News From ….
Author and comics afficionado Paul has been busy as usual! Hopefully he won’t mind my quoting his newsletter to fill you all in on what he’s doing –including his appearance at the up-coming Comic Expo in May!
“The massive MANHUA! CHINA COMICS NOW show, which I curated and Peter Stanbury designed, is all taken down now. The response from the public as well as LCC students and tutors and the media and guests has been very positive. It was a special thrill to have the guests from Beijing and Hong Kong attend, talk about their work and demonstrate their techniques. Luckily a lot of this was filmed and photographed and there will soon be more photos and info from this on the permanent Manhua subsite. Plans are afoot to possibly tour part or all of this first ever exhibition of contemporary Chinese comics to other UK venues. When that happens, you’ll hear about it first right here.
LIVE FROM KIRBY PLAZA Comica event at the ICA which went really well. Huge demand for tickets meant a packed house for the great guests, both live and in person -Chrissie Harper, from Jack Kirby Quarterly, who came up with the whole idea and impressive sound and picture presentation of Kirby’s life and career,plus our guests Paul Gambaccini and Kim Newman - and “virtual” guests linkedby the wonder of Skype and the “Boom Tube”, namely Mark Evanier, John Morrow and Randolph Hoppe over in the States. And to top it all off, a room of rare exquisite framed Kirby originals from the collections of Chrissie and Jonathan Ross.
Couple of highlights coming up:
This Saturday I’ve written an article on superheroes and their role as propaganda for the Guardian Guide. This ties in with the Iron Man movie looming, and the story of the United Nations working with Marvel on a comic book with their superheroes to show what the UN does.
On Sunday morning April 20th, 11.15 to 12 noon pm BBC Radio 4, I’ve been involved with and interviewed for The Reunion, a fascinating series bringing people together to recall past events. In this case it’s the heydays of The Beano and Dandy - the Beano being 70 this July. The main interviewees are artists Bill Ritchie (of baby Crockett fame) and Jim Petrie (who drew 2,000 Minnie the Minx episodes) and writers Walter Fearn (at The Beano during the 1950s notably on Jonah with Ken Reid) and Dave Torrie (another ex Dandy editor). There are also archive quotes from Leo Baxenedale, Tony Robinson,Jacqueline Wilson, A N Wilson, Michael Rosen and others. It’s repeated Friday April 25th at 9am.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/thereunion/pip/37xhj/
Also on Friday 25th, at 6.15 I’ll be introducing the first ICA screening of DEATH NOTE, the live-action movie version of the gripping Shonen Jump manga serial published by Viz.
http://www.ica.org.uk/Death%20Note+16357.twl
Tuesday 29th brings the brilliantly deranged and disturbing Marseille graphists Le Dernier Cri to a Comica event at the ICA, where Pakito Bolinoand accomplices will perform in the Theatre to a projection of their mind-exploding movie Les Religions Sauvages, as well as displaying some of their astonishing silkscreened books and prints - unmissable, adults-only,extreme!
http://www.ica.org.uk/Les%20Religions%20Sauvages+16372.twl
Into May, on the 8th I’ll be chairing a discussion at the Centre for Recent Drawing on Diary Drawings, as part of their exhibition of autobiographical and journal comics. See this for more details:
And I’m making it to the Bristol Comics Expo only on the Sunday May 11th,where I’ll be in conversation from 4-5pm with Bryan Talbot and his cheeky Cherubs collaborator Mark Stafford.
http://www.comicexpo.net/events.html
Hope to see some of you at one or more of these do’s in the coming weeks.Meantime, Peter Stanbury and I are completing not one, but two new books.
For more details of the first of these, THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST CRIME COMICS, please visit the site where our webwizard Tim Webber will be adding news and sneak peeks from this criminal anthology!
Wishing you all the very best
Paul”
Comic Bits Online is the web version of the Comic Bits magazine Edited and run by Terry Hooper. Currently Interviews Editor at Manga Life,Terry has over thirty years experience in the comic industry as script writer,artist,freelance Editor,publisher and much more. But if you want the facts:
Curriculum vitae Name:Terry HooperDob:6th June 1957 [50 yrs]Currently living Ashton Vale,Bristol,United Kingdom ...
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