maartje schalkx. comics.

tom and anders

2011-10-20T00:08:00.000+01:00

there is something about attending signings by people whose work you respect. although in many ways you may feel as if you've out-grown teenage awkwardness, when facing some artists you turn into a bumbling 15 year-old, or even an over-eager pup. in theory there is nothing that should cause this unease: on paper you share a taste in comics, philosophy, music and sense of humour. in the flesh however things work differently.

here is someone who has been on the road for weeks, stuck behind a table, signing and drawing and having to be pleasant to every single person that shows up in front of them. a queue of forced conversation and small talk. and as a punter you queue, sometimes for a very long time, to try and connect with someone who you might feel you know, but who of course you don't.

it is a very peculiar power balance. there are difficult to meet expectations, because how much can you say in the two or three minutes it takes to sign a book and make a doodle? if you haven't brought along your entire library of course, something i'd be embarrassed to do. and who cares about a signature, really?

tom, anders, the millenium falcon and a redhead

tom gauld and anders nilsen were at orbital tonight as part of paul gravett's comica festival. the conversation didn't quite flow the way you might expect between friends, but i found myself taking notes. they discussed influences in comics and in literature: chester brown, john porcelino, jason lutes and pär lagerkvist (barabbas) and c.s. lewis (till we have faces) for anders. for tom it was edward gorey, john le carré and magnus mills. the latter for the flatness of his writing and his 'confused men doing pointless things'. they also spoke about the act of drawing, something which was of particular interest. anders mentioned the 'faking' that can creep into your drawing when you've been drawing as long as he has. he regretted not having drawn an actual type of plane in big questions instead of the more generic plane he drew or 'faked'. then there were the birds in his book, which he kept purposefully simple. he experimented with different details to distinguish them from each other, but decided that details were too much for such simple drawings. tom said he does a lot of visual research, but he uses this as inspiration. what interests him is drawing what something does rather than what it looks like. scientific and anatomical drawings were mentioned and so were the lewis chessmen at the british museum. i have lots more notes not to mention thoughts on everything that was discussed, but the word picture ratio of this post is already lopsided. if you're still hungry check out some interviews here and here.

detail from suster bertken

i also attended anders' signing and talk at gosh on saturday and unfortunately acted as described in the first paragraph of this post. after tonight's talk all i did was push some comics into his hands and legged it. i managed to finish my story for the strumpet today and quickly made it into a stand alone mini too, so anders may be the first person to read it.

suster bertken-mini mock up

in spite of all the weirdness that seems part and parcel of signings i had a wonderful time at both tonight's and saturday's events. anders and tom were lovely. and on both nights i bumped into or met some great people: morgan omotoye, rose robbins, barnaby richards and jessica penfold amongst others.

strumpets and anchorites

2011-10-09T23:12:00.004+01:00

ellen lindner has kindly asked me to contribute to the first issue of whores of mensa’s new guise the strumpet. the theme for this issue is ‘dress up’.

sketch for 'suster bertken'

for many of us how we dress is a large part of how we define ourselves and others. suster bertken, the subject of my contribution to the strumpet, was not defined by what she wore (‘rough hair cloth’, barefoot) but by the space she inhabited. in 1457, when she was 30 years old, bertken had herself enclosed in a cell attached to the buurkerk in utrecht. she spend the next 57 years, until her death in 1514, confined there, accepting food (no meat or dairy) through a small window and following mass through another small opening looking into the church. she used her time to write religious prose, poetry and songs, to pray, to meditate, to counsel and to craft. she was dependent on people for food and for the disposal of waste, but in turn the local community sought her out for counsel and they adopted the songs, prose and poetry she wrote.

sketch for 'suster bertken'

suster bertken’s choice to confine herself allowed her the freedom to live a life of devotion. devotion to a god maybe, but maybe more so to herself and to her works. it is a choice i have always admired. as i admire it in those around me who are able to choose their art above most (if not all) else.

the dutch composer robert zuidam has written an opera using some of bertken’s poetry.

go here to listen to extracts from the opera.

if you are so inclined (and i hope you are) you can pre-order the strumpet on kickstarter.

buying? selling

2011-08-14T15:05:00.005+01:00

julia homersham selling the comix reader at port elliott festival

artists julia homersham and gareth brookes took a whole load of comics to port elliott festival a couple of weeks ago (photos courtesy of them). julia and gareth are probably the most talented comics couple i am aware of and i was happy to be included in the selection for their stall.

julia and gareth's stall at port elliott

i always find it difficult to write about other people's work. it is so easy to use empty language. or to get lost in words that end up possibly meaningful in themselves, but which say little about the work at hand. and, although i do think work should speak for itself, leaving it at that can also be a cop out. especially if you're trying to persuade people to have a closer look at something. some work however is perfectly capable of drawing readers in, just with one image or page. to me both julia and gareth's work does that.

from julia's 'chuckle sandwich'

you only need one look at either of their work to see the attention to detail and the sense of humour that has gone into it. gareth's work has been laboured over, but in no way feels over-worked. he uses any medium that suits the story. 'the black project', which chronicles a boy's descent into diy love, echoes the crafting skills of the protagonist in its use of print, embroidery and even paper.

julia makes gag cartoons, but the clarity and elegance of her lines invites you to look a little longer than you might normally look at a cartoon. what could be a simple pun is transformed by an understated rendering that manages to capture exactly the feelings of her anthropomorphized objects and animals. and the gags are often dark or melancholy.

from gareth's 'the black project'

to me the quality of a comic is defined by its story as much as it is by its art or writing, something which is sometimes overlooked by creators over-eager to make something. both julia and gareth have stories to tell, whether it is about the (mis-)adventures of baked goods or the dreams and desires of a boy. and both their stories have a sense of innocence and foreboding.

at the end of the month these artists will be taking to the road again to set up their stall at the west dean festival from 26-29 august.

the art of running without pictures

2011-07-06T20:58:00.000+01:00

one sunday morning last july my friend anna came over for brunch and on a whim we decided to work up an appetite by going for a run. the last time i had run was 7 years earlier and even then i lacked conviction. that sunday morning in july i was out of shape, but we continued to meet up for conversation and runs around haggerston park.

haggerston park was created in 1956 on the site of derelict housing, an old tile factory and gas works. something about the park feels slightly older though, and i always assumed it was laid out in the 1930's. the area of the park i ran in is surrounded by a wall, which gives it an intimate and timeless feel. the people who come to the park seem to have a purpose, they are there to exercise, walk their dogs and occasionally to shoot up. there is less of the sauntering that goes on in nearby london fields.

