Tis the season of new comics (October Expo season that is), and this year the IndieManga table will be the home of this delicious-looking new edition of ‘Between Worlds’ by Anna Fitzpatrick, alongside IndieManga’s new anthology ‘Legends’, which also features more work by Anna.
Between Worlds first debuted last year as a full-colour limited-edition run. This new volume is a black and white version of the atmospheric hand-painted comic, friendlier to the more price-conscious among us at £4.
However, if you can afford the £15 price tag, I still recommend asking Anna if she has any copies of the limited edition left for sale, as the artwork really sings in full colour (as you can probably tell by the cover image above).
‘Talking to Strangers’ is a new anthology from Sweatdrop Studios, which is debuting at the upcoming October London MCM Expo. Its a black and white book that boasts a page count of 228 at a standard price of £7 (but will have a special price of £6 over the Expo weekend). More information, plus page samples, can be found on the thread over on their forums.
This comic is a collection of short stories written by Fehed Said (who also wrote The Clarence Principle) and illustrated by a variety of up-and-coming UK manga talent. The book features work by
Nana Li, recently the artist for SelfMadeHero’s Manga Shakespeare version of ‘Twelfth Night’
Chloe Citrine, creator of the popular webcomic ‘Rainbow Carousel’ (of which print volume 1 has now also been released)
Faye Yong, who most recently worked on the Manga Shakespeare version of ‘The Merchant of Venice’
Wing Yun Man, who works as an artist for Eyeko Makeup, and has recently been drawing their webcomic
But don’t worry if you can’t make it to Expo! Sweatdrop assure us that will we be available from their online shop soon after the event. This promises to be a world-class release, so do keep an eye out for it if you’re going to the show ^_^
Debuting at the upcoming October MCM Expo in London, ‘Legends’ is the latest anthology book from UK manga circle IndieManga. It will be a black and white book of 130 pages with a price of £6.00. It will feature work from
Kate Holden, who should be familiar to Comic Mole readers as the multi-talented creator of the webcomic Fan Dan Go, as well as writing our recent literary article on Hamlet from Manga Shakespeare
Rebecca McCarthy, a writer who’s shorts ‘The King’s Silver’ and ‘Rake’ appeared in IndieManga’s first anthology ‘Origins’
Anna Fitzpatrick, who’s hauntingly beautiful comic ‘Between Worlds‘ will also be seeing a new release at the October Expo.
IndieManga’s new member! Sarah Burgess, who also writes the fantastic webcomic ‘Far Out Mantic’
So all in all a pretty exciting new anthology title from some proven independent talent! More information plus preview pages can be found on IndieManga’s website. The comic should also be available to order online from the website shortly after the event, for all those (like me) who can’t make it to the show this year ^_^
Hot on the heels of her announcement in our recent interview, Emma Vieceli has unveiled the first five pages of her new series ‘Dragon Heir: Reborn’ as a webcomic. Its free to read so go check it out! Her blog post about it provides some more info, and would-be commenters are directed there too. Happy reading!
Remember way back when I wrote a column about Kate Holden’s webcomic, FanDanGo? Well after a hiatus the comic is back! Its being entirely rebooted from scratch as Fan Dan Go (note the spaces), making use of Kate’s signature super colourful 70s stylings right from the start.
Regular updates are scheduled for Wednesdays and Sundays, and there have even been mutterings about a black-and-white print version in the future, for you types who prefer to read comics on actual sheets of paper ^_~
Kate has stated that she is leaving the old version of the comic up online for posterity, so its interesting to go back and see how all this began – but more importantly, here’s to more Fan Dan Go in the future!
“We’re all animals underneath” states the back cover of issue 1 of ‘Urban Beasts’, and within this comic, people very much are. The comic is available to buy in print from ITCH Publishing’s online shop now.
We are introduced to Caipora, a Brazilian shaman who has the ability to use totems (magical charms that she wears on her person) to see the animal aspects of the people around her: moths fluttering around a club at night, cats primping in a coffee shop, or pigeons in the crowd. She is called to action when a clash over animal rights threatens to cause trouble in her adopted home town of Oxford.
This 23-page issue is an introduction to the world of the series and its main character, Caipora, as well as an interesting secondary character who may well require her help. Its an atmospheric start which has a firm grounding in the reality of modern-day Oxford, with a patina of fantasy laid over the top in the form of the way Caipora sees the world.
The highlight of the writing so far is the little touches of humour in the details, like an emo moth who sometimes burns himself, or the cats stating that if the people intruding into their territory don’t leave they’ll have to ignore them quite devastatingly. Its not all fluffy humour though; the pages covering the reasons behind the animal rights clash make me wonder whether the series will have political overtones, or whether that aspect will become a backdrop to a more character-driven story in the end.
With such a range of animal-based characters to portray, artist Karen Rubins has certainly taken on a challenge with this series. The artwork overall is proficient and it shows that Karen is not afraid to tackle many different subjects (such as action poses or scenes with large crowds). In particular, she has given the animal characters a unique look which is very memorable. However, the human characters need to be drawn more consistenly and figure proportions need tightening up for a more professional feel to the artwork.
A big plus point with the art is the Oxford backdrops – I used to live in Oxford and immediately recognised a lot of buildings seen in the comic, which shows they have been well referenced.
Overall I very much enjoyed this offering. Its a promising introductory chapter and I eagerly await the rest of the series.
Debuting at the May MCM London Expo this year is a new print volume of the free webcomic Aya.Takeo by Lloyd Prentice with art by Sonia Leong. The volume collects the first year of the webcomic and, quite uniquely for a small press book, is presented in full colour. It will be available to buy online from Sweatdrop Studios’ online shop shortly after the event, so it should still be easy to get hold of if you’re not planning to attend ^_^
Mole side note: as you can probably tell from the scarcity of posts lately I haven’t had an awful lot of time for writing comic reviews in the last month, but I’m hoping to be able to get back on track with more solid updates soon so please bear with me.
Rachel Saunders, the artist who drew First Law, has a new home on the web for her comics at Ciao Gatto, her online portfolio. At the moment there are some intriguing hints as to what she has planned for 2009, but unfortunately very few preview images or links to webcomics. One comic you can link to from Ciao Gatto though is her 2007-08 Tokyopop Rising Stars of Manga entry ‘Parasites’ which got through to the final of the competition that year.
As you can see from this page, the art is top-notch and its well worth checking out if you enjoyed First Law. Also of note on Ciao Gatto is Rachel’s gallery, where you can see some examples of her standalone work.
One last thing to note: if you are planning on attending the upcoming May MCM London Expo, look out for a new print comic from Rachel called ‘A Night with a Wolf’.
Far-Out-Mantic is a unique full-colour webcomic by Sarah Burgess. It can be read on her SmackJeeves account and at the time of writing this post it has pages numbering into the mid-60s and continues to be regularly updated.
Recently, Sarah has also self-published a printed ‘Book 1′ of the comic which will debut at this weekend’s London Web and Mini Comics Thing (28-29th March 2009), so look out for it if you’re going to be there! She doesn’t have an online shop but if you would like a copy to be posted to you (with payment probably via cheque), you can contact her on her email address which is on her profile page at SmackJeeves.
(As with Sammy Borras’ comic ‘Late’, which I covered in my last post, do go and support Sarah via the comment system on SmackJeeves if you like her work. You don’t have to be a member of the website to comment so there’s none of that annoying account-setup business to deal with.)
So onto the subject at hand! The comic begins with Penelope, a somewhat scatterbrained young woman who is not so lucky in love, but has an utter adoration for a certain hip hop band: Far-Out-Mantic. After she is jilted by the rascal Billy, she bumps into a mysterious book-reading stranger, who later turns up again in her life at the space-wear-only 24-hour disco called Meteor Flo, where the band Far-Out-Mantic are playing to a packed house.
The comic can get pretty fantastical at times but the overall pacing fits into the ‘slice-of-life’ genre quite well. We follow Penelope for the first two chapters, but switch our focus in chapter three to different characters. Rather than being told about events with narration or overly verbose pages, we are taken along for the ride and shown what is going on, as if we were standing nearby peeking in.
The setting of Far-Out-Mantic is a wonderful slightly off-kilter version of the real world, one where 24-hour space themed discos exist, but above this its the characters that really bring this piece to life. Penelope herself is a girl-next-door with a shot of determination and a heart full of dreams. Book-man is a mysterious stranger with a quiff and some good advice. Characters you meet later include some air hostess lookalikes, some evil musicians and an utterly charming man who sports a green afro with yellow stars in it.
These off-the-wall designs might sound a bit throwaway to some, however each character has his or her own unique personality and these are well-realised through their individual facial expressions and body language. A loose and sketchy style drawing style, coupled with delicate washes of watercolour, complements this expressiveness. Each chapter of Far-Out-Mantic has a different predominant colour which has been chosen to fit the mood (trivia: the creator says in her comments that this was inspired by Chloe Citrine’s webcomic ‘Rainbow Carousel‘, which also changes colours with each chapter).
