Here at this panel at the MCM Comic Con 2019 it’s hard to tell whether the crowd are primarily aspiring creators here for advice or fans of and here for the panellists. Serious aspirants are likely to have built a portfolio of repeated advice – will this panel deliver more of the same or are there any hidden nuggets to be unearthed?

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Either way, this panel is about breaking into comics in different eras so for the comic fans generally it’s going to be as much an insight into different eras and creators as the advice fest some will be here for.

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It’s Saturday afternoon at the MCM Comic Con in the Representation in Fantasy panel. Zen Cho (author of the Sorcerer Royal books) is moderating and she’s with Tasha Suri (the Books of Ambha) and RJ Barker (The Wounded Kingdom). Representation is of course very much the subject of the moment yet, as they tell us, both Zen and Tasha have been on double digits of panels on the topic.

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11.30 on Day 3 of the London Book Fair 2017 and we’re at the Rebels and Empires: The Future of British Comics panel. I arrive as host Bleeding Cool’s Richard Johnston notes that in the panelists left to right we have a “history of British comics right here”.

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Perhaps it’s no surprise that the Cross Media Theatre is so packed – this is only one of two panels ton comics / graphic novels this year. But SelfMadeHero MD Emma Hayley, writer David Hine, Nibbies Bookseller of the Year nominee Gosh!’s Steve Walsh, and host Panel Borders broadcaster Alex Fitch recline rather more comfortably and are ready to go.

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Having missed it in previous years we just had to get along to this years CECAF, the Crouch End Cartoon Art Festival, even if – as was the case – it was one of our classically late arrivals. CECAF, created by Sean Azzopardi, features as part of the Crouch End Festival though is very much it’s own thing and, as we discovered, really is a great mix of creators indie and mainer-stream, all sharing a real love of the scene and medium.

If you weren’t aware of it, couldn’t make, or were just even later than us (!) here’s a look at the books and folk at CECAF 2016 with Web and Twitter details: explore, discover, follow and enjoy!

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We were lucky enough to catch 2000 AD creator Pat Mills for a coffee at the London Book Fair and got to chat about so much great stuff we had to split it into three articles! If you want the first it’s here and you can click through to part 2 here. Otherwise read onwards on what we chatted on Slaine, Celtic consciousness and myth, and comics and Scotland!

THE FALL AND THE RISE OF 2000 AD

There’s nothing particularly controversial in suggesting 2000 AD went through a problem patch in the 90’s but I mention here only because of something particular Pat says of what went wrong. “It lost a new generation of kids. It became too cool. It’s a reminder that your boss should be a 12-13 year old kid”. Read the rest of this entry »

We were lucky enough to catch 2000 AD creator Pat Mills for a coffee at the London Book Fair and got to chat about so much great stuff we had to split it into three articles! If you want the first it’s here… Otherwise read onwards on what we chatted on Slaine, Celtic consciousness and myth, and comics and Scotland!

SLAINE!

We’d just been chatting on ethical concerns and subversive writing. With no diversion from this we move on to what is undoubtedly my favourite of Pat’s comics and characters: Slaine. Read the rest of this entry »

	When I spotted 2000 AD creator Pat Mills was visiting the London Book Fair for a panel I dropped him a line to see if he fancied a coffee beforehand. As happened he did so we met up at the decidedly pink London Book and Film Week area and, happily, we were still going after an hour and a half.
	Well the imminent Graphic Galaxy panel [article imminent] which we were both attending as panellist and audience brought things to a close but not before I’d scrawled enough notes for a worthy if overlong article – so I figured I’d cut it into three.
	Here’s the first…

ON REQUIEM, PRINT AND DIGITAL, AND ANTI-SNOBBERY…

Pat’s been scripting two of his classic strips and characters for 2000 AD – the ABC Warriors and Slaine – the latest of which have just seen, and now are seeing, print within those pages. But what else is he working on? The answer is Requiem: Vampire Knight which he’s created with Olivier Ledroit on art duties who Pat commends as one of the top French artists of today.

