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!
Evelyn and Irinia
My inspiration mainly came from Louise Brooks - with a bit of Theda Bara thrown in for good measure - though I wanted it a little longer than Brooks' rather innocent bob, something Mr. Spielberg has also opted for, giving Evelyn and Irinia their twin look.
Louise and Theda
The interest comes via my wife's family history as her great-great uncle was John McIlwaine who played half-back for Portsmouth in the 1929 final against Bolton Wanderers. The Times said of Portsmouth "they have in the Scotsman, John McIlwaine, a real leader..." and he was singled out several times in the match report including, at the end, "all that remained of interest was one last despairing long shot by McIlwaine that certainly tested Pym's capabilities as a goalkeeper fairly completely...", by which you can probably tell that Portsmouth lost, 2-0 to Bolton, who were, after all, the favourites of the day.
Happily, the 2008 final yielded better results - 1-0 to Portsmouth, though there wasn't much in it really, and Cardiff had equal opportunity to take the game as their own. It was certainly nice to see a final that featured none of the usual big teams, and less of the diving antics and histrionics, I thought.
The first part of my day was for lunch at The Abingdon, just off Kensington High Street, to meet, for the first time, the team that will be helping me to make The Rainbow Orchid as good a book as possible before it gets released onto the nation's book shelves (next year). As well as my agent, Oli, and Tim from Egmont, who I have now met a few times, this consisted of Sharika (editor), Faye (designer), and Linda (marketing). I'm very pleased to say I got excellent vibes all round and can't wait to start working with them on my book.
I now had about three hours to fill before the big event of the evening, The DFC launch party, and decided to go to the British Museum and see what they had on the Indus Valley civilisation. While I did manage to spend a couple of hours in London's greatest treasure trove of fascinating artefacts, I didn't find anything from the Indus - the Asia room was full of Buddhas of every shape and size, from the fat and laughing to the emaciated and grim - still an absorbing display. I also enjoyed the small Japanese room with its amazing scrolls and a more contemporary exhibition off to the side. Of course it was the Egyptians that attracted the crowds, but that's not really surprising... the age and quality on show is awe inspiring. Less so were the large numbers of people who seemed to be racing through every room and only 'seeing' the exhibits through the lens of their camera, and not reading a single placard. For me, basking in the presence of something that was hand-crafted by our predecessors about 3,000 years ago is a far more gratifying experience. Pictures you can see in any old book.
After a quick look in at Gosh Comics, I had a rather poor cup of tea and a terrible excuse for a pastry in the drizzle in Russell Square and then made my way to the South Bank to meet up with Anjali (a good friend and my first agent when she was at A. P. Watt) and Paul H. Birch, a comics pal I have known for... (counts on fingers)... twenty years, when he was a contributor to Cosmorama, the comics anthology magazine I edited in the late 1980s. Together, and meeting up with Oli en route, we made our way to the British Film Institute café and the excitement of the DFC party!
The first sight to greet me was a small bubble of domestic serenity - comic artist Neill Cameron, with his wife (and author) Diane, feeding their very small and lovely baby. Turning the corner I was confronted with a quite different scene, and it hit me with some force... about 400 people (apparently) crammed into the BFI café, and they were all here for a comic! This was comics goodness turned up to 'slightly scary'. The first event of the evening, after being checked in, and unplanned I think, was a waitress dropping an entire tray of full wine glasses onto the floor in front of us, each one smashing into a thousand tiny pieces. Being an optimist, I'm the kind of person who likes to see this as a good omen.
Soon it was into the throng, and seeing another long-time comics pal, Jason Cobley, I decided to gently poke him in the ribs by way of greeting. While this is actually quite useful for getting people's attention in a room of hundreds, I wouldn't advise it generally for professional networking purposes, but I know Jason can take it - he wrote small press comics for 25-odd years. Thankfully opportunities are now opening up for people as talented as Jason, and he can be found authoring several Classical Comics, as well as Frontier for the DFC, with artist Andrew Wildman.
