Small Press, Big Fun

Another in my infrequent toe-dips into the wonderful world of small press comics...



The Ulster Cycle: Ness is the first book collecting Patrick Brown's excellent webcomic which retells Iron Age Irish legends with crisp dialogue that doesn't get all bogged down trying to sound of-the-era and Paddy's wonderfully expressive artwork... which I was amazed to discover he does with a red biro. This book is actually something of a rarity now as after the initial batch was released, Patrick became dissatisfied with the printers, so he's now looking to get it published in another format instead. Fortunately, you can still read the whole of Ness online, along with the ongoing serialisation of Book 2: The Cattle Raid Of Cooley. Just click on paddybrown.co.uk and you're away.



The O Men Season 2 #7 comes with a pretty big shock from creator Martin Eden. No, it's not the long awaited return of my favourite O Men character, it's the news that the book is going on hiatus until 2010 while Martin concentrates on his new comic Spandex. Still, if you've not yet tuned in to the sexy superhero thrills of Martin's O Men, that gives you a whole twelve months to catch up on volumes 1 & 2 before the book returns, better than ever. Go here and spend money now.



There's No Time Like The Present Part 8 takes us much farther into the future than just 2010, but fortunately it does so right now. The latest chapter in Paul Rainey's unmissable serialised graphic novel continues to toy with the question of 'What if all us geek-children of the 80's' grow old into a world where the internet has become a huge unstoppable time machine, but other than that our lives are just as uneventful as they are right now?' I recently commended Paul on his handling of the old bloke protagonists of this book... "so often in fiction, old people are presented as though they've always been old, as though their youth never happened. What I really like about Paul's work here is that it's how I imagine we might be at that age - crankier, maybe - but still with the same interests and obsessions we've always had. We've not started watching Last Of The Summer Wine just because we've got our bus pass." Definitely a comic that Jonathan Cape ought to be sniffing around for a quality hardback collection in the future. Support Your Local Paul Rainey And Read The First 37 Pages Of TNTLTP By Clicking Here.



Speaking of quality hardback collections, I hope Selina and Jay won't mind me stealing the above pic from their blog (guys, I'm sorry, I didn't even know FF had a blog) as it's the best illustration I could find of the gorgeous new...

Girly Comic Deluxe Hardback Collection. And what a collection! Any small presser would be proud to see their work compiled like this. Book One features highlights from the first nine issues, including work from my old pals Andrew Cheverton, Kelvin Green, Mitz, Peet! Clack, Terry Wiley and Garen Ewing, plus a bevvy of other talent I hadn't encountered before. The Girly Comic is pretty famous in the small press scene for addressing the question "Why don't more girls read comics?" with the answer, "They would if there were comics like this". There's just about every kind of story you can imagine in this book, from kitchen sink drama to horror to fantasy to autobiography to superheroes to humour. Not every strip will be for every reader, but there's so much variety you're bound to find a lot to enjoy. My own personal favourite was Mitz's 'My Little Princesses', the story of a boy and his rats... just three pages, but it brought a major lump to my throat. Wonderful work... I can't wait for volume 2! Find out all about The Girly Comic here.


And to close, just in case you missed it the first time, the second issue of my own most recent small press venture is still imminent. I've got some preview pages from Davey which I'll post once the book is ready to ship, but in the meantime, here's Nige's cover one more time. It's great being back on the scene...