British small press comics
Encyclopedia
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s self-published by amateur cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
s and comic book creator
Comic book creator
A comic book creator is someone who creates a comic book or graphic novel.The production of a comic book by one of the major comic book companies in the U.S...
s, usually in short print runs, in the UK. A "small press comic" is essentially a zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
composed predominantly of comic strips. The term emerged in the early 1980s to distinguish them from zines about comics. Notable artists who have had their start in British small press comics include Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell is a Scottish comics artist and cartoonist who now lives in Australia. Probably best known as the illustrator and publisher of From Hell , Campbell is also the creator of the semi-autobiographical Alec stories collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and Bacchus , a wry adventure...
, Paul Grist
Paul Grist
Paul Grist is a British comic book creator, noted for his hard-boiled police series Kane and his unorthodox superhero series Jack Staff.-Biography:...
, Rian Hughes
Rian Hughes
Rian Hughes is a British graphic designer, illustrator and comics artist, noted for his work on 2000AD, where he illustrated Robo-Hunter, Tales from Beyond Science, Really and Truly and Dan Dare, among others...
, Jamie Hewlett
Jamie Hewlett
Jamie Christopher Hewlett is an English comic book artist and designer. He is known for being the co-creator of the comic Tank Girl and co-creator of the virtual band Gorillaz.-Biography:...
, Philip Bond
Philip Bond
Philip J. Bond is a British comic book artist, who first came to prominence in the late 1980s on Deadline magazine, and later through a number of collaborations with British writers for the DC Comics imprint Vertigo....
and Andi Watson
Andi Watson
Andrew "Andi" Watson is a British cartoonist and illustrator best known for the graphic novels Breakfast After Noon, Slow News Day and his series Love Fights, published by Oni Press and Slave Labor Graphics....
.
Small press comics are traditionally sold by mail, using reviews and classified adverts
Classified advertising
Classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge...
, websites, email lists and word of mouth
Word of mouth
Word of mouth, or viva voce, is the passing of information from person to person by oral communication. Storytelling is the oldest form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others of something, whether a real event or something made up. Oral tradition is cultural material and...
to reach an audience. There is usually one or more mail order service, commonly known as a "distro", operating in the UK. These will hold a wide range of titles and take a cut of the cover price. The two main active distros are Samu and SmallZone. They are also sold at conventions and festivals, with small groups of like-minded creators often sharing a table at a reduced rate. Specialist small press events include Caption
Caption (comics convention)
CAPTION is an annual comic convention specialising in British small press comics. It was first held in Oxford in January 1992, subsequently being held in summer each year. Loosely based around a theme, each year's event offers panels and workshops related to small press comics along with the...
in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, and the UK Web and Mini Comix Thing in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Creators will often make international links to these forms of distribution in other countries and vice versa.
Distribution into comic book stores via traditional distributors (such as Diamond
Diamond Comic Distributors
Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. is the largest comic book distributor serving North America. They transport comic books from both big and small comic book publishers, or suppliers, to the retailers. Diamond dominates the direct market in the United States, and has exclusive arrangements with most...
) is rare. Stores will often stock titles by local creators though some, notably Gosh! in London and Page 45 in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, stock a wider range. In recent times small press titles have sold in larger bookstores Borders
Borders Group
Borders Group, Inc. was an international book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The company employed approximately 19,500 throughout the U.S., primarily in its Borders and Waldenbooks stores....
and Foyles
Foyles
W & G Foyle Ltd. is a bookshop at 113–119 Charing Cross Road, London, England. Foyles was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest bookshop in terms of shelf area and number of titles on display...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
The traditional format has been a photocopied and stapled booklet, usually at A5 size, similar to American minicomic
Minicomic
A minicomic is a creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. In the United Kingdom and Europe the term "small press comic" is equivalent with minicomic reserved for those publications measuring A6 or less...
s, although other sizes are known. While some creators continue to produce publications in this style, emphasising the hand-made aspect and often decorating each copy by hand, in recent years the increasing availability of digital printing has made professional printing affordable for short-run publications. Some of the spirit of small press comics can now also be found in webcomic
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
s.
Background
Traditionally, a small pressSmall press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
publisher was simply a publisher who operated on a small scale, often with a manual printing press in-house, producing limited print-runs of publications that larger, more commercially inclined publishers would reject.
