Now sporting a magnificent and unnerving beard, Kieron Gillen has been one of the more pleasant arrivals to the world of mainstream comics. His comic, Phonogram, with art by Jamie McKelvie, was one of the better titles of the last year. With a background in videogame journalism, and a healthy disregard for staying in his box there, Gillen has managed to write one of the best fictions about music that doesn’t feature any music. Possibly by accident. It’s a glittering flirt of a comic, and well worth your time, especially if you have even a passing interest in the way that music defines the world that we live in. That’s his comics though… I caught up with him for a very brief chat about other things.

So, seen any good films lately?

God, you had to start with this one. Cinema is the narrative form I’m always shitty at keeping up with. Last thing I saw which left an impact was watching A Bridge Too Far on a transatlantic flight, which had me thinking about Britain’s relationship with its tragedies and wondering whether that’s changing over time. And generally being awesome. And that was almost a month ago.

You’d have better luck asking me about television, and even then I’m rubbish. I’m working through the ROME season 2 DVD pack, which I love, despite it throwing out terrible episodes occasionally. I know enough of the history to roll my eyes at it, but don’t take it seriously enough to throw me entirely. And at least half the cast are highly agreeable monsters, which always works for me.

What books do you have on the go at the moment?

As is my wont, I picked up Glen Duncan’s I, Lucifer from my girlfriend’s shelves this morning on a whim. A mate (the bloke who I based Indie Dave in Phonogram on, randomly) suggested I read it back when it came out, as it reminded him of some of the stuff I was doing with my Minister Drill-cock! character over at Grammarporn. As evidenced by my Rome answer, I’m a sucker for charismatic monsters.

Oh – and I’m re-reading Peter Marshall’s enormous book on Anarchism, Demanding The Impossible, which is great. It fits my current beard.

What about music? Heard anything good lately?

I really like the new Darren Hayman album – it’s very much early Hefner, being wordy and playful and phenomenonally geeky. I saw Los Campesinos! live last week, who were brilliant, reminding me of a huge amount of my favourite bands without being anything like them at all. These Dancing Days are fun, though you’ll be wanting to wait for their second single Hitten to be properly convinced. Oh – and I like Frightened Rabbit too. New/Old/Reworked single the Greys is perfectly overwrought and desperate, while keeping itself grounded enough to not become (say) Muse.

What’re you having for tea tonight?

I plan to cook Mushroom Stroganoff for my housemates, as it’s been a while since I’ve made them anything and I’m feeling guilty. It’s one of my standard dishes which people seem to like, so let’s hope I don’t fuck it up. Though when I looked in the fridge one of the pots of sour-cream have been stolen, which puts a crimp in my plans, I suspect. I’ll just double up with the white wine. But – hey! – I always do that.

Oh, go on then – what comics are you working on?

Main thing right now is Phonogram 2 (“THE SINGLE’S CLUB”) which is enormously complicated and clearly beyond my reaches. Abstractly, I was meant to have it written in time for McKitten to go straight on when he finishes Suburban Glamour, but that’s not going to happen. If I pull it off, it’ll be great. If I don’t, I’ll be pilloried and taken apart with blades. And I’ll deserve it. I’m also working on a couple of pitches.

One, which is very close to being lobbed out, is MULTIMEDIUM with one Jorge Munoz and the other, which is a bit more off, is LUDOCRATS with housemate Rossignol and Lee O’Connor. And slightly after that, there’s something Steve “5 fists of Science” Sanders and myself are talking about, which goes under the working title of MACHINA.

Keiron Gillen can unsurprisingly be found at www.kierongillen.com, where he can be found musing about all and sundry. You’ll also want to check out the Phonogram website, which will tell you just how to buy a copy of the book. Or, you know, you could go to a comic shop and order it. That wouldn’t kill you.

