In Preview - ‘Manu’ by Gustaffo Vargas.

‘Manu: Altiplano Volume 1.’

Created by Gustaffo Vargas.

Book size is A5 (148mm x 210mm), 44 pages, full colour, price £5.00.

Published by Tacu Tinta Press.

‘A comic about monkeys, jaguars, cyborgs and a mystery.’

The Story - ‘Manu is a Peruvian science fiction comic about monkeys, jaguars, cyborgs and a mystery. Set in a dystopian world, the main story takes place in the Amazonian rainforest and the Peruvian highlands.’

The Review - This is the book from Gustaffo and one that I have very much been looking forward to reading. I reviewed his last offering ‘L1MA’ here http://neverironanything.blogspot.com/search?q=Vargasand it was a sweltering hot action based cracker!

This is more of the same from Gustaffo Vargas and from page 1/panel 1 this is an explosion of colours and ideas. The series setting is in the most part the ‘Manu National Park, Peruvian Amazon Rainforest’ and this creator sets this out straightaway with a full page spread of the Amazon river and the lush yet terrifying dense surrounding jungle. This page is imagined from a turtle’s eye view and shows this aforementioned amphibian surrounded by water lilies, butterflies, the shapes of exotic parakeets overhead and some excellent use of colour.

As I read onwards I discover that this book is many things at once. A sci-fi comic with an environmental/effects of the overuse of technology message, a neo-noir thriller and also a very real feeling and on occasion quite sexual love story. It throws dramatic action at you with style and sudden bursts. Making use of a bait-and-switch opening narrative technique where we initially believe that we are watching a chase through the jungle with a tattooed woman carrying a machete attempting to escape the ferocious and deadly terrors of the jungle. A cybernetic jaguar jumps out at her but rather than chowing down it licks her face and the character’s girlfriend appears out of the trees to remonstrate at her.

You really feel an otherworldly strangeness at all the corners and moments of this comic. Add to it’s science fiction premise the Peruvian culture, language and criminal community and it comes over as pretty darn fresh. It also has a real harshness where life is thrown away at a moments notice. Drugs and violence are commonplace especially between the humans and human/cyborgs. There is a real feeling of a world that sits uneasily in a constant ethical grey area, doing whatever it needs to just get through a day.

One sequence has a moment of peace broken by the ‘Sica-pokantis’ warriors arriving. Men who look like a cross between jungle tribesmen and The Terminator they run full pelt towards our heroes. They are counter-attacked by the couple and their animals and red blood washes and sprays out into the greenery. I am literally agog at the skill Mr Vargas puts on show here. As I read this sequence in particular I’m surprised that he hasn’t been picked up by an Image book or maybe something in the Hellboy universe!

If I had one problem I would say that it’s the overuse of Spanish in the script. I was going back and forth looking up words to get some meanings in their speech. Although that can be seen as an educational device? I looked up the word ‘Chinane’ in Spanish for example to discover it’s equivalent to ‘Darling’ or ‘Honey’.

You live and learn huh!?

Overall this is a book and a creator that I would highly recommend you go find out about. I’ll certainly be grabbing a physical copy when it is released at Thoughtbubble next month.

Find the creator on Instagram @gustaffovargastataje on Twitter @GustaffoVargas and at his website where you can buy this an others of his books https://gustaffovargas.bigcartel.com

Many thanks for reading.

‘L1MA’ by Gustaffo Vargas.

‘L1MA’

Created by Gustaffo Vargas.

A5 size (21cm x 14.8cm / 5.8inch x 8.2inch) full colour, 32 pages. 

£5.00.

Published by tacutinta Press.

The Story - ‘L1MA is a science fiction comic about Pirañas, Vultures, Robots and Mafias set in a dystopian Perú. ‘

The Review - Let’s look at the cover first. It is a gloriously gorey affair that goes to exhibit much of what you’ll find on the insides of this comic. It shows a bird like creature that is somewhere between a crow and a buzzard with creepy cybernetic attachments. You find later that these nightmarish creatures are called ‘Gallinazos’ (aka ‘Black Vultures’). This predator is chewing on a rat with an electronic headset and blood is everywhere. That’s what I want on my covers!

