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News archive
This page is an archive of news about Bryan and his work. Stuff gets moved here from whatever page it was on when it gets out of date. I know that the concept of an "old news" page is a little perverse - but a lot of people have asked me to keep this info around somewhere so they can see what has happened and when.
Sunday November 17th 2013 update: Getxo Comic Festival Bilbao
From the 22nd to the 24th November, Mary and Bryan Talbot will be guests at the Getxo Comic Festival in Bilbao, Spain. This last year has seen the publication of the Spanish editions of Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, The Tale of One Bad Rat and the first two Grandville books.
This is also why Bryan will not be able to make it to Thought Bubble this year!
Friday November 15th update: make sure you pop on over to Mary's site for a write up of the Brainstorm: The Art of Bryan Talbot exhibition - together with some excellent reviews and photos.
And check out the Bryan Talbot online shop: I have just added some new original art for sale! - more Grandville, more Grandville: Mon Amour, and the first ever Grandville: Bete Noire artwork ever to go on sale!
Sunday November 10th update: a lot of people have asked about the tie-break question in the recent competition we ran to publicise Bryan's exhibition of artwork in the Wildman Studio in Kendal . The question was: "How many times do penguins, in whatever form, appear in Dotter of Her Father's Eyes?" - and I am afraid that the key part of it was "...in whatever form" - because the answer was 15 times, and included one instance being penguin books...
... and then there was penguin biscuits...
... and "Penguin Island" by Anatole France.
And finally... - nuns!
Also: here is a video of Bryan and Mary at the Edinburgh book festival:
Sunday October 20th update: I just got back from the Lakes International Comics festival - and I have to say I am absolutely stunned at how good it was - not because I was expecting anything less than an excellent festival if Bryan was involved - but because it was even better than I imagined!
I caught up with a lot of old friends at the festival, and also made new ones - and I even got a Fabulous Furry Freak brothers compendium edition signed by Gilbert Shelton himself!
Even the kids had events to attend and enjoy - comics writing workshops for the older one and Peppa Pig readings for the younger one.
The whole of Kendal town centre seemed to be taken over for the festival: even the ladies on reception dressed up as comics characters!
If you like comics and live in the UK or Europe (or even the US or Canada if finances permit) I will here and now recommend you come to the next one! Bryan and the other founders aim of creating a comics festival here in England that will rival the festivals in Europe has definitely been met - and exceeded!
Also see the album of photos I took at the festival on Facebook.
Friday October 18th update: local news website Sky Tyne and Wear interviewed Bryan in the run-up to the Lakes International Comics festival (which by the way - starts tonight!):
Sunday October 13th 2013 update:
Less than a week to go now to the Lakes International Comics Festival! - will you be there? - Bryan, Mary and myself will be!
Saturday October 5th 2013:
Bryan has designed this year's official Christmas card of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London! The cards can be bought in packs of ten from the society itself.
Also see the Brighton Story - another book inspired by Alice in Sunderland!
Saturday September 28th update: Bryan's former English teacher, who Bryan credits with getting him interested in sci-fi and fantasy recently got back in touch with Bryan through this fanpage - and so Bryan asked me to republish the Moorcock Effect, which is a tribute to both Michael Moorcock and Brian Holt.
Friday September 20th update: The competition for lots of Talbot related goodies to promote Bryan's upcoming art exhibition in Kendal in October will close and the winner be announced on October 4th: you still have time to enter to win some amazing stuff!
Meanwhile here is the poster for the exhibition and one of which he will sign for the winner...
Also today, the wonderful people who made the Grandville figures of LeBrock and Ratzi have been at it again, this time with a quite stunning miniature figure of Billie!
These are all available to buy from their site and are all officially approved by Bryan!
Sunday September 15th: in order to publicise launching a Bookcrossing zone at my day job at venuebirmingham, I will release into the wild a totally free copy of The Tale of One Bad Rat - and I will post it anywhere in the world. To qualify for the random draw of who I send it to just retweet the announcement via the link below - and also promise to hand the book onto someone else when you have finished reading it.
Bookcrossing is just an excellent concept and it is a great way to send to someone else one of my extra copies of One Bad Rat - and it is a forgivable way to plug where I work when I am not doing the Talbot fanpage!
Click here to tweet this - and enter the prize draw!
Wednesday September 11th update: Graphic Novels: Here's an interview filmed just before Bryan and Mary Talbot's event at the Edinburgh Book Festival on 25th August. " I wish I'd worn my shades!" says Bryan, "The sunlight was so strong my eyes were stinging!"
Also see Joe Gordin's blog about the Edinburgh book festival (includes Mary and Bryan).
And also see Jeremy Briggs' Bryan & Mary Talbot: From Judge Dredd to Steampunk via James Joyce
Saturday August 31st updates:
Bryan has announced a competition to promote the "Brainstorm!: The Art of Bryan Talbot" exhibition is at Wildman Studios, in Wildman Street, Kendal, Cumbria between October 4 and November 10.
To enter, answer these questions:
1. In the Brainstorm Comix series, Bryan's first published protagonist, Chester P Hackenbush, was partly named after a character played by which famous movie comedian in which film?
2. Who first published the first nine-part comicbook series of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright?
3. In The Tale of One Bad Rat, what's Helen Potter's father's forename?
4. Which famous English dragon legend is adapted into comic strip form within Alice in Sunderland?
5. Which early nineteenth century French illustrator used the nom de plume "JJ Grandville" and was the original inspiration for Bryan's Grandville series of detective thrillers?
Tie-breaker: How many times do penguins, in whatever form, appear in Dotter of Her Father's Eyes?
The prizes are as follows:
1 signed limited edition exhibition poster for Bryan's Brainstorm! The Art of Bryan Talbot,
2 Two tickets for his event on Sat 19 October and a limited edition tshirt with his festival design on it
4 A page of original art work from the Nazz
5 a copy of Cherubs written by Bryan and drawn by Mark Stafford
Enter the competition via email - and add the event to your Facebook calendar - and help us publicise the competition and the exhibition by mentioning it on Twitter.
Also: here's a good write-up of Bryan and Mary's appearance at the Edniburgh Book Festival - and the full Lakes Comics Festival program is now online.
Saturday August 24th update: to promote Bryan's exhibition on Kendal in October and November we are launching a competition
Tuesday August 13th 2013 update: I have created a page to download the "Open letter to a comics virgin" as a digital comic.
Monday August 12th 2013 update 2:
Brainstorm!: The Art of Bryan Talbot exhibition is at Wildman Studios, in Wildman Street, Kendal, Cumbria between October 4 and November 10.
"Described as "a dazzling and tireless exponent of the comic art form" Bryan Talbot has been one of the driving forces in the comics industry since the late 70s, when he created the Brainstorm Comix series for Alchemy Press. Since then he has produced work in almost every genre and pushed boundaries in many ways.
"Most recently his highly-acclaimed steampunk detective series Grandville which follows the life of Detective Inspector Lebrock employs anthropomorphism and satire to startling effect.
"This exhibition not only reveals the life, work of a great creator but also an energy and passion which have made him one of the most influential comic art figures to this day. From covers to comics, illustrations from his psychedelic beginnings to rock stars and offbeat paraphernalia, Costa Award winner Bryan Talbot presents his outstanding body of work."
Free entry
Monday August 12th 2013 update:
An open letter to a comics virgin
Here's a strip by Bryan published earlier in the year that was specially commissioned by The Author magazine to introduce members of the Society of Authors to the medium of comics and the form of the graphic novel.
First published in 1890, and featuring articles by writers such as HG Wells, Bernard Shaw, EM Forster and Lord Tennyson in its long history, this is the very first time it has included a comic strip!
Sunday 11th August 2013 update: remember the rapper that named himself after Chester P Hackenbush, the Psychedelic Alchemist? - well check out this bloggers account of coming to the Brainstorm comic because of his music, and his obsessive, quixotic quest to actually get a copy of the comic - and how he met the truly decent Lee Harris as a result...
Saturday 10th August 2013 update: the Lakes International Comics Festival is on 18th to 20th October, in the beautiful Lake District - and did you know Bryan is a Founder of it? - and he will be attending? - anyway: they asked Bryan to draw the map of the venues in the town where events are taking place and it looks excellent!
Also today: the wonderful people over at the Scottish Book Trust did a podcast with Bryan as their guest - and then made it possible to embed it right here so you could listen to it without even leaving the fanpage! Like I said - very nice people! - go check out their site or visit their own podcast page.
And finally (can you tell I have just got back from summer holiday and had a shedload of updates sent over from Bryan?!) - here's the cover of a new book on Alan Moore from Manchester University Press, using Bryan's illustration of him in a famous Aleistar Crowley pose from the charity publication 'Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman'.
12 July update: you saw it here first! - the cover to the next DI LeBrock graphic novel - Grandville: Noel!
7 July update: remember the Flash game of You are Torquemada by the amazingly talented Paul Ferguson? - well he's only gone and done it again with You Are Judge Dredd - in the House of Death - originally published by 2000ad and drawn by Bryan.
Enjoy! - and if you need and Flash work doing, please think of hiring firstname.lastname@example.com!
23 June update: Bryan sent over "A couple of photos from Sunday's steampunk convention, Tiffin on the Trinc, including one of me opening the event by firing a cannon! I'm wearing my big shirt especially for the event!"
22 June update: here's a photo album of Bryan at the Etna Comics Convention
14 June 2013 update: A fellow fan of Bryan's asked on the Bryan Talbot Twitter feed (which I maintain on behalf of Bryan) about how the work on Sally Heathcote, Suffragette was divided up:
@bryan_talbot i'm excited - how is the work divided? - is bryan inking kate's pencils?
— Rob Cave (@notbbcnews24) June 8, 2013
- and he thought the best way to illustrate it would be with one of the layout pages he has created and sent over to Kate.
Also - go check out Mary's site and Kate's site!
And finally: at last weekend's Etna Comic Festival, Bryan won the Francisco Solano Lopez Award for Best Writer / Artist. Named after the famous Argentine comics creator, this is the first year that these awards have been given.
Photo thanks to Mario Benenati.
8th June 2013 update: Here's a sneak peek at a new collaboration from the House of Talbot: Sally Heathcote, Suffragette.
It's a timely preview of the book, as in June 2013 we have the centenary of the death of the renowned militant suffragette, Emily Wilding Davison.
Sally Heathcote, Suffragette charts the fortunes of a maid-of-all-work as she is swept up in the feminist activism of the Edwardian era.
Written by Mary, it is currently being illustrated by Kate Charlesworth, with Bryan doing the lettering and detailed layouts."
1st June 2013 update: Bryan and Mary Talbot are guests of the Etna Comics Festival in Sicily 7th - 9th June
4th May 2013 update: check out the review of Bryan and Mary at the Hexham Book Festival by Marian Sheck over on Kyeo.