Patient readers will know that I consider Malcy Duff’s comic work to be among the very best that the country has to offer at the moment. Simultaneously touching and unnerving, his comics have a compulsive, visionary shimmer that will either fascinate or repel you. I can’t imagine that there are many non-committal reactions – his work seems primed to polarise the audience. What is certain is that there’s no-one else producing work like his. Titles like Hoofsteps, The Blackest Gnome and A 52 Second Silence for Topsy remain unique experiences, and I would beg my readers to give them the chance that they deserve. That’s his comics though… I caught up with him for a very brief chat about other things.

So, seen any good films lately?

Aye, ‘In The Wake of a Deadad‘ by Andrew Kotting.

What books do you have on the go at the moment?

H.P. Lovecraft (at the moment), and Robert Burton (always).

What about music? Heard anything good lately?

My pasta just whistled which sounded great. I’ve never heard pasta whistling. It’s different to kettles.

What’re you having for tea tonight?

2 Munchner Weibwurste wi Handlmaier’s suber hausmachersenf.

Oh, go on then – what comics are you working on?

Making puke outta blue tack, nae drawin the night.

Malcy Duff’s comics can be found and bought at the Missing Twin website, where you can also buy his art. You may also be interested in hearing his band, Usurper. So do.

One of the most pleasant surprises of the last year was seeing a reprint of Chris Reynolds’ The Lighted Cities pop up at the beginning of Rian Hughes’ Yesterday’s Tomorrows collection. It’s an unsettling, brooding piece of work that sits uncomfortably with the rest of the book’s pop sensibilities, and yet it’s the story I find myself returning to.

Chris Reynolds’ work is always like that – it gets under your skin. From the empty factory-scapes to the mysterious hills and arches of his strips, there are spaces that the reader’s imaginations can’t help but want to explore. Atmospheres that the reader can’t help get caught up in. Interested readers, and that should be all of you, should get hold of his comics forthwith, starting with Mauretania, and moving on through his other work. It stays with you. Finally, I had the distinct pleasure of appearing in an anthology with Chris a couple of years ago, and his contributions were the highlight of the comic. Certainly put me to shame. That’s his comics though… I caught up with him for a very brief chat about other things.

So, seen any good films lately?

I have to say the best thing I’ve seen is the initial edit of the answer to your final question…

What books do you have on the go at the moment?

The Kingly Books edition of ‘The Dark Page‘ by Samuel Fuller, also re-reading ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows‘.

What about music? Heard anything good lately?

Pauline Murray read a chapter of Humfrey Jordan’s ‘Mauretania’ book at the RMS Mauretania Maiden Voyage Centenary exhibition – not singing, but and her voice is excellent as ever. And my wife won Lou Reed‘s very odd Eno-like ‘Hudson River Wind Meditations‘ in a competition.

What’re you having for tea tonight?

We’re having Ramen Miso with extra salmon and mushrooms (it’s a fish soup).

Oh, go on then – what comics are you working on?

Not a comic as such, but I’m doing a 5-minute-long re-edit of the Mauretania Comics film ‘Hunters of the Sun‘.

Chris Reynolds can be found at metropoppyfield. You can also order his books through Lulu, which you really should do.

Jeffrey Brown’s distinctive brand of comics combines a sceptical nostalgia with an absurdist’s eye for detail that elevates his stories far above the typical. These qualities, coupled with his fragile diary-like artwork, have made him one of the most interesting voices of recent years. His output from Top Shelf, starting with Clumsy, and continuing through Unlikely and Any Easy Intimacy to Every Girl is the End of the World for Me effectively catalogues the troubles and neuroses that plague anyone’s twenties. Plus, he’s very funny, which goes a long way. His latest comic, The Incredible Change-Bots, is a pitch perfect Transformers parody, and even his earlier comics aren’t immune from his humour, as Be A Man stands as the best parody of his own work, taking scenes from Clumsy and injecting them with insane amounts of testosterone. There’s lots of fun to be had by reading his books, so go on and give them a try. That’s his comics though… I caught up with him for a very brief chat about other things.

So, seen any good films lately?

