(a page from Snow by and (c) Benjamin Rivers)

Benjamin Rivers has posted up a video promoting his new graphic novel Snow, which I have to say from the premise and the taster of it you can check out looks very interesting, dealing with something most of us are likely to experience in our lives, how you react when your world changes around you. Snow follows one woman as she finds her home turf of Queen Street West in Toronto altering and changing around her, favourite stores closing, buildings changing, until it doesn’t feel like her old neighbourhood anymore. I like that the video isn’t just showing art from the comic but also Benjamin walking the neighbourhood and talking about the changes that the comic mirrors, gives it a nice, grounded, ‘real’ feeling to the story. I see from the official Snow website that it is a Xeric Grant winner, which is usually a good indicator of a quality bit of comics work. The site is pretty cool too, with a taster of the comic, both print and digital versions available to buy (very organised!) and even a wee free PC game based on the comic that you can play, Ben obviously has his self-published approach down very well, it all looks very slick and professional.

SNOW – A Graphic Novel Set in Toronto from Benjamin Rivers on Vimeo.

(a panel from Katie’s self publishing tips for comics creators, by and (c) Katie Green)

by Masha Solon and Katriona Chapman.

Tomatito Press

Five is most definitely not comics. It’s very much an illustrated book, or possibly, by virtue of it’s length and style, a simple, but rather lovely illustrated poem.

So why is it on here, on the FPI blog? It’s not comics. Not really even close. But it is part of a movement that sits alongside comics, running parallel to comics and encompasses a lot of comic artists.

It’s the handmade, self publishing movement. Like so many small press comic artists right now Solon and Chapman have decided that if they’re publishing this book themselves, then they can take the time and effort to make it a truly beautiful, handmade object.

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and it seems to me that the handmade works could easily be seen as a separate area of comics altogether, far away from superheroes and without the big publisher need of the mass produced literati style books of Clowes, Seth, Ware et al. The recent trip to the Birmingham Zine Festival merely cemented the idea in my head – this is a different way of doing things, and it’s no wonder that the comic artists partaking of this whole handmade thing chose to ally themselves with fellow handmade artists rather than comic artists – they simply have more in common with them.

That’s why, when I received Five, unsure of whether it would really fit onto the blog, I figured screw it, why not. It might not be comics, but it’s appeal to certain comic fans will be strong. So here it is……

Even getting the package open shows you how seriously the two artists involved are – the handmade, handsewn book comes in a card sleeve, with matching bookmark and a custom fitted card frame to make sure it reaches the intended recipient in perfect condition. That obsessiveness and attention to detail is what makes the handmade movement so appealing – everything is precious and full of passionate attention to getting the little details right. That and the beautiful, individual books they make of course.

Five is all about dreams, and about flights of fantasy. We start in the bath, with a mind just wandering away. And then we’re set free with the bather, and begin a lyrical and poetic trip across the world, free as the birds that fly from her fingers. With it’s simple ideas of a near transcendental journey and it’s sparse, lyrical style, it reminds me rather of the work of the great Michél Gagne. High praise indeed.

Chapman’s black and white pencil drawings across the pages of Five are tight, intricate things, and quite lovely to look at. With so little text the pictures have to do the heavy lifting, have to charge the mind with images and fill it with ideas. And Chapman’s lovely work does just that. You meander over them, absorbing the details, letting the sparse words play across the images.

It might not be comics, but it’s still a lovely little book, put together with immense passion for the work. Solon and Chapman are talking about more self published works – they will be a pleasure to see.

Five is available from the book’s blog site.

by Rob Jackson

Self Published

Rob’s changed his usual A5 format to a near US comic sized 32 page self-contained full story. It’s a nice format, still handy, but the increased size of the pages gives Rob more space to work with and allows him to get the entire story in without overwhelming panels with expositionary dialogue – useful to get all the epic Goblin-Human battle scenes in as well!

The story is a medieval fairy tale-esque thing with the Goblins on one side and humans on the other. And caught right in the middle is Count Brandade, just returned from 5 years of waging war at the King’s side. All he wants now he’s home is to return to the bosom of his family, see his daughters married off and arrange the marriage of his only son; Englebert to the daughter of a war colleague Count Nantes.

(Page 1 sets the tone of this mediaeval romp quite nicely – “They’re probably all worshipping a magic pig”.)

But in the intervening years strange things have been occurring in the forests surrounding his lands, and his son has fallen in love with a fair maiden who lives in a mysterious hall deep in the woods. On meeting the girl, Count Brandade is impressed and agrres to the match once he meets the girl’s father. Unfortunately for our Count, the girl’s father happens to be the Goblin King, away on Goblin business and the Count finds that the Goblin wine he’s had when meeting his son’s fiancée goes right to his head.

Waking up in a clearing one month later (that Goblin wine is very strong stuff) just after his son’s marriage he realises that strange magics are at work and sets about raising a militia to see off the demons and witchcraft he imagines have caused all this.

From here on in it turns into a spectacular and very funny comedy of errors. Count Brandade meets the Goblin King, realises his son is very happy and is convinced that having a Goblin side to the family could have it’s benefits ….”As you’re in our family now, we’ll help your crops to grow and all your plans to work….“. It all seems perfect and everything is working out just fine.

