Posted in: Comics | Tagged: arc, london, small press

ARC Unearths UK Small Press: History And Heritage Comics Panel

ARC Unearths UK Small Press: History And Heritage Comics Panel with Ed Pinsent, Paul Gravett and Woodrow Phoenix chaired by Douglas Noble

I'm still at the ARC Contemporary Comics Festival Talks today at The Hub in Peckham, London, ahead of tomorrow's ARC small press festival. And right now that is UK Small Press: History and Heritage with Blanca Garcia Paja, Ed Pinsent, Dr Ian Horton, Paul Gravett, Sarah Marhurter and Woodrow Phoenix chaired by Douglas Noble. Find more coverage using the ARC tag. The panel made many references to the Les Coleman Collection of comics from North American underground from 1968 to 1989 and the alternative comic book movements that followed, held at the University of the Arts London Archives and Special Collections. I feel a visit coming on…

Paul Gravett started the Fast Fiction small press table at the London Comic Mart, which sold small press comics, published them, and collected them in their Fast Fiction anthologies. He is now a curator of comic book exhibitions the world over, including archiving small press comics at the recent Queer As Comics exhibition at the Quentin Blake Centre Of illustration. He talks about coming back to the UK from the US in the seventies, with no small press comics scene here. So he set one up, to fill a gap, so people didn't have to use mail order to the USA, but also to make friends. He talked about his relationships with the likes of Carol Swain, who found comics as a way to escape fine art which wouldn't allow narrative, and she had stories to tell. Paul talked about many of his favourite comics but that also loved when these small photocopied comics suddenly took on huge deluxe printing efforts for one issue… and also how the British Library has bought a large collection of small press comic books themselves, including as he put it rather scuzzy comic books that might have had ten copies printed, and now in the British Library.

Ed Pinsent has only been self publishing comics since 1982, and joined Fast Fiction a little later, and thinks it is the most important thing and works in digital archiving. He sees the origin of small press comics back to mix tales and poetry books being photocopied and duplicated, and realised that all you had to add was a post office, and you were a publisher. He discovered Fast Fiction giving immediacy and accessibility from creator to reader, as photocopying has become much more affordable. He cited early FF creator Eddie Campbell as saying "there seemed to be an explosion of photocopiers all around the world." He says that what he loved about the small press and Fast Fiction was that they weren't;t like anything else at the time. "It was new, people doing personal stories, the art was unusual, more like illustration or book design, a lot of people picked up on the energy, we'd never seen anything in comics like this before." And that's what inspired him to get other people into the Fast Fiction anthology, and sees the time, the people, the energy as "something quite unique". He did regret that Fast Fiction never lived up to the gender balance we see today. He recalled the comic The Wimp by Tim Buddon with the character Brock The Badger, who was the essence of all things badgery, a surreal poetic comic over widescreen panels. Tim moved to Taiwan and became Brock himself, a character to express his own art, as a super badger, and changed into other strange forms.

Dr Ian Horton has been a fan and now archivist of comic books, and came to small press after reading about the possibility in the back of Cerebus. He saw photocopying as the great democratiser, but other folk were still using reproduction machines and even traditional printing press creating small press titles. He talked a lot of his love for Raw, a comic he found by accident when he was 18, and decided it was the most amazing object in the entire world, with Maus as just a mini-comic within it. And he treasured it today.

Blanca Garcia Paja works an archivist at UAL Central St Martins in their library, and talked about the rarity of finding work, especially full runs, even after the seventies punk zine explosion, the best you'll get is four or five titles out of twenty. Photocopied comics and zines were not meant to last… it is strange to preserve things that were never meant to be preserved. Blanca cited Paul's recent comic exhibition, looking at Dynamite Damsels by Roberta Gregory as one of the most exciting small press comics she ever read. She says there is no way to repair the rip of a staple, they try to preserve what is, rather than what was. She also talks about the personal aspects of small press comics, not meant to be read by many, revealing personal things about themselves and others that might not want too widely spread now.

Woodrow Phoenix discovered that you could create your own comics reading Eddie Campbell's work, and found the Fast Fiction table. Be disagreed, said the work was meant to last, that photocopying was state-of-the-art technology of the time. He has a collection of all of his work still, even if he doesn't recognise a lot of it. His big drive is to make things that didn't exist before. Going to the Mart was exciting for him, to see what was new. He remembers being amazing by embossed covers, created by people ironing covers over corrugated cardboard. Woodrow recalled the inventiveness he had to use, such as his comic, The Big Sneeze, originally planned to be A4 folded lengthwise to be tall, and then bound an A3 page into A4, and the comic was about a sumo wrestler, the final massive page, being his final sneeze. And he saw it in a French comic shop last year for 50 euros rather than 50 pence. He sees the hand made aspect of small press to be a red herring, he would have loved for his work to be properly published, he did what he had to, to get the book out, but it's a means to an end. And now all the markers have faded and pritt sticked pages no longer stick. He also talked about faxed comic books, on heat paper, which have now faded, even though they were in a drawer. Which just reminded me of my own small press comics, which had a free tea bag stuck to the cover. Every now and then someone brings me one to sign, it never has the tea bag any more…

Sarah Marhurter, Manager, University Archives and Special Collections Centre at University of the Arts London, talked about collecting and archiving Susan Catherine's early comics that replicated overheard conversations. She valued comics that get people through difficult subjects, such as world conflict, with multiple perspectives on wars, from those on both sides. And sees comics as a way to discuss difference without violence, peaceful discussion over violence and sees that as a property of art generally, but small press comics books and zines specifically, articulating voices that are seldom heard.

Doug Noble recalls looking with Dave Gibbons at his old work he is now republishing, with Dave saying "promising, isn't it?" The ARC Comics Talks are on all day today, with a Drink And Draw to follow in Soho, and the ARC Small Press Comics festival all weekend long – and a party on the Saturday night!

Friday, 10th of July

• Art, Poetry, Music: Visualising Time and Performance, 10:30-11:30am. Arc Festival Talks at The Hub at the UAL, Bonar Road, Peckham, with Anaïs Sière. Anu Ambasna. Josephine M. K. Edwards. Miranda Smart. chaired by Dr Maggie Gray
• International Publishers: Opportunities and Pitfalls of Print Based Publishing in the 21st Century, 11:45am-12:45pm Arc Festival Talks at The Hub at the UAL, Bonar Road, Peckham with Cram Books, PageMasters, Peow2, SelfMadeHero chaired by Dr Andrea Aramburú
• UK Small Press: History and Heritage, 1:30-2:45pm Arc Festival Talks at The Hub at the UAL, Bonar Road, Peckham with Blanca Garcia Paja. Ed Pinsent. Dr Ian Horton. Paul Gravett. Sarah Marhurter. Woodrow Phoenix chaired by Douglas Noble
• Contemporary Fantasy, 3-4pm Arc Festival Talks at The Hub at the UAL, Bonar Road, Peckham With Hollow Press, Lando, Leomi Sadler, Linnea Sterte chaired by Matt Seneca
• White Walls: Exhibiting Comics, 4:15-5:15pm Arc Festival Talks at The Hub at the UAL, Bonar Road, Peckham with Joe Kessler (Mote). Kat Chapman (Avery Hill). Olivia Ahmad and Paul Gravett (Queer as Comics, The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration) Chaired by Dr Gareth Brookes
• The Comic Book Musicals of A.T. PRATT. 5:15-6:30pm Arc Festival Talks at The Hub at the UAL, Bonar Road, Peckham
• MOTE Public View for Arc Festival, AMP Gallery, 1 Acorn Parade, Peckham 6am-6pm
  With Alex Treskman, Andres Magan, Anna Haifisch, Brie Moreno, Cameron Arthur, Emil Friis-Ernst, Erlend Peder Kvam, Fidelia Schlegl, Hugh Frost, Joe Kessler, John Molesworth, Kayla Lui, Leomi Sadler, Molly Colleen O'Connell, Richard Short, Wai Wai Pang, Zeel

• Gosh x ARC x Broken Frontier Present Drink and Draw With Niall Breen, Matt Seneca and Mark Stafford, Gosh Comics/Royal George, Soho, from 7pm. We welcome artists Niall Breen and Matt Seneca, along with our cartoonist in residence Mark Stafford to join us on the Friday before the weekend fair. The three will be tabling at ARC over the weekend along with an incredible line-up of fantastic artists.

Saturday, 11th of July

• ARC Contemporary Comics Festival at Unit 8, Copeland Park, Peckham. 11am-6pm
  A festival of contemporary comics in South East London, taking place over four days in July, showcasing some of the best independent comics, graphic novels, sequential art and form-altering visual narrative. The festival will launch with an exhibition and talks, before culminating in a comics fair over 2 days, featuring a curated line-up of over 100 UK-based and international artists and publishers
• MOTE Public View, AMP Gallery. 1 Acorn Parade, Peckham 6am-6pm
• Arc Festival Saturday night party with ARC X GOB Nation, 6.30 pm until late at The Greyhound on Peckham High St.

Sunday 12th July

• ARC Contemporary Comics Festival at Unit 8, Copeland Park, Peckham. 11am-6pm
  A festival of contemporary comics in South East London, taking place over four days in July, showcasing some of the best independent comics, graphic novels, sequential art and form-altering visual narrative. The festival will launch with an exhibition and talks, before culminating in a comics fair over 2 days, featuring a curated line-up of over 100 UK-based and international artists and publishers
• MOTE Public View, AMP Gallery. AMP Gallery, 1 Acorn Parade, Peckham 6am-6pm

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