I finally saw the Transformers movie. I have to admit I was entertained, but it was at least an hour too long. I looked at the clock and the movie was something like an hour into it and it was still in the ‘just setting things up’ phase. What’s up with that? It was funnier than I expected though. But too much product placement. So I don’t know if I could say it was a ‘good’ film. I did see Superbad, and that was really good, and made me want to watch Wet Hot American Summer, which is also really funny

What books do you have on the go at the moment?

I’m getting ready to start a few books, including this new little box set of short story books from McSweeney’s, which has incredible packaging as always.I’m also going to read the ‘Physics of Superheroes‘ book, to satiate my love of physics reading for the layman.

What about music? Heard anything good lately?

The new Ween has some good songs on it, I haven’t come to a decision on how it is as an overall album. I’m also enjoying the new Nina Nastasia/Jim White album. As my friends will tell you, I do love the drums. And I heard the new Radiohead and really liked it, but I keep forgetting to go to their site and order it. I haven’t decided how much I’m going to give them, but I’m not going to take it for free, even though I’m sure they have way more money than me. They deserve it.

What’re you having for tea tonight?

I’m getting over a nasty stomach virus, where all I had to eat for all of yesterday was a couple saltine crackers. Tonight I started to get my appetite back and made some macaroni and cheese, and now I’ve kind of lost my appetite again. Or I may just be full.

Oh, go on then – what comics are you working on?

One thing I’ve been working on is drawings for the Incredible Change-Bots fan club – about 6 a week or so, which isn’t much time, but steady. I’m working on two comics projects. First, ‘Funny Misshapen Body’, my 432 page chronicleof high school/college/art school about how I became a cartoonist, to be published by Simon & Schuster sometime in 2009. Although it’s been delayed lately by trying to figure out how I wanted to draw this girl, and the aforementioned stomach virus. And I’ve been sporadically toiling away on my series with Top Shelf – ‘Sulk’. It’ll be 32 page ‘Be A Man’ sized comics, collecting mostly humorous and parody stories. I’m going to have 3 or 4 issues complete before we start putting them out, and then have an aproximately quarterly schedule.

Jeffrey Brown can be found at The Holy Consumption. His latest comics are The Incredible Change-Bots from Top Shelf, and Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Other Observations from Chronicle Books. You can get these books in the good places that sell books.

A turbine of whirling comic power, Gary Northfield is as at home spinning the whimsical adventures of Derek the Sheep in the Beano as he is creating the ribald adventures found in his own comics, such as Bad Dog.  Bag Dog, now that I mention it, was possibly the first thing of Gary’s that I encountered, and it filled me with an unholy joy at the time. This is joy that has continued unabated through such comics as his Stupid Monster series of books, or Bernard Cribbens’ Rousing Tales of Action and Adventure (with Matt Abbiss).  The thing that draws me back again and again to his work is the obvious amount of emotion that his work is packed with – there’s a real sense of delight in his work as his dervish figures come into being.  So entrenched is this exuberance, that it transcends language barriers, as Derek now looks set to take over Europe one country at a time.  That’s his comics though… I caught up with him for a very brief chat about other things. 

So, seen any good films lately? 

I’m completely rubbish when it comes to watching films, as I rarely make the time to go and watch them. Although when I do sit down and watch one, I get completely lost in them and start shouting at the screen and stuff, or spouting out “Oh no! It’s him!”. So the last film I saw in a cinema was Frank Miller’s 300 at the London Imax about 6 months ago, which was shown on a big size-of-a-house screen and was gobsmackingly amazing. I’m fairly sure I cried out “Christ! Look at the size of him!!” when that big horrible 10ft geezer turned up to mash all the Spartans.

What books do you have on the go at the moment?

Just picked the recent biography of Houdini (The Secret Life of Houdini by Kalush and Sloman), who fascinates me mainly due to his head-on attack of the popular rise of spiritualism and mediumship in the 1920s.

