1.
Comics
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Comics is a medium used to express ideas by images, often combined with text or other visual information. Comics frequently takes the form of juxtaposed sequences of panels of images, often textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia indicate dialogue, narration, sound effects, or other information. Size and arrangement of panels contribute to narrative pacing, cartooning and similar forms of illustration are the most common image-making means in comics, fumetti is a form which uses photographic images. Common forms of comics include comic strips, editorial and gag cartoons, since the late 20th century, bound volumes such as graphic novels, comic albums, and tankōbon have become increasingly common, and online webcomics have proliferated in the 21st century. The history of comics has followed different paths in different cultures, scholars have posited a pre-history as far back as the Lascaux cave paintings. By the mid-20th century, comics flourished particularly in the United States, western Europe, histories of Japanese comics and cartooning propose origins as early as the 12th century. Comics has had a reputation for much of its history. The English term comics is used as a noun when it refers to the medium. Though the term derives from the work that predominated in early American newspaper comic strips. It is common in English to refer to the comics of different cultures by the used in their original languages, such as manga for Japanese comics. The increasing cross-pollination of concepts from different comics cultures and eras has further made definition difficult, examples of early comics The European, American, and Japanese comics traditions have followed different paths. Japan had a prehistory of satirical cartoons and comics leading up to the World War II era. The ukiyo-e artist Hokusai popularized the Japanese term for comics and cartooning, manga, in the post-war era modern Japanese comics began to flourish when Osamu Tezuka produced a prolific body of work. Illustrated humour periodicals were popular in 19th-century Britain, the earliest of which was the short-lived The Glasgow Looking Glass in 1825, the most popular was Punch, which popularized the term cartoon for its humorous caricatures. American comics developed out of magazines as Puck, Judge. The success of illustrated humour supplements in the New York World and later the New York American, particularly Outcaults The Yellow Kid, early Sunday strips were full-page and often in colour. Between 1896 and 1901 cartoonists experimented with sequentiality, movement, shorter, black-and-white daily strips began to appear early in the 20th century, and became established in newspapers after the success in 1907 of Bud Fishers Mutt and Jeff. In Britain, the Amalgamated Press established a style of a sequence of images with text beneath them, including Illustrated Chips
2.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
3.
Escape (magazine)
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Escape magazine was a landmark British comic strip magazine founded and edited by Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury. Nineteen issues were published between 1983 and 1989, Eddie Campbell, Phil Elliott and Glenn Dakin were amongst the many cartoonists published within its pages. Escape has its origins in the explosion of small press or minicomics that occurred in the UK in the early 1980s, Paul Gravett was running a stall at the Westminster Comic Mart in London called Fast Fiction where he would sell other peoples self-published comics for a small cut. At the same time awareness was growing of international developments in the medium, short for Bande Dessinée, BD became the ideological anchor for Escape. Gravett wanted to apply the values of and respect attributed to French comics to his new breed of British artists. Visually this was reflected in the work of Phil Elliott and Rian Hughes, but it also infused the whole attitude of the magazine, that some comics at least deserved be taken seriously. While disillusioned with the direction, or lack of, Pssst. was taking, his job brought him contact with many more new. To some of these, such as Glenn Dakin in Manchester, he introduced the concept of self publishing small press comics and sending out to like minded souls. Pssst. was forced to close after 10 issues leaving Gravett with an idea of how not to run a magazine. The first seven issues of Escape were published between 1983 and 1985 as A5, or digest-sized, booklets of between 56 and 84 pages in length with black and white interiors and colour covers. The covers were wrap-around and, for the first five issues, the smaller size was chosen to physically differentiate it from other comics around at the time with a nod to the photocopied small press comics that usually came in this format. It was also easy to put in your pocket, the first issue had a print run of 2000 and had a disproportionate reaction from the music and style media bringing in subscribers and advertising, notably the NME and Time Out. Despite, or more likely, because of the different styles and approaches embraced by the magazine Escape had a solid identity and loyal, if disparate. As the landscape of the industry changed through the 1980s Escape was there to report it. In 1986 Escape changed to the industry standard American magazine format enabling them to reprint work by the international creators theyd previously only written about. Jacques Tardi and Gary Panter appear in eight and George Herrimans Krazy Kat became a regular feature. The logo also changed to a new design with extra prongs for the E and A. Gravett and Stanbury retained complete control over the contents and direction of the magazine
4.
