Saturday, 9 July 2011
Socks vid in this week's Doctor Who Magazine
Whaddayaknow, the Scottish Falsetto Socks are featured in this week's Doctor Who Magazine. There's a little photo and a link to, of all things, this Doctor Who names video which is now a whole Doctor out of date:
Sitcom Trials Manchester review
"A great chance to see the trial and error of new writing in the sitcom genre."
The Manchester Sitcom Trials was reviewed by Large Manchester. Check it out.
"A great chance to see the trial and error of new writing in the sitcom genre.
Although the five performances felt like a bit of ‘work in progress’, the informal setting and intimate nature of the venue complimented the style.
The comedy centered around endless puns, which the audience met with laughs and some groans, but the enthusiasm of the host and house actors carried this well.
The audience were invited to contribute their own ideas for sitcoms in a mini competition, the star prize resulted in a felt tip pen (ha ha ha). This style of audience participation went down well and the atmosphere inside the small room was jovial and light hearted suiting the performance well.
The event was fast paced, timed well and executed almost seamlessly. There were a few problems with the music, but these were minor and added to the informal feel of the show.
The five sitcoms under the audiences scrutiny were good but not wholly inspiring. The actors brought life into what can be described as a radio-style read through of the material. The show was enjoyable to watch but not entirely memorable."
sitcomtrials.co.uk
The Manchester Sitcom Trials was reviewed by Large Manchester. Check it out.
"A great chance to see the trial and error of new writing in the sitcom genre.
Although the five performances felt like a bit of ‘work in progress’, the informal setting and intimate nature of the venue complimented the style.
The comedy centered around endless puns, which the audience met with laughs and some groans, but the enthusiasm of the host and house actors carried this well.
The audience were invited to contribute their own ideas for sitcoms in a mini competition, the star prize resulted in a felt tip pen (ha ha ha). This style of audience participation went down well and the atmosphere inside the small room was jovial and light hearted suiting the performance well.
The event was fast paced, timed well and executed almost seamlessly. There were a few problems with the music, but these were minor and added to the informal feel of the show.
The five sitcoms under the audiences scrutiny were good but not wholly inspiring. The actors brought life into what can be described as a radio-style read through of the material. The show was enjoyable to watch but not entirely memorable."
sitcomtrials.co.uk
Lookalike - Coulson v Schrute
It's not me is it? Am I the only person who, every time he pictures Andy Coulson of News Of The World fame...
... sees Dwight Schrute from The Office?
... sees Dwight Schrute from The Office?
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Black Butler review
I finally got round to reading Black Butler today. So much of manga makes me feel out of touch and I have to confess that if I'd given up after the first two chapters I'd have come away very unimpressed. Luckily I left it over night and finished the first volume this morning.
To begin with I had a few hurdles to get over. One is the "wondering what the hell is going on" stage, which I've had a few times. Tiny little drawings, alternating between cartoon and realistic styles, with a host of characters running around doing something not adequately explained to do with serving tea to someone not adequately introduced in a scattershot fashion I found very difficult to follow.
The next thing I had to get over was the dreadful translation. Not that I speak Japanese, but some of the dialogue is just awful. Here's the opening words of the whole book:
"In the morning, The Butler, skilled.
"A short distance from London, just beyond the fog-cloaked forest, there stands a well-kept manor house."
And the star of the book, Sebastian, introduces himself with this snappy catchphrase:
"I am the butler of the Phantomhive family. It goes without saying that I can manage a technique as elementary as this. Now then, young master, as I have won this battle, please review what you did today and prepare for tomorrow's lessons until dinnertime, as promised."
But it's not snappy dialogue and knowledge of London's geography that Black Butler's all about, and once it gets stuck into the action (kid gets kidnapped, Butler rescues him) it's rollicking good fun and you can see why it's been adapted into an anime series and sells half a million copies a volume. It's now on volume 8.
Reading Black Butler reminds me how out of touch I am with manga. I struggle to know what is innovative and what is cliched. I'm impressed by the dynamic compositions and pacing of the action scenes here, but then I'm sure I've seen every bit of it somewhere before. 25 years ago when I was reading Alan Moore, Alan Davis and the like, I was pretty sure I was seeing things done in comics that I'd never seen before, and that therefore they'd never been seen before. I knew what was innovative and what was more of the same. With manga like Black Butler I just can't tell. And maybe I shouldn't be bothered. Just because the "chibi" style of little cartoon faces interspersed through the action is something that seems to happen in lots of manga, does that make it repetitive or just part of the process that should be as familiar to me as a drumbeat in a pop song? In my Comic Art Masterclasses I'm regularly asked "do you do manga?" and asked to teach manga, and I strive to show how comics as I know them and manga as the kids see them are one and the same thing, with different styles and traditions. But am I right?
I'd be interested to hear what others make of Black Butler, and what fellow "old school" comics readers make of manga.
Kev F
To begin with I had a few hurdles to get over. One is the "wondering what the hell is going on" stage, which I've had a few times. Tiny little drawings, alternating between cartoon and realistic styles, with a host of characters running around doing something not adequately explained to do with serving tea to someone not adequately introduced in a scattershot fashion I found very difficult to follow.
The next thing I had to get over was the dreadful translation. Not that I speak Japanese, but some of the dialogue is just awful. Here's the opening words of the whole book:
"In the morning, The Butler, skilled.
"A short distance from London, just beyond the fog-cloaked forest, there stands a well-kept manor house."
And the star of the book, Sebastian, introduces himself with this snappy catchphrase:
"I am the butler of the Phantomhive family. It goes without saying that I can manage a technique as elementary as this. Now then, young master, as I have won this battle, please review what you did today and prepare for tomorrow's lessons until dinnertime, as promised."
But it's not snappy dialogue and knowledge of London's geography that Black Butler's all about, and once it gets stuck into the action (kid gets kidnapped, Butler rescues him) it's rollicking good fun and you can see why it's been adapted into an anime series and sells half a million copies a volume. It's now on volume 8.
Reading Black Butler reminds me how out of touch I am with manga. I struggle to know what is innovative and what is cliched. I'm impressed by the dynamic compositions and pacing of the action scenes here, but then I'm sure I've seen every bit of it somewhere before. 25 years ago when I was reading Alan Moore, Alan Davis and the like, I was pretty sure I was seeing things done in comics that I'd never seen before, and that therefore they'd never been seen before. I knew what was innovative and what was more of the same. With manga like Black Butler I just can't tell. And maybe I shouldn't be bothered. Just because the "chibi" style of little cartoon faces interspersed through the action is something that seems to happen in lots of manga, does that make it repetitive or just part of the process that should be as familiar to me as a drumbeat in a pop song? In my Comic Art Masterclasses I'm regularly asked "do you do manga?" and asked to teach manga, and I strive to show how comics as I know them and manga as the kids see them are one and the same thing, with different styles and traditions. But am I right?
I'd be interested to hear what others make of Black Butler, and what fellow "old school" comics readers make of manga.
Kev F
Monday, 4 July 2011
Manchester Sitcom Trials video
The 2nd Annual Manchester Sitcom Trials took place on Saturday 2nd July. Here's the video clips from the five sitcoms in contention, and the winner.
Doctor Who season 6 by the Scottish Falsetto Socks
Live at the Vworp Doctor Who convention, the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre perform the entire Doctor Who series 6 in under 10 minutes:
And if you liked that, see if you can find their Torchwool, Primarkeval, and a dozen other Doctor Who themed videos somewhere out there on YouTube. The Socks also appear as DVD Easter Eggs on the classic Doctor Who videos The Dominators, The Horns Of Nimon and The War Games.
The Socks are live in London this Friday night as part of The Kitten Club at Volupte, and on Saturday July 9th do their full 90 minute show at Norden Farm Arts in Maidenhead, book now.
