Books and Comics

Mike Mignola gets back to the drawing board with Abe Sapien, Hellboy and BPRD

24 Jun 2010

Miles Fielder chats to writer and artist Mike Mignola about the expanding world of his demonic offspring and literally getting back to the drawing board

Alan Moore - Lost Girls

5 Feb 2009

‘What we wanted to do with Lost Girls was to come up with a different form of pornography. We realised we had the ideas for something enormous and wonderful.’ Alan Moore, who’s widely considered to be the finest writer working in comics today and is…

Charles M Schulz - Small world

15 Nov 2007

It’s the little things that make the difference. In the case of the Charles M Schulz cartoon strips, that could mean the smallest of pen strokes for a raised eyebrow, an extra crease on a forehead, the downward bend on the ends of a mouth. Schulz…

Jamie Hewlett & Alan Martin - The Cream of Tank Girl

16 Oct 2008

ART For Tank Girl fans, this is the book you’ve been waiting for; a glossy retrospective covering her anarchic antics from 1988 until today, including an honest account of her Hollywood hell (neither writer Alan Martin or artist Jamie Hewlett liked…

Nicolas de Crécy - The Celestial Bibendum

Gorgeous reprint and translation of artist/writer de Crécy’s often bizarre comic

27 Apr 2012

Knockabout, the UK publisher/distributor that’s been making Transatlantic underground and alternative comics available to the turned on and tuned in since the 1980s, has more recently been in the business of translating and repackaging into oversize…

Mark Millar

Helping comics go widescreen

20 Aug 2009

Mark Millar is surely the Steven Spielberg of the comics world. It’s a tricky task to be hugely popular while retaining massive critical acclaim, but he’s managed to successfully straddle the world of art and commerce with his love of mainstream heroes…

Howard Chaykin - American Flagg!

28 May 2009

With a penchant for eroticism and violence, US comics visionary Howard Chaykin is releasing another groundbreaking work. Miles Fielder chats to him.

Bryan Talbot

The Pilgrim’s Progress

26 Mar 2007

North of England born and bred comics creator Bryan Talbot is credited with writing and illustrating the very first British graphic novel. The Adventures of Luther Arkwright is a science fantasy epic initially serialised in 1978 and first collected in…

Artist Martin Eden on LGBT comic Spandex

The plot focuses on a team of gay superheroes who fight crime in Brighton

18 Apr 2012

(Titan Books) Many a quip has been made about Batman and Robin bunking up, but how often are there actually LGBT themes in comics? With the latest incarnation of Batwoman being an out lesbian, there is certainly more scope for a homosexual hulk, and…

Supergods - Grant Morrison interview

Grant Morrison on his journey to becoming one of the world’s leading comics writers

21 Jun 2011

When I was eight my mum, who was a big fan of science fiction in all its forms, took me to see 2001: A Space Odyssey three times in one month. It was a profound thing to see. The second time I was so freaked out by the Stargate sequence that I couldn’t…

Edward Ross - Filmish

20 Jan 2010

(Chiaroscuro) Edinburgh-based cartoonist, comic writer and filmmaker Edward Ross releases this sharp and wryly amusing ‘wee collection of comic book essays on film theory’. This isn’t hard academia (and doesn’t pretend to be) but an engaging look at…

Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette & John Totleben - Saga of the Swamp Thing

16 Apr 2009

COMICS/SUPERHERO There’s no point going over old ground: if you have even the vaguest interest in comics you’ll know of the genius of Alan Moore. Watchmen, V For Vendetta and From Hell are established classics of the medium, as of course is Saga of…

Bat's Life - Dark Knight

17 Jul 2008

Leigh Rafferty traces the highs and lows of the caped crusader’s cultural career

The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s

22 May 2008

Forget Teddy Sheringham or Craig Brewster. Each would have to play on for almost another 20 years to match the footballing career of Roy Race, who turned out for and then player-managed the famous Melchester Rovers from 1954 to 1993 (with a brief…

