Heading to the Land of the Black Cats (that’s Sunderland to you)!

Tags

comic con, comics, farage, satire, sunderland, zombie

This weekend, we’ll be packing up the Disconnected suitcase and heading north. To Sunderland, to be precise, for Sunderland Comic Con.

The con’s on both Saturday and Sunday, at the Seaburn Centre. It’s not in the city centre, but looks very accessible and is by the seaside, which always works for at least one of us! There are some amazing guests listed for this weekend: 2000AD superstars John Wagner and John Higgins, force of nature Bryan Talbot and CROSS creators Mary Talbot and Nigel Auchterlounie among them.

We’ve already featured Mary’s story Preparation for Leadership, but it’s worth reflecting on again. Drawing on the psychohistorical analysis of Nick Duffell, Mary’s story tracks the psychological development (or lack thereof) of some of our political classes. It’s beautifully illustrated by Alwyn Talbot and worth the purchase price of CROSS alone (I would say that, wouldn’t !?). Here, because, I can’t resist this image, are Messrs Cameron and Johnson, just for you:

Nigel Auchterlounie gave us a wonderful page in CROSS, featuring a great lampoon of Nigel Farage and, yes, satire of Ed Miliband too. We tried with CROSS to be even-handed with our satirical targeting, and Nigel’s willingness to lampoon both right and left mean that he was balance personified. Here’s Mr Farage having a mild panic at the direction of questions in a TV interview….

We’re very much looking forward to Sunderland Comic Con – come and find us at Table 37 at the Seaburn Centre, from 10am – 5pm on Saturday and 10am – 5pm Sunday. As well as CROSS, we’ll be selling serious tome Sentient Zombie Space Pigs, our small town anthology Disconnected and perhaps a treat or two…

Tweet us @DisconnectedPrs and let us know if you’re coming!

And if you can’t make it, head on over to our Comicsy shop to place your order for one or more of our lovely comic books 🙂

 

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Are you watching, Cheltenham?

Tags

comics, humour, politics, satire, security, surveillance

Saturday 7 February will see Disconnected Press – and many others – descending on Cheltenham Racecourse for The True Believers Comic Festival.

We’ll have copies of CROSS, our anthology of political satire in comic form, which is going great guns as we head towards the General Election and we decide that sometimes it’s much better for your soul to laugh at politicians than to listen to them…

In honour of our trip to the home of GCHQ – and my discovery of a new Cheltenham related fact about old-school spies Burgess and Maclean –  we turn our attention away from politics and towards the world of surveillance. This makes an appearance in CROSS, courtesy of Owen Michael Johnson and Conor Boyle‘s story Security.

Owen‘s one of the busiest and most versatile comic writers emerging in the UK today. His work ranges from the surreal, post-punk-pop fest of Raygun Roads (more colours than you have ever seen), to the muted melancholy of Reel Love (a nostalgic trip to the cinema of your childhood). His latest project Beast Wagon is described as “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with talking animals”…. His story Security, featured in CROSS, is a little less experimental but does point a very precise finger at the fine balance between living in a surveillance society and maintaining our rights to privacy and freedom of expression. It also features a fat arse and a pot plant…

Conor Boyle‘s artwork brings Security to life. Conor turned his hand to matters historic in drawing On Dangerous Ground, the National Trust for Scotland’s graphic novel of the Battle of Bannockburn (see Down the Tubes’ article here). This followed Pirates of the Lost World, and Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist?, both from UK publishers and both set in the 19th century, making him very excited to draw anything that has modern technology in it.

You can find Disconnected Press and pick up your copy of CROSS at Table #F13 at The True Believers Comic Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse this Saturday. Conor will be there with some original artwork on display and I’m sure he can be persuaded to do a sketch or two…

If you can’t make it to Cheltenham, follow this handy link to our Comicsy shop, and you can buy your copy there. CROSS features the work of some of the finest established and emerging UK comics talent including Rob Williams, Mary Talbot, David Baillie and Emma Beeby.

Don’t get mad: get CROSS!