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Hello purveyors of Frozen Food! Hope you're 
enjoying this computer magazine thing 
(whatever it's called) and are prepared to 
endure a lengthy rant from my good self on 
the subject of comics.
But should we be calling them comics now? 
Your average 25 year old "intelligent 
person" doesn't want to be seen buying a 
'comic'˙ no matter how well-written and 
literate it is˙ for fear of being laughed 
at. So we invent the 'graphic novel' to make
the medium more acceptable˙ very much like 
how 'progressive rock' softened the blow for 
'adults' who found they still liked 
rock music in the early 70s. OK˙ I realise 
the need to differentiate between quality 
material and the tiresome superhero yawn 
that most comics are˙ but is re-titling 
(pretentious re-titling too - imagine 
calling a cartoon 'graphic drama'!) in order 
to create an obvious marketing strategy the 
best way? (That's a rhetorical question by 
the way).
At the risk of doing what I've accused the 
graphic novel pushers of doing (i.e. telling 
you what it's hip to read). I'm going to 
mention some of my favourite artists/writers 
working in the comics medium˙ together with 
why I like them and where to see their work. 
(They're in no particular order˙ 
alphabetical or otherwise˙ 'cos I can't be 
arsed!)

JAIME AND GILBERT HERNANDEZ Authors of the 
legendary LOVE & ROCKETS which came out of 
the early US Hardcore/Punk rock explosion in 
the early 80s˙ a soon-to-be film and nothing 
to do with the band of the same name ("I 
don't care if those fucking goths stole our 
name. They suck anyway." - Jaime H.) LOVE & 
ROCKETS centres around the lives of 
believable characters rather than superheros 
or 'positive role models'. Unpretentious˙ 
easy to read and enjoyable due to the 
Hernandez brothers' use of the oft-neglected 
art of storytelling.


ROBERT CRUMB˙ without whom none of this 
underground comics stuff would be with us 
today. A highly influential genius˙ his life 
and work has been assessed in detail 
elsewhere. (Nice to see him on Sunday 
morning 'youth' programming TV a few weeks 
back.) His wife Aline also does great stuff 
and has a quota of self-hatred to match her 
husband.


Canadian CHESTER BROWN's YUMMY FUR title 
started as a home-made mini-comic and grew. 
Coming from a family so religious that 
saying the word "gosh" was forbidden˙ 
Chester began to question his beliefs and 
now wades knee-deep in blasphemy˙ filth and 
scatology. An expert at storytelling˙ 
flashbacks and facial expressions (which 
always attracts me in comic art)˙ his ED THE 
HAPPY CLOWN collection is probably easiest 
to get hold of (although a comic shop around 
here whose name sounds like "phantasy 
whirled" won't even order it for you.)


CHARLES BURNS has a familiar˙ idiosyncratic 
storytelling and drawing style which owes an 
awful lot to the 50s culture that comics 
grew out of. (Yes I know they were around 
before then but the 50s are meant  to be 
some kind of Golden Era). Darkness˙ 
deformity childhood and fantasies 
intercepted by the real world (much of his 
work is allegorical) abound. His 
contributions to the strange RAW collections 
and his solo book HARD BOILED DEFECTIVE 
STORIES˙ concerning the adventures of El 
Borbah˙ wrestler and private detective ˙ are 
cool!


SAVAGE PENCIL's horrifying visions include 
such wastelands of humanity as Mr Inferno˙ 
Driller Penis and Dead Duck. He does a lot 
of stuff for record covers˙ writes for the 
NME as Edwin Pouncey˙ did the 'ROCK & ROLL 
ZOO' strip for Sounds˙ sang with The Art 
Attacks and The Kray Cherubs˙ compiled and 
designed a picture disc of Hell's Angel 
movie music˙ released a 7" single containing 
 no music˙ just etchings on both sides˙ 
collaborated with the likes of LYDIA LUNCH 
on the NYAK!NYAK! comic and so on. His 
recent CORPSEMEAT 2 title was destroyed in 
almost it's entirety by puritanical 
printers. For all the info you need on the 
guy˙ try and find FORCED EXPOSURE No 16 
zine.


JAMIE HEWLETT's most famous creation is the 
well-known Tank Girl strip ˙ done in 
collaboration with writer Alan Martin. Also 
responsible for Hell City˙ Hewligan's 
Haircut (in recent 2000ADs) and Wonky Man. 
Famous for amazing and often surreal detail˙ 
great facial expressions˙ a style which is 
launching a thousand imitators and coming 
from Worthing˙ poor sod.


PETER BAGGE. Forget The Simpsons˙ his 
Bradley family set the standard for cartoon 
families you love to hate cos you identify 
with them so much it hurts. Also responsible 
for Studs Kirby˙ the voice of righter than 
the Hitler youth wing America plus a drawing 
style you can spot at 2000 paces. Read NEAT 
STUFF (if you can still find copies) and his 
new HATE title.

Still with us? Good˙ good. Honorary mentions 
to  Art Spiegelman˙ Shaky Kane˙ Dori Seda 
etc etc etc. This list could take up all 
your precious disc - the article nearly
did!!

Next issue I will probably be investigating 
the following - 
Why the captain of the Titanic could only 
have come from Stoke.
Why right-on feminist publications can't 
spell "women"
Why you shouldn't eat Flake bars without a 
condom
Why Elvis Presley never went surfing.

Overly and Outwardly˙                     PT