Comicake!

Yes, it has been a long time.

No, I am not dead.

I can but apologise for the appalling delay between posts, and hope that the contents of this extra-special Comics & Cakery blog post will make up for the wait. Today, I present to you the ultimate marriage of my two favourite things: COMICAKE.

I cannot promise that this is the world's first comic-cum-cake creation, but it was certainly a first for me and - going by the conversations I had with the contributors - for them too. 

Yesterday saw the second of Comica Festival's biannual Comikets for 2012, and it was quite the occasion. I had decided a while back that, as well as being the good little volunteer that I am, I would bring my own special brand of peculiarity to the November Comiket in the form of a comics-themed cake (or "Comicake", if you will). Unfortunately, in spite of having had the best of intentions, my hectic schedule and lack of preparedness meant that it was all a little ad hoc. I spent most of Friday making the cake (an insanely rich, dense chocolate cake from BBC GoodFood, which hopefully will not have given too many people diabetes) and painstakingly covering it with white sheet icing and small "panels" of black icing. The hope was that it would end up looking a bit like a double page spread of a comic. Thus, when I turned up at Comiket (having forewarned a few artists, but sadly not many), I was carting this with me:

Not the easiest thing to get across London at 7 in the morning, I can tell you. Still, I managed to arrive with cake surprisingly intact. As I had managed to do so little in the way of forewarning artists, I was originally just going to ask each contributor to attempt a mini self portrait (or similar) to fill the pages. However, the wonderful Paul Gravett (part of the trio who run Team Comica, for those not in the know) was having none of that. "No! It must have narrative!" he cried. 

...Or...well...maybe "cried" is a little strong. But he was very keen that some kind of story emerge, and in retrospect I am glad that he was.

The cake kicked off with Woodrow Phoenix, who got the ball rolling with a panel featuring his Pants Ant character. He, like many other artists on the day, chose to decorate with the wonderful double-ended Culpitt pens that I discovered in my local Whisk shop. Very handy tools that avoid lots of faffing about with fiddly icing tubes and piping. Here he is in action, beginning the Comicake masterpiece:

Throughout the course of the day I worked my way around the hall, gently (and not so gently) badgering kind-hearted souls to help create this collaborative, edible story. Rather than take you through the process panel-by-panel (a process, mind you, that lasted about 4 hours in total), here's a selection of photos taken throughout the day to capture the cake's evolution:

Joe Decie joins in the fun

A story begins to form, with Pants Ant spotting some free cake. Mmm, tasty
self-referential comics...

Graham Johnson tries out a brush and food dye technique, whilst Rob Cureton
watches over and documents the process fastidiously

Page one in progress

Luke Surl gets in on the fun

David O'Connell and Hunt Emerson both have a go, with Hunt finishing
page 2 to give other artists something to work towards

David and Hunt were also the first (but by no means the last) contributors
to have a go at moulding some fondant icing to create a 3D effect,
as seen in David's panel here

Claude T.C. provides crucial support to Nich Angell as he
tackles his panel

Page 1 completed, image borrowed (as it's clearer than mine,
and in the hope that she won't mind) from Sarah McIntyre's
blog post about Comiket

John Miers took particular pleasure from crafting his 3D masterpiece...

Said masterpiece on display, kicking off page 2 with a bang! 

The ever-charming Dan Berry gets in on the action

Here's his panel, next to John's. Sadly we had no green pens, but I think Dan
still managed to effectively recreate John's creepy character 

Sally-Anne Hickman followed on from Dan's panel, and was the only artist
to utter the words "oh yes, I've used these pens before!"

Page 2 in progress, with Hunt Emerson's final panel on display

Douglas Noble brings Pants Ant back into the story

A slightly blurry shot of the first half of page 2, with Doctor Simpo's 3D panel
on show

Sarah McIntyre jumps into action!

Soon followed by Darryl Cunningham, who was no match
for my persuasive skills

I grabbed Rian Hughes pretty much as soon as he'd walked
in the door. Clearly I was getting pushier as the day went on!

A complete page 2, with some lovely (if slightly bizarre)
story development

Said story development in a slightly less blurry depiction...

I just want to say a final thank you to everyone that took part, and helped me to indulge my love of comics and cakery. I hope I brought a little of the joy of cake making and decorating to the contributors, and that everyone who then went on to buy a piece of cake (bless you for that) enjoyed eating their part-art-part-dessert purchase!

Lord knows how I'll top this next time, but believe me - I'll try!

