Wednesday, January 31, 2001Posted by Andy (Konky Kru)
Had another look at TRS 2. Actually, I got there by chance, searching for Richard Argent. (Anyone know what happended to him?) Very impressive how many reviews you have. Pete tells me there are going to be some pics too, which would make a huge difference. Here's a review-website I just found (again searching for a particular artist, John Kerschbaum) and it's nicely laid out, with tiny pictures of *each* cover on the front page of each new issue. What more could one ask for? Well, more reviews of alternative comics, but still, worth taking note of. Here it is: Creeping Reviews.
(issues 7 and 8 seem to be missing)
1:13 PM | Posted by mooncat
Jez's previous entry re Grant Morrison on a telly programme called "Disinfo Nation" made me think that they nicked the idea off Mark Pawson's rather excellent Disinfotainment stuff. 4:38 AM | Tuesday, January 30, 2001Posted by Pete Jenni Cole has been involved in UK comics fandom for far longer than I contributing to many zines and conventions and doing much good work, which is why I'm posting this here even though it's about Marvel! FANTASTIC FUN DAY 2:31 PM | Posted by Andy (Konky Kru)
Apparently there was quite a kerfuffle in Angouleme about From Hell not getting the main prize. If you're interested in how they were discussing the subject on the French newsgroup 'Frab' check out this little page I made (extra for you)
if you can bear the idea of looking at words outside your mothertongue. For example:
7:14 AM | Posted by Jez Having given Comics Beardy-Weirdy God-King Alan Moore (him again) half an hour to make a fool of himself, Channel Four continue through the great'n'good to smooth'n'rakish Grant Morrison, who's appearing on Disinfo Nation at five past one this Thursday night. Can't link to anything on the C4 website, but it says Grant Morrison discusses his comic series The Invisibles, and explains the secrets of black magic, and artist Howard Hallis reveals The Picture, a vast pantheon of the greatest cartoon characters and counter-culture figures. Hmm - magical secrets and The Invisibles in thirty minutes? Watch and no doubt weep. 12:26 AM | Monday, January 29, 2001Posted by Pete
Wizard on 3:31 PM | Posted by Andy (Konky Kru)
More Moore
Palmarés Angoulême 3:11 PM | Posted by Pete
Cu Comics is Paul Carstairs who did a bunch of UK small press comics in the early to mid 90s, including a personal fave of mine from that time, AAAAAGH! Tales (pictured), mainly because it had Adrian Bamforth's curious art which looked like it had been dragged through a photocopier backwards, and then photocopied a few more times for good measure (while still being damn fine draftsmanship), but also for Paul's stories - weird little fables, admittedly with a gross-out theme but compared to a lot of gross-out stuff around at the time his shone out. Historically this comic is a good example of a subsection of the UK small press which I fell into. Admittedly, as a networking zine/review fiend I fell into many camps, but this was the one I started off it and felt most at home. Predominantly male, early to mid 20s, with influences coming from 2000AD, Deadline and the Brit invasion creators (Alan Moore knew the score), titles like The Jock, Defective Comics, My Life Story and others I forget, were held together by fanzine-style lettercols and a pen-pal ethic forming a scene that was stronger than most but had no desire to expand into global domination. While many of the creators expressed a desire to work for the big guys, none of them ever did and many are still doing pretty much the same thing as before. Dave Metcalfe and Rol Hirst are still doing the kitchen sink drama (will stunning results of late), while Jez Higgins is still working on the new issue of Coffee Time after five (?) years and Rik Hoskin has adapted his Agents of Psyence characters (which have been running for over a decade) to tape-only radio plays and writes stuff for Tim Brown's fantasy comic Brin. These comics fell between two stools and were quite happy there. With no desire to experiment or dive headlong into the punk DIY scene (which I was more than willing to do, hence the "many camps") they were more comfortable with the amateur-superhero people, but their navel gazing, "self indulgent tosh" was a little too odd to sit comfortably there. They were the outsiders at small press gatherings but they didn't care because they were doing their own thing. This fact alone has constantly reminded me that the UK small press (and by extension all underground artistic scenes) cannot be quantified. When you think you know about everything that's going on you're stumble across another bunch of 10 or 20 people who've built up their own little scene, and then another. A few years back it looked like small press comics in the UK were dying off, but that was just because the main movers and shakers in the established scene were moving on to other things. I always knew there would be a bunch of kids out there doing stuff completely unaware of Caption or TRS (the first incarnation) or Fast Fiction or Slab-O-Concrete (before it became a publisher) who would one day break into my consciousness. And here they are! Phew! Go read Carstairs' comics. Jez makes a very valid point:Fair enough. I was never one of the creatives so my view is slightly tainted. Maybe it was because everyone arsed around so much and wasn't ernest (in public). Anyway, record set straight.Not sure I can really agree with you matey. There was a whole darn lot of experimenting going on - perhaps you just didn't recognize it, because it didn't look like what you were doing - we (Dave, Darren, Andrew Pack, Will Brooker and others) were, and I don't want to sound too art-wank about this, experimenting with the comic form. Dave, for instance, tried a whole load of different ways to try give you a different point of view - think about all the stories he wrote with female leads, or the work he did with Will Brooker. Andrew Pack to the hermetically-sealed mystery story to a whole new level. I was trying to do stories that were driven by fragmentary dialogue and subtext, rather than exposition. Not everything succeeded, but some of it did. Of course, these are things that other people have tried before and since, but that doesn't invalid trying one jot. Don't let the fact that the comics we produced looked like comics blind you matey. 2:24 PM | Posted by Pete Interesting Alan Moore interivew which seems a bit old but covers most aspects of his career. Of stylistic note because it transcribes his speech accurately as in this class example: Yeah, well I mean I sent John a script, this was something that me and John were talking about doing coz I mean John is a tremendous artist and it would have always been great working with him. I sent John , I think, at least one script.Northampton a-go-go! (from the excellent linkmachinego weblog) 1:40 PM | Sunday, January 28, 2001Posted by Andy (Konky Kru) The internet is a peculiar mixture of diversity and shallowness. It's amazing from how far and about how many little subjects one can find something, but this something usually is quickly exhausted. Take comics-publishers. Yesterday I found the sites of renowned Swiss arty-comics anthology Drozophile and of what seems to be the Spanish Fantagraphics called Brut or Cupula or El Vibora (all a bit confusing) (they do Bagge, Jaime, Crumb etc). It's great to learn a little about these things, but both sites are rather stingy with their information, virtually no virtual comicsamples for example. From Brut you get nothing but covers, 10 by Peter Bagge , which is not bad (some of which would hardly be done in English), and even more interesting to us are those from Spanish artists like Miguel Ángel Martín ('Brian the Brain') (two more) (5 illustrations) , Max (that's the guy who was at Caption some years ago), or another Martin, (also another Jaime as it happens) Jaime Martin (who has been published in France as well, by Bethy, a small publisher which also translated Ilya's End of the Century Club) . But they really could put a few stories online, to give a little taster. J.Martin has his own site, mostly illustrations and all his covers (comicsample and English text) Well, you can find all these bits and pieces, but rarely a publisher who gives you something more to look at, like Highwater and their strips archive. And not just the mainstreamier (if you want to call Crumb etc that) sites are stingy, but abovementioned Drozophile as well. You get bits and pieces (click on panel), better than nothing, but nothing very generous. Is this because publishers are scared to loose sales or because the internet simply hasn't evolved enough, visually? 4:46 AM | Saturday, January 27, 2001Posted by Pete I mentioned this a few months back so it won't hurt again. Artoons were an art experiment by Brendan McCarthy which appeared on the back pages of Crisis in the early 90s. There's a load of them archived here as part of the excellent NeoMcCarthyism site. 5:08 PM | Posted by Pete I've finally gotten around to posting Andy Luke's December Reviews on the TRS2 subsite, along with the Links from the December paper-issue. 4:38 PM | Posted by Andy (Konky Kru) Thanks Paul, for reminding me (again) of Regé and the Highwater online-strip-collection. I'm looking for more urls to stick into my 'Internet Anthologies' page, there aren't so many. Another new entry is the NuKomix site, by a bunch of Dutch artists. It has worksamples and biographies of each, with photos, including a very cute one of Maaike Hartjes dressed up as a goth. For Helen Braithwaite I found this, long stories or something. I wonder if this will work... 3:56 PM | Posted by Pete
Missing Persons! I'm trying to find Helen Braithwaite, a woman who used to write for Sequential Tart. I'm a Tart and want to ask her some questions.. might you be able to help me?Not me, but anyone else got an idea? 3:20 PM | Posted by Pete The Ghost World movie site is now up with trailers and all that gubbins. (from linkmachinego) 11:02 AM | Friday, January 26, 2001Posted by Lee Hmm. I'd never heard of Ron Rege, I must admit; strange stuff, and pretty cool...If anybody's into alternative music, opera, and -uh- my toons,check out jaggedmusic.com . It's a new site, and is looking pretty good, so far.I'm going to be doing a little "Opera on Telly" spot, hopefully every week or so... Finally, has anyone ever heard of a cartoonist called Rene Tremblay (possibly Canadian-) ? Haven't had any luck in my own searches so far. 10:35 AM | Posted by mooncat
ok - 2nd try at posting this... 3:23 AM | Wednesday, January 24, 2001Posted by Pete Paul Gravett sends a CAT press release of valued interest to those in London: Cartoon Art Trust Event Alert!!Here's a trusty map or you can phone the Trust on 020 7278 7172. 1:08 PM | Posted by Lee Wo...This is really too much for my lil' technophobe brain. I tried yesterday & nuffink happened, so here goes another mighty effort.. I just wanted to suggest that everyone in London get over to the Brunswick Centre and check out the Cartoon Museum's Hoffnung exhibit. I have to admit ,I always 'quite' liked his drawings, but thought he was a bit twee and old-fashioned. I'd not seen any of his colour illustration, which is very lush and dense.Just lovely. What really had my mouth hanging open , though, was a large selection of drawings collected by his parents,ranging from infancy to early adulthood. Stuff he was doing at about 12 is just staggering. He must have been a geniune genius. ..Everyone should see this, rant babble, etc. 11:11 AM | Monday, January 22, 2001Posted by Pete From Jessica Abel on the Comix@ mailing list... I just wanted to let everyone know that I've been working on a new section for my website called DIY (do it yourself) about materials, techniques, and buying and selling comics. It's a slow road, but some of it is up there now--most usefully, perhaps, the section on materials. I've also uploaded my Retailing Alternative Comics 101, a guide I wrote in early 1997 after interviewing a number of comics retailers. Some other sites have had this posted already (if you have it posted, copy the new version off my site), but I realized it needed a bit of work since 1997, so I changed a few details. However, and here's where you come in, I have this list of recommended comics with which stores might begin to move into alternative comics, and it's out of date. What does anyone think fits in the three categories I defined in the essay: ground-level, introductory, and alternative? (to quote myself: "There are some that are more appealing to mainstream fans (let's call them ground-level), some that appeal strongly to non-comics readers (introductory) and some that are a little more difficult, for those who already have some introduction to alternative comics (alternatives)"). 4:33 PM | Sunday, January 21, 2001Posted by Pete Over the next few days you'll notice other people writing stuff on this page. Do not be afraid. This was going to happen eventually. BugPowder.com was originally conceived as a message board type site for the UK small press comics scene combining the best aspects of the fanzine/APA scene I and others used to be part of in the 1990s. Personal circumstances put this on hold a year or two ago but we're getting close to reaching that goal. You can see this as a transitional stage. Rather than suddenly jump from the current situation of My Voice to the future situation of Many Voices, I've invited a few people to post on this page should they find something of interest. Eventually anyone who visits this site will be able to post stuff and comment on those posts already here. Like I said, this is transitional. I'll take this opportunity to invite anyone else to post stuff. Just send me a sample post of a site you're found and if it's up to scratch (not that hard) I'll add you to the list. Finally, you might notice some weirdness over the next few days as the new people get the hang of things. Be nice to them! For your information, we're looking at sites like slashdot as a model of how BugPowder will work. You like the idea? 5:05 PM | Saturday, January 20, 2001Posted by Pete Philip Bond and Jamie Hewlett broke into comics together first with their small press zine Atomtan and then with the premier issue of Deadline. Bond is still doing comics and has a top site with loads of strips archived, but I was wondering what had happened to Sir Jamie of Tank Girl. Kate heard his name on Ra-jo One and it turns our he's involved with a dance music combo by the name of Gorillaz and does artwork for them. Stephen Prestage adds: 4:28 PM | Posted by Pete Woodrow Phoenix has illustrated a couple of kids books: Baz the Biz and Is That Your Dog?. By all accounts Ian Carney, Woodrow's partner in crime on the excellent Sugar Buzz, is raking it in writing Bob the Builder. From small press comics to warping the minds of children. If this gets out... 4:21 PM | Posted by Pete New link list from Andy: Photocomics. 1:43 PM | Posted by Pete Red Meat - a delightful comic strip I am overjoyed to find has a web archive. (Found on There Goes Tokyo) 12:50 PM | Thursday, January 18, 2001Posted by Pete Another review mag found by Paul that's got a web presence, Broken Pencil is a Canadian version of the old Factsheet Five (what has happened to Factsheet Five? Last I heard it was moving to new editorial hands but that was over 2 years ago) covering all aspects of Zine/DIY culture, including, of course, small press comics. 3:22 PM | Posted by Pete Andy found this academic piece on Sam Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner which is of note because it makes extensive reference to Hunt Emerson's version. (Hunt's own site is here) 3:15 PM | Wednesday, January 17, 2001Posted by Pete I've been informed that the links on the left hand side were all buggered. From Roger Langridge down they all linked to... Roger Langridge. Good for him but bad for everyone else. They're all fixed now and I've added a bunch of new ones. 12:01 PM | Posted by Pete Shane Chesby's smallzone site is coming together nicely. It's a bit work-in-progress at the moment but please support this venture! We need a dedicated small press distro in the UK and Shane's got the dedication and patience to run it. We owe him our thanks! 11:24 AM | Posted by Pete It's been a while since we had a spurious James Kochalka link, so here he is in French. 10:25 AM | Posted by Pete Paul also mentioned the AAA Aardvark - WraithSpace Comics Index which is notable because it's very old indeed! Back in the day this was the main source for online comics and while it's been joined and in some cases superceeded in recent years it still links to a lot of interesting stuff, some of it noticeably outside of the "new orthodoxy" of web comics. 10:23 AM | Posted by Pete "Poopsheet is an infozine designed for the purpose of spreading information about zines, comix, films, music and other independent-minded projects." In the same vein as Factsheet five and, indeed, our own Zum and TRS2, this US based zine review site has loads of interesting stuff in it. Go get those Internation Reply Coupons! (found by Paul Schroeder) 10:15 AM | Posted by Pete A good US mini comics site with established names (such as Matt Feazell and Scott McCloud) alongside other unknown-to-me names (which is the point!) either on the site or linking elsewhere portal style. (found by Andy) 10:07 AM | Tuesday, January 16, 2001Posted by Pete Andy writes: Thomas Rowlandson 10:37 AM | Monday, January 15, 2001Posted by Pete Here's Andy Fiddy's site, as promised a few posts ago. Look at all that animation and modern stuff! And look at how fast it loads! There is a third way! 3:55 PM | Posted by Pete There're two new comics on the excellent usscatastrophe site. ROOTHOG by John Porcellino(Taken from the press release because I'm tired...) 3:43 PM | Sunday, January 14, 2001Posted by Pete
I did have a problem getting my credit card authorised but other than that glitch the whole setup seems professional, level headed and forward thinking. Nice one. 3:46 PM | Posted by Pete
1:43 PM | Saturday, January 13, 2001Posted by Pete Mini-Comics.com is a US based site for small press types. 2:55 PM | Posted by Pete Andy writes: As I was getting a bit fed up with making linklists to stuff that may not be there much longer, and especially not dispayed in a way that I find convenient, I plumped for putting up some pages of early comics myself. Only 28 pages, but instead of having to click each time to view a new panel, you get a whole lotathem on each webpage. For example, the 35 pictures from 'Stuwwelpeter' (1842) are now neatly stuck together on top of each other on one page. Takes a bit to download at first, but then you can look at the stories at your leisure. With superfast connections this may be less of an issue, but I also like the aesthetics of having such a lot of material connected like an ancient scroll, only you can scroll up and down much faster than the egyptians. Whatever, please let me know what you think, what you liked, what's still missing (not much textual information at the moment) etc. 2:44 PM | Thursday, January 11, 2001Posted by Pete Top Shelf links: Interviews with Chris Staros and/or Brett Warnock on Savant, ComicBookGallaxy, and Hex (preserved on Google). Again, all found by Andy. A friend has commented that people might think the prevalence of Top Shelf related material on this site might make me a bit biased. Hopefully these interviews show that Chris, Brett and I share a lot of ideas, beliefs and views about comics and I think they're doing a lot of good work for "the cause" as it were. 3:36 PM | Posted by Pete Nice alt-comics message board found by Andy. 3:28 PM | Posted by Pete
Paul Schroeder's classic from 1990: minimalist british humour. Wonderful! 10:58 AM | Posted by Pete Scott McCloud's I Can't Stop Thinking! #5 is now up. This month, money. (ICST archives) 10:53 AM | Wednesday, January 10, 2001Posted by Pete Ever wondered what Andy Konky Kru does art-wise? Here's what. 3:01 PM | Posted by Pete
You like Kyle Baker? You like the Pander Brothers? You'll love this. Piercing has great pacing, wonderful expressions and a nigh-perfect understanding of comics form. And it's a damn good comic to boot. Check it out! Interestingly he's part of this Autopilot project Ant Carpendale's been confusing us with... Anthony Carpendale writes... 2:58 PM | Posted by Pete Neat Rich Johnston spoof. 2:51 PM | Tuesday, January 09, 2001Posted by Pete Rich Johnson (whose comics rumour column is here) had an article in Media Guardian on Monday. 11:23 AM | Posted by Pete From Subcentral impresario Anthony Carpendale and Andy Fiddy, whose experimental small press comic Dead Hand was a bit of a hit a few years back (I've lost his website URL and will post it later...) ...Hot on the heels of warped menswear fetish 90-second DV extravaganza 'Shirtlifter', comes 'Autopilot' - a weekend in the life of drugged-up, narcissistic yuppie Alex DeMello who is chased across a hallucinatory city by his vengeful, psychopathic little skateboarder brother and demonic car wreckers employed by satanic suits. 11:15 AM | Monday, January 08, 2001Posted by Pete New personal ad from Xenocrayon. 3:42 PM | Sunday, January 07, 2001Posted by Pete From now on, when you send me emails asking me to distribute your comic or contribute to your zine, I won't just send you a polite email declining the offer, I'll post it on the BugPowder Personal Ads page. Feel free to make the most of this and if you're looking for colaborators or other lost souls check it often! 6:30 PM | Posted by Pete Andy Konky Kru, of Andy's Link Lists, writes to inform of another link list, this one with pictures and of three online comics of note he's come across: 'Strongman' - cute Flash comic/animaton mixture 4:54 PM | Posted by Pete Jason Cobley is back with his long running small press creation Captain Winston Bulldog. A new issue is out soon (yay!) and full details can be found on the new Bulldog Comics site. 4:50 PM | Wednesday, January 03, 2001Posted by Pete Two from the Comix@ mailing list: Ed Hillyer and Paul Johnson's cartooning workshop at Great Ormond St Hospital is reported at This Is London. Ed, also known as Ilya, has been doing small press comics since the 80's is responsible for the End Of The Century Club books published by Slab-O Concrete. Paul is another long-time UK comics artist who, while working mainly for the major publishers is one of the most creative "comics painters" on the block. There's an interview with Ben Katchor on Identity Theory. "The great thing about comics is that it can mix words with these concrete images. Once you reduce the image to a symbol, you don't have that strange tension. It's all working on this level of symbols. Words with symbolic drawings and are really concrete descriptions of the world. That's the interesting tension of comics. When you can have the real world or a representation of it. And then a layer of words, of abstractions riding above it. That's what an ideal comic strip should be that. " Katchor's website 12:14 PM | Tuesday, January 02, 2001Posted by Pete From Scott A Gilbert's Apeshot Studios site, a really neat list of comics related links. (from Andy) 11:16 AM | Monday, January 01, 2001Posted by Pete Lee Kennedy informs of an interview with underground comics star Kim Deitch on thecomicstore.com. (This link may not be permanent...) 1:46 PM | Posted by Pete What are Shareware Comics? The Germ of an idea. Comics strips that are made available to download so that a small press publisher can either fill out a comic or produce a completed work. This, hopefully will allow the creators to expand their exposure to an international market while removing many of the difficulties small press publishers have when working with creators who have full time jobs. No commitment is required.This intriguing idea from the brain of P J Holden started on the 27th December and looks very interesting indeed. Any cartoonists with strips lying around waiting to be published (or re-published) should get involved, as should anyone with ambitions of anthology-itis. There's an email list and the constitution is in progress. 11:23 AM | |
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