A quick reminder that the
MKomix Comic Fair organised by comic
creator
Paul
Rainey takes place this Thursday (19th July) in the
Milton
Keynes Art Gallery.
Full details of the event, which reads like a Who's Who of some top British indie comics creators, can be found
www.MKomix.blogspot.com and include the
following:
• Avery Hill
Publishing is a new small press company run by
Ricky Miller who currently have two
quarterly titles:
Reads, a comics anthology and
Tiny
Dancing, an arts and humour magazine. They also publish the world’s
foremost and indeed only collection of extremely close-up photographs of
Masterchef. Plans for lots more of this sort of thing are in the
offing.
Reads featureswork from some exciting new UK
comics talent and includes time-travelling beagles, ghosts, domestic
violence, cloud-riding and London cabbies.
The word 'eclectic'
was invented for
Tiny Dancing - in the latest issue you can find
Tom Selleck and David Bowie expounding on their favourite birds of prey,
Roy Orbison wrapped in clingfilm and brilliant art from the likes of
Soju Tanaka and
Lawrence Williams.
• Sean Azzopardi is a
cartoonist and publisher. He has produced numerous mini comics and books
for his Phatcomics imprint, acclaimed titles such as
Ed and
Twelve Hour Shift. Away from self published works he has worked
on
Necessary Monsters and a back up strip for indy smash
Phonogram. Sean has also contributed to a variety of anthologies
and has illustrated for magazines, most recent examples can be seen in
the current
Electric Sheep anthology and
Paper Science.
• William Axtell produces a comic called
Demon Gate and
the first three issues of which will be available at the event. To see
more of his work, please visit his Facebook Art Page
here.
• David Baillie writes and
draws comics. His creations appear in places like
2000AD,
Judge Dredd Megazine,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and
Self-Assembly Furniture Monthly. He also works in television a bit -
mostly drawing storyboards and some writing. He's been nominated and
shortlisted for prizes and awards but doesn't like to talk about that.
(Mainly due to not winning any of them).
He's also been a stand-up
comedian for about six months but he will not tell you any jokes.
If
you buy anything from him at MKomix he'll draw you something on some
paper that will probably be worth millions of pounds if he ever gets
famous and then dies. And if that's not a bargain, I don't know what
is.
• Emily
Brady is a mixed media
artist, cartoonist, illustrator and art tutor living in a world of her
own imagining. She lives on cake and curry and spends her days drawing
away and humming a merry tune.
• Richy K. Chandler is a London
based comic creator and illustrator. His most recent venture is the
weekly webcomic about an unpopular teenage girl who happens to be an
octopus,
Lucy the Octopus . Last year he
launched
Rosieand
Jacinda, a teenage romantic comedy with a hint of fairytale,
created with
Zarina
Liew.
Other work includes
Delicate Axiom and the Tempo Lush Mini-Comics range. He’s
contributed to Accent UK’s
Robot anthology, Factor Fiction’s
Girly Comic and currently writes for
Titan / Aardman’s
Wallace & Gromit newspaper comic strip.
Richy will be selling copies of
Lucy the
Octopus,
Bear Shaped Mini-Comics Box Set,
Cosmically Enlightened Gift Set and the teenage romantic comedy
with a hint of fairytale,
Rosie and Jacinda.
• Andrew
Cheverton is the writer of the long-running
West series,
illustrated by Tim Keable and approaching the finale of its second
volume.
West is the tale of both Jerusalem West and the land
which spawned him, and is told in a deliberately non-chronological
order. His newest project is
The Whale House, illustrated by
Chris Doherty, which follows Diggory Wallis, recently bereaved and
orphaned, on his journey of discovery in the mysterious country house of
the title. Andrew also wrote and illustrated the one-off comic
Pictures Made of Light, and is a regular artist on Rol Hirst's
PJANG and
Too Much Sex & Violence.
• Peet Clack
consistently produces some of the funniest and most beautifully drawn
comics available. He is responsible for such masterpieces as
Crazy Pants,
Trouser Madness and
Handy (and
Hoofy) Home Hints With Afro-Horse.
• Steve Collier is one of the team behind Japan Comic Aid, which aims to regularly publish
comics, manga and graphic novels around the world to raise money for
those in Japan who are in need of rebuilding their life by teaming up,
reducing costs and using ALL profits for the
Japan Society Tohuku Earthquake Appeal fund.
• Laura Watton-Davies (aka
Pinkapplejam) has been making her own comics since the mid 90s and is
influenced by cartoons, zombies, Japanese fashion plus everything cute.
She will be bringing art prints and one-shots to MKomix.
• Decadence
Comics is an independent comics collective formed by
Lando and Stathis Tsemberlidis in 2003. Since their inception they have self published eight issues of the distinctive
Decadence anthology, as well as a clutch striking single issue comics.
The Decadence aesthetic is a heady blend of science fiction, Ballardian near future musings and psychedelic altered states. Their work recalls the best of early European sci-fi comics, whilst maintaining a strong identity of their own. Decadence, by virtue of their approach, influences and interests, are a highly unique entity on the UK underground comics circuit. Their comics map the outer reaches of sci-fi, tracing out the contours of some strange cosmic zone that only a handful of intrepid travelers have dared stray into.
• Jay Eales and Selina Lock are the publishers of the fabulous
Violent! and
Girly Comic titles, as well as being heaving involved in the wonderful Caption conference for independent British comic creators.
