LDCOMICS ONLINE COMICS FAIR 2025! While the LDComics Online Comics Fair is an international event the large of amount of work from UK-based creators is a reflection of just how rich and vibrant the indie/small press scene is here at the moment. Myfanwy Tristram’s Running Out is another fine reminder of that. A comic that is a shining example of the empathetic nature of slice-of-life sequential art while also using experimental storytelling techniques to add thematic layers to the thrust of its narrative. It’s clever and witty and poignant and dramatic all at the same time. And it’s yet another comic that I’m going to argue is a must-buy from this inaugural fair.
To call Running Out a collage comic would be woefully inadequate even if that is a huge part of its success. It starts with Tristram looking through the tottering piles and overwhelming detritus of her studio – never-to-be-used pens and pencils, paper fragments and ephemera kept in case they one day come in handy, and art materials kept so long that they have perished or dried out. From these remnants she endeavours to create both a traditional comic strip and one that uses these echoes of the past in an experimental way to comment on and echo the transitory nature of existence.
What follows is the story of the final days of the elderly Beatrice, unconscious in her hospital bed while her husband Peter and her often bickering daughters sit waiting for her passing. As the days move on Tristram uses this scenario to explore ideas about the fragility of life, of the way we perceive time, and of the things we surround ourselves with. The atmosphere in the room frequently shifts from the tense through to an eerie sense of boredom. But as the family interact with one another Tristram uses artefacts from her studio inlaid into panels to symbolise, mirror and sometimes even seemingly tease the contents of their conversations. Religious stamps dramatically announcing the arrival of the chaplain for example or, more playfully, pretzel packaging symbolising one of the daughters’ aching back as she sits uncomfortably in a hospital seat.
As a whole, Running Out makes for an interesting juxtaposition of ideas, from the stranglehold of consumerism to the very human need to populate our environments with items we identify with and/or take comfort from. There’s also a sense of the forgotten past embedded in the objects that survive it; stories and memories lost to time, intangible and yet undeniable. A final page uses the tongue-in-cheek to deliver some very profound truths to the reader. Strong work that bears re-reading and, as I said at the top of this review, another essential offering from the LDComics online event.
Myfanwy Tristram (W/A) • LDComics Online Fair, £6.00
Review by Andy Oliver
The LDComics Online Comics Fair runs across the month of July. Read all our coverage of the comics on offer here at BF.
