laydeezdocomics

January Laydeez do Comics

2012-01-18T10:49:00.000-08:00

Hey all, faybird33 here, guest blogger for the first Laydeez do Comics of 2012. I write one page comic art mostly about sex, society, relationships. You can check me out at www.faybird33.com. I also run an online resource for creatives at www.wildanduntamedthings.co.uk.

So, to the speakers. First up was Karen Rubins who told us about her symbolic, fantasy comic book Blood Magic. Inspired by her residency at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Blood Magic is set in 16^th century Medieval England, and focuses on a village where the women use their menstrual blood for magic and rituals. Karen showed us several concept drawings, describing the mood of the piece as dark and dramatic. She spoke about how objects at the V&A – like a gold German goblet – gave her the setting and influence for Blood Magic. Other V&A objects that influenced the design and characters included stained glass windows, sculptures, woodcuts and early printed texts. She showed us some artwork from Blood Magic. The illustrations were in black and white, except for the blood which was red to show the significance of the magic. Karen explained that she used certain materials to give an air of authenticity, such as rough, off white paper. She discussed some of the symbolism behind the images, such as the blood, rabbits – meaning fertility, sheep – representing farming and village life and also a symbol of sacrifice. She also mentioned the Book of Signs as a reference for the magic symbols. It was all very interesting, and rather intriguing.

Next on was Dan Locke, a writer and illustrator based in Brighton, who spoke about his passion for making comics. He showed us his first comic, a piece inspired by his work as a dish washer at a local cafe, where he focused on people watching, imagining their lives. Then he showed a comic about a strongman’s son in the circus and said how this strip lead to a series of strips that set the precedent for everything he has made since. He explained why he started to create autobiographical comic strips, and showed some examples of these earlier pieces. These strips lead to Dan getting a three month residency at an Islington housing association for people with serious mental illnesses and violent crime, where he ran drawing workshops. His project was to retell some of the residents' stories, and these stories were made into a pamphlet and given out at Islington Exhibits in 2010. He showed us a couple of strips he made for various anthologies and comic book reviews. He then talked about his current project, a book about his early life and the house he grew up in. The book is titled 311 District Road. Dan was a charming speaker, giving us an honest and often amusing glimpse into his world, mind and creations.

The break gave us Sarah's fantastic homemade lemon cake, chocolate brownies and peach cake. After stretching our legs and chatting we were back to the final speaker,
Jacqueline Nicholls

Jacqueline is an artist and Jewish educator. Her art combines the two – her learning and her drawing. She spoke of her interest in mixing text and drawings. She showed us various works: two multi-layered silk screen prints, an intricate paper cut – a rather amazing piece of work created from a single sheet of paper; and fifteen small squares of white cotton embroidered with the words ‘maybe this month,’ representing the hope of fertility treatments. Jacqueline told us about her time in New York, where for forty-nine days she walked the city, marking each day with a drawing of objects she found in the street. These New York drawings were beautifully illustrated and emotive. She started this project to give herself a daily drawing exercise, and she spoke candidly about the fear which went alongside putting the work on her blog. Jacqueline‘s talk was very personal, moving and honest. Her work is striking, emotive and unique – rather like her.

And there you are, another interesting evening with the Laydeez (and some men), in London. Happy New Year and stay gold, faybird33.

December Laydeez do Comics

2011-12-11T05:58:00.000-08:00

Hi there Laydeez.

I’m Jade Sarson, an illustrator and comic creator based in Milton Keynes. I recently graduated from the University of Lincoln with a first class honours degree in Illustration, and am currently one of six comic interns at the londonprintstudio (if you went to last months meeting you may have met Shamisa, one of the other interns). I am currently working on developing my first graphic novel alongside the internship, and also frequently update my webcomic Cafe Suada, both of which you can find out more about on my website: http://teahermit.co.uk/

So yup, I’ll be your guide to what happened at this month’s festive meeting.

The evening began with the usual game of introducing yourself and answering a question, this months being “What was your best/worst Christmas present?” There were a lot of interesting answers, including Sarah Lightman’s hilarious cop out of “I’m Jewish, we don’t DO Christmas”, but I think my favourite was the person who declared socks the best gift ever to give or receive. I have to agree, socks are awesome!

Then Rachel Abrams was up. Rachel told us a bit about her illustration work for Turnstone, projects for big mega corporations which have influenced the way she approaches her personal projects. She also explained who her artistic influences are, from Asterix comics to Spiegelmann, as well as cartoons by Matt Groening and projects by RSA Animate. Rachel was humble about her work for large corporations and said that they were nothing in comparison to pitching about her personal projects, which is far scarier because they are just that: they’re PERSONAL.

Her current project is very engaging… she used the phrase “I’ve got this friend who…” to sum up the premise. This new comic of hers aims to take all the tales Rachel has heard about a certain subject and tackle them in an ambivalent way. And the subject?

Female fertility.

Rachel has observed that women everywhere feel a natural unhappiness regarding their own fertility. Society pressures them to have children and lots of women are turning to modern science to solve their problems. IVF treatment and egg freezing procedures are becoming far more commonplace these days, and this is a subject that Rachel is determined to try to explain and question in her new comic project.

However, what was interesting about her talk was that she was very keen to ask the Laydeez about her target market… she was keen to identify who the comic was for, very specifically, so that she could have them in mind when creating the comic. “Is it for young women? Will boyfriends read it? Should I pitch it to drug companies?” she asked us.

The Laydeez piped up at this point. Several attendees were very adamant that this project, though on the fence about the delicate subject matter, is something personal to Rachel, and therefore SHE is the audience. She should write and draw it for herself. Personal projects are done for that exact reason. And the conclusive point made was that by isolating her feelings in this comic, Rachel will in fact draw in MORE readers. I am certainly looking forward to seeing where she takes the project from here, especially after seeing a sample panel which compared female fertility to the fearsome power of a nuclear bomb.

Next up was Sarah Lightman, one of the organisers behind Laydeez Do Comics (the other being Nicola Streeten, who also spoke at the meeting this month). Sarah started by showing us a self portrait that she drew at 15, and explained that from a young age she has been unashamed of being honest about herself, and didn’t beautify herself in any drawings, which I thought was brilliant. Confidence to draw people as-is and see the value in that is amazing, in my opinion. But anyway. Sarah moved on to tell us about her ongoing project, the “Book of Sarah”, which is a comic visually based on Jewish religious texts (her religion has always been an important part of her life). The Book of Sarah is not about religion, however, it is about Sarah’s experiences with finding herself, and expresses how she feels about finding a place in your family and your community. She went on to explain that through finding the comics community, she has found her place (something I and I’m sure many of the other listeners could empathise with). Following on from childhood, the Book of Sarah focuses on romantic interludes and the isolation caused by breakups. What I found most interesting about the book itself was that the narrative was told with a beautiful use of negative space. In the childhood chapters cut out clothing and bodies hint at who is missing or supposed to be somewhere, and in later chapters single objects are placed in a white space to force the reader to interpret the story behind each one. Sparse text is used to guide the reader's interpretations though, as it is Sarah’s story and it wouldn’t do for the reader to interpret the objects too differently to the intent. I wonder when this fantastic conceptual book will be finished. I suppose only Sarah knows. In the meantime we can read her food diary comics and The Reluctant Bride, which use the same techniques crafted just as carefully (Sarah is, after all, from a Fine Art background, and so each drawing is very precise. She loves her graphite pencils, that’s for sure!)

Sarah finished by talking a little bit about her experience with curating exhibitions such as currently touring Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women. She feels that it is very important that the history of comics should cover women too, and not just the leading male creators, so her exhibitions aim at exposing the world to female creators’ work and influencing academia – Sarah has spoken at several universities as part of the exhibition. Hopefully the message is being heard. That is, after all, what Laydeez Do Comics is all about.

There was a little break after Sarah’s talk to eat baked goodies and chat… I met Mike Medaglia (everyone had been congratulating him on his wedding that evening, there was a lot of clapping, haha!) and we talked a lot about webcomics and the Gosh!p meets, which I must go to in the future, they sound like a lot of fun. I also managed to grab Paul Gravett for a second (he moves fast!) to mention that myself and the comics interns will be attending Strip Turnhout on the 10^th, an event Paul had mentioned that evening in the announcements.

After that quick break it was time for the third speaker of the evening to step up: Marcia Mihotich. Marcia is obsessed with grids! Hahaha. I think you had to be there, but suffice to say, Marcia really does like grids. She is a graphic designer and illustrator, and has designed for architects, animations, magazines, book covers and book illustrations (I believe she has either completed or is in the process of illustrating a book called “How to Stay Sane”), and also draws her own comics. Marcia showed us lots of great examples of her design work, and explained how she is very accustomed to using simple but effective techniques and framing. She uses grids to compose her comic page layouts, and uses techniques such as image layering for colour application and ‘the changing speechbubble’ to tell some very clever narratives. (To explain the changing speechbubble: Only the content of the speechbubble changes, the contents of each panel do not.)

Marcia then told us about how the birth of her son affected her life. “I spent so much time in the park” she remarked dryly. She used this to her advantage, however, creating beautiful graphic artwork of the park from many different perspectives, in different seasons and colours, using a layering technique to separate each aspect. She also made use of the time that her son was playing in the park to observe other people – the mums and their children. Whilst doing a lot of observational sketching she overheard plenty of hilarious life stories, and has made use of them in her comics. She explained a concept known as toxic chatter, which I found particularly fascinating: toxic chatter occurs when you are speaking about something mundane to someone and are putting on a polite façade – inside your head, you say mean, frustrated, irritated things until they go away, and this is what’s known as toxic chatter. I loved being able to finally call it something. I’m afraid this blogger is an avid toxic chatterer! Can’t help these things I suppose.

Aaaanyway. It was very entertaining to listen to Marcia, she is a naturally dark humoured, witty storyteller. She finished her talk with a sneak peak at her in-progress “SPY” comic, which everyone at Laydeez agreed made beautiful use of huge, black shadows and large areas of black inking, for dramatic effect. Cannot wait to see more of this comic, I hope she keeps it going alongside her design work! “I do it when I can, when I can find the time” she said. Well let’s hope she does.

Finally it was time for the other founder of Laydeez to step forward, Nicola Streeten! Nicola has been all over the media recently promoting her new graphic novel, Billy, Me & You, which she talked a lot about in the last speech of the evening. Nicola started drawing again after her son Billy died, starting from the bottom (illustrating greeting cards) and working her way up through the years to illustrating clever map advertisements for local businesses. She eventually moved to Lincolnshire, began printing a zine called Liquorice with help from her young daughter (which is still going) and signed up for a Masters course at the University of Lincoln. (Somehow Nicola navigated the labyrinthine illustration department there and found my degree show, which is how we met a few months back. Small world!)

Nicola then focused a lot on the development of Billy, Me & You over the course of several years, and gave us a privileged look at her notes and sketches she made while developing the story and illustrations. It was also during this time that she met Sarah Lightman. As both Nicola and Sarah have ties to the fine art community – they realised that they knew plenty of people from that community, and decided they wanted to meet more people from the comics community – and that, readers of this here blog, is how Laydeez Do Comics first began!

Nicola followed on from this very chronological talk with lots of design work for B,M&Y. She explained how her literature review (a stage in the creation of a new project where you pretty much look for every other work that is similar to yours, and is often an offputting stage for new creators!) was a great aid to her artistic development. She used techniques inspired by a lot of comics she had read, such as the emotional rendering of Barefoot Gen, in B,M&Y to great effect. Nicola also explained that the passage of time was an important aspect of the graphic novel, and she used photography sparingly to emphasise this. Toxic chatter rears its head again this evening, oddly enough, as Nicola then goes on to analyse the misinterpretations of her own comic. The moments of awkward socialising depicted in the graphic novel, Nicola explains, are interpreted differently by different readers. For example, a panel where a friend moves Billy’s t-shirt out of the way and then metaphorically stabs Nicola and her husband, has also been interpreted as Nicola metaphorically stabbing the friend, which Nicola found odd, and the Laydeez attendees certainly found interesting.

To conclude the evening, Nicola mentioned some helpful information for other comics creators, which I took careful note of.

She mentioned Myriad Editions, publisher of Billy, Me & You, and how though they call themselves a small publisher, but it is not about size. It is important when you secure a publisher for your work that they have the right contacts for promoting your book, as Myriad have for Nicola. She has already been reviewed by several noted comics shops and newspapers, and was featured on Channel 4 news too. Lots of great press for the launch of the book, then, and something to bare in mind when looking for a publisher for your own project in the future.

And lastly, Nicola mentioned the key things to do when creating your own graphic novel (I was paying a lot of attention at this point, as it is rare that creators will flat out tell you what works and what doesn’t, so this was very good of Nicola for the Laydeez. I’ll elaborate a little on the points she made).

When creating your own graphic novel:

DO A LITERATURE REVIEW

Its important to look at what’s already out there, and identify where your work will fit into the market

READ WHAT YOU DON’T LIKE

Yup, it sounds silly but really. It’s important. The more informed you are, the better your comics will be. Once you've identified your genre within the field, try to work out why there are some works that you don't find quite so great.
WRITE PROCESS NOTES

Nicola showed us messy scrawlings which laid out her story, and I myself take up pages and pages to scribble out my narratives. It’s good practise to separate your narrative into the sections or chapters, and then work on the design from there.

DON’T WORK ON YOUR GRAPHIC NOVEL IN ISOLATION

Sure, at the end of the day lots of us prefer shutting ourselves away to get final work done, but when you’re developing your comics it is important to get feedback! How can you know it’s any good if you are the only one judging your work? And to reinforce my point earlier, getting out and away from your usual workspace will inform and educate you, and the more informed you are, the more interesting and fun your comics will be to read.

And that’s pretty much it! How educational.

I had a great time at this month's meeting, and learnt a lot. I hope you enjoyed reading about it all! Good luck to Nicola and Sarah with the next Laydeez Do Comics meeting, which will be on Monday 16 Jan - the first one in 2012! And thanks again to Nicola for giving me the role of guest blogger this month, it was fun.

~Jade Sarson

November 2011 Laydeez do ComicA

2011-11-28T05:56:00.000-08:00

I am Shamisa Debroey, the guest blogger for November. In my own work I look to push the boundaries between illustration and strip, minimal and colourful, and topics like love and hate. I recently graduated from the infamous Sint Lukas Brussels under the careful supervision of Johan Stuyck, head of publishing house Oogachtend. I am currently working on the London Print Studio Comics internship scheme and I am working on my first semi autobiographical graphic novel ‘The Wanderer’, to be published in 2012 in Belgium and the Netherlands. Here is a link to my work

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shamisadebroey/

Tonight's Laydeez do Comics was in association with the annual Comica Festival and the international line up of guests included, Sarah Leavitt, the Canadian author of Tangles (Jonathan Cape), Comic Nurse, AKA MK Czerwiec, over from America and two German comic artists, Mawil and Uli Oesterle whose works have recently been translated into English editions by Blank Slate Books.

Here are the notes I made about the evening...

October 2011 Meeting

2011-10-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Nuala Murphy and I'm a comics artist. This is my response to the October meeting of Laydeez do Comics, I hope you enjoy it. You can find more of my work at nualacmurphy.blogspot.com. Thanks!

Kripa Joshi

Illustrator and comic artist

Martin Steenton + Judith Taboy

Co-editors and contributing writers at Avoid the Future a comprehensive blog about comics and graphic novels

Publicist and translators at Blank Slate Books. They were talking to us about the graphic novel, Luchadoras, by Peggy Adams which they have translated from French to English for the recent UK publication by Blank Slate Books

Joanna Walsh AKA Badaude Writer and illustrator, author of London Walks, published by Tate

September 2011 Laydeez do Comics

2011-10-06T05:26:00.000-07:00

Jumping from Shaolin monks and the Hiroshima Bomb to David Bowie and Kubrick patterns, we journeyed from one artistic world to another at Laydeez do comics on the 19^th of September. I am the guest blogger for this month, my name is Elena Vitagliano (please have a look at my web gallery :D) and I am going to introduce you to David Blandy and his collaborator Inko, and Rachel Cattle.

Let’s Start with the first two...

David Blandy and Inko (Ai Takita-Lucas)

A sense of thoughtful quietness, almost a meditation is something that you can find in David Blandy works, or in his character “the barefoot lone Pilgrim”, that is really “his character”, because this Pilgrim is his manga version, the artwork created by Inko.

David is a young man who talks at his own leisure and has a good sense of humour.

Inko is a young woman, perhaps not a typical Japanese woman, since she has lived in the UK for some years.

For this talk, they presented the work they have done together:

- The origins of the barefoot lone pilgrim

- Underground Heroes

- Child of Atom

David’s first experimentation with the comic form was during a two weeks residency as a hermit at Painshill Park, Surrey in a recreated hermitage. David related to the audience how the man who originally built the hermitage as part of the landscaped gardens, intended to have a resident hermit living there for 7 years. But 2 weeks later the original hermit was found drunk in a pub! Luckily, Blandy’s results were different: a comic diary (of the two weeks) and the birth of the Barefoot Lone Pilgrim. The BLP wears an orange kung-fu suit, which was from the Shaolin temple in Tufnell Park (a temple where David used to go) and is searching for “soul records”. He is the main character in some videos and the manga comic. He is a “fighting philosopher” and dreams of becoming a Kung Fu master (a dream that David used to share.) His influences are from computer games, like Street fighter and from martial art films. David’s quest in his work is for him to identify his own cultural position in this world. Here's an extract from the film he made about The Barefoot Lone Pilgrim...

After making 3 films about the Barefoot Lone Pilgrim, he moved toward others horizons. He decided to explore the origin of the Pilgrim, because every superhero has an origin.

It was from this idea that the making a manga comic based on the film emerged. He meet Manga artist, Inko, who agreed to work with him on the project and so this new adventure began. Inko was given complete freedom with her artistic interpretation of the film and she decided to respect the rhythm of his work. Throughout, with a wise use of black, Inko leads the reader in an atmosphere of meditation. From these pages, the powerful of words are amplified and we are almost able to hear the James Brown song, “Mind power”, the theme song of the movie as well as of the comics.

“Art on the Underground” was the next project that involved David and Inko. Based on the theme of “Underground Heroes”, David and Inko worked with young people from Fairbridge. “Inspired by comic books tales of heroic quests, each young person has created a superhero persona that draws upon their own interests and aspirations”. You can see the full Underground Heroes comic strips here, as it was not possible to show it during the talk.

So we arrived at “Child of Atom”, David's more recent film about his bond with the Hiroshima Bomb. His late Granfather would not have survived being a Japanese Prisoner of War if the atomic bombing of Hiroshima had not occurred. So, in a way, David can argue that he owes his own life to that bomb and to the death of thousands of people.

The film is a symbolic visit to Hiroshima made by him and his 2 year old daughter to search for their 'origins'. This work too has been adapted into a manga comic by Inko. Unfortunately, this time the budget was very small and the comic contains just 6 pages.

At this point, David invited Inko to talk about other works she made but not in collaboration with David and she mentioned a project that we can find on the web site “Go go – metro”. It consists of a manga personification of the tube stations. So you can meet the sweet Victoria or the small but spicy Angel, the brave and patient Waterloo and more.

This is a work in progress, made in cooperation with
Chie Kutsuwada.

She asserts that as she feels more like a craft man rather than an artist, she feels more confortable working with someone and having the challenge to turn someone else's stories into images. However she has also worked on her own projects, and has written some short manga stories. Inko is now working on a picture book for kids, "Rachel moves to Brighton", written by Patricia Horne. It includes 16 pages of colourful Manga style illustration. It is about a girl moving from London to Brighton and it will be published at Christmas time.

After a break, artist Rachel Cattle presented her work.

She writes, she draws, she has made 3 films and she makes records of some spoken performances. She uses parts of music, parts of songs in a way that is personal, and thinks that comes from films (for example, she has used a pattern coming from the movie “A Clockwork Orange”). There were some other similarities with David's work. Rachel too likes working in collaboration and often works on projects with Steve Richards. She said that although they have lots of things in common, they also have different attitude to things and different ideas about things. This is why their collaboration is so interesting.

Rachel's first interest is drawing. She affirmed, “I am basically a drawer. I am obsessed by drawing. By the idea of what drawing is. What it does to me and what it suggests to people. I’m not interested just in what I draw but also in why I draw. And what drawing is.”

One of the tasks she imposed to herself was to make 100 pencil drawings. She actually made just 30 of them. She chose unrelated subjects such as: a brownie, a woman, a ladder...

She generally works with 4B pencil, using lot of blackness in her drawings. She enjoys the process and likes being isolated form the world and the technology as much as she can. She has no internet access in her studio.

Some years ago, talking with a colleague about comics, she was impressed by the idea that a comic is something between a movie and a book and yet is neither of those. And, it is capable of creating a world of its own. So, Rachel made her first comic, drawing it in one night, representing, without any words, a journey into darkness.

Another of her comics was made in collaboration with Steve Richards. Here, speech bubbles are philosophical thoughts, lyrics and speeches from the films that Steve collected.

Although these sentences are not related, all together they make a kind of narration.

This comic is related to a movie made by Rachel and Steve called Same Old Scene (named after the Roxy Music song).

After this, Rachel talked a bit about her movies and her performances and she ended her talk with a reading.

IN ADDITION...An Interview Special with Inko
I was so interested in Inko and her work that after the meeting she agreed to answer some questions...

- What is the origin of the name Inko? (anything related to ink?)
"Inko" sounds like "ink", but actually means "parakeet" in Japanese.
One of my manga artist friends Chie Kutsuwada (Hagakure, As You Like It) named me as a joke, and I started using it as my name on web, finally adopting it as my pen name.

- What' s your story as an artist?
I went to an art university in Kyoto, Japan, also Central Saint Martin's college in London. I grew up reading and drawing manga and was fascinated in art. After graduating, I started self publishing manga and joining manga conventions such as MCM London Expo, Japan Expo Paris with other manga artists as a group Umisen-Yamasen(http://umisenyamasen.blogspot.com).

- What's the project you are working on at the moment?
There are few:
"Go Go Metro (http://gogometro.blogspot.com)" - the personification/anthropomorphism of London tube stations. This is a collaboration with Chie Kutsuwada. We are taking history and the unique stories of stations and turn them into manga characters. Manga strips and sketches are shown on the blog.

"Rachel moves to Brighton" - a picture book for kids written by Patricia Horne. This is a 16 page colouful illustrated story about a girl moving from London to Brighton. Expected to publish at Christmas time.

"Ketsueki" chapter 1 - 5 - an action manga about a female sword fighter with a legendary monster slasher "Ketsueki". Written by Richmond Clements(FutureQuake Press). Expected to be published by Markosia next year.

- Why do you work in the Uk as a manga artist instead of working in Japan, or at least "with" Japan?
As people already know, the manga culture and market is gigantic in Japan, so very competitive. The life style in the UK suits me well and I love being a bridge of different cultures. Being able to work as a manga artist at a time when it is has been so recently introduced to the UK is the luckiest thing for me.

- What do you think are the qualities of great manga?
I actually learned a lot from manga. Great manga comics suck people's minds and sometimes bend the way people think. It's not just escapism, it is a way of experiencing other character's lives.
Manga has such a wide range of genre, like films. There are light hearted ones and human drama ones based on actual events. Some amazingly well written / drawn manga changes the way you see the world no matter what the genre.

- What are the main differences between manga and the Western graphic novel, in your opinion?It's not a "which is better" argument, but generally speaking, manga differs from western comics in its construction. Comics normally have a story with an objective view, but manga normally has a very subjective and personal point of view. So while comic readers enjoy the whole orchestration like watching a great opera, manga readers enjoy being a part of a story sharing the whole emotional events the characters go though. Great manga comics really drive your emotions and grab your deepest self.

- What are the difficulties that an artist like you can experience here in Uk?More than 70% of publication connected artists have side jobs to survive, so I do.
Unless artists are in constant demand, everything is hard. once I had a language ability for communicating in English and my visa was sorted out, the promoting finally went smoothly.
About the manga creation, western comics and manga comics are almost like different media in a way of panel layouts, story development speed, time flows. So working with UK writers is almost being a interpreter to transform the original script into manga format. Which is surprisingly hard.

- Would you like to talk a little bit about your activity as a culture and language ambassador with Soas?I have been working as a Japanese language ambassedor for a few years, and basically I teach basic manga drawing techniques and basic Japanese language in one workshop. The idea was to let children have an opportunity to touch other language through these cultural activities such as Chinese + Calligraphy, Spanish + framenco dancing, Greek + Greek cooking, and so on. Combining two different activities together was a challenge, but students seemed to be enjoying leaning Japanese through manga activity. It's great to know that especially aged between 10 - 18, numerous students are mad about manga and thinking of visiting Japan in the future.

- Is there anything you would you like to add and say?Quite often people associate manga with extreme violence and pornographic contents but please don't think they have just a shocking value for kids to satisfy their curiosity and aggressive selves! There are far more varieties of genre and imaginative, delicate crafts are there. Since graphic novels and comics attract mostly male fans, manga attracts both, so girls, don't be scared to take one, how about starting with "Honey & Clover" or "Natsume book of friends"?

Many thanks to Inko.
http://cargocollective.com/elenavitagliano

August 2011 Laydeez do Comics

2011-09-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Hello! I'm Sally Plowman,

I am a blogger heycoolcookie.blogspot.com and this Laydeez, I have been asked to be the blog-guest!

Okay, so after the introduction and question that everyone dreads (I quite like it, and as Nicola Streeten pointed out, people can be reminded of the otherwise forgotten names of the regulars) the first speaker
was Howard Hardiman who started off by telling us about his background- involving a few qualifications that somehow ended in him becoming a sign language interpreter. It came across that in the ten years he was doing this job, he was earning lots and lots of money, but didn't feel this was what he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing. Due to the inclination that he should go back to the creative spectrum, and the fact his arms were physically giving in, he started drawing little drawings on post-it notes, which ended up as a comic 'Badger'. After the surprising success of this, he realised he was in the deep end, and decided to do an MA in illustration at Camberwell, accompanied with the advice NOT TO PUBLISH ANYTHING until it was over! So he started thinking... which lead to the revelations of just what he had been up to when he was signing. This was a well paid job, with ridiculously long hours... and the money was 'going up my nose' as he said, every weekend was spent clubbing and he eventually got very into the gay scene. As he described himself as a 'nosy person', he found lots of interesting stories from drug dealers, escorts, porn stars... which seemed to develop in his head as little scenes. After these interviews with these people, his initial idea was to develop it into a play, although after some thought, he realised this would attract the wrong audience, who wouldn't understand what he was trying to say.

Howard Hardiman

When he found these scripts, whilst studying on his MA, he decided to turn them into comics... But because of the potentially damaging and very honest things these people had said... He decided to turn them into dogs!

Cover of The Lengths, issue 2

"You care more about a dog than you do a person"

So his plan became to finish the first issue of this comic for his MA project, and he would like to get some money at the end of it... so after asking around for publishers, a distributor told him to send it over when he had finished, and they would see what they could do. After expecting some advice, of course as soon as it had been received, the distributors announced they would take it!

This has become "The Lengths". Now with a schedule of a new issue every two months, he is being forced to draw every day, and his paranoia of not being able to draw has had to be pushed to the side as he realised that people really did like his work! It is also acting as an archive, with a recognisable difference in drawing skill between issues. Find out more here.

Next up was Jenny Linn-Cole, currently a volunteer at the Cartoon Museum and a regular Laydeez do Comics attendee. She started her talk by showing us an inventive animation of drawings of all the doctors, from Doctor Who, merging together. This was created in three days for a Doctor Who exhibit at the Cartoon Museum. After flicking through pictures of previous comics and drawings she'd done, including a small strip about her mother's cat, pencil sketches of the Laydeez (Sarah Lightman and Nicola Streeten), detective spoofs and fantasy scenes of pirate ships and old pubs, she moved onto a funny, real life story about a conversation she had with her son.

"Mum, I want to try dope..."

After this almost unbelievable converstion being read out, and all of us having a chuckle, she started talking about her latest drawings, about her father's stroke and her own experience of depression that followed. These had the extra charm of being hand painted, instead of being drawn in photoshop, which she normally uses. With rough sketches trying to describe what depression felt like, she showed us how she eventually came to the conclusion it was like she was a shadow of her former self, and she was losing definition. She then went on to show us the spread of 'her depression', which was a beautifully inked shadow of herself which she had collaged using photoshop, with drawings from stages throughout her life on the opposite page, including motorbikes which she did in university. She finished her talk by showing us the aftermath- an explosion of an attic which they had to sort through.... ughh nightmare!