The history of British small press comics is tied up with the underground press
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
of the 1960s with publications such as Oz
Oz (magazine)
Oz was first published as a satirical humour magazine between 1963 and 1969 in Sydney, Australia and, in its second and better known incarnation, became a "psychedelic hippy" magazine from 1967 to 1973 in London...
and International Times
International Times
International Times was an underground newspaper founded in London in 1966. Editors included Hoppy, David Mairowitz, Pete Stansill, Barry Miles, Jim Haynes and playwright Tom McGrath...
, the British underground comix scene led by Nasty Tales and Knockabout Comics
Knockabout Comics
Knockabout Comics is a UK publisher and distributor of underground and alternative comic books.-History:It was formed by Tony Bennett and Carol Bennett in the 1980s to distribute Gilbert Shelton's Freak Brothers titles as well as British work from creators such as Hunt Emerson and Bryan...
of the 1970s and with the Punk zine
Punk zine
A punk zine is a zine devoted to punk culture, most often punk rock music, bands, or the DIY punk ethic. Punk zines are the most likely place to find punk literature....
explosions of the late 1970s. The latter was probably more significant as it was born of cheap and accessible photocopying. This dramatic lowering of technological barriers to entry
Barriers to entry
In theories of competition in economics, barriers to entry are obstacles that make it difficult to enter a given market. The term can refer to hindrances a firm faces in trying to enter a market or industry - such as government regulation, or a large, established firm taking advantage of economies...
meant anyone could produce a publication with a print run as low as one regardless of commercial potential.
Within the British comics fandom
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
of the 1970s and early 1980s there were many zines about comics, mainly concentrating on American superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
titles. Since high-street retailers of comics were scarce these zines ran mail order
Mail order
Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
services and relied on the postal service for distribution. The first and most famous of these was Fantasy Advertiser
Fantasy Advertiser
Fantasy Advertiser, later abbreviated to FA, was a British fanzine which discussed comic books. It was initially edited by Frank Dobson, essentially as an advertising service for comic collectors, and when Dobson emigrated to Australia in 1970 he handed it on to two contributors, Dez Skinn and Paul...
. There were also regular market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
s or "marts" which also served as a social meeting place for aficionados. This gave a backbone for small press comics to emerge and in many cases react against.
The 1970s
Among the earliest British small press comics was The Tale of Beem Gotelump, the story of an aging jazz musician who is tasked by the Archangel Gabriel with playing the last trump at the end of the world, created and published by Eddie CampbellEddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell is a Scottish comics artist and cartoonist who now lives in Australia. Probably best known as the illustrator and publisher of From Hell , Campbell is also the creator of the semi-autobiographical Alec stories collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and Bacchus , a wry adventure...
under the pseudonym "Roland Bunn" in 1975. Kevin O'Neill
Kevin O'Neill (comics)
Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
, then working in newsstand humour comics, mostly on the production end, created (with co-writer Jack Adrian) and published Mek Memoirs, a 12 page "stripzine" about a robot war in 1976, which can be seen as a precursor on his work on 2000 AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
.
Perhaps the most successful of all British small press comics is the adult humour comic Viz
Viz (comic)
Viz is a popular British comic magazine which has been running since 1979.The comic's style parodies British comics of the post-war period, notably The Beano and The Dandy, but with incongruous language, crude toilet humour, black comedy, surreal humour and either sexual or violent storylines...
, first published in Newcastle in 1979. It grew out of the punk fanzine scene, and went on to successful newsstand publication, continuing to the present day.
The 1980s
The first flowering of British small press comics centred around Fast FictionFast Fiction
Fast Fiction was a market stall, magazine, mail order distributor and news sheet that played a key role in the history of British small press comics...
, which began as a stall run by Paul Gravett
Paul Gravett
Paul Gravett is a London-based journalist, curator, writer and broadcaster who has worked in comics publishing and promotion for over 20 years....
at the bi-monthly Westminster Comic Mart in London in 1981, and developed into an anthology, a mail order service and a news sheet. In its various forms it lasted until 1990. Artists associated with this scene included Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell is a Scottish comics artist and cartoonist who now lives in Australia. Probably best known as the illustrator and publisher of From Hell , Campbell is also the creator of the semi-autobiographical Alec stories collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and Bacchus , a wry adventure...
