Gravett, Paul

Paul Gravett is a London-based journalist, curator, writer, and broadcaster who has worked in comics publishing since 1981.

He is the founder of ''Escape'' magazine, and for many years wrote a monthly article on comics appearing in the UK magazine ''Comics International'', together with a monthly column for ''ArtReview''. He has written for various periodicals including ''The Guardian'', ''The Comics Journal'', ''Comic Art'', ''Comics International'', '' Time Out'', ''Blueprint'', '' Neo'', ''The Bookseller'', ''The Daily Telegraph,'' and '' Dazed & Confused''.

Biography

Gravett's career began in 1981, as he and his "longtime partner" Peter Stanbury managed the Fast Fiction table at bi-monthly Comic Marts held in Westminster Hall. Gravett invited artists to send him their homemade comics, which he would sell from the Fast Fiction table with all proceeds going to the creator. His role in the British indie comics scene is depicted in Eddie Campbell's ''Alec'' comics, in which Gravett is called "The Man at the Crossroads."

Later in 1981, Gravett was employed as promotions manager for '' Pssst!'', an attempt to publish a British equivalent of the lavish French bande dessinée magazines.

In 1983, Gravett and Stanbury launched ''Escape'' magazine in an attempt to showcase the cream of the alternative cartoonists of the day. Under the Escape Publishing imprint, they co-published ''Violent Cases'' by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, three volumes of Eddie Campbell's ''Alec'' between 1984 and 1986 and ''London's Dark'' in 1988 by James Robinson and Paul Johnson. Titan Publishing Group took over the publication of ''Escape'' in 1987, with Gravett also coming on board as an editor at Titan Books. ''Escape'' lasted for 19 issues before closing its doors in 1989 (when Gravett also left Titan). ''The Comics Journal'' is quoted as saying of ''Escape'', "This ... anthology remains one of the most sorely missed comics of all time not simply because of its tremendous track record of translating European comics but simply because it was always good in so many ways."

From 1992 to 2001, Gravett was the director of the UK charity the Cartoon Art Trust,Gravett entry
''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999''. Retrieved July 25, 2022. dedicated to preserving and promoting the best of British cartoon art and caricature, and to establish a museum of cartoon art with gallery, archives, and reference library.

In 2003, Gravett founded Comica, the London International Comics Festival, which he helped run until its demise in 2014. Gravett coordinated a number of events surrounding Comica, like Comica Comiket and the Graphic Short Story Prize contest, run in conjunction with ''The Observer''.

Gravett has written a number of books on comics. He also co-edited '' Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption'', a political anthology comic produced in 2009.
Gravett and Stanbury's ''Great British Comics: Celebrating a Century of Ripping Yarns and Wizard Wheezes'' was nominated for a 2007 Eagle Award for Favourite Comics-related Book.

Bibliography

Gravett is the author, co-author, or editor of several non-fiction books on the topic of comics and sequential art, including:

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References

Notes

Sources

* "Culture Shock" (interview by Chrissie Harper, ''Judge Dredd Megazine'' #251, 2006)

External links

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Escape Books
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Journalisted — Articles by Paul Gravett
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gravett, Paul
British male journalists
Comics critics
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Anime and manga critics