Tag: Joel Meadows

Pop Culture Squad > Joel Meadows
With Further Ado #333: Face To Face Creative Portraits

With Further Ado #333: Face To Face Creative Portraits

Posted on by Ed Catto

I backed this project on Kickstarter, but it’s now available in comic shops. This is a wonderful hardcover, filled with photographs that Joel Meadows took over the years at comic conventions and when interviewing writers, artists and other comic industry folks. For most folks, there’s multiple pictures over time and a short text piece. It’s a beauty and a joy to flip through.

Many of these creatives you may have met, but others are folks you’ve always wanted to meet. As Meadows is based on the UK, it leans towards European events, but it’s scope reaches far beyond that. And with Joel’s focus, we get to see artists like Posy Simmonds, who has captivated me for years ever since I stumbled across her graphic novel Tamara Drewe.

It’s nice for me to see so many creatives I have met over the years in this hardcover. The smiles of impressive folks like Jamal Igle, Louise Simonson, and Dean Haspiel shine through—warm and authentic. Continue reading “With Further Ado #333: Face To Face Creative Portraits” →

With Further Ado #315: Trip the Light Fantastic – Tripwire Summer 2024 Issue

With Further Ado #315: Trip the Light Fantastic – Tripwire Summer 2024 Issue

Posted on by Ed Catto

I wish my coffee table was clutter free. That way, I could leisurely flip through a few pages of the new (and anxiously awaited) issue of Tripwire Magazine and then casually toss it onto this coffee table. It could serve as a signal to all the important visitors to my home about my good taste and smart reading habits. And if I read a UK magazine, like Tripwire, with its fancy spelling of words like “endeavours”, it means I am smart, right? As it is, the coffee table is a bit cluttered lately, and we don’t seem to have as many heads-of-state and society icons dropping by as we used to.

Tripwire Magazine #63, the always-impressive labor of love from Joel Meadows and his merry gang, just appeared in my mailbox. It looks like so much fun. It’s a bit oversized for a magazine, by US standards, and the premium paper has a read weight to it. This issue’s striking cover admonishes and reminds readers that “Crime Does Pay”. It offers up a collection of illustrations from various series by creators Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips. Continue reading “With Further Ado #315: Trip the Light Fantastic – Tripwire Summer 2024 Issue” →

With Further Ado #294: Tripwire Explains that Crime Does Not Pay

With Further Ado #294: Tripwire Explains that Crime Does Not Pay

Posted on by Ed Catto

5 and ½ Questions with Tripwire’s Joel Meadows

Joel Meadows is always juggling the most interesting projects, so I’m elated that I was able to speak with him and ask him 5 and ½ Questions about the next issue of Tripwire Magazine.

Question #1
Ed Catto: Can you give us a little background on Tripwire?

Joel Meadows: Tripwire has existed as a print magazine covering the worlds of comics, film, TV and art since 1992 and online since 2015. We publish a print magazine three times a year, currently in a high production value of a 100-page format. We have garnered a lot of industry fans over the years:

“Tripwire is research done right celebrating and investigating the love of comic books.” – writer/ artist Jimmy Palmiotti (Harley Quinn, Jonah Hex, Pop Kill, Paper Films)

“Tripwire is a vibrant part of entertainment coverage – specifically comics and geek culture. Supporting them, we support ourselves.” – writer Alex Segura (Pete Fernandez book series)

“Tripwire is always well-researched and enthusiastic, by people who truly care about the importance of story. It’s analytical without losing heart.”–JH Williams III (artist, Echolands, Promethea, Batwoman)

” Tripwire has been for over three decades the touchstone of comic book culture in the U.K and one of the leading periodicals dedicated to this narrative art form. Incisive, smart and always relevant.” – Guillermo del Toro (Oscar winning director, The Shape of Water)

“Tripwire covers such a wide variety of topics in the world of news, entertainment and the arts, and covers them so well, that it’s pretty much become my go-to source for what’s going on in media. I know if Tripwire is covering a subject, it’s not only interesting, fun and informative, it’s also legit.” –Bill Sienkiewicz (legendary artist and illustrator)

Question #2:
EC: The current issue of Tripwire looks especially fun. What’s it all about? Continue reading “With Further Ado #294: Tripwire Explains that Crime Does Not Pay” →

With Further Ado #288: Brit Brilliance – Hope and Holmes

With Further Ado #288: Brit Brilliance – Hope and Holmes

Posted on by Ed Catto

Andrew Sumner of Titan Books just zoomed into one of my Ithaca College classes, as he frequently does. Andrew is one of those guys who gets students to open their eyes that much wider – and imagine new possibilities. And like so many Brits, he does it in a way that’s fun and engaging from start to finish.

I was reflecting on a couple of other British efforts I’ve recently been enthralled with and wanted to shine the spotlight on them too.

Hope

Jimmy Broxton is a brilliant British comics artist, who, like many comic characters, uses a secret identity. (Fancy people call it a pseudonym.) There’s nothing with that. I’ve enjoyed his work on projects like Goldtiger and Vampirella, but I worry I miss much of his UK focused work. Continue reading “With Further Ado #288: Brit Brilliance – Hope and Holmes” →

Special SquadCast Interview with Writer Joel Meadows

Special SquadCast Interview with Writer Joel Meadows

Posted on by Bob Harrison

In our latest exclusive interview, we sat down and talked with Joel Meadows. He has been in the comic industry for over thirty years as the publisher of Tripwire Magazine, and he is now about to have his first graphic novel as a writer released.

