Last night was amazing. The House of Illustration in London launched the UK's largest-ever exhibition of the work of pioneering female comics artists, in Comix Creatrix: 100 Women Making Comics. 
Here's the striking poster by Laura Callaghan:
Do pop over to see the show, running until 15 May, just across from St Pancras stations (the one where you catch the Eurostar to France) and next to the glowing fountains of Central Saint Martins art college. 
Speaking of France, this show couldn't be more perfectly timed. Curators Olivia Ahmad and Paul Gravett had been working with the House of Illustration to prepare the show for a long time, but it came right on the heels of a shocking announcement by France's top comics prize committee of an all-male shortlist of 30 international comics creators. What made it even worse was the board's surprise at public indignation and their follow-up explanations that there wasn't any strong female talent in comics, and general lack of supportiveness for women in the field. (You can read my article about that here.)
I only make comics occasionally and focus more on other kinds of children's book illustration, and go along to lots of social events dominated by women. But when I first started going along to comics events, very often I was the only woman in the room. Over the past ten years, this has changed so much, partly I think because of the coming-together of an arts & crafts movement with comics (look at comics by Philippa Rice and Isabel Greenberg to see what I mean), and comics moving away from being so entirely dominated by superheroes.
But there have always been women making comics, and the women who've made them have had to fight against all the odds that male comics makers struggle with (mostly do to with not getting paid enough), and also being marginalised by comics lovers who didn't care to look outside of their own very focused spheres of interest (Marvel, DC, 2000 AD, etc). But to pretend talented female comics creators don't exist makes some people VERY angry, such as comics expert Stephen Holland at Nottingham's Page 45 bookshop, retweeted here by comics legend Kate Charlesworth (who for a long time drew the comics for New Scientist magazine):
(Here's the Comics Beat article Stephen's referring to.)
So the best way to counter the Angoulême assertions would have been to set up a comics exhibition, just on the other side of the channel tunnel, rebutting that notion entirely. I can't even say how thrilled I am that this was already in the works, and here it is! I hope lots of men and women will go along to it; anyone interested in comics, drawing, illustration, storytelling, graphic design, history, typography, etc will find it fascinating.
Patrice Aggs was making comics long before I even moved to England, she makes comics with her son (John Aggs), and she's attended the Angoulême comics festival more times than I can keep track of. If they don't know who she is by now, they haven't been trying. It was great to meet her husband, Chris Aggs, who's a painter; I always see her zooming around on her own! She was always the last one to bed at Angoulême; the rest of us were dropping with tiredness and she'd still be up having intense conversations with comics people at 4am.
Here's Patrice's comics on display:
A lot of people know more about women in comics through Nicola Streeten, co-founded with Sarah Lightman of Laydeez Do Comics, an excellent series of talks (by anyone creative, not just women, but with a focus on women). Here's Nicola looking very fine with legend Suzy Varty in their matching lime greens.
Kripa Joshi goes back and forth between England and Nepal, and was in Nepal during the earthquake. The evening was great to get the chance to have a look at the anthology she and Elena Vitagliano have compiled to raise money for the earthquake victims. 
(You can find out more about their anthology project together here.)
One of the cool things about the launch party was seeing people who'd been lauded in their field for ages, but never actually been featured in an establishment exhibition. There was some big-time excitement. I'm not even sure who this creator is (Claudia Davila, perhaps?), but she was totally lit up, I got all giggly seeing how excited she was.
Kate Evans was pretty excited, too, and I got a copy of her new book, Red Rosa, about Rosa Luxemburg. 
Somehow I was so busy looking around in the exhibition space that I missed the speeches. (Oops!) So I never got to meet co-curator Olivia Ahmad. But here I am with Paul Gravett, who is one of the top people I can credit with jump-starting my career. He found me, probably at the first comics event I ever went to (a Yahoo group pub meet-up), and pointed me in the direction of David Fickling, who published me both in his DFC comic and with my first UK picture book. There's this notion that women in comics is a Women's Issue that only women will be interested in, but it's not at all; it's just as much about the thoughtful and clued-in men (Paul, Stephen Holland, David Fickling, etc) who encourage women and help us get pointed in the right direction so we can make comics that everyone might enjoy. 