Hannah Berry - Adamtine

A disconcerting horror comic from the creator of Britten and Brülightly

22 May 2012

British graphic novelist Hannah Berry’s near-perfect debut, Britten and Brülightly, was a detective yarn inspired by Graham Greene and Carol Reed. But the familiar post-war milieu was given a surreal comic twist with the inclusion of a character that…

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

Eric Skillman and Jhomar Soriano - Liar's Kiss

Unpredictable crime noir graphic novel from new writer and artist team

12 May 2011

Top Shelf Comix. Featuring a real loser of a protagonist and devolving around a series of misunderstandings and bad coincidences, this stylish, noirish hard-boiled crime graphic novel recalls, among other things, certain films of the Coen brothers. In…

Hellblazer returns with two new publications - Jamie Delano interview

30 Mar 2010

Originally created by Alan Moore on the pages of his groundbreaking Saga of the Swamp Thing, John Constantine has gone on to become one of the comics world’s most fully realised characters. As writer Jamie Delano explains: ‘Constantine is often…

Chris Kent - Medusa

21 Jan 2010

(Graphite Fiction) Borders-based artist and writer Chris Kent has produced a strong piece of complex work for his debut comics project. Using collage, photo and painted art Medusa has a unique look for a haunting tale of lose and longing. Following…

Gilbert Shelton - The Fat Freddy’s Cat Omnibus

19 Nov 2009

(Knockabout) While he might come across as a hippy Garfield, Fat Freddy’s Cat actually predates the lasagne-obsessed ginger tom by nine years. Springing from the pages of the ultimate stoner’s comic – The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers – which was…

Heavy Metal Dredd by John Wagner, Alan Grant and various

A collection of Judge Dredd's most exteme adventures

3 Sep 2009

More from your favourite ultra hard-line future lawman in this collection of some of Judge Dredd’s most extreme stories. First printed in Rock Power and the Judge Dredd Megazine, these are stories with no limits, going for bloody slapstick comedy with a…

Curt Sibling - Total Fear: Collection 3

11 Jun 2009

HORROR COMIC There’s been a resurgence in the world of underground comics in Scotland of late, as we’ve tried to reflect on these very pages over the last few months. Now Curt Sibling is back with more of his effervescent adult’s only humour. Total…

Judge Dredd Megazine No.275

4 Sep 2008

The other outlet for Dredd's continuing adventures in near-future totalitarianism alongside 2000AD is the Megazine, relaunched this issue, including a free mini-graphic novel collecting Dredd stories illustrated by Jock. Regular writer John Wagner is…

Frank Miller & Jim Lee - All Star Batman and Robin

14 Aug 2008

COMIC (DC/Titan) Frank Miller and Jim Lee tackle the world’s greatest detective and the boy wonder in this sister title to Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly’s All Star Superman. The first nine issues of the ongoing series are collected here, and like…

Ghost Rider

As the new movie roars onto the big screen,

26 Feb 2007

COMICS IIt’s 1972. Evel Knievel was the most famous man in America; films like Blacula, Deep Throat and Deliverance were topping the box-office; events like Watergate and Vietnam meant there was a darker edge in the air. Marvel were running stories…

GFF 2012 - Mark Millar interview

The comic book creator of Kick-Ass and Wanted tells us about his role at the Glasgow Film Festival

13 Feb 2012

Mark Millar has written some of the biggest comics of the last 20 years. He’s tackled the X-Men, Spider-Man, Superman and Fantastic Four alongside...

