A Pier to Remember

Those fine chaps at Futurequake Press have made a lot of their out of print issues available online.

These now include Steve's first FQP effort from Something Wicked #2.



The strip viewer is currently a little dicey but it's still very much worth a look, as indeed are many of the other strips, including many by comic pros.

Parlour Game

Here's some summer holiday fun. List your top ten graphic novels, excluding those either written or drawn by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller and Mike Mignola.

The purpose of this exercise is to take out the "big boys" and to see what's left.

My list looks like this:

Zenith by Morrison & Yeowell
Scarlet Traces by Edginton & D’Israeli
Bad Company by Milligan & Ewins
Killing Time by Smith & Weston
Slaine The King by Mills & Fabry
Marshal Law: Fear & Loathing by Mills & O’Neil
Button Man by Wagner and Ransom
War Stories by Ennis & Various
Judge Dredd Origins by Wagner & Ezquerra
Dare by Morrison & Hughes

You can see from the above that I have a very strong prejudice in favour of British comics or at least British-created comics. I used to read a lot of American stuff but I don't feel the love of it has stayed with me into adulthood as it has with the British strips.

I do keep trying - most recently it's been with Ed Brubaker's Catwoman run. As with a lot of DC stuff these days I felt it was sort of okay, but no better than that. Nice art though.

Random Thoughts

Steve's lead strip for Futurequake issue 13 seems to have been well received. Bolt-01 recently blogged about the making of the strip here.

I just read a preview version of Steve's next work for Futurequake, again from a Chris Thomas script, detailing the Korean war experiences of a certain Neil Armstrong. It's arguably even better than Traumatised Astronauts and publication is definitely something to watch out for later in the year.

Bosher's Goal's fans will be pleased to know I've finished the script to a new adventure, Bosher For England. When it's ready for the world to see we'll probably post it here before collecting it on the main site.

2000AD artist Ron Smith, a favourite of mine, recently had some legal trouble which could have destroyed his substantial legacy. Fortunately he has won his court battle and judging from the reaction the British comics world is very relieved and pleased. I won't link to any details for fear of perpetuating unfounded allegations, but suffice to say they were bad enough to destroy his reputation had they been true.

And finally, I know I said I was done with mentioning the SP Expo, but then I found the Official Show Photos. We're in there somewhere!

Highwaymen versus Zombies

The Bristol SP Expo was not just a great way to meet Kevin O'Neil, the main purpose of the event was clearly to bring Indy comics to the nation. Although I was mostly there to hawk my own wares, there was time to pick up a few efforts from fellow creators:

I really enjoyed Dick Turpin and the Restless Dead, a great period zombie one-shot from Time Bomb Comics. The script is very good and the art complements it nicely so marry that to a cast iron concept and the result really can't fail.

At the Expo we were placed next to Bearded Skull Comics, whose Dexter's Half Dozen is a fun war action strip with a supernatural twist. Not unlike Walking Wounded actually, but with a very different take on the subject matter. Really nice guys and we wish them every success.

Which brings me to the end of my SP Expo coverage. A bit sparse but there we go. For a proper show report, check out this excellent post from the Short Fuses blog.