Good Comic Books | Could you tell us about Hildafolk first? How would you describe it? What inspired it?

Luke Pearson | Hildafolk is basically a short story about a girl on a brief adventure through the fantastical Scandinavian-esque landscape she lives in. I wanted to create a fantasy world that appealed to my adult self and the child in me, taking inspiration from some of the fantasy worlds that have most affected and inspired me, such as those found in the work of Tove Jansson, Studio Ghibli, His Dark Materials and the tales of Scandinavian Folklore.

I really wanted it to be a good read for kids, without being crammed with the kind of cloying, phony values that are shoe-horned into a lot of the awful guff that kids have to read or watch for fear of outraging parents. I wanted to create a world that’s as creepy as it is cosy, but in a way that’s never too far from safety. The stuff that adults always remember about cartoons they watched when they were kids is the stuff that scared them or that was unintentionally creepy. I think kids really like that stuff but it’s watered down and siphoned out of most of what they get. I realise my readership is mainly adult though and I wanted it to be a good read for them too, by being pretty and weird and hopefully telling a good, adventurous story. I don’t feel like I succeeded or touched on all of my aims, but the intention was always for it to be a world that evolved over a series and this was an introduction/practice run.

GCB | Everything We Miss has a darker tone to Hildafolk, what was the catalyst for writing it, could you give us a short synopsis?

Luke | I was wary of following Hildafolk with another Hildafolk or something similar in tone as I knew I wanted to create adult works as well as more family-friendly stuff. I didn’t want to build a readership of people who might not appreciate me going in a darker direction so it was an intentional move to make sure my first two comics somewhat represented the two different paths I want to move down simultaneously.

It’s hard to give a proper synopsis as it’s only partly narrative. It’s essentially a straight forward break-up story but filtered through the darkly surreal and the ridiculous to make something that I hope has a unique atmosphere to it.

GCB | The preview I’ve seen makes me think it’s a very cathartic experience, presenting moments in a relationship I’m sure many people can relate to, is it drawing from personal experience? And if so, is it hard to show that much of yourself on the page?

Luke | I imagine a lot of people will assume this but it’s not really the case. There is obviously a lot of my personality in it. Everything comes from thoughts or feelings I’ve had at some point, so in that sense it’s truthful and I’m definitely hoping people can relate to it, but it’s not actually drawing from any specific experience or point in my life. I actually imagined the characters as being a good few years older than me. Maybe it’s a pessimistic prediction of the future.

GCB | What was your process for writing and drawing it?

It was a lot looser than some stuff I’ve done. I didn’t sit down and write it from start to finish. I worked out generally what I wanted to happen on each page and fleshed them out just enough in thumbnail form to convince myself it would all work naturally. I then drew it page by page and wrote the dialogue/conceived specific details and imagery as I went. Once I actually began to do the final artwork it was a very intense process and it was done from start to finish in a relatively short period of time.

GCB | And where should people be buying it?

You can buy it online from Nobrow HERE, in various comic shops across the UK soon including Nobrow’s shop at 62 Great Eastern St in London or (if this goes online in time) at one of my signings in Brighton July 16th (sorry, my bad – ED), Leeds July 23rd or Newcastle July 30th (details HERE)

GCB | A lot of your work seems to have a focus on nostalgic memories of childhood, would you agree? Where do you think this comes from?

I feel like there came a point not too long ago, when I stopped moving forward, turned around and I’m now going to spend the rest of my life scrutinising my childhood and bringing to fruition all the half-baked ideas I had as a kid and didn’t have the ability to do then. I’m always trying to tap into the way I thought as a child, it was all raw ideas and optimism and innocence and fun (when it came to drawing anyway, I have always been miserable and no fun). I’m also kind of naturally sorrowful and constantly looking back and worrying about how I could have done things differently, so childhood is basically my mind’s first port of call.

GCB | Why do your comics smell better than all the other comics?

This is due to my publisher Nobrow. They use high quality paper stock and offset printing. All their books look and feel great. And smell.

GCB | Why did you get into comics?… How did you get into comics? And how did you become involved with Nobrow?

I really started properly drawing comics in the last year of my illustration course. I’d always like comics to an extent, but I didn’t really discover indie/art/small press comics until going to university and that sparked it off. I hadn’t really done too much when I submitted an illustration to Nobrow’s ‘People I’ve Never Met’ competition and they asked me about doing something for their 17×23 series (which became Hildafolk). I’ve just kept doing them since then.

GCB | What are you working on at the moment?

Right now I’m working on the first book in a series of bande dessinee style Hildafolk books called ‘Hilda and The Midnight Giant’ which will be out in November.

