TRS2 is a review sheet distributed by post by Jez Higgins and
numerous individuals. The reviews are first housed here, by Andrew Luke and John Robbins
with Richard Barr. All the reviews since February 2000 are archived here along with
various articles and resources from the sheets. A fuller explaination of what TRS2 is
and how to use it is below
After much thought and consideration, I've decided not to overstuff the ballots. (Perhaps one entirely s/p and one entirely honest). It's showstopping but hardly fair. I'm sure we can agree on a category were we make sure a small press or self-published book wins, outside of those categories specifically for us. Too many people work hard in this industry full-time and deserve a handshake like an award. We should be able to get maximum publicity without too many casualties.
Ballot overstuffing is actively encouraged at the Childline Charity Vote, were votes can be purchased, a minimum of four, at fifty pence each! Watchmen or Windhead's Dogs?Strip The Vote is all ready for your posts.
Hello, fellow jedis. One of the ways we may be able to make an impact at the gig is through the National Comics Awards. I have my own thoughts on what should garner the publicity involving these award ceremonies.
So therefore, I am calling on all readers who have or have not yet voted to take part in a Public Ballot. There?s no sense voting for a small press book if there?s nobody around to back you up. The problem with democracy, eh?
Rather than clutter the trs2 page, I am prepared to use ?Like A Bull In An Embroidery Shop? to display what you are considering voting for . I hope this will have the effect whereby we can discuss what we intend to vote for before we vote for it. United we stand, and all that malarkey. (Of course for this to work to optimal affect, you'll need to leave your nominations until a few days before May 18 before you actually vote!
To expand, there are categories I'm not entirely sure what to vote for, so can be easily persuaded and compromised with suggestion. My nominations are now over on 'Like A Bull In An Embroidery Shop' and I await your voting forms! The forms can be found here but remember to hit that copy button rather than the submit button!
Small Press, Big Press The Rubins Sisters mentioned a newspaper piece local press turned out on 'Dark' a few years back, with a view to a follow-up. Capitalising on established contacts or making them is a worthy. Kev F. Sutherland seems to think that tying this into Comics 2001 is a good idea, and I have to say it can only further our cause. Kev has put together a wonderful press release template. Simply copy, paste and edit to, from the relevant details found here.
From a chat I had with a UK member of the various comics yahoo groups regarding admiration of The Mark Thomas Product; we thought it might be a good idea to join in the CCTV competition the esteemed gentleman is currently holding. Think of the fun all mainstreamers can have, with all those people in the costume parade!
So far only Elaine Mace, organiser of the fancy dress, has got in touch with me. A slow start, but a good start, nonetheless. (All) Ideas are welcome. We can make our presence known, and as Johnathan Ross, patron of C2001 is judging/hosting the competition, that all ties together quite nicely!
Cunting computers! Okay This post, take two. Have decided to let my other blog go idle for a while and concentrate on the Comics 2001 gig at Bristol this year. My own mini-comic 'BOBS' will also be on hiatus until reappearance at the Caption Bar And Back Garden Festival.
Publicity is very much a premium importance, and Kev is opening up the doors to us, this snippet from him courtesy of the Comics 200/1 mailing list
"Here's the story: Last year we were lucky enough to obtain sponsorship from dot.com companies that enabled as to produce external banners for Comics 2000.
Any enterprising artists and self-publishers who want to take it upon themselves to produce a Comics 2001 banner will be doing us an immeasurable favour, helping our event to be visible from far and wide, and could take the opportunity to adorn said banners with their own characters. We'll also need your help in climbing the ladders and sticking the banners up. But that's a small price to pay in exchange for seeing your characters blown up as large as you want them, all around the Comics 2001 venues. Anyone interested in doing us all a favour in this way, email me off-list and I'll clue you in on the best ways of producing banners (and anyone who attended Comics 99 will know I'm a dab hand with a roll of black vinyl and a pot of paint when I put my mind to it)."
