After last year’s extravaganza, it’s nice to see that the Edinburgh International Book Festival hasn’t forgotten about comics this year. The ‘Stripped 2014’ strand is there “to celebrate this brilliant facet of literature in a series of exciting events featuring leading voices from the world of comics and graphic novels”.
Granted, the – ahem – stripped-down programme doesn’t quite have the A-listers that made last year’s festival such an occasion (Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Chris Ware), but there are still some nice events here, and it’s always good to see a comics presence integrated into a more mainstream arts gathering.
In an interesting development, the festival will also see the launch of IDP:2043, a collaborative graphic novel presenting “a stunning and unsettling fictional vision of Scotland in 2043.” Commissioned by the festival organisers and edited by Denise Mina (Hellblazer, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), its contributors include Barroux, Hannah Berry, Pat Mills, Mary Talbot and Irvine Welsh.
The festival takes place on August 9-25, and tickets for all of these events, and everything else at the festival, go on sale on Tuesday June 24.
Katie Green & Matilda Tristram: Graphic Novels That Help to Heal
Sat 9 Aug 2:00pm – 3:00pm Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre £7.00, £5.00
In the graphic novels of Katie Green and Matilda Tristram eating disorders and cancer are confronted with tenderness, honesty and uplifting results. In Lighter Than My Shadow, Green recalls the pain of a taboo illness and the struggle to get life back on track; in Probably Nothing, Tristram writes of a pregnancy which became a nightmare. Both chose the graphic memoir form to tackle complex issues. Chaired by Stuart Kelly.
Mike Carey & Isabel Greenberg: Epic Journeys, Graphic Novels
Thu 14 Aug 7:00pm – 8:00pm Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre £7.00, £5.00
Running for over 4 years, Mike Carey’s The Unwritten has become a cult classic. Dripping with literary references and allusions, we have journeyed with his hero Tom Taylor through real and literary landscapes. On a similar quest for enlightenment and love, Greenberg’s lonely storyteller in The Encyclopedia of Early Earth confronts mad kings and medicine men, brothers, sisters and wise old shamans. Graphic novel perfection. Chaired by Stuart Kelly.
Charlie Adlard & Robbie Morrison: Digging in the Past – Digging into the Story of the Great War
Sun 17 Aug 2:00pm – 3:00pm Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre £7.00, £5.00
Dream team Charlie Adlard and Robbie Morrison have made their contribution to the Great War centenary with White Death, a frank graphic novel account of two dead bodies discovered almost 100 years on, highlighting how snow was used as a military weapon. Adlard and Morrison join us to discuss how it’s possible to expose difficult historical truths through the medium of comics.
Bryan Lee O’Malley: Life After Scott Pilgrim
Sun 17 Aug 4:30pm – 5:30pm Baillie Gifford Main Theatre £10.00, £8.00
Ever since his final book in the vastly popular Scott Pilgrim series, graphic novelist Bryan Lee O’Malley has been keeping fans on tenterhooks. Four years on, his new title Seconds is here. Partly inspired by the time he spent working in a restaurant in Toronto, O’Malley has described it as being ‘funny and weird and kind of big and crazy’. Don’t let the mundane setting fool you – this latest creation is anything but.
Charlie Adlard: Dead Cool Comics
Sun 17 Aug 9:30pm – 10:30pm Baillie Gifford Main Theatre £10.00, £8.00
2014 marks 10 years since Charlie Adlard became primary artist on The Walking Dead comic series, a post-apocalyptic horror story of humans fighting zombies. The comic has achieved phenomenal success with an array of spin-offs: an award-winning TV series, computer games, merchandise – and it has spawned a shamble of imitators. In this event, Adlard discusses creating the art that is defining our popular culture today.