I’m also reading Tove Janson’s beautiful Moomin books. I never read them as a child, but I’m so pleased to be reading them now. They’re so nutty and the stories almost feel like they were improvised, so you never really know what’s going to happen next. (Am I allowed to talk about the drawings? I stare for hours at her drawings…)

What about music?  Heard anything good lately?

The last couple of great albums I bought were “Documentary”, by Rolan Vega and Bruce Langhorne‘s soundtrack to Peter Fonda’s “Hired Hand”.

Both beautifully textured and atmospheric.

I’m also a psychotic fan-boy of Boards of Canada, so their music takes up about three quarters of any given listening day.

What’re you having for tea tonight?

I cooked a lovely thai noodle stir fry. I think I accidently gave my wife the bigger plateful, as I finished mine ages before she did and I was still starving. So I had a packet of hula hoops after. Yum.

Oh, go on then – what comics are you working on?

Still struggling to knock out Derek The Sheep on a regular basis for the Beano or Beanomax. I ought to be doing it fortnightly in an ideal world, but monthly seems to be the best I can muster. I’ve got a book of old Derek strips out next year from the French publisher Actes Sud and from Bloomsbury, so that’s all very exciting.

Also concocted a new strip about ducks for something new and secret.  I’m drawing it with a dip pen, but it’s a real bastard sometimes. Although I think that’s why I love it.

Gary can be found all over the internet like a rash.  You can find him at not only his own site, but also at the Stupid Monsters blog and the Derek The Sheep blog too.  Or in French.

Tom Gauld creeps up on you.

In stories at once distant and emotive, Gauld conjures up a landscape of cavemen and robots, of medieval guards and conflicted artists. There’s an air of quiet contemplation that nestles snugly over his strips, that occasionally punctures with small joys and little despairs. It’s fun stuff, and beautifully realised in images that seem minimal at first glance, yet reveal more and more detail the longer you look at them. I can’t remember what the first of Tom Gauld’s comics was that I read, because like I say, he sneaks up on you. Even if you’re not familiar with his name, the likelihood is that you’ll be familiar with his work. I’d advise you to startr anywhere and work your way out, but my personal favourites of his work are Hunter and Painter, and his series of Very Small comics, which, as the title implies, are very small indeed.That’s his comics though… I caught up with him for a very brief chat about other things.

So, seen any good films lately?

I saw Aachi and Ssipak which is an incredible Korean animated film.

What books do you have on the go at the moment?

Notes for a War Story by Gipi and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

What about music? Heard anything good lately?

I’ve been listening to lots of Neil Young and Leonard Cohen

What’re you having for tea tonight?

We’re going on holiday tomorrow, so some sort of weird concoction of all the bits of things left in the fridge.

Oh, go on then – what comics are you working on?

I’m working a new minicomic possibly called ‘The Gigantic Robot’

Tom Gauld can be found on the internet at the Cabanon Press site, which you should visit right now and spend your pennies at. Honest. Tom can also be read every week in The Guardian.

Where do I start when it comes to Roger Langridge? Simply put: he’s one of the funniest comics artists around, and I’m glad to put that on record.

From the grand scatological excesses of Knuckles the Malevolent Nun to Fred the Clown’s distilled schadenfreude, Langridge has a knack for putting together funny comics that actually get funnier with each reading. The well-timed pantomime of Fred is a joy for both surprise and expectation, and it’s rightfully seen as a masterpiece of the medium, at least in my house.

It’s not all about Fred though, and there’s a lot of Langridge work to discover once you start reading, including Zoot Suite, my favourite, which is well worth tracking down. That’s his comics though… I caught up with him for a very brief chat about other things.

So, seen any good films lately?

I’ve got two children under the age of five, so most of the films I see these days have talking animals in them.

What books do you have on the go at the moment?

Summer Lightning, by P G Wodehouse. I discovered Wodehouse very late, just a few years ago, and was completely taken by surprise. Having seen various film and TV adaptations, I thought I had the old boy’s number, and was totally unprepared for the astonishing beauty of his prose.

It’s that which keeps me coming back; certainly not the plots, or should I say plot, which is very much of the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” school.

