Alice In Sunderland

Startled into pencilling wobbly lines this morning by the unexpected but welcome appearance of UK National Treasure Bryan Talbot on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, talking about Lewis Carrol's connections with the Northeast as a canny way of getting a plug in about his new book Alice In Sunderland.

More about the book at Bryan's Official Fansite - though be warned, you have to scroll down past a load of signing dates before you get to the descriptions and, better still, page samples.

Also out soon by Bryan is The Naked Artist, a collection of "funny, outrageous or downright weird stories that get told about comic creators and publishers in the comic convention pro bar late at night" and illustrated by (yay!) Hunt Emerson (Bryan regaled us with some of the 'out-takes' from this book on the train to Lille in December). He's also writing Cherubs!, a "supernatural comedy adventure" drawn by the excellent and much-too-little-seen Mark Stafford.

Most of the above info was culled from May's Megazine (#257), where funnily enough I make a tiny subsidiary appearance; there's an interview with Steve Yeowell in which they use a panel from Devlin Waugh: Chasing Herod that I coloured back in 1999. In the interview, Steve mentions dropping in to the comic shop in Sheffield where, as a wide-eyed A-Level sudent, I met him for the first time (at, of all things, a Bryan Talbot signing). Small world.

Alice In Sunderland is published by Jonathan Cape on 4th June.
The Naked Artist is published by Moonstone on 30th June.
Cherubs! is released by Desperado in June.