29th April 2013 update: Bryan will be a guest at the steampunk con Tiffin on the Trinc in Hartlepool. I'll actually be firing off one of the ship's cannons at some point, as well as giving a presentation "How I create a graphic novel".
In June Bryan and Mary will both be guests at the Etna Comics con in Sicilly and, in July, the Cork Literary Festival.
9th April 2013 update: The insanely talented people over at Crooked Dice have only gone and made the first two of their new Grandville 28mm figures range!
Pop over to the Grandville miniatures site for more info and to feast your eyes on the figures from all angles - and also to purchase some of them! Personally I am itching for the production to be completed so I can get my hands on them and get them painted!
I've also been hard at work updating the Bryan Talbot online shop with the first ever original artwork from Dotter of her Father's Eyes released for sale!
2nd April 2013 update: A fellow fan of Bryan's - the exceptionally talented Sarah Dunkerton had the muse strike, and just had to sit down and draw some pictures of Billie from Grandville: Bête Noire on her kick-ass steampunk motorbike: and she felt she had to share the fan art with us here on the site!
So here for your viewing pleasure is both the pencilled and inked version of Billie.
I've always said there's something special about us fans of Bryan's!
Also see the Scottish Book Trusts Book Talk on Dotter.
30th March 2013 update: Breaking news! - Grandville Bête Noire is nominated for a Hugo award!
Also check out a great review of Cherubs from the Krypto Dies site: "Without giving a lot away, I'll just say that this was a FUN novel to read."
Also, a fellow fan sent me an update of the "You Are Torquemada" flash Diceman game he created: this is an amazing Flash version of the old 2000ad Diceman Nemesis / Torquemada game that Bryan drew, and the creator Paul Ferguson deserves more recognition - so I am trying to get it for him!
21st March 2013 update: an interview with Bryan from Travelling Man.
6th March 2013 update: If you can name all the comic characters referenced in our festival poster created by Bryan, we'll put you into a prize draw to win one of 5 signed copies and our festival mug.
Email your answers to firstname.lastname@example.com by 11am on Monday 18 March
5th March 2013 update: as you probably know, Bryan is a Founder of the Lakes International Comics Festival. and so: here is their latest press release on the big name guests already signed up:
Lakes International Comic Art Festival announces first big name guests
Some of the biggest names in comic art will be heading to the inaugural Lakes International Comic Art Festival later this year.
Festival organisers have announced some of the guests of honour who will be appearing at the event which will run from 18-20 October 2013 in Kendal in Cumbria.
The first guests revealed by the festival include writers and artists from the United States, Argentina, Spain and the UK, working in a wide range of different genres.
The event, which is modelled on the European style comic art festivals, has a guest list running to more than 40 writers and artists. Organisers plan to reveal more names over the next few months, in the run up to tickets going on sale in May.
American writer Ed Brubaker is making his first visit to a British comic art event. He is famous for his work on comics like Captain America, Batman, Catwoman, Uncanny X-Men and Daredevil, as well as the creator owned comics Criminal and Fatale. He has won four Eisner awards, the comic industry's equivalent of the Oscars.
Artist Sean Phillips, a founder patron of the new festival, has been working with Ed Brubaker for about 12 years, most recently on Criminal and Fatale. He says: "I find Ed's work believable. We do crime fiction so there are obviously things like armoured car heists, pickpockets and other crime plots.
"But the important bit is the characters and how they react to their situations. And the way the characters created by Ed react is always believable. You have to be able to care about what happens to the characters and that is what he does really well."
Another guest at the festival, the highly rated Argentine artist Jose Muñoz, has had a strong influence on a number of other leading comic artists. Muñoz is noted for his influential black and white artwork and his graphic novel series Alack Sinner was the inspiration for Frank Miller's Sin City comic series.
Another US writer and artist who will be flying over for the festival is Joe Sacco. He writes and draws international political reportage in a comic book format, providing an insight into the complex issues of global politics while telling the stories of some of the ordinary people living in war torn areas like Sarajevo, Chechnya and Palestine.
Festival patron Bryan Talbot says: "Joe was trained as a journalist and singlehandedly created the genre of reportage in graphic novel form. Immersing himself in a situation, his in-depth reports use the medium of sequential art to its full advantage. His books, such as Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde or his recent Footnotes in Gaza, follow his investigations and interviews, explaining the history, politics and dynamics of the situation as he goes along."
Judge Dredd fans will be particularly looking forward to meeting British writer John Wagner and Spanish artist Carlos Ezquerra, who are the co-creators of the famous law maker. They have both created many other characters for 2000AD including Strontium Dog. John is also credited as being one of the people who revitalised British comics in the 1970s.
The work of another guest, cartoonist Posy Simmonds, could not be more different. She satirises the English middle classes, particularly those of a literary bent. Her cartoons for The Guardian, Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe, have both been turned into books. Tamara Drewe won the Prix Des Critiques in 2009 and was made into a feature film in 2010. She has also written and drawn several books for children.
Two British comic creators coming to the festival recently won prestigious awards at Europe's biggest comic art festival in Angouleme.
Glyn Dillon won the the Prix Spécial du Jury for The Nao of Brown, the story of a half Japanese, half English woman who suffers from violent morbid obsessions and a racing, unruly mind. He has had a wide ranging career, including working as a storyboard artist and concept designer for both film and television.
Jon McNaught was the first Briton to win the Prix Révélation, The Best Newcomer Award, at Angouleme, for his first full-length book Automne (entitled Dockwood in English).
Artist Doug Braithwaite began his career in comics 25 years ago working for Marvel UK and 2000AD. He has worked on many of the industry's flagship titles, and has drawn just about every major character for both Marvel and DC comics. His recent work includes Secret Invasion: Thor, Wolverine Origins, and the award winning Justice series for DC comics. He is currently working on the creator owned series Storm Dogs with writer David Hine.
Another British writer who will star at the inaugural festival is Andy Diggle. He is currently working on Superman and writing stories for Dr Who, Thief of Thieves and a new supernatural comic Uncanny. Andy has recently launched his own thriller called Snapshot with artist Jock. He has also been nominated for the prestigious Eisner Award for co-creating the New York Times best-selling action thriller The Losers, which was turned into a film.
Andy says: "The wider world is finally waking up to the richness, vibrancy and immediacy of the comics medium in all its diverse genres. Comics aren't just great art and great entertainment - they're also educational. Multiple studies have shown that kids who read comics have improved literacy, and go on to read more prose in a wider range of styles and genres than kids who don't.
"So it's great to see a European-style comics festival come to the North-West, bringing the joy of comics to a whole new audience. As for myself, I'm looking forward to meeting the fans - and the other creators. Festival Director Julie Tait has pulled together an amazing line-up of talent, especially considering it's the inaugural festival. Long may it continue!"
These first nine guests of honour join founder patrons Bryan and Mary Talbot, who won the biography category in the Costa Book Awards earlier this year, and Sean Phillips.
Bryan Talbot has also created a special festival poster which features Kendal's town hall a lake and references to 28 different comic art characters.
The festival will include events where people will be able hear from writers and artists, panel discussions, special live drawing events, films, several exhibitions, workshops and a kids' zone. Authors and artists will be signing copies of their work and there will be a marketplace to buy comics and comic art. There will also be some free events and exhibitions.
Festival Director Julie Tait says: "We're very excited to give people their first real taste of the guest list for our new festival. We have a great line up which includes top creators from the UK, Europe and further afield who are recognised as leading lights or exciting new talent - all are pioneers in some shape or form.
"We'll be revealing more big names over the next few months. We know people are eager to find out who all our guests are but we want to keep people in suspense for a bit longer!
"The festival will include a wide range of events, including some which are free. We want The Lakes International Comic Art Festival to appeal not just to the people who are already big comic art fans but also to help bring new audiences to this fantastic and versatile medium."
More details about the new event are available at www.comicartfestival.com. It is also possible to keep up to date with plans for the festival by following @comicartfest on Twitter or by liking the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Facebook page.
For media information please contact Paul or Karen Gardner on 015394-42436, 07766-906561 or email firstname.lastname@example.com
The founder partners of the event are the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal College, South Lakeland District Council and Osprey Communications. Founder supporters are Curious Road, Designworks and Jonathan Cape. The festival is also supported by Kendal Library and publishers Myriad Editions, Nobrow, Blank Slate, Knockabout and Selfmadehero.
4th March 2013 update: A couple of really excellent updates here for you:
The first half of Bryan's talk "The Use of Style and Storytelling Technique in The Tale of One Bad Rat" in the form of text and pictures is now online. Bryan said: "I've done this talk well over a hundred times, all over the world, from China to Brazil and the United States, and all over Europe and the UK. As I no longer present it, it's appropriate that it's now documented. This is just the first half of the talk." I will post the second half as soon as the inestimable Mr Talbot sends it over to me.
Secondly there is Bryan's other talk on The Anthropomorphic Tradition in Comics - which covers the historical antecedents and forerunners of the redoubtable LeBrock from Grandville.
Incidentally - allow me to interject at this point: it is all down to Bryan that my 8 year old son understands the word and concept of "anthropomorphic"... - understand it? - heck - he uses it in conversation!
1st March 2013 update: Bryan recommends - Peter Pan
For the first time in English, in one omnibus edition, Soaring Penguin Press will be publishing Régis Loisel's adult epic series, Peter Pan. This 372-page, full colour hardback (retailing for £29.99) will tell the entire story of how Peter, a young boy on the streets of Dickensian London, became Peter Pan.This omnibus edition collects the complete 6 volume bande dessinee series lovingly created by Loisel from 1990 to 2004. This series has never before been seen in the UK, and has never been collected in English.
To support this exciting publishing venture, Soaring Penguin Press has created an Indiegogo campaign: Everyday for the 45 days of the campaign, a page from the book will be added to the gallery.
Régis Loisel will be attending the BD and Comics Passion festival at Intitut francais May 30th to June 2nd, as guest of honour.
8th February 2013 update: have you checked out the Forbidden Planet blog recently? - well then you should! - they do a lot of work supporting the UK comics industry - and they're nice people too! - I used to have a Saturday job at the Birmingham store with the main blogger there!
6th February 2013 update: Cherubs is now available from Dark Horse Digital! - and you can also peruse all of Bryan's work that is available for digital download.
22nd January 2013 update: Bryan and Mary just got interviewed on Radio 4 about Dotter and the Costa book prize category win.
18th January 2013 update:
Announcing - the Lakes International Comics Festival: A new festival to celebrate comic art
A new festival has been launched to celebrate the very best comic art from across the world, from cartoon strips to superhero comics and manga to non-fiction graphic novels.
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival will run from 18-20 October 2013 in Kendal in Cumbria.
The founder patrons of the new festival include Bryan and Mary Talbot who won the biography category in the Costa Book Awards earlier this month. They are joined by another internationally renowned comic artist Sean Phillips.