And talking about clued-in people, here's Audrey Niffenegger, who doesn't let the confines of medium or genre limit what she does; she's succeeded in everything from comics to bestselling novels to printmaking to her work being staged as a ballet in the Royal Opera House. 
Despite being fairly young, Isabel Greenberg has already created an impresssive collection of work and I'm a HUGE fan. She has this amazing way of bringing together a craft element with modern storytelling twists on old legends that's spectacular. 
I loved being able to see old favourites at the exhibition, such as these Moomin pencil roughs by Tove Jansson:
And Posy Simmonds, who first inspired me to make comics with her Gemma Bovery book:
And another person who got me making comics was Simone Lia, with her Fluffy books about a rabbit that I found in a clothing shop in Brighton, when Simone was still self-publishing them through Cabanon Press. (The Fluffy books were later taken up by Dan Franklin at Jonathan Cape.) 
Philippa Rice continues to inspire me with her innovative approaches to making comics, using non-traditional formats and materials and lovely storytelling (I think I've bought at least ten copies of my favourite of her books, We're Out, as gifts for friends.) Here's an interview I did with her about the book. And here's Karen Rubins having a look:
But it wasn't all familiar faces and work at the show. One of the great thing about the Angoulême debacle was the hashtag #WomenDoBD, which highlighted LOADS of female creators I'd never heard of. And this exhibition was like that. Lizz Lunney felt the same:
Check out this lovely piece by Aurelié William Levaux: 
And I definitely want to get a copy of His Dream of the Skyland by Aya Morton. My top new find, I think.
A case of work by female comics creators from back as far as 200 years:
Hey, it's work by my former studio mate Ellen Lindner! Ellen was the one who introduced me to LiveJournal and its comics community, which shaped so much of what I know now. She edits a magazine of comics by women called The Strumpet, and lots of us at the show have had work featured in that.
It's one of my buddies from back in DFC comic days! Emma Vieceli and I have had lots of adventures, including a trip to Paris to exhibit with her French publishers. Emma used to organise the Cartoon Village at MCM Expo and she's one of the people everyone goes to when they want to know something about comics. 
I really must go back to the exhibition for a longer, quieter browse. Besides all the displays, they have loads of interesting-looking books in the reading room.
The exhibition is aimed at adults, so while I think parents could bring older children, they should be aware that some of the content is graphic (but not horrific, I'd say) and that the frames might be hung a bit high for short people to read closely without assistance.
Three cheers for the House of Illustration and everyone who worked hard to make this show happen! You can follow the House of Illustration on Twitter: @illustrationHQ.
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By: Sarah McIntyre,
on 2/5/2016
Blog: Sarah McIntyre (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: house_of_illustration, comics, exhibition, gravett, Add a tag
By: Sarah McIntyre,
on 8/12/2010
Blog: Sarah McIntyre (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Here's Sean Azzopardi and me taking in the wonder of the new comics exhibition at the Pumphouse Gallery. (Sean's posted a bunch of photos here.)
A whole bunch of comic artists got together to put on this fab show in a gorgeous location in a beautifully restored pumphouse overlooking a pond, curated by Paul Gravett. Here's the floor featuring Dave McKean's very site-specific work. He arranged it so there were lots of places you could see something cool just if you looked at it from an exact perspective. One view was through this mask:
Here's the dude wot made it:
And one of the window views where, if I bend my knees quite a lot and pretend I'm Dave's height, the trees in the picture exactly line up with the trees I see through the window.
Speaking of site specific, I've been invited to lead a HyperComics family workshop right there in the gallery space! It's on Sunday, 19 Aug from 1:30-3:30, and booking details are here.
Masked Adventures in Comics!
