MANCHESTER GETS THE COMICS TOUCH

3/12/02: A new comic book has just been launched in Manchester, but there’s not a masked superhero or manga monster in sight. Instead, the specially commissioned book features Black and Asian people from Greater Manchester, as they explore the world through the region’s outstanding selection of art galleries and museums.

The book is conceived by internationally acclaimed artists Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It features nine extraordinary stories of local Black and Asian people, based on visits to the nine galleries and museums taking part. Participating organisations include Imperial War Museum North, Gallery Oldham and the Manchester Art Gallery.

Created as an audience development tool, What in the World? offers Black and Asian people the chance to tell their own stories about their experience of Greater Manchester’s culture. Those stories also serve to debunk the view that museums and galleries aren’t relevant to all of Manchester’s diverse communities.

One story tells of schoolgirl Heena Rana, and how excited she felt to feature in Touchstones, Rochdale’s recent promotional campaign, appearing on banners all over town, whilst another sees Barbados-born Talitha Higgins helping to hoist a grand piano into Bury Art Gallery and Museum for a musical recital.

Heritage Lottery Funding and support from Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) paid for 50,000 copies of the 28-page full colour perfect bound comic book, which will be distributed free of charge via community and educational groups, co-ordinated by Arts About Manchester.

Tony Jones, Heritage Lottery Fund Regional Manager for the North West, was delighted to process the bid, saying: “Not everyone would think that funding for a comic book is the sort of thing the Heritage Lottery Fund can support.

“But we want people to be involved with their heritage, and this project is just the kind of creative approach that helps bring this about.

“The book is designed specifically to reach groups who can often feel excluded from museums, and it lets people celebrate their own heritage in all its many forms. We’re delighted to have played our part with funding.”

Katharine de Lisle from Whitworth Art Gallery has been involved in the project from the start and is enthusiastic about how the book can introduce the Greater Manchester museums and galleries to a wider audience. “The comic book features some wonderful stories,” she explains, “and serves to highlight the wealth of material that can be seen in our museums and galleries. I find it fascinating to discover how different people respond to these collections and hope the book will inspire people to visit somewhere new”.

Artists Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio are fully aware that how influential individuals from within the Black and Asian communities talk about the museums and galleries is key to communicating with the communities as a whole.
“People who are similar to the target market can deliver the most effective communication,” Grennan feels. “For example, in our comic book, the story tellers are like the readers”.

This philosophy is further supported via the distribution of the book, which will be through specifically targeted Black and Asian education and community groups.
“The comic is to be used as a catalyst,” explains Grennan. “It’s a teaching aid, a starting point, a catalyst for the totally unexpected”.

Anyone wanting to know more about the project can contact Nadine Andrews, Cultural Diversity Project Manager at Arts About Manchester.

• Web Link for the artist: KartoonKings.com

SPIDEY SPINS A GOLDEN WEB

3/12/02: Spider-Man, out now on DVD and video, has already netted makers Sony Pictures $815 million in worldwide box office receipts. Variety reports that riding the back of its webbed wonder, Sony has set a new record for worldwide box office with $2.75 billion rung up so far this year. This tally bests the previous record of $2.68 billion, set by 20th Century Fox in 1998 on boffo B.O. from Titanic.

Sony has also done well because of solid performances delivered by other pics such as Sony’s sci-fi spoof sequel Men in Black II ($439 million, out on DVD 27 January), Sony/Revolution actioner xXx ($242 million) and Panic Room ($195 million).

BREEDING AGAIN

3/12/02: Here’s just one of the new screen shots for Breed, a new shoot-em-up for the PC due for release in 2003. Breed is a cutting-edge science-fiction shoot-’em up, which blends addictive, accessible, free-roaming gameplay with cutting-edge, state-of-the-art technology.

Utilising both first and third person viewpoints, players can freely take control of a variety of units and vehicles – from standard ground troops to APCs and Dropships – to do battle with The Breed both in orbit and on the Earth’s surface. The objective is simple: Halt the invasion of The Breed and stop the destruction of mankind.

FROZEN OUT SOON

3/12/02: An Eisner-Award nominated tale is collected in Hellblazer: Freezes Over, featuring issues #157-163 of the Vertigo series. These stories, written by Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) with art by Marcelo Frusin and a cover by Tim Bradstreet, find John Constantine snowed into a tiny roadside diner – with a variety of travelers forced off the road by a cataclysmic snowstorm…including a legendary serial killer.
Hellblazer: Freezes Over is a 160-page Vertigo trade paperback, suggested for mature readers, and scheduled to arrive in stores in May.

ANNIVERSARY BOOK RELEASED

13/12/02: UK comics magazine Tripwire has just released Tripwire x 10: 1992-2002, its unique tenth anniversary book. Celebrating the magazine’s first decade, the 160 page book contains the cream of the magazine’s features, interviews and columns, with all of the industry’s biggest and best creators (everyone from Frank Miller to Grant Morrison, Will Eisner to Alex Ross, Brian Bendis to Kevin Smith). It doesn’t end there: the book also contains 34 images, many of which have either never been seen before or were created especially for the book. The artists’ list includes many British comic stalwarts, like Jock, Frazer Irving, Henry Flint, Brian Bolland. Sean Phillips, Dean Ormston, Duncan Fegredo, Paul Grist, Andi Watson, Gary Spencer Millidge and Woodrow Phoenix.

At the upcoming 2000AD comic-centred Dreddcon 3 in London, Tripwire will be raffling two very special oversized posters, featuring the book’s Ashley Wood painted cover. One will be signed by Mike Mignola, Darwyn Cooke and Mark Chiarello (all artists who have contributed to the book), while the other will be signed by Ashley Wood, Tim Sale, Tim Bradstreet and Trevor Goring (who also contributed to the book).

Visitors will also be able to buy copies of the book and get it signed by a number of the British artists who will be at the show.

Published continuously since 1992, Tripwire is Britain’s only comic features and reviews magazine. In its history, it has interviewed everyone from Will Eisner to Mike Mignola, Frank Miller to Alan Moore, Brian Bendis to Steve Seagle and back again.