Prick by Tpcat

Prick is all about life, the bad side of love, religion, things that happen and I suppose human nature. Told through the medium of cute animals you could easily be tricked into thinking this is a book for children, don't be fooled. For such a deep, dark subject as human nature this book is so pleasant to look at, every first impression says you should be finding it in the kids section of a book store. Last year I picked up a little comic by the same Tpcat, Rabbit Love Story 1, I am glad to say the same strangeness is found in Prick. If you don't have a strong stomach for slightly twisted, slightly wrong but oddly cute work then go elsewhere, if you love that kind of stuff then please, by all means pick up a copy.

Last year Tpcat also had a unique comic on her table, drawn entirely on toilet paper. It was long, I looked at it, it was entertaining but I had no clue if I should buy it or not, said strange item is now available in the more familiar book form. Slightly less daunting to pick up and attempt to read. 

The things one can achieve with just a single sheet of paper.

I've just read a couple of very mini-comics that were placed in my hand during the merriment following the MCM Expo on Saturday night. A very good night. The man behind them is a Mr. Dan Fish. The most interesting of the two is Deja-Vu (not that Foot-Balls of Fury isn't interesting mind you, I just found Deja-Vu more so) which is essentially a comic in a circle. Playing on the idea of deja-vu it starts where it finishes, there is an online version of the comic in question but it loses a lot of impact when it's not printed on a sheet of A4 folded twice. You lose the ability to twist the page around as perception is altered and indeed end up back at the beginning.

An invention that can alter perception is a very dangerous invention indeed.

If you can get your hands on this, do! It's fun!

AstroFunk by Ross Burt

This is a gorgeous comic, one of those ones that you think, wow, they've really gone to town here. Professional looking, very nice finish and well... that's enough about first impressions, I could go on all day but lets get to the content.
It's great to see a strong female character with a bad attitude running around space, sticking her name all over things and generally enjoying the colour pink but in a totally bad-ass way,. It makes a change from the nicey nice peaceful alien chick or the "love interest". The heroes of this story are clearly out on a mission a mission to tag anything that doesn't move, and a few things that do for that matter.

I don't think I'll ever see rabbits in the same way again.
Aah and a rendition of Bright Eyes.

I'm trying to ignore the deliberate use of U instead of you on occasion but my brain can't do it, it instinctively tells me it's wrong. I know it fits with the graffiti scene and that I'm probably uncool for commenting on it, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if it didn't swap between both.
The use of colours is fantastic though, I love the monotone look of the comic with added flashes of green and pink, it really makes certain elements stand out and adds to the crazy, really enhances the atmosphere of the comic, makes it all sorts of fun. Seeing the process behind making the comic was a nice touch, I always enjoy things like that, seeing the artwork develop from rough sketches into the final piece is great.

Ooh and the bonus comic at the end is just good fun, Captain Fuzzball and the Rumble of Doom! All that hard work, will that little guy ever get his reward?

You can find more on AstroFunk at the website, including previews for issue to and info on how to grab issue one!

In short AstroFunk is a crazy mixture of gaming, graffiti and comic culture that pops off the page and grabs you, then gets busy tagging you with green and pink markers and paint.

Doctor Bandaid's Hot Guide to Romance - by Philippa Rice

Philippa is responsible for the carbon low genius that is My Cardboard Life, recycling really does work!
Doctor Bandaid is a hopeless romantic, always after the affections of Pauline, though in his own mind he is a true ladies man, this little book shows the tragic but hilarious results of his attempts to woo. Doctor Bandaid gives such useful help as ice breakers, gift ideas and even an inspirational poem, devoted to Pauline. The mixture of crafty paper and sticking with drawings and paints makes this a winner.

Doctor Bandaid's mini-comic is available from the My Cardboard Life Shop, I also highly recommend the webcomic, it's fun for all. If you don't believe me go and try it, you soon will.

Oh and it also helped a bit that at the Expo Philippa was dressed up as The Doctor (Doctor Who, not Doctor Bandaid, though the comparison would be fun). 

Cowboy Love is Pure 1 - By Tom McNally

I've just read another comic from my adventures at the MCM Expo.
Cowboy Love is Pure is a great little read, the bright yellow paper it was printed on drew me over, I started to flick through and found myself learning that some cowboys seek advice on love from a giant centipede. It's a very short read but the first in a small set, the smallness makes it easy to just pick up and try, which I recommend you do by the way.
Cowboy Love is Pure is also available here, in website form, including a rather entertaining rave image.

Go on and read, you know you want to. 

