Joining us for the first Cartoon County of 2017 on Monday 30th January are Matt Hardy and Edward Bentley, the creators of Mad Robot Comics, a new independent publisher based in Worthing. Their titles include Madhouse, an uproarious supernatural thriller set in an asylum, Cadavers, a zombie satire about British media barons, and Last Exit to Brighton, a dystopian look at a certain seaside town. Matt and Edward have been successful at using micropayments - for example selling Last Exit to readers at 50p per 10 pages - and kickstarter to fund the printing of their comics, and will be talking about their genre based titles and publishing techniques.

Northern Lights is closed for the moment, so we're meeting from 7pm, 30th Jan, The Farm Tavern, 13 Farm Rd (off Western Road), Hove BN3 1FB. Comics practitioners, fans and aficionados all welcome.

The date is Monday 28th November. The venue is the Northern Lights in Brighton's Lanes. The time is an informal 6pm for 7pm upstairs. Come and meet Hamish MacGillivray, co-curator with Paul Gravett of The Story of British Comics So Far: Cor! By Gum! Zarjaz! exhibition, at The Lightbox, Woking. Interview by Alex Fitch will start at around 7pm.

This engaging show packs a powerful punch in an eclectic collection of rare comics and artists' originals. Beano, Princess, the Dandy, a weirdly wonderful ceramic bust of of Dan Dare, 2000AD, Grayson Perry, and Woking's very own local graphic novelist Gareth Brookes, all feature.

For more information about visiting the show, check out The Lightbox href="http://www.thelightbox.org.uk/the-story-of-british-comics-so-far-cor-by-gum-zarjaz-2016">here.

A two day conference on war, conflict and resolution takes place on 9th / 10th December at the University of Brighton, Grand Parade. An all-star cast including Kate Evans and Dave McKean makes this a not-to-be-missed event.

The programme includes Academic presentations on Friday 9th December with talks by Irish cartoonist Fionnula Doran, broadcast journalist Alex Fitch, and Justin Wadlow, curator of the French comics festival Les Rendez-vous de la Bande Dessinée d’Amiens.

Included in the ‘general’ ticket (£5-£20) there is a Q and A with Bryan and Mary Talbot on the Friday evening + workshops and talks by creators including Kate Evans, Ben Dickson, Dave McKean and the creators of Brighton’s Graphic War on Saturday 10th December. Also on Saturday, at 3.30pm, a ‘Myriad Editions presents’ panel on trauma in comics, with Hannah Eaton in conversation with Kate Evans, Wallis Eates, Ian Williams and Majid Ad.

Ticket prices:
£5 – Students for Fri eve and Saturday all day
£10 – Concessions for Fri eve and Saturday all day
£20 – Full price for Fri eve and Saturday all day

£30 – Students / Concessions for full two day conference including academic presentations all day Friday + all day Saturday
£60 – Full price for full two day conference including academic presentations all day Friday + all day Saturday

More info at www.graphicbrighton.wordpress.com and http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/whats-on/sallis-benney-events/theatre-events-2026/dec-2016/graphic-brighton-2016-conflict-and-resolution

Big thanks to Siiri Viljakka and Lauri Tuomi-Nikula, a Finnish drawing/writing team in conversation with Brighton's own Myfanwy Tristram, who gave us a great evening at the Northern Lights about how they worked together on their comic on freedom of information, paying homage to the 18th century local hero Anders Chydenius who started the ball rolling, and the contemporary Finnish comics scene, which is vibrant with talent – and Siiri's artwork couldn't be a better example of this. We've got a great list of Siiri's and Lauri's recommendations of artists to watch out for, so do explore the links below.



The book:
http://www.painovapaus250.fi/en/news/last-words
https://www.facebook.com/anders.chydenius/

Siiri's artwork:
http://siiriviljakka.tumblr.com/

Lauri is a publisher and writer, and his website is here: http://donl.fi/

And here are the amazingly talented folk we should watch out for:

Johanna Rojola
http://www.nbl.fi/~nbl436/
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13145703-suffragettien-city

Tiitu Takalo
http://www.tiitutakalo.net/index.php?page=english
http://tiitu.sarjakuvablogit.com/

Kriina Rytkönen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD3IspTforI
http://clovenmorsel.tumblr.com
@korrenraa

Apila Pepita Miettinen
http://apilapepita.com/comics
http://apilapepita.com/comics/MOSSDASH
https://www.facebook.com/rikkiproject/?fref=ts
http://rikkiproject.com/

Hanna-Pirita Lehkonen
http://www.webtoons.com/en/comedy/immortal-nerd/list?title_no=579
@hannapirita

Ville Ranta
http://www.villeranta.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ville-Rannan-sarjakuvat-Comics-of-Ville-Ranta/144236898936477

Mika Lietzen
http://www.lietzen.com/

Kati Kovács
http://finnishcomics.info/artists/kati-kovacs/

Background on the trip:
You can check out the complete background here.

The trip was made possible by via a crowdfunder, organised by the indefatigable Myfanwy Nixon, inspired by her work with My Society.

https://myfanwytristram.com/2016/09/08/help-me-do-one-of-the-strangest-things-ive-ever-done/
https://myfanwytristram.com/2016/09/11/we-did-it-finnish-cartoonists-incoming/

Rocio draws the art of a slice-of-life webcomic called La Libreria (The Comic Shop, available in Spanish), written by Rafael Verdejo Roman. They have self-published a short compilation of extra material La Libreria, Recuerdos contrafácticos and are currently working on a short story for the second issue of an anthology of horror comics, El Posabirras del Mal, an image of which is shown here for the first time! Both are members of Neuh. Rocio can be reached on Twitter (@UnaToruNaranja) and more of her work can be seen on DeviantArt. Come and enjoy Rocio in conversation with Alex Fitch of Resonance FM at the Northern Lights, 6 Little East St, Brighton, BN1 1HT, from 6.30 - Q&A at 7.30pm. All welcome!