summer drew to a close, anna left london and i was still running only 2 or 3 rounds of the park at a time. then came along my friend flip, who works for the nhs (that beautiful thing the tory government is trying to disassemble). flip is fit, she runs effortlessly and although she managed to build up her routine without it she recommended the nhs couch to 5k podcast.

the podcast does exactly what it says on the box: it takes you from your couch to running 5k or 30 minutes continuously. someone called laura talks you through every podcast, accompanied by the best soundtrack the nhs could buy. laura's voice is soothing and calm and without her i may not be running now.

haggerston park started getting small and soon flip, laura and i found ourselves running around london fields. london fields' claim to fame is its mention in the song being a dickhead's cool, and although there are still plenty of dickheads there, if you're nimble enough they are easily avoided. however when it comes to parks and running size does matter and since finishing the nhs podcasts i have graduated to victoria park.

victoria park was created in the 1840's after 30,000 people petitioned queen victoria for a park in the area. the park was supposed to increase the quality of life of the local working class population. to call myself working-class would be a stretch, but a loop of the park is about 6km, and the effect on the quality of my life is larger still. the increase in my lung capacity has been accompanied by an expansion of the space i have to think in.

and after listening to 9 weeks of nhs classics perhaps the biggest reward is to run to your own playlists. my current list looks something like this:

the seed - the roots
i saw her standing there - the beatles
my sharona - the knack
where is love - eldridge holmes (featuring the lyrics: here i am, but where is love?)
e-pro - beck
kom in de cockpit - spinvis
this charming man - the smiths
don't mess with my man - irma thomas
warsaw - joy division
i need a dollar - aloe blacc
paarse overall - het klein orkest
via con me - paolo conte
wolf like me - tv on the radio
isla de encanta - pixies
i wanna be your man - the rolling stones
lapdance featuring lee harvey - n.e.r.d.
posters - jack & jeffrey lewis
dom, lomp en famous - the opposites featuring diwa
evil - interpol
seven nation army - the white stripes

when i was very little my best friend's mothers played paolo conte. run, dance, eat; there is very little you cannot do to his voice.

bruno

2011-01-04T08:47:00.006Z

the german based mexico born artist erika medina asked me to contribute a drawing to her thesis project 'many brunos'. she invited people from around the world to interpret a character called bruno, a detailed description of whom she provided. if you are in need of distraction from failed new year's resolutions, or if you need to be newly inspired to keep one, why not spend some time with the many faces of bruno.

beauty

2010-12-09T19:27:00.001Z

last week i walked past a car. a bmw, it's engine running, a man behind its wheel, head tilted back, eyes closed, mouth ajar. i peered through the window and saw the gentle rising and falling of his chest; alive.

since 2004 i have tried to spend a bit of time in new york every year. and every year i try to visit the american museum of natural history there. although the entire museum is full of delectations the akeley hall of african mammals is part of what draws me. the diorama's are startling; they make it that much easier to agree to pretend the animals in them are somehow alive in death. mr akeley did his best.

half a floor up however just behind the mezzanine overlooking mr akeley's work there is a small corner dedicated to american or maybe new york state mammals and birds. suddenly gone are the beautifully painted backgrounds, no more skins stretched over anatomical casts shaped just so you're not quite sure what stage of life or death you're looking at.

nowhere has the term 'stuffed animal' been more thoroughly done justice. the birds in this forgotten corner of the museum look as if modelled on those in anders nilsen's 'big questions'. however nilsen animates birds, these animals are dead, and they will not pretend otherwise. and you are alive and looking at them. somehow the matter of fact manner of their display makes them look all the more vulnerable. there is an exhibit simply titled 'carnivores', but these beasts harbour no blood-thirst. they're tired and are waiting to catch their breath. i made a drawing of them for a comic.

whilst working for an artist i did some taxidermy on insects. relaxing their limbs and then pinning them into positions they normally would only ever have held for a fraction of a second. if a leg snapped off it could be superglued into place.

the amnh research library has put their photography collection online. the exhibition preparation is a particular treat, no superglueing there. and no need for further elaborations, just look.

although better in print, you can find some of hiroshi sugimoto's interpretations of the amnh dioramas here.

and if what people do to dead animals still interests you after all of the above here's a great article my friends mary and kramer wrote and photographed for last exit magazine.

enjoy.

feeling aimless?

2010-11-10T07:51:00.005Z

feeling a little aimless? not sure who you see when you look in the mirror?

come give your life some meaning today by protesting the proposed government cuts to higher education. go here or here for more information.

i am a slow cyclist, but yesterday i got stuck behind a cyclist even more laid-back than myself. a big man, wearing a business suit and a black woollen cap on a black bike was slowing me down. efforts to overtake him were in vain as he aimlessly veered from right to left and back again. at long last we were both stopped by traffic lights. moving up alongside him i glanced over and realised who i was waiting next to. it was boris.*

'morning, boris!' i said, 'morning' said he with a sad look in his eye. and as i cycled off it struck me that boris doesn't really want to be london mayor. it's a respectable job, but what boris really wants is an allotment, a glass of wine and to vote green.

* boris johnson, london's conservative mayor

site cite

2010-10-26T22:42:00.003+01:00

just to let you know i have finally finished my website, with the kind help of hin chua and the feedback from friends whose opinions i respect (not that i keep any other kind).

a selection of my work is on there, some of which i feel a little ambivalent about, but we all need some skeletons in our closets to keep us running towards the light.

i don't always manage to work on my stories consistently, a lot of brooding and mulching and passing of time goes on. and it is necessary to create a rhythm, some times that means drawing every day for an hour before work, other times it means every sunday for as long as the local coffee shop will have me. i don't know what it'll be now, maybe straight after school for as long as i can muster. whatever the rhythm slowly everything reveals itself. above is one of the images i've been drawing for the story i am currently trying to figure out.

business

2010-09-30T16:11:00.006+01:00

who hasn't been busy lately? i worked six day weeks from mid july till last week. both my waking and my dreaming life were consumed by my source of income.

since this week i am studying 5 days a week and working one. doing a post graduate diploma in (paper) conservation at camberwell college of art. today is a self study day, and i finally have a moment to write about some of the other things that have been and are going on.

firstly: the whores of mensa launch party, which was held at my flat on thursday 9 september. ellen lindner took care of every conceivable bit of organisation from booze to bogroll and of course the first copies of 'whores of mensa 5'. i didn't count (it's impolite) but i estimate we were graced by the presence of 50 or more able and less able bodies, and as far as i could tell they all had a good time. thank you all for coming along. and ellen, another big thank you for all of your hard work!

