SAD ANIMAL #1 Some famous philosopher or other once said that the ability to create laughter was 'the only unqualified good'. That being so, you'd expect wit to be highly valued cultural resource. Not a bit of it. Why else is it that comedies don't get nominated for Oscars, or that Chris Donald's name doesn't get put forward for a knighthood. The small press is lucky in having several comedy geniuses at the moment. Paul Hatcher is one; Ralph Kidson is another. This self-styled 'Milk and plain assortment of pointless, hate-filled non-stories, liberally sprinkled with unnecessary swearing' is another thigh-slappin'ly fine outing from the latter, and features a number of classic ditties concerning daleks, submarines, glaciers, and, of course, animals (including Captain Dolphin's return). My favourite is entitled Cuh-ah-tuh, about a feline with 'ah-tit-tud-ah': the timing, the way the gag is set up, the use of a silent panel for effect, the facility with language, the way the dialogue overlaps, are all exemplary. It's not all great. There are too many over-extended work-outs with 'was-it-worth-it' punchlines, and the strip about the British Concentration Camp wasn't really funny enough to justify the risk of satirising such automatically charged subject matter. What's more, the artwork remains, frankly, pitiful. But carping aside, there is enough genuine invention here to bring a smile to the cracked lips of even the glummest of the glum customers of 'Glum Comics', Glumshire. In other words, an unqualified good. Roger Sabin SAD ANIMAL #2 What can I say about dear old Ralphie that hasn't already been said? Thirty six pages of badly drawn strips, involving such arbitrary 'characters' as Moss & Lichen, Vast Sea Of Regret, and 30 Million Miles. The 'bad' drawing is appropriate somehow for the stories the strips tell; how else could you do a strip involving the Hubble Space Telescope getting pissed on cider? I've read reviews describing Ralph Kidson's work as "hilariously offensive". I must say that I wasn't offended by any of the contents of Sad Animal #2. In fact, it's a far cry from the outright bitter sarcasm of his strip in Sofa #4. This comic is quite good really, but it neither lives up to it's potential or it's billing. Matthew Larenson SAD ANIMAL [#1 28 A5 PAGES, COLOURED CARD STOCK COVER, #2 40 A7 LANDSAPE FORMAT PAGES, COLOURED CARD STOCK COVER] #1 £1, #2 70p (+P+P?). RALPH KIDSON, 3 LANGRIDGES CLOSE, NEWICK, NR. LEWES, E. SUSSEX, BN8 4LZ. SAME BLUE BOOK STORIES #1 I love the cover of this one; the 3 main characters peering out of a tiny circle in the middle of the page with the slogan, "It's a comic book, stupid!" On the inside, we have the same 3 guys, who I assume are flatmates (altho' there is a faint suggestion, to me at least, that they may be inmates in a mental home) arguing what to watch on TV. The unnamed characters are childlike, numbed psychotics who, as the story progresses, get into a long and fevered discussion about what kind of fruit they may, or may not, have in the kitchen, before agreeing that there is, in fact, melon. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the multiverse, a Texan cockroach and her wayward daughter, fall down a hole in the "desert" and experience what they believe to be a mystical revelation. So far, so weird. The artwork is nicely surreal; not Paul's autobiographical style, but more the kind of stuff he's done recently with Luke Walsh (In fact the whole book has a certain Walshness about it...). The 3 guys are likeable and fun, if slightly lacking in depth. Where Same unfortunately falls down is in its ending where the 2 stories converge. It's a real anticlimax, and you're left wondering what the point was. Weird for weird's sake never really appeals to me, and if the point is just the old "worlds within worlds" theme, then that's not really enough, but Same doesn't seem to be saying anything else, and feels kind of like a wasted opportunity. However, this is just the first issue, maybe this is just to set the scene, and there's better twists to come. The 3 "inmates" need names tho'.... How about Luke, Luke and Luke? Pete Doreé SAME [24 A5 PAGES, COLOUR CARD COVER] £1 + 1st CLASS STAMP. PAUL SCHROEDER, 17 LIME ST, TODMORDEN, LANCS, OL14 5JN. SEVEN #1 The whole of ZUM!'s copy of this comic is disfigured by a copier drum error that leaves big scratch lines through the toner on each page. All strips aren't equally affected and reading isn't impossible. So I can review my way heroically through the damaged panels so that you, ZUM! readers, may draw some critical or consumer commentary from my reduced scrutiny. In fact the disfigurement might not be so bad were not the bulk of Robert Pierce's Seven taken up with an ambitious piece of work whose parsimonies of style and construct are made into shortcomings by the faulty photocopying. In it, Robert adapts to comic form How Culhwch won Olwen which, as he describes in his introduction, is one of a group of ancient Celtic tales narrated orally to audiences by travelling storytellers or 'bards' and transcribed to writing between the years 1200 to 1400AD to form the text known today as the Mabinogion. How Culhwch won Olwen is also a love story, after a fashion, in which ugly princeling Culhwch scorns his spotty-faced stepsister as a potential marriage partner and takes off to win the hand of Olwen, a kind of ancient Celtic