What about music? Heard anything good lately?

I am so far out of the loop where music is concerned I’m not even sure where the loop is any more. Although I can recite most of the lyrics from The Lion King by heart.

What’re you having for tea tonight?

Couscous, with a kind of casserole made from butternut squash and cashew nuts. First time, and very nice.

Oh, go on then – what comics are you working on?

I thought you’d never ask. I’m currently finishing off a Doctor Who story for the Christmas issue of Doctor Who Magazine, #390 I think – it’s called “Death to the Doctor” , with a very funny script by Jonathan Morris. Then I’ll be doing the next in an occasional series of short backup stories for Marvel, featuring the Fin Fang Four (from 2005′s Marvel Monsters books). There’ll be a few of those coming up over the next several months; the first one will be appearing in Giant-Sized Avengers, which should be out any day now. Scott Gray is once again on board as co-conspirator.

Also on the boards: I’m doing a piece for Beasts II, from Fantagraphics, edited by Jacob Covey. My “beast” will be Spring-Heeled Jack, Victorian scourge of the Penny Dreadfuls.

And last but not least, I’m attempting to pound a story into shape for a “graphic novel” (horrible term – I mean a really long comic) called “The Pictures Are Better on the Radio”, which I intend to serialise on my website from January. I’m teetering on the brink of abandoning it and jumping into something easier, because the size of it (probably 250-odd pages) is scaring the life out of me. Find out in January if I managed to grab it by the throat, wrestle it to the ground and kick it to death.

Roger can be found all over the place on the internet, but you would be best advised to start with his blog and website, where you can also buy his books. And you should buy his books.

Brendan McCarthy. If you didn’t know any better you might think that it was a man’s name. It’s not, of course. It’s an invitation. The worlds conjured up in McCarthy’s comics tease the phantasmagorical from the mundane and mix them back together in new and outlandish fashion. It’s an invigorating experience, and opening the pages of a McCarthy comic is always a journey into the world made fresh and strange and overwhelming. You know, like art is supposed to be, like life is supposed to be.

Through his electrifying 2000AD work on the likes of ABC Warriors and Judge Dredd, to his more personal work with Peter Milligan such as Paradax, Skin and Rogan Gosh, McCarthy has consistently set the bar so far above his peers that it may as well be on another planet. This tendency has happily returned with the release of two of his best works to date over the last two dates. Both Solo #12 from DC Comics, with its radical reinterpretations of the DC pantheon of super-heroes, and the artist’s own visual autobiography Swimini Purpose have reinforced his reputation as one of the greatest powerhouses of innovation to ever wok in comics. And most importantly, he’s never boring. That’s his comics though… I caught up with him for a very brief chat about other things.

So, seen any good films lately?

Recently I enjoyed Rattatoullie, the animated character of Grendel in Beowulf, the sauna fight scene in Eastern Promises and the great B&W cinematography in Control.

What books do you have on the go at the moment?

LOEG Black Dossier (some good stuff in there), Remake/Remodel: about the origins of Roxy Music in the early 1970′s, Silence Of The Heart: the advaita influenced talks of Robert Adams, 9/11 Synthetic Terror: a deep analysis of 911 by Webster Tarpley.

I also read a lot off the internet sites like: Reality Carnival, Daily Grail and AntiWar.com.

What about music? Heard anything good lately?

Not really… Classic FM gets a lot of airplay.

What’re you having for tea tonight?

Oh, I already had it. Sorry. But chimp-free Earl Grey was involved.

Oh, go on then – what comics are you working on?

I’ve got about seven new pitches out with various comics companies at the moment, but I’m not working on an actual comic at the moment… apart from finishing a SHAKARA cover for dear old 2000 AD.

The official Swimini Purpose site can be found here, and it contains a useful selection of links to other sites of interest. You’ll want to check out The Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy to see more of that glorious artwork, by the way. Plus, buy his books.