exhibition view

what's next? a chicks on comics exhibition in buenos aires! it opens tomorrow and features guest appearances by ole otero, ale lunik, camila torre notari, daniela kantor, ernancita, elene, julieta arroquy, keki, maría alcobre, ol díaz, sophia pankenier and tita.

the beginning and the end

2010-08-08T14:50:00.000+01:00

the inimitable ellen lindner has been labouring on the latest issue of 'whores of mensa'. the theme of which is 'parties'. to make sure this anthology sees the light she is asking people (that includes you!) to pledge any amount of money you can spare here at kickstarter.com. please go have a sneak peek at the new issue and pledge a dollar or two or ten or twenty-five. the issue will feature stories by lots of great artists as well as a 5-pager by yours truly.

unfinished page 1 'found'

my contribution is a story chronicling an encounter i had last summer on the streets of london.

the drawing style i chose is quite simple, i couldn't really draw it any other way. less straightforward and more time consuming was the end of the story.
using mainly stories based on true events i usually know how my stories end. the points of a story can some times be harder to figure out, but in this case they were relatively clear to me too.

studies for 'found'

what troubled me was finding the right pace and carrying this through consistently. i decided to use a map as the lay out for the story and this limited me to 5 pages. as it turned out i could have used an extra page..or two. initially i solved this problem by upping the pace from slow to high in the last page and cramming a lot of information into the running commentary. an obvious mistake.

there was no time to alter the format, so i had to edit the ending itself. because the story is based on true events this meant using a bit more artistic licence than i am used to. i had to re-examine what events were important and which were less so. some elements could fit into dialogue but other information still had to be conveyed through commentary. i ended up taking out a lot of detail which was important to me, but which i realised the reader could live without and material which told the reader more about me than it did about the story.

it isn't yet possible for me to tell whether i managed to make it work. get your hands on an issue of 'whores of mensa 5' when it comes out at the end of the month and maybe you can tell me.

harvey pekar

2010-07-12T19:01:00.001+01:00

harvey pekar has passed away.

goodbye, harvey.

clowes, niffenegger, ware

2010-05-24T23:02:00.008+01:00

chris ware, p. 52 from the

acme novelty date book volume one

tonight was the night: dan clowes and chris ware were in town in honour of clowes new book 'wilson'. the talk was chaired by audrey niffenegger, whose work i am afraid i am only familiar with from film posters, but who apparently also writes comics. something to look up.

it took a while for things to get going and i couldn't help wondering if the evening could have benefited from a different mediator. audrey might have seemed an interesting choice because of the various links between her, chris and dan (chicago, comics, film) but she was a little too timid and it was difficult to tell how familiar she was with chris and dan's work. maybe chris and dan would have been fine without a mediator or maybe paul gravett (who organised the talk) himself could have taken audrey's place.

audrey wisely opened up the talk to questions from the audience early on and things warmed up. although it would have been nice for the talk to have gone on a little longer and maybe for some of the questions to have been taken more as conversation starters.

i don't know what it is exactly that i look for in these talks. maybe it is just to turn the abstract ideas i have of these artists into something more real and three dimensional. for all his self-deprecation and self-consciousness chris ware came across pretty self-assured and witty at times. and i had imagined dan clowes as someone out of one of his own comics, instead he reminded me of frank mandersloot, a tall bald man with a sense of humour who taught me at art school.

chris ware for 'this american life'

different artists are important to you at different stages of your development and for me chris ware more or less kicked things off. when i first read it around christmas 2004 'jimmy corrigan' showed me that a comic can take its sweet time telling a story and that the idea of what a comic is or can be isn't static. comics have only just begun.

dan clowes

i didn't bring any books to sign but after the talk i queued up to give chris and dan copies of some of my comics. one on one contact during signings can never last long, but the very short chats i had with them made me leave (to meet sarah mcintyre down the pub) with a smile on my face.

to see that both authors really look rather human in real life have a look at gosh' blogpost on the talk.

a friend

2010-04-16T13:23:00.000+01:00

panel from just friends/love stories 2006

as an awkward 16-year-old i met brink scholtz, equally awkward and similarly aged. i had spotted her before, walking the stretch between our two school buildings in a leather jacket whose original owner might have been a middle aged man. she seemed more out of place than other schoolmates. i don’t remember exactly how we became friends, but i do know that meeting her changed everything.

in a small attic room underneath a window in the roof we sat and sipped rooibos tea and spent hours together talking. with every cup of tea i understood more that life didn't have to be governed by the rules of my lovely but claustrophobic dutch grammar school surroundings. that there were people who lived differently and that they were fine, happy even, just as i had hoped and suspected.
at the end of the year brink left utrecht to return to south-africa with her family.

i once took the bus from amsterdam to heathrow airport, london, with my mum to see brink there for 12 hours whilst she and her family waited for a connecting flight. we met in south-africa twice and after i finished art school we worked and lived together for some time at garvald, a residential day care centre for adults with learning disabilities in scotland. then at the end of 2004 she had to return to south-africa again and i left for a three-month stint in new york.

last week we were in utrecht again sitting next to each other on the couch sipping tea in an apartment she was staying in as part of a 6-week cultural program organized by de buren and vrede van utrecht -for which she is writing a story that mentions utrecht. outside the sun was shining.
i came back to london last friday and -ash clouds allowing- today she’ll return to grahamstown,

listen to the beautiful story brink scholtz wrote for radiobooks here.

interview at avoid the future

2010-04-06T13:04:00.004+01:00

judith and martin at avoid the future asked everyone at chicks on comics to answer some questions a couple of weeks ago. saturday and sunday they posted our answers.

also take a look at their archive of posts including reviews, interviews and reading lists.

thank you judith and martin.

post for chicks on comics by anna bas backer

dan clowes and chris ware

2010-03-30T17:45:00.001+01:00

dan clowes and chris ware are coming to town. see you there.

nothing much and carrot cake

2010-03-28T20:41:00.009+01:00

view of the drawing room at 59 seymour street

by matilda sharpe (1850)

i have been trying to spend my sundays working on my comics at the geffrye museum in their restaurant overlooking the garden. the geffrye is a museum inexplicably but wonderfully dedicated to english domestic interiors and every time i walk through its corridors i have to stop for a moment to look at the above watercolour by matilda sharpe dated 1850. it is small, measuring only 13x15cm, and the scene is just of what i assume to be the drawing room she used daily, but she decided it was important enough to paint it.

after i finished art school but before i got into comics for a short time i was fed up with art. instead of creating video or performance pieces like i had done in school i just did what seemed most obvious and what i had done as a teenager: make small watercolour and pencil drawings of my most immediate surroundings.

