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Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Kendal
The full programme for the 4th Lakes International Comic Art Festival is now online and available to download here. It’s fabulous, packed with an enormous range of events. Tickets are now on sale, so now’s the time to take a good look at what’s on. As in previous years, it takes place in October in in Kendal, in the the south of the beautiful English Lake District. This year it runs from Friday 14th to Sunday 16th.I’ll be appearing with Bryan to talk about The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia. We’ll be in the Council Chambers in the Comics Clock Tower (aka Town Hall) with Paul Gravett on the Sunday at 2.30 and we’ll be signing outside the Chambers afterwards.
In the run-up to the festival we have some judging to do for the Beatrix Potter Reimagined competition. All the submissions will be included in a Beatrix Potter Reimagined exhibition at Kendal Library, from 7th to 28th October, sitting alongside some fabulous BP reimagined artworks by Charlie Adlard, Duncan Fegredo, Hannah Berry and Luke McGarry. The winners of the competition will be announced during the festival.Meanwhile we seem to have only just returned from the Edinburgh International Book Festival and we’re off to the Avilés Comics Festival in Spain. It’s all go at Talbot Towers, I tell you!
Here’s a short report on Edinburgh from Joe Gordon, who chaired our session there.
On the trip to Avilés that’s coming up we’ll be promoting the Spanish edition of Red Virgin. It’s published in Spain later this month, alongside a fourth printing of the award-winning Sally Heathcote Sufragista, the Spanish edition of Sally Heathcote Suffragette. Both are published by Ediciones La Cúpola in Barcelona.
Brewery Arts Centre 
Comics Clock Tower (aka Kendal Town Hall) -
Sally in Scotland, Talbots in Lakeland
Here’s the video of the Sally Heathcote Suffragette event at the Edinburgh Book Festival last month. Thanks to Jane Barry for her expert filming and editing.
On returning from a week’s holiday, for me the Edinburgh film was an opportunity to revisit a very pleasant occasion. Bryan and I have been enjoying a battery-recharging week in and around Keswick, the first proper holiday we’ve had for a couple of years.We didn’t see any badgers, though. Shame.
Castlerigg Stone Circle Looking down on Keswick from Latrigg Another hazy day Another bad hair day! Grandy Nook. A grand place to stay -
Edinburgh Book Festival
Just back from a busy trip to Edinburgh, at the final weekend of the Edinburgh Fringe and International Book Festival. Straight off the train on Friday, Bryan and I joined Kate Charlesworth at Word Power, a radical bookshop in Nicolson Street, for an hour or so talking about the making of Sally Heathcote, Suffragette. That evening we were all entertained by Freight Books at a launch party for IDP: 2043, a graphic novel produced in collaboration with the Festival. You can listen to two of the contributors, Denise Mina and Adam Murphy, talking about the book in a radio interview on The Culture Studio.Saturday 12.30 was our main event about Sally. We were in discussion with Teddy Jamieson in front of a full theatre audience. As the chair finished his preliminary panel introduction, a woman in the crowd called out “Votes for Women!” Then a few moments later, another stood up brandishing an umbrella and shouted again “Votes for Women!” This was the cue for a suffragette choir to march in, singing “The March of the Women” to a drum accompaniment. They were superb. The choir is Edinburgh’s own “Loud and Proud”, of which Kate herself is a member. (The event was filmed and I hope to be able to post a link to it soon.)
Then, after an hour’s lively discussion, we removed to the bookshop for a signing that lasted around an hour and a half. I have no idea how many copies that amounts to.Kate and I had another fixture later the same day. There were two panel discussions with contributors to IDP: 2043, both chaired by Denise Mina. We were in the second of them, along with Barroux and Irvine Welsh, followed again by a signing session (but not another singing session, more’s the pity…)
Left to right: Irvine Welsh, Barroux, Kate Charlesworth, Mary Talbot, Denise Mina Photographs by Dianne Barry and Vintage Books.
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Back to the Edinburgh International Book Festival again!
Today the festival have released their programme for 2014. I’ll be there with Bryan again. This time we’ll be with Kate Charlesworth too, talking about Sally Heathcote, Suffragette on Saturday 23rd August. More details here.Kate and I are taking part in another event later in the day. It’s a launch for the graphic novel commissioned by the festival, IDP: 2043. We’ll be appearing with Denise Mina and Irvine Welsh. Details for it are here.The box office hasn’t opened yet but tickets will be available from Tuesday 24th, later this month. There are lots of other Stripped 2014 events going on too, so we’re anticipating a long weekend that’s as good as last year’s. Hope to see some of you there! -
A graphic novel for the Edinburgh Book Festival
It’s official! Project X is announced here! Kate Charlesworth and I have been quietly working on a chapter for a collaborative graphic novel called IDP: 2043 commissioned by the Edinburgh Festival. Denise Mina provided the scenario – after the Great Flood of 2032 – and distributed the six chapters to a team of writers and artists. The list of other contributors is pretty impressive: Pat Mills, Hannah Berry, Irvine Welsh, Dan McDaid, Denise Mina, Barroux, Adam Murphy and Will Morris.The collaboration began behind the scenes in 2013, as part of the Stripped graphic novel events at the 30th Edinburgh International Book Festival. The story is set in Scotland 30 years on. It’s a dystopian future, where resources are scarce. The initials ‘IDP’ in the title stand for ‘Internally Displaced Persons’.
Denise asked me to write the concluding chapter, so what could possibly go wrong? Ha! Well, I have to say that when I agreed to contribute it was with some trepidation at joining a group project with a tight deadline. But that was before I knew about the great professional line-up. The book will be launched at the festival in August, when we may finally get to meet one another! -
My Best of Year choices for 2013
FPI have been running a December best-of-year series on their blog for some years now. This time around, they had so many submissions that it’s running over into January! Contributors are asked to pick three favourites from comics/graphic novels, books, television and film and say a little about them. They’re also invited to reflect on the past year more personally and to look to the creative year ahead. Take a look at my contribution, posted here today.
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The Independent on Sunday
One sunny afternoon at the Edinburgh Book Festival, the delightful Laura Sneddon and I were in conversation outside the author’s yurt. Her write-up of the interview is now in the Independent newspaper here. -
Video of Edinburgh Festival Talk Released
The recording of our talk at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival is now available to view: -
Edinburgh International Book Festival
25th August 2013
Bryan & Mary Talbot: From Judge Dredd to Steampunk via James Joyce
We were in discussion of Dotter of her Father’s Eyes and more in the ScottishPower Studio. Chaired by Teddy Jamieson.Some reports here:
Edinburgh Spotlight
Stripped blog
Writer Pictures
Forbidden Planet blog (with video)
FPI Joe’s Report
metaphrog blog9th Art Award CeremonyI was also on the judging panel at the 9th Art Award Ceremony in the ScottishPower Studio.
Coverage here:On the same day, we had a launch party for the Sequential graphic novel app. Available from iTunes.
Saturday 12.30 was our main event about Sally. We were in discussion with Teddy Jamieson in front of a full theatre audience. As the chair finished his preliminary panel introduction, a woman in the crowd called out “Votes for Women!” Then a few moments later, another stood up brandishing an umbrella and shouted again “Votes for Women!” This was the cue for a suffragette choir to march in, singing “The March of the Women” to a drum accompaniment. They were superb. The choir is Edinburgh’s own “Loud and Proud”, of which Kate herself is a member. (The event was filmed and I hope to be able to post a link to it soon.)
One sunny afternoon at the Edinburgh Book Festival, the delightful Laura Sneddon and I were in conversation outside the author’s yurt. Her write-up of the interview is now in the Independent newspaper 