I first encountered the work of Evan Dorkin in Deadline, where strips like Milk and Cheese and The Murder Family crackled with rare intensity, combining violence and humour in a way that I had never really seen before. It was something else, let me tell you. Of course, after that I kept my eyes open.

But let’s be frank – there’s just not enough Evan Dorkin comics. Aside from the obvious delights of Milk and Cheese, which remains his most famous creation, there’s his early work on Hectic Planet, a sci-fi love letter running at a thousand miles an hour. There’s his Bill and Ted books, which pull the movies inside out and in other directions you’d never expect. There’s also, possibly most wonderfully, his sporadically released title Dork, an anthology title of rare brilliance. The most recent issue, eleven, featured more jokes in one place than I think I’ve ever seen.

And World’s Funnest. Of course, World’s Funnest.  And more, of course, but stil not enough.

His comics are fuelled in equal parts by a deep and lasting love of popular culture and an acute awareness of its innate ridiculousness. They are crammed with jokes that tear apart the very thing that they celebrate. It’s this tension that, for me, is key to Dorkin’s comics – it’s almost like he is interrogating culture in order to discover why we keep coming back to it. Only with more chuckles.

That’s his comics though… I caught up with him for a very brief chat about other things.

So, seen any good films lately?

My friend shows martial arts flicks every Friday and last week was the five-year anniversary of the our getting together for that. For the occasion he showed two Shaw Brothers releases, Liu Chia Liang‘s “Cat vs. Rat” from 1982, and King Hu‘s “The Valiant Ones” from 1975. The latter features a very young Sammo Hung and a cameo from an even younger Yuen Biao. They were both enjoyable, I really like most of King Hu’s films (Dragon Inn and A Touch of Zen, especially), but it’s hard to blanket recommend kung-fu flicks.

I’ve actually seen very few films in the past few months, the few I’ve seen have generally been old Hollywood films on TCM, or whatever kung-fu films I can find the time to watch at my friend’s house. Work has been a factor, but it’s mostly owing to having a three-yr old daughter in the house who we try to keep away from the television as much as possible. We don’t disallow her TV time, we just limit it. She’ll have plenty of time to zone out in front of it when she’s older. What books do you have on the go at the moment?

I’m finishing up The Library of America collection of Philip K. Dick novels, which I borrowed from the library. I finished The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Ubik and am in the middle of The Man in the High Castle. I’ve read the latter before, ditto Androids, but this was about two decades ago and I barely remember them. I read Dick‘s Lies Inc. before this, so, of course, I’m walking around paranoid as hell about everything. Not to mention confused. I’ve also got American Movie Critics on the toilet tank, which is a collection of film criticism dating back to the silent era. I cracked open the new Dick Tracy and Walt and Skeezix collections, but haven’t made much headway on them.

What about music? Heard anything good lately?

In the daytime we tend to listen to music that Emily, our daughter, can also listen to. She likes a lot of what we were listening to before she was born, Puffy Ami Yumi, The Electric Six, The Aquabats, old big band music, electronic stuff, ska, punk, novelty records, whatever. We don’t shove our tastes down her throat, but she’s responded to a lot of “our” music, and we play her songs from some shows she likes, mostly Yo Gabba Gabba. We make sure we cut out music with curse words, Sarah’s made up playlists for her ipod that are all for Emily.

When I’m working I mostly listen to WFMU.org, a free-form station that plays just about everything. I hear a lot of great new bands there, and a lot of great old stuff I’ve never heard before, obscure punk, old r&b when r&b wasn’t dull music, glam rock, new-wave, no-wave, post-punk, blah blah blah. I also like to listen to old time radio when I’m drawing to zone out to, and sometimes I put on the local classical stations. I’m no classical music expert, half the time I hear a piece I like I can’t get to a pen and paper fast enough to write down the name of the piece. Two things I really have enjoyed recently are the Aladdin suite by Carl Nielsen and the music for Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg. I probably have that information wrong. I should stick to the Ramones.

What’re you having for tea tonight?

