Caption: Away with the Fairies
Written by Andrew Luke
"The French have Angouleme,
were a whole town literally is populated by comics types. America has the
San Diego Comic Con, a bustling business strip, sea of traffic, sales booths
and sponsored panel events. The British have Caption, which is 150 people on Oxford ..."
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Sheridan Cottage Special: The Coroners and Justice Bill
Written by Andrew Luke
"Killing the UK Comics Industry before it can step out of chrysalis into the success of the Japanese model?
Many have become aware of the latest controversy relating to cartoonist freedoms and sales in the last few weeks. Section 49 of The Coroners and Justice Bill which makes "illegal the possession of "prohibited images of children". The consultation documents citation of..."
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Updates (12 October)
Written by Andrew Luke
"Welcome to the twentieth Sheridan Cottage, and what is intended to be my final piece of comics journo-ism for some time. Nine months he says mercilessly, ah but with doubt, and oh, hope.I'd like to say its all down to my involvement in re-launching Crisis (tipping Maxwell's Earth) The truth is I'm sitting the final year of my degree - a mix made up of modules from Education and Human Development, History of Art, Sociology, Communications Media and Culture, International R..."
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23 Things About Running Comics Arts Collectives in Public Galleries (5th Oct)
Written by Andrew Luke
"Running through August I oversaw an exhibition of the works of ten cartoonists at The Oxford Jam Factory Gallery Bar and Restaurant. With little experience in arts management and administration, I just dived in there and had a go. And it worked, and it failed, and we set examples and there are lessons to be learnt. Friendships and professionalism are ill-suited for me to expound on the lessons I'm going to impart with examples. Particularly as the experience left me with almost a..."
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The Birmingham International Comics Show and Community Collaboration: The Shane Chebsey Deal pt.2 (29 Sept)
Written by Andrew Luke
"Continued from last week...Andrew: The Birmingham International Comics Show is going into its third year now and you're one of the co-organisers of this. I'm guessing for the folk who don't 'get' small press and indy comics, this might seem like an alien jump, from selling photocopied black and whites to playing host to Mike Mignola and introducing Hunt Emerson on stage. For the sake of those folks could you tell how you got involved in this and e..."
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Car Boots and International Shows - The Shane Chebsey Deal: pt.1
Written by Andrew Luke
"The UK comics scene has invoked dilligent workers including journalist publishers and promoters such as Paul Gravett, Dez Skinn and Phil Hall. In between the collapse of the weekly newsagent offerings the adult British comics industry rises from the underground into the emerging ..."
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Felt Tip Market - Dealing New Indy Comics To The Public, Without Doors, Oxford (Sept 14th)
Written by Andrew Luke
"London Underground Comics. I'd got sick of writing about them, reading about them. Not so much my torrid affair with frontman Oli Smith, or even refusing to throw his tv out the window. They made it look sometimes easy, so armed with aspects of their approach and teachings, I resolved to man a market stall selling comics in ..."
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State of the Union
Written by Andrew Luke
" At Caption 2008 I delivered an address which went through about three different re-writes before i junked the whole thing - and reworked from a few headings off prompt cards. For eight minutes. To a diminished audience. This is a full Unabridged version, how it might have turned out.STATE OF The UNioN...Right...ok...We had a big boycott on a mini-comics festival in March, and some people had their efforts reciprocated and others didn't and there wa..."
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Ink Blur: Dan Lester, Speed Lined Cartoonist
Written by Andrew Luke
"The resurgence of the comic book as an art-form in Britain has been backed by the return of the regularly published low-brow pop pamphlet. As with twenty years ago there are enough new comics published as to equal one per day. Older publishers Fleetway (2000 AD) and DC Thompson (Dandy/Beano) have scaled their product to about seventy comics per year. This new industry is by the kids, bed-sit artists sketching and inking, before heading down to their local photocopier for a new print run...."
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The Geeks Have Inherited...
Written by Andrew Luke
"As the more astute of you will have realised I've been away entering a contest on web flexibility, which I won. Hence no Sheridan Cottage these last weeks. I'd like to thank all of you who checked by my blog. It all worked out for the best. I'd especially like to thank comics types Ben Oakes, John Robbins and Richard Barr and my dear friends outside of comics who made a decent attempt at helping me secure a win. And to Lee Kennedy and David Lloyd who ..."
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Notes on Content (Apr 28)
Written by Andrew Luke
"This will be my final online column until May 18th. It's not gone. The Bristol Comics Expo will feature a new and challenging print column called 'An integrated framework of Comics Arts Festival Management Utilising Popular Templates In Co-Operative Agenda'. Or perhaps abbreviated. In between degree assi..."
