Dali, classical religious artwork, William Blake, and Escher. Other sections of the book , which resemble more closely the comic book format, are sketched out in pencil and are atmospheric and brooding and taking a leaf from Will Eisner's book, make great use of negative spaces and well thought out panel composition.
If the samples presented to you here are not enough to keep you satisfied until the books release, then you always check out McNeil's site here and also a creepy slightly Tim Burtonesque(*4) short animation based on the Burrough's text (and voiced by the man himself) directed by Philip Hunt

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(*1) Their original publisher closed
(*2) Although there are other contenders for that crown, Milt Gross's He Done Her Wrong and the early woodcut novels of Lynd Ward and Frans Masereel (although all these are wordless).
(*2) Judging by the plot (the usual paranoid conspiracy theory about the media/government with some sci-fi elements) I doubt it.
(*3) Which was to feature legends of the comics world as well as the non-comics world, including Steadman, Fellini, Dali, Tom Wolfe, and even Germaine Greer.

Comics and Architecture

An interesting article has been posted by The Hooded Utilitarian over at The Comics Journal describing in quite some detail the relationship between buildings and environment in a comic and the characters who inhabit them. The article mainly discusses Josh Simmon's new wordless graphic novel House, but he also briefly skims over Chris Ware, Seth, David Mazzucchelli, Marshall Rogers, Will Eisner, Richard McGuire, Tom Gauld, and François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters. Well worth a read. Click here.

Review: National Lampoon presents: Claire Bretecher

Looking on Amazon it seems pretty hard to find any English language collections of French cartoonist Claire Bretecher's work but by looking at her entries on Wikipedia and Lambiek Comiclopedia it is clear that she is pretty revered in her country, and indeed amongst most comics aficionados. But at the time she started getting recognised (70's) she was sadly one of the few women making it big in the European comics scene. She got her big break doing some illustration work for Rene Goscinny and in 1972 she founded the comics magazine L'Echo des savanes with Gotlib and Mandryka.
So having heard her name floating around I picked up a second hand copy of a collection of her cartoons put out by the American humour magazine National Lampoon. Despite the fact that the large majority of her strips focus on gender issues and feature mainly female protagonists, they are portrayed fairly neutrally, as Bretecher herself explains in the books introduction:

'Women in comic strips are usually portrayed either as shrews or movie stars. But in real life, women, like men, are neither of these extremes, so I portray women and men alike, except that the women have two little round things on their chest'

This comes as a refreshing antidote to the reinforcement of female stereotypes in comics of that period especially the newspaper strip Cathy by Cathy Guisewite which has been parodied to death over the years.


Stylistically and thematically Bretecher reminds me slightly of Jules Feiffer in her dealings with the pretensions of the intellectual and bohemian elite. Whether mocking parents new found obsession with Freud, lampooning film critics, or poking holes in the commitment of the anti-consumerist crowd Bretecher's humour is as relevant now as it was back then. The sign of a true feminist in my eyes is someone who champions equality not superiority and I can safely say Bretecher follows this blueprint to the tee, not being afraid to make a mockery of the feminists as well as shooting down the chauvinists with her razor sharp wit. Most of the strips carry a subtle slightly absurdist message reminding us never to take ourselves too seriously, but from some of the strips its easy to see where her sympathies lie (a strip about abortion managing to make a poignant joke about women's choice in the matter). Overall this is a nice introduction to Bretecher's work and I for one would like to see more of it made available, especially her colour work and her teenage character Agrippine.

Kayne West's New Yorker Tweets

What do you get when you cross Kayne West's egotistical, often off the wall and grandiose twitter tweets with cartoons from The New Yorker?


Fantastically fitting captions is the answer. Even the Jesus Christ of Hip Pop approves.
Click here to view them all.

Publisher Spotlight: Self Made Hero

Self Made Hero are another London based independent comics publisher established in 2007. The thing that makes Self Made Hero stand out from other independent publishers in London is their central focus on bringing us the best graphic adaptations of the best literary work. They split their releases into themed series including Manga Shakespeare, Eye Classics, Crime Classics, and Graphic Biography. Their Eye Classics series has established comic artists such as Martin Rowson, and Andrzej Klimowski , as well as relative newcomer Catherine Anyango tackle Laurence Sterne Mikhail Bulgakov, and Joseph Conrad. These aren't just straightforward adaptations either, each artist is given license to add postmodern twists and even their own jokes.
Perhaps their most well received release however, was the Johnny Cash biography by Reinhard Kleist entitled I See A Darkness. This is a biography that will probably attract even those who aren't really the biggest fans of Cash's music. Visually it taps into the dark underbelly of Cash's life with it's noir style use of black and white and occasional surreal elements.
Also coming soon in this series is Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S Thompson and Dance By The Light of The Moon by Judith Vanistendael, the first biography published by Self Made Hero about someone who isn't really famous. Dance By The Light of The Moon is a semi-autobiographical story inspired by the authors love affair with a political refugee from Togo, beautifully rendered in lush brush strokes reminiscent of Craig Thompson's Blankets.
Finally Self Made Hero have just started to branch out into gift books based on comic book charecters and will be releasing several Moomins inspired books including a Moomins cook book!
Self Made Hero's reputation is deservedly growing and hopeful with continue to do so, Anyango's adaptation of Heart of Darkness is the latest of their releases to be heaped with praise.
Check out their website here.

Find of the week: Oh, Brother!

Oh, Brother! is a daily webcomic created by cartoonists Bob Weber Jr and Jay Stephens. It is drawn in a format reminiscent of the classic newspaper strips (Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts etc) but the action is usually confined to a minimum number of panels leading up to a punchline rather than a full story followed by a punchline. Oh, Brother! draws from plenty of current pop culture phenomena such as reality TV, blogging, and eBay but at the root of this comic lies the classic brother sister love-hate relationship which I'm sure anyone with an older or younger sibling can relate to. There are brief moments where the characters of Bud and Lily act as ventriloquists for distinctly adult thoughts and actions (think Richard Thompson's Cul De Sac), but mostly the humour resolves a kind of 'Kids say the funniest things' vein which gives the the humour a two sided aspect, one that both the parents and the children can enjoy.


Visually the block colouring and the simple yet iconic character design give this strip a distinctly Cartoon Network feel (Dexter's Laboratory, My Fairy Godparents etc). There is also a very subtle use of movement and expression in the strip which changes only slightly with each image therefore adding extra weight to the punchline.

Click here to go to the site.

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.