Results tagged “Nostalgia and Comics” from Birmingham Mail - Speech Balloon

OUR friends at Nostalgia and Comics are hosting a signing session by American cartoonist and underground comix artist Gilbert Shelton on Friday.

Knockabout Comics have just published The Fat Freddy's Cat Omnibus and they also have The Freak Brothers Omnibus available.

On Friday November 13th Nostalgia & Comics is proud to welcome Gilbert as a guest to sign both books between 4.00 & 5.30

Gilbert was born on May 31, 1940 in Houston, Texas. In the mid 60's he became art director for the Vulcan Gas Company, a rock music venue in Austin, Texas, where he created a number of posters in the style of contemporary California poster artists such as Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin.

After a year of this, he moved to San Francisco in the summer of 1968, hopeful that being closer to the action would enable him to do more poster work; as it turned out, he finally got his break in the alternative comix business. It was here in 1968 that he created

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (which is being made into a stop motion film), and a year later came the spin off series Fat Freddy's Cat. He has also contributed to Wonder Wart-Hog, Not Quite Dead, and is also well known in some circles for his cover art to The Grateful Dead's 1978 album Shakedown Street.

For further details call 0121 643 0143 or e-mail noscomic@noscomic.plus.com

BIRMINGHAM'S leading comic store had a blast on free comic book day and plenty of customers joined in the fun by coming in costume.

Surfer Dave reports: "Every Customer who came in fancy dress received a goody bag of super hero stuff - photos included.

"We had a drawing competition 'Invent a new super vilian' open to all ages, we had entries from ages three to 33. Five lucky winners received art related prizes.

AMERICAN COMIC book artist Kevin Nowlan is renowned for style, wit and visual flair.

The following is a brief profile on Kevin Nowlan by David Hopkins, the manager of Birmingham's very own Nostalgia & Comics, along with minor input by Paul H Birch.

Kevin Nowlan has always stood out in the comic book world for having a distinctive art style that combines a stirring sense of realism with a strong element of design.

Born in 1958, this self-taught artist began contributing illustrations and covers for The Comics Journal and other magazines. His first sustained comics run was the mature fairytale drama Grimwood's Daughter serialised in Dalgoda and published by Fantagraphics in the mid-80s.

Thereafter, sagely advised by Terry Austin, Marvel began offering him assignments on Moonknight and Dr Strange, books that suitably impressed their buying readership.

Nowlan took on other assignments at Marvel, DC and Dark Horse developing his art style to the point where he became in great demand as an inking and finishing artist. While he doesn't care for this latter trade description there is no doubt the completed pages always result in a distinguished class act.

Work of note of this nature featuring Nowlan includes Superman/Aliens, Star Wars: Dark Force Rising and Aliens: Salvation.

The artist is renowned for producing highly praised cover art and contributed character design work to Batman: The Animated Series. He was also one of Alan Moore's collaborators on the ABC series Tomorrow Stories, co-creating the Jack B. Quick character. These short strips more than showed off his versatility and ability to inject a strong humorous element into his work.

Kevin Nowlan has been described as "an artist's artist" he is also an artist that readers of quality comics admire!

Visit Nostalgia & Comics at 14-16 Smallbrook Queensway in Birmingham's city centre and purchase great comics by Kevin Nowlan and others.

DOCTOR Who devotees, Lisa Rochell and Hazel Stanton dressed as The Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness for the visit to Birmingham of Torchwood star Gareth David Lloyd.

Dozens queued at the Nostalgia and Comics shop to meet Doctor Who and Torchwood star Gareth David Lloyd.

Nostalgia's Dave Hopkins was impressed with the turnout - some had even begun queuing before the shop opened.

And he described Gareth, who was promoting his range of HP Lovecraft audio books, as a perfect gent, softly spoken and happy to chat with fans.

Even though the fate of Ianto Jones currently hangs in the balance, the star would give nothing away about this Saturday's Doctor Who finale.

Our friends at Nostalgia and Comics tell me that we are reading the following this week.

Final Crisis 2 (Of 7)
Mighty Avengers 15
Wolverine 66
Ultimates 3 4 (Of 5)
Hulk 4
Justice League Of America 22
Uncanny X-Men 499
Captain America 39
Angel After The Fall 9
Fantastic Four 558