Fluffy
Part one, by Simone Lia

Simone Lia’s Fluffy strikes me a something like a post-modern sequel to Margery Williams' ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’. The tale of a ‘real’ little toy rabbit living in London with an emotionally ragged human father is very much like a children’s book for grown-ups. The story unfolds at a gentle pace (this is the first of a four part story) and the artwork, though naïve looking on the surface, simply and succinctly allows the characters to reveal themselves. From Fluffy the rabbit’s hyperactive curiosity to Michael Pulcino’s increasing detachment and pre-occupations with his worries (namely Fluffy and Miss Owers - his woman stalker), this comic is a rich and compulsive reading experience.
And part two is available now, so it really worth borrowing or stealing! Actually, the price is the only gripe I have with this book. Though nicely produced, the cover price of 6 pounds strikes me as too expensive for a 4-part comic book. As great as Fluffy is (and it really is) it’s sadly not twenty-four pounds great!

Stockist information available from
www.cabanonpress.com

www.simonelia.com

A hybrid of previous Shane Chebsey-edited publications CAOF Presents and Imagineers, Incoming is an attractive, polished and pristinely printed magazine that delivers an appealing, holistic balance of small press strips, interviews, news and comment, with in-depth reviews served by Steve Causer. Cumulative effects may cause a mild buzz.

Five complete strips are offered this issue. There’s gag-fuelled fun in Andy Vine’s to-the-point ‘The Pen Is Truly Mightier Than The Sword’ and in the space-indulgent ‘Sperm & Egg - Late’ by Mikey B and Andy Watson. ‘Origin Of The Species’, by thoroughly mainstream-professional pair Andy Dickenson and Sarah Evans, supplies science fiction of the Future Shock variety and boasts an impressive pencilled artwork. Equally eye-catching, though not quite as tight, is Rich Aidley’s ‘Staplebug Deicide’ – a breezy story concerned with a deity killing. My own sixth-class camping trip is revisited in the alternative-leaning ‘Three-Man’ – a text-heavy, ugly little strip that teeters on the brink of brilliance! (“Teeters on the brink of brilliance!” – TRS2)
Featured interviews are no less concerned with time travel and other worlds, though small press preoccupation with product management issues is indulged at the expense of much-needed creative/crafting discussion. All interviews prove insightful nonetheless. Shane Chebsey’s talks with Sean Michael Wilson of Boychild Productions and with Zulu: Water Cart Rescue creator Colin Mathieson take readers first to the manga scene in Japan, and then to a comics convention in Denmark. Meanwhile, Chris Atkins’ interview with Harrier Comics’ Martin Lock transports readers back to the labour-intensive days of late-seventies/early-eighties small press, a time when a ‘graphical user interface’ was just Asimov-speak.

No Redeye-lite then, Incoming is a good-natured magazine with wide appeal, accessible even to those with enthusiasm for but one facet of the small press trinity - be that community, business or creativity. Invested with personality and infectious zeal, it’s a fitting expression of the small press vibe.
40 A4 pages, full-colour cover, £3.25. Available from Small Zone.