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An Italian Dotter and a new French Red Virgin
Two superb new covers! The publisher of Louise Michel: La Vierge Rouge (the French edition of The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia) is putting out a soft-back edition later this year. It’s coming out in time for the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune next year and the cover is fabulous.
Back in January, an Italian edition of Dotter of her Father’s Eyes was published by NPE. It has a strikingly different cover from all the other versions. There was a promotional tour organised for early May: we were appearing as guests at Napoli Comicon, then doing various events with students in Sicily, where the book has been taken up for use in schools. We’ve had to cancel, of course. It’s possible that there’ll be alternative arrangements in October/November. We’ll just have to sit it out and see.Take care, everyone.
#nousrestonscheznous #stiamoacasa
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Forum on climate change and the cultural sector
Happy new year all!
Our first event of the year is at the university here in Sunderland next week. If you’re in the northeast, you may be interested in attending. We’ll be doing a short presentation on our graphic novel RAIN and taking part in some discussions during the day. It’s free, with further details and tickets available on Eventbrite here.
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RAIN featured in the Journal of the Landscape Institute
Landscape is a professional journal for landscape architects and its latest issue is devoted to Climate and Biodiversity Emergency. In it, there’s a double page spread about our new graphic novel Rain, appearing straight after a feature on the work of Slow the Flow Calderdale entitled “Tackling flooding in the Calder Valley”. This happy connection has come about because the journal’s editor, Paul Lincoln, happened to hear us being interviewed on BBC World Service (yes, we were!) and contacted us. Slow the Flow Calderdale is a charitable organisation that’s led by volunteer professionals. As the article explains, it “works alongside statutory services to address flood events and works on practical solution, including Sustainable Drainage Systems and Natural Flood Management”. There’s a lot of clever work going on.
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Raining in on the RAIN launch!
Here are some photos of the official launch of Rain. We were at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, presenting to a full house in Kendal’s Council Chambers last month:
James Robertson was also recording the talk. There’s a whole raft of video shorts you can watch here on the site he runs for Bryan. There were more books to be signed in the Georgian Room afterwards – Page 45’s location in the Comics Clock Tower (copies still available from their online shop):
We also had a great launch event in Hebden Bridge that was very well attended. No photos, unfortunately. Later in the month, we were in London signing copies at Gosh! and meeting some more lovely people:
Next stop: Newcastle City Library, where we’re doing an illustrated talk at Books on Tyne on Saturday 23rd.
If you’re in London, you could go along to the November session of Reads, the monthly reading group at Gosh! It’s on the evening of Wednesday 13th and they’ve chosen Rain as this month’s topic. Good choice!
Thanks to James, Mario and Mauricio for the photos. -
Language and Gender 3rd edition – now available!
The new edition of my book on gender and language came out today. Here’s what I have to say about it on the publisher’s blog (I’m pasting it in here, as it’s not functioning properly…):Language and Gender, 3rd Edition
Language and Gender first appeared in 1998. The opportunity to produce a third edition has been a challenge, but a very welcome one. The field has continued to be vibrant. In constant development, it has seen significant shifts since the book’s initial publication twenty years ago. The content and format of the original evolved from teaching in the 1980s and 1990s, and at the time it presented the field at its most up to date. It was certainly the first book of its kind to examine men and masculinities. If I were writing a book such as this from scratch, would I approach it differently? Yes, of course I would. I certainly wouldn’t include a chapter on masculinities focusing solely on cis-gender men, for example.
What I have done for this volume is integrate new perspectives and research with established work, which allowed me to maintain the important historical overview. The historical perspective gives necessary background for an understanding of more recent, theoretically challenging developments.
For the second edition I engaged with key new advances in the field, largely by producing two entirely new chapters. One of these examined gender and sexuality, focusing on heternormativity and resistance. For this new edition, I have added to it some attention to transgender in its coverage of LGBTQ issues. The other new chapter for the second edition dealt with public talk, particularly in politics and the workplace. As well as updating the chapter’s coverage generally for this new edition, I have incorporated attention to the worrying onslaught of online misogyny. Of course, many of the issues that the book addresses merit chapters – indeed books – on their own, but in this introduction to the field that would be impossible, owing to constraints of space. In an attempt to compensate for this necessarily limited coverage, I indicate sources providing greater detail in the Further Reading sections for each chapter.
On the whole, a productive year…
“It’s a lesbian!” Cartoon by Alwyn Talbot
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October RAIN forecast
Get ready for RAIN!Our latest graphic novel launches in October. First we’ll be introducing RAIN with an illustrated talk at London’s Cartoon Museum. Then in Kendal the Lakes International Comic Art Festival will be hosting the official launch and the following weekend there will also be a special launch event in Hebden Bridge (the setting for much of the book). We’ll also be doing signings at Gosh! in London and Waterstone’s in Sunderland. Details of these events below:
7th October 2019
When the Rain Comes
Illustrated talk by Mary and Bryan Talbot followed by Q&A
Free entry
The Cartoon Museum
63 Wells St, Fitzrovia, London W1A 3AESaturday 12th October 2019
12.30 Rain: The Official Launch
Bryan and Mary Talbot in conversation with Aileen McEvoy
Council Chambers, Comics Clock Tower
Lakes International Comic Art Festival
KendalThursday 17th October 2019
5pm Book signing
Waterstones
The Bridges, Sunderland SR1 3LB
19th October 2019
7pm When the Rain Comes
Illustrated talk by Mary and Bryan Talbot followed by Q&A
Entry: £5
8pm Book Signing
Free entry
The Space
Town Hall, St George’s St, Hebden Bridge HX7 7BY26th October 2019
1-2pm Book signing
Gosh!