they are far from matilda sharpe's little work of wonder, but they are little mementos of time spent by myself doing nothing much.

should you ever venture into the geffrye then make sure to try their carrot cake, laden with cream cheese frosting, basking in the absence of raisins and served by london's friendliest waiting staff it nourishes like nothing else.

studs on inkstuds

2010-02-18T14:23:00.004Z

sammy harkham on
what things do

the interviews on inkstuds are one of my favourite things to listen to whilst working on comics and other graphics. one of their most recent interviews is with with jordan crane and sammy harkham about jordan's new online initiative what things do. jordan and sammy's observations about online comics are spot on. rather than writing about it more all i can say is go listen to it here.

apf 2010

2010-01-07T10:26:00.004Z

although the forecast says it's only 1° C the warm colored light outside makes it feel like spring is in the air. a bit early maybe and i don't know if i am done with winter yet, but it's as if the year has never quite begun until spring has started to brighten the days.

and with the first inklings of spring, february and the alternative press festival 2010 are rapidly approaching. this year's alternative press festival takes place on sat 13th february from 12.00 at st.aloysius social club on phoenix road (nearest tube euston). last year's event was great and i am sure jimi c.s. are creating another day equally as impossible to forget as it is to accurately remember.

see you there.

sacco, osamu and helen

2009-12-19T18:05:00.006Z

it's been a little quiet round these parts while i finished a graduate certificate in design for visual communication at the lcc. but let's not dwell on that: back to comics.

some necessary nourishment these past months came in the form of some talks at the ica as part of the comica festival 2009. because of coursework i did not manage to attend as many talks as i do most years or as many as i would have liked but out of the talks i did see two stood out.

first up was seasoned crowd pleaser joe sacco, who i wouldn't have missed for very many things. it was a joy to hear him talk about his work process and influences, the time he spends with his subjects and how he decides what to include in or exclude from his work. it struck me that although several people tried he refused to be drawn into any overtly political discourse. considering the already political nature of his subject matter and the fact that the politics at hand are so complex, i appreciated his reluctance to enter into discussion. and his work is about people; their stories and accounts of events are what history and politics are made of. i can understand that for sacco there is no need to add to that in any other way than through his storytelling. a recent interview with him can be found here and paul gravett linked to some footage and a more comprehensive review by simon hacking here.

helen mccarthy

next came helen mccarthy (the little portrait above really does not do her justice). although i am not generally inclined to reading manga her talk on osamu tezuka's work was fascinating. full of examples of inspiring frames, panel lay outs and narrative constructions made all the more engrossing by helen's own enthusiasm for his work. most of what i took away from this talk was visual and difficult to verbalize, but it will definitely stay with me for some time to come.

both talks were an excellent way of stirring up the dust that invariably settles in my mind. i already look forward to next year's comica festival offerings.

dignitas

2009-11-18T21:58:00.005Z

today's the guardian features an interesting article by amelia gentleman on the dignitas organisation in switzerland, which assists (but does not promote) people committing suicide.

graffiti magazine

2009-10-28T15:21:00.006Z

as mentioned some posts down a while ago piero bagnariol asked me for some contributions for graffiti 76% magazine number 20 and a show he was organizing in october.
i was very pleasantly surprised and honoured to be asked if he could use my drawings for the cover of the magazine. when a parcel arrived in the post the other week i could see how it had all come out. apart from the drawings and the 2 page comic i submitted there is some beautiful and hilarious work by powerpaola whose work graces the poster below and who is also a colleague over at chicks on comics. i have nothing but respect for her draftsmanship as well as her story-lines.

some other interesting and/or beautiful contributions came from marielena, maja vaselinović, júlia zavagli, shiko, carolina mello, d'salete and alves amongst others.

comics

2009-10-13T08:10:00.007+01:00

you may be forgiven for thinking that this blog doesn't have much to do with comics. a lot of the posts i put up don't directly relate to comics. when i think of comics i cannot see them separate from everything else that surrounds me. every thing i see, read, do and experience is informed by everything else i see, read, do and experience. it's easy to get distracted by a museum visit or a newspaper article, which to me is as relevant as the latest comics publication.

some people have informed me of their discontent at not being able to see some more of my latest comic efforts. as eager to please as any woman: here are some extracts from cowards/carnivores. for anyone who has never seen my mini's before and wants to use their mind's-eye to do some visualization: they usually fold into an accordion style booklet, every panel is a page so to speak, and you read down. cowards/carnivores consists of 32 panels in total. 3 panels are grouped onto one piece of a3 paper, so even though the first two groups of 3 panels follow each other here they are presented separately.

panels 1-3

panels 4-6

panels 24-26

publish and be damned

2009-09-20T09:42:00.002+01:00

package of my three most recent comics:
'cowards/carnivores', 'maggie' and 'pigeon'

it's a week till 'publish and be damned':

Publish and Be Damned Fair 2009

Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, Bethnal Green, E2 6HG

27 September 3pm-8pm

www.publishandbedamned.org

publish.damned@gmail.com

Publish and Be Damned are pleased to announce the 6th annual self-publishing fair which will take place at Oxford House in Bethnal Green on Sunday 27 September from 3pm-8pm. Surveying a wide range of independent local, national and international publishers of magazines, fanzines, journals, diaries and periodicals, Publish and Be Damned celebrates publishing as a creative and critical space for presenting artists' work. As with previous years, the fair celebrates experimental approaches to making and distributing the work of artists, writers and musicians outside of the commercial mainstream. In addition we will have room dedicated to performances and talks throughout the afternoon.

This year's fair also marks some new initiatives for Publish and Be Damned. Our recent participation in Subvision in Hamburg as well as the London fair are opportunities for us to collect content for the new publication 'The Damned' which will be distributed to all PABD members. The membership scheme, which has also been implemented this year, enables the creation of a forum or network between members that encourages the exchange of publications and participation in PABD's events throughout the year. The funds received from the membership fees has also allowed us to hire a larger space than in previous years, enabling us to invite more participants as well as help fund the attendance of more international publishers.