Recent work by Jenny Linn-Cole

And now... Time for a slice (or two) of Sarah's cake, and a browse through the graphic novels and comics up for sale.

Francesca Mancuso, the next speaker, is an Italian Manga and cartoon enthusiast who draws little cartoons for fun. As she started talking, it was revealed that her love of Japanese illustration started off as a child, when Italian 80's TV was broadcasting a whole load of anime. In her teens, they started bringing out the Manga comics of TV shows of her childhood, which she began spending all her money on. She bought a book, by Manga artist, Suzue Miuchi, that was really influential for her, but when she tried to look for a an English fan site, she couldn't find one. This made her quite frustrated, inclining her to make her own website... http://www.dreamsaddict.com/garasunokamen/ because of this book, web design is now her occupation!

Her first creative love was oil colours, although she hasn't painted that many canvases as she doesn't have space for them all. The next thing she tried was acrylics- both on paper and canvas- which she found more difficult, but still enjoyed. The quickest and best way to add a splash of colour to her sketches right now, however, is watercolours.

She then went on to show us some of her own cartoons and cards for her friends and family and the next slide was slightly different... they were emotional paintings, with soft tones and smooth lines, which had apparently been criticised for lack of anatomical knowledge, but had seemed to get the most response from the audience and critics, and let her display her emotions and feelings more.
At the very end of her presentation, she showed some very skilful sketches, from real life, of people at a cartoon club/meet up.

Sketches by Francesca Mancuso

The final speaker was Mike Medaglia, who introduced himself as a “Taoist Artist”. Originally from Canada, he is presently based in London, working as a massage therapist as well as developing his drawing. He began by showing us a variety of his Taoist Mountainscapes, showing a variety of mark making. Alongside the influence of the Taoist way and concepts such as Yin and Yang, Mike’s influence within the world of comics was from the Manga work of Osamu Tezuka.

His first foray into comics was the production of “Wet Ashes” that he created with his partner, soon to be wife, Lisa Woynarski, who did the writing. They made a story about a group of characters and their lives and relationships with each other. Mike was on drawing and used a fairly crude drawing style. Some years on they have just produced the next in the “Wet Ashes” series, with a more sophisticated drawing style. A spread that was popular with the audience was one showing one of his character’s obsession with Bonsai trees. The drawing shows the influence of Chris Ware on Mike’s developing style.

Mike told us how he is keen to improve his drawing skills. He set himself the task of drawing a face a day for 333 days. Why that number? He has a thing about random numbers. He mentioned that on 11.11.11 he and Lisa will be getting married. Brilliant! So...back to Mike’s numbers… Once he decides on the number for a project he sticks to it. And with only a few days to go, Mike’s next task will be 333 faces in colour this time. He draws from photos and we were able to recognize some of his models.

Mike is a natural collaborator and experimenter. One new collaboration is “Dot Comics” with Elliot Baggott He showed us a page, which has been coloured by fellow comics artist, John Riordan. They hope to launch it at Thought Bubble Festival in November. Another collaborative project is with Mark Haylock. They are planning to start a monthly comic book club, maybe at the new Gosh, or maybe at ISW. The foundations are being laid and they hope to kick off in the autumn. Perhaps the most interesting collaboration was Mike’s work on abstract comics. He showed us a panelled page of marks. He told us how it started when he was playing around with his 8 year old nephew. The liberated way his nephew drew so freely and imaginatively, offering Mike commentaries on abstract marks, has inspired Mike to consider developing the idea further. Yes, please do! And so the end of another inspiring evening...sweet dreams...

Spread from Wet Ashes, by Mike Medaglia

Laydeez Do Comics June 20th Meeting

2011-06-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Mike Medaglia. I am a London based Cartoonist, originally from Canada. Check out some of my work at: http://www.facebook.com/taoistartist I have been going to Laydeez do Comics for a few months now, and this month I am honored to be blogging for it, which is daunting because this was a night to remember! I have never blogged before, so I am excited to make my first blog about this event!

At the start of each Laydeez Do Comics meet, everyone attending is asked to introduce themselves, and what they do, and then answer a question of Sarah or Nicola's choosing. Some people are fine with it and some people shy up but always there are many laughs to follow people’s answers and it gives the room a lighter more intimate feel. The question asked on the night of June 20 was,"What was something that frightened you this week?" The four speakers of the night answered thus:

Andrew Godfrey: “In ten minutes time I have to talk in front of you.”

Katie Green: “…The scariest thing is my mum and dad saying they want to come along and watch tonight…they’re not here.”

Charles Hatfield: “In flight turbulence.”

Joumana Medlej: “This presentation I’m giving.”

This was the start of what was a great evening for comics!

Andrew Godfrey

The first speaker to take the stage and impress us all was Andrew Godfrey. A Bristol based blogger and cartoonist who has focused a lot of his creativity on his work titled, The Clichéd Artist: Autobiographical Comics by Andrew Godfrey. The work deals quite openly with Andrew's own struggles with Cystic Fibrosis, which is a recessive genetic illness. Andrew referred to it as a “Sexy Disease” because of excess build up various fluids, Andrew's talk was sprinkled with his humor! Andrew's work deals with the various situations he has found himself in as a result of his degenerative illness. It shows the brutal physiotherapist he has dealt with over the years, which made him writhe in pain or the endless trouble that his digestive tract gives him as a result of C.F. It is very funny and very moving work.

As he talked about his struggles he was open, honest and confident which made the audience comfortable listening to his intimate experiences. He demanded no pity and has used his struggles to fuel his wonderful and expressive comics.

Andrew explained that a major inspiration for him was Bob Flanagan. He showed a clip from SICK: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, a 1997 documentary film directed by Kirby Dick about Bob Flanagan, a Los Angeles writer, poet, performance artist, comic and BDSM celebrity, who suffered from and later died of cystic fibrosis. He explained how he used his first piece of comic art, titled, The Selfish Gene, to explore C.F. with “no idealism about illness”. He also talked about his experiences on web forums where he found people were sometimes not very supportive and even competitive stating that they were “Sicker then you”. Andrew found this less then helpful, and mentioned that for him sitting around talking about his illness is not great, that he would rather just get on with his life. This is an idea that can be translated to anyone who dwells on the bad and misses the good in life.

Andrew also has a website called Graphic Engine where he blogs about comics mostly, but also film and various other things! Check it out there is some great stuff on there: http://itsallaboutthecomics.blogspot.com/

Another aspect of Andrew’s life is his work as a feminist, which he sometimes struggles to identify with. He joking has been called a “Self hating male.”

Andrew’s talk was funny and his work was inspiring. It made me happy to see someone who has taken the struggles that he has been handed and turned them into personal and engaging art! I hope Andrew keeps going and keeps providing the world with his sequential stories and informative blogs.

Katie Green

Katie was the second speaker of the night and had a few similarities to Mr. Godfrey, she is a cartoonist and blogger, also from Bristol. Her first graphic novel titled, Lighter Than My Shadow (set to be released in early 2013 by Jonathan Cape) deals with her own struggles with sickness. Yet, being a very personal presentation the differences were greater then the similarities.

Katie focused on three different areas in her talk. First she talked about her on going zine titled The Green Bean, which she sells on her own itsy shop, check it out here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/katiegreen The Green Bean feels like a visual diary, compiling sketches and blurbs from her daily life. Including reviews of books she’s read and wonderful recipes she has created herself!

Second, Katie talked about her degree piece, which was a very intricate map, hand drawn which told a story of its own. It was a lovely piece and she has been asked to design something similar for the cover of Solpistic 4: http://solipsisticpop.com/2011/06/08/solipsistic-pop-4/ A magazine that complies various UK based artists.

Lastly, Katie told us about he first graphic novel that she is currently working on. The book deals with Katie’s very personal struggles suffering from and overcoming anorexia. After struggling to identify the sickness in herself and getting to the point where the doctors told her that she would only have two weeks to live if she kept going as she was, it has now been 10 years since she started her recovery. A great feat that has now found her, over the past few years, in a good spot to put her stories together into a book that will certainly become a resource for other people fighting with this disease. She was very generous with experiences and when she shared them with us it felt like she was giving us a gift or sharing something sacred. The audience was captivated and with each story the tension in the room became more and more heightened as a result of us all feeling closer to Katie and her struggles. She did not appear vulnerable and had clearly over come her sickness and turned it into 'armour’, knowing that if she could amount to so much, then she must be strong. It was very moving!

Katie said that it was difficult for her and her partner to be rehashing all these trying times in her past, but on occasion she has someone tell her that her work has helped them in their struggles. After that she knows it has been and will be worth it.

Katie had the great luck of twice being part of a wonderful course on graphic novels as part of the Arvon Foundation: http://www.arvonfoundation.org/pc652.html She has been asked to speak at it this year, which is very exciting! Check it out; it definitely seems like a great resource for aspiring graphic novelists.

Thank you Katie for inspiring people to tell their own story, whatever that may be, and to be proud of what you have been through as it defines the person you become.

See all of Katie’s work here:

Charles Hatfield

The third speaker of the night was very intellectually stimulating, a true comics scholar. Charles Hatfield is a professor of English at California State University Northridge. Along with his English classes, he has started a number of courses focusing on the study of comics, some looking at the superhero in comics and others looking at newer aspects, such as the graphic novel.

A very humorous and sweet man, Charles said that being a professor of comics is like being part of a “perpetual, life long independent study.” Perhaps that is true, but it is people like Charles that will take comics into its next stage of existence, where it can be analyzed, categorized and through that evolve. Charles said that people struggle to develop the study of comics because of a lack of a formal degree, so that students will rehash old ideas as if new, simply because they are not aware of other discoveries in the field. There is already a strong intellectual conversation happening in comics but it needs to find its way formally into the ‘institution’.

On top of Charles wonderful work as a professor, he is also an author. He currently has one book published titled Alternative Comics, which explores the history of the world of independent, underground and alternative comics. Currently he is working on his second book looking at the fantastical art of Jack Kirby. These are two strands of his work on comics, and a third being comics in children’s culture, which is a natural progression for him since he also teaches children’s literature as an English professor.

Charles explained that as he works with literature, he loved having comics as part of his interdisciplinary practice. After a while he realized that he needed comics to be there for him, a feeling I can certainly relate too and I know a lot of other people who feel the same. Works of sequential art seem to enrapture the mind and the active reading of a comic demands the mind to experience art in a way no other art form can.

But is it an art form? The way that Charles stimulated the mind of the comic lovers in the crowd had us delving into such topics as whether comics can be art. I am sure the talk could have gone on all night and I hope that in the future there is a chance to delve further into the plentiful depths of Charles Hatfield’s mind!

Joumana Medlej

The final speaker of the night is a Lebanese comic artist, based in Beirut. Joumana Medlej is the creator of Malaak, Angel of Peace, who is the heroine of Lebanon’s first superhero comic. Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/malaakofpeace?ref=ts or here http://malaakonline.com/ or you can even download the very sleek IPad app, just search Malaak! Working extremely hard, Joumana writes and illustrates all the Malaak stories, which is quite an accomplishment since the artwork is very intricate and beautiful.

Joumana grew up in Beirut during the unfortunate civil wars that Lebanon has faced over the past decades. Joumana remembers the wars and the bombing that resulted and says that when there were bombs that meant no school and she would be stuck indoors. But at these times Joumana learned to draw to pass the time and ward off boredom and all these years later now uses her ability to create the stories of Malaak. Through this she is able to help build Lebanon’s comics culture and to give her country a symbolic angel, Malaak being the Arabic word for angel.

Malaak is a heroine that is referred to as a guardian by night. She helps protect the Lebanese people from rather fierce looking nonhuman adversaries. Joumana did not want to have her character fighting other humans; she did not want to show more terror and violence between people (something real life provides more then enough of). Malaak was born from the nut of a Cedar tree, the cedar tree being a very powerful symbol of Lebanon. The cedar has always been associated with Lebanon and Malaak was born long ago and is as old as her country. This means that she was born before all the politics of Lebanon and the countries surrounding it. Be sure to check out Malaak, Angel of Peace, you can read it online!

Thanks for this wonderful talk Joumana and for sharing your history and the history of your fantastic country with us. You can find some of Joumana’s other work here: https://www.facebook.com/joumanamedlej

That is my account of this very special night at Laydeez Do Comics. The nice thing about having two bloggers as speakers is that we get blogs recording their own accounts of the night. Check them out here: http://katiegreenbean.blogspot.com/2011/06/after-laydeez-1.html for Katie’s blog or check out what Andrew had to say here: http://itsallaboutthecomics.blogspot.com/2011/06/laydeez-do-comics-20th-june-with-katie.html

Well, that’s all, until we meet again,

Mike Medaglia

Laydeez Do Comics May Meeting

2011-05-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

So, it finally happened. I have been asked to be the Laydeez Do Comics Blogguest for the May event! A big honour, but also a big responsibility :)
Oh well, if I manage to survive the dreaded introduction + monthly question at the beginning of every Laydeez meetup, I can do everything :)

My name is Francesca Mancuso. I work as a web developer in London; I quite like it, but in my spare time I prefer more creative activities.

I've always loved drawing; I grew up watching every possible Japanese anime the TV was broadcasting (ie, loads) and reading all the manga I could read. Since I moved to London (from Italy) and met wonderful, talented artists/illustrators/writers, I've become more and more interested in graphic novels. The link to my website is http://www.dreamsaddict.com/illustrations

The first presentation was by Paula Knight
Paula has been a freelance illustrator for about 15 years. She has done a lot of children's illustrations, but recently she is getting into the idea of writing a graphic novel.

Initially she worked with torn paper collage and pencil crayon, but then she had to stop for a while because of a strain injury for tearing a lot of paper!
When she started working again, she began using acrylics.
She has an agent, who often complained that the eyes of her characters were too cartoony. I personally found that they were perfect, but I am a big fan of manga and cute cartoony characters :)

She also illustrated a lot of books for education, e.g. safety. We were shown some examples of these illustrations, which were done for publication both in the US and in the UK. So to make the drawings work for both audiences, the person driving the car was sitting in the middle of the car, neither on the left nor on the right!
Then came some samples of illustrations from an anthology of stories for girls (Chicken Licken, Wifred Wolfred), some Christmas card designs for John Lewis (digital work), and an illustrated Korean folk tale (Fat Fox and Fine Crane).
In recent years she has started writing her own stories. She has recently signed her first 2 contracts as an author for picture books (Bright Agency).
The last part of the talk was dedicated to a short story that Paula entered for the Cape Graphic Short Story competition a few years ago. The title is "How a baby is made - an autobiography of finding out". It was never meant to be a short story, more like a template for the graphic novel she is going to write. Still, it was surely a good thing for her to have a deadline to work to.