Draw inspiration from the Hypercomic exhibition and Dave McKean's masked characters to design your own story's masked heroes and villains. Get behind their masks to discover your characters' unique personalities, then use the Pumphouse setting to bring them to life in a gripping story. At the end, you'll come away with your own self-published comic book!
Suitable for both children and adults.
I told Dave McKean we'd be very careful while we run around his artwork and stab pencils into the air.
This comic panel reads, He seemed nervous.
Multi-directional comics by Daniel Merlin Goodbrey:
The ever-marvelous John Miers and Megan Donnolley:
A red-lined mask really begs to be looked through.
I actually missed a lot of the exhibition because it does demand a bit of concentration and quiet contemplation. I was riding a weird wave of being buzzed and knackered by a full day in Birmingham at the the Peters Bookselling Services. Basically it's this massive storeroom full of children's and young adult books that sell to libraries in vast quantities. All three of my publishers were there, but I was officially with Oxford University Press and doing my shpeil for my upcoming adventure picture book When Titus Took the Train. It was such a funny format... Librarian Speed Dating! The two OUP publicists and I had five minutes at our booth to say our bit to a group of about five librarians. At the end of the time, The Archers theme tune would play and the next group of librarians would pile in and we'd do it all over again. Fortunately we also got a nice lunch and I got to meet Facebo
By: Sarah McIntyre,
on 11/11/2009
Blog: Sarah McIntyre (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: shelton, brown, gravett, dfc, comica, phoenix, brockbank, haggarty, Add a tag
Yesterday a bunch of us from The DFC gang met up in David Fickling's Oxford office to find out what's happening with some of the amazing comics that appeared during the DFC's 43-week appearance. And the news is good! While The DFC as a weekly magazine has been shelved for the time being, readers are going to be able to read whole collections of their favourite strips, in individual books. The first three to appear will be Dave Shelton's Good Dog, Bad Dog (which ran in The Guardian), Kate Brown's Spider Moon (which ran as a play by Playbox Theatre company, photos here), and artist Adam Brockbank (who designed many of the beasts in the Harry Potter films) and storyteller Ben Haggarty's Mezolith.
David Fickling was hugely excited at the meeting, saying he was gearing up to become the lead comic book publisher in the UK, and wants David Fickling Books to take on the huge comics industry in France and elsewhere. So here's the deal: He says it's going to be a struggle, because as of yet with the top retailers, no real comics market yet exists in the UK, so we're really going to have to push to create one. He's going to print 5,000 hardback copies of each of the three books, and we really need to sell all of them so we can afford to go on and bring out more books. So if you want a Vern and Lettuce book in the second round (and boy, oh boy, do I!), please get ready to support these three books and convince everyone you know to buy them, and get everywhere you can think of to stock them! We'll have an overarching DFC Library launch, and then fab events at the launch of each, with Good Dog, Bad Dog being the first to come out in March, then Mezolith and Spider Moon in April and May. (You can even pre-order them on Amazon here!)
Just as we were all meeting, Tilda the office manager, came in with a letter than had just arrived in the post, from a DFC reader named Samira who, even after all these months, was still dead set on seeing her favourite comics in print, whatever it took (Thanks, Samira!):
Here's a few photos from the DFB headquarters yesterday:
David and Will Fickling; editor Hannah Featherstone, Adam Brockbank and Will
Lauren Bennett (the fab publicist I've been working with on Morris the Mankiest Monster) and me; Ben Haggarty
Clare Hall-Craggs, publicity director at Random House Children's Books, and the very messy table at th
By: Sarah McIntyre,
on 8/28/2009
Blog: Sarah McIntyre (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Today's very sloppy morning sketch features Lumpy the dinosaur, carefully crafted by Gary Northfield and lurking on one of the studio bookshelves. Lumpy is very famous, he starred in a film at the National Theatre for about four seconds and got a great laugh. He also has a nasty smoking habit.
Got to see some grand folk last night after Jamie Smart's book signing at Forbidden Planet (including Steve Marchant, above, looking his most winsome.)
