Jeremy Dennis is working on it

Grrr - some photos

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:36:53 GMT

I'm clearing out old inboxes, and abruptly come across mails from Elffriede and Cym, who I met at Grrr... in 2004. Ellfriede drew strange creatures, often directly on gallery walls. Left alone for a moment she would whip out her ink and dip pen and start drawing. I watched enthralled, pleased that there was a person who made my doodling look restrained. Cym took photographs, almost continually. It irritated her that people would ask her to record things, like weddings and events. Creating her projects was a separate task from recording for documentary purposes, more akin to creating a photo story of self. I remember spending hours afterwards, when I got back, poring over Cym's photo stories -- this is the one about Grrr....

Myself, Lee Kennedy, Elffriede, and Cym, behind camera.

zine fest, alternative press fair

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:25:39 GMT

New year, new excitement.

Details about the Zine Fest at the Women's Library on Jan 24th. Looking at the programme, the bit which will feature some work by me is the Comic Exhibition in the Cafe Space. From the Zinefest Myspace comes this list:

Carol Swain
Carolyn Alexander
Charlotte Percival
Ellen Lindner
Emma Welch
Erica Akerlund
Flo Brooks
Francesca Cassavetti
Heather Crabtree
Heather Middleton
Iro Tsavala
Isy Morgenmuffel
Jackie Batey
Jenny Linn-Cole
Jeremy Dennis <<<<<<
Jess Bradley
Karoline Rerrie
Karrie Fransman
Kate Dickinson
Kate Evans
Lady Lucy
Laura Stimpson - Lazy Soosan
Lee Kennedy
Leonie O’Moore
Liz Greenfield
Lizz Lunney
Lucy Sweet
Mireille Fauchon
Rachael House
Rosie Brice
Sally-Anne Hickman
Sarah Lippett
Sarah Lynch
Sarah McIntyre
Sarah Ray
Siobhan Bowers
Siobhan Britton
Susie Rumsby
Tanya Meditzky

Which looks like a great show. Hmmmm. I wonder if the Women's Library would like my old copies of Spare Rib? They probably already have them in mutiplicate!

Next up, on Feb 1st, is another of Jimi Gherkin's Alternative Press Fairs which I'll be attending with my Whores of Mensa hat on, selling that and various other minis and tiny-zines.

Happy New Year!

Caption Timewarp - back through the dismal fogs of time

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:17:35 GMT

Caption Timewarp -- light duties for me! I helped Jenni Scott put together a timeline of Caption, from its conception in 1991, to the present day. It meant going through a lot of old stuff, and I got ground down by revisiting old conflicts, failures and arguments. *sigh* It's odd how the good stuff never seems to hit you as hard! I'm put in mind of "It grows bitter with time", a strip I did back in April, and eventually have to leave Jenni to finish off on her own. I wonder if I could turn that idea around somehow, and write another strip to bring back the good things?

Other than that, it was just the exhibition, up all month at The Jam Factory:

In the end, we didn't do much in the way of events -- an opening and a closing. I got to do some live sketching at the latter, which was fun. I also didn't sell, but I'd priced to not sell, so that was OK.

planning for the caption exhibition

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:15:32 GMT

Much of this month was spent preparing for the Caption Comics Collective Exhibition. I decided early on to arrange nine of my comics into a nine panel grid, nine of nine.

Strips selected for an exhibition need to look pretty in and of themselves, so a lot of my odder masters don't make it. Here's the nine I decided on:

Visit to Hesseland, about visiting an Eva Hesse restrospective with a migraine.

Golden Years, written on the bus on the way back from a day of epic public transport fail.

The subconscious strikes back, one of my many morning strips.

Message to cleanskies: complay with me couch, about my ongoing obsession with spambots.

Rhapsody at 5.45, one of my many work strips.

Refrain, a strip about bad news stories.

An unpublished strip called "small", written for an anthology on that theme.

All this was sea, about childhood and fossils.

The End of the Party Season, about growing older.

comics currently available

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:27:54 GMT

Owl is Angry! - £1.50 (some left)
Minicomic, A6 16pp with hand-stitched, sequinned red tracing paper slip cover.