Tony S Daniel & Various - Batman: Battle for the Cowl

25 Feb 2010

(DC/Titan) VARIOUS After the cataclysmic events in Grant Morrison’s Batman RIP, there’s a void in Gotham City, and while Nightwing, Robin, Huntress, Batgirl, Catwoman and their allies are trying to fend off the crimewave, it appears someone needs to…

Pat Mills and Various - ABC Warriors: The Meknificent Seven / The Shadow Warriors

2 Apr 2009

(Rebellion) SCI-FI COMIC More British sci-fi action from 2000AD with the ‘Atomic’, ‘Bacterial’, ‘Chemical’ robot warriors, built to withstand any crisis. Going right back to their debut in 1979, The Meknificent Seven shows the formation of the…

Mark Millar & Various - Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest

19 Mar 2009

SUPERHERO COMICS Coatbridge’s Mark Millar has been in the upper echelons of comic book superstars since he started writing The Authority in 2000. This was swiftly followed by Ultimate X-Men while memorable subsequent projects have included Civil War…

Pat Mills

16 Oct 2008

If you have even a passing interest in British comics, chances are you’ll have read some work by Pat Mills. Despite his legendary status inventing characters like Slaine the Barbarian, Nemesis the Warlock and ABC Warriors, he actually started out…

Dan Slott & Juan Bobillo - She-Hulk: Single Green Female

5 Jun 2008

SUPERHERO (Marvel) Finally how could we ignore She-Hulk? After receiving an irradiated blood transfusion from her cousin, Bruce Banner, Jennifer Walters inherited some of his powers and strength. However, she’s in control of her emotions and isn’t…

Reginald Hudlin, Larry Stroman & Ken Lashley - Black Panther: Black to the Future

13 Mar 2008

SUPERHERO (Marvel) Marvel celebrates Black History Month with this double-sized one shot focusing on two of the highest profile black characters in comics: The Black Panther and his wife Storm (of X-Men fame). The tale is set in the fictional African…

Nicolas de Crecy - Glacial Period

Graphic novel

4 Oct 2007

Being branded an enfant terrible is too often faint praise for some artists but it poses no problems for Nicolas De Crécy who goes to great pains not to conform to stereotypical comic boy clichés and in doing so has produced a distinct body of work that…

Dan Slott & Humberto Ramos - Spider-Man: Spider Island

New Spidey adventure too frivolous to be genuinely engaging

24 Apr 2012

(Marvel) Spider-Man has always been one of the comics world’s more light-hearted superheroes. While there have been moments of introspection and heartache, he’s always more than ready with a corny quip as he swings into battle. Spider Island continues…

Mark Millar & Leinil Francis Yu - Superior

The Kick-Ass creator's latest ponders what superpowers would mean to those who needed them most

16 Mar 2012

(Titan) Glasgow writer Mark Millar has really picked up the pace on his creator-owned series over the last few years, but what’s more remarkable is how high the quality has remained. Wanted, Kick-Ass and Nemesis were action blockbusters but Superior…

Team Girl Comic #4

Ragtag Glasgow-based publication providing feminist balance in the world of comics

28 Feb 2012

Team Girl Comic is a Glasgow collective of artists and illustrators breathing fresh feminist air into the underground comic scene. A lo-fi zine featuring a pic’n’mix of cartoons and drawings by women of all backgrounds and ages, TGC was set up as a…

Electric Man

A patchy, if well intentioned, Edinburgh-set comic comedy

8 Feb 2012

(12A tbc) 98min Shot in Edinburgh on a micro-budget, comic shop comedy Electric Man declares its intentions from the off: this is to be no social realist kitchen sink drama, typical of the UK film industry, but rather a light-hearted love-letter to…

Joost Swarte: Is That All There Is?

