Panel Borders: Art and Anarchy in the British Library

By John Freeman on July 14, 2014

Brand new Jamie Hewlett design for Comics Unmasked at the British Library. © Jamie Hewlett 2014

Continuing a month of episodes looking at the connections between comics and literature on Britain’s only regular comics radio show Panel Borders, Alex Fitch talks to Adrian Edwards, co-curator of the exhibition Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK which is on display at the British Library until 19th August, in a Q and A recorded at Cartoon County in Brighton.

Adrian discusses how he helped put together the exhibition – which looks at over one hundred years of British comics – with co-curators Paul Gravett and John Dunning, the marketing of the show and some of the more controversial items on display in the library from Aleister Crowley’s Tarot Cards to examples of comic book erotica.

• Panel Borders: Art and Anarchy in the British Library airs at 4.30pm Monday 14th July, repeated 11.00am Thursday 17th July on Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / extended podcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

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.