‘All artistic work, like all human activity, involves the joint activity of a number, often a large number, of people. Through their cooperation, the art work we eventually see or hear comes to be and continues to be. The work always shows signs of that cooperation,’ wrote sociologist Howard Becker (1982, 1) in his seminal monograph on cultural production Art Worlds. Comic art is no exception to Becker’s basic insight. Writers, illustrators, graphic designers, letterers, editors, printers, typesetters, publicists, publishers, distributors, retailers, and countless others are both directly and indirectly involved in the creative production of what is commonly thought of as the comic book.
Yearly Archives: 2013
Comics Forum 2013: Thank You and Announcements
Comics Forum 2013 took place at Leeds Central Library last week. A huge thank you to our speakers, who travelled from around the world to present a set of excellent papers and who made the event a resounding success. We would also like to extend a vote of thanks to the following people, who were all very helpful in running various aspects of the conference: Clark Burscough, Hugo Frey, Ben Gaskell, Mel Gibson, Nabil Homsi and the staff of Travelling Man, Roger Sabin, Dawn Stanley-Donaghy and the whole team at Leeds Central Library, Hannah Wadle and Lisa Wood Thanks also to our supporters, who made the event possible: Thought Bubble, the University of Chichester, Routledge, Travelling Man, Dr Mel Gibson and Molakoe.
The Comics Forum 2013 page on the website has now been moved into the Comics Forum Archives, where you can also download the full text of the conference programme (including abstracts and speaker biographies) and other relevant documentation. We’ll also be adding a selection of photos taken by conference photographer Craig Brogden shortly. Keep an eye on the site for details of Comics Forum 2014 as they are confirmed!
At Comics Forum 2013, Comics Forum Director Ian Hague announced eleven developments for Comics Forum, which will feed into the website and other areas over the next twelve months. Here’s the full list of announcements:
1. Comics Forum is shifting to become an unincorporated association.
Although we will still be running as part of the Thought Bubble festival, Comics Forum is establishing itself as a separate entity, called an unincorporated association, which will allow it to operate more autonomously. This means we’ve developed a constitution and set up a committee from the people who are involved in running the organisation. Full details of the constitution and the committee will be announced on the Comics Forum website in the next few months as this process is completed.
2. @ComicsForum is two years old.
The Comics Forum Twitter feed, run by Hattie Kennedy, launched at Comics Forum 2011 and has been providing regular updates on Comics Forum, and comics scholarship more generally, ever since. Why not follow @ComicsForum and keep up to date with all the latest as it happens?
3. Comics Forum’s Facebook page is eighteen months old.
Comics Forum’s Facebook page, run by Paul Fisher Davies, was launched in June 2012. Since then it’s offered all the latest and most interesting articles on comics from around the web. Like us on Facebook to receive updates!
4. The Comics Forum News Review is one year old.
The Comics Forum News Review, edited by Will Grady and contributed to by many correspondents, has now been running for a little over a year. If you would like to join our team and expand our coverage, contact Will at comicsforumnews@hotmail.co.uk. A huge thank you to all our correspondents for your great work so far!
5. Comics Forum will launch a reviews column in March 2014.
Hattie Kennedy has been appointed as Comics Forum’s reviews editor, and will launch a column covering book, conference and exhibition reviews to run monthly from March 2014. We are now recruiting reviewers; if you would like to join the team please contact Hattie at comicsforumreviews@outlook.com.
6. Comics Forum presents ‘Comics and Cultural Work’ in December 2013.
Guest edited by Casey Brienza, the Comics Forum website will be running a series of articles on Comics and Cultural Work in December 2013. The full line up of articles is as follows:
‘Comics and Cultural Work (Introduction)’, by Casey Brienza
‘Why Is It So Hard to Think about Comics as Labour?’ by Benjamin Woo
‘Comics and the Day Job: Cartooning and Work in Jeffrey Brown and James Kochalka’s Conversation #2’, by Paddy Johnston
‘My Brief Adventure in Comic Book Retail’, by Tom Miller
‘Comics and Cultural Work (Conclusion)’, by Casey Brienza
7. Research from the University of Lincoln’s ‘Comics and the World Wars’ research project will be available on the Comics Forum website from January 2014.