This is all about the aforementioned predators, who come in may forms and guises, and the people they prey upon in a city of bad dreams and violence in every street and on every roof. This bucks the curve for some newer entires in the Cyberpunk genre in that it really takes the people, in this case some thieving street kids, as the heart of the story. They run and chase and escape horrific fates yet still scrabble and steal to survive.

The book opens on one of these crimes and if you can get past the eye-searingly bad spelling mistake shouted out as both shock and exposition this starts quite the rollercoaster of a story. The story takes you all over the future city of Lima with a population of 14.8m that is crammed into decrepit housing and dirty streets. This extreme poverty is counterpointed with the almost disease like cybernetic attachments at every turn. Even the poorest of the poor exhibit minimal enhancements and luminous tattoo like features. These sci-fi and cultural visual notes add texture and plot in this amazingly detailed comic. Street scenes show mood and action simultaneously.

The embattled street urchins find a cybernetically changed squid that may of may not contain ‘Unicorn porn’ and the world then begins to crash even further around their ears. Death is brutal and sudden and remorseless. The bullets burst though walls and through bodies and leave blood red trails. I found this to be a beautifully visual treat to read in every panel.

Vargas takes stylistic chances all over the shop and in my opinion they all pay off. He goes from action in the bright baking sun where you can see the veins in the bloodshot eyes of the ghastly and crazy creatures to moments in pure silhouette. He also never scrimps on crowd scenes or background details. Every page is full to the brim.

My only question is why I have never read this before?!?!?

Highly recommended.

Find a copy at https://gustaffovargas.bigcartel.com/product/l1ma or follow the creator on Twitter @GustaffoVargas or on Instagram @gustaffovargastataje 

Many thanks for reading.

Some Comics to Look Out For at Thoughtbubble 2019.

Morning chums. I thought I would take a look at some of the books I think are well worth looking out for at Thoughtbubble 2019.

There’ll be more so watch this space.

‘The Bones Of The Sea’ by Gareth Hopkins.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am a fan of this creators work. He mixes the abstract with the magical and dark with some autobiographical musings (on occasion).

This is a book that combines the honest momentary thoughts of Gareth as he goes about his daily life with the poetry of some underwater gothic fantasy. An underwater battle between a Blue Whale and a Giant Squid rubs shoulders with X-Men comics and ham sandwiches. Gareth combines the truth of his life with the beauty and often bleakness of the abstract. 

The art in this new release is dense and swirling and hypnotic and I cannot recommend it enough.

Find out more about the work of Mr Hopkins by visiting http://www.grthink.com/and finding him on Twitter @grthink You can buy this upon release over at https://grthink.bigcartel.com/

Gareth will be found at Table 170 in the Ask For Mercy Hall.

Next up is ....

‘Sticky Ribs’ issue 2 by Dan White.

I absolutely loved the first issue in this series when I read it earlier this year and this is more of the same. Dan has a style that at first glance you may be forgiven for thinking is for kids but when you search further you realise quite how wonderfully fucked up his imagination and comics really are!

This issue is comprised of two stories. ‘Last Summer’ and ‘Christmas With Bunty’. The first story will suck you in with a ‘Lord of the Flies’/‘Where the Wild Things Are’ vibe and then twist your preconceptions and get you thinking much more about where and why this is all happening.

‘Christmas With Bunty’ is a text story with some great illustrations and you also get a piece on ‘Ghostwatch’ and the effect it had on Dan as a young man.

Once again this is highly recommended and you can find Dan in the Originals Hall at Table 16.

You can also find him on Twitter @thebeastmustdie and at his website https://milkthecat.blog/

‘Bell Time’ by David Robertson.

This is the story of Lenny. A school kid who upon the sounding of a bell is thrown into his own future and discovers that he now works as the librarian at his own school. Times have changed and the techniques of teaching and the marshalling of teenagers in the classroom have also been brought up to date with all the complications of the modern world. Whilst Lenny initially feels out of his depth we soon see him getting a grasp on what he might be able to achieve.

This book is absolutely as fun as it sounds and manages to cross all those great school comics and tv series we remember with the world of time travel. David has a simple and iconically British style and he understands how a comic should flow. 

Highly recommended.

You can find David in the Ask For Mercy Hall at Table 214. 

You can also find David on Twitter @FredEggComics and at his website http://fredeggcomics.blogspot.com/

‘Endswell’ Issue 2 by Peter Morey.

This is the second issue in the semi-autobiographical story of Peter and his family. It centres on a farm bought by his grandmother and the shenanigans when she takes in a whole army of dogs and a rather suspicious younger man.

The second issue came out a couple of months ago and focuses on the story of a couple of the dogs, much of it from their own point of view. This is a series that is at once a little funny, a little tragic and a little quirky. I’ve enjoyed both these issues and look forward to more from this up and coming creator.

Highly recommended.

You can find Peter in the ComiXology Hall at Table 174.

You can find him on twitter @PM_Illustration and at his website https://www.petermorey.com/(I also got a crafty and rather blue pull quote on the new issue).

‘Manu’ by Gustaffo Vargas.

This is the real deal. I did a deeper dive on the blog more recently and you can have a read of it here http://neverironanything.blogspot.com/2019/10/in-preview-manu-by-gustaffo-vargas.html

I’ve been mentioning this creator quite a few times recently and really think he’ll be the next creator to jump from the small press to the mainstream with his confident line and ability to draw pretty much anything from future cyberpunks to barbarians to jungle leopards. Get on this ship before these become collectors items.

Find Mr V in the ComiXology Hall at Table 154A.

Buy yourself a copy over at https://gustaffovargas.bigcartel.com/product/gustaffo-vargas-sketchbook and follow this dude on Twitter @GustaffoVargas

Many thanks for reading.

Some Recent Aquisitions.

It’s been a busy Convention tabling month here and I’ve fallen behind a little on talking about some of the great books that I have bought and been given. So I thought I would do a few short round-ups of some of the sketchbooks I’ve got my hands on.

First up is something from Gustaffo Vargas.

I’ve only recently become a fan of this gentleman’s work after reviewing ‘L1MA’ during ‘Honest Review Month’ on here and dipping back into the Cyberpunk South American landscape he inhabits with the also excellent ‘Manu’. I genuinely think that Mr V will be a name on the front of a cracking Sci-Fi Image book in the next couple of years. He has a style that manages to bridge the line between Cyberpunk and Underground but has a mastery of form and physique. Full of imagination and twists that are fresh and surprising.  So when I saw this sketchbook on sale for just a measly £3.00 I jumped straight in. He sent it through just a couple of days later and included a great piece of original artwork for being the first order.

Buy yourself a copy over at https://gustaffovargas.bigcartel.com/product/gustaffo-vargas-sketchbook and follow this dude on Twitter @GustaffoVargas

Next up is ‘102: A Tribute to Jack Kirby’. This is a collection of art inspired by The King and the brainchild of prodigious comics maker Adam Falp.

Here’s how he describes it;

‘A 28 page A5 Art Book compiling tributes to The King of Comics. All proceeds are donated to The Kirby Museum. Featuring art from Russell Mark Olson, Lukasz Kowalczuk, Paul Harrison Davies, James Corcoran, Sandy Jarrell and many more’.

This is a cracking project and another one that I got straight to ordering when I heard about it. I’d also like to mention Tom Curry who did a cracking piece full of Kirby characters and Sarah Harris who used a combination of collage and line-work to create something really special. There’s also a great Kamandi double-pager from Adam himself.

Head over to https://goodfornothingcomics.bigcartel.com/product/102-a-tribut-to-jack-kirby and order your copy. You can also follow Adam Falp and his comics on Twitter @adamfalp

Next up is another offering from the always brilliant Darryl Thorpe (aka ‘Forpe’). Full disclosure that I own one of the pages from this and have it framed in the Comic Room, anyone who knows me can guess which one. This guy is a creator who operates on a combination of positive energy, originality and some wacky designs that have me comparing his work to a book like Head Lopper by Andrew MacLean or Rumble by John Arcudi and James Harren. Darryl’s work has an edgy energy that flies off the page and it was great to get this sketchbook of one page designs and homages through my door.

Find a copy over at https://www.deathbyheroism.com/products/forpe-sketchbook-preorder Or follow his ongoing webcomic for free at https://forpe.co.uk/erolvsevil

You can find this creator and follow him on Twitter @MrForpe

The King must be on the minds of the UK Small Press Scene at the moment because I also saw this from Jason Garrattley. I headed over to his website and ordered a copy based on the subject matter and the series of music and comic inspired zines I had seen from Jason over the last year or so. Jason describes this American Comics sized collection as follows at his Etsy shop.

