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Underground > Comic Books >

Small Press Comics

  
 
ghadis
00:14 / 06.04.07
There are some great small press/independent/mini comic stuff being published out there and it saddens me a bit to go on to Barbelih and see pages and pages of threads full of DC/Marvel big company stuff. I love comics and have been on Barbelith since, well before it was Barbelith, and i realised tonight that i hardly ever go to the comics bit because i'm just not interested. That is, of course, my own fault as much as anyone elses. I've recently discovered my love love of comics and it is the small stuff that has done it.

So here it is! A thread (that will maybe sink within a week) for discussing your favourite small press-indie finds and also a place to talk about how these comics fit into the whole comic world. I'm also quite up for talking about how to print and publish these things in a web and lulu type enviroment. Whos with me??

My favourite read at the moment is Donkeyhead, a fantastic, alice in wonderland type book. Beautifully understated surreal comic with an intersting duel narrative going on. I really like the art in it as it captures the dreamy, chilldlike mood of the story really well. It's great and i would imagine that you all should by it if you can.

Anyone else got any other tips? (oh..and i really liked Howl as well...as you are on here!)
 
 
Haus of Mystery
09:15 / 06.04.07
Thanks!

I'd like to pimp Paul O'Connell's absolutely awesome Sound Of Drowning comic. It's actually my favourite comic, bar none. Weird, witty, sometimes touching, often chilling, and put together with a wonderful design sense. Plus there's an unhealthy obsession with the walking awfulness that is Vincent Gallo.
Really, it's fantastic, and Paul is a thouroughly good sort, whose integrity and humility is a credit to the small press community. He's pushed my work in people's faces, to which I'm very thankful, but the main reason I'm singing 'SoD's' praises it's cos it's so damn well written. It makes you realise how little skill and poetry there is in a good deal of comic writing.
Any fans of oblique dark stories, and weird flights of whimsy, or just piss-your-pants funny dialogue please investigate.
 
 
sleazenation
16:27 / 06.04.07
I've missed going to the recent London Small Press and Webcomics Thing (yes, it is officially a 'thing'). So my usual point of contact with comics grass roots have been curtailed recently - but I have had great fun with Roger Mason's Mice books, a series of Sci-fi tales set in an alien food factory where the humans are the vermin.

And then there is David Hitchcock whose ideosyncratic historically based comics both beautiful objects as well as entertaining comics - The original edition of Whitchapel Freak, for example came in the form of a newspaper.
 
 
raggedman
10:27 / 07.04.07
I really like e-merl's stuff. I've always suspected he was a 'lither because his philosophy seems very invisiblesesque. The totality of action in time and space creating the god shape. I first read his 'Mr Niles the Illustrated Bastard' about a self aware Bondesque villain. Very funny. Page 1, holding a gun to a kitty's head 'Turn the page and the cat gets it!'
Page 2 'Oh so you're that kind of reader are you?'
His Unfolded Earth series is worth looking at .Strange sad talking heads stories, Alan Bennett as the hypercontext blends reality and he's also doing some really interesting things with the web and hypercomics . Which are definitely worth a peruse. Everytime I look at them I get all inspired for the future possibilities of comics on the web…haven't got round to doing anything about it yet like.

On this board I love
Mr Magyver's work, I have Tony is a Werewolf and Christmas with Frank. I love the combination of the cute with that gentle skewed humour and the art is just edible.
He does a betteer job of selling himself than I can .

Also really impressed by Andrew Drilon's. stuff…Caraboy is a fun mythic romp and there's a real vitality and energy to his work.

Don't know if this has been flagged up elsewhere but Dimestore publications are running Small Press Idol 2007 . Which is pretty much as it says on the tin. A knockout series of rounds each one building toward the creation of a 12 page issue 0. The winner gets a four issue commitment.
I have to declare a vested interest as I'm in it but (without being a total brown nose) the 'lith has collective good taste and it would be a boon to the small press world if you were to engage with it.
(really-I'm not going to post that on byrne robotics am I?)

And if I am allowed to do a quick plug on the grounds that I'm lucky enough to have some fantastic artistic contributors and they deserve better out of life than scrawling in the margins with me, I've got a comicspace site here
My work veers manically between pop explosions with a secret broken heart and…well, broken hearted stuff with a secret pop pop!

I've seen sound of drowning around but haven't picked it up…I'll give it a whirl at the next Bristol Expo. There's always a solid small press presence there.
I should also mention the great Al Davison who's been doing a series based on his dreams and is just a lovely and talented man.

Anyone else here
Bristolbound?
 
 
Haus of Mystery
00:32 / 08.04.07
Maybe. i've been a tad dissappointed (to saythe least) with Bristol, but then I've not been as a 'creator' as it were. Basically, I get the feeling that most people at a comic con couldn't give a shit about the small press, when there are back issues of 'Alppha Flight', or figurines of Vampirella to hunt down.

