Now up for pre-order from Ashley Wood’s 3A company – a 1/12th scale Mongrol from the ABC Warriors, the 1/6th version was way too expensive for me but this clocks in at $55 plus postage.
Comics
This has been doing the rounds on the web, originating from SomethingAwful by the looks of it.
I so wanted it to be real but a quick search revealed it was a very good fake (see above).
Shame, here are some more ‘wish these really existed’ comic covers from the Relaunched and Comics Covered websites.
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I didn’t know who did this for a while because I found it online, it’s the work of Mike Alacantara – check out more of his stuff here.
Looks promising, on set photos released so far have been a mixed bag, an R rating and a thumbs up from creator John Wagner are a good start but a trailer will be more telling. Up against the 1996 Stallone travesty the odds are in its favour but the proof will be in the pudding.
An amazing, but very hard to photograph, mural dedicated to Moebius that wraps round three sides of a building in Shoreditch, London. Featuring many scenes and images he created in his lifetime and also a little MCA dedication too, I tried my best to join the images together fluidly but had to take some of these standing in the middle of the road. UPDATE: The mural was painted by JimVision / Probs over 9 days, check some much better photos over at the End of the Line blog.
So much to say about the last few days and the opening of the DJ Food & Henry Flint exhibition at the Factory Road Gallery in Hinckley, Leicester with my friends Sarah (aka Inkymole) and Leigh. I’ve known them for around 15 years now and always enjoy their company so it was a no-brainer when they asked if they could host the work I’d got together for the Pure Evil Gallery earlier this year. What’s unique about this is that the gallery is in their own home, on the corner of a quiet suburban street, not in the middle of a hip part of a big city. A few years ago they did some major architectural restructuring and turned the downstairs of their home into a workspace cum gallery, dependent on what was on at the time. This is the third or fourth exhibition to be held there and, with the help of their intern, Brook, and amazing chef Jed Smith, they managed to make it a very unique event.
The difference between this and the Pure Evil show is that they were keen to feature a sort of retrospective element of my design work with Ninja Tune over the years alongside work that Henry and I had generated for ‘The Search Engine’ album, his book ‘Broadcast’ and past comic work. This took the form of a whole wall running the length of the downstairs plus a tabletop collage under glass of all manner of flyers, sleeves, proofs and other ephemera. Two sides of the central supporting wall were taken up with Henry’s past comic work with prints and original art from the album near the entrance. Near the rear of the gallery we set up a turntable and zoetrope disc to project animations that were also meant for London but didn’t happen as well as a 55 minute mix with visuals based on my planetarium show of the same time.
To add to this Sarah and Leigh always do special merchandise to go with each show, a regular item being a tea towel – or rather a visor / helmet polishing cloth (ooer) – printed locally and hemmed by Sarah’s mum. Also for sale was a limited edition ‘Skullstronaut’ giclee print and locally sourced chocolate bars, cleverly playing on the outer space theme and packaged like freeze-dried astronaut food.
Speaking of food, the killer addition of the night was Jed Smith in the kitchen, whipping up amazing bite-sized, space-themed eats for everyone. The cubed chips, baked pea shells and sauce were the hit of the night, a bowl of ‘space dust’ (homemade sherbert) looked like a moon surface and the dried rice and beetroot dip was literally out of this world (sorry). Everyone who came looked uncertainly at it all, took the plunge and were instantly in for seconds.
It’s rare to attend an opening and to ask the guests if they’ve been to the toilet yet (unless it’s for some sort of nose up) but the bathroom had it’s own charm in the form of Will Cooper-Mitchell’s press shots of me in an astronaut suit, alongside a hand-painted shuttle (by Sarah’s sister, close family ties going on here) and a short musical loop of space-themed sounds.
This, alongside a big barrel of local ale for refreshments, rounded the whole event off beautifully and added to the homely vibe of the exhibition. A steady stream of visitors arrived, both local and from further afield from 6pm until midnight and I talked to everyone from fans to friends, university professors to the local record store owner. Having been there since Thursday afternoon setting up and rearranging things I was beat by then and we had an early start the next morning but that’s another story.
Thank you so much to everyone who came but especially Sarah, Leigh, Jed, Brook and everyone who helped to make it such a success, some of the photos here are by their friend, Nigel, who was also the architect who helped them build the gallery. We realised, once it was all hung and arranged, that we’d fitted in twice the content than in London, in a smaller space too so there’s twice the reason to go and have a look. The show is at 71 Factory Road, Hinckley, Leicestershire, it’s free and on until June 15th, all merchandise is on sale on the Factory Road Shop now.