In association with the University of Lincoln, the Comics Forum website will be running materials from the AHRC funded research project ‘Comics and the World Wars’. Launching in January 2014, this exciting collaboration will see Comics Forum publish ‘Comics and the World Wars: A Cultural Record’ by Anna Hoyles. The site’s digital text archive will also be hosting ‘Representation of female war-time bravery in Australia’s Wanda the War Girl’ by Jane Chapman and ‘Multi-panel comic narratives in Australian First World War trench publications as citizen journalism’ by Jane Chapman and Dan Ellin, with more titles to be announced around mid-2014.
8. Comics Forum will host a bi-annual International Bande Dessinée Society column from January 2014.
From January 2014 Comics Forum will be hosting an ongoing bi-annual column from the International Bande Dessinée Society. Format and contributors are currently to be confirmed but we’re very pleased to be able to provide an ongoing presence for the study of BD on the site.
9. News and content from Germany’s Gesellschaft für Comicforschung will be translated in a bi-monthly column on Comics Forum launching in February 2014.
Starting in February, Paul Meyer, Stephan Packard and Lukas Wilde will be writing a bi-monthly column translating major articles and news from Germany’s pre-eminent Comics Studies association Gesellschaft für Comicforschung. We already host extensive archive material from the ComFor conference series in our affiliated conferences archive, and we’re delighted to be able to extend our collaboration and present more work from the highly productive German language comics scholarship field in translation.
10. A new monthly column on Manga Studies will launch on Comics Forum in April 2014.
From April 2014, Comics Forum will be running a monthly column on Manga Studies. The column’s editorial board comprises five experts in the field: Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto (also our Japan correspondent for the News Review), Jaqueline Berndt, Ronald Stewart, CJ Suzuki and Nicholas Theisen. The column will include discussions of major manga critics, their works, impacts, and problems; themes and methodologies in manga studies; comparative approaches and current issues and longer term ideas. The column’s focus is not limited to Japanese manga will also cover related forms such as manhua and manhwa, and global manga. We’re very excited to be able to present work by this wonderful team, and we’re looking forward to seeing what they have up their sleeves!
11. Routledge will publish Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels, a new book spinning out of Comics Forum 2012, in Winter 2014.
Following 2012’s very successful ‘Multiculturalism and Representation: A Conference on Comics’ we’re pleased to announce that Routledge will publish a book based on the conference. Edited by Carolene Ayaka and Ian Hague, the book will feature seventeen fantastic writers, including: Jacob Birken, Corey K. Creekmur, Brenna Clarke Gray & Peter Wilkins, Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru, William H. Foster III, Mel Gibson, Lily Glasner, Simon Grennan, Sarah D. Harris, Ian Horton, Alex Link, Paul M. Malone, Andy Mason, Ana Merino, Dana Mihăilescu, Emma Oki and Mihaela Precup. Keep an eye on the site for more information on the book as we move through the production process.
2013 has been a very exciting year for Comics Forum, and it looks like 2014 will be bigger still. The Comics Forum team would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported and contributed to the work we’ve been doing so far. If you have any suggestions for other things we can do to help develop comics scholarship, or you’d like to get involved, please let us know! You can contact us via Twitter or Facebook, or by email at comicsforum@hotmail.co.uk. Finally, don’t forget that you can sign up to receive every post from the Comics Forum website direct to your inbox by filling in the Email Subscription box on the right hand side of this page!
Carolene Ayaka, Paul Fisher Davies, Will Grady, Ian Hague, Hattie Kennedy and Rebecca Macklin
Next Week: Comics Forum 2013
Comics Forum 2013 is taking place at Leeds Central Library next Thursday and Friday!
As you can see from the poster above, we have a fantastic line-up of speakers and events this year, and we’re really looking forward to welcoming everyone to Leeds for what promises to be a fantastic event. In addition to the individual papers, we also have a keynote event featuring Paul Gravett and Roger Sabin, a book launch for Paul’s latest book Comics Art, and we’ll be making some exciting announcements about Comics Forum’s plans for 2014! The full running order is provided below:
DAY 1: 21/11/2013
0900-0930: Registration
0930-0945: Opening Remarks
0945-1100: Panel 1: History
Chair: Ian Hague
Lise Tannahill: Assessing Ololê: Vehicle for Breton Pride or Source of Shame?
