Book Club Clubbing Club Re-Launch

Hello All,

Once upon a time the PJCC did a regular book club at its meetings, and we've decided to start doing this again because it was tons of fun. The first book we'll all be purchasing and going away to read will be Book of Lists by Paul Rainey (small press). The book costs £10.95 and can be grabbed from the small press section at Travelling Man. We'll be getting more copies in this week, so if you come in and there are none just pop back later! We'll be reading this one for the Comics Evening on 6th April, 6:30pm onwards at Travelling Man.


If you have any ideas for further books to read, e-mail them through: tmne_smallpress@yahoo.co.uk

-Jack

Music...and that

Hello All,

This summer, the PJCC will be launching a music-themed anthology on the unsuspecting public. The form of this item and its launch are still undecided, but make no mistake - it will be epic. If you think this is something you'd like to get involved with, here's what you need to do:

1) Find an unsigned band, local or otherwise, and ask them if you could use one or more of their songs as a theme/stimulus/inspiration for your comic. Further to that, if they are local, ask them if they'd be up for playing at the launch event too. Make sure you include this, or your own version of when asking:

"The Paper Jam Comics Collective is a non-profit creative community, so all money made from the anthology and launch event will be put into our next project. For that reason, we can't offer bands any money for the use of their music, or for their live performances. However, the collective will cover the cost of equipment hire and of course the cost of printing the comic and burning the CDs. We're hoping this will be a mutually-beneficial endeavour, and it will generate a lot of exposure for the bands involved as well as the comic book artists. Please verify that you understand and agree with these terms so that everyone is on the same page."

If things get way legal, just drop me a line and I'm sure we can sort it out: tmne_smallpress@yahoo.co.uk

2) E-mail me when you've had a "yes" answer from a band, or if you want to submit but can't find a band. That means I can hook people up and make a "playlist" if you like, so we know that nobody is doing the same band twice and we can get an idea of numbers. We haven't got a definite deadline or format for submissions yet, but I will be releasing one shortly after our History...and that anthology has been released, so point number three:

3) Watch this space!

Cheers,
-Jack

P.R.E.S.S. at Washington Arts Centre (follow-up)

There was a whole crowd of Paper Jam members at the P.R.E.S.S. event at Washington Arts Centre yesterday. Andy and Gary were minding the stall all day, with support and nattering from Paul, Martin, Oscillating Brow and Mike D.

Business was slow (as is usually the nature of these things), but everyone who came was enthusiastic for the cause of independent publishing, and we made a few sales and had a lot of nice chats with people. Other stalls included comics, independent book publishers (of everything from poetry to horror fiction to children's books), and gorgeous art books (literally - books made into art). Mike D also produced and set up a wonderful zine trail especially for the event, which had inquisitive parties scouting the building for pages of a miniature zine.

Representatives of top London comics and zine team We Are Words + Pictures were there selling copies of their anthologies and individual works. It was a pleasure to have a natter with them and force them to buy some of our stuff.

Here's the obligatory photo of our stall...

...why we keep taking the same damn photo at every event is beyond me. The covers look nice, though!

Big thanks to Leonie at P.R.E.S.S. for organising the event and inviting us to come aboard.

Space Monkey review in The Crack

Space Monkey has been reviewed - very favourably - in top North East listings magazine The Crack.

Singled out for praise are Gary Bainbridge and Andy Waugh's silent six panel gags, and in particular, Martin and Sophie Newman's 'Alan The Confused Tortoise'.

You can read the whole thing below: