Part Two and the brutal honesty continues.
(WTF is that!?)
Back to the comics......
If you want a convention to live and breathe its not the endless Funkos or the Z List celebrities or the cosplayers or the furries ...... it’s the Small Press Comics scene. Artists and writers putting out comics (of a varying standard admittedly) off their own back and mostly on their own coin. Guys like Bob Turner (https://castlerockcomic.bigcartel.com/ ) who consistently puts out beautifully weird comics full of perfectly choreographed grid animations and Alan Henderson ( https://pennedguin.bigcartel.com/ ) who puts out collections of three panel gag comics which make possibly the best toilet read you’ll ever find. Both of these creators display an unparalleled love for the medium. I have really warmed to the Scottish scene. Everyone seems in it together and there’s a real sense of grass roots growth that rivals the bigger companies for style, imagination and drive.
(Bex Tough on the left with William Crawford Hazel).
Add to this bunch some people who are new to me as of this particular convention. One of these is William Crawford Hazel who I finally met in person after following him on Twitter recently. His new book ‘Alisa Dark’ out of Terrier Comics follows the titular hero as she defends Glasgow from vampires and werewolves. The first issue came as a full colour and magazine sized start to the series and you can find it here https://williamchazle.wixsite.com/ailsadarklaunchpage
Next to William was Bex Tough (best name ever) with her premier adults only comic ‘Clean’. Also a first in the series this has an outstanding cover and a dark and dirty interior (in all the good ways). Find out more about this new series at the Facebook page here https://m.facebook.com/corvidaecomics/
There were some great Back Issue traders at the event and it was great to see that there were also a lot of UK Comics Weekly issues for sale. I grabbed as much as my bag would hold including some great prices on some Creepy and Eeries. I also picked up some Gypsy volumes and some tatty US back issues!
It was great to see recent pod guest Joey Oliveira (from Afterlight Comics) and I grabbed a copy of ‘Stay Awake’ issue 1 which he wrote with Adrian Manuel Garcia on art and a superb cover by Robert Geronimo. Head over to https://www.afterlightcomics.com/ and grab some of these properly F’ed up comics (which I mean in all the best ways!)
Horror is really having a renaissance in the Small Press and Indie scene at the moment. I also had a great chat with some more occupants of the Merseyside area. It’s always a pleasure to chat to Tom and Katie from Frisson Comics and I picked this new anthology up from them. ‘Pestilence’ is packed full of experimental horror short tales and always worth a look. Head to http://www.frissoncomics.com/ for more of the same.
And here’s that obligatory haul photo - not bad huh?
This has been a great visit and I’ll be looking for more events up this side of the wall.
Many thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment