Our writers reflect on what makes their hearts beat. Critical, witty, honest.
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
THOUGHT BUBBLE FORTNIGHT! With just a few days to go, one of the great unexpected treats of this year’s Thought Bubble debut books list was my discovery last week that…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
THOUGHT BUBBLE FORTNIGHT! Nick Gonzo’s Black Dragon #1 is not an easy book to define. Yes, it’s science fiction. That’s the simple but ultimately unsatisfying categorisation. But it’s also a…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
THOUGHT BUBBLE FORTNIGHT! One of the most important traditions of Thought Bubble in recent years has been the annual unveiling of Fraser Geesin’s latest exploratory foray into the forbidding narrative…
THOUGHT BUBBLE FORTNIGHT! When Dan and Carol move into their new family home by Loch Ness with their young son Jack what should have been an idyllic new start for…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
Ten years ago today at Broken Frontier when we launched a new feature called ‘Small Pressganged‘ – a column dedicated to “unearthing the gems of the small press” – we…
THOUGHT BUBBLE FORTNIGHT! There’s a distinct Stanley and His Monster vibe to Beck Kubrick’s debut print comic Coby, Alone. That’s a reference to a 1960s DC humour comic that will…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
THOUGHT BUBBLE FORTNIGHT! The Wilds is one of those collaborative exercises that leave you wishing you could have been there in the planning stages to listen in on the discussions…
THOUGHT BUBBLE FORTNIGHT! Adopting a flip book format with a fun physical flourish, Matthew (Flake) Dooley and Joe (Stutter) Stone’s Split is (contradictorily) a collaborative effort that isn’t a collaboration….
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
Over the summer when Broken Frontier contributed to Small Press Day with our “One-Tweet Reviews” event on Twitter there were a number of comics and creators new to me to…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
A perfect small press acquisition for the spooky season, Davidt Dunlop’s neatly timed self-published short Poor Little Ghosts asks two lead-in questions about the supernatural: “Why should the rich have…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
With Halloween imminent what better way to celebrate the spooky season than with some fearsome, fight-filled horror comics from the UK small press scene. All of these comics are either…
This isn’t the first time I have said this and it certainly won’t be the last, but over the years that I have been writing for Broken Frontier I have…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
A couple of years ago at Broken Frontier I described Molly Mendoza’s graphic novel Skip as both a “truly magnificent visual spectacle” and “a deeply human story”. That reality-jumping book…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
We have all been there at some point. Restless nights, the frustration of not being able to drop off to sleep, the consequent anxiety that only exacerbates our insomnia. But…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
“Two demons practice the forbidden art of dress-up” is given premise of Geov’s Mercury’s Closet, another comic from the October-running Shortbox Fair which highlights the breadth and diversity of approaches…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
Let’s get my favourite phrase out of the way in the first sentence and make the remark that Joe Decie’s new comic No Comply is pure language of comics magic,…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
Over the last 18 months we have all got very used to alternative online methods of delivery in every aspect of our lives, and the comics scene has been no…
Columns · Eyecatcher · Small Pressganged
Over the summer at Broken Frontier I took a look at Holy Diver, the first in a series of autobio comics by Rachelle Meyer inspired by the infamous Chick Tracts…
“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
