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!
So first up is Axel Pressbutton. He was created by 'Curt Vile' (Alan Moore) and 'Pedro Henry' (Steve Moore) and made his first appearance in 1979 in the music magazine Dark Star. In 1982 he graced the cover (with his assassin partner Mysta Mystralis) of the first issue of my favourite British comic - Warrior. When Warrior folded, his adventures continued in a series of US comics from Eclipse. Why doesn't he like apples? He was a florist until his body was eaten away by a carnivorous fungus, leaving him with a pathological hatred of all vegetation!
Each day I will be choosing a character from those suggested by the members of the Garen's A-Z of comic strip characters Facebook group - if you want to suggest any, please feel free to join in. If no characters are suggested on a certain day, then I'll have a free choice.
Special thanks to Paul Harrison-Davies, Davey Candlish, Patrick Brown and Kelvin Green for suggesting Axel.
Last Thursday (3 July) Philip Pullman met with the Chief Executive of the Publishers Association, Simon Juden, (and others) to discuss the subject, and a couple of days later those of us who have signed the No to Age Banding petition received his report of that meeting. All I can say is I feel pretty glad we've got Philip Pullman as a spoke-person! Here are a couple of extracts from his report:
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"Simon Juden opened by acknowledging in guarded and cautious terms that the presentation of this matter from their side had perhaps not been ideal, but that he and the publishers were very anxious to stress that their intention had never been to impose age-guidance (that is the term they prefer to use) on authors without full consultation, and that he thought it would be a good idea to take some of the emotion out of the discussion and simply deal with the facts.
I replied that I'd rather call it passion, and that I'd rather it stayed in, thank you very much, because the sheer volume and intensity of the anger caused by the proposal was entirely part of what we wanted to express. I went on to ask various questions about the research..." |
... and...
| "The central issue became this: we wanted them to agree that no book should be age-banded without the author's consent. They refused to agree to this, but offered 'full consultation' instead. We pointed out that every author in the world knows what 'consultation' means: it means the publishers saying 'This is the cover of your new book' and our saying 'Well it's horrible' and their replying 'Well, tough.' 'Full' consultation, I suppose, would mean that plus lunch." |
The reasons against age banding are so logical and strong that I won't bother trying to represent them here - there are others that are far more eloquent on the subject than I could be (go and read Philip Pullman in The Guardian and Anthony Horowitz in The Bookseller). Last week J. K. Rowling added her support and signed the petition that is fast approaching 3,000 signatories.
© Studios Hergé
I've done pretty well out of it myself - I was born with a rare congenital condition that saw me have eleven major surgeries by the time I was six years old, is something I live with every day, and requires annual check-ups for the rest of my life. If it wasn't for the care I received as a child under the NHS I almost certainly wouldn't have lived this long - and maybe not even out of childhood. The NHS isn't perfect by any means, but I do believe in it, and am enormously grateful for the system we have in this country - especially when compared to alternatives like in the US.
With all that in mind, go and watch Michael Moore's excellent film, Sicko - very much worth seeing (even if the UK, France and Cuba are depicted through a rose-tinted lens, the generalisations are true).
My mum (1941-1995) as a student nurse c.1961.
My great auntie Edith married Edwin's nephew, Duncan. Edith was an artist herself, attending the Royal College of Art in the 1920s, a financial stretch for her parents which necessitated her brother (my grandfather) having to abandon his dreams of becoming a chemist to join his father in the coal pits. Instead, he ran away from home and joined the army, eventually becoming a Major, and resulting in my mum seeing her school days in places such as Tripoli, Libya and Egypt. Artists, eh!?
Sword of Truth actually started life as a script in about 1994 as a story called Stage Fight about two Edwardian actors who try their luck with a young girl new to the cast. Some of the ideas from that abandoned strip did transfer over to Rainbow Orchid. The vampish actress - called Evelyn Saxon in the original - became the model for Evelyn Crow, and the young girl remained as Lily, though originally she was Lily Lovell.
A silly one-page strip I did, Weapons of Mass Destruction that appeared in KissKiss BangBang 2, appeared on the Factor Fiction site yesterday.
It's a superb first issue and reviews are appearing already - John Freeman at Down the Tubes, Lew Stringer at Blimey! It's Another Blog About Comics and Kenny Penman at Forbidden Planet start things off. Edited to add: Here's a review by Paul Gravett.
Yesterday I spent three hours at the dentist - but I wasn't the only one having fun... Sarah McIntyre and the Etherington brothers were up at the DFC office in Oxford being filmed for Channel 5 news. Sarah has a short report and some photographs giving a rare glimpse into DFC central.
Later today (about 5pm GMT) Resonance FM will be broadcasting their interviews from the DFC launch party, including Philip Pullman, Jim Medway and Patrice Aggs (podcast now available: part one, part two).
At the Bristol Comics Show earlier this month, there were several comments about getting hold of back issues of The DFC - I'm informed there will indeed be a back issue system in place, so there's no need to worry if you're a later subscriber to the comic.
Steve Holland at the excellent Bear Alley blog gives The DFC a mention (though my strip, Charlie Jefferson and the Tomb of Nazaleod, will not actually be appearing in the first issue as is mentioned).
Publishers Weekly has some coverage of the launch event, but also hints at unconfirmed reports of an outlet for the comic through Amazon (thanks to Linda).
And remember, it's not too late to subscribe, and you can even join the Facebook group for that DFC social networking experience.
A long piece on The DFC from The Birmingham Mail written by Paul H. Birch.
The Guardian website on Philip Pullman and John Aggs' strip, John Blake, including a PDF preview of the first instalment.
Nikki Gamble interviews David Fickling about The DFC at Write Away. (Also check out the interview with fellow DFC contributor Sarah McIntyre.)
If you still haven't subscribed, go and grab it while the 25% offer is still going!
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