The story starts with Paula as a child, growing up and gradually discovering how a baby is made, which is quite entertaining. But it also includes the story of the 3 miscarriages she had, the last of which was quite painful.
I am personally looking forward to reading this graphic novel, I hope I won't have to wait too long! :)

Alex Fitch
Alex presents the UK only radio show about comics every Thursday at 5pm on 104.4FM. All the podcasts of his interviews can be found at http://www.alexfitch.com/.

He happened to work for the radio without having any training, starting many years ago working in a video shop in south London. He used to write reviews for the in-house magazine and for the covers of videos/DVDs. One day he tried to get himself fired by writing a terrible review for "A Shark's Tale"… The review started with: "This is borderline, sexist, homophobic and racist…"… And he got promoted!

At the same time he started putting a few reviews in the internet. Also his flatmate was doing a degree in music technology and he had some work training at Resonance FM, so he invited him to the programme he was producing.
The station was thinking of doing a film show every week and Alex was asked if he wanted to contribute to this show.
He ended up doing the 3rd episode that they broadcast and in a few weeks he was broadcasting every week on Resonance FM.
It didn't have to be just about film: every kind of narrative was fine, photography, history paintings, comics… Since Alex has always been a fan of comics, he started doing interviews with comic artists.
Paul Gravett was one of the first comics-related people he interviewed.

Soon Alex realised that the Films Show was becoming a Comics Show. He asked to change his show to a Comics Show and got permission. The new name was Panel Borders, mostly because all the other comic terms were taken by other people for websites and magazines!
The first big name he interviewed was Allan Moyle, and after that many doors were opened to him. Recently he has started grouping the shows around a single monthly theme.
Coming soon are medical comics, and next months' theme will be superhero comics.

Alex is also doing podcasts for other people, like Sci-fi London.
Most important, he does the podcasts for Laydeez Do Comics http://laydeezdopodcasts.wordpress.com :)

He also wrote a few comics, 3 in total, 2 of which were entered to the Observer Short Story Competition.
He commissions films reviews in comics format every month for a magazine call The Electric Sheep.

Jo Tyler
Jo worked for The BBC for 12-15 years, then launched a station called 6 Music in 2002. So her background was very much audio and music (originally a sound producer for the theatre), while in her spare time in London she was digging around comics shops, especially for independent comics.

She doesn't draw comics herself, even though she claims she is inspired by the fact that you don't need to draw beautifully to write a good story (same here Jo!).

She left her job because she wasn't allowed to do what she wanted to do, ie playing with sound. So, without regretting leaving her job, she went to Sundland University and studied for an MA in Radio Production and played around for a year, partly making radio drama, specifically adaptations of the comics she really loved.

After graduating, she did a phD about different radio and the use of sounds in different ways. She called her work (in progress) Pictures to Sound.

The examples we were shown/made listen to were the adaptations of 2 graphic novels.
1. Salmon Doubts by Adam Sacks
2. Lobo published by DC Comics
I enjoyed so much listening to these tracks. It's not something I can describe easily. I suggest that you listen to the podcast as soon as it is available!

Mary Talbot
Mary was welcomed with a big applause as soon as she was introduced :)

This is the first time she has given a presentation about her first graphic novel, written in collaboration with her husband Bryan Talbot who created the artwork. Wow, that's exciting!

As an academic she has been teaching and researching about feminist linguistic and gender studies. She has now retired from academia.

The graphic novel is a graphic memoir, a combination between personal history and biography of James Joyce's daughter, Lucia Joyce. It starts with her sitting on a train, reading a biography, falling asleep. The plot is a combination of coming-of-age stories, set in two different historical periods, both contrasted by social expectations and gender politics.

Why this connection between Mary and Lucia? Both the women's parents are called James and Nora. Also, Mary's father was a Joycean scholar.

Mary's childhood is set in the 50's, in Lancashire, in an Anglo catholic environment. She had four big brothers. She discovered gender only at school. At that time girls were segregated and secluded. Father was busy, always argumentative, talking a lot with quotation, Mary a little bratty teenager. The graphic novel explores the contrasting relationship between father and daughter.

I love the fact that Mary's boards are coloured in sepia, while the scenes from Lucia's life have a blue tint.

The story follows the fortunes of Joyce's family. For a while they lived in Trieste (I know this very well, Trieste is my home town!). James was working as an English tutor with methods, that were as unconventional as his personal life. They moved then to Paris, where James found a publisher (Sylvia Beach) and a patron. Lucia was an accomplished dancer. Mary was a dancer as well, even though apparently a much less accomplished one: she didn't last long, while Lucia did.

Lucia lived in a wonderful period, in the 20s, when she could be involved in a lot of experimental (modernist) dance, while her father was involved in experimental (modernist) writing. She didn't get support though from her father for her dancing career. Both her parents very discouraging. She was told to stop dancing because it was too hard for her, an obsession that had gone too far.
This had tragic consequences for her. She spent most of her life in mental institutions.

The book is called Dotter of her Father's Eyes, is scheduled for publication by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Dark Horse in the US in March 2012, even though it is already complete! Boo, I can't wait!

Laydeez do Comics April Meeting

2011-04-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

Edd Baldry by Lucy Bergonzi

I am Abi Higgs. I'm a massage therapist and studying counselling. My link to drawing is all quite new, I made a selection of mini one page comics in 2004/2005 about the Sun & Moon chatting in space and as of last year I started getting into it more and making comics that are usually autobiographical or in someway related to my own experiences.

There was a good turn out at tonight's event with a lot of hustle and bustle at the
beginning. The evening took off with the question, "Have you read anything
interesting recently?" This was a good question and
Carly Guest who I was sitting next to and I, kept writing down titles of books people mentioned.

Edd Baldry

Is a positive, smiley characther who's comic I actually swapped with (his The Death of a Salesman) at my very first LDC and which I have mentioned to people in conversation a few times. He does a number of things but he first started making zines before comics. He started with one him and his friends created when he was seventeen to which they gave the title Rancid Zine. They pulished 5000 copies of this zine and sold them all and so Rancid was born! This zine catered for the punk scene in the early part of the naughties. It changed its name from Rancid to Last Hours because they didn't want to be associated with the punk band Rancid. Last hours included cultural aspects of things as well as music.

Edd and his friend Natalie got involved with the network and community of zines and this led to the start of the London Zine Symposium. When Edd suggested to his friends the idea of the Zine Symposium it was laughed off, however they put one on anyway and it was a BIG success. Before the Zine Symposium there hadn't been an event where everyone could meet up and so the Symposium grew into an annual event and has just got bigger each year with different people attending and taking part in each event.

He mentioned how the zine world has changed in the last six years. The content isn't so much about the punk anarachy politics anymore but has broadened out into different areas. People are now expressing their thoughts, visions, creativity through the method of zines in a multitude of topics, I guess the same way music genre has expanded.

The big questions lies with "What is the future of the Zine Symposium?" since Edd plans to step aside. He wonders if it'll still carry on? He also wonders whether the Symposium should try and get funding or go back to being smaller with just punk zines?

Edd moved onto making comics which he started doing in 2007, beginning with one about cancer cells. He's really into french comics and so learnt french by doing so. In his comics he draws himself as a monkey, so works under the psyeudonym of Hey Monkey Riot. He started making diary comics as a strip where he noticed how much his drawing improved from the early part of the diary to later on.

When he went to the G20 protest in 2009 he was really close to the Ian Thomilson incident and made a comic of his experience, which was a vey thought provking piece. In Death of a Salesman it was the first time he had played around with metaphore. Edd didn't want to just publish his own comics, especially since the G20 is a generalised thing. He decided to publish an anthology against the police and had different people contributing to it from all around the world.

His current working project is based on the Wind In The Willows as an allegory for what's happening on the West Bank in Palestine. He showed us some snippets of the drawings from this project. In some of his work his drawings can be quite sinister with a dark edge and he gives across strong messages with refreshing ideas.

Carly Guest

A PHD student looking at Young Women's Feminist Stories. She started gaining interest in this area because of the different ways in which the history of feminist theory in activism has been related through various voices. She talked about how there is a lot

of research about young women's relationship to feminism and how their lives have been touched and influenced by it and feminist ideas. Also, in the last 10 years the internet has made people a lot more aware of different things that have been going on and Carly said she found it interesting how some of these activist groups, either online or off reference the feminist ideas of the 1970's.

She has two studies on the go...In the first one she is looking for female volunteers aged between 18 and 35 to take part in a study of young women's feminist identities. She wants to speak with women in this age bracket about how they developed a feminist conciousness; who influenced them and how they came to see

themselves as femnists - what being a femist means to them. She's interested in talking to them about personal photos and images that say something about their feminism and identity.

The second study she is working on is a memory group; a group of women who will be invited to write a collective memory. The idea behind this method is that you are thinking about how your personal memories are social memories. You write memories in response to trigger words and you look at them as a group. You look for similarities and differences, it's a way of looking at how your personal memories connect.

If you are interested in taking part in this study, or would like further information please contact Carly Email: feministstories@yahoo.co.uk

There was a break for tea, cake, alcohol and the like, with chats and new "Hellos" and the cake was wonderful again!

After the break was the London Print Studio Collective members talked about their works

John Phillips

is the director of the London Print Studio and told us all about the studio itself. The studio is a space used creativly with traditional and digital print facilities. John noticed the hardship of people coming out of university and how there were never any opportunites for jobs or development. He spoke with an intern who worked at a gallery who mentioned how hard it was and he said that he would commission her to research the idea of an internship scheme for London Print Studio.

They successfully raised some public funding to initiate the internship scheme at the London Print Studio, which they decided to give a comics focus. Then the talk was handed over to

Karrie Fransman
who was employed to manage the scheme. She spoke about the internship scheme, which is an opportunity to develop professional skills in the creative industry; run comic workshops for 16-20 year olds; receive mentoring from top professional comic creators and publishers in developing your own artistic projects and taking part in creating a graphic novel publication (the anthology). She talked about all the fantastic applications they recieved for the internship. The CV's often including both pictures and words. They selected five lucky people to participate in the six month scheme. They chose the current five because they were brilliant artists and storytellers and they were interested in educating and teaching. The scheme will run again and details will be announced shortly.

Next the interns spoke about their individual experience of the scheme.

Isabel Greenberg

graduated from illustration at Brighton. She said the best part of the internship was the workshops and the most rewarding part was working with the kids, that it was a super experience and she strongly recommends it.

Joe Kelly
said he likes reading comics and it was comics that made him start drawing. He wanted to tell stories as well and not just do single images. He found the internship really useful making him think about what he wants to do next. He wants to make his own graphic novel.

William Goldsmith

or Bill spoke next. He wanted to use the internship to try different things. He was writing a graphic novel before he started the internship, he mentioned that he likes the rhythms of words and sounds of things and how black text on white or white text on black can create a rhythm. He said that the internship has been the nicest thing and it had been cool seeing everyone's work and refreshing to talk to comics people.

Rachel Emily Taylor

is really interested in narrative art and storyteling. She does 3D film and illustrations, she likes storytelling through all sorts of methods and that's one of the reasons she wanted to do the internship, plus she's always been interested in comics. She chooses not to use speech bubbles in her work so instead had them very poetically written and emerging in her work. She said the internship has been really inspiring and she loved teaching the 16-20 year olds and seeing their talent grow.

Freya Harrison

was unable to come, so Karrie spoke in her absence. Freya has done a lot of freelance illustration. We saw a picture of her doing a mural. She's aware of text and image and her style is quite digital. She also shuffles her images around on photoshop and plays around with them.

The launch of the anthology will be available from the 9th June from London Print
Studio exhibition.

And so this brought the night to a close. One of the reasons I like going to LDC is meeting all and hearing all the inspiring people that also go along, whether they are there just to listen or to talk and how anyone can get involved. So, another good night of creative souls.

The illustrations included in this blog are a mixture of my own and Lucy Bergonzi's.

The ideas of March

2011-03-28T02:30:00.000-07:00

Another excellent evening at Laydeez do Comics. Anyway very exciting… two excellent speakers this week, Ros Archer, fine artist turned or turning comic creator and Woodrow Phoenix author of the groundbreaking Rumble Strip.

As usual we met in The Rag Factory off Brick Lane a lovely secret-ish venue – a lot warmer at this time of year, the first time for awhile the heaters haven't been blasting. We started off in the usual way – everyone introducing themselves and answering a question posed by Sarah or Nicola, this time we all grapple with 'What have you recyclced this week' A nice way to break the ice and get things going. Sarah completely excelled herself with not one, not two but three cakes. Chocolate, apple and carrot. Worth the trip alone.

Ros Archer not published, but I suspect soon will be, has been preparing work to apply for an MA. Ros is super enthusiastic and thoughtful and also very funny. She showed us very beautiful work, pencil, ink, charcoal, lithographs and sculpture. Exploring, narrative, ideas, dreams, memory layering of meaning, use of physical space. In other words lots of ideas and content which I can't really do justice to in words.

One particularly good example was her first story using a clockwise narrative. There was good debate about how unexpected layouts or paths can be communicated without having to have extra instructions for the reader and if that adds or subtracts from the experience…

The second story Ros showed us was a love triangle set in a circus between the Fire Eater, the Strong Man and the Bearded Lady. Some top advice from Ros at this stage: give your work to your friends as people respond to things in very different ways, some think things are funny, others don't see humour at all – everyone gets something different. There is no absolute right and wrong.

Ros brought out a very neat thing called a Flexigon. (check out www.flexagon.net there is a whole enormous world of flexigon people out there) It looks like a hexagonal folded piece of paper but then opens in all sorts directions revealing different facets. On this particular one there were comic pages which could be revealed in different ways – another inventive use by Ros of narrative, time and space. There was much hilarity as Corinne from Myraid Editions managed to dismember it almost immediately, thereby depriving everyone else of the pleasure of playing with it. But I won't mention that as it would be rude.

Ros say she loves David Mazzucchelli. City of Glass written by Paul Auster and more recently Asterios Polyp. If you haven't read Asterios Polyp, DO the drawings are beautiful and elegant, all in cyan and pink and the story is multi-layered and complex.