A reason for the creator’s emphasis on expression and flow over tightly inked figures and ruler-straight panel boundaries can be found in her comments printed in ‘ The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga’ Vol. 3 (in which she has an 6-page short entitled ‘Purikura’). Sarah states that when she draws, she wants to ‘…back away from the obsession with symmetry, accuracy of bodies and form…’ that she prefers ‘…to give a natural life, movement and expression to my characters…I always try to make my comics flow rather than look stiff, wishing to put my heart and tears into every stroke’
So, whereas a lot of comic artists begin by focusing on perfecting drawing human bodies and environments very realistically, Sarah has chosen to explore how to bring her characters and their feelings immediately to her audience via the flow of their emotions. The strengths of an approach like this are that none of Sarah’s art becomes wooden or overdrawn; everything flows very well. Sometimes characters and backgrounds even verge on the abstract, as although characters’ bodies may not always be proportionally correct, the artist may use this to her advantage to improve the pacing of a page (for an example of what I mean, take a look at the singer on the right hand side of page 29).
Fortunately the comic does not break down into complete abstraction and is easy to read throughout. Although pages may look quickly drawn, the panel layouts throughout the comic are well considered: little explanation is required for readers to know what is going on other than simply by following the flow of images.
For these reasons I can imagine how some readers will fall in love with this comic’s art. However, others may find that the drawing style is not accurate or considered enough for them to enjoy it completely. Personally I feel that some of the art could benefit from a little more accuracy, however too much tightening would ruin the delicate hand-drawn feel of the comic. For example, the vertical lines in the backgrounds sometimes trail off diagonally, but rather than stamp ruled lines all over it, if the artist could just keep in mind that all of these lines should normally be parallel to the edge of the paper, it shouldn’t affect the flow of the piece but would help the solidity of the backgrounds.
Art style aside, probably the most interesting thing about Far-Out-Mantic is the wide range of influences that have inspired Sarah to draw it: music, fashion from the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and of course the retro futuristic sci-fi trend which also spanned those decades. She talks about her influences in the comments that she writes on some of the pages, making them an interesting read. Perhaps the overarching inspiration for the comic though is the album ExpoExpo by the Japanese hip hop band M Flo, so I will leave you with one of the links Sarah posted in her comments, to a YouTube video of the song ‘Prism’, which captures a lot of the fun space-pop feel of the comic – enjoy!
‘Late’ is a new short webcomic by Sammy Borras. It tells the tale of a girl who accidentally gets locked in a coffee shop after hours and encounters some rather strange new customers. It’s only a few pages in so far, but already its becoming a great example of how unique and wonderful webcomics can be.
The comic can be found at ‘Instant Comics’, a new SmackJeeves account that Sammy has set up to host this and other future mini comics. More of Sammy’s work, including more short comics, can be found on her website, mangazebra.co.uk.
There are many things that already set this short story apart from all of the more derivative webcomics out there and make it worth taking a look at. Firstly (if it hasn’t crossed your mind already) the subject matter of coffee shops with a smattering of aliens is a pretty unique one. The great thing is that the way the comic is written so far is very grounded, making it easy for the reader to get into the story and wonder what it might be like if these events really happened.
Secondly, the panel pacing works well, with several different layouts being used to good effect. When the reader needs to take a breather the panels become wider and backgrounds become more plain, but when we need to see where the characters are, Sammy does not shy away from producing some detailed backgrounds featuring lots of notoriously tricky-to-draw figures and furniture.
The art style of ‘Late’ shows a mix of influences with some manga showing in the page layouts and maybe a little Jamie Hewlett coming through in the character designs and colours. A third factor that sets it apart from a lot of other webcomics is that, rather than being derivative, the creator has turned these influences to her advantage. For example, manga tropes such as chibis (more cartoony versions of characters) are used to emphasise emotion, but the overall art style does not come across as directly manga-inspired.
The only slight problems the comic has are perhaps needing a little tightening up in the perspective of the backgrounds, and making sure that the character designs remain consistent in every pose and emotion – in some panels the main character can look a little different to others. Even so, thus far in the comic there have been no problems working out what’s going on or telling the characters apart from each other.
Therefore if you’ve got a moment to spare, check out ‘Late’ on Instant Comics – a budding new webcomic with a lot of promise! (SmackJeeves also has a comment system that you don’t have to be a member to use, so do comment if you like the comic – this is purely a selfish act by me as this Mole wants to see more!)
If you like ‘Late’ and would like to see more of Sammy’s comics and standalone work you can visit her website mangazebra.co.uk. Under the ‘Manga and Comics’ Section, if you scroll down past the standalone illustrations there are 5 or 6 short comics available to view, plus preview images of other comics that are available to buy in print. Here’s a page from one of the webcomic shorts on the site called ‘Lunch Break’ from 2008:
If you prefer to read comics on paper, Sammy is also part of a comic circle called Inspired Comics, who can be found at various comic-y events around the UK selling printed work. Their first anthology is called ‘A Slice of Life’ and should still be available to pick up at events as of the time of writing this column – look out for this cover:
There is also a 7-page short comic called ‘Money Money’, drawn by Sammy and written by Laura McNulty, available to read in Leek and Sushi’s Manga Show.
