Radio interviews with Accent UK and Sloth Comics creators

Panel Borders: Small Press Publishers

Starting a month of shows in a new time slot, Panel Borders is looking at small press and self published comics, including the titles produced by two British independent publishing companies in interviews recorded at the London Super Comics Convention.

Alex Fitch talks to Nicolas Rossert, Loran and Charles Cutting about Sloth Comics, a new publisher devoted to both British and European graphic novels, including reissues of classic titles. Loran discusses his book Booyah!, about a playful green monster with anger management issues; Cutting talks about his steampunk adventure Steam Hammer, and Rossert describes his approach to choosing graphic novel formats and the process of getting the rights to republish Moebius and Alejandro Jodorowski's classic Madwoman of the Sacred Heart.

 

Also, publisher Colin Mathieson discusses his company Accent UK which has built up a commendable body of work over the last dozen years concentrating on anthology books which have showcased the work of some of the country's finest small press creators. Artist Conor Boyle joins the conversation to talk about Accent's latest graphic novel Who on Earth was Thaddeus Mist? and the importance of design to the company's range of books.

• 8.30am, Monday 8th April, repeated 3pm, Thursday 11th April, Resonance 104.4 FM / streamed at www.resonancefm.com / extended podcast after first broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

 

In Review: WesterNoir Book Two

After the Old West of the first book, writer Dave West and artist Gary Crutchley take us to America's Deep South where demon hunter Josiah Black is battling a new supernatural enemy in Accent UK's WesterNoir Book Two - The Crocodile Tears Of The Louisiana Swamp Men.

Former Sheriff Josiah Black is sent to the Louisiana swamps to discover the truth about a family of supposed alligator-men and to deal with them. However, once there, he discovers that the family have female prisoners and rescuing them is about to make his job all the more difficult.

It would be easy to have made this is straightforward story of a hired killer rescuing damsels from demons but it is to writer Dave West's credit that he twists the story about as we jump back and forth in the narrative learning more about Josiah Black, the creatures and their various women-folk as we do. Black muses on past deeds as he works to rescue the trapped women and this section, where the text boxes are not directly about the action in the panels yet both sections of the story are steadily progressed, is one of the reasons that helps WesterNoir stand out from the crowd.

Another reason is Gary Crutchley's artwork which keeps the whole thing in touch with reality, or as far it is possible to when the creatures featured are not mutants nor were-gators but actually the off-spring of a mating that we probably don't want to dwell too much on. His moody greytones emphasise the claustrophobic nature of the swamp environment and he is not afraid to move to starker black and white to emphasise aspects of the locale or specific story points.

Anyone considering writing or drawing their own comic title could do a lot worse than buying, reading and analysing just how this book is written and drawn, as well as how the package as a whole is presented to its reader, because they are bound to find something in here that would improve their own work.

I enjoyed the first book in this series but, if anything, WesterNoir Book Two is better and leaves me very eager to read the third book when it is released.

• There are more details of WesterNoir Book Two on the Accent UK website.

• There are more details of Dave West's work on his blog, Strange Times.

• There are more details of Gary Crutchley's work on his blog, Driblin' On.

• Accent UK will be selling their range of books including WesterNoir at the Dundee Comics Expo on Saturday 30 March 2013 at the University of Dundee.

Accent's "Fastest Man" one shot goes on sale

Accent UK's latest one shot, Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man?, which has picked up glowing reviews from all who read review copies, is now available in all those UK comic stores which ordered it.

Co-written and created by Dave West and Marleen Lowe, the book is the first of Accent's Blessed/Cursed imprint, and deals with the duality of any special ability... there will always be a downside. Over on comicsvillage.net, Glenn Carter described it as "a very early contender for the strongest indie comic of 2009." while Jim Schwitzer (www.talesfromtheparentsbasement.com) described the story itself as "outstanding," but the art "is just as impressive.

"Although the comic is black and white, there is a distinct difference when Lowe draws the people frozen in time and when they are active." (More reviews here on the Accent web site)

It's difficult for stores to judge new comic books and, in the current economic climate, these unknown books often lose out to the major company crossover events that litter the Diamond catalogue. Indeed, the chances are then that if you can't find a copy in your local it's because they either ordered too few, or none at all. So, if you want to read a copy then it's down to you to help them out a little by asking them to order you a copy, which they can do through Diamond as usual.