Indeed, this was kind of the theme of the little speech given by Nick Abadzis. Comics artists who have had very little option in recent years (many years, in fact) but to apply our talents to editorial, business and commercial illustration, when all we've really wanted to do was tell stories in comics, but with only rare opportunities to do so. But now these opportunities are increasing, and one of the most exciting, and encompassing a huge variety of British comics talent, is The DFC - to see its debut on May 30th (subscribe now, folks).
As an example of this diversity, Ben Sharpe (DFC editor) introduced me to one of the new generation of talented comic artists, Zak Simmonds-Hurn (with his girlfriend, Nikki Dyson, also an artist), who will be contributing his wonderful classic Disney-inspired art style to future editions of the comic - I can't wait to see them.
The main speech of the evening was by David Fickling himself, whose enthusiasm for the project and everyone involved washed over the room, and I think we all took a little of that 'fire' home with us. After a few words from Philip Pullman we moved outside to watch as a hundred or so DFC balloons were released up into the sky over the Thames, a handful of these with little cards attached, rewarding the lucky recipient with a free subscription to the comic (unfortunately, all the cards seemed to have become somewhat entangled, and they went off in a clump, creating a big subscription jackpot for someone somewhere!)
It was wonderful to meet Paul Gravett again who asked about Rainbow Orchid and told me about his next couple of books... leather nuns or lesbians will feature in the title of one of them! And he'd come over with Sarah McIntyre, an internet friend and now a real one too. I can't say how much I love Sarah's work without babbling, but her star is rising pretty rapidly and there's a whole lot to look forward to, not the least of which is Vern and Lettuce - another DFC launch strip.
I won't go into a long list of all the people I chatted to in the evening (I know, I already have), nor of those I frustratingly meant to catch up with, and missed. But I will say I at last managed to introduce myself to David Baillie, right at the end of the evening (just after I'd met Rian Hughes, and embarrassed myself by stupidly saying "the Rian Hughes?", so surprised was I at this unexpected and slightly star-struck encounter, rapidly followed by meeting Nick Abadzis, if that wasn't enough). David seems convinced that I awarded him third prize in a comic art competition about 6 years ago at a London library, an event I have no recollection of at all, which is rather worrying. I'm sure it wasn't me! David was with Mark Stafford, who was, well, a little the worse for wear shall we say. As I walked back along the South Bank with Sarah and her friends, I tried to keep an eye on him as he, intending to accompany our group to the pub, slowly veered off on a leftward trajectory, and then inexplicably disappeared. I hope he turns up safe and sound!
I didn't go on to the pub with Sarah, Rian and co... leaving them at Embankment and getting back to Victoria with perfect timing for my train home, and the end of my big day out.
It's a very very nice tome, in the 'coffee-table book' style: hardback, chunky, slick. The range of art on show is quite stunning and I feel quite humbled to be included among them. Congratulations to Dez on getting an excellent and worthwhile project together.
If you're interested in purchasing a copy, you can click here, or the picture below. You can see a couple of other mentions on the Forbidden Planet blog and on Bear Alley.
Part one dealt with Hergé and the development of his style - fascinating stuff - but it's part two that provides rare information for English-language readers on the development of that style and the artists that continued to fly the banner for what became an important and enriching force in comics, especially within Franco-Belgian bande dessinée.
I've since come across these articles a couple more times - Paul used them as the basis for a talk on Tintin he gave at the Greenwich Maritime Museum in 2004, and now he's generously put them online for everyone to read. You can see part one here and part two here. Make yourself a cup of tea and go and read them!
When I was selling The Rainbow Orchid at comic festivals, I of course got many comments about the obvious Tintin influence - but these were all from British readers. The handful of European comic readers that I spoke to (French and German mostly) didn't actually mention Tintin at all, and seemed to be more accepting of my story on its own merits, due to the fact, I'm sure, that mainland Europe has a strong tradition of that school of comic art.
Yves Chaland's Freddy Lombard in 'The Elephant Graveyard' (1982)
While I'm perfectly happy with the Tintin comparisons (in fact I love 'em... Hergé is a major influence), I do light up when someone looks at my work and mentions Chaland, or Floch, or Jacobs, or even (once or twice) Tardi. If manga was not so ubiquitous, and Astroboy was its prime example in the UK, as Tintin currently is for the ligne claire, then any artist working in the manga style today would be compared to Tezuka, I've no doubt. Things may be changing a little for the Franco-Belgian tradition - Cinebook were at the Bristol Expo this weekend and Oliver is having a huge success with his newly translated albums - he's got a terrific selection and I'm a regular customer.
