Dundee Literary Festival 2012 - Sunday 28th October

28
Oct

High Intensity workout

10 am The Institute of Sport & Exercise (ise). Please bring suitable clothing and footwear for the training session

We all want to be fitter and healthier but how do you fit a weekly workout schedule into an already hectic life or increase your training to improve your personal best times without losing time with your family? This event will show you that you can do a workout that lasts no more than 15 minutes and has been scientifically shown to improve both fitness and health. Whether you want to start training from scratch, or are looking to change your existing training regime, this event is for you. The authors of the book will discuss the high intensity workout and then you will have an opportunity to try a high intensity session for yourself.

28
Oct

A Sink of Atrocity Walking Tour

Malcolm Archibald

12 noon

In his book A Sink of Atrocity, Malcolm Archibald reveals the real nineteenth- century Dundee and the ordinary and extraordinary crimes that took place here. Join us for a most unusual festival event with the author as he takes us on a walking tour of the city including: The Howff – scene of grave robbers; Victoria Dock – home to petty pilfering; Court House – where Police Courts were held and where Jack the Ripper may have been tried; and Couttie’s Wynd – a dark place which once held a number of infamous brothels and lodging houses.

28
Oct

Memories of McGonagall

A Poem and a Piece

1pm

Come and join in the fun of this tribute poetry competition to Dundee’s bard, who died 110 years ago this year. This event will be introduced by William McGonagall and filmed by Dundee’s internet news channel. The winner will be declared by three Dundee wordsmiths, Dr. Jim Stewart, Dr. Norman Watson and Sheena Wellington. The winner will be presented with a quarter stone of sausages, an author signed biography and a framed original broadsheet written and signed by McGonagall. Hear the finalists recite their original composition in the style of the man known as the world’s worst poet.

28
Oct

Scotland's Genes

Alistair Moffat

2pm

Since Alistair Moffat launched his Scotland’s DNA project, more than 2,000 Scots have taken part in a genetic tracking experiment that could revolutionise the way the country’s history is understood. Join us for this unique event where Alistair will discuss the genetic tracking of two volunteers (one male and one female) to illustrate the findings in his book The Scots: A Genetic Journey.

28
Oct

Tales from the Back Page: Football Writing - Fact & Fiction

Rodge Glass, Graham Hunter & Richard Wilson

3pm

For this special event we have brought together three authors who have written about some of the most iconic teams in football. Graham Hunter has had unprecedented access to Barcelona - and the result is his book Barca: The Making of The Greatest Team In The World. Bring Me The Head of Ryan Giggs by Rodge Glass tells the tale of a player who manages just one game for Manchester United before his life spirals out of control. Finally, Richard Wilson’s Inside the Divide delves into the history of The Old Firm and addresses the role football plays in working-class life. A thought-provoking and controversial afternoon is guaranteed.

28
Oct

Antarctica

Gavin Francis & Doug Allan

4pm

Doug Allan is a freelance wildlife and documentary cameraman. He is perhaps best known for his stunning contributions to The Blue Planet and Frozen Planet. Over the years, he’s also written numerous articles about wildlife and his experiences.

He will be talking about and showing images from Freeze Frame, a collection of polar pictures and experiences. Gavin Francis spent fourteen months as a medical doctor on the Caird Coast of Antarctica, which is unreachable for ten months of the year. It was a rare opportunity to explore the world of the Emperor Penguin.

Gavin’s book Empire Antarctica takes the reader through the year, and explores the physical and mental hardship of living at temperatures of-50°C.

Come and join us for an insight into life in the Antarctic from two first hand witnesses.

28
Oct

Chris Dolan

5pm

Elspeth Baillie, a young Scottish actress, is chosen by enigmatic impresario Lord Coak for an acting career on the Island of Barbados. At first fêted by the colonial gentry, her life in the Caribbean does not go according to plan and in a plot full of unexpected twists, Elspeth becomes ever more a prisoner.

Join the author Chris Dolan for a unique reading event with live music to accompany this wonderful novel which The Independent called “a powerful, disturbing tale, written with scrupulous care“.

28
Oct

Iain M. Banks

7pm

‘The standard by which the rest of SF is judged’
Guardian

‘Banks is a phenomenon’
William Gibson

The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, the End Days for the Gzilt civilization.

An ancient people, organized on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join only at the last moment. Iain M. Banks’ latest SF novel The Hydrogen Sonata is being published 25 years after the first Culture novel, Consider Phlebas, and we are incredibly pleased that he has agreed to round off this year’s literary festival with this event.

28
Oct

The Comics Of Grant Morrison

D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre and Baxter Suite Tower Building, University of Dundee

The Dundee Comics day once again welcomes a stellar line-up of top industry talent, this time to celebrate the comics of award-winning Scottish writer Grant Morrison (MBE). Grant will be discussing his approach to writing comics, his thoughts about superheroes, as expressed in his recent book Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero, and his experience of working with some of the best comics artists in the industry.