Carrot Stew, a fish, carrot, mushroom and herb soup Sarah makes. It’s based on the carrot stew the rabbits make in The Tawny Scrawny Lion, one of Emily’s favorite Little Golden Book. We also had dinner rolls baked in the style of muffins.

Oh, go on then: what comics are you working on?I have no comics projects going at the moment worth mentioning. Everything I’m working on is either a pitch, a proposal, or up in the air for reasons beyond my control.

You can find Evan’s website at The House of Fun, where you can check out what he’s up to via his journal, Big Mouth Types Again, and look at the lovely original art on sale. Most of his comics come out from Slave Labor Graphics – go and buy!

To a generation of British comic readers Ian Gibson defines the poles of 2000ad. Gibson is an exemplary comedic artist, with a real grasp of the dynamism needed to actually make slapstick funny on the printed page, as can be seen in stories such as Robo-Hunter or The Banzai Battalion. It’s a deceptively difficult trick to pull off, and it’s to his credit that he makes it look so easy. On the other side of the coin, he is also capable of producing character work that really gets under the skin of his protagonists, providing a psychology that normally you just never see. It would be impossible to avoid talking about The Ballad of Halo Jones here, which has long been held up as the gold standard of 2000ad stories, and justifiably. His work throughout the story, and especially in the third and final book, is wonderful, though like many Alan Moore collaborators his contribution is often overlooked in discussion of the piece. It’s always worth a visit though, as Gibson creates not only a believable world, but a believable universe, complete with alien life and language.

Outside of these, his best known works, there are still a myriad of classy projects for the interested reader to go out and find. Gibson provided some lovely art on Mister Miracle, giving the whole a fluidity that showed off the feats of escapology beautifully. The hard to find Steed and Mrs Peel series, mostly written by Grant Morrison, is a treat too, though the reproduction seems a little poor in every copy that I’ve ever seen. It’s a loving tribute to the 1960s TV series The Avengers, and surely it’s about time that it was collected up into a book. Back in the Judge Dredd fold, his Return of the Taxidermist series for the Megazine has become one of the highpoints of its history, again, quite deservedly.

That’s his comics though, I caught up with him to chat about other things…

So, seen any good films lately?

‘Lately’ is loose enough for me to go back a while? Then it would have to be The Fifth Element ( again! ) I don’t have a TV and I don’t go to the cinema. So my options here are limited!

What books do you have on the go at the moment?

The dictionary is always at hand – cos my spelling is atrocious! But in the way of book books I’m re-reading Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions 3; The Serrano Legacy by Elizabeth Moon (I read her Vatta’s War series and enjoyed it enough to sample some more!); Opening the Energy Gates of your Body by Bruce Frantzis (he’s a little pompous but I’m working my way through it.) A better book is: The Way of Energy by Master Lam Kam Chuen, which is also being digested.

What about music? Heard anything good lately?

I just bought The Eagles ‘Long Road out of Eden’. Some nice tracks on it if somewhat self indulgent in places. But I do like Don Henley’s words – his following of Thoreau shows up quite a lot. And I bought the CD version of Dylan’s ‘Nashville Skyline’. I’d forgotten what a great album it is!

What’re you having for tea tonight?

I’m cooking myself Murkha Dal. Simple yogin food! Fry some black mustard seeds, add garlic, onion and ginger. Cook till the garlic is brown then add some tumeric and chili then the lentils. Fry for a couple of minutes then add four times the volume of water compared to the lentils. Add some coconut milk and salt and simmer for about 40 minutes. Tasty!

Oh, go on then – what comics are you working on?

Not enough! I have a Dredd episode to finish that I put aside as I wasn’t feeling too bright. I have a series with John Ostrander that I’m still developing the characters for. But most of the time I’m working through the heap of private commissions I have. I think there are something like twenty to get done as and when. I’m not as fast as I was in my youth!

Ian Gibson can be found on the Internet at www.ian-gibson.com. He also contributes regular columns to the Den of Geek website. You should pay a visit!