GCB | What would you have us read?

I would recommend checking out all the Nobrow folk, Nick Edwards, Louis Roskosch and Philippa Rice.

GCB | Where can the people find your work?

You can find all my work HERE. If you click on the comics button at the top you can get a fairly comprehensive run down of every comic I’ve drawn and where you can read and/or buy it.

Thanks Luke! Nice one.

Our narrator Mertens comes to Cuba attracted by the romantic image of the revolution, looking to document this vital time in Cuba’s history and hopefully meet Castro himself. He reminisces at the book’s beginning over advice he has received; that a journalist must always be impartial to the events he’s reporting on. All too quickly though, he becomes caught up in the zeitgeist of change and eventually Mertens finds himself an old man in a foreign country, sitting at a kitchen table recounting collected memories and stories directly to the reader. Castro works best when the action regularly cuts between Castro and the effects of his regime on Mertens, his family, and old comrades from the revolution; Kleist creates a well formed and interesting group of characters who we see from the first days of the uprising to their eventual struggle in the new Cuban society.

Kleist’s artwork is expressive yet simple, black pencil scratchings against white pages. Kleist often only draws the most essential details to create a frame and I was amazed by how much could be conveyed with so little detail, whilst on other pages he creates exciting gun fights and battles.

Kleist uses Castro’s tall frame to his advantage and his figure dominates the book, whether its when talking to people in a group or looming large over a page like a communist statue. Kleist uses the frame and speech bubbles in interesting and inventive ways, in one encounter between Castro and then Vice President Richard Nixon there is literally a tear down the middle of the frame dividing them, in other frames Kleist crafts speech bubbles into the shapes of baseball bats evoking the power words can hold or literally wraps the words around Castro’s frame.

There is a surprising and welcome stream of humour running through Castro, I had to double take when I thought I saw Michael Corleone in the corner of a frame (I was right, he was there!) and I couldn’t help but laugh at the UN Ambassadors gossiping behind Castro’s back like teenagers at school. Also, I bet Kleist must have chuckled to himself as he shaded in the Adidas logo on Castro’s track suit in the book’s epilogue.

I really didn’t know that much about Castro past the beard and cigar before reading this book and now I do… which is nice! Kleist guides the reader through Castro’s life without bombarding them with information; his book is full of life and excitement, and really works best when we see the effects of Castro’s actions on the country and society he rules. Kleist’s book is a valuable insight into a significant time in history and one off the 21st century’s most imposing figures. Viva la Cuba!

‘Castro’ is published by Self Made Hero, who are awesome… Find this, and them HERE

Will Pond.

The pictures in this thing are crazy, it’s like falling into someone else’s head and having a look around. There are certain ideas and themes that are recurring throughout the book that seemingly give a picture of the artist’s psyche, including lots of amps, guitars and vampire groupies. The fact the artist is in a band is evident, and he plays around with the desire of rock n’ roll excess regardless of the trappings, to quote Fight Club; “We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.” At first glance, some of the images may seem arbitrary, but look hard and you’ll find an incredibly clear focus of expression.

Even though this isn’t sequential art, the world of the illustrations is consistent. The characters and landscapes recur like being lost inside a twisted Wonderland, like an adult version of Where’s Wally. There’s a lot on the page to find, and an incredible amount you don’t see at first glance. He plays with optical illusion and paints doubt over everything he puts on the page, so you often can’t be completely sure of what you’re seeing. There’s some text in both English and French, which is often explicit, I had my French flatmate translate some of it… which was interesting.

Big Mother #1 is published by Nobrow, and just like everything else they put out, it smells great. It’s an oversized A3 size thing, which was really cool to see. I really feel like when I’m reading the same kind of things over and over I begin to stagnate, and this was some kind of tonic. it’s an absolute treat to dip in to, a real experience. Go get it… HERE

Joe Innes

Good Comic Books | What (or who) was the inspiration for Chloe Noonan?

Marc Ellerby | The character of Chloe Noonan is made up of many girls I have known throughout my life. It seems I’ve known a lot of scowly girls and so a little bit of each has made it into Chloe. I have a friend called Tara Noonan (who has starred in a couple of Ellerbisms in her time - click HERE) so that’s where the name came from, and visually – well she’s not too far removed from the Chloe aesthetic.

