Comics by Ed Pinsent » News

Beware The Egg

Ed Pinsent — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:36:47 +0000

The great Chris Reynolds has a new website dedicated to his Cinema Detectives series. From here you can purchase new Cinema Detectives stories for your Kindle. Rosa Pleck tracks down Gan at Sheffield Hallam University and is puzzled by the sight of a large egg sitting on the stairs of the halls of residence…and that’s just the opening pages! Essential reading!

Protective Geometry

Ed Pinsent — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:17:44 +0000

New work out now! A collaboration with the American performance artist / writer / poet Bryan Lewis Saunders. Protective Geometry is a string of images drawn to accompany a transcript of one of Bryan’s sleep-talking sessions. It is very odd and disturbing. Not a comic as such, more like an illustrated text, but a must for Pinsent fans.

£3.00 plus post from the print on demand service Lulu.

Video from the Comica Festival 2010

Ed Pinsent — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:31:44 +0000

Here is a video made by Stephen Poulacheris of last November’s Comica event. I turned up to sell books, do a live drawing, and I also took part in a short interview with Stephen. I appear from around 8:30 on this YouTube video.

Gallery additions #3

Ed Pinsent — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:18:40 +0000

Started a new galery for “foreign” small press comics, that is to say non-UK small press publications. My collection of these is not very extensive and I expect the entire collection to fit into a single gallery. We’re starting off with titles from A-D, with some beautifully produced items from the USA, Canada, and France. More to come.

Gallery additions #2

Ed Pinsent — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:11:01 +0000

Created a new gallery for 1980s UK article zines; these are mostly text-based reviews and interview fanzines. Not quite in my line as they mainly covered genres of comics which held little interest for me personally, but AKA was a very incisive and well-written Scots publication; the 7th issue has an extremely readable interview with Harry Harrison, the science fiction writer who worked in comics in the 1940s. It ends with his scathing comment about working in the industry at that time: “It was utterly boring, you know, I was very glad to leave it behind”. Also published in this issue was the two-pager by Graham Johnstone, ‘Dead Trees’, his experimental rendering of a brief excerpt from L’Etranger by Albert Camus.

Catalyst was edited by Norman Herrington in Sussex. I’m not sure if it went beyond two issues. The magazine folded out into a large poster, with each panel of the folded page containing one short article; it covered small press and more mainstream comics in its reviews. In #2, I contributed short articles on Joost Swarte and Asterix.

Probably more titles to come; watch this space.

Gallery additions #1

Ed Pinsent — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:58:16 +0000

Some additions to the UK small press gallery of A5 comics…this includes some issues of Automatic, a 1990s venture seeing an editorial collaboration between Darryl Cunningham and Rich Holden, representing the work of artists in the north of England.

Burton on Flickr!

Ed Pinsent — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:19:36 +0000

Lawrence Burton has made a large number of his small press comics available on Flickr. He’s uploaded some very hi-quality scans up there, enabling anyone to download and read his comics for free. There’s also a set containing one-off gags, drawings, cartoons, drafts and sketches – over 300 images!

A few examples are linked below, but once you browse the photostream you’ll find more things, including examples of his Mexico paintings.

New Primitif Comic

Ed Pinsent — Sun, 15 May 2011 11:55:57 +0000

Available now from print-on-demand service lulu.com, this is a short unfinished Primitif story from 1996.

Additions to comics galleries

Ed Pinsent — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:49:15 +0000

Added a sizeable number of scans to the A4-sized comics galleries, including Witch #2, Velocity #6, Scenes From The Inside, Beathag #1-4, Dark Tales, and numerous issues of Mauretania Comics. The work of Chris Reynolds and his friend Paul Harvey is, to me, one of the most singular achievements in the world of the UK small press, although I realise you might not appreciate this from seeing the covers alone (even though they are beautiful). One of these days an appreciative essay is in order. In the meantime, please browse the covers in my collection (I’m shattered to realise I’m missing a few issues). Issues #1-3 are photocopied A4 size; it went to US comic book size for issues #4-6, then settled on a magazine digest size until #16, which might have been the end of the run. The books were professionally litho-printed by Robert Blamire, the third partner in the Mauretania triumvirate. To me, the cover to #8 is just sheer perfection.

Fast Fiction info sheets

Ed Pinsent — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:21:16 +0000

I’ve started to add scans of the Fast Fiction info sheets, which I hope will do something to enhance readers’ understanding of the history of the UK small press. These four-page pamphlets contained listings of small press comics as they appeared, offering what was then a form of “instant” recognition. As Nick Jones has expressed it, “Fast Fiction was the name of the ’80s scene’s mail order distributor (with Elliott and Pinsent in command, as well as Paul Gravett), not to mention the name of the table the outfit had at the regular London Westminster Comic Marts. Essentially, Fast Fiction was the hub around which countless small press comics creators twirled, and the means by which one bought small press comics back then. The way it worked was, you either bought comics off the Fast Fiction table at the Westminster Mart, or picked up one of their four-page flyers, chose the titles you liked the look of, and sent in your order form and money.”

My collection starts in October 1982 with #7 of these sheets, which marks the date when I first went to the Westminster Mart. If anyone has copies of #1-6, please get in touch. I’ve scanned everything quite large to allow for maximum legibility, although the text isn’t OCRd (if you read them, you’ll understand why). Later years will be soon added to the resource, so watch this space.