Decadence Comics – Decaying Forms and Abstract Comics
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! A drawing of a person is not a person. It might be recognisable as a representation of a person, but the complex systems of tissue and bone and…
ELCAF Artist-in-Residence Charlotte Dumortier Brings Something Old and Something New to the Festival
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! If you’ve admired the lovely poster and visual identity of this year’s ELCAF (and it’s certainly been hard to avoid it around here over the past couple of…
“That’s the Thing I Love about Comics: the Multitude of Possibilities of Approaches and Processes and Results” – Talking with João Sobral about Scottish Micropublisher O Panda Gordo
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! João Sobral established O Panda Gordo in 2011 in his native Portugal, before upping sticks and moving over to Glasgow in 2014. It’s here that the nascent publisher/distributor…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
“I Don’t Like Things that Are Fully Resolved; I Like Leaving an Element of Ambiguity” – Andy Barron on the Brutal Alien Psychedelia of the World of OM
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! Andy Barron is no stranger to the East London Comics & Arts Festival and regular festival attendees will no doubt be very pleased to see him there again this…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
“I Wanted to Tell a New Folk Story; an Alternate Beginning” – Shanti Rai on Her Self-Published Comic ‘KO’ and the Influence of the Mythological on Her Practice
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! With an accessible clarity, gorgeous use of colour and clever sense of graphic design Shanti Rai’s comics practice was always destined for a wider audience. I first covered…
Written in Water – Chloe Elise Dennis Explores Friendship and Separation in a Powerful Piece of Visual Metaphor
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! There are many great joys to being associated with a collective like Broken Frontier that exists primarily to champion and promote exciting new artists and their practice. But…
“I Do Try and Create a Rhythm to the Pages and a Poetic Feel to the Comics” – Tim Bird on ‘The Great North Wood’ and Exploring Themes of Place, Time and Memory
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! With a poetic, haunting line in the psychogeographical, Tim Bird has established himself as one of the most original voices in UK indie comics over the last several…
“I Was Scared Out of My Wits. But I Gradually Became Obsessed” – Henry and Stan Miller Talk About The Fall, Plasticine and Their New Comics
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! Having made their ELCAF debut last year, South London-based Henry Miller and his son Stanley – the organisers and charming hosts of last year’s supremely convivial Catford Comic and Zine…
Coin-Op Comics Anthology 1997-2017 – Top Shelf Productions Celebrates Two Decades of Peter and Maria Hoey’s Entrancing Coin-Op Series
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! Anticipating brother-sister duo Pete and Maria Hoey’s attendance at this year’s ELCAF, we took their Coin-Op Comics Anthology for a spin. Spanning twenty years between 1997–2017, the new hardcover compilation via Top…
Smedley: The Story of a Worm-Shaped Man #1 – Todd Oliver is Back with His Own Particular Brand of Cartoon Violence and Scatalogical Humour
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! In the pages of a Todd Oliver comic the grotesque and the nihilistic are so commonplace that they become almost banal. That’s the appeal of the worlds he…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
“I Want the Reader to Think for Themselves and Draw Their Own Conclusions from My Work” – Cat Sims Talks Comics and Social Commentary
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! In 2017 a number of esteemed UK indie creators suggested I took a closer look at the work of artist Cat Sims for potential inclusion in Broken Frontier’s…
“Books that We Want to Read, but also Books that We Feel Other People Wouldn’t Publish” – Olle Forsslöf and Patrick Crotty on the Peow Studio Philosophy
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! The last time we spoke with Swedish micropublishing dynamos Peow Studio, they were coming off a hot streak of Ignatz nominations and a blockbuster Kickstarter campaign that funded…
Shit is Real – Aisha Franz Looks Through the Cracks at the Strains of Modern Life
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! I picked up a mini-comic extract of Shit is Real at ELCAF a couple of years ago, so it’s fitting that I’m now looking at the complete work…
The WHYs – Virginia Paine Turns the Stereotypical Super-Powered Teenagers Storyline into Something Unique
There’s been a recent trend of indie comics artist taking on the tropes of the superhero comic as either a means to critique the genre or to use the genre’s…
Artificially Coloured – A Very Promising Debut Anthology from the Baguette Trousers Collective of Chloe Elise Dennis, Luke Finch and Sinae Carrotate Park
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! Comprising the work of the three artists who make up the Baguette Trousers collective (Chloe Elise Dennis, Luke Finch and Sinae Carrotate Park) Artificially Coloured is a showcase anthology…
“We Believe in Cultivating a Space where We Can Make Honest Work Without Pressure” – Gitanjali Iyer on the Values and Goals of the Sesame Drawing Club
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! As part of our very special ELCAF Fortnight interview series, we caught up with Gitanjali Iyer, who makes up one sixth of Sesame Drawing Club. A collective of diverse, female visual artists…
Oh No My Meta Irony Has Become So Popular No-one Knows what Reality is Anymore – Webcomic Name’s Alex Norris on His Overlapping Comic Practice, the Links Between Joy and Sadness and what the “Oh No” Voice Sounds Like
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! Alex Norris, aka Dorris McComics of Webcomic Name fame, approached the trend of relatable comics with a format that works through any number of layers of irony (including none) and…
The Gosh! Comics and Broken Frontier Drink and Draw Holds an ELCAF Special this Thursday June 21st with Guest Artists Xiao Mei, Laurel Pettitt and Jens K Styve
ELCAF FORTNIGHT! Our sixth Gosh! Comics and Broken Frontier Drink and Draw of 2018 is this week and it’s a very special edition to celebrate the East London Comics and Arts Festival!…
Broken Frontier Anthology
312 pages • 27 stories • 50 star creators
Limited copies available!Recommended Reads!
“It’s About Queerness, Family, Loyalty, Grief, and at its Core Love in All its Forms”- Bex Glendining on Debut Graphic Novel ‘On Starlit Shores’April 2, 2026
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