The Mini Comic Library

A HEARTFELT, personal and deeply touching story about keeping perspective and our place in the universe, The Amateur Astronomer's Journal by Neil Slorance reminds me what it is I find so profoundly beautiful about small press comics. At its very best, the medium - and particularly the autobiographical corner of the market - is a platform where artists allow their heart and soul to pour onto a page and offer themselves, often warts and all, to our scrutiny. In The Amateur Astronomer's Journal, Slorance has crafted a story with several intricate layers. His wonderful opening splash sets our story in a city that could be anywhere, inviting us to relate to his protagonist, as they work hard into the night, at an apparently thankless job.  We watch her anxiety and frustration grow (For ease I'll assume she is a she, although with only long hair to go on I could be wrong, and it probably doesn't really matter anyway) and Slorance invites us to feel frustrated with her.  I for...

HIGH-FANTASY hijinx or sword and sorcery shenanigans, it doesn't matter what tagline you apply to Neil Slorance and Colin Bell's epic misadventure Dungeon Fun, because in the end, it is a comic that does exactly ‘what it says on the tin’.  The highly-touted series, is one of the most talked about books on the UK's mini comics scene in recent years, and for a genre that often falters by taking itself too seriously, the titular ‘fun’, is the perfect mission statement.  As part of the generation that spent Saturday mornings locked in a never-ending 2D overhead battle with Ganon and his minions, seeking Triforce pieces, and hacking my way through dungeon after dungeon, it's impossible not to find kindred spirits in Bell and Slorance and reading their beautiful book gave me the feeling, that for once, I was ‘in on the joke'.  When monsters are introduced in splash panels with decidedly Nintendo-esque names highlighted in bold letters across the bottom, it took me straigh...

FLAWLESS pacing, whimsical and magical characters, a healthy dose of humour and a gorgeous, smooth, silky style make Adam Vian's Long Lost Lempi a must-buy for any fan of independent comics. I stopped in my tracks the first time I saw his beautiful artwork across the room at this year's Lakes Comic Art Festival. I was utterly captivated by the open pages he had on display, suckered in by my own natural affinity for black and white comics and truly impressed with the amount of story on each meticulously crafted page. As I told Adam at the time, I was sold on the spot, but th at didn't stop me from being nicely surprised when I actually sat down to read the three issues I bought from him that day.  Timeless, charming and eccentric, each character that takes to Long Lost Lempi's stage has a clear, distinctive voice, making Vian's vibrant world even more colourful than a lot of his 'full colour' contemporaries.  Vian sets out the stall for his main character, th...

HAUNTING images from Fabien Vehlmann and Keruscoet's Beautiful Darkness still linger in my mind days after I put the book down. I ordered the 'anti-fairy' tale with very little idea of what to expect and set to reading it blissfully unaware of the dark trip the creators would take me on.  A truly unique, exhilarating and at times harrowing read, Beautiful Darkness caught me off guard mere moments into my first reading with a splash page that would have knocked me off my feet had I been standing and one which well and truly set the tone for the dark, hallucinatory story set to unravel in front of me. It's a comic which defies definition in a lot of ways, and at the very least is a challenge to talk about without spoiling the experience for someone who hasn't read it, with frightening twists and turns often so unexpected the impact of knowing what was to come would surely take away from the experience. And reading Beautiful Darkness is an experience, a thrilling one. ...