, Phil Elliott
Phil Elliott
Phil Elliott is a British comic book creator who was published in Escape Magazine. He was part of the British small press comics scene in the 1980s.-Career:...
, Glenn Dakin
Glenn Dakin
Glenn Dakin is a British cartoonist and author of children's books. He was a contributor to a number of British comics magazines including Escape and Deadline and was part of the British small press comics scene in the 1980s...
, Paul Grist
Paul Grist
Paul Grist is a British comic book creator, noted for his hard-boiled police series Kane and his unorthodox superhero series Jack Staff.-Biography:...
, Ed Hillyer, Woodrow Phoenix
Woodrow Phoenix
Woodrow Phoenix is a British comics artist, writer, editorial illustrator, graphic designer, font designer and author of children's books.He was a contributor to a number of British comics magazines including Escape, Blaaam! and Blast! and was part of the British small press comics scene in the...
, Rian Hughes
Rian Hughes
Rian Hughes is a British graphic designer, illustrator and comics artist, noted for his work on 2000AD, where he illustrated Robo-Hunter, Tales from Beyond Science, Really and Truly and Dan Dare, among others...
, Bob Lynch
Bob Lynch
Bob Lynch is a British small press comics artist who produced minicomics during the 1980s and 1990s. His self-published work produced through Bob Comics includes the Sav Sadness stories and Behold The Hamster...
, Ed Pinsent
Ed Pinsent
Ed Pinsent is a British cartoonist, artist and writer born 1960 in Liverpool.-Biography:Pinsent has written and drawn his own small press comics since 1982, including characters such as Primitif, Henrietta and Windy Wilberforce...
, and the teenage Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, who is well-known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and through his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...
. Campbell argues it was he who persuaded his fellow artists to call their publications "small press comics" rather than "fanzines", after seeing the term "small press" used for similar publications at a poetry festival. Gravett and Peter Stanbury published many of the Fast Fiction artists in Escape Magazine
Escape Magazine
Escape magazine was a landmark British comic strip magazine founded and edited by Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury. Nineteen issues were published between 1983 to 1989...
from 1983 to 1989.
Between 1983 and 1995 Zine Zone (later Zine Zone International), a Bristol-based company specialising in mail order, comic mart service and publications, focused international attention on UK Small Pressers and helped a number go on to mainstream comics, including D'Israeli
D'Israeli
Matt Brooker, whose work most often appears under the pseudonym D'Israeli , is a British comic artist, colorist, writer and letterer. Other pseudonyms he uses include "Molly Eyre" , for his writing, and "Harry V...
and Duncan Fegredo
Duncan Fegredo
Duncan Fegredo is a British comic book artist born in Leicester in 1964.-Career:Fegredo first managed to get into comics after showing his portfolio around UKCAC in 1987 and meeting Dave Thorpe. Together they worked on a strip for a short lived British magazine called Heartbreak Hotel...
.
1987 three students from Northbrook College
Northbrook College
Northbrook College is a further education and higher education college and principal provider of work-related Further Education in Worthing and nearby Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex....
, Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, Jamie Hewlett
Jamie Hewlett
Jamie Christopher Hewlett is an English comic book artist and designer. He is known for being the co-creator of the comic Tank Girl and co-creator of the virtual band Gorillaz.-Biography:...
, Philip Bond
Philip Bond
Philip J. Bond is a British comic book artist, who first came to prominence in the late 1980s on Deadline magazine, and later through a number of collaborations with British writers for the DC Comics imprint Vertigo....
and Alan Martin
Alan Martin (writer)
Alan Martin is a British comics writer best known as author of the comic strip Tank Girl.- Hewlett and Martin :Martin and Hewlett first met in the mid-1980s in Worthing, when Martin was in a band with Philip Bond called the University Smalls...
, produced two issues of a small press comic called Atomtan. This came to the attention of Brett Ewins
Brett Ewins
Brett Ewins is a British comic book artist best known for his work on Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper in the weekly comic book 2000 AD.-Biography:...
who invited them to contribute to his new comics magazine, Deadline
Deadline magazine
Deadline was a British comic magazine published between 1988 and 1995.Created by 2000 AD stalwarts Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon, Deadline featured a mix of comic strips and written articles targeted at older readers...
