Fraser Geesin - The Cleaner (Man of Destiny) Issues One and Two

I really enjoyed these two comics from Fraser Geesin. I hadn't heard of him before but I saw some recommendations for them on twitter, and then that he was having an October sale.

The comics are mainly about his job as a cleaner, which he has been doing for about ten years at the time of  the first comic. He mainly cleans peoples houses and doesn't have to go back if they annoy him too much. It sounds quite a good job. He goes off on a lot of tangents and daydreams, talking about other low paid jobs he has had, such as traffic surveying, street sweeping and selling tickets to fairground rides. The comics are very funny and interesting too. Comics about people with different jobs are cool, and he has plenty to say, even if it's only about how boring bits of his jobs can get. Highly recommended.

Richard Swan - 'Parallel Lines'

 This is a cool wordless book by Richard Swan. It describes a little world of odd creatures. A group of sort of robots are mining coal. They have shovels for hands and their bodies hold the coal. They are overseen by another strange creature. A few of them wander off from work while on a break and find a doorway in a tall brick wall. Sometimes it leads to a beach but huge machinery like a train comes out of the ground, and can move the doorway so it leads to other places. The overseer becomes worried about all the missing robots and not hitting his targets with the mining and rings an alarm in his hut. This brings his overseer along to see what the trouble is. Lots more strange things happen.

I liked it a lot, the drawing is really cool with a lot of detail, and with very interesting and unique creatures. I didn't work out why it was called Parallel Lines though.

Paul Rainey & Robert Wells - 'Thunder Brother Special'

This is a great comic from Paul Rainey. It's got two complete new Thunder Brother stories and another story 'Connected' written by Paul and drawn by Robert Wells. Both the Thunder Brother's are really good. In the first one a woman who was extracted from a soap world tries to force Sally to get her put back, and in the second a new producer sends a woman into a soap world to break up a couple, in order to get higher ratings. I was wondering what happened to Thunder Brother, we still never found out much about the Library King, who was the mysterious villain of the series.
I liked 'Connected' a lot. Jonathan is given a chip for his smart phone by his inventor brother, which allows him to access something called the 'Universal Network'. This is like a galaxy wide 'ask your phone for help' thing. It was funny and reminded me of the ultranet in 'There's No Time like the Present'. Robert Wells drawing is really good. Highly recommended.

Paddy Johnston - Ballgame #1

This is a nice little comic by Paddy Johnston. It's almost a sports comic, I wonder if the second issue will show some games, but this one is more of an autobiographical comic. Paddy grows up trying to like football to fit in, but he never really gets into it. He goes to try out for the football team but plays really badly and doesn't like all the swearing. He is very into Peanuts and so has a romantic view of baseball but the one game of softball he gets to play at school ends in disaster. The final page shows him as the captain of the Hawks Softball Team, as they practice for a game in London, so issue two will have to show how he ended up there.

I went watching a game of baseball once in Korea and it was very boring, I bet it's a lot more fun to play than to watch. Also you probably have to support one of the teams to get into it, and have some idea of what is going on. There were a lot of flashing lights and noises from the scoreboard, like I'd imagined there would be.

What I Have Been Reading

Here's the comics I have bought or swapped recently. I haven't been to any shows for ages but I'm still keeping up with cartoonists I know.

Paul Rainey's 'Pope Francis Goes to the Dentist' is a collection of the short stories and satirical comics he has been drawing. They are very good. The 'Pope Francis' stories are very funny as he tries to go about his papal work while worrying about his teeth. I also really like the '14 Year old Stand up Comedian' tales.

Robert Brown has brought out 'Killjoy 5', the penultimate issue of his series. It's a good story about going to Bournemouth with his grandparents. It sets up the last part of the series really well. It made me feel old though as he goes there in 1997, and is still at primary school. I was at university then.

Lydia Wysocki has brought out 'Departures' and 'Junk'. 'Junk' is a cool little collection of sketchbook and diary comics. 'Departures' is a very fancy handmade comic which opens two different ways, one way is a comic about travelling, with many airports. It is made from remixed and cut up travel sketches. The other way is sketchbook drawings from her travels. The drawings are really lovely.