Publish and Be Damned is taking place in conjunction with the Whitechapel Artists Bookfair, which will be held from Fri 25 - Sun 27

i'll be selling my comics there. come along.

mmmmedieval

2009-09-15T21:58:00.002+01:00

capital d with utrecht dragon

medieval manuscripts never appealed to me that much; they're hard to read, often religious in content, the artwork is repetitive and you're usually not allowed to touch them.

of course i could appreciate them for their craftsmanship, but i always found them less than aesthetically pleasing. to be more precise i always thought they were pretty ugly in the same way i always found olives unpalatable. and, however stupid, there is a certain comfort in dismissing things.
whether my taste has changed or whether i just didn't recognize their genius before, just as i've come round to olives, i have come round to medieval manuscripts. not in the least because of a recent trip to my hometown of utrecht, the netherlands. my sister, hilde, and i decided to take my gran out for the day and so we ended up at the 'museum catharijneconvent', a museum that chronicles the history of christianity in the netherlands and which had an exhibition on medieval manuscripts on.

priest elevating chalice and host to hand of god,
opening page of utrecht sacramentary

the exhibition made me a lot more aware of the craft and passion and playfulness invested in these documents.

the gem encrusted cover of one of the books at the beginning of the exhibition, a codex, reads in latin 'adorned with sparkling gems, i am a gift from bishop ansfridus to martin'. intentional or not there is a sense of humour and beauty in this big solemn book talking to its reader.
'the zwolle bible', a monumental sized bible ordered by the deacon of st mary's chapter in 1464, took 12 years to copy. and that was excluding the time it took to create the 1,700 parchment folios it was written on.
books had a life. because they were so time and labour intensive a book was too valuable to just replace if pages became worn. instead of replacing an entire book individual pages might be replaced with 'new' pages, which may themselves have come from another book which was past its prime. mistakes in a text were either scraped off, corrected in the margin or crossed out. larger pieces of wrongly copied text were removed from a manuscript by cutting out the page it was written on. occasionally however a page of incorrectly copied text was just left.
mistakes in the parchment, made of the skins of sheep, goats and calves, which often turned into oval holes after stretching, would be left in, circled with red pen if the scribe thought they could throw the reader. tears could be sewn and any damaged sheets of parchment or discarded manuscripts would be reused as covers, flyleaves and envelopes.

books would also fall prey to graffiti and vandalism. the aforementioned 'zwolle bible' is a good example; not only did hundreds of people write their names on it, 52 of its 125 initals, adorned with human and animal figures, and entire pages were cut out. only 5 of the historiated initials that went missing have reappeared.

some scribes would underline individual words and explain their meaning in the margin, pieces of text may also be underlined to aid legibility. scribes were also graphic designers and could have their own distinct style, some of them would even double as editor and corrector. several monks might collaborate using each others editing, correction and lay out skills. space would be left for coloured letters and initials, which would be added in at the end. illuminators specialized in the drawing and painting of initials, marginal decorations and miniatures.

cities where manuscripts were manufactured had their own symbols that would be used in the decoration of texts. for utrecht this was a little dragon (draakje) as in the capital letter d above and the r below.

capital r with utrecht dragon

the british library recently acquired the macclesfield alphabet book, which aided scribes in medieval britain, the guardian put up some of its contents here.

the creative cunning of the monks who spent their time manufacturing these books is fascinating and inspiring. and the liveliness of all these manuscripts reminds me of comics. it feels like the time, the passionate patience, the inventive way of working round or with mistakes, the eye for detail are all as much part of transcribing and illuminating a manuscript as they are part of writing and drawing a comic.

2009-08-15T18:25:00.005+01:00

rough draft page 1

i am working on a short comic for graffiti 76% magazine at the moment. piero bagnariol its editor sent me some issues of the magazine and it features some interesting work by guazzelli, guga schultze, luciano irrthum and maja veselinovic among others. i am going on art work alone, because i sadly don't speak spanish.
the story i am working on is fiction i suppose, although for some reason it feels quite truthful to me if that makes sense. the theme of the issue is 'woman', not necessarily my favourite subject, but a challenge. and after finishing my mini-comic and two micro-comics for the alternative press festival it is a welcome way of keeping momentum going.

rough draft page 2

apart from working to a theme my main concern was language. rather than rely on someone else's translation skills i used song lyrics featuring the names of girls and women as the base (or soundtrack) of the comic.

alternative press festival 2009

2009-08-07T19:33:00.002+01:00

jimi gherkin putting up banner

it's almost a week ago now that london was filled with small press joy thanks to the organizational efforts of jimi gherkin, peter lally, gareth brookes, saban kazim and many others.

printing always takes up more time and effort than you can possibly imagine and so it was that i had to miss 'are you zine friendly?' on thursday and 'spoken night out!' on friday. saturday and sunday however were great days.

saturday brought us 'collaborama'. visitors and exhibitors were invited to contribute drawings, collages, writings and ramblings to a zine printed on the day by the footprint workers co-operative. there was also a screenprinting workshop, live music and a draw-along to a specially composed piece by resonance fm's radio orchestra.
sunday at st aloysius social club was a more traditional small press fair afair, but no less good.

aside from a feeling of elation what did i take away from the festival?

i remembered browsing through some of gareth brookes and steven tillotson's work as a visitor at previous fairs and dismissing them on account of their density. it wasn't that the work didn't look good, it was the fact that as a visitor you try to take in as much as you can in order to decide what to invest in and what not. it is near impossible to give every thing you see the time and attention it deserves so a comic or zine that takes more than a superficial glance to appreciate is easily dismissed. the same goes for work that on first glance does not esthetically please. hopefully this just illustrates my own shallow way of looking at things.

sharing a table with gareth b, steven t and julia homersham i had the luxury of being able to look at their work more closely and to realize what i had missed on previous perusals. and it made me resolve that in future rather than to try to take in everything at a fair to limit myself to a selection of comics and zines and to give those the time they need.
of course all of the above probably applies to my own work too and it made me think that if other visitors do look at things the way i did, then i should be more aware of how i present my work myself. if i exhibit at fairs in the future i will have to consider more carefully what i need to do to make my work as accessible as possible without compromising the integrity of the work itself.

musetopia, julia homersham

it was my first proper experience as an exhibitor at a fair, so i wasn't quite sure what to expect. i came armed with any- and everything i could imagine needing, including two pairs of scissors (in case of multi-tasking) and a pack of crackers. as a visitor i always feel uncomfortable when people push their work too hard and in the end it seemed that having something to do was the best way to both distract myself and to give visitors the space they needed to look at my wares without feeling pressurized to buy anything.

rabbit love*5, melody lee (really grass green)

on the sunday i found myself next to chris bateson and melody lee. melody's work is very deceptive, soft and dreamy on the outside but deliciously dark and funny on the inside. one of my favourites was rabbit love story*5, which doesn't only contain black humour but also truth.

last but not least thanks very much to all of you who came along!

alternative press fair

2009-07-27T11:52:00.004+01:00

time's flown by and it is almost time for the alternative press festival 2009!
i will be attending most of the events and will be peddling not only my own, but also anna bas backer's, ulla loge's, lilli loge's, sam longworth's and lucie galand's wares at the collaborama and the fair.

