Top Tens

Having being alerted to Bridgeen Gillespie’s blog post on her Top Ten Independent Comics today, it reminded me that I had been asked for my Top Ten All-Time Comics Works by the Hooded Utilitarian website this summer.

My initial thought on reading Bridgeen’s list was that it was remarkably similar to my own, but actually it turns out to be substantially different, although this is probably due to the specific criteria applied.

The Hooded Utilitarian compiled the Top Ten lists submitted by 211 invited comics professionals who answered the question, “What are the ten comics works you consider your favorites, the best, or the most significant?” into a Top 115 list.
Especially of interest is that each creator’s Top Ten are all individually listed.

My own selection was as follows:
Cages, Dave McKean
Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson
Cerebus, Dave Sim & Gerhard
The Fantastic Four, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, with Joe Sinnott, et al.
La Femme du magicien [The Magician’s Wife], Jerome Charyn & François Boucq
From Hell, Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Chris Ware
Krazy Kat, George Herriman
The Palomar Stories, Gilbert Hernandez
The Spirit, Will Eisner

It’s a very personal choice, picked as much for the effect they had on me, as measure of absolute quality. It was very difficult to limit the list to ten, and those that I had to leave out surprised me. There’s no Tintin, no Watchmen, no Asterix, no Bone, no Little Nemo, no Robert Crumb and most remarkably no Daniel Clowes.

Bridgeen’s list spotlights some titles that were more immediately influential on Strangehaven that my own list of all-time greats above. We actually only overlap on three titles - Krazy Kat, Love & Rockets and her ‘honorable mention’ Cerebus.

I specified Gilbert’s works over Jaime’s because of the raw emotional content, particularly in the early Heartbreak Soup stories. The Locas stories were a little breezier, but oh-so beautifully drawn. Bridgeen notes that she stopped reading Cerebus with the eighth volume Women (understandably) but it would be a huge pity if Sim’s extreme politics entirely overshadows his unique, monumental and extraordinary body of work .

Almost all of the 1980s indie works that Bridgeen picks are hard to argue against; certainly the Fantagraphics/Drawn & Quarterly axis of Eightball, Black Hole, Peepshow and I Never Liked You (although I far prefer Chester Brown’s earlier surreal Ed the Happy Clown stories) are my favourite comics of the period.

Craig Thompson’s massive romance Blankets was under consideration for my own ten, although it is perhaps too recent to see in context of the other established (in my mind at least) works. The importance of Maus cannot be underestimated, of course, but even though I read it serialised in Raw Magazine, I never quite took it to my heart.

Scott Pilgrim is the only book I haven’t read - and therefore can’t pass judgement, although it has been on my Amazon Wishlist for a good while.

On a related note, the reason why I don’t ever respond to the best of the year lists because I’m always so far behind in my reading. After spending almost a year reading nothing but works by Alan Moore, I’ve been pretty much comicked-out this year and my to-read pile now extends over several long bookshelves.

Happy Holidays 2011!

Is it that time again already? Festive love to every single one of you.

From Leigh to Leeds

After two false starts in recent years, I'm finally attending Leeds' Thought Bubble comics festival at the weekend, 19-20th November.

I'll have a table in Saviles Hall, alongside my long-time pal Chris Staros with his latest Top Shelf line of books. It's the first event at which I've exhibited for way, way too long, and I'll have with me a limited number of Alan Moore Storyteller, Comic Book Design, Draw Dragons, Draw Fantasy Figures, plus all three Strangehaven volumes and the Spirit of Hope benefit anthology among other bits and pieces. I'll also have some original artwork for sale.

On Sunday at 1:00PM at the Alea Cinema Room, I will be interviewed by Tim Pilcher about Alan Moore Storyteller, and joining me on stage will be Moore's musical collaborator Gary Lloyd and Moore uber-fan Pádraig Ó Méalóid, both of who were invaluably helpful in putting my book together, so this promises to be a lively hour.

Thought Bubble has received rave reviews in preceding years, and I'm very much looking forward to sampling the atmosphere for myself. For more details, check out their website here.

Spirit of Hope

Shortly after the devastating earthquakes and subsequent tsunami that left so many dead, missing and homeless in Japan in March this year and New Zealand, I was asked to contribute to a charity anthology called Spirit of Hope by the UK’s new non-profit organisation The Comic Book Alliance.