Here are Mark Stafford and Paul Gravett, and Jamie in his new Chaffy scarf. I bought a copy of Jamie's Ubu-Bubu book and I'm about halfway through, but I can say that not only are his characters full of kawaii cuteness, but he has pushed the concept of 'not suitable for young children' to staggering new levels.
By: Sarah McIntyre,
on 1/16/2009
Blog: Sarah McIntyre (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: gravett, dfc, phoenix, Add a tag
Hooray, DFC issue 33 arrived today, and Vern and Lettuce take the Tube!
I've always wanted to show the London Underground in a commissioned piece of work, and now it's happened! Except, even better, in the Pickle Rye parallel universe, the transport engineers don't put those annoying barriers on the metal runners next to the escalators, it's all ONE LONG SLIDE. Whoosh! What a perfect world.
Edit: Hey, here are some nice words about the DFC from Paul Gravett in his Best of 2008: Graphic Novels & Comics:
The DFC: What does this "DFC" stand for? Well it is "Delivered Fridays Consistently" and it's "Definitely First Class". The DFC actually stands for The David Fickling Comic, and he is the determined publiser, backed by powerful Random House, who has made the most significant injection of new ideas and creative talent into British all-ages comics in a decade. You can't buy it in any shops, you have to subscribe online and every Friday it arrives in your morning mail. There's lots of quality here, even a sea-faring serial, John Blake, written by Philip Pullman of Golden Compass fame, but if I had to pick just two stand-out series they would be Sarah McIntyre's charming sheep-and-rabbit duo Vern and Lettuce, and Mezolith, a caveboy drama written by Ben Hegarty and drawn by Adam Brockbank, concept designer and storyboarder for the Harry Potter movies. Are you ready for their monstrous giant blue baby or their naked, overweight she-creature? This is easilly the most vivid, arresting children's adventure I've come across anywhere all year, a masterpiece in the making.
Thanks, Paul! Woodrow Phoenix's book Rumble Strip also gets a good mention. article link
Cool thing I've seen lately: the work of Chicago-based illustrator and comics man Chris 'Elio' Eliopoulos, or ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
elio. Have a peek at some of the lovely work on his website.
By: Sarah McIntyre,
on 11/20/2008
Blog: Sarah McIntyre (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Last night I went to the French Institute in London to hear a talk by two of France's top comics creators, Ted Benoit and Emmanuel Guibert as part of the Comica series. While I was in Provence a couple months ago, I saw lots of old copies of Blake and Mortimer series for sale in the markets, so I was a little bit aware of his work, but Guibert is a new find for me. There was a rush for seats at the start, so I sat at the back with tozocomic, rainboworchid and his wife Ellie, Maartje Schalkx, Sarah Lightman, a Scotsman named Euan and Catrina MacLeod, who's doing her PhD on women in comics. Since I could catch glimpses of the overhead screen but couldn't see the speakers from there, I did a lot of doodling in my notes:
Have a look at some of Ted Benoit's artwork here. I was interested by Benoit's fascination with 1950s America, and his assertion that 'Americans don't draw America very well', that their pictures are 'too dramatic', while he likes a more documentary style look at the landscape which he only finds in underground comics there. He cited American influences on his work, particularly Robert Crumb, and talked about his conscious decision to take on Herge's style of ligne claire drawing; he didn't see it as copying, more that Hergé's established style can be used as a tool, like a pen.
Guibert turned out to be a captivating speaker. (Read an article by Paul Gravett about him here.) I was very moved by his description of getting to know an old American soldier, Alan, and the depth of their relationship as Guibert listened to Alan tell stories of wartime, and later, his childhood, up to the time he died. Guibert has produced three books about the man, now compiled into one, La Guerre d'Alan, and he's also going to come out with a book about Alan's childhood. Here you can see a video of his strange but effective working technique for Alan's War with ink and water. (It's not clear what's happening at first, but it all falls into place at the end):
YouTube link here
(You can also see a video of Guibert with his guitar playing a song from Alan's War here.)
