In this research point, the aim was to take a look at existing self-published comics, graphic novels, artist books or fanzines. The suggested link as a starting point to the V&A collection was dead, so onward to the internet..
Introduction
Many years ago way back in the 1990’s, I had the great fortune to happen across Evolutionary comics, run by Stephen Prestwood based in York. I was looking around for a small press comic as an outlet for my first foray into comics and although it wasn`t the horror thing I was looking around for, it struck me that it was quite a bit more polished and slick than some of the other offerings of the time. I dropped Stephen a line and he kindly gave me a slot in one of the future issues with a bit of a hard baked twist on Red Riding Hood, quite a departure really from their usual theme of Sci-Fi in a very solid Marvel style.
As I was working full time I struggled to find the time to actually make any kind of regular contribution and wondered how Stephen managed it : the guy was a machine, he could turn out fully illustrated stories in no time and was consistently inventing new yarns and characters, as well as making contributions to other nice small press productions such as Bulldog Adventure Magazine (BAM!). Stephen worked with another talented contributor, Jason Falkiner who was also a great writer. After a few issues I was hooked and began buying this series on a regular basis, even taking a few of the characters from the various universes and doing a few spot illustrations for back covers in the odd issue.
These were a couple of miscreants from one such universe, the Pandemonium Klowns from the Trilithon series. Always great fun to draw!
Here’s the cover to a tale written by Jason Falkiner, which I never got round to sending in the end as it took me forever to finish it, so it’s sat languishing on various hard drives since it was created a long time ago. This was intended to be included in a digital small press production, but it’s so long ago I can’t actually recall the name unfortunately.
Sadly, Stephen passed away in 2016, a huge loss to the world of small press / self published comics. I would have loved at this stage in my life to have gotten back in touch with him to take up where I left off with Evolutionary comics all that time ago in the mid 90’s, unfortunately all I’ll have are the back issues of Dark zone to remind me, the first Evolutionary comics publication where it started for me. This is a fitting tribute for Stephen by Owen Watts.
Self Publishing
From what I can remember of the 90’s regarding small press and self published comics, there was a thriving scene and independent comic shops were the order of the day back then, they had a more DIY ethic overall I believe and a much nicer feel somehow than today’s chain offerings such as Travelling man or Forbidden Planet. Crash records in Leeds used to carry a few zines and small press offerings which were a nice addition on a Friday afternoon after finishing work half day, going to the pub then browsing the latest punk and metal imports in the basement.
It all seemed so much more fitting to be picking up publications at that DIY level in an independent music shop. Today’s comic shops have become a clinical affair in my opinion, adopting a jack of all trades master of none philosophy, relying only on the knowledge and enthusiasm of staff to help you make informed choices if you happen to be more of a casual consumer of graphic novels and comics these days. One exception to this in Leeds are OK Comics, still a great indie shop and very knowledgeable.
I’m still drawn to the small press / zine sections first when I visit any comic shop, and it’s nice to see the hand assembled offerings still doing the rounds with their coloured stock covers and cheap copied interiors. The level of sophistication these days however is so good even for independent offerings, you can produce small runs of a very high quality on a decent printer at home and make it stand out in the crowd.
Hope for the Future was a great small press endeavour created by Simon Perrins and Andrew Livesey. It’s long defunct now, but it was a really intriguing and quite addictive read, and the production quality was a cut above for it`s time. I used to work with Simon a long time ago and he was always very nerdy about his comics, in the nicest possible way and he was very attuned to popular culture and wove this into his yarns when creating each issue. Another former fellow colleague and talented illustrator, Jon Lycett Smith guested in one issue and illustrated a superb chapter in his own inimitable style.
A search of ten UK small press comics you need to own came up with a selection of great examples, the production levels are superb in these offerings.