The launch of the new festival comes at a time when there is a growing buzz about comic art. Graphic novels have been taken increasingly seriously over the last twenty years.
Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, written by academic Mary Talbot and illustrated by her husband Bryan, was the first graphic novel to win the biography category in the Costa Awards. The Chair of the 2013 Man Booker Prize has also encouraged entries by authors of graphic novels.
Bryan Talbot's work also includes Batman, Judge Dredd, Alice in Sunderland and his Grandville series of detective thrillers. He also wrote and drew A Tale of One Bad Rat, which is set in the Lake District.
He says: "The UK is one of the only countries in Europe that doesn't have an international comic festival, celebrating the whole range of this versatile and exciting medium. This is the golden age of graphic novels, with more, and better, comic art being produced today than ever before. The Lakes International Comic Art festival is therefore a concept whose time has come.
"The medium of comics, or sequential art, is as valid an art form as any other and is capable of dealing with any subject and any genre in its own unique way, a way that is direct and accessible. The best graphic novels are comparable to the best in prose, film or drama."
The festival will include events where people will be able hear from some of the biggest names in comic art, panel discussions, films, exhibitions and workshops. Authors and artists will also be signing copies of their work and there will be a marketplace to buy comics and comic art.
Sean Phillips, who lives in Cumbria, has also worked as an artist on comics such as Batman and Hellblazer, and more recently on crime genre comics Criminal and Fatale. He says: "It's great to be involved with any festival that is interested in promoting the vast range of comics out there.
"Comics is a medium, not a genre. It's not just superheroes and the Beano, and this festival is a good chance to see that there are comics for everyone, no matter what their interests are. Comics can be used to tell any type of story in any genre, and that should be celebrated."
The festival is the brainchild of Julie Tait and her 14 year old comic fan son Finn who live in Kendal. Julie said: "The Lakes International Comic Art Festival will celebrate this exciting and vibrant art form, which is gaining a growing number of fans of all ages.
"For me, the fusion of great art and great writing is dynamite. It makes it a very exciting, inspiring and challenging art form to be promoting, celebrating and encouraging."
The event's founders have looked to the comic art festivals held on the continent for inspiration, including Europe's largest celebration of the art form at Angouleme in France, which takes place later this month.
Julie says: "In countries like France there's a real appreciation of comics as an art form and our aim is to create something of the atmosphere at comic art festivals like the one in Angouleme. There will be plenty for the real enthusiasts but we also hope it will help to introduce a new audience to comic art."
Julie also runs the team behind the Lakes Alive outdoor arts festival. Speaking about her latest venture she says: "There's a real enthusiasm in the Lake District and across Cumbria for new, contemporary cultural events. We believe this new festival will provide something that is inspiring, exciting and creative for local people to enjoy, as well as bringing in audiences from outside the area."
The festival will take place at a number of venues across Kendal including the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal College and the Town Hall.
More details about the new event will be available at www.comicartfestival.com and the blog at www.thelakesinternationalcomicartfestival.wordpress.com. It is also possible to keep up to date with plans for the festival by following @comicartfest on Twitter or by liking the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Facebook page.
The new festival will be created and presented by Lakes Arts Festivals Ltd, a not-for-profit company.
For media information please contact Paul or Karen Gardner on 015394-42436, 07766-906561
Notes to editors
- Images of Bryan and Mary Talbot and Sean Phillips are available on request together with examples of their work.
- The founding partners and supporters of the new festival are the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal College, Osprey Communications, Design Works and Curious Road.
And here is Bryan talking about the festival in a podcast:
15th January 2013 update: Bryan emailed me this image and said "this is what the window of the Glasgow graphic novel shop, Plan B, currently looks like. Owner and artist Pete Renshaw painted it to celebrate Dotter winning the Costa Biography Award."
Also see Mary Talbot's recent interview in the Metro: "Comics aren't 'growing up': they've been adult for years."
4th January 2013 update: Bryan and Mary were interviewed on live national UK TV news last night - and their interview is presented below for your viewing pleasure!
And also see the accompanying article - Does Costa win signal British comics comeback - written by none other than Eddie Campbells daughter Hayley!
2nd January 2013 update: Breaking news: Bryan and Mary have won the Costa Book Prize biography category! - this means they go forward for consideration for the main prize! - see the article on the Guardian for more.
As is now traditional on the Bryan Talbot fanpage, I have archived off a lot of the old announcements that were made here on the homepage of the site to the old announcements page. I never like to delete these because:
a) they took a lot of work to compile, create and upload and I hate to delete work, even if it is for the very valid reason that it is out of date! - and:
b) a lot of fellow Talbot fans ask if I can keep them live as they contain links to events / articles / images / info that might not exist anywhere else.
So: being a firm proponent of good netiquette I keep them live, albeit on an explicitly archived page.
Other stuff to mention:
Happy New Year one and all - and this is now officially the 17th year that I have been running this fansite for Bryan!
I have changed the way that I add updates to the site after Bryan commented that it was very easy to confuse the date that an item was added to the site with the date that an event was happening. I hope I have avoided it via the simple expedient of adding "update" to the dateline on each one.. - let me know if it's worked via the usual channels of email, Twitter or Facebook.
Don't forget to listen to Front Row on Radio 4 tonight when they will announce the winners of the individual categories of the Costa Book Award!
See the excellent review of Cherubs by Bryan Talbot and Mark Stafford from Ashleigh Mayes at Krypto Dies.
Paul Register (organiser of the outstanding Stan Lee Excelsior Award) sent the following image and explanation: "Staff at our school are encouraged to put up a 'Currently Reading...' poster on our room doors (and most do). This is what our Headteacher has got on his door! ;-)"
Grandville made Ian Rankin's Book of the Year list! - "Grandville: Bête Noire (Jonathan Cape £16.99) is the third in Bryan Talbot's series of anthropomorphic steam-punk graphic novels, featuring Detective Inspector LeBrock. The art is stunning, the story ingenious, and the in-jokes delicious, as our badger hero visits Paris to solve a series of art murders, including the demise of a crow called Gustave Corbeau."
Dotter also made the Spectator Tribune lists of top 10 comics of the year!
Sunday December 16th 2012: Dotter of her Father's Eyes is now available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod!
Also - don't forget to listen to Front Row on Radio 4on Wednesday January 2nd 2013when they will announce the winners of the individual categories of the Costa Book Award!
Saturday December 15th 2012: Bryan will be giving the latest version of his presentation "Grandville and the Anthropomorphic Tradition" at Northumbria University on 21 January at 6.30pm.
Business and Law Building, City Campus East, Falconer Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2SW - 0191 232 6002
Admission is free and it's open to the public.
Tuesday 11th December 2012: The Telegraph has an excellent article on Bryan: A page in the life: Bryan Talbot Have graphic novels come of age? Tim Martin meets the dazzling and tireless exponent of the form, Bryan Talbot.
Overall I have to say that it looks like Bryan is finally getting the national, mainstream attention and plaudits he deserves - and what I have hoped this site has tried to help achieve for 16 years now!
Dotter of her father's eyes is also on the Guardians list of best memoirs of the year!
Sunday 9th December 2012: Dotter of her Father's eyes made The Independent's top memoirs of the year, cheek-by-jowl with Salman Rushdie!
"This is a sad and stunning book which reflects the literary heights to which the graphic novel can rise."
The book also made MTV Geek's Best Graphic Novels of 2012 list:
"The brilliant thing about Mary Talbots memoir - which jumps between her own childhood relationship with her father, and that of James Joyce and his daughter Lucia - is that it never dips into melodrama, or easy, cathartic answers. Instead, it says more about how emotional neglect can be as damaging – and life-changing - as abuse, or encouragement. A smart, beautiful piece of work that should be read by anyone who ever had (or has) a father."
The very nice publishers of Steampunk: An Illustrated History of Fantastical Fiction, Fanciful Film and Other Victorian Visionsasked if I would be interested in getting a copy to review for the site, and of course I replied "hell yes!". There's a good chapter on Bryan and all of the steampunk influences in his work, and the book is just gorgeous: hardback, glossy, vastly comprehensive and a perfect gift for any Steampunkian you might know!
Also the Adventures of Luther Arkwright is being adapted for Runequest 6!
Saturday November 24th 2012: Bryan will be in London to promote Grandville Bête Noire, signing at Forbidden Planet, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR on Saturday 1st December 1.00 - 2.00pm and at The London Comic Mart,
The Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London WC1 Sunday, December 2 from noon to 4:00pm.
Also, the free newspaper the Metro did a wonderful write-up of Grandville: Bête Noire! And finally: a fellow fan blogged about Luther Arkwright: check out Ross Kitson's "Luther Arkwright- my first journey into Steampunk?"
Wednesday November 21st 2012: so much news this week that there is a mid-week update!
Bryan will attend Canny Comic Con "a free little festival of comics and sequential art" - Saturday 8th December in Newcastle City Library
The wonderful Don't Panic site featured another excellent interview with Bryan.
And: saving the best to last, Bryan and Mary have been nominated for a Costa Book Award! - theirs is one of the first ever graphic novels to be so nominated! - also see the Guardians write-up, and the BBCs, the Telegraph and the Independent.
This is just amazing because no graphic novel has ever been nominated for this prestigous award before!
Friday November 16th 2012: The new edition of Geek Syndicate features not only a review of Grandville Bête Noire but also an interview with Bryan.
Saturday November 3rd 2012: Bryan will be at the Travelling Man booth at the Thought Bubble comics festival on 17th and 18th November this year - it's stand 185.
Also, Rebellion the 2000ad publishers have a new line of t-shirts out - including a Nemesis one with Bryan's art on it!
Sunday October 28th 2012: much as I am wary of starting to talk about the fourth and fifth Grandville graphic novels, when the third one is not yet published (but see the review below!), it inevitably came up in conversation with Bryan and he said: "I'm actually currently scripting the fifth volume and will be starting to draw the fourth very soon. You can add that Grandville: Noël is the strongest story yet and that the fifth one will blow any Grandville fan's mind!"
Bryan also mentioned that in the doughface march in Grandville: Bête Noire, you can also see references to Tiff & Tordu (the 2 on the left in panel 2 p 60) and Blondin and Cirage (the black and white kids in panel 3 Page 61) who are from 2 old Belgian comic strips, and also in panel 3 page 60, Ally Sloper, Little Lulu, smurfs, Archie and Jughead and Bette Noir in black).
January marks the publication date of the complete Cherubs! By Dark Horse Comics. This lovely hardback collects the previously published first part of the supernatural comedy adventure, "Paradise Lost", with the longer, unpublished second half, "Hell on Earth".
With script and layouts by Bryan and artwork by the incredible Mark Stafford, Cherubs! is a hilarious and exciting horror romp, described by Joe Gordon on the Forbidden Planet International blog as "pants-wettingly funny". Introduction by (a) MEL GIBSON and afterword by THE (Paul) POPE!
