Ghost Galaxy 1 - Ed Syder
Ghost Galaxy 1 is a cool comic, it's only short but a good introduction to the story. I will watch out for more issues of this. Its got a nice Scooby Doo - Hannah Barbera feel to it which is a refreshing change.
Girls in Trouble

Rob Jackson Comics on Tour 2008

Hello, I'm going to be at two more comics conventions later this year. Birmingham International Comics Show and Leeds Thought Bubble

I'll have a new comic out for Birmingham, and I'm going to get it properly printed this time.

Ethel Sparrowhawk - by Steven Tillotson (Banal Pig) and Jemima Von Schindelberg
This was probably my favourite comic I bought at Birmingham last year. Ethel Sparrowhawk is a woman with an enormously long bird style nose working a miserable job in a call centre and living alone with her pet cat. This comic is very funny in a super dark way, i like the ending, it's just right. I don't want to describe it too much so just get it, well worth a go. Banal Pig always has a stall at all the Comics Conventions so it won't be any trouble...
Banal Pig

Only Skin 1 - Sean Ford
This is the first part of a continuing series, Sean is published three so far. This one sets the scene, which is a tiny slightly odd American town by the side of the highway. The main character has come to the town's gas station to look for her missing father along with her young son. The son soon meets a ghost drawn in a very interesting super cartoony way who leads him into the woods to show him a slaughtered deer, killed by some kind of monster. It's all about atmosphere and mystery. Nothing is revealed in this first issue, as it should be. The drawings really nice, showing a lot of space - wide open plains, woods and flat townscapes. Well worth watching to see what happens next...
Only Skin

Curio Cabinet 3 - John Brodowski
This is my favourite of the Curio Cabinet series so far. John is from Rutland in the USA and I assume lives deep in the wild American woods, drawing with hand crafted birch sticks. his comics are therefore full of bears and trees and nature. This one is very cool, he draws in pencils a bit like Banal Pig does, with no inking. There are two main stories, 'Silent Watcher', where two men are on a cross country trip when one of them is struck by a bear and thrown into a kind of nirvana and 'Hot Rockin' where various musicians play, summoning giant dinosaurs from the deep. There are also a number of stories starring Jason from 'Friday the Thirteenth' in a reflective mood. Highly recommended, by me.
Secret Acres

Who Gives A **** About Mickey Rourke?

Who Gives A **** About Mickey Rourke? - A Monkeys Might Puke Anthology
I got my copy of this anthology yesterday, its really good! I have a two page story in it and the back cover is mine too, a portrait of Mickey Rourke, vaguely in the style of Vic Reeves.
It has loads of good cartoons in it. Get a copy from Dan Lester

Washing Machine - Mardou
This is the latest minicomic by Mardou. This comic has a good story, well worth a read for anyone, especially the ending which is great. It's basically a story of a woman who meets a new man while at the laundrette (in this case laundromat as it's set in America where Mardou now lives) and then goes on a disastrous date with him. She is suitably shallow and pretentious so its a lot of fun.
Mardou

Here are some reviews of older comics that I enjoyed no end.

The Smell of The Wild - Gareth Brookes
This is my favourite of the Gareth Brookes comics I've read (he also does the Man Man comics). It is a selection of wondrous poems about the beauties of nature accompanied by drawings of wildlife and flowers, here's an example-

On Beholding a Number of Tits

The blue tit hides itself in bracken
In every way unlike the kraken
It makes a summer day complete
To hear their pointy beaks go tweet

Ah, i like this a lot. My eye was first drawn to it by the fancy printed cover, looking a bit like it was made with a potato print. I am always a sucker for comedy poetry, me.

appalling nonsense

Extricate - by David M Birchall
Excellent vibrating cover in red and black, that stands out really well. It is of the great god Pan playing his pipes. I liked this a lot, a lot of the stories are about greek myths such as Athena being born out of Zeus's head. Cool drawings.

The Everyday - Collection One by Adam Cadwell
This was a nice collection of half page strips first published in little mini comics. Didn't like the cover though, I much preferred the covers of the mini comics at the back of the book. Very nice drawing, some good little strips. My favourite was the one where he suddenly noticed a tiny dog in a dress. Also he draws himself looking a lot like his real self which is rare.

Hideo Azuma - Disappearance Diary
Fanfare were on the table next to me at Bristol so I went and bought this book off them. I've been looking out for it for a year or so now and wasn't disappointed. It's the story of 2 episodes of homelessness and one of alcoholism in the life of the manga artist Azuma. It's all drawn in his usual super cute style in which he must draw childrens manga which makes it really interesting. On the first page he says 'This manga has a positive outlook on life, and so has been made with as much realism removed as possible - it's harder to draw stuff realistically and it makes things gloomy!' A lot of the interest in the book is all the stuff he leaves out. He abandoned his wife and kids all these times but luckily he mentions them occasionally in the interviews and things, otherwise he could come out seeming very mean. A lot of the book is him looking for food in bins, fag ends on the floor and then working as a gas pipe fitter for a good long time.

Waiting for Sushi - by Lizz Lunney
I bought this minicomic with lovely coloured covers because of the centre page drawing above. It's awesome. The rest of the comic didn't disappoint me either and nearly every page made me laugh and I really like the drawing style for the cats, rabbits and pigeons in the little stories.

There's No Time Like The Present - Part 7 by Paul B Rainey
I was very pleased to see on his website that Part 7 of this series was coming out at Bristol so I went and bought one on Saturday. I had a read of it on the weekend but enjoyed it much more today when i searched out all the other parts and read them right through. It really is a very good long story and I am well looking forward to part 8. It's a series with many pages of old men watching TV sat in a room and it's still really interesting.

Bristol Comics Expo 2008 reviews

I thought I would review the comics I enjoyed at this years Bristol Comics Expo. Before I start i'll just say 'who am i to review things?' Well i'm going to do it anyhow as I don't think there are enough reviews around these days. The first comic I'm going to review is-

ROBOTS the 2008 Accent UK Anthology
This is my favourite yet of the Accent anthologies, last years was good but I am just very bored with zombies. It is very good value at £8 at the expo, its very long and professional looking. I'll just go through and mention some of the stories I liked best. I really liked the art on Kingdom, the first story, especially the robot. David Baillie did interviews again, like in Zombies, and they were all funny one page stories, especially the one with a robot getting old. I was very keen on the art in 'Divinity Existence and Toast' as well by Benjamin Dickson. 'The Creator' by Tony Hitchman & Leonie O'Moore was a good robot spin on that Lovecraft story - 'The Outsider'. Other stories I enjoyed were 'Made Men' and 'Null and Void'.

Bristol went well this year, I didn't sell as many comics as last year, but didn't do badly. I met lots of people I was wanting to meet and also heard that Dan Lester's 'Mickey Rourke anthology' is coming out soon so I'm pleased about that. I have a two page story in it called 'Double Mad Mental Mickey Rourke's B & B of Love' which deserves to see the light of day. There were lots of small press there this year and some really good comics, I'll mention some of them later.

Going Seeing The Cardiacs - Page 3

Going Seeing The Cardiacs - Page 2

Going seeing the Cardiacs - Page 1

hello

Hello, i've decided to start a blog to show news about my comics and stuff that won't fit on my website. I'm going to start updating it once I get back from Bristol.