Diana in slinky, see-through frock, long blond hair and big daisies. Everything Robert Pierce brings to this — fine lines, intricate and ornate pattering, anachronisms, narrative tricks and graphic distortions — is mushed by his poor and unpredictable copying. He's also done himself a major mischief by attempting to cram more into the page than the format allows. Seven's later, shorter strips bear out the extent of this. They show all the graphic wit, the invention, the strong, sure drawing and the compositional lucidity that deserves pride of place in the main story. These are problems readily solved but you won't want to be sending money for this issue unless you've ensured that you're not going to get a duff one. Steve Edgell SEVEN #1 [32 A4 PAGES] £2 (+P+P?). ROBERT E PEARCE, 1 BLIDWORTH LODGE, RIGG LANE, BLIDWORTH, MANSFIELD, NOTTS, NG21 0NK. SCENES FROM THE INSIDE #5 This is easily the best issue of SFTI so far, but there's still too much filler. For the uninitiated, it's an anthology (18 stories) with a glossy card cover. Its sheer classiness has provoked comparisons with both Escape and Deadline, though in truth the vibe is quite unlike either. There are 2 stand-out strips here: the first is The Insomniac, scripted by Denny Derbyshire and drawn by Ed Pinsent, an astounding tale about a dude in a nightcap who is rudely awakened by an electrical storm — inside his house! This surreal scenario is finessed in expert fashion, as detached narrative and rich imagery combine in a succession of stark set-pieces: at one point a mysterious 'engineer' grasps a bolt of lightning with the words "I do grab it: electric snake". Poetic, weird, oddly involving. The second stunner is actually 4 four-panel mini-stories by Steve Yabsley staring Reg and Mousie, a kangaroo and a bear. Life-enhancingly ridiculous, these yarns rely on childlike language for their charm, and feature our 2 anthropomorphic friends living it up at the seaside, in the classroom, at home and in the street. Their innocent-but-insane adventures include attempting to insert a boat up Reg's nose, and trying to find out what moles eat (bananas). They have quite a laugh in the process, and so do we. I'd recommend buying the comic for these stories alone: then, photocopy them, and send them to your friends (I did). Unfortunately, the other contributions can't match the originality or verve of these two. There's a great deal of technical competence here, and the artwork is often nice to look at, but there's too much smartarsery and not enough soul. I preferred the funny stuff to the more earnest material, (Nigel Auchterlounie's Monkey was another amusing interlude) and I can certainly see the skill in something like Brain Curfew, a Rory Hayes-esque Purple Ghost story by Luke Walsh. But ultimately, 70% of the comic just didn't fry my onions. Roger Sabin SCENES FROM THE INSIDE #6 Scenes is often accused of putting style over content, and is fair comment really, considering the narrow editorial eye it has. It wants comics with punch and vigour, so aspects like charm and whimsy are cast aside as useless things. Granted this does give the comic a swaggering edge (almost machismo?), but it does make for a one-dimensional inclination. (Is this the bitter rambling of an oft-rejected comics creator? Heh!) Despite the new boy techno pagan pose it throws conformity to this affectation is not the rule and there are many gems contained herein. The best contributors all have the assured verve that comes from an informed aptitude. Of these Casper Williams, Ros Garbles, Ed Pinsent, The Runcter Corporation, Denny Derbyshire, Chris Frazer, Farheed Choudhury, Glen Dakin and Phil Elliot (the latter 2 in collaboration) really shine. These names should be enough to make you jump for joy! But to reinforce this stock; chasing their heels are names like Giles Woodward, Dave Leavesley, and Mark Stafford. There's even a bounce in Ali Stubbs & Matt Burton's previosly flagging Pud and Pup routine. This, in my mind, is the best Scenes so far (this keeps being said — encouraging, is it not?). All this and more under a mat laminate (mmm!) computer car crash cover. mooncat SCENES FROM THE INSIDE [EACH 68 26x21cm PAGES, FULL COLOUR GLOSSY COVER. #5 COMES WITH 20 A5 PAGE COMIC INSERT, #6 HAS A MAT LAMINATE COVER (MMMMM!) AND COMES WITH 8 19x14cm PAGE "BABY SUE" COMIC] £2·75 EACH (+P+P?). DRAT & BLAST BOOKS, BOX 63, 82 COLSTON ST, BRISTOL, BS1 5BB. SILLY DADDY/KING CAT FLIP #2 An American (independent? underground?) comic consisting of two autobiographical stories by two different artist/writers continuing what seems to be a trend towards "real Life" comics... Oh, Joe Matt, What have ye wrought? First up is Joe Chiapetta's One more Reason To Revolt, His theme: "The government keeps taking away our ability to survive as a free peoples" (sic). Our hero (long hair, divorced, grammatically challenged, nouveau hippie single pop) and his daughter Maria have their God given freedoms severely curtailed by 'The Man' (Hey, surely 'The Woman' too, in these days of P.C. and equal opps.). Fortunately (or unfortunately, drama fans) this is no Rodney King-type scenario as Joe and his wonderfully precious daughter (as Joe, like all doting dads, keeps reminding us) are cautioned by a cop against lighting an illegal fire in a dense woodland where they have gone, somewhat inexplicably, to cook junior's lunch. The