Buy online from Dark Horse! and also check out the interview with Bryan at Comic Book resources.
Official blurb:
An original graphic novel with script and layouts by Eisner-award winner Bryan Talbot and art by the hottest Brit Indy artist, Mark Stafford, CHERUBS! is a totally irreverent, fast-paced supernatural comedy-adventure that's heaven-sent and hell-bent!
Put in the frame for the first murder in Heaven, the outrageous celestial rugrats pursue the renegade archangel Abbadon to New York on the eve of the Apocalypse! Befriended by Mary, an exotic dancer, and pursued by unstoppable Seraphim terminators, they alone stand against the Devil and his hordes as he prepares to stalk the earth once more!
Vampires! Demons! Zombies! Werewolves! Fairy hookers! The descent into Hell! Fluffy the Vampire Slayer! The Doggy-Do Gang! Almighty God! What¹s not to like?
Friday October 26th 2012:
Upcoming signing sessions
Signing in Italy
Bryan will be signing at the Comics House, Sarzana, Tuscony at 5.30pm on Wednesday 31st October and at the Lucca Comics Festival 1st 3rd November. There, he'll be signing at the booth of Comma 22, who have just published their edition of Grandville Mon Amour.
Forbidden Planet signing Saturday 1st December 2012 13:00 - 14:00 London Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR
Grandville World Premiere!
9th November 2012 Foyles 6:30pm - 7:30pm Charing Cross Road
The Badger is back! Comica Festival at Foyles proudly presents the world premiere of the third episode in Bryan Talbot's phenomenal Grandville series of anthropomorphic steampunk romance thrillers starring Inspector Le Brock. in his interview with Kim Newman, Bryan will be joined by his wife Mary Talbot, writer and co-creator of Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, part autobiographical family history, part biography of James Joyce's daughter Lucia. There will also be a trailer and sneak peak at the forthcoming Bryan Talbot documentary.
First review of Grandville: Bête Noire
The first review copies of Grandville Bête Noire have been sent out to faithful fanpage webmasters, and my first review is in: just outstanding!
This instalment initially feels a bit slower paced than the previous two Grandville stories, but that's because the plot unfolds more subtly and builds to an even more dramatic climax, with Billie and Archie LeBrock both undergoing interesting character developments, and with a truly vile villain.
The references and in-jokes are all in there, and as ever provide a fascinating layer over and above the narrative: if you catch them you stop and think - "did he just make a reference to Dangermouse?!" - and you go back and read it again and realise that yes: yes he did... - but they are not required to enjoy the steampunk detective-noir story.
And the re-reading is not just a luxury in this comic: it's a necessity. There's one panel of an artists studio that I found myself entranced by... - and it's just prosaic details that draw you in - but beautifully rendered and all with potential meaning in a classic "locked room" murder case which makes you try and work out which of the plain everyday items was responsible for the murder.
I still remember when Bryan explained his next project after Alice in Sunderland as an anthropomorphic detective romp in an alternative steampunk Paris, and I remember too how worried I was about attaining the necessary suspension of disbelief to get totally drawn into the novels... - I really should have known better shouldn't I? In the hands of a master like Bryan the lack of actual human beings is completely irrelevant: the species of each protagonist provides an excellent foil for their character and demeanor and allows another layer of meaning to be added onto the visual and textual. And that's completely aside to the actual humans - or "doughfaces" who actually partake of a subplot here that helps carry along the unfolding plot.
In fact, I can honestly say that this is the first time I've punched the air and shouted "yes!" on seeing one badger grab another to give her a very public snog to prove that she's the only person in the room he's interested in!
As ever Bryan takes a whole shedload of influences and melds them into a fascinating story, whose art elegantly compliments the plot. He even introduces an conspiracy theory that sounds fantastical in a comic and then in the afterword details how it truly happened here in our own world.
An excellent comic whose only flaw is that it leaves you gagging for the fourth Grandville to be delivered right now!
(And of course you can buy Grandville Bête Noire from Amazon right now!)
Tuesday October 23rd 2012:
Comica Festival at Foyles proudly presents the world premiere of Grandville Bête Noire
The third episode in Bryan Talbot's phenomenal Grandville series of anthropomorphic steampunk romance thrillers starring Inspector Le Brock: in an interview with Kim Newman, Bryan will be joined by his wife Mary Talbot, writer and co-creator of Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, part autobiographical family history, part biography of James Joyce's daughter Lucia. There will also be a trailer and exclusive sneak peak at the forthcoming Bryan Talbot documentary.
Tickets: £8
Where: Foyles, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0EB
When: Friday, November 9, 2012 6.30-7.30pm
Saturday 10th November, 11.00 - 18.00, The Comica Independent Comics Fair, The Great Hall, Bishopgate Institute, 230, Bishopgate, London EC2M 4QH Admission free. Guests include Bryan Talbot and Alison Bechdel.
Sunday September 30th 2012: Bryan just uploaded a video trailer for Grandville: Bête Noire! It's getting close people!
Sunday September 16th 2012: Bryan and Mary Talbot will be discussing Dotter of Her Father's Eyes at "An Evening with Jonathan Cape Graphic Novels", at the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, 6pm - 9.45pm, Wednesday November 14, 2012
Also appearing are Simone Lia, Karrie Fransman, Katie Green, Joff Winterhart, Hannah Berry, Alison Bechdel, Ravi Thornton and Andy Hixon. Price: £12.00 / £10.00
Also: the seventh preview page of Grandville: Bête Noire is now on the site - enjoy! page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4 and page 5 and page 6.
Sunday September 9th 2012: Bryan will be guest of Honour at the 2014 SF Worldcon, as announced at the current Worldcon in Chicago.
Monday August 27th 2012: Bryan and Mary appeared at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Friday - and the Forbidden Planet blog has an excellent write up of it.
Sunday August 26th 2012: page 6 of Grandville: Bête Noire! - released as part of our ongoing countdown to the release of Grandville: Bête Noire in December, here's the next page! - also see page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4 and page 5.
Wednesday August 8th 2012: quick update of the online shop where Bryan has posted a lot of original artwork for sale - and just so you know: this is the only place online to buy original Bryan Talbot artwork - and I've added another new piece: Luther Arkwright when he's in the chair being tortured by the Puritans. This is the page that has the doctor displaying not-so-subtle disgust with the totalitarian regime, with his fine parting shot of "call yourself Chistians?"
Tuesday August 7th 2012: Check out the new magazine by the Geek Syndicate. It includes a great write up on Alice in Sunderland.
Glasgow Talk and Signing: Saturday 25th August 3.00 - 6.00pm
Plan B, 55 Parnie Street, Glasgow - 0141 237 1137. Dr Mary Talbot introduces her graphic novel, Dotter of her Father's Eyes. Part personal history, part biography, it contrasts two coming-of-age narratives: that of Lucia, the daughter of James Joyce, and her own. Followed by a Q & A with Mary and Bryan Talbot, who illustrated the book and a signing session.
We've just opened the Bryan Talbot t-shirt shop! - at the moment we've just got the cover to Grandville: Bête Noire on some shirts: let us know on Twitter or at the Facebook group what other images you'd like.
Monday July 23rd 2012: Page 5 of Grandville: Bête Noire is here now!
Wednesday July 18th 2012; here's a photo of Bryan getting awarded his second honorary Doctorate - and seeing as he is now a "double doctor" a certain fellow comic artist and author of our acquaintance - stop trying to sneak out the back there Al Davison, you're not going anywhere! - decided to Photoshop Bryan into, well - the Doctor!
This photo of Bryan looking quite insanely smart in his graduation gear was taken by Dr Mel Gibson: thanks for letting us use it Mel!
Also see Northumbria Uni's press release on the award.
Monday July 16th: On Tuesday 17th July, Bryan will be presented by an honorary Doctorate of Letters for his body of work by Northumbria University at their annual degree ceremony in Newcastle. He already is an honorary Doctor of Arts, having received it four years ago from Sunderland University, making him the first British comic creator to be awarded a doctorate twice.
Sunday July 1st 2012: just got an update from Bryan on progress on Grandville: Bête Noire: "all scripted, penciled and inked and I'm up to page 40 (out of 96) with the colouring."
Tuesday June 26th 2012: and here, for your viewing pleasure (and, might I add - a world exclusive!) Grandville: Bête Noire page 4!
We'll be publishing 1 new page of Grandville: Bête Noire per month between now and when it is published - which should be just before Christmas. And - to make sure of a copy, why not pre-order it from Amazon right now? - always safest I find...
Also see another review of Grandville by David Haddon: "Grandville is easily one of the best graphic novels I've read, and definitely my favorite of anything recent. Yes, that includes collected editions of comics such as Return of Bruce Wayne or All-Star Superman." and a review of Dotter of Her Father's Eyes by Greg Baldino: "a slim but ambitious volume that makes for a welcome addition to the burgeoning field of autobiographical comics"
Sunday June 24th 2012: Bryan and Mary Talbot will be at the Edinburgh book festival on Friday 24th August.
I've also created a link to pre-order Grandville: Bête Noir if you use it then Bryan and myself will get a small commission from Amazon to help pay for the hosting of the website!
Wednesday June 6th 2012: Bryan tells me that he has now finished all the pencils and inks for Grandville: Bête Noire and has done about a quarter of the colouring.
On a personal note, may I interject: yes!
And: feast your eyes on page 3 of Grandville: Bête Noire! - don't forget we'll be publishing one page per month until it's published. Tweet
Arvon calling
The next annual creative writing for graphic novels course that Bryan co-tutors in the depths of the beautiful Shropshire countryside for the Arvon Foundation is on 25 - 30th June this year. Amazingly there are spaces still available (it's been fully booked the last two years) so, if you'd like to do it, now's your chance!
Also: Dotter of her father's eyes has been listed as one of the hottest graphic novels of 2012!
Thursday May 31st 2012: Prix SNCF
The French edition of Grandville: Mon Amour won the Prix SNCF for best graphic novel at a ceremony at the Gare de Lyon on the night of Tuesday 29th May. This is a national award given by the French railway company for the best in crime fiction. They give an award for best novel and best short film. This is the first year they've introduced the bande dessinée category and it was won by Grandville Mon Amour, out of a long list of 50 and a shortlist of 5.
Sunday May 20th 2012:
The countdown to Grandville: Bête Noire starts right here!
We can now release page 2 of Grandville: Bête Noire and some rather exciting news: from now on we will release a new page of Grandville: Bête Noire every month until it is published at Christmas!
So: here is page 1 and page 2 for your viewing pleasure!