Stores outside of the UK should be getting their copies in the coming week.

In another piece of good news for one of Britain's enthusiastic indie comic publishers, who are based in Cheshire, Brazil's Gal Editora are currently in discussions with Accent UK to publish a Portuguese version of the book for Brazilian stores - but that isn't expected to be released until September 2010.

• View sample pages of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man? on the Accent UK web site

Accent UK Releases "Fastest Man" One Shot

A quick round up of news from top British indie Accent UK, whose latest Western anthology has now shipped and is in comic stores across the globe (Diamond Previews Order reference JUN090671 for those of you wanting to order from your local comic shop).

There other great anthologies -- Robots (MAR083379/OCT091814) and Wolfmen (SEP073278/OCT091815), featuring art from a huge range of ace British creators -- have also been re-listed in the UK section of October's Previews and are available for re-order for those who may have missed them first time round.

Available now from Accent is a new self-contained one shot, Whatever Happened to the World's Fastest Man?, which also appears in appearing in November’s Previews. Advance copies of the title from writer Dave West and artist Marleen Lowe received rave reviews and was Accent's fastest seller at the recent British International Comic Show in Birmingham.

In the tale - the first of the publisher's Cursed/Blessed imprint - a very large bomb is about to destroy a large area of London and Bobby Doyle has a decision to make. He has a fantastic ability which could save thousands of lives - but at what price to himself? Join Bobby as he faces the biggest decision of all in this acclaimed SciFi drama. You can view sample pages here

Accent UK’s next show will be London’s MCM Expo on 24 and 25th October 2009 when they will, with many other independent comic creator and publishers, be appearing in the MCM Comics Village.

• For all the latest info visit: www.accentukcomics.com

In Review: Strange Times

Reviewed by David Hailwood

The Plot:

A group of misfits are thrust together by forces beyond their control, and charged with the task of averting the destruction of mankind.

The Review:

Strange Times collects the popular web comics of Dave West, of Accent UK fame, and is almost worth buying for the cast list alone; there’s an ex-boxer who can communicate with inanimate objects, a prophetic rock that’s guiding mankind’s future, a young goth girl acting as a medium for two dead clones, a Dirk Gently style detective who notices every minute detail about the world around him but still fails to notice women, a brilliant scientist with a time machine in his head, a nerdy scientist with a suit that helps him run really fast and stop really slowly, and a robot from another planet who’s on a quest to get his stolen I-pod fixed.

Strange Times is about these characters, and more. As well as building up to the larger picture (an end to human evolution brought about by genetic manipulation, which the aforementioned characters might help avert) Dave West also takes a moment to dwell on the ‘little guys’ in the story, such as an unfortunate double glazing salesman attempting to sell his wares in a town where the windows never seem to break, and even a frog falling from the sky as part of a biblical plague gets to show his take on the situation.

The sense of humour throughout is very gentle, and the story deep and intelligent. Fortunately it is an intelligence that comes without a hint of pretentiousness. Due to Strange Times web comic roots, it’s broken up into short, manageable chapters, so there’s never an information overload.

If you need a comparison to the ‘big boys’ of the publishing world, Strange Times is the sort of offering you’d expect from Top Shelf or Slave Labour. It’s as professionally produced, skilfully plotted and definitely the best thing to come out of Accent UK’s stables so far. It deserves to be on everyone’s bookshelves, and in stores everywhere. For the time being however, it’s only available from the Accent UK website and at conventions, so be sure to seek it out at BICS if you have a tenner to spare.

Strange Times is 170 pages, black and white, with a hardback colour cover. It also contains a gallery featuring art from the likes of Garen Ewing, Shane Oakley and Andy Bloor.

Web link: http://www.accentukcomics.com/buy.html

Tube Surfing: 5 June 2009

• Busy racing between secret locations in an effort to find an internet connection that worked, we missed out on wishing Garen Ewing, creator of The Rainbow Orchid, a happy birthday yesterday (4th June) but there's still time to enter his competition to win a signed and sketched cover proof of the upcoming collection from Egmont UK! The deadline is midnight GMT on Sunday 7 June. See this post on his official web site for details.