policeman has been alerted by vigilant neighbours concerned by the sight of Joe, a stranger, taking a small child into the wood. Anyone with half on ounce of humour would have accepted this irksome but understandable intrusion with good grace but irascible Joe launches into a tirade (in thought balloons at least) against this racist fascist pig cop daring to inhibit his right to commune with nature (the cop is caricatured in time-honoured porcine fashion). Joe amply exhibits all the hostility and mindless prejudice that he fondly imagines the 'police state' of America embodies. This is partnered by a short piece of incomprehensible gobbledegook starring Joe and Maria as superior alien intelligences (if only!) gazing down on all the 'bad' humans, murdering and polluting to their hearts' content (and lighting illegal fires?). If the message is naff, the medium isn't half bad. Chiapetta draws convincingly in a detailed semi-serious style and can tell a story in an engaging manner. There are some good panel compositions and interesting affects caused by the lack of panel borders. The stand-out scene in the story shows us the woodland through his daughters eyes in a fresh charming manner. In fact, the artwork is the main reason for buying this comic. Another joe, John Porcellino, contributes Mountain Song which is drawn in an enjoyable "faux naif" style (that evokes, to my eye, John Bagnal's work) is about John's day as a rural mosquito exterminator. It documents a fairly uneventful days work but makes one envious of the beautiful countryside he must work in and ends on a small existential moment in which John momentarily steps back from the concerns of his job to reflect on the otherness of nature. An illuminating insight into an odd profession. M.R. SILLY DADDY KING DAT FLIP [36 27x17cm PAGES, GLOSSY COLOUR COVER] $3 (+$1 P+P). JOE CHIAPPETTA, 2209 NORTHGATE N. RIVERSIDE, IL 60546, USA. WEB SITE: http://www.redweb.com/sillydaddy SIX DEGREES #1 This isn't published by DC and it's in B&W, but other than that it's every inch a Vertigo comic, right down to the pseudo-Dave McKean cover. This sets the scene for a six-issue story arc: it begins in a 19th Century courtroom where 2 children are about to be tried for the murder of an infant. We then break to the modern day where a priest is hearing a woman confess how her children are getting out of control, and then we watch with a growing feeling of déjà vu as 2 kids head off to a shopping centre. This is another comic spawned by the murder of James Bulger, and wether it'll closely follow the tragic events of the real life case is not yet clear, but it's looking that way. Personally, after having read Mike Weller's superb but harrowing, Boys Are Back in Town*, I don't have the stomach for this kind of thing any more, there are simply some things I'd like to forget, but that's just me. For everyone else this looks an intriguing story, complemented by strong, detailed artwork which should appeal to any Vertigo fan. Andy Brewer SIX DEGREES #1 [28 26x17cm PAGES, FULL COLOUR COVER] £1·80, SIX ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION £10·80, $29·50(U.S.). HIGH HEELS PRODUCTIONS, 96 FISHERTON ST, SALISBURY, WILTSHIRE, SP2 7QR. *See review ZUM!#9 THE SLAB SELECTION Behind a surprisingly lacklustre Simon Gane cover, lies a collection of strips by many of the major players in the UK small press scene; an interview with current fan fave Megan Kelso; and a few foreign artists perhaps not so well known to some readers. The Slab Selection's raison d'être is to showcase some of the creators that publish comix distributed by the Slab empire and in this, it works well and I'd have no hesitation recommending it to those newcomers who want to know what the non-superhero small press has to offer. Those readers who've been around a while could probably, sight unseen guess the artists featured (Kennedy, Risdale, House, Pinsent, Butler/Hogg, Gane, Tappenden etc etc) which might not be a bad thing in itself as quality is assured, but it does mean there's few surprises. I've not come across any of the strips myself, but I'm led to believe some might be reprints*. Andy Brewer THE SLAB SELECTION [92 PAGES, 2 COLOUR LAMINATED CARD COVER, PERFECT BOUND] £4·50 SLAB-O-CONCRETE, PO BOX 148, HOVE, BN3 3DQ. *Mooncat: The only specific case I remember is Gavin McInnes' reefer strip reprinted from his Pervert comic (although I fail to remember which issue). I only really flicked through the comic before I passed it onto Andy, which frustrates me a little now as I meant to read it all. SLEAZE CASTLE: DIRECTOR'S CUT #1 I'd never read an issue of Sleaze Castle until I was given this collection of the first three to review. It started in a fairly promising way, making me interested in Jo Dribble, and seemed to be telling a story. Then the narrative pace evaporated and by the middle of the book it was just a sequence of directionless conversations about sci-fi clichés. Terry Wiley has some strong cartooning skills, particularly in terms of timing, but nearly all the main characters are unattractively rendered. Backgrounds are drab and unappealing. I did like the funny one-page Damp Patch interlude. Chris Butler SLEAZE CASTLE: DIRECTOR'S CUT #2 I read the first collection of this series and instantly fell in love with the sheer quality of the thing, so when this second collection arrived I was