“Comics are not funny any more. Well most of them are not,” says Peter Stanbury in a plug on his web site for Comics Art from Tate Publishing, by Paul Gravett and him — as designer.
Officially due for release on 7th November, it looks likely that advance copies of this new book will be on sale later this month at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendal – and it’s well worth a look, having been seen an advance version myself.
“The book that sets out to change the way we look at comics and graphic novels,” says Peter. “They are every bit a as sophisticated as the Fine Arts, plus their added dimension of emotional expression through story-telling.”
A big hardback with a cover by Joost Swarte, Comics Art contains many notable British artists of the last few years as well – including Woodrow Phoenix, Gareth Brookes, Katie Green and others.
As well as running an amazing and regularly updated web site on comics, Paul, who has been the director of Comica, London’s premier international comics festival, since 2003, has been a champion of the comic form for decades He’s a regular speaker at comic events and a curator of exhibitions of comics art and author of several other books on the subject, including Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics, and Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life.
Paul is just one of many great guest at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival from 18th – 20th October, where he’ll be in discussion with Joe Sacco, Posy Simmonds, Bryan Talbot, writer Rachel Cooke from The Observer and Jonathan Cape publisher Dan Franklin among others.
• Buy Comics Art by Paul Gravett from amazon.co.uk
• Comics Art is also being published in the US by Yale Press in February 2014
Tate Links
• Tate Shop: http://www.tate.org.uk/shop
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tateshop
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/tateshop
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. Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Explorer (previously known as Star Trek 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 - Books, Comics Studies, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, Featured News