Laura Howell on the Beeb website….

The BBC magazine website has an interview with Laura Howell, multi-talented cartoonist, creator of The Mighty M & Sneaky in the DFC, Johnny Bean of Happy Bunny Green (Asbos come to Trumpton), writer of the Beano’s Ratz and much more besides (see her website for details.

(Johnny Bean, written and drawn by Laura Howell in the pages of the Beano.)

In comics it’s always nice to hear people taking about how bloody great it is to be paid for making comics, and Laura sounds like she’s having a ball:

“There is nothing like sitting down to draw a small boy catapulting hedgehogs over a road,” she laughs. “You think to yourself ‘Someone’s paying me to draw this.”

“I never dreamed I would be making comics. All of my e-mail list is now full of people creating the comics I was reading when I was a child,” she says.

With perceivable joy, she adds: “I am not sure I can picture myself doing anything else that would make me so happy. I do love it.”

Full article at the BBC News magazine site.

Jamie Hewlett in the Guardian – Tank Girls, Monkeys & the Olympics

There’s an article by Mark Kermode in the Guardian on Jamie Hewlett, most famous for being part of the Gorilaz, but shall always be the artist on Tank Girl for me.

He’s been a busy boy recently, working with Damon Albarn again to put on an opera based on Monkey entitled Monkey: Journey to the West. And the BBC will be using his Monkey visuals extensively this summer for their Olympic coverage.

‘This is going to be the summer of Monkey!’ declares Jamie Hewlett, smoking a roll-up and cradling what appears to be a freshly picked leaf in a cup of hot water (‘sage tea’, apparently). In the West London headquarters of his design and animation company, Zombie Flesh Eaters (he fell in love with walking corpses after watching the films of George Romero and Lucio Fulci), Hewlett oozes a mischievous cool. In the Eighties he became a cult star after creating the ass-kicking comic strip Tank Girl and went mainstream more recently with the success of his satirical ‘anti-band’ Gorillaz, for which he won the Design Museum’s Designer of the Year Award in 2006. For my money, he is the definitive face of post-punk British pop culture – edgy, angular and out there.

(via Down The Tubes)

Stephen Fry on the future of the Beeb

The latest in the esteemed Mr Fry’s blessays is up here. It’s the text of hi sspeech on the Fuure Of Public Service Broadcasting. And it’s well worth a read:

It begins thus…..

Before I can even think to presume to dare to begin to expatiate on what sort of an organism I think the British Broadcasting Corporation should be, where I think the BBC should be going, how I think it and other British networks should be funded, what sort of programmes it should make, develop and screen and what range of pastries should be made available in its cafés and how much to the last penny it should pay its talent, before any of that, I ought I think in justice to run around the games field a couple of times puffing out a kind of “The BBC and Me” mini-biography, for like many of my age, weight and shoe size, the BBC is deeply stitched into my being and it is important for me as well as for you, to understand just how much. Only then can we judge the sense, value or otherwise of what I am saying.

Read on…

Spending all day on the Internet doubting everything I read. It’s April Fools Day.

The big problem with April Fools Day now is that you spend all day asking yourself “is that a practical joke?”

So far:
Google.au looks into the future.
Virgle – the Virgin/Google project to get you to Mars.
G-Mail custom time
Boing Boing’s Heathrow homeless story.
and my favourite of the day so far: BBC iPlayer with it’s special penguins.

And then there’s this one:
Guido Fawkes telling us that Boris Johnson will be stepping in for Dave Cameron for PMQs tomorrow. I really, really want this to be true. And if it is I shall be tuning in for what may be the finest bit of comedy this year.
(Update 02 April – sadly, no Boris. William Hague instead proving the old adage shown by John Major that when Tory politicians give up their ambition, they turn into intelligent, reasonable and interesting people.)

No doubt there shall be many more, oh so hilarious things going on today.
I shall try not to laugh too hard over them all.

I can see Kevin Spacey’s point. How are these shows not promotional?

Kevin Spacey has come out and asked why the Beeb are allowed to get away with producing 13 weeks of promotional material for specific West End Shows.

He does have a point. The Maria one was obviously promotion for the Andrew lloyd webber production of Sound Of Music. The Joseph one was obviously promotion for the Joseph musical (another ALW production). And now, the Oliver one is obviously promoting Cameron Macintosh’s new Oliver show.

The Beeb’s response:

shows were not “unduly promotional”. “These Saturday night shows celebrate musical theatre generally, not just one West End show,” said Elaine Bedell, controller of entertainment commissioning.

Public to BBC. You’re wrong.
They are unduly promotional.
They celebrate these specific musicals and act as direct adverts for the shows.
The TV series will directly drive sales.

Can I get a rebate from the license fee from the multi-million pound revenues from these shows please. I’m not greedy though, please put my rebate directly into BBC Radio. Thanks.

Alan Moore on the BBC

Alan Moore article on BBC website that trails the Inside Out radio program on Moore due tonight at 7:30 on BBC1 East. The webpage does say it can be viewed on the Inside Out website (East), but doesn’t provide a link. So I think it will viewable, or linked to, from here.
There doesn’t seem to be any previous programs viewable here, so I wonder if the Alan Moore one will be?

(Caught it via Eddie)

Update. Just got around to watching the thing following Pete’s comment in the comments. Bloody hell. Welcome to 1980. Batman and Superman, Batman and Superman, Batman and Superman. For half the piece. And what hideous editing and effects.
Mad old uncle Alan eh?

Jamie Hewlett’s Phoo Action coming to BBC3

BBC3 are to produce a one off drama on the Jamie Hewlett Phoo Action.
Looks pretty good from the trailer, sort of Kill Bill meets Green Hornet meets the Banana Splits meets Gorrilaz.
Info and pics via the Beat.

My Space for the trailer and info
BBC3 Press release