Comics @ Edinburgh International Book Festival 2014

By Jeremy Briggs on June 18, 2014

The Edinburgh International Book Festival has released its programme for 2014. As expected after the 40+ events for their major Stripped ‘festival within a festival’ in 2013, this year BookFest has dialled their coverage of comics and graphic novels back to their normal level of a dozen or so events, albeit with them still being promoted under their Stripped name. That said there will still be an impressive selection of comics creators in Edinburgh in August. Part of the legacy of Stripped 2013 was the creation of a graphic novel, IDP:2043, set in a dystopian future Scotland, which is due to be launched during the festival and whose long list of creators will be appearing at two related events.

The official list of Stripped events, as well as several that probably should be listed as Stripped events, are as follows –

SATURDAY 9 AUGUST

Katie Green and Matilda Tristram: Graphic Novels That Help to Heal
2:00pm – 3:00pm, Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre, £7.00
n the graphic novels of Katie Green and Matilda Tristram eating disorders and cancer are confronted with tenderness, honesty and uplifting results. In Lighter Than My Shadow, Green recalls the pain of a taboo illness and the struggle to get life back on track; in Probably Nothing, Tristram writes of a pregnancy which became a nightmare. Both chose the graphic memoir form to tackle complex issues. Chaired by Stuart Kelly.

SUNDAY 10 AUGUST

Dennis the Menace with Steven Butler (Ages 6-10)
10:30am – 11:30am, Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre, £4.50
Let the author of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize-shortlisted The Wrong Pong give you the inside story on everyone’s favourite Beano star. All the cheeky tricks and pranks played are hilariously shared in Steven Butler’s The Diary of Dennis the Menace and in this event he takes you on a whistle-stop tour with Dennis, his dog Gnasher and their friends and enemies.

THURSDAY 14 AUGUST

Mike Carey & Isabel Greenberg: Epic Journeys, Graphic Novels
7:00pm – 8:00pm, Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre, £7.00
Running for over 4 years, Mike Carey’s The Unwritten has become a cult classic. Dripping with literary references and allusions, we have journeyed with his hero Tom Taylor through real and literary landscapes. On a similar quest for enlightenment and love, Greenberg’s lonely storyteller in The Encyclopedia of Early Earth confronts mad kings and medicine men, brothers, sisters and wise old shamans. Graphic novel perfection. Chaired by Stuart Kelly.

SUNDAY 17 AUGUST

Charlie Adlard & Robbie Morrison: Digging in the Past Digging into the Story of The Great War
2:00pm – 3:00pm, Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre, £7.00
Dream team Charlie Adlard and Robbie Morrison have made their contribution to the Great War centenary with White Death, a frank graphic novel account of two dead bodies discovered almost 100 years on, and highlighting how snow was used as a military weapon. Adlard and Morrison join us to discuss how it’s possible to expose difficult historical truths through the medium of comics.

Bryan Lee O’Malley: Life After Scott Pilgrim
4:30pm – 5:30pm, Baillie Gifford Main Theatre, £10.00
Ever since his final book in the vastly popular Scott Pilgrim series, graphic novelist Bryan Lee O’Malley has been keeping fans on tenterhooks. Four years on, his new title Seconds is here. Partly inspired by the time he spent working in a restaurant in Toronto, O’Malley has described it as being ‘funny and weird and kind of big and crazy’. Don’t let the mundane setting fool you – this latest creation is anything but.

Charlie Adlard: Dead Cool Comics
9:30pm – 10:30pm, Baillie Gifford Main Theatre, £10.00
2014 marks 10 years since Charlie Adlard became primary artist on The Walking Dead comic series, a post-apocalyptic horror story of humans fighting zombies. The comic has achieved phenomenal success with an array of spin-offs: an award-winning TV series, computer games, merchandise – and it has spawned a shamble of imitators. In this event, Adlard discusses creating the art that is defining our popular culture today.

FRIDAY 22 AUGUST

Pat Mills on War Comics: Reading Workshop
1:00pm – 2:30pm, Writers’ Retreat, £15.00
Our reading workshops take a close look at a classic text, literary star or genre. Today, Pat Mills explores the representation of the First World War in comics and graphic novels using his own well-known comic creation, Charley’s War, which depicts the experiences of a teenage soldier in the trenches. Expect an open discussion from the start: you can either read the work ahead of the event or be inspired to pick it up afterwards. (This is listed in the printed programme as a Stripped event and as a Reading Workshop on the BookFest website – it is obviously both.)

Barroux & Michael Morpurgo
4:30pm – 5:30pm, Baillie Gifford Main Theatre, £7.00
Last year’s Illustrator in Residence returns to talk about his remarkable graphic novel, Line of Fire. Based on the diary kept by a French soldier during the First World War, Barroux’s work provides a fresh perspective on the first two months of the conflict. He is joined by playwright and author Michael Morpurgo who wrote the introduction to the English translation, for what promises to be a very special event.