We spent some time talking about his latest project Sherlock Holmes and The Empire Builders: Gene Genie, Vol. 1. that he has written with art from Andy Bennett. The book explores a new story in the world of the world’s most renowned detective. A black and white volume with covers by Mark Chiarello and Walter Simonson will be release later this year.

We also spent some time discussing Meadows’ career highlights as the publisher of Tripwire and his views on the state and future of comics.

You can watch the interview via our YouTube channel or listen to the audio on in our standard podcast platform.

If you want to know more about Sherlock Holmes and The Empire Builders you can check out the crowdfunding site zoop.gg.

 

With Further Ado #257: Sherlock and Joel on Zoop

With Further Ado #257: Sherlock and Joel on Zoop

Posted on by Ed Catto

Joel Meadows is a hard-working creative entrepreneur. You might know him from his brilliant work on Tripwire Magazine over the years. There’s been a lot of buzz this past week about the Tripwire Awards too, and that’s fascinating to see.

Joel also has a new project coming up with Andy Bennett called Sherlock Holmes and The Empire Builders. Here’s the official write-up:

Sherlock Holmes and the Empire Builders is an epic alternate world sci fi adventure featuring The World’s Greatest Detective as people have never seen him before.

When Watson leaves Holmes to help Crick unravel the DNA helix and finds himself in the employ of England’s most evil man, Holmes is forced to team up with an unlikely group to defeat this monstrous figure and return England to its status quo. With your support here we can get the first part of this exciting graphic novel out to readers!

Testing the waters with three shorts which ran in Tripwire magazine, we felt that now was the time to debut this in its own graphic novel series. This will be a hardcover with a dust jacket running at 88 pages with 68 pages of story (much of which will be new material) plus character sketches, script pages and an interview offering extra information on the series.

Continue reading “With Further Ado #257: Sherlock and Joel on Zoop” →

With Further Ado #217: TRIPWIRE Turns Thirty

With Further Ado #217: TRIPWIRE Turns Thirty

Posted on by Ed Catto

Those thirtieth birthdays come up fast. One minute you’re celebrating your first legal drink with friends. The next minute, you blink and you’re thirty. Where does the time go?  (Spoiler alert: it only gets worse, gang.)

But we all should remind ourselves how lucky we are to celebrate these milestone birthdays. And as fans, we’re ALL lucky that TRIPWIRE magazine is celebrating its 30th Birthday.

Many talented folks have been involved in Tripwire over the years. It’s been a groundbreaking UK magazine that always seemed to really “know its stuff”. But for me it all comes back to enthusiastic passion of my friend, Joel Meadows. He has a vision, and like the very best (and the most creative) entrepreneurs, he found ways to make it happen.  Here’s the official backgrounder on TRIPWIRE for those who are less familiar with it:

From 1992 to 2011 (with a  short break between 2003 and 2007) TRIPWIRE published over fifty issues of our magazine that covered comics, film, TV, novels and related media. We interviewed everyone from Stan Lee to Mike Mignola, Alan Moore to Joss Whedon. In 2013 we decided to wrap up our physical publishing programme and switch to online/ digital. We produced a few digital editions but it got very hard to get readers to pay for content so we decided to have another rethink. This website is the result of that rethink.

Continue reading “With Further Ado #217: TRIPWIRE Turns Thirty” →

With Further Ado #86: Interview with Joel Meadows of Tripwire Magazine

With Further Ado #86: Interview with Joel Meadows of Tripwire Magazine

Posted on by Ed Catto

Tripwire was one of those magazines about comics that always made you feel smarter after you read it. Or maybe that conversion happened right when you bought it. It was a gorgeous magazine and always looked smart too.   I’m excited to say that Joel Meadows, the man behind Tripwire, is at it again and Tripwire is returning. I had a lot of questions for Joel, and he had a lot of thoughtful answers.

Ed Catto: The news that Tripwire is returning is just fantastic, Joel. But first, can you tell me, or remind me, how it all started?

Joel Meadows: Tripwire began way back in March 1992 – or actually it began the previous year. We published one issue of a magazine we called The Review, which was a very basic fanzine that I did with someone I went to school with. We printed about 100 copies, but it was fun to do. So, we came up with Tripwire in February 1992 and published our first issue in March 1992. At that point, I was doing it with a neighbour of mine and someone I went to sixth form college with. We launched the same weekend as Vertigo.

EC: I loved those Tripwire issues. In your opinion, what made it special and unique among all the Geek Culture magazines?

JM: When it started, we were a lot more sarcastic and a lot more irreverent towards our material. I was only nineteen when it began, and I learned a hell of a lot as we continued to publish issues. We had a very British attitude to our material, which initially was comics and music, but we dropped the music and replaced it with film and TV in 1999. We were prepared to take chances, and we were the first place to cover the Vertigo creators, like Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Peter Milligan, and Frank Quitely. I was a big fan of former UK magazine Speakeasy, and I think that had a big influence on me when it came to Tripwire. Continue reading “With Further Ado #86: Interview with Joel Meadows of Tripwire Magazine” →