This week, forgoing the usual Sunday Pages news items, I’m going to take a quick look at the meagre purchases I made at yesterday’s Camden Comics mini-Festival, Low Energy Day. I’ll leave it to the official site to explain the idea, but needless to say it’s a frankly brilliant one and my only regret is that I haven’t made it to the Camden Comics Stall sooner. Bear in mine, I was feeling pretty wiped out after finishing moving house that morning, so with just enough strength to drag myself from Northfields to Camden, I didn’t have much time to hang around and check out everyone, nor could I afford to - there are around a hundred different exhibitors all with their own body of work, so what I chose to purchase here is in no way an indicator of quality, it’s just the books I bought on the day. Reviews and more below the cut!

The first comic I got was Claude TC’s adaptation of “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” which recasts the lead as a teenage slacker and his hit-man friend. It won my attention largely for the fruit polos reference on the first page, and I was easily convinced to buy the second part straight away as well. The idea of retelling the story in this way really appealed to me, and having only vague memories of the original it’s a nice way to revisit the material a little. I’d actually be interested in seeing other books given similar treatment. The artwork is very strong with a large variety of characters and locales rendered expertly. While part 1 is all fairly slow, the action really gets flying in part 2, and it’s here the artwork really comes into its own. Issue #2 does end on a cliffhanger, so I’ll be looking forward to seeing what comes next in issue #3. The series doesn’t appear to be mentioned much on the Gronk Comics website, but the lead characters are taken from his other series, Reckless Youth.

Paul B Rainey’s “Dear Robert and Partner” is a semi-autobiographical comic about writing a letter to a noisy neighbour. It’s a topic that, in the months before we moved house, I became more than an expert on, as the flat above ours was being renovated and the dude, for some reason, felt like 11:30pm was the perfect hour to do some hammering. But I digress. The narrative is held together by the letter, while events surrounding it unfold in 3-panel chunks beneath the text. It’s a nice experiment that works really well, though the ending falls a little flat because it feels like there’s no real conclusion to the letter or the associated story, which, in a way, is the danger of autobiographical comics - life goes on, and episodes rarely conclude in a satisfying way, which can negatively impact the narrative sometimes. Besides that, it’s a good, personal read, a little different from the usual comics, and that’s what’s great about self-published material.

From Douglas Noble, I purchased 2005’s Strip for Me #18 which contains a rather experimental story called “The Space Between Worlds.” The title attracted me to this particular issue, I think. Noble takes an unusual approach to comics, juxtaposing visual and textual narrative without fully integrating them. The detached, abstract romance of the story leads me to compare it to this year’s Xbox LIVE must-buy Braid as a similar psychological experience - or at least as similar as comics and gaming can get. It’s to Noble’s credit that with 16 pictures on each page, and 20 pages of story that every thumbnail image appears individually composed. It’s a nice dense read that you can really spend a lot of time digesting, and while I can’t speak for the usual anthology format of the title, this one was a pleasant surprise to pick up.

Elsewhere, Marc Ellerby had brought along his new mini-comic, an odds-and-ends compilation called Sad Girls For Life. I was well-pleased with the purchases I made off Ellerby at Bristol earlier this year - Speed Trail and Ellerbisms V1 and have been following his on-line comics ever since. This collection opens with what Ellerby describes as a “stupid zombie comic” called “Morning has Broken” from 2004, featuring a more dynamic, angular look to his artwork reminiscent (in a good way) of Jim Mahfood, or the more insane strips you used to find in Sonic The Comic. It continues with other short comics drawn over the last few years, including some unprinted Ellerbism’s and some rarer Polar Opposites, which are always fantastic, especially the one in which he argues with the acerbic Penguin 2 about the star power of Penguins. It’s like Pokey the Penguin, only more coherent.

Sad Girls for Life is a brilliant taster for all of Ellerby’s work, and easily the most entertaining comic purchase I made all weekend - and that includes 2 week’s worth of Marvel/DC comics. Ellerby is currently between series following the conclusion of Oni Press’ “Love the Way You Love” for which he was the artist, so now more than ever you need to get to his site and buy some quality mini-comics - SGFL isn’t up yet, so while you wait for that to appear in the on-line shop, why not go for the Ellerbisms or Polar Opposites collection?

Lastly, I got myself one of those coveted Gillen/McKelvie Phonogram T-Shirts. Jamie didn’t actually have any minicomics to sell, he was just flogging copies of the Image-published Phonogram/Suburban Glamour trades which I already own. By the standards of this event, that makes him a complete sellout, and frankly I’m surprised they let him in at all. Possibly it was because he was handing out those excellent Phonogram 2: The Singles Club postcards for free, one of which I took for myself, and another of which I left displayed prominently in Camden Tube Station, because that’s about as Street Team as I’m getting. Phonogram 2 is out in December, and until then you should also have read Phonogram: Rue Brittania and Suburban Glamour.

Having maxed out both finances and body temperature (Camden market hall is nothing if not RIDICULOUSLY HOT) I took my leave. From where I was, LED looked like a massive success - I turned up quite late in the afternoon and the place was still packed solid, and encouragingly it appears to attract people far less likely to get into a comic shop or convention under their own steam. Certainly worth trip for any London-based comics fan, though, for a taste of Bristol/Birmingham right in your own back garden.

Tags: London Underground Comics, Low Energy Day, Marc Ellerby, Phonogram, Suburban Glamour
Publisher: The Sunday Pages