Here's that image of the final cake again, with a list of contributors below:

Page One [reading across rows from left to right]: 4 introductory panels, 

then Woodrow Phoenix, Joe Decie, Jazz Greenhill, Elena Vitagliano, 

Graham Johnson, Rob Cureton, Luke Surl, Theo Aji, 

Richy K. Chandler, David O'Connell, Nich Angell, Will from Twisted Dark 

(whose surname I must find out...)

Page Two [reading across rows from left to right]: 

John Miers, Dan Berry, Sally-Anne Hickman, Francesca Cassavetti, 

Douglas Noble, Jaime Huxtable, Frank Fiorentino, Doctor Simpo, 

Sarah McIntyre, Darryl Cunningham, Gary Northfield, John Maybury, 

Rian Hughes, JAKe, Krent Able and Hunt Emerson.

Teapot Therapy and On Reflection: An Andy Poyiadgi special!

It’s always a bit of an awkward moment when someone you know offers to send you their work to look at. Even if you insinuate yourself into creative, artsy circles like I do (bribing creators to be my friend with cake), there’s nevertheless a risk that you will open up said link or email and find something that isn't your kind of thing at all.

Mercifully, when the lovely Andy Poyiadgi said he would send me a story of his (a suggestion which - appropriately enough for this blog – came from a shared love of tea, biscuits and cake) I opened up the link and was blown away. The piece in question was Teapot Therapy, which can be found here. In 4 short pages, it does something that many comics struggle to achieve: it connects on an emotional level, and is incredibly moving. The heartache that forms an undercurrent to the comic gradually seeps into the story, never becoming melodramatic or trite, but rather striking a recognisable and convincing chord. I won’t go into the story too much as, frankly, you should just go and read it for yourself. (It's only 4 pages, don't be lazy now). Suffice it to say that it is a thing of quiet beauty. Something which can also be said of Andy’s art, which somehow manages to match the tone of his narrative perfectly. Soft, clean lines and muted colours (aided by the clever use of actual tea for the backgrounds, I believe) seem at first comforting, but then with the gradual reveal of the story take on a different meaning. For me, they speak to a muted every-day life: not grim or unbearable, but somehow sapped of those things that had once made it vibrant and engaging.

Formally, Andy plays with the conventions of panels and structure in a way that is interesting but never distracting, with each new shape or sequence adding another subtle level of meaning to the story. And you can’t deny that it’s beautiful to look at. I mean, seriously now, just look at this page:

Sigh. Lovely stuff. If you're a fan of more traditional panels, Andy's also got a 6 page story in  ink+PAPER #2: On Reflection. Rather like Teapot Therapy, the tone is quiet and thoughtful, with sequences given over to individual moments to allow each one the space and weight it deserves.

Compositionally, it is perhaps more conventional than Teapot Therapy, but it is nonetheless an intriguing one to pore over. Without giving too much away (again, you should be going out and buying yourself a copy of ink+PAPER #2 here, or at your local comic shop), take a moment whilst you're reading this to enjoy the way in which reflection permeates not just the content of the panels, but also the structure of the page.

What a lovely thing it is to discover just how talented one of your friends is. Having seen what Andy can do in a shorter piece, I'm now eager to find out what he could do with a longer story. One to watch, I have no doubt!

Europe Cake

Another friend's birthday, another excuse for cakery.

Because my friend Jordan likes to travel, I decided that his birthday cake would have to be geographically themed. Perhaps somewhat rashly, I formed a plan that involved reproducing a map of Europe in baked form and marking all of the places that dearest J-Man has visited. Cue several worrying realisations about the level of my geographical savvy...

I came up with a plan that - whilst fiddly and probably quite time consuming - felt feasible. I found this lovely looking recipe on BBCGoodFood.com which promised to stay moist for 3-4 days (and frankly, anything with the word "ultimate" in the title feels likely to be a winner, no?). I've made Angela Nilsen cakes before, and they have invariably turned out nicely. Which is not to say that I wasn't a bit nervous about it: the trouble with making birthday cakes is that you can't test them before icing - a cake with a Jess-sized chunk missing might look slightly less than perfect...

Anywho, it didn't give me any trouble and looked quite pretty once I had taken it out of the oven and ganached it (a process that involved me making lots of fretting noises whilst trying not to burn cream in the pan). Voilà: cake avec ganache:

(Don't worry, I tidied up the base before I iced it - you'll find no sloppiness in the kitchen de Cave)

Whilst the ganache was setting in the fridge, I busied myself by getting ready for the party with plenty of time to spare (this is a barefaced lie: I actually spent an hour running around Ealing trying to locate regal icing and food dye). When it came to the icing, I lucked out by finding some ready-to-roll blue icing which I mixed with some white to give a fairly pleasing sea colour.

