GEORGINA GREVES: SIX QUESTIONS

This week it is my great pleasure to be interviewing the latest addition to the House of Corvus, the prodigiously talented and charming Georgina Greves. Those of you who have been  wise enough to get hold of a copy of Victoriana will know what I mean, here ideas explode from every frame of the book. George was recruited by our steampunk whizz kid, Tim Hart, to render his script into the thing of beauty that is Victoriana. But enough from me let's hear some words of wisdom from the artist herself.

1. Tell us how you made the wold of Victoriana come alive:

Victoriana is Tim's brainchild, but I love the steampunk genre! There's a lot of extr thought that goes into creating the "weird era" that is the world of Victoriana. Things like the steam powered machinery and small bits of technology are complex but fun to design. I used to make and modify things to make them steampunk- one of my favourites was a steampunk pencil and a matching steampunk setchbook!

2. Who are your influences?

I grew up reading all types of comics and still play far too many video games, so I have a very graphic style. I love the work of Sean Gordon Murphy - his ink lines have so much character! And Zack Gorman, his games based comics always crack me up! There are so  many other things and people that influence me but those are the most current.

3. How did you and Tim find each other?

I'm pretty inexperienced as far as drawing comics professionally goes. Someone had posted an ad at university asking for a comic artist, and when I applied they said  already got someone but knew another person who needed an artist...and I was put in touch with Tim! Although Saskia drew the original artwork I've worked hard to make them my own.

4. What comes first characters or plot?

Characters or plot? That's a hard one. In my case it's the characters, though I let Tim worry about the plot! I think with visual mediums like comics it's necessary to have cool, interesting characters. Even if the plot is great if it's boring I find it hard to get in to.

5. What's next then?

I'm still at university doing an illustration course so I have lots of work to do before I graduate! I'm always trying to improve my work so that Victoriana is the best it can be!

6. In a film of your life who would play you?

Natalie Portman is cool, or maybe Jessie Eisenberg.

Thanks George for taking the time out of your very busy schedule to talk to us. We wait for the first issue of Victoriana  with baited breath.

PORTRAITS

There is an old cliché about writers being painters in words, yes, I know hoary and hackneyed, but I want to use this metaphor to introduce the work of Joel , whom you have encountered as the talented editor of the long running Tripwire (http://www.tripwire-magazine.com/). You may know that Joel Meadows deals in words, he is a respected journalist and has two exciting projects bubbling away as I write, one is an intriguing policer and the other is none other than Dee For Detective, which Corvus will be publishing in the near future.

However, what I am trumpeting today is his work as a photographer (just how talented can one man be). Joel has not one, but two new collections of his photographs out, both show how skilled he is at composition, the use of black and white as a photographic medium and are well worth a look.

I suspect like me you will get lost amongst the faces that stare back at you from every page of Portraits Joel’s pictures of famous authors. I shall let Mike Carey sum up the appeal of this book: “Time and again Joel Meadows uses his portraits not just to present his subjects but to explore and interrogate them. A beautiful and thought provoking book.” I especially found the photos of Alan Moore, taken over a number of years to be very powerful. He uses this time lapse photography to great effect with his studies of Michael Moorcock and Christopher Fowler as well. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.

Joel has also produced Spooked, A London Gothic. This volume really highlights Joel’s skill at capturing the spirit of a place. As you look into the photographs you will realise that Old London has never gone away and that the city you know is built on something far older and more beautiful. That’s all I’m going to say, as I want to go and loose myself in that gothic London which is never very far away.

You can order both of these book and more from Joel’s blog (http://joelm1-joelmead.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/joel-meadows-photography-at-last-my.html ). Don’t delay, they are that good.

BRISTOL EXPO PHOTOS

A big thanks to all those people who went to the Bristol Expo and took such trouble with their costumes. It was good to see you all.

VICTORIANA LAUNCHED!

It was smiles all around last Saturday as our latest title, the steam punk sensation that is Victoriana was launched at the Bristol Comic Expo. The author Tim Hart introduced his two short films and gave an informative speech about the world of Victoriana,

It was good to see some familiar faces and to make some new acquaintances as well. I was particularly taken with Luke Foster’s on line cartoon Moon Freight 3 (http://moonfreight3.com/). I shall review a couple of books that caught the attention of us here at Corvus next week. 

STEAMPUNK SATURDAY!