Barroux & Michael Morpurgo
Fri 22 Aug 4:30pm – 5:30pm Baillie Gifford Main Theatre £7.00, £5.00
AGE 14+
Last year’s Illustrator in Residence returns to talk about his remarkable graphic novel, Line of Fire. Based on the diary kept by a French soldier during the First World War, Barroux’s work provides a fresh perspective on the first two months of the conflict. He is joined by playwright and author Michael Morpurgo who wrote the introduction to the English translation, for what promises to be a very special event.
Phoenix Comic Workshop
Sat 23 Aug 10:00am – 11:00am Baillie Gifford Imagination Lab £4.50
AGE 8-12
Join The Phoenix, Britain’s leading weekly comic, and professional comic artists Adam Murphy and Neill Cameron, as they guide you through the incredible world of comics. They’ll share some top-secret drawing and storytelling tips whilst helping you produce a comic strip of your very own.
Kate Charlesworth, Bryan Talbot & Mary Talbot: How Women Won the Vote
Sat 23 Aug 12:30pm – 1:30pm Royal Bank of Scotland Garden Theatre £10.00, £8.00
We are thrilled to welcome back Bryan and Mary Talbot, authors of Costa Award-winning graphic novel Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes. This time they’ve teamed up with acclaimed Edinburgh-based illustrator Kate Charlesworth to tell one person’s vivid story of the campaign for women’s right to vote: Sally Heathcote, Suffragette. It’s further thrilling proof that graphic novels are taking the world by storm.
IDP2043 PART 1, with Denise Mina, Pat Mills & Friends: Launching a Graphic Vision of the Future
Sat 23 Aug 6:45pm – 7:45pm Royal Bank of Scotland Garden Theatre £10.00, £8.00
The graphic novel is ideally placed to be subversive and revelatory. The dystopian genre evolved to explore the idea of how individuals would cope with oppressive governments or post-apocalyptic worlds. One year on from our Stripped programme, which celebrated graphic novels and comics, we’ve been working with Freight Books to merge forms and create our own vision of Scotland 30 years on. Join story editor Denise Mina and story creators Hannah Berry, Pat Mills, Adam Murphy and Will Morris to explore the result: IDP2043, a new graphic novel.
IDP2043 PART 2, with Denise Mina, Irvine Welsh & Friends: Launching a Graphic Vision of the Future
Sat 23 Aug 8:30pm – 9:30pm ScottishPower Foundation Studio £10.00, £8.00
In the second of two events, story editor Denise Mina and creators Barroux, Kate Charlesworth, Dan McDaid, Mary Talbot and Irvine Welsh discuss IDP2043.
Phoenix Comic Workshop
Sun 24 Aug 10:00am – 11:00am Baillie Gifford Imagination Lab £4.50
AGE 8-12
Join The Phoenix, Britain’s leading weekly comic, and professional comic artists Adam Murphy and Neill Cameron, as they guide you through the incredible world of comics. They’ll share some top-secret drawing and storytelling tips whilst helping you produce a comic strip of your very own.
Nick Hayes & Reinhard Kleist: Graphic Novels Meet Real Life
Sun 24 Aug 6:30pm – 7:30pm Baillie Gifford Imagination Lab £10.00, £8.00
Complex graphic novels bringing to life real people and actual events are the domain of Nick Hayes and Reinhard Kleist. Folk legend Woody Guthrie is the man to whom Hayes turns his talents, while Kleist has previously written about Johnny Cash. Now, though, the Berlin artist tackles Auschwitz survivor, Polish boxer Hertzko Haft. Graphic novels reveal how they do justice to such horrific history.
Paul Gravett & John Dunning: Art and Anarchy in the UK
Sun 24 Aug 8:30pm – 9:30pm Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre £7.00, £5.00
The Comics Unmasked exhibition at the British Library traces the British comics tradition back through classic 1970s titles to 19th century illustrated reports of Jack the Ripper and beyond. Featuring icons like Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, and Posy Simmonds, curators John Dunning and Paul Gravett highlight how comics have uncompromisingly addressed politics, gender, violence and sexuality.