The story came together when watching Buffy one night. You know how Buffy usually arrives in the nick of time to save the day, like she’ll run across Sunnydale and then BAM! Starts taking down vamps left right and center. I was okay with that because she has powers and stuff, but in those early seasons, her mates Willow and Xander would always be just behind her. I was like “they’re not even out of breath! They don’t have powers, how’d they get across town in pretty much the same time?” So I thought, wouldn’t it be funny to reverse the roles, have the “bit character” take center stage and strip her of any super ability. And I guess you know the rest…

GCB | What are your plans for her? Will she be the object of your attention for many years to come? Is there any sort of overarching story for the character?

Marc | There’s definitely a bigger story in place, but I haven’t even begun to hint at it yet. My plan is to do a four volume graphic novel series that would act as “the first season” as it were. So we have bits that are individual in their own books but slowly the bigger picture starts to emerge where volumes lead into one another.

I really love making Chloe comics so I don’t see her going away any time soon. I think last year I was in this massive rush to get them out, but now I’m going to take my time, try and find the right publisher (or actually the web is looking more and more likely nowadays) and do it properly. She isn’t going to go anywhere.

GCB | What is your process for writing the comic? Do you head to pretentious book launches on purpose to gather inspiration?

Marc | That bit you’re referring to was actually taken from the second year of my illustration course. I enrolled in a book making class and we pretty much did the complete opposite of “making books”, and someone did actually make a book of smelly plastic pouches, it was a total ‘Art School Confidential’ moment, haha. I was pissed off about it for weeks (read: years). “It’s not even a book!”

My process is a little chaotic, I guess. I haven’t refined it at all, it’s usually scrawled plot points in a notebook with tiny little thumbnails to give myself an idea of where my head is at. Then I try and write the script but it’s usually only dialogue and I try and piece that together with what’s in my head and then go straight into proper thumbnails.

Saying that though, I wrote a few drafts of the first Chloe graphic novel earlier this year like a film script, which I maybe did just to make myself feel like a “proper writer”.

GCB | The stuff about being in a band seems right on the mark, is it based on personal experience?

Marc | Nah, I have no musical talent whatsoever. Pretty much everyone I hung out with at uni was in a band and so I just took stuff that they did as a starting ground. Being in a band seems really boring for the most part.

GCB | Did the Moomins freak you out as a kid as much as they did me?

Marc | No, but I’ll tell you what did. Short Circuit! I can’t even remember what it was that scared me, I think I had bad feelings towards anything robotic or animatronic in the late 80′s early 90′s. What were those two mutant bad guys at the end of the second Turtles film? Jeez, I couldn’t even make it through to the end of the film I was so freaked out. Absolutely terrifying!

GCB | How hard was it to get the comic off the ground? When was it you learned how to be a comics creator and publisher?

Marc | Oh I don’t consider Chloe off the ground yet. I’ve started pitching it around, but it’s a struggle trying to place it at a publisher, one publisher who will remain nameless said it was “too funny” which knocked me back for a good month I think. “Is that bad? Is funny a bad thing? How can funny be bad? People love funny! Shall I make it less funny?” but then I realised it was more to do with the fact that the publisher and the project wasn’t a good match.

Not to get all ranty, but I reckon some UK publishers should be looking at genre pieces as well as the highbrow books they’re chugging out. “Pop” isn’t a dirty word. Not that there’s anything wrong with serious comics or thought provoking narratives, but entertaining comics should have a place in the publishing field, I mean, people like to be entertained, guys. And just because something has humour in it doesn’t mean it’s not as “good”, y’know? I would argue that the writing in 30 Rock is equal to the writing in The Wire, you obviously can’t compare the two shows together but in relation to what they bring to their respected genres, they’re at the top of their game.

(Not that Chloe Noonan is near 30 Rock’s brilliance but you get what I mean, right?… Right?)

I’ve self published Chloe because I felt the story wasn’t ready to be a graphic novel straight away. The idea wasn’t all there yet. The three issues I’ve done so far have been practice runs for me to get to know the character, to try out stuff I hadn’t drawn before (monsters, action, chase scenes) and see what wasn’t working.

I’ll be honest, I don’t want to self publish any more just due to the sheer effort it takes in doing it all yourself and I’m not in a position where I can give up my day job to replace that with full time comic drawing, let along publishing. There’s only so many hours in the day. But, I believe in the character and the story and if I can’t find the right fit, I’m sure the web will play an important part in getting the story out there. But then I have issues with the web too. Gah, it’s so complicated, haha.

GCB | You recently tweeted drawings you had done in your childhood, would you trace your craft back that far? When did you know it was something you wanted to do when you grew up?

Marc | Yeah sure. I knew I wanted to draw for a living when i was a kid, I knew who Jim Davis was, Eastman and Laird, who Matt Groening was y’know? I was like “someone is drawing these comics and making a living off of them so why can’t I?” I haven’t escaped that mind frame I guess, haha.

