The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Reasons Why I’m Scared To Love You

by Philip Spence

Self Published

This is a beautiful handmade and bound comic by Philip, each one a unique piece of art. It’s one of those lovely, hand crafted individual things that only just clings onto the edges of the definition of comics, but comics is a big medium and grown up enough to be flexible. It’s an utterly beautiful object, with every aspect of the comic adding to it’s handmade uniqueness; the laced binding, the cut out front cover heart, the mix of page stock (card, tracing paper, fold outs and more). It even extends to the back cover, with a tiny envelope containing “15 Things About Me I Wish You Didn’t Know, But I’ll Tell You Anyway”, an A4 page of Philip the talking head telling you about those 15 things: ballet as a child, music snob, lightweight drinker, hung up over an ex for the last 3 years.

Reasons Why I’m Scared To Love You is Philip Spence’s beautiful love letter to a lost love, started when the relationship was full of potential, finished in the throes of their breakup. Or as he puts it on one of the first pages:

That double page spread above gives you an idea of both the incredibly personal content and the meticulous hand made nature of this lovely comic, with the pale cream card on the left leading into the tracing paper contents page over the brown, textured heavyweight paper underneath.

The whole comic is a tactile, visual delight and such a personal and heartfelt look at lost love that it’s actually quite painful to read, with every page practically dripping with regret. At times it feels like an invasion of his life; uncomfortable and voyeuristic yet fascinating to read:

A great little object and a touching bit of autobiography, Reasons Why I’m Scared To Love You is only available direct from Phillip – email him through his websites (portfolio site or Ninja Bunny site) or pick one up at a show.

Richard Bruton.

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