The Mini Comic Library

JACK Teagle’s passion for creating comics is obvious and his hard work and dedication to the craft shine through in a sweeping portfolio of work characterised by humour, his own unique style and a genuine honesty and vulnerability that set his work apart from the crowd and make his voice one of the strongest and most interesting in the UK’s burgeoning small press scene. A prolific creator, it is a testament to Teagle’s commitment to comics that such a wide range of his work is available in print and online and it was with some frustration that I missed the opportunity to buy work from him at both the Lakes International Comic Art Festival and Thought Bubble in 2014. So it was with an aspect akin to a kid let loose in Will Wonka’s Chocolate Factory that I plundered his online store, and with the sense of excitement, anticipation and inspiration, that only new mini comics can bring, that a few days later, I tore open a bulging envelope to find six beautifully produced books by Teagle and...

The Welcome to April's Comic Ribs . This is a space to collect my thoughts on single issues as I read them in a short form that keeps me writing regularly and uses some of the skills I learnt as a journalist. It takes the NiB format (short 'News in Brief) and attempts to apply it to comics. The format remains a single post per month, which I will edit with brief reviews (briefer than last time I hope ... again) that I write as I read (and I'm fully aware how late I am reading some stuff). So, with the scene set, the groundwork laid, and the rod for my back thoroughly created, welcome to Comic Ribs ... or Reviews in Brief - April 2015    Southern Bastards 8 - Aaron, Latour & Fletcher - Image THE bloody, violent path charting the ascension of Coach Boss comes to its climax here, and with it the sympathies Aaron has made us feel for his series' central antagonist.  Because the route to the top Boss takes here, the lines he's prepared to cross and his obvious growin...

CRUEL, unsettling and sinister, the ferocious, nightmare world of  And Then Emily Was Gone  still sits waiting at the end of my bed for me every night since I finished reading it, staring at me in the darkness, waiting for me to think I'm safe again before unleashing it's remorseless, horrifying creations on me one more time.  The rag tag band of Scottish creators responsible the sleepless nights of myself and, I would imagine, and many other readers, have struck a killer blow with this sleeper hit, effortlessly sliding a knife into the guts of the comics world and then stepping back to watch us all bleed out. And Then Emily Was Gone  is steeped in the traditions of the horror genre - the remote, hostile community reminiscent of  The Wicker Man  and even  The League of Gentlemen , the child fighting back while adults capitulate or succumb to evil, the gallery of grotesques who fill the pages of the five-issue mini-series, and even the bogeyman, here in...