GCB | Are you working on anything now that we should know about?

Marc | I’m trying to get a collection together of my webcomic Ellerbisms, but I don’t want to rush it or anything. Personally, this year’s not been a great one, so I’m going to take my time with the book and get myself in order before I try and add anything else to an already complicated mess. Health > art, right?

Other than that I drew a comic for the band Art Brut which I guess is coming out soon. I don’t really know much about it other than it’s an anthology and has some awesome people in it (Bry O’Malley and Hope Larson, Jeffrey Brown, Jamie McKelvie etc) but I don’t know how you can get a copy or whatever.

GCB | What comics would you recommend for us to read?

Marc | Ooof, what a question! Save doing a massive list, I’ll just go on about the lovely comics I’ve read recently…

Liz Prince’s last couple of mini comics have been so good, and if anything have made me want to get back into doing autobio. Alone Forever and More Squares are especially fugging good and deserve your Paypal monies. She’s one of my favourite autobio creators – click HERE

I love Joe Decie’s comics, a true original in the field. Full of half truths all rendered in lovely ink wash, his book The Accidental Salad should be in all of your hands – HERE

Loving what Louis Roskosch is doing at the moment. I picked up Leeroy and Popo at the last MCM Expo and it was easily the best thing I picked up. His stuff is kind of what like Taiyo Matsumoto meets Nintendo – HERE

Have you seen the books published by Koyama Press? Ohhhhh boy are they a treat. Not just brilliant comics, but lovely production values. It’s probably the one line that I love everything they bring out. On one hand you have Dustin Harbin’s wonderful autobio strips and in another you have Michael Deforge’s kitchen-sink-drama-esque comics drawn in this…”vomit” of styles. You’ve got art comics, kid’s comics, but mostly they’re just really bloody good comics. I love ‘em, just wish they were slightly easier to get hold of over here – HERE

GCB | Where can people find Chloe Noonan as well as other awesome stuff you’ve made?

Marc | On the interweb! You can find links to Chloe, Ellerbisms and to my store HERE

But if you live near any of these fine comic establishments then you can buy a copy of Chloe in real Life!

Gosh! Comics – London
Orbital Comics – London
Page 45 – Nottingham
OK Comics – Leeds
Dave’s Comics – Brighton
Plan B Books – Glasgow
Comic Guru – Cardiff
Travelling Man – Manchester, Leeds, York and Newcastle

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Discussion topics include:

invisible words

I chanced upon the first issue in one of the major comics shops in London and loved how old school it was, the diversity of the content was incredible and utterly compelling, and for £1 you can’t really go wrong. This Wednesday there will be a MEGA launch party for the Comix Reader #2, and YOU’RE INVITED.

As well as The Comix Reader, there will be two more comics launching on the very same night including The Black Project by Gareth Brookes (of Sherlock Holmes vs Skeletor fame) and Static Revolver #2 by Comix Reader cover artist Lord Hurk and Comix Reader contributor Kevin Ward.

So basically, there’s gonna be a whole bunch of incredibly talented people with a whole bunch of awesome comics, and you should probably come help us celebrate some awesome work! Click HERE for the facebook event, and then invite your mum along.

We were lucky enough to get some questions answered by the creator Jack Lawrence, who both writes and draws and colours and all that stuff, and Adam Lawrence (no relation) who uses his 3D modelling skills to design all the starships. It’s really cool stuff, and we advise you to check out the website www.tinpothobo.com because it’s incredibly entertaining in its own right.

Good Comic Books | This is your first creator owned project in 7 years, has it been gestating for all that time?

JACK LAWRENCE | To a certain extent, yes. I wrote the first two issues all that time ago, then my career sort of went crazy and Hobo had to sit and wait for me to find the time to do it. It’s been ever-present in my mind for the last 7 years though. When I decided I was going to the Kapow Comic con, I really wanted something of my own to show, and saw that as the perfect opportunity to finally realise Tinpot Hobo.

GCB | How did the the two of you get together on the project?

JACK | Adam and I went to the same school, then later on worked together for a few years before I broke into the comics industry. I knew early on that I wanted the ships of Hobo to look a certain way, and for there to be continuity from one image to the next. I know where my strengths lie, and it’s certainly not in vehicle design! It was a stumbling block very early on in the process, back in 2004. How do I do an epic sci-fi story that’ll rely heavily on cool-looking starships without making it look like crap? Adam, via the use of digital 3D modelling is great at architecture and product design, so I asked him if there was some way of successfully integrating his designs into a 2D format. After some trial and error, we got there!

