Young blokes with pens and word processors, learning their craft. At a guess I'd conclude that the pages drawn with thick lines are by Andrew Livesey and the ones with thin lines are by Simon Perrins. This isn't a sophisticated distinction but it makes things easier for me while I try to work up something a little more informative.
Each issue contains a mixture of short stories and one-page ideas. On the evidence here, Perrins is the stronger storyteller. Most consistent are a series of situation comedy shorts with regular characters, Daz and Dave, nucleus of a group of mundane young men, and Spinal Tap-like parody in stories about a prog rock quartet, Valinor. The humour is based in character and accuracy of observation. Perrins's panel breakdowns and scripting far outweigh the strength of his variably finished drawing and rendering.
Andrew Livesey is the more fluent illustrator. Livesey's contributions are the obverse of Perrins's, containing all the graphic definition and pictorial certainty that Perrins's lack, but with a much flimsier grasp of character and narrative - and spelling. In issue 3 it seems at times as though Livesey's work is attempting to channel the styles of one or two comic artists who surfaced in Deadline in the late 1980s and early 90s. By issue 4 it's moved on to a distinctive reworking of slightly earlier clear-line styles, which probably has a lot more longevity.
The appeal of these comics is not just in the quality of their execution but also in the potential their contents indicate. The small press is a place where a couple of people can experiment at being creators . That's what's happening here. It's one of the many things the small press is for.
Steve Edgell