You should probably know that in preparation for this icing extravaganza I read several blog posts warning of "cake farts" - a pretty alarming prospect (and one that somewhat reassuringly comes from the cake, not the person eating the cake). I ended up following instructions from the very helpful "Inspired by Michelle" YouTube channel, and miraculously avoided creating flatulent baked goods. PHEW.

I made the countries for my map through a slightly long-winded process that involved: i) printing off a map of Europe, ii) tracing said map onto greaseproof paper, iii) dying and rolling out green icing, iv) laying my greaseproof map over the icing and stabbing around the lines with a toothpick, and finally v) cutting around the dotted lines on the icing with a knife. Below are snapshots of just a few steps from the rather finicky  experience:

By the way, I have found that cake decorating is about 36 times more fun if done whilst listening to inappropriate music and singing/dancing around the kitchen. Just saying...

Right, so where was I? Oh yes, I know. So, I transferred the countries onto the cake (trying to put my Geography SAT knowledge to use in order to get them in the right position) and then made little flags out of toothpicks, stickers and tiny pictures of Jordan's face which I stuck haphazardly into locations I thought he'd been to (turns out there were 19 in Europe...NINETEEN).

Somehow, I managed to get the cake from Ealing to Chalk Farm in one piece amidst the Olympics madness. (Seriously, I'm rather more proud of that fact than I am of the cake creation...) As I think can be seen in the pictures below, Jordan seemed to enjoy his cakey birthday treat - and a good thing too, as otherwise I would've had to cut off his supply. I am a harsh cake mistress, I'll tell you that now.

So my dears, there you have it: one European travel inspired birthday cake. Somewhat poignantly, it was my first proper decorated cake without the help of my partner in crime, Steph (she of the Fargo cake fame). I can only hope she'll be proudly looking on from dear old Brizzle...

p.s. As an added bonus, please enjoy this picture of my friend Ella merrily sneaking up behind me with a large knife:

ELCAF Goodness

Last weekend* saw the first ever ELCAF hit the UK comics community, and boy was it popular! The event kicked off at about 9 on Sunday morning - I arrived at 5pm and there was still a queue outside the venue, letting punters in on a one-in-one-out basis. Crazy.

Unsurprisingly, it was pretty packed inside. Then again, the venue was small enough that you could circle the tables a few times to make sure you got a look at everything on offer. With more of an emphasis on printmaking and illustration than other fairs I’ve been to recently, the resulting mix of work on show was fascinating to peruse.

Here’s a shot of my haul from the day (predictably, I spent way more money than I had been intending to):

Pictured (L-R): The Accidental Salad by Joe Decie, complete with
complimentary badge; Ladder by Kristyna Baczynski; Paper Science bundle; Cats on Planes by Gemma Correll;
fox badge from Tom Frost; Shore Leave postcard pack from Warwick Johnson Cadwell; St. Martin of Tours by Daniel Locke.

I don't really know why it took me so long to buy Joe Decie's The Accidental Salad. Now that I have bought it (and, in the process, been gifted with a lovely badge that I'm going to INSIST depicts tea rather than coffee), I feel somewhat sheepish about my tardiness. Joe is, to put it quite simply, hilarious. His humour is both subtly understated and - at times - a bit absurd: both things that rank highly on my list of good qualities in comedic writing. On a tangent, his strip about the desire to somehow bottle the smell of paper (something I can sympathise with) coincided nicely with my stumbling across this on the internet (courtesy of DesignTaxi):

Aaah, "the silent smell of paper". Classy. 

Kristyna Baczynski's Ladder is a lovely zine that ends with a rather unexpected twist. A surprise, certainly, but not an unpleasant one. Kristyna's line style is rather like the comics equivalent of calligraphy: it curls and twists in ways that make for a final product that is expressive and accomplished. It's quite unlike anything else I have come across, and I like it immensely.

I've also had a chance to leaf through Gemma Correl's Cats on Planes, which suits my sense of humour perfectly. For such a little book, it resulted in a hell of a lot of giggling. (Oh sod it - some very unladylike snorts of laughter as well). I will definitely be searching out more of her stuff for future hilarity.

Life in the past week has been a little too hectic for me to delve into my other purchases just yet (more on my busy week of comics to come), but I am putting aside some time soon to sit back and relax with my haul: the perfect antidote to a working week!

