ARC FESTIVAL 2026! In terms of themes or genre you never know quite what you’re going to get from a Joe Stone comic. Sometimes you are treated to the kind of slapstick absurdity of his James Bond parody in the pages of Spite. On other occasions you will be privy to the inner turmoil and sadness of something like his heartbreaking autobio in Five Months on Earth. What you can be guaranteed of with Stone’s practice, however, is the presence of one of the UK small press scene’s most inquiring minds when it comes to experimenting with form and narrative tools. As can be seen in his latest collection of short stories in Absolute Cinema and Other Stories, making its first appearance at this month’s Arc Festival.
Take ‘Dear Mike’ (below), the opening story in Absolute Cinema, for example. Here Stone uses the exact same repeating panel of someone’s living room with the only changes being the way in which the central character moves through it and interacts with their environment. It’s the perfect foil for the bleak comedy implicit here of an unfortunate individual coming home to a “Dear John” break-up letter from his partner. As a device it centres our attention on the protagonist, making the grim humour of his being dumped for being horribly unfunny all the more amusing as a result. Pacing here is sublime too, leading up to a brilliantly tragicomedic punchline.
In the second story, the titular ‘Absolute Cinema’ (below), Stone pulls the rug out from under us on more than one occasion as dual narratives weave in and out of each other, vying for primary status in this witty tale of a man who becomes a pariah for being a cinema talker. There’s some very clever use of lettering to enhance theme here and, amid all the absurdity, a tongue-in-cheek celebration of the escapism of storytelling.
Rounding things out are the charming ‘Clarence & Aisha’ which is a touching rumination on the nature and purpose of art embedded in a conversation between an artist and a five-year-old. And, finally, ‘Rush Hour’ (below) where a journey on public transport becomes an anxiety-inducing nightmare. Again, Stone makes excellent use of speech balloon placement here to suggest overlapping lives and the sensation of hustle and bustle on a packed bus. But what really stands out is the juxtaposition of inner reality and outer reality for the main character. It’s a fantastic reminder of the things that comics alone can do as the reader’s interaction with the page slows down for the former and speeds up for the latter.
You will be spoilt for choice at ARC Festival next week but Absolute Cinema is an absolute joy of a comic. An accessible interrogation of the boundless possibilities of comics as an artform.
Joe Stone (W/A) • Self-published
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Review by Andy Oliver
Joe Stone will be tabling at the ARC Festival comics fair on July 11th-12th. For the full details on everything ARC has to offer check out their website here.