Simon Moreton brought out 'What Happened' from Kilgore Books. It is some very nice poetic comics about childhood. Watching a scary film, wandering in the woods and on the beach, having a fight with a friend and sitting in a parents car listening to music.

Andrew Cheverton & Chris Doherty - The Whale House 2

Here's the second part of Andrew and Chris' 'The Whale House' series. I enjoyed the first issue when it came out. It's about a man called Diggory who has just lost his parents and then finds out he was adopted. His car breaks down and he finds himself at a strange house in the countryside where the very odd Whale family take him in. They all seem to think that he's their long-lost son Doran.

This is really really good. The story is very complicated with lots of strange goings on and loads of characters. It's quite slow and isn't giving much away yet but its building really well, lots of suspence. Chris' drawing is getting better and better. Highly recommended! Andrew Cheverton's website is here.

Paul Rainey - Thunder Brother Soap Division 5

This is the start of one of my favourite storylines so far in Thunder Brother Soap Division, where a bunch of lads wake up after a drunken night out and find they are squatting on the set of West Enders. They find out that swearing has a powerful effect in that world... Also it's got Paul's adaptation of a Shakespeare sonnet 'XXIII' which is very good, all about unrequited love. Highly recommended. Here's a link to Paul's website.

Kyle Baddeley - Silent V Part 7

Kyle Baddeley has just released the seventh and final part of his series 'Silent V'. You can get a copy at his website, here.    His drawing has got so much better over this series. This one is full of action as he ties up the elaborate and complicated story of Doug, the aliens and the babies.

Robert Brown - Killjoy #1

I really liked Robert Brown's comic 'Killjoy #1'. Its a story from his childhood where he goes on a boy scouts camp in the woods. It's his first experience of camping and the longest time he had spent away from his family. The scouts go absailing and make bivouacs out of bits of wood. It's really understated which I like, upsetting things happen and he's confused and worried, it seems really true to childhood memories to me. The drawing is great too, a bit like Craig Thompson but not too similar. Here's a link to his website.

Paul Rainey - Thunder Brother : Soap Division - Part Two

Last week I got the second of Paul Rainey's Thunder Brother comics. In this issue Sally and Thunder Brother have to go and rescue a soap character who has found out he is being filmed for our entertainment. The continuing story is great and I really liked the science fiction style back up story, 'The Jelly'. Its a bit like the Matrix, but good. Buy it from Paul's website here.

Kyle Baddeley - Silent V Part 6

Here's the penultimate issue of Kyle Baddeley's 'Silent V' series. I'm glad to see that he's starting to wrap things up and explain things instead of adding more new characters. There are lots of weird twists and turns still.  The drawing is as good as the last issue where he had improved a lot. I'm looking forward to the final issue and then I'll be able to re-read the whole series. There's another back up strip in here as well called 'Maggot Lump' which is fun. Here's a link to his blog.

Rol Hirst - 'Too Much Sex and Violence'

I really enjoyed Rol Hirst's new comic 'Too Much Sex and Violence'. Rol has written it all and the art is by many different artists including Paul Rainey, Andrew Cheverton and Martin Eden. Each artist has drawn a different short story so that works really well as a whole issue. They all tie together nicely and are all set in the small coastal town of Fathomby. There was a good review of it yesterday from the Forbidden Planet blog. It's quite a lot like the 'League of Gentlemen' with a large cast of very weird characters in a strange town, so if you liked that I'm sure you'll like this. I'm very interested to see what happens next as it's a very good start to a new series.

Gareth Brookes - The Black Project 1

I got Gareth Brookes' 'The Black Project' at the Bristol Comics and Zine Fair. It's really good. It's the story of a strange boy called Richard who decides to build himself a girlfriend. He thinks that if people find out he will get in trouble so it is his secret project. He struggles to work out what to make the girlfriend out of, and to keep it hidden from his parents. Here's a link to his website where you can buy it and here's a more detailed review of it from Optical Sloth. Highly recommended, its very funny and dark.

James Nash - Speaking of Not Knowing

This is only 2/3 of the cover as it is in a very long thin format, too long for my scanner. It works well for this comic though.

