The other night we went to an event at
the South Bank Centre to mark the recent publication of It's Dark in London by indie comics powerhouse SelfMadeHero.
The book is an expanded reissue of a very solid anthology originally published in 1996 (gulp), featuring strips from independent comic luminaries Woodrow Phoenix, Ed 'Ilya' Hillier and Carol Swain, as well as creative teams including Neil Gaiman and Warren Pleece; Iain Sinclair and Dave McKean; Chris Petit and Garry Marshall; and Alan Moore and the book's editor, Oscar Zarate.
The book is an expanded reissue of a very solid anthology originally published in 1996 (gulp), featuring strips from independent comic luminaries Woodrow Phoenix, Ed 'Ilya' Hillier and Carol Swain, as well as creative teams including Neil Gaiman and Warren Pleece; Iain Sinclair and Dave McKean; Chris Petit and Garry Marshall; and Alan Moore and the book's editor, Oscar Zarate.
Zarate led the
event and was joined on stage by Sinclair, as well as Stella Duffy
and Alexei Sayle, fellow contributors to the book, which now
includes a few additional pieces of prose and poetry.
However, the nature
of the event meant that apart from slides of various pages projected
on the stage before the start, the core identity of the book as
'comics' wasn't really explored (or, at least, not until Woodrow
Phoenix hijacked the mic from the audience during the Q&A to
redress the balance).
The event was the
first to take place in the 'Festival Village' – a new space cobbled
together under the concrete mass of the SBC that was very hot and
stuffy, despite London's current meteorological filth.
Iain Sinclair
picked up rapidly on the 'underground car park' ambience, and soon
began to riff characteristically on its nature as a place that has no
history but still absorbs a 'generic' history from its nature and
surroundings. Before long he was reminiscing about JG Ballard and speculating about multi-storey car
parks "leaking their psychosis" into their users.
 |
| (Nicked from Woodrow Phoenix's Twitter stream: @MrPhoenix) |
Zarate,
probably
one
of
the
most
undervalued
cartoonists
I
can
think
of,
opened
the
evening
with
a
quote
from
Italo
Calvino
that
reveals
the
way
individuals
construct
the
nature
of
the
city
around
them:
“Cities,
like
dreams,
are
made
of
desires
and
fears,
even
if
the
thread
of
their
discourse
is
secret,
their
rules
are
absurd,
their
perspectives
deceitful,
and
everything
conceals
something
else.”
He linked this to
his aim with the book: London conceals its information – it doesn't
want to give anything away and if you have to work hard to get
beneath the surface. He hoped that drawing in collaborators from a
number of artistic fields would enable them to unveil and understand
London's unique 'darkness'.
Sinclair elaborated
on this, saying that darkness has always been an element of London;
as its buildings cast their physical shadows, they also cast psychic
shadows over those living beneath them – a 'topography of
darkness' familiar to anyone who's seen Hawksmoor's ominous Christ Church Spitalfields looming over the unfortunate characters in Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell.
He
also
outlined
the
attraction
of
the
comic
form
to
him,
using
a
quote
from
The Griffin's Egg,
his
collaboration
with
Dave
McKean:
Stick any two postcards on a
wall and you've got a narrative. He cited material like Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition and the work of William Burroughs as examples of clashing images and concepts producing a narrative.
His
first reading was from
one
of
the
new prose
sections
in the book, describing
how
he
picked
up
the
phrase
'Ghost
Milk'
from
two
adjacent
bits
of
graffiti,
and
how
it
suggested
the
notion
of
a
fluid
that
surrounds
the
city's
inhabitants
– part
amniotic
and
part
embalming.
Even
though
I
find
his
prose
a
bit
dense
to
be
really
enjoyable
(as
playfully
parodied
by
Alan
Moore
recently
in
League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen: Century),
he's
a
very
strong
reader
of
his
work,
giving
it
a
muscular
sense
of
rhythm. He may now be more
associated with Hackney than his native Wales, but he's still
retained something of his homeland's hwyl.
Next
up
was
Stella
Duffy,
who
took
the
unusual
step
of
almost
disowning
the
story
she'd
written
(illustrated
by
Melinda
Gebbie)
for
the
original
volume.
She
then
outlined
her
biographical
link
with
the
city
and
read
two
pieces:
a
section
from
her
South
London
novel
Empire of Lost Things,
and
a
poetic
narration
she
wrote
for
Radio
4,
From the River's Mouth,
in
which
the
personified
Thames
berates
those
who
refuse
to
cross
her
and
recalls
those
who
have
fallen
beneath
the
surface
into
her
'care'.
Finally, Alexei
Sayle introduced 'his' London. As the son of Communist parents, the
city was first and foremost to him a place of protest; he said that
he struggled to find his way around when he wasn't walking down the
middle of the road and shouting.
He also read two
pieces: the first was an extract - probably a bit of a tall tale -
from the in-progress second volume of his memoirs, recalling the
chaotic flat in South Kensington that he moved into when he arrived
in London to study at the Chelsea College of Art.
The
second
was
The Catwoman of Crouch
End,
a
slight
piece
from
the
new
edition
of
It's Dark in London
about
a
woman
who
decides
to
stop
worrying
about
human
concerns
and
to
start
living
more
spontaneously,
like
a
local
cat.
After a stuttering
start, the audience questions were the usual mixed bag, leading the
panel to offer their thoughts on great London films, to what extent
there are two (or more) Londons, divided by wealth and class, and
their favourite parts of the city (Sinclair – Bunhill Field; Duffy
– Brixton Market; Sayle – Westfield (!); Zarate
– Highgate village).
All
in
all
it
was
an
enjoyable event,
but
I
couldn't
help
but
feel
that
the
opportunity
to
promote
comics
to
a
broader
literary
audience
wasn't
really
seized
(despite
Woodrow
Phoenix's
valiant
effort).
Hopefully
a
few
of
the
audience
will
have
had
a
good
look
through
the
exciting
SelfMadeHero
catalogues
left
on
the
seats.
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