Tiny Tea Comic - £1.50 (some left)
Teabag-sized comic, 16pp, tagged and individually wrapped. Ink is water soluble.

Scattered Leaves - £2.50 (only a few left)
Anthology of shorter comics from The weekly strip, A5 24pp with hand-stitched sequinned two-layer full colour cover and full colour centre spread.

A primer in Basic Goose - £1.50 (some left)
Minicomic, A6 16pp, full colour.

Whores of Mensa - £3.00 (only a few left)
Longer stories from myself, Mardou and Ellen Lindner.
A4 32pp B&W with full colour cover.

Minicomics, various - 50p/free with order/swap (some left)
Minicomics, A6 16pp, various titles.

Postage within the UK is included*, please add a note to your order saying which comic you want.

Swaps, other titles, postal orders etc., please direct to jrd @ jeremydennis.co.uk

*Add in an extra quid or something if you want a comic sent further afield.

as usual I update too late and do not say enough when I do

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:12:00 GMT

So, I was in the Fringe-Fringe exhibition of Oxfringe, which worked out well for me because my strips ended up on the wall right next to an internet connection in Age Concern@183, a Cowley Road internet cafe. Too bad I'm reporting this after the fact really, but never fear, I'm going to be part of the Caption group exhibition at the Jam Factory later this year, with a bigger better version of the piece I did for Oxfringe, and I'll tell people about that before it happens, I promise....

A few of my comics travelled up to Aberdeen with Paul Solar Wind for the annual comics convention there. The furthest north my comics have been? Possibly!

I went to the UK web and Minicomics Ting in London, and what I did there is reported by Gavin, who also includes a review of the new Weekly Strip anthology, Scattered Leaves in his blog. Nice to see everyone, too bad I didn't get onto drawing a comic strip about giraffes (it's another Space Goose strip, with the problems described in previous blogs attached).

At the moment we're getting started on whoresofmensa 2008, and there's a drawing challenge over there to get people warmed up. We're drawing our favourite Lady chefs.

I've also had a few of the mini-er minicomics on the London Camden Comics Stall, hopefully they're getting out to a whole new set there. Hope to get more involved in that soon!

reprint : tiny tea comic

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:08:26 GMT

tiny tea comic, originally uploaded by Jeremy Dennis.

Oh Hai I have reprinted the Tiny Tea Comics. Tiny comic packaged as teabag. If anyone missed them last time round, you can buy them from me for £2.50 or £3 if I have to send to Europe, £3.50 for beyond.

upcoming : 2008

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:03:14 GMT

UK Web and Minicomics thing, with Caption, Deirdre Ruane and Damian Cugley.

I'll be selling Whores of mensa, tiny tea comics, and doubtless some other odds and sods.

We have of course started work on the New Whores of Mensa, which is themed along a Parisian demi-monde. I promise frilly underwear, lesbian PIs and tentacular creatures from other dimensions, for I know what my readers like. There will be a new weekly strip anthology out just as soon as I figure out some printing practicalities (my old printer is being rejected by the computer recycling people as we speak). I shall also begin the massive rescanning required to lulu a more substantial book of weekly strips, if I can afford a computer modern enough for the new scanner to work with (le sigh).

As usual for this time of year, I am swinging back through last year's rejected and abandoned scripts, goggling at what might have been. I can't imagine what lead me to abandon "Summer in Space", 28 pages of spacesuit shenanigans, maunderings about Jupiter and the adventures of Space Goose. I even drew a Space Goose strip, but was dissatisfied by the art. It needed ink; I only had time for rollerballs. This makes me sad.

This year I must find more time, from somewhere. But every year there seems to be less.

More plans to be reported as they coalesce.

comic still working after all these years

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:37:54 GMT

One of the things that makes producing stuff really worthwhile is turning up something you did years later, and finding it's still in use. Still got it.

So thank-you, jasonelsvis for letting me know that he saw my old A6 minicomic The A-Z of Unusual and Exotic Sexual Terminology, hanging from a string in the reading corner of the Queer Belgrade festival. From the cover, that's a later printing, but I've not reprinted it for at least six years, probably more. Not a bad shelf-life for a grubby little photocopied wotsit.

Really should get around to reprinting that. I've been planning a luxury re-release for a while, and have some faux leather to use for the anonymous binding (it comes in a plain wrapper) and have an excellent replacement for z (one of the pictures I was less happy with) although x still continues to be elusive. Of course, I may not be able to draw in that style any more.

You can't help looking back and wishing about the older things, though. Maybe you could make them again, and sort out all their problems, and make them all lovely.

Trouble is, what's happening now has to take precedence.

spamwife writes:

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:41:36 GMT

Hallo!!
I put my ad to the date cause I need to have serious on a site
of acquaintances.
I have chosen you after searching a lot. I like you greatly so I
decided to
write you. I write through the Internet agency that is why my letter
will be a
short one. I am 29. I am young but wise already to
make a woman happy and make the house cozy and comfortable. I have
never
been married before and I think this is the right moment to do it. I
have chosen
you cause I liked your the story you told about yourself. I think the
true love comes with time and what is really important in the
relationship is the
trust and understanding. I hope you will reply and i will send you my
picture at
once.

Please write straight to the address: [and to think, I deleted her email address!]

your Anna

whores of mensa 3 -- limited availability

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:57:52 GMT

Exactly 19 are available. If you want one, prod the paypal button and pass me £3.50 (UK) or £4.50 (elsewhere). If you're going to see me around and want to get one in person, leave me a comment. It's only £2.50 then, or you can just buy me a drink (note how I automatically assume you'll see me in a pub).

Paypal takes care of the addresses, but if you want to email me to be sure I have it, you can.

the black light birds

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 23:38:26 GMT

Glowing under the black light - 1, originally uploaded by jinty.

Plasticene and fluorescent paint at Caption.

interview questions

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:29:38 GMT

on the subject of small press comics...

> What defines a small press comic?
A truly small press comic is an entirely self-contained entity; it pays no attention to potential market or audience, and is arrogantly unconcerned with its readership. It exists to be itself. At most it is produced by a few people, often it is only produced by one, and often it is of little interest to anyone except its creators.

In broader definition, small press is often taken to include print on demand, short print run, alternative, independent, underground, fan, slash and not-for-profit comics. I don't take this view.

> How did you first get involved in the small press?
I contributed to a student comics anthology at my university, and offered to help out with the photocopying and collation. We went from layout to finished comics in one midnight shift at the university comlabs, and from that first time, I was hooked.

> Why are you/were you involved in the small press?
For the freedom; to experiment; to avoid editorial influence; to do things that are absolutely mine; to do things that are unashamedly uncommercial.

> Please tell me about a little about your work
It calms me, like a meditation. The act of placing stories into panels gives me a handle on difficult ideas, and allows me to experiment with the absurd
thoughts which occur (I think) to most people, all the time. I mark these moments, draw them over and give them permanence.

> What excites you about the small press in this country?
I can't really wave the flag for a single country, my favourite comics come home from all over the world.

> What depresses you about the small press in this country?
All the talk about distribution, marketing and breaking into the mainstream. It bores me to tears, and leads to the somewhat disheartening affect of small press comics that look a lot like mainstream comics. I like mainstream comics, but small press comics have their own strengths to play to.

> What are your feelings re: the Judge Dredd Megazine printing small press strips but not paying the creators?
It beats bulking out the Megazine with endless reprints, but art drawn for A5 looks weird at that size. Presumably there are also many sensitivities, from paid artists worrying that they're going to be replaced by volunteers to small pressers worrying about what they're submitting being suitable for a megazine audience, to whether or not spelling errors and illegible lettering should be corrected. As far as the payment thing goes, volunteers work alongside paid workers in many environments, and I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work for comics.

