Comics Spin Off Into Comics - Press Release

COMICS SPIN OFF INTO COMICS
Edinburgh Fringe comedy show releases comic book

Comedy acts from the stand up circuit and Edinburgh have spun off into many artforms, from radio and TV to the web, DVDs, CDs, novels, poetry books and all forms of merchandising.

But The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre has made the first excursion into the world of comic books.

The Socks, currently in the middle of a national tour and preparing for their third run at Edinburgh, are the brainchild of Kev F Sutherland who, as well as being a familiar stand-up and the creator of the writing talent show The Sitcom Trials, writes and draws comic strips for The Beano and Marvel.

So, with comic synergy, Sutherland has adapted some of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre’s most popular routines from their stage shows and videos into hilarious Beano-esque comic strips. Comedy sketches like their versions of Romeo and Juliet, Torchwood and Life On Mars, come alive in the Socks 64 page self published mini-manga.

According to comics-buff Sutherland this follows a great British tradition. “Charlie Chaplin’s comic strip was on the cover of Film Fun weekly in the 1920s” says Sutherland, one time producer of the UK’s annual Comic Festival, “and before that Victorian music hall legend Dan Leno had his own weekly ‘illustrated funny paper’. Arthur Askey, Tommy Cooper, Norman Wisdom and Frankie Howerd were cover stars of Radio Film, Film Fun and TV Comic, Benny Hill and Ken Goodwin off The Comedians had weekly strips in Look-In in the 1970s, and The Goodies used to appear in Cor! Comic. But in more recent years, apart from a Comic Relief spoof in The Beano, and a one-off adaptation of Simon Pegg’s Sean Of The Dead, no modern comedians have starred in their own comic strip. The Socks are proud to be reviving a fine old British comics tradition.”

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre’s Sock Comic is available at their touring shows (dates below) and at The Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe from August 5 – 30 2009, or at myspace.com/scottishfalsetto

Venue: Gilded Balloon Teviot – Billiard Room - Edinburgh Fringe 2009
Dates: 5 - 30 August 2009
Tickets: Mon – Thurs £9.00 (£8.00), Fri – Sun £10.00 (£9.00)
Times: 22.15 (23.15)
Box Office: 0131 668 1633 / online www.gildedballoon.co.uk

Tour dates:
Chelmsford Civic Theatre 20 May, 8pm £10
Blackwood Miners Institute 21 May, 7.30pm £7.50
South Shields Customs House 23 May 7.30pm £7
Folkestone Quarterhouse 24 May 2pm £4
St Albans Maltings 12 June 8pm £10
Crawley Hawth Theatre 20 June 8.15pm £10
Milton Keynes Madcap, 11 July 7pm £9

PRESS CONTACT:
Kev F Sutherland
T: 07931 810858
E: kevf.sutherland@virgin.net
GILDED BALLOON PRESS OFFICE:Fraser Smith
T: 0131 668 9483
E: press@gildedballoon.co.uk