General announcement for the Caption LJ -

I've just booked our accomodation at the Athena Guest House on Cowley road, and my brother and I have been placed in a family room.
This means there is space for up to 2 more people to share with us (total cost of family room £98, split between all occupants).

If anyone is still looking for a place to stay and doesn't want to worry about the hassle of looking around, let me know and we can arrange something. E-mail dbgoodman through the www.bahala.na.co.uk website.

David Goodman

Sadly, now looks as though I won't be able to attend this year's Caption. Even if Ann is out of hospital in time, it's unlikely I'll be able to leave her at home. Seeing as I'm also otherwise engaged during the BICS weekend, this is a real pain, but it's obviously dwarfed by my need to be there for Ann.

 Anyone who was planning on submitting illustrations, short comic strips or articles on the theme of "Timewarp" for the Caption Programme/Exhibition/Auction, this is your final call. I'll need everything in hand by no later than July 25th to give me time to finalise the Programme and get it printed. For the Programme, I'll need black and white/greyscale illustrations A5 300dpi tifs or jpegs. (If you have any queries, email me at jay.eales@googlemail.com)

We've had some great pieces so far, with more coming almost daily, and the promise of more, but there's always room for a few more! You don't have to be coming to Caption to take part, though of course, we'd like to see as many of you as possible at Britain's longest running comic convention.

Plug over! Get scribbling! : )

Jay

From Hugo Tate to Laika... Nick Abadzis will be joining us at Caption on Saturday 9th August for our Deadline Reunion and DFC Grab-Bag panels.

I'm very pleased to announce that this year, CAPTION t-shirts (designed by the lovely Woodrow Phoenix) are available for sale in advance of the event itself. We are also able to offer far more colours, cuts and variety than before, when you order from the online shop.

We have two main designs available, both featuring intrepid time-travellers braving all to appear at CAPTION Timewarp!

The Timesquid



And the Timelady



(The squid is possibly marginally octopus-like but I like squids better.)

We will have a selection of t-shirts available for sale at CAPTION. If you prefer not to order online yourself, you can ask us in advance for your size, cut, and colour preferences and we will try to fulfil this. Generally, though, sales at the event will be first come, first served as normal.

There's quite a lot on sale at the online shop, including t-shirts, badges, and even underwear featuring the CAPTION stickfigure. Adding new colour or cut combinations is quick for us to do, so if you want a striking new combo, why not email us and ask for it to be put up?

FREE POSTAGE UNTIL THE 17TH JULY Buy now and get free shipping too:

In a fairer and better world than this one, yesterday would have been Steve Whitaker's 53rd birthday. That seems an appropriate time to remind people about the special issue of B-APA in Steve's memory.

The British Amateur Press Association was an APA primarily of comics fans, that ran thought the 1980s and 1990s. Steve was a stalwart member. Therefore a special issue to commemorate him is appropriate.

However, I don't wish to restrict contributions to ex-B-APAns. Any friend of Steve is welcome to contribute. Amongst those who have already agreed to are: Nick Abazdis, Tim Bateman, Matt Brooker, Ross Cowin, Jeremy Dennis, Steve Green, Martin Hand, John Innes; Lee Kennedy, Mike Mittelstadt, Woodrow Phoenix, Tim Pilcher, Jenni Scott, Ivo Steijn, Mike Teague, Richard Whitaker, Terry Wiley and Russell Willis. Thank you, and especially those who have already sent their contributions.

If anyone would like to contribute, please send me 1-2 pages - preferably in electronic form to keentony at hotmail dot com, or by post (postal address available on request), in camera ready copy if possible. Printing is likely to be in black-and-white, except for the covers (where the plan is to use Steve's own artwork). Deadline for contributions is July 16th, with the intention of having the mailing out by the Oxford small press convention CAPTION, August 9th-10th.

Also, though I don't want this to sound like a begging letter, I would appreciate any financial contributions that anyone would like to make towards the printing costs. I have a Paypal account at the address in the preceding paragraph.

Please feel free to pass this message on to anyone else who would be interested.

Apologies for the bulk mailing nature of this, for spamming anyone who would prefer not to have been spammed, and to anyone who receives it twice.

 Just to keep interested parties abreast of developments as we continue to move towards August and the 17th annual Caption comics convention in Oxford, here is the latest flyer for Caption Timewarp.

We've just confirmed a few more guests for the Timewarp, with representatives from classic magazines Escape and Deadline as well as a veritable golden horde of creators involved with brand new weekly kids comic The DFC.