GCB | How do you go about creating the Tinpot Hobo Universe, and does the world building happen before or after you’ve written the characters and story? On the website you’ve already started naming planets, outlining star systems, designing alien languages etc.

JACK | It all happens at the same time, really. The initial hook that I wanted to work from was “Cops in Space”. I’m a big soap opera fan, and feel the cliffhanger is the single best dramatic device ever created, so I knew I wanted that kinda feel to it. From there I decided on who the main characters would be, which have remained largely unchanged. The thing is though, once I started creating organisations, factions, locations etc. it just became this ever-expanding thing, with one situation leading on to another or at times leading back to a previous one. As far as the information on the website, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Most of what’s up there relates to what can be found in issue 1. As the story continues, so more bits and pieces will be revealed on the site. It’s very important to me that the Universe be really immersive, with tons of background information that isn’t necessary for the casual reader to know, but is there for those who really want to dig into it. Part of that was the Universal Standard writing system. I always loved that Star Trek and Star Wars had their own written languages (loads of them in the case of Star Trek) and I think it really helps to create a different Universe to the one we know.

GCB | What is the art process for Tinpot Hobo? Is it heavily digital? Do you do the colour, lettering etc all yourself?

JACK | Yeah, I do. Just as with Darkham Vale, it’s my baby and I know how I want it to look. In terms of the process, I pencil and ink it physically (that’ll never change!) then scan it and colour it on Photoshop. Adam sends me the ships as line art so that I can drop those in to the page and colour them along with the rest of it. There is no greater feeling, for me, than when a page is finished from pencils to letters.

GCB | How are the ships created? I heard that’s Adam’s job…

ADAM LAWRENCE | It is indeed Adam’s job, so I thought I would answer this question for you guys. As Jack mentioned earlier, I work in 3D, so for me it was really great to be able to move away from the day job, and create something that I have complete freedom on. 3D just gives you so much scope, that you can view the ship from any angle, so you can get a real understanding of its shape early on in the production process. I start off with a really simple sketch, then just block it out in 3D, as a series of simple geometric shapes. From there I reform the shape adding detail as I go. During the “trial and error” phase early on, it was clear that too much detail wasn’t translating that well to 2D line art, so I soon learned what to put in and what to leave out. From there I send over a series of images of the ship from different angles, to get Jack’s feedback. Then I will make any changes that are needed, although to be honest there haven’t been very many at all so far. The last step is to render them out as line art. For this stage Jack provides a simple sketch of the ship in the position he’s after, which I then use as reference. It’s a great way of working. I now have a massive pile of sketches and doodles that I’m currently working up in 3D for the comic.

GCB | Darrius looks like someone I know, did you base him on a guy called Wes?

JACK | Ha! No, but let’s get Wes into a “Born to Fly” T-Shirt and get him on the website! LOL

GCB | What were the influences for the book? I’d say Star Wars, but I guess it’s the first comparison anyone would make for Sci-fi of this kind, plus I reckon Star Wars influences way over half of everything anyway.

JACK | I think you’re absolutely right. Not only is Star Wars incredibly ingrained in our consciousness, all of its characters and themes are archetypal, so you can’t really get away from it. Add to that the Sci-Fi element and it’s inevitable that some will make that comparison, regardless of how hard you try to steer clear of it as a creator. Actually, the initial inspiration was from being a fan of cop shows like “The Bill” and soap operas. I’m constantly inspired by people I know and places I visit. For example, going to shopping malls really makes me feel like I’m on a Starship, which then gets the creative juices going in that context, and will lead to a story element that maybe I hadn’t thought of before. I wanted to do Sci-Fi because I’d just finished Darkham Vale, and had tons of ideas for stories but felt that the location was too small and limited for those ideas to be realised realistically. So I traded up a small hamlet in the English countryside for the entire galaxy, just to cover my bases!

GCB | How have you found self publishing? Fun?

JACK | Without exaggeration, it’s the single most exciting and rewarding experience of my career so far! Being a freelance artist is wonderful, but at times it can be frustrating and to be honest, boring, if your creative urges are not being 100% fulfilled. Tinpot Hobo is my creative escape; my chance to do whatever I want to, without answering to anyone or waiting on anyone else to get the book out there. Has it made me shedloads of cash? No, of course not! But that was never the point. I always said that if the only people to read it were my family and friends that’d be absolutely fine, because the point is that I created it. Actually, the reception has been, thus far, 100% positive, and I’m selling more copies than I imagined I would at this stage.

GCB | Are you working on any other projects we should know about?