Sunday May 13th 2012: Just found a YouTube advert for the Big Finish audio adaptation of the Adventures of Luther Arkwright:
Saturday May 5th 2012:
Bryan and Mary will be in conversation at the Dublin Writer's Festival on June 9th
Mary and Bryan Talbot will be "In conversation" for a Dotter of her Father's Eyes event at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2 at 2.00 pm on Saturday June 9th. Tickets: €10 / €8: book online at the Dublin Writer's Festival Site.
Sunday April 22nd 2012: Bryan and Mary were featured in the Guardian newspaper with their top 10 graphic novel memoirs.
Sunday April 15th 2012: over on the Bryan Talbot facebook group I recently committed a random act of kinndness: when we reached 500 members I randomly drew a name from the list and asked Bryan to send the winner a free sketch; just as a thank-you to all the fans!
The winner chose a picture of Dream of the Endless... - known to some mortals as the Sandman; I checked with Bryan and the winner and they're both happy for the sketch to be reproduced here.
I will see if I can talk Bryan into doing another such sketch for when we hit a thousand members!
Sunday March 25th 2012: New interview with Bryan over at the Sequential Highway site: "Bryan Talbot answers 15 questions"
Monday March 19th 2012: Bryan and Mary Talbot will be signing in Waterstones, The Bridges, Sunderland next Saturday, 24th March, 2.00 – 3.00pm
Also on Friday 13th April, the Talbots will be in Preston, at The Continental, South Meadow Lane, Preston, Lancashire PR1 8JP, tel: 01772 499425 for reservations & event tickets to give talks on:
Grandville and the anthropomorphic tradition: 8:00pm
Bryan Talbot discusses his graphic novels Grandville and Grandville Mon Amour and the venerable and ongoing tradition of anthropomorphic characters in illustration and comics from which they have grown, pointing out references to this tradition and 19th century art within the Grandville books themselves.
Dotter of her Fathers' Eyes: 9:30pm
Dr Mary Talbot introduces her graphic novel, Dotter of her Father's Eyes. Part personal history, part biography, it contrasts two coming-of-age narratives: that of Lucia, the daughter of James Joyce, and her own.
Followed by a Q & A with Mary and Bryan Talbot, who illustrated the book.
Dotter of Her Father's Eyes by Mary M Talbot & Bryan Talbot, with an exclusive signed and numbered bookplate is available available to British readers from Gosh! and to American readers from Panel To Panel
Sunday March 11th 2012: you saw it here first! - the publicity blurb for Grandville Bête Noire from Jonathon Cape, the publishers!
The Badger is back! At Toad Hall, lair of multibillionaire Baron Aristotle Krapaud, a cabal of industrialists and fat cats plot the violent overthrow of the French state by the intervention of horribly beweaponed automaton soldiers.
Meanwhile, the brutal murder of a famous Parisian artist, mysteriously stabbed to death in his locked and guarded studio, is subject to the investigations of the tenacious Detective Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard, placing him and his faithful adjunct, Detective Sergeant Roderick Ratzi, in pursuit of the mysterious masked assassin stalking the cut-throat commercial world of the Grandville art scene.
Bête Noire signals the welcome return to anthropomorphic steampunk detective fiction of master storyteller and graphic novel pioneer Bryan Talbot with the third stand-alone volume of the Eisner and Hugo Award nominated Grandville series.
As the body count mounts and events spiral exponentially out of control, aided by his brilliant deductive abilities and innate ferocity, LeBrock battles against outrageous odds in this funny, high octane thriller, an adventure shot through with both high art and comic book references, a glorious illegitimate offspring of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming – with animals!
Follow the Badger!
"I have greatly enjoyed the Grandville books. I think they're superbly designed, beautifully conceived, admirably written – everything about them is terrific. They really show what the form can do. Comics is so rich a medium now that it can accommodate all kinds of wit and irony and self-referentiality without being arch about it. A graphic novel built on the solid foundation of a strong story."
Philip Pullman
Also new today: the Bryan Talbot online shop has got a load of new, original artwork from Bryan available... - this is literally the only place you can buy these masterpieces online: the only other place they can be bought is from Bryan himself at Comics Conventions... have a look at the new Luther Arkwright original artwork and treat yourself to something you've always promised you would buy yourself!
Wednesday February 22nd: Dotter of Her Father's Eyes at the Lit and Phil!
The Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society are hosting a Dotter event at 6.30pm on Tuesday 28th February, consisting of a Powerpoint presentation by Mary Talbot, followed by a Q & A session with Bryan and Mary. Entry £4/£2 concession (includes entry into the current exhibition Creative Passions). 23 Westgate Road Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne And Wear NE1 1SE, United Kingdom 0191 232 0192
Also Mary was interviewed on Midweek on Radio 4 today!
Sunday February 12th 2012: Bryan Talbot documentary DVD news
Mary and Bryan's Wigan launch of Dotter of Her Father's Eyes at Waterstones was recorded by Digital Story Engine as part of the Bryan Talbot DVD to be released later this year. In between filming at the launch and Talbot related Wigan landmarks, DSE's James Guy and Russell Wall discussed the creative plans for the project with local fans. Rusell said:"We have just completed a short film about Bryan and Mary's creative approach to Dotter of Her Father's Eyes. It features exclusive video interview segments with Bryan and Mary along with extracts from Dotter giving a taste of the co-creators' first Graphic Novel together and the emerging Bryan Talbot DVD.
Comic Historian Paul Gravett, and Dan Franklin, the Publishing Director of Jonathan Cape also discuss Bryan and Mary's innovative storytelling techniques. The Dotter of Her Father's Eyes promotional film will be going live on YouTube early next week with alternative cuts for Waterstones and Dark Horse to follow.
Stay tuned to the fanpage for further announcements as filming proceeds over 2012.
Tuesday February 7th 2012: The launch party for Dotter of her Fathers' Eyes was held at on February 2nd (which is the date on which the present day sequences are set, James joyce's birthday and the 90th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses - and Groundhog Day!) and here's a video of it from the nice people at Bleeding Cool:
Sunday February 5th 2012:
Bryan Talbot DVD for 2012
I have been talking to Russell Wall and James Guy of Digital Story Engine who are working on the DVD documentary about Bryan and his work, and they've given me an update to send out:
"We plan to complete by late October and get everything ready for shipping by Christmas 2012. Please let the fans know they won't have to wait next year. The project will also take full advantage of the DVD medium providing a cluster of featurette documentaries on Bryan's major works and working process supporting an overview of his career and achievements to date. You can also let people know that we are filming in Manchester and points west this week."
Wednesday February 1st 2012 update: Dotter of her Father's Eyes signings:
Friday 3rd February 5.00pm, Bryan and Mary will be signing copies at Orbital Comics, 8 Great Newport Street London WC2H 7JA tel: 0207 240 0591 where there will also be a month-long exhibition of some of the artwork from the graphic novel.
On Saturday 4th February Bryan will be at the SWALC microfestival all afternoon at The Lord Clyde pub 342 Essex Road, London, N1 3PB Admission free: a chance to mingle, chat and hob-nob: see the front page of the invite and the back page.
Sunday 5th February sees them signing at the London Comic Mart
Saturday 11th of February 2pm at Waterstone's, 6 The Grand Arcade, Wigan, WN1 1BH tel: 01942 497095. Wigan, of course is where roughly half the book is set.
Also read the glowing review of Dotter in todays Guardian.
Cherubs news!
You may not realise that Bryan wrote this graphic novel, drawn by Mark Stafford and published by Desperado in 2007, as it received virtually no publicity. This was actually the first half of the story - "Paradise Lost" - although it could be read as a stand-alone. Cherubs! is a supernatural comedy-adventure about a bunch of gonzo cherubim on the loose in New York on the eve of the apocalypse. Mark Stafford has nearly finished the art for the second half of the story - "Hell on Earth" - and the whole story will be published by Dark Horse Books in 2012.
I'll post more info - and especially the cover - as soon as possible!
Dotter Interview
On 20th January at the First Fictions festival in Brighton, Bryan and Mary Talbot were interviewed by Nicola Streeten (writer/artist BILLY, YOU AND ME) about their collaboration on Dotter of Her Father's Eyes. The graphic novel is to be published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Dark Horse Books in the USA. You can listen a podcast of the interview here.
The 2012 Arvon catalogue is now out, which includes details for the Creative Writing for Graphic Novels residential course Bryan co-tutors annually. This year it takes place June 25 - 30th. You can download the catalogue directly from their site. I'm giving anybody who might be interested a shout now as last year it sold out pretty early. Also there are a limited number of grants available to pay for the Arvon courses and these go very quickly after the courses are announced.
Sunday January 15th 2012: here's a nice flyer for the signing that Bryan and Mary will be doing at Friday Orbital Comics 8 Great Newport Street London WC2H 7JA tel: 0207 240 0591 on 3rd February 5.00pm, where there will also be a month-long exhibition of some of the artwork from the graphic novel.
Also, Joe Gordon over at Forbidden Planet has just posted the "Directors Commentary" of Dotter!
Sunday January 8th 2012 : Also you can now read The Naked Artist, Bryan's prose book on the outrageous urban legends of the comic industry, on Kindle! Only $2.98 (Under 2 quid!)
Dotter of Her Father's Eyes will be published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on the 2nd February and in the USA by Dark Horse on the 8th February.
Friday 3rd February 5.00pm, Bryan and Mary will be signing copies at Orbital Comics, 8 Great Newport Street London WC2H 7JA tel: 0207 240 0591 where there will also be a month-long exhibition of some of the artwork from the graphic novel.
Sunday 5th February sees them signing at the London Comic Mart
Saturday 11th of February 2pm at Waterstone's, 6 The Grand Arcade, Wigan, WN1 1BH tel: 01942 497095. Wigan, of course is where roughly half the book is set.
Friday 2nd March - 5:00pm - Forbidden Planet 5-6 Crampton Quay, Dublin 2 tel: 0035 3167 10688
3rd & 4th March, they are guests at Dublin's Phoenix Con
On Saturday 4th February Bryan will be at the SWALC microfestival all afternoon at The Lord Clyde pub 342 Essex Road, London, N1 3PB Admission free: a chance to mingle, chat and hob-nob: see the front page of the invite and the back page.
Sunday January 1st 2012: Happy New Year everyone!
Monday December 5th 2011: First Fictions Festival
Along with many others, including Ian Rankin, Bryan and Mary Talbot are guests at the First Fictions launch weekend 20-22 January, 2012 at the University of Sussex. This is a series of events designed to celebrate and champion first novels, past and present. The results of Myriad Editions'competition for a first graphic novel in progress, of which Bryan is one of the judges, will be announced there (entries are now closed). Grandville Bête Noire Progress report
This weekend Bryan finished the inking of page 49, meaning that the half the book is now pencilled and inked. 11 pages are fully coloured and the ones up to page 47 have all been colour flatted, from page 11 onwards, by Chrissie Harper.Book Four in the series Grandville Noel, is already scripted and Book five is roughly plotted out.The Unwritten #31.5
Bryan has pencilled and inked a 6 page story, Copy Errors, for The Unwritten, penned by the series author, Mike Carey. The chapter is set in medieval Germany. Other stories in the issue are drawn by Michael Kaluta and Rick Geary. The issue is now on sale.
