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UNDER THE BED
Patrick Brown's drawings are scratchier than chickenpox. His pens have caught Parkinson's Disease, conjuring up solid figures which simultaneously shimmer like a primitive animated cartoon.
Story-wise, Under the Bed starts off with date talk of shared TV memories, proceeds to a rather sweet sex scene, before departing reality and diving into a whimsical fantasy/comedy ...which unfortunately is where I lost interest.
As soon as creatures emerge from under the bed to whisk a disbelieving couple off for a retread of the plot to Time Bandits, Brown's pencils become less and less substantial and Under the Bed becomes mere fluff.
The result has all the consistency of candyfloss but, in the early stages at least it melts in the mouth with a pleasurable buzz.
Teddy Jamieson
UNDER THE BED [36 A5 PAGES] 50p PATRICK BROWN, 30 WYNARD PARK, BELFAST, BT5 6NS.


THE UNPRONOUNCEABLE WORLD OF MADAM ZUNG
This comic follows the progression of a tennis ball in a twenty five page lesson in cause and effect. It reminded me of the film The Plank. In fact the whole book was more like a story-board proposal for a film than a comic book. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it did keep my attention and the sewn up, back to the start, ending I had been expecting from about _ way through was most satisfyingly delivered.
The art is basic and sometimes I couldn't make out what was happening, but generally it performed well. I did feel I was looking at something done in the wrong media — this is crying out to be made into a short film or animation because the comic lacked words, but had a general sense of movement and story-telling which would be more successful in those media.
Alex Mason
THE UNPRONOUNCEABLE WORLD OF MADAM ZUNG [56 A4 PAGES, ONLY PRINTED ON ONE SIDE, SIDE STAPLED] EXCHANGE FOR "COLOUR CLIMAX #150 9 (WITH BEVERLY HILLS) — THE ORIGIONAL VERSION OF COURSE. OR £1,000,000 OR BLUE CLIMAX #45." PERSONALLY, I DON'T THINK YOU SHOULD ENGOUAGE HIM... @ £2·50 SHOULD BE O.K. SERGIO PERCIBALLI, 3 EASTFIELD GROVE, PETERBOROUGH, CAMBS, PE1 4BB.


VINCENT
MINDS EYE COMIX PRESENTS: #4

Sitting there on the cover sagging slightly, in an endearing kind of a way, a little like he's not quite fully stuffed, with stitches that would put Frankenstein to shame and wearing what looks like a page-boy's cap, is a Panda. This is Vincent.
Robin Bougie is so enamoured with Vincent he's created a fantasy life for his recently aquired friend. In the 'film star/alternative rock singer/general all round superstar section' there may perhaps be a little wish fulfilment, but for the most part Vincent does what stuffed toys do best — he sits there; waiting for fate and Robin to whisk him away form thrift store tedium to the dizzying heights of staring in his own small press comic.
It's a long wait for Vincent. In the meantime he engages in some misanthropic chunterings with his pal, a Humpty Dumpty named Benedict. It's this small talk that enlivens proceedings making the whole thing an entertaining read.
Robin's art is a little uncomfortable, fidgeting between big eyed cartooning usually reserved for funny animal strips and more naturalistic illustration. This is particularly evident in his self portrait with bog-eyed features and a hairstyle reminiscent of an asylum inmate making him look quite deranged. He seems to have a grip on his senses though — creating a comic with a pleasant dollop of charm without any sickly aftertaste.
When you've finished the comic, the letter's page is quite entertaining, although Robin and some of his correspondents do seem to try too hard to sound like wackey weirdos.
mooncat
VINCENT -— MINDS EYE PRESENTS: #4 [20 14x11cm PAGES] $1 (+P+P?) ROBIN BOUGIE, BOX 1653, CHEMAINUS, BC, V0R 1K0, CANADA.


A VIRTUAL CIRCLE #2
Disgruntled computer programmer uncovers dodgy goings on, finds he's being tailed by shadowy men who are out to kill him. The newspaper says he's already dead.
Maybe if creator Patrick Brown's art had a little more conviction about it the reader grabbing potential would've been greater. As it is the art looks rushed, with panels guillotined off page edges and characters indistinguishable from one another; there's an overall feeling of greyness.
To be fair a complex thriller plot, intercutting times and places with virtual reality and computer programming, is difficult enough for even the most proficient artist or writer to render successfully.
In a way it looks like Patrick got cold feet when he realised the task he'd set himself. Imagine dreaming of Big Numbers but finding out you can only count up to five.
On the plus side, the dialogue is convincing and Virtual Circle could develop into an interesting story — the central character finding he's been wiped off all computer records, he's become a non-person; a virtual corpse. Now there's potential in those ideas.
It remains to be seen if Patrick's able to bring Virtual Circle to life.
Carol Swain
A VIRTUAL CIRCLE #2 [28 A5 PAGES] 50P PATRICK BROWN, 30 WYNARD PARK, BELFAST, BT5 6NS.


WAIKIKI LUAU #3
Waikiki Luau is an anthology comic with a vaguely surfish theme. This is the third, seven years in the making issue. The stories involve many totems of alternative culture: Aliens, Elvis, Vietnam, surfer dudes, beatniks and for all you 'foodies' a satay sauce.
In a way this can be a bit of a burden because these themes are often used as some kind of short cut to cool, with not enough thought going into fresh ideas. Having said this I did thoroughly enjoy this comic but I had to accept I was not going to see inventive or experimental humour.
My favourite story is Ride Your Horse, Cowboy in Git Dancing — a ridiculous story with many snappy one-liners and a talking horse. Another gem is the one page beatniks strip. The artwork is varied in quality but always works in the context of the strips.
All in all Waikiki Luau gets a thumbs up. It's a good laugh, I'd buy it.
Alex Mason
WAIKIKI LUAU #3 [36 A4 PAGES, 2 COLOUR COVER] £2·20 SIMON MACKIE, 4 HILL COURT, LOWER STREET, HASLEMERE, SURREY, GU27 2BD.


