Starting a month of shows about comic book creators who have used crowd funding to launch various titles on Panel Borders, Britain’s only regularly broadcast radio show about comics, Alex Fitch talks to writer and Sequart’s founder, Dr. Julian Darius and artist Peter Cline about the Kickstarter campaigns for their respective anthologies Martian Comics and Ocular Anecdotes.
Alex and Julian discuss the latter’s work for the academic publisher Sequart Organization and the organisation’s comic book imprint Martian Lit, and the cross-over audience between the two, while Peter discusses his background in print making at the London College of Communication and editing titles by other creators.
The comic is written by Julian Darius, who’s spent his career promoting comics as a legitimate form of art and considers this the next step and is published by Sequart’s sister company, Martian Lit, and receives no corporate support.
After two standard issues, Martian Comics is continuing as a 52-page special with seven stories illustrated by three different artists.
In 1996, while still an undergraduate, Dr. Julian Darius founded what would become Sequart Organization, which publishes non-fiction and documentary films on comic books and promotes the medium as a legitimate form of art. After graduating magna cum laude from Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisconsin), he obtained his M.A. in English, authoring a thesis on John Milton and utopianism. In 2002, he moved to Waikiki, teaching college while obtaining an M.A. in French (high honors) and a Ph.D. in English. In 2011, he founded Martian Lit. He currently lives in Illinois.
With a great eye for detail, Peter Cline’s playful observations inform a classically influenced yet contemporary, visually arresting aesthetic. A love of art & newsprint comics from the early 20th century & a knowledge of traditional drawing and printing techniques inform his graphic approach.
Working on a range of commissions, his diverse skill set is instrumental to the projects he undertakes for a large number of well respected clients.
He has a website here and a Flickr and Tumblr for his Otto Press with a load more.
• Panel Borders: Martian Comics and Ocular Anecdotes airs at 11.00am Thursday 4th June, repeated 7.00am Saturday 6th June 2015, Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com
• You can view the Martian Comics #3 Kickstarter here
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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.
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