Just discovered that Andi Watson has a spangly new website which includes a selection of full colour strips and his LiveJournal.

Nine page preview of Paris by Andi Watson and Simon Gane. Boy, this looks rather good, I must say! Here's the press release.

Here's some old newspaper strip joy. Barnacle Press have uploaded a bunch high-quality scans of strips they think are public domain including Terry and the Pirates, The Outbursts of Everett True and my favourite, a load of Peter Arno panels, plus loads more. Lovely! (via)

Mardou (uh..that's me!) has a new website....the sketchbook and news pages are to follow but feel free to visit me! Ta.

Warren Ellis reviews Jeffrey Brown's Any Easy Intimacy

Carl Critchlow, David Goodman and Dave Willacy will be giving a talk on The How, Where and Why of Self Publishing at Liverpool Central Library on Saturday August 27th. many more details on the UK Comics Nation blog.

Dogsbody is the Comics Journal's online minicomics review column. It's been running for a while now but you might not be aware of it. Here's the lastest slug.

What is a graphic novel? Jessica Able gives an answer. (via)

Septagon Studios is another new graphic novel publishing outfit based in Canada. Not much indication of the sort of stuff they'll be publishing yet but they are open to submissions. (via)

Kochalkaholic! is a blog devoted to the works of one James Kochalka. Not as niche as it sounds - we could have done with this years ago. (via)

On the First Second blog Nick Abadzis picks his favourite graphic novel moment, a page from Edmond Baudoin's Le Portrait. Nick has a new book out from them next Autumn.

Leonie O'Moore's photos from various comics events.

Nine page preview of Phil Elliott's Tupelo

The Fractal Hall Journal is a Cardiff-based site publishing SF and horror webcomics and stories.

The A Bit Nice chaps are having a Grand Pickernick in Hyde Park of London on Sunday August 21st and it would appear all are invited.

Bypass reviews John Bagnall's recent comics

New York based cartoonist and anti-folk musician of some distinction Jeffrey Lewis has a gig in London on August 26th. Consider this a recommendation, not just for the music but to pick up some of his comics. (via)

Preview of Kevin Huizenga's Ganges #1 due out in January from Fantagraphics. (via)

Jenni Scott's photos from the Web and Minicomics Thing 2004.

I've been doing some work on Wikipedia articles related to British small press comics and the following are ready for public consumption: Escape Magazine (and list of contents), Fast Fiction, Glenn Dakin and Rian Hughes. I've also put together a list of Comics Journal interview subjects which while incomplete (it's based on my own collection) might prove useful for finding that elusive interview.

Feel free to edit and improve these! If you'd like advice on doing so get in touch with Steve or myself.

Frontiers: Death and Renewal is an eight page prequel to Tony McGee's recent epic. Online for free with an innovative click-to-scroll system.

Here's a gem. An interview with Phil Elliott that covers the British comics scene in the 1980s (Fast Fiction, Westminster Arms, etc) but, and this is the biggie, with photos!

I'm not sure if we've mentioned this rather slick and addictive Comic Strip Generator before, but it's probably worth another mention. (via)

Scanlation Nation: Amateur Manga Translators Tell Their Stories - a fascinating Comics Journal news piece. (via)

English Underground Comics submissions are being solicited by an organisation who wish to translate them into French and publish them in Europe. It says little about the content but the details are here.

The Truth Fairy is a zine distro based in the UK importing stuff from the US. Mainly personal zines with a politics/feminism/anachist streak but there is a smattering of comics there too. (via)

About 2/3 down this Comicon.com Pulse message board thread from 2002 turns into a great history of the UK comics scene in the 1980s centred around the mythical Westminster Arms pub with Richard Starkings, Eddie Campbell and more.

Fantagraphics have a page up for their intriguing new anthology MOME which includes a PDF interview with Paul Hornschemeier.

Over at Ninth Art, Rob Cave reviews Epileptic

Happy 50th Birthday, Eddie Campbell! Okay, I'm going to stop now before I get accused of plagiarism.

PJ Holden has relaunched his forums from scratch after they were hacked to pieces the other week. He's taking requests for new forums (related to small press comics) so if you want one...

Here's a Daniel Clowes interview.

Happy 60th Birthday Posy Simmonds! Well, for yesterday, but I only just found out.

Monsterland is a somewhere to play 'Exquisite Corpse' online. The drawing tools are a little rudimentary, not as sophisticated as, say Artpad - but hey - there's fun to be had!

joyjoyjoy
good news: The Return of Bypass

"This is the online relaunch of Bypass, the small press review magazine which existed for several years during the 'nineties."