‘A collection of digital collages and illustrations produced for the Jack Kirby blog - Kirby-Vision.’

The £5.00 cover price also contains a donation to the Jack Kirby Museum. 

Jason does the quirky and the cool with idiosyncratic ease and this is another book that you can spend your time on looking at images that are produced in various styles and techniques. Highly recommended.

Find this art book over at https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/732625418/kirby-vision and follow the creator on Twitter @JasonGarrattley

28 Page A5 Art Book compiling tributes to the King of Comics. All proceeds are donated to ThMe Kirby Museum. Featuring art from -

And finally here’s one that you need to put on your shopping list for Thoughtbubble. This is by my pod brother Vince Hunt and contains some cracking sketches and fully rendered pieces from this great artist. Vince is genuinely one of my favourite artists and especially when it comes to monsters and horror characters. I’ve had a peek inside this when he sent me the digital files and you will not be disappointed!

Head over to Table 93 in the Ask For Mercy Hall at the upcoming Thoughtbubble and grab your copy whilst stocks last. You can also find other examples of Vince’s work on Twitter @jesterdiablo and over on Instagram @jesterdiablo You can also pick up a copy of his ongoing series The Red Mask From Mars over at http://www.theredmaskfrommars.com/

Many thanks for reading!

T

Russell Mark Olsen 
Lukasz Kowalczuk 
Paul Harrison-Davies 
James Corcoran 
Sandy Jarrell

and many more!

In Preview - ‘Moon’ by Nicole Bates

‘Moon’ 

Created by Nicole Bates.

40 pages - Full Colour.

Available from the 11th of October and getting a launch at the Lakes International Comics and Art Festival.

‘Moon’ shows how to overcome fears and worries that attack us in our own daily lives. This quiet assistance is told through a dream that is full of strange events but also stress and anxiety. This is a book that moved me, a grumpy fifty-one year old, more than a little.

‘Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow’.

There are a few comics creators out there that put out books that I rush to both read and review. Books that evoke something more than the average and try something that many might see as oddball or left-field or quirky or experimental. Artists and writers like Dimitrius Zach, Stuart McCune, Gareth Hopkins, Gareth Brookes, Gustaffo Vargas, John Tucker and Nick Prolix are some of the people who send me their work and I rush to read and then describe how their work is exciting/moving/intriguing/inspiring me. They often tell stories that are nothing alike from each other but all strike a chord. Nicole Bates has joined that list for this particular blogger.

‘Moon’ is the new release from Nicole and takes it’s place in both the stable of books coming from Charity Comics Label Fair Spark Books as well as her own personal growing library of graphic novellas.

Like it’s predecessors ‘Moon’ makes use of small intricate drawings and watercolours that are sat on a broader page. They evoke a quiet sadness in the brush, line and style. This highly expressive and warmly personal approach allow for something of a confessional vibe whilst simultaneously carrying the reader along on the back of a story.

‘It used to be colourful’.

The story follows the night, dawn and then day of a young girl wandering through a forest, hearing tall tales, encountering strange characters and creatures and learning a little bit about herself. It is a tale told almost wordlessly but with a broad scope of feeling. There is an ever pervading feeling of being lost and isolated that I felt a little moved by what it was whispering to me from the page. There are some great uses of black and white in the negative to portray the night time in a forest. This moves into a navy blue and then the brightness of both the waking day and the strength of realisation - all with minimal yet iconically configured images.

It strikes me that I would love to see Nicole break free of this smaller format and use her obvious skills on a wider canvas, fill the page with her brushwork with a change of pace abandon. She works in a way that is beholden to nobody and neither should she but I think a Treasury Edition size artbook is somewhere waiting for it to be picked up and painted?

As always this is highly recommended.

Find Fair Spark Books on Twitter @fairsparkbooks or at https://fairsparkbooks.co.uk/ 

Find out more about Nicole by following her on Twitter @Nikki_Draws or find her website at  http://www.nikkidraws.pictures/

Many thanks for reading.

Favourites of 2019 - An Attempt at Remembering - Part 2 (Small Press).

Hey Chums Welcome Back!

This is part 2 of my attempt to look back on the year and figure out what I liked. It’s been a funny year so you’ll excuse me if I missed out your groundbreaking and genre busting book (I may just have thought it was shite! Or it might just be my poor memory).

