Small Press comics creator since 1982
Not Red Deeps! by Sean Azzopardi I’m impressed by the honesty and emotional truth of this very personal comic by Sean Azzopardi. He personally handed me a copy in Harrogate at the Thought Bubble fair in November, when there was a lull on Sunday morning. I never read his other books, and don’t know if…
At Winchester Comics Fair on 19th October 2024, I happened to be tabled right next to Miranda Smart. Sideways glances across at her table, prints and books produced by screenprinting and risograph. I came home with memories of pinks, greens, other strong colours and colour combinations that were threading their way into my brain…like so…
Homelight by Gareth A Hopkins I bought a number of books by this UK creator when I was at the Brew Zine comic fair in July. I wanted to say hello to Gareth as I’ve seen a few tweets about his work and been intrigued. To say he’s prolific is an understatement; I have the…
Chris Reynolds 2 x Chris Reynolds UK Dark and Golden Books 008 (2024) Very happy to receive this recent publication from Dark And Golden Books. It reprints two stories from UK artist Chris Reynolds, ‘Space Food’ from 1990 and ‘The Animals’ War’ from 2005, and as a backup article it reprints an interview with Reynolds…
Recommended for your consideration, may we mention Dead Watch issues 1 and 2 by British-Russian designer Natasha Denezhkina Campbell. In this series (started in 2022), she proposes a fictional account of a very hot topic – the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Her idea has been to recast it as vampire fiction, portraying The Enemy…
A few disjointed thoughts about Shelter: Early Doors by Lucy Sullivan. The comic’s been nagging away at me somewhere since I read it over a couple of nights. That’s a good start. I would like art to nag at me and disturb me. At first glance when picked up from Lucy’s stall at Leatherhead Library…
I received a package of comics from Jason Atomic in November – this was after my recent review of Ugly Mug # 6, in which he appears. So far I’ve read Satanic Mojo Comix #7, a US-sized book with a mini-comic insert. Just by looking at the cover alone you can see the E.C. Comics…
Herewith we resume our biased, insider-view appraisal of the contents of Ugly Mug #6. I’m pleased to note that I seem to be on the right track, since (thanks to the immediacy of social media) Harley tells me I’ve “really nailed the spirit of what [Ugly Mug] was aiming for”. John Bagnall found time in…
This is a totally biased, partisan, non-objective review of the new issue of Ugly Mug comic, published by Harley Richardson…Harley is an old friend of mine, he helped me with the Fast Fiction service in the 1980s, and we’ve collaborated on other projects too. Also he happens to like my comic strip work, so my…
The review below is by Adam Groves, a writer who’s a specialist in cinema and literature. But he reviews graphic novels too. I’m very pleased with the way he’s engaged with the content of my stories, and the annotations, that were published in the 2010 anthology Magic Mirror. Published on his site The Bedlam Files;…