Sunday December 4th 2011: Dark Horse just sent me over the link to read Grandville and Grandville: Mon Amour online as a digital comic! - and so, seeing as how they also kindly sent over a graphic to advertise it, I've added it onto the sidebar for each page!
Tuesday November 15th: On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, Bryan discusses Art Spiegelman's Maus and the new companion book, Metamaus.
The news item before it is quite funny. An instance of breaking and decorating!
Monday November 14th 2011: I finally get the chance to post Bryan giving his "Grandville and the anthropomorphic tradition" talk!
This talk was filmed at Nottingham University on 2nd March 2011. Bryan tells me that it's still in an ongoing process of evolution and changes every time he gives it. The current version has none of the page design and more anthropomorphic material, including Pogo and medieval manuscripts.
Sunday November 13th 2011: Here's a chance to peruse some of the entries in the Jonathan Cape / Observer / Comica Graphic Short Story Competition from over the last five years, introduced by Bryan who was one of this year's judges. Also see Andrew Blair's interview with Bryan over at Den of Geek: giving comic book artists the recognition they deserve
Sunday November 6th 2011: Both Bryan and Mary Talbot are guests of The Canny Comic Con at Newcastle City Library (link to map), all day on Saturday 10th December 2011. Entry is free!
.. And the First Fictions Festival in Brighton, 20th-22nd January 2012:
They will also be attending the Angouleme Comics Festival, 26 – 29th January where Bryan will be signing the French editions of Grandville and Grandville Mon Amour at the publisher Bragelonne's booth.
Dotter of Her Father's Eyes will be published by Jonathan Cape on the 2nd February. Bryan and Mary will be signing copies at Orbital Comics, 8 Great Newport Street London WC2H 7JA (tel: 0207 240 0591) 5.00pm, 3rd February, where there will also be an exhibition of some of the artwork from the graphic novel.
Sunday 5th February sees them signing at the London Comic Mart.
Saturday October 29th 2011: The first Dotter of Her Father's Eyes interview with Bryan and Mary Talbot is now online at Comic Book Resources.
Sunday October 16th 2011: Bryan just sent me over another fanpage exclusive - a new page from Grandville Bête Noire! - see if you can spot the traditional English childrens character in there that Bryan has given his own unique spin on....
Also check out the colour flats for this page over on the Chrissie Harper site. and the finished colours are by Bryan and Alwyn Talbot.
Sunday October 9th 2011: Don't forget - Bryan will be attending the Thoughtbubble comics festival in Leeds on 19th and 20th November!
Sunday September 11th 2011: Bryan is a guest at the BD & Comics Passion Festival at the French Institute, 7- 9th October: check out the BD and Comics Passion Site.
It's excellent to see a bit of the passion and prominence the French and Europeans are able to give to their comics culture coming over to England!
Sunday September 4th 2011: Bryan won second place in the Stan Lee Excelsior award for Grandville: and they've produced an excellent video detailing the award - where Bryan also gets to talk about his comics.
Saturday August 27th 2011: Bryan will be giving the "Grandville and the Anthropomorphic Tradition" presentation at The Big Draw National Launch, Kings Place, Islington on Sunday 25 September 2011 at 3.00pm. Free admission.
Bryan will also be a guest at the Helsinki Comics Festival, 16th - 17th September.
Friday August 12th 2011: Bryan's wife Mary, scripter of Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, now has a website. You can see some sample pages from Dotter there: www.mary-talbot.co.uk
Sunday July 31st 2011: The Bleed Vol.1 Issue.0 is out from September 21st. It features a cover ("The Censor"), a short interview with and article about Bryan. The magazine showcases new and original art created by writers, artists, photographers, poets, journalists, and designers, from the North East and beyond. It is free and will be available at art galleries, cinemas, museums, and music venues, across the North East as well as in the best pubs, bars, and cafes. Say hello to the Bleed on Twitter!
Bryan also sent over a piece he did for the band Greasy Bear, and said: "It was done for the band Greasy Bear a couple of years ago – my first piece of underground artwork for years!"
Saturday July 23rd 2011: World exclusive! - the front cover to Grandville: Bête Noire!
Don't forget: Bryan will be giving his presentation Grandville and the Anthropomorphic Tradition tonight at 5:00pm at LassFest in Manchester: Lass O Gowrie, 36 Charles St, Manchester, M1 7DB, 0161 273 6932: Entrance is £5 and tickets are available from We Got Tickets.
Announcing the The Stan Lee Excelsior Award
Are you a school librarian? Do you know someone who is? The Stan Lee Excelsior Award is an exciting new book award for graphic novels and manga - where kids aged 11-16 choose the winner by rating each book as they read it. The overall goal of this scheme is to encourage reading amongst teenagers. However, its secondary target is to raise the profile of graphic novels and manga amongst school librarians and teachers. This storytelling medium has been a largely underused resource within education for many years. The Stan Lee Excelsior Award attempts to highlight some of the amazing books that are out there - books that fully deserve to be in our school libraries alongside regular fiction.
The scheme is backed by the Stan Lee Foundation and businesses who sponsor
the graphic novels for your library. 18 schools were involved in the event
last month and already the list has grown to 25 with many more interested.
Become involved! The Stan Lee Excelsior Award
Saturday July 16th 2011: lots of updates today!
- Bryan will be giving his presentation Grandville and the Anthropomorphic Tradition next Saturday July 23rd at 5:00pm at LassFest in Manchester: Lass O Gowrie, 36 Charles St, Manchester, M1 7DB, 0161 273 6932: Entrance is £5 and tickets are available from We Got Tickets.
- The inimitable novelist Chaz Brenchley got a jade tiger tatto designed by Bryan: jealous does not begin to describe it!
- Also today, check out a piece by Bryan in the Guardian: "The artists' artist; graphic novelists" where famous graphic novelists say who they themselves are fans of.
- Graphic Short Story Prize: Jonathan Cape and Comica have got together with The Observer to offer you the chance to see your work in print and win £1,000. The runner-up will receive £250 and your work will appear on The Guardian and the Vintage website.The deadline for entries is 14th October 2011.Bryan is one of the six judges of this year's competition. See the Jonathon Cape site for more info.
Saturday July 9th 2011: The Naked Artist, Bryan's prose book documenting the outrageous, daft and occasionally educational tales of the comic industry is now available in Kindle, iBook and several other formats, including PDF, for the ludicrously low price of $2.99 (approx £1.86). It's an updated edition with an extra few thousands words' worth of stories. In fact, he was thinking of calling it The Naked Artist,- Engorged! You can even read the first 20% of it free over on the Combustoica Naked Artist page!
Here is the official blurb:
If on the night of a comics convention you were to go to the the hotel bar and buy a few drinks for a comic book pro, you'd soon hear stories about his fellow creators - tales of drinking and drugs, of missed deadlines and missing pants, of maniacal editors and crazed fans. These are the urban legends of the comic industry.
Acclaimed graphic novelist Bryan Talbot (creator of the award-winning The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, The Tale of One Bad Rat, Alice in Sunderland, and Grandville) saves you the cost of gin & tonics by bringing you this collection of the wild and hilarious anecdotes told by - and starring - some of comicdom's leading lights. This expanded edition includes all the stories from the original print edition and more. Illustrated by Hunt Emerson.
Thursday June 7th 2011: a world exclusive for the Bryan Talbot fanpage- the first page of Grandville: Bête Noire!
Sunday June 26th 2011; Grandville is now available from Dark Horse as a digital comic!
Sunday June 5th 2011: Bryan's next graphic novel, Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, written by his wife Mary, is now completely finished. It will be published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Dark Horse in the USA on February 2nd 2012, which is not only Groundhog Day but also James Joyce's birthday, the anniversary of the publication of Ulysses and the date on which Dotter of Her Father's Eyes is set.
The next book in the Grandville series, Grandville: Bête Noire is all scripted and Bryan is currently scripting the fourth before beginning the artwork on GBN. "If Grandville was a little like Sherlock Holmes directed by Quentin Tarantino and Grandville Mon Amour a little like Holmes directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Grandville: Bête Noire is definitely steampunk James Bond", he says, "Though I don't actually don't care for the Bond films very much so I've made GBN very much my own take."
Thursday May 12th 2011: Don't forget - Bryan will be at the Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo this Saturday and Sunday - May 14th and 15th!
Monday May 2nd 2011: Bryan Talbot in the Steampunk Bible:
Steampunk - a grafting of Victorian aesthetic and punk rock attitude onto various forms of science-fiction culture - is a phenomenon that has come to influence film, literature, art, music, fashion, and more. The Steampunk Bible is the first compendium about the movement, tracing its roots in the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells through its most recent expression in movies, art, comics, fashion, and more.
Mad inventors and a re-envisioning and crafting of retro technologies, including antiquated airships and robots, play a large role. A burgeoning DIY community has brought a distinctive Victorian-fantasy style to their crafts and art. Steampunk evokes a sense of adventure and discovery, and embraces extinct technologies as a way of talking about the future. This ultimate manual will appeal to aficionados and novices alike as author Jeff VanderMeer takes the reader on a wild ride through the clockwork corridors of Steampunk history.
Featuring, among others, Mike Mignola, Greg Broadmore, Michael Moorcock, Cherie Priest, Sean Orlando, and the works of the iconic Bryan Talbot, one of the godfathers of Steampunk comics.
The official Steampunk Bible site is at www.steampunkbible.com
Wednesday April 27th 2011: another exclusive for the site! - "The History of British Comics" - Originally published in the Guardian Guide; a strip that does the impossible - it tells the history of British comics in just 3 pages! See page 1 and pages 2 and 3 - and also the cover (minus the Guardian logo and the usual cover blurb). These are large images: as ever I wanted to do as much justice to Bryan's work as the computer monitor would allow: if they don't work for you then give me a yell - via the Bryan Talbot Twitterfeed is usually best - and I will see what I can do to tweak 'em.
Sunday April 25th 2011: Grandville Mon Amour is nominated for a Hugo Award for "Best Graphic Story". The winners will be announced Saturday, August 20th, 2011, during the Hugo Awards Ceremony at Renovation in Reno, Nevada.
Sunday April 17th 2011: Couple of cool snippets this week; a fellow fan has uploaded some photos of Bryan signing copies of Grandville in Forbidden Planet in Edinburgh: and also check out interview with Bryan and Pat Mills done at the SFX Weekender at the beginning of February interviewed by Jonny Yeah for Kooba Radio.
Also check out this week's 2000ad - it's the week that Bryan and Alwyn Talbot's Judge Dredd story "Caterpillars" is published!
