Sean Michael Wilson - comic book writer

Lafcadio-Hearns-Japanese-Ghost-Stories reviews

2009-07-01T11:27:00.004+09:00

More showing off...

I see now that my 'Lafcadio Hearns Japanese Ghost Stories' book on amazon.com has two good reviews there:

"Recommended reading for young Japanese,
By Mori (Japan)
I am a relaively old Japanese woman, so I thought I was familiar with most ghost stories known in Japan. However, some of the stories in this book were new to me. This manga interpretation of Hearn's work is strongly recommended for Japanese people who know little about Hearn and his work. The artwork is beautiful and the script is elegant. It is easy to read, fun, and educational, because it contains Hearn's biography. After all, Hearn was the first European who introduced Japanese ghost stories to the world. Japanese people should know about him.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating...
By Tanari (Washington)
This is not your typical manga. There are no half-naked magical teenage-girls with superpowers to be found. And for those exhausted with the genre, this book makes for a rare treat.

These are not "ghost stories" in the American sense--very few of them are designed to frighten, or even give you goosebumps--this is more like a cultural survey of some old japanese fairy tales. In that role, they make for a fascinating peak into not only eastern philosophy, but also the supernatural constructs of that era and society. The art is beautifully done; every stroke is elegantly classical, as it should be, given the subject matter.

This book is a surprise read, good for most ages (there's some blood and gore occasionally, so I wouldn't necessary recommend it for very young or suggestible readers), it leaves a lasting, thoughtful, impact."

- Nice!

A PC downloadable version called 'Kaidan Koizumi Yakumo' (怪談小泉八雲 in Japanese) can be seen and bought here at the Papyless web site store: http://www.papy.co.jp/act/books/1-121548/
ショーン・マイケル・ウィルソン is the Japanese katakana for my name.

BESPOKE COMICS BOOKS

2009-06-24T11:07:00.002+09:00

I have opened up a new blog to tell people more directly about the Bespoke Comic book service that I do with various artists. Click the title post to go there:

"TAILORED COMIC BOOK, MANGA AND GRAPHICS MADE TO TELL YOUR STORY. BESPOKE COMICS BOOKS CREATED FOR YOU THAT SHOW THE HISTORY OF YOUR COMPANY, ORGANISATION, FAMILY OR LIFE STORY. TELLING A STORY VISUALLY HAS THE POTENTIAL FOR BOTH MASS APPEAL AND INTIMACY OF APPROACH. LET YOUR MESSAGE COME ALIVE BY HAVING IT ILLUSTRATED!"

A few words in defence of Top Shelf

2009-05-05T10:08:00.004+09:00

Ha, the title is a parody of the recent Randy Newman song - this should really be called a few nice words I and other rather notable people want to say about indie US publisher Top Shelf. I am working with them now on the 'AX: alternative manga collection', which is progressing well - we are up to about 60% of the 400 pages done now, and what great stuff it is! Wonderfully odd, personal, inventive alternative manga - its really going to be THE book for fans of mature gekiga style manga.

As to Top Shelf: nobody's perfect of course, but I can genuinely say they are respectful, discuss things openly, are genuine lovers of comics, make lovely looking books with great production quality and simply let you get on with doing things for the most part. Chris is a real gentleman and always supportive, and in San Francisco Brett welcomed me in by saying "You're one of the family now."
Nice...

But dont take my word for it, go and read the big interview with Alan Moore over at Newsrama, where he says: "It’s been something of a revelation. Not because I’m surprised at the production job Top Shelf is doing, or how pleasant they are to work for, because those are things I decided when they published Lost Girls by me and Melinda. But what has been a bit of a revelation is the effect working at Top Shelf has had on me, and I think Kevin [O'Neill] as well.

"I think we both decided that because we were not working for anything we recognized as a mainstream comics publisher, we have changed the way we think about the work. It’s a subtle thing, but if you’re working in mainstream comics, as both of us have been doing for getting on 25 years or more, then really, it’s a thing that you kind of take in by osmosis. You absorb the values of the field in which you’re working."
(click the post title to go to the rest of this interview, whihc talks about the making of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume, Century: 1910.', whihc Top Shelf are publishing).

One of my big buzzes this year was the Top Shelf 'coming attractions' press release. It notes their books this year by Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill, Eddie Campbell and Pat Mills... and then right next to them is MY name! What good company to be in! This reminds me of the NLP psychology stage in which they ask: 'How will you KNOW that you have got what you wanted?' Well, being published by the same publisher as 4 of the key comic book influences on me... hmm I think THAT counts as a pretty good signpost!

QUOTE TODAY:
"When you get the message, hang up the phone."
- Alan Watts on drug use.

Classical Comics - three new books etc

2009-03-15T12:38:00.008+09:00

Latest news (from the north, east, west and south): The three other books Ive written for Classical Comics are in various stages of develpment. Here is the cover to THE CANTERVILLE GHOST and SWEENEY TODD, plus three interior art pages from WUTHERING HEIGHTS by John M Burns. I am very pleased to see John's beautiful painted work and i hope the mix of his art and my script can come up with a good version of this story (which i preferable to a bad version). His JANE EYRE book for Classical didnt really feel quite right to me, so our WUTHERING HEIGHTS book will hopefully come out better. Jesus and buddha - im doing a book with John M Burns!

Declan Shalvey is also doing a great job on the SWEENEY TODD artwork, and - again - this is going to be a better showcase from him that the FRANKENSTEIN book he already did for Classical. I thought that book was great, i loved it - but Declan's art on SWEENEY TODD is even better! My Celtic brother... click on the post title to go to the Classical Comics web site.

Other books: the BUSKERS book is almost finsished, all 122 pages of it. Been working on this since last summer. Isn't it always a bit sad when you comer to the end of a book that's been with you for so long? It's like a favourite flatmate moving out...
but then we have the beautiful published book to look forward too! Plus, of course, there will be a film version of this story too. Dear Alan Moore has a stance of completely distancing himself from film versions of his books. and i very much admire that. What individual will power to say no to both the fame and the money! To paraphrase Napoleon's comment about Goethe: " There is a MAN, and I was expecting just a guy from Northhampton!." But in this case,Im off the hook - as my comic book version has been made BEFORE the film version, and the director JEYMES SAMUEL gave me and Michiru Morikawa a lot of frredom to do the book in our own way. I read on Jeymes' blog that he is now workng on the soundtrack for it with Damon Alburn, of the band BLUR. Groovy...