Review: Something Brewing - By Amanda Elanor Tribble

Something Brewing is one of the books I snatched from the Comic Village at the MCM Expo in May. The cover attracted me, people say don't judge a book by its cover but lets be honest a comic book cover is a different matter, it's part of the whole presentation and overall this is a lovely thing to see. The comic itself is about two people, Lou a struggling writer and Dan who works in the cafe that she frequents and their everyday life. Despite it being a short (but sweet) comic it's still very clear to see this friendship between them has been developing for a while and is possibly changing into more. The simplicity of the backgrounds gives each page a spacious, open feel, it invites you to read more, sometimes it's tempting to pour detail after detail into the background but less is more in this case, it really helps to highlight the feelings between the characters and their situations. A great short read, perfect for hiding inside your text books during school (not that I would encourage such behaviour, specially if you get caught).
So in summary a lovely book by a lovely person, she was kind enough to sign the first page of my copy, you can tell how genuinely nice she is by the lengthy thanks she gives on the back page.
Very much worth the read.

Random thing about the comic: The cover is printed in such a way that all the blacks are slightly raised off the page, I get easily amused when that happens and like to run my fingers over the synopsis and pretend like it's Braille. Not quite that far, I just like the feel of it.

This comic is: Shiny!
To see more of Amanda's work you can visit Painted Lunacy.



This is what I love about small press and self published comics, it's so easy to get into it that we get to see so many talented people develop their styles right there infront of us. Age, experience, contacts, none of that matters, you just need the will and drive to do it and all those other small press, self published types are always there to help. I hope to see much more from Amanda in the future.

Who else has bought this comic? Feel free to share your views in the comments.

Broken - 145/365

Broken - 145/365
Originally uploaded by Britt7094

It can be stuck back together but the damage is done.

MCM Expo

So, as you may or may not know last weekend I went to the MCM Expo. It was a great load of fun.

We started off on the Friday to give us plenty of time to get there and settle down, we were just leaving York when I let out an exclamation that should not be heard by young ears. I had left my DSLR camera at home, the charger was in my bag but the camera itself was not. I have never been more glad for my ancient compact in my life! I'd stuck it into my case the night before as a backup and partially to record video with. It became my camera for the weekend, this is partially why I have less photos than last year as the camera in question takes about 2 minutes to realise you want it to take a photo.

So anyway on the Friday night we hung out with a bunch of people who were messing on outside the Excel centre, was quite funny as my sister seemed to turn it into some sort of basic fight game.

   

None shall be spared in her quest to take over the Expo!

It wasn't long before the effects of the long train ride were felt and we retired to our room for the night.

So then came Saturday, despite early entry tickets we didn't get into the Expo until 10, which worked out okay considering people without tickets had to wait even longer! There was a queue for the queue, so you can imagine the fun time we spent all lined up.

   

We finally got in and were greeted with the usual mixture of bright shiny things, scary tall things and very fun, very loud things. The day was full of fun and much comic buying! I spent a lot of time hanging around the small press tables, buying things. I saw a few panels and generally had fun. We were there all day really, as were most of the table holders. I made the mistake at breakfast that thinking the man sat about 5 tables away was John Allison, when it was actually Marc Ellerby, in my defence they were wearing the same shirt and glasses, it was an easy mistake, they really shouldn't cosplay as each other so often. 

But the real question is, where's Wally?

The ranks started to thin out towards the end of the day, everyone was headed to the pub, by the time I got there I saw a very large amount of glasses around Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith (what do you expect), who were deep in conversation, I dared not interrupt them, it seemed very important. So as you can imagine the bar was filled with comic creators, it was all very very fun, had a jolly time chatting with Jon Scrivens, Ian Sharman, David Wynne, Stephan Burn and many others who I am very sorry if I have missed you out, give me a prod and I shall correct this oversight. We soon moved on from the pub (as it closed) to the bar at the hotel, where we seemed to mutate into a strange impromptu karaoke group. What was in those drinks?

Sunday. I woke up feeling rather tired, my feet hurt and I really needed a shower. So once I had grabbed a shower and had some breakfast we were queued up for Expo day two. The line was nowhere near as long this time, thankfully, and we were soon inside. My sister celebrated this fact with high fives.

And when we got in well... there were just so many amazing cosplays, not sure why but it seemed like there were more cosplays on the Sunday, it could just be that we could see them better because there were less people, I don't know. 

        

And of course there were the panels, an amazing set this time, really enjoyed the artists vs writers, was great fun and we were bribed with a free comic!

   

Then there was the Sweatdrop Panel, these guys had a new book out for Expo called Telling Tales, it's an amazing book, the cover is so shiny, the art is so nice and the whole thing just fits together so well! You should pick it up from their website!

 

The trip home was long and boring, I didn't sleep but I surfed the web.

Here's a photo of EVERYTHING I bought while at Expo.

So in short, the London MCM Expo was EPIC! I had lots of fun. Yay.