041: I deserve a Magnum Double Caramel

Emma Vieceli and Malin Ryder have been doing their Webcomic BREAKS, and finally have a first volume. I’ve read this and it’s great. If you like anything at what Jamie and I did with teen characters, you’ll adore this as while without the heroic genre trappings, it’s coming from a similar place. You really should grab this. (219 Leeds Millennium for the publisher, 32 Leeds Town Hall Marquee for Emma)

I backed Brigitina’s kickstarter, though haven’t had a chance to read it yet. Lovely looking Pagan-Brit take on Thor/Wonder Woman kind of territory. (VSH, Table 24)

I also backed Untethered, by Umar Ditta and Elliot Balson and have read it, and it’s a weird modern take on the Genie myth. I’ve been waiting for Umar to drop a comic for years, so very happy to see it. Also, Umar’s dancing at Thought Bubble parties was my primary inspiration for WicDiv’s Dionysus, so I will always owe him for that particular crowd-inspiring heroism. (Table 40, Cookridge Street)

Spurrier and Caspar’s Angelic is out this week, but is totally not an indie book, so I have no idea what it’s doing on the list, except it’s really good. (31 Leeds Town Hall)Goodcomics are releasing Three (count ‘em!) new books. The publisher’s name alone makes me love them. It all looks interesting, but the one which catches my eye is Olivia Sullivan’s Sid. Strong art choices on that cover, innit? (36 Cookridge)

PanelsComix have a new issue of their beautiful Cosmic and the final issue of the excellently titled Sosmonaut the Cosmonaut. Interview here talking about the work. (25 Cookridge)

OddDino has the first issue of their Jump Scare, which is working in the Tales From the Crypt horror anthology structure. Always a good format to try, in terms of the discipline of the form. My own earliest indie work basically worked in that mode, and taught me a lot. (143 Leeds Millennium)

Jed McPherson is having a busy con, with Deadbeat, a “Neonoir elmore leonardish crime thing” and the trade of his web comic, Jacob. Looking at Deadbeat, and it’s reminding me of the scuffed and beautiful crime books that Oni did in the early 00s, which were great. (178 Leeds Millennium Square)Madius Comics has BUN, PAPERBACKS & INKSTAINS, CORSAIR & GRIFF GRISTLE - THE SIREN’S SONG which for a second made me think was one AMAZINGLY TITLED book but is in fact many books. An obvious range of books here – I’m throwing Bun as the image up top, as it’s cutest (and the internals look great) but it’s a BIG SELECTION OF STUFF. (3 and 4, Cookridge Street)

Freaktown Comics have a proper launch for Slashermania, which I’ve actually read. It basically fits into the Grindhouse aesthetic, and I suspect fans of Hack/Slash may get a kick out of it. It’s basically a Serial Killer competition comic. (5 Cookridge Street)

Katrhryn Briggs‘ ends her series Triskelion with issue 5. You know, going through this list and seeing people hit their final part makes me sort of purr happily for them. Anyway! This looks like a creepy and atmospheric mythic infused fantasy, that’s wrestling with the archetypes? It looks smart enough that I don’t really want to paraphrase it. (34 Leeds Town Hall Marquee)

CS Baker and SHAKY KANE(!!!!!) are dropping Last Driver.(CSM43)Michael Eckhett and Ryan Jenkyns are releasing Forged. “It’s our fun fantasy book about a Dwarf who doesn’t fit in, finding his role” says Michael, saving me a little work, so I love you Michael. (161a Comixology Marquee)

Aaron Fever’s (#noartcred!) heading the team of Swift, and is a coming of age superhero story. The linked review gives a lot more meat, and seems to be far more interested in the coming of age rather than the superhero, which I suspect is the best way to take these things, especially in the Small Press, and frankly, outside of it. Okay – Line art by George Kambadais, Colours by Rebecca Nalty, Letters by Hassan Ostmane-Elhaou and who cares about the editor, even when he has his written something that’s out this week too (Savage Town). Oh - probably a good place to plug Hassan having hard copies of PanelxPanel which he says he’ll have available after the criticism panel. (144a, Leeds Town Hall Marquee)

Fracture Press presents their Tales of the Fractured Mind, and anthology of Mental Health. (Victoria Hall, Table 31)

Ben Haith is debuting Stormhaven Techs: Sports Day of the Dead which clearly has me at the pun alone. (MSQ 152a)

The ever-heroic Dave Hendricks, Pete Marry and WicDiv’s famous Dee Cunniffe are debuting the Fortnight Comics Project, which is an anthology of 20 one-page horror/Sci-fi stories. This sort of stuff just delights me. (149 Leeds Town Hall Marquee)

Alex Automatic #2 by Campbell, Corcoran, Cooper and the alliteration ruining Bidikar is something I know nothing about, but there’s a certain Shaky Kane Does GI Jone bibe to the cover which I find appealingly bizarre.

Marc Ellerby (who’ll also be at the con, and whose work is always worth your attention – Table 10, Comixology Marquee) directs me at India Swift and Michael Doig’s The Girl And The Glim. This just looks delightful, looking like a collision between something Luke Pearson and something of the better class of Boom books. (Leeds Town Hall Marquee, Table 59)

Josh Hicks supplexes this into the ring and… oh, I can’t do Wrestling Metaphors. Anyway! Glorious Wrestling Alliance: Grappling Road looks charming, clean lines, playful post-Scott-Pilgrim visual motifs. (Leeds Town Hall Marquee, Table 41)

Chris Welsh, Robert Carey and WicDiv moonlighter Dee Cuniffe are completing their mini Ness. Issues 3 and 4 debut, which seems to be against some rule of Small Press. Surely you must have at least three years between issues? Chris didn’t tell me what it’s about, but there’s a lake on the cover of issue 1, and weird tentacles going into skulls on issues 3 and 4, so I’m presuming it’s about Loch Ness. But it looks charming, unless those skulls belong to you, in which case it is horrible and you’ve been murdered. Oh noes.