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my ELCAF experience. I got to discover some new, very talented people (Tom Frost was a particularly exciting find: his print work is definitely worth keeping an eye on), catch up with some wonderful people I'd met before (it's always a pleasure to chat with Dan Berry and Warwick Johnson Cadwell - two of the nicest men in comics), and discover the musical stylings of The Dead Pirates, whose animated music video was almost as enthralling as their performance. The queueing and busy aisles couldn't even dampen my enjoyment: testament to the quality of the event. Well done to everyone involved in making the inaugural ELCAF such a success, I'm very much looking forward to the next one!

*Well, it was last weekend when I started drafting this...

Buffy Season 8, Volume 5: Predators and Prey

I have been determinedly trudging my way through Buffy Season 8, largely because season 9 sounds interesting and I'm not one to skip large chunks of storyline. However, it hasn't exactly been easy going. Much as I am loathe to criticise anything from the Whedonverse, the whole of season 8 that I've read so far seems to be playing fast and loose with the cheap thrills and the staid clichés. Everything's just that little bit too ridiculous, and everyone is that little bit too attractive. *cough* Xander *cough*. Thankfully I only have 3 volumes to go before I can get to season 9 where, I'm reliably informed by CBR, the plan is to "dial back the widescreen action from “Season Eight,” returning to the character’s roots as well as the level of interaction fans can expect between the various Buffyverse titles". 

Without giving too much away in terms of spoilers, Predators and Prey had yet more of what I tended to dislike in the earlier volumes: Dawn's character arc serving as little more than an excuse to try out surreal story lines, somewhat unconvincing monsters that are just there to be hacked to bits, and the whole "slayer army" arc that I find a bit irritating...unfortunately, the series thus far feels as though it's lost the character-centric feel and dry wit that made Whedon's Buffy so appealing to me in the first place.

The art itself is nice enough, though I must admit it all feels a bit too familiar. I think it's a shame when artists are hampered by trying to recreate a real-life actor on the page: far better, in my humble opinion, to use your own style to capture the feel of a character, than to painstakingly try to recreate every physical curve and line. Take, for example, the art of Fábio Moon for Dark Horse's own FCBD Serenity comic. The style is freer and more dynamic than that found in the Buffy books, and I think the comic benefits greatly from it.

      

(Left: Fábio Moon's art from the Dark Horse FCBD Serenity comic; Right: Georges Jeanty's art from Predators and Prey)

Ultimately, thanks to Whedon's original work I am dedicated enough to these characters to stay with them  (for now), but I can't help but feel somewhat disappointed at the direction Season 8 has taken. I will, however, be looking to read more comics featuring the work of Mr Fábio Moon - now there's a style I really do like.

Kicking things off with a bit of Fargo cake

Though the focus of this blog will probably (inevitably) veer more towards comics than cakery, a fun bit of cakery from my past seemed like a good place to start.

This requires a little bit of back story. When I first started my MA in Film and Literature at the University of York, I happened to befriend someone who would turn out to be my perfect partner in cake-based crime. Steph doesn't just enjoy baking: Steph enjoys creating cake spectacles. Whilst - control freak that I am - I was happy to follow a recipe to the letter and enjoy the delicious, calorific results, I soon discovered that Steph liked to take that tasty, heart-attack-inducing goodness and turn it into a work of art. It wasn't long after I met her that I heard about the "ginger pope cake" she had made for a friend. It pretty much did what it said on the tin: it was designed to look like a ginger, female pope: ornate robe and all. (If anyone ever chances upon Steph, ask to see pictures. In fact, you should immediately go check out her blog, which currently has "a collage of cake" on display).

Anyway, to cut a long story short: we discovered that our friend's birthday was coming up, and decided to combine forces to make a memorable cake for him. Our friend, I should point out, was starting a Ph.D. on the films of the Coen brothers. So, without further ado, I present our Fargo cake:

What do you mean it looks morbid? Why shouldn't you spell Happy Birthday in (fake) blood? 

Or have an icing corpse on a cake? 

...with a silver icing ball to represent a bullet in his back? 

Well, to each their own I suppose. But at least Nathan (the birthday boy) seemed to enjoy it. Plus, it was full of delicious carrot cakey goodness on the inside (from the Hummingbird Bakery recipe, which can be found here). 

For anyone who hasn't seen Fargo and is wondering why our cake came out looking like it did, here's the film poster that we used as inspiration:

Also, why haven't you seen Fargo? Go and watch it now. Go on. 

...I'll wait, it's OK.