Michael John Weller (South London, 1946) is a British
underground comics
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...
artist, political writer, cartoonist, activist and album-cover designer.
Weller designed the sleeve for the United States release of
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...
's ''
The Man Who Sold the World'' LP (Mercury, 1970), re-released (EMI CD 1999 and ''Metrobolist'' LP, CD, streaming formats, Parlophone, 2020). As "Captain Stelling" Weller wrote and drew ''The Firm'' (cOZmic Comics, 1972) - an early British artist's publication inspired by American underground comic book innovations. In 1973, a page by "Stelling" entitled 'Missile Crisis' was made part of
Michel Choquette
Michel Choquette (born March 14, 1938) is a Canadian humorist who has written for print, for television and for film, and a comedian who has performed for television.
Life and career
Choquette was born March 14, 1938, in Montreal, Quebec to a Fren ...
's comic book
The Someday Funnies
''The Someday Funnies'' is an exceptionally large and varied book of comics which was published by Abrams on November 1, 2011. The book was a project that had originally been intended as a special supplement for the magazine ''Rolling Stone'', b ...
. In the 1970s Weller was published by
Hunt Emerson
Hunt Emerson (born 1952) is an English cartoonist. He was closely involved with the Birmingham Arts Lab of the mid-to-late 1970s, and with the British underground comics scene of the 1970s and 1980s. His many comic strips and graphic novels have ...
for
Birmingham Arts Lab
The Birmingham Arts Laboratory or Arts Lab was an experimental arts centre and artist collective based in Birmingham, England from 1968 to 1982 – an "arts and performance space dedicated to radical research into art and creativity". Loosely or ...
press. He followed "Willie D" (
Andrew Marr
Andrew William Stevenson Marr (born 31 July 1959) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and presenter. Beginning his career as a political commentator at ''The Scotsman,'' he subsequently edited ''The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to ...
) as featured cartoonist on
Chainsaw punk zine (1980–84).
Michael Weller enjoyed a parallel career in the 1980s and 1990s as political writer, cartoonist, activist of the
left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relativ ...
, and local community organiser based in
Penge
Penge () is a suburb of South East Greater London, London, England, now in the London Borough of Bromley, west of Bromley, north east of Croydon and south east of Charing Cross.
Etymology
The name ''Penge'' is first attested in charter of ...
, south London. In 2006 he became a signatory to the
Euston Manifesto
The Euston Manifesto ( ) is a 2006 declaration of principles signed by a group of academics, journalists and activists based in the United Kingdom, named after the Euston Road in London where it had its meetings. The statement was a reaction to ...
.
As 'M.J.', 'Michael John', 'Mick' and 'Mike' Weller - using identity-playing forenames, nicknames and other noms-de-plume - he has produced
artists books
Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that engage with and transform the form of a book. Some are mass-produced with multiple editions, some are published in small editions, while others are produced as one-of-a-kind o ...
, comics,
zine
A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...
s ("spineless wonders") and
small press
A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. However, when a distinction ...
publications. Affiliated to
Association of Little Presses Weller opened self-publishing imprint homebakedbooks 2005–2023.
Between 1990 and 2010 he was associated with London's poetry scene. Launch of ''Beat Generation Ballads'' was documented in video by Voiceworks (2011), becoming the title of a large-scale musical composition for piano by Michael Finnissy
Michael Peter Finnissy (born 17 March 1946) is an English composer, pianist, and pedagogue. An immensely prolific composer, his music is "notable for its dramatic urgency and expressive immediacy".
Although he rejects the label, he is often reg ...
premiered at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (also known by the acronym HCMF, stylised since 2006 as the lowercase hcmf//) is a new music festival held annually in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Since its foundation in 1978, it has featu ...
in 2014, winning a solo British Composer Award 2015.
''Beowulf Cartoon'' has been on reading display at Poetry Library exhibitions ''Visual Poetics'' (2013) and ''Poetry Comics'' (2015).
