It's Very sad

I had hoped that giving zinesters a place where their books could be reviewed or topics they were interested in could be explored was a good thing.

I notice the linocut post still gets high views!

But no comments, no feedback, no small press books sent in to be reviewed...looks like this blog will soon go the way of the others and be closed down.

If you scream "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" then send in books for review -just ask for the address where to send them -hoopercomicsuk@yahoo.com

I'll give the blog until mid March.

Fred Egg Comics: BREAK THE CAKE

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80 pages. 
A5
Black & white / colour
£5.00

https://fredeggcomics.bigcartel.com/product/break-the-cake

Published by and with stories written and drawn by David Robertson and with guest artwork by Marc Casilli, Zu Dominiak, Olivia Hicks, Rebecca Horner, Védís Huldudóttir, Paddy Johnston, Tim Kelly, Francesca Mancuso, Norrie Millar, Neil Paterson, Ludi Price, Katie Quinn, Mike Sedakat, and Pam Wye).

I wrote a long review before Christmas but I certainly cannot find it on CBO -Blogger even refuses to accept that some of my own posts exist and I have to go online to search for them! So this is a briefer review as I can only remember some of what I wrote previously.

Contents for this 80 pager are:

01. GOODBYE, STAR WARS 
02. JONATHAN SWIFT: “I AM A FRAUD”
03. HOURLY COMIC DAY 2018
04. INTO THE COMICS ARCHIVE
05. THAT'S BILLY MACKENZIE!
06. THE AMAZING HANG-OUT (with Jack)
07. NUMBER THREE'S THE CHARM

08. TEA BREAK at the RAZOR FACTORY -which I'll mention here as I can remember most of what I wrote about it.

Being a pain in the ass I'll write straight away that the toning used here does not work. It would have been far better left as simple black and white art.  The lettering, as Moebius pointed out, is all part of the creative process and if the artist draws the strip he/she should letter it (unless you have useless fingers like mine then it is perfectly acceptable to computer letter!).

Here is a big problem -is the character in panel 2 and 3 a man or woman? In story telling you need to set these things out clearly to the reader and I have the memory of ex-Fleetway football comic editor Dave Hunt pointing at my artwork and telling another artist "See? This is clear: this is the blond guy and that's the dark haired one so we know the way these are featured they'll be the main focus". It was an odd statement at the time but I get his point.  Here the reader should see straight away that A is female or male -in the panels the neck looks massive.  You have to really think about this because as someone pointed out to me the "gets me out of the house" might also be dialogue from a stay-at-home dad.


09. BIG BUBBLES
10. MINTY McALLISTER, LADY JOURNALIST
11. SPACE STATION EXPLOSION
12. WHICH WAY NOW? (art: Marc Casilli)



Look at the above colour work on WHICH WAY NOW? Basic and simple colouring by computer and it looks awful. Believe me it could look a lot letter using simple water colours or even fibre tips or pencil crayons -I once tried using the computer colouring (IGrafix) and wanted to take a hammer to my fingers. Luckily, I decided to get the Windsor & Newton colour inks and brush out instead.  The solid black background in the third panel -it was a rear window in panel one) is a b-i-g mistake. It throws everything off.

"Roads are busy today" as dialogue  when we can see there are only three (?) vehicles does not work.  You have to be careful when it comes to dialogue and how you use.  One of my strips included a character pointing out that the sky was "full of spaceships" and, yes, I had to draw a sky full of spaceships since drawing only three would be more "Look, three spaceships".

If you use a script then before drawing thumbnails are usually a good idea because they will point out problems with the script and what you have to draw.

13. BAGUETTE DECISIONS (art: Zu Dominiak)
14. THE HOURLY CHANGEOVER (art: Olivia Hicks)
15. SPOILER WARNING (art: Rebecca Horner)
16. DESCARTES' CANDLE (art: Védís Huldudóttir)
17. SEEDLESS (art: Paddy Johnston)
18. URINAL GUM (art: Tim Kelly)




The art in Urinal Gum (above) was very reminiscent of Rob millar's art in the old Khaki Shorts or, going back further, to the old Knock Yaself Out zine.  This is a bit more basic butit shows promise since there are very few artists in the UK coming up with a humour style.  Be interesting to see how far the style progresses in a years time (though most getting into the Small Press tend to leave it after a year or so).

19. EVERYTHING IN MODERATION (art: Francesca Mancuso)
20. STAR-CROSSED LOVERS (art: Norrie Millar)

Star-Crossed Lovers...Absolutely nothing wrong here.  Lettering works, colour and art spot on. Any flaw is so minor it isn't worth mentioning. The strip was the highlight of the book.

21. WEIRD MOMENTS IN DAD ROCK Part One (art: Neil Paterson)
22. CO-PILOT (art: Ludi Price)
23. HUMBLE BEGINNINGS (art: Katie Quinn)
24. JURASSIC MENU (art: Mike Sedakat)
25. PUFFER LOVE (art: Pam Wye)
26. DOG WALKER
27. FRED EGG in “OUT TO LUNCH”

There is a problem I notice and it's like being poked in the eye constantly. The line of the art tends to vary. Most might use an unbroken thicker outline on figures and finer line for face details, etc. If you look at sample 1 above the fella to the left in panel 2 has two different line thickness -his left side has a thinner and broken line and with sample 2 the head looks awful with a thick line on top the head but broken thin line below that.

I would always tell any artist to use just two thicknesses of pen for inking -a 0.3 or 0.5 for outline (just see which you think fits your work best) and a 0.2 or 0.3 for facial details, etc.. the advice is just that and for a long time I used just Berol Fineline pens and you could vary the line to the degree that people think you are lying by saying you are only using one pen not 2 or 3.

https://hoopercomicart.blogspot.com/2018/06/berol-pens-sharpies-and-drawing.html

I suppose that it all depends on what you are aiming for.  The Small Press was always the grass-roots of comics where artists and writers learnt their trade -Mark Millar and Warren Ellis both wrote pieces for Ben Dilworth zines in the 1980s for example and PhantomX's Andrew Hope produced strips for the small press including my own titles. If the publisher and creators involved are just doing this for fun then okay.  I know people criticise me for saying and writing that but the whole point is that the Small Press is NOT Marvel or DC and it is not a big money-making industry and is not bound by any set of rules.

Is the aim to one day produce a much more professional and sellable comic?  Then the lessons need to be learnt. I'm not here to tell people what to do but review and give an opinion.

At £5 for 80 pages it is certainly worth buying to read and with pages such as those by Norrie Millar you'll have a treat.

The book can be ordered online and it can't be much easier than that.

Worth looking at