We then got a glimpse of an intriguing Paula Rego-esque (compliment) ballerina which is part of Ros's new work. Dealing with the idea of 7 characters/ archetypes, 7 plots and more…

Near the end of her talk Ros revealed that she has been accepted for and MA in Authorial Practice at University College Falmouth. What does Authorial Practice mean I hear you all ask? It means COMICS!!!!!!

Ros's interest in sculpture and comics leading on nicely to the notices:

N O T I C E S

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Paul Gravett says: The first ever symposium of Sculpture and Comic Art by The Henry Moore Foundation is coming up this year. See more at: www.henry-moore.org/hmi/research/calls-for-papers/sculpture-and-comic-art Call for Papers: Sculpture and Comic Art. Conference, Wednesday 16th November 2011

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Jimi Gherkin says: Still some table available for the International Alternative Press Festival 2011 27th May - 13th June 2011 A festival including comix, zines, printmaking, book arts, talks, workshops, exhibitions and performances featuring artists from the UK and Europe. There will also be a film made of the whole festival. www.alternativepress.org.uk/

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Jenny says: Are you feed up of drawing nude models? Then draw some clothed ones at The Art Breaks Meetup Group 'Drawing each others portraits' That was on Tuesday 22nd of March so you have missed it. Contact Mark 07939 346 930 to find out if there will be more.

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Other comic stuff going on:

Winshluss - Pinocchio 29th March 2011 9:30am - 9th April 2011 6pm Charing Cross Road www.foyles.co.uk/events-at-foyles An exhibition of original artwork from the French comic artist Winshulss's version of Pinocchio, reinvented for the modern age.

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Insider tip checkout Zoom Rockman very busy 9 year old comic creator Orbital Comics KALEIDOSCOPE: A NEW LOOK AT BRITISH COMICS 06.03.11 – 31.03.11 www.orbitalcomics.com/events/

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A quick break for more cake and a chat and then… Woodrow Phoenix creator of Rumble Strip.

A real break with tradition Woodrow doesn't have a Powerpoint presentation!!!!! He has pinned ACTUAL pen and ink drawings to the wall. Radical. This deceptively simple act sums up Woodrow's talk and work. A bit different, insightful, lateral and with real content and ideas. Also, Woodrow is a natty dresser.

Woodrow had lots and lots of interesting things to say. I have tried to report them in point form, some of them are pretty good aphorisms…

WP says he hasn't talked the much about this book since it was done a couple of years ago.

But UK comics are in a weird place at the moment, in that there aren't many educated practitioners in publishing. Editors and commissioners are not experienced in dealing with graphic novel/comics – they just don't have any knowledge about why things are the way they are.

WP started as a lettering artist, then started drawing other people's stuff, then mini comics, then his own stuff. (I guess that's the 10,000 hours taken care of).

Because comics are easy to read people think they are easy to make. It can years, and that's working everyday, drawing all the time.

In the 90s all of the publishers disappeared leaving a vacuum that has been replaced by the internet and has also laid the ground for lots of new creators… but the internet lacks a critical voice. You put your work up and get lots of "love it", "wow", "fantastic!" but anything else seems like sour grapes. It's something to work on.

This is a tricky one as it's all about respect and context, I would never just take work out to the park and ask passers by what they thought, but a group of people whose work and abilities… respect, that's different… this was discussed later on as a group.

Comics are about talking about what's inside you. The best work is going to be difficult to make meaningful and engaging…

When you are in your 20s and you go to art school it's a big shock to realise that you are NOT the best drawer in the class. Ha Ha I think most people thought this was pretty funny. And true.

Rumble Strip, it's not a book about cars it's a book about how society is structured. While working in LA WP was forced to have a car, as he soon came to realise that no car = no food. You just can't get ANYWHERE on foot. And only with a car does LA become understandable as a city. But as you have to be in the car most of the time on your own, it's isolating, lonely and weird. What happens when you drive a car? What happens to your brain? How is it different to when you walk around?

WP talked about how in all the drawing, the captions or speech blocks are all in the vanishing points, a deliberate device to make you read the text and be a purposeful irritant. They are used in a very obstrusive way, unlike many comics where the speech devices are unobtrusive. The captions take the place of the protagonist. It is annoying but it makes you think about why they are there and what they are trying to do.

Rumble Strip combines different points of view, case reports and a variety of different personal experiences.

I liked this social transport hierachy and it's definitely worthy of one of those pyramid charts:

Expensive/sports car = unlimited rights

Reasonably priced car = many rights

Motor bike = some rights

Cycle = no rights

Pedestrian = absolutely no rights

I would add in here Pedestrian with pushchair definately right at the bottom. Not only has it no rights but for some reason irritates all the other more important people.

You see it in how people defer to each other on the road. The guy in the expensive sports car has more rights, he knows it and you know it. But we all pay taxes, apparently, doesn't that make us all equal? And this isn't just in the UK, it's universal.

One of the things that I thought was really interesting was they way Woodrow said that we tend to think of comics as a genre (action, thriller, comedy) NOT a medium and that limits the kinds of things we do with them – in Japan you can even get comics that show you how to fill in your tax return.

There was some great discussion about hand drawing and pens and inks, limiting your tools, electric pencil sharpeners - different types of Indian Ink Sennelier a la Pergode being WP's choice (more expensive per litre than petrol – the irony!)

Although not autobiographical, WP does have first hand knowledge of friends and family who have been injured or killed in cars so in a sense Rumble Strip is a work of catharsis - but it is primarily a book of IDEAS. And sometimes complicated ideas are hard to sell…

All of this led onto general discussion about cover designs, plotting, traffic, shared traffic schemes and amazing film of Central London in the last century with many forms of transport all weaving in and out without any apparent street markings or organisation.

If you haven't read Rumble Strip head straight for the library or book shop off ramp, or should I say pedestrianised zone…

STOP

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Blogged by Marcia Mihotich, graphic designer and illustrator – this week's substitute or understudy blogger, the first designated blogger not appearing as planned.

Do you speak Comic?

2011-03-06T10:41:00.001-08:00

Karrie Fransman introduces the London Print Studio Comics Collective

Laydeez Do Comics. Could be described as the grape vine of the comics world, and you know, even the bean stalk as well! I'm very happy to have been invited this week by Nicola and Sarah to report on the latest goings on.

My name is Frankie Sinclair, I'm some sort of an artist, one who sees the world through cartoon eyes! Last year I focussed on starting up a group called the Cartoon Heart Club www.cartoonheart.com and www.meetup.com/cartoonhrt I've currently whooshed down a sort of rabbit hole of photography wonderland... When I come out again, I will no doubt run a few more cartoon related events. In the meantime, if anyone is running, or thinking of running a cartoon related event or project and you would like to invite people to attend or participate, feel free to contact me about posting it to or from, the Cartoon Heart Club (contact thru any of the websites).

Well, certainly things rarely do just happen overnight (on the beanstalk theme) but meeting people along the way and being open to talk and exchange can certainly bring golden opportunities and experiences. Something of a theme last Monday night was the comic artists' discovery and appreciation of the comic scene. Groups and networks like Laydeez have really touched the lives of some artists. The discovery of one group can connect an artist into a whole network, internationally and at home. Although as we discovered, language can sometimes be a problem...

It was a packed night at the regular Rag Factory venue There were four main presentations. Three comic artists described their work, recent and past:

Sean Azzopardi

Francesca Cassavetti

John Miers

plus the London Print Studio Comics Collective comic interns (phew long title) reported back from the Angoulême International Comics Festival.

Sean Azzopardi

As a somewhat angry young man, Sean loved to create mini comics naming and shaming the evil characters who plagued his working life as a concierge. Sean is (perhaps controversially) unapologetic about using people's real names in these minis which were later put together to form a book called the "Twelve Hour Shift".

There was also horror in the background in Necessary Monsters (created with Daniel Merlin Goodbrey), a genre based story with monsters and spies which was intended to be a commercial project. It started twice a week on the internet and was meant to bring them both fame and riches. It didn't, and Sean actually changed his mind about the direction he wanted to go.

Not as horrible as the dirty fact that Sean confessed to having thrown away three whole bags of his own sketchbooks in a big clear out before Christmas. Hope there aren't any Azzo fans out there now, or in the future who would kill to touch one page of such a sketch book. But hey, murder your darlings.

Having exorcised the demons, or at least 'poured all [his]... derision into it' Sean decided to bring some Ying to the Yang and worked on 'Ed' for five years. This he finished just before Christmas last year. He describes this as being a light romantic tale about a girlfriend, flatmate, sunshine, cats and flowers. Just right for Spring then.

Lately Sean has moved away from grey scale drawings and he's experimenting with cartoon water colours, getting tactile with the medium as a change from the intensive Photoshop square eyes experience. In other words (his) he's gone all 'touchy feely'.

Francesca Cassavetti

It should have been "The Most Natural Thing in the World" to be a mother, but it wasn't, so Francesca decided to draw about it. She longed to be a famous cartoonist, meanwhile there were nappies to change. Despite the obvious difficulties of creating and mothering at the same time, Francesca carried on cartooning for years and years with very little readership. She said,

"Some strips got into magazines, then the mags would fold and that would be it."

Her semi-autobigraphical work, drawn up in black and white lines just grew and grew organically. She showed it to the odd publisher, but they would say 'nice but we don't know what to do with it'. However, the value to her was immense as the comics acted as a sort of self-therapy when she felt trapped and frustrated with the whole kids and family situation.

Eventually, she met Gary Norfield who suggested DIY, publish your own, and that was the turning point. Whereas in book publishing, 'vanity' tends to be frowned upon, in the comics world it's defacto, and as everyone at Laydeez agreed, the way forward.

Francesca made mini comics and put them in Gosh. Paul Gravett invited her to do '24 hour comics' (a one day a year challenge to make a 24 page comic in 24 hours). "A fantastic exercise - you don't worry about what you're doing". Things started moving, she was connected! Comics conventions, the London Underground Comics stall at Camden market. She says it's all a bit like the punk rock scene: make your own records, control your own work, please yourself and not a target audience.

Which segues in nicely to a mention of a current project she is working on with her husband: an expose of his years as a punk rocker. He tells the story of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and she draws the pictures. But how much does she really want to know about those years (the years before they met even) and can their relationship take it? They seem to think so and they aim to create an 'accurate, unflinching, honest but not hurtful' story, with the consent and co-operation of his ex-girlfriend!

Also mentioned was B.A.S.T.A.R.D.S a striptacular antholgoy comic, turned around in one month, for the Angoulême festival. It stands for 'British artists standing tall and reaching distant shores'.

London Print Studio Comics Collective

They reported back from the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France for us, in comic form. Just to say, they are five artists working as comic interns at the London Print Studio. The project, set up by the director of of the London Print Studio, John Phillips is currently being led by Karrie Fransman.

Isabel Greenberg: wasn't allowed to take gouache on the plane to France!

Rachel Emily Taylor: loved the tents where all generations of people from Granny's to babes appreciated comics.

She is in love with Brecht Evens who painted her a comic.

William Goldsmith: used the opportunity to shamelessly network and got told off for not speaking French. Tant pis!

His Vignettes of Ystov has just been published by Random House

Joe Kelly attended as many talks as possible by as many artists as possible and created a fab tribute strip, perfectly in the style of his faves.

Freya Harrisson: visited the truly awesome comic museum, which is 5138 times better than the cartoon museum (in London) and where comic artists are treated as rock stars, and you can sit in comfy seats and read comics, and the fountains spew out lemonade!

John Miers
whose work I may find it difficult to blog about since it is highly informed and grapples with concepts.

John teaches full time, balancing his 'real' job with comics. But he finds that when time is more precious, he somehow gets more done. Like the others, he's also experienced something of a turning point since he plugged into the comics community last year.

John is interested in formal experimentation. He ponders on 'what is comics and how does it work?' and he attempts to convey these tricky questions and some answers in comics themselves.

At first his comic creations were slab characters. Simply a rock with a slit gouged out for a month. Then he added stereotypical features to differentiate the slabs. Before teaching, he worked in an office and he's very proud that he produced his 'Intellectual strip' entirely on company time using Microsoft Paint, in Word. It features crude humour and office alientation.

He imagined the Genesis of slabs, with the creation and eventual destruction of the world in 10 pages.

In another grapple with his subject, he created a pictographic comic with no words (well, no words as we know them). A circle man speaks with round language

and a rectangle man with squared language. Pictorially. They try to talk to each other about a plane and successfully communicate about a roundish, squarish plane.

Sometimes it seems only futility to ever try to represent anything. Especially if you're a street portrait painter in a comic strip by Miers. As your sitter's mood changes, so does your portrait and you end up with a cubist painting, incomprehensible to your customer.

Perhaps Miers most ambitious project to date has been his story of the tower of Babel, which explores language and how its used in comics. It was created using Illustrator docs drawn on top of with a wacom tablet and printed out on giant (in comics terms) sheets. The whole project impressed the International Comics Art Forum to such an extent that they asked him to present a 45 minute talk about the whole project.

I won't even begin to try and describe this work. But the 45 minute talk on CD and comic is available from John. Just to say that people communicate successfully because they use pictures. They conceive of a tower to reach up to heaven but God comes down and confounds their language so that they can't understand one another's speech anymore. They can't communicate sufficiently to finish the tower and their picture language starts to conflict in fascinating ways.

Finally, John wowed us with a comic featuring ninjas and a guy who wakes up only to discover that he is John Humphreys. I liked this one when the character has been knocked out, and strikes back by ninjing his opponent with a handy 'dazed' star from the circle around whizzing round his head.

Over and out Laydeez and Gentz!

24th January 2011

2011-01-28T01:13:00.000-08:00

I love to periodically descend from my bucolic hilltop abode in North Wales and haul my parochial butt down to attend Laydeez-do Comics. This month I was particularly honoured to be January's 'Blogess' and am thrilled to report on the talks of four interesting and esteemed speakers.