Only 3 days to go until the DJ Food & Henry Flint show reopens, revitalised at the Factory Road Gallery in Hinckley. I sent a last load of sleeves, posters, flyers and other assorted memorabilia off for it today and there will be more of Henry’s old 2000ad artwork than we had in London, different pages too – all from my personal collection.
Also on sale there will be these space-themed chocolate bars in requisite silver foil packaging featuring the ‘skullstronaut’. There’ll be more exclusive merch on sale but I’ll post about that later. Sarah and Leigh, who run the gallery from their home, really take care and go to extra lengths to make bespoke items for their shows so that each one is a unique experience. I’m so pleased to be doing something with them after knowing them for over 15 years.
I found this weird take on Brian Bolland‘s synthetti monster cover for 2000ad prog 216 over on Juxtapoz.com.
The most anticipated comic of the year in this household: Mike Mignola‘s return to the main on-going Hellboy story on both writing AND art duties in ‘Hellboy In Hell’. Also check out Duncan Fegredo‘s incredible cover for B.P.R.D.s newest story arc, ‘The Devil’s Engine’. This Hellboy offshoot has slowly but surely stepped into a class of its own over the years and has now added a Hell On Earth suffix to the title.
This is to mark the emergence of all manner of monstrosities on Earth, no longer confined to nooks and crannies, and is just as essential as its parent publication with all sorts of plot threads currently dangling loose as well as the ever-present ‘when will Hellboy return?’ There’s a fascinating making of feature over on the Dark Horse blog too.
A gorgeous original piece of Kevin O’Neill cover art from prog 230 of 2000AD, recently acquired by my friend David Rees, what a beauty.
Also, Kevin will be signing copies of the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen issue, 2009, on June 23rd (not May as I’d previously posted) at Gosh Comics in Soho alongside none other than Alan Moore – expect queues round the block.
Gosh will also have copies of The Black Dossier hardback for sale -WITH the 7″ record that was meant to come with it originally.
Forthcoming Mike Mignola cover for the next B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth series – ‘Return Of The Master’.
On June 1st I’ll be traveling up to my friends’ Sarah and Leigh‘s place in Hinckley, Leicestershire for the opening of a rejigged version of the DJ Food & Henry Flint exhibition that we held at the Pure Evil Gallery in January.
Their Factory Road Gallery will host a lot of the posters and original art and there will be local ale, special food and prints, CDs and books for sale. More details here.
There will be special limited editions available at the show, a 20 copy giclée print of the recent 12″ cover, printed tea towels (!) and chocolate bars in silver space-type wrapping. There will also be food on the opening night, local ale and I’ll be around to answer any questions.
David Hine and Shaky Kane‘s ‘The Bulletproof Coffin – Disinterred’ series has been sending ripples through the comics industry recently not least for the format of the latest issue. Taking the form of a Beats-style cut up as the method with which the issue was assembled, it reads in a random array of images in no particular order in the same way that Gysin and Burroughs rearranged cut up texts to create an alternate version of their work. Fairly radical in as far as comics go at present but what really set the cat among the pigeons were images online of Shaky cutting up an original issue of Fantastic Four #2 from his own collection.
I asked David about his intentions with the issue and if – had I bought 2 copies and cut them up – I would be able to discern a linear narrative from it if I’d attempted to rearrange it into a logical order?
“There is no preconceived or ‘correct’ way to view the panels. There are a few that do follow a pattern. There are four images of Hairy Men that revisit the scene in 2001 A Space Odyssey where prehistoric man discovers the first tool/weapon. Some of the images refer back to past issues of the Coffin, some to future issues and a few to a planned ‘biography’ of George Adamski. We’ve also reworked a few panels from my adaptation of Lovecraft‘s ‘The Colour out of Space’ originally illustrated by Mark Stafford. You may also spot other quotes from Lovecraft, Kafka, William Burroughs, Aldous Huxley‘s ‘The Doors of Perception’ and lots of other sources.
The idea is to create an open-ended merging of words and images that set off whole new narratives and are open to infinite interpretations. I’ve found new meanings in the random sequence we ended up with here. The way the last page links four deaths – Kennedy‘s assassination, the death of the fictional Hine, the murder of one of Steve Newman‘s twin ‘sons’ and the murder of one of the scientists from The Colour Out of Space. Purely coincidental.
What I really want is an app that will allow random reading of the digital version of the comic. Ideally one that will allow for alternative captions too – something I played with in the last four pages, where I took four of the panels and created an alternative narrative thread between them.”