, which began in 1988. Hewlett and Martin created the magazine's flagship character, Tank Girl
Tank Girl
Tank Girl is a British comic created by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. Originally drawn by Jamie Hewlett, it has also been drawn by Rufus Dayglo, Ashley Wood, and Mike McMahon.The eponymous character Tank Girl drives a tank, which is also her home...
, and Hewlett has gone on to work in animation, most notably creating the cartoon rock group Gorillaz
Gorillaz
Gorillaz is an English musical project created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. This project consists of Gorillaz music itself and an extensive fictional universe depicting a "virtual band" of cartoon characters...
.
The 1990s
After Ed Pinsent wound up the last incarnation of Fast Fiction, cartoonist Luke Walsh and reader Mike Kidson took over their mailing list for their review zine Zum!, the first issue appearing in August 1991. Zum! distributed copies of comics submitted to a panel of reviewers, often cartoonists themselves, who were encouraged to write critical reviews of significant length. It also featured reproductions of the comics under review. Zum! continues as a website run by Paul Schroeder. Caption, a zine-cum-APAAmateur press association
An amateur press association is a group of people who produce individual pages or magazines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group.-Organisation:...
devoted to small press comics edited by Jenni Scott, ran from 1992 to 1998, and spawned the still-active Caption
Caption (comics convention)
CAPTION is an annual comic convention specialising in British small press comics. It was first held in Oxford in January 1992, subsequently being held in summer each year. Loosely based around a theme, each year's event offers panels and workshops related to small press comics along with the...
small press comics convention, held annually in Oxford.
The 1990s saw the reemergence of fanzines about comics in the Fantasy Advertiser mould. Battleground, edited by Andy Brewer, was at first mainly concerned with American superhero comics, although it also featured reviews and articles on small press comics and interviews with the cartoonists. Vicious, edited by Pete Ashton, was more free-form, promising to print all material submitted. Ashton also created TRS ("The Review Sheet"), collecting capsule reviews and contact details for small press comics, in 1995. In 1996 he set up the BugPowder distribution service, which sold any British small press comics that cared to be listed as well as importing selected books from the US and Europe. TRS was discontinued in 1998, before being revived as TRS2 by Andrew Luke. BugPowder closed as a distributor in 2000, but the BugPowder blog continues to spotlight British small press activity, and includes the now-online TRS2.
Slab-O-Concrete
Slab-O-Concrete
Slab-O-Concrete Productions was a British mail order distributor and publisher, founded by pavement artist Peter Pavement, Dave Hanna, Emma Copsey and Chris Tappenden, operating mostly in Brighton and Hove during the 1990s...
was a mail order distro and publisher set up by Australian pavement artist Peter Pavement and also Dave Hanna in the early 1990s. Its first title was Pavement's own Pavement Pizza, and it soon began selling British small press comics and zines on marts in Brighton and Hove, and importing books from the US, Australia and Europe. Slab-O-Concrete developed into a full-scale publisher, repackaging small press comics for the bookshop market and originating new work. It avoided the direct market
Direct market
The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for North American comic books. It consists of one dominant distributor and the majority of comics specialty stores, as well as other retailers of comic books and related merchandise...
of comic shops and made connections with underground publishers, zinesters, indie record labels and other subcultural
Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...
scenes. Slab was laid low by cashflow issues in 2001.
Other groups included Dachshund, run by Andy, aka Andy Konky Kru, which published Graphic Reviews, a review zine featuring reviews in comic strip form by Lee Kennedy and others, and an A8 sized anthology, Itsy Bitsy. Andrew Moreton set up Massive, a small press distro, in 1992, and also published a zine, The Comics Cut Quarterly. Psychopia
Psychopia
Psychopia is a small press zine featuring reviews and articles on British comic books and small press comics and interviews with cartoonists. Unusually for comix zines it focussed almost entirely on British comics such as The Beano and The Dandy ignoring American superhero comics.Issue #0 was the...
, was a zine and distro set up by cartoonist B. Patson in 1994, which still exists online. Other cartoonists sold their work through classified ads in Comics International
Comics International
Comics International was a British news and reviews magazine about comic books. Founded in 1990, it was published monthly by Quality Communications until 2006...
magazine.
