I F-ing Love Tokenism

It came as a late entry on my Facebook feed, but there: the group I Fucking Love Science dedicated its posts to the forgotten women who achieved a great deal, but didn't get credit or fame.

Here's the thing, chaps: the reason that they didn't get credit or fame is because of 'science'. I'm not claiming scientific method has a gender, but the scientific establishment is dominated by exactly the kind of people who don't give credit to women. The reason that women are marginalised within science is because scientists marginalise them. 

Just to clarify, this isn't about the odd sexist joke. Try here. Or here. How about something more... academic? This is a doozy, too.

I have very little time for I Fucking Love Science, although it has matured from its early days, when it slapped up great photos, attached a scientific fact and looked smug. Nowadays it reposts articles from other sources, which is almost scientific, isn't it?

Still, it'll be back to ignoring the women of science tomorrow. Tell you what: buy this book when it comes out. 

Sunderland Comic Con

Three Terrible Things in 2014 and Three Great things

It's all personal opinion, but I have to say something...

I am slowly going through the past year, trying to remember whether this happened in 2013 or that happened in 2014... and a few things have come up that I need to get off my chest. I'm pairing them with positives, so I don't end up needing additional medication for depression when I read over them...


The Flaming Lips (Terrible) and Slope (Great)


An interesting combination, but the final Untitled production and the collaborative album made by the Last Living Hippies share an interest in iconographies past. But while Laing's study of French poetic love triangles is a merciless deconstruction of macho romanticism, The Flaming Lips have a nostalgic wank over The Beatles.

Admittedly, Laing's collaborators for Slope helped the seriousness: if he had Miley Cyrus on his rolodex instead of Pamela Cater, he would have come up with something as lame as Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, too. But while Wayne Coyne wallowed in the lascivious shallows of psychedelia, Laing used the eroticism of two naked actors to conjure all the awkwardness and thrill of dirty sex, before slamming home a dark critique of alternative culture's roll of fame. 

Self-regarding, lazy and derivative, The Flaming Lips are evidence that while John Lydon is no longer worth a click, his dictum 'never trust a hippy' stands for the ages.

That Producer I met during the Fringe and BHP

It's not just that I enjoy their publications - Laptop Guy is a synthesis of Jack Lothian's clear storytelling and Sha Nazir's increasingly distinctive art - BHP are living up to their mission 'to expand comic culture.' Whether that means getting cos-players to hang out in the CCA during Comic Con (meaning that high art and the performativity of dressing up like Wonder Woman meet, at last), or championing sequential machinics as a valid academic discipline, The Naz, Lothian and Mark B are pushing the boundaries of the old four colour funny books.

That producer, on the other hand, told me that all critics ought to be shot, because they damage the reputation of his restaurants by pointing out their failings. I guess he has the same attitude to those Health and Safety Inspectors who insist that the chef shouldn't add Winner's Sauce to every dish on the menu. I asked him whether I ought to change the label on my business card to 'cheerleader'.

The Eye and Scottish Hip Hop
I am rather hoping that someone will explain why Scottish hip hop is more than just an embarrassing meeting of The Proclaimers and Vanilla Ice... that's fucking scathing, and I have spent the year trying not to be rude about Scottish hip hop but...


I'm not mentioning any particular artists by name, because Scottish hip hop is an emerging art form, and some of the people involved might well be nice people (although I have it on record that at least one rapper acts like a proper arse in the club). However, the main reference point for too much SHH is The Streets and the attempts to adapt Chuck D's proclamation that hip hop can be 'the black CNN' to Caledonia has encouraged lumbering raps that are either naive or confused. 

There is interesting potential in the appropriation of African-American culture by Scottish rappers, but it would be nice if they appropriated the aesthetic values as well as the surface. I'm talking creative use of beats, flow and personality in the voice, production polish - the glitchy tunes and clumsy rhymes might be a dramaturgical choice, but the dramaturgical consequence is... it sounds shit, mate.

