Our writers reflect on what makes their hearts beat. Critical, witty, honest.
AVAILABLE AT THOUGHT BUBBLE! Comic Book Slumber Party are the self-styled “international girl gang of comic creators” whose Fairytales for Bad Bitches (reviewed here at Broken Frontier earlier this year)…
AVAILABLE AT THOUGHT BUBBLE! Douglas Noble’s oblique – and sometimes even obscure – narratives may require a more substantial investment of time on the reader’s behalf but it’s one that…
AVAILABLE AT THOUGHT BUBBLE! We’re returning to the familiar but always rewarding territory of my ‘Six UK Small Press Creators to Watch in 2015’ in ‘Small Pressganged’ today but with a…
AVAILABLE AT THOUGHT BUBBLE! For those new to the critical environs of ‘Small Pressganged’ at Broken Frontier – and to paraphrase an old classic industry line “every column is someone’s…
AVAILABLE AT THOUGHT BUBBLE! Satirising the music industry with equal dollops of scathing parody and fond homage, John Riordan and Dan Cox’s Hitsville UK was one of the earliest comics…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
AVAILABLE AT THOUGHT BUBBLE! Of all the relatively new players on the UK small press scene this year it’s probably Sarah Broadhurst and Julia Scheele’s One Beat Zines who were…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
It’s been three decades since the music of The Wedding Present burst onto the UK indie scene with a distinctive and engagingly frenetic energy that certainly caught the imagination of…
AVAILABLE AT THOUGHT BUBBLE! There are few creators who have featured here in ‘Small Pressganged’ as regularly as Simon Moreton. Indeed we’ve interviewed him three times in just over a…
Columns · Crossing Borders · Eyecatcher
From Germany to Belgium, we take a look at two recent releases, by up-and-coming alt talent Jan Soeken and Judith Vanistendael, who already has two books released in English. Friends…
The more well-mined seams of genre fiction are something I tend to shy away from in ‘Small Pressganged’, preferring instead to cover work that focuses on playing with the form…
Columns · Crossing Borders · Eyecatcher
I’m a bit short on time this week so no full column, but here are some interesting news items concerning the world of European comics. I’m also on Twitter, where…
Alice Urbino‘s powerful use of visual metaphor in comics to explore mood and state of mind so captured my imagination when I reviewed her self-published series Dimension that she immediately…
Last week in this column I recommended three comics-related Kickstarter campaigns that, for various reasons, I felt deserved your attention. One of these was for the Art Aid Nepal anthology…
It’s festival season again in the UK and here at Broken Frontier we’re gearing up for the plethora of exciting new debut comics that entails. One of those is the…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
Bringing talented artists to a wider audience via this column is one of the great privileges of writing ‘Small Pressganged’ here at Broken Frontier. Indeed, this year I significantly expanded…
Columns · Crossing Borders · Eyecatcher
Belgian writer Zidrou’s flair for depicting the flaws in humanity is ever-present in his medieval fairy tales Bouffon (The Jester) and Les Trois Fruits (The Three Fruits). Coupled with two magnificent Spanish artists,…
It’s been a busy year for Rachael Smith. Most notably, of course, that’s due to her second graphic novel The Rabbit being published by Avery Hill Publishing to critical acclaim…
Crowdfunding has changed the comics landscape as we knew it over the last few years. But the unsurprising upshot of its ever growing presence as a tool for securing publication is…
“It’s about Fame, Friendship, and Just How Long You’re Willing to Fake it to Make it” – Duane Murray and Ahmed Raafat Talk ‘Who Are the Power Pals?’ from Dark HorseNovember 6, 2025
“It’s Tough Out There, But You’re Absolutely Not Alone!” – Dave Cook on ‘Killtopia: Phantoms’, Challenging Times for Crowdfunding, and Returning to Thought BubbleNovember 5, 2025
“My Brain Broke, and Out Came Donuts” – Neill Cameron Looks Back on ‘Mega Robo Bros’ and Forward with ‘Donut Squad’, the Latest Smash Hit Strip from the Pages of ‘The Phoenix’November 4, 2025
“The Biggest Challenge for Me Was Having to Think More Like a Director” – Michael Schwartz on Writing for Comics for the First Time and His Supernatural Ghost Story ‘Armored’October 31, 2025
“It’s a Fantasy Adventure about Growing Up” – Joe Latham Talks ‘Haru’, the Self-Publishing Journey, and Using Colour as a Narrative ToolOctober 30, 2025
