Tuesday, July 31, 2001Posted by Pete And it's pretty darn impressive even if I do say so myself. If you need more convincing to download a 2.5meg 56 page PDF file containing one of the most eclectic comics magazines around then I'll be saying much more about it in the next few days! Feedback on this is essential. This is just the beginning. 5:27 PM | Sunday, July 29, 2001Posted by Pete
Well, what it is, in a nutshell, is basically takin' a look at scriptures, most of the book's text is scriptures, from the Old and New Testament, and illustrating them. So a lot of the illustration is just scenes from my daily life. There's one page in the new issue, there's some kids sitting around and they're playing with blocks. And the next illo they're tired, and just kind of laying on the floor. And there's this one really meek-looking kid, he's my little nephew, Ray, and he's laying down. And the text is some scripture from Isaiah [which] talks about how God is gonna be with the people that are lowly and contrite in spirit. [Laughter] And I thought, ya know, "Who better than just a little kid who, who can't even take care of himself, [to illustrate this?]" He's kind of on the floor, with his thumb in his mouth. 9:46 AM | Tuesday, July 24, 2001Posted by Pete Andy Konky Kru is back with a new Online Comics list and a lament (which I'm reprinting here in full because I agree with a lot of it): Sigh. - It's not an undiluted pleasure to assemble a linklist for online comics, because most of them are not really how I would like them to be, not the comics themselves (well, that's a different problem) but the navigation. For me the most useful way to have comics presented is in long scrolldown pages. This way one does't have to wait for most of the time when one should be reading/looking (there should be a new word for 'reading comics', because the pictures are not simply read , it is also a contemplation (or whatever you want to call it) of the way the art has been done, irrespective of the story, even if the story is sometimes the more important part.). It really is incredibly annoying, to have a story contstantly interupted by having to upload new (tiny) sections. Worse than adverting breaks on US telly. When long chunks can be downloaded at a time one can not only read them more easily, and move to and fro if one so desires, but can read the pages offline. (There will obviously come a time when we will all be wired up continuously with superfast connections, but until then, why not make life a little easier?) 3:03 PM | Monday, July 23, 2001Posted by Pete You remember when I told you there was a Tom Hart comic on Top Shelf's dotCOMICS online anthology doobry? I didn't mention it was a Fourty Two Page New HUTCH OWEN Strip now, did I? Can such goodness really be free? 2:50 PM | Sunday, July 22, 2001Posted by Pete Jimmy Corrigan gets another decent review in the Guardian. Again, though, there are large gaps in the reviewer's (Phil Daoust) knowledge: The stories are simply drawn, without the gothic shadows and mad clutter of so many graphic novels, but the multiple timelines and digressions twist and slot together to form a structure as complex and improbable as any of Ware's paper toys "for the friendless, the weak of heart and the ignored".Can't remember the last time I read a comic with gothic shadows in it. While so many similar projects are little more than strings of striking images, Jimmy Corrigan forces you to pause, flick back a few pages and read again, rewarding you with another insight, another overdue connection.I'd say so many completely different projects are little more than strings of striking images. Is Daoust really comparing Ware to McFarlane? But other than those niggles, a fine enough piece methinks. 8:30 AM | Posted by Pete
8:19 AM | Saturday, July 21, 2001Posted by Pete Reinder Dijkhuis, a Dutch cartoonist who has made it over to Caption many times in the past, writes on the Comix@ list: On Monday, I'm starting with the serialisation of a new White House in Orbit story, entitled Marauders of Mars, in which the intrepid Super Secret Agents Jane and X8.5 travel to Mars to save the Princess of Barsoom from the clutches of a dangerous enemy! Yup, Geir and I will be spoofing Edgar Rice Burroughs although we're throwing in a bit of Fritz Leiber for good measure. 3:06 PM | Posted by Pete Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey is now online. The complete Dark Horse series. Amazing stuff you should read now. 12:52 PM | Friday, July 20, 2001Posted by Pete Got this exciting news offPoopsheet NEW STRIPBURGER PROJECT TO BE DISTRIBUTED BY TOP SHELF IN OCTOBER 2:53 PM | Tuesday, July 17, 2001Posted by Pete
2:44 PM | Posted by Pete Scott McCloud's I Can't Stop Thinking! #6 is finally here, with a good defence of Napster to illustrate how micropayments for online comics could work. (Also, ICST Index, re-jigged McCloud site, Reinventing Comics message board, McCloud's reply to Groth's attack on RC.) 2:08 PM | Posted by Pete Fantagraphics / Comics Journal news in the Press Dump 1:30 PM | Sunday, July 15, 2001Posted by Pete Over on the Bugpowder mailing list Ian Snell of Caption is asking for advice on deciding where the charity auction money should go now the British Cartoon Centre has closed it's doors. One option is helping Steve Marchant continue his cartooning classes as a charity. This rather good idea prompted me to reprint (with his permission) Andy Robert's article Brushes and Bricks from 1995 about what he learned in one of the classes Caption would later go on to part-fund. Laura Faber is one of life's eccentrics. At least, it seemed