The Eye, on the other hand, is the latest work in process by Jack Wrigley, Robbie Thomson and Emilia Weber, and the last vestige of Untitled. Expect something sensual emerging in 2015. 

Comic Con Cosplay Competition!!!

Cosplay at Comic Con: Making the subconscious visible

Following Goffman's analysis of 'performance' as an integral part of personality development, the cosplay culture becomes a satirical comment on the nature of social behaviour, making explicit the influence of fantasy and fiction on our interactions by making the presence of fictional characters explicit.

Or the other hand, it is a bunch of fun and you can win a prize, or just parade around dressed up as Fin Fang Foom. I have got the purple shorts ready.

One Issue, Many Minds

As much as I love Black Hearted Press, I hope that they haven't placed too much confidence in me. My own insecurity notwithstanding, the panel they've lined up for tonight's discussion (along with SICBA, and Stirling Maxwell Centre at Glasgow University) represents the breadth of comic book appreciation in Scotland, from the intellectual (Dr Laurence Grove and Dr Chris Murray) through to the financial (Maria Welch from DC Thompson). And of course, the critical - I am hosting the panel.

Issue One is a response to 'the boom in comic book creators from Scotland making an impact on the world stage.' Names like Mark Millar and Grant Morrison are familiar for their tenures on the Big American Comics (Ultimates, X-Men), but there is another, dynamic comics industry - probably well explained by a quick look at BHP's catalogue - of artists and writers who are reaching wider audiences while playing a more sophisticated game. 

There are a selection (six) of questions that will focus the conversation: they concentrate on how comics are perceived and how artists can sustain a career in the industry. Perhaps the biggest battle is to insist on the legitimacy and status of the comic book: in recent years, it has become an academic concern in the UK and, as Dr Grove can point out, this only follows the trend in Europe. 

Like everyone over the age of twelve who still reads comics, another round of the 'comics grow up' headlines would make me wince - frankly, it's the journalists who write this stuff that need to grow up. But the quality of the work being produced in Scotland - in fact, even in the CCA, to give more props to BHP - grapples with ideas and content in a way that most novelists would envy.

Besides, there is an exciting pair of aims: developing a sustainable industry and aspirations of creating a National Comics Academy and Art Gallery in the unused McLellan Galleries. I want to be able to nip into an exhibition of Kirby on Sauchiehall Street... one day.

Hosted by Gareth K Vile (Theatre Editor of The List), the event is in a 'question time' format, with everyone participating, including the question panel:
Dr Laurence Grove, director, Stirling Maxwell Centre, Glasgow University
Chris Murray, lecturer, University of Dundee
Sha Nazir, art director and publisher, Black Hearted Press Ltd
Jenny Niven, portfolio manager – literature, Creative Scotland
Kevin O'Donnell, retail manager, Forbidden Planet International
Phillip Vaughn, lecturer, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art
Maria Welch, publisher (Children’s Entertainment), DC Thomson Ltd

Laptop Guy Day

Having begun life as a compilation of short stories, Laptop Guy is heading for the big leagues. With the grand launch happening as part of the GFF - featuring a rare appearance of Jack Lothian, writer of Laptop Guy and some other stuff that is quite popular on TV (Skins, Ashes to Ashes, Spooks et c) - and the third issue promised in the next few months, Laptop Guy follows Royal Descent as part of Black Hearted Press campaign to demonstrate that Scotland's Got Comics.

Despite his modest origins, Laptop Guy  is an increasingly sophisticated magazine. Lothian's skill as a screenwriter is especially evident in issue two: the cunning use of titles evokes television, and the cliffhanger ending has an elegant ambiguity. While the central narrative concerns the conflict between beleaguered artist and his computer nemesis, the support characters are given space to develop. A comprehensive reality is sketched out around the fantastic plot, evoking the painful comedy of Curb Your Enthusiasm as the artist discovers that Laptop Guy is more than just an idea he had on a bad day.