• Talking of competitions, Garen reports Sarah McIntyre decided to celebrate his "40th of June" birthday celebrations (along with the likes of Jason Cobley, Gosh! Comics, Forbidden Planet, Paul Harrison-Davies and many others by holding her own competition - you have to draw a suitably extravagant moustache on this terrific portrait of Garen she's drawn. See Sarah's blog for details - and again, the deadline is Sunday evening (7 June).

• Matthew Badham has a brilliant interview with artist John Higgins on the Forbidden Planet International blog, talking about his new book, Razorjack, and how his comics career. "There was a certain element of lucky accident when it came to my art, particularly with colour," he reveals. "I was spending ages and ages on my painted art, probably a week on each page. But what I was doing in those days was learning on the job. You’re experimenting and you’re trying new things and if it goes wrong, then you have to start all over again. Or you discover something that’s completely and utterly wonderful by accident that you wouldn’t have been able to think through." Read the full interview

• Warren Ellis talks about "the dubious virtues of ebooks" in his latest column for wired.co.uk, which you can read online for free on the new magazine's web site. It's titled "The Kindle is a mewling, crippled, pining thing" so you can guess the gist. Warren argues that right now, British book publishers have less to fear from ebook publishing (the Kindle doesn't even work in the UK, apparently): their worry is that "the threat to reading comes only from our education system – and the fact that most children are born to 15-year-old foetal-alcohol-syndrome cases." (Episode 57 of Freak Angels is live now, by the way, just as an aside...)

• Lee Robson reports there's a great review of Accent UK's Robots over at Newsarama where it's compared very favourably to the Popgun anthologies from Image Comics. Read the full review here.

• And finally... Rob Jackson reports that with the arrival an awesome page for the Pasty Anthology from Jim Medway, his long-awaited collection is almost finished, and hopefully he'll be sending it off to the printers next week. It sounds like a fun assembly of creative talent!

In Review: Western

Reviewed by David Hailwood

Well, what can I say? The contributors to Accent UK’s latest anthology must’ve played some very bizarre games of Cowboys and Indians when they were children. In fact, I’m willing to bet their games had almost no Indians in them at all. More likely they’d have had zombies, werewolves, Cthulu-esque aliens, demons, mad professors, mutated donkeys, and elves (yes, you heard me…elves!)

Not that the cross-genre approach many of the contributors have taken is a bad thing of course. For starters, it means that even if you absolutely hate westerns, there’s still plenty for you here. From Dwight L. MacPherson (of the brilliant Edgar Allan Poo series published by Image) and Kirk Manley (who also provides a glorious wrap around cover for the anthology) there’s a hellish tale about a cursed man who deserted from Custer’s army, only to discover there’s no escaping retribution from Custer’s 7th Cavalry in the afterlife.

Kate Brown’s Coyote and The Giant looks at first a little out of place in a Western anthology, but fortunately comes with a brief explanation that it’s based on a Native American folk tale, which made me a little more accepting of all the pesky elves and giants, and the distinct lack of six-shooters. The fact that it’s brilliantly written and illustrated also helped (and who wouldn’t want to see elves eating their way out of a giants stomach, eh?).

Indio treats us to A Fistful Of Corpse Meat; a story that’s madder than a bag full o’ hamsters that have been permanently deprived of cheese. This particular offering, as you may have cunningly deduced, is one of the strips that has zombies in it. Not only that, but it’s also got a twenty-two fingered banjo player, an evil maggot eaten villain called Black Frank The Hat, and a brainless knife-wielding demonic saviour named Johnny Slash. Insane story, insane art, and definitely one of my favourites. It’s welcoming news that Accent UK are harnessing Indio’s artistic talent for their upcoming Stephenson’s Robot bi-monthly series, which will certainly be one to watch out for.

"But wait one moment!" I hear you cry, "What if I love westerns, but hate zombies, elves and all of the above?’’ Well, there’s plenty in this anthology for the hardcore Western fanatic as well; tales of love, vengeance, betrayal and honour, which incorporate authentic wild west phrases such as ‘Hands up, you varmint!’, ‘Saddle Up!’ and ‘Damn you and the horse you rode in on!’