Those of you who attended last year's gig will no doubt remember the overwhelming presence of masters of anarchy and vulgarity, The Kaboom Review. The Kaboomers had mini-posters and flyers all over Bristol, not to mention what they did to the festival hall! This involved attaching their ads to the insteps between the main entrance and the bar/dealer's hall and other parts of the venue. With copies of The Kaboom Review readily available all over the festival.
This is the way I think we should do things this year, finding out if the optic/decibel controller can go any higher! Take an applause, lads.
We're also real interested in anybody who wants to donate banners or model artifacts to the show that will be the Bugpowder/TRS2 table. We've already had some very promising offers from the folks who put together 'More Than We Seem'. Contact myself or Pete regarding (y)our help with the (r)evolution.
I've been working to a merry fever on the new TRS2 and to hint at what kind of form it's going to take, well.. it's double-sized
I've sent a new for around those small pressers who will be attending Comics 2001. If you haven't seen it, it's a call to let Pete and I and Shane Chebsey stock your stuff. Here's the email so you can get the full picture.
Small Press Comics At Bristol 2001
. "To whomse it May concerning,
Not a spam. Okay, it's a spam. But it's important, alright?
(Runs off crying in tears)
(Returns wiping water from his eyes and brushing his hair back at the temples.)
With the biggest UK comics festival under a month away, it's way past time to get the houses in motion. I plan to make this a 'small press/underground comix' event to the best of my abilities. To back up my Visibility War rant I plan to sell your book(s) at the festival.
Along with Pete Ashton, we'll be doing a double Bugpowder/TRS2 table, and are willing to stock your books provided 20% of the cover price per copy sold is donated to BP/TRS2 to help cover the cost of the table. The copies are to be supplied on a sale or return basis. If you are at the festival, you can hand the booklet(s) to myself or Pete there.
Unsold copies will either be turned over to Shane Chebsey at Smallzone if you request, or I will pay the return postage so that they may be delivered straight back to you. Should these routes provide unviable, please get in touch and we may be able to work something out. As I want our booklet(s) to make an impact, I want publicity to play a big part in getting people there. Outlandish or immature, the moreso the better. A few Hooper X style antics, know what I mean? If we go the conglomerate route, badges, posters, stand-up life-size figures, whatever works. If you can provide form to any of these ideas or have publicity and divertisement ideas of your own, I want to see these. And if I can help, I will. As mentioned above, Shane Chebsey will be in attendance with Smallzone Comics Distribution and that quality adventure artist Darren Chandler will have a table, and may also be willing to stock your wares.
Help spread the word, particularly to those creators who are not ?climbing the web?, as it were.
Thankyou For Being There And Please Responds
For some time now, I've been debating the future of TRS2. I have a whole range of other projects I would like to be doing, and several already tied to. In accordance with my new philosophy in life, "do what you want to do and don't do what you don't want to do", it's time to kick some snails. Taking up time is the paper publication of TRS2 and the administrative duties that go with it. Disheartened by the lack of availability to non-internet possessors, I am on the lookout for somebody who can publish TRS2 on paper and make it available to those who wish to see it in that form. Presently, the only continued existence is within the pages of Shane Chebsey's infrequent 'The Imagineers', and come December, this may be all that is left of it in that form.
Sorry. Maintaining high standards in the reviewing section is very important to me, just that little more than the form. All offers are very very welcome, so please get in touch if you think you can help.
The April 2001 reviews are now up - send corrections to the usual place. All titles with new reviews are flagged with a red N, and they're all listed together here. Enjoy!
