Our guest this month is Clarrie Pope, artist and co-writer, with her sister Blanche, of Welcome Home, which was shortlisted for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition in 2018 and published by Minor Compositions.

Welcome Home tells the tale of the overlapping lives of a group of people squatting in a condemned tower block in London, and the rivalries and love triangles that form within this community. As Clarrie says, it's about "lost struggles, unrequited love and irritating activists. Despite its gloomy topics, it is written with humour and driven by hope."

Clarrie also makes humorous greetings cards based on drawings from her Skyrat instagram page started during the first lockdown. Her second graphic novel in progress, Love's Labour, was longlisted for the Laydeez Do Comics prize in 2021.

https://www.clarriepope.com/


For this month at least, we'll be back – in person – at our old haunt, The Southern Belle in Brighton, but also hope to run it online too for those who would prefer to join virtually. You may have to bear with us as we get to grips with technology but we'll do our best! Free, but do register here for either in person or online!

The Southern Belle
3 Waterloo St
Hove BN3 1AQ

Monday 27th June
Doors at 7pm, talk starts at 7.30pm

Graphic Brighton: Comics by and for young people is a FREE event with talks, panel discussions, book signings and a workshop on how to make your own comics, curated by Alex Fitch and Barbara Chamberlin.

Friday 27th May: talks by academics and local creators about childrens comics.

Saturday 28th May: invites a variety of creators including former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen to chat about their work and sign comics, plus a workshop by young graphic novelist Coco Kirkland.

The many Cartoon County creators include Hannah Berry, Jaime Huxtable, Zara Slattery, Dan Locke and Paul Fisher Davies.

University of Brighton, Edward Street Building.

Full details here

This month we'll be at Waterstones where Alex Fitch will be talking with comics creators Veronika Muchitsch, Dan Locke and Alex Frith, celebrating the publication of two graphic novels:



Cyberman (published by Myriad, 26 May) by Veronika Muchitsch is a graphic documentary of the life of a blogger in his fifties living in a small town in Finland who for nearly six years has been streaming his life online twenty-four hours, seven days a week. Even though he hardly leaves his apartment, nor has visitors.

Two Heads (Bloomsbury, 2022) is a journey through the mysteries of the human brain from a renowned husband-and-wife team of cognitive neuroscientists, professors Uta and Chris Frith, working with their son Alex and artist Daniel Locke. They examine how research is now focused on the fact we are a social species, whose brains have evolved to work cooperatively.

19th May at 7pm

Waterstones
71-74 North Street

Attendance is free, but advance registration is essential.

At this month's Cartoon County, Alex Fitch talks to Ben Cullis, a.k.a Benksy, the editor of retro comics anthology The 77, and to Steve MacManus, a former editor of 2000AD and contributor to The 77.



The 77 is a love letter to classic British comics from the 1970s and 80s. It has been a platform for new comics creators to work on short stories and serialised narratives, as well as a venue for veterans of the industry such as Glenn Fabry and Lew Stringer to provide variant covers for the kickstarter editions. There have been seven issues of The 77 so far, plus a 136 page annual, and also a couple of sister titles - Blazer and Pandora - with more to come!

Steve edits and writes for Blazer. He was the editor of 2000AD between 1979 & 1986, and also worked on a number of other venerable British comics in the 1970s and 80s including Battle, Action, Valiant and Starlord. Shok!, the strip Steve created with Kevin O'Neill in the 1981 Judge Dredd annual, was adapted as the feature film Hardware in 1990.
Ben has been engaged with comics for three decades and previously worked with the animation company Bolex Brothers, so both of them have a lot to talk to us about...

More info at https://the77comic.wordpress.com and https://the77comic.bigcartel.com

25th April at 6.45pm, online. Click here for our eventbrite registration and link to our zoom room!

Monday 28th March, 8pm online. Note: this is an hour later than usual, as Sarah will be joining us from America.

This month our guest is Sarah Mirk, who is a contributing editor at acclaimed graphic journalism website The Nib, where she writes and edits nonfiction comics.

'When I tell people I write comics, they're usually confused. "So they're funny?" they ask. "No, not usually," I reply. "But they're always interesting!" I specialize in writing non-fiction comics about history, politics, and identity. Comics are a great way to make thorny and complicated topics accessible to a wide audience.'

Sarah also edited the 2020 anthology Guantanamo Voices - an illustrated oral history that shares the stories of 10 people who are connected to the world’s most infamous prison.



She has produced her own comics and graphic novels on subjects including You Do You: Figuring Out Your Body, Dating, and Sexuality (Lerner, 2019), post-apocalyptic romance Open Earth (Limerence Press, 2018), and the collection of her 365 daily self-published comics: Year of Zines (2020).

Join us on Zoom by signing up to the event here on eventbrite

More info about Sarah's work at https://www.mirkwork.com