October 2010 Archives

CLICK ON Episode 41 of Shang Ri La La La below and it will expand to fill your screen.
For more information on the creators:

For Paul H Birch: www.myspace.com/paulhbirch

For Gary Crutchley: www.gcrutchley.blogspot.com

For Mats Engesten: www.go.to/engesten

For John Robbins: www.mylifeinshorts.blogspot.com

Jim Lee is rightly recognised as one of the best artists working in superhero comics.

But almost as remarkable is his rise through the comic industry, via his own imprint
Wildstorm to the position he now holds as one of the top creative executives at DC Comics.

Icons, tells that story as it guides the reader through 20 years of Lee artwork, featuring both pencils, concept drawings and finished work.

The artwork dominates and it can be enjoyed as either a visual biography of Lee's career or simply a great coffee table volume for an occasional flick through.

Artwork is grouped into various characters, ie: Batman, Superman and Wildcats, and the projects. The section on Hush is simply breathtaking.

The only downside is that the Wildstorm stuff is slightly marginalised into a small chapter, leaving the DC giants to dominate the book.

It is perhaps timely that this volume is released just as DC has announced the closure of the Wildstorm imprint, founded by Lee.

Icons is published by Titan Books

CLICK ON Episode 40 of Shang Ri La La La below and it will expand to fill your screen.For more information on the creators:

For Paul H Birch: www.myspace.com/paulhbirch

For Gary Crutchley: www.gcrutchley.blogspot.com

For Mats Engesten: www.go.to/engesten

For John Robbins: www.mylifeinshorts.blogspot.com

Iznogoud and the Magic Carpet

Cinebook

The sixth volume of Iznogoud put out by Cinebook in the UK, it's yet another series that has found international favour for many a decade, and while English editions have been put out by other publishers they've never found success here and Brits are more likely to have seen more Iznogoud albums in the first newsagent they popped in on their latest summer holiday.

Set in ancient Baghdad, the series revolves around the grand vizier Iznogoud whose chief saying of: "I want to be caliph instead of the caliph!"sums up the series totally.

Comparisons to Goscinny's even more famous Asterix the Gaul series are well founded, but more in the humour of the series, and the way the translators add puns a plenty.

Whereas Asterix featured an ever increasing cast of characters, Iznogoud focuses squarely on its title character, the docile, dim, but warm-hearted Caliph Haroun Al Plassid, and Iznogoud's own servant Wa'at Alahf.

Maybe this group of misfits and their mystery of the East hasn't appealed enough to English speaking readers enough previously for this series to find lasting success, but I somehow think it must have filtered into the subconscious of the odd one or two (or even three) gents: I mean, change the Arabian characters to a bunch of Brits from any time in history and you've got the cast of the comedy TV series Blackadder, most particularly you've got the whole series of Blackadder the Third wrapped up in a palatable figroll.

So you've got the gist of the scenario behind this series, what about its contents you ask? Well, The Magic Carpet story is just the lead story in what turns out to be a collection of Arabian tales.

Where Asterix is an unfolding plot involving a journey or quest, Iznogoud is actually more in keeping with traditional English comedy comic strips where the same task or situation is played out each time with varying degrees of amusing failure - It actually reminds me of those old Billy Bunter strips in Valiant or Mowser in Lion, albeit with extended and more varied stories, but the same furious pace towards gags and jokes that means if one fails another's likely to succeed soon enough.

The Magic Carpet is suitably the longest story in this collection and revolves around the idea that if the right secret word is said a carpet will send you half way across the world with no hope of returning. Suffice to say, Iznogoud's attempts at getting the Caliph to stand on a carpet fail continuously.

Incognito is a riches to rags folly and The Tiger Hunt is a brief comedy of errors, while The Box of Souvenirs has an almost post-modern take.

All these stories are able drawn to great comic effect by Tabary who bears surface similarities to Goscinny's Asterix collaborator Albert Uderzo but his faces are more angular and his use of body language as a means of expression different too.

That the stories are shorter work to their strengths, playing out just long enough for the jokes not to outstay their welcome.

But, as I say, check an Iznogoud album out then go watch Blackadder the Third on DVD or some TV channel and see what you think about the similarities in the three main characters here.

For more about English Iznogoud books visit: www.cinebook.com

For more about Iznogoud visit: www.iznogoudworld.com

A range of great photographs are now up on the main Birmingham Mail site here

THE Birmingham Mail was out and about at BICS all weekend catching Jonathan Ross, Nicola Scott, Alan Davis and many more besides in action.

Sadly I was only able to get there Saturday and missed The Unwritten and Walking Dead panels, plus Rossy. But my colleagues, photographers Jason Skarret and Jon Fuller Rowell were out and about.

But that was all the more than compensated for with the brilliant Comic Artists Flip Out, Getting Hitched and Simons Cat events.

As ever a great event, well organised and plenty going on.

Paul H Birch, Gary Crutchley and Andrew Dodd are at BICS 2010 this weekend!

CLICK ON Episode 39 of Shang Ri La La La below and it will expand to fill your screen.

For more information on the creators:

For Paul H Birch: www.myspace.com/paulhbirch

For Gary Crutchley: www.gcrutchley.blogspot.com

For Mats Engesten: www.go.to/engesten

For John Robbins: www.mylifeinshorts.blogspot.com

For Andrew Dodd: www.timebombcomics.com

FOLLOWING LAST night's launch party, BICS 2010 officially begins today at the Thinktank in Birmingham.

BICS 2010 gives an increased nod and a wink towards the world of film and TV in terms of its theatre events.

Dr Who TV show writer Paul Cornell will be talking about his career, Charlie Adlard will be discussing The Walking Dead TV series, Simon Tofield will be discussing the animated Simon's Cat and award-winning fantasy artist Charles Vess, co-creator behind the hit movie Stardust, wil be discussing his art.

MULTIVERSE IS an all-new regular comics magazine made in the UK and coming our way!

Multiverse is the brainchild of Comics international's last publisher and co-Eagle Award creator Mike Conroy along with Barry Renshaw.

Aiming squarely for the mainstream, but promising not to neglect other formats and genres of the comics scene past and present it looks to be a colourful, vital and much needed magazine now Comics International and Crikey! have bit the big one, promising features, news and star interviews.

Multiverse will be available soon through all good comic shops, but visitors to this year's BICS 2010 that takes place in Birmingham this weekend will be able to see see advance promotional copies for themselves!

Copies of the very special Multiverse #0 will be given away free to those attending the show by kind arrangement between Conroy and BICS.

One of the highlights of this weekend's show looks set to be the Unwritten panel featuring writer Mike Carey, artist Peter Gross, cover artist Yuko Shimizu and editor Pornsak Pichetshote.

For Mike, who is also working on X-men Legacy for Marvel, it is a return to BICs as he was a guest in 2007.

We spoke to Mike ahead of Sunday's Unwritten panel, which he tells us is the first time the entire Unwritten creative team has appeared together.