What better way to kick off the trs2 weblog than a day like today? Li'l Stu (6'1") and my self went drinking with Brendan Byrne and Des McElroy, two of the brains behind the Dublin-based anthology 'Toenail Clippings'. Some of you may have seen this in Tower Records, Forbidden Planet or a variety of other places. 'Toenail Clippings' is professionally printed, professionally distributed, professionally advertised and... it's good. Really good. Real 1. existing in fact 2. happening 3. actual 4. genuine Good 1.commendable 2. right 3.proper 4.excellent 5. beneficial Alternative and undergroundy (that's not a word. Don't look it up). Very accessible with a massive amount of media coverage. Des and Brendan really seem to know what the score is, that it is possible to get noticed if you're producing a comic booklet that is different. Brendan and Des are happy to look at submissions and I encourage you to support 'Toenail Clippings' with your talents, your wallet, your pens, keypads and your mouths. A website is going up in a few days, and in the meantime you can email them. This is a golden opportunity for small pressers. Like myself, Brendan and Des firmly believe that if the cream of the crop in underground comics stand together, then we can take the comic booklet back to the newsagents. Way to go, chaps! Write to Brendan, Des or Steven Weekes at Big If Publications, Granby House, 23 Lower Dominick Street, Dublin1, Ireland.
Wow. Isn't this great? Pete has done as fantastic a job on trs2 as he has on the rest of the site (as he does all round really). Put your metaphorical hands together. There are some informative links to my right and left. My favourite s/p author, John 'Sean MacRoibin' Robbins returns to the web, with his usual vitriolic but uneasing observations. Pete has a 'feedback' facility up, so John's piece (not John but John) can provoke discussion of a observational and judgemental nature. There's also 'The Visibility War', one of my finer writings. And the sequel will be up there soon. If you're a small presser going to Comics 2001, I would appreciate it if you check it out. 'Zum' contains as healthy a backlog of reviews as here, from a wider range of viewers and 'Smallzone' carries some of those titles, as well as those referenced within the trs2 listings. And check out the 'Caption' link. It's just the place to be winding down and getting active at once (incredible!), a healthy respite from the thunder in my world surrounding the march to Bristol. I also have my own personal weblog. Don't be let-down by it (though you will). Or then again, you might not. How should I know? 'Like A Bull In An Embroidery Shop' is far from perfect, but there might be something there to catch your interest. Over the coming months, I am working like a person that works very very much, but after May, it is my hope to boost the Bugpowder/TRS2 gallery content huge time. In the soon, a new trs2 (the last before Bristol) will be added, in the now, shedloads of great comics exist right were your eyes are standing.
Welcome to the TRS2 website v2.0! The fully automated version is still to come but this should give you an idea of what it's going to be like. Each title has its own page listed on the right hand side containing all the reviews its had in TRS2 and any links to websites and email. You can still access each month's reviews from the left hand side.
To come: samples from the comics, more links to related sites and other stuff, plus this weblog which Andy will use in whatever way he sees fit.
Past Reviews May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 May 2001 April 2001 How to use TRS2To order
First off check how old the review is. If it's quite old it might be worth checking first before
ordering, unless you don't mind risking the cash.
If sending a cheque, make it payable to the name in the address, unless otherwise stated. Most
small pressers will not have business accounts. Alternatively, send cash. Coins should be wrapped
in cardboard to avoid falling out of the envelope or being nicked.
An SAE is nice and is sometimes requested. Send the right size. In any event don't forget to include
your full postal address.
Please mention TRS2 when ordering. It makes us feel loved.
To get a review in TRS2
Send a sample copy of your comic to Jez Higgins, 26 Sandon Road,
Edgbaston, Birmingham, B17 8DS. You will receive a copy of TRS2 when it's ready.
To get a free copy of TRS2 on paper
Send an SAE to the address above.
If you're already reviewed on this site:
Please feel free to send in corrections, especially email addresses
and web sites. In time we want to put sample graphics on the site but the prospect of scanning everything is
a little daunting, so do send in jpegs. A small sample image for the page (150 pixels wide) and a larger
scan for a seperate page.
Who's responsible? Andy Luke worded many of the reviews on TRS2 and published
the paper edition for awhile. John Robbins, Gary Northfield and
Richard Barrhelp out with reviews and day to day works.
Jez Higgins distributes the paper version.
