It’s that time of year again: the Edinburgh International Book Festival is nearly upon us. It begins this Friday, 15th August, and as ever there’s plenty to whet the appetites of graphic novel fans.
Friday 28th August, 14:00: Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal
When Poland Made its Mark (Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre): The 1970s was a dramatic period for Poland. While many East European citizens traveled west, two young art students went the other way. Behind the Curtain is the story of Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal’s formative years, spent studying and working within an artistic community that flourished despite the realities of the Communist State.
Separately, Klimowski and Schejbal will lead a Reading Workshop focussed on The Master and Margarita (Fri 28th, 11:00), which they adapted into graphic novel form for SelfMadeHero, as well as taking part in Amnesty International’s Imprisoned Writers event on the theme of Crime and Unusual Punishment (Fri 28th, 17:30).
Friday 28th August, 19:00: Rob Davis and Karrie Fransman
Unique Voices Telling Strange Stories (Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre): Rob Davis discusses his Eisner-nominated graphic novel The Motherless Oven – an unsettling and fiercely original coming-of-age story. In a world where there are no birthdays – only deathdays – and household appliances have souls, three teenagers strike out into the unknown.
Rob Davis is joined by Karrie Fransman. Her latest book, Death of the Artist, is published by Jonathan Cape. It’s an innovative and surprising book – you should buy it immediately.
Sunday 30th August, 17:45pm: Martin Rowson and Jean-Pierre Filiu
Taking a Strip Off Governments (Garden Theatre): Illustrated by David B., Jean-Pierre Filiu’s Best of Enemies is a graphic history of US and Middle East relations – a series of graphic novels which documents with clarity and conviction the tense relationship between the two regions since 1783.
Filiu is joined by the Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson, whose The Coalition Book is a cartoon catalogue of Britain’s worst government in 200 years. Learn how the era of Cameron and Clegg inspired some of his most successful and scathing satire.
To find out what else is happening at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, visit their website.
Created by Make Design, The Illustrator is a desk for people who draw. Beautifully and ergonomically designed, it has an adjustable desk angle and comes supplied with a pencil dock, a set of coloured pencils and a heavy duty brass sharpener. With pencils neatly forming part of its structure, this flat-packed, easy-to-assemble desk is both sleek and smartly designed – the perfect tool for makers and creators.
One Year Wiser: The Colouring Book collects 52 beautiful hand-drawn illustrations by Mike Medaglia, creator of The Huffington Post’s Meditation Comic and oneyearwiser.com. Medaglia illustrates the words of thinkers from Gandhi to Virginia Woolf with expressive black-and-white drawings, leaving you to colour them in. It’s a book to fire your imagination, improve your focus and help you stay creative, positive and relaxed.
On Wednesday 29 July, ILYA will visit San Francisco’s finest comic store, Comix Experience, to discuss Room For Love. Open to all, the event takes place at their Divisadero St. store from 6-8pm.
Room For Love is the first book to be selected for Comix Experience’s Graphic Novel of the Month Club. An honour indeed – and the first chance for US-based readers to hear from ILYA in person. (Learn more about the Graphic Novel of the Month programme and the reason it was set up here – it’s fascinating.)
Room For Love follows the story of Pamela Green, a middle-aged, middle-class romance novelist who, under extraordinary circumstances, invites a ragged young homeless man to live with her. Two lives collide, and an intense hothouse drama ensues.
“With ILYA’s clever color scheme and quietly poignant artwork driving the tale, Room For Love is a markedly original work, with questions of identity and intimacy woven into the penumbra of a raw and authentic relationship.” The Boston Globe
“A story that subverts our expectations of what a romance should look like.” The Huffington Post
For a while now, Mike Medaglia has been bringing tales of Zen and modern life to readers of The Huffington Post. Spanning topics from presentness to self-doubt, his brilliant monthly meditation comic is essential reading for anyone interested in the art of mindfulness.
In January, he began posting weekly illustrated meditations at oneyearwiser.com. The idea was simple: to bring wise and inspiring words to life through his distinctive Japanese- and Chinese-inspired artwork. Like this:
Now, SelfMadeHero has collected 52 of Medaglia’s beautiful hand-drawn illustrations into one elegantly produced black-and-white paperback. Black and white? That’s correct – we’ve left it to you to colour them in! One Year Wiser: The Colouring Book will leave you inspired by the words of thinkers from Gandhi to Virginia Woolf and soothed by the meditative act of colouring.
So, if you’re looking for a slice of calm and creativity, grab yourself a copy. It’s available from Amazon, Foyles and Waterstones. Even better, order it from Hive and pick it up at your local independent book shop. It looks like this:
This weekend, 20th & 21st June, we’re heading to Hackney for the East London Comics and Arts Festival. This year’s event takes place across two venues: SPACE on Mare Street (for the talks and workshops) and The Laundry on Warburton Rd (for the expo).
We’ll be bringing our wares to the Laundry (table 31) on Saturday and Sunday, 10am-7pm. There’ll be exclusive discounts on all titles, signed book plates, fine company and much, much more. We’ll also be debuting something special: End of a Century by Run Wrake, edited by Andrew Collins.
This beautifully produced rocket trip through the nineties collects the visually incendiary, satirically acute album review illustrations of the late Run Wrake, who was a mainstay of the NME between 1988 and 2000.
We’ll also have copies of I. N. J. Culbard’s bestselling adaptation of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal’s Behind the Curtain, and Julie Birmant and Clément Oubrerie’s acclaimed graphic novel biography of Picasso, Pablo. Plus, every copy of Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley, The Motherless Oven by Rob Davis and The Sculptor by Scott McCloud will come with a free signed, limited edition book plate.
So, jump on the 55, get off at Mare St, browse, buy and chat. A full programme of events is available here.
