World Comics

The Singapore Toy, Games & Comic Convention was held this weekend in Singapore (where it's now Tuesday), and the excitement for comics seems to have taken hold in this emerging comics nation. The show is notable in that is was purchased by ReedPOP, owner of such domestic fests as New York Comic-Con and C2E2. The guest list was a merry band of international scoundrels, including Phil Yeh, Phil Ortiz, C.B. Cebulski, Matt Fraction, Gail Simone, and Ivan Brandon from the US, Salvador Larroca from Spain, David Lloyd from the UK, Guiseppe Camuncoli from Italy, and, as the wise-cracking gentle giant , Croatia's Esad Ribic. If you were going to cast a comic book convention movie where people have to fight aliens or fend off a killer or fly off to an asteroid to something, you could not have a better bunch. We can just picture the scenes where Fraction must dismantle the alien's guidance system, or Yeh offers to let them read an issue of The Winger Tiger in our mind's eye.

You'll find a nice gallery of the work of the highly influential Italian cartoonist/illustratorSergio Toppi in this link.

From November 9th to 14th, I had the honor and pleasure (duh) of being a Guest of the RIO Comicon, the first comics convention in Rio de Janeiro since 1993. The seven-day arty/indie comics fest took place at the Leopoldina Central Station, a cavernous former railway station, built in 1925, the sheer grandness of which lent the proceedings an epic surreality. Also instantly impressive was the mindful 360° design of the space. U.S. con-runners take note: art direction matters! From a cheerfully pervasive purple and orange color-scheme, to an upliftingly exquisite superbly-curated art exhibition of international masters & independent Brazilian artists, to a specially-constructed “castle” showcasing Italian living legend Milo Manara’s art, guests and artists alike were transported upon arrival.

It was another busy day for Mark Millar, who is quickly becoming the Oprah Winfrey of comics, using his success in one platform to become a world wide mogul of cross-platform entertainment. Not content just to script best selling comics that turn into successful movies, he's launched a magazine and now...a comic-con: Kapow Comic Con, which will be held April 9-10 at the London Business Design Centre in Islington, a venue which holds about 5000 people a day.

It's one of the more notable aspects of the Franco-Belgian comics scene that there's no stigma either way for comics experimentalists to create genre work. Thus the trailblazing cartoonists of L'Association have variously worked on children's comics and most light-hearted fare with great success. Such a work is Lewis Trondheim's DONJON, which NBM has been publishing in the US. DONJON is a sprawling satirical fantasy about anthropomorphic warriors in a magical, ludicrous kingdom. It's a darkly whimsical epic that's a mash-up of D&D, CEREBUS, GROO, and any number of works by headliners Trondheim and Joann Sfar.

Launched in 1937 The Dandy is the oldest still-running comic in the UK, and the third oldest in the world. The weekly kids’ humour...

The 2011 Angoulême comics festival fast approaches, and they have just announced their official selections. Rather than nominate various books in different categories, these selections are a pool from which the Gran Prix and other prizes are given. A jury -- led this time by Baru -- will make final selections.

We all know that everyone wants to get in on that graphic novel boom, but did you know even the Metals Service Center Institute is getting in on the act?

Every week there are seemingly dozens of comics conventions, signings, art shows and so on around the world. Covering them all is impossible for...

Continuing our previews of ELMER, the graphic novel by Gerry Alanguilan, available this month from SLG.

I'm going to cheat here a little by breaking up the first chapter of ELMER, by Gerry Alanguilan, which is collected this month by Slave Labor. Originally published in the Philippines as a mini-comic, it's many things: a bizarre SF social satire in the style of George Orwell or (as one reader suggested to me) Poul Anderson's Brain Wave -- and also Adam Hines' recent Rex the Wonder Dog, which has some of the same themes treated very differently. It's also a beautiful example of the Filipino komiks school, all lush penwork and atmosphere. it's also just a good read. Because it's the whole first chapter I'm going to break it up over two days. Tune in tomorrow for the second part.

SpansihInq points to a sot where you can purchase original art by Jesus Saiz, Fernando Blanco, Francis Portela, and Javier Pina including the above, by Saiz.