Michael John Weller continues to write, draw, and publish for traditional print and digital mediums, including artists film, poetry glitch and ''The Metrobolist'' website.
Bookworks
*''Harriet Staunton: A Victorian Murder Ballad'', (Visual Associations, 1999)
*''Space Opera: The Artist's Book'', (Visual Associations, 2000)
*''Madeline My Love In Death And Fancy'', (Visual Associations, 2001)
*''Beowulf Cartoon'', (Writers Forum & Visual Associations, 2004)
*''Three-part The Secret Blue Book'', (homebakedbooks, 2005)
*''Slow Fiction: twenty-three tales in a box'', (homebakedbooks, 2010)
*''Beat generation Ballads'', (Veer Books, 2011)
*''minimus post ode poem'', (zimZalla avant objects/object 021, 2014)
*''Metrobolist: Five Chapters'', (homebakedbooks, 2015)
*''Three Piece Bathing Suit,'' (Blart Books, 2016)
*''Spurious Purple: 72 serial e-shots from 2016'', (HomeBaked, 2017)
*''intermittent'', (HomeBaked, 2018)
*''Old New Little Presses In The Age of Electronic Reproduction'', (LUMIN, May 2019 objectzine edition)
*''Metrobolist 7'', (Veer Books/bookartobject, April 2021)
*''An Open Letter To J.K. Rowling From You-Know-Who'', (Yar Mouth Press, 2022 - 20th anniversary edition)
Selected comics, pamphlets and zines
*''the bop that just won't stop!'', 1979 Birmingham Arts Lab Press (Ar-Zak Microcomik 7)
*''Coffin' Blood'', 1979
*''AIN'T BIN TO NO ART SCHOOL'' (a design for modern living),1980
*''the power of rock n'roll'' zerox poemik, 1980
*''A SONG FOR EUROPE'', sheet music, 1983 (Pop Laboratory)
*''Pinball and the Perfect Lasagne'' (with Phil Mellows and Colin Greenland), 1984 (Pop Laboratory)
*''Systemize'', Buiiding a D-I-Y Cartoon System, 1985
*''Fantasy number one'', 1990 (itma)
*''Four-Eyed Flicks'', 1993
*''The Fabulous Five'', The comical story of the Arbiter, 1993
*''Too Much to Dream'', 1994
*''Sugar Paper Rebellion'', 1994 (visual associations)
*''Michael's Collected Chainsaw Cartoons 1980-1984'', 1996 (visual associations)
*''My Own Zine'' nos. 1 and 2, 1996-1997 (visual associations)
*''Sortilege of Allotment'', 1997 (visual associations)
*''Detective Notes'', Around the world with The Imaginative Traveller, 1997
*''squad car Verethrangna'', More Detective Notes (with Bill Griffiths and R), 1997
*''YES WE WERE SECRET LOVER(S)'', (visual associations), 1997
*''The Ballad of Harriet Staunton'', A Life Part 1: South London, 1998 (visual associations)
*''The Siege of Carlaverock'', (with Bill Griffiths), 1998 (visual associations)
*''b'', 1998
*''The Boys Are Back In Town'', 1999 (visual associations)
*''k'', 1999
*''G a poem of no more'', 1999
*''Space Opera'', a comic book series 1997-1999 (visual associations)
*''Passing Futures'', 1999 (visual associations)
*''W'', 2000 (visual associations)
*''Cobbled'', 2000 (visual associations)
*''Sublimage'', 2000 (visual associations)
*''Atterdake Ryst'', 2000 (visual associations)
*''Idiotgram'', 2000 (writers forum)
*''S Club 7 versus the Anti-Capitalists'', 2000 (visual associations)
*''The Story of Republic Nine'', 2000 (visual associations)
*''A Pigment of Imagination'', 2001 (visual associations)
*''Hitcloh Ilk'', 2001 (visual associations)
*''visual associations'', 2001 (visual associations)
*''Climb a Free Wheeler'', 2001 (writers forum)
*''Beowulf: An Old Old Story'', 2002 (Scribblers Editions)
*''Stem Harvest'', nature poems, 2002 (writers forum)