ecstatic. The art is even more accomplished than that of the first volume with the main characters becoming more defined visually, and the script is as excellent as ever; so on the creative side — this is wonderful. However, the time travel aspects of the plot have earned this series a reputation as a hard story to follow and understand. This is something I didn't find true with the first volume, but within pages of starting this edition I began to wish that I'd reread the earlier stories because you do get lost. Fortunately it's only for a short while every now and then, and the fun and quality of the overall product should be enough to carry you through. If it doesn't you can and search for all the pop culture references, covering stuff like Aliens, Sub Genius and Through the Keyhole. Initially disorienting, this is nevertheless a top buy and highly recommended. Nigel Lowrey SLEAZE CASTLE: DIRECTER'S CUT [BOTH 78 25x18cm PAGES 3 COLOUR GLOSSY COVERS, PERFECT BOUND] £3·49 (+P+P?) TERRY WILEY, GRATUITOUS BUNNY COMICS, 1 WATSON GARDENS, HOWDON, WALLSEND, TYNE& WEAR, NE28 0NA. EMAIL: twing@cix.compulink.co.uk WEB PAGE: http://www.compulink.co.uk/recombo-dna-lab/sleaze1.htm SLEAZE CASTLE #7 Gratuitous Bunny Comix's Sleaze Castle series interlinking tales is a notable success for nineties comics self-publishing in Britain. Most cheering about the series is the bold underlying assumption that a visual culture like Japan's exists in the UK; a visual culture bold enough to absorb Wiley and McKinnons' Sleaze Castle saga. Episode seven has a manga-style back cover complete with kanji-type lettering to spell the message out if the reader hasn't heard it. Wether this assumption is true or not — Sleaze Castle's Alice Through The Looking-Glass multiverse is an engaging one for the comics fans who enjoy their picture stories spelt out for them. McKinnon and Wiley do not disappoint. Characters hop across time, space and 'boingy' dimensions without losing a sense of structure. Terry Wiley, one half of the creative partnership, brings well-defined human characters, fantasy morphs, sci-fi aliens, characters playing other characters, plus a lexicon of purpose-drawn pop and comic references to very accomplished animated life. Creative and productive divisions of labour are sharply perceived by partner Dave McKinnon, judging from his short introduction to episode seven. He hints at chronic comics fatigue and number seven of Sleaze Castle could be the penultimate or even ultimate episode of his writing contribution. A pity. Mike Weller SLEAZE CASTLE [28 25x17cm PAGES, 2 COLOUR GLOSSY COVER] £1·50 + SAE. TERRY WILEY, GRATUITOUS BUNNY COMICS, 1 WATSON GARDENS, HOWDON, WALLSEND, TYNE & WEAR, NE28 0NA. EMAIL: twing@cix.compulink.co.uk WEB PAGE: http://www.compulink.co.uk/recombo-dna-lab/sleaze1.htm SLICK HARD AS NAILS 'Slick' is a hard-boiled, gun toting private eye. 'Noel' is a little blob who lives in a glass canister suspended on a chain from Slick's neck. Noel is Slick's conscience. Slick and Noel chat to each other about the neurosis of the bad guys they fight. This idea is the most interesting thing about the comic, but it's not used imaginatively enough to compensate for the sterility otherwise on offer. Rol is fairly good at furnishing a complete 19 story with a beginning and ending (he forgot about a middle here, though). But why do stories like this always have to take place in an America gleaned from episodes of T.J.Hooker? There's gang violence, drug barons, and criminal club owners in every British city, so why can't the would-be genre-hack rip off Cracker instead? Similarly, instead of ending with a dull shoot-out where everyone blasts everyone else (Rol refers to this as a 'pastiche' of Reservoir Dogs, evincing a distinct lack of familiarity with technical terms), why not find a way of introducing real tension using the comics form? Just lifting a scene from a film won't do it. Adrian Bamforth's art is Stateside-realistic in a harsh, ugly way. Women look like supermodels. Vicious expressions, guns and tough guys are drawn with evident enthusiasm. Interiors are convincing, but bland. Adrian is currently lying inside a large cannon targeted for a burning hoop labelled 'mainstream success'. Chris Butler SLICK: HARD AS NAILS [24 A5 PAGES, COLOUR STOCK COVER] 75p. ROL HIRST, RUSHGROVE FARM, HOLTHEAD, SLAITHEWAITE, HUDDERSFIELD, W. YORKS, HD7 5TY. SOFA #4 Brighton: resting place of O.A.P.s, gay capital of Britain and, for some mysterious reason, it has (probably) the greatest per capita density of small press comics creators of any large town or city. Sofa is a collection of short strips from these people, and the majority centre in or around Brighton. Now, I live in the Midlands, so all the tales about the wonders of living on the south coast are completely lost on me. The best strip is Ralph Kidson's bitterly Sarcastic I love Crusties; one can almost taste the bile in dialogue such as, "The police are bad people", "Are they really? You are a subversive man". Most of the other creators featured in Sofa are obviously talented people, but wether they have anything of value to say is entirely another matter. For example, old chestnuts such as the 'Big Issue seller' and 'giving people such as jugglers and conceptual artists a good kicking because they annoy me' appear. The ZUM! editor wrote to me and said, "Thank God I don't have to