Panel Borders – Panel Borders and other podcasts

Panel Borders: The Arab of the Future

Alex Fitch talks to Charlie Hebdo alumnus Riad Sattouf about the first volume of his autobiographical strips about growing up in France, and the Middle East published as The Arab of the Future by Two Roads Books. Alex and Riad explore how the book relates to the latter’s experiences as a film-maker on such movies as Jacky in the Kingdom of Women, plus his interest in Victorian serialised entertainment by Dickens, and children’s adventure comics by Hergé.

Cover and interior of The Arab of the Future and poster for Jacky in the Kingdom of Women by Riad Sattouf

(Panel Borders continues on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 8pm, repeated the following day at 9am. Originally broadcast as the second half of a Clear Spot on Resonance 104.4 FM, 12th April 2016)

For more info and a variety of formats to stream or download this podcast, please visit archive.org

Links: The Arab of the Future website

Info about the graphic memoir at tworoadsbooks.com

Wikipedia page on Jacky in the Kingdom of Women

Space Dumplings: Alex Fitch talks to Eisner Award winning artist Craig Thompson about his first full colour graphic novel Space Dumplings, an uproarious depiction of adventure and galactic travel published by Faber, in which the daughter of an interstellar salvage man goes on a trip of her own meeting aliens, giant robots and space whales. […]

Action – The Story of a Violent Comic: Guest presenter Professor Martin Barker (University of Aberystwyth) investigates the story of Britain’s notorious Action comic, which was launched on Valentine’s Day and banned by Halloween in 1976. Professor Barker explores the rise and fall of the comic, what elements of the strips were censored and censured, […]

The Inflatable Woman, Rachael Ball: Alex Fitch talks to cartoonist Rachel Ball about her graphic novel The Inflatable Woman, a magical realist tome loosely based on her experiences with breast cancer and dating, featuring talking penguins and unreliable lighthouse keepers! Fitch and Ball also discuss the latter’s tenure on Deadline Magazine and her next project […]

Electric Sheep Magazine podcast: Frankenstein revived, Superman Lives

In the February episode of the Electric Sheep Film Show, Electric Sheep Magazine editor assistant editor Alex Fitch talks to Jasper Sharp, artistic director of the Asia House Film Festival, which runs from 22 February, to actor Tony Todd about Bernard Rose’s new adaptation of Frankenstein, and to the director (Jon Schnepp) and producers (Holly Payne, Robert Pierce) of the documentary The Death of Superman Lives. With classic tracks by The Clique, Klark Kentt and The Crystals.

The Electric Sheep Film Show continues on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 8pm, repeated the following day at 9am.

Blu-Ray cover for Frankenstein (2015) / Asia House Film Festival flyer / Jon Schnepp interviewed by Alex Fitch at BFI Southbank / The Death of Superman Lives poster

Originally broadcast as a ‘Clear Spot’, 17th February 2015 on Resonance 104.4 FM; The Electric Sheep Film Show continues on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 8pm, repeated the following day at 9am, on Resonance FM.

Visit www.archive.org, for more info and formats you can stream / download.

Links: Contribute to the Resonance FM fundraiser / ebay auction

The Death of Superman Lives website

Buy Frankenstein (2015)from amazon.co.uk

More info about the Asia House Film Festival and The Creeping Garden

Book List: McKean and Sinclair

Guest presenter Chiara Ambrosio talks to psycho-geographer and novelist Iain Sinclair and artist Dave McKean about their collaborations such as Slow Chocolate Autopsy and London Orbital, their inspirations and their working methods. The podcast also includes additional questions from Alex Fitch and others, plus readings by Sinclair and McKean of their short stories The Articulate Head and The Coast Road. Recorded at The Light and Shadow Salon, Horse Hospital, Bloomsbury in July 2014. (Partially broadcast as an episode of Panel Borders, 21/07/14 on Resonance FM)

Dave McKean, Chiara Ambrosio and Iain Sinclair at the Horse Hospital / cover and interior art from Slow Chocolate Autopsy

Links: Dave McKean’s website

Iain Sinclair’s website

The Horse Hospital website and more info about the original event

Light and Shadow Salon blog

Chiara Ambrosio’s website

Comix Creatrix and The Black Feather Falls: Alex Fitch talks to a pair of comic book creators featured in the all female exhibition Comix Creatrix, on display at House of Illustration, Granary Square, London which includes work by 100 artists from the Eighteenth Century to the present day. Ellen Lindner discusses her latest graphic novel, […]

Fumio Obata: In a Q and A recorded at Cartoon County, Brighton, Alex Fitch talks to Fumio Obata about his graphic novel Just so happens, which fictionalises his experiences of working as an artist in England and Japan, and his web comics about the Fukushima disaster. (Panel Borders continues on the 2nd Tuesday of each […]

Panel Borders: Drawn from life

In the first Panel Borders of 2016, Alex Fitch talks to three cartoonists who work in biography and autobiography. Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal discuss their memoir about life in 1970s communist Warsaw – Behind the Curtain – and Sydney Padua explores her fictionalised account of the birth of computing – The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage – in a panel discussion recorded at Stoke Newington Literary Festival, 2015. (Originally broadcast as the first half of a Clear Spot on Resonance 104.4 FM, 14th January 2016)

Excerpts from Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua, Behind the Curtain by Klimowski and Schejbal

For more info and a variety of formats to stream or download this podcast, please visit archive.org

Links: Info about the event at Stoke Newington Literary Festival

More info about Behind the Curtain by Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal

More info about The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua

Listen to Paul Gravett discusses webcomics with P.J. Holden, Liz Lunney, Tim Winchester, Philipa Rice, David O’Connell and Sydney Padua

Listen to Alex’s previous interviews with Andrzej Klimowski amd Danuscia Schejbal

Drawing The Beano: Alex Fitch talks to writers / artists Laura Howell and Hunt Emerson who have contributed a number of strips to The Beano since 2002, including Little Plum, Ratz, Minnie the Minx and more, in an interview recorded at Caption comics festival, Coventry. Laura discusses moving from the small press to mainstream comics, […]