The AX collection, with Top Shelf, is progressing, but a little slowly - 400 pages takes a while to do! But we are approaching half done now and each of the little alternative Japanese manga stories contaned in it are fxxing wonderful! Odd, playful, sad, reflective, funny, deeply personal, scary, exciting, moving, original - its all there. This book is really going to be a gem.

THE STORY OF LEE, with NBM publishing, has started up with a bang, we are up to 20 pages of the art done so far, myself and Chie Kutsuwada. I'm ahead on the script, up to page 50... in honesty (not lies) its a mixture of joy at how its turning out and fear that I am not making the script BITING enough... I need to think more about how I am really going to make it come ALIVE. The begining of a book is a bit like going into a party of strangers where you only know one person, who is anyway at the back of the room somewhere. A scary/exciting feeling - and you only get into your stride once you've been there a couple of hours, and then, maybe not at all. It might be a terrible party where no one talks to you, and you feel a big failure. Or you might pull it off - relax, enjoy tourself, become popular. Can you dig what i mean? Anyway, I've been to Hong Kong, where the story is set, a few times now, and taken hundreds of research photos, observed and asked about some aspects of HK people's behvaiour. So that should help me make this 'party' a success.

But, possibly the biggest news is that - at last - I got a contract to do a book with Kodansha in Tokyo. They are the biggest publisher in Japan, therefore i suppose also one of the biggest in the world ("THIS world, the one we're standin' in the now?", as Ricki Fulton once said). Ive been working for 2 years to get this contract - popping up to meet publishers and editors in Tokyo, writing scripts samples, making art samples with various good manga ka etc... and now its paid off. The book is a long historical manga, of the type I love to do, based on the classic bushido samurai text HAGAKURE. The artist is Chie Kutsuwada and she is about to start on the script. Yokkatta!

QUOTE TODAY:
"This is why we must keep passionately striving after what constitutes a story: how should we orient our efforts to renew or, rather, to perpetuate the novel?"
- Georges Bataille, 'Blue of Noon' appendix."

AX collection: alternative manga

2009-02-07T15:01:00.006+09:00

The AX collection book is now about quarter the way done, thanks to the excellent work of translator Spencer Fancutt and designer Ian Sharman who are working with me on putting the collection together. Top Shelf have hired Eric Skillman to design the cover/back and here is what it looks like above. Pretty damn good.

It continues to excite a lot of interest amongst fans of mature manga. The excellent blog by Ryan Sands, Same Hat!, Same Hat!, has on ongoing consideration of the AX book on it, plus Tatsumi's books with D&Q. see here:
http://samehat.blogspot.com/2009/02/preview-of-tatsumis-drifting-life.html

Plus they have even started a 'AX anthology research project' to garner more info on the various Japanese manga ka that will be featured in the book. Now that's dedication for you! Feb 13th: I've now added three pages here to give the folks over at AX project some visuals of the people they are researching: top: Kiriyama, middle: Kawasaki, bottom: Fujieda
See it here:
http://blog.electricantzine.com/tag/ax

Here is a list of all the great manga ka that will be in the book - most of them appearing in English for the first time. Plus the original edition of the Japanese AX they appeared in is listed, and how many pages they will have in the new English AX collection:

Osamu Kanno: 菅野修「眺める男」(44)12P
Yoshihiro Tatsumi: 辰巳ヨシヒロ「愛の花嫁」(31)22P
Imiri Sakabashira: 逆柱いみり「空の巻き貝」(44)16P
Takao Kawasaki: 川崎タカオ「屋上哀歌」(47)10P
Ayuko Akiyama: 秋山亜由子「瓢箪の中」(31)8P
Shigehiro Okada: オカダシゲヒロ「俺」(45)16P
Katsuo Kawai: 河井克夫「画鋲女」(18)8P
Nishioka Brosis: 西岡兄妹「心が壊れた」(22)8P
Takato Yamamoto: 山本タカト「闇の方へ」(30)8P
Toranosuke Shimada: 島田虎之介「エンリケ小林のエルドラド」(14)20P
Yuka Goto: 後藤友香「隣人」(22)13P
Mimiyo Tomozawa: 友沢ミミヨ「300ねん」(2)10P
Takashi Nemoto: 根本敬「黒寿司十八番」(1)12P
Yusaku Hanakuma: 花くまゆうさく「息子はイヌ」(12)10P
Namie Fujieda: 藤枝奈己絵「輝く人。」(37)10P
Mitsuhiko Yoshida: 吉田光彦「兎と亀」(40)20P
Kotobuki Shiriagari: しりあがり寿「双子のオヤジ存在」(2)6P/「神様」(17)6P
Shinbo Minami: 南伸坊「ロボとピュー太」(56)4P/(58)4P
Shinya Komatsu: コマツシンヤ「Mushroom Garden」(52)12P
Einosuke: 英之助「菅原家」(33)6P
Yuichi Kiriyama: 桐山裕市「屍錦」(42)7P
Yunosuke Saito: 齋藤裕之介「アリゾナ」(49)10P
Akino Kondo: こんどうあきの「雨の白シャツ」(40)8P
Tomohiro Koizumi: 古泉智浩「わいわいパーティ3」(56)8P
Shin'ichi Abe: 安部慎一「私」(36)4P/「父」(38)4P
Seiko Erisawa: 衿沢世衣子「さかあがり」(47)4P
Shigeyuki Fukumitsu: 福満しげゆき「おじさんのうた」(20)18P
Kataoka Toyo: 東陽片岡「哀愁劇場」(48)4P/(51)4P
Hideyasu Moto: 本秀康「岡田幸介と50人の息子たち」(2)13P
Keizo Miyanishi: 宮西計三「Les ラスコーリニコフs」(2)10P
Hiroji Tani: 谷弘兒「妖花アルラウネ」(22)10P
Otoya Mitsuhashi: 三橋乙揶「灯明」(9)10P
Kazuichi Hanawa: 花輪和一「六富道」(59)26P

QUOTE TODAY:
"Yes, I go to the gym to keep fit. I dont actually go IN - I just jog from my house TO the gym and then back again. It's cheaper." - Dod Sparrowkiller

A Christmas Carol - Classical Comics

2009-01-15T11:03:00.003+09:00

OUT NOW! - I have written a comic book version of the novel A CHRISTMAS CAROL, by Charles Dickens. For the UK publisher, CLASSICAL COMICS, which came out October 2008. Its an excellent book, full colour, printed on lovely high quality paper, and with a very interesting history section at the back. Great stuff for both adults and teenagerss. Please check it out!