SATURDAY 23 AUGUST

Phoenix Comic Workshop (Ages 8-12)
10:00am – 11:00am, Baillie Gifford Imagination Lab, £4.50
Join The Phoenix, Britain’s leading weekly comic, and professional comic artists Adam Murphy and Neill Cameron, as they guide you through the incredible world of comics. They’ll share some top-secret drawing and storytelling tips whilst helping you produce a comic strip of your very own.

Phoenix Comic Fun (All Ages)
11:00am – 1:00pm, Baillie Gifford Story Box, Free & Drop-in
Drop in and join The Phoenix comic creators today. Get tips on how to draw and write your own comic from the professionals and discover more about this brilliant weekly comic.

Kate Charlesworth, Bryan Talbot & Mary Talbot: How Women Won the Vote
12:30pm – 1:30pm, Royal Bank of Scotland Garden Theatre, £10.00
We are thrilled to welcome back Bryan and Mary Talbot, authors of Costa Award-winning graphic novel Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes. This time they’ve teamed up with acclaimed Edinburgh-based illustrator Kate Charlesworth to tell one person’s vivid story of the campaign for women’s right to vote: Sally Heathcote, Suffragette. It’s further thrilling proof that graphic novels are taking the world by storm.

IDP2043 Part 1 with Denise Mina, Pat Mills & Friends: Launching a Graphic Vision of the Future
6:45pm – 7:45pm, Royal Bank of Scotland Garden Theatre, £10.00
The graphic novel is ideally placed to be subversive and revelatory. The dystopian genre evolved to explore the idea of how individuals would cope with oppressive governments or post-apocalyptic worlds. One year on from our Stripped programme, which celebrated graphic novels and comics, we’ve been working with Freight Books to merge forms and create our own vision of Scotland 30 years on. Join story editor Denise Mina and story creators Hannah Berry, Pat Mills, Adam Murphy and Will Morris to explore the result: IDP2043, a new graphic novel.

IDP2043 Part 2 with Denise Mina, Irvine Welsh & Friends: Further Exploration of Our New Graphic Novel
8:30pm – 9:30pm, ScottishPower Foundation Studio, £10.00
The graphic novel is ideally placed to be subversive and revelatory. The dystopian genre evolved to explore the idea of how individuals would cope with oppressive governments or post-apocalyptic worlds. One year on from our Stripped programme, which celebrated graphic novels and comics, we’ve been working with Freight Books to merge forms and create our own vision of Scotland 30 years on. In the second of two events, story editor Denise Mina and creators Barroux, Kate Charlesworth, Dan McDaid, Mary Talbot and Irvine Welsh discuss the resulting graphic novel: IDP2043.

SUNDAY 24 AUGUST

Nick Hayes & Reinhard Kleist: Graphic Novels Meet Real Life
6:30pm – 7:30pm, Baillie Gifford Imagination Lab, £10.00
Complex graphic novels bringing to life real people and actual events are the domain of Nick Hayes and Reinhard Kleist. Folk legend Woody Guthrie is the man to whom Hayes turns his talents, while Kleist has previously written about Johnny Cash. Now, though, the Berlin artist tackles Auschwitz survivor, Polish boxer Hertzko Haft. Graphic novels reveal how they do justice to such horrific history.

Paul Gravett & John Dunning: Art and Anarchy in the UK
8:30pm – 9:30pm, Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre, £7.00
The Comics Unmasked exhibition at the British Library traces the British comics tradition back through classic 1970s titles to 19th century illustrated reports of Jack the Ripper and beyond. Featuring icons like Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, and Posy Simmonds, curators John Dunning and Paul Gravett highlight how comics have uncompromisingly addressed politics, gender, violence and sexuality.

Beyond this Stripped list there are a number of comics related folks who are participating in other events including Sarah McIntyre teaming up with her Oliver and the Seawigs co-creator Phillip Reeve for Cakes In Space on Saturday 23 August at 10:30am, Stephen White (Stref) returning to illustration duties on the second of The Tattoo Fox books on Monday 11 August at 10:30 am, and Chris Riddell with Paul Stewart on Space Scavengers on Sunday 24 August at Noon and again at 3:30pm for his illustrated novel Goth Girl.

• View the Stripped events on the Edinburgh Book Festival 2014 website

• Festival tickets go on sale at 8:30am on 24 June 2014. Web: www.edbookfest.co.uk

Jeremy Briggs

News, reviews, interviews and features for print and on-line: Spaceship Away (since October 2005), Bear Alley (since February 2007), downthetubes (since June 2007), and Eagle Times (since October 2008). Plus DC Thomson’s The Art Of Ian Kennedy, Titan’s Dan Dare and Johnny Red reprints, Ilex’s War Comics: A Graphic History and 500 Essential Graphic Novels, and Print Media’s The Iron Moon and Strip magazine.