The second online roundtable is coming up for The Comics Cultural Impact Collective on Tuesday 7th May at 7.30pm on Zoom.

Here’s the Eventbrite link. The event is free.

Over one hundred comics creators, publishers, journalists, booksellers, festival and museum staff, librarians, teachers and academics joined in to share their views, which you can read all about right here on the CICC web site.

The follow up roundtable report highlighted some problems and potentials for comics in the UK, covered by us at downthetubes, lots of the comic press, and The Bookseller and Publishers’ Weekly, too.

This second meeting aims to focus more on action – forming groups interested in work packages that help promote comics and support the comics community.

“Situation clearly defined, it’s time to reconvene and see what’s to be done,” say the team.

“In this meeting, we’ll be hosting breakout rooms to see if we can’t flesh out some plans of action. Attendees will be able to choose which room they’d like to join from the following:

1) Comics in education (schools, higher/further education, formal & informal settings)

2) Comics publishing (publishers, booksellers, reviewers, distributors, libraries, etc)

3) Comics as communication, ‘applied comics’ (ie. storyboarding, graphic scribing, comics journalism, graphic medicine, academic, policy and science engagement etc)

4) Support for comics creators (increased opportunities, financial and legal advice, career advice, training, wellbeing, pastoral care)

5) Support for comics orgs/infrastructure (festivals, shops, websites, journalists, museums/archives etc)

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Sustainability will be a component of every room.

The Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC) was founded in 2023 with the aim of raising awareness of the cultural potential of comics in the UK. CCIC is a Community Interest Company, led by an independent group of professionals within the British comics community, with extensive experience in change-making and activism in arts, heritage and science: Hannah Berry FRSL, Karrie Fransman, Rhiannon Griffiths MBE, Sara Kenney, Zara Slattery and Myfanwy Tristram.

• CCIC Forum 2: Comics Stakeholders Strike Back – Putting our heads together and fixing the broken bits of the comics scene | Free event | 7.30pm UK time Tuesday 7th May 2024 on Zoom | Here’s the Eventbrite link.

The event will be recorded for internal note-taking purposes but will not be shared beyond CCIC. By attending, you acknowledge that you are OK with this.

If you’re unable to join the discussion but would like specific subjects or ideas to be raised, you can email CICC at helloccic@gmail.com

• The Comics Cultural Impact Collective is online at thecomicsculturalimpactcollective.org

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events

Tags: Comics Cultural Impact Collective, Comics Publishing, Creating Comics, downthetubes News