There wasn’t much to celebrate in 2020 but one thing we could take some joy in was that, despite everything, there was still plenty of amazing self-published comics work to lose ourselves in over. Our ‘Small Pressganged’ column at Broken Frontier has been running this yearly round-up of ‘Ten UK Small Press Comics You Need to Own!’ since 2012. It’s never been intended to be a “Best of” list but, instead, a representation of the breadth of styles, approaches and subject matter on show on the UK scene over the previous year (with a sidestep this year for one creator based in Ireland too!).
There’s some crossover with the Broken Frontier Awards shortlists but also a large number of books that you won’t have seen there. As ever it’s drawn from the previous year of published reviews on the site. I have restricted the featured comics to grassroots publishing/self-publishing so small press publishers and books published via festivals or competition wins are not included. And the focus is (mostly) on individual creators so no anthologies are listed below.
Immerse yourselves in some truly excellent comics practice, check out more work from the artists below on their sites, and make sure to follow them all on social media! This has been the toughest of all years for the small press community and they need and deserve your support now more than ever.
(Read our previous annual round-ups here at Broken Frontier)
The Junction
Norm Konyu
Lucas has returned home. 12 years after disappearing. Silent. Haunted. And still 11 years old.
That’s the intriguing soundbite that introduces Norm Konyu’s self-published graphic novel but it doesn’t even begin to sum up the directions this remarkable debut book takes as it explores the mystery surrounding a young child’s bizarre return from the presumed dead. Konyu presents a story that is otherworldly and eerie, but also a very human account of love, loss, community and family. I read a lot of graphic novels for Broken Frontier last year and, in my most humble of opinions, this is undoubtedly one of the three best of the year. Publishers take note! You should be queueing up to take this phenomenal example of the pure craft of comics narrative to the wider audiences it is owed.
Small Pressganged review here
Small Pressganged soundbite: This is a difficult book to review simply because the capacity to delight and touch that its twists and turns possess really should be experienced firsthand by the reader directly on the page. But, suffice to say, this is one of the most accomplished debut books I have ever reviewed for Broken Frontier.
For more on the work of Norm Konyu visit his site here and online store here. You can also follow him on Twitter here and on Instagram here.
Escapades
Olivia Sullivan
As regular readers know I’ve been championing the practice of 2017 Broken Frontier ‘Six to Watch’ artist Olivia Sullivan for a number of years here at BF. Her work has always challenged and interrogated the form’s boundaries but over the last couple of years the growing confidence on show in her abstract, stream-of-consciousness narratives has been a joy to behold. Escapades was just one example of that last year and a fine entry point into her work. It was also nominated in the Broken Frontier Awards 2020 in the category of Best One-Shot.
Small Pressganged review here
Small Pressganged soundbite: The joy of an Olivia Sullivan comic is not simply that the reader can take their own meaning from its pages but that they can continue to take multiple meanings from it on each re-reading. In her own quiet way she continues to push the boundaries and possibilities of this medium with considered invention and an intuitive grasp of its possibilities that is spellbinding in its abstract execution. It’s time that contribution was recognised by a far, far wider audience.
For more on the work of Olivia Sullivan visit site here and her online store here. You can also follow her on Twitter here and on Instagram here.
Kiyomi’s Prequel
Alxndra Cook
Kiyomi’s Prequel was the second place winner in 2019’s annual Manga Jiman competiton held at the Japanese embassy in London. I had briefly covered Alxndra Cook’s illustrative zines a few years ago at BF but this was my introduction to her sequential graphic storytelling and it’s a beautifully realised piece. A prologue to a longer-work-in-progress as the title suggets, Kiyomi’s Prequel nevertheless can be read as a standalone story with a mythological air. It depicts events after wandering spirit Hiderigami encounters the beautiful Kiyomi on his journeys and asks her mother, the goddess Inami Okami, to allow him to marry her daughter… with all the dramatic consequences that leads to. Cook’s delicate, almost fragile, visuals are a particular joy.
