A wonderful self published book by a couple of professional illustrators based in London, I'm particularly drawn to Tom's strips. His use of silence and establishment of space is almost masterful. This scene in particular works for me:

There's the obvious absurdity of two masked wrestlers sitting in a cafe waiting for their fight, but by moving the pace down to zero the joke becomes more of a meditation while getting funnier. The story continues through the book in 2-5 page instalments where bugger all happens and I love it for that.

Simone's work is equally good. Highly recommended.

Second costs £4.00 from Cabanon Press. Email Tom for more info. Available in most London art bookshops and Gosh comics.

A one-shot story produced for the Big Torino arts festival in Turin as part of their celebration of young artists creating new and exciting work, and it's a stonker. Again, the appeal for me is the mundanity of the execution. The story is about affairs and secrets and while there is plenty of emotional intensity Andi has pared down the melodrama producing a piece that is utterly engaging. He also comes up with the wonderful notion of collecting books purely for the notes their previous owners have scrawled in them. Perfect stuff.

Dumped is published by Oni Press, ISBN 1929998414 and retails for US$5.95 in all good comic shops. andiwatson.com

This is the third major work by Tony following on from his small town meditation Dark Weather and the sci-fi epic Angel Nebula. Frontiers treads a similar path which I once described as "really exciting comics about people staring silently at each other" although here he's upping the dialogue and there are elements of, *gasp*, action. Whether this develops into something new remains to be seen, but it's a promising start

Frontiers is £1.00 from Tony McGee, 143 Meldon Drive, Bilston, West Midlands, WV14 8BE, UK. Website.

You want me to tell you why this is great? If this makes you laugh, then buy it. If not, then you need help.

For more of the same, go to hotelfred.com or buy the damn comic.

US$2.95 from all good comic shops or direct via the site.

It goes like this. DC editor works on the Big Books series and comes across interesting cartoonists. Decides something must be done and goes about publishing his own anthology of cutting edge comics to sit alongside Drawn and Quarterly and Raw. And, for a first issue at any rate, nigh on succeeds. The most interesting thing about his selection is the broad range of styles. So broad it almost seems calculated, and perhaps it was, but the introductions imply he stumbled across peoples work at SPX and Angoleme, felt the need to show it to others, and published it. Which is an approach I admire. Other than Nick Bertozzi, everyone in here is new to me. I'm particularly drawn to Yuko Shimizu's work and the strip by Pauline Martin makes me want to check out more of her comics. But I've chosen to show a page by Victor Cayro because I've been banging on about stillness too much in this column. This is ugly, angry work that should be horrible, but there's a certain skill in the art, a uniqueness which drew me in, making the experience of reading his nasty little story more intense. Check out that second panel with the forced perspective, particularly the second guy's legs. I like that panel.

New Thing #1 is US$9.95 and was published by New Suit in 2001. For more info, email Jim Higgins. I bought mine at Gosh in London.

I was talking with Matt Abbiss about really evil comics and he mentioned this book, though he couldn't remember who is was by. On describing it to one of the guys in Gosh he immediately grabbed it off the shelf. Ah, I thought. Ivan Brunetti. Of course!

This is a really evil little book, being a collection of cartoons drawn by Ivan during a rather dark patch. What brings them above the usual mire of wanky angry strips is not just the sheer brutalism of them but this psuedo-New Yorker style of wide-eyed naivety which make the jokes about child abuse and matricide palatable, until you realise what you're laughing at, and then you can't stop. I would love to have a pile of these on the counter in my bookshop, and if I thought I could get away with it I would because it's published by Fantagraphics in a lovely little book with an ISBN and everything. Lovely.

Haw retails for US$8.95 and is classified as "humour / queer studies". It's ISBN is 1560974354 and Fantagraphics publish it.

All art remains the property of the copyright holder and is reproduced here for review purposes. No infringement is intended. Reviews are copyright Pete Ashton.