ArtReview
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ArtReview is an international contemporary art magazine based in London. Its current editors are Mark Rappolt and David Terrien, in October 2011, the magazine was criticised by the Chinese government for placing Ai Weiwei at number one of that years Power 100. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin responded China has many artists who have sufficient ability and we feel that a selection that is based purely on a political bias and perspective has violated the objectives of the magazine. It is edited by Aimee Lin from the magazines Shanghai base, ArtReview was founded in London in 1949 by a retired country medical practitioner, Dr Richard Gainsborough, and the first edition was designed by his wife, the artist Eileen Mayo. Over its 60 years of publication, it has evolved from an eight-page black-and-white broadsheet newspaper published fortnightly to a magazine format published nine times a year. The magazine is distributed in 28 countries, since 1949, ArtReview has been published under the names Art News and Review, The Arts Review, Arts Review, Art Review and ArtReview. The website, artreview. com, was launched in 2007, the website features art news and blogs and artist commissions. ArtReview website ArtReview magazine archive ArtReview Power 100 website Digital Edition of Art Review magazine
5.
Palace of Westminster
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The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Commonly known as the Houses of Parliament after its occupants, the Palace lies on the bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster. The palace is owned by the monarch in right of the Crown and for ceremonial purposes, the building is managed by committees appointed by both houses, which report to the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Speaker. The first royal palace was built on the site in the 11th century, part of the New Palaces area of 3.24 hectares was reclaimed from the Thames, which is the setting of its nearly 300-metre long façade, called the River Front. Barry was assisted by Augustus Pugin, an authority on Gothic architecture and style. The Palace is one of the centres of political life in the United Kingdom, Westminster has become a metonym for the UK Parliament, the Palace of Westminster has been a Grade I listed building since 1970 and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. The Palace of Westminster site was important during the Middle Ages. Known in medieval times as Thorney Island, the site may have been first-used for a residence by Canute the Great during his reign from 1016 to 1035. St Edward the Confessor, the penultimate Anglo-Saxon monarch of England, Thorney Island and the surrounding area soon became known as Westminster. Neither the buildings used by the Anglo-Saxons nor those used by William I survive, the oldest existing part of the Palace dates from the reign of William Is successor, King William II. The Palace of Westminster was the principal residence in the late Medieval period. The predecessor of Parliament, the Curia Regis, met in Westminster Hall, simon de Montforts parliament, the first to include representatives of the major towns, met at the Palace in 1265. The Model Parliament, the first official Parliament of England, met there in 1295, in 1512, during the early years of the reign of King Henry VIII, fire destroyed the royal residential area of the palace. In 1534, Henry VIII acquired York Place from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, renaming it the Palace of Whitehall, Henry used it as his principal residence. Although Westminster officially remained a royal palace, it was used by the two Houses of Parliament and by the various law courts. Because it was originally a residence, the Palace included no purpose-built chambers for the two Houses. Important state ceremonies were held in the Painted Chamber which had originally built in the 13th century as the main bedchamber for King Henry III. The House of Commons, which did not have a chamber of its own, the Commons acquired a permanent home at the Palace in St Stephens Chapel, the former chapel of the royal palace, during the reign of Edward VI
6.