This is the cover above, and a wee photo of myself and the artist Mike Collins doing promo for it at Bristol Convention. A preview can be download here:
http://www.classicalcomics.com/previews.html
It can be ordered on amazon of course:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Christmas-Carol-Original-Graphic-Novel/dp/1906332177/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223350062&sr=1-1

My version highlights the social realism of the book, mixed with the very engaging characters that relay the moral in the story. They are making a line of high quality adaptations, including with my good friend Neill Cameron,who has done the art for the first of this line of books - HENRY V. This book is out now. Their aim is a good one and they have a great team of people working on their books. In fact they just won a silver medal in the 2008 Independent Publishers Awards in America - in the Graphic Novel/Drawn Book- Drama/Documentary category. So, please click the post title and check them out.

The artist on A Christmas Carol will be Mike Collins, who has been professional artist for more than 20 years. He has worked on many well known books, such as Batman, Judge Dredd, Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Harry Potter. So its lucky for me to have such an experienced artist drawing my script. He was kind enough to say these nice things about me in a recent interview: "The script for A Christmas Carol is by Sean Michael Wilson who is better known for manga strips. A Scot living in Japan writing an English classic. It doesn't get any better than that! For me, I found the way Sean had paced the story was a revelation. I'm used - particularly on Doctor Who - to compressing storytelling but here Sean allowed sequences to spread over many panels or even pages. It was liberating to stretch my artistic muscles on this."

He even has good taste in music - likes Joni Mitchell, one of my favourites too! Here are two pages by him, David Roach and James Offredi.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/michael.collins17/mikecv.htm

The second book of mine with Classical comics will be THE CANTERVILLE GHOST, based on the first book published of Oscar Wilde's. The mansion house art above is the opening page from that book, by Steve Bryant and Jason Millet. The third book is WUTHERING HEIGHTS, which will be drawn by the expectional John M Burns. Again, someone who has being creating comics for many years and who is still doing great work ( Nikolai Dante, Judge Dredd, TV Century 21, Look-In, Modesty Blaise, etc. An honour to have him work on one of my scripts.

QUOTE TODAY: "Truth spoken by power would be nice to see every now and again."
- Christopher Hitchens, writer.

My manga on Japanese mobile/cell phones

2009-01-08T10:29:00.001+09:00

Yatta! - I am now one of the very few gajin/foreigner manga ka to have his work available in Japanese.

Mobile phone or Keitai manga as its called is very big business here in Japan, with $20 million dollars worth of downloads in 2007. A Japanese version of my 'Lafcadio Hearns Japanese Ghost stories' book is now out in Japanese, in two formats. A PC downloadable version called 'Kaidan Koizumi Yakumo' (怪談小泉八雲 in Japanese). It can be seen and bought here at the Papyless web site store: http://www.papy.co.jp/act/books/1-121548/
ショーン・マイケル・ウィルソン is the Japanese katakana for my name.
Press the blog title to go there directly. Gambaru!

Also the 'Yuki-Onna' story from the book is available on Keitai (mobile phone) throughout Japan, via the NTT-Dokomo and AU systems. It can be seen on the Keitai bookshop 'Doko demo dokusyo'. どこでも読書 Which I think is this one: http://www.mobilebook.jp/mobilebook2/index.html

- Oh happy days!

The photo is of me at the Mandarake manga shop in Nakano, Tokyo. A great but 'otaku' place to find various old things of pop culture. Great finds there: 1968 special editon of GARO with manga ka YOSHIHARU TSUGE in it and the original of his famous SCREWSTYLE/NEJISHIKI story, also a rare Japanese music magazine with great photos of THE WALKER BROTHERS. aces! The only place you can see SCREWSTYLE/NEJISHIKI story in English is in the THE COMICS JOURNAL issue 250. This is a key story in the development of more mature, artistic and experimental manga. I am presently working on a text book about the GEKIGA style of manga in Japan, with an editor in Tokyo. This will be the first of its kind - with rare interviews, info and art directly from TSUGE, YOSHIHIRO TATSUMI and MASAHIKO MATSUMOTO - three of the key gekiga originators from the 1950's and 60's. Sugoii!

QUOTE TODAY:
"To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom."
- Andre Gide

Manga artists

2009-01-07T00:30:00.004+09:00

By the way -If any Japanese or Chinese manga artists are looking for more work please email to show me your art. I have one and possibly two new book projects coming up that need manga artists for them (sorry 'western' gajin people, the publisher on both books specified that it has to be Japanese or Chinese artists only. Marketing reasons and all that kind of stuff - gomen!)
sean@boychildproductions.co.uk

QUOTE TODAY:
The well known one is: 'You cannot step into the same river twice.' OR more correctly: "We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not." OR perhaps this more hard to grasp version, but closer to the Greek original: "On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow."
- Heraclitus

BUSKERS - comic book and film

2008-11-22T03:51:00.004+09:00

The new book I am working on is called BUSKERS... an offbeat tale set in contemporary London with an array of odd but realistic characters...I am adapting it into a long comic book, based closely on a screenplay written by singer and writer JEYMES SAMUEL (who might be tired of being refered to as the brother of the singer SEAL, but just so those not familiar can get an idea) .

The comic book is being illustrated by Michiru Morikawa, a lovely Japanese artist who won the International Manga and Anime Festival Award a few years back. It is being made in association with Mike Lake and Simon Dwyer of Lakesville publishing, and due out summer 2009.