Welcome aboard to Nick Abadzis, Rian Hughes, Ilya, Paul Gravett, Garen Ewing, Kate Brown, Sarah McIntyre and Neill Cameron. (All guests appear subject to work commitments). More information about Caption past and present can be found at http://www.caption.org.

We're also still after contributions of illustrations, comic strips and articles for the Caption Souvenir Programme, on the theme of Timewarp, which will need to reach me by the middle of July at the latest.

Hope to see some of you there!

Jay
http://www.factorfictionpress.co.uk
http://www.caption.org 

Theres a great Caption forming around 9th-10th August. East Oxford Community Centre, Cowley Road, OX4 1DD

Though you know how time can be. wimey-Wibbly-wobbly. From August 1st to the end of the month, the Oxford Jam Factory will be host to the Caption Comics COllective. An event independent of Caption, complimentary. Affiliated artists featured will be Jeremy Dennis, Dierdre Ruane, Terry Wiley, D'Israeli, Andrew Luke, Sally-Anne Hickman, Daniel Merlin-Goodbrey and David Baillie. I'll have a few other names to add to that as the temporal readings stabilise. (Update: Now including Ellen Lindner and Jess Bradley !) The OJF is a smashing relax venue with bar, restaurant and free wi-fi access and the chance seemed too good to pass up. It's situated just beside the bus and train stations, and good for taking a look on the way to or from Caption. Heres a hyperlink. We'll also have a launch night, probably on the 1st, though I'll confirm that closer to the time.

A reminder that the Caption Festival booklet is good for one page submissions on the theme 'Timewarp'. Jays accepting pin-ups, strips or articles on the Timewarp theme. To be included in the Caption booklet please send 300dpi scans to jay.eales(at)googlemail.com, or send good copies or original art to Jay Eales, 38 Clarkes Road, Wigston, Leics, LE18 2BE the cut-off point being Mid-July.

Please indicate when providing your artwork whether you would like it returned, or whether you would be prepared to donate it to the Caption Auction.

Regarding accommodation, I've found looking through http://www.smoothhound.co.uk/oxford.html does quite well. However, Heres some previous posts from here on the subject.

http://community.livejournal.com/caption/48414.html
http://community.livejournal.com/caption/#item49064
http://community.livejournal.com/caption/47346.html

Latest Super-Sam and John-of-the-Night episode. All previous episodes can be seen on the Forbidden Planet blog. forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?cat=21

This episode is dedicated to Steve Whitaker.

The date and theme have now been finalised for CAPTION 2008, henceforth known as CAPTION TIMEWARP.

In the year that celebrates the 80th anniversary of The Beano, the 30th anniversary of Bryan Talbot's seminal Luther Arkwright, the 25th anniversary of Escape and the 20th anniversary of Deadline, Caption Timewarp will take place once again at the East Oxford Community Centre over the weekend of 9th/10th August.

We are now accepting illustrations/ comic strips on the Timewarp theme for inclusion in the convention programme/ exhibition/ auction. Contact Jay Eales for more info at: jay.eales@googlemail.com.

More information on Caption Timewarp as we have it...

Jay
http://www.factorfictionpress.co.uk

Steve Whitaker was one of the stalwarts of the comics British Amateur Press Association. I'm pretty sure that he was always in the apa whenever I was, from about 1990 onwards.

B-APA was wound up in 2004. However, there was a special in 2005, a commemoration issue when Andy Roberts died, to which Steve enthusiastically contributed. We can hardly do less for Steve. So I will be editing a commemorative special of B-APA, to be available at CAPTION, a convention Steve always supported. Obviously, I'd like as many ex-B-APAns as possible to contribute. But I don't want to restrict contributions to ex-B-APAns; I'd like anyone of Steve's friends who wants to be part of this to feel welcome.

If you want to contribute, please contact me at keentony at hotmail dot com. I'm looking for contributions of 1-2 pages, by mid-July, preferably as camera-ready copy. Thanks to those who have already agreed to be involved.

Apologies if you end up seeing this in several places.

Very sad news to give. I had a phone call last night from percyprune - I believe he and Matt Brooker amongst others were phoning round to let people know of the unexpected death of Steve Whitaker, long-time attendee and workshop-runner at CAPTION.

I don't know many details; apparently he was feeling unwell and was on his way to hospital so it was very sudden.

