This week over at the Alby Figgs site, Alby put’s to rest the oft questioned origin of one of pop cultures eternal mysteries, namely The Shadows ‘funny walk’.
Who’d have thought it, eh? But wait! Who’s that bronzed, shaded stranger in the Bentley? Find out more (?) @ http://wp.me/2xlpi
Just out today @ http://albyfiggs.wordpress.com/ Alby Figgs in Gravy! Straight up. This time, everybody’s favourite street sage spills the, er, gravy on the innermost workings of one of our best loved (?!) celebrity chefs and his part in his success/ downfall. You be the judge…
Snowgoose, part two in the ongoing saga of Alby Figgs @ http://albyfiggs.wordpress.com/ is now up online, people. This time, Alby shatters the myth of a much loved national treasure.
It’s the latest publishing sensation to sweep the nation; a septuagenarian with a talent for tall tales and constant banter. No doubt, some Hollywood studio will latch on within weeks to the adventures of one Alby Figgs, but right now, you can say you were there first at the birth of a comic legend. Either that, or just pass a minute of your time reading his latest conversational run-ins every Friday tea-time on the train home at albyfiggs.wordpress.com
Heralding the imminent arrival on bookshop shelves the world over, former drinking companion (one night down the Escape bar in the late 80s), ex-NME reviewer, and once disciple of the old Velocity mag (he quite liked it a bit), nice guy Andrew Collins (BBC 6 Music, Radio Times, et cetera) has penned a very favourable review of our eagerly awaited (over a year) anthology, The Great Unwashed from Escape Books in this month’s Word magazine (actually came out last month, but in the great scheme of Pleece scheduling, that was way ahead of time!)
Indie-trousered comic strip siblings get all anthologisedEmerging from a revitalised small-press UK comics scene 25 years ago, their doleful, monochrome strips found in magazines like Crisis, A1 and Escape (now a book publishing imprint), Brighton-based Gary and Warren Pleece chimed with the Oxfam-tailored, fanzines-in-Tesco-bags, C86 Indie culture. The Great Unwashed collects early, parochially low-key triumphs from under their 80s, Enterprise Allowance Scheme-funded Velocity umbrella with fighting-fit new collaborations. Warren’s fluid, minimalist inkmanship and geometric panelling give life to Gary’s understated, arch scripts (“several frames of inconsequentiality pass”), absorbing pop culture like a dual sponge with titles like Native New Yorkers, the wordless Dead Souls, Bertrand de Plastique and family saga The Higsons. Mixing seafront sleaze, the American nightmare and post-modern voyages into period drama, this one-stop shop is a joy, inducing dewy-eyed nostalgia in the grown-up comix fan who still pines for Los Bros Hernandez. With Warren now very much overground, it’s pleasing he and Gary have not “done a Gallaghers”. ANDREW COLLINS
Those rag-tag, Brighton dwelling brothers of ill repute, Gary and Warren Pleece, once again tread the boards of comic promotionalisation with a lightning visit to the esteemed meeting place of Cartoon County, tonight at 7.30 p.m., upstairs at The Greene Room in The Cricketers pub in Brighton. Hear them talk about their latest books and projects, The Great Unwashed and Montague Terrace, as well as chucklesome reminisces of the Velocity years and what made/ makes them tick in a comicy fashion. Free sandwiches and nearby vicinity to a bar, make this event a must, even if you have to listen to those goggle-eyed bastards blowing their own trumpets!
Apologies to the ‘fan’ for not posting for bloody ages, but that was mostly down to a very busy period of trying to finish the forthcoming Montague Terrace book for Jonathan Cape, out next year, and contributing to the new Pleece Brothers anthology, The Great Unwashed, coming out very soon from Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury’s Escape Books.
As a precursor to that, I’ve been invited to the Helsinki Comics Festival this weekend, 16-18th September where I’ll be doing some signings and giving a talk entitled ‘Self-Publish and be Damned, or How not to make it in Comics’, covering the early Velocity years, so, hopefully not too po-faced, through to the latest web publishing ventures.
Tons more stuff to come soon, so watch this space.
You know who you are. Do I?!
Two posts in one day must be a record and an added treat to my legions of followers, both of you.
If having two exhibitions wasn’t enough for my ego this year, along comes “That’s Novel”, as part of this years collaboration between The Comica Festival and The London Print Studio. Me and brother Gary are exhibiting our old Velocity strip, Pig Custard, soon to be featured in our new (but old) anthology, The Great Unwashed from Escape Books, alongside a great line-up of British and international comic types.
The show starts tomorrow, October 22nd (opening party tonight from 6 p.m.) and runs until December 19th at The London Print Studio in Westbourne Park. Details and info here.
I was too busy scrambling to finish my interactive installation of Montague Terrace for the Digital Media Arts 2010 final year degree show to post up any advance publicity and now the show, course and work is all over, but it was a great 2 year experience and a great show from all involved. Anyone who missed out though, can still see my contribution when it travels up to the Pump House gallery in Battersea Park, London, from August 11 to September 26 as part of the Hyper Comics exhibition curated by Paul Gravett.