Jeymes is working on a film version of BUSKERS also. So the film and comic book versions will compliment eachother. Click the post title to go to the film's blog and see how that version of BUSKERS is progressing. Here is how Jeymes summarises the story there:

BUSKERS {synopsis}:
"Timothy Book is considered a big success amongst his peers – a high ranking job in banking, plush city apartment and trophy girlfriend to top it off. He’s on top of the world – until he crashes back down to earth with an almighty bang!

After underhand dealings at work lead to a police escort off the premises and a botched suicide attempt on the Thames, he turns up on the doorstep of ex best friend Cabbage, a streetwise busker who Timothy fell out with many years ago.

Cabbage inhabits the exciting underbelly of London’s colourful busking scene and Timothy is introduced to a side of life that he has never experienced.

As he tries to claw his way back to his previous self he becomes embroiled in Cabbage’s eventful and often dangerous lifestyle and begins to fall for the lovely Variniana – Cabbage’s beautiful girlfriend.

Timothy falls deeper into the busking scene and is forced to re-evaluate his former existence, friendships and relationships while embarking on an eventful journey back to the real Timothy Book."

We are almost half way now on completing the book, and its looking great!
MARCH 2009 UPDATE: the book will be finished this week.
Nice!

QUTOE TODAY:
"...how everything can be said, how for everything, for the strangest fancies, a great fire is ready. They're consumed and resurrected."
- Franz Kafka, my wee darling.

APE festival 2008 AX/Gekiga talk

2008-10-24T12:10:00.012+09:00

The above images are the cover and back for the 16 page sampler of the AX collection book, 100 copies were given away at APE in SF. Below it is the cover for issue 26 of KAGE (Shadow), an early Gekiga anthology, from 1957 that I mention in the talk. Then a page from the AX collection in English by Shinichi Abe. Check the post title to go to the APE website

This is a step in the process of promoting the new book that I am editing now, AX collection, which is really getting a lot of attention and exciting fans of mature manga. The book will be a 400 page collection, from Top Shelf in the USA. It will features various alternative style manga from the ten year archive of the Japanese AX anthology. This will be, we hope, a big step forward in increasing appreciation of alternative/indy/mature style manga for English language readers. Yatta!

The excellent blog by Ryan Sands, Same Hat!, Same Hat!, has on ongoing consideration of the AX book on it, plus Tatsumi's books with D&Q. see here:
http://samehat.blogspot.com/2009/02/preview-of-tatsumis-drifting-life.html

Plus they have even started a 'Ax anthology research project' to garner more info on the various Japanese manga ka that will be featured in the book. Now that's dedication for you! See it here:
http://blog.electricantzine.com/tag/ax

I was in San Francisco Nov 1st and 2nd 2008, attending the APE comic book festival there as a guest. I was sitting at the Fanfare booth 249 with Deb Aoki (sse pic of her here) and also giving a talk, this one:

"5:00-5:45 AX and Gekiga: Alternative Manga in Japan—Sean Michael Wilson looks at the roots and contemporary state of indy/alternative manga in Japan, using rare and unseen visuals supplied by the original Gekiga creators of the 1950s and 1960s and info from the editors of AX, the premier alternative anthology in Japan today. Plus, a preview of the upcoming book AX Collection (Top Shelf), which presents a selection of this indy manga for the first time in English."

I enjoyed this convention... sales were less than i thought, but the talk went well, the invited me back for next year to Wondercon and San Diego. I did two interviews about the AX collection, including one for Publishers Weekly... and i got to meet many interesting folk and made friends with several great homo sapiens of the SF breed, broadened my experience of this little world. Oh, and I single handedly brought in the first black president of the USA during my stay there! (out of interest how many Scottish or Irish presidents have there been? - most of them i guess!). Photo above is me in the LAST GASP publishers gallery room, which is an amazing collection of art oddities of various kinds.

UPDATE: I've since found out that 17 of America's 43 presidents were Scots-Irish, AND that Barack Obama is too! - partly anyway, via his maternal ancestor, Edward FitzRandolph. There's even been a call for him to have his own tartan made! Well, why not? Go on yersel big man!

QUOTE TODAY:
"MAN COMES IN THE END TO LOOK LIKE THE IDEAL IMAGE OF HIMSELF."
- Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern life, 1st section.

Paul Gravett's Manga Talk and 'Classics into Comics'

2008-10-16T18:55:00.006+09:00

The esteem Paul Gravett will be making a talk about Manga on the 23rd of October, from 7 to 9.30pm at St Albans Centre, Leigh Place, Baldwin Gardens, London, EC1N 7AB.

He also has an article of mine on his website, that I wrote about the process of turning 'Classics into Comics' - meaning adapting Classic Novels into Comic book versions. Since I have now done this with four books for Classical Comics I thought I would have a go at considering the steps of the process

Click the post link to go to Paul's website.

Image: character sketch for SWEENEY TODD, to come from Classical Comics, 2010, written by myself, art by Declan Shalvey.

QUOTE TODAY:
"Rigidity and hardness are the stigmata of death; elasticity and adaptability of life."
-Chinese classic Dao De Jing by Lao Zi.

IRAQ: OPERATION CORPORATE TAKEOVER book

2008-07-04T09:36:00.008+09:00

- Noted as one of the 'Top 100 books of 2007' by The Comics Journal poll of critics!

Here are the cover and interior pages from my latest new documentary book...
IRAQ: OPERATION CORPORATE TAKEOVER, out NOVEMBER 2007, and published by excellent UK activist charity WAR ON WANT - www.waronwant.org/ Art by Lee O'Connor, script by myself. The books is a grass roots look at how corporations like Bechtel and Halliburton are exploiting the situation in Iraq for their own ends. Its deals with issues like the pressure of oil companies on Iraq and the terrible behaviour of Private Military and Security Companies as a private military force. Based on the extensive research and on the ground contacts of War on Want, we see how a young Iraqi man, Nazem, explores the situation in his country, and searches for a positive way to do something about it!

It was launched at a special event on Nov 6th in the London ICA, as part of Paul Gravett's excellent COMICA celebration of comics (see photo from the day). This year was by far the best line up yet. The IRAQ: OPERATION CORPORATE TAKEOVER book (ISBN: 9780954659639) is available from Diamond distributors, in their December 2007 Previews catalogue under the 'Boychild Productions/WoW' listing. Code: DEC07 3504. Also from the Boychild Books website - click the post title to go there.
Or buy here now from the PAYPAL button below.