Yes, the Bristol Comic Expo (http://www.bristolexpo.co.uk/) is this weekend and we at Corvus are ready to celebrate the launch of our new steampunk title Victoriana which will be unveiled at the show. As well as premiering two short steampunk films about Victoriana, and the chance to meet not only the author Tim Hart, our in-house steampunk wunderkind and the artist, the wonderful Georgina Greaves, there will also be a raffle for an original piece of artwork! How much more excitement can a body stand?

There is much of interest at the Expo this year including the first UK visit by the sensational IDW Publishing, the people who are responsible for the Star Trek/ Dr Who cross over series. This is truly a landmark in publishing, the meeting of two unique, long running, fully realised universes. Miss this at your peril.

When the excitement has got too much, and you feel the need to touch base with reality once more, why not wander over to our stall? We will be there all weekend and we would really like to talk to you. Not only about our peerless stable of titles but about anything and everything. And if you are coming in costume then we really would like to see you so we can post your photo on this very website next week.

So don’t be as green as a treen, come and see us this weekend in Bristol.

VICTORIANA APPROACHES!

We are launching the preview of our new steampunk series in ten days time! Yes, the Bristol Comic Expo (http://www.bristolexpo.co.uk/) is nearly upon us! I must stop writing with exclamation marks!

Victoriana is special in a number of ways, firstly because it is a unique vision of an alternate world, a world that is both familiar and very different. Secondly it is the first Corvus launch that is tied in with not one, but two short film premieres (I want to use exclamation marks here but I’ve used the week’s supply already). Thirdly it is the first work of Tim Hart, our young steampunk wunderkind, to be unveiled-but not the last.   

This story has legs, so many legs it could win a marathon. Tim has taken the conventions of steampunk, invented a memorable world that is peopled with believable characters involved in cliffhanging adventures and woven this into the jewel that is Victoriana. Miss the launch at your peril.

MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE

I am taking a week off interviewing the good people at Corvus and I want to look at the future of publishing, and like the three witches in Macbeth I’m going to make a prediction. OK, I’m not Nostradamus, and Al Stewart will not be writing a ten minute epic ballad about me, but then the music industry isn’t what it was when Al released Past, Present and Future back in 1974.

In terms of the new technologies, there is a slight Dejavu it feels like we have all been here before, in the late 1990’s when people began to share music files. There are many parallels between publishing and the music industry and many lessons that publishing in general could learn from the failure of the music industry to come to terms with the possibilities of new technology. Now that one in four adults in the UK has a Kindle or other electronic reading device the world of downloading has arrived big time.

People of a certain age and an obsession with music, will remember with fondness the days of the local record shop, sadly those days are gone. The demise of all those local, independent and chain record shops is down to the change in the manner we access music. No longer is it difficult to find obscure bands or rare tracks,plus it is cheaper to buy online, and if like me, you use a storage device such as an i-pod, then you can bi-pass compact discs altogether. The next casualty of the technology will be the local book shop.

It is to misquote Van Dyke Parks it is The Clang of The Digital Reaper, (I think I am in a mid-1970’s mindset today). It takes no great insight to make the claim that the bookshop is going to be as rare a sighting as a record shop in five years time. As tragic as this is the interesting thing is what will happen to the big publishing houses? Are they ready for the Hard Rain of digital downloading? I don’t know, I suspect the larger the company the longer it takes to respond to any change. The big winner of course will be Amazon, by creating the Kindle you could say Amazon had won before we knew there was even a competition.

I think the opportunities are there for the small press publishers, and the independent authors out there. Look at Timothy Mo and how he has circumvented the traditional publishing methods, he is an example to us all. We at Corvus are in the process of setting up a digital download page, where you can load our stories direct onto your reading device, or at least you will be able to order on line.

I think I am still coming to terms with the projected loss of book shops. Here in Taunton, our one independent bookshop, Brendon Books (http://brendonbooksonline.tbpcontrol.co.uk/tbp.direct/customeraccesscontrol/home.aspx?d=brendonbooksonline&s=C&r=10000088&ui=0&bc=0) has been selling a mixture of new and second hand books for some time. I find myself spending longer browsing these days as there are always unexpected titles, so the picture is not all bad news. What do you think? Why not let me know your thoughts on the digital revolution. Anybody know which band sang the song I used for the title? If you do then you are an anorak!