Both artists did signings afterward and I took some photos. Here's one Guibert did for Euan, a real masterpiece. Euan said, 'hey, I got two for one!' when he saw how it had bled through to the next page.
And another lovely one by Guibert:
And here's a rather blurry picture of Paul Gravett, the Man at the Crossroads, and the one's who's made it all happen. And that's comics man David O'Connell to his left and Paul's website designer, Tim Webber, to his right.
By: David Elzey,
on 1/24/2008
Blog: The Excelsior File (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: picture book, golden books, 08, scarry, gravett, 08, scarry, golden books, gravett, Add a tag
Goodnight, Little Bear (1961) Chipmunk's ABC (1963) The Bunny Book (1955) by Richard Scarry Golden Books 2008 At first blush there isn't really much one can say about these classic picture books featuring early Richard Scarry artwork. The stories themselves are practically ur-picture book archetypes: the little bear that won't go to bed and "hides" on his father's shoulders; a basic animal ABC
By: melissa,
on 7/26/2007
Blog: Pop Goes the Library (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: gaming, cool conferences, Add a tag
The final day of the Gaming, Learning & Libraries Symposium squeezed a lot of great information into only a half-day!
Gregory Trefry from GameLab and NYU spoke first about Big Fun, Big Learning: Transforming the World through Play. As one of the founders of the Come Out and Play Festival, Gregory spoke about big games. These are games that, as the name implies, are much bigger than a traditional game; they can encompass a whole city, or even all of the Internet. Most big games are a variation on one of four common games: tag, hide and seek, scavenger hunts, or capture the flag. The beauty of big games is that they allow you to get up and be active, while participating in a competitive setting with lots of people. This presentation probably got me the most fired up, the most excited, about gaming in the library.
Beth Gallaway made two great presentations as well: first, in Digital Downloads for Gamers, she discussed the various online options for gamers, such as subscription game services, games to download on library computers, and game websites. Then, in Core Collections, Beth shared information on how to create a circulating game collection at your library, and presented some of the challenges to creating such a collection. Beth has provided links for all the services and information she shared through the GLLS2007 tag on her del.icio.us account.
The final keynote address was given by Liz Lawley, a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In Games Without Borders: Gaming Beyond Consoles and Screens, she discussed how we should make real life more like a game, rather than making our games more like real life. Some interesting facts shared by Dr. Lawley is that for many people, online shopping feels like work since it requires a computer, so there is increased sales occurring at physical stores. Yet by contrast, Generation Y values their computers and cell phones over television, something that is the reverse of how older generations feel.
The conference wrapped up with a winner receiving a Wii console, donated by Nintendo America. But this wasn't just your ordinary door prize; the lucky winner had to win two different games to get her prize.
More information, such as PowerPoint slides and related information, will be posted to the conference's wiki in the coming days, so I encourage you to take a look for more information. Feel free to comment here or send me an email at [email protected], if you'd like to know more about any presentation that I've mentioned.
By: melissa,
on 7/24/2007
Blog: Pop Goes the Library (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: gaming, cool conferences, Add a tag
The second day of the Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium was chock-block full of great information, both theoretical and practical. There's not enough space to go into every program I attended, but hopefully the highlights will excite your interest!
The day started with a keynote speech entitled Libraries, Gaming and the New Equity Crisis from James Paul Gee of Arizona State University. Dr. Gee spoke eloquently about the need for libraries to play a role in the spread of new literacy, a form of literacy that's not just about print. There are several gaps that exist that affect the ability of students to learn, including literacy, applications, knowledge, tech savvy, and innovation gaps. Interestingly enough, technology alone is not enough to close these gaps; without a framework of mentoring and support, technology will actually cause these gaps to widen.