The book has attracted a lot of media attention so far, from various non-comic book places. Reuters news report shown in Germany, France, Korea, India etc, an Austrian Radio report, a newspaper in Dubai, even some military personnel websites! Check out some of them below, this one is on Chinese TV's English channel, with a very cute presenter introducing the clip:
http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20071129/102938.shtml

A free preview pdf of the book can be had here:
http://www.waronwant.org/Graphic%20Novel%20-%20Iraq:%20Operation%20Corporate%20Takeover+15063.twl

A short film which promotes the book and the important issues is on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGELxbvzTEo&feature=related

The DUBAI newspaper aricle on the book:
http://www.7days.ae/print.php?id=63228&flag=s

A review by two US chaps that were initially against the book, but were won over:
http://comicsand.blogspot.com/2008/02/iraq-operation-corporate-takeover_09.html

August 2008 - the most recent review of the book is up at the site 'Curled up with a good book', where they nicely say:
"Like many recent books, Iraq: Operation Corporate Takeover combines strong personal narrative and quality art with thought-provoking information that stimulates readers and further legitimizes the medium."
http://www.curledup.com/iraqcorp.htm

A small preview of the book can be downloaded to mobile phones in the UK, South Africa and China from here:
http://www.rokcomics.com/full_player.php?comicid=122598456

QUOTE TODAY:
" This world is small to an ambitious girl'
- Jin-archy

A Paypal button is here - a few inches below - if you want to get the book directly from this blog. The issues are vital, the story engaging, the art wonderful... and its another good effort to extend the range of comic books, so give it a go:

ONCE UPON A TIME IN MORNINGSIDE - my biography

2008-07-01T13:02:00.006+09:00

Here are a couple of pages from one of the new projects I am doing. ONCE UPON A TIME IN MORNINGSIDE - which is a bit of a joke title, a play on those two films with similiar titles, know the ones i mean? But its an apt title also, as the book is my first autobiographical one, set in my childhood in Scotland. 'Morningside' is the area of Edinburgh i grew up in and a lovely place. The book is all set in the local area i grew up in, anecdotes from then, mixed with some rather poetic reflections from the adult me, hovering around in time-bending fashion. The art is by lovely Swedish man Axel Trumpfheller http://at73.se/

I decided to put some the words into SCOTS spelling, like DIDNAE, instead of DID NOT, to reflect the way that most kids actually spoke then. Though back then it was STILL considered uncouth to speak in Scots. Thankfully nowadays its more accepted. For those of you who dont know what SCOTS is: basically its the version of OLD English that people in Scotland and the north of England spoke, starting from around 7th/8th/centuries (800AD, lets say). It developed over hundreds of years to become quite different from modern English, so that nowadays most people from the south of the UK cannot understand most SCOTS words, apart from WEE or BONNIE. Though i notice now that i spelt the Scots word 'over' wrong. Its written as 'oor' here on page 4, but it should be 'ower'. Opps....

By the way i only recently became ok with using the word 'project' for my work. I thought before it was 'poncy', like "Oh we have several projects in the pipeline at the moment" - As we might say in Scotland: Aye, well get they 'projects' oot the pipeline. Get them intae reality, ken. An' gies a winch while yer at it, doll-face.

The first section of this story can be read for free at the ROK COMICS website. Or it can be downloaded to your mobile/cell phone in various countries for a small fee, for you to read at your leisure in that hi-tech format. Click the post title to go there or here it is too: http://www.rokcomics.com/artist_info.php?userid=12&series=214

QUOTE TODAY:
"To the Thelemite, the sexual impulse is practically a sacred thing in itself. Our sexuality is the most fundamental expression of our Will: we have no taboos or mores restricting sexual activity. Any sexual act between mutually consenting adults is a wonderful thing - in fact it is a holy thing, for it is the living embodiment of our Love under Will."
Rodney Orpheus, 'Abrahadabra',

The Clientele and my manga on radio

2008-05-23T09:21:00.003+09:00

'The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga' (vol 2), that my STORY OF LEE IN EDINBURGH in it features an appearance by the band 'The Clientele' singing 'Since K got over me'. The real band featured in the strip, have been telling people about it on their recent US tour:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/06/01/clientele/

"They're out on the road in support of their recently released album, God Save The Clientele. They talked about making their very first trip to Australia and New Zealand; a cool museum trip they had planned but missed; how it came to be that they will be featured in The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga (vol. 2)."

Nice...

And while we are on the subject of music... it reminds me of a dying artform. The cassette tape compilations with cool home made covers! In the 80's to early 90's this was a very creative form of expression for a whole subculture in the UK. Swapping tapes that you put together yourself from various 60's and indie records of the time... plus, of course, making a unique cover for it.

Normally it was a photocopy of some cool 60's thing or person, but done in a very creative way. Cut and paste technique, bits thrown together, old sweet wrappers glued on (Tunnocks tea cakes in Scotland!), or even drawn yourself. Cut it up into tape size, fold it and insert it along with the track listing on the inside. They looked fucking great! Someone should do a book collecting this very energetic and street level art together - its the expressive graffitti of the 80's bedsit! A treasure trove of small scale artistic effort.

Here are photos of compilations that i did in the late 80's and early 90's, named after the first club i DJ'ed at in Edinburgh, DANDELION CLOCK. I did 25 volumes of these (!) and gave away to various friends, including Alasdair Maclean of The Clientele. Who recently told me " You dont know how hard I've tried to replicate in the studio that wonderful warm sound those old Dandelion clock tapes had!"

Darling Alasdair wrote to me to say I should write the track listings down, as some Clientele fans might be interested. As these "legendary" Dandelion Clock tapes were instrumental early influences on him, and look where he is now! Seriously, Im proud of him. We used to sit around in cafes in Edinburgh 15 years ago talking about literature, music and our own creative plans. Now his great band are on their 4th or 5th album and I just finished my 12th book. Not bad going so far for a couple of 'shit kickers' as Ringo once said... So to start the ball rolling, here is the track list for volume 19 that can be seen in the photo above:

Dandelion Clock volume 19 (made in 1993/94)

SIDE ONE
(intro section from 'Camberwick Green', British childrens programme, 1967 onwards. "Here is a box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play.")
Bob Dylan - Meet me in the Morning
Roy Orbison - Candy man
Nancy Sinatra - Drummer man
Unrelated segments - Story of my life
Sonic Youth - Hey joni
Spencer Davis group - Im a man
Tony Christie - Avenues and Alleyways
Ray Pilgrim - Hold me
Love - My flash on you
Rolling Stones - Everybody needs somebody to love
Booker T and the Mg's - soul limbo
Small Faces - Odgen's nut gone flake
Chocolate watchband - Baby blue
Electric Prunes - I had too much to dream (last night)

SIDE TWO
(intro section from Basil Brush, British childrens programme, late 60's onwards)
Badfinger - I cant take it
Softmachine - Save yourself
Wings - 1985
Small Faces - I feel much better
The Walker Brothers - Saturdays child -
George McCrae - Look at you
West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - Till the poorest of people
have money to spend/ As the world rises and falls
The Zombies - I want her she wants me/This will be our year
George Harrison - My sweet Lord
Kaleidoscope - The Sky children

That is quite a mixture of styles and periods. Well it's still mostly from 1966 and 67! The early Dandelion Clock tapes were almost all psychedelic and garage punk music. But as my tastes developed and time went on I included more folk rock, soul, northern soul, RnB, straight 60's and 70's rock, pop, soundtracks, etc. All of these tapes were introduced by some comedy or odd song/radio excerpt. In this volume 19 there is quite a lot of relatively 'mainstream' stuff - George Harrison, Wings, Roy Orbison, etc. Some of the other volumes contained very rare stuff that only 60's music fanatics know of... but its all good. The 'Camberwick Green' opening words were used on many of them for side one, which says: "Here is a box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play. But this box can hold a secret inside. Can you guess what is it in it today?" Then the first song started right in!

QUOTE TODAY:
"The rest of the world is wrong, and don't let anyone change you."
- from 'A child's guide to good and evil' song, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, 1968.

THE PROFESSOR'S JOURNAL

2008-05-21T17:16:00.004+09:00

Recently Andy Hepworth and I did what is my first ever game related work, for one called THE PROFESSOR'S JOURNAL. Its an intelligent mystery type game, with historical elements, based in the UK. You can see the trailer which feartures a comic we made for them here, or by clicking the post title: http://www.professorsjournal.com/

Talking about manga in NY, UK and Kumamoto!

2008-04-14T12:47:00.004+09:00

LATEST: Bristol expo 2008 seemed a great success, with as much as 20% more people coming this year than last - a big increase! Good for me too as I got a new contract, to be revealled in time... Akiko Shimojima came over with me from Japan for it, her first time in UK, and had a great experience she says. As did the Swedish comic book people invited by myself - Fredrik Stromberg, who is a very knowledgeable and stylish fellow... and the YokaJ studio, who are loveliest bunch ever. The charming lad above with the IRAQ book is Andy Wolff, who helped me greatly at this festival and in other work in the UK while im away in Japan - honti ni arigato Andy, ichiban ski tomodachi!

The big NY comic convention in April was also great - I had good meetings with publishers (that has sinced developed in a deal - yatta!), also distributors (hi John and Jenny!), fans and fellow creators... and my talk on alternative manga in Japan went well. Look out for the planned GEKIGA manga book that I am working on now with a very knowledgeable editor in Tokyo. My first time in the USA and much to my surprise i liked NY. Even found my very own 'Wilson Street' in Brooklyn on my way to the convention. To my amazement NY people are polite, much more than Londoners anyway. Plus i met some interesting 'artistic' people and some with warmingly left wing or radical viewpoints, check out this lovely Greek-American lady, Julia, and her performances: www.ladylovely.net

Previous: I recently did a lecture talk at the Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto (CAMK) here in Japan about my Lafcadio Hearn manga. I discussed WHY i chose to do a book on this gentleman from Meiji era Japan. HOW we went about making the manga, and therefore discussed the very process of how to make comic books in general. Then we looked at individual pages, and considered how they were done. It went very well, thankfully, with intelligent questions from the audience afterwards. I have done this kind of talk about 6 times now, or it it 7? My training as a college teacher helps out. Or does it? Maybe all that NLP training helped more...

Now I have to prepare for the talks i will give in the New York Comics Convention in April (18th), and the Bristol Comic Expo in May (10th) - both on the alternative/indie manga scene in Japan. Called 'Manga Alternatives' - Gambaru! On the New York Comic Convention website (click on link title to go) it has me up as a guest. Thats a wee thrill, as its on the same page as Grant Morrison, who is a big influence on me (and is also Scottish, into Magick and 1960's music - good taste he has!). See ya there Grant.
http://www.nycomiccon.com/App/homepage.cfm?appname=100453&moduleID=2920&LinkID=28544&campaignid=42919&iUserCampaignID=34133038

How manga made me popular with girls (joke!)

2008-02-23T11:26:00.002+09:00

Annoyed by peoples stark ignorance as to the beauty of comic books? Tired of being missunderstood when you tell people you make comics? Sick of incredulous stares when you mention with trepidation that you think comic books are just as valid an artform as any other?

WELL, then move to Japan! ... and like me you will be surrounded by adoring females at parties when you say "Yes, I am a manga ka!", to the wooing sound of the adoring reaction "Ohhh, sugoii!"

- Ha,ha, i wish it was that simple! But here is a photo of me showing around two of my books at a party in Fukuoka, southern Japan, which momentarily makes it look true.

The organisers of that party, the magazine FUKUOKA NOW did an interview with me and took a great photo. This one below, and click the title of this post to go to their excellent website.

BOYCHILD MANGA AGENCY

2008-01-10T18:08:00.002+09:00

Over the last few years, since i moved to Japan, I have become more and more involved in doing coordinator and editor type work, as well as my main work of actual writing. So I decided recently I should formalise that into a specific section of Boychild Productions, with the name of BOYCHILD MANGA AGENCY.

