Sometimes you wish that you had thought of a title first.

Five Days out of Seven contains five short stories by freelance illustrator Steven Knowles. In a note hidden away at the back of this handsome publication he says that this is his first attempt at a comic, and it’s not half bad. Anthologies by one author can often be tricky things (believe me, I know!) but Knowles pulls it off with aplomb, stitching the stories into a whole by uniting them thematically.

Extrapolating from a job as a dishwasher, Knowles populates his stories with wasted lives and dead-end jobs. Admittedly this isn’t likely to leave the average reader with a big grin plastered all over their face, but Knowles executes his brief character assassinations with light strokes, and doesn’t revel in the details. In the best story of the bunch, Jimmy King, he traces the downward trajectory of a would-be DJ as he settles for and into a job he doesn’t like to let him “concentrate on his DJ career”.

Hopefully future numbers will widen Knowles themes and let his characters play a little more in the light, but until then this is a great way to start.

Go on over to www.507illustation.co.uk and pay your £6.00.