For instance, Leah Moore, John Reppion and Dave Hitchcock team up once again to tell the emotional tale of Mrs Henry, a woman who’s cheated on by her husband, and decides to settle the matter in a traditional western fashion – with a gun (none of that messy ‘divorce’ business. Things were so much simpler in those days). The story’s nicely juxtaposed against a marvellously grizzled looking musician belting out ‘oh bury me not on the lone prairie’ on the piano.
Steve Bissette’s Tenderfoot displays a terrific piece of scripting, with excellent character descriptions such as "he looked like the hind quarters of bad luck" and "if his brains had been dynamite there warn’t ever enough to blow his nose".

The Men Who Built The West by Kieron Gillen and Andy Bloor rounds off the anthology perfectly (and also this review) by treating us to the best punchline the Wild West’s ever witnessed, and probably had all 54 of the anthologies other contributors muttering "Damn! Why the heck didn’t I think of that?"

Anyway, to sum up: Western is another solidly put together package from Dave West and Colin Mathieson. Out of the 37 strips contained in the anthology, most are good, none are bad and very few are ugly.

• Western is black and white with a colour cover, costs £7.99, has 190 pages, and is available from www.accentukcomics.com. Or you can pick up a copy from their stall for a "convention special price" of just £7 at the upcoming Bristol Comics Convention.

Well, what are ya waitin’ for, pardner? G’wan! Git!

Tube Surfing: 6 April 2009

• We're sorry to report US comics artist Frank Springer died at his home in Damariscotta, Maine on Thursday aged 79. His credits include work for Marvel, including issues of Thundercats and Transformers - reprinted by Marvel UK - and Man from Atlantis. He also worked for DC Comics and on the newspaper strips Terry and the Pirates and Rex Morgan, M.D. Newsday.com reports Springer was a gregarious and practical man who laboured for hours a day in his backyard studio, said his son, Jon Springer of Brooklyn. "He'd be out there basically all day long, morning until dinnertime."
Lambiek notes his most lasting fame was for drawing The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist, written by Michael O'Donoghue and published in Evergreen Review in 1965-66. Sexy cartoon albums were not new in Europe, but 'Phoebe Zeit-Geist' was a sensation in the United States.
"Very few people could surpass him as an artist, as a gentleman, and as a true gentleman in my field," said Stan Goldberg, who draws the Archie comics. "When you see a Frank Springer job, you know it's going to be the best job in the world."

• Accent UK's 192-page 2009 anthology Western is available now, price just £7.99. It features a plethora of new and established talent, including Kieron Gillen, John Reppion & Leah Moore, Andy Bloor, Dwight MacPherson, Kirk Manley and Steve Bissette, and A Fistful Of Steam Valves written by Lee Robson, with art by Bryan Coyle. "The story is a Steam Punk Spaghetti Western," says Lee, "so it became paramount to create some stand out characters that would be both recognisable and completely unique. Fortunately, we had the amazing Billy Armstrong on hand to help us out with that..."

• Simon Furman has written a Transformers story for IDW’s post-All Hail Megatron series Coda. "And a lot of fun I had with it too," he says. Without giving too much away (after all, it’s only 11-pages!), it revolves around the longstanding relationship/friendship between battle-scarred veteran soldier Ironhide and Autobot leader Optimus Prime." The first issue of All Hail Megatron: Coda goes on sale in July. For more details check out the IDW website here.

• The UK edition of Wired is on sale in all good newsagents now and includes a column by Warren Ellis. "I’m somewhere in the back, where they keep the mad people, apparently.." he notes. "Please buy one, and prove that the UK can support a magazine about the future.

• New episodes of the goregous sort of steampunk strip with fantasy thrown in, Mirabilis, which began running in the already-missed The DFC, are now appearing online: Episodes 11 and 12 on the main Mirabilis site. "This brings us up to 'Standing on the Shoulders of Giants' which introduces Inspector Primo Simeon and his loyal, long-suffering sidekick, Officer Caitou," says Dave Morris.
"Ideally we're going to have episodes 1 to 13 all available to read online before too long, though that's something we will need to agree with David Fickling and Random House. (Is it a good idea effectively to give away half of your graphic novel for reading online? Some current thinking would say it is.")