This exploration of the comics of Grant Morrison is timely given his recent award of an MBE, but also because the University of Dundee is currently leading the way in the emerging field of Comics Studies with modules on comics at Undergraduate and postgraduate level, including the UK’s first MLitt in Comics Studies in the School of Humanities, launched in September 2011. DJCAD has also launched very successful modules on creating comics. The University of Dundee is therefore delighted to have this opportunity to celebrate the huge success of one of Scotland’s most influential and successful authors.

The Comics Day talks are designed to appeal to everyone with an interest in comics, and will be accompanied by an exhibition of comic art work. Tickets: £15 for Saturday & Sunday Workshop and £7.50 concession for children under 13. For more information about the Comics Day please contact Dr Chris Murray at c.murray@dundee. ac.uk. For tickets consult the Dundee Literary Festival webpage: www.literarydundee.co.uk/

26
Oct

Grant Morrison: Screening

Chris Murrray

8.45pm DCA, Nethergate

Screening of documentary Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods at DCA, with an introduction by Dr Chris Murrray.

  • Tickets from DCA
28
Oct

Registration

10.30am

28
Oct

Opening of Conference

Chris Murray

10.55am

27
Oct

Creating Comics

2.00pm

A two hour workshop on Creating Comics

28
Oct

Session One

11.00am

11.00am A conversation with Grant Morrison
12.00pm Break

Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison is one of the world’s most successful comics writers. He started his professional career in the late 1970s working for DC Thomson in Dundee. In the mid-1980s he started work for Marvel UK writing short Doctor Who stories, and then he created Zenith for 2000AD. Morrison was quickly head-hunted by DC Comics in America, where he produced post-modern deconstructions of Animal Man and Doom Patrol. Morrison continued to make a name for himself and his most mature and personal work emerged in the mid-1990s, and included Flex Mentallo (1996), and arguably his most important project, The Invisibles (1994–2000). He also wrote the enormously popular Justice League of America (1996). Morrison continued to balance personal work with mainstream success, and has helmed several radical re-workings of major titles, notably New X-Men. His run on All-Star Superman, with artwork by Frank Quitely, produced some of the best Superman stories since the 1960s, and in his Batman R.I.P. storyline he killed Bruce Wayne, having Dick Grayson take up the mantle of Batman. Beyond comics Morrison has written scripts and treatments for films and computer games, as well as two plays and several short stories, many of which are collected in the anthology Lovely Biscuits (1999).

28
Oct

Session Two

1.00pm

1.00pm Cameron Stewart
1.30pm Frazer Irving
2.00pm Break / book signing by Cameron Stewart, Frazer Irving and Grant Morrison
2.40pm Gallery talk / Exhibition Launch

Cameron Stewart

Cameron Stewart is a Canadian comic artist whose credits include Catwoman for DC Comics (in the famed run by Ed Brubaker), the Eisner award nominated The Other Side for Vertigo (with writer Jason Aaron), as well as his own webcomic Sin Titulo. He has collaborated with Grant Morrison on Seaguy, Seven Soldiers of Victory, and Batman and Robin.

Frazer Irving

Frazer Irving started work in the comics industry, like many before him, by creating Future Shocks and a few Judge Dredd stories for 2000AD, but unlike many who had taken this route his style marked him out as quite different. His dark and twisted style found a perfect match with Gordon Rennie’s writing for the horror story Necronauts, also in 2000AD. He collaborated with Grant Morrison in Seven Soldiers of Victory, and has gone on to illustrate some of Morrison’s recent work on Batman.

28
Oct

Session Three

3.00pm

3.00pm Frank Quitely
3.30pm Rian Hughes
4.00pm Jill Thompson
4.30pm Break / book signing by Frank Quitely, Rian Hughes, Jill Thompson & Grant Morrison

Frank Quitely

Frank Quitely is one of the most sought- after comics artists in the world, and has worked with Grant Morrison on comics such as Flex Mentallo, The Invisibles, New X-Men, We3, All-Star Superman, and Batman and Robin. He started out in comics producing work for Electric Soup, parodying DC Thomson’s The Broons in his strip, The Greens. Quitely’s stylish artwork has made him one of the most influential artists in the comics industry.

Rian Hughes

Rian Hughes is a graphic designer and comics artist who runs a successful design company, Device, which has an impressive client list. He is the author of the book Cult-ure: Ideas can be Dangerous, and illustrated Grant Morrison’s controversial reworking of one of Britain’s most beloved comic characters, Dan Dare, in 1990’s Dare, as well as working for various characters for 2000AD, such as Really & Truly (also with Grant Morrison), and Robo-Hunter. Some of his work in comics is collected in the limited edition graphic novel Yesterday’s Tomorrows. Although he no longer does much in the way of comics illustration his distinctive sense of design continues to have a profound effect on the world of comics.

Jill Thompson

Jill Thompson is a comic artist and writer whose best known work includes The Invisibles (with Grant Morrison) and The Sandman (with Neil Gaiman). She has also worked on Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, Books of Magic, and The Little Endless, featuring manga versions of characters from The Sandman, such as Death. She is creator of the Scary Godmother series of children’s books and comics, which have has been made into animated films.

28
Oct

Session Four

5.15pm

5.15pm
Roundtable discussion with Grant Morrison and his collaborators

6.00pm  
Announcement of Dundee Comics Prize Winners and wine reception