It’s the end of week three of British Comics Month, so it is time to have a quick look at some of the latest British Indy comics creators who have come onboard the FPI webstore in the last few days. Once again it has been great to see the diversity in subjects, style and art among our independent creators; this continues to be quite an eye-opener for me as to what is out there if you know where to look (and now you can look on our British Small Press section, so we’re making it easier for you!) – hopefully it is an eye-opener for you as well.
Sean Azzopardi arrives on the British Small Press section this week, bringing with him not one but two series. Ed follows an illustrator’s work and life and makes me wonder if there is a little bit of autobiography in there perhaps. There’s a nice touch of the everyday which anyone can empathise and identify with – Ed has a looming deadline and finds himself doing everything except finishing his work; it reminds me of how clean my student gaffe would suddenly become when I had a paper due to be handed in but found I couldn’t work while the place needed cleaned (honest, it wasn’t just an exercise in procrastination… Oh, okay, it was, but one I think a lot of us will recognise as Ed goes through the same).
Sean also involves the everyday – in this case working life – in his Twelve Hour Shift series. I am tempted to compare this to one of my favourite movies, Clerks; it isn’t actually like Clerks in terms of story or character, but the vibe it gives me is similar, that trying to deal with the everyday reality of earning a crust juxtaposed with worries and fantasy clashing with realities. As I say it may not actually be like Clerks, but I still think the comparison is valid because Clerks fans are likely to enjoy Twelve Hour Shift. Check out Sean’s site where you can see several pages from each issue of Twelve Hour Shift and Ed, then you will see what I mean (then go buy some!).
I had a damned good giggle adding on Carl Critchlow’s Thrud the Barbarian onto our site. Carl has worked professionally on Batman/Judge Dredd, Lobster Random and more, but Thrud is one of his own, earlier characters, first swinging his mighty chopper (I meant his axe, you dirty minded lot) back in the early 80s where Carl developed him at art college under the tutelage of British comics legend Bryan Talbot. Before some of you sigh and think, just what the world needs, another Barbarian comic, you should have a look. Carl does reference the best of the genre, such as Conan, but he pastiches it, not only taking the Mickey but ripping Mickey’s head off and throwing it around a bit in glorious colour. Thrud is also an Eagle-award-winning comic, which is a damned fine recommendation.
That said the digs at the clichés of the genre are rarely nasty and it is clear that the humour derives from someone who does actually like the genre but is aware of how up itself it can often be. Thrud himself is funny just as an actual image, even before he does anything. Carl renders his over-massive body with loving, detailed, coloured art worthy of a Conan comic then gives Thrud a teeny, tiny little head which reminds me of serious bodybuilders where the body keeps expanding but the head stays the same until it looks tiny in comparison to the bulky bod; think Conan or Slaine but with the cranium of Zippy the Pinhead and you get the idea. Its also a visual riff on Thrud’s enormous physical power but lack of grey matter, a characteristic anyone who has used a warrior character in D&D or Tunnels & Trolls games will recognise. Damned good fun and excellent art.
Laurence Powell and Oliver Lambden offer us up several issues of Tales From the Flat, centred around four friends living in Oliver’s flat with varying degrees of bonhomie and aggravation. Oliver also invested his inheritance into opening Monstro City’s only comics shop where our intrepid heroes attempt to build awareness of comics. In the meantime there are all sorts of complications like the quality of comic to movie adaptation and demonic kebab sellers to contend with.
Again, as with Sean’s Twelve Hour Shift, I’m picking up a bit of a Clerks vibe, but even more I am picking up a strong Spaced vibe. Oliver’s attempts to build a successful comics shop business in an indifferent city while Laurence’s wise-ass remarks drive away customers reminds me of Simon Pegg and Bill Bailey in Spaced, which, since Spaced was simply brilliant, is no bad thing. Its slice-of-(often bizarre) life, mixed with humour and laced with references to movies and comics which fans will enjoy (come on, admit it, there is something about spotting these references which so appeals to we geeks for some reason. Go on, admit it, you’ll feel better). The guys also have a launch for Tales From The Flat coming up on Wednesday the 16th of August – full details on their site.
This week we also have a lovely man who has used his stint as cartoonist in residence at the London Cartoon Museum to help old ladies, treat small, furry animals and entertain innocent children. Oh, no, that was the Earth 2 version of Mark Stafford I gave you by mistake, oops. Actually Mark, described as “the evil ink whore” has been cartoonist in residence at the London Cartoon Museum, but our evil cartoonist used this opportunity to terrify children while creating graphic works for the museum. A collection of Mark’s work is collected in the Botulism Banquet (yes, I know, that sounds like a description of cruise liner food right now, but it is actually the comic’s title), which contains a selection of his previous material as well as some new ones specifically for the collection, plus introductions to the tales by Mark and a delightfully creepy cover by Roger Langridge.
The more I see, the more I want to read. Keep them coming, guys, we’re still more than happy to have more of you onboard and we’ll still be happy to sign you up after British Comics Month ends, so if you are an independent UK comics creator, drop us a line. On a related topic we’ve added another section that fans of Indy comics may well appreciate, offering some excellent and unusual European works from Belgium-based Bries Books. English is used in many of Bries’ titles, while others are completely wordless, making them perfect international comics, where all you need it to speak the lingau-franca of good cartooning. I think our Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly readers will find it very interesting.
July 22nd, 2006 at 9:04 pm
Pretty good!