[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-folk-art-comics-treasure-from-slovenia":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Last night at the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.alternativepress.org.uk/Stripburger.html\">International Alternative Press Festival\u003C/a> event about Slovenian comics and its \u003Ca href=\"http://www.stripburger.org\">Stripburger\u003C/a> collective, I found this marvellous box of goodies.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/honey_talks_3-254bd33c23.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSlovenian farmers have a folk art tradition of painting scenes on the removable front panels of their beehives. Most of the painted panels date between the 1820's and 1880's and feature all sorts of weird and wonderful mythological and religious scenes, and the Stripburger collective used these scenes to inspire a beautiful little collection of English-language comics called \u003Ci>Honey Talks\u003C/i>. Here are the front covers:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/honey_talks_1-2f7baf56b0.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here to see lots more under the cut!-->\\r\nAnd the back covers, showing the beehive panels:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/honey_talks_2-68fc6af79c.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSome of them are quite bizarre, and made me wonder what kind of comics we could come up with, inspired by English folk art. It's cool how the panels are all the same shape, it gives the collection a very unified feeling, and the little slot at the bottom of the front covers echoes the shape of the beehive panels. (Many of the artists have little illustrated bees showing through the slot.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/honey_talks_7-10224f0bb4.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ci>Alvearium\u003C/i> presents a wonderfully zany take on old European woodcut-print chapbooks by \u003Ca href=\"http://troglo.home.xs4all.nl/#\">Marcel Ruijters\u003C/a> (the front cover, an inside page and the back cover beehive panel):\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/honey_talks_6-d1067e8fb2.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThis one called \u003Ci>The Hunter's Daughter\u003C/i> by \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutu_Modan\">Rutu Modan\u003C/a>, whose name you might recognise from \u003Ci>Exit Wounds\u003C/i>, her graphic novel about an Israeli girl doing her national service. (Oo! I just found her lovely online comic, \u003Ca href=\"http://modan.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/chez-maurice/\">\u003Ci>Chez Maurice\u003C/a>\u003C/i>, which I'm bookmarking to read on my next tea break.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/honey_talks_5-2c2b6b66c5.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI love the sort of Chagall-like higglety-pigglety way that Vladan Nikolic has drawn these village scene in \u003Ci>Wanted\u003C/i>:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/honey_talks_4-84e35a114a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nYou can read lots more about \u003Ci>Honey Talks\u003C/i> and see more pages \u003Ca href=\"http://www.ljudmila.org/stripcore/bee/index.html\">here\u003C/a>, and buy it from \u003Ca href=\"http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&products_id=33697\">Forbidden Planet International here\u003C/a>. And here's a \u003Ca href=\"http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/eurocomics/4540/\">review of \u003Ci>Honey Talks\u003C/i> by the Comics Reporter\u003C/a>. Such a great find. There was only one box left at \u003Ca href=\"http://www.orbitalcomics.co.uk/\">Orbital Comics\u003C/a>, which hosted the event, and after we'd passed it around, I shamelessly clutched it for the rest of the talk to make sure I went home with it.\\r\n\\r\nHere's my fab studio mate, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.littlewhitebird.com\">Ellen Lindner\u003C/a>, presenting the panel, which she organised as part of the festival. (Do have a look at \u003Ca href=\"http://www.alternativepress.org.uk/Stripburger.html\">other events\u003C/a>; David O'Connell's talk on Thursday, in particular, should be very good.) \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/slovenian_comics_1-5376246079.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nFrom left to right: \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jonmcnaught.co.uk/\">Jon McNaught\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.richardcowdry.com/\">Richard Cowdry\u003C/a>, \u003Cb>Gasper Rus\u003C/b> from \u003Ca href=\"http://www.stripburger.org/\">\u003Ci>Stripburger\u003C/i>\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.paulgravett.com\">Paul Gravett\u003C/a>. Paul started the evening by interviewing Gasper about \u003Ci>Stripburger\u003C/i> and the history of comics in Slovenia. (My book \u003Ci>You Can't Eat a Princess!\u003C/i> \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/270044.html\">is also published in Slovenian\u003C/a>, which is rather exciting!) Here on the right you can see a rack of \u003Ci>Stripburger\u003C/i>'s anthologies on sale in Orbital.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/orbital_comics-727c261f31.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSome covers from Slovenian comics history:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/slovenian_comics_3-daedb1e4d1.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nRichard Cowdry and Jon McNaught have both been influenced by and worked with \u003Ci>Stripburger\u003C/i>. You may have seen \u003Ca href=\"http://www.thecomixreader.com/\">\u003Ci>The Comix Reader\u003C/i>\u003C/a> pop up a few times on my blog and Ellen's (see Ellen's inclusion of it \u003Ca href=\"http://thefleecestation.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/happy-new-year/\">in her illustration here\u003C/a>). Richard edits its 24 pages of mostly full-colour comics; it's gorgeous stuff. \\r\n\\r\nAnd I've been more and more impressed by the beautiful arts-and-crafts inspired work that's been coming out from \u003Ca href=\"http://www.nobrow.net/\">Nobrow Press\u003C/a>, which now has a \u003Ca href=\"http://www.nobrow.net/category/event\">shop and gallery space\u003C/a> at 62 Great Eastern Street in East London. Their books always smell so lovely, and they fit right in with the older work I've come to love since I moved to Britain by the likes of \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Ravilious\">Eric Ravilious\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bawden\">Edward Bawden\u003C/a> and others. This was the first time I'd met Jon, who'd come up from Bristol for the event. He based the format of his book, \u003Ci>Birchfield Close\u003C/i> on the old Ladybird books, and while it doesn't have a hard-driving story, the pictures create a marvelous atmosphere with their three-colour palette and the book is a lovely object to hold.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/birchfield_close-a0af7f4235.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nLondon comics events are always wonderfully social, and this one was no exception. A whole pack of us went off for good, old-fashioned, school-dinner type grub at \u003Ca href=\"http://www.stockpotlondon.co.uk/\">The Stockpot\u003C/a> on Panton Street. Here are Richard (with \u003Ca href=\"http://www.barnabyrichards.co.uk/Barnaby_Richards/BARNABY.html\">Barnaby Richards\u003C/a> in the background), Gasper and Paul tucking into their hot puddings. Nom nom.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/slovenian_comics_2-55825cee71.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.alternativepress.org.uk/Stripburger.html\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/intlaltcomicsfair-3400ad4e6e.jpg\">\u003C/a>","2011-06-07T08:36:00.000Z","folk-art-comics-treasure-from-slovenia",[],"folk-art comics treasure from slovenia",1776628720297]