the events take place at various different venues in london including the foundry, the miller, the griffin and st aloysius social club. more information can be found here.

ernst and not alan

2009-06-06T11:36:00.001+01:00

max ernst 'une semaine de bonte': water (1933)

it's been a some time but for easter i visited my friend sara pape garcia in madrid. whilst there we undertook a trip to the fundacion mapfre for an exhibition of max ernst's series of collages 'une semaine de bonte' ('a week of kindness'). the attention to detail in these collages is amazing, often it is almost impossible to see where one image ends and the next begins. we left the exhibition in awe.

studies for 'tube shelter scene' and 'figure in a shelter' 1940-1941

maybe because of moore's relation to the surrealist movement ernst's collages reminded me of an exhibition i visited at the imperial war museum in 2007 of henry moore's drawings of people taking shelter in london underground stations and tunnels during the second world war and of coalminers. although the image above is the most representative i could find, there was a beautiful series of smaller drawings which worked as a sequential narrative. (as i recall the catalogue was so badly printed i decided not to buy it, maybe i should have.) if i unearth any images of these smaller drawings i'll put them up.

pining for the fjords

2009-05-29T22:30:00.005+01:00

so my little piece of pigeon non-fiction is more or less done (real size approx. 20 x 82 cm). and i have just sent it off as an entry for an anthology jimi gherkin is putting together. let's hope it'll make it.

jimi is organizing some crazy shit by the way: a 5-day alternative press festival of comic, zine and small press goodness. it will be on at various locations from 29th july - 2nd august. i'll keep you posted.

birds

2009-04-06T22:38:00.006+01:00

birds... they aren't easy to draw and anders nilsen hasn't made it any easier for anybody. in his 'big questions'-series a lot of the characters are birds. i would go as far as to say that when people think of birds in comics they think of nilsen's birds. they are good birds in a good story, no doubt about it.

sketch for pigeon non-fiction

on my way to work the other day i came across a piece of non-fiction involving a pigeon. it was too good not to make into a short comic and so i google-image-searched the web, observed a visitor to our garden and got to work.
i've drawn my pigeon the only way i know how. all i can do is hope that noone will compare my pigeon to anders' birds.

i also came across the image below, which i have tried to stop myself from posting. you have to choose your battles carefully, i suppose.

news of all varieties

2009-03-28T11:50:00.008Z

20th century first holy communion card

when i went to sleep last night i promised myself a lie-in. i was still tired from meeting a deadline for a course i am doing and i felt as if i was coming down with something.
at 0930 hrs this morning there was a knock on the door. still groggy and far from fully rested i stumbled downstairs to open the door to what i was hoping to be the postman with a parcel. instead two kind individuals were wanting to bring me good news. not wanting to encourage anybody instead of my usual 'sorry, i am an atheist' i went with 'sorry, i'm not interested'. they nodded and moved on.

however much i wanted and needed i could not get back to sleep. so i got up, made myself some breakfast and started reading the new york times. there i first came across this article, and then this. coincidentally both articles mention the influence of the in this case roman catholic church on respectively women's and children's rights and science.

two friends

although i could not find the excellent guardian supplement on abortion, which i think was published in 2006 and which featured one or more very eloquent articles by zoe williams. some other articles she wrote for the guardian on the subject of abortion and reproductive rights can be found here.

serious business

2009-03-24T21:40:00.002Z

jimi gherkin made me aware of the fact that chapter 2 article 49 of the coroners and justice bill is currently being reviewed by parliament. there is some concern as to how this may affect comic artists, writers, publishers, readers and retailers.

please sign this petition to ask the prime minister to take these concerns into account.

quality is not a chance

2009-03-23T21:28:00.009Z

this weekend i ended up joining hin chua on one of his photographic exploits along the thames. we stocked up on pasties and jumped on the train to gravesend from where we wandered to higham. it was a bit of a trek but the sun was out, the company good and the food mediocre, what more could anyone ask for?

the aptly named gravesend owes its fame to being the last resting place of pocahontas. who we found immortalised in a mural just outside the station. (that's her on top of the bearded ginger white man on the left.)

on our way to the thames we passed an industrial area, where on the side of a van we found the following sage advice:

a couple of meters on we took this short course in hand signaling:

and rambling and clambering on, passing a power station and shooting grounds, dangerous waters and three separate forts we encountered some more signage. i was impressed with the trepidation of the wee man looking over the edge at the water and the other little man's balancing act.

it's not quite gravesend but in february i spent half a day in amsterdam and came across the image below outside of madam tussauds. if i'd had some time to spare i would have taken barry up on the offer.

i like knowing that all of the text and images above were carefully crafted by someone somewhere. someone woke up one morning and half asleep thought 'chance...choice...quality... eureka! quality is not a chance it is a choice!' then they got up and spent the rest of the day feeling chuffed.

we do what we can.

anders nilsen on a roll

2009-02-08T16:02:00.008Z

so anders nilsen has been at it again. 'monologues for calculating the density of black holes' the follow up to his stream of consciousness comic 'monologues for the coming plague' is out. now. go get it.

if you are willing to flog your bike and ipod you might also be able to afford sammy harkham's latest editorial effort 'kramers ergot 7'. it is big and i haven't dared look inside it yet, but it is supposed to be good.

nourishment

2009-02-04T20:45:00.005Z

last night i made it through the slush of trodden snow to a front row seat at an adrian tomine talk at the ica. toby litt led the talk, which covered adrian's own work as well as his work as the editor of drawn and quarterly's yoshihiro tatsumi series. after the talk tomine signed books in the shop and i had the chance to not only talk to him briefly, but also to have a chat with paul gravett.
paul organized the talk and although i had seen him at just about every comics related event i've been to in london i'd never had the pleasure to speak with him. it was lovely talking with him, and i left the ica full of encouragement and positivity.

since my bike is broken and i didn't know what bus to get the small spring in my step helped me on my way home. pondering the evenings events i walked from the mall to shoreditch, there i jumped onto the 149 with some vietnamese takeaway tucked underneath my arm.

it's difficult to put into words what i take away from these evenings but they always result in new considerations and observations.

the same goes for a meeting i had today with sarah mcintyre, who i met at one of last year's comica events. we had been meaning to meet for lunch for months and today we finally got round to it. over sarah's blt and my spanish omelette we chatted about comics, people in our lives and self-censorship. and she gave me an excellent idea for promoting my comic. altogether a luxury lunch.

