Today’s show: Comics in galleries

5pm Resonance 104.4FM: Strip! – Comics in galleries

To coincide with Thanksgiving, Alex Fitch talks to two American ‘indie’ comics artists who have had work exhibited in galleries this year. A couple of days before Jim Mahfood and Bill Shag have their fine art collaborations displayed in Dreamspace Gallery in London, Alex talks to Jim about his comic book career so far, the cross-over between fine art and comics and his own artistic influences. Alex also has a brief chat with Dreamspace coordinator Chloe Brooks about the gallery.

In the second half of the show it’s the first broadcast of an interview previously podcast as an episode of “I’m ready for my close-up”, Alex talks to Jacob Ciocci from the art collective ‘Paper Rad’ about the exhibition of their video art displayed at Sketch gallery in August which combined sampled images, video games and comic book iconography.

The show you may have expected this week – Comics for girls and (Hell) boys part 2, featuring the second half of ComICA’s panel on Girls comics plus Alex’s interview with Duncan Fegredo and Sean Phillips – will be broadcast next week as Alex wanted to strike while the iron was hot regarding Jim’s exhibition.

Special thanks to Joe Gordon @ FPI for the info about Jim & Bill’s show…

Links: Information about Jim & Bill’s exhibition and Dreamspace gallery
More info on Jim’s comic book company 40oz comics

Podcast: The art of Paper Rad

As their exhibition closes Saturday evening and IRFMCU is being podcast only this month, in a break from tradition, this week’s I’m ready for my close-up is available to download now (30 hours early) to give our listeners a chance to get down to Conduit Street and check out the installation…
Alex Fitch interviews Jacob Ciocci and David Wightman members of the band Extreme Animals. Jacob is also a member of the art collective Paper Rad (for whose videos David has supplied sountracks) and while they were in Europe touring with their band Alex spoke to them about the Paper Rad exhibition showing at Sketch Gallery in London which Jacob curated. Paper Rad are famous for their low-fi DIY videos, art and comics which mix fanzine indie aesthetics with the detritus of our generation’s pop culture…
(mp3 format, 27.4mb)

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Links: Wikipedia’s page on Paper Rad
Sketch Gallery’s press release about the show: PDF format / HTML format
Sketch Gallery’s website
Paper Rad and Deitch Projects‘ Super Mario Movie

N.B./ The following links are not suitable for viewing if you suffer from epilepsy, if you choose to click on them, it is your responsibility!
Paper Rad’s website
Paper Rad comics
Extreme Animals‘ myspace page