A re-blog from the archives of my regular column for Alltern8; Comicking.
Collected comics art, news, snippets and stories of note. The easter egg extras that don’t make it to my regular columns, but are a tasty treat nonetheless.
Stop Crime. Collect Jesus.
Today, Tuesday 30th at 11.00pm, BBC Radio 4 revisits Britain’s end of the 1954 McCarthy-Werthram-Horror Comics trials. “The Gorbals Vampire” concerns invasions of schoolkid vampire hunters in a Glasgow cemetry and the consequential drive by the churches and tabloids to put horror comics publishers out of business. If you can handle abuse filtered through historical documentary, there’s a write-up and video at the BBC website (and elsewhere)
Lew Stringer put in a bit of research, and has managed to dig up some relevant newspaper archives at his blogspot.
(If you’re reading these source clippings, try replacing the words “horror comics” with “tabloid television”)
Lew also puts out a nod to Martin Barker’s “fantastic book on the UK anti-comics crusade..A Haunt of Fears”
Well said, Lew.
Three Comics Festivals In A Weekend
A lot of UK comics folk have been off over the three festivals this weekend – The Hi-Ex in Inverness, London’s UK Web and Mini Comix Thing and eh Schmurgen Con 4, which hosts it’s first awards ceremony.
So far, a few reports are in from The Thing with an illustrated piece from Aaron Foster showing off his table, substantial micro-blog and photos from Wychwolf and first-timer Freddy H with his comic strip experience.Apparently the panels were cancelled. Apparently the panels were cancelled and responses to the event were mixed – some had a great time, others got restless. Customer Tim Harries was one of the former, here’s his blog report.
Kev F Sutherland weighs in here on his Hi-Ex 2010 and Joe Gordon from Forbidden Planet on his journey there. FPI Blogger Byronv2 aka Lord Woolamaloo already has a good sized photo stream up on Flickr. Opposite, his fancy art snap of John Higgins,
And of course, customary Tweeting on SchmurgenCon, HiEx and The Thing.
Make Bad Comics
And while the rest of the UK comics scene were ‘conferencing’, sometime on Saturday night, Mr Tony Lee of the bored masses tweeted,
Followed by,
Quite soon, Paul J Holden was in on the act. Unsurprising as his Pro-Creator tweets from a few days ago had a similarly amusing style,
Pro Artist Tips: Make sure you sneak wolverine into every page – that’ll give you a good secondary income when you sell the pages…
#ArtistsTips Don’t want to draw that panel? why not photocopy an earlier panel and ENLARGE it. Almost no-one will notice.
#artiststips Marry someone rich
I’m guessing the poor quality contents of the large selling Twilight graphic novel had something to do with the tip over point. (via Rich Jonston, one for Cerebus fans there) Or the #makeradcomics trend, not sure which came first.
With a fierce tweet-off underway, Lee and Holden must have each made around 100 tweets, with concern expressed for Holden’s health. Others got in on the act in masses on both sides of the Atlantic, creating an amusing trending topic.
deantrippe: Female superheroes should be written and drawn to appeal to 40-year-olds who think and act like 14-year-olds. #makebadcomics
Robgog: trace over photos to make people look realistic. Don’t worry that people look like their frozen in time cos it looks ‘real’ #makebadcomics
Deathnerd: Oh what the hell. The strongest protagonists are always stereotypical males. #makebadcomics
madmarvelgirl: There is no conceivable situation in which a female superhero would choose not to have her panties and/or cleavage showing. #makebadcomics
ShawnJDouglas: Yes, everyone wants a sequel to Watchmen. #makebadcomics
Richjohnston: Tell, don’t show #makebadcomics
A few serious multi-tweeters: the very funny Mike Garley, the poetical stylings of Twitsofftoya and I had a drunken go.
The people largely responsible: Tony Lee, Paul J Holden(collected on his blog)
You will want to check the variety. The hashtag is still going as I write this.
andy-luke.com 