David Huxley: ‘I still have 50 Copies in the Attic’: British Regional Underground comics 1970- 1980
Martin de la Iglesia: Early manga translations in the West: underground cult or mainstream failure?
1100-1115: Break
1115-1215: Panel 2: Audience
Chair: Joan Ormrod
Cameron Fletcher: “Amateur” Hour
R.Finn: Using a webcomic comment thread to gauge reader experience
1215-1300: Lunch
1300-1415: Panel 3: Gender & Sexuality
Chair: Carolene Ayaka
Louisa Parker: Small Story – Big Picture
Laura A. Pearson: Nina Bunjevac’s “Alternative” Catwoman in ‘Bitter Tears of Zorka Petrovic’
Mihaela Precup: ‘It came from Alpha Centaur looking for love’: The Mutant and Non-human Body in Denis Kitchen’s Bizarre Sex (1972-1982)
1415-1430: Break
1430-1545: Panel 4: Graphixia
Brenna Clarke Gray, Damon Herd, Hattie Kennedy, Ernesto Priego, Peter Wilkins and David N Wright: Small is the New Big: The Comics Criticism Blog as Small Press
1550-1620: Comics Forum Developments
1700-1830: Comics Art Book Launch (Venue: Travelling Man Leeds)
1830: Conference Dinner
DAY 2: 22/11/2013
0900-0930: Registration
0930-0945: Opening Remarks
0945-1045: Panel 5: Authorship
Chair: Julia Round
Ian Horton: Dave Sim’s Cerebus the Aardvark: Self-publishing, the Direct Market and Creative Freedom
Christopher J. Thompson: Comix Narrative Parody: Hunt Emerson’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner
1045-1100: Break
1100-1215: Panel 6: Art
Chair: Simon Grennan
Gareth Brookes: Small Press Comics and Fine Art
Paddy Johnston: From Random House to Rehab: Julia Wertz and the Small Press
Dan Smith: Revisiting Donald Parsnips’ Daily Journal
1215-1300: Lunch
1300-1400: Panel 7: Politics
Chair: Hattie Kennedy
Aysel Demir: Political Humor is Absolutely a “Serious” Job!
John Miers: Metaphor, financial crisis, and the small press
1400-1415: Break
1415-1515: Panel 8: Communication
Chair: Ian Horton
John G. Swogger: Underground Archaeology: Comics as alternative agents of professional discourse
Lydia Wysocki, Jack Fallows and Mike Thompson: Epic themes in awesome ways, or how we made Asteroid Belter: The Newcastle Science Comic
1515-1530: Break
1530-1630: Keynote: Paul Gravett in conversation with Roger Sabin
1630-1645: Closing Remarks
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Registration fees this year are as follows:
1 day pass (21st or 22nd): £10
2 day pass (21st and 22nd): £20
4 day pass (two day Comics Forum pass + 2 day Thought Bubble Convention pass (SRP £22)): £35 (save £7!)
To register, simply email comicsforum@hotmail.co.uk with the phrase ‘CF2013 Registration’ in your subject line and tell us your name and how many tickets you’d like.
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Comics Forum 2013 is supported by: Thought Bubble, the University of Chichester, Routledge, Travelling Man, Dr Mel Gibson and Molakoe.
Discounted books:
In addition to sponsoring Comics Forum 2013, Routledge are offering Comics Forum readers and attendees a 20% on their comic-related titles, including pre-orders! To see the full range of discounted books, click here.