The bulk of the day featured many innovative break-out sessions. There were certain presentations that I found especially interesting. First was Growing a Gaming Group/How They'd Do That?, showcasing the gaming events held at four different Illinois libraries. Julie Scordato of the Columbus (OH) Metropolitan Library dispensed lots of practical advice on Getting Gaming on the Table. As a LiveJournal user, I was particularly engaged during We're in UR Library Bein UR Books: Making and Using Book-Based RPGs with Middle-Schoolers. Kit Ward-Crixell gave an engaging presentation on how to use LiveJournal to encourage young teens to role-play as characters from their favorite books. Finally, Eli Neiburger discussed Tournament Games for Any Occasion: Choosing the Right Games for Your Audience, and his presentation was full of fantastic information on what games to consider for gaming tournaments.
The day was wrapped up with a teen panel, moderated by Stephen Abram. It was a great opportunity to find out more about new technologies from a group of teens.
I took some time yesterday evening to download and start using Second Life. I haven't really understood the appeal of Second Life, and now that I've seen a bit of it . . . I'm still having trouble with it. But I'll certainly give it a fair shake, and who knows what might happen?
If you're interested in more information on any of the programs I've discussed, don't hesitate to comment. And take a look at pictures of this event!
By: melissa,
on 7/23/2007
Blog: Pop Goes the Library (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: gaming, cool conferences, Add a tag
I'm here in Chicago attending the first ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium, and it's already been a fantastic event. The conference opened on Sunday at 1pm with three keynote speeches.
First, Dr. Henry Jenkins of MIT spoke about What Librarians Need to Know About Games, Media Literacy and Participatory Culture. He shared a quote from Scott Osterweil, who discussed the differences between a spelling bee and a game of Scrabble: how the spelling bee taught students to memorize words they'd never use, while the game of Scrabble taught students spelling and word usage with little penalty for mistakes. Dr. Jenkins also talked about how more than half of all American teens--and 57% of those teens who use the Internet--could be considered media creators. A white paper co-authored by Dr. Jenkins discussed several questions about ensuring access, providing education in critical understanding of new media, and learning ethical community standards. For more information, you can consult http://henryjenkins.org or Project NML
Next, Dr. Scott Nicholson from Syracuse University's School of Information Studies discussed Who Else is Playing? The Current State of Gaming in Libraries. The founder of the Library Game Lab, Dr. Nicholson has been performing studies on recreational gaming in libraries, and not just electronic gaming. As there is a lack of basic research, Dr. Nicholson's group has been using science to understand the phenomena of gaming. The results of the first study, Understanding the State of Gaming, was released at the symposium; the second study, the 2006 Gaming Census, will be released shortly. More information can be accessed at http://gamelab.syr.edu.
Finally, Eli Neiburger from the Ann Arbor District Library shared his experiences of running gaming programs, and told the audience about The Payoff, Up Close and Personal. Gaming doesn't have to be expensive; you can borrow equipment and use staff to minimize costs to as low as $150 for your program. The great thing about gaming programs, Eli said, is taking content that normally is consumed individually and making it into a social event. AADL also features a feature-rich software that allows tracking of participants in video game tournaments, and this software will soon be available for other libraries to use. You can get more info on the software, GT System, at http://gtsystem.aadl.org. For more info about the gaming programs at AADL, you can access http://www.aadl.org/aadlgt; the slides from Eli's presentation can be accessed at http://aadl.org/files/techsource.pdf.
The evening was capped off with video game tournaments hosted by Eli, in which yours truly competed in DDR and Wii Tennis. I so have to get me a DDR setup and a Wii now.
More posts on this great conference will be coming soon!
By: Liz B,
on 4/28/2007
Blog: Pop Goes the Library (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: cool conferences, nonlibrary stuff, Add a tag
Just wondering -- is anyone going to Mashup 2007: Reaching Today's Totally Wired Generation With Technology?
It looks very cool, and it looks like the type of non-library conference that librarians should attend. It's in San Francisco, July 16 to July 17. Mashup 2007 is produced by Ypulse.
hey,
give yourself some time with Second Life. it's got a high learning curve. it's easy to get frustrated; but ask help from people who are there; ask lots of questions; and remember, everyone there is learning, too. half the time I asked someone a question, it was their first time there, so don't give up. there is a second life wiki where many answers are documented.