> Who are the unsung heroes of the small press?
Rich Holden made a tiny minicomic called Mini Mesh, printed in colour photocopier passes (he even found a copier that printed white!) on coloured paper, entirely abstract. The print runs were tiny, the product incredibly beautiful. There are people all over the world doing stuff like that, all the time. I just picked him out because I was thinking about his comics the other day -- but he was one of a long list of people, thirty or forty names, at least, and that's just the ones that easily came to mind. Small press's unsung heroes are innumerable, and part of the point of them is that they are unsung. You'll never know about them all.

> Who are the (deservedly) sung heroes of the small press?
The people who run anthologies and listing services and conventions and websites and blogrolls and lists and boards and the equally important ones who turn up and join in and think up fun things to do there. We're usually pretty good at thanking them for putting in the effort, but we can't actually thank them enough, because it's hard work and you often lose sight of your own needs (financial, social, emotional, artistic) in organising for the community. I'm not going to name anyone by name, because a) there are too many and b) some don't want (or have) anything to do with comics any more.

I'm losing my edge

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 16:25:56 GMT

I also triggered an enormous livejournal coding error, so my awesome spoof of losing my edge is gone forever. Up in digital smoke. You'll just have to imagine me reciting it with the names of small press comics and places instead of bands along the lines of:

I was there.
I was the first guy selling autobio comics to the superhero boys.
I did it at UKCAC.
Everybody thought I was crazy.

Here's Mr LCD himself, in case you need a reminder:

(provoked by being emailed these questions)

What defines a small press comic?
How did you first get involved in the small press?
Why are you/were you involved in the small press?
Please tell me about a little about your work (feel free to attach samples when you reply).
What excites you about the small press in this country?
What depresses you about the small press in this country?
What are your feelings re: the Judge Dredd Megazine printing small press strips but not paying the creators?
Who are the unsung heroes of the small press?
Who are the (deservedly) sung heroes of the small press?

will be at caption, won't be doing much

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:14:01 GMT

So yes, I forgot to mention.

I will be at Caption, but I won't be doing much there. There'll be, oh -- Tiny Tea Comics, Whores of Mensa, Knicker Draw and probably a couple of Girly Comics containing strip by me for sale. I may drink some beer. Or I may find a corner and faint. Still not very well, I'm afraid ...

The much longer list is of things I haven't done. No weekly strip anthology, no drawn-up dream diary, no contributions to Dead by Dawn, no picture of Tim in a sequinned pterodactyl suit for the auction (actually, he probably thanks me for that...) but life isn't pokemon and you can't catch them all.

So in the meantime I'll be going back to darkly chuckling at the readership of Dykes to Watch out For. Alison Bechdel, now she really knows the score.

new comic available

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:28:26 GMT

In strictly limited numbers, brand new American import Whores of mensa #3.

Contains one rather mysterious 10-page strip (you can preview the first three pages here) plus a single-pager at the back by myself, along with two strips by Mardou (including possibly the canonical Whores of Mensa strip) and a deliciously funny strip by Ellen Lindner.

If you can buy them from me in person, I do recommend doing so, given the current state of the UK postage system! I will be selling them at the Caption convention in Oxford in August.

A UK reprint is also planned.

little lost page from a lost sketchpad

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:29:23 GMT

in the days before rent...

I'm shifting things (and people) around a bit between cleanskies and this journal. It'll probably take me a few weeks to get everything as I want it ...

Until then

drawing on business cards

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:20:36 GMT

I have an ongoing dream about making a pack of cards. Somthing really pretty. I even have a series of tarot sketches, somewhere. I did them in my second year, so all the major arcana are portentous, mythemesque, and vaguely revisionist. Things like "the drowned novelist" "the unrescued princess" and "the burning poet". They'd make good paintings. I'm never, in my life, going to have time to make paintings. I can doodle on the back of business cards, though.

There are 52 of these, but I wouldn't recommend telling your fortune with them.

bugpowder logo, three little witches

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:46:18 GMT

After a few days dithering I drew a logo for Bugpowder, the Small Press Weblog. I had a bunch of different ideas but none of them struck me as especially small press-y or comic-y except the one I went for in the end.

The rest of the logos suggest that there may have been a colour scheme I was supposed to be adhering to. Oh well...