review Sofa again"*. Who am I to doubt such an authoritative source? Sofa is alright as a 'taster' of the Brighton small press scene, but presented as a 'whole' it lacks any real substance. Matthew Lawrenson SOFA #4 [] £1·50. THE SOFA, GAVIN BURROWS, 34 LINCOLN ST, BRIGHTON, BN2 2UH. *Mooncat: Ah, hmmm, yes... I think an explanation might be wise... Well, y'see ...when I sent Matthew these comics I expressed relief at not having to review this comic again it wasn't a comment on the quality of the comic (as he interpreted it) but the fact that I've reviewed it before and didn't relish the chore of dredging out a review that would probably be a repeat of a previous one. I wanted his perspective. THE STARING EYE #4 "A journal of the fantastic in comic strips" by Ed Pinsent and Denny Derbyshire; sometimes in collaboration, sometimes apart. Regular ZUM! readers will probably know the name of Pinsent, one of the long-standing giants of the small press over the last 15 years or so (and just as well too as I moronically forgot to include him in my article on small press originators in ZUM!#1!). His work may well be an acquired taste, but one worth acquiring. Certainly his dream-logic approach to storytelling is far from what you'd call linear. When Staring I proclaims "stories are full of lies and each word an empty straw. Sing instead!" it's almost Pinsent's theme tune — pushing comics away from empty plotting, nearer to music, poetry and the like. While this is something he shared with his early eighties contemporaries (Campbell, Elliot etc), it may well be him that took it the furthest. It's interesting to chart his development by looking back from Staring Eye through his recent collections Primitif* and Windy Wilberforce**. This shows Pinsent moving in a still more metaphysical direction — away from his iconic and 'heroic' protagonists into multifaceted symbolic beings who appear in ever stranger manifestations. It's equally interesting to see his art develop, from the simple 2D renderings at the start (50% William Blake, 50% Oliver Postgate) to the crisp, bold and fluid brushstrokes of today — like modernist versions of stained glass windows. Perhaps it's this new approach which has taken Pinsent into collaboration — the only previous stuff I can recall was an occasional series with Elliot. He's now worked not only with Derbyshire, but with Butler and Cunningham and maybe others I've forgot. Why the Barn Owls Screech (drawn by Denny) relies on the many forms the Devil may take — or turn us into. Similarly, Staring I himself may appear one minute as a dashing Thirties hero-type, and a lookalike for Primitif the next. Denny Derbyshire is someone I did manage to cite in ZUM!'s dawning days — in my article on rising small press stars in ZUM!#3 (principally for a brilliant mini-strip called Choam). despite some excellent showings (particularly in the early Trident anthologies) I'm not sure she quite lived up to her promise after that. While always worth reading, she somehow seemed content to serve up more of the same rather than push at her horizons. However, while I don't want to suggest that it's working with Pinsent which has revitalised her, her stuff in Staring Eye has been excellent. The Old Couple re-uses her oft-used device of presenting child's-eye views of the world — but with such strong imagery that it doesn't really matter. Moreover, while we're treated to the child's baroque fantasy, we're kept aware of the real events in the adult world that have created it. Better still is Thro' the Broken Glass (drawn by Pinsent), which takes on the potential cliché territory of breaking relationships but comes up trumps. Too many tell this stuff by faithfully recounting who slept with who borrowed whose records without bringing them back and end up telling nothing. Derbyshire penetrates to the bleak heart of such matters without being distracted by surface stuff. There's also a fine irony in it being winter which defines their relationship, and the rays of summer which end it. While I enjoyed my ZUM! review allocation this time round, the others were merely recycling small press clichés (dead-end jobs, etc), and it was merely a matter of how well they told it. Staring Eye tramples over those clichés without even deigning to notice them, and goes off to live in a land of it's own. Best of the bunch by far! Gavin Burrows THE STARING EYE #4 [28 A5 PAGES, COLOUR STOCK COVER] £1·60. ED PINSENT, BM Bemused, London WC1N 3XX, UK. *Reviewed ZUM!#2 **Reviewed ZUM!#9 STRANGEHAVEN #1 ollowing the example of Paul Grist, Gary Spencer Millidge has turned proprietor of his own life to get this comic before a reading public. This is an American comic book, made in Britain but solicited, printed and distributed in the USA. We get it in England, of course, because the direct market — an American comic system in Britain because it's just one of its regional centres. For Gary Spencer Millidge, this is a bloody good thing too. It'd be highly unlikely that a comic like his would survive a journey through the British newstrade. Prohibitive start-up costs and the enormous wastage typical of the trade almost certainly means that the project would ever reach launch. The dearth of origination here also makes this story, all nuance eerie transitional and gradual build-up, an unlikely contender for inclusion in a British weekly. That said, it's a very