All comics, all the way!

[shewhomust]

While this post has been under construction, the death has been announced of Anthea Bell: since this is the all-comics version, impossible to pass by without mentioning her!

Then back to Kendal, and picking up where I left off, We continued to have trouble throughout the weekend locking and unlocking the door: we decided blame the wet weather. But on Friday evening we eventually persuaded a key to turn in one of the two locks, decided that would do, and headed to the Brewery to collect our tickets and passes. I'd hoped to have a look at the Hunt Emerson exhibition, but it was in a space also occupied by a band making music at a volume too loud for comfort, so we retreated. From two floors away, it sounded rather good, and I wondered what it was, but I don't suppose I shall ever know. In the bar we found Bryan and Mary Talbot, and Mel Gibson (no, silly, the real Mel Gibson), and there was pleasant chat before the doors opened for the evening's event.

The opening gala took the form of a debate: in the red corner (with the spider's web) Team Marvel versus, in the blue corner (or batcave) Team DC. The audience, filing in, were each given two sheets of paper,one red one blue, with which to vote. I'm never good at these either / or choices, and these days I probably buy more Image than any other publisher. But invited to vote in a preliminary poll, I voted Marvel. I did, after all, only become 'shewhomust' because the name 'marvel_girl' was already taken, and while I am continually grateful that things turned out this way, there is a part of me that is still Marvel Girl. The debate was played mostly for laughs, but the panellists - and even more so the filmed 'vox pops' - had clearly chosen sides on the basis of who they had favoured when they were twelves years old. Honourable mentions to Peter Kessler (Team Marvel) for comedy value and well chosen illustrations, to Frank Quitely (Team DC) for uttering the word 'Vertigo' (and also, I realise belatedly, for stepping in at short notice to replace Ed Brubaker, which explains the brevity of his contribution, and its lack of illustrations), and to Jonathon Ross (vox pop) for his litany of creators who made Marvel great. A second show of coloured papers at the end showed the DC vote holding steady, but the Marvel vote much increased and roaring into the lead, which may demonstrate initial tactical voting, but which I choose to take as a reward for fine debating skills.

There's a change of tone as the evening shifts from raucous to formal, for the announcement of the new Comics Laureate (Hannah Berry) and the recipient of the Sergio Aragones International Award for Excellence in Comic Art (Hunt Emerson) - two popular choices. And then we came home, to discover that helenraven had overcome all obstacles or trains, keypads and locked doors, and was inside waiting for us to open a bottle.

Crime Lords: Ian Rankin and John Wagner

Saturday morning found us back at the main theatre bright damp and early, only to be told that we could not enter through the main doors, and had to go up the stairs and in at the top of the stalls. I was grumpy about what looked like someone giving orders just because they could, and muttered about disabled access, but it turned out that there was an explanation: they couldn't find the key for the lower doors. Next came the message that fire regulations would not permit this, and that stern measures would be taken - followed by a cascade of sparks as some unseen person outside the had applied an angle grinder to the lock (Ian Rankin has the picture). I don't know what fire regulations would have to say about those sparks, but there can't have been much present that was dry enough to catch fire.

It's no criticism of the panel itself to say that it never matched that excitement. It was both interesting and entertaining. John Wagner was amiable, but it's Ian Rankin's contribution that stood out: I could happily have spent the hour listening to him talking. Funniest line, and I paraphrase, but not bot by much: They let you script a comic with no training at all. I didn't know anything about how to do it, but I have an edition of 'Watchmen' with some of Alan Moore's scripts... [pause] Yes. Turns out he's not representative. I was also grateful for his enthusiastic recommendation of The Bogie Man, as I had noticed that the Festival didn't think it worth mentioning, even in the context of his new collaboration with Alan Grant.

The Internet of Hate and Loathing

Artist Emmi Nieminen worked with journalist Johanna Vehkoo on a sustained (year-long?) study of study of hate speech on the internet: what effect does it have on its targets, who participates in it and what can we do to stop it? The result is a big, beautiful book in Finnish, which was proudly displayed on the platform, but only a few sample pages have been translated into English: these are allegedly online, but I haven't been able to find them, and the printed pages we were given to take away don't give a URL. The examples of Emmi Nieminen's art on the Festival website don't convey how pretty it can be (women in gardens in soft washes of colour), and don't include her excellent depictions of trolls. Mel Gibson, chairing, did her best, but I thought, not for the last time in the weekend, that a second voice would have added richness to the conversation.

...and then three come along at once!

The multi-strand programming is one of the things that makes the festival feel like a festival, to me: shall we do this? or this? or go and have a look at this... But inevitably there's the occasional pile-up, when I'd really like bilocation as my superpower. helenraven, a more experienced festival-goer than I am, took advantage of the staggered starting times to dip in and out of events: I wish I'd thought of that! Though it's not really my style... So I saw neither Frank Quitely nor Guy Delisle, but went instead to the Council Chamber where Bryan and Mary Talbot were previewing Rain, their work-in-progress about the Boxing Day Floods in Hebdren Bridge in 2015. They were taking care not to give away the story, but it's obviously going to contain romance and environmental mismanagement - and the book will be landscape format, giving Bryan plenty of room for panoramic views. It won't be available until next year's festival, but it's already on my shopping list.