Sunday April 10th 2011: Breaking news: Bryan has released an image exclusive to the site for fans to download and print for him to sign at the Bristol Comics Expo! Download Bryan Talbot's LeBrock as a .png file or download LeBrock in PDF.
Bryan is nominated for a 2011 Eisner Award though, astoundingly, not for Grandville Mon Amour - not for Best Graphic Novel, Best Artist, Best Writer, or Best Colourist! Philistines!
He's nominated in the category Best Short Story for the retelling of Little Red Riding he wrote, drawn by Camilla D'Errico, for Fractured Fables, published by Image / Silverline.
Also the Bristol International Comics and Small Press Expo (BICSPE) 14 –15th May is rapidly approaching! Bryan will be there and he'll be giving his presentation "Grandville and the Anthropomorphic Tradition". There's an event set up in the Bryan Talbot fans Facebook page: come over, say hello and let us know you're coming!
Sunday March 20th 2011: A Family Business?
Bryan is currently drawing a graphic novel written by his wife, Mary Talbot, to be published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Dark Horse in the US, hopefully later this year. "Dotter of her Father's Eyes" is partly autobiographical, charting the relationship between Mary and her father, the Joycean scholar James S Atherton and partly biographical, dealing with the life of James Joyce's daughter Lucia. Mary has written several academic textbooks but this is her first piece of creative writing.
She says: "I think what's been most distinctive about this project is that I haven't just completed a script and then passed it over to an artist. We've been able to work on the book together, with an intensive and ongoing creative interaction that's usually missing from writer / artist collaborations."
Bryan adds "I've developed what I think is an appropriate art style and visual storytelling technique for the book. I'm hoping to finish the artwork within the next six weeks."
Dotter of her Father's Eyes is Bryan's third non-genre graphic novel, the others being The Tale of One Bad Rat and Alice in Sunderland. Meanwhile, keeping it all in the family, he's also collaborated with his youngest son Alwyn on Caterpillars, a Judge Dredd story for 2000AD.
"Alwyn's an incredibly talented illustrator and concept designer for computer games, which is why I asked him to colour some of the pages of my last graphic novel, Grandville Mon Amour, to help me meet the deadline. When Tharg asked me if I'd be interested in illustrating Michael Carroll's Dredd script, I immediately thought of him. I didn't have the time to ink and colour the strip myself so that suggested that Alwyn turned my pencils into fully rendered artwork. He did a great job. I also like Michael's script, which is basically a cool, self-contained short SF story."
Though working in the computer game industry for the past eleven years, Alwyn's previous comic work includes strips for Negative Burn, DC Comics and the miniseries Armageddon Patrol, recently reprinted by Kult Creations. Caterpillars will appear in 2000AD Prog 1730 on 20 April.
Sunday February 6th 2011: Bryan is a guest at the Bristol International Comics and Small Press Expo (BICSPE) 14 –15th May where he'll be giving his presentation "Grandville and the Anthropomorphic Tradition".
Saturday January 29th 2011: Arvon Calling
The 5 day residential course, "Creative Writing for Graphic Novels" that Bryan co-tutors for the Arvon Foundation has just been advertised: at the Arvon Foundation site.
This year, Bryan's co-tutor is Rutu Modan, author of the excellent Exit Wounds. The course runs from the evening of Monday 17th October to Saturday morning 22nd October. There are a limited number of grants available from Arvon to cover the cost of the course, so my advice is to get in early.
Also, Anders Ludgren of Shazam sent over an interview with Bryan that he kindly translated from Swedish and gave us permission to publish.
Wednesday January 26th: Bryan just sent me a video to upload onto YouTube and embed onto the site, called Encounter with a madman: here's part 1;
And here's part 2:
It's a 30 minute 1981 programme on Science Fiction from Granada TV's erstwhile culture show Celebration featuring SF writer Bob Shaw and graphic novelist Bryan Talbot. The first half is documentary, the second a short time travel film, Encounter With a Madman, written by Shaw and starring the then unknown Jenny Eclair.
Forthcoming events Bryan will be attending
Corsica Thursday 31st March - Sunday 3rd April
Bryan is a guest at this year's Bastia Comics Festival, held in Corsica
Tuesday January 4th 2011: added another review of Grandville: Mon Amour to the Grandville homepage.
Saturday January 1st 2011: Happy New Year one and all! - this is the 16th year of the fanpage for Bryan and we're still going strong!
Thursday December 23rd 2010: another delightful chore: adding more glowing reviews of Grandville: Mon Amour to the Grandville homepage: merry Christmas one and all!
Bryan also asked me to tell you all that the auction for Bryan's Rom Space Knight illustration ends on December 29th - just a week from now. This is a fundraiser auction for Bill Mantlo.
Sunday December 12th 2010: added more reviews to the Grandville:Mon Amour homepage.
Sunday December 5th 2010: added another review to the Grandville homepage.
Wednesday December 1st 2010: Added a link to another glowing review of Grandville: Mon Amour to the Grandville homepage.
Sunday November 28th 2010: Bryan has done this illustration of Rom, Spaceknight for a benefit book for writer Bill Mantlo. The book is published next year but on Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 there will be an ebay auction of original artwork and one-off high quality giclee prints of the pieces to raise money for Bill's healthcare. See: the Spacenite site for more.
Wednesday November 24th 2010: updated Bryan's online biography as it was getting a tad out of date!
Saturday November 21st: I have started to collate a lot of online reviews of Grandville on the official Grandville: Mon Amour homepage.
Wednesday November 17th 2010: checkout my review of Grandville: Mon Amour! - and don't forget that Grandville was launched on Saturday and Bryan is doing a full signing tour.
Sunday November 15th 2010: Recently tidying up his studio, Bryan cleared out a desk drawer containing ID badges from various conventions and comic festivals he's attended over the years.
At a rough estimate, this means that he's spent about 10 months of his life at comic shows! Have YOU attended any of these?
Sunday October 24th 2010: The groundbreaking graphic novel store Page 45, established 16 years ago in Nottingham, has just launched its new, completely restructured website. It features a lengthy interview with Bryan, only previously seen in the Page 45 customers' mailshot: and a photographic record of P45's Stephen Holland's visit to the sculpture trail that features in Alice in Sunderland, accompanied by Bryan and Mary Talbot, writer Chaz Brenchley and the trail's lead sculptor Colin Wilbourne.
Monday October 18th 2010: Bryan is just back from the Gijon festival in Spain- where the Spanish edition of Alice in Sunderland won the Haxtur Award for "Best Long Story".
Saturday October 9th 2010: Jordan Smith has now uploaded the video trailer for Grandville: Mon Amour!
Friday September 24th 2010: Pete Allison posted an interview with Bryan: "The Godfather of Steampunk"
Wednesday September 15th 2010: for the first time ever, some of Bryan's original underground comic artwork from the 1970's is on sale in the online shop!
Sunday September 5th 2010: Bryan has sent me another huge batch of original artwork for sale in the online shop.
Friday August 27th 2010: 'Draw the World Together' are having a series of three eBay auctions of art by top comics artists to raise funds for deserving projects. All the information is at www.drawtheworldtogether.com
Thursday August 26th 2010: those nice people over at Comic Book Resources just published a new interview with Bryan about Grandville: Mon Amour.
Sunday August 22nd 2010: now Bryan has completed Grandville: Mon Amour he's had the time to go through his stash of original artwork and release a new batch for sale in the online shop!
Sunday August 15th 2010: a fellow fan of Bryan's (Cheers Carl!) sent me an MP2 file of Bryan's "Inheritance Tracks" appearance: I've also converted it into an MP3 file for your listening pleasure. One of these file formats is almost certain to work on your system - if they don't give me a shout!
Friday August 13th 2010: Bryan is on Radio 4 tomorrow - and Grandville: Mon Amour is now complete!
This Saturday, August 14th, Bryan is on the Radio 4 show "Saturday Live", in the popular "Inheritance Tracks" section. Guests present a track that takes them back to their childhood and one that they'd like to pass on to their children, so see if you can guess what he chooses! If you miss the broadcast, you can catch it on the "Listen Again" feature on the Radio 4 website.
I will post a link on the site and on the Facebook group to the show on the listen again thingie as soon as possible.
Also, Bryan has now completed work on Grandville Mon Amour. The release date is now December and it's published of course by Jonathan Cape. Bryan's son Alwyn worked on three pages to help him meet the deadline. He's coloured three pages in the digitally painted style Bryan's been using. Alwyn is a professional illustrator and visual concept designer for videogames.
Tuesday July 20th 2010: Bryan is the artist Guest of Honour this year at Fantasycon 2010, The British Fantasy Society's annual convention, September 17–19, Britannia Hotel, 1 St James Street, Nottingham (here's a map of the hotels location)
He is also a guest at The Gijon Comics Festival, Asturias, Spain, October 12th - 16th and the Lucca Comics Festival, Tuscony, Italy 27th - 31st October.
If you're going to any of these then wander over the the Bryan Talbot fans group on Facebook and say hello: there'll probably be a mob of us going: well - at least to the one in the UK!
Wednesday July 7th 2010: Another rediscovered Bryan Talbot - Neil Gaiman collaboration is now online: An Honest Answer!
Thursday June 24th 2010: the first 6 pages of Grandville Mon Amour have been released by Bryan as a preview! See the Grandville homepage for the page images.
Sunday June 6th 2010: this is a total exclusive: no other site on the net has this yet - mainly cos' Bryan's not released it to anyone else! the cover of Grandville Mon Amour! Tweet This!
Also see the Grandville homepage for more Grandville Mon Amour news - including the first page of the new graphic novel!
Saturday May 29th 2010: Vote for Grandville in the Eagle Awards! This year's Eagle Award nominations have been announced and Grandville is nominated for Favourite Graphic Novel. You can vote on the Eagle Awards main site. We'd be very grateful for your support!
Saturday May 22nd: Bryan asked me to link over to Chrissie Harpers site, as she's got Bryan's portrait of Orson Wells online there.
Sunday May 16th 2010: Bryan in conversation at the Barbican: An evening to coincide with The Surreal House exhibition at the Barbican Art
Gallery (Barbican Art Gallery Level 3 Barbican Centre Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS)
Thu 10 June 6:30pm: "Fairytales On the Couch" With award winning comic artist and author of Alice in Sunderland Bryan Talbot, in conversation with writer and broadcaster Brian Sibley. Organised in association with the Lewis Carroll Society. Tickets from £8 online, £10 on the door. This also gives you access to the exhibition and other events that evening . To book or for further information please visit www.barbican.org.uk/101 or call 020 7638 8891
If you're coming to the event and you're on Facebook then there is an event set up on the Bryan Talbot Facebook group.