Andrew Richmond (doctormondo) called me up with a script idea for an all-ages comics anthology coming out of Travelling Man in Bristol, and while he chatted I made a series of notes as follows: two sexy legs in stripy stockings (pic); now girls (words); Mrs Bubo (arrow) owl cage (squiggly line); winged demon (words); in the attic (words); a tired-looking face (pic); barricade (words); a pony with a flaming mane (pic). He's now worked my hasty script up into layouts; look at Mrs Bubo's natty hat! Good head on the demon, too.

Moral of the story: call me between four and six and my keenness knows no bounds.

basic information - time line

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 16:17:01 GMT

Following a recent but sadly unanswerable enquiry, I'll hopefully helpfully put a brief timeline of Jeremy Dennis the artist here, with a couple of key events from each decade.

1971 - Born in Kettering, UK.
1974 - Completed first sketchpad. Contains mostly pictures of birds copied from identification charts, dogs and my sisters.

1987-8 - Produced my first comic strip, "Groucho and Joy" in the margins of my Ancient History book. Strips were circulated during quiet moments in lessons.
1989 - Attended classes at the London Cartoon Centre.

1991 - First UK publication in alternative women's mag Girlfrenzy.
1992 - Co-founded Caption, the UK's longest-running small-press and alternative comics convention.
1995 - Interviewed for Channel 4 documentary - Comic Women, -- also first solo exhibition, "Repeated Object, Moving in Time"

2001 - Started publishing The Weekly Strip, my more-or-less weekly comics strip online on my website ( http://www.alleged.org.uk/jrd ).
2003-4 Ran comics workshops at Ladyfests (alternative women's media festivals) around the UK.
2004 Guest at GRRR! comics festival in Pancevo, Serbia
2005 Guest at Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Other things happened, of course, but these were the most timeliney.

transcript of an interview

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 14:28:55 GMT

Leonie O'Moore sent me a short email interview, as part of her research for a book chapter on small press/independent comics in the UK (just since the 80s) in a book about the decline of the British comic industry. My responses were more manifesto than history, but hopefully still useful. I reproduce here my answers to Leonie's questions:

1. When do you feel was (or is/will be) the peak of the small press scene?

I think it's yet to come, and it's still on the grow. Increasing literacy and confidence in the population, the merging and muddling of high art/low art and different media (music, comics, prose, etc.), lowering of small-scale production costs -- these are continuing trends, not fads. The small press scene -- or rather, the many different small press scenes -- are the future, and the mainstream is shrinking. Eventually, it'll just be another subculture in a world of subcultures.

2. Do you believe that it is cyclical?

No, though the same ideas do come up again and again this relates more to a natural rhythm created by the continuous need for certain things (a good alternative comics mag, alternative distros, decent shops, places and events where you can meet up) vs. the burnout rate of individuals. The need doesn't go away, but realistically, there's only a certain amount of energy, money, whatever that a person can commit. And you can't just swop things out for another of the same, so certain ideas lie fallow for a while, before resurfacing. There's also the question of funding; fads do sweep through the grant-giving bodies, but it's more true that demand outstrips provision, and if you've scored a grant you often have to wait a while before you can get another to do similar. If you're into that -- funding, investment, etc. is a little at variance to what many small/alternative/underground presses stand for, they don't benefit from establishment investment, they need other sources of energy -- which is why, so often, they end up being very draining on the people running them.

3. How did Caption come about? (Is there a written history I can reference anywhere, is it possible to get hold of attendence figures?)

On the Caption site, you can (with some difficulty) find Caption history 1992-1999. Caption 2000 marks the change of committee away from the original founders. The following years are reported in some detail on the Caption website but loosely, 2000-2002 we intensified the workshop content, concentrated less on guests and put more effort into attendee care -- stuff like getting food and wine in. This reflected having younger, curious people keen on developing story-telling skills running the show. 2003-4 were great years both -- transitioning to a bigger site, recognising and realising the need for multimedia content, looking at how comics have a historical position, relations to other arts. Getting more academic. It would've been great if it had worked but the amount of work/committment required was -- is -- unsustainable. Last year, with Andy [Roberts] dying (he'd been involved in Caption from the outset: our man in London) and a variety of other issues, I realised it was time to step back. Things are on the move again this year, but it's not to do with me now.