Eddie Campbell
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Eddie Campbell is a Scottish comics artist and cartoonist who now lives in Australia. His graphic novel The Lovely Horrible Stuff, which playfully investigates our relationship with money, was published in July 2012 by Top Shelf Productions and his writing has been compared to that of Jack Kerouac and Henry Miller. Campbell made his earliest attempts at autobiographical comics in the late 1970s with In the Days of the Ace Rock and this evolved into Alec, with the character of Alec MacGarry standing in for the author. When Gravett founded Escape Magazine, Campbell was one of the artists featured, in 1984 Escape published Alec, a slim collection of his semi-autobiographical stories. This was followed by two collections, Love and Beerglasses and Doggie in the Window. In 1990 all three Alec volumes were collected, together with some unpublished material, as The Complete Alec by Eclipse Comics, in 2000 this material was republished as The King Canute Crowd. Two further slim volumes, The Dead Muse and Little Italy appeared through Fantagraphics Books, graffiti Kitchen, which Campbell considers the highpoint of the series, was published by Tundra in 1993, and The Dance of Lifey Death followed in 1994 from Dark Horse Comics. Campbell then followed up these works by publishing two larger works. Alec, How To Be An Artist, a study of the art form and of Campbells own artistic journey, both works were originally serialised within his Bacchus magazine, but were reworked upon collection. The graphic album Alec, How to Be an Artist was nominated for the Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work in 2000. All the Alec stories, with the exception of The Fate of the Artist, were published in one volume, Alec and this was followed in 2012 by the publication of The Lovely Horrible Stuff, a continuation of the autobiographical theme. The success of Kevin Eastman and Peter Lairds Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles led to an explosion of black. Harrier published eight issues of Deadface and two issues of a comic, Bacchus. Dark Horse reprinted the Harrier series as Immortality Isnt Forever in 1990, Campbell continued to produce Bacchus stories for Dark Horse until 1995 as a series of miniseries. The entire Bacchus saga is to be published in two 500-page volumes by Top Shelf Productions, beginning in 1989 Campbell illustrated Alan Moores ambitious Jack the Ripper graphic novel From Hell, serialised initially in Steve Bissettes horror anthology Taboo. Moore and Bissette chose Campbell as illustrator for his approach which gave the story a convincing realism. After Taboo folded From Hell was published in instalments by Tundra and then Kitchen Sink Press, under the influence of Dave Sim, Campbell founded Eddie Campbell Comics and began self-publishing in 1995, after the film rights to From Hell were optioned. The monthly series Bacchus reprinted and completed the story begun in Deadface, as well as carrying new and he went on to collect both Alec and Bacchus as a series of graphic novels
7.
Neil Gaiman
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Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre, and films. His notable works include the book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline. He has won awards, including the Hugo, Nebula. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the work, The Graveyard Book. In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards and his father, David Bernard Gaiman, worked in the same chain of stores, his mother, Sheila Gaiman, was a pharmacist. He has two sisters, Claire and Lizzy. His other sister, Lizzy Calcioli, has said, Most of our social activities were involved with Scientology or our Jewish family and it would get very confusing when people would ask my religion as a kid. I’d say, I’m a Jewish Scientologist, Gaiman says that he is not a Scientologist, and that like Judaism, Scientology is his familys religion. About his personal views, Gaiman has stated, I think we can say that God exists in the DC Universe, I would not stand up and beat the drum for the existence of God in this universe. I dont know, I think theres probably a 50/50 chance and it doesnt really matter to me. Gaiman was able to read at the age of four, when he was about ten years old, he read his way through the works of Dennis Wheatley, where especially The Ka of Gifford Hillary and The Haunting of Toby Jugg made an impact on him. One work that made an impression on him was J. R. R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings from his school library. He consistently took them out and read them and he would later win the school English prize and the school reading prize, enabling him to finally acquire the third volume. For his seventh birthday, Gaiman received C. S. Lewiss The Chronicles of Narnia series and he later recalled that I admired his use of parenthetical statements to the reader, where he would just talk to you. Id think, Oh, my gosh, that is so cool, when I become an author, I want to be able to do things in parentheses. I liked the power of putting things in brackets, Narnia also introduced him to literary awards, specifically the 1956 Carnegie Medal won by the concluding volume. Lewis Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland was another favourite. Alice was default reading to the point where I knew it by heart and he also enjoyed Batman comics as a child
Media related to Paul Gravett at Wikimedia Commons