JACK | I’m working on loads of projects, but mainly for toy companies, so I won’t be able to tell anyone, ever! (Another reason for putting my own comic out there!)

GCB | What comics (if any) would you recommend at the moment? Are there any small press gems we should know about?

JACK | I’ve just discovered, through meeting at a convention, Philip Jackson’s “Sequential Art”. It’s a webcomic, but he’s bound a ton of the strips up and sells them from Lulu. Gorgeous art, and a real sense of fun to the whole thing. Plus, Phil’s a lovely guy, which always helps sell something to me!

GCB | When is Tinpot Hobo #2 out?

JACK | I’d love to be specific, but the answer is “as soon as humanly possible!” I’m doing it alongside my regular workload, but it is underway. I’ll be updating through Facebook, DeviantArt and Twitter (although I don’t really get that last one!) I’d love to have it done for July, but it remains to be seen. Rest assured though, I AM committed to it!

Thanks guys! If you want to pick up a copy of Tinpot Hobo yourself, go HERE.

Filmish is set out on paper like a documentary, it has an expert presenter in the writer/artist Edward Ross and a whole heap of archive footage (though re-done as comics!). It covers topics from technology and monsters to food and perspective in film, and introduces concepts that might otherwise only be found in dusty textbooks. It does it with so much energy and enthusiasm that it’s hard not to start thinking about producing whole school curriculums with comics, as I’ve never been so well entertained by an essay!

You might glance at the art and confuse the style for simplicity, but the only thing simple about it is the colour, some of these panels are breathtaking. In some places the detail is so precise that it’s hard not to marvel at certain panels for inordinate amounts of time. The ability to be able to place himself in the film he’s talking about is also incredibly effective, such as giving himself a cyborg head as he discusses Terminator… Or dressing himself up as Charlie Chaplin to talk about the man himself. The movie scenes drawn by Ross are really awesome; seeing the bit from Videodrome where James Woods pulls a video out of his stomach was great! And with it a reflection on the symbolism behind this; the corrupting influence of television! Cool.

I guess it’s true for every medium, that the best of things are made out of love. Edward Ross is clearly a huge fan of film, his enthusiasm for the subject breaches the paper it’s confined to and made me want to take a class in Film Theory and Criticism. He’s tapped into something incredibly powerful, and harnesses the comics medium to its full potential. Wonderful.

Filmish is currently on its third issue, and you can get your grubby mits on all three HERE!

Joe Innes.

We have heard that Simon Moreton and Nick Soucek, the creators of Smoo and Misinterpreted Complications, have a new project. It seems that these two artists/writers/show offs have collected together specially commissioned works from the very best underground, alternative and small-press storytellers, in a new anthology.

The Sorry Entertainer is a high quality, tabloid-sized newspaper, with comics by artists from all over the world; spinning yarns of sad theatre performers and blackmailed entertainers, Plane crashes, wrestling matches gone wrong, flatulent stand-ups, persecuted human statues and four eyed-wonders… which sounds cool right?

You can get a piece of this comics pie early. To raise money for getting the paper out on the streets, they’re offering certain perks for early contributions! Depending on how much you cough up, from £5 up, you can get:

• Copies of The Sorry Entertainer
• Your name in print, thanking you as a backer of the project
• Comics from the contributors
• SIGNED original artwork

There’s an incredible amount of talent going to work over this paper, and it’ll be ace when it comes out. Especially if you yourself had a hand in making it happen. Click HERE to make a contribution, and get it when it comes out!

Here’s a little taste of Simon M’s Smoo, and why you should probably be excited about The Sorry Entertainer…

Excerpt from Simon Moreton's Smoo

Congratulations, you’ve found the hidden message

A few weeks ago, I visited the London Small Press expo at Goldsmiths University… which was nice. There I discovered many a wonderful thing, including this golden goose of a comic. The creators, Clint Green and Luke Orrin were there in their finest attire, and they were very nice indeed. They explained the finer points of their creation, which I purchased and they wished me well on my way.

Upon returning home, I put Taroch on my shelf for FAR too long before finding a nice quiet weekend afternoon to read it, but upon doing so I was spellbound (the definition of which is having your attention fixated as though by a spell). It’s an incredibly beautiful comic that sucks you in more efficiently than a dyson. I’ve always thought that the best fantasy is routed in reality, and this is a perfect example. The story begins with a protagonist who typically doesn’t have much going for him, the mundane world is presented in black and white and reflects perfectly how we all feel at useless points in our lives. Then colour is added with a bang as reality begins to alter and the world is turned upside down. It’s a bit like reading a dream that instead of slowly dragging you back into reality, drags you kicking and screaming further down the rabbit hole… Which is good, I like to dream.