British story, despite its arrival staggering under the weight of comparisons with David Lynch's Twin Peaks. Although set in an eponymous village, the plot draws on a strain of native British weirdness that stretches from Robert Hardy's The Wicker Man to Alan Garner's Owl Service, linking David Rudkin's occult teleplays with Denis Wheatley's and Dion Fortune's novels in a familiar warped and twisted genealogy. Also, on the evidence of this first issue, it handles its provenance with the sure grasp of an Anglo-aristo on his pedigree. The strip exploits the convention of the innocent stranger who stumbles across a village with horrifying secrets and who is dragged inexorably into a web of intrigue. Alex Hunter is the stranger, and he encounters an uncanny Devonshire landscape, filled with eccentrics and anomalous magical resonances from the Amazonian basin. Each contact is drawn in naturalistic line and chiaroscuro that relies heavily on photographic reference and is fixed tautly in a nine-panel page grid. Apart from an occasional unevenness in the hatching, the story's lay-outs use precise and careful compositions to build a detailed and unflagging mystery and suspense. Strangehaven has few antecedents in comics, although it's clearly swimming in at least one cultural mainstream. It has successfully evaded the constraints of today's hope-damaged comics mainstream and this is important; but not as important as that you take this gripping story on its own terms. Steve Edgell STRANGEHAVEN #2 I'm completely lazy when it comes to reading this comic. The plot is full of mysteries, hints, teasers. Internet groups discuss its contents, the name Twin Peaks is constantly bandied around in the lettercolumn (I've never seen it, so those references mean nothing to me) and it's fast becoming a cult among mystery-loving comics fans. None of that really interests me. I'm content just to follow its slow unfolding and savour the atmosphere it conjures up of an idyllic, rural England which perhaps never existed except in works of art. Forget Twin Peaks, think of Powell and Pressburgers's A Canterbury Tale. Find a recording of Vaughan Williams' Forth Symphony, listen to it while reading this and enjoy the sense of pure Englishness mixed with unease at the prospect of it all crumbling and decaying... For those who don't know it, the story concerns a sleepy English village which Alex Hunter, in retreat from his past life, can't seem to leave. If you want to read it, don't start here — go back to the first issue and work your way forward, because it makes little sense the other way. Kudos to Gary Spencer Millidge not only for producing something worth reading but for packaging it beautifully and marketing it very astutely. He's self-publishing at the Dave Sim level, and looks set to achieve the same kind of success as Sim. If he does, this could turn out to be a milestone in the history of British comics. Mike Kidson STRANGEHAVEN [#1 40, #2 32, #3 36 26x17cm PAGES, FULL COLOUR GLOSSY COVERS] £2·20 EACH, 6 ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION £12. GARY SPENCER MILLAGE, ABOIGENESIS PRESS, P.O. BOX, 448, SOUTHEND-ON-SEA, ESSEX, SS1 2FN. STRAY BULLETS 1997: In a single night 2 hit-men try to dispose of the body of a victim. They end up murdering a cop, a petrol pump attendant and, by dawn, just about anyone who comes near them. As they blunder their way through one killing after another the mental faculties of one of the men disintegrates completely. The true nature of his relationship to the original victim becomes apparent and the story grinds to an appropriately bloody climax. 1977: A lonely schoolgirl, bullied and abused by insensitive classmates strikes out and almost kills one of them. They seek revenge and exact it in eerie circumstances with a child's pitiless ineptitude. These are but the first 2 stories from the first 2 issues of David Lapham's Stray Bullets. One of the salient features of this remarkable series is his exploration into the nature of relationships between children and adults. Another is an examination of people unable to control their lives and the bizarre and often ugly circumstances in which they find themselves. The strength of Lapham's is its ability to instantly engage the readers attention, despite a large cast of characters and a story arc stretching over 2 decades. He does this by ensuring each issue can be read individually whilst remaining part of a greater whole; an extraordinary achievement. Each issue is neatly plotted and cleverly executed. His dialogue positively sparkles. Lapham's rigid 8-panel a page grid gives his stories a remorseless, unrelenting quality. His art is quite wonderful — everything he draws is perfectly realised, especially people. Faces are cartooned and lively and hugely expressive combined with richly detailed buildings and backgrounds to give a superb sense of a dirty, down-at-heel blue collar American landscape. All this, and I still haven't mentioned Amy Racecar. Stan Martin STRAY BULLETS [EACH @36 26x17cm PAGES, FULL COLOUR GLOSSY COVER] $5 EACH, 6 ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION $24. EL CAPITÁN, LAPHAM Inc., PO BOX 487, TOMS RIVER, NJ 08754, USA. LE STYLO A STRIP-TEASE Caroline Sury is a drawing machine. You put here down — anywhere — and she draws. Wherever she travels, the pages of her sketchpad fill up with drawings of the