alternative press fair and snow or viceversa

2009-02-02T07:41:00.008Z

view from my window, snowcovered rubber cat on washing line, view of the garden

when i woke up at 0645 this morning my eyes were still heavy. the golden pink light i had noticed coming from the window during the night had all but faded and when i opened the curtains i did not expect much more than a thin layer of snow to greet me. i was wrong.

for a moment i paused to consider how much earlier i would have to leave the house to get to the bus stop in time and then i got myself some breakfast.

as usual i perused the guardian online while eating my cereal and i was struck by a small sentence in an article on the weather, it mentioned public transport not working. so on i went to the transport for london site: all buses have been withdrawn from service due to adverse weather and dangerous road conditions.

the rest of the day consisted of snow-fights, hot chocolate, more snow-fights, chips, hot chocolate and some more snow-fights. i honed my skills, turned my competitive disadvantages into advantages, plotted and employed the most ruthless of tactics. a large part of my strategy was based on the flooding of parts of the netherlands by the dutch during the siege of leiden in their fight against the spanish occupation in the 16th century.

we'll see what weather and bus services tomorrow brings. but first: the past.
yesterday i finally got to know what it is like to push your wares at a comics and zines fair. after checking out what else was on offer i helped out at the 'communal' table for a couple of hours.

watching people shuffle past, picking up every- and anybody's comic or zine but yours is quite a sobering experience. at one point my faith in humanity was severely compromised, when even people who looked like they might like my comic on account of their coat or hairstyle didn't go near it. in the end i did sell and swap some copies and my faith was redeemed.
next time i'll have to put some more effort into promotion, maybe a wee stand will help.

some of the work i picked up by virtue of it being well-drawn, funny, disturbing or something else includes: a malcy duff story in 'tegne' issue 2, 'the smoking eyebrow' by chiu, 'curtis and terrorist' by mr. l, 'up a blind alley, part one' by scott smith, 'giant clam 3' by ralph kidson and 'where i come from that makes you a bully and a coward' by andy luke (i was behind the table with andy and ralph).
the lovely sarah mcintyre was there as well and she gave me issue 14 of the dfc, which has characters from her comic 'vern and lettuce' gracing its cover.

the day ended with an open mic nite hosted by the man who (together with peter lally) organized the whole event: jimi gherkin. opening act was twent or trent miller, who played some feeling cash-esque diddies and who on closer inspection turned out to be an italian named gabriel. it is him in the photo above. i didn't stay much longer, but i boarded the bus home with a feeling of camaraderie and joy.

oh kevin...

2009-01-25T20:56:00.005Z

from kevin huizenga's blog:

I've decided that Or Else (the series) is done. It doesn't make sense to do it this way anymore. Drawn and Quarterly have been great and I want to thank them. For sure I will still be putting out a lot of books and zines, forever, so save your pennies, and watch this space for more news as it becomes available. Thanks for reading.

(Or Else #6 will not be published, but this was going to be the cover.)

some things just don't make sense.

female desire

2009-01-25T17:58:00.004Z

once every so often i come across bbc radio 4's women's hour or some newspapers women's supplement. to my frustration the topics discussed in these media are more often than not as relevant to men as they are to women.
as i was taking a break from cleaning my room today and having already spent enough time researching the new bike i desire i stumbled upon this article on the new york times website. rather than being stuffed into a part of the paper directed only at women, it graces the cover of their magazine this weekend.

the image by francis picabia that has been lying around on my desk couldn't be better suited if it tried.

february is waiting for us

2009-01-23T22:09:00.007Z

let's face it: january is in its death throes and february is showing more than just a bit of ankle.

on sunday the 1st of feb things kick off with the alternative press fair in euston (see also a couple of posts down). i'm not sure whether i'll be selling my mini there, but if not i will definitely be skulking around, checking out the work on sale.

then the ica follows things up by hosting talks by adrian tomine and jeffrey lewis in february. toby litt will be talking to tomine about 'shortcomings' his latest collection of 'optic nerve'-issues on the 3rd and jeffrey will be talking about alan moore's 'watchmen' on the 24th. tickets are going fast so get a move on if you want to attend.

for those of you who are interested in such things: paul hornschemeier did the cover art for toby litt's 'hospital'. (i gave it to my mum for christmas last year. she read it. she liked the cover.)

beethoven and schulz

2009-01-14T23:44:00.003Z

when we were very little my big sister collected peanuts related books, figurines, towels and other bits and pieces. not really understanding peanuts or the idea of collecting, but wanting to emulate her i embarked on a mission to collect mickey mouse and walt disney related merchandise.
in spite of the charms of mickey mouse shaped piggybanks and minnie mouse dotted bikini bottoms (sized for 5-7 year-olds), not to mention a very politically incorrect mickey mouse cardgame (in which mickey discovers a 'negro' inside a box delivering an elephant from africa), my sisters collection was always going to age better than mine.

the other day i came across this article on the new york times website, which increased my respect for both my sister's good taste as well as schulz' creation even more.
as it turns out schroeder, the piano playing character in peanuts, plays existing pieces of beethoven in the comic strip. furthermore the pieces schulz chose for schroeder to play actually add to the meaning of the stories he wrote.

taster

2009-01-04T13:59:00.005Z

i am slowly but steadily approaching the end of my new comic. here's a tiny illegible mock up i included in an application for the comic artist residency at the v&a. the deadline for which closes today.

alternative press fair

2008-12-21T10:23:00.004Z

a couple of weeks ago i met the lovely lively jimi gherkin at the comiket small press fair that was part of the comica season at the ica. he is putting on an alternative press fair in february. i don't know yet if i'll be selling anything there but i will definitely be perusing and possibly purchasing the wares. these are the details:

Pens, Pencils and Photocopiers:

ALTERNATIVE PRESS FAIR

St Aloysius Social Centre,

Phoenix Road,

Euston,

NW1 1TA

Bringing together the worlds of alternative comics, zines, self-produced art-books, poetry and diy/punk culture for one amazing day, like a great colourful blacmange that you can't eat. Meet the artists, see their work, buy some if you like it. THEN relax and enjoy an exciting evening of music, song and melody, starring the Singing Sensation, Mr. Trent Miller (& The Skeleton Jive) as well as an open mic session for you to let it all hang out!

This event is FREE to all good men and women everywhere.

When? Sunday 1st February 2009, 12pm to 6pm (music to late)

Where? St. Aloysius Social Centre, 20 Phoenix Road, NW1 1TA

How do I get there? Alight Euston Station, venture up Eversholt Street on your right is Phoenix Road and a modern church - we're in the basement.