My name is Ian Williams, and I edit a website called GraphicMedicine which lists and reviews comics and graphic novels with medical narrative, themes or content. I also make comics, under the nom-de plume Thom Ferrier. Sorry to confuse you. Many thanks to Lucy Bergonzi for the supplementary pencil sketches

The meeting was very well attended, affording a modicum of bodily warmth to the white concrete art-space that is the Rag Factory. Our first speaker was a man who, for 20 years has contributed so much to the interface between comics and medicine: Ed Hillyer, a.k.a. Ilya. His talk at Laydeez, however, focused on a specific ongoing project based around a two hundred metre square uncompleted mural in Jakarta, Indonesia. Ilya was invited by the British Council to join local Indonesian cartoonists to recreate and continue the message of the mural, which was abandoned in 1975, a year after it was started, due to the dampness of the walls and to lack of funds. The room which contains the mural was closed for 35 years and largely forgotten, the original artist dying in the meantime. The project involved creating new characters from the scenes depicted, in preparation for a new media comic and a theatrical opening ceremony of the 'secret chamber'. The mural depicts a wedding feast, a government house rice feast, a crazy street carnival and a killing. The idea was to recreate the story for today's youth in a form that is accessible: a downloadable comics series of thirteen episodes and treasure hunt game for mobile phones. Indonesia is a cultural 'melting pot', a nation conceived of trading convenience, with a violent Dutch colonial past, racial tension and endemic malaria and the outwardly happy scene actually contains much violence and darkness on closer inspection.

The decoding of the story took the team 3 days. The artists, who came from diverse cultural backgrounds, collaborated in creating four modern equivalent characters to star in the comic series and work as host avatars for the opening ceremony and treasure hunt game. They worked on storyboards to create background narratives to expand the scenes depicted in the mural. The storyboards are due to be used by an animation company to make the actual series, although Ilya would prefer the artists themselves to be involved in the production. The opening ceremony will involve a magic torch experience, whereby the public will be able to point a torch at the walls and the missing pieces of the mural will be magically filled in.

The next speaker was Dr Julia Round of Bournemouth University, who, with Chris Murray of Dundee University, edits Studies in Comics from Intellect Journals. The associate editors are Dean Chan and M. Thomas Inge and many good people contribute to the editorial board, including Roger Sabin, Paul Gravett, Mel Gibson and Doug Noble. SIC is trying to distinguish itself among other recently launched journals by maintaining a strong theoretical focus whilst encouraging a truly interdisciplinary approach to this emergent academic field. The journal welcomes contributions from many diverse perspectives as well as creative work and will publish two editions per year, one being a themed issue. The recent edition- volume1 number2- had the theme of autobiography and contained, among many interesting articles, Sarah Lightman's interview with Gabrielle Bell, oh...and my review of Darryl Cunningham's Psychiatric Tales too!

Submissions are currently sought for the volume2 number2 which will come out in late 2011, articles of 4 to 8000 words, reviews and original comics of 1 to 5 pages. In its physical form, with its perfect bound, landscape format and matte laminate cover, I have to say that SIC is one of the most aesthetically appealing journals out there. Julia handed out some free copies of v1.2 as well as postcards which promoted a half-price personal print subscription of £16. The journal can also be viewed online for free.

Comics artist Corrine Pearlman, publisher and designer with Myriad editions and a designer for the Comic Company, began her talk with a summary of her life, as represented by two pie charts- one depicting 'reality' and one 'wishful thinking' as she would like her time to be ideally divided. Myriad are launching their First Graphic Novel Competition, with entry form and details are on Myriad's website. The deadline for the submission of 15 to 30 pages is 1/10/11, the prize being a contract with Myriad for publication of the work. The panel of judges include Ilya whose first prose novel, The Clay Dreaming, the story of an aboriginal cricket player who came to London in the 1860s has recently been published by Myriad.

Myriad originally published illustrated atlases and Corinne started working for them as an illustrator and designer. 5 years ago the manager, Candida, had the idea of doing an anthology called The Brighton Book- a combination of literature, poetry comics and photography. Woodrow Phoenix's entry The End Of The Line turned out to be one of the most popular items in the book. The publishers and readers were very taken with the combination of beautiful drawings and wonderful prose. The success of The End Of The Line led to Myriad asking Phoenix for an idea for a graphic novel, and Rumble Strip- a polemic about road deaths- was the result. The company has since published 5 graphic novels to date including Kate Evan's Funny Weather and The Food of Love which has been taken up by the national childbirth trust and has done well. The next book to be published by Myriad's will be Nicola Streeten's graphic novel Billy, Me and You- coming out later this year. Corrine was very taken by by the way that Nicola's story of the death of her child was cleverly 'protected' within her humorous family magazine Licorice to which she subscribed.

Corrine was originally published as a comics artist in 1976 while working for age concern. She produced a comic about old people called Cold Oldies, a story of elderly people dying of hypothermia. This was followed in the 1980s by a graphic guide to broadcasting 'Media and Power' which, due to its subject matter, became rapidly outdated, and subsequent work covering race hatred HIV/AIDS, Motherhood, and Religion. Her exquisitely drawn strip Playing the Jewish Card is now included in Sarah Lightman's exhibition Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women and her illustrations of Ottoline the Museum cat are now being used on souvenirs from the British Museum. Corrine also does porn! She showed us her naughty illustrations of Northanger Abbey for Susan Catherine's comic Classics Penetrated.

The Comics Company was formed to publish the anthology First Love in 1988, which contained a collection of strips on that subject. Corrine was kind enough to bring along lots of free copies of this book and distributed them free to the audience. The company has since produced many health education comics in conjunction with agencies such as the FPA and has about 500 leaflets in print. Ilya is one of the artists who has worked extensively on these projects.

Corrine co-organizes Cartoon County which has been meeting since 1992 in the Cricketers pub in Brighton. It organizes exhibitions and talks and produces monthly podcasts. Brighton is an excellent place for cartoonists- there are so many living there. The group meets on the last Monday of each month and anyone is welcome to attend. They are also always looking for guest speakers.

Corrine also contributed to the millennial edition of Girl Frenzy, published by Laydeez final speaker Erica Smith, who, equipped with a large pile of zines turned the Rag Factory settee to face the audience, thus providing an intimate conversational seating plan for her 'show and tell' talk. Beginning with Kill Your Pet Puppy, Erica showed us some of the zines from her marvellous collection, displaying examples of early colour photocopying and rainbow printing. Print processes, with their unique looks come and go, placing each production on a historical time line.

Having studied typography and graphic communication at Reading University, Erica's graphic design has always been informed by print production processes. Informed by similar sensibilities as the text-based Spare Rib and Shocking Pink, Girl Frenzy was born with an anarcho-feminist and anti-censorship agenda to fill a gap in zine production. Erica was was influenced by the art of the Hernandez brothers who favoured the portrayal of strong female characters rather than 'victims' and the zine production of Stuart Holm and Mark Pawson. The money that Erica should have been paying to the government as poll tax went into her Girl Frenzy bank account and went towards production cost. There is little money in zine culture and so contributions come from the heart. Her first issue came out around the time of the poll tax riots and contained an article by Trina Robbins about sex sexism in comics. The first three issues sold out very quickly and the title was names melody maker zine of the year for two years running. Issue 3 came out as riot grrrl bands caught the attention of the public and Erica's zine became linked to the movement. Putting a girl musician on the cover of a zine was also a very good way of increasing sales.

Production values improved for the perfect bound, laminated millennial edition and following this issue, Erica became slightly bored of publishing, stopped doing comics and moved towards spoken word events, where Girl Frenzy provided a platform for people who had never performed before. She did, however, produce a wonderful set of playing cards based on things she loves.

Some of the audience had attended specially to hear Erica talk about the six issues of 'Girl Frenzy' she has made over the years and the audience engaged in an enthusiastic discussion about the current state and future of zines, which seem to be making a resurgence, as people move away from electronic blogs to good old paper and ink. It was suggested by Alex Fitch that people are turning to the individualist approach in response to the ubiquity of slick blog templates. Darryl Cunningham suggested there was a healthy interdependency between blogs, zines and comics, each feeding the other media. Nicola felt that small press anthologies such as Whores Of Mensa may be the modern equivalent of zines like Girl Frenzy.

The meeting ran over and eventually wound up, with some of us going on to Brick Lane for further discussion and gossip over a late night biryani at Sarah and Nicola's favourite curry house, whose name I can never remember.

best wishes

Ian/Thom

Posy Simmonds MBE at Laydeez Do Comics' 13th December Meeting

2010-12-19T14:07:00.000-08:00

Posy Simmonds MBE by Ellen Lindner

Dateline 13.12.11...
A Report from Bloggess Ellen Lindner!

Posy Simmonds equals comics perfection. Even the Queen, who’s made her a MBE, has figured that out. And so I shouldn’t be surprised when, running a bit late, there is a FULL HOUSE at her Laydeez do Comics talk!

The whole London comics scene is here...a fitting tribute for a woman who’s spent her whole life telling stories that blend humour, poetry, and, occasionally, sudden death - all with a panache that would make Kirby, Eisner or Spiegelman weep.

Born at the close of World War II, Posy’s been a brilliant cartoonist almost from the beginning. Need proof? How about her early masterwork - Bullet Vengeance!!!! (exclamation marks mine.)

Note the prison bars in the final panel. CRIME NEVER PAYS.

As a young person Posy evaded gaol and instead chose to study at the Sorbonne. She returned home to a place at the Central School of Art and Design, where she mastered the typographer's craft.

Nicola and Sarah, the LDC organizers, have provided Posy with an overhead projector, and Posy starts to draw.

A short film by Tony Mines.

All the while, we’re hearing about her early newspaper days (including some talk of the fantastic Mrs. Weber’s Diary - grab a copy on Amazon Marketplace or Alibris), moving quickly on to her first graphic novel, Gemma Bovery.

Posy brings up a crucial difference between Posy’s heroine and Flaubert’s original. Those of faint constitutions (or those averse to spoilers) may want to avert their eyes...

Another topic I found mesmerising - Posy’s discussion of her reception in France. I’d always assumed it was 100% favourable - Tamara Drewe was nominated for the Prix d’Angouleme, and I’d seen a very cosy and amusing talk with Posy and Charles Berberian (author of Monsieur Jean, and a past president of the Angouleme festival) at the Institut Français.
But apparently the amount of TEXT in Posy's comics baffles her French readers.

As usual, Laydeez do Comics provides a good chance for all of us isolated comix types to enjoy each other’s slightly disquieting company. Full of enthusiasm for the comics genius we'd just witnessed, we set upon the refreshments (including homemade mince pies!)

The room was chockablock with both comix stalwarts...

...and people I’ve never seen before! The latter group fascinate me

disproportionately....they look so pure, and serious. BUT ARE THEY?!

After the break a boatload of visitors from abroad told us about their projects, and the comix scenes in their home countries...it’s more comix awesomeness than should be allowed. TOO AWESOME! These nice folks from the Finnish contingent were accompanied by comix professionals from the Netherlands and Morocco.

The topic of reading comics in another language came up, and I mentioned the work available on http://www.comixinflux.com , a Wikipedia (or should I say Wikileaks!) style site where multiple users can collaborate on the same translation. Publishers are starting to take notice: a translation I completed of Pauline Martin's La Meilleure du Monde was recently re-published on the site of Ego Comme X, her publisher. Whether you want to find a book to read (there are Amazon links throughout the site) or contribute a translation of your own, Comix Influx is a great resource - check it out!

Meeting over, we head out into the night, having to pass on the usual Indian meal in Brick Lane due to complete and utter fatigue (the downside of driving home from Somerset that morning). My head is full of future blog posts!

Thanks, Posy! And thank you, Laydeez do Comics.

Nicola and Sarah RULE!

November 2010 Meeting

2010-12-04T03:34:00.000-08:00

Drawing by Sarah Lightman

There was a tube strike in London and many of us who came from outside London had travelled through snow and horrible train delays. Unfortunately Josie O. who was planning to be our blogess got stuck in all this winter stuff, so I, Nicola Streeten am on words with Sarah Lightman on drawings….with further drawings contributed by Thom Ferrier…both of whom were at the back and were not the official sketchers for the evening. Otherwise, they say, they would have captured more than the bottoms. Jane Heinrichs also contributed a page from her sketchbook...drawn from the front of the crowd! Many thanks to all.

And what a delightful surprise it was to arrive at the Rag Factory to find it toasty in 'our' room. It’s a pleasure to meet there and watch it develop as a wonderful venue with each new renovation. With a full programme we got straight on with the opening question, “What’s your favourite thing about winter?”

Wil Morris, (Prize winner of the Northern Sequential Art Competition at Thought Bubble – congratulations Wil!) likes people’s ruddy cheeks, which sounds like an illustrator’s sort of response. Peter Stanbury likes the migrating geese through the dank, dark cloud and Jan Wheatley likes the excuse to dress her dog up in its winter coat!

We never know what order presentations should be in and Paul Gravett suggested alphabetical order….of course, how sensible…so...Our first presentation was from

Page from Jane Heinrich's sketchbook

LUCY BERGONZI

For 15 years Lucy has worked in community arts, facilitating other people's artwork and NOW she’s ready to do her OWN work. She loves doing portraits. Her work veers into humour, with a slight caricature feel to them. Recently she has been carrying her sketchbook with her to places like libraries which are good places to draw people.

She showed us some of those drawings. Drawings she did at the Cinema Museum in South London and some drawings done from TV, which include a lot of men in suits and ties. She has been to The International Comics Festival in Angouleme, France four times and, inspired by a meeting with Joe Sacco, she experimented with a Joe Sacco type style. Lucy has begun using photoshop for the colour aspect and has applied that to her drawings of interiors and exteriors as well as to her portraits.

Presently she is working with people with learning disabilities which is giving her time to work on her art and at the end of showing us her artwork she asked us the question, "Where next?”

There was a rich mixture of answers and advice. Ilya suggested looking at the work of Peter Arkle and a few people suggested advice for inspiration. She was also offered tips for getting commercial illustration work, which was perhaps what she was really meaning. Mock it up and send it out there was the general consensus, to art directors of editorial publications. Alex Fitch asked her to see him in the break to discuss a commission…there we are then! Then she slipped in another question…was anyone interested in setting up a group for drawing people in clothes? she’s had enough of naked…several of us called out The Cartoon Heart Club where Frankie Sinclair is running just that sort of group and more.

Next up...

HANNAH BERRY

Illustrator and author of Britten and Brulightly

She began her talk with the first comic she did as a little girl, which her mum had found in the loft. It was about Super Bird, who threw himself off a cliff…..and….flew away.

Then she showed us a pie chart she’s done to show her understanding of comics before she discovered Bande Dessinee. It showed a big bit for ‘comics for boys’ and a very small bit for ‘others’.