I enjoyed this comic which is a collection of all the Diary Comics James Nash drew in 2009. I bought it at Good Grief yesterday and read it last night. The drawings very good and it's got a lot of daily strips in it. Thats what I like with daily strips, loads of them all at once. I'm not always sure about diary comics anymore as I've read a lot of them, but this is a very good one and well worth buying. Here's a link to his website. In this comic James Nash has a very knackering sounding job in a bank in London and is drawing comics / drinking a lot / thinking too much in his spare time.

Kyle Baddeley - Silent V Part Two

Kyle Baddeley has just brought out the second part of his 'Silent V' series. He is influenced by early Chester Brown (Ed the Happy Clown) and Gary Panter so if you like their stuff why not give it a go. The characters remind me a bit of the Sonic the Hedgehog computer game. His drawing has got a lot better since the first one, which is reviewed here by Rob Clough at TCJ (just above my 'Goblin Hall'). You can buy them at his website here or from Good Grief in Manchester.

Andrew Cheverton & Tim Keable - WEST Distance

This is the first part of the second volume of these comics about a cowboy. In this series he is fighting in the Northern Army in the American Civil War. This issue is setting up the story mainly as he writes a love letter to his wife Eloise and it fills in the back story so you don't have to have read the first volume to tell what's going on. I really like the artwork and the pacing on this story, that cover is very good isn't it. The artwork is full of lettraset style effects that must be done on the computer these days I guess, with lots of the drawing done with black and grey shapes. Its a very atmospheric style, and the landscapes are very good.

Buy it from here. I'll be interested to see what happens next in this tale.

Paul Rainey - There's No Time Like The Present 13

It's the end of an era as this is the last part of Paul Rainey's long comic book story. Go buy it here, if you are not already reading it, why not?

I read the whole thing through after searching around on my shelves for an hour to find all the issues and then read the final issue last night. I can't say much about it as I don't want to give away anything but it's great. Lots of questions are answered and it hangs together really well as a massive long story. I recommend catching up on the earlier ones before you read it so you can notice all the subtle things.

Simon M. - 'Smoo 2 1/2' 'Lisbon' & 'Days'

Simon M. traded me a big pile of his new comics which turned up yesterday morning and cheered me up. He has been very busy and has brought out 3 new comics. His website is at Smoo Tumblr so why not go and buy a few...
'Days' is his diary strip style comic from September to November 2008, but he's only just brought it out. It's different from most diary strips I've seen recently as it's mainly just one or two images for each day and is very reflective, rather than just telling what happened each day, he is thinking a lot about it. There are loads of different page layouts and experiments.
'Lisbon' is a little travelogue of his trip to Lisbon. He seems to have liked it a lot more than I did when I went. It rained on me all the time and I was somewhat miserable. Some very nice drawings and it's always fun to see people drawing places you've been yourself.
This is 'Smoo 2 1/2' which he has brought out while finishing 'Smoo 3' Some great drawing in here on a collection of short stories, very autobiographical. I am looking forward to seeing 'Smoo 3'. Simon got a good review at Forbidden planet recently so have a look at that too...

Paul Rainey - There's No TIme Like The Present 12

I read the new There's No Time Like The Present last night, it's the penultimate episode! Go and buy it from Paul Rainey here.

It's a great comic, can't say much about it without giving away lots of spoilers but we get to see the future and learn more about the ultranet and what's going on... I am well looking forward to the final episode and then reading the whole lot in one go.

Paul Rainey - There's No Time Like The Present 10

Paul Rainey's 'There's No Time Like The Present' comics are coming out very reguarly now, hurrah! Here's issue 10 and it's great. One of my favourite issues, lots of things happen and we find out more of what's going on. Like issue 9 it's more science fictiony as the concequences of time travel and the ultranet are further explored through the very interesting characters. This one was very poignant I thought. Cool, can't wait for the next one...

I've been in France for a weeks holiday which was nice. It was hot and sunny. Now to get back to drawing 'Great Deeds 2'. I am having ideas for my next project after that which will be called 'Sealand Blight' (hopefully it will be a graphic novel sized comic, though I'll probably bring it out in normal comics as I go along) so I'm starting to do some character designs for that. I want it to look different from my other comics.