Attendance? Well, it's not the same people every year -- one of the nice things, every year gets new folk in. This was even more true in the days when it was supported by the Caption Zine -- Jenni Scott ran that -- a subscriber alternative comics digest which acted as a scene recruiting device. I don't know what her print run on that was -- 300, maybe? But Caption tends to max out at 150-60 people, a typical attendance is c. 130.

4. Who, do you think, are key figures in UK small press?

I'm going to have to be sketchy because this question is huge. Do ask me questions if you need to.

Back when I first got involved, 1990-1993, there was the Fast Fiction crowd -- Ed Pinsent, Eddie Campbell, and Paul Gravett and a lot of other people surfing the wave of investment in comics from the 80s. There were lots of others. You can pick up some of the history and -- perhaps more importantly -- the attitudes from Eddie Campbell's How to be an Artist.

Another thread was Carol Bennet and Tony over at Knockabout -- probably the noisiest of the underground types, publishing stuff on sex and drugs, also feminist/queer stuff like Fanny and Dykes Delight. They're a bona fide small press and had enormous trouble with all the obscenity law stuff, if you want someone to talk to about that. Paul Loveday was doing similar stuff, but as an independent, as were others.

The story of how the small press got irritated with mainstream convention/comics mags and started running their own events, mags, listings etc. is a little more scattered, but again goes back to the late 80s early 90s, and a realisation that we weren't pros or publishers or fanboys or journos but something new, and something that needed different facilities. So there were the events in Reading (Luke Walsh), Birmingham (Pete Ashton), Brighton (Gavin Burrows), Glasgow, London (Steve Marchant) and distro/listings/review mags like slab-O-concrete, Bypass, Zum (Paul Schroeder) and QZ. (The names I'm giving you are not all the key names -- they're the people who are still enough in the scene that they'll talk about all this. People do quit the scene with great exhaustion -- including several who I feel were enormously important. However, I respect that for them, that part of their life is over. This includes Erica Smith (Girlfrenzy), Pete Pavement, Bruce Bypass.)

At this time, every zine and comic had reviews in the back because that was the only way you found out about all the others, and that and the events were how we contacted and found each other. So you got chains of people knowing each other -- I could trace you some of mine, but I don't know how useful it would be -- it's just one thread among many, which is part of what the small press is all about. The "important person" concept doesn't really belong here -- we should be trying to out-evolve it.

5. What are your thoughts on the future of small press comics?

In the future, all comics will be small press comics. Children will present end-of-term projects as comics. Comics will be filed alongside novels in bookshops, shown next to modern art in galleries, used to present lifestyle choices to teenagers and disseminate knowledge about everything from human rights to the individual stories of victims of unjust laws. Hundreds of web comics will proliferate online, forming great reefs of media-literate humour, cultural identity and clan pride. Online drawing tools, lowering print costs, technological advances and the rise of anti-art styles will make it a medium increasingly available to all. The effort barrier will lower. Comics created on impulse, occasional publications and event-based pieces will proliferate. Print runs will decrease, and begin to have more in common with performances, or be used to extend the reach of performances, events, projects. At the same time, those comics imitating those produced by the packaged consumer culture will increase in quality and become indistinguishable from their inspiration, which will eventually scale down massively and/or die out. Comics will become increasingly participatory and open to all, and people will switch freely between being creator and audience, while (through the supporting, reporting medium of blogs and journals) also filling a side-role as critic, academic and historian. I'm obviously not going very far into the future here -- a lot of this has already happened.

6. How do you think production and distribution of small press comics in the UK has developed or changed and why?

Uh, this isn't really my area of expertise. I'm a crazed ranty artist type. You want to talk to some distributors and movery-shakery types, I suggest Selina, Jay, Shane, and, um, you.

