While obviously we want as much attention as possible drawn over to Jamie’s Suburban Glamour Workblog which, since he linked last night, has new content in the form of Issue 2’s cover there’s been some lovely coverage.

Firstly:
“Once upon a time, in a comic shop in London, somebody yelled, “What’s this? Why have they got this on the cover?” “Oh, it’s this new comic,” the clerk answered, holding up some promotional postcards for Image Comics’ then-new miniseries “Phonogram.”

“These are arcane symbols!” declared the other person, referring to the magiky-looking glyphs depicted on the cover of “Phonogram” #1. They cried out, “They are messing with forces they don’t understand!” before storming out of the comic store, never to be seen again.”

Andy Khouri of Comic Book Resources Prints The Myth and interviews the pair of us about Phonogram, its development, our experiences and - basically - everything. It’s probably the most revealing Phonogram interview we’ve ever done, which you can tell by how we come across as arrogant tossers at least a couple of times throughout. Recommended.If you want to actually hear us burble though, there’s been a couple of Podcasts in the last month. McKelvie did a solo one for Around Comics, talking everything to do with Phonogram, Suburban Glamour and annoying every artist in the world by talking about he just kind of magically learnt to draw. Meanwhile, Gillen did one with Indie Comics News about his pre-teen God versus Eddie the Head comics, Phonogram and what he’s up to now. Who has the most incomprehensible accent? U DECIDE.
In terms of reviews, here’s one from Guttergeek and another from Eye on Comics. There’s also been lots of well written responses on Livejournal which are so personal that we’d feel brutish just linking to them, so we’ll offer a general “thankyou” to anyone who’s done so. Comics International have finally got around to reviewing something by us and if we knew it was going to be so exciting, we’d have kept the trade waiting so we could have a “Possibly the most pretentious mini-series ever” quote on the back or something. And we’ll also like to stick stick our lawyers at Kevin Church. Except we don’t have any lawyers.

Oh - the launch party went well too, if anyone’s interested. We certainly were.

I’ll also do a proper post on this later, but we’re going to be doing some signings in July.

14th July 1pm: Travelling Man Leeds (Gillen & McKelvie)
14th July 3:30pm: Travelling Man York (Gillen & McKelvie)
21st July 1pm: Travelling Man Bristol (Just Gillen)
26th-29th July: San Diego Comic Con, Image Booth (McKelvie, Gillen & Hangovers)

Do come and say hello and make out with us, with tongues and everything.

Hello everyone. Jamie here. Just to let you know that I’ve got a blog set up to promote my solo series Suburban Glamour over here, where I post previews, art and information about the book. I’m very excited to have the chance to put this book out, and I hope some of you follow me across to it before i return to Phonogram 2 next year.

In Wednesday in the US and Thursday in the UK, the collected edition of Phonogram: Rue Britannia is available. If you’re buying from the US, Midtown are splendid. If you’re buying from the UK, Page 45 are one of our favourite retailers and do full mail order (Though if you don’t like writing e-mails or phoning people, Forbidden Planet do it in a one click thing, here). If you’re terribly shy around comics retailers, Amazon will be having stock in fairly soon and can be ordered at either their US or UK site. But you’ll be quicker to go to a fine comics retailer, you understand.
As well as the story, it includes an especially written glossary and an introduction by Luke Haines of acerbic british-guitar-pop sensations the Auteurs and Black Box Recorder.

Comic of the year! The year in question being one of the ones between 1994 and 1996.

The entire first issue can be read on Image’s site.
And some quotes from the back of the book:

“One of the few truly essential comics of 2006. Read this or lose” - Warren Ellis

“Phonogram reads like old-school journalism, redolent of the time when there were only four music papers, and the only lists were on the back pages and were called The Charts” - Luke Haines

“It’s not often you read a comic that kisses you passionately on the frontal lobe, then gets you drunk and rolls you for your stash. Gillen and McKelvie have produced such a comic, but they’ve vowed only to use it for good…” - Mike Carey

“This is awesome!” - Spin.com

“Phonogram is pure pop art” - Plan B Magazine

McKelvie and I remain very proud of it and want your money. Do not deny us. Do not deny us anything.

EDIT: At the moment the Amazon.uk entry is only listing it to be bought second hand for - gasp! - eighty four quid. Hopefully it’ll sort out soon. Will try and find out what’s going on, etc.

“If a piece of music has ever left you dumbstruck, pick up the six-issue comic-book mini-series Phonogram when it’s released as a trade paperback in early June. This dark, ruthless fantasy posits a world where pop music is dangerously potent magic with the power to reshape a person’s very soul. (Which is to say: a world very like our own.)

It’s a richly textured read, teeming with references — you’ll be grateful for the glossary of ’90s Britpop bands — but the astonishing thing is how little those specific references matter in the end. Phonogram is first and foremost a deeply personal story about music and identity; anyone who’s ever overidentified with a band will recognize themselves in its lovingly illustrated pages.”

National Public Radio have done a summer reading list of books - both prose and graphic-novels - for Ex-Recess Revels. We’re British, so don’t have much familiarity with Recess, but anyone who groups us in a list including Scott Pilgrim and Mouse Guard is clearly on the side of right.

Coming shortly - separate podcast interviews with the pair of us, so probably early signs of us splitting due to “creative differences”. The Phonogram Trade is still at the printers - we made the mistake of going for the monk caligraphy option, but QUALITY MATTERS.

Oh, and while you’re here… the advert for McKelvie’s forthcoming solo project.