Traces of the Great War

After lunch - as last year, at the Farmhouse Kitchen (great brunch, shame about the coffee) we went to the big launch event, for Traces of the Great War, an anthology commissioned by 14-18Now, Licaf and On a marché sur la Bulle (the Amiens comics festival). This sounds very worthy - but a very similar commission produced Dave McKean's Black Dog, so the precedent is good.

It's a rare anthology that's as satisfying as a full-length work; and a rare anthology that has nothing at all to offer, especially with a cast of contributors as starry as this one. The same is true of the launch event: a certain quantity of formal stuff to be got through, people being thanked and copies being presented, then quite short sessions with a surprising number of contributors. I had not guessed from her name that Mikiko is German (German-Japanese, but in this context it's the presence of a German voice that is interesting). Nor that Victoria Lomasko is Russian, and impressive enough that I added her solo spot to my what-to-see list. Edmond Baudoin was impressive, huge vivid images of war full of references to other artists, George Grosz and Goya among them, hampered by the brave but misguided decision of presenter Pascal Meriaux to act as his own interpreter. Highlight once again Ian Rankin, accompanied by Sean Phillips - if only because this enabled me to compare Phillips's images of the protagonist on the screen over his head and conclude that yes, that's a self-portrait.

After which, we called it a day. A quick trip to Booth's ("What is Booths?" asked helenraven. "A sort of northern Waitrose," we told her) for pizza, then home for the evening, and the second bottle of our comparative NZ syrah tasting.

There were fewer panels I wanted to go to on Sunday: which was fine, because it gave me more time for wandering around the town, and checking out the artists' and dealers' stalls, making one or two purchases (I was very abstemious). There were several exhibitions I might have gone to, but in the end I managed to squeeze round the artwork from Hunt Emerson's Bloke's Progress (displayed in the room also used for book signings) and gave up all hope of the other Hunt Emerson exhibition (in the crowded and steamy café - not a viable exhibition space at all). Sorry, Hunt! A leisurely stroll to the Brewery via the river - high, and fast, but well within its banks - and just two panels:

Victoria Lomasko: 'it's not comics'

Having been impressed by Victoria Lomasko at the Traces of the Great War event, we went to hear her talking about her book Other Russias. The title says it all: this is a collection of reports on aspects of Russia we don't usually see, divided into two sections, the 'invisible' and the 'angry'. But where another reporter would take photographs, Lomasko sketches her subjects - mostly portraits, with a fragment of quoted speech. The slide show splashed these with vivid colour: I particularly liked the elderly communist lady, all in red with her placard of Marx, Engels, Lenin and the remark "All morning I prayed to God that the rain wouldn't ruin my sign." I'd buy a print of that. But, she says, it isn't comics, placing it instead in a Russian tradition of drawn reporting which goes back to Tsarist times. Comics, she assured us, have speech bubbles and panel frames -

When I say "she assured us," I am simplifying. Lomasko's English is good enough for her to read a prepared statement, and despite her heavy accent, maybe a bit better than that: she seemed to get the drift of questions without having to wait for her interpreter. But she preferred to answer in Russian. Her interpreter made this a seamless process, with one small exception: as she admitted, with apologies, she didn't know anything about comics. To a surprising extent: she hesitated over 'speech bubbles', which didn't matter at all. I'd have liked to know what Lomasko was saying about Joe Sacco, though, since he was an obvious reference point, even before I saw he had blurbed the book -

And that was the other frustration. The only point in the entire festival where I was prepared to queue to have a book signed, and Waterstones had run out, even before the artist made her way down to the signing. I ended up ordering a copy from Amazon.

Style icons: Stanley Chow and Rian Hughes

durham_rambler summed up this panel as "pretty boring, mostly", but I enjoy watching people explicate their work process, and I wasn't bored. I went into it thinking I didn't know Stanley Chow, but as he put together his cartoon / portrait / icon of Christopher Reed's Superman, I recognised the style: I'm sure I've seen his work around. It's distinctive, in a style-over-content sort of way. Rian Hughes is also a great stylist, but in a way that does work for me, and he talked us through a selection of recent work: using something called 'Vector' (I think) to create a Batman image from multiple lines and curves, using layers to build up cover images for the recent 'Prisoner' series (oh, so that's what layers are.... Not boring at all.

Not boring, but by now I was panelled out. I bought a few comics, ate a pear and stilton sandwich for lunch, and went walkabout. (I'll save the photos for another post.) In the evening, over a Thai takeaway and the last of the wine, helenraven read me some edited highlights from Alan Moore's Jerusalem: she makes it sound not heavy going at all. Time I read it!