So without further drum roll let’s get on with it. Here’s the one that you have probably been waiting for. I’ve read so many small press comics this year that this one had to be a Top Ten.

Small Press.

1. The Human Beings Universe - This is a maze of mystery, tense drama, romance and horror that will fuck with your melon and stay with you for a long time after reading. Stuart McCune (who is with full disclosure here a good friend) has created a world unlike anything that you will find elsewhere in comics. His jazz like strands of narrative intermingle in a world that is dark yet shockingly beautiful. Noir was a perfect bound item of pure art and his upcoming Walk in Like An Exorcist looks to be more of the same. He runs prompt and reliable Kickstarter campaigns where you can gather the back issues needed to jump on board at any moment. Get on this! 

2. Andromeda by Ze Burnay. I picked this up from the creator at Thoughtbubble and have not stopped rattling on about how good it is for weeks and months. It is a freak of a story that mixes some intricately detailed black and white inked line-work with a story that Jodorowsky or Lynch would be proud of writing. It has a pseudo religious approach that couples with a nightmarish horror element that makes for a genuinely fresh reading experience. 

3. Plan A / Plan B - from the crazy world of John Tucker was also one of those books that just cleaned the dreck of formulaic comics out of my system. John writes with personality and an outlandishly quirky sensibility and is always original in approach and format. This is a flip book that meets in the middle in narrative and will at once make you smile and feel the slap of realisation to your chops. I’d recommend anything by the creator and his poster comic CYDO is also well worth a goosey!

4. Satan’s Library - Adam Falp is a machine of a small press creator. He lands in the muddy sidewalk of outsider art and combines this with a splendid love of the the Bronze Age of weirdness. This book tells a story of a search for the unusual in a back street comic shop and includes smaller format homage comics to different schools of our favourite medium. It has a darkness attached as well to it’s flow that is shown in the darkness of the ink and shadow on the paper. What will this underground creator have out next I hear you ask!

5. Park Bench Kensington - Peony Gent. Showing what can be done with ink and colour on a page Peony has shown the small press world how to deliver an emotional and socially relevant story in a comic full of the instinctual and abstract. This is a true story and every second has a truth to the panels. Just a joy to read and ponder over Peony really is a creator to watch.

6. Threadbare - Gareth Brookes. This is a quiet and initiate listen in to a conversation on a train between two women in their later years and their own private story of love and regret. Told as it happened by Gareth but in the medium of embroidery this was another comic that brought a lump to my throat. A good comic can interpret feelings and real life onto the page of something that we read and communicates all of that back at us and more. This was a real favourite this year that stuck with me. Gareth is a thoughtful creator who is always one to watch.

7. Palace of Tears - Michael Lomon. I’ve been quietly following the work of this London based creator for some time now and this was another incredible piece of art with some genuine reverence to it’s story. Michael retells a folk legend with breathtaking scope and detail. I haven’t seen this mentioned elsewhere on the scene and it really does deserve much more attention. Easily one of the best illustrators on the scene at the moment and people really need to sit up and take note.

8.  Manu - by Gustaffo Vargas. It came as no surprise to me that this geezer has become one of the stand out artists on the scene this year. I reviewed his book L1MA back in May and loved it and Manu is more of the same edgy nature crossed with near future cyberpunk. It has a superb pace to it’s story that mixes in some moments of personal sensitivity.  I’ve been saying that he’ll be the next big artist at 2000AD or Image and finally people are agreeing!

9.  A Hill To Cry Home - Gareth A Hopkins. Continuing his assault on the battlements of the banal and the ordinary Mr Hopkins has had a bumper year with his abstractions and poetry. He has seemingly upped his output and still manages to put out some inspiring work. I’ll happily recommend anything he creates to the intelligent amongst you lot! 

10.  How to Make Comics With Springworth - Alright! Calm down at the back! Listen, I know that I wrote this but my input into this comic is minimal compared to the just flabbergastingly incredible artwork supplied by Mr Andy Hanks. Published as part of the charity Little Heroes for Fair Spark Books this is a fucking crime that I’m not seeing Andy mentioned more on these lists! MORE PUNCHING!!!!! This is the ideal comic for a bored child in the holidays and tells the story of a trio of superheroes and their robotic butler. The story also allows the reader to fill in details, design costumes and monsters and solve puzzles. 

Many thanks for reading. Part three to follow soon.