As with many of the best comics, there is a sense that Laptop Guy could only be told through panels and speech bubbles: the surreal horror of the central episode works because of the lightness of the illustration and the precision of the character's expression. A clear use of colour - the cover's rich blue hints at how the mood within is created through the hues and tones - and a traditional, exact panel scheme ensures that the story-telling is coherent.

The story itself loops around a nice meta-concept, slipping in the gaps but poking at the oppressive presence of technology, the problems of low wages fighting high aspirations and the prejudice faced by a man who just wants to draw. There's enough satire on the comic-biz to amuse the fans, without ever losing sight of a more general audience... Lothian structures the story like a sitcom, moving from drama to comedy and then banging the two together for the darker sequences.

Happy Birthday Dear Black Heart...

Although they have been sitting behind me in the CCA for mere months, Black Hearted Press are firm Vile Favourites, and are celebrating their fourth birthday. Coinciding with the official launch of Laptop Guy (issue one comes out in February, swiftly followed by issue two and three is slated for an April release, allow fans of dystopian comedy to get a monthly fix of computer-headed doppelganger fun), BHP have arranged an exhibition in Cocktails and Burgers (opposite their office on Sauchiehall Street...).

Apart from being a rare chance to see Sha Nazir and Jack Lothian in the same room (artist and writer of Laptop Guy, respectively, and sometime rumoured to be a single person, a bit like the Bi-Beast out of Hulk), BHP have arranged a plethora of artists, whom I shall now google for further details.

Dave Alexander

David Braysher

Chris Connelly

Thomas Crielly 

James Devlin

Paul Hempstead

John Howard

Morag Kewell

Jason Mathis

Sha Nazir

Will Pickering

Brian Rankin

Alex Ronald & Neil Slorance

In a more innocent time (1973), the Bi-Beast was acceptable as a name for a villain. He fought the Hulk and was designed by Herbe Trimpe (not quite Jack Kirby, but he has that muscular dynamism that made Kirby so distinctive).

However, he is not the creator of Laptop Guy. 

Jack Lothian is a film and television writer. His television credits range from Ashes to Ashes, Doc Martin and Outcasts to the new E4 ‘Beaver Falls' and Teachers, which earned him nominations for Best Writer at the BAFTAs and Best Young Writer at the Broadcast Awards.

He is currently the lead writer on Sky1 HD's upcoming drama Sinbad. This is his first year on Skins. Jack was nominated for a Best Newcomer BAFTA for his first feature film, Late Night Shopping, which won the CICAE Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.

Sha Nazir has worked in the arts and creative industry for over 15 years, running his own graphic and web design company, his clients have included the BBC, STV, Virgin and ESPN. 

A practising freelance artist and educator, Sha has created diverse range a works from Theatre set design to animation and design projects. He recently wrote and designed ‘The Amazing Mr Mackintosh’ and is working on new titles for Black Hearted Press and co producing the Glasgow Comic Con.





Other Black Hearted Press operatives are available...

Mark Boyle - Operations & Marketing Director

Mark has been a comic lover since an early age and a true follower of fantasy fiction. A passionate music lover Mark is sometimes known as DJ Muppet - a stalwart in the Glasgow and Scottish rock scene he has been part of many major music events up and down the UK and is currently using his creative digital talents in a number of projects including The Man Card Army application for Android and iOS and other application through Anubis Labs.

John Farman 
- Writer, Editor & Publisher


John has worked across a diverse range of media, including events for the SECC and Theatre productions.

He’s sold plays to BAFTA nominated ‘Mandragora Productions’, and had School of the Damned optioned to be made into a motion picture.

He is currently working on adapting scripts for comics as well as developing and building upon the School of the Damned and is the co producer of the Glasgow Comic Con. He also upset the Daily Mail with his Royal Descent mini-series.