THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH 2025! What makes a good small press comics anthology? This may be contentious but I don’t necessarily believe that technical proficiency is the answer to that question. For me the true joy of self-published or group effort anthologies is a twofold one. Firstly the supportive community element they can provide; a chance to connect with and elevate your creative peers. And, secondly, the opportunity they provide for less established and even first-time artists to have a platform for their work from which they can learn and grow. That’s been the draw of the WIP Comics anthologies for some time now and their latest collection ∞: The New WIP Comics Anthology is no exception.
For those unaware of WIP Comics it’s a UK-based network of emerging (and by now many established) indie creators who run regular meet-ups online and in-person to discuss practice and process, and advise and support each other. Each year they also produce an annual themed anthology from among their members which seems to just get bigger and bigger each time. Last year, for example, it was split into two volumes Tall Tales & Short Stories. This year there’s also a digital element with an expanded edition. They are one of the great success stories of the UK small press and they do incredibly important and admirable work.
Work by Mike Armstrong
So, onto this year’s time-twisting theme with that somewhat different title and the idea of ‘Infinity/Loop/ Ouroboros’ at its heart and, you know what? I am not even going to begin to pretend that I can do anything in the space of a short review but hone in on a small handful of strips that I particularly liked. There are nearly 60 comics in the print format version of the book alone after all! So what especially caught my eye in these pages…?
‘Infinitely Perfect in Every Way’ (above) gives us a Mary Poppins parody by writer Nick Bryan, artist Elena Artese and letterer Rob Jones. It’s a good starting point in underlining the diversity of the different approaches to the theme that can be seen in these pages. Bryan gives us a witty story of existential angst and near nihilism that even a Poppins-style character can’t solve but it’s Artese’s fluid cartooning and inventive layouts that really capture the imagination here.
Ross Hopkins in ‘Spiralling’ actually uses the fabric of the page to create a looping tale of two characters trapped in some kind of netherworldly torment forever repeating the same cycle while Bee Poole gives us the poetic ‘Soar Deep, Dive High’ (above), a one-pager reminding us of the vastness of reality and one that certainly fits into the graphic poetry strand of comics.
Ellenor Mererid’s ‘Whale Fall, Whale Rise’ (above) is a silent story of oceanic death and rebirth that plays with both formal structure and comics’ unique relationship with the passage of time and was probably my favourite entry in the book. Meanwhile the ever reliable Joe Stone gives us a meta treatise on the nature of comics creativity in ‘The Act of Creation’ (below) that ends on a typically Stone-style downbeat punchline.
Another ‘Six to Watch’ artist Mike Armstrong (and the anthology’s showrunner) brings us the fantasy/social commentary of ‘Busy Work’; his accessible cartooning style ensuring the message hits home all the more clearly for its endearing visual clarity. Dave Hingley’s ‘Sisyphus’ is another story that uses a cyclical page structure to represent the mythological character’s eternal struggle, as does gleamiarts’ ‘Mirrored Futures; but with the more down-to-earth scenario of a child staring into a mirror and see her possible futures reflected therein. It’s a common approach in the anthology with Zubair M Chaudhry’s ‘Gen-O-Cider: Now Guilt Free’ (below) also adopting it in a cutting piece of relevant topical commentary.
Again, and as ever with the WIP Comics collections, there’s a real mix of confident work and much rawer material where artists are clearly learning their craft as they go along. That, of course, is the entire point of the exercise. After all, supporting WIP Comics anthologies is supporting the UK comics community, and that is an end in and of itself.
Ab, Abi Wye, AJ O’Neill, Alex Demetris, Alex Manda, Andreas ‘Andi Pasti’ Adam, Andrew Attwell, Asia Kazub, Bee Poole, Brandon Sked, Bren, Brett Gowlett, Bruno Stead, Caileigh McNeil, Carsha, Chris Hazeldine, Cláudia Lopes, Cretien Hughes, Dave Hingley, Dave Turbitt, Edward Wills Garcia, Elena Artese, Ellenor Mererid, Fergo, Florencia Botta, gleamiarts, Greg Donert, Hanna Gwynn, Jack Waugh, Jenny Bouvier, Joe Stone, Judy Powell, KitsuneArt /Lucia Fioretti, Kristina Stipetic, Lara Callaghan, LJ, lomcia (Iocte Nocte),Markus Pattern, Martin Bangratz, Mary Bluestocking, Mike Armstrong, Nancy ArtMusic, Nick Bryan, oreofesart, Papertiger, Pete Hobson, Rob Jones, Rosario Cutuli, Ross Hopkins, Ryan Toogood, Sevgül Sümer Dielemans, Shaunak Samvatsar, Stephanie Bazin, Tami, Weird is the Best (Kama Mielczarek), Wishtea, Yawatta Hosby and Zubair M Chaudhry • WIP Comics
Review by Andy Oliver
Visit the WIP Comics online store here.
WIP Comics will be at Table F11 in the Bubbleboy Hall at Thought Bubble.
Thought Bubble 2025 runs from November 1oth-16th with the convention weekend taking place on the 15th-16th. More details on the Thought Bubble site here.
Read all our Thought Bubble 2025 coverage so far in one place here.
Poster by Ng Yin Shian