*''An Open Letter To J.K. Rowling From You-Know-Who'', 2002 (Scribblers Editions)
*''The Boy and Girl who looked up at the sky in wonder'', 2005 (homebakedbooks)
*''Mike's Yellow Fever'', 2005 (homebakedbooks)
*''Redell Olsen's Sharp Exhalations'', 2005 (homebakedbooks)
*''Mechanically Inadvisable'', the tale of Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, 2006 (homebakedbooks)
*''My Own Zine'' nos. 1 and 2, 2006-2007 (homebakedbooks)
*''The Mother Of All Mermaids'', a tale of magical realism, 2007 (homebakedbooks)
*''Andrea Brady Poetry Lady'', 2008 (homebakedbooks)
*''Madeline My Love in Death and Fancy'', 2009 (homebakedbooks)
*''home'baked'', literary artzines in the age of the internet, 2010 (homebakedbooks)
*''Holly Pester Does It Better'', 2010 (homebakedbooks)
*''Percy Bysshe Shelley's Masque of Anarchy Covered as a Zine'', 2013 (homebakedbooks)
*''Grave's End'', ghosting about horror, 2013 (homebakedbooks)
*''Zine Tales'', 2013–2014
*''(site under construction)'', novel biro, 2015
*''Poetry Womble'', 2017
*''Litleaf'', 2014–2019
*''LeafLit/LitLeaf'', European Poetry Festival zine, December 2, 2023
*''BABELEUM'', glitchobject score sheet zine, August 9, 2024
*''poetry cartoon'', Advent calendar (Crater 72, December 2024)
Further reading
*''Word Score Utterance Choreography in verbal & visual poetry'', edited by Bob Cobbing and Lawrence Upton (Writers Forum, 1998)
*''a WORD in your EYE'', Steve Sneyd (Hilltop Press, 2000)
*''Comix, Comics & Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art'', Roger Sabin (Phaidon, 2001)
*''Comix: The Underground Revolution'', Dez Skinn (Collins & Brown, 2004)
* ''MJ Weller's Secret Blue Book'', Stephen Mooney (''Readings'' webjournal Issue 3, Birkbeck University of London, 2008)
*''Fanzines'', Teal Triggs (Thames and Hudson, 2010)
*''British Comics: A Cultural History,'' James Chapman (Reaktion Books, 2011)
*''The Alchemist's Mind'', 'a book of narrative prose by poets' edited by David Miller (Reality Street, 2012)
*''Catechism: Poems for Pussy Riot'', Mark Burnthorpe, Sarah Crewe & Sophie Mayer, editors (English PEN, 2012)
*''Artist's Book Yearbook 2014-2015'', Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England (Impact Press, 2013)
*''Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK'', John Harris Dunning and Paul Gravett (British Library Publishing, May 2014)
*''The Other Room Anthology 7'', edited by James Davies, Tom Jenks & associate editor Scott Thurston (The Other Room Press, 2015)
*''Psychedelic Suburbia: David Bowie and The Beckenham Arts Lab'', Mary Finnigan (Jorvik Press, 2016)
*''The British Underground Press of the Sixties'', James Birch & Barry Miles (Rocket 88, 2017)
*Beowulf's ''Popular Afterlife In Literature, Comic Books, And Film'', Kathleen Forni (Routledge, 2018)
*''BOWIEODYSSEY70'', Simon Goddard (Omnibus Press, 2020)
*''David Bowie 1971 Shooting-Up Pie-In-The-Sky'', Ivor Julian Jones (Mayak Publishing, 2020)
*''Critical Directions In Comics Studies'', Edited by Thomas Giddens (University Press of Mississippi, 2020)
References
External links
Entry at the National Center of Contemporary Art, Kaliningrad
Entry at Archive of the NowThe Metrobolist
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weller, Michael John
British comics artists
British comics writers
Underground cartoonists
1946 births
Living people
British activists
English male poets
British album-cover and concert-poster artists