Compendium of the Dutch cartoonist’s satirical alternative comics

3 Feb 2012

Apparently so. Or almost so. Is That All There Is? collects virtually all of the Dutch cartoonist’s alternative comics from way back in 1972 to the present day, translates them into English and assembles them, under Swarte’s own supervision, in this…

Courtney Taylor-Taylor & Jim Rugg - One Model Nation

Unsuccessful comic book crossover attempt from the Dandy Warhols frontman

27 Jan 2012

(Titan Books) It’s always interesting when someone turns their hand from one artform to another. However, One Model Nation is proof that the results aren’t always as interesting as the concept. The idea of a comic from Dandy Warhols’ frontman…

Preview of 2012 - Millennium Trilogy comics

Scottish crime author Denise Mina adapts Stieg Larsson’s bestselling classics

6 Jan 2012

There’s not a lot left to say about Stieg Larsson. The three homegrown film adaptations of the late Swedish author’s novels – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – along with David…

Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows - Neonomicon

Moore takes some liberties with Lovecraft's stories, but as ever, does a grand job of it

5 Jan 2012

(Avatar) While we wait impatiently for the final instalment of the latest The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century (see our review of part two), we have this new graphic novella from the grand magi of comics to be going on with. Neonomicon is…

Metaphrog - Louis: Red Letter Day

Reissue of the Glasgow-based graphic novel duo's 2000 Louis debut

12 Dec 2011

(Metaphrog) A year after the publication of the fifth Louis book, Night Salad, the Glasgow-based writer-illustrator partnership Metaphrog celebrates a decade of their series of graphic novels for kids and adults. To mark the event, Scot John Chalmers…

The Art of Joe Kubert

Wonderful collection of comics art from one of the legends of the medium

21 Nov 2011

Edited by Bill Schelly (Fantagraphics) Alongside the ongoing and consistently groundbreaking efforts of Fantagraphics Books Inc to publish the work of new and cutting edge cartoonists (beginning with Los Bros Hernandez's Love & Rockets in the late…

Rick Remender & Tony Moore - Venom / Zeb Wells & Clayton Crain - Carnage

Spiderman villains comics deliver great action

15 Nov 2011

(Marvel UK) A double dose of villains this month, reintroducing two of Spider-Man’s arch enemies to the Marvel Universe. Venom and Carnage are both symbiotes, a parasitic species that bonds with a human host bestowing them with immense power at a…

Daniel Clowes - The Death-Ray

Amusing and poignant deconstruction of the super-hero genre

18 Oct 2011

(Jonathan Cape) More gorgeousness from writer/artist Daniel Clowes with this oversized hardback reprinting of 2004’s The Death-Ray. A slacker superhero story about 17-year-old orphan Andy discovering that smoking cigarettes charges him with…

Glasgay!: Re-Invention

Exhibition and workshop aimed at gay and trans comic fans

19 Sep 2011

The idea of gay culture in comics is nothing new, with handfuls of uptight academics frantically pointing out the homoerotic sub-tones of Batman and Robin’s cartoon exploits since the 1950s. The foundations of X-Men arguably lie in the civil rights…

Jonathan Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards - Turf

Slightly clunky comic debut from the TV personality

16 Sep 2011

(Titan) Yes that Jonathon Ross. The chat show host has long been an acknowledged geek with a superhero fixation, so perhaps it’s high time he stepped up to take the reigns on his own comic title. And he certainly goes for it, all guns blazing, with a…

Craig Collins & Iain Laurie - Roachwell

A dark, funny and disturbing achievement in self-published comics

24 Aug 2011

(roachwell.blogspot.com) Published online between 2009 and 2010, Roachwell is a fevered and messy collection of obtuse, amusing strips by Scottish writer/artists Craig Collins and Iain Laurie. Cremation and regeneration, house-hunting in the freak…

Jay Cantoe & James Romberger - Aaron and Ahmed: A Love Story

17 Aug 2011

(Vertigo/Titan) Novelist, scriptwriter and essayist Jay Cantor’s foray into comics starts as a simple examination of the relationship between an army doctor/torturer and a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, then heads off on a wild tangent concerning the…

Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century – 1969

Groovy, psychedelic second entry into the League's Century series

3 Aug 2011

(Top Shelf/Knockabout) Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill take their science fiction and fantasy literature homage/parody into previously uncharted realms with their most contemporaneous jaunt yet. Part two of the Century trilogy takes the heroes into…