Feature: Short Run 2011

For all its arts credibility and resident cartoonists, it seems nothing short of amazing that Seattle, of all cities, has had no small-press festivals.  The city boasts Fantagraphics as a local publisher, which has served to galvanise a strong comics scene, with some energetic and vocal work emerging from the underground.  What’s notable about many of these works is that they appear at the crossroads between comics and zines. ...

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Review: Nobrow 6

Nobrow 6 – various writers and artists Nobrow Press, $24, ISBN: 978-1-907704-19-2 Never has there been a publisher with such a unified sense of aesthetics as Britain’s Nobrow Press.  Occupying a strange hinterland somewhere between screenprinting, the Sunday funny papers and sketchbook scribbles, their sensibility has sparked a home-grown comics scene, as well as attracting like-minded international artists. Nobrow 6 is the latest installment...

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Review: The Manara Library Vol. 1 by Milo Manara and Hugo Pratt

The Manara Library Vol. 1 – Hugo Pratt (w) Milo Manara (w/a) Dark Horse, $59.99, 978-1-59582-782-1 It’s one of the great ironies of the 20th Century that the best and most-enduring visions of the American West have come from Europeans — the films of Sergio Leone (and the music of Morricone), Django, Moebius’ Blueberry, to name but a few.  To that pantheon, we can safely add Milo Manara.  Although more famed for his erotic works,...

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Review: The Unexpected #1

Cover by Rafael Grampa The Unexpected #1 – various writers, artists and editors DC Vertigo, $7.99 No sooner had the monthly anthology been declared dead than it began to make a resurgence.  The recent relaunch of Dark Horse Presents — back in print form, and thankfully without the MySpace backing — and DC’s Strange Adventures showed that not only was there a market for these comics, but also top-level talent who were willing to...

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Interview: Jonathan Case

Jonathan Case came to my attention back in 2009 when I picked up the first chapter of his Sea Freak story.  It was an intriguing tale about an atomic monster who was obsessed with Shakespeare and spoke in iambic pentameter, in between devouring amorous teenagers on the beach.  Earlier this month, the full story finally appeared in trade paperback, now titled Dear Creature and backed by a mainstream publisher.  It was an...

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