Monday May 3rd 2010: We have just launched the Bryan Talbot t-shirt shop! We had a competition on the Bryan Talbot Facebook group to see what images people wanted on t-shirts, but - if you want a new image that's not there then just ask and we can sort it out!
Tuesday April 27th 2010: Bryan has written a retelling of "Litte Red Riding Hood" for a graphic novel anthology of fairy tales published by Image comics"s children's imprint Silverline. It's delightfully drawn by Camilla d'Errico and beautifully coloured by Edison Yan. The book is titled FRACTURED FABLES and is released on the 14th of July, though if you want to pick up Bryan's story for free, it's featured in a sampler version of the graphic novel, to be given away on Free Comic Book Day, this Saturday, 1st May at most comic stores. See the Newsarama site for more info!
Monday April 19th 2010: I went back and looked at the Memento "silent comic" by Bryan and thought that the original panel-by-panel approach I had followed kinda limited the appreciation of the comic - and so I redid it as printed page by page. Let me know which version you prefer.
Sunday April 18th 2010: I just added "From homogenous to honey" a collaboration between Bryan and Neil Gaiman that was part of the protest against some homophobic legislation in the UK back in the late 80's.
Friday April 2nd 2010: Bryan will be giving the Powerpoint presentation 'Grandville' & the Anthropomorphic Tradition' at Leicester Central Lending Library, Belvoir Street, Leicester on Thurs 6th May, at 7:00 p.m. Tickets £2.50 Tweet This!
Tuesday March 16th 2010: Just announced: Bryan is to be Guest of Honour at FantasyCon 2010! It's on 17–19 September 2010 at the Britannia Hotel, 1 St James Street, Nottingham. Tweet This!
I also added a new full colour version of the Cannabis Conspiracy to the site! - I am posting it at the rate of one printed page or 9 panels per day, so check back tomorrow for the next page's worth of panels!
Saturday March 6th: continued to update pages and redo them from the old version of the site: worked on the Alice in Sunderland page - adding in a lot of the preview pages.
Saturday February 27th 2010: added Bryan's introduction to Al Davison's "The Spiral Cage" and Stephen Withrow's "Character Design for Graphic Novels" into the features section.
Wednesday February 24th 2010: added Bryan's introduction to Strangehaven by Gary Spencer Millidge to the features page.
Tuesday February 23rd 2010: Bryan's publishers - Jonathon Cape - have just published the catalogue entry for the Grandville sequel: Grandville Mon Amour.
Monday February 22nd 2010: some news about signing sessions: Bryan is doing his Grandville presentation and discussing graphic novels at the Glasgow Book Festival, Aye Write! on Friday March 12th 2010 at 19.30-21.00 with illustrated presentations by Denise Mina and Bryan Talbot and chaired by Stuart Kelly: address: The Mitchell Library, North Street, Glasgow, G3 7DN Phone: 0141 287 2929Admission £7/£6
On the 27th and 28th March he will be signing the French edition of Grandville at the Paris Book Fair, Paris Expo Porte de Versailles at the Bragelonne / MiLady booth.
I also added a link to the new Forbidden Planet review of the Adventures of Luther Arkwright to the Luther Arkwright homepage, and also added a link to the Alice in Sunderland homepage as the Independent listed Bryan as the "T" in their A - Z of Alice in Wonderland!
Saturday February 20th 2010: added Bryan's afterword to Nemesis the Warlock.
Thursday February 12th 2010: Paul Ferguson who created the original "You are Torquemada" Flash game has sent me a new updated version of it and I have added it to the main You Are Torquemada page.
Tuesday February 9th 2010: another re-publishing from the old version of the site: the first ever appearance of Luther Arkwright in print in the Papist Affair! Also added: the introduction to the Adventures of Luther Arkwright by Michael Moorcock and Bryan's introduction to the Brainstorm reprint.
Wednesday February 3rd 2010: added a couple of images from the old version of the site to the The seminal Alan Moore comic that never was (which is Nightjar) page in the features section; also added Bryan's introduction to Ramsey Campbells Creatures of the Pool novel, also in the features section.
Thursday January 28th 2010: An interview with Bryan by Benjamin Berton for a French website, translated into English.
Friday January 22nd 2010: uploaded a huge interview with Bryan by the wonderful Pádraig Ó Méalóid.
Also: Bryan will be be appearing in an episode of "A Brush With Britain" on the Discovery Channel. The series is about artist Charles Evans traveling around the country, painting scenes from each place and meeting artists associated to the area. Bryan's in the one about Sunderland. The first showing is Sat Feb 6th at 8.30 pm on Discovery Real Time: one hour later it will be repeated on the catch up channel "Real Time+", then at 12.30am again on Real Time and an hour later again on "RealTime+".
Wednesday January 20th 2010: I finally got around to converting the old Memento silent comic strip into the new design of the site, and the new image-viewing method works really well with a continuous visial narrative: check out Bryan Talbot's Memento comic strip!
Sunday January 17th 2010: The afterword for the French edition of Grandville was very extensive and filled with Bryan explaining a lot of his references and where the ideas for Grandville came from; and in an exclusive for the site, the whole of the French Grandville afterword is now online! This was written by Bryan in English then translated for the French edition and is published here with a few rewordings.
Friday January 15th 2010: added an interview with Bryan by Stephen Withrow to the features section of the site.
Thursday January 14th 2010: In September, Bryan is once again a tutor/ mentor on the biannual "Creative Writing for Graphic Novels" residential course for the prestigious Arvon Foundation. They are now open for bookings at the Arvon Foundation course page.
Also today - I added a lot more of Bryan's original artwork for sale to the online shop.
Thursday January 7th 2010: Talbot at the Lit and Phil
On Wednesday 3rd February, 6.00pm, Bryan will be doing his "Grandville and the Anthropomorphic Tradition" Powerpoint Presentation at Newcastle's Literary and Philosophical Society. Free to members, £2 for non-members. 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SE: [Google map of their location] Email: Please reserve your seat by calling (0191) 232 0192, emailing firstname.lastname@example.com or by calling in. If you reserve a ticket and are subsequently unable to attend, please let them know as they often have a waiting list.
Saturday January 2nd 2010: completed the full Bryan Talbot stripography.
Wednesday December 30th 2009: added some Grandville original artwork to the Bryan Talbot online shop!
Sunday December 27th 2009: added some Heart of Empire original artwork to the Bryan Talbot online shop!
Tuesday December 22nd 2009: Holy Brothers Grimm! Bryan has scripted a 5 page adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood for an anthology of new takes on traditional fairy tales by top comic creators to be published next summer by Image titled FRACTURED FABLES. Beautifully illustrated by manga artist Camilla Errico and coloured by Edison Yan, the strip has been chosen to front a 36 page taster to be given away free on Free Comic Book Day, May 1st 2010. See the Image Comic press release for more info.
Sunday December 20th 2009: Another fan of Bryan's - Paul Ferguson - has created a Flash version of the You Are Torquemada game that we are honoured to host!
Friday December 18th 2009: Bryan has released some more original art pages for sale! - yes: you can now own some of the original artwork from some of Bryan's most famous work! - see the Bryan Talbot original artwork sale page for more.
Tuesday December 15th 2009: Breaking news: Bryan has announced the sequel to Grandville! Full details - as ever - on the Grandville homepage.
Tuesday December 8th 2009: added several more reviews of Grandville to the Grandville reviews page.
Tuesday December 1st 2009: finally got around to updating the new links page, pulling in some of the links from the old version of the site. As ever the linking policy of the site is the same - if it's relevant, and you let me know about it and you link back here I shall cheerfully link to you.
Monday November 30th 2009: Bryan has written and drawn a five page framing device for a new graphic novel published by experimental youth initiative Ctrl.Alt.Shift.
Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption, is a comic book anthology featuring well respected international comic artists and writers who have specially created stories to the theme of corruption. Contributors include names such as Bryan, Dave McKean, Pat Mills, Aleksandar Zograf, Dan Goldman, Fredrik Stromberg, Janek Koza, Lee O'Connor and Paul O'Connell, as well as contemporary music names such as V V Brown and Lightspeed Champion both of whom are big comics fans and make comics themselves. This eclectic mix of politicized comic book and graphic novel work has been created in a bid to politicise a new generation of activists through the medium of popular comic culture.
For further information regarding the book please visit: www.ctrlaltshift.co.uk/unmaskscorruption
The Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption anthology is available to buy for £4.99 at www.ctrlaltshift.co.uk Profits from the 5,000 copies of the comic book will go to Ctrl.Alt.Shift. Get it whilst stocks last and support this important cause!
Monday November 30th 2009: the last signing session for Grandville (I know - I'm sorry!) will be on Saturday December 5th in Sunderland (full details are on the Grandville signing tour page) If people want Bryan to do more signing tours then come on over to the Bryan Talbot Facebook group and let us know!
Sunday November 22nd 2009: Bryan's next signing session for Grandville will be on Saturday November 28th at the Forbidden Planet in Newcastle: as ever see Grandville signing tour page for more info.
Monday November 16th 2009: Bryan's next signing session for Grandville will be on Saturday November 21st at the Thought Balloon comics festival in Leeds: as ever see Grandville signing tour page for more info.
Monday November 9th 2009: Bryan's next signing session for Grandville will be on Saturday November 14th at the Travelling Man in Manchester: as ever see Grandville signing tour page for more info.
Sunday November 1st: why is it I seem to update the site so often on a Sunday? - ah yes - that'll be Real Life and the Day Job then! - anyway: Bryan's next signing session for the new unspeakably excellent Grandville will be on Saturday November 7th 2009 at the ICA in London; full details as ever on the Grandville signing tour page.
On another note - I have been given some books to review from some publishers - specifically The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture, and I have decided to give it away as a Freebie to the 200th person who joins the Bryan Talbot Facebook group! - together with a copy of the Heart of Empire CD-Rom of course...
Sunday 18th October 18th 2009: the next signing session for Grandville will be in Leeds on October 31st.
Saturday 17th October 2009: Bryan is signing copies of Grandville today in Nottingham! - see the Grandville homepage for more info.
11th October 2009: I updated the Alice in Sunderland homepage into the new design of the site.


text:
787 debut: The "Dreamliner" makes its first domestic appearance. We ride the LA-Houston leg.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
10 Weird, Wonderful Weather Phenomena
All the optical illusions and bizarre forms of lightning you require.
By Laura Kiniry
Giant Hailstones
These massive ice balls can measure 6 inches or more in diameter, and you'd better not be beneath them as they fall. Giant hailstones have been known to cause severe damage to everything from airplanes to humans. Much larger than regular hailstones, giant hailstones are layers of ice that typically form during strong, moisture-heavy thunderstorms inland, where the air tends to be cooler. The storm's persistently rotating updraft helps keep hailstones afloat until they acquire more layers from the freezing rain, eventually becoming too heavy to sustain suspension and plummeting toward the ground.