Steve was someone who I normally only saw sporadically in person, but whose art and words and thoughts I kept up with via Livejournal and Facebook and before those via BAPA and various comics creations. He was always amazing in his creativity and his beautiful art style - flowing graceful depictions of Helen of Troy or other characters from the Odyssey that still managed to have bones and angles and strength. Delicate colours applied sparingly in just the right places. Recently, the playing with the online vector tool that yielded surprising and intriguing results. Previously, the pen-and-ink sketches for friends or APAs that had a sly sense of humour and references to the wide range of music he loved.

In person he was self-deprecating and dismissive of himself and his abilities, but turning the subject onto the things he knew so much about - obscure or weird mainstream comics, eclectic music from tropicalia and jazz to no wave and Charles Wright and the 103rd Street Rhythm Band - and he was warm, open, a great teacher, a great communicator. He introduced me to Os Mutantes, Astor Piazzolla, and drawing with a firm line. His workshops for CAPTION were inspiring - I wish we could have had one more (having planned to ask him to do one this year).

Steemol - you'll be missed.

Current Mood: sad

Anyone know if a venue/date has been finalised yet?

I'm hoping to approach the Caption Committee this year with a proposal for a ten minute slot involving the return of the National Theatre of Earth Prime.
Under the tutelage of Primer sparkymark Boyes I wish to assemble a small team (2-3 people ?) and pick some comics classic to be condensed in the 2008 festival.

So if you fancy writing, acting and building props for whatever this years Theatre production will be, please get in touch. In previous years they've had the X-Men with Professor X's chair represented by a duct-taped cardboard X on the leg, and Wolverine's sideburns represented by weetabix. If you think you can match that level of ingenuity, nay if you demand it, click a comment, or send me an email and we'll swing something together.

- andyluke @ livejournal.com

Its a little late but finally got images and comments for this years caption [or the saturday at least] up over at my LJ

Local film-maker Brendon Connelly has done a brief video podcast from and about CAPTION2007. Some committee members feature, along with Jason Elvis collating his fab comic Sex Change Diaries of a Pear Shaped Boy. I think Debra is probably to one side helping to collate, but off camera...

Digital cameras abound at Caption, and you can already see photos of the event on-line.


Photos tagged with Caption 2007 on Flickr

If you are posting photos to Flickr, please include the tag caption2007 or "Caption 2007". There is also a Caption Comics Convention Pool, and you might also want to send them to UKSP Nation or UK Comic Cons.

If you recognize people in the photos, you can add notes or comments identifying them—this is a boon for those of us who do not yet knbow what our favourite small-press artists look like … !

If you have uploaded photos to other sites, please leave a comment on this post to help avid photo consumers to find them. If you have a Delicious account, you could tag your gallery as caption2007 to help people find it.

CAPTION table, originally uploaded by jinty.

Yes, it's been and gone and been fun for another year! There were various last-minute difficulties to sort out (the people building eco-friendly toilets in the back yard, the tiles in the main room that were loosened in the recent rains, the slight double-booking with the Tae Kwon Do group at the end of Sunday). All got sorted out, there were high-quality discussions and workshops, and of course plenty of beer and chat.

Neat idea to repeat Al Davison's workshop on the Sunday as well - I still didn't manage to make it but more nearly than usual. Did make it to the 24 minute jam comic though - fantastic fun! How my heart raced as 'only 2 and a half minutes to go' was announced, and I hadn't yet started inking! I was quite pleased with the result though.



The weather was pretty good, not even all that threatening rain-wise (it all held off till Tuesday) and LOTS of good discussion for next year's event too.

Hello Everyone,

Just a  final reminder that Caption: Dreams & Nightmares takes place at the East Oxford Community Centre, off Cowley Road, Oxford tomorrow and Sunday.

Those of you who will be bringing comics to sell on the Caption table can now speed the process up by downloading and filling in the forms beforehand: http://www.caption.org/2007/table.html

For those of you who are local or arriving tonight there will be a pre-Caption Meet in the Angel & Greyhound pub. Details here: http://community.livejournal.com/caption/49487.html

There is also an updated timetable of events on the website: http://www.caption.org/2007/programme.html

There has been some confusion regarding the Naked Artist panel - Bryan Talbot is not attending Caption this year, but has kindly sent us stories, images and books to be used in this panel.

We do have the wonderful Al Davison as our special guest and lots of stars of the small press attending. Look forward to seeing lots of you over the weekend!

--
luv & jellybabies
Selina
Editor "The Girly Comic:http://www.factorfictionpress.co.uk
Co-Editor "Prism" http://www.britishfantasysociety.org.uk
Committee Member: http://www.caption.org &  http://www.myspace.com/ladyfestleicester07