This blog began in 1997 as a single news page called Nucelus. In 2005, during a long wait to move into a new house, I decided to learn some php and MySQL and write my own blogging system, which became inkyBlog and which now powers this, my own Webbledegook blog.
Thank you to my brother, Murray Ewing, for help with some of the more challenging aspects!
And here is a marvellous and slightly confused review of volume one, complete with suggested ending. Thanks Class 7B!
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There's no doubt it is one of the best British comics blogs, with no particular bias or prejudice against any kind of comic while exuding an upbeat view of the industry and its creators. And despite being the tool of a retail and mail order shop, you'd hardly know it, as it's not continually (or ever, really) pushing its merchandise or hurling screaming animated advertisements at you while you're trying to read (and it so easily could). It's all about the content, and the content consists of quality writing on a diverse range of subjects, genres and media.
On a personal note, FPI have been very supportive of The Rainbow Orchid and, in fact, if you look at the blog's contributors, I'm privileged with generosity from all. Joe Gordon, captain of the ship, has regularly featured RO news and tidbits; Richard Bruton positively reviewed volume one; Matthew Badham conducted something of a 'master' interview, while Pádraig Ó Méalóid did a spot-on book-focussed interview; and Wim Lockefeer made my day with the following comment on his own blog, The Ephemerist:
"As a Belgian, and therefore assuming that I have anything to say in things ligne claire (which I don't), I think this is one of the best comics to step in Tintin's footsteps, along with Dirk Stallaert's Nino and Peter Van Dongen's Rampokan..."
I've been waiting for ages to quote that somewhere! One contributor who we don't see so often (hopefully it's the success of Blank Slate Books that has kept him away), but whose rare posts are always insightful, is Kenny Penman, and I'll leave you with the Forbidden Planet International advert he commissioned from me in 2007 (click it to see a larger version).
You can see the FPI birthday post here. Thanks for all the great reading, Joe and team. Here's to the next five...
I also wanted to remind you that Dave Shelton's Good Dog, Bad Dog is out next week from David Fickling Books. It's the first of three DFC Library books to be released, with more to follow later in the year. You can even buy it through my shop if you want, and you can read a preview here.
And finally, a little mention of a superb comic I just read, A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. It's an autobiographical tale that focuses on the author's journey from manga fan to manga professional, coming of age in the 1950s golden era of Japanese comics. It's one of those books where I just had to keep reading 'one more chapter' - and ended up reading several late into the night. Highly recommended, especially if you make comics or love manga.
I closed comments here in early 2007, so it's been a while since I looked at the code I wrote. I think I've got it all working though. Please feel free to give it a try (just click on the little speech bubble below). If you're reading this on one of the syndicates (eg. Livejournal, Facebook, Google Reader etc.), then click here to visit the real home of webbledegook!
Now I'm working on volume three, which is all new work at last! Volume one was completed (sans colouring) by 2004, and all but the last 14 pages of volume two were done by the end of 2007. Volume three will see print in early 2011. Here's a little taster of some of the stuff from volume two...
First the really good things. Comic creator Kate Brown has been awarded the graphic novel grant from the Arts Foundation Fellowship. This is the first time graphic novels have been included by the Fellowship (the other arts this year being cinematography, puppetry, textile art and jewellery design) and Kate is a very deserving recipient. Anyone opening up the first issue of The DFC would have seen her stunning work on Spider Moon and would have immediately understood why this new weekly comic was going to be so different and wonderful. If you missed it, her strip is being collected by David Fickling Books and will be available in April.
The second great thing is the impending publication by Blank Slate Books of Darryl Cunningham's Psychiatric Tales, compounded by the marvellous fact that Bloomsbury will be publishing it in the States. As I was reading parts of this book on Darryl's blog I remember thinking 'crikey, this could do really well', and I think it's going to. I've always thought that about Darryl's work - ever since reading his Uncle Bob adventures in Alchemist, and especially when reading his more recent Super Sam tales on the Forbidden Planet blog - I loved that so much that I sent it to Ben and David at The DFC and said they should be publishing him.
Both these stories are excellent news for British comics, and I'm really pleased to see two such talented writing-drawing comic creators get wider exposure for their work.
The bad part of this post is the news that legendary French comic creator Jacques Martin died in Switzwerland yesterday (21 January). He wasn't very widely known in the UK, (as far as I'm aware, only two of his Alix books were translated into English in the early seventies) but was a titan of Franco-Belgian comics, having worked as an assistant to Hergé and then going on to have his own work published in Tintin Magazine. While Alix was his biggest success, I was more drawn to the Lefranc books, though my lack of any recognisable French meant I had to make do with a very rudimentary comprehension of the stories - though that was good enough for me as the best I could get. I don't know if any of Martin's works are within the sights of Cinebook, but it would be wonderful if a wider acceptance of bande dessinée beyond Tintin and Asterix opened the door to that opportunity.
There's other comic interest in the issue with an article on the work of Fred Holmes, and there's some lovely art on show in an article on Pearson's Magazine.
While I'm here, a quick plug for three other good things you should check out... Jason Cobley has a brand new Keiko Panda story that he's previewing on his blog, with super art from super Mitz. And Sarah McIntyre and Gary Northfield are doing a sheep swap with their chucklesome woolly counterparts, Vern and Derek. You can see the results at either of their blogs - Sarah's or Derek's (who knew Derek had a blog!?). And lastly, Paul H. Birch has been running his Carter's Column strip over at the Birmingham Mail's Speech Balloons blog. I inked four of the strips in the early/mid 1990s which are now playing, pencilled by the most excellent Gary Crutchley. All worth reading!
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