Two pages of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta script. "If you're unhappy about anything, give me a ring." (via)

Little Gamers, a webcomic I believe is quite the popular, put out a book collecting the first 300 strips, and when they broke even they put it out to download for free. Comment: I suspect they'll sell a lot more books this way too. (via)

Molly Kiely lives in the desert and liked to draw cute girls. Okay, there's more to her than that (including some keen comics) but made ya look! Reminds me slightly of someone we know... (via)

Willie Hewes writes to plug her comic Amaranth, an ongoing story "of a young woman's descent into a dark world of Fae magic and demonic glee. It is set partly in Bristol and partly in Hell." Issue four is out and issues can be order on the site.

Graveyard Shift: Loups-Garou is a new horror anthology (A5 32pg) coming out in January. Creators so far confirmed include Bolt O1, Edward Berridge, Richmond Clements, Bryan Coyle, Eddie Robson, Matt Timpson and Mark Woodland. Editor Cavan Scott says he's still open to contributions.

First Second books, who are publishing books by Eddie Campbell, Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar amongst others next year, have a weblog for news and previews. (via)

Discovered this online photo-journal comics-craft tutorial. Go look!

wandering about, I bumped into B Patson's Psychopia web site - which you might find confusing, but I find comforting.

How to get there

"Michael J Weller is an... artist whom it is difficult to catergorise. He is predominantly but not exclusively a visual artists who has a strong interest in comic strip, graphic novels etc. In his work graphic art meets and mingles with literature and, to some extent, with film"

Lawrence Upton, 'Sound Poets in England, Scotland and Wales' NCCA Kaliningrad, 2001

Will the real Mike Weller please stand up??

Natalie d'Arbeloff, on reading Space Opera: The Artist's Book, 2000

Steve Green's Caption 2005 photos.

Wikipedia is a wonderful thing, a massive encyclopedia completely written and edited by its users. There are a number entries relating to British comics, some in depth, some mere stubs, and there should be more. Here's a rough sample: Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell, Kev O'Neill, Warrior, Bryan Talbot, Paul Gravett, Escape magazine, Phil Elliott, Paul Grist, Glenn Dakin. If you think any of these are need fixing or expanding, or someone shoud write an entry that isn't there, you are encouraged to do so. That's the point.

Issue two of Air Pirates is also online. Is it my birthday? (via Drawn who have more links.)

Here's a long article by Bob Levin about Disney suing the underground Air Pirates comic which has recently surfaced online. (via)

Fanboy heaven! A convention collector's put his amassed artist sketches online. the Jason Lutes one is nice!

Guardian interviews Dan Clowes

Swimini Purpose is a massive book collecting 30 years of work by Brit comics god Brendan McCarthy. Many details in this Barbelith post but in brief: limited to 500 copies, released this month, costs around £25, looks to be an essential purchase. Samples on the Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy site. My comment: about fecking time! (via)

Newsarama interviews John Porcellino about the Drawn & Quarterly reissue of Perfect Example. (via Size Matters)

Gary Northfield's Derek The Sheep strip is in the Beano again this week. Leave a copy on your coffee table and when your normal friends express incredulity show them Derek and they'll be converted.

MOME is a new anthology from Fantagraphics designed (no mention of an editor) by Jordan Crane and featuring "a regular cast of a dozen of today’s most exciting cartoonists". Crane published the landmark anthology Non back in the day so this should be worth a peek.

If you have a busy life that prevents you from ploughing through Diamond Distributor’s Previews every month, then here are some comics solicited in the latest catalogue that you might be interested in seeing when they’re available from your local comic shop in two to three months. Amaze Ink/Slave Labor are publishing Mr Night by Glen Dakin and Phil Elliot and the first part of Paris by Andi Watson and Simon Gane. Kyle Baker is self publishing the first issue of his Important Literary Journal. Finally, Fantagraphics are making available ACME Novelty Library 16; limited to 20, 000 copies and by Chris Ware.

Go read My Grandmother's Funeral. Pretty great looking so far.

Mal Earl has a Wecomicsnation account. (There needs to be a snappier way to say that...)

Lots of news on the UK Comics Nation blog where Baz Renshaw is organizing events as part of a year-long promotion of British comics, small and large. Leah Moore and John Reppion, writers of Albion will be signing at Travellin Man in Manchester on Sat 27th August, while on the same day creators from Underfire and Paper Tiger will be at David's Comics in Brighton. Meanwhile in Bristol Paul Grist will be signing at Area 51, also on the 27th.. Click through for more info.

Andy Bleck (the artist more commonly known as Andy Konky Kru and responsible for the early comics archive) has posted up his
recent drawings from Berlin including some of a small comics festival.

