One of the treats that wasnt on show at the recent Bristol 'Expo' ? Jeremy Dennis was too busy creating strange new aspects of the multi-perspective reality to push this one out before it was ready. Every fine tuned and touched detail..geese are a menace to midgets sober or drunk. Smacking about with their offensive views on the angelic nature of western government, speeding up the disposal of well placed through-ways. I'm happy to have them over I just really wish they'd wash behind their ears and spend more time talking about Chomskys friends. Less time hucking it towards thin people with their bad karate, scattering all over the place like some grounded inverted fog. Jeremy Dennis thankfully has been exposing the levels of corruption accross-species relationships and delivers here an excellent physical relationship diagnostic (in diagrams). By understanding the behavioural patterns of this bird and "climbing inside it" (theologically speaking) the artist imparts us to valuable lessons of negotiability and tactical resource.
Felt tips. Shape pretty difference colour. Finding orientation. Good tutoring and Very very funny. I've had the pleasure of watching the Jeremy Dennis one perform these piece before it reached the sixteen page mini-comic it has become and she very definitely knows what shes talking about and is a stellar teacher. Those of you who know her work dont need talking to. A big influence on my current artistic direction, and more important amongst a great many comikkusu/sequart (whatever you wanna call them today) CREATORS.
Visit the class over at http://cleanskies.livejournal.com/321798.html
Its Expressionism !
By David Robertson
‘Berserkotron’ is a 2 part comic about Bert and Ronnie, two teenaged friends who, at the end of childhood, hatch one last childish scheme together. Their plan is to enter their homemade eponymous robot in the local ‘Robot Wars’ competition. The boyish excitement of building a supposedly indestructible robot complete with with a ‘magic’ paint finish- soon gives way to the more pressing ambition of merely smashing Henry Moser’s rival machine to smithereens. It’s a rather simple story to cover two issues but that isn’t a problem here as Robertson has endowed the tale with plenty of human interest. For instance, there’s Bert’s relationship with his mother - her prods at him to grow up and his resistance to maturity. There’s also the quite funny and realistic depiction of the chaos of the last few weeks of high school- and the crushing aimlessness at what to do next (apart from building robots). It all make for an entertaining story.
The artwork in ‘Berserkotron’ at first glance, wouldn’t normally hook me in. Despite good layouts and clarity of storytelling, when it comes to the art, the characters are overly cartoonish and not always attractively so. The main character and his mother look a little too clownish, an admitted turn-off for me as a reader. I have no problem with simple, cartoony drawing style per se, but here the characters do look under-developed. That said, there is an embryo of a distinct style forming in both these comics though (a style that’s more fully realised with the inclusion of the cool-looking strip ‘Literature Moon’ in Issue #1) and in some panels of the main comic, the rather cube-ish figures and backgrounds are very well rendered, whilst in others, they seemed rushed and careless.
It’s inconsistent, yet very readable nonetheless. I like David Robertson’s natural, unlaboured approach to telling his stories and there’s a sense of fullness to his characters that’s really exciting to find in a debut comic. With work and patience I think we might expect great things – a small press cartoonist to watch!
Colour Cover, B+W interior, A5 booklets.
Issue#1 - 32 pages, Issue#2 - 36 pages.
Issues #1, #2, both 99p Sterling or $2 USD
Contact d1robertson@hotmail.com
Picked this up at the Brighton Expo 2005, little A5 16 pager uncredited with no contact address. Copied on yellow paper, a collection of pen and marker head and shoulder portraits with a focus on facial expressions and accompanied by character dialogue under 15 words. Visually, not too ambitious but with a quirky sweetness. If the artist wants to reveal himself I'll happily put a link up to 'The Butchers Dog'
Two rising greats in UK cartooning combine to create a narrative non-linking, yet perhaps thematically so. Abbiss employs dense inks in the first half with a tale of Buzz Aldrin & Neal Armstrong messing about up in their space rocket, and much amusement created from their critical audience. Along the way, there are some interesting results in portraiture and expressionism from experimentation, worth a look.
On the other side of a tenuous link, Gary Northfield tells a pirates tale of superstition, treachery, survival, in averse weather, oh and songs and dances. Northfield's panels are quite minimalist, but manage to be very emotive and roar out loud funny.
O Jubilate !
Rousing Tales is available from
Matt
Gary
for £1.50-£2.00 plus SAE, 32 pages, A5. Brown card cover, Cute. Issue Two out now too !
32 pages. This is verrry nice. I had doubts what with it being free, mass printed and a good size. Its A5, but the landscape format and the use of black and white, form and space makes it seem much bigger. The character(s) including explorer astronauts, lost civilisations and alien nature. There are big sound effects, a Kirby-esque Woodring blend, totems, constructured history and tangible spirituality. If you like your adventure comics properly done this comic should be a definite marked destination.
