Over The Line Archives - Sidekick Books

Vote for Sidekick Books in this year’s Saboteur Awards!

The Saboteur Awards are now open for nominations! Since the vast majority of poetry prizes in the UK focus almost exclusively on single-author collections, the Saboteur Awards are Sidekick’s only real chance to win garlands for our amazing poets, artists and contributors. The shortlist and subsequent winners are decided by popular vote, and it’s therefore very important that readers and fans of our books take part in the voting process if we’re to stand a chance. With that in mind, we humbly request your support!

The nominations round is open until 24th April, and involves filling out at least three categories on the form on this page.

Here are the categories we are eligible for:

1. Nominate the Most Innovative Publisher

We’d really like you to put us down for this! No other publisher that we’re aware of is mixing together different media and experimenting so freely with the possible forms of the poetry anthology and pamphlet.

6. Nominate a Best Collaborative Work

We have two eligible titles for this category: Hell Creek Anthology by J.T. Welsch and Dom & Ink, which is an illustrated retelling of the Spoon River Anthology with dinosaurs from Montana. And Surveyors’ Riddles by Alistair Noon and Giles Goodland, in which the two poets trade poems reactively and spontaneously, generating a sprawling mixture of alt-history, satire and prophetic puzzles.

12. Nominate a Best Anthology

We have two titles eligible for this category: Over The Line: An Introduction to Poetry Comics, edited by Chrissy Williams and Tom Humberstone, which is the UK’s first anthology of poetry comics and which comes endorsed by both Alan Moore and Poetry London. And Birdbook: Farmland, Heathland, Mountain, Moorland, which is our third mega-collection of contemporary bird poems and illustrations, with poems by, among others, David Morley, who has just won the Ted Hughes Award, and Chris Beckett, who was nominated for the same award.

Feel free to fill out the other categories in whatever fashion suits you. Thanks in advance for your support and your time, everyone!

Over The Line featured in World Literature Today!

We’re very excited to announce that World Literature Today magazine have featured our poetry comics anthology Over The Line in their Nota Benes section, calling it “an ambitious anthology”!

You can read more from World Literature Today at www.worldliteraturetoday.org/.

“Contagious creativity” – Poetry London and New Welsh Review on Over The Line

This just in! New Welsh Review and Poetry London love Sidekick’s poetry comics anthology Over The Line!

Poetry London‘s Julia Bird describes the anthology as “a book bursting with contagious creativity, a book offering a truly stimulating combination of art and analysis.”

She also praises the work of editors Chrissy Williams and Tom Humberstone, saying:

“The tone is instructive and inspiring; it makes you want to take scissors and glue to your own Marvell words and Marvel art to see how image, text, space and silence can be recombined to create and uncover meaning.”

Read the full review in Issue 83 (which also features poetry by the marvellous Mark Waldron).

The praise keeps coming, as Nicky Arscott, writing for New Welsh Review, finds Over The Line “visually exquisite, intellectually stimulating” and says it “offers a wide-reaching introduction to the poetry comics genre.”

She adds that

“this book

succeeds in making poetry playful, and it elevates the status of the comic through encouraging us to appraise it on the same level as we would the poetry.”

The full text of the review is open to subscribers only, which is an excellent excuse to explore new Welsh writing.

Thank you to Julia and Nicky for the fantastic in-depth, insightful reviews. Comics poetry fever is upon us!

Over The Line: Launched, Available and Gearing Up for Gosh

Over The Line: An Introduction to Poetry Comics, edited by Chrissy Williams and Tom Humberstone, is out now and available via our site. Bookshops should be able to order it in from Thursday.

One of our two launch events has been and gone – wine, short readings and talks were laid on at the Poetry Cafe last Thursday, accompanying an exhibition of pages from the book that will run in the cafe until 31st October.

Work by Ivy Alvarez and Cristian Ortiz on the wall of the Poetry Cafe

The view from the book table

John Aggs discussing his poem-comic collaboration with W. N. Herbert

The second launch event will take place on 17th September at Gosh Comics in London, from 7pm, and a whole swathe of the contributing writers and artists will be in attendance.

If you’re planning on coming and want to buy any of our other books directly from us, just let us know via email and we’ll bring some along!

Comics Poetry Launch/Exhibition/Workshops, as approved by Alan Moore!

Sidekick is ridiculously excited to be publishing Over The Line, an introduction to comics poetry edited by poet and comics editor Chrissy Williams and comics artist Tom Humberstone.

And it’s not just us, apparently. A certain comics legend says the following about the project:

“This is that spine-tingling moment when two attractive and sophisticated forms, both admired for their rhythm and sense of timing, eye each other across the cultural dance floor. In Over The Line, at once an insightful introduction and a comprehensive showcase for the emerging phenomenon of Poetry Comics, Chrissy Williams and Tom Humberstone provide the best possible venue for what looks like being a breathtaking tango. I really can’t recommend this venture highly enough, and I’d advise you mark your card immediately.”

ALAN MOORE

We’re so excited, in fact, that we’re having not one but TWO launches.

Launch #1 is on Thursday 3rd September from 6.30pm, to mark the opening of the accompanying exhibition at the Poetry Cafe. Here is the event!

Readers include: Sophie Herxheimer, Anna Saunders, Amy Key, Chris McCabe, John Aggs, Chrissy Williams and others.

Launch #2 will embrace the comics side of its dual nature, taking place at the splendid Gosh Comics on Thursday 17th September. Here is the Facebook event!

Readers and artists include: John Canfield; Lorraine Mariner; Shauna Robertson; Ioan Morris; RH Parry; Sean Azzopardi; Cristian Ortiz; Douglas Noble; Hayley Fiddler; Emix Regulus.

Come and meet the editors, drool over the merch and get stuck into poetry comics!

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL…

If you’d like to learn how to make your own poetry comics, editor and long-time comics-poetry-workshop organiser, Chrissy Williams is running a Poetry School workshop on Saturday 5th August, where you can do just that! Investigate here!

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And in case you’re bamboozled, more information on poetry comics lives here:
www.poetryandcomics.tumblr.com

Category: Over The Line