Mindless Ones

At the end of April, Garen Ewing came along to Cartoon County for an informal chat amongst fellow comic creators the Cricketers pub in Brighton.

We mostly talked about his series The Adventures of Julius Chancer: The Rainbow Orchid, published by Egmont.  Book Two is due in July with Book One available now and you could win a copy (see below).  The conversation covered a number of topics including Tin Tin, Asterix, The DFC, Class and British comics and off into a discussion about digital comics which everyone has an opinion on which is why this podcast is so long…  well,

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Click to download Garen Ewing interview

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Cartoon County is a Sussex based organization run by David Lloyd and Corinne Pearlman where comic book types can show their work and share information. The monthly meetings at The Cricketers pub in Brighton are a great source of inspiration and alcohol for all involved.  Last January’s meeting was graced by the presence of Karen Rubins.  Karen is nice and special as she recently completed a residency at the prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum.
She was kind enough to talk about the experience and answer questions from CC’s more gobby members like myself, David Lloyd, Dez Skinn, Corinne Pearlman and Tim Pilcher. Why not listen as she talks secret tunnels, samurai swords, hidden comic collections, tarot cards and filling in forms!!!!!

Click to download Karen Rubins interview
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When Tymbus forced me and Brown Lantern to interview Robot City Adventures creator Paul Collicutt, I was gripped with fear.  As it turns out, he’s a lovely man.  Look at him.  Lovely cheeky face.

In our conversation we talked robots, creation, Kirby and other. LISTEN DAMN YOU!

Download our Paul Collicutt interview

[audio:https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/paul-collicutt.mp3] Mindless Ones are proud to offer you the chance to win Paul’s first two books plus a limited edition print…
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So this is an interview in three stages. If it was an album it would be a prog album. One of Rick Wakeman’s later efforts involving Arthurian legend and horses on ice skates. Or perhaps it would be a three hour gabba techno set by Lenny D. Or maybe it would be Sandanista, the Clash album that never knew when to stop…

I’d wanted to meet up with Kieron as I knew he was a local London boy and would most likely be amenable to a few shandies whilst discussing his cult comic series Phonogram as well as his recent forays into the Marvel Universe. And any other shit we could think of. To my pleasure Mr Gillen was up for it.

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The Marvel UK Transformers comic occupied a special part of my young heart for a fair while back in the 80’s (I often think all boys of a certain era were actually built with a small Transformers shaped compartment in their heart) The weekly adventures of the Robots in Disguise came somewhere between Battle Action Force (UK GI Joe to you colonials) and 2000ad. What could have been a shonky toy cash in title had a unique flavour all of it’s own, mainly thanks to the stalwart work done by premier Trans-scriber Simon Furman. Under his guidance the Transformers mythos grew into something rich and strange. And violent. Very very violent… Alongside such Brit comics luminaries such as John Wagner and Pat Mills, Furman was one of the most prolific writers of the 80’s carving out a niche writing for Marvel UK, taking the Transformers mythos and running with it. Once the animated movie was released the strip really hit it’s stride, with the addition of Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge and the rest of the 2006 mob. Not to mention a certain freelance peace-keeping agent…yes?

Along with Transformers, Furman also created the wonderful robot bounty hunter Death’s Head, as well as the super violent futuristic sports mercenaries Dragon’s Claws. For a while Marvel UK became a hotbed of fun new comics that provided a well of young British comics talent the chance to cut loose.

Soon after Furman started working in American comics for Marvel, IDW, Dreamwave and Dynamite. He has also worked in animation, computer games and continues to write Transformers to this day. An extremely personable chap, with an extensive knowledge of exploitation movies, Simon kindly agreed to do a Mindless interview. Read on…yes?

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Hooray!  We’ve interviewed Kevin O’Neill!

kevin O’Neill Interview
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“What sounds to you like a big load of trashy old noise is, in fact, the brilliant music of a genius. Myself.” Iggy Pop

Which is how David Lapham describes what he was tying to achieve with Young Liars. You know Young Liars yes? Young Liars, the best new title to have been released in along time. Young Liars the gonzo romance, action, sci-fi, music comic. Young Liars that has recently been announced as cancelled. Much to the dismay of the loyal, hardcore fans that this utterly original book has attracted. Balls. Another one bites the dust.

Well we caught up with David, after he’d finished his three day PCP and Meths-fuelled rampage, gave him a grapefruit juice, and asked him some questions about Young Liars, Stray Bullets and the future…

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Cameron Stewart before the commencement of the "breaking process"

Fact file: Cameron Stewart is the artist behind Jason Aaron’s Eisner Award nominated The Other Side; Grant Morrison’s Seaguy, and The Manhattan Guardian; he produced memorable work while collaborating with Ed Brubaker on his Catwoman run; and in 2008 joined forces with his friend Ray Fawkes to produce Apocalipstix for Oni Press.

Stewart also writes and draws the webcomic Sin Titulo.

Cameron has recently returned to Seaguy for the second volume, Slaves of Mickey Eye

We captured Cameron Stewart after many hours spent stalking him through the streets of Montréal, Canada. We then set about beating him with bamboo canes through the thin webbing of the net in which he was held. Cameron withstood the breaking process for 5 days, but ultimately, through clenched teeth, agreed to answer 13 exquisitely crafted questions. He swore he’d die before answering any more.

A braver man I have never met.

Read bitter words spat through blood after the jump

John Higgins is a stalwart of the American and British comic industry. He has worked with some of the most prominent creators in the field, and worked on legendary characters like Judge Dredd and John Constantine, worked on film properties such as The Thing From Another World and The Hills Have Eyes, and provided colour for the groundbreaking series Watchmen.

We tied him up in a cellar and beat his shins with spanners until he answered our questions. What a gent!

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