I've got involved with help to organise the manga section of the Bristol Comic Expo in the UK. In 2006 we brought along its first Japanese guest, Sakura Mizuki, direct from Japan for his first visit to the UK. Then in 2007 we put together 12 manga creators in a specific 'manga alleyway', including 5 Japanese creators and two Chinese. This year the manga section will be even larger. I also became involved in organising the translation of a famous Japanese manga book into English for a UK publisher. I worked as the coordinator between a US publisher and a Japanese artist on the production of a150 page book last year. Recently another UK publisher asked me to find a Japanese manga artist for their new book and to find another Japanese artist for a Library event. I have also started working with a manga agent in Tokyo on similiar things.

So the BOYCHILD MANGA AGENCY will be the name for this type of work I do alongside the Japanese agent from now on. The main thing we will specialise in is finding Japanese (but also Chinese and Korean) manga artists for American and European publishers looking for 'real' manga artist to work on their books. We can also do the same for design, advertising companies and magazines. We already have several artists sign up for this, but we need more. So submit your artwork to us to be considered as one of the list of artists that companies look at. A special website for this is being prepared now, and the money details worked out. Publishers and companies can contact BOYCHILD MANGA AGENCY already to say what kind of artist they are looking for.

Contact me in English:
info@boychildproductions.co.uk

Boychild Books - Tailored Made Comics

2008-01-09T09:46:00.000+09:00

Tailored Made Comics! - This allows you to get a comic book made about yourself, your family or your company... recounting and recording the story, to treasure for years.

Comic books, manga, graphic novels, illustrated stories are an excellent way of recording your biography. The words allow your thoughts and interactions to be recorded clearly, and the art brings the story fully alive in visual form. Its cheaper and easier than making a long film about yourself, but more visual than simply writing a text book.

All you need do is supply the biographical details (of what happened to whom, where, when, why etc within your real story) and reference material to help us get the details right (photos, clippings, text etc). We will then write a comic book script and illustrate it with one of our artists. Once you are happy with what we have done we will present the finished story to you on both paper and jpeg/ pdf formats.

The basic cost depends on the page length:

20 page story = 450 UK pounds/ 870 US dollars

35 page story = 650 UK pounds/ 1200 US dollars

50 page story = 900 UK pounds/ 1700 US dollars

This is for black and white pages, colour pages will take more time and effort, so cost more. As a special service we can also arrange the professional printing of the finished book for you, with a cover specially designed and printed at a specialist comic book printer. This will be a book good enough to be sold in shops and online. Contact us for the price of this extra service.

For more information and to get a comic book of your own life made, then please contact: info@boychildproductions.co.uk

UK webcomixthing March 2008

2008-01-01T17:03:00.001+09:00

The indie event, UK webcomixthing March 2008 is on 22nd March and Boychild Books will be there represented by Andy Woolf and Lee O'Connor. Several of our books can be bought there and lots of other good stuff from people in the very creative indie comic book scene in the UK. This image here is nothing to do with it though! Its from an advert from 2006 book THE JAPANESE DRAWING ROOM, with Sakura Mizuki as artist. This was a possible ad to use in Diamond Previews, but we used a different better one instead. Click to expand it to full size. This book can anyway be bought from the Boychild Books stall, so there is some slight connection! The Giraffe pic is by Lee O'connor, to be included in the event anthology, showing Nazema nd his sister from our IRAQ book. UK webcomixthing , March 22nd, Great Hall, Queen Mary University - Mile End - London - UK

http://www.ukwebcomixthing.co.uk/2008/exhibitors-booking.php?PHPSESSID=e41a56364b5be4173ce52d46d6d8053c

Bristol International Comic Expo, 2008

2007-09-16T11:36:00.000+09:00

Info on me in Japanese

2007-09-12T11:50:00.000+09:00

ショーン・マイケル・ウィルソンは、スコットランドの首都エジンバラの出身であり、現在は日本に在住し活動している。グラフィッィク・ノベル「ANGEL OF THE WOODS」、「CHIMPIRA （MANGA MOVER）」、アワードを受賞作である“詩漫画”　「BEAUTIFUL THINGS」、「YAOI Volume One」「A Christmas Carol」「Iraq Operation Corporate takeover」「THE JAPANESE DRAWING ROOM」。「The LAFCADIO HEARN's JAPANESE GHOST STORIES　（怪談）」のライターである。　
幼少の頃から、コミックブックを書くことは彼の夢であった。初めて出版された作品は１９９８年、ロンドンの大規模なコミックアートエキシビジョンにて展示された。
「THE JAPANESE DRAWING ROOM」は英国の美術館"Bournemouth"と共同で製作された。
彼はまた日本人アーチストとともに　著名な日本の近代作家　：夏目漱石とラフカディオ・ハーン（小泉八雲）の作品から漫画バージョンとしての作品を製作している。「The LAFCADIO HEARN's JAPANESE GHOST STORIES　（怪談）」　は２００７年の春に出版された。
彼の最新作「Iraq Operation Corporate takeover」は英国のチャリティー団体 War on Wantと共に2007年１１月に出版され、各国のメディアから注目されている。

彼の新しい作品「雪女」は２００８年２月に携帯電話のe-bookからダウンロード可能になる。

彼は、英国のグラスゴー大学、エジンバラ大学、およびロンドン大学で、心理学と社会学を専攻。つまり驚くべき秀才である。彼はコミックブックの製作者でありまたフィルムの監督もでもある。カルチャーを扱ったいくつかのドキュメンタリーを制作している。このフィルムは英国と日本のTV番組でも放映された。

- NEW MOD GENERATION (Channel 4)
- MAYDAY 2001 (Homechoice/　Telewest)
- THE JAPANESE INVASION (Japan 2001 festival)

しかしコミックブックの製作は、より彼のハートに近い。

影響を受けた人々：Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka, Krishnamurti, John Lennon, Arthur Lee's band LOVE,　マジック、the Marx brothers,Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Northern soul, Psychedelic music, Terence Stamp, Scott Walker ...

CLICKWHEEL comics on the net

2007-09-07T10:38:00.000+09:00

"Clickwheel is a young, UK-based company with big ambitions. We owe what we are to many talented cartoonists and to additional contributors too numerous to mention by name. Clickwheel is the first and only site dedicated to distributing comics for iPods by utilizing both our powerful online features, as well as the iTunes store and it's free for you to use."

