TRS2: October 2004 Archives

TRS2 - The Review Site - reviews small press and self published comics. Part of the BugPowder network.

Draw or Die # 1

Posted by Mardou

By Jon Chandler

Here we have ‘Then The good Comes’ in which Jon Chandler’s alter ego ‘Ripper the Fuckin’ Elephant’ is tattooed into existence for another adventure.

Ripper joins his buddy Particle Man who seemingly has the answer to Ripper’s agonies over creating comics – a Smokester Machine’ ™ . The Smokester ™ extracts the perfect comic strip cleanly and mathematically directly from the brain, no messing around with ink required. It's something of a philosophical musing on what it means to be a ‘parody of an underground comics artist’. And it’s very funny!

Ripper sets to work with the Smokester™ (or the Smokester™ sets to work on him) and sure enough the perfect comic ‘Devil Watch’ is extracted from poor old Ripper who’s quickly reduced to neutrinos. In part two of the comic, Chandler gives us ‘Devil Watch’ and it’s laughably crap. Intentionally so. It makes ‘Draw or Die’ a little gem and a worthy addition to the Boobytrap canon.

His is really an original voice and he has a fully realized mini-universe, a cast of characters and inventions who seem to represent his world view – silliness, sci-fi possibilities, philosophical ambling on the nature of life, death and creating comics. It’s pitched in a playful tone that’s impossible not to admire.

And of course it’s really well drawn. Chandler uses the small format (it’s square, man) ingeniously. Many pages can be read in a circle. My favourite thing about his artwork is the elliptical quality. He dispenses with backgrounds and yet the drawings are perfectly balanced and well composed. Everything suggests the warp world they inhabit yet in reality all we’re given is just a doorway or a shadow. Not easy to achieve but excellently executed.

‘Draw or Die’ can be read for free here, but it’s really such a nice little fetish object, it’s best to buy it here.

Posted on October 31, 2004 | Permalink.

the Girly Comic # 6

Posted by Mardou

The editorial ethos of the Girly Comic resides in the arena of the inoffensive. I really shouldn’t have a problem with inoffensive but being a such a contrary creature I find it preferable to be stirred into dislike rather than left with a sense of blandness. And indifferent is how previous issues of the Girly Comic have left me.
Actually the Girly Comic number 6 is by far the best I’ve read. Perhaps this is because the issue is lifted by a 7-page short story by Lee Kennedy. It’s an autobiographical piece about a pious childhood in a New York convent school that hits the mark on every level. Humour and pathos abound, it’s actually a deeply tragic story about the crushing of a childhood spirit, but delivered with a wry shrug of the shoulders, avoiding sentiment. And the cartoony artwork, familiar to fans of Lee Kennedy’s work, matches the tone perfectly.

The rest of the stories in this anthology pale into comparison on the surface. Interesting actually as Kennedy’s the only artist who’s stuck to pen and ink, the rest of the stories suffer from an over-computerized samey-ness.
One story here, ‘Sylvia’s Path’ is actually credited as being ‘designed’ by Toby Ford. The term ‘designed’ makes me shudder and yearn for a little craft, instead.

I do lament this age of computer-glossed artwork. It prevents me enjoying otherwise very enjoyable stories. ‘A Diamond in the Rough’ (by Des Taylor and Peter Zappia) is perhaps the most successful of the slick bunch It actually comes off looking a lot like ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ which suits the tongue-in-cheek, lip-glossed tone of the story pretty well.
It’s cute.

Another story, ‘The Witches Place’ (by Jonathan Shewry and Tim Keable) is a mildly spooky yarn that reminds me of those Jinty/Nikki comics stories for girls. Again, the modern computer font does nothing for me and has me wishing they’d gone for something a little more old fashioned and type-writerish. It’s not just me being a Luddite here, if the emphasis is going to be on design rather than craft, I just wish a little eye for design could actually be developed.

Maybe I’m just not ‘girly ‘ enough for the Girly Comic. For me the epitome of ‘girly’ is going to sleep in your make-up. This comic’s way too hygenic for that.
Still you could take her home to meet your mother. Which is something.

1.50 plus 50p P&P from

38 Clarkes Rd, Wigston, Leicester, LE18 2BE

www.factorfictionpress.co.uk

Posted on October 31, 2004 | Permalink.

Pirates

Posted by Mardou

It says 13 swashbuckling tales on the back cover though I’m counting 14 here.

Another themed anthology from Accent UK, pulling together new names and older faces from the UK small press scene. Packaged in the usual stylish black white and red artwork-with-a-twist and printed to the usual quality as previous anthologies (Phobias, Remembrance Days) it looks good on the outside.

But when you pull together young and inexperienced artists with more established talent it’s always going to be a mixed bag. A flick through confirms this. You have to ask is theme enough to hold together so many different artists of varying ability?

Well, veering towards the more professional- looking end of the spectrum, Garen Ewing (best known for the luscious Rainbow Orchid) presents 'Seadog', scripted by Jason Cobley (BAM). A young servant boy on a merchant ship witnesses his master’s slaughter by pirates and awaits his own fate, only to be rescued by Cap’n Endurance Bulldog. I’m not really a fan of BAM and the story serves more as a showcase for the talents of Ewing whose artwork oozes with confidence and matter-of-fact style.
Of a similar leaning is ‘A Rose for Burke’ by Angela Ong and Sheldon Goh. Visually this reaches a standard that I think a lot of the potential audience for this comic (young lads) will expect, and this won’t disappoint them. But story wise, again, it’s slight and veers more towards vignette as do many of the stories here.

Interestingly, it’s the more rough and ready looking stories in this anthology that are the most entertaining.
‘All that Glistens is Not Gold’ by Elgo is one of the funniest and most original stories here. Using Lego men as protagonists, it’s a toyshop version of a pirate yarn, with a punch line that made me chuckle.

Likewise Colin Mathieson’s ‘Tale of Two Maps’ delivers a punchy little story, told with gusto. As an artist, Mathieson’s got a long way to go, but he creates an easy to follow layout and the drawings have a pleasing energy, I liked it.

Other contributors include Chris Doherty (Six and Two Threes) in a trouser busting tale of wenches on the high seas. A bit of teen fantasy undoubtedly, but too winsome to offend. Chris Bunting and Jeff Boneman collaborate on ‘To be a Pirate Queen’. An opportunity to draw a pneumatic looking manga Beyonce, bursting out of a cropped shirt, eh? Always a target audience pleaser, but again, it’s cute enough to raise another chuckle if only for their brazenness.

Overall I enjoyed this comic a lot more than I thought I was going to.
In the previous anthologies I’d read by Accent UK the contributors were given quite open-ended themes (such as Phobias) but that isn’t the case here.
As the classic Pirate story has such strong generic conventions I think a lot of the artists here have been hampered into delivering just that - generic stories that don’t do anything too original or new. It’s a tricky one. Overall a success as I did enjoy reading it, but a little more room for the unexpected would be welcome in future anthologies.

Accent UK
£3.50
from Engine Comics/SmallZone