• Talking of Dave Morris, remember we plugged a recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine and a brilliant article by Andrew Pixley, illustrated by Brian Williamson, revealing how a Dalek TV series came close to being made in the 1960s? Dave revealed recently that he actually did try (here's hubris) to get a Dalek TV movie going with the Sci-Fi Channel. "This was before Russell T Davies's reimagining of Doctor Who, so not quite as long a shot as it sounds - the Daleks hadn't been on air for years," he reveals. "But Nation's agent explained that the BBC, although not actually having the rights, could stick their oar in to any production involving Daleks. Well, I've had some dealings with the BBC and I knew enough to drop the idea right there..."

Tube Surfing: Saturday 28th March 2009

• British comics creator Sean Michael Wilson, whose recent credits include writer for Classicial Comics upcoming Canterville Ghost (out in November) and Sweeney Todd (out next year) adaptations, has become, we believe, perhaps the first British creator to have a comic on Japanese mobile phones (comic strip on mobile is known as Keitai manga in Japan).
"A Japanese language version of my Lafcadio Hearns Japanese Ghost Stories book is now out in Japan, in two formats," Sean, who lives in Japan, told downthetubes. "As an e-book and an edition for mobile phones. Both formats are big business in Japan." More on this story on our dedicated Mobile Comics blog

• Eddie Campbell has posted a snippet of an interview with Alan Moore from back in 2000 in which he talks about his take on what happened to Big Numbers, whose never-published third issue surfaced on e-bay in January, albeit only as photocopies (see news story). Alan seems to clearly have wanted to try again with the project with issue 1, but also recognizes the impracticalities of that. "I don't see any way that I can resurrect it as a comic strip," he told Blather.net. "I mean, what do I do? Do I actually sort of say "Yeah, we've got a great new artist, are we going to start from #1 again but this time, no, buy it, because this time we really will get to issue #12." I mean, I wouldn't buy that if I heard it from somebody who'd kind of failed twice to do what he said he was going to do." Eddie also thinks he's uncovered art from #4, featured in this post on his blog.

• Talking of Alan Moore, Pádraig Ó Méalóid has transcribed and kindly sent us a draft copy of his wide-ranging interview with the comic creator, scheduled to feature on the Forbidden Planet International blog soon. It's a doozy, with plenty on the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen including plans for the next tale to centre on a group of superheroes, projects such as The Bumper Book of Magic, his novel, Jerusalem and confirms that a new Bojeffries Saga, which is being right now by Steve Parkhouse, is in the works and will be released as part of a collection of al the Bojeffries strips!

• DFC contributor Sarah McIntyre has offered a bit of 'Vern and Lettuce' back story on her LiveJournal, and tells us an Oxford Literature Festival panel on Saturday 4 April about the project is still going ahead. It should a chance to ask questions of David Fickling and several creators (Robin and Lorenzo Etherington, Sarah and John Aggs) what happens next... All participating children will receive a free copy of The DFC. More info here

• (via Kasterberous): How do you know if you’re in a parallel world? This week’s issue of Doctor Who Adventures, out now, is a parallel worlds special. Discover what happened when a sinister fortune teller made Donna rewrite history in last year’s episode Turn Left. You can also find out about all the weird alternate realities in Doctor Who – and learn how to see if you have strayed into one by accident. The issue comes with a free set of badges and a model time watch as worn by companion Donna.

• With Accent UK's 2009 graphic anthology Western now available (buy a copy now), Lee Robson has decided to indulge in some some shameless self-promotion for the the strip A Fistful Of Steam Valves (by him and Bryan Coyle) which features in the very pages of that book and featured a couple of the story's steampunk designs on his blog.