The art is incredible, this is a small press comic with art that in in places, could make a Marvel publication look like GCSE coursework. I was impressed with how easily it showed movement, as I’ve always felt many comics struggle with that, not to mention movement between dimensions and psychic plains. It just has so much energy that you come away feeling incredibly charged, which is one of the reasons the back-up story hits you so hard. After the feature was full of the fantastic, the back-up is very much focused on a real world situation and packs a powerful emotional punch… almost worth the entry fee alone.

So this is an awesomely awesome comic, and something I think you should read for yourselves. We managed to get some questions to the creators; Clint (writer) and Luke (artist), and I think you’ll agree it provides a good insight into the world of this incredible piece of work.

Good Comic Books | Could you tell us how you both got into comics from your respective backgrounds? Like Clint, you have a background in theatre, and Luke, you attended The Ecole National Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris… Which sounds quite swish.

Clint | The whole process of creating a world and populating it with characters is something I have always loved. I am an only child and an army brat, so growing up – I spent a lot of time moving around to new places and one of the only constants in my life was daydreaming. I used to escape into novels and comic books for hours at a time and then I would go climb a tree and imagine huge sweeping epics of my own.

Then at school the only subject (apart from History) that really engaged me was Drama, which I eventually went on to study at university in the form of Creative Arts. My lecturers at university said I had a real knack for dialogue and scriptwriting and kind of steered me into that direction; I ended up forming my own theatre company… but all the time I was writing plays, I just really wanted to be writing comics because there are so many less constraints than those ideas that must be kept on the stage. I also used to daydream that one day I’d be able to play in the Marvel or DC sandbox.

Luke | Uhmmm, well “swish” isn’t the word I would associate with my university days, but on the other hand we did get taught in Philippe Starck designed facilities… The ENSAD is quite well regarded in the world of French art schools and the exam to get in was really nerve racking and severe.

Think the X-Factor selection process but with lots of drawing and books to read. The school is brilliant, I got to experiment in a very wide range of artistic techniques with some very unique equipment for 5 years, and as it was a French State University I got my education for free (no wonder it was murder to get in). I eventually specialised in Animated Arts because I considered it to be the best section to train my strengths in story telling, drawing (3D animation hated me) and video production in general. It was a blast, I got to make my own animated short film ‘Dear Esther’ which had a nice little life on the festival scene, and met some insanely talented people who are currently doing some really great stuff in the arts world right now.

GCB | How did you end up meeting and writing a comic?

Clint | Funny story actually! Luke was working as a barman and I bought a drink from him and we got chatting and discovered a shared love of comics and a mutual desire to create them.

Luke | Precisely! We just got chatting about the X-Men and found out we were both huge geeks! I already had my website running so it was easy to show what sort of visuals I dealt with. I had always wanted to work on a comic book but I can’t write clear plot lines or intelligible dialogue. Then Clint mentioned he had this love project script laying around waiting for treatment…

GCB | Could you tell us a little about Taroch’s premise, and where the idea came from?

Clint | Taroch is loosely based on the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck. It’s about fate, the idea that we sometimes feel we cannot escape something coming to us and how difficult it can be to take control of our own destiny. It’s also a thrilling action romp with sarcastic quips and explosions.

It was originally inspired by a song, ‘Limbo’ by Kylie Minogue (don’t judge me, it was the 90s when I first conceived the story) and its visual of Eden leaping through portals is pretty spot on to the daydream I had listening to that song in my car. Over the years, I refined and expanded the story – changing it from a screenplay to a novel and then finally the format that it should have always been – a comic book and eventually, a graphic novel.

GCB | “Nicholas Brooks is a man who has never made a big decision in his life”… Is there anything biographic about your protagonist?

Clint | Like Nick, I consider procrastination my greatest talent.  There are some elements of Nick’s character that echo my own experiences. I have worked in a call centre and I did spend a period of my life simply coasting along. But then, what writer doesn’t use their own life experiences to help flesh out their characters? I actually think the receptionist Tasha is more like me. She was originally only intended to be a small character in Issue One but Luke and I fell in love with her so much that we have used her as a major viewpoint character thoughout… Luke is blatantly the creepy child at the beginning…

GCB | The back-up story in the issue is incredibly sobering, especially after the high fantasy of the feature. What was the story behind it and why was it included?

Clint | There are a couple of reasons for the back-up stories in each issue.

Firstly, we love telling stories and have so many ideas we want to get across. Some of which are full scale epics, some of which are smaller and we thought it would be an ideal format to tell some of those smaller stories.