The 2000s
Recent creators to have launched through the small press include Gary NorthfieldGary Northfield
Gary Northfield is a British comic artist and writer, most famous for his comic character, Derek the Sheep published in DC Thomson's The Beano and BeanoMAXGary graduated from Harrow College University of Westminster with a degree in Illustration in 1992...
, whose Derek the Sheep
Derek the Sheep
Derek the Sheep is a fictional character and comic strip in the British comic The Beano. He first appeared in issue 3214, dated 21 February 2004...
has gained a recurring slot in the Beano
Beano
Beano can refer to:* The Beano, a British children's comic* Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, a 1966 John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers album nicknamed The Beano Album as the cover shows Clapton reading a Beano comic...
. Writer Jason Cobley, who has been self-publishing his Bulldog comics since the mid-90s, and former Bulldog Empire artist Neill Cameron
Neill Cameron
-Biography:Cameron started out in British small press comics, most notably drawing Bulldog Empire, which also appeared in the small press section of Judge Dredd Megazine and was reprinted in the first volume of ILYA's Mammoth Book of Best New Manga....
, now work for The DFC
The DFC
The DFC was a weekly British children's anthology comic, published by David Fickling Books . The first issue was published at the end of May 2008...
and Classical Comics
Classical Comics
Classical Comics is a British publisher of graphic novel adaptations of the great works of literature, including Shakespeare, Charlotte Brontë and Dickens.-Overview:...
. Garen Ewing
Garen Ewing
Garen Ewing is an illustrator, designer and most notably a comic creator, being the writer and illustrator of The Adventures of Julius Chancer - The Rainbow Orchid....
, who worked in small press comics in the 1990s, moved onto the web with The Rainbow Orchid
The Rainbow Orchid
The Rainbow Orchid is a comic written and drawn by Garen Ewing, the first of a series of planned Julius Chancer books. It is set in the 1920s and follows Chancer's expedition to discover the mythical 'Rainbow Orchid'. Starting in England, the adventure takes the characters first to France, then...
, soon to be published in print by Egmont UK, and also contributes to The DFC. The Etherington Brothers
The Etherington Brothers
Robin and Lawrence Etherington are British comics creators who work together as The Etherington Brothers, Robin writing and Lorenzo illustrating...
(Robin and Lorenzo), creators of the small press comic Malcolm Magic, have gone on to create "Monkey Nuts" for The DFC, "Yore" for the Dandy and "Baggage" for Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
. PJ Holden and Al Ewing
Al Ewing
Al Ewing is a British comics writer who has mainly worked in the small press and for 2000 AD.-Biography:Al Ewing began his career writing stories in the five-page Future Shocks format for 2000AD...
emerged from the small press to work for 2000 AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
and develop digital comics.
One of the current leading distros is SmallZone, founded in 1999 by Shane Chebsey, which also provides a printing service for small press creators. Chebsey and Andrew Richmond also publish comics under the Scar Comics banner. In 2006 the first Scar Comics graphic novel, Falling Sky by Ben Dickson, won "Best Indie Surprise" on Ain't It Cool News.
Another activist for British independent comics is writer/artist Barry Renshaw. Founding the Engine Comics imprint in 2000, Renshaw wrote and published the Rough Guide to Self Publishing, which is now in its fourth edition (2007) and was described as 'essential purchase for budding self-publishers' by industry paper Comics International. In 2004, Engine Comics launched Redeye Magazine, a news/reviews magazine specifically created to educate and promote small press and self published comics to the wider public. It has been described as a 'vital read' by SFX magazine
SFX magazine
SFX is a British magazine covering the topics of science fiction and fantasy.-Description:SFX magazine is published every four weeks by Future Publishing and was founded in 1995. The magazine covers topics in the genres of popular science fiction, fantasy and horror, within the media of films,...
and "a must have" by Ain't It Cool News. Other titles include Seven Sentinels and the Fusion anthology.
Accent UK, a collective headed by Dave West (Deva Comics) and Colin Mathieson
Colin Mathieson
Colin Mathieson is a Scottish cartoonist, known mainly for his work in British small press comics. He is married to Karen and is also the father of his two sons, Scott and Adam...