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Jonathan Oliver was brought into Rebellion to help found the Abaddon Book imprint and also work on 2000 AD’s range of graphic novels. When Rebellion purchased Solaris from BL Publishing he became Editor-in-Chief of both, running them with editors David Moore and Jenni Hill (now of Orbit Books). Jonathan and David, along with Rob Power (Marketing / PR) were good enough to spare some time for a coffee at the London Book Fair so I could dig a little more into what they’re about and what’s in the pipeline…

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	I’d spotted The Robot in the Garden in the Bookseller previews and made sure to include in our February Book Recommends. When I caught on Twitter that its author Deborah Install was attending the London Book Fair today I dropped her a line to see if she had time for a coffee and chat and we arranged to meet.
	It turns out we’re both sitting in the London Book & Screen  Week area – just different one’s. Usefully they’re opposite across from one another on the National Hall Gallery so a wave from one of the pod chairs to the especially pink area where I’m sat and we’re good to go.

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Inclusiveness and representation is very much on the radar of the comic industry right now, yet this panel is not simply the next discussion of this topic as relates to women. Rather it’s been convened in response to ‘the Angouleme controversy’. We’re helpful primed on entrance to the LBF by the Bookseller Daily, which includes Tom Tivnan’s interview with Emma Hayley – MD of Self Made hero – who is chairing the panel.

‘A case study in how to balls up a book festival,’ says Tom of January’s Angouleme International Comics Festival (not the LBF!) It’s a perfectly apt description. Of 30 comic creators on the longlist for Angouleme’s Grand Prix lifetime achievement award not one was a woman. A boycott was roundly called for and supported: Male creators withdrew and it was hardly an appealing prospect for the hurriedly added women creators. Nor would it have helped that the festival director’s response was “There are not many women in the history of comics”(!)

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So Emma chairs the panel which is made up of Myriad Editions MD Corinne Pearlman, Mediatoon International Rights Director Sophie Castille, freelance author Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveller’s Wife), and comics creator Hannah Berry (Britten & Brülightly, Adamtine, Livestock). Read the rest of this entry »

In the interests of openness I should probably note that this is more of ‘An absence of Coffee with’ Anne Perry: it being the afternoon of the third day of the London Books Fair we’re both already highly caffeinated and we decide to coast on what we’ve already imbibed rather than risk any top-ups. Apologies if anyone feels cheated by this (or that that’s cheating) 😉

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Anyway the London Book Fair is a lot of different things to a lot of different editors. For some it’s selling international rights and translations of their titles. Anne Perry is no less busy, though she’s more on the other side and on the lookout for acquisitions; but for her the LBF offers a rare opportunity to connect with colleagues from across the Atlantic. It makes all the difference being able to connect face-to-face with those people you know more by e-mail in this or any other industry, so I’m grateful she has a bit of time to talk. Read the rest of this entry »

Seeing that Leah Moore was at 2015’s LBF I was hoping she might have time for a coffee after the Comics Go Digital panel. Fortunately she did; less fortunately those outrageous slings and arrows one faces when launching a website can set things back and, with the great stuff we talked about, this was one casual interview I wanted to give proper time to. Besides which what we talked then is no less relevant now, so we’re pleased now, belatedly, finally, to present A Coffee with Leah Moore.

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After the Miracleman panel at LSCC I manage to catch Mr John McCrea at a comparatively free moment.

I’ve been aware of John’s work from early collaborations with top writer Garth Ennis on, for example, Troubled Souls. Their partnership continued over the years with Hitman, The Boys, and Dicks, though DC have just recently re-released their run on The Demon. His latest endeavour is MYTHIC with writer Phil Hester from Image Comics and, quite aside from the fact that mythic fantasy in the present day is very much my bag, it’s brilliant to hear a bit more from ‘behind the scenes’.

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	I first met Neil at last years London Book Fair, and was treated to an insight into the rather unique comic enterprise of TPub. It was no surprise to find they were exhibiting at LSCC 2016 and I’d arranged to pop by and learn more firsthand of where they were since then.
	I manage to catch Neil in a lull. TPub have sold a whole bunch of Twisted Dark and – when more potential customers come near – it’s easy to see why. On the one hand there’s a small photo display of TPub fans you may have heard of. Who? Well a certain Samuel L Jackson if you’ve heard of him? A Mr Frank Miller? Simon Pegg anyone?

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	Until the panel I’d just attended, of which Karrie Fransman was part, I was rather unaware of her broader work beyond her first and second graphic novels. What had intrigued me most, which I’d heard about in a meeting with one of her editors at Jonathan Cape, was her work for the Red Cross which, I later discovered, won Broken Frontier’s Best One-Shot 2014 award.
	Karrie was good enough to agree to a post-panel coffee and interview and, amongst many other things, this was something I was particularly keen to hear about and the first subject we talked about.

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