Tops and Bottoms – 24th April 2025.

‘Smiling like a Melon’.

First up – Happy St George’s Day. Our faults are many in this country I live in, but it still makes me proud on occasion.

If you are new to this column, welcome.

Back again and happy/sad as always. We have hopefully all survived the most boring of all Holidays – Easter Monday. You’ve already had a long weekend and you are presented with a day where DIY seems like a welcome alternative to boring-ass BS. I mended a wobbly washing machine and built something for plants to climb through and up. I also caught up on a chunk of the read pile. Possibly more of that below. And finally listened through all the comics podcasts I had lined up. When without I found solace in the work of ‘The Man that Invented Himself’. You too can investigate a musician who is rudely ignored by clicking on this link right here.

Enough boom-cha-boom. Let’s get back to comics.

Over at the ACP this week we had Daniel McCloskey from San Fran on for a chat about his Cloud Town comics projects. A thoughtful dude. We really get into how he approaches story and art. Using some collage and a lot of originality you really need to get on this new project. I was also super intrigued by his contact with puppets! I’ll say no more, have a listen. 

Onwards into the highs and lows of the week. 

Small Press Comic of the Week.

A Rodriguez & Lapusan production out of Black Ink Comix this does exactly what it should do in a UK Underground Comix release. I read mine on Global Comix. Go find a copy for yourself.

Top.

Returning home can be a win or a lose. I sat in a coffee shop waiting for Falpy and read these two issues. I was transported back to the days of First Comics without them seemingly missing a single issue. Not only does Mike Baron write with his usual mixture of humour, sarcasm and action but you get Val Mayerik in that mix too. Glorious. It can be ordered through UK Previews but you’re unlikely to see it on a comic shop shelf. Not sure why that is. Maybe those shit-flinging monkeys on the island have been ganging up on someone other than Norbert Sykes?

Bottoms.

I caught up on the X books. What the fuck is this crap? Breaks my heart that this is the state of this once great/fun/involving group of comics characters. Brevoort spends so much time being pompous and argumentative on his Substack every week, (it goes on and on and on) maybe that time would be better spent giving this utter wank a second look? What do you think? I’ve just seen that Rob Liefeld has expressed similar concerns. We’ll probably both get ignored and at least one of us called ‘Toxic’ – doesn’t change the fact that they are shite. Maybe they think taking a horse down a mine is good storytelling? Worked for Lassie I suppose?

Many thanks for reading.