Review of 'Silent Planet'

 Here's a new review of my latest comic 'Silent Planet' from Broken Frontier. Thanks Andy! Still on sale at my shop.... 

 

Review of 'Hollywood on the Croal'

 Here's a new little review of 'Hollywood on the Croal' from Optical Sloth. Thanks Kevin. The comic is all new. It's still on sale at my Comics Shop on The Blog here. Cheers.

Review of 'Trashcan Private Eye'

 My comic 'Trashcan Private Eye' got a new review from Optical Sloth. Thanks Kevin! 'Trashcan Private Eye' is on sale at my comics shop on the blog here. 

Review of 'The Haunted Hotel'

 Here's a new review of 'The Haunted Hotel' from Optical Sloth. Thanks Kevin! 

'The Haunted Hotel' is still on sale, have a look here. 

Review of 'The Woodsman'

 Here's a new review of 'The Woodsman' from Optical Sloth, thanks Kevin! 

There are still lots of copies available in my online shop here, thanks! 

Review of 'The Woodsman'

Rob Clough has written a review of my last comic 'The Woodsman'. It's up on his patreon site here but I'll paste it in below in case people aren't a patron. (I asked and he said that was ok). Please sign up to Rob Clough's Patreon if you can for lots more exclusive reviews, lots of interesting stuff on there! Thanks Rob!

 The Woodsman

For over fifteen years, the UK's Rob Jackson has been delivering a dizzying array of bizarre and hilarious comics that skirt the line between genres like horror and fantasy with the most mundane of elements. His simple but grotesque art is easy to parse, because he goes to great lengths to make his layouts clear. No matter how silly the premise of his strip, Jackson always follows it to its logical end and beyond.

The Woodsman is particularly demented, as it follows a wunderkind novelist named Bill Greasom who is desperately trying to write his second novel. He travels to a cabin in a remote location, but he still struggles to come up with any ideas. When he meets a bizarre "woodsman," he's offered a chance to write something specifically for him, as it might help his writer's block. After the woodsman offers him a mushroom dish and moonshine, Greasom blacks out and wakes up with the inspiration to write and finish his new novel.

Obviously, this was going to be some kind of deal with the devil, right? Well, it did turn out to be a horror story, only it hinged on the most ridiculous detail possible. The Woodsman claimed that he liked very specific kinds of stories, and it turned out that he made a string of famous novelists write him porn. "The Old Man And The Sex Party" by "E.H.", "Catcher In Her Pants" by "J.S.", etc. Greasom discovered this and was horrified that he had been used in this way, and tried to find ways to get out from under his deal.

The rest of the comic explores a series of horrific scenarios where Bill tries to escape, recruits other writers to work against the Woodsman, and repeatedly finds himself back at the cabin. The caped Woodsman, wearing a stovepipe hat, cuts a ridiculous figure until the moments where Jackson unleashes completely unexpected horror. 

That's the secret to Jackson's success. He has such a firm understanding and appreciation of genre comics that the backbone of his stories is always cleverly ensconced in those worlds. His art has such a gloriously shabby approach that the worlds his characters live in all seem vaguely but permanently soiled. His characters look like ordinary schlubs with bad posture and spotty skin. Whatever absurd element Jackson introduces into his narrative somehow always makes sense within the context of the plot and doesn't take the reader out of it. Indeed, his service to the plot of whatever he's writing is unshakable. However, his eccentricities as an artist and his willingness to tweak genre conventions make each new story a delightfully fresh and strange experience. 

 

'The Woodsman' is on sale at my website shop here, thanks! 

 

'Meat Grinder' Review

Here's a new review of my comic 'Meat Grinder' from Optical Sloth. Thanks Kevin! If you would like a copy they are for sale at my shop on this blog, cheers!

Reviews of My Comics

Here's some reviews of my comics-

Reviews from Rob Clough at his High-Low site

Reviews from Optical Sloth

Comics Reporter reviews 'On The Banks of the Mighty Croal' 

Richard Bruton reviews my comics at the Forbidden Planet Blog- cached versions as the site has been deleted

The Gods Must be Bastards

Reviews from Broken Frontier

Review of 'Flying Sausage Academy'

Here's the first review of 'Flying Sausage Academy' from Richard Bruton at the Forbidden Planet Blog. Thanks Richard!

Review of 'The Storytellers' and 'California'

Here's a great review of 'The Storytellers' and 'California' from Andy Oliver at the Broken Frontier site. Thanks Andy!

Review of 'California 3' and 'California 4'

Here's a review of 'California - Parts 3 and 4' from Rob Clough's 'High-Low' blog. There's a review of Kyle Baddeley's 'Silent V' there as well.

Review of 'California - Part Four'

Here's a review of the final part of my 'California' series from the Forbidden Planet Blog.

Injury 2 - Ted May

Injury 2 is cool, I like it even more than Injury 1. The best story is the first one 'Hair of the Dog' which is a story from Jeff Wilson's heavy metal loving youth. In this tale he gets a girlfriend and then she breaks up with him by letter as he is 'a wastoid'. there aren't enough heavy metal comics, even 'the dude from Nazareth' appears in this one and sings 'Love Hurts' at the end of his doomed romance. The second main story is part 2 of 'Manleau' a tale about a cyborg fighting gang members. Its funny, and I enjoyed it ,more than the first part (in Injury 1) but not as cool as 'Hair of the Dog'. Nice cover too. The back cover is even better but I'm not showing that. You will have to buy the comic (or go find it on the interweb). Great to see an excellent comic length book.
It Lives

Manhole 3 - Mardou

Manhole 3 is my favourite Mardou comic for a good while. Its one long proper story about two best friends who go out drinking and listening to music and go out with blokes from the bands. They plan to go to America and follow the bands but things don't work out that way. It's set mainly in Manchester and even has a section in Darwen (probably the first comic to ever feature Darwen, I imagine).
It Lives

Paper Rodeo Issue 19
Its well worth getting an issue or two of Paper Rodeo to have a look at it. It's all printed on newsprint with giant newspaper sized pages and looks like the above picture. Some days I really like it and some days I think it is like wallpaper (crazy ape shit wallpaper mind you) and what's the point. I guess I often feel torn between comics that are all about the art and comics that are all about the story. You can obviously like both kinds. The drawings great though always and is by loads of different artists. Has some one or two page cartoons in it too and the brilliant Multi Force is serialized in some of the issues. From providence USA.

Carl is the Awesome Volumes 1 & 2 collected - Marcos Perez
Each of these volumes contains 3 little minicomics and is housed in a nifty little envelope with a picture stuck on the front which is a great idea for minicomics. These are great and very funny. Carl is a dinosaur with a beavers tale who is indeed the awesome. He plays in a band, his vest is super sick, his body is rugged like corduroy and his confidence is bizarre and otherworldly. In Volume 2 Carl show's us how to really be an awesome small press cartoonist while staying super sick. Nice.
Recently he's gone on line-
Carl is the Awesome

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

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