people she meets in the scenes she sees. There are many drawings on each page, made both on the hoof and back either at the hotel or hovel where she's staying. Later, when she's returned home to her flat in France or to Le Dernier Cri's fume-shrouded screenprinting studios, she selects from the pile of drawings she has amassed those that she'll incorporate into a book. The book under review here is compiled from her South American trip. The indian and hispanic peoples of Mexico City, Oaxaca, Puerto Angel, San Cristobal de las Casas, Palenke, Lake Atitlan, Antigua and Tikal, and the streets, alleys, churches, bars and buses they inhabit, are transposed via Caroline's drawn images Le Dernier Cri's photo-screen stencils to the thick creamy art paper pages that bulk out this book. To Sury's line drawings are added the colours of Mexico. This book has the gaudiness of Mexican popular artifacts, the saturated colour produced by the tropical sun. Each spread carries a page of brown monochrome scrawled French recounting her trip in deadpan irony, counterpointed graphically by drawings and doodles that derive from each locale. Opposite black line drawings sit on top of layers of bright red, yellow and blue, that bleed off the page like a minor character in a Jim Thompson novel. Sury cartoons space, warping the objects and figures in it from the outside. She's taken three of the most conventional drawing resources — the handy sketchpad, the dip pen, the compulsion to draw till you drop — and applied them to cartooning's metonymic catalysis, everywhere. Steve Edgell LE STYLO DE STRIP-TEASE [48 215x265mm PAGES] 100_ LE DERNIER CRI, 38 RUE FLEGIER, 13001, FRANCE. SOFT #2 The creators of this rather fey little fabrication are obviously enamoured of ancient myth and legend. It opens with an illustrated retelling of the traditional Irish story The Birth of Shannon, and closes with part 1 of a serialisation of the roots of the Cinderella story. In between and roundabout we have some shorter pieces, including 2 by a precocious five year old, which round out this issue nicely. For my own tastes, the text is too insubstantial and the art has too little balancing black in it; it's sort of like Beardsley, a style designed for engraving. There is however, a great delicacy to this magazine which will appeal to many. Add to this some delightful hand colouring on portions of the first story and a sprinkling of foil stars on one page, and we have a publication which while not to my taste, is still a minor joy. David A Simpson SOFT #2 [24 A5 B&W PAGES, COLOUR STOCK CARD COVER, SOME INTERIOR HAND TIPPING] £1. SARAH GUNN, 47 HALDON RD, EXETER, EX4 4DZ. SURREAL SCHOOL STORIES #2 Terry Wiley is a clever able popular boy, often top of his form. He is however prone to daydreaming and was once caught reading an Enid Blyton book in class (an expellable offence). Must try harder at Eng. Lit. Improvement is expected next term. Surreal School Stories is set in the late 70's in an exclusive girls school; exclusive especially if you're unfamiliar with the inhabitants of Sleaze Castle world. The story opens on Jocosta (the central character) being initiated into Tycho School's secret society. She then goes on to skip games, meets the very laid back headmistress and goes through her second kind of initiation — her first punk gig. Trouble is, it's all slightly uninvolving. Things happen like they do in the plot of a short story, (yes folks this is literature) we're told how the characters think, feel, act and react. Surrealism's pretty thin on the ground too, apart from a brief appearance of a pygmy pupil with mahogany feet. Nice bit about the girls who slack off though — they cut classes, pull strokes but they don't get expelled, just sort of drift away, "They're always on their way to somewhere nobody else seems to go. They even seem to stop doing games altogether — it's weird". One of the problems with the piece is Jo. As the central character she's not really fleshed out enough. Another problem is focus — all the plot points are dealt with at the same pitch which doesn't do much for the pace. No obvious emphasis on any one event, so little momentum. Still, you have to admire Terry Wiley's ambition and no doubt Surreal School Stories will appeal to all Sleaze Castle fans out there — those who've been initiated into the strange Wiley world. By the way, the illustrations — of which there are many, get top marks of course. Though it does make one wish this had been a comic.... Carol Swain SURREAL SCHOOL STORIES [24 A4 PAGES, COLOUR STOCK COVER] £1 (+P+P?). TERRY WILEY, GRATUITOUS BUNNY COMICS, 1 WATSON GARDENS, HOWDON, WALLSEND, TYNE & WEAR, NE28 0NA. SUURI KURPITSA (BIG PUMPKIN) innish Annual anthology. A thick skin for cover, flesh spiced with effort, plenty of seeds. The finer level of verbal humour is almost impossible to translate with a dictionary but the area of difficulty opened by an unknown language contains many interesting questions about the use of words in comics. Personal and local identity, edges as boxes of panels — limits which reveal global patterns of concern and humour. Travel — when 'stuck' in space — planetary location — how our minds move beyond, or circle, present circumstances. Limits, style, direction — fractal experience of recognition. Two of the best strips — Intergalactic Rhythm (by the editor P. Kallio with V. Pirinen p.2-5) and