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Paul Gravett has sent out an email with SOME of the amazing events for the month long Comica fest in the UK. The party kicks off tomorrow with an opening night hoedown, and then things unspool fats and furious — among those appearing Hannah Berry, Warren Ellis, Lenny Henry Richard McGuire and more to come!

Comica 2011 opens this Thursday November 3 with the launch party for the fabulous new-look Nobrow magazine, now double-sized and double-covered to give you one half by 30 cutting-edge illustrators, the other half of two-page comics, the whole thing on the theme of The Double. There’s a tie-in exhibition at Dreambags Jaguarshoes, 32-34 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, London E2 8DA throughout the Festival and continuing till sometime in January. More…

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On Friday November 4th, Hannah Berry will be appearing from 6pm at the private view of her first selling art exhibition at the lovely new Trochrome Illustrators’ Art Gallery in Putney at 965 Fulham Road, London SW6 5JJ. Come and see the original pages from her Jonathan Cape graphic novel Britten and Brulightly. The show continues till the 20th. More…

On Saturday November 5th, we’re working again with Birkbeck University who are generously hosting a second completely free full-day Comica Symposium. Accessible, mind-expanding presentations by academics and practitioners alike, including American guest Kent Worcester, plus Karrie Fransman, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, Simon Grennan and more. I’ll be there to chair one of the sessions. Transitions II is organised by Tony Venezia and to book your free place simply contact Tony Venezia: antoniovenezia_2[at]hotmail[dot]com More…

So did you enter this year? On Sunday November 6th, The Observer will finally reveal the winner of this year’s 5th Graphic Short Story Prize. You can read the winning story in The Observer’s Review section and both the winner and runner-up online. There’s also the chance to see the four-page stories by the winner and some of the finalists in Foyles Bookshop Café in Charing Cross Road from Monday November 7th for two weeks. And to celebrate these first five years there’s a totally free downloadable eBook of around two dozen of the best entries entitled Shorties. More…

The fun doesn’t end there. Solipsistic Pop launch their fourth fantastic number on Tuesday November 8th and the new Comic Gosh!p reading group at Gosh! reconvene on Wednesday November 9th. Frederik Peeters talks with me and signs his new SelfMadeHero SF album Sandcastle at Gosh! on Friday November 11th and that same evening also brings the launch party for David O’Connell’s small but beautifully formed colour comics anthology Ink + Paper at Orbital Comics – so make a night of it and go to both! More…

One undoubted highpoint of Comica 2011 is the biggest and best independent comics fair yet, Comica Comiket, on Saturday November 12th, 11am to 6pm, at a spectacular new venue, the refurbished Great Hall of Bishopsgate Institute, a short walk from Liverpool Street station and en route to Spitalfields Market. The cutting-edge line-up of exhibitors, from solo self-publishers to progressive majors, and the all-star roster of artists participating in the on-stage Drawing Parade are unprecedented and admission is, once more, completely free. That’s part of Comica‘s prime goal, to bring as many people as possible into contact with the wonders of the comics world. There really is a comic for everyone. More…

In the same venue, from 7pm, Warren Ellis, stellar comics scribe, makes a rare public appearance to be interviewed by none other than Lenny Henry, before the UK premiere screening of Patrick Meaney’s new full-length documentary movie about Ellis entitled Captured Ghosts. Tickets are selling fast at £8.80 including WeGotTickets 10% fee. More…

Monday November 14th brings another Comica Converstion, this time at Gosh! between American artist and animator Richard McGuire, famed for his 6-page Raw magazine masterpiece Here and for his terrifying, atmospheric chiller in the movie Fear(s) of the Dark. He’ll be talking with British surrealist cartoonist Steven Appleby and I’ll be hosting the evening. More…

Finally, for this Newsletter at least, I must alert you to another innovation at Comica this year, our first ever Club Night in the cool basement of The Book Club in Leonard Street, Shoreditch. Under the title ‘Night of the Living Comics’, we’re organising a thrill-packed soirée of music, drawing, projections, and more featuring such stars as Krent Able from The Stool Pigeon, Robert Sellers and JAKe, co-creator of the new graphic biography Hellraisers, Savage Pencil and Chris Long from reformed art-gang Battle of the Eyes, comedian and comics genius Steve Aylett who will introduce a screening on LINT: The Movie starring Robin Ince, Alan Moore, Stewart Lee and others. Numbers are limited, so book your tickets via the Comica site for only £5 each. More…

I’ll be sending you a further November Newsletter, a Part Two, detailing what’s coming up in the second half of this month very shortly. Meantime, I hope to see many of you at these and other Comica events, the London-wide fiesta of sequential art. Pinch yourself again, you’re not dreaming!

 

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