• And finally... London-based publisher NoBrow has released its first book, Gods and Monsters, and is running an exhibition in May of some of the art. More info here. The diverse contributors were hand picked for their unique styles and all were invited to generate work based on the theme. Some are up and coming, others are plucked from unexpected places, but as you'll see if you follow some of the liks below, all are talented: Dave Taylor, Alex Spiro, Sam Arthur, Jordan Crane, Emiliano Ponzi, A. Richard Allen, Jens Harder, Reuben Rude, Benjamin Guedel, Eda Akaltun, Matthieu Bessudo, Caspar Williamson, Toby Leigh, Alex Bland, Ben Newman, Nick White, Stuart Kolakovic, Sarah King, Leah Hayes, Paul Blow, Bjorn Rune Lie, Brett Ryder , Carl Johanson and Blexbolex.

(Compiled with thanks to Matthew Badham, Sarah McIntyre and Pádraig Ó Méalóid)

In Review: Robots

Review by David Hailwood

If you haven’t already picked up a copy of British independent publisher Accent Press’s 2008 anthology Robots, then you’ll get another chance this weekend at the Birmingham International Comic Show.

A 200 page beast of a collection, with over 50 creators from around the UK, the anthology clearly highlights Dave West and Colin Mathieson’s continued dedication to showcasing the work of both professional creators and new talent.

Although many of the strips revolve around common themes, such as slavery, eternal life, matters of the soul and the nature of existence, each story is handled in a vastly different manner. Some, like Daniel Merlin Goodbrey’s Robot Heart (about a man with a heart that can transform into a robot jetfighter, with unforeseen side effects), play it strictly for laughs, whereas others like Paul Harrison-Davies' MY Robot (also viewable as a ROK Comic) take a more emotional route.

Benjamin Dickson looks to philosophy for inspiration, and presents an interesting dilemma when a man is confronted over breakfast by a talking toaster that believes itself to be God.

What is Life? by Kieren Brown and Kevin Mullins tells a well written and beautifully illustrated story about a society of robots attempting to decide whether a five year old human poses too big a threat to their society to be allowed to live.

Regular contributors Leah Moore and John Reppion stick to familiar Hammer Horror territory with The Cabinet of Doctor Diablo, a well crafted tale about an 18th century automaton master criminal.

Dave West proves he’s as talented a cartoonist as he is an editor with a number of amusing offerings (my favourite being Over Engineered – a one pager about a scientist who creates an intricate robot so he can use it to microwave his dinner).

There are, of course, many more gems to be found inside the issue - far too many to list here (but we have in our trail for the book earlier this year). Fortunately there are very few duds; perhaps two or three strips that could have done with a little more clarity in the story telling. With 40 strips on offer inside, that’s not a bad average.

One section of the comic that could quite easily be overlooked is the gallery at the back, containing a vast range of robotic characters that ooze personality and beg to have stories written about them. Particular highlights are Mo Ali’s grizzly hanging robo-corpse, Andy Bloor’s highly amusing Metal Detectives, and James Gray’s Crash Test Dummy revolt.

Accent UK’s Westerns anthology is nearing completion, and you’d be well advised to look out for that one next year. In the meantime, why not give Robots a try? The variety of strips means there’s pretty much something inside for everyone (unless you’re Robophobic, in which case this probably isn’t the one for you).

• Robots is available for £8.50, and can be ordered from the Accent website at www.accentukcomics.com

In Review: The Wolfmen

Review by David Hailwood

Another fine offering from Accent UK, publishers of Robots, The Wolfmen successfully merges the crime and horror genre.

This time, we get a stand alone comic written by Dave West and drawn by Andy Bloor set in South East London, in the 1960s. It's the tale of Jack Grey's chance at making something of himself, of becoming one of the most notorious gangs of the time .... of becoming one of The Wolfmen.

The script by Dave West is incredibly well paced, and keeps the story moving along at break-neck speed; there’s never a point where I felt bogged down in unnecessary detail. Andy Bloor’s dark and gritty film noir art style complements the material perfectly – he even manages to make a splash page of a goldfish look exciting, which is quite a trick to pull off.

The only negative comments I’d level at the artwork is that some of the characters look alike, making it difficult at times to work out who’s who. Also, the character proportions (especially on one of the henchmen) are occasionally a little off. Minor details in a real page-turner of a comic.

• The Wolfmen is a 60 page black and white comic, priced at £3.00 and available from Accent UK. A second instalment, Fall of the Wolfmen, will be on its way soon.