The dichotomy of London - guns and graphic novels
Last Saturday night I went to a "Graphic Novel Event" at Streatham library, where the library staff invite people in the comic industry to come and talk about their work (I went to one last year which was quite good). However, the previous Saturday night, a kid had been shot dead at the local ice skating rink further down the high street. This is a classic example of what it is like to live in London: one one hand you have a "cultural" event where intelligent people go to discuss/enjoy an aspect of the Arts, while on the other hand you have kids shooting each other, probably because one of them got "dissed". Anyway I'm not going to get into the social/cultural/economic reasons for these divisions, and continue with what happened at the library.
David Lloyd, who is most famous for having drawn the 'V for Vendetta' series, was there to promote his book 'Kickback', mainly because his publisher has done such a poor job of it. David's been in the business since the late 70's (I think), and had quite a few things to say about the comic industry (mostly negative, but interesting). He bemoaned that most comics are about super-heroes and that the two big publishers (DC and Marvel) are very rigid in their ways and not open to change, especially in promotion to attract new readers. He did mention that the Japanese "Manga" comics are really booming at the moment, as they offer a good chunk of reading material at a cheap price and that is what the kids are reading, while it seems mainstream comics are being read by an older audience (i.e. me!).
Since manga has kicked off quite a bit in the last few years, the team at the library got two young women who are creating their own manga series to give a talk about that. I can't remember what the title of their series was, but it sounded so awful that I don't really mind not remembering. They are in the process of getting a publisher to see if they'll print it, and I wish them the best of luck, but it sure wasn't my cup of tea! I'd like to think that I have quite a broad reading spectrum, and am always open to reading new and different things, but unfortunately this won't extend to what they were doing. The basic storyline was of people working in a mental institution in a parallel world where magic is used to heal people, but all the characters seemed to be fairly dysfunctional themselves, with a lot of them trying to commit suicide or self-harm. Is this what the kids want to read these days? Is that what female readers want to read these days?? Yeesh!
Finally, the last person to talk at the event was Paul Gravett, a comic guru who writes books on comics and organizes lots of comic-related events. This guy is really smart, a great public speaker really knows his stuff, but as the other people had talked for a long time, his time was cut short, which was a great shame, as he was probably the most interesting speaker. His latest book is on the history of UK comics, and features a lot of the comics I read as a kid. It was weird growing up in Australia and reading UK comics like the Beano, Whizzer & Chips, Topper, the Broons, Oink etc, but I remember them nonetheless. (I read these comics as a pre-teen and then moved onto Batman, Superman, X-Men etc as a teen, with the Transformers comic acting as a buffer/lubricant between the two.) His enthusiasm for comics, graphic novels etc is really contagious, and he believes that the comic industry, especially the UK comic industry, will rise again (as it declined rapidly with the growth of computer games in the 90's).
Anyway, no gangs came running into the library to pop any caps in any asses, but there were a lot of police outside the ice rink as I passed by on the bus home, but they were there as a deterrent for any repeat events. Who said Saturday nights were dull?!?
David Lloyd, who is most famous for having drawn the 'V for Vendetta' series, was there to promote his book 'Kickback', mainly because his publisher has done such a poor job of it. David's been in the business since the late 70's (I think), and had quite a few things to say about the comic industry (mostly negative, but interesting). He bemoaned that most comics are about super-heroes and that the two big publishers (DC and Marvel) are very rigid in their ways and not open to change, especially in promotion to attract new readers. He did mention that the Japanese "Manga" comics are really booming at the moment, as they offer a good chunk of reading material at a cheap price and that is what the kids are reading, while it seems mainstream comics are being read by an older audience (i.e. me!).
Since manga has kicked off quite a bit in the last few years, the team at the library got two young women who are creating their own manga series to give a talk about that. I can't remember what the title of their series was, but it sounded so awful that I don't really mind not remembering. They are in the process of getting a publisher to see if they'll print it, and I wish them the best of luck, but it sure wasn't my cup of tea! I'd like to think that I have quite a broad reading spectrum, and am always open to reading new and different things, but unfortunately this won't extend to what they were doing. The basic storyline was of people working in a mental institution in a parallel world where magic is used to heal people, but all the characters seemed to be fairly dysfunctional themselves, with a lot of them trying to commit suicide or self-harm. Is this what the kids want to read these days? Is that what female readers want to read these days?? Yeesh!
Finally, the last person to talk at the event was Paul Gravett, a comic guru who writes books on comics and organizes lots of comic-related events. This guy is really smart, a great public speaker really knows his stuff, but as the other people had talked for a long time, his time was cut short, which was a great shame, as he was probably the most interesting speaker. His latest book is on the history of UK comics, and features a lot of the comics I read as a kid. It was weird growing up in Australia and reading UK comics like the Beano, Whizzer & Chips, Topper, the Broons, Oink etc, but I remember them nonetheless. (I read these comics as a pre-teen and then moved onto Batman, Superman, X-Men etc as a teen, with the Transformers comic acting as a buffer/lubricant between the two.) His enthusiasm for comics, graphic novels etc is really contagious, and he believes that the comic industry, especially the UK comic industry, will rise again (as it declined rapidly with the growth of computer games in the 90's).
Anyway, no gangs came running into the library to pop any caps in any asses, but there were a lot of police outside the ice rink as I passed by on the bus home, but they were there as a deterrent for any repeat events. Who said Saturday nights were dull?!?
posted by U2J at 4:40 am
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