Lolitan Meets an Adventure, 'deaf and dumb series' (Max Anderson, p.10-15) use no words. Unique styles and strong narratives and are very funny. Space Station — 'love orders all' (Matti Hagelberg, p.6-9) is worth translating as the words add laconic laughs onto a self-evident story, visually solid, excellent and unusual. Of the wordy strips three are interesting enuf to struggle with the frustration of deciphering. One, a surreal landscape (Ikka U. Pesamaa) where the bricks are seamlessly breaking up as family — tears watering the world— the others all more or less domestic (Mikko Karjalainen & Pippa Toivonen or Adrian Tomine). We're sitting round with nothing to do, we're losing our identity, we're losing our lovers, we're in a finely detailed social nightmare, we're losing our romantic view. Isabel O'Rouke SUURI KURPITSA 1996 [84 PAGES, FULL COLOUR CARD STOCK COVER, SQUAREBOUND] WRITE TO ENQUIRE AS TO PRICE, OR YOU COULD TRY TRADING... SUURI KURPITSA, PL 260, 33101 TAMPERE, FINLAND. SECOND HAND & PREVIOUSLY USED TROUBLE TOWN (1994) CONTRACT WITH TROUBLE TOWN (1995) These 2 comic books contain strips previously published in, presumably liberal American papers. LLoyd Dangle is not a writer to be tolerated by those on the right that he so cuttingly caricatures. Dangle shows us a world where politicians and corporate leaders use the press, and the media in general, to manipulate and deceive to their own ends. The general populace are dim-witted, malleable and apathetic, or extreme right wing bigots, fuelled with righteous indignation. The youth, and the liberal left are too preoccupied with their Sushi take-away orders to be bothered with it all anyway. Dangle focuses on economics, politics, the media, modern life and "ordinary people". The strips are highly topical, and some of the more specific references passed me by. Yet most were applicable and relevant. Dangle is an angry man, but he is also a very aware man. His thoughtfulness and knowledge shines through the work like a beacon. Thus I was not left despairing, despite the bleak picture of America careering towards the millennium, full of hatred, rage and fear. There is an undefinable warmth about Dangle's work. Yes, he hates the behaviour of the people he depicts, but does he hate the people? I don't think so, and this redeems the gloom. It's also very funny, in a painful kind of way. Strongly recommended. Julia Hogan SECOND HAND & PRVIOUSLY USED TROUBLE TOWN [24 17x17cm PAGES, BLACK & EMBOSSED RED INK ON BEUTIFUL RECYCLED THICK PAPER] $5 (+P+P?), A CONTRACT WITH TROUBLE TOWN [24 17x17cm PAGES, SILVER INK ON BLUE CARD COVER] $5 (+P+P?) LLOYD DANGLE, PO BOX ????????, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94146, USA. TOP SHELF #1 How I loathe reviewers who bemoan the task of criticising anthologies. The task in hand is laughably simple. All that is required is to aim your scalpel at a strip that seems broadly representative, and then... twist the knife. The extravagantly named Steven Lewis Ryan is spotlit by the editors themselves. Of all the contributors, he is the only one deemed worthy of an introductory page; a clumsy text which struggles to imply that Steven's work has been censored by the mainstream because it is too 'dangerous' for them to publish. In which case, the question must reasonably be asked; "Why does it resemble nothing so much as a back up story from Giant Size Howard The Duck ?". I shall have to be more careful with my Man Thing comics in future — they may be liable to combust spontaneously. The remainder of the strips tend to exemplify the, "will this do?" genre of anthology contributions, being presumably mainly pieces the authors have failed to be paid for elsewhere. Only the dreamlike discontinuities of Tom Hart's New Hat merits mention, and that only to acknowledge that, as accomplished as it is, if I see one more example of glib foray into the symbolism of the subconscious, I shall be forced to join Spice Girls. Still, the weather's been nice, hasn't it? Lucinda Cowden TOP SHELF [44 22x18cm, 4 COLOUR CARD COVER] $5. PRIMAL GROOVE PRESS, P.O. BOX 15125, PORTLAND, OR 97215-0125, USA. TURN #4 A title favoured by most reviewers it seems, but not so much by me. Its sparse cover hides an explosion of styles and whimsies, but not enough of them hit the mark for my liking. Darryl Cunningham is as cool as ever, and this first hand ghost story (of sorts) certainly sends shivers down yer spine; and Chris Frazer's Harry Magic Duck is neat in a dumb furry kinda way, if only for the marvellous line, "I'll smash you with my hooves." (you had to be there I spose). Aside from that, there's plenty of cool art, but not much in the way of satisfying plotlines, and on too many occasions you feel that you've walked these paths before. Strangely it's the text based stories that offer most. Reubs' child molestoid near miss is too darn creepy, and Chris Butler's tale of a speech recording robot with a spell check gone mad is often hilarious. But the overall effect is like the last step that isn't there and stops you with a start, or that imagined last sandwich that dematerialises when you look at the plate. The promised goodies don't quite deliver, and what wonders there are don't quite carry the clout to bolster up the rest. Roy Delaney TURN #4 [36 A4 PAGES, 2 COLOUR PHOTOCOPY COVER] £1. R. WILLMOT, 19 MELBOUNE RD, IPSWICH, SUFFOLK, IP4 5PP.