so when she got us to do things like draw a model who was moving, or pin up several sheets of paper and do a life-size study. I thought she was dotty. She is, but only in the best sense, and she knew exactly what she was doing. We did exercises which made it impossible to show off our favourite parlour tricks; you'd have to do a drawing really fast, or only in silhouette, or using implements you'd never tried before in your life. Steve Whitaker was in the same class; he did each new drawing with different tools, and with his encouragement I started to experiment too. Where previously I would only use pencil (so I could erase mistakes and draw nice, careful, delicate lines), I found myself using great thick magic markers, or this great big dried up knackered brush, slapping on black ink, having the greatest time. Laura's advice and commentary was always positive. She said "that's beautiful" a lot, and everyone in the class thrived on the flattery. I came to love my mistakes, the 'wrong' lines which, drawn in ink, I couldn't erase. It was okay to go wrong, to make a mess, to try ludicrous things like drawing in white on white paper - I couldn't see the drawing till I brushed watercolour ink over it.Read more... 3:21 PM | Saturday, July 14, 2001Posted by Pete I am starting a new campaign. Educate Nicholas Lezard of the Guardian This man has been reviewing graphic novels in the paper for years, mainly the Preacher series as it's been collected, and while his work has been very good for Preacher and I am grateful for that, he really needs to be shown some other stuff. Take the review for the final Preacher book: On a brutally prosaic level, the Preacher series offers, at the cost of about 14 paperback novels, the reading time of about two. Whether it offers the same satisfaction is another matter entirely, and dependent on one's tolerance or liking for this artform. Still, as I have said, this is the best example of it around, barring Posy Simmonds's Gemma Bovery, of course.Preacher is a very good comic, one of the best to have come out of DC in the last five or so year, but the best? (Baring Gemma Bovery of course...). No mention of Maus, From Hell, Joe Sacco, etc, etc, etc. There are tens of books as good and better than Preacher, and I'm not knocking Preacher saying that. Later down the page it gets worse... But this is a problem partly due to the novelty, and precarious sustainability, of the form. Not many graphic novels either ask or deserve to be taken seriously; and the bande dessinée format very often itself implicitly asks that it not be judged seriously at all. The greatest practitioners of the art operate in an area between seriousness and flippancy; they don't pretend that they're writing something else, such as literature.Some valid points in there but jumbled together in such a cackhanded way it makes me want to rip his gizzard out. They don't pretend they're writing literature because, actually, they're writing comics. If they do ask to be judged it's as comics. Try it this way: But this is a problem partly due to the novelty, and precarious sustainability, of bananas. Not many bananas either ask or deserve to be taken seriously; and the bendy yellow format very often itself implicitly asks that it not be judged seriously at all. The greatest practitioners of the art operate in an area between seriousness and flippancy; they don't pretend that they're something else, such as apples.The last time I laid into Mr Lezard someone mentioned they might have known him years back. If anyone has a contact, please pass it on. Battle tactics can be planned on the list. A review of a comic in the literary pages by someone who's never read one before is excusable, if a little tiresome. This kind of thing is, quite frankly, beyond reproach. 4:57 PM | Posted by Pete Interesting article/interview with art spiegelman about Maus finally being published in Polish, delayed because of the Poles being portrayed as Pigs. Because if you think about the Thousand-Year Reich as a sort of animal farm, to borrow a metaphor, Jews as rodents or vermin were pests to be destroyed and exterminated first thing, indiscriminately, as a matter of course. Whereas Poles as pigs, like all the Slavic races in the entire Nazi conception, while not to be coddled, weren't to be indiscriminately destroyed: They were to be put to use and worked for their meat. Neither status was enviable, but it's a distinction worth noting nevertheless.Link picked up from the Vertigo list. 12:51 PM | Thursday, July 12, 2001Posted by Pete In answer to Lee (git over to the mailing list with you!) As far as I know, Slab ceased when the bills got too big, mainly lots of hidden fees from their US bookshop distributor LPC, which screwed the cashflow. On top of this, the "concolidation" of the UK book trade, led by Waterstone's with everyone else following, has caused a lot of problems for many small publishers with advance orders (the lifeblood of a print run) falling through the floor. I haven't been in contact with Pete Pavement myself but I understand he's pretty distraught about the whole thing, and rightly so. Every time I heard the news at Bristol it took the wind out of me for 30 seconds. A REAL downer as anyone who discovered weird and curious comics through Pete will attest. The Cartoon Centre is a little more complicated. Paul Gravett no longer works for them. He's going to make a full statement once he has his new project confirmed (he likes a positive message!) but in short there was a shift in the balance of power on the board of trustees, plus they had a funding problem and decided to solve it by closing the centre. More soon, don't worry. 