At that time, I was still trying to put the last few finishing touches to Alan Moore: Storyteller for Ilex Press and attending to several other urgent freelance jobs, and the extremely short two-week deadline made it unlikely that I’d find the time to be able to contribute. I racked my brains for some sort of positive, uplifting angle (as had been stipulated by the organisers, the ) and had pretty much given up on coming up with something worthwhile when I was inspired by a two-minute film in Channel 4’s nightly series 4Thought while stir-frying some chicken and vegetables for that night’s dinner.

By the time I was washing up, I had a pretty good idea whatI wanted to do, and granted a few extra day’s deadline extension, I somehow managed to produce two pages in three days, researched, written, illustrated, lettered and coloured (yep, coloured); probably the fastest I’ve ever produced anything in my life. But I really felt like I need to contribute to this cause. Half a page of “This Fragile Earth” is reproduced above; you’ll have to buy the book to see the rest.

The quality and variety of contributions in the preview of the book that I saw at the Bristol International Comic & Small Press Expo were simply stunning, each piece focussing compassionately and insightfully on the subject matter.

Creators beside myself who have contributed to this project include Alan Cowsill, Jimmy Broxton, Mike Allred, Natalie Abadzis, Nick Abadzis, Adrian Bamforth, Jasper Bark, Donna Barr, Jordie Bellaire, Paul H Birch, Bolt-01, Dan Boultwood, Mark Buckingham, Jim Campbell,

Richmond Clements, Jason Cobley, Simon Coleby, Mike Collins, Martin Conaghan, Gary Crutchley, Glenn Dakin, Al Davison, Brandon DeStefano, Benjamin Dickson, Martin Eden, Mats Engesten, Gary Erskine, Al Ewing, Glenn B Flemming, Emma Flint, Henry Flint, Leigh Gallagher, Matt Gibbs, Gary Gilbert, Alan Grant, Jon Haward, Peter Hogan, Kev Hopgood, Graeme Howard, Inko, Rich Johnston, Ant Jones, GM Jordan, Jessica Kemp, David Leach, Tony Lee, Nigel Lowrey, Ciaran Lucas, Paul McLaren, Michiru Morikawa, Alex Moore, Leonie O’Moore, Michiru Morkawa, Eva Perkins, Grant Perkins, Martyn Pick, Maria Pickering, David Pugh, James Reekie, Regan, Neil Roberts, Darick Roberston, John Robbins, John Ross, Declan Shalvey, Liam Sharp, Akiko Shimojima, Si Spencer, Vicky Stonebridge, Lew Stringer, Steve Tanner, Archie Templar, S Thompson, Geoffrey D. Wessel, Chris Western, Andrew Wildman, WJC, Ant Williams, Rob Williams, Sean Michael Wilson and Yel Zamor.

It’s a high quality, 116-page full-colour, squarebound book, due for publication on 18th June 2011, and priced at £14.99 + £3.00 postage to UK addresses. All proceeds will be going to help disaster victims via donations to Second Harvest and the New Zealand Red Cross.

Readers based in the UK can now place preorders and choose between two covers at the Comic Book Alliance website page here, and advance orders will include 3 small limited edition prints. It’s something I’m proud to be a part of, so go, grab yourself a fabulous book and contribute to a good cause at the same time.

storyteller sneak preview

British publisher Ilex Press have officially released several spreads from my forthcoming book Alan Moore: Storyteller as well as the fabulous final cover as created by Chip Kidd and José Villarrubia. Chip came up with the concept and used one of José's classic photos to produce a set of book spine models, which were then, with cunning circularity, photographed by José.

The book tracks Moore's early life and influences with never-before-seen family photographs and even reproduces his baptism certificate!

All his major works like Marvelman/Miracleman are covered in some depth as well as much of his more obscure creations in his various fields of comics, prose, performance, music and art, and beautifully laid out by the designer of the book Simon Goggin.

The book even offers glimpses of Moore's own personal working notebooks, like this incredible densely thumbnailed chapter from a chapter of From Hell.

Storyteller has been rescheduled to ship in early to mid July in both the UK and the US (Rizzoli/Universe) and can be preordered from any comic or book retailer worth their salt, instore or online right about now.

You can read a little more in my interview on smoky man's blog Alan Moore World.

alan moore: telling stories

I haven't (at the time of writing) seen it myself yet, but the book I spent the vast majority of last year writing is listed in the current Diamond Previews catalogue dated February 2011.

I haven't been making a lot of noise about it up until now as (a) I got told off by one of the editors when news of it leaked out too early and (b) I tend to avoid commenting on my projects until they're completed, due to delays and abandonments in previous projects.

