To see new regional community hubs forming in the UK comics scene is always reassuring. Such networks organically foster a sense of mutual support and collaboration after all. Great oaks from little acorns grow and all that. Take the case of the Hants Comics Club, for example, whose debut anthology launches this weekend on Small Press Day. Themed around the subject of ‘Travel’ it’s a fitting mix of more established voices like British Comics Award-winner Tim Bird (Adrift on a Painted Sea, Avery Hill Publishing) and names that will be entirely new to you.
It’s a real mix of approaches from the featured artists too. Julian Payne’s ‘Rhinogydd’, for example, has a haunting quality as we observe a mountain hiker’s trip through the natural world. Sprawling and beautifully illustrated landscapes hinting at something perhaps eerier embedded in the natural world we are observing. The idiosyncratic and diverse nature of the contributions is immediately underlined by its successor – Unicorn Creates’ ‘Hong Kong Food Travel Diary’, the “panels” of which are a series of photos of their holiday meals. Clear sequential storytelling followed by an altogether more experimental approach.
Julian Payne
I was particularly taken by Ellie May’s ‘A Travel Journal’ which cleverly plays with the form to give us a sympathetically innate understanding of its protagonist’s appreciation of art on a gallery visit. It uses panels as gateways into artistic vision, with a neat application of colour to enhance that experience. A subtle standout in the anthology. Tim Bird is on form with another psychogeographical short as we take a trip to ‘Orkney’ and he once more evokes a sensation of the ancient past converging with the present.
The echoes of the past impinging on the current day also feature in Emma Price’s ‘Naples’ which uses atmospherically coloured full-page panels to link a contemporary audience to events centuries ago in Pompeii. Weird is the Best, aka Kama Mielczarek, manages to get a meta comics connection into her two-pager ‘Pip Goes to London’ while Lucy R. in ‘Our Trip to Halstatt’ takes the travel diary route with an immediacy and accessibility to their endearing cartooning style.
Tim Bird
This kind of project is to be supported not just for the very different approaches apparent in its pages but also for its community-building aspects. Hants Comics Club Anthology 01 is also a gateway into the practice of a number of creators you may not be familiar with. It’s worth supporting for that reason alone.
Julian Payne, Ian/Unicorn Creates, Emma Price, Tim Bird, Lucy R. (Small Chubby Kid), Ellie May Art, Kama Mielczarek/Weird is the Best • Hants Comics Club
The Hants Comics Club are launching their debut anthology at Waiting Room cafe in Winchester on Small Press Day. More details here.
Available here online after Small Press Day
Review by Andy Oliver