Torsobear Volume III debuts which I) has an amazing name and ii) is about policing a city full of rioting toys. Clearly one for those who feel that Buzz Lightyear needs the Judge Dredd treatment. Brett Uren is running it, but he hasn’t listed his table, so I’ll point you at Jon Scrivens (CR1) who’ll probably be able to help, and also is always worth nosing at.

Coglife comics are debuting their first ever anthology, Isolation. Clearly, I just want it to be about Joy Division, but I’m me. (Comixology Marquee, 113)

Comics answer to Kylie Minogue, the immortal Bevis Musson is debuting his Dead Queen Detectives colouring book. 36 pages, including 13 comic pages. I’ve read a bunch of the Dead Queen Detectives, and liked its playful historical games a lot. He’s on the Improper Books table, who have put out a bunch of great stuff over the last few years, so do linger here. (156-157, Leeds Millennium Square)Subversive Comics debuts Super Robot Mayhem #1. I believe this is a sensitive story about life amount squatting students in the 1920s Weimar republic. Or maybe it’s about SUPER ROBOT MAYHEM. This clearly gets the Evangelion senses twitching, but that’s no bad thing. Who doesn’t like Evangelion? Well, I suspect Hideaki Anno, but creators know NOTHING.

Douglas Noble inevitably releases another comic. It will be inevitably great. Here Comes The Beautiful People is about god knows what, because you should enter Nobles’ long running series of zines without any idea of their contents. It’ll always be interesting. Go gets. (VH 40)

Adam Lumb’s Witness Protection In Hell is running a kickstarter at the moment, but he’ll have preview material there which looks really interesting. (154b Comixology Marquee)

Kloob Books debuts Animal Magic #1 (“Political Animals”) which is described Steve describes as “Animal Farm meets Tintin” before noting he’s against X meets Y style pitches. You have my sympathies, Steve. (Main Square 154)Mindstain Comics bring us Damaris by Sarah Peploe which is – I quote “Restoration period drama/sketchy queer fantasia/scummy men/awesome sex workers kind o deal” which – let’s be honest – sounds like it’s well up my particular street and probably yours too. (CSM 62)

Jade Sarson’s self published latest volume of Cafe Suada debuts here, and looks startlingly lovely. Click the link to see more of this, as well as a useful LGBT resource for Tbubz. Really, I hate to pick a favourite in terms of sheer appearance from so many books, but this is devastatingly pretty. (Leeds Millennium Square, 160. I think. The map is so small, even blown up, I can’t quite make out the numbers. It’s 2 down from 162, so basic math leads to me thinking it’s 160)

Izzi Ward claims to have “shiny new copies” of her The Ink Witch. I will expect you to report back on the exact level of shininess of these copies. It promises Queer Girl Romance! It promises Magical Tattoos! I will speculate it features Queer Girls with Magical Tattoos in Romances! (MSQ 201)

IronShodApe is dropping Some Rough Beasts (76 pages!) plus a 28 page sketch book (There Came Some Creatures. (C28)

Sink #1 is new, but #2 and #3 debut as a flipbook. Flipping hell! I’m sorry. I’m clearly getting tired. Anyway, no details are provided, but looking at the cover, I’ll say realistic-mode slasher/serial killer horror comic. I’m totally in the judging books by their cover business now. Oh no! I hit the next tweet and John tells me what it’s about. “SINK is a series of standalone pulp crime tales, connected by the shared location of Sinkhill, a forgotten district of Glasgow, Scotland.” he says. So I was close! (Cookrigde St Marquee 35)

The legendary Roger Langridge is Zoot! Preview here. It’s a return to his early 1990s work, with a second volume. Comics Journal described the original as “a wonderful comic that nobody ever read.” Sadly, I’m included in those numbers, so I’m excited to see this. (59 Leeds Millennium Square)

New Sarah Gordon! I love Sarah’s work, as I’m never quite sure which area of her idiom she’s going to next. This is leaning gothic, I suspect. (Table 7, Victoria)

New Cindy & Biscuit! I provided a quote for a previous volume which was something like “Heartwarming. Like a flamethrower.” Basically, Calvin & Hobbes as Monsterhunter, with an underlying sadness to it. I think it’s those pupilless button eyes, implying our Cindy has seen a little too much. There’s also the final volume of sharp autobio comic The Cleaner, but Fraser hasn’t a cover online so I can’t write about it. Mindless, boys. Mindless. (76 Cookridge Street.)

And that’s everyone who messaged me, and a few more for good measure.

It’s only while doing this do I think “I hope there isn’t a list of all the new releases some comic site has done, as I totally have wasted a lot of time by doing this” followed by “I hope there IS one, because if no-one has done it, and this pulled together list is the best guide out there, I’d be fucking horrified.” I ask the internet. Hassan informs me there’s a list on the Tbubz site, though isn’t really a guide. Probably some which aren’t above, I suspect. Most useful is Broken Frontier, which has done a bunch of previews of stuff that’s debuting. It’s not comprehensive, clearly, but it has gone for depth over breadth, and that’s not an approach I’m ever going to critique. There’s some really nice stuff here and it’s really worth a look. Bleeding Cool also did a bunch of previews, but Bleeding Cool doesn’t tag them so it means I can’t link to them. If you google “Bleeding Cool Thought Bubble” you’ll find them. Here’s Clare Napier writing about Lost Light by Claire Spiller, which also looks deightful.

Anyway – Tbubz! Tbubz eternal! ETERNAL TBUBZ!