The total lack of response to this thread is pretty demonstrative of the genereal lack of interest in the small press in comicdom, I might add. Might explain why I'm, as yet, still not a millionaire.
 
 
raggedman
09:40 / 08.04.07
Yeah, you're kind of right. In a world where people like MamTor have trouble shifting stock it is difficult to get people to take a chance on shelling out cash for unknown quantities. Also I think most people involved in small press are also the first audience and I know that I never buy as much as i'd like 'cos i'm broke from the printing, the transport and the hotel. I found Bristol better than the Brighton Con 'cos we were all on the same floor. At Brighton we were upstairs with no sinage to even alert the X-fans that there's more to life than super hero books (but not much more).
i really don't want to moan though...this is year is the first year I've had stuff together i'm proud of and really want to shout about and push. I'm hoping it'll be a different experience...the good will out etc
Or maybe my girlfriend's right when she's angry and i am just a sad little onanist in a ever decreasing subculture, like a snake eating it's own tail.
Jack Fear, please step forward with your sword of truth...cut me open and count the rings

Ps I checked out the Sound of Drowning site...really enjoyed it. How did Howl do?
 
 
raggedman
19:37 / 09.05.07
okay, not the most popular thread the first time round and nowhere near as cool as 'Jimmy Olsen Must Die'
Also this bump is pretty much for my benefit alone...i'm never clear on pimping etiquette so if i'm breaking the rules let me know.

The HDKD! is through to the second round of Small Press Idol and desperately needs your votes. If you care about the joycore at all or just appreciate stuff that makes an effort i'd appreciate you checking it out. You can vote by clicking on 'Official Vote' tag at the bottom of the bios. you need to register but it's free and they encourage spurious info if you don't want them stalking you for cybeternity.

on relatedish note good to see Hector Lima's new stuff out. Should have namechecked you before (sorry Hector)

If anyone is going to Bristol say hi.
could we move this to creation if it dies another death here?
 
 
misterdomino.org
20:32 / 09.05.07
I am very ashamed that I aim to become a part of this community without much knowledge about it in the first place. By now, I'm assuming that there is a difference between what some would consider to be literary comics (i.e. Spiegelman, Sacco, Gloeckner(literary is someone else's term I heard)) and the independent comics we're discussing here? Sorry to sound like a putz, but I'm definitely interested in discussing this with you.
 
 
Dan Fish - @Fish1k
21:06 / 09.05.07
It would be remiss of me not to mention www.bugpowder.com/, which is one of the places to go for small press news and updates. I post stuff there myself, and if anyone has anything they want to plug, email the bugpowder mailbox.

I'll be at Bristol, handing out my own photocopied homemade minicomics, and hopefully mixing with the likes of some of the previously mentioned creators. Say Hi if you see me!
 
 
raggedman
20:50 / 10.05.07
looking good Mr Fish. i'm down for a copy of dead elvis.

Mr Domino, not sure how good i'd be to you (certainly not now as i'm last minute rushing bristol prep-sorry)...terms like 'literary comics' scare me a bit...my tastes run so broad (as does most of the 'lith) from stuff that is considered 'high' art to 'low'
i prefer arbitary divisions, based purely on whether i like something and that tends to be defined by whether i hook into the energy and passion behind it. I always liked the Lenny Bruce routine where he divides the world into Jewish and Goyim/Gentiles? can't remember the terms he uses. but basically anything hip and urban and cool is Jewish anything not is...the other.
and you ain't no putz...check through the old threads there's loads of really good tips here on the best that comics has to offer in all it's forms...i know i hardly post but i read practically every day and it's opened me up to all kinds of new worlds
(i don't know Gloeckner for example but will definitely check him out when i have the time)

now, if i can abandon any pretence of dignity and just unashamedly beg...we were such a late entry to round 2 of SPI that we are getting our tushes kicked. I know that many of you WILL really really dig this comic. Please, check us out and please vote. we need your help and in return we promise you a comic that will never be lazy or bland or coasting but will shoot for the moon in every goddam panel. HDKD! link is a couple of posts above.

thanks all
 
 
misterdomino.org
21:24 / 15.05.07
raggedman- Arbitrary divisions are great and I tend to stick to a similar philosophy on tastes. The Barbelith forum seems to agree with us there as well. I suppose I was inquiring about the original poster's divisions, as it seems that comics by Fantagraphics and a lot of the autobiographical tradition in comics are becoming accepted by the mainstream literary scene, in that they are finally accepting certain comics as actual literature. For instance, this year, the "Best of..." series printed a Best American Comics Anthology for the first time ever, put together by Harvey Pekar. This seems like a big step for comics as a medium. How do you guys feel about this possible comics renaissance?
 
  
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