Secondly, we want every short to differ from each other in storytelling technique, tone and artistically. It helps us flex our creative muscles and also, from a purely commericial point of view, it shows readers and publishers what we are capable of.

For ‘When I Grow Up’ we wanted something that incorporated a dark twist; something that could only really be told in a short story format; I came up with the idea whilst rifling through Luke’s previous work in his portfolio. It was a surprisingly quick story to produce but also one that had me very teary-eyed whilst writing. I shan’t spoil it for people that haven’t read it, but it does tend to get a very visceral reaction.

GCB | What or who has had the biggest influence on your writing and art?

Clint | Comic book-wise, I am a huge fan of Peter David, Gail Simone, Ed Brubaker and Warren Ellis amongst many others. From a wider perspective I love the worlds created by George R R Martin (I might actually wet myself with excitement at the upcoming HBO adaptation of ‘A Game of Thrones’), Chuck Palahniuk and Neil Gaiman!

Luke | Oh good grief this could go on forever… Well, in short, my 2 loves are comic books and Japanese animation, and that’s what I’ve been emulating all my life pretty much. As a kid my first big obsessions were Paul Smith’s and Rick Leonardi’s fluid artwork on the X-Men, and I was also nuts for Alan Davis, Marc silvestri, Shingo Araki (character designer on Saint Seiya, Japanese 80′s animation), Bill Watterson, Winsor Mccay (I had a lovely book of Little Nemo which I destroyed through repetitive reading) and Swedish painter Karl Larsson because we had reproductions of his on the wall at home. Then at 11 I discovered Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and I’ve never been the same since. It opened new doors for me, and I would resort to dark rituals if it would ensure me that sort of excellence. Yes I would… No shame in that…

Really, I’ll stop now before this gets too ridiculous. Cheers!

GCB | What was your process for creating some of the outlandish visuals in Taroch? Some crazy stuff happens…

Luke | Thank you! I try very hard to make it nice to look at… I basically love drawing action sequences above all. I guess that comes from drawing movement constantly in my animation work. And I think each page should be as rich as possible in content, right to the border of the paper. I fell in love with mainstream Marvel and DC comics as a kid in the 80′s, when every issue was visually crammed with entertainment! Such good memories and value for money! So I try to keep things in that high energy and wide scope tradition. Keeps the child in me very happy.

Clint’s scripts are great to work on, I have lots of space to stretch my pencils on and the characters are a delight to bring to life! It’s been extremely fun designing everything  from scratch and transposing some London life to paper. Taroch is going some wild places, keep watching!

GCB | There’s a mixture of black/white panels and coloured panels. Why the use of both, rather than just one of the other? (other than the fact it looks incredibly cool).

Luke | Foremost, we thought this graphic device helped and suited our story well. It highlights certain characters and key supernatural elements as the plot develops. It brings forward Adventure from the bland routine that consumes our protagonists at the beginning of this adventure. And, well, this is a comic book that vows to entertain, and this system just makes things go POP! on the pages. Just the way I like it…

Ironically, colouring is the part of the process I dread the most… It’s not something I’ve felt comfortable with and done (with pleasure) that much before, and I’m educating myself as the work moves along. But it does give Taroch a unique identity along with it’s format, so we’re quite proud of that.

GCB | How have you found the small press world?

Clint | Great so far! It was incredibly daunting at first putting our comic out there for the world to see, but the response has been inspiring and everyone we have met has been absolutely wonderful. It is such a supportive and exciting atmosphere at all the events and there is some lovely work out there. I saw your review of Moon by the guys at Beyond the Bunker and that was one of the pieces I saw at the SPEXPO event and was bowled over by the quality of it.

Luke | It’s very rewarding getting Taroch out in the open and witnessing first hand the interest towards it. Makes the countless hours slaving at my desk on these pages very worthwhile! There are really lovely encouraging people out there, from the readers to event organisers, shop managers and even our printers. It’s very inspiring meeting authors and artists in the same situation as us. Seriously, it gives me wings. I used to love hanging around this world as a devoted shopper and supporter, it’s even better now that we’re involved with our own comic book.

GCB | How long is the story you have to tell? What is the future of Taroch?

Clint | Taroch is a 12 issue run and a self contained story. In some ways, it is constrained by its premise (something that will become apparent in Issues 2 and 3)  but we do have ideas on how to tell more stories in the same world, with some of the same protaganists should the demand be there!

Taroch is a comic for which the term ‘awesome sauce’ has never been so apt. It’s a quartely series, so I insist you go and purchase issue 1 before the 2nd is released in July… And while there are still any left, you can so HERE