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Well, blimey! What can we say? On Sunday afternoon, we received an email notifying us that The Girly Comic Book Volume 1 has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award for Best Comic/ Graphic Novel.
Nominated and voted on by members of the British Fantasy Society. If you’re a member of the BFS, and helped us to make the shortlist, then thank you so much. It was quite a surprise, as we hadn’t checked the longlist, so didn’t realise we were on that either! Wish us luck for the final vote, which closes on August 1st, and the result will be announced over the weekend of September 18th-20th at the FantasyCon convention in Nottingham. For more information on FantasyCon, check out:
http://www.fantasycon.org.uk
Voting is open to current members of the British Fantasy Society, attendees of FantasyCon 2008 and those who have already registered for FantasyCon 2009. If you’re eligible to vote, we’d really appreciate it if you considered supporting us again. Competition for the award is fierce, so we can do with all the help we can muster!
Our esteemed opposition are:
All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely (DC)
30 Days of Night: Beyond Barrow by Steve Niles/Bill Sienkiewicz (IDW)
Comic Book Tattoo by Rantz Hoseley/Tori Amos/various (Image)
The New Avengers: Illuminati by Brian Bendis/Brian Reed/Jim Cheung (Marvel)
Hellblazer: Fear Machine by Jamie Delano/Richard Piers Rayner/Mark Buckingham/various (Vertigo)
Hellblazer: The Laughing Magician by Andy Diggle/Leonardo Manco/Daniel Zezelj (Vertigo)
Locke & Key by Joe Hill/Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
Buffy Season 8 Vol 3: Wolves At The Gate by Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard/Georges Jeanty (Dark Horse)
Win or lose, it’s great being invited to the party, and being able to say that we’ve been shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award, but just dreaming for a little while. How great would it be to actually win? 
Jay and Selina
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Here’s a sneak peek at what should be the next major release from Factor Fiction – collecting strips from across the first seventeen issues of The Girly Comic in a shelf-friendly perfect bound edition, under a gorgeous Dez Taylor cover. Further down the line will be The Girly Comic Book Volume 2, collected strips from Violent! and Crazycrone: The Lee Kennedy Collection. And tomorrow, the world!
The Girly Comic Book Volume 1 will, all things being equal, debut at the Birmingham International Comics Show this October.
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In December 2006, author and friend Craig Hinton died. Discussions were had about putting together a collection of stories in celebration of his life, and after a little while, the two editors (Adrian Middleton and David McIntee) started asking about for a third person to join the editorial team. In the past, I’ve been involved in a few such projects, or fanthologies as they were dubbed, so after some consideration, I came aboard.
Craig was a huge fan of comics, and it must be said, I know quite a few comics bods, so it seemed the obvious role for me to take on designing the book and getting an illustration for each story. Fast forward many months, and we’re almost there. We’re just awaiting final approval from Craig’s family, and we can get this baby out into the world, with all profits being donated to the British Heart Foundation.
Contributors: John Aggs, James Ambuehl, William Andrews, Peter Anghelides, Jon Arnold, Chris Askham, Andy Baker, Allan Bednar, Simon Bucher Jones, Damon Cavalchini, Andrew Cheverton, Peet Clack, Roger Clark, D’Israeli, Jonathon Dalton, Alec Daniels, Vince Danks, Darren Douglas, Stuart A Douglas, Jay Eales, Paul Ebbs, Garen Ewing, Josceline Fenton, Toby Ford, Simon A Forward, Roger Gibson, Brian Gorman, Steve Graeme, Matthew Griffiths, Allan Harvey, Steve Hatcher, Craig Hinton, Laura Howell, Mike Juniper, Tim Keable, Andy Lane, Roger Langridge, Robbie Langton, Andrew K Lawston, Jen Leavesley, Yishan Li, Marvin Mann, David McIntee, Chris McKeon, Ant Mercer, Mark Michalowski, Adrian Middleton, Fiona Moore, Mike Morgan, Jim Mortimore, Bevis Musson, Peter Neville, Lee O’Connor, Daniel O’Mahony, Kate Orman, Caroline Parkinson, Paul Peart-Smith, Stephen Prestwood, Pete Rajski, Graeme Neil Reid, Natalie Sandells, Rachel Simpson Hutchens, Dale Smith, Oli Smith, Rachel Steffan, Alan Stevens, Daniel Tessier, Christer Van, Emma Vieceli, Nick Wallace, Dave Whittam, Terry Wiley, Dave Windett.
More news as and when I have it.
Jay
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Now it can be told… Attendees at Caption 2007: Dreams & Nightmares were given a prophetic dream of the theme for Caption 2008. And the dream came true. Caption 2008 is CAPTION TIMEWARP. We’re just waiting on final confirmation, but it seems likely that it will be taking place again at the East Oxford Community Centre on August 9th and 10th, in the year that celebrates DEADLINE’s 20th anniversary, ESCAPE’s 25th anniversary, LUTHER ARKWRIGHT’s 30th anniversary and THE BEANO’s 70th anniversary…
Watch this space for further developments as and when we have them.
EDIT: 26/02/08 – The date is now confirmed. Caption Timewarp is go for 9th/10th August 2008!
Jay
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Breaking In To Comics: 28th January, Leicester Central Lending Library
Jay recently chaired a panel on Breaking In To Comics, as part of the BLAM! Season, which Damien Walters is running on behalf of Leicester Libraries. The other panel guests were Matt Smith, Editor of 2000AD, and John Freeman of Down the Tubes, Rok Comics and former Marvel UK and Titan Magazines Editor.
The event was very well attended, with over 60 people in the audience and people travelling from as far away as London and Barnsley. It was a wonderful mix of age, race and gender.
Some of the top tips from the panel were:
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Read and follow the submission guidelines.
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Get some experience and hone your skills in the small press or webcomics arena.
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Try to be original. For example, 2000AD has seen numerous time travel, virtual reality prison stories etc.
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Remember that you are competing with the current contributors to publishers, so you have to be as good as, or preferably better than they are.
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Know the market you are submitting to. If the publication only publishes 5 page standalone stories, don’t submit a ten page first instalment of a 300 page magnum opus!
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Writers: Try to get an artist to work on some of your spec scripts in order to understand how your writing works once it is illustrated.
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Artists: Be ruthless with your portfolio – have no more than 5 pages of your best comic strip work, and do not include pin-ups. The editors want to see your ability to tell a story.
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Artists: When showing your portfolio to an editor, make sure you have illustrated pages using their characters. For example, if you’re trying to submit to 2000AD then you might illustrate one of the spec scripts from their website. Don’t send them your Spider-Man art pages. Send them Judge Dredd or Strontium Dog.
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Attend and network at comic conventions – it’s a great way to make contacts and hear about new opportunities.
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Think about all the different types of places you can submit to:
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2000AD (Rebellion)
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Commando (DC Thompson)
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Junior titles (look at what is on the shelves of your local newsagent)
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Independent & Small Press publishers
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Webcomics
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Comics for mobile phones (Anyone can submit to ROK comics)
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Educational comics
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Business/Health comics
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Manga – Tokyo Pop Rising Stars of Manga competitions
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Mainstream Book Publishers. For example, Jonathan Cope, Gollancz and David Fickling Books
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Competitions elsewhere. For example, the recent Observer/Jonathan Cape newspaper competition
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Student newspapers
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Fanzines
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Magazines
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BUT, most of all, have fun and enjoy creating comics, otherwise it’s not worth the effort!
Related links: