Here's a recording of Alan Moore interviewing Michael Moorcock at Blackwells the other week. You'll need to register to download and the quality is poor to say the least, but hey, Alan Moore interviewing Michael Moorcock! (via)

While everyone else was no doubt being all highbrow at Angouleme, Gary Northfield and Matt Abbiss were getting pissed, having a snowball fight and writing "bum" on cars in the snow. So that's the UK small press' international reputation intact then. (Photos)

Dylan Horrocks appointed Literary Fellow at the The University of Auckland which, amongst other things, means he can dedicate his time to working on Atlas, thank the lords...

A melancholy but beautiful strip from one of the best cartoonists in this country.

It's the transatlantic, inter-comics event of the year! Our own Sacha Mardou is marrying American minicomics punkster Ted May on February 22nd at a low-key ceremony in Missouri, USA. What started as a mutual appreciation of inking styles soon blossomed into something more and we wish the happy couple absurd levels of The Best!

A Comics Panel with Chris Ware and Seth moderated by Ivan Brunetti This is way cool - a transcript of a discussion panel adapted into a comic that riffs off the styles of the panelists. By Gordon McAlpin. Watch that name, methinks. (via)

More beautiful sketch book pages over at Dave Shelton's weblog.

"Chris Reynolds is the most underrated cartoonist of the last 20 years... He has produced a rich body of work that continues to engage me even after many repeated readings." - Seth, The Comics Journal, Feb 2005.

Originally published by Penguin Books in 1990, Chris Reynolds' graphic novel
"Mauretania" is republished in a new edition, available here.

Some more feedback from the Pencil Money Forum on the Judge Dredd Megazine offer including this from PJ Holden:

If you approach this as an opportunity to be published by 2000AD with an eye to being spotted by 2000AD then forget it, there's not nearly enough work and if you're doing whatever it is that 2000AD wants then the six pages should be paid for.

If, on the other hand, you treat it as a six page advert for something you're already doing then you're laughing. The Meg reaches something like 20,000 (so I believe) and if you hit it with a six page complete rainbow orchid strip along with a website for the rest and where to buy bits and bobs it's the greatest free advert you'll ever have.

Also it appears all rights to the work are retained by the creators (implying they're definitely not looking for your version of Dredd) and it can be colour or B/W.

David Bishop, ex-editor of the Megazine and 2000AD, has some interesting things to say about comics on his weblog.

Shane Chebsey writes: This is a call out to all writers and artists who plan to attend the Bristol Expo in May:

Scar Comics ..publishers of the excellent Dead By Dawn Quarterly, are publishing an anthology for the Bristol convention to showcase self publisher's work to those attending, and also to be sold locally after the convention.

The Title of the anthology is: DESTROY BRISTOL which, as you might have guessed, means your story must be about destroying the City of Bristol in one fashion or another.

So use your imagination...it can be monsters, financial ruin, erasing from the timeline...anything! So long as it's entertaining and/or thought provoking.

Also, keep it clean, as it will be available to all ages. No swearing, nudity or gore.

The format is US with a 1cm white border..no full bleed sorry. Page limit for stories is 4 pages...black and white or greyscale only.

You get a weblink and a listing of your details in the book, along with a creator profile.

Submissions and questions to be emailed to: scarcomics@smallpress.info

Discussion about the Megazine offer (posted here yesterday) has been taking place on the BugPowder mailing list and we received an email from Tom Gauld:

I just read about the 2000ad thing on Bugpowder, which is in some ways quite exciting, but don't you think that it is dreadful that they are not going to pay a penny to print the work?

I'd encourage anyone who is thinking of sending their work to INSIST on being paid, it's just not good business to give away work to companies for nothing. In fact taking into consideration print outs and postage they will be actually paying to be in 2000ad.

I'm not saying they should get the regular page rate, but morally they ought to get something (half? a third?). They should also make sure that it is a one-time usage of the work. This seems quite different to doing work for a fanzine for free, 2000ad is a major comic, published by a major publisher who is selling those pages full price.

The "it's a springboard for your work" or "it's good exposure" line is used a lot by people expecting something for nothing, but we ought to have respect for ourselves and our work. If they think they can fill the comic with good work for free, then why bother paying a decent page rate at all. The springboard element might mean that we should work for a lower rate, but not for free.