Alan Moore: Storyteller is, I believe, the most comprehensive and accurate biography of one of Britain's most creative minds ever published. It's going to be presented in a lavish format; A 320-page 8.5" x 11" full colour hardcover with audio CD.

The book not only includes an in-depth survey of all of Alan's comics creations, but also covers his musical projects, prose writings, magical performances and artwork in some depth. Some of his most renowned co-creators (including Alan Davis, Dave Gibbons, Eddie Campbell and David Lloyd) have provided never-before seen materials; an unpublished script for V for Vendetta, rare artwork (Captain Britain and Watchmen among others) and photographs.

Alan himself was incredibly co-operative, generously making time for numerous interviews in person and by phone, providing family photographs and allowing me access to some of his personal notebooks which give unprecedented insight into his working techniques, from Lost Girls, From Hell and Voice of the Fire.

Alan has also granted permission to reproduce the entire legendary Big Numbers chart, detailing the whole plot of the sadly abandoned project with Bill Sienkiewicz.

I've also attempted to delve into Moore's philosophies, politics, attitudes to drug use, celebrity, the Hollywood system, working routines and methods in order to reveal some of the man behind the hype.

The audio CD included with the book is another treasure trove in itself, a compilation of tracks from almost all of Alan's recorded projects, from the Sinister Ducks to the Moon & Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels and including numerous previously unrecorded tracks from the Satanic Nurses and the Emperors of Ice Cream (including the infamous "Mr. A"). All nineteen tracks have been gloriously post-mastered by Alan's sonic collaborator on the audio version of 'Brought to Light,' Gary Lloyd.

There's also a bibliographic guide to the most effective way of picking up Alan's printed works and a obsessively detailed timeline of his career in a double gatefold insert.

As well receiving materials from many of Alan's collaborators, I was lucky enough to receive reproductions of some of his rarest works from members of the Alan Moore fan community, in particular having tremendous assistance from Pádraig Ó Méalóid who has his own Moore-centric blog Glycon which can be viewed here.

The famed science fiction author Michael Moorcock was kind enough to provide a fantastic introduction for the book, and the cover has been cooked up between Chip Kidd and José Villarrubia.*

Another Alan Moore-related project is not something I would have pursued under my own steam; my personal ambition remains the continuation and completion of Strangehaven as soon as circumstances allow; Alan Moore: Storyteller was commissioned by British packager/publisher Ilex Press, for whom I wrote Comic Book Design in 2009. It will also be published in the US by art books specialist Rizzoli and I understand there is also a French language edition in the works and possibly one or two other foreign editions under consideration.

It's due for publication in the spring around May time and you can already pre-order it from your local comic shop, book shop and the usual online retailers.

The Diamond Previews listing is here and their order code is FEB111253.

*Note: The cover currently posted on the Previews, Amazon and other websites is not the actual cover. As soon as I get the go-ahead on the official, final cover I'll post it here.

Merry Christmas 2010!

Due to my being quite ridiculously busy throughout 2010 on a number of projects (including a new book, announcement imminent) I have unfortunately been unable to illustrate my traditional annual Christmas card for friends, subscribers, industry contacts and other honoured individuals. Indeed, I've actually even been too busy to buy any, let alone write them and send them out.

So, apologies to all expecting their card which will never arrive, and thank you to all of you who have sent one to me. Let's just call this year a victory for the environment and a defeat for the Royal Mail, and let's all have a bloody good holiday.

Photographs taken December 2009 in Leigh-on-Sea.

(c) 2009 Gary Spencer Millidge

Is it a bird... is it a plane? No, it's a bird.

By accident I stumbled upon the just-announced Eagle Awards nominations web page and was surprised to discover that Comic Book Design has been included in the shortlist for nominations for an award in the "Favourite Comics-Related Book" category.

It's obviously very gratifying and should anyone wish to vote they can do so here. Not that I wish to influence anyone's choice in any particular category you understand.

There's no indication on the website as to when the final voting closes, so probably best do it sooner rather than later.

storm in a teacup

Nice review of my Comic Book Design at Michael Crouch's Storm Comics Blogspot here. Thanks to Michael, and thanks to Whitters for the heads up.

UPDATED: Since posting this on my facebook page, Marc Arsenault has informed me of his fine review of the book over at Wow Cool, and you can read it here.

winter wonderland

Here in this corner of England, we experienced quite a substantial snowfall last week and I made the effort to get out and take some snaps.

I had intended to post a flash sideshow Christmas card of the best of my photos, but time has run short, so I'll direct you to my album recently posted on facebook here ...

... and wish you all the greetings of the season and all the very best for the new year.