Also notable are the text pieces ‘Non-stop Ecstatic Dancing / Stop Dancing’ at the end of the comic: a regular and then cut up version, demonstrating the process again for those who may be wondering what the hell they just read. I think there’s definitely room for a deluxe cut up version of the whole book with each panel printed separately on card to be arranged as you see fit.
Shaky had this to say: “Thanx Kev, note how I spelt thanx with a ‘X’! See- I’m there Kev, I’m there!”
Loving these covers for the comic ‘Spaceman’ by Azzarello and Risso.
Gorgeous poster for the 1st East London Comics & Arts Festival by one of my favourite artists currently – McBess. 7th June is the date with McBess as the artist in residence; live drawing relay races from Luke Pearson, Jack Teagle, Kyle Platts, and many more; a process talk by BLEXBOLEX, chaired by Paul Gravett; 600 second interviews from Avoid the Future; a kids workshop organised by Anorak; Screenings by Nexus; panel discussions with Karrie Fransman, Darryl Cunningham and Simone Lia; stalls from the very best comics publishers, including Jonathan Cape, SelfMadeHero, Blank Slate, Nobrow, Knockabout, Landfill Editions, Solopsistic Pop, WAWAP and more. Alos there will be a ticketed concert featuring the Dead Pirates (McBess’ band), the Vuvuvultures and a special guest running from 8 ’til late.
There’s been a lot of press in the comics world concerning the return of three of the Dark Judges to the current Judge Dredd epic, ‘Day of Chaos’, in 2000ad recently. Besides them being great characters, who haven’t featured in the comic for a few years now, I’m especially into this because Henry Flint is sharing art duties on this story and he’s never drawn them before save for a few promotional images.
What’s also a big deal is that no one saw this coming and their introduction into the story at this point is one of the biggest WTF? moments, and strokes of genius from writer John Wagner, that I can remember in a long time. What’s so good about the story currently running is that, unlike past ‘epics’ in Dredd’s world, this one hasn’t been trailed in quite the same way. There was no big announcement that the-story-to-end-all-stories was about to begin, more that several slow boiling story lines have come together and built upon each other and snowballed.
The basic set up for this epic in the making is that the Sovs (Soviet Judges) have been planning an attack on Mega City 1 in reprisal for Dredd annihilating East Meg 1 in the Apocalypse War decades ago. This has been a slow burn, deep cover operation where they’ve infiltrated the Judicial system to it’s core. Add to that the kidnap of a scientist who has created a doomsday virus with no cure that’s slowly infecting the population of the city, bogus propaganda (or is it?) that the Judges are simply taking the infected and dumping them into plague pits outside the city and full on city-wide civilian rebellion and we’re firing on all cylinders.
To then ramp things up a gear and drop the Dark Judges into the equation (inter dimensional beings who’s maxim is that life is a crime and the sentence is death) and it’s looking like there is no way out for Dredd, or the city for that matter, this time. All the praise that’s being heaped on this story is justified and it seems lapsed readers are returning to the comic after years away and being wowed.
If you want to see what the fuss is all about you can read two chapters over on CBR and an interview with Henry, John Wagner and second artist Colin MacNeil. There’s also a ‘Day of Chaos’ catch up on the 2000ad site too and with the rest of the comic bearing rich fruit and the impending Dredd film at the end of the year, it’s turning out to be a very good year for the title.
This week’s Prog, Henry Flint on the art. Beyond excited to read this, hurry up Mr Postman!…
Leviathan first appeared some years ago in the pages of 2000ad comic. It’s a dark tale, set within a city on a ship, adrift for 20 years after its maiden voyage (very well timed). A series of murders lead Detective Sgt. Lament into the depths of the ship where dark secrets lurk. Written by Ian Edington and illustrated by D’Israeli, this is well worth a look, in fact you can read the first 5 pages over on CBR now.
I just spent the weekend gigging in France and found this in one of the record shops in Montpelier – from 1977, a gatefold LP cover by Moebius. According to those who I showed it to, Guy Beart was a very cheesy singer who played guitar and was the kind of un-hip singer your parents’ liked (if they were very un-hip) and they were surprised such a record existed.
Well he must have had a late flowering moment of inspiration for this release with what looks and sounds like a concept album based on a future civilisation, no doubt cashing in on the craze for all things sci-fi in 1977 once Star Wars opened. The music has its moments, there’s plenty of synth and space noises in there amongst the whimsical songs but the gem here is the cover, click for a larger version.