Blood Blokes by Leeds based artist Adam Cadwell was a great small press production, and a nice take on an everyday (or night) setting for Vampires, I really enjoyed this series and wanted more! The art style has more than a hint of the Hernandez brothers style in the stunning series Love & Rockets, which Is never going to be a bad comparison.
After a day out in York, I finished up in Travelling Man : I know, hypocritical of me, as I’d much rather support a local independent than a chain any day, but it was there so I thought I’d have a look in. I went straight to the small press section, which I have to say was woefully out of date : I did pick up some examples, but they weren’t current, which was a bit disheartening.. but then I did wonder if this was just a symptom of the store not being over concerned with supporting this scene as much as an independent might.
Anyway, I hoovered up a few of their offerings regardless and came away with a couple of gems!
This was a bizarre barrage on the senses, visually jarring style and quite off the wall Junji Ito-esque stories bound together in a skin related thread. Although woefully out of date, still a good offering here. The art inside reminded me a lot of renowned Punk artist Mad Marc Rude. There was one particularly standout story in here set in the middle ages which was great. This was in an A4 oversized format, so printed A3 and centre stapled, rather nice quality.
Fists of the Pessimist, surprisingly well produced! Art was quite naïve and not one of my favourites, but especially where small press is concerned, It’s all about getting stuff out there and using the format as a vehicle regardless of style and ability so this wins there. The story is whimsical and a little rambling, but good fun.
This was a typically cheaply produced Fanzine, with a pulpy cover and a bit of an odd stapling arrangement. Quite a lot of content and once I started reading through this, I could tell it was a deeply personal catharsis for the author, a snapshot journey of memories from childhood memories, adolescence, lost friendships, the sad loss of the author’s father, observations from workdays etc. There were spot snippets of text accompanied with bleached photographs of memories, interspersed with simple short comic strips and a few thought provoking descriptions of everyday activities. A bit of a small gem really, which left me feeling contemplative for a while.
I only had a cursory glance through this one, but from what I saw it looked extremely well produced and polished, very much looking forward to this one!
Another title here I haven`t yet gotten around to reading through, but the quality is pretty decent, a colour cover and monochrome interior, the comic strips inside are in the vein of Viz or one of the DC Thomson publications.
Yet another title I managed to pickup and not yet read. This looked like it could be a fun one, and it’s more Indie than small press, there are too many contributors really to consider this small press and the production quality is very high which means It’s likely to have been published by a small company : or at least the printing has. I have no political leanings whatsoever, as I’m a firm believer that all parties are pretty useless : they’re only ever corporate spokespeople as their paymasters are the ones who buy manifestos and get the policy changes that benefit them : and we all know who they are. I bought this regardless as it looked like it could be a bit of fun and there’re lots of different art styles in there, so quite looking forward to this.
Conclusion
I really like small press as an outlet for artists and writers, and I really need to find a more current outlet for the more up to date examples. I find it quite sad in a way that there aren’t as many independent comic outlets and shops as there ought to be, for a country that has such a healthy comics scene we just don’t have the shops for it. Compare this with America. Many European countries sell large varieties of comics even at street kiosks.
I know there are lots of independent small businesses online dealing with comics and graphic novels, but it just doesn’t work for me. Comics and graphic novels are one of those types of consumables which are tactile and need to be perused to get a decent experience, and that includes the satisfaction of buying them and owning them.
One of the (perhaps oddly) nicest things Is buying an old comic or book and smelling it’s age through the musty pages. I get this experience every time I take out one of my back issues of Tales of the Zombie, and I’m transported back to my mis-spent childhood just for a while.
Small press and DIY Fanzines can be about anything and they can appeal to everyone and anyone, regardless of artistic and literary abilities : the whole point is, you can do it and get it out there to an audience in a lo-fi fashion and this quite often ends up being part of the final products whole appeal. The act of doing something is better than doing nothing.
Or as Canadian Punk band, D.O.A. might say, talk – action = 0.
OCA Illustration 2: Responding to a brief 