Hannah studied illustration at Brighton University and did comics which took a long time and had to be disguised because they weren’t keen on traditional forms of illustration there. For her final project they said she could do whatever she wanted…..

Next she showed us another pie chart showing us her time before her BA, when she studied at Basingstoke AKA ‘Amazingstoke’. This sounds like a formative time for Hannah. The chart shows a very small part ‘thinking about project’ and a very large part ‘drinking tea’ which she did with a friend. It was to add entertainment to the tea drinking sessions that she invented the now famous Stewart Brulightly to be accompanied by Fern Britten. It was these characters who continued to be drawn all through her illustration BA. When she came to the final ‘do what you want’ moment for her degree she concentrated on Brulightly. Hannah is not into crazy off the wall stuff but was trying to work out what kind of partner a teabag would have….Finally she realised the character was so broken that he would be fine talking to a teabag. She put together five pages and a synopsis of the story. Here were a few of her starting points: She likes stories with a twist at the end to change the entire outlook. She knew she didn’t want any obvious villains. She wanted a level of sophistication that recognises that even evil people probably feed their pet fish. Hannah also feels that many stories don’t accommodate the messiness of life, so she wanted to include a more random, labyrinth style story.

After she finished at Brighton, she sent the five drawn pages and the final script to Vertigo and Cape and Cape gave her a publishing deal. It then took her two and a half years to complete the book.

Hannah introduced some hidden details into the imagery, some of which she may return to in future Britten and Brulightly stories. For example, the picture frame on his desk with is turned down. There is also the appearance of the Black Swan. Hannah explained the ‘Black Swan Theory’. Before Australia was ‘discovered’ it was thought all swans were white. The finding of the black swan represents the unpredictable that challenges our understanding of everything. There are also a number of cameo appearances in the book including from her housemate and her brother.

She is hopeful that she will continue with the character Fern Britten, but he is not in the book she is presently working on….which continues to deal with her favourite themes of death and guilt and is more of a horror story…..due out in 2012….we can’t wait!!!

Then we took a break to include announcements...

Friday 10 Dec: December pop up show: Lisa Gornick Drawings

10 – 23 Dec.

Viewing times Friday 10 and Wed 15 Dec 6-9pm

or at other times by appointment. lisa@lisagornick.com or tel 07890039943

Workplace Cooperative 115

115 Bartholomew Road, Loncon NW5 2BJ

_____________________________________

Friday 10 Dec 6-8pm Preview: The Moment of Privacy has Passed: Sketchbooks by Contemporary Artists, Architects and Designers

The Usher Gallery, Lincoln

Exhbition continues until 6 March 2011
_____________________________________

COMICA FESTIVAL continues, look out for forthcoming events

_____________________________________

E vents and courses continue at THE LONDON PRINT STUDIO

_____________________________________

Drawing by Sarah Lightman

LISA GORNICK

was next….An actor, filmmaker and drawer.

The reality of the rejection letters inspired Lisa’s first drawings. She showed her drawings where she was a "bit pissed off with patriarchy and violence". She also likes drawing people drinking.

In her film work she uses drawing to find out about what the film will be about.

She showed us drawings from an idea for a film about lesbian porn she wanted to do, she wanted to make a graphic love story combining drawing and video in real time. It may be too complex and she may still make it.

The film she made called ‘Tick Tock Lullaby’ which was shown as part of Comica Festival and which you can get out from Lovefilm, was about the dilemma for a lesbian woman of whether to have a baby. It was after the making of this film that she began her film drawing blog. It was meant to be about drawing film. It does not include story boards, but story board ideas, so is not sequential art.

Lisa showed us drawings from some of the ideas she’s worked on. These included a film about people going through a mid-life crisis and to accompany a script she wrote called, ‘American Dad’ based on imagining being the daughter of Philip Roth. She showed us drawings for ‘Saturn Return’, which a load of us heard at first as ‘Satin Return’ and thought it was more erotic ideas….actually it refers to the depression which is supposed to kick in when you reach 28 years old....

Lisa showed us some drawings with little notes like ‘BCU’ Big Close Up and her Pina Bausch inspired dance film ideas. Jaques Tati is another inspiration. She includes her drawn fantasies about film life. She will look out of her window and see the depressing urban landscape of London and think, ‘NO! Russia 950s’. Although she doesn’t drink or smoke a lot (because it’s not good for you) she likes to draw tableaus of this life. Lisa's drawings will be exhibited from Friday 10 Dec see the details under our announcements bit above....try and get there if you can.

Paul Gravett. Photo by Nicola Streeten

PAUL GRAVETT

Is not a comics creator, but is everyone's favourite comics guru, so we were delighted to hear his story of an impressive contribution to the comics and graphic novel world in the form of Escape Magazine. This was a publication he created with Peter Stanbury. They began it in 1983 and it ran for 19 issues, begun with the intention of being bimonthly, it became quarterly and even thirdly.

Escape was born from the post punk, new wave era. Paul and Peter had fallen out of love with the superhero style comics and were keen to introduce something new to the UK comics world. Inspiration included i-D Magazine, RAW Magazine (an anthology edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly) and the French small zines. They wanted Escape to be a magazine that mixed the lesser known creators producing new and exciting works with the bigger names, a mix of UK and non UK creators. The first magazine was A4 landscape and Issue 1 included works by Serge Clerc who was illustrating for the NME and Biff. Issue 2 featured work by Glen Baxter and Raymond Briggs.

By Issue 6 they produced Escape in full colour and by Issue 7 Escape was an 80 page bumper special. In 1987 the magazine was revamped, to a cropped A4 portrait magazine format. From Issue 10 Titan Books (Now publishers of magazines such as Batman and The Simpsons) agreed to publish Escape.

At this point Paul and Peter were interested in other aspects of comics. They were promoting people such as Eddie Campbell. They were never interested in having Escape restricted for sale in the comics shops but wanted it to be available on the news stands. At this point Peter interjected to emphasise how important it was to understand the context of the time. They wanted to look outwards at all the things in culture and then look back in. This may now seem like the status quo, then it was unheard of.

Escape was anti fantasy comics. The aim was to move beyond the firm ghetto of the narrow comics audience. Themes were introduced to the magazine, such as HIV and Greed. However by Issue 19 the publishers were more interested in the Dark Knight than more open-minded publications and were focusing on books and the comic shop market.

Paul’s presentation was illustrated with some fantastic photos of himself, Peter and others taken in the 1980s. In 1981 they set up Fast Fiction a small press comic mart with a bimonthly gathering. They also ran Escape meetings in pubs which generated a number of collaborations between artists. There was an endless list of people working in the small press world who have gone on to become established names in the world of comics and graphic novels. (Not too many women, but the times were different as has been acknowledged.) These include: Ed Pinsent, Harley Richardson, Hunt Emerson, Dave McNamara, Peter Ketley, Myra Hancock, Miss March, Carol Swain, Glenn Dakins, John Bagnall, Woodrow Phoenix, Chris Reynolds, Steven Appleby.

And finally, we asked, what is their ambition now?

Possibly an anthology, a ‘Mook’, part book, part magazine, produced annually. Wow that would be great…do it soon!!

Our final guest had flown in from Australia….why of course especially!!

Drawing by Ian Williams (Thom Ferrier)

NEIL PHILLIPS
A psychiatrist who draws cartoons and runs a publishing company called Shrink-Rap Press. His presentation was entitled, Drawing Mental illness.

Neil talked about the enormous value of cartoons in medicine. He works in community mental health in New South Wales, Australia. He travels by light plane to some remote locations, for example, Lake Cargelligo. His work is with the mental health of Australian Aboriginal people.

Sixteen years ago he set up Shrink-Rap Press with a colleague for an OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) conference. Neil did the drawings for it and it is still the best seller of the books he has produced. The format is to include text because it can provide something useful. The drawings are used to illustrate every point. In 2000 his colleague stepped down from the publishing and Neil has continued.

Neil talked about his own background. He explained that psychiatry is a disease he inherited, that both his father and his brother are psychiatrists. In 1948 he and his family were living in accommodation in the mental hospital in Melbourne, where his father was working. He sees this as forming a big impression on him as he was living closely among people with mental health problems. This he feels is what gave him his drive. In Australia, as in the UK at that time, the mental hospitals were big business and things have changed a lot now.

Neil then went on to explain why line drawings and cartoons are fundamental to humans. He referred to the FUSIFORM GYRUS which is the part of the brain that recognises faces. It works on the basis of caricature and is the key to comprehending cartoons. It is a highly developed part of the brain in humans. Therefore, cartoons are hard wired into the brain. He showed an example of two potato shaped heads, not drawn as faces, but recognised as such because of the basic elements which the brain is able to translate.

The subjects covered in the Shrink-Rap Press books include, School Refusal; Attention Deficit Disorder; Mood Disorder and a Panic Book. The latest one is on Psychosis, which has been the most difficult. How do you draw psychosis without being offensive? He came up with a whirly Twirly symbol. Basically he said, the books are propoganda to do something. Because one thing that prevents any of the conditions covered worsening is to get treatment.

Drawing by Ian Williams (Thom Ferrier)

Our time ran out…..

We ran for buses and delayed trains and some went for a curry.

Thank you to everyone!

October's Meeting

2010-10-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

My name is Lucy Bergonzi and I have worked as a muralist, as a designer, in youth and community arts, and currently in social care. My first love is drawing, and I was delighted to be asked to be tonight’s blogger – after only discovering Laydeez Do Comics in September. The drawings here show the speakers – and listeners – and organisers – of tonight’s meeting. My website is www.lucybergonzi.co.uk

Tonight’s meeting was based loosely around themes of sex, sexuality and erotica.

Our first speaker was Michael O’Mahony, whose work could be said to belong to the tradition of Outsider Art, with one of his artistic influences the Outsider Artist Henry Darger. Michael is interested in themes of Freudian subconscious, and his work does seem to show elements of dreams and fantasy. Amongst his other themes are visions of a post-apocalyptic world in which he is the last man remaining; a travelogue in which Thelma and Louise are represented by Michael and his yellow duck; his Dad who is an influence and who appears as a motif in his work; and Dawn from Eastenders – though in a soap-based confusion Michael had thought perhaps she was from Neighbours.

Next was Melinda Gebbie, who with her husband Alan Moore has produced the graphic novel ‘Lost Girls’. Melinda describes the book as ‘a fairytale for adults about sexuality’, and in a nutshell, describes its vision as ‘make love not war’. It features three main strands about three main female characters: Alice (from Wonderland), Dorothy (from Oz), and Wendy (from Peter Pan) – and these characters are presented as sexual women. Artistically, she wanted each character to have her own atmosphere in the book, and for this Melinda chose a colour palette for each woman: she loves colour, and in her drawing style she was looking for a soft, Art-Nouveauish, ‘anti-ruler’ approach. The artwork pages were originated larger than the print pages, and she didn’t use models. In spite of taking three days per panel (after originally starting work on the book in 1989), she says she doesn’t regret a single minute. A discussion was prompted about the presentation of female characters in such a sexual way, and there was something of an ‘agreeing to differ’ over this point. For me I would love it if women could be more often presented in more active, effective, positive ways, and less constantly sexualised… but then maybe that’s just me, and I should write my own graphic novel. Someone suggested that for those who work in erotic art or literature, there is a juggle between wanting to turn people on, but also in protecting people’s rights and not veering into exploitation.

Suraya Sidhu Singh introduced her new(ish) magazine ‘Filament’, which is that unusual thing: an erotic magazine aimed at heterosexual women. www.filamentmagazine.com

Finally Sina Shamsavari (working as Sina Evil) showed his work along with some of his early influences – which were largely superheroes. He writes and draws autobiographical comics – focussing on sexuality and the experiences of a young gay man. He worked with Jon Macy and together they produced a poignant one-page story about a very personal and true experience in Sina’s life. He says it was invaluable to work with a writer as it gave more perspective on the events. His work has been featured in ‘The Book of Boy Trouble’ and in Richard Cowdry’s ‘The Comix Reader’ www.thecomixreader.com Sina used to keep sketchbook work and diaries: less so now as he says it’s so hard to find the time. However, having shown the room some samples of his work (linear reportage pen work, with dates and comments), the response was so overwhelmingly positive that I hope he goes back to it, and keeps doing it. Sina’s website is www.boycrazyboy.com

Listeners...

The Organisers...

TRINA ROBBINS September Special

2010-10-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

Trina Robbins

Photo: Woodrow Phoenix

21 September We had a special meeting to welcome TRINA ROBBINS, over on a flying visit from San Francisco, who came and gave us a wonderful presentation of women cartoonists throughout the ages, entitled: HERE ARE THE GREAT WOMEN COMIC ARTISTS, in which she introduced a whole slew of brilliant and talented women cartoonists from the early 20th century who are not included in histories and major exhibitions by men, and explained why.

Trina Robbins at the Rag Factory

Photo: Nicola Streeten

It was a rare opportunity to hear and meet this pre-eminent figure in contemporary American comic books, graphic novels and comics studies. She also talked about her early work as an artist, including her involvement in the first ever (in the universe) women comics book, It Ain't Me, Babe Comix. It was an added bonus to have Shelby Sampson come along, who was a fellow artist contributor on that project in San Francisco and who now sometimes lives in London.

Left to right: Nicola Streeten, Shelby Sampson, Trina Robbins and Sarah Lightman

Photo: Lisa Gornick

A lively discussion followed....accompanied...of course by Sarah's homemade cookies and a bit of beer.

Woodrow Phoenix (left) and Trina Robbins

Photo: Lisa Gornick

Charlie Bowden (left) and paul Gravett

Photo: Lisa Gornick

Thanks to Lisa Gornick and Woodrow Phoenix for the photos...

September's Meeting

2010-10-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

This month I’m the bloggess (blogguest)….I am Nicola Streeten, co founder of Laydeez with Sarah Lightman and I am still loving our meetings more and more each time. Sarah springs a question on us to introduce ourselves. Actually the questions are fairly harmless, like tonight’s, ‘What nice thing has happened to you this week OR what are you looking forward to?’ I took the opportunity to go public on my news that I have been signed up by Myriad Editions to publish my graphic novel, ‘Billy, Me & You’ due to come out in September 2011. Sarah Lightman’s nice thing is the final preparation for the opening of the exhibition Graphic Details, Confessional Comics by Jewish Women which she has curated with Michael Kaminer. It is on at The Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco. And for anyone who's there, there's a panel discussion and reception on 21 October…

.. Other answers included Isabel Greenberg’s delight at having neutered (castrated) her cat…Philippa Perry is off to a motorway service station to write her second graphic novel (I think it’s one in the Maldives or somewhere like that, although the one on the M1 is jolly good) What else, Bart Beady is an academic comics expert over from Calgary….