Speaking of Starzecki, here are my photos of the Kochalka Puppet Theatre performance at Caption. I'm now considering a career in war photography.

Richard Starzecki, of Kochalka Puppet Theatre fame, has posted photos from Caption on his his Lomography site.

Slim Palmer does a cartoon called The Surreal World of Albert and writes to say am illustrated short story based on the cartoon has been published as a Print On Demand book. There's a PDF preview and you can order it here.

Cavan Scott writes to plug Lucky Day, his webcomic on Webcomicnation, "a story of horror, chat-room stalkers and dark alleys".

Go read a complete scan of Air Pirates, the classic US undeground parody comic which Disney sued for something like a million dollars because Mickey and Minnie get it on. (via)

Mooncat's ink-wash sketches from Caption 2005.

The first BugPowder logo is in from Herc.

I need 30 of these things along these lines but completely different. Details are here.

Paul J Holden's forums, which have been a nice home to a number of UK small pressers, have been hacked and not for the first time. Paul's at his wits end and too busy to sort it all out so it looking for ideas. Can you help?

Photos of the many jam comics produced at Caption have been appearing all over the place. I've put the fifteen I photographed on Flickr and encourage people to add notes identifying the artists.

Brushes and Bricks is a fanzine article Andy Roberts wrote back in 1995 about learning how to draw at the London Cartoon Centre. I uploaded it to the BugPowder site a while back and completely forgot about it, but here it is. Also posted to the Remembering Andy LiveJournal.

Matthew Craig writes to pimp his latest comic, Experihondle which he's placed online. "The story of how far one might go to save their best friend - in this case, a dead dog - it's something of an exercise in different storytelling techniques. It's a bit stream-of-consciousness - the story was drawn straight onto the page in biro and bingo markers - but I'm rather proud of it."

Dave Shelton needs help with his weblog. After the current run of chickens he wants to do a week of illustrated bad jokes, but he can only think of one. "Extra brownie points will be awarded for anything that begins with a polar bear walking into a bar." Go give him a hand.

Launching at the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention & 2005 Eurocon (Glasgow, 4-8 August), ‘Emerald Eye’ is an anthology from Albedo One’s book-publishing arm, Aeon Press, and features a short story of mine alongside works by William Trevor, Anne McCaffrey and others. Further details of this item, and of graphic novel ‘Spell Maffia’, at the Aeon Press site…

Sad news. Mark Simpson, co-founder of the innovative comic shop Page 45 in Nottingham, died on Sunday at home.

Chris Shipton collared me at Caption for advice on getting involved in the wacky world of small press comics. Have a look at his stuff and if he's on your wavelength get in touch.

I picked up a few minis by Kelly Hernandez at Caption and they are rather neat.

Clickwheel is a new application combining webcomics and podcasting to bring comics to iPods. It was demonstrated at Caption though I confess I missed the show. Neat concept.

Selina Lock's Caption 2005 photos. See also Flickr photos tagged with Caption 2005 and the UK Small Press Nation photo pool.

BugPowder needs logos. Thirty of them, in fact. The idea is that they'll change on a daily basis and give some flavour of the UK small press comics world. Details are in this mailing list post.

Jenni Scott's Caption 2005 report

CAPTION 2005 Jam Strips from the Sunday afternoon workshops have been posted online. Any help with the herculean task of identifying artists would be appreciated, presumably via this LiveJournal entry.

Jeremy Dennis' Caption report and photos.

Mardou's Caption 2005 report

Size Matters is a new American weblog reviewing mini-comics. Very early days but I like the depth and general approach. (via)

It's come to my attention that some people haven't seen Piercing, an online comic by David Gaddis. Since he doesn't seem to have done much since completing this in 2000 it's worth having another read. Top stuff.

Sean Azzopardi's Caption 2005 photos.

Typocrat are a relatively new London-based publisher specialising in releasing translated editions of aclaimed French comics. The current release is Baladi's Frankenstein Now and Forever. Also on their site is an interview with David Shrigley.

Caption 2005 has occurred. As photos and reports go online we'll do out best to link to them. Here are my photos including the stupendous Kochalka Puppet Theatre performance.

Send us your links - reports, photos, cool comics you picked up or interesting people you met - and we'll stick them up here.

Webcomics Nation has launched. Here's the press release. In brief, for the reasonable sum of $10 a month, less if you pay for a year, they provide the tools and capacity to host and manage a full-on webcomic with the minimum of technical knowhow. If you're looking at options to get a regularly updated comic online this is a serious option from a quality stable.