For more info Contact: jimigherkin(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk or peterlally(at)gmail(dot)com or check http://comicsandzines.wordpress.com/

for the latest news

martin ramirez and friends

2008-12-11T23:44:00.006Z

a couple of weeks ago i came across martin ramirez' intricate work. i find the terms 'art brut' and 'outsider art' a little strange; we are all brutes and outsiders.

ramirez' work did remind me of some of the beautiful work made by the adults with learning disabilities i lived and worked with in scotland for a some time in 2003-2005. of course they replaced the abilities they may have lacked with ones that we lack.
it was a strangely normal kind of job, where you help people to look after themselves. you care for and take care of people, and in return they take care of you without you even realizing it.
at the same time it makes you aware exactly how replace-able you are. whenever i return some of the people remember who i am and greet me warmly, but just as many people -if not more-, who i felt i developed a bond with will not recognize me, ignore me or just be indifferent to my presence. none of us are special, all of us replace-able. what a relief.

when i started work i found it difficult to connect to one of the people i worked with. she knitted and in a, successful, attempt to improve my relationship with her i took up knitting too. she would knit until her knitting had so complicated itself that she needed someone to find some order in its chaos. while she waited impatiently i would un- and re-ravel bits until she could continue. her ability to randomly decrease and increase stitches was second to none. hers is the embroidery above, which she made me as a leaving present.

odetta

2008-12-03T20:48:00.005Z

some years ago i went to see odetta at the triptych festival in glasgow. she was tiny compared to the big strong woman i had seen singing 'water boy' in martin scorsese's bob dylan documentary 'no direction home', but her voice was impressive and her stage presence bordered on intimidating.
at the beginning of the evening she gave photographers a couple of minutes to take photos of her, telling them that was it: no photographs during the rest of her performance. when halfway through someone couldn't resist and ignored her request she stopped the show to reprimand him. i can't remember her exact words but i do remember that they were softly spoken and mortifying.
she was very entertaining; reminiscing about musicians she'd played with and making political and even sexual references. she played the audience like a strict teacher does her doting pupils.

odetta passed away yesterday at the age of 77.

the big day, exhibition

2008-11-28T12:39:00.008Z

i am part of a group exhibition in clapham, london, this weekend. the theme for the exhibition is wedding and all participating artists received a word to base their work on. my word is ring and for those who won't be able to make it to clapham this weekend my contribution can be seen below. (the actual drawing is slightly smaller than the image below, fitting into a 51 mm circle)

ring, pen on paper, 51 mm

article in 'trouw'

2008-11-22T13:05:00.007Z

sketch for mini-comic

for those of you who understand dutch, today's 'trouw', a dutch national newspaper, features an article written by my sister, rozemarijn, and her friend amanda kluveld. the article makes some very interesting and valid points about why the government should mind its own business when it comes to people's sexual experiences.

comica 2008 symposium at the victoria and albert museum

2008-11-14T23:45:00.001Z

i spent all of today at the comica 'archetypes v stereotypes in comics and graphic novels' symposium at the v and a museum.
there were some interesting talks, although i thought some of them were a little example rich and content low. highlights for me were charles dierick's look at racial stereotypes in art through the centuries and sina shamsavari's presentation of gay comics, which unfortunately had to be cut short. i have to confess i had no idea who pat mills was, but paul gravett's talk with him touched upon some interesting (political) themes. i will definitely be looking up some of his work.

something else that made me cycle home with a smile on my face was that i met so many interesting and motivating people, a lot of them comics artists themselves. sarah mcintyre's enthusiasm was unbeatable. she writes a comic for children called 'vern and lettuce' and she is on the panel at the 'conversations:
great british comics - past, present & future' lecture at the ica on sunday.

there is always a lot of cross-referencing of significant comics and comics artists i have never heard of in the discussions at these events, but maybe that is a good thing.

last but not least i wanted to mention that there is a 6 month comic artist in residency at the victoria and albert museum. the deadline is the 4th of january and you have to be uk based to apply, a good reason to move to london i'd say.
well i am all linked out for now...

death ii

2008-11-11T22:52:00.003Z

photo courtesy of tom bland

another heartbreaking 'last supper', as tom put it.

death

2008-11-11T18:14:00.004Z

photo courtesy of tom bland

talk about bad parenting. my flatmate made this sad but poetic discovery this morning. my other flatmate took the photograph.

christiaan andriessen

2008-10-26T13:45:00.005Z

my sister, rozemarijn, pointed me in the direction of christiaan andriessen, a 19th century amsterdam art teacher, who drew a diary of sorts from 1805 till 1808. the drawings are snapshots accompanied by either a short comment by the author or a quote from one of the people depicted. check out more of his work at the amsterdam city archive. the image below from 17 april 1805 possibly depicts christiaan's mother, ill in bed, having to take her medication.

"there it strikes 10, another one to take now"

cowards

2008-10-25T12:15:00.002+01:00

another drawing for my next comic, cowards.

comica season

2008-10-19T17:07:00.002+01:00

every year paul gravett organizes 'comica' the london international comics festival which takes place at various locations in london, including the ica and the victoria and albert museum.
i had the pleasure of attending several of the events at the 2006 and 2007 comica seasons, which i thoroughly enjoyed. check out paul's site for more info.

autobiography in comics

2008-10-19T16:46:00.010+01:00

in my first post at chicks on comics i tried to start a discussion about autobiographical comics. it seems to be the form of choice for scores of alternative comics artists, myself included. autobiography is a tough subject. there is such a wealth of material to choose from. how to choose one story from all of the incidents that make up your life? especially if you don't want to take up such autobiographical classics as masturbation, neuroticism, constipation or cancer.

i am still trying to figure out why exactly i believe the story i am working on at the moment is worth telling. it's a story about friendship, love and betrayal, issues familiar to a lot of people; and whether the story has any or not i am forcing some meaning onto it.

image above: possible opening panel for aforementioned story

chicks on comics

2008-10-05T21:36:00.002+01:00

my friend anna bas backer and her friend paola (whose artwork i was just admiring) started www.chicksoncomics.blogspot.com and invited several other comics artists as well as myself to join.
as i understand it the blog is supposed to be a place dedicated to the discussion of comics in comics form, we take turns in posting 7x5.5 cm comics. my first post for chicks on comics went up 2 weeks ago. check it out.
please note that to preserve the reading order of the discussion posts are put up in the 'wrong' order i.e. the oldest post comes up first, the latest post can be found at the the bottom. so please do scroll down.

first post

2008-08-26T21:28:00.000+01:00

this is a wee comic i drew after a party in 2005. i didn't intend the story for my mini-comic -a harmonica folding booklet-, and its format is different from the way i usually work.