And if you liked that, see if you can find their Torchwool, Primarkeval, and a dozen other Doctor Who themed videos somewhere out there on YouTube. The Socks also appear as DVD Easter Eggs on the classic Doctor Who videos The Dominators, The Horns Of Nimon and The War Games.
The Socks are live in London this Friday night as part of The Kitten Club at Volupte, and on Saturday July 9th do their full 90 minute show at Norden Farm Arts in Maidenhead, book now.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Stan Lee Excelsior Awards report
I was honoured and delighted to be part of the Stan Lee Excelsior Awards in
Sheffield yesterday.
Organised by Paul Register, the Learning Resource Centre Manager (that's
Librarian in old money) at Ecclesfield School, this splendid award involved a
number of local schools (10 I believe, Paul will correct me), whose pupils were
given the opportunity to read, review and vote on a shortlist of 8 graphic
novels and their votes would find a winner. A few hundred pupils, drawn from
each of the participating schools, were in attendance at the presentation.
I did my small Comic Art Masterclass keynote speech, which kept them entertained
for half an hour, then we had a presentation from the most marvellous special
guest - Theodore "Ted" Adams from the Stan Lee Foundation, who had come all the
way over from the States just to be here and give Stan's seal of approval to the
event. We watched some highly entertaining video by and about Stan, and the
whole hall posed for a video clip of us shouting "Excelsior" which should wind
up on Stan's website.
Then the awards were presented. Paul will give you the full shortlist (which I
didn't come away with a note of and don't want to get wrong). In 3rd place was
the manga version of Twilight, in 2nd place was Bryan Talbot's Grandville Mon
Amour - Bryan was there to accept the award - and the winner, quite
overwhelmingly if the students' applause was anything to go by, was Black Butler
by Yana Toboso.
Bryan and Dan Heggarty, author of shortlisted title Mesolith, signed books, the
guys from Sheffield Space Centre sold books, the whole event was filmed and
should end up online, and I did drawings and signed comics for kids.
This was an absolutely excellent event, reaching precisely the sort of audience
that I always wanted my Comic Festival events to reach. The school hall was full
of kids who now read comics, some of whom did before but all of whom will do
now.
Thanks Paul & congratulations
Kev F Sutherland
Sheffield yesterday.
Organised by Paul Register, the Learning Resource Centre Manager (that's
Librarian in old money) at Ecclesfield School, this splendid award involved a
number of local schools (10 I believe, Paul will correct me), whose pupils were
given the opportunity to read, review and vote on a shortlist of 8 graphic
novels and their votes would find a winner. A few hundred pupils, drawn from
each of the participating schools, were in attendance at the presentation.
I did my small Comic Art Masterclass keynote speech, which kept them entertained
for half an hour, then we had a presentation from the most marvellous special
guest - Theodore "Ted" Adams from the Stan Lee Foundation, who had come all the
way over from the States just to be here and give Stan's seal of approval to the
event. We watched some highly entertaining video by and about Stan, and the
whole hall posed for a video clip of us shouting "Excelsior" which should wind
up on Stan's website.
Then the awards were presented. Paul will give you the full shortlist (which I
didn't come away with a note of and don't want to get wrong). In 3rd place was
the manga version of Twilight, in 2nd place was Bryan Talbot's Grandville Mon
Amour - Bryan was there to accept the award - and the winner, quite
overwhelmingly if the students' applause was anything to go by, was Black Butler
by Yana Toboso.
Bryan and Dan Heggarty, author of shortlisted title Mesolith, signed books, the
guys from Sheffield Space Centre sold books, the whole event was filmed and
should end up online, and I did drawings and signed comics for kids.
This was an absolutely excellent event, reaching precisely the sort of audience
that I always wanted my Comic Festival events to reach. The school hall was full
of kids who now read comics, some of whom did before but all of whom will do
now.
Thanks Paul & congratulations
Kev F Sutherland
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