7. Do you think there has been any clear changes in the audience for small press comics?

As the creator base has expanded and begun to include more different subcultures, so has the audience. There are far more women, a broader age range, and a broader political/cultural spread nowadays. Many mainstream fans have filtered back into the small press via fanfic, fanzines and creator tribute comics. The relaxation of the obscenity laws have drifted sex and drugs back into the mainstream, where they belong -- after all, they're pretty universal interests. They're still around, but they no longer dominate in what is a far larger, healthier and more diverse scene where people are much more confident about pushing what they want to do rather than attempting to fit into a small press style.

8. What do you think are the key events in small press history?

First small press table at comics conventions/marts was started by Paul Gravett -- the Fast Fiction table.
Knockabout Press founded around classic stoner comic the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
Warrior Comic published, strips include V for Vendetta. Fantasy Advertiser a long-running fanzine, becomes important to comics.
DTP programmes become commonly available to anyone with a creative job.
Heartbreak Hotel, Escape, and later Deadline published, small British magazines which combine lifestyle/music with innovative comics.
Office photocopiers become widespread and poorly guarded.
First wave of alternative comics conventions include Rising Sun and Caption (can't remember the name of the ones in Brighton but they were great).
Zine listings magazines like Zum, Bypass, QZ and Queerzine Explosion start linking people up and encouranging swapping, meeting collaborating, etc.
The internet arrives and all our prayers are answered. (Seriously, someone else can pick up the story there!)

Hope this helps, like I said -- please come back with any questions.

If you can't be bothered to read it through, here's the summary sentence: "The small press scene -- or rather, the many different small press scenes -- are the future, and the mainstream is shrinking. Eventually, it'll just be another subculture in a world of subcultures."

helping out on the smallzone table

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 16:35:30 GMT

The Little Sour Cream Sex Book, originally uploaded by mondoagogo.

Shane Smallzone makes up these great little A-cards (oo, technical term!) for reviews and recommendations. I first filled them in at the Brighton event, decided I liked the idea and got to see them working at the UK Web and Minicomics Thing. You can see a more photos of the event (and me, even) by Anna over on her flickrstream.

did I even mention that you can buy comics from me?

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 00:14:17 GMT

Well, you can. Here's what's available now:

Whores of Mensa British Bootleg edition £3
Home improvements (gold cover) £2
Minicomics (currently available, Little Mysteries, The New Fanny Anthology, What are you here for?, Mystery Silence Theatre, Giant Sized Man Thing #2 and unfinished projects) 50p ea.
Weekly strip shiny signed print (please specify which) £35
Commissions (this will require correspondence to establish what you want) from £55

Want something not on the list? I have the odd back issue, ask.

Please: put your order in the comments, or repeat it to my email so I'm sure of what you're asking for. What's available varies, just like your mileage. Unless you're only ordering a minicomic, add in a bit of postage, please.

Big Gold Shiny Arse

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 17:27:52 GMT

big gold bottom, originally uploaded by Jeremy Dennis.

I've just been to Brighton Comics Expo. I lost an earring, my nice yellow gloves that you can't buy any more, and enormous quantities of time on the way there and the way back. Nevertheless, had a very fine time. More to follow.

sindee virtue underground

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 11:03:19 GMT

sindee-copy (gif), originally uploaded by Jeremy Dennis.

Sindee Virtue is a cheesecake character developed by Andy Richmond for short-lived horror/film/underground mag Naked. I've had varying amounts of input into the "strips" (in the tradition of Jane and Barbarella, much of the plot revolves around ways of getting all her clothes to fall off) from scratching up pencils to vague phone conversations along the lines of "first she fights fifteen ninjas in bondage gear, and then there's an explosion, and then she falls into the fishpond, and then all her clothes fall off" (we didn't go ahead with Sindee in the Mystic East, alas). I have quite a fun time working with a character who has such a simple brief, even though at times Andy seems to use her as an excuse to get me to draw scantily-clad pretty girls in torn undies ... This is the cover/promo card for the new Sindee one-shot. Andy wanted the classic Saul Bass hitchcock poster/christie cover look with a horror twist. I oblige, with an agonisisingly neurotic line.