Tops and Bottoms – 11th June 2025.

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Leo Tolstoy. 

Welcome back to my weekly ramble.

While my wage paying work life has been relentless comics provides that always present and welcome tonic. I’ve also been doing a lot of travelling about the UK and train journeys are great for catching up on sleep, prepping work and reading comics on the way home with half an eye open after a couple of drinks. 

The ACP recording this weekend was back to our regular Sunday night raucous best. But this time round it became a little bitter sweet. The news of a friend dying earlier that day really stung and landed in my texts just ten minutes before we hit record. A man of stature, honour and humour, I hadn’t seen him for a few years. But we shared a certain bond, experienced something funny and dangerous (as men in their thirties are want to) and were always grinning when we met. Vince and Dan hung on for a few minutes for a chat in a way that only good friends know how to do. I thank them and will be raising a glass tonight to him and those others fallen away from my particular band of brothers. Make the most of those men in your lives, you never can tell what is going on behind their eyes and in their hearts. 

But our pod continued and a compartmentalisation of that sadness allowed for me to enjoy the interview with Andrew Krahnke. The man behind the series ‘Bloodrik’ this is one of our favs. Craft, motivation and a triumphant round of ‘Influence Bingo’ showed what a true gent Andrew is. He’ll be at Heroes Comic Convention in North Carolina in a couple of weekends so if you are also attending swing round – he’ll have original art to sell. The shout out section and the Reviews/Recommendations are stuffed to farting this week. Some comics and a fanzine that I am massively excited about. A couple mentioned below. 

Onwards.

For those who are new – This is a weekly mention of what I have enjoyed (‘Top’) and far from enjoyed (‘Bottom’) along with some other categories dependent on my time and mood. Let’s get on with it. 

Being a Completist Idiot of the Week.

I was reminded of this series by a chat on the ACP Slack. Much underrated and treated terribly by the publishers. There are four short and very short runs released across three publishers. It covers what a man who becomes a monster in the dirty streets can become. Grubby but captivating.

 

Small Press Book of the Week.

I love a good fanzine and this one from Hibernia Press explores much of British Comics forgotten history. Part interview (TCJ style) and part art book, with a cover by Mick McMahon. Well worth searching out.

Tops.

That Catholic upbringing is showing? And mixing with my adoration of the trashier side of the VHS world. A funny and crunchy script mixes with loose but readable visuals to birth something that just brightened my morning.

Not for everyone, but for guilt-sodden atheists like me a great read.

Bottoms.

If you are going to homage or change a classic it has to be good. This was not. With the dialogue for everyone in its cast, sadly all too common, of an internet addicted teenager, this was really awful. And somehow felt intended to dampen the decades-long effects of the original. It suffers from just not being good AND not being funny. A massive miss.

Avoid.

 

And, that is it. I’ll be back next week Zeus willing. See you then.

Thanks for reading. And here is a quote from a Trappist Monk just to show I don’t hate all religious figures! (Just most).

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”. – Thomas Merton.