Today’s Best of the Year guest is one of our best indy creators on the UK small press scene, creator of the excellent 12 Hour Shift, co-creator of Necessary Monsters and many other works and a good chum of the blog, Sean Azzopardi:
FPI: Can you pick three comics/webcomics/graphic novels which you especially enjoyed over the last twelve months and tell us why you singled them out?
Sean: Phonogram the singles club. Excellent writing and art, By Kieron Gillen and Jamie Mckelvie what more can I say?
Solipsistic Pop – Tom Humberstone and friends. Someone had to raise the bar when it comes to UK self publishing, to add some quality, above the increasingly generic POD “style”. ( I raise a guilty hand to falling into this category). Tom has taken all the best elements of North American indies and brought it together with a fresh group of creatives. A very exciting development. Is anyone going to build on this, is this the start of something exciting?
All Knowledge is strange – Daniel Merlin Goodbrey. Funny Surreal , and sometimes WRONG – ( Adolf Hitler rap anyone ?) And nepotism – me? Never. (Psst use the PO box for the cheque Daniel )
FPI: Can you pick three books which you especially enjoyed over the last twelve months and tell us why you singled them out?
Sean: I think I have failed to read anything new this year, so not sure how relevant my reading list is. I read a lot of David Peace ( Red Riding Quartet, Damned United, 1984), M John Harrison ( Light, Anima, The Centauri Device), Joe Hill ( Heart Shaped Box, 20th Century Ghosts), Simon Maginn ( Sheep, A Sickness of the Soul), Bret Easton Ellis ( Lunar Park.), and so on…
FPI: Can you pick three TV shows and/or movies which you especially enjoyed over the last twelve months and tell us why you singled them out?
Sean: Pontypool; something a little different for the rabid diseased zombie film. Psychoville – dark twisted, inspired clown court. Rumpole was never like this. Let the Right one in – some lovely film making with some unintentional comedic moments. Now reading the book, as I am curious too see how much the film has glossed the characters.
FPI: How did 2009 go for you as a creator? Are you happy with the way you got your work out this year?
Sean: 2009 was a massively productive year for me, right up to the point of writing this. It was dominated by Necessary Monsters. A web to print comic, brilliantly conceived by Daniel Merlin Goodbrey. I also manged to draw a back up strip for Phonogram, contributed to the fanzine, Phonogram v the fans, curated by Matt Sheret, Side A the music anthology, Bastards, 100 days project, The Sequential, and probably things I’ve forgotten.
FPI: What can we look forward to from you in 2010?
Sean: Well the Necessary Monsters trade. Then More self publishing, making something out of 100 days. In between all that I will probably be thrown onto a raging fire of Twelve Hour Shift trades by angry POD publishers.
FPI: Anyone you think is a name we should be watching out for next year?
Sean: Paul Fryer. Self publisher with a varied style and engaging stories. Check him out at www.greatvagueness.co.uk
FPI: And one final, special question – since its not only the end of the year approaching but also the end of the decade, is there any comics work you’d especially pick out as one of the best you’ve read this decade?
Sean: Eddie Campbell – The Years Have Pants. Wonderfully put together collection of really human , inspiring material. All the various books that have been my touchstones, The King Canute Crowd, How to be an Artist, After the Snooter, etc. If I could have one book like this at the end of my career I would be happy. Eddie Campbell also has a few other works to lean on like From Hell, or Bacchus…
December 24th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Thanks for mentioning at least two things I meant to and forgot, Sean (I reckon the humour in LET THE RIGHT ONE IN was intentional, and bible black – those crazy Scandinavians)!