I'm often asked to do stuff for free for large businesses and when I ask to be paid they usually say "oh, the other illustrators are doing it for free" and try to make out I'm being a miser, but you have to stick to your guns and in the end ANY company can find a couple of hundred pounds if they want to.

If enough people planning on doing this agreed on a page rate and all asked for it I think 2000ad would pay out.

If you have an opinion on this, please take it to the mailing list.

Worried about species extinction? Don't be. Instead, enjoy these cool sketches in Sean Azzopardi's livejournal.

Do you like robots? Then go here.

Indie Spinner Rack, a podcast hosted by Chucky MaGreggor and Mister Phil, featuring interviews and reviews. Promising sounds.

A message from Matt Smith, editor of 2000AD:

"We're considering opening up 6 pages in the Judge Dredd Megazine for new writers and artists. It can be anything they like, within reason, and doesn't have to be 2000 AD-based. It will unfortunately be unpaid, but they will get a springboard by being published in a mainstream professional title. It should be a self-contained story, and should be supplied fully lettered. The published art size for the Meg is: Panel Area: 189x256mm, Trim Size: 210x276mm, Bleed Size: 216x282mm."

Submissions should be under 5 meg and sent to Matt.Smith [at] rebellion.co.uk as should any queries.

Daniel Merlin Goodbrey has a website and you should really check it out cos his gear is fucking great.

If you're in Manchester on 11/02/06, why not go to the Manchester Zine Fest?

Joe Sacoo has an 8 page strip in today's Guardian magazine.

Pleasures, Sorrows and Ironies: Cartooning the personal and the political

A roundtable discussion with leading American strip-cartoonist Alison Bechdel also featuring Kate Charlesworth, Jacky Fleming, Suzy Varty and Kate Evans. With Carol Bennett of Knockabout Comics in the chair.
Jointly organised by The Cartoon Museum and the Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality at the University of Kent.

Date: 1st February 2006
Time: 6.30-8.00 pm
Venue: The University of Westminster, Fyvie Hall, 309 Regent Street,
London W1.
Nearest tube: Oxford Circus
via Lee Kennedy .

P. J. Holden (excellent Megazine artist, among other things) has been doing quick daily strips on his blog since the new year. Take a gander!

The Comics Journal issue 273 has a long interview with Eddie Campbell.

New collection of Tove Jansson's Moomin strips. Many people don't know than in addition to the Moomin kinda books there are 20 years worth of Moomin newspaper strips. Draw and Quarterly will be collecting them in five volumes in September. (via)

Bob Bryne has entire comics by himself on his website which can be downloaded for free and read using Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Celebrating Andy. Final details of the memorial gig/event for Andy Roberts (longtime figure on the British small press comics scene who died last year) have been confirmed. Saturday 18th Feb at The Spitz, London. Please spread the word.

Ok, I'm sure most of you will have seen (if not participated) in this by now, but I thought it's worth a mention - Hundreds of artists have drawn Batgirl (over 800 by my count). Some nice interpretations throughout.

Six pages of Abe strips by Glenn Dakin at the Top Shelf Comix department. (via)

Nick Abadzis guest posts on the First Second blog. He has a new book, Laika, coming from them soon.

My new comic Manhole #2 is almost finished and should be available within the next two weeks. In the meantime I've slapped a 3 page preview up over on my website.

Clamnut's Bob Byrne interviews Greg O'Brien, creator of Ghost Of A Doubt.

Sonia Leong, a UK semi-professional manga artist and writer, has won second prize in Tokyopop's first UK Rising Stars of Manga Competition. Sonia's website here. The full list of winners here.

Some beautiful early work from Dave Shelton here in the form of PDFs. Why isn't his work more widely known?

Not a dream, not an imaginary story. Richard Branson is getting into comics (as well as films).

I totally abuse my position as a BugPowder blogger to let you know that Part 4 of my 'long comic', There's No Time Like The Present, is available at last. Visit here for details.

The Metropolitan Police force refuse to distribute an anti-violence comic by a Christian poilice group to youths being held in custody cells. Cops and Robbers features stories by criminals who have gone on to embrace Christianity.

John Scarratt has a new website up and running! It showcases some of his current
art (which is all pretty cool). It will also soon
contain his comics and other self-published oddities.

Forbidden Planet International are offering free web hosting to small press creators, on a case-by-case basis.