BugPowder Home - TRS2 - Rant

As we introduced TRS2 online, Pete asked me to write an essay on the state of underground comics in the UK. At first, I felt undeserving of the privilege: I appeared from nowhere as a clumsy loose cannon cartoonist of little merit. When I got tired of my inability in that area, I decided to set up as reviewer in the open house that was The Review Sheet, complete with central heating, accessibility to shops and a host multi-linguistic and a high respect which none can doubt, or argue, he earned. Pete had left the building for a new one, and I saw the keys in the door.

After a year of writing TRS2, I reckon I've ascended from my position of 'loud wanker about town' and even earned some new respect. My sure work discipline and two years on a journalism course have been paying off. With that, my guessed estimate gives me a measure of confidence to write this essay. After all, small press comics did save my life (and that's a story for another time.)

People write talk of the Underground scene, and its very much a case that the small press is the underground. Episodic comic booklets in the newsagents but for 2000 AD, are dead. They probably died a long time ago, nobody wanted to be there in the room when Marvel UK had that stroke.

So independently produced comic booklets are the visible, and they certainly seem just as challenging and spectacular. The attention may focus on Strangehaven granted lesser seen booklets Strange Weather Lately and Hardly The Hog are just as valid in their diversity. Personal fave Sleaze Castle is notable for offbeat characters, unusual selling and party trick formation of interior language. Eigenstates and quantum theory, temporal dimension physics together with huggable players, innovative storytelling techniques (particularly layouts) and (non religious) icons, images, backgrounds and hours. Sleaze Castle creators Dave McKinnon and Terry Wiley (Gratuitous Bunny Comix) also offer the most VFM inexpensive collections available anywhere, very reasonably catering for the first-time buyer.

So, "Assess the state of small press comics in the UK". When I attended the Birmingham Comics And Beer Festival in '97, it all looked pretty fit. Indeed, that area was a real mecca, there was definitely a strong comics scene happening in Brum. Two months ago, when I sat down to write this, I couldn't really comment on the situation despite being in the centre of it all. However keeping my ears down and my eyes open, many people including long time small pressers seemed to think we're experiencing something of a 'boom' period. Whether that's true or not from were I'm sitting the quality is looking pretty fucking high.

Small Press comics, individually, make up the bulk of comics published in the UK, easily also the most ignored area. Currently I review about fifteen or so comics a month in TRS2 and that is only about 50% (I would guess) of what is available. Yet low print runs and common financial and working duration loss are branded as fanboyish by the stupid or ill-informed, as childish/senile by the misunderstanding optimist with misplaced sympathy. Like any marketplace, it contains its fair share of 'non-impact' art, that which is irrelevant or unimportant, like a chocolate bar, much depends on the reader, if s/he is in the mood for it, or if it part of their agenda, diet or menu. Rarely, something despicable or wretched crawls into the envelope, though only rarely.

As I see it, the small press is a hidden wealth of inspiration and stimulation and education, meritous to the art appreciator, the literary interested, and as importantly, the cult member fanboy. (Or the fanyoungman or fanyounggirl as they seem to be called, given that twenty year old readers/viewers appear to be forseeably 'the last generation' looking at 'funnybooks'.)

What I'm trying to get onto the screen is a sense of the variety of s/p work accessible, catering to all tastes. The bugpowder site means that you are quite likely aware of the fact that 'small press' does not mean 'amateur' rather it means 'less noticed'. Small press is not small quality, rather of varying levels just as rich as the visible comics world. I could compare Brown to Gerhard, Weller to Moore, Robbins to Morrisson and Kidson to Dorkin until the cows come home.

I've put together a quick (not necessarily definitive) list of the Top Ten s/p comics in the last year or so. God, I hate numbering it seems so cut and dried. I plan to be stocking all of these titles in bulk at Comics 2001. Perhaps you've read some of these comics. Perhaps there are some of these comics you should be reading.

1: Cloud Dog Agency by Malcy Duff
2: Leaflit by Sean MacRoibin and John Robbins
3: Space Opera : The Artists Book by Mike Weller
4: Angel Nebula by Tony McGee
5: Nightclub Nick : The Superficial Americans by Tim Brown
6: Dark Ascension by Will Marshall and James Devlin
7: Darren Chandlerâs 12:01, Tana Ocean and The Book Of Runes
8: The O Men by Martin Eden
9: Two To Beam Up by Ralph Kidson and Tim Brown
10: Topaz by Jason Lynne and Various<
And of course Terrible Sunrise #2, well worth a mention.

Well quality. Many more worthy self-published comic booklets available in the UK (and of course, beyond). If there is indeed a 'boom' going on, I think that is something that we all , members of the underground comics community, need to take advantage of. To the best of our ability.

The underground has been, and always will be the source of the next generation of cartoonists. Itâs the place were fans and professionals congregate with the minimum of nasty incidents. It is the hope for the future of UK comics. A noticeably grim place in so far as visibility is concerned.

We have to take advantage of what we have in the here and now.

I was chatting to Dek Baker about this and feeling really disillusioned. It went something like this,

"Uk comics are long on the deathbed in Ulster especially. There's me, Stu and Patrick Brown. Nobody wants to buy comics that are black and white, smaller than US size and produced with a photocopier. They refuse to even look at them. With mine and Pete's table, Shane's and yours, is there any point in bringing in other small press labels? We're going to be up against the wall as it is."

"You're missing the point. Of course we should. So there's photocopied comics there, photocopied comics over there and round over there too. It should go further than that. Then you get photocopied comics tables round the corner, at the table opposite."

"We could even set up a stall by the pumps in the bar. Free Leaflit with each Guinness."

"Yeah, thatâs the spirit! Listen, if there is small press everywhere you look you're going to have to pick up one over the weekend. You're bound to."

God blessed us, we've got Dek Baker aka "The Enthusiasm". He's right you know. In addition to bringing out our new booklets, this May, we should make an effort to bring back into print the classics and collections. We should stock or have stocked the very best of our works and show the uninitiated why we count.

Concentrated thrust of the degree of excellence in pictorial narrative.

I'd very much like to put small press into the big arena. The whole purpose of my events is to bring comics to a big new public, not just have them meet the same old dwindling number of obsessives. So can you come and can you help? Who's hot? Who's new? Who's doing comics I can tell the world about? Send them my way and I'll try and invite them to Comics 2001 and make the party one worth shouting about.

I very much want to ensure all the small press comics that appear on your site are available for sale to the public at Comics 2001 and I'm not in this to make money out of the little guy either.

From an email sent to Pete Ashton by Kev F. Sutherland, organiser of Comics 2001.

Whether this is a sales pitch from Kev or he's genuinely serious about this, the door is open.

We have to take advantage of this.

Put your s-p books on the table at Comics 2001. Contact Kev F. Sutherland for details, or approach Shane Chebsey, Pete Ashton, Dek Baker or myself about stocking your wares on our tables. The better the product the more likely it is we will give it space, and delightfully watch it make space.

It's time to make a difference.

It's time for the big push.

© Andy Luke 2001

All contents of this site, unless otherwise stated are copyright © 2000 Peter Ashton. Images and covers are used here for review and promotional purposes only and remain the copyright of the respective artists or companies. BugPowder.com is a non-profit site maintained by Peter Ashton. For information please email me at pete@bugpowder.com