It’s been a busy time in stately E-merl manor over the last month. Let’s break it down in reverse chronological order, shall we? Starting in the future – next week on Wednesday October 14th we’re holding The Comic Electric: A Digital Comics Symposium at the University of Hertfordshire. Check that first link for the full run down of talks, but I can tell you now that it’s going to be a crammed-full day of digital comics demonstration, discussion and theorising. We’ll hopefully be finding some way to live-stream and YouTube the day, so keep an eye on @merlism and @electricomics for details.
As part of the Electricomics keynote that opens the symposium I’ll be doing a new take on the history of digital comics. To get a little flavour of that, you could check out my introduction to Writing Visual Culture: Digital Comics, which was published this week. I’m not sure how I found time to edit a second journal of digital comics theory this year (the first one is over here), but I hope those with an interest in the area will find lots more interesting stuff to chew on in this edition. Plus, this volume includes my own paper on sound in digital comics, which fans of The Empty Kingdom might be particularly interested in.
Still on the Electricomics front, as part of the project launch I contributed the first new Electricomic to be created for reading in the app. If you copy this URL and open it in the app, you’ll be able to read Grandfather’s Hammer for yourself and let me know what you think (the first review to come in was pleasingly positive). Then, if you’re feeling inspired to make some comics of your own, our Electricomic generator tool is now online and available for download. It’s a bit bare bones at the moment but it’ll get you on the way to making your own iPad-friendly digital comics. Then, if you’re interested in taking things further, why not try dipping your toes into our open source code library on github? Go on, you know you want to.
Meanwhile, hopping across to the strange and mysterious world of printed objects, September finds me back in the Diamond Comics Catalogue with Necessary Monsters Volume 1 being solicited from 1st Comics / Devils Due. If you’ve ever watched a horror movie and thought the bad guy would be far more interesting if he was reluctantly conscripted into a Mission Impossible style spy-team, then this is the book for you. Drawn by the amazingly talented Sean Azzopardi and out in stores in November, I suggest you place your order now if you fancy getting hold of a copy.
Annnnd that just about wraps it up for this massive news update. Oh! I’ve also updated my Theory page with a few new bits and pieces. Plus! I couldn’t possibly sign off without offering a massive thankyou to everyone I met at El Festival in Mexico. The entire place was full of simply wonderful people who were incredibly friendly and genuinely inspiring to talk to. There were also significantly more flamingos than I was expecting and a pleasing quantity of free mescal. Heaven!
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