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No Barcodes Comics Market / Mike Allwood, and Comics Village at the Bristol Expo (April 21)
Written by Andrew Luke
"Welcome to Sheridan Cottage, updated nearly weekly through to June. I've been looking at social and economic aspects of comics as typified through festival and distribution. Today, the small and large - from the growing phenomenon of the mini-comics-con to a look at Comics Village at the Bristol Comic Expo, and an interview with organiser Mike Allwood. The London Zine Symposium takes place next Saturday in London where people can buy their word an..."
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Down the pub with Igor Guinness (Apr 14)
Written by Andrew Luke
"In a change to my previously planned column, I'm going to look at a mini-comics in pubs, in the recent model of The Gladstone Mini-Comics Con, and a virtal model, The British Webcomics Piss-Up, before going on to consider the aspects of the casual comics pubmeet trend. The title for today's column comes from Stephen Caldwell who among other things, once suggested 'Igor Guiness' as a psuedonym for Garth Ennis. I recently enjoyed a few jars with him at recommended bar T..."
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Grow Your Own Comics Festival (Apr 6)
Written by Andrew Luke
"(Originally written 11 March 2008)
Creating a comics festival
is piss-easy. When I initially pitched this column to comicbookresources.com to
try and secure a wage, I included a proposed two part fortnightly piece. The
first part would see me announce a comics festival with no prior preparation,
the second woul..."
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The Reviewers Trade Principle / Were you must not DIY (March 30)
Written by Andrew Luke
"Idea: The Reviewers trade principle.18 March 2008Ordinarily a lot of small pressers might trade comics, but what if they took this further, and traded reviews ? I guarantee you, there is no difficulty in finding a publishing point for your review. It seems a very practical principle attached to giving away a free comic. For my part if anybody would like to review one of my recently published comics I'll do the same for you. If you've not got my comic, h..."
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Maps At The Crossroads Part 2 (Mar 16)
Written by Andrew Luke
"In the second part of my look at the British comics social and economics realms on March 22, 2008 I'm going to look a bit more at the geographical aspects, getting about...that sort of thing.(Previously, on 'Maps At The Crossroads')If you fancy a more off-track London comics Day, well there's plenty happening. At the end of last week's column I previewed my newly constructed London Underground Comics Tu..."
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Maps At The Crossroads Part 1 (Mar 9)
Written by Andrew Luke
"Welcome to the first in a multi-part column looking at the build-up to London Comics in March, when three festivals, and several exhibitions run on the same day in the nation’s capital. Saturday 22nd March, here it comes.Firstly though, a plug for myself : Comics Village can’t afford to wage me from these columns and the paypal contributions to drewdotluke at gmail dotcom have been non-existent. What's a nickel ?Anyway I am brilliant, and newsworthy. So..."
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Here's A Thing (2 Mar)
Written by Andrew Luke
"In a last-minute deadline presser, the organiser of The Uk Web and Mini Comix Thing granted me an interview. After having my name attached to a boycott of the event, and a level of conflict between us, I'm pleased to report the interviewee was professional, insightful and brilliantly quick. For the purposes of this interview he's asked to be referred to under his stage name, Mr. Thing. So, I'm extremely happy to be in a position to print this interview with the organiser of one of th..."
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Well of course it's not all comic shops ! (24 Feb)
Written by Andrew Luke
"One of the ways Oliver Lambden promotes his comic , is through monthly Monday club nights at Inigo, Clapham Junction (as featured recently in The London Lite.) Just one aspect of multi-varied new venues. So, I sent out a few questions to Jeremy Dennis, Cliodhna Lyons, and Malcy Duff, a few of the venue versatile comix artists I know.Let's go !1. You're an exhibitionist. You..."
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Scott McCloud's Facial Hair (Feb 10)
Written by Andrew Luke
"Less of a column, more of a surmountable object for reaching the top shelf this week. Facility is the engine by which uk small press comics, maybe logically, became the uk comics industry. The fan of fanzine is not the be all: reading through my notes from a degree module which appears to focus on film critics. I come to film studies as an outsider - I go to cinemas but once or twice a year. In the last five years I've seen maybe fifty films. So, as an outsider coming to films (a..."
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Well let the boys all sing and the boys all shout for tomorrow (Feb 3)
Written by Andrew Luke
"The London Underground Comics stall in Camden Market has in the past week surprise marketed an optimistic future of British comics artists. Last Sunday morning, five cartoonists set their feel-good dancing indy spirit loose on Facebook, YouTube and several forums and websites. Director Oli Smith has set a professional series of edited clips of the playful trading community to a Beck tune. I can’t recommend this highly enou..."
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King of Comics (Jan 27)
Written by Andrew Luke
"Grave Graham Bettany had been warned if he was drinking with
Bisley he'd end up in a hotel in Amsterdam
dressed in girls clothes and unable to feel his legs. The next morning he sat
on the steps outside the Birmingham International Comics Show (BICS) with me -
a cigarette in his hand, and Simon Bisley's guest badge subtly rested on his
jacket. "It must be an awesome responsibility to be the King of
Comics", his statement a moment float..."
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