Our writers reflect on what makes their hearts beat. Critical, witty, honest.
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
Spiny Orb Weaver is the third print comics project to have come out of small press distro and micropublisher Radiator Comics. (featured before at BF for Whit Taylor’s acclaimed minicomic…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
A busy daytime in the city and the Overseer’s young apprentice takes advantage of his master’s drink-inspired stupor to follow the object of his desire – the entrancing (apparent) daughter…
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The anthology Wings: A Prison Odyssey – collecting the personal stories of inmates at a London men’s prison in a variety of mediums – was the product of a project…
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In a year when for many simply treading water was an understandable achievement in itself, Ed Firth bucked the trend with a profile-raising 2020 that saw his Myriad First Graphic…
The last time we reviewed the work of Robyn Smith at Broken Frontier it was when we covered her collaboration with writer Jamila Rowser on the short comic Wash Day…
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Hope On is an anthology that, like so many slice-of-life offerings from the self-publishing world over the last year, materialised as a by-product of the current global situation. Edited by…
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In comparison to my previous experiences of Grace Helmer’s slice-of-life/autobio work Speck is a very different comic indeed. And yet within its fantastic, millennia-traversing narrative there are, perhaps, certain existential…
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As redundant an observation as it is to make, 2020 was a challenging year for the UK comics self-publishing community. In a time of continuing uncertainty, and with real world…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
The medium of comics, as any aficionado is aware, constantly plays with our perceptions of time. It asks us to make inferences about time’s passage between pages and scenes, to…
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Riffing on the “Exquisite Corpse” storytelling set-up Idiot Corpse is an anthology exercise in narrative experimentation from Aled Lies, Dylan Wyn Owen and Shehzad Ahmad (with a striking cover by…
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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…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
A personal reflection on my journey through pregnancy and pregnancy loss. Following the urge to acknowledge the existence of our lost babies – too precious to deny or forget. Talking…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
It goes without saying that 2020 has been a year replete with diary-style comics documenting the strangest nine months of our lives. In time, of course, they will be an…
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Fondly sending up a certain decades-old bastion of fantasy magazine publishing (the clue is in the anagrammatical title) Robert Wells and Phil Elliott’s Malty Heave makes a welcome end-of-year return…
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I have expressed sentiments like this before on many occasions at Broken Frontier but I never tire of repeating them. One of the greatest joys of our championing emerging creative…
Spinning out of his autobiographical Dunce series (described as “an alternative universe, where Calvin has grown up and moved to Norway”) Norwegian cartoonist Jens K Styve’s comic Dunce: Brego follows…
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I would argue that Lord Hurk and, in turn Fancy Butcher Press the small press imprint he runs with Kevin Ward, have been criminally overlooked on the UK small press…
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Given how many comics creators are on the team at Broken Frontier we have an unwritten rule on the site. While we may cover their work in terms of features…
“Basically, I’m Hoping to Please Both Nostalgia Fans and Those Who Enjoy Pop Culture Critique!” – Paul Cornell on the Bronze Age Avengers, His First ‘Commando’ Comic, and New Publishing Venture Cosmic LighthouseOctober 23, 2025
“We Hope to Explain Our Passion for the Medium to Gallery Visitors Who May Not Have Any Idea about Comics” – Katriona Chapman on the Avery Hill Exhibition ‘Vision & Labour: Making Comics’ at the Mercer Gallery for Thought BubbleOctober 22, 2025
“There Are Hard Parts and There Are Wonderful Parts. I’m Just a Mum Trying Her Best” – Rachael Smith Gives Us the Lowdown on the Collected ‘Nap Comix’October 21, 2025
“Comics Bring Art at Its Highest Level to the People” – Alison Sampson Talks Comics and Architecture, Crossing Genres, and the Communicative Power of the FormOctober 20, 2025
“I’m Always Trying to Make Comics the Other Way Around” — An Interview with Portuguese Cartoonist Joana Mosi on Her Graphic Novels ‘The Mongoose’ and ‘Physical Education’October 13, 2025
