Panel Borders: Graphic Lives

By John Freeman on June 9, 2014

Mary and Bryan Talbot. Image courtesy Bryan Talbot

Continuing a month looking at work of female comic book creators on British radio show Panel Borders, Alex Fitch talks to writers Sarah Laing and Dr. Mary Talbot about their graphic novels which mix biography and autobiography in an extract from a panel discussion recorded at the Australia and New Zealand Festival of Literature and Arts, Kings College.

Laing discusses her autobiographical comic Let me be Frank and her novel The Fall of Light which separates the story of an architect recuperating after an accident into silent comics and traditional text; Dr. Talbot talks about her first graphic novel Dotter of her Father’s Eyes which juxtaposes her childhood with that of Lucia Joyce and her latest book Sally Heathcote: Suffragette.

• Panel Borders: Graphic Lives airs at 4.30pm Monday 9th June, repeated 11.00am Thursday 12th June on Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / extended podcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

• Read our review of Sally Heathcote: Suffragette

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as 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.