A re-blog from the archives of my regular column for Alltern8; Comicking.
Welcome to an occasional collection of comics art, news, snippets and stories of note. Once a month, I’ll bring the easter egg extras that don’t make it to my regular columns, but are a tasty treat nonetheless.
Last month, I wrote of BBC’s Eggheads’ revenge on comic’s creators, and Sean Azzopardi‘s appearances everywhere.
This time round, reviews of some comics I’ve enjoyed and themes of cinema and mental disorders. The times we’re living in…
First though, I enjoyed some great comics last night. Oliver East’s 2005 “The House of Fire To Black Hill”, a clever piece on hill walking and map musing. Richard Cowdry at Bugpowder writes East’s “new comic is now online and free to read in your own time. It’s REALLY good.”
Believable.
Liz Greenfield’s “Stuff Sucks” also arrived in the mail. A neat little CD sized comic in a little CD sized slipcase. A bargain at only £4. Contact Liz on her website to find out if there are any left. Such pretty pictures!
Oliver Lambden was at the Angouleme Festival earlier this month with other British Artists Standing Tall And Reaching Distant Shores.Amusing and insightful blog report here.
Lambden’s BLOC featured the work of an artist at an evolutionary acceleration point. This usually bodes well as is. His new project is with co-creator ofThe Rule of Death and Master of Film-like Comics Douglas Noble.
I prodded the lads for further details. Douglas writes, “It’s a series of theatre reviews from the 1930s. It starts on Thursday. And, right now, that’s all you need to know.” My gut feeling looking at their combined output above is that this is going to be fantastic. Keep an eye to http://thesequential.com
Every time I turn away from Livejournal I miss something great. Usually though, when I need my fix of all that is great about the webs I turn to the Internet Monkey King, Benchilada.
There you can find Ben’s F*ckbrain Comix, an account of life within his “brainmeats” including Tourettes, OCD and Bipolar Disorder. It’s probably the worst drawn comic on the web and so brilliant, I’d like to see it in print form. Ben takes amusing photos of his toys in bookstacks and manages to make eating messed up weird food look genuinely entertaining in “So You Don’t Have To“. I might have a go at that.
Most of all, what I like about Benchilada’s livejournal is the brilliant sense of community that permeates the gaff. Never a dull moment.
Darryl Cunningham, author of Psychiatric Tales received a disheartening email this week from someone who thought he was ‘making fun’ of mental illness. Oh right, this is a news column.Darryl Cunningham has produced a colour chapter for the second volume of Psychiatric Tales. The subject matter is Electroconvulsive Therapy, and it blends years of Darryl’s experience as a psychiatric nurse with his own problems and first-hand account of someone who has actually experienced the process.
Darryl will be attending the University of London Conference on Medical Narrative in Graphic Novels, along with Paul Gravett, Brian Fies, Marc Zaffran and Philippa Parry mid-June this year.
This week I made the mad dash into relaying my experiences with epilepsy through the 24 Hour Challenge. Check out Absence, I think it’s a great piece of work.
Lee Kennedy makes marvellous strips about weight gain, couch loafing and cinema dreams which revel in pride rather than wallow. I’m sure she’s screwing with our misplaced collective guilt. Although States-born, her style tugs at something reminiscent of trad British children’s comics Beano and Dandy. Recently, she’s been happy and audible over the acquisition of a scanner, so keep an eye on Lee’s livejournal over coming months for stuff like that opposite.
And if you get through that, there’s a huge archive courtesy of the folks at Factor Fiction
Worth hurdling the livejournal blockades for.
Oh yes, and EVERYBODY is about to link to Muppet Wicker Man. Check it out, before it vanishes.
If you have an area you’d like to see covered, or a story to share, I can be emailed at drew.luke(at)gmail.com on correspondence marked ‘Comicking’. I’m also on Twitter , Facebook and right here on Alltern8.com My webcomic, Don’t Get Lost, is updated Thursdays.
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