But like any good comedy of errors things don’t go to plan. First a Goblin hunter turns up, Count Brandade desperately tries to cover, fails miserably and from here things just get wonderfully silly, with the King arriving to reward him for his wartime efforts, the Goblins and humans going to war and Count Brandade caught right in the middle. There’s fighting, massed ranks of armies squaring off, fantastical creatures and poor Brandade doing his best to keep his head down and avoid trouble…..

Just like every other comic of Robs this isn’t some highly polished thing and many will find it too rough and ready for their tastes, but the story and the comedy within are well worth seeking out. I’ve deliberately scanned in some of the great comedy moments but there’s an awful lot of them in Goblin Hall, together with some very nice storytelling and a most satisfying story.

Goblin Hall is available from Rob’s website for £3.

(a brace of Alice at R’lyeh by and (c) Murray Ewing)

It’s quite honest stuff and I’m sure many of our friends in the vibrant small press scene in many countries will recognise and empathise with Murray on many points, while to complete newbies contemplating making that first mini comics or booklet there’s some valuable experiences to learn from here; part one is here and part two here.

“Brian Michael Bendis was an unloved worthless nothing before he self published a few crime comic books. Now? He’s Marvel’s top writer, recognized by dozens of people the world over and he probably got to meet Stan Lee once or twice.

Harvey Pekar was just a shlubby file clerk from Cleveland, but after self-publishing his award nominated comic book “American Splendor” his sad, pathetic life was turned into a movie. COOL!

Forbidden Planet favorite Steve Mannion was just another sex addicted race-car driver before he began self publishing his own comics. Now he sits in a room in New Jersey and draws comic every day…and if he ever stops he’ll starve. I bet he hasn’t seen the sun ONCE this month!

Yes, the fun and rewards from self-publishing your own comic books are evident to anybody with access to an electron microscope. Follow these simple instructions and you might be trapped in a special, private hell all your own because You Too Can Self Publish Your Own Comic Books!”

Tips include learning to lie to yourself, finding money, indulging in certain arson-related acts and other activities which I am sure are more than familiar to many cartoonists.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrL7lHrZ7zA

and

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRTHJVh3uOE

As regular readers will know the FP blog crew are huge fans of Canadian artist Kate Beaton‘s – we were just pointing you yet again to her work at the weekend there while she was off at TCAF. And if you were lucky enough to have been in Toronto for TCAF you would have been able to enjoy Kate’s work not only as a webcomic but as a print collection, Never Learn Anything From History. We’ve got great news for those of you (like me) who couldn’t make Toronto – we’ve managed to get hold of our own personal stash of Kate’s collection. Never Learn Anything From History – 68 pages of her comics on historical events and literary characters which has so delighted the blog team – has just arrived in our warehouse and gone out to our branches too, so you can pick it up in store or order it from our website. You better hurry up though, some of us are already picking up our own copies…

by Lizz Lunney

Self Published

I last had a look at Lizz Lunney’s wonderful mini comics a while back. (damn, given away what I thought of the new comic already.) I started it with this:

There are some mini-comics that really want to be grown up, proper comics, who want to be published in bigger form but haven’t made it yet. And there are some mini comics that don’t. Mini-comics so happy at being minis, who never want to be big, who go around cavorting in their mini-comic-ness. Guess which one Lizz Lunney’s mini-comics are?

A even though her new mini-comic is just that little bit bigger, the sentiment’s still exactly the same. This time it’s under a genuinely funky 3D cover – free specs included. There’s also a 3D Dino Story on the back cover. Sushi Karaoke! is full of all the great LizzLizz characters you should have come to know and love by now: Depressed Cat (Oh. The Joy), Leaning Rabbit (He likes to lean), Troy the talking chair, Hairy Midget Elf and his creepy elf friends, Watermelon Boy (Juicy, juicy, juicy) and Keith the wizard and his magical unicorns. It’s all totally daft stuff. But daft in a fantastical, cheer you right up ad make you smile like mad person type daft.

It probably says something about me, but my favourite of Lizz’s creations is Depressed Cat. I’ll read a page and spend most of the next hour snickering with the memories:

But if I had to give you just six panels that make Lizz Lunney’s Sushi Karaoke! worth buying it’s these from Gummy Cat:

(“Then I saw the empty gin bottles” almost had me on the floor at the time. Just so perfectly timed.)

Lizz Lunney is online at lots of places: website, blog, webcomics, online shop, interview at Bug Powder, interview for Insight Out program at City University Birmingham. (QUICK UPDATE – Lizz writes to say her website is don right now, but an old one has been reactivated. So if the links above don’t work try www.lizzlunney.com instead.)

Her website has some fantastically fun stuff. Definitely pick up a copy of Sushi Karaoke! while you’re there, but it also has loads of great online strips and some excellent gifts: my personal favourite has to be The Comic Sushi Takeaway; 2 mini-comics, badges, stickers and more all packaged in a take-away container. Genius and fun. Pretty much the summary of Lizz Lunney’s comics really.

(Lizz Lunney’s Comic Sushi Takeaway Pack. Brilliant.)

Richard Bruton.