• Rol Hirst has been
writing small press comics for 20 years. He was a prominent
member of the early 90s scene with his long-running comic
The
Jock (in collaboration with a number of artists, mostly the amazing
Nigel Lowrey). Other books he released back then included
Slick 'n' His Conscience (with Adrian Bamforth),
My Legendary
Girlfriend and
Escape Committee (both with Dave Metcalfe). He
returned to the scene in the 21st Century with his anthology book
PJANG (People Just Ain't No Good), working with a number of his
former collaborators, plus other giants of the small press world,
including Andrew Cheverton, Kelvin Green, Tony McGee, Chris Askham, Ryan
Taylor and Paul Rainey.
He's currently producing
Too
Much Sex & Violence, a new ongoing comic set in the bizarre,
corrupt, depraved and freak-infested northern seaside town of Fathomsby.
It's drawn by everybody above, plus some other talented fools Rol has
been able to blackmail.
• John Maybury - comic artist and occasional editor, John is the creator of the brilliant adults-only
Space Babe 113, an
absurdist, surreal, adult SF comedy. He came up with this in an
attempt to explore sexy, abstract characters as a story telling vehicle
- and make naughty jokes.
Space Babe 113 features
artificially intelligent talking knickers, aliens and big hair. The
artwork is stylish and minimalist and her latest comic,
Costumes,
Comics and Conventions will début at MKomix.
• Rob
Jackson has been creating some of the best self-published comics
of the last few years including
Gin Palace,
Goblin Hall
and
Flying Leaf Creature. Rob will be selling a selection of his
work including his recent
It's A Man's Life In The Ice Cream
Business, the compelling story of his ice cream business.
• Ralph Kidson - one of the funniest creators
in comics, creator of
Captain Dolphin,
Sad Animal and
Hootiebits.
• Dan Lester is the creator of titles such as
Monkeys Might Puke! and The Dan Lester Mysteries in which small press creator Dan becomes embroiled in murder and mayhem! Features art by Oliver Lambden.
• Amy Letts is the creator of the long-running and very popular web comic Epic Fail, inspired by Dungeons and Dragons.
• Ash Pure descreibes himself as "a powerful magician, a traveller between realities (an Altered Statesman) and a creator of
worlds." He also makes a very good cup of tea (not too strong, not too weak – just right) and is a founding member of
JWH Creative partners, providing the pretty pictures.
• Paul Rainey, organiser of the
Fair is a Milton Keynes based cartoonist responsible for
Memory
Man,
Love Bomb, internet diary strip
Book of Lists,
the 318 paged
There's No Time Like The Present (soon to be
collected as a graphic novel by Escape Books) and
Thunder Brother:
Soap Division (currently appearing every Sunday
here).He'll be selling the
Book
of Lists collection and premièring the very first issue of his
latest project,
Thunder Brother: Soap Division.
• Suzanna
Raymond - Milton Keynes based
creator: a fine artist who will be
displaying her work as well as the comics of some of her friends.
• Karen Rubins
was the Comics Artist in Residence at the V&A between July and
December 2009 and is an award-winning creator of comics and manga. Her
small-press work includes the surreal road-trip series
DARK,
shamanic comedy adventure
Urban Beasts, and medieval witchcraft
drama
Blood Magic. She writes, draws, reads, collects, buys,
recommends and teaches comics. You can follow her on twitter @kazmantra
and visit her website
here.
Karen will be exhibiting and selling
Blood Magic Limited
Edition Prints with free comic, or Sticker Packs with a free comic,
Urban Beasts parts 1 and 2 and
Leek and Sushi UK Manga Anthology.
She will
also be doing personalised sketches - Urban Beasts Portraits (with you
depicted as your inner animal self) or anything else you want drawn to
order!
• Jade Sarson
is one of the event's local creators who will be exhibiting and selling
her comics at the event. Jade kindly designed the excellent leaflet for
the event and you can see lots of
samples of her striking work at her website
here.
• Jon Scrivens is the creator of the time travel web comic
When's Graham,
Little Terrors and
Broken Gears.
• Aisza Sowa - Milton Keynes based comic creator who will be
exhibiting both his own work, including
Insanity Warriors 1 and
Meaw, and the work of other members of the
MK Manga Club.
• Rob Wells has been writing
and drawing comics since the early 1990s. He is the creator of the
comics
Crisp Biscuit,
Crisp,
The Devil's Daughter,
Colin Comix, and
Crisp Biscuit Comics. He drew the
Bear
Man & Twinkle mini-comic that came with #6 of Martin Eden's
Spandex, contributed art to the first three issues of Rol Hirst's
Too Much Sex & Violence (and will also be drawing a couple of
pages for #5), and is currently drawing a comic called
Department of
the Peculiar, also written by Hirst, the first issue of which should
be out very soon. He has also drawn a six page strip called
Body
Pop, written by Paul Rainey, which
should be appearing in the
next issue of Strip Magazine. His work can be found online at
www.crispbiscuit.co.uk and
www.crispbiscuit.blogspot.
com.
"I'm very pleased with the range of comic creators appearing, a
full list of which can be found in this particular post
I would
be very grateful if you could remind your readers of the MKomix Comic
Fair and that it is free to enter sometime this week. It is an
opportunity for people to experience a broad range of modern British
comics as well as the extraordinary Pushwangner exhibition.
In November 2006, after an impetuous, ill-thought out bid on eBay, comic creator Paul Rainey won the first 1188 programmes of 2000AD... and so began a marathon read that became a long-running decision to rad and review them every issue of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, that became the 
If you have ever read 2000AD when you were younger or have an interest in the blog, then you can read all entries so far. Decide for yourself whether Paul has been wasting his huge creative talents on this blog when he could have been drawing ore There's No Time Like the Present - or if his reviews provide what we think here are a fantastic document on the development and continued life of 2000AD. 
Part 12 of Paul Rainey's comic, or serialised ‘graphic novel’, There’s No Time Like The Present is now available priced £2.50.
Ace British comic creator 