1 Berwick Street, Soho,
London W1F 0DRFinally, in November, we have a book signing at Forbidden Planet and we’re presenting RAIN at a book festival, both in Newcastle:
2nd November 2019
1-2pm Book signing
Forbidden Planet
49 Grainger Street, Newcastle
NE1 5JE23rd November 2019
2pm When the Rain Comes
Books on Tyne: The Newcastle Book Festival
Newcastle City Library
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Dublin Worldcon 2019
So, we came back from Dublin Worldcon late on Monday. Our initial reason for being there was to attend the amazing Worldcon Philharmonic Concert. As I explained in my last post, the programme included three short movements of an ambitious work-in-progress: an opera based on Dotter of her Father’s Eyes.You can see from the programme that she was in very good company indeed!
Carrie Fisher Tribute: Princess Leia’s Theme It was impossible to take good photographs of the dance from back in the auditorium. They were moving so fast!
The Dispute of Lucia and James Young Mary Seeks Attnetion The Death of Lucia We also participated in other events. Bryan was on a panel with Declan Shalvey (see below).
As we seem to have forgotten to take any photos of the lovely people we socialised with over the weekend, there’s a restaurant photo below shamelessly purloined on Facebook.Chaz and Karen Brenchley, Mary Talbot, Jenny Campbell, Bryan Talbot, Ramsey Campbell View from the Green Room, Dublin Convention Centre. Samuel Beckett Bridge visible below -
Dotter goes to Dublin
Well, here’s a thing! Dotter of her Father’s Eyes is going on stage again. Three movements will be performed as part of the Worldcon Philharmonic Concert at the 77th World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin. An operetta based on Dotter has been an ambitious work-in-progress for composer Gary Lloyd and choreographer Bettina Carpi for quite some time. I’ve joined forces with them in developing their three music and dance pieces (created and first performed in 2015 for the Huddersfield Literary Festival) by composing accompanying lyrics. With voices and a full orchestra, the performance is going to be awesome!
So, we’ll be off to Dublin Worldcon, which is based in the Dublin Convention Centre from 15-19th August 2019. As we’re there, we’ve been asked to participate in some programme events, as follows:Saturday 17th
12.00 Grandville and the anthropomorphic tradition
ECOCEM Room (Convention Centre Dublin)
Presenter: Bryan Talbot15.30 Signature style
Odeon 1 (Point Square, Dublin)
Most of us can recognise our favourite artists just by their style of drawing or painting. But what if you want to work in more than one style, or your style goes out of fashion? We ask some artists who stands out for them, who and why that is, and whose styles have stood the test of time.Panellists: Jackie Burns, Kaja Folio, Sultana Raza and Bryan Talbot
Sunday 18th August
16.30 Politics in art and art in politics Odeon 3 (Point Square, Dublin)
As communication and control of perception become increasingly important in politics, visual storytelling is an increasingly necessary skill in persuading others. Creators of stories already know this. What are the best examples of political storytelling through art, and how are today’s politics influencing our work now?Panellists: Jim Fitzpatrick, Siobhan Murphy, Dominic Riemenschneider and Mary Talbot
Monday 19th
13.00 Familiarity breeds…comics
Liffey Room-2 (Convention Centre, Dublin)
There’s no place like home. And that’s why comic creator Bryan Talbot (Alice in Sunderland) and Declan Shalvey (Savage Town) chose to set their graphic novels in their respective home towns of Sunderland and Limerick. But was that decision an easy pitch to collaborators and retailers? Did any unexpected difficulties arise? And what did they learn about their homes that they had never known before?Panellists: Declan Shalvey and Bryan Talbot
14.00 When the rain comes
Liffey Room-2 (Convention Centre, Dublin)
Rain is a complete departure from Bryan and Mary Talbot’s previous biographical and historical collaborations. It deals instead with the here and now of environmental degradation that threatens us all. The story follows the everyday experiences of ordinary people, while engaging with pollution, climate change, moorland mismanagement and the disruption, misery and loss that they bring. The characters are fictitious: what’s happening around them is shockingly real.Presenters: Bryan Talbot and Mary Talbot
Hoping to see some of you there!
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Kate Charlesworth’s Sensible Footwear launch
Back in the Cartoon Museum‘s new home again, this time for a lovely evening at the launch of Kate’s labour of love over the past several years. Her new book on the history of LGBTQ+ is called Sensible Footwear: A Girl’s Guide. It’s published by Myriad and it’s essential reading. Here’s Joe Gordon’s review on Down the Tubes. And here are some photos from the evening:
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New premises for the Cartoon Museum!
A brief trip to London last week for the official opening of the Cartoon Museum in its new home. It’s huge! I was particularly glad to see that Kate Charlesworth’s forthcoming Sensible Footwear: A Girl’s Guide had dedicated exhibition space right in the centre (watched over by Auntie Studs herself
!):
Here are some more pics taken during the evening: 
