Posted in: Comics | Tagged: cartoon museum, david hine, Ed Ilya, garth ennis, jason atomic, Jess Kemp, london, Lucy Sullivan, mark stafford, oscar zarate, paul gravett, rian hughes, roger langridge, soaring penguin, tim pilcher, Tony Bennett, Zoom Rockman

Mark Stafford's Speech at the Salmonella Smorgasbord Launch in London

Mark Stafford's Salmonella Smorgasbord is a book coming up from Soaring Penguin Press, launched at the London Cartoon Museum.

Mark Stafford's Salmonella Smorgasbord is a book coming up from Soaring Penguin Press that gathers work from across his varied career in creating fascinatingly grotesque art. This week he launched the book at the London Cartoon Museum, with all sorts of folk in attendance, Garth Ennis, Roger Langridge, Oscar Zarate, Jason Atomic, Lucy Sullivan, Tim Pilcher, Ed Ilya, Paul Gravett, Tony Bennett, Jess Kemp, Zoom Rockman, David Hine, Rian Hughes and more, to celebrate Martl's glossy-papered achievement.  Here is his three-minute speech from the event.

Soaring Penguin Press Co-Publisher John Anderson and former neighbour of mine spoke about the collection, saying: "Mark's work deserves to be seen, and has to be seen to be believed. Believe me when I say that once you start on Salmonella Smorgasbord it's, well, unkeepdownable." Co-Publisher Tim Pilcher added, "I've been a fan of Mark's work for over 30 years and I'm full to bursting to be able to serve all these rarities in one literary repast. This collection is what his work has long deserved and is perfect for existing gourmands and a mind-blowing entrée for those yet to discover the twisted world of Stafford. Bon Appetit!"

Best known as the co-creator of the graphic novels Cherubs! (with Bryan Talbot), The Man who Laughs, Lip Hook, and The Bad Bad Place (with David Hine), along with extensive work on other projects, Mark has twice been chosen by the British Council to collaborate on projects in South Korea. He is also the current artist-in-residence at The Cartoon Museum in London, UK. This new collection presents stories and pieces in a hefty 200+ full-colour pages, celebrating the grotesque imagination of one of Britain's most inventive comedic/horror artists. Salmonella Smorgasbord brings together many of Stafford's rarely seen short comic strips, alongside restored older comics, and even more recent design work for theatre posters, record covers, beer labels, and T-shirt designs—meaning there's plenty to discover, even for the most ardent fans.

Salmonella Smorgasbord is a 200-page paperback collection, UK £16.99/US $25.99.  Here's a little gallery of what went down.

I have called Mark Stafford one of the greatest cartoonists you have never heard of, though I have done my best to rectify that.  I published him in my Dirtbag and X-Flies comics back in 1995, gave him advertising work on the video game KKND, he did covers for my Avengefuls comic books and for Civil Wardrobe. I always believe that at some point a major publisher will spotlight him and he will become one of the biggest creators around. Despite working with Bryan Talbot and David Hine on big projects, published by Dark Horse and Boom Studios, being made an artist in residence at the London Cartoon Museum, being sent on international diplomatic cartooning missions, and curating galleries all over it hasn't happened in thirty years yet.  But maybe this might be the moment? I did notice a variant cover for Weird Work #3 by Jordan Thomas and Shaky Kane from Image Comics in September…

Maybe that will help tee off Salmonella Smogasbord?

Mark Stafford tells me "I spent a fair chunk of my life under lockdown digging out old files and scanning art, restoring some stories and completing others and putting them all into some kind of order that makes sense to me. So it contains my small press comics, contributions to anthologies, unpublished gems, beer labels and posters, two stories and a foreword by Mr David Hine, an afterword by Dr Bryan Talbot, a collaboration with a Korean poet, two adaptations of olde folk sings, a library mural, a bittersweet Busan love story, much creepy business and an interview conducted by Mr Jason Atomic at the end to vaguely explain why you're reading what you've read. I'm pretty happy with it, and it's all done bar a few cover wrangles and the printing."

People aside from me who have backed his crowdfunding campaign include Gene Ha, Mike Mignola, Kieron Gillen, Hunt Emerson, Rian Hughes, Shelly Bond, D'Israeli, Joseph Cavalieri, Bob Fingerman, Dave Elliott, Gary Spencer Millidge, David Hine, Bryan Talbot, Mike Collins, Jamie Smart, Roger Langridge, Alan Cowsill, Rufus Dayglo and many more

Or maybe read the start of this Kaiju story from the book… one of the many stories in the 200+ page volume, his Godzilla story, Clash Of The Behemoths, which reflects Japanese culture in both the actions of kaiju and also the social embarrassment of society…

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