Small Pressganged review here
Small Pressganged soundbite: Cook’s art has a clear line and an accessible appeal with the stripped back physicality of her characters ensuring our immediate empathy with their emotional states. In terms of pathos and drama there are some highly charged scenes as they move through her detailed backgrounds, and her use of colour is rich but delicate, bold yet subtle, amplifying the themes and mood of surrounding events.
For more on the work of Alxndra Cook visit her site and store here. You can follow her on Instagram here and on Twitter here.
So I Guess My Body Pretty Much Hates Me Now
John Miers
The winner of the 2020 Broken Frontier Award for Best One-Shot, So I Guess My Body Pretty Much Hates Me Now falls in the graphic medicine category of comics. It’s ostensibly an autobiographical account from artist John Miers about life after discovering he had multiple sclerosis. But it’s also an investigation into the mechanics of the form as well. So I Guess My Body Pretty Much Hates Me Now is a product of Miers’ Researcher in the Archives residency at the University of the Arts London’s Archives and Special Collections Centre where he researched metaphor in autobio and underground comics. The two main stories dealing with his MS diagnosis and the impact it has on his everyday life are presented in the styles of Mark Beyer and Ivan Brunetti, with a shorter strip referencing David B. Those who are discovering Miers’ work for the first time should also check out his Score and Script anthology from a few years back.
Small Pressganged review here
Small Pressganged soundbite: So I Guess My Body Pretty Much Hates Me Now affects us as a reader in two very distinctive ways. In our empathy with its protagonist as a piece of raw and affecting autobio but also in what it has to say about the narrative tools of the form and our comprehension of them. Miers has long been one of the unsung figures of the UK small press scene. Pick up both this and Score and Script to understand his importance as both creator-facilitator and comics scholar.
For more on the work of John Miers visit his website here and his online store here. Follow John on Twitter here and on Instagram here.
Curls
Charlot Kristensen
Charlot Kristensen’s hugely acclaimed exploration of racism, privilege and interracial relationships in her debut graphic novel What We Don’t Talk About from Avery Hill Publishing ensured that she would be remembered as one of the breakout talents of 2020. But Kristensen has also self-published a number of minicomics and zines, including Curls which we reviewed earlier last year. Kristensen has described Curls on Twitter as a “personal story about growing up with afro hair and learning to embrace it”. This short piece of autobio is an expertly paced and memorable account of her childhood and as a person of colour trying to fit into a society where her naturally curly hair was not accepted.
Small Pressganged review here
Small Pressganged soundbite: Kristensen uses the landscape format to her narrative advantage, giving each page a newspaper strip-style pacing and also employing a highly atmospheric use of both colour and perspective to further the mood and themes of her story.
For more on the work of Charlot Kristensen visit her website here and her online store here. You can follow her on Instagram here and on Twitter here.
Minor Leagues #10
Simon Moreton
After three issues serialising his passion project ‘Where?’ Simon Moreton’s autobio/zine series Minor Leagues returned in 2020 to its usual medium-crossing compilation of comics, prose, visual essays and illustration. Covering events between January-April of last year there are, unsurprisingly, many reflective pieces on the pandemic, lockdown and adjusting to the new world we found ourselves in. Also included is an eminently readable investigative piece into the provenance of the burnt remains of an 80-year-old letter Moreton found discarded in a skip. Minor Leagues is a scrapbook of narrative approaches giving glimpses into the life of the artist and it remains one of the publishing highlights of the UK small press calendar.
Small Pressganged review here
Small Pressganged soundbite: That [Moreton] creates the work he wishes to create without concession to commercial considerations or audience expectation gives it the authenticity and relatability that has defined his place on the small press scene. Entirely self-contained and accessibly priced, Minor Leagues #10 is a gateway into the world of Simon Moreton for anyone who has yet to experience his unique approach to autobiographical work.
For more on the work of Simon Moreton visit his online store here. You can follow him on Twitter here and Instagram here.
The Cat and the Dog
Dominique Duong
It’s always a joy to see our Broken Frontier ‘Six to Watch‘ artists’ practice developing and evolving, and this year that was very apparent in the growing confidence in Dominique Duong’s visual storytelling. The Cat and the Dog expands on a story from mythology taking the origins of the Chinese Zodiac as a starting point and using it to explore themes of relationships, betrayal and reconciliation. This queer romance story has an allegorical element but at its heart it’s about letting go of the past and looking to the future.