WITCH #2
Lorna Miller's excellent artwork, and her quirky brand of comics story-telling has won over this reader. She has a fascinating approach to combining ideas that don't seem to belong together. The first story, Jane, is a surreal mutation of Red Riding Hood. It transplants Tarzan's mate into a 'Commando' comic setting, where she marches with a British 'Tommy' soldier who wounds himself in the foot when he tries to shoot the Wolf (rendered with eyelashes and lipstick in panel 2). Jane herself looks more like Wilma Flintstone, bones in her hair and kitsch leopard skin outfit — a refugee from an Exotica LP sleeve. They flee to a house in the snow, a lovely drawing straight from an old-fashioned Christmas card, where the Granny turns out to be 'Mad Doctor Florrie', and the story takes a Hammer Horror turn when she recounts a ghastly amputation and bandages the soldier's foot in a flowery bandage. The poor lad having thus suffered a double symbolic castration, then finds himself further emasculated when he ends up in a woman's nightie, re-enacting the ending of Red Riding Hood as the wolf suddenly returns, now wearing about 2 pounds of black mascara, and explicitly threatening to "bite his knob off!". There's more sexual semiology here than in Angela Carter, and it's a lot wittier too.
Take a Trip Around the World (a true life story of Lorna's?), is an existential little gem; focusing on the boyfriend alone in the flat after a lover's tiff, it shows him hypnotised by the TV set, falling asleep, and farting; then struggling with a mysterious inner turmoil as he tries unsuccessfully to fix a lightbulb. He winds up stranded like a prisoner on a desert island, sitting forlorn on the table with his nose streaming. His plight of depression and inertia arouses our compassion. Equally fascinating is the image of Elvis as a 'Fertility God' — ie: the Cerne Giant, (a figure not unknown to me!) with a Gibson f-hole guitar replacing his knout, an obvious reference to cock-rock macho posturing. But the facing page to this shifts us back to children's playtime territory, with a cut-out 'Dress the Doll' sequined suit and platforms — completely undercutting the macho text by changing Elvis into a harmless plaything.
If the Bra fits also works on at least 2 levels. The girl tries on a new bra while her partner waits outside the dressing room. There's some witty observations of the behaviour of males in this situation — the guy is acutely embarrassed and tries not to look at the suddenly sexy-looking girls around him, while a passing middle-age customer demonstrates his own sexual dysfunctionality — he fails to buy a bra for his wife as he doesn't know her size. Meanwhile, the girl in the dressing room is veering from neurotic fussing over the shape of her breasts, to attempting mock-seductive poses. In the end, both characters are defeated by the excessive price of the bra. The story raises questions about how we deal with our sexuality, balancing the fantasies of seduction and glossy 'Wonderbra' images, with the practicalities of price and bra sizes. All that in just 2 pages!
The best page for my money is Sweet Dreams Kitty Sweet Dreams. A visual poem in five panels, with extra impact resulting from it being printed black on orange. A mad Louis Wain style cat haunts a moonlit sleeper, the folds in whose silk nightdress are visually linked to the ectoplasmic bile that spews from the cat's mouth. The way she holds the dead cat at the end reeks of a Black Magic rite. Perhaps this figure is the Witch of the title? Perhaps, indeed, all the women in the stories are Witches. The men portrayed have all had spells cast over them; they're dealing with some sort of obstacle or disability — be it a damaged foot, existential dread, or (like Elvis) reduced to a mere plaything like a voodoo doll. If so, this comic carries a strong feminist empowerment-of-women message, showing ways of eliminating or minimising the 'threat' of masculinity, through imagination. "There are not very many Women Cartoonists..." ponders an oblivious male geek on the opening page. "Maybe women just don't have a sense of humour", is his inept conclusion. Well folks, Lorna Miller has the humour, and a lot more besides — a deft skill for exiting combinations of ideas, a striking drawing style and a real hard edge to her stories.
Ed Pinsent
WITCH #2 [24 A4 PAGES] NO COVER PRICE — SEND @ £2. LORNA MILLER, 64 QUEEN STREET (3RD FLOOR), GLASGOW.


WU WEI #1&2
The first ten pages, constituting the third chapter of a 400 page story entitled Testament, consist of lots of mood shots, moving very slowly through 3 events. No clue as to what it's all about is discernable so I'll pass on to the next story, noting only that this doesn't appear to be a good jumping-on point for Testament.
...no ghosts collages handwriting, typescript, pencilling and photos, telling of a discovery of a secret side the storyteller never knew his father had. This is well done — the use of found objects forces onto the reader the flavour of that discovery, drawing you into scraps of someone else's life that are pregnant with undiscoverable meaning.
Finally Tatters puts sketches together with responses to a question, a la Duplex Planet.
I wish I could raise some enthusiasm for this comic. Creator Oscar Stern is clearly a skilled and versatile artist — his methods on each of these three sections are strikingly different and equally assured — but I feel as though I've read an excellent minicomic padded out with a dozen pages of filler. I think I'm probably being unjust. Or maybe this really is not the place to start reading this title.
Mike Kidson
WU WEI [EACH 36 26x17cm PAGES, FULL COLOUR GLOSSY COVER] $2·50 (+ P+P?) EACH. OSCAR STERN, P.O.B. 1267, FDR STATION, NEW YORK, NY10022-1267, USA.

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