News Review: October 2013
Americas
United States
Business
DC’s premier issue of Forever Evil #1, Marvel’s Infinity #2 and Infinity #3 took the top three spots respectively according to Diamond News’ top 100 comics for September, 2013. Results are based on total unit sales of products invoiced for the month. Link (English, MB & EG)
East of West Volume 1: The Promise from Image was at the top of Diamond News top 100 graphic novel list with Justice League Volume 3: Throne of Atlantis (DC) and Star Wars Volume 1: In the Shadow of Yavin (Dark Horse) following up in the number 2 and 3 slots respectively. Results are based on total unit sales invoiced for the month of September, 2013. Link (English, MB & EG)
DC Comics confirmed they will move their editorial team to Burbank, California to join their digital and administrative departments which relocated in 2010 following the creation of DC Entertainment the prior year. The article includes the full text of DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson’s email to her DCE Team. Link (English, MB)
After completing his award-winning run on Daredevil next year, digital comics champion Mark Waid is taking his work with the character online in a new series entitled Daredevil: Road Warrior, marking the first time a high-profile writer and character have seamlessly transitioned from print to digital. Link (31/10/2013, English, EG)
Culture
The art of Lee Weeks is currently on display at Liberty University Art Gallery located in Lynchburg, Virginia. The exhibition, which will conclude on November 10th, includes many well-known comic book characters Weeks’ has worked on: Marvel’s Daredevil, Wolverine, Captain America, and DC Comic’s Batman. Link (English, MB)
City University of New York’s The Graduate Center announced a free lecture as part of the New Directions in African American and African Diasporic Literary and Cultural Studies series. Jonathan W. Gray, from John Jay College, will present Heroes in Black: Race, Image, Ideology and the Evolution of Comics Scholarship on Friday, November 15th at 2 PM in the English Student Lounge. Link (English, MB)
Education
Cartoonist Al Jafee, best known for his work for Mad Magazine, has donated a large body of his work to the library at Columbia University. Link (07/10/2013, English, WG)
The Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon is now accepting applications for its graduate fellowship in the 2014-2015 academic year. Applications are due by the 14th February 2014. Link (21/10/2013, English, EG)
Obituary
Comic book penciller George Olesen passed away on October 15th. He is best known for his work on the comic strip The Phantom for approximately 40 years. Link (English, MB)
Research
There has been an updated call for papers for the collection titled “Comics and the American Southwest and Borderlands.” 500 word abstracts are due by the 15th January, and final submissions are expected by the 28th March. Link (07/10/2013, English, EG & MB)
There is a call for papers for a collection that will explore disability in comics entitled, “Feats of Clay: Disability and Graphic Narrative.” The collection will be published by Palgrave Macmillan, and 500 word abstracts are due by the 15th December. Link (10/10/2013, English, EG)
Smashwords has just released A Golden Thread – An Unofficial Critical History of Wonder Woman by Philip Sandifer. Schdifer traces Wonder Woman’s 70-year history in comics as well as television and film. Link (English, MB)
The American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) is holding a seminar titled Frames in Literature and Across the Arts and are currently accepting abstracts through November 15, 2013 that explore the use of frames and their meaning. Submit at http://www.acla.org/submit but read more about the CFP at the link below. Link (English, MB)
The Comic Arts Conference – Wondercon is now accepting proposals for talks to be given at WonderCon 2014 in Anaheim (dates to be announced). The deadline for proposals is December 15 (see link for submission details). For more information contact Katherine McClancy at comicsartsconference@gmail.com. Link (English, EG)
The Michigan State University Comics Forum (no relation) has released a call for submissions for academic and artist panels for the 2014 conference. The conference will take place on 21-22 February 2014, and the keynote speaker will be Stan Sakai, creator of Usagi Yojimbo. 250 word abstracts for papers and panels are due by 1 December 2013. Link (English, IH)
The previously announced volume The Comics of Charles Schulz: The Good Grief of Modern Life has extended its call for papers deadline; abstracts are now due by the 31st December 2013. Link (23/10/2013, English, EG)
