Recently by Neil Elkes

"Frank Miller is bat s**t crazy"

That was the opening gambit from Tony Lee as he constructed a sophisticated case for Miller's Batman:Year One to be considered the greatest graphic novel of all time.

The audience eventually, and perhaps not surprisingly voted The Watchmen the World's Greatest Graphic Novel from a shortlist of 16. Akira came second.

My main job, covering the goings on at Birmingham City Council, has delivered a line for the Speech Balloons, but this week it did.

At one of the many events and meetings held for the Tory Party Conference in Birmingham I bumped into Councillor Deirdre Alden - widely tipped to be the next Conservative MP for Edgbaston.

But her day job for many years was writing comics for DC Thomson's pre-teen girls titles like Bunty, Jackie and even photo stories for Blue Jeans.

She wrote for series such as the boarding school adventure the Four Marys and, until recently, was the main writer for a German comic Wendy - a series about a girl and her pony.

It was as her political career grew, she is now chairwoman of Birmingham's official health watchdog committee, that she had to give up the writing.

She said: "It was a good career. I really enjoyed it."

Saturday's print edition featured my interview with Paul Cornell over his new Captain Britain comic coming to Birmingham. See the article here.

Paul is taking a break from plotting fictional carnage on our home city to attend the Birmingham International Comics show this weekend.

The space limits on the print article meant that some of the available artwork could be included.

A HIGHLIGHT of the International Comic show next week will be the ticket only Watchmen event hosted by artist Dave Gibbons.

With the Watchmen Hollywood film gearing for release in March and interest in the graphic novel stronger than ever its co-creator Gibbons is soon to become very hot property indeed.

So Speech Balloon was delighted to grab a quick chat with him as he prepares for his weekend in Birmingham where he will be promoting his new book Watching the Watchmen.

The book, published by Titan next month, details his collaboration with writer Alan Moore and the origins of the comic and he says will be stuffed with pages of original scripts, sketches and artwork.

THE Geek Syndicate are a dynamic duo of fanboys who have taken the step of opening their pub banter style dissection of all things superhero, sci-fi and cult to the internet.

They hold those conversations we all have about our favourite comics, books, TV shows and films - only with that added depth only a true obsessive can provide.
Flying the flag for the Midlands is Barry Nugent, from Northampton, while his partner is North London based David Monteith.

Popular Astonishing X-men and Captain America artist John Cassaday is the latest top name to be confirmed for the Birmingham International Comics Show this October.

Cassaday first came to prominence for his award winning work on Planetary with writer Warren Ellis about a decade ago.

But recently he has enjoyed huge success with his run on Astonishing X-men with Joss Whedon, the pop-culture riffing creator of TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

This is another inspired signing for BICS joining an impressive line-up including Dave Gibbons and David Lloyd...

THE Beano has been keeping British children gripped with subversive humour and a stream of iconic characters for 70 years now.

Generations of youngsters have enjoyed the weekly thrill of catching up with the likes of Dennis the Menace, Lord Snooty, the Bash Street Kids and the Three Bears.

And next week will see a series of events to mark the 70th birthday. Birmingham artists Hunt Emerson and Laura Howell are closely involved.

A round-up courtesy of our friends at Nostalgia and Comics

Following the success of its "Dark Tower" adaptations, Marvel Comics is set to release Stephen King's post apocalyptic classic "The Stand" as a 30-part, multiple miniseries comic. Wolverhampton based artist Mike Perkins will draw all 30 issues. The first issue of The Stand: Captain Trips will be out in September.

Classic British sci-fi character Judge Dredd will appear in a new comic series in 2009 from American publisher Dynamite Entertainment. Conceived and written by Garth Ennis and Dredd co-creator John Wagner. This is the first project in a series of releases Dynamite is working out with Rebellion, Dredd's UK owner and publisher. The new series will kick off with dual covers from Alex Ross and classic Dredd artist Brian Bolland. And will build on past Dredd continuity while providing a reader-friendly starting point for fans that only know the character from the forgettable 1995-film adaptation.

After an eight-year battle with bone cancer artist Michael Turner has died. He was 37.
He is known for his dynamic artwork, particularly his striking cover art for DC and Marvel for who he worked on the Civil Series last year. His own series "Fathom" and "Soulfire." also proved popular.

Speech Balloon collaborator Tony Lee has delivered the ultimate fanboy fantasy in his up and coming mini-series Doctor Who: The Forgotten by featuring all ten incarnations of the Time Lord.

The Kings Heath writer has teamed up with artist Pia Guerra, of Y The Last Man fame, for the six part mini-series for publisher IDW. Issue one is due in August.

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.