There’s so much going on for Small Press Day this coming Saturday August 15th as we make the move from the physical environment to the digital world for 2020. If you’re new to the concept then Small Press Day is a celebratory annual event designed to spotlight the possibilities of small press publishing in the UK and Ireland and to introduce its practitioners to the far wider audience they deserve.
You can find out all about some of the events you can join in with on social media (including creating a comics short about your fave retailer with the hashtag #SPDCHALLENGE or shouting out about small press comics you love with the hashtag #SPDFAV) over on the official Small Press Day site here.
This man is ready and waiting on Small Press Day to review your self-published comics
As one of the Small Press Day co-organisers we’ll be offering our own exclusive Broken Frontier initiative as part of the official events on the day. Our Editor-in-Chief Andy Oliver who has been writing extensively about UK small press comics for BF for nearly a decade will be taking to Twitter on Saturday between 10am and 6pm to write one-tweet reviews of small press comics with the hashtag #SPDBFREVIEW. So many of you submit work for Broken Frontier reviews and we can only ever cover a small number of the requests we get so this is your chance to get a BF shout-out and some feedback on your comic from the writer of the UK’s longest continuously running small press feature.
Here’s a few FAQs on #SPDBFREVIEW answered. Read to the bottom for news of a bonus extra for six lucky participants!
How do I take part in #SPDBFREVIEW?
Choose four pages of your small press comic and tweet them out with a short description, a link to your online store and the hashtag #SPDBFREVIEW. Andy will then quote tweet in reply with a one-tweet review of your comic from the @brokenfrontier account.
Do the pages have to be sequential?
No. What we suggest is that you pick four pages from anywhere in the comic that show off your visual storytelling skills. That will be what Andy will be focusing on rather than narrative. Remember how much he likes talking about the language of comics and its unique storytelling properties? That should give you a clue as to what to choose.
What comics qualify?
Self-published work, ideally with a store link so we can send people your way for purchases. And work that has not been previously covered at BF only please.
How many comics can I submit?
In the interests of fairness we ask that this is restricted to one comic per artist or Twitter account. If we get a lot of requests we want to make sure to cover as many creators as possible.
I’m a small publisher can I take part?
Sorry but this is a day for self-publishers/small pressers. So if your books have distribution and ISBNs then our usual reviews request channels are still open for you. If you’re a micropublisher without distribution selling through comics fairs and small press sections in comics shops this is open to you. But best to let your creators submit directly themselves if possible.
Will you review everything?
Andy will be working through from 10am to 6pm so the earlier you submit the greater chance. He’ll aim to one-tweet review everything he can that comes in that timeframe but we reserve the right not to cover content that may be considered inappropriate or harmful to our community.
What’s that bonus for six lucky artists?
Andy will choose six comics from #SPDBFREVIEW to feature on Broken Frontier next week in a round-up article to get the message out about them to our wider Broken Frontier audience. So this could be your chance to get featured on the site recently named as the most cited by UK comics practitioners to access news and support in the UK Comics Creator Survey 2020!
Any other questions feel free to ask us on Twitter. We’ll see you all on Saturday!