There is a call for papers for a forthcoming anthology that considers the social construction of childhood in comics. Submissions are due by the 1st January 2014. Link (01/10/2013, English, EG)
Asia
Japan
Culture
Kyoto International Manga Museum is hosting the “Ono Saseo Exhibition – The Modern Girl, The Southern Belle, and the Bicycle Girl”, until February the 11th, 2014. Link (English, JBS)
On November the 17th, Kyoto International Manga Museum welcomes Taiwanese manga artist AKRU will talk on her oeuvre, interviewed by Ikeda Mika. Link (English, JBS)
Singapore
Culture
The fourth 24 Hour Comics Day was held in Singapore on 5 October. So far, a different location has chosen every year. This time it was held at the Lasalle College of the Arts, which saw the participation of 100 of their students, making this the largest event ever (150 participants). Link (English, LCT)
Research
Although not held in Singapore, a panel on Singapore comics was presented at Transitions 4, which is part of the Comica Festival. Lim Cheng Tju, Dave Chua and Hu Jingxuan shared their works, with Paul Gravett responding. Link (English, LCT)
Europe
Belgium
Business
The catalogue of the Belgian bande dessinée imprint Niffle has been bought by Dupuis, who will reissue several titles in 2014 as the 50/60 collection. Niffle notably published complete collections of series such as Blueberry and Largo Winch, as well as books of essays and interviews on the ‘golden age’ of Franco-Belgian comics. Link (18/10/2013, French, LTa)
A rare auction of thirty originals by François Schuiten raised 500,000 euros. Link (25/10/2013, French, LTa)
Casterman and Moulinsart have announced various releases to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Casterman’s publication of The Adventures of Tintin, but there will be no new Tintin album until 2052. Link (21/10/2013, French, LTa)
Croatia
Culture
The annual 16th comic book festival “Crtani romani šou” (Graphic Novel Show) was held in Zagreb from 25th to 27th October. The main guests were Stefano Biglia, Roberto Diso, Julio Radilović – Jules, R. M. Guera etc. Link (Croatian, LO)
Acclaimed Croatian illustrator Borivoj Dovniković Bordo (70) was a special guest of the international comic book conference “Međunarodni salon stripa” that held place in Belgrade. There was also an exhibition of Bordo`s works in Gallery SKC. Link (Croatian, LO)
France
Culture
The poster for next year’s Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême has been unveiled. Link (01/10/2013, French, LTa)
Obituary
Bande dessinée creator Jacques Arbeau, aka Jacarbo, has died at the age of 86. Arbeau’s work appeared in various magazines, including Tintin , Junior and Ames Vaillantes. He also worked on Brik and L’Espiègle Lili and several other series. Link (27/09/2013, French, LTa)
Germany
Culture
The exhibition “Stichprobe” will show comics from Finland at the Finnland-Institut in Berlin from the 15th November 2013 to the 5th February 2014. Link (German, MdlI)
Reinhard Kleist’s comic Der Boxer wins the award Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in the non-fiction category. Link (German, MdlI)
Sergeant Superpower rettet Amerika, a play unofficially based on Captain America, premiered at Theater Heidelberg. Link (German, MdlI)
A panel discussion on two comic biographies of Willy Brandt, with participation of the authors and scholar René Mounajed, took place in Berlin on the 31st October. Link (German, MdlI)
The exhibition “Graphzines 1975 – 2013: französische Underground-Künstlerpublikationen” is shown in Munich from the 11th October to the 22nd November. Link (German, MdlI)
An exhibition on Kafka in Comics takes place in Stuttgart from the 8th November 2013 to the 7th February 2014. Link (German, MdlI)
Research
The AG Comicforschung within the German Society for Media Studies (Gesellschaft für Medienforschung, GfM) hosted its first panel at the GfM 2013 conference in Lüneburg on the 4th October. Link (German, MdlI)
Ireland
Culture
The Irish Comic Awards have been announced. Voting for the winners ended at midnight on the 1st of November and the winners will be announced shortly. Link (English, SC)
Irish Comic News asks: ‘Women in comics: What are you going to do about it?’ Link (English, SC)
Portugal
Culture
From 25th October until 10th November the Fórum Luís de Camões in Amadora is hosting the 24º Festival Internacional de Banda Desenhada 2013 (24th International Festival of Comics). Link (Portuguese, RR)
Romania
Culture
The 23rd edition of the Romanian Francophile Comic Con took place in Constanţa on the dates 25-27/10/2013. The main exhibition, entitled Spirou Tour en Roumanie, celebrated the Belgian weekly comic Spirou, now in its 75th year. Link (Romanian, MP)
UK
Business
Humanoids, Inc. have announced they will start publishing books directly in the UK for the first time. Link (English, IH)
Culture