One of my comics, THICK DESCRIPTION is on this Clickwheel site, free to download. Its a good site and looks to be expanding consideraby in the near future. Check it out by clicking this post title.

Swedish comic book festival, nov 2007

2007-09-01T15:56:00.002+09:00

I am to be a guest at a Swedish comic expo in MALMO november 10 and 11th. Nice!
I used to live just up the road, in LUND, as a international student in the lovely University there. I have very good image of Sweden. Click the post title to got to their website, which is of course in Swedish! ...

update: here is a photo of me selling my wares at the event. It was a VERY good little festival - interesting people, a excellent comic book school they have there, well organised by Fredrik Stromberg, and some great work being done there.

The other photo is Fredrik, Paul Gravett and myself pretending to be experts and giving feedback to a class of students at the Comic book school in Malmo (well, Paul and Fredrik dont need to pretend to be experts, they simply ARE!).
http://www.isv.se/

10 Reasons why comic books are better than films.

2007-08-29T18:09:00.000+09:00

10 Reasons why comic books are better than films.

Some of these refer more to the film and comic book indusrty, rather than to films or comics themselves. In some I am half joking, but in others I'm deadly serious!

1. Cost and Time.
Some big dramatic effect can be made in a comic book for a matter of pennies. A similar special effect/CGI/etc could cost millions in a big budget film - so why bother? Is it not an outrageous waste of money when there are so many things desperately in need of funding (like education and health). The world doesnt NEED another expensive explosion scene in a film, we've got enough already! The comic effect can be also made in a fraction of the time involved for a film. As an extension of this: comics can generally be made more quickly than films.

2. Personal vision
Aren't you astonished by the sheer amount of people involved in making a big budget film? The end credits that require TWO songs to be played over them just to fit everybody in! The requirement to have so many voices involved because of the complexity of film making does mean having a personal vision in the creative work is so much harder than it is in comics. This is despite the autuer theory, which is largely discredited now many think. Comics, on the other hand, are still normally the product of one, two or perhaps three minds. This is definitely true at the independent level, but even in bigger companies. This fact alone creates a whole box full of positive characteristics.

3. Comics are more experimental, vital and bold.
Why do you think the film industry steals every decent idea that comic books have? The amount of films based on comic books has increased considerably over the last ten years or so. But ask yourself: how many can you think of that are anywhere near as good as the original in terms of artistry, boldness of vision, uniqueness, or even plain good story-telling? Only the 'American Splendour' film comes to my mind.

4. Films don't care about their viewers, but comics do!
This sounds strange, I will try to explain...If you are watching a film on TV, you can go off to the other room for a while and the film rudely carries on without you - as if you weren't there at all! A film is self contained, it doesn't need you to let itself unfold. On the other hand, you can put down a comic book that you are reading, and go on holiday for a week. When you return, the comic is right there, patiently waiting on you to turn the next page! So, comic books need the readers to make them come alive. Comics go at your pace, films just carry on regardless - whether you are paying attention or not. A lot of the time watching a film you are in such a trance that your are not even paying that much attention.

5. Reading comics books is more active process.
It follows on from the above that reading a comic book is a more active process than watching a film. It involves more of your intellectual processes. You have to make the story come alive, to voice the dialogue in your mind, to connect the visuals and the text, etc. Watching a film, though it also involves a perceptual process, is just that bit less active. This means that comics are also more personally engaging. You put your own interpretation to it, more so than with a film, so it becomes something you feel close to.

6. Books are physical.
A simple observation, but still important. For most people it still feels better to have a physical book in your hands than to read the same story online. Films do not have a physical presence in the way a comic book does. Yes, you can hold a VHS/DVD in your hands, but its basically packaging. Its not the film itself. Comics books are the paper they are printed on. There is an tactile pleasure to be had from holding one in your hands, turning the pages, etc.

7. Movies get too much attention - support the underdog!
There is such a mystique about films and actors that, after a while, there is often a desire in intelligent people to turn away from them, to have a negative reaction. They don't need anymore attention put their way. So lets put some of our money and time into more neglected art forms - of which comics is one very deserving example.

8. Actors get paid too much (Or the famous ones do anyway).
Why should they get so much for what is basically standing around in someone else's clothes, reading someone else's lines to someone else's direction! I've been behind the scenes in several big budget films in the large studios and a lot of the acting is really not that hard! Its often just being in the right place and the right time, and everyone around you does the hard work: the make up team, the technical people, the stage designers, the production assistants, etc.

By comparison comic book writers and artists get paid much less, even the very well known ones. Even though they often totally create the world of that book by themselves. There may be an editor, letterer, colorer, etc that help a lot. Still, by comparison, the central team in comic books creates the core of the artistic work for much less financial reward than with the film industry. (Of course I should say: some aspects of acting are VERY difficult, subtle and impressive, and that many new actors gets paid very little and struggle for years).

9. The Film industry sucks!
This is a somewhat debatable point as the comics industry has not got a good reputation either when it comes to treating its creative people well. Still, having been involved in both to some degree, in my opinion the film industry it is even more two faced, whirl-wind, and cut throat than the comics industry.

10. Other people involved in the making of films get treated badly.
By 'other people' I mean the behind the scenes individuals such as production assistants, make up, extra actors etc. The film industry is a bastion of class distinction, or you might say even apartheid! The main actors and 'above the line' creative team are like Gods, who have their own little world that exists near to, but oh so far removed from, the grubby world of the 'untouchables' who actually do much of the work of making the film. The world of these 'lower types' consists of standing in line in the rain for a meal of beans and hash brownies, waiting in dingy rooms for hours, long tedious work late into the night repeating the same scene again over and over. Of getting up even earlier than the main actors to make sure things are ready, of very little job security or health benefits, almost no recognition and certainly no glamour. Its a very unfair working environment and quite undemocratic. Perhaps, though, this is inevitable within such a money orientated industry?

Again, by comparison comics don't have such a unfair working environment or so many people involved that are treated so badly. Even with a well known Japanese manga-ka they often have only two assistants, who share a very similar working environment to their manga sensei. Still, to be fair, stories of miss-treatment of assistants can be found in the comic industry. But the point is that it's not as bad or as common as in the film industry.

So, turn that film off and go read a comic instead. You'll feel a whole lot better!