Back Max!

That maestro of the drawing board Hunt Emerson is bringing his brilliant Max Zillion character back into print, and he's started a Kickstarter campaign to help him do it. 

Max Zillion (and Alto Ego) appeared in a book called Jazz Funnies many years ago published by Knockabout, but the book is now long out of print. Hunt aims to publish the strips in a brand new collection called Hot Jazz which will feature some strips in colour for the first time and a new gallery of pages by guest artists.

As is the norm with Kickstarter campaigns, the more you pledge, the more you get, including a stunningly illustrated plate like this...

I've been a fan of Hunt's work since I first saw it in the 1970s and the cool cat that is Max Zillion deserves to be back in print. Only 25 days to go so let's make it happen. To find out more, visit this link and click on the video, where Hunt himself will tell you all about it...
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1436027074/hot-jazz

Fanzine cover collection

Comics fanzines are pretty much a thing of the past now, replaced by websites and blogs like this. That's fine for news, comment, and articles, but you can't beat a good fanzine cover. And the 1970s and early 1980s had some crackers. Many of us started out in fanzines and some pros were still happy to contribute the occasional cover when asked. Above is the cover to Fantasy Advertiser International No.55, April 1975. The images surrounding Stan Lee's grinning mug shot are by Bryan Talbot in his early days. 

Let's take a look at several more. Today, Graham Bleathman is renowned for his fantastic cutaway paintings of Gerry Anderson vehicles and suchlike, but back in 1978 he was making his debut with his self-published fanzine Magazine of Tomorrow. Graham's art improved rapidly in subsequent issues...

Comic Media News was edited by Richard Burton who'd later go on to be an editor at IPC/Fleetway/Egmont on comics from Tiger and 2000AD to Sonic the Comic. This cover to issue 29 (Jan-Feb 1977) is by Brian Bolland...

Comic Media News No.33 (Nov-Dec 1977) with a nice 'jam' cover by Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, and Mick McMahon...

Comic Media News No.34 (Jan-Feb 1978) with a wraparound cover by Mike Higgs...

Comic Media News No.38 (Oct-Nov 1978) with art by Garry Leach...

BEM (formerly Bemusing Magazine) was published my Martin Lock who later set up Harrier Comics. This cover to No.22 (January 1979) is by the ever-brilliant Hunt Emerson...

BEM No.23 (April 1979) cover by Brian Bolland...

BEM no.25 (September 1979) cover by Bryan Talbot...

BEM No.27 (March 1980) cover by Dave Gibbons showing a very 1970s Dez Skinn...

BEM No.28 (May 1980) another cover by Brian Bolland...

BEM No.29 (August 1980) cover by Mick McMahon...

BEM No.35 (Spring 1982) cover by Kevin O'Neill...

Masters of Infinity was a smart fanzine published my Mike Taylor. The cover to No.7 (1980) was by Mick McMahon...

Workin Klass Super Hero was an A4 stripzine published by Jolly Martian Productions. This is issue 1 from 1979. Its cover (and some content) was by Glenn Fabry...

Fusion was an A5 fanzine edited by Hugh Campbell. The cover to No.6 (June 1985) was drawn by Grant Morrison, better known today for his writing of course...

Last but not least, we'll end as we began with a Bryan Talbot cover. This one for Short Fuse No.2 (1985) published by Graham Cousins, Paul Duncan and John Jackson.

I hope these covers have been of interest. I'll post more info about these old fanzines at a later date if enough of you are interested. For example, over on my other blog I've posted the first article I had published from 1979. You can see it here:
http://comiconline24hcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-folly-of-youth-my-first-fanzine.html

Blimey! blog is taking a break for a few days now, unless important news comes along, as I have a lot of work on this week. Please keep posting your comments though as I'll still be taking a few minutes to reply to those. 

Calculus Cat collected

Published in time for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival last week was Hunt Emerson's Calculus Cat, a smartly produced A4 book consisting of 112 pages collecting all of his strips of the aforementioned moggy and new material to boot!

The book was funded through Kickstarter, as I mentioned here back in June, and managed to reach its target of £10,000 thanks to 338 backers. The standard edition is in paperback, but those who pledged over £20 received a limited hardback edition. 

I've been a fan of Hunt's work since the 1970s when I first saw his strips in the underground comics produced by the Birmingham Arts Lab. His distinctively energetic, surreal, and genuinely funny work raises the spirits and is pure comics. This collection of Calculus Cat strips, ranging back over 30 years and including brand new material, is a prime example of Hunt's best humour work. What is also evident is how Hunt has mastered the art of black and white comics. No colour is necessary; this is superbly balanced work. 

To add a bonus to the volume, Hunt invited a bunch of us comic types to contribute our own spin on Calculus Cat for a gallery section in the back of the book. My own humble effort is there and I'm proud to share pages with such great talents as Kevin O'Neill, Gilbert Shelton, Dave McKean, Graham Higgins, Roger Langridge, Phil Elliott, Kate Charlsworth, Steve Pugh and many more.

Calculus Cat is published by Knockabout and is available to buy now.

Directly from Hunt Emerson:
http://largecow.com/shop/books/calculus-cat 

From Knockabout books:
http://www.knockabout.com/featured/calculus-cat-by-hunt-emerson/

or from Knockabout's eBay store:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CALCULUS-CAT-Hunt-Emerson-/201200904836?pt=UK_Books_Comics_Magazines_US_Comics_ET&hash=item2ed8822a84

Support the Cat!

There's only a few days to go to help Hunt Emerson reach his Kickstarter target to publish a new collected edition of his brilliant Calculus Cat comic strips. The required amount of £10,000 is almost there, but not quite! It'd be a shame for the project to fall short. After all, this is Hunt Emerson, - a cartoon genius who has been entertaining us with his work for around 40 years! 

As well as the existing Calculus Cat strips, there's also stuff that has never been printed before, plus extra guest pages by various artists. (Including me, but don't let that put you off.) So let's get behind this project and make the book become a reality. 

You can pledge whatever amount you choose here, at Hunt's Kickstarter page:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1436027074/calculus-cat

Remember, no one will be charged if the project doesn't meet its goal, and if it does reach its target you'll only have a few months to wait before the book is published, so you can't lose! 

UPDATE 30/6/2014: I'm pleased to see that Hunt has reached his target so the book will definitely be published! 

Calculus Cat Kickstarter Campaign

Hunt Emerson is without a doubt the most brilliant cartoonist in the universe. Even though we haven't explored the universe yet and we don't know if there are eight-armed octo-toonists out there with 4-D pens dipped in funny ink. Hunt would still come tops anyway. 

If you're only aware of Hunt's work through his current strips for The Beano and Fortean Times you've only sampled a smidgen of the man's talent. One of his greatest creations was Calculus Cat, which first appeared in the 1980s in comic mags such as Escape. A collection of those strips, entitled Death to Television, was published by Knockabout years ago but is long out of print. Now, Knockabout want to produce a new edition, and they'd like our help. 

There's a Kickstarter campaign up and running where people can pledge their money to get this brilliant book back into print. There's a series of incentives for pledges, starting at £5 for a digital copy increasing to more for the paperback, hardback, and numerous extras. 

You can find out more about Calculus Cat and this campaign, including a short video from Hunt himself, at this address:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1436027074/calculus-cat

Let's get Calculus Cat back in print!