The first Lakes International Comic Art festival ran in Kendal, Cumbria, from 17-19 October. Link (English, IH)
Edinburgh International Book Festival, which took place in August 2013, continues to upload extensive video content featuring various comics and creators to their YouTube channel. Link (English, IH)
The annual Dundee Comics Day took place at the University of Dundee on 26-27 October. Link (English, IH)
Research
Registration is open for the 2013 Comics Forum conference, which is entitled ‘Small Press and Undergrounds: A Conference on Comics’ and will run at Leeds Central Library on the 21st and 22nd of November. The keynote event is Paul Gravett in conversation with Roger Sabin. Link (English, IH)
The fourth Transitions conference took place at Birkbeck, University of London, on the 26th of October. Link (English, IH)
Issue 4.2 of Studies in Comics is now available in print and online. Link (English, IH)
Submissions are invited for a new research collection entitled Bad Signals: Collected Essays on the Work of Warren Ellis, to be published by Gylphi. 300 word abstracts for 6,000-8,000 word articles are due with editors Hallvard Haug and Tony Venezia by 13 December 2013. Link (English, IH)
The call for papers for the Fifth International Graphic Novels and Comics conference has been released. The conference will take place at the British Library from 17-19 July 2014 and will concentrate on two sets of themes: production and institution, and sedition and anarchy. 300 word abstracts are due on 24 January 2014. Link (English, IH)
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This month’s Comics Forum News Review was edited by Ian Hague as Will Grady is away.
News Editor: Will Grady (comicsforumnews@hotmail.co.uk)
Correspondents: Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto (JBS, Japan), Michele Brittany (MB, North America), Shelley Culbertson (SC, Ireland), Eric Garneau (EG, North America), William Grady (WG, UK), Ian Hague (IH, UK), Martin de la Iglesia (MdlI, Germany), Luka Ostojic (LO, Croatia), Mihaela Precup (MP, Romania), Renatta Rafaela (RR, Portugal), Lise Tannahill (LTa, France), Lim Cheng Tju (LCT, Singapore).
Click here for News Review correspondent biographies.
Click here to see the News Review archive.
Suggestions for articles to be included in the News Review can be sent to Will Grady at the email address above.
Comics Forum 2013 Keynote and Book Launch
Paul Gravett (Image © Peter Stanbury)
Comics Forum is proud to announce that the keynote event for our 2013 conference ‘Small Press and Undergrounds: A Conference on Comics’ will be Paul Gravett in conversation with Roger Sabin. A key figure in British comics, Paul’s career started in 1981 when he launched the Fast Fiction stall at Westminster Comics Mart. The stall was one of the major intersections between the British small press and the European bande dessinée scene. Paul later went on to work for Pssst!, and subsequently launched with Peter Stanbury the important anthology Escape, which again marked up the importance of bande dessinée in its artistic style and approach to comics, as well as including early comics work by noted creators such as Eddie Campbell, Neil Gaiman, Myra Hancock, Rian Hughes, Dave McKean and Carol Swain. Paul has played a major role in the British comic scene ever since, promoting creators and talents, and finding spaces for comics in locations and communities where they might not otherwise have been seen. Paul’s latest book Comics Art is published in November 2013 by Tate. Roger Sabin is a journalist and academic who has written for The Guardian, The Independent and New Statesman. He is now Reader in Popular Culture at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design. He is the author of Adult Comics: An Introduction, a significant cultural history of comics, and Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art, which takes an international look at the medium of comics. Paul Gravett in conversation with Roger Sabin will take place on Friday afternoon and bring Comics Forum 2013 to a close.
Roger Sabin; photo by Alberto García Marcos – used with permission.
But wait! There’s more!
On the evening of the 21st of November (Comics Forum 2013 day 1), Comics Forum will be partnering with Travelling Man Leeds to present a book launch for Paul Gravett’s Comics Art. The launch will take place at Travelling Man from 1700-1830 and Paul Gravett will give a short introduction to the book. All welcome; see you there!
To find out more about Comics Forum 2013’s full line-up of speakers, and to register for a place at the conference, see https://comicsforum.org/comics-forum-2013/.
Comics Forum 2013 is supported by: Thought Bubble, the University of Chichester, Routledge, Travelling Man, Dr Mel Gibson and Molakoe.
Comics Forum 