No contact details available here but if Andy P. gets in touch I'll be glad to put them up here. In the meantime, keep an eye out for this Brighton cartoonist at your next expo. This book was free but well worth parting with £2.00 for.
Free sampler A6 pages by Dan Fish. Quickie advertising Dan's work which you should be able to pick up at the Bristol Expo. My first view, Dan has a funky pop art style, areas of blank ink mass filled without short routes by fineliner pen and some nice Kirby/Simonson/Senior ripples along the perimeter. Plus this one has monkeys !
More info at www.fish1000.biz
One from the archives (originally 2002, latest issue about #20) this features one pagers 'Borders' (a narrative about a tree) and the jazzy Kafka 'Vesper Hour'. discussing pop alien cinematography. An article in praise of Eddie Campbell, and 'Postcards from Bethany' illustrating what may have been left out of the story of Lazarus revival from John 11:44. The latter utilises the square sparse structure, of Chester Brown's work but surpasses it in being much more detailed and accordingly more effective and poignant.
"Sixth Finger" (part of the "My Ten Fingers" series rounds the collection off in which Douglas takes a pop at the clergy and has drawn some very nice character evoking hands.
FIFTY PENCE ?? Douglas Noble has no understanding of the comics to money ratio. Take it from me, the lad needs a lesson, send him some cash.
A5, red cover, 24 pages. Send an SAE human and some jelly beans and/or construction toys to
10a Selby Avenue, St Albans, Herts. AL3 5EN.
Here, a short story allied to a flurry of press cuttings provides effective socio-political commentary from conscientious craftsman and agitator Michael J Weller, author of 'S Club 7 versus the Anti-Capitalists' and thirty years-worth of outré small press titles.
Mike wakes one morning to a world painted in primary colours and inhabited by yellow-fill people short a finger on each hand. With the tweet tweet of birds on repeated sound loop, he pours a tea-looking brew, wears Harry Potter coke-bottle-bottom glasses over bulging white eyes, and can't seem to think straight. Mike too is caught in the grip of yellow fever.
This allegory concisely highlights with Textliner-luminosity our commercially arbitrated, dumbed-down relationship to a world in which the response to global homogenisation is dictated by an increasingly synthetic value-system. It's also a fun, thoroughly delightful read.
A5 Home-Baked Book, 20pp, £2 (inc. p&p)
Available from Visual Associations, c/o Mike Weller, 3 Queen Adelaide Court, Queen Adelaide Road, Penge, London SE20 7DZ.
M J Weller turns his attention to the Penge murder mystery of 1877, chronicling the sad life and death of Harriet Staunton, and the dramatic trial of her accused killers: her husband Louis and his mistress Alice Rhodes; her brother-in-law Patrick and his wife Elizabeth. It is the compelling tale of a fasting girl of weak mind, but of financial providence, who escapes the damnable company of a harridan mother and unkind sister for the precarious interdependence of an ill-advised marriage. Her husband is soon loving and living in criminal intercourse with the housekeep; her brother-in-law painting under Harriet's patronage; and she confined to bed, a convenient concealment facilitated by her deteriorating health.
With sympathetic sobriety, Weller depicts a troubled soul caught in the momentum of mental illness, driving herself and others to despair. Hollowed-out by a progressive emaciation fuelled by an eating disorder, Harriet Staunton's disease of the mind sucks all semblance of selfless Christian charity from those caught in her orbit, and imposes on carers a fatalistic acceptance and philosophy of futility. Ultimately, the resultant deterioration of their collective conscience, the complicit abandonment of responsibility, and the nineteenth century's lax notion of accountability relating to the treatment of the mentally ill, allows both the demise of Harriet and of Thomas, the wizened being that was her son.
For those eager to bask in the resilience of the human spirit, there is little comfort here in Weller's fact-filled prose (and insinuations?). However, the bond of immovable lovers – an expression of the solidarity of the four accused – offers redemption of sorts as it frustrates the tactic of defence counsels to trade off degrees of guilt. Here then were four accused of the same crime, but unwilling to fall out of love. "How can love be a mortal sin," asks the manipulative Patrick Staunton early in this penetrating book. Other questions too are posed, specific to the case and otherwise, but Weller sensibly offers no conclusions. 'Res ipsa loquitur,' he might say as he points to the evidence. The thing speaks for itself.
A5 pbk, 176 pp, £6 (+ £1 UK, £2 Europe, £3 airmail USA p&p).
Available from Visual Associations, c/o Mike Weller, 3 Queen Adelaide Court, Queen Adelaide Road, Penge, London SE20 7DZ.