(M56 Comics), was formed in 2002 and produced themed US format anthologies featuring contributions from dozens of UK independent creators. In addition to the founding members, regular contributors to Accent UK publications include Andy Bloor, Jon H. Ayre, David Hitchcock, John Reppion
John Reppion
John Mark Reppion is a British writer. He is married to Leah Moore, the daughter of Alan Moore, and he has worked with both on the comic Albion.-Biography:...
and Leah Moore
Leah Moore
Leah Moore is an English comic book writer. She is the daughter of Alan Moore and Phyllis Moore, and is married to John Reppion. She has worked with both Alan and John on the comic Albion. She has also written for other comics and publications including Tom Strong and The End Is Nigh...
(daughter of Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
), Bridgeen Gillespie (Mr Maximo & Rabbit), Garry Brown, and David Baillie. The 2007 anthology Zombies, included a cover by American artist Steve Bissette.
The Judge Dredd Megazine
Judge Dredd Megazine
Judge Dredd: The Megazine is a monthly British comic magazine, launched in October 1990. It is a sister publication to 2000 AD. Its name is a play on words, formed from "magazine" and Dredd's locale Mega-City One.-Content:...
features a regular small press spotlight section, and has also featured columns by Matt Badham on the small press scene.
FutureQuake Publishing
FutureQuake
FutureQuake is a British small press comic book founded by Arthur Wyatt, and edited from issue 5 onwards by Richmond Clements, David Evans, Mark Woodland and Edward Berridge. Issue 4 was edited by Clements, Evans and James Mackay...
was originally set up to publish the anthology comic FutureQuake. By a combination of launching new titles and taking over existing ones whose owners retire from the scene, they have built up a stable including MangaQuake, Something Wicked and Lost Property, as well as 2000AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
fanzines Zarjaz
Zarjaz
Zarjaz is a comics anthology fanzine for the long-running British science fiction comic 2000 AD.-Publication history:Zarjaz was started in 2001 by Andrew J Lewis and ran for four issues. The fanzine contained comic strips based on various 2000 AD characters and also ran an in-depth interview with...
and Dogbreath
Dogbreath
Dogbreath is a fanzine dedicated to the 2000 AD series Strontium Dog.-Publication history:Dogbreath was started by Dr Bob , who had been writing Strontium Dog fan fiction since 1981...
. Solar Wind
Solar Wind (comic)
Solar Wind is a British small press comics anthology. Edited by Cosmic Ray , the comic is devoted to gentle parodies of British boys' comics of the 1970s and 80s...
has won numerous awards for its long-running series of parodic comics, which pastiche the style of children's comics of the 1970s. The group publishes Solar Wind, Sunny for Girls, Big War Comic, Omnivistascope and is connected to The End Is Nigh
The End Is Nigh
The End Is Nigh was an annual British fanzine edited by Michael Molcher. It was launched at the Bristol Comic Expo in 2005 and, since becoming a semi-annual publication, each subsequent issue is also launched there....
(through Solar Wind editor/writer Paul Scott
Paul Scott (comics)
Paul Scott, sometimes known as Paul von Scott, is a British comics writer who is very active in the British small press comics scene.-Biography:Paul attended the University of Birmingham, where he studied geology....
and other creators).
London Underground Comics is a both a weekly market stall in Camden Lock Market and a loose collective of U.K. based small press creators whose work is sold and displayed on the weekly stall. London Underground Comics was founded in November 2007 by Camden based creator Oli Smith who runs the stall with the help of a variety of small press creators. LUC has also run larger one day events that take up an additional 1000 square feet (92.9 m²) of Camden Lock Market such as No Barcodes in April 2008 and Low Energy Day in August 2008. LUC promote their stall and events via YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
videos.
The UK Web and Mini Comix Thing was a yearly event in London run by Patrick Findlay that brings the British small press and webcomics communities together to sell and promote their work.
Radio 4 have planned a series on small press publishing, to be aired late 2009. One of the episodes will focus on small press comics, reviewing titles from both The UK and from the USA/Canada. One of the titles that is tipped to be featured is the cult London small press comic "Eat, Drink & Be Buried."
External links
- Paul Gravett reviews some recent small press comics
- Pete Ashton - Lessons from Zines
- "Golden Age of the British small press", Comic Bits Online, 7 October 2008