A Cartoon & Comic Book Tour of London: Orbital Comics

Tuesday, 7 February 2017

Panel No.35: Eisner Award-Winning Orbital Comics

Daily Constitutional editor Adam Scott-Goulding continues his Cartoon & Comic Book Tour of London…

You can catch up with the previous "stops" at the Cartoon & Comic Book Tour of London blog here cartoonandcomicbooklondon.blogspot.co.uk.

Panel No. 35. Eisner Award-Winning Orbital Comics

I'm making a second visit to Orbital Comics on my Cartoon & Comic Book Tour of London blog in the wake of some very good news from earlier this year.

Orbital Comics is the 2016 winner of the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Award for best comic book store! Orbital was chosen from a list of nominees from across the globe.

Congratulations to all the guys in Great Newport Street! You can see the award in the store.

In my original post - Panel No.6 – I looked a little bit into the history of Great Newport Street itself. You can catch up with that post here.

The Eisner Award is the Oscar of the comic book publishing world and as such is a seriously big deal.

It is named for Will Eisner (1917 - 2005) writer and cartoonist who is widely credited with coining and popularising the phrase Graphic Novel. His 1985 book Comics & Sequential Art hanseled the modern era of comics as vehicles capable of carrying complex and sophisticated stories worthy of critical analysis.

If that all sounds a bit high falutin, here's Allan Moore to cut through the BS:

"Eisner is the single person most responsible for giving comics its brains."

Stan Lee put it pretty well, too:

"Will Eisner was to comics what Babe Ruth was to baseball."

(The work of Moore & Lee featured earlier in this Comic Book London Tour – see HERE, HERE for Moore and HERE for Stan Lee.)

Given that this is a Cartoon & Comic Book Tour of London, I'll point you not only in the direction of Orbital, but of Eisner's most famous London-themed work: Fagin The Jew.

Eisner's 2003 work takes the form of an interview conducted by Dickens with Fagin (of Oliver Twist infamy) on the night before the latter is hanged.

The narrative is a bold confrontation of anti-Semitic stereotypes in literature and, as such, is powerful indeed. Eisner's approach reminds me of that of a method actor getting into a role: where does the character come from? How did he get to be this way?

As Fagin's journey is unfolded, we learn of the plight of the Ashkenazi Jews in London, the hardships and prejudices they endured. These, Eisner suggests, are the factors that shaped Fagin's character. The Fagin that emerges by the book's end is a far more complex individual than the villain in Dickens's original.

In encouraging us to walk a mile in another man's shoes, Eisner ends up penning a Graphic Novel not only for Fagin, nor only for the Jewish immigrant experience, but for every Londoner. If you are a Londoner who has ever been proud of the slogan #LondonIsOpen Eisner's Fagin the Jew is a must read.

Fagin the Jew is published by Dark Horse.

You can find Orbital Comics on Great Newport Street here…

In a post planned for 2017 I'll return to the work of Dickens through the illustrations of Cruikshank and the many artists who have brought the great writer's characters alive on the page

Wednesday, 14 January 2015

Panel 6: Orbital Comics

Panel 6: Orbital Comics

Wednesday is new comic book day and before my Rock'n'Roll London Pub walk on a Wednesday evening, I pay a visit to Orbital Comics on Great Newport Street.

In terms of 20th century culture, Great Newport Street, for all its brevity, has its fair share of cultural landmarks.

Ken Colyer's jazz club once stood at No.11-12 – as I blog it is under scaffolding but there is a green plaque marking the spot. The club – Studio 51 – had connections not only with the world of trad jazz, but also with the Rolling Stones. For postwar Brits in thrall to Americana, Studio 51 was a little bit of New Orleans in London.

The Arts Theatre in Great Newport Street was where Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot enjoyed its English language premiere in 1955. In the 40s and 50s it was a club theatre where more radical themes could be explored outwith the jurisdiction of the censor, the Lord Chamberlain.

The memorial to crime writer Agatha Christie is situated at the eastern end of Great Newport Street.

Number 8, where you can find Orbital Comics today, was once the home of The Photographer's Gallery, the world's first gallery dedicated entirely to photography. The street has long been associated with art and artists – Sir Joshua Reynolds and the portrait painter George Romney among them.

Add up the elements and, both historically and thematically, it's the perfect location for a comic book store; it has a long association with artists; it's been a place of pilgrimage for those of us who love American popular culture; a much-loved writer, whose low standing among literary critics is at odds with her popularity, is commemorated here; Great Newport Street has been home to creatives who wish to push the boundaries of their art but have often struggled to work under censorship.

All of these things ring true in the world of comic books and their creators.

So Great Newport Street is where you'll find me of a Wednesday – new comic book day.

It's a lot easier for comic book fans to get their fix these days. Back in the 50s new, gloriously lurid American comic books arrived in this country as ballast on ships.

The staff at Orbital are both friendly and knowledgeable. Don't hesitate to ask for help – I've had a number of great pointers and recommendations from the folks at Orbital, many of which have become favourite reads. They also select their faves of the week for the Orbital email newsletter. And they have a gallery space, showcasing the best in comic book art with an ever-changing programme of exhibitions.

Their podcast – The Orbiting Pod – is a cracker, too. Visit their website to hear, among other things, a fascinating talk on the history of the infamous comics code regulation of 60 years ago, brought in by comic books in the face of a so-called moral panic regarding "unsavoury" and gruesome illustrations. Listen here: www.orbitalcomics.com/podcast