Tops and Bottoms 2/10/24

Morning all,

What a time to be alive. The world has just turned the corner into October and has already gone Halloween demented. Buckle up.

Another busy week in the land of Riptide. Myself and buddy Eamonn Clarke of the Mega City Book Club took the long and rain-soaked drive to Canterbury and had a look around Kent University’s comic strip archive. The aim of the trip was to investigate the life and work of Giles – best known for his cartoons the UK’s Express newspaper.

We were looked after and shown round by Christine, one of the curators there, and it was a joy from start to finish. We’ll be doing a NIA podcast on it soon, along with a post on here with loads of the photos we took etc. Here are a couple of teasers.

Thanks to Eamonn for the company and a brilliant one of a kind Mega City Book Club T-Shirt!

Meanwhile, over at the ACP this week we investigated the growing UK Underground Comix scene with a couple of the gentlemen from Black Ink Comix. Throwing their reputations to the Five Winds Dan Hughes and Lee Wenlock spoke about their comix collective and the the dangerously hilarious work they produce.

Get over to their Etsy store and grab a couple. Highly recommended.

Back to the task at hand. Couple of easy choices this week – one with a little twist to the format that couldn’t be avoided.

Small Press Book of the Week.

I grabbed this from the Third Bear Press stall at Bridlington Comic Con a few weeks ago but only just got round to reading the three stories it contains this week.

This is a collection of tales written by Mikael Lopez in a slim prestige format comics collection. My big prompt to buy it was because it contained the art of Artyom Trakhanov (a favourite) but I also equally enjoyed the stories drawn by Lern and David Aguado. Extremely atmospheric and haunting, but with some saucy twists. Get on it!

Tops.

Easy choice. From what I am hearing it wasn’t the triumph for others that I felt it was but still quite the artistic achievement compared to current competition. I read it on a Saturday night with bad TV blah-blahing in the background and that only helped with the slowness and thoughtful weirdness of the story. It really connected.

I sometimes have to tell myself to slow down when I am reading a comic, but here the interior pacing took control. It’s not a book where a lot happens and you’re waiting for the body-horror mutant to show up for good chunks of narrative. But that art!!!! The combination of the mood of the book and the mood of the reader can often/always be a component with a reading experience. It certainly took hold of me on that night and carried me off.