Alan Moore on Austin Osman Spare

Born in London's Snow Hill on 30 December 1886, the artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare has long been a beloved figure on those who favour the outer fringes of British art.  

His inclusion in the 1904 Royal Academy summer exhibition brought him early notoriety and a modicum of fame that, to varying degrees, followed him through a life that saw his artistic and his magical works increasingly entwined. In the decades following his death in 1956, he was embraced by the rising counterculture and his ideas permeate through it's various strands to this day.

Most recently Spare can be found as a major character in the first volume of Alan Moore's 'Long London' novel series, 'The Great When' and in the video below Moore takes on a short trip through the life and work of this singular artist.

..........................................................................................

If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.

The State of the Art (audio drama)

Adapted by Paul Cornell from the Iain M Banks novella of the same name (reprinted in the collection of the same name) this BBC Radio 4 radio play finds agents of 'The Culture' - an interstellar post-scarcity civilisation comprising of a variety of sentient lifeforms, although primarily humanoid and machine - visiting present day Earth in order to assess it's suitability for membership.

To my knowledge this is the only adaptation of any Culture stories and fortunately it's a very good one with a rock solid cast featuring Antony Sher, Nina Sosanya, Paterson Joseph, Graeme Hawley, Brigit Forsyth and Conrad Nelson and with it's contemporary setting stripping it of most of it's space opera trappings it makes for a perfect introduction to Banks' defining creation.

..........................................................................................

If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.

Louis Wain's Cats

Chris Beetles
Cannongate

'Louis Wain invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world'. - H.G. Wells (1925)

Whilst the artist Louis Wain maintains one of the most recognisable bodies of work his posthumous fame pales in comparison to that which he achieved in his lifetime.

From an early career in journalism providing illustrations for his own stories and drawing anthropomorphised cats, primarily to entertain his ill wife, his career exploded when he was hired to illustrate the book, 'Madame Tabby's Establishment', and produced a feature, 'A Kitten's Christmas Party', for the Illustrated London News, which brought him instant and lasting fame - but due to his poor business sense never the wealth to accompany it - and between 1901 and 1921 he produced 16 annuals, over 1100 postcards and numerous illustrated books

Perhaps equally as famous as his art is that Wain sent his last 15 years in a series of psychiatric hospitals where he produced many of his most famous and outre works.  It's unclear what exactly led to  being institutionalised but he had previously suffered a serious head injury which may have contributed and diagnosis at the time was schitzophrenia after he had become violently delusional and believing, amongst other things, that spirits were infesting him with electricity.  This diagnosis coming some time after his fame had waned and his fortunes had gone from bad to worse including the sinking, by U-Boat, of a boatload of his unfortunately named 'Lucky Futurist Mascots' whilst on their way to the US.  

Beetles' book is a sumptuous and comprehensive exploration of Wain with his beautiful art given plenty of space to shine.  Alongside the paintings we have articles by Wain himself on 'How I Draw My Cats', 'A Whole Pet World' and 'How Animals Study Their Appearance', an introduction by Benedict Cumberbatch - who played Wain in the biopic 'The Electrical Life of Louis Wain' - and numerous articles by Beetles, Rodney Dale, Ray Compton and Dave Wootton.  The final result of all their work is entirely stunning and this is the book that Wain deserves and that every other artist should envy.

..........................................................................................

If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.

Goth at the BBC

Screened in 2018 as part of a night celebrating 'Gothic' in art, literature and, of course, music this is a compilation of archive BBC performances from many of the stalwarts of the goth scene - Siouxsie and The Banshees, Bauhaus, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Killing Joke, The Sisters of Mercy, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - as well as a couple of later entrants - PJ Harvey, Marilyn Manson.

For those of us who still have far too many black clothes in our cupboards its a fun trip back in time that'll have you reaching for the mascara and downing a pint of snakebite and black.

..........................................................................................

If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.

Clangers

'Clangers' was a stop-motion puppet animation created in 1969 by (modelmaker and illustrator) Peter Firmin and (writer, animator and narrator) Oliver Postgate's who, through their company, Smallfilms, had previously produced animated shows such as Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog and Pogle's Wood and who would go on to produce Bagpuss. The Clangers are a small family of pink mouse-like creatures - named Granny, Major, Mother, Tiny and Small Clanger - who live on and in a small planet along with The Soup Dragon (and her baby), The Froglets, The Iron Chicken, The Cloud and The Music Trees.