For some related posts on this subject you can read my manga and style piece and on a more personal level, my entry on two long-time favourite books.
Paris is by Andi Watson and Simon Gane. It's a neat little story set in 1950s Paris, and is sumptuously brought to life by Simon Gane who's artwork I have liked for a long time. I don't know if it echoes French New Wave cinema, or if, as that is my only experience of the specific time and place (eg. 'À Bout de Souffle', 'Vivre sa Vie'), I impress that experience onto the book myself. The 'opening credits' are indeed reminiscent of a film's opening scenes. I do know that the setting is very evocative, and the feeling of Paris, the city, drifts off the pages into your mind's eye. I really enjoyed it.
I have been following Lewis Trondheim's 'Petits Riens' for a while, and struggled (badly) through the French language - chuckling at the visual jokes (eg. the light sabre) and completely missing his effective yet simple narration and dialogue. So I'm delighted NBM have made a book out of them in English under the title Little Nothings - The Curse of the Umbrella. If you know Trondheim's work then you'll know this will be a treat - very funny, very familiar, and sometimes surprisingly moving (p.81!).
Another English translation, from its native Danish, is Sussi Bech's Nofret. Nofret and her twin sister, Kiya, are slave girls who get separated and Kiya becomes the wife of the Pharoah Akhenaten. When she is murdered, Nofret finds herself taking on her sister's identity, and intrigue, deception, friendship and jealousy are the order of the day (the day being Egypt in 1360 BC). The artwork is attractive and skillful, and the historical detail seems authentic, so you are immersed in a world where the story can take over. I guess you'd say it's a kids' comic, but has wider appeal (please don't use that horrible term 'all ages'). It's a little bit sexy in places, but it seems natural and is not done for titillation, unlike many American superhero comics which distastefully verge on the pornographic in their depiction of women. This is a refreshing European album, in the best sense, and I hope there is more of Sussi's work up for English translation in the future. You can buy it from Eudor Comics.
click on a page to see a bigger version
Evelyn Crow from Rainbow Orchid and Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett)
from Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
In fact, it was given 4.5 stars (out of 5), which is jolly nice - the National Army Museum website only got 3 stars. They even sent me a complimentary copy, which doesn't always happen with this kind of thing. Not sure about the "disastrous march from Kabul to Kandahar" - they obviously didn't have time to read my site too deeply, as it was actually considered a great military success.
They seemed particularly impressed with my links page, which I have always felt needs to be much more comprehensive, actually. (You know, it always surprises me when comics creators don't link to other creators from their blogs and comic sites - Google likes you if you're well-connected! - not that that's the only reason for linking to friends and acquaintances).
Back to the magazine - I must agree with their Star Site - The Long Long Trail, especially its invaluable Great War Forum - probably the best World War I resource on the net. Another star site would have been regiments.org, which has sadly gone off-line recently, probably for good.
You can order your subscription from this web page here. If you're thinking you'll wait until you see it on the shelves of your local W H Smiths - don't! It is only available through subscription (for now). And you don't have to be a kid either - yes, it's primarily aimed at kids, but the appeal will be much wider.
I'm pretty excited by it, and even if I wasn't a contributor, I'd be a subscriber. It's got Philip Pullman, John Aggs, Neill Cameron, David Shelton, the Etherington Brothers... and many more that are yet to be announced. I've seen some of their work on the DFC office walls, and it'll blow your socks off.
If you signed up for The DFC newsletter, then yesterday you'll have got a sneaky peek at many of the weird and wonderful characters that will be appearing in the comic's pages over the next few months. And if you saw The Comic in last week's Guardian (with Cora's Breakfast by Nick Abadzis - wonderful) then you'll have seen the competition (for under 16's) to win an invite to the DFC launch party on May 15th. Not only will Philip Pullman be there, but Jacqueline Wilson too!
To see how The DFC works, go and see this great little strip by current Desperate Dan artist Jamie Smart.
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