Cliodhna Lyons is looking forward to the film, 'The Secret of Kells' Coming out this week. She has been working on this for 14 months, though it’s taken ten years to make. She filled nearly a whole sketchbook of beautiful drawings tonight...have a look at her blog. Frankie Sinclair is setting up The Cartoon Heart Club That’s not comic HRT club.

Once we get started nearly everyone who comes to Laydeez do Comics draws throughout...

Our first presentation was from artist

STEVE WHITE

a regular attender of Laydeez and we like his projects. With a fairly recent MA from Camberwell in drawing, his new project he told us about was a new gallery space in Cromford Mill, near Matlock, Derbyshire www.cromfordcontemporary.co.uk He’s doing this with a sculptor friend and their opening launch is on Friday 29 October………so go along if you can….and get in touch with him with any future exhibition proposals or if you think your work fits his remit.

Next up, illustrator

PATRICE AGGS

She doesn’t like powerpoint or anything computerised in these situations because they 'NEVER WORK'…..that, I assured her, is because the techy assistants she has had have always been men. Women are SOOO much better at that sort of thing. Nevertheless it was wonderful to have her flourish her amazing works around the audience and let us all handle them. These included the most beautiful hand coloured etchings from her early work. An illustrator for thirty years, Patrice Aggs has worked on 60-70 children’s books of which she has only written and illustrated about five. Patrice has tried to sneak comics into her work over the years but the time hasn’t been right. Her feeling is that now is the most exciting time for comics in Britain for about forty years…I think she’s right. She WILL do her own comic one of these days, the trouble is, as soon as people ask her to work on a book the dollar signs click into her eyes and she can’t say no. It was great to see her son, John Aggs DFC along too, she’s certainly passed on her talent and has collaborated with him on projects.

Patrice Aggs showing her work to us all

We had an interval and Sarah’s cookies had those chocolate Minstrels in them. Mmmm they were very delicious, they always are.

We had some announcements of forthcoming events:

****Karrie Fransman has just started a programme for 16-25 year olds to participate in workshops as part of her new job at London Print Studio.

currently looking for five enthusiastic 21-25 year olds from a variety of backgrounds who are interesting in a career in comics, arts education, publishing or illustration. They will have the chance to:

-Develop professional skills in the creative industry

-Run comic workshops for 16-25 year olds.

-Receive mentoring from top professional comic creators and publishers.

-Develop their own artistic projects with supervision from mentors.

-Take part in creating a graphic novel publication.

The details and application form are online at:

http://www.londonprintstudio.org.uk/F13-intern.html

The deadline for applying is Monday 1st November.

****Wednesday 6 October: Deadline for The Graphic Short Story Competition

****9 and 10 October: 24 hour comics day: www.24hourcomics.com

****5 November Comica Festival kicks off with a FREE Comic Symposium at Birkbeck College, London

****7 November: Comiket event at The Royal National Hotel

****18 November: Leeds Thought Bubble (There will be a Laydeez do comics there on the Sunday)

including Women in Comics II, a one day conference.

****21-18 December: London Print Studio: That’s Novel

Next up...comics artist and co-editor of comics anthology, 'Whores of Mensa'

ELLEN LINDNER

Ellen is from Long Island and fortunately had a picture to show us where that is. She grew up reading comics and got into the New York comics scene during her time at university. When she moved to London she gravitated towards the small press scene and presently has a studio at 'The Fleece Station'

She told us about some of the illustration projects she has worked on. For example she illustrated 'Little Rock Nine', a book about historical tragedies and disasters and recently she did the illustration for Bold Creative Agency for a graphic novel based on interviews with HIV infected women.

Ellen is evangelical about comics as indicated by the way she talked about Whores of Mensa of which she is co-editor. I don’t think everyone could do what she does. The book she recommended for this meeting was Moma, which she holds up, I think, as a model for Whores of Mensa.

The cover of Issue 5 of Whores of Mensa

Whores of Mensa is a comics anthology, which started in 2004 and Issue five is literally just out a week ago. The founding editor was Sasha Marchou who started it along with Jeremy Dennis and Lucy Sweet. Ellen wrote them a fan letter and here she is one of the team.

Whores of Mensa is not porn. It is funny, sexy and literary. The covers are always a composite of contributors’ work and there is a theme for each issue. Anthologies are important because they build community. For a comic artist to have work included in an anthology, it is a chance to have their work circulated without the expense and labour involved in doing it solo.

Then Ellen offered us an insight into the hard work involved in the creation and editing of Whores of Mensa. The print run is 300 and Issue five is 52 pages and has been the most ambitious, with fourteen artists contributing, all with a shared love of comics. The spirit with which an anthology evolves must be right. People are being generous with their time and contribution, but at the same time, the publication has to be pulled together and no one cares quite as much as the editing team.

The process takes approx nine months and begins with inviting artists whose work they like (and not getting hung up over any rejections.) The theme for Issue five is parties and for the launch they held a wonderful party. The contributors drew themselves at a party for the front cover. They sell them via etsy.com and we highly recommend you snap one up right away…

We were just about to wrap up and go for a curry when our final presenter arrived...

Charlie Bowden from Pickled Ink Illustration Agency

arrived. She’d come straight from the airport to tell us about the new fantastic illustration award on offer from the new London illustration agency Pickled Ink, which she set up with two business partners in February this year. It is eligible to illustration students in their final year of their degree or within twelve months of graduating. The prize is £1000 and representation at Pickled Ink…..to find out more visit the website…

August's Brighton bloggers

2010-08-27T02:49:00.000-07:00

I’m Jenny Linn- Cole and have been coming to LdC since February. And what a joy it is too. Nice format (see previous blogs) mad venue that is a little obscure to find but not really for me being an ex dispatch rider, Interesting and delicious bikkies from Sarah.

I really would like to collaborate with someone on a graphic novel or similar and my work can be found at:

jennylinncole.myartsonline.com

Brighton Blogs…..

….seemed to be the theme for the Laydeez this month….

Well- we had two laydeez and one gent from Brighton and

…we had two gentz and one laydee with work derived from diaries.

First up was Kate Genevieve presenting a wonderous event in Brighton that involves projecting film/animation onto buildings.

Last year’s theme was future. This year’s is dream experimentation. And there is a call out for submissions for film/ animation and comics ideas.

As she spoke I started to think of ideas to submit myself….Got to involve Brighton, dreams and a tentacle!...

www.bangdreammachine.wordpress.com/

Apparently Kate worked as an animator. She taught herself 3DSMax in the comfort of her own home and survived. Me, I fried my brain learning XSI (another 3D animation program). So she has my respect as these programs are really complex.

Next up was James Nash who kept a daily diary for the last 6 years. This stemmed from Uni (in Brighton) to assuage the heaviness of the course that he was on and to reclaim a sense of his own style and abilities. Some of it he described as ‘mad old crap’ & ‘bits of depression’

He used it to contend with his father’s depression and found the whole process quite therapeutic. He started publishing as a blog. Initially people didn’t get it but gradually he started getting appreciative comments as they could identify with it. This included posts from people posted in Afghanistan.

This has generated work for him including a childrens project in Solihul.

You can find his work at: jamesnashlovesyou.com

Our final Brighton connection is another Brighton graduate: Isabel Greenburg

In her first year a project was set to fill a page a day in a sketch book. She continued this idea on as a diary and published it on line though I’m not sure that that included her ‘winter of discontent’- where she got depressed. The diary continues – at present in a most curious concertina sketch book.

Aside from this she presented her P.T Barnum project- just check out her website.

Finally our final bloggist Darryl Cunningham

Darryl has worked for years in mental health as an unqualified carer. Eventually he decided to get qualified but it all went pear shaped. He couldn’t cope and had to quit just over half way through. This led to depression and work complications. But through out this he kept a diary. Darryl had produced some small press publications before and started a blog. His work experiences started to come into his blog. This caught the eye of Kenny Penman who runs Blank Slate publishing who approached Darryl to produce Psychiatric Tales. And now Bloomsbury are seeking foreign publishing rights. Maybe Darryl can leave his underpaid carer’s job soon.

Darryl has no connection with Brighton. He lives in Yorkshire and hasn’t lived anywhere south of Watford Gap I gather.

June's Zine evening

2010-07-05T04:41:00.000-07:00

Hello, I'm Roz Streeten and I’ve been invited as guest blogger for the June session of Laydeez do Comics. We met this month to show, listen, discuss and enjoy work which was linked by the theme of zines. Even though I’m not a zine producer I am a designer and a self publisher of a small idea which I’d needed to get off my chest (in that zine kind of way) through print, about 5 years ago. It grew and turned into a business and we now print lots of books all based on this same initial idea. Please visit Rosie Flo if you’d like to know more.

I’ve been coming to these Laydeez do Comics evenings quite a lot recently. Once you’ve struggled to remember what you’ve done recently and then gone public with it at the introductions stage (this month: something interesting you have recently searched for in Google) they have a great atmosphere and everyone feels free to chat to anyone. And every month they feel different from the previous month.

First off was artist Rachael House. Bright pink hair and an MA student currently at Camberwell, she produced a zine in the 90s called Red Hanky Panky. At this event she concentrated on showing her current work based on organizing events which bring people together in a public space. Her interest lies in exploring what you are permitted to do in these public spaces. Rachael’s approach is through less traditional routes such as picnics for dogs in fancy dress on Blackpool sea front. Preferring the homemade approach to the outfits, Rachael sees dogs as a perfect conduit to encourage peoples’ fancy dress making creativity and sense of community and fun. We saw a photographic record of some of these days where dogs (and of course their owners) were dressed up in bizarre outfits. Dog face painting (of dog faces on humans) and iced dog biscuits (designs of dogs for humans to eat), dog themed bunting and cardboard dog sculptures all contributed to the eccentric atmosphere.

Another event was a Peckham Peacocks Mobility Scooter Club convention. Mobility scooter users customised their own scooters and dressed up in mod gear. Dogs (again) in parkers, with hand sewn mod iconography embroidered into them also showed up to the event and en masse the scooter users looked like an unusual force to be reckoned with. Regular wheelchair users also spontaneously included themselves in the movement of the day. There is an existing mobility scooter user club in Kent called the Red Wheelers who do some great formation display and you can see them here on youtube. The appreciation lies in having people meet other people that they didn’t know anything about and celebrating this with hand crafted skills, to decorate the day.

Gareth Brookes and Jimi Gherkin were next on and they talked about the Alternative Press
Alternative Press is a “group of artists, comix creators, writers and poets dedicated to encouraging creativity through self-publishing”. They formed in early 2009 and have organised events, published an 80 page book showcasing some of the work going on in the world of self publishing, and continue to produce a radio show, the ‘Alternative Press Hour’ on London’s Community Arts station, Resonance 104.4 fm

They work hard to promote the movement of zines which they believe need to reach a wider audience. They talked enthusiastically about the Alternative Press festival 2009 which was five days long, and they showed some film footage of silhouetted hands and pens spontaneously drawing on paper on a light box. They most definitely believe there is a resurgence of zines as a reaction to screen based media dominating the recent lives of creative individuals. They are keen to encourage people to express themselves through that old fashioned print medium and for like-minded people to come along in person to the Alternative Press festival planned for March 2011.

Third on was Katie Allen, editor of Fat Quarter magazine.

During Katie’s English degree she was introduced to one of the meanings of feminism by witnessing her male house mates’ behaviour. They spoke horribly about women in general and repeatedly left their computer screens covered with porn. Whilst at Brighton on a Journalism course she set up a zine called New Blood but was sent a lot of filth so she stopped it.

Katie reached the conclusion that women’s magazines, which are supposedly for women, don’t appear to like women very much and that they dedicate many of their pages to encouraging women to change themselves, either through starvation diets or carving themselves up via surgery (or usually paying men to do it).

Katie felt driven to produce Fat Quarter, the first issue was printed in February 2010. She noticed a bit of trouble with the inclusion of the word “feminist” in describing it. Katie was surprised to discover that Fat Quarter was refused acceptance into a website community which she thinks was due to the use of this now problematic word and how it is understood (or misunderstood) by young(ish) people today. There was some good discussion around this. Perhaps we need a new PC word to describe it, but which still means the same thing.

Katie works at the Bookseller by day but by night is busy expressing and commissioning others to express themselves via Fat Quarter where women are content with being women and just want to get on with other stuff.

The last to present were Teal Triggs and Roger Sabin. Not zine producers themselves but extremely clever on the subject and were able to beautifully put into a context some of the ideas that had come up so far during the evening.

Teal gave the presentation and Roger chipped in now and then. Teal is a graphic design historian, critic and educator and a fanzine collector. She points out that zines are not a new idea but is incredibly supportive of those producing them and fascinated to see their next step in history. One of her interests is in how the visual language of zines changes over time but even though they have moved from photocopy to dtp and more recently to the e-zine in reproduction terms, she is clear that the same kind of content is still there.

She gave two definitions of a zine

“A special form of communication”
Frederick Wertham 1973 and

“...little publications filled with rantings of high weirdness and exploding with chaotic design”
Stephen Duncombe 1997

As you move through history she pointed out that there are thousands of zines about everything. Significant ones she showed us covers of were Crawdaddy! which is regarded as the US pioneer of rock journalism and was the training ground for many rock writers; Sniffin’ Glue, the first and most famous punk UK fanzine by Mark Perry; Beer Frame: the journal of Inconspicuous Consumption by Paul Lukus in the late 80s; and Riot Grrrl, a feminist punk movement of the early 90s to name a few.

Some of these zines were the launch pad of many a writing career for the initiators and it is argued that zines have a voice that the mainstream magazines don’t or can’t have. Roger Sabin felt we shouldn’t romanticize about them too much remembering that there have always been plenty of commercial magazines which also do the job intended perfectly well.

Teal’s interest lies in less about what they look like and more about why people are producing these zines. On the whole people have something they want/need to say and each visual language just emerges out of this content.

Teal Triggs has a book coming out next year called Fanzines. I expect it will be excellent for all those interested, going by that talk.

It was a great evening and still light and warm when we came out into Brick Lane. Thank you for giving such good presentations.