2:11 PM | Posted by Lee Please excuse a stupid question, but I know nothing of this...Why is the Cartoon Centre closed? Any details? Ditto 'Slab-O-Concrete' news...Any developments there? (Wah! I want my artwork back...) I'm so outa touch...Read Dean Haspeil's 'Opposable Thumbs'to-day, and really enjoyed it. First comic I've bought in months, due to the destitution situation, but had to; really like his style. 12:40 PM | Wednesday, July 11, 2001Posted by Pete The BugPowder mailing list is off to a strong start. 21 members and a healthy discussion in progress. It's there for the UK small press community so get in there and make it yours. Sign up on the left hand side. 2:19 PM | Posted by Pete New press releases in the Press Dump from Top Shelf, Alternative, Fantagraphics and D&Q. Look out for Abe! 2:15 PM | Posted by Pete Yet another link taken from linkmachinego. Bookmark this site. Long, very comprehensive interview with Eddie Campbell covering the From Hell movie and his work on Snakes and Ladders and The Birth Caul, concluding with the shock news he's drawing a Marvel backup story! 11:19 AM | Tuesday, July 10, 2001Posted by Pete Printer information grabbed off the CI list: >Does anyone have any experience/knowledge of any printers in the UK? It's a full colour comic, and we're looking for quotes on printing about a thousand in the first instance... it'd be really helpful if anyone knows of any decent printers who might be able to ... ahem.... service us at a reasonable rate, as obviously funds will be limited. 1:33 PM | Monday, July 09, 2001Posted by Pete Andrew Fiddy has updated his portfolio site. In the early 90s he produced a magazine called Dead Hand which, while not strictly comics had a fair few comics in there and Andrew does come from a comics background. If you want to pigeon-hole him he comes at comics from the same angle as Mr McKean, mixing up the medias and constantly experimenting. I just spent a good half hour going through his site which, unlike many of it's ilk, is quite friendly on the modem. Those few heavy downloads are worth the wait. Go play. 4:31 PM | Sunday, July 08, 2001Posted by Andrew Luke
(I never know whether to post this stuff at the trs2 site or the Bugpowder site but these are biggies to what the heck) "The response i've had from it has been great. The copies I left in Gosh and Forbidden Planet in London sold out within days and both shops want extra copies. Also sent a few copies up to shops in Leeds, Nottingham and York....As a result the initial run of 150 have all gone ( save for a handful i'm keeping for myself ) so another print-run is needed." And thanks to 'a spooky benefactor', Clive has a new print run, of one of the most fascinating comics I've seen since reading John Robbins' Leaflits. And you all know how in love I am with those, right? I'm positive this second printing is going to be close to 'sold out' by the time Caption comes around with rave reviews of Coda on Savant, and 'Never Mind The Comics' on Sequential Tart and Ninth Art. I give you my word that this is the bees knees, dog's bollocks, even better than the real thing. Copies can be ordered from Clive for £2.95 and 50p p&p from:
Coda-press
Clive is also producing a series of shorter comicbooklets called 'Specimen', the first issue, hopefully in time for Caption, be "Specimen A". Yeah!
The other big news I have is that long-time UK comic creator Mike Weller may be appearing at Caption. While it's not yet confirmed, it's very bloody likely he will be attending and performing a reading of his wonderful novelette, 'Stalking Madeline'. There may even be a special 'Caption (Love Is...)' edition. Mike writes: "A Pigment of Imagination, my own mischievous 'Golden Jubilee' homage to visual humorists I grew up with in Britain; particularly Rupert Bear artist, Alfred Bestall, is out in September. It has 8 pages of full colour. (cover 'n' blurb on my page at www.thescribblers.co.uk at the bottom of all the Illuminated Beowulf stuff!)." The good times seem to be just rolling in, don't they? 6:36 PM | Saturday, July 07, 2001Posted by Pete New Jeff Levine strip: "you know you need this space to survive, but you know this space keeps you from living your life they way God inended." 8:37 AM | Monday, July 02, 2001Posted by Pete In a moment of madness I've set up a Yahoo mailing list for BugPowder. I'm not setting out any plans for this other than the hope that all the people I've met and/or talked to over the last year who expressed an interest in being involved in the UK small press comics scene will use it to communicate with each other. It's there for sharing information and planning stuff (such as car shares to Caption fr'example), but also to just natter. At the time time writing I'm the only person on there (it's too late to do invites) so stick your email in the box and join. Let's see what happens! 4:44 PM | Sunday, July 01, 2001Posted by Pete Even the boy Lawrenson has gotten the Bristol bug and is at work on a new "egozine" Thoughts & Words. Should be good! 2:24 PM | |
Ever wondered what happened to 
 |
| Archives
2002 | December | November | October | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January Powered by Blogger Pro |
|
All contents of this site, unless otherwise stated are copyright © 2000-2002 their respective authors. Images and covers are used here for review and promotional purposes only and remain the copyright of the respective artists or companies. BugPowder.com is a non-profit site maintained by Peter Ashton. For information please email me at pete@bugpowder.com |
|
|