Small Pressganged review here
Small Pressganged soundbite: This is by far the most accomplished comic from Dominique Duong to date. From her layered approach to the subject matter through to her fluid cartooning and assured command of the narrative tools of the form, The Dog and the Cat showcases her growing maturity as a storyteller across all aspects of the medium.
For more on the work of Dominique Duong visit her site here and her online store here. You can also follow her on Twitter and on Instagram.
For Sarah
Peony Gent
There are two incredibly powerful pieces of autobio work on this list that sit on the peripheries of graphic medicine. Peony Gent’s For Sarah is her most affecting work to date and certainly her most personal. Those looking to click on the link below for the full review should be warned that it does deal with the difficult subject of the suicide of an old friend but it does so from the perspective of grief, regret and how we process the aftermath of such an event. Gent’s work has been described as “visual poetry” here at BF over the years and her loose imagery is perfect in For Sarah in presenting a hazy, almost stream-of-consciousness, graphic essay. For the second time in this piece I’m going to say that any publisher reading this and wanting to make my year should think seriously about putting out a collection of Peony Gent’s work. It’s long overdue.
Small Pressganged review here
Small Pressganged soundbite: This is not an easy read but in sharing For Sarah with an audience Gent also reminds those going through something similar that they do not do so in isolation. “I have all these memories and I don’t know what to do with them” she says, perfectly capturing the confusion and the helplessness that bereavement brings.
For more on the work of Peony Gent’s work visit her site here and her online store here. You can follow her on Twitter here and Instagram here. You can read For Sarah in its entirety online here.
Lost (Lives Unlived)
Anja Uhren
No comic in 2020 had a bigger impact on me than Anja Uhren’s Lost (Lives Unlived), her autobio account of pregnancy loss and grief. This concertina-style book with accompanying minicomic has many of the tactile elements that have characterised Uhren’s self-published comics over the years. But it’s the power of her raw and candid storytelling coupled with her use of colour and visual metaphor that will stay with the reader long after they finish reading. No doubt her sharing of the cycle of denial, grief, anger and reflection she experienced as she confronted the loss of her daughter and slowly moved towards acceptance and the hope of gradual recovery will strike a chord in anyone who has gone through something similar.
50% of profits from Lost (Lives Unlived) will go to Sands, the UK stillbirth and neonatal death charity.
Small Pressganged review here
Small Pressganged soundbite: As a new year beckons this may well be the most important self-published endeavour I have reviewed in 2020 and one that absolutely embodies the power of the form in connecting creator and reader in ways that no other medium can. Critical evaluation feels superfluous here. If you read only one small press comic from everything published in 2020 then it needs to be this one.
For more on the work of Anja Uhren visit her website here and her online store here. You can follow her on Twitter here and on Instagram here.
Colossive Cartographies
Various creators
Colossive Press’s Colossive Cartographies series was a delightful addition to the UK small press publishing scene in 2020. It uses the Turkish Map Fold, which allows an A4 sheet of paper to fold into an A6 cover that springs open as a tactile, interactive object. Tom Murphy and Jane Gibbens Murphy’s Colossive Press have invited around twenty artists from various areas of self-publishing including many names familiar to BF readers like Olivia Sullivan, Sean Azzopardi, Gareth A Hopkins, Lucy Sullivan, Oliver East, Peony Gent, Douglas Noble, Miranda Smart, Henry and Stanley Miller, Tim Bird and Mhairi Braden. Some creators take the cartography theme as their starting point while others embark on flights of fancy or use the format for autobio or slice-of-life work. The result is a series of diverse and even disparate graphic narratives that embrace sequential art, photography, illustration, poetry and collage.
Small Pressganged review here
Small Pressganged soundbite: One of the absolute creative high points of UK small press work in 2020 and an unmissable, essential investment of your time if your tastes lie in the realms of the alt and the experimental.
You can visit Colossive Press’s online store on their site here. Follow Colossive Press on Twitter here and on Instagram here.
Article by Andy Oliver
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