The Clangers spoke in a musical whistle created by using a slide (or swanee) whistle. Their dialogue however was all scripted and then reproduced through the instruments. This allowed Postgate to be rather more adventurous with the dialogue than the BBC would have maybe liked (if they'd known) with Episode Three, 'Chicken', containing - at 00:55 - the most famous piece of salty Clanger speak, "Oh sod it, the bloody thing's stuck again."

Only 27 episodes (two series and one special) of The Clangers were made but to this day they hold - as does much of Postgate and Firmin's work - a special place in hearts of swathes of Brits who grew up in the 70s and 80s, but their simple charm has rendered them timeless with the revived series (2015-2020) producing a further 106 episodes narrated by Michael Palin (in the UK) and William Shatner (in the US).

..........................................................................................
If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.

The Legend of Luther Arkwright

Bryan Talbot
Jonathan Cape

In my late teens and early 20s I worked in a comic shop and amassed a sizeable comics collection that got sold off over the years but in my personal pantheon of comic greats there are a few things that have stayed with me and have survived the various culls.  Amongst them are various Alan Moore books, Grant Morrison's run on 'Doom Patrol', 'The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers', and 'The Adventures of Luther Arkwright'. 

I pretty much walked away from comics in 1993 having got entirely bored of all the investment comics crap that lead to 942 variant covers of a terrible Spiderman comic but some time later I dipped my toes back in the water and re-purchased some old favourites like 'Love and Rockets', made some new ones like Warren Ellis' 'Transmetropolitan' and discovered to my delight and trepidation there was a sequel to Luther called 'Heart of Empire' that whilst missing some of the gonzo brilliance of the original was nevertheless a rivetting romp of a book and now 20 something years later we have a third.

Luther and the revitalised Harry Fairfax are travelling the multiverse together when they are summoned to meet 'Proteus' - the next, next stage (after. Arkwright and others) of human evolution - a psychopathic and very powerful telepath with distinctly fascistic views towards homo sapiens who Luther takes an immediate disliike to and vows to stop.  The story thereafter is one long gethering of forces as Luther and Harry and eventually Luther's daughter Victoria finalise their plan with the aid of many Amys and one Zaffron Waldorf.

In scope it's huge and in execution it's immaculate and is every bit the equal of it's predecessor but I cant help but judge it against the original.  I know I shoudn't, but I just can't help it, and the original is a phenomenon and a pivotal work in the history of British comics.  Yes, it has flaws, and there's an excellent laugh to be had in book three that refers to one of them, but it's a glorious slice of new wave / Moorcockian science fiction that deserves a place right at the heart of any discussion of British science fiction.  

This third book isn't the original, it's its own thing and once I got my inner fanboy to shut up I thoroughly enoyed the ride as Talbot takes us on a tour of the various worlds that us lowly sapiens are liable to create and finds kindness and heroism in the most unlikely of places whilst telling a story of hope and redemption.

..........................................................................................

If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.

The Great When

Alan Moore
Bloomsbury Publishing

Having completed his conjuring to place his hometown of Northampton at the centre of the country's collective historical consciousness with his epic tour de force, 'Jerusalem', Alan Moore now turns his sights on London and the creative hold it's had on generations of artists, seers and mad(wo)men; those who can walk the streets of it's mythic, sidereal counterpart, 'The Great When'.

In this, the first of what's intended to be a five book series, we meet the hapless hero, 'Dennis Knuckleyard', who is thrust, entirely unprepared, into a world of imagination and danger, of archetypes, avatars and artists.  Arriving at 'The Great When' through the imaginings of Arthur Machen and traversing it with the aid of Austin Osman Spare, Dennis is tasked with the return of a book, a fictional book removed somehow from 'The Great When', that has found its way into his possession and which, if he can't get rid of it, could be the cause of him being turned inside out.

Obviously this is the first step in what will be a long journey and so there's a lot of worldbuilding, but Moore is a master of such things, and you rarely feel bogged down in exposition as the story weaves its way across post-war London, setting up events that'll take decades to resolve.  The story at this early stage is relatively straightforward, playful and populated by a delightful cast of rascals, reprobates, ruffians and wrong uns who variously embrace or are embraced by that other London.

For those, like me, who are long time Moore devotees it's an absolute joy to know that we are setting out on another journey with him, and you'll see an obvious kinship here with some of his previous work.  The London of 'From Hell' is just behind the curtain - although a very different Ripper is held responsible - as is 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', particularly the 'Century' trilogy, and it's cultural crate-digging that allowed Moore to play with the very character of the times, rooting around in its basements, unveiling secrets and dusting off intrigues, but 'The Great When' is it's own thing and has it's own story to tell, and I for one cannot wait to revisit.

..........................................................................................

If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.