Tuesday 12 November 2013

If you're happy and you know it, give a honk.

Here's something new... As in, something that's available right now, and isn't a relic of the 1980s or 1990s. And I'm reviewing it! How interesting. It's two comics of the "small press" variety, which is what "underground" comics are called nowadays, I think. And they're both by a certain Mr. Turnock.


A bit of history first, why not? A year or two ago, I was reading that relaunched, revamped Dandy, and obviously something seemed a bit "off" with it. So, as is the fashion in this day and age, I went to the Internet to see what other folk thought of it. A fair amount of what I found was the current staff of the Dandy moaning about how people were too thick to share their artistic vision (in so many words), and how two notorious trolls in particular were ruining it for everyone else. But who were they? Further "research" led me to Kid Robson - an articulate, level-headed fellow who'll always fight his corner, and also post lots of nice Thunderbirds stuff and tell you about his schooldays. The other "troll" was the less-restrained yet still passionate Mr. Turnock, who posts a lot of his own work on his blog and, as it turns out, used to work on Acne, a comic I enjoyed as a nipper and will soon be covering RIGHT HERE.

In short, I liked what I was seeing on those two blogs, and felt "inspired" to start my own one too (as in, this one here, right now). It's a lot of fun, and about a billion times more "successful" than I'd ever anticipated, and it stops me from going out at night causing riots and stealing cars and so on. So in that respect, I think a bit of plugging's due - Mr. Turnock now has two new comics, that you can actually BUY and OWN, printed with REAL INK on REAL PAPER. Smashing, eh?

Here's the first one, it's called Honk!


One big long story, that's what it is, "in the spirit" of Alan Moore's Lost Girls, in that we have Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, Alice from Alice In Wonderland and Mary Poppins from... Mary Poppins, I think. One of those "how it REALLY happened" sort of tales, filled with all the fun things you'd expect from a cartoonist who hasn't got any editors or censors breathing down their neck.

Lovely bouts of violence:


Sorry for the bad scanning there, staples play havoc with flatbed things.

"Unusual" fetishes:


Digs at things that the artist personally detests:



Utterly deranged scarecrow sex:


And of course, a rare behind-the-scenes look at that old favourite, The Raccoons:


Those little buggers get really nasty later on - I won't spoil it here, mind.

In short, it's everything you'd want from a comic that's not available in the shops. You know, proper "underground" stuff - or at least as underground as pointing your mouse at the right website is.



The other comic is Scumbag Funnies, which seems a lot more "personal" than Honk! - beginning, appropriately enough, with a page ripping into Jamie Smart (one of the previously-mentioned Dandy staffers):


Scumbag consists of a series of shorter comics, rather than the epic that Honk! is, featuring a variety of characters. Whattock Hunt, for one:

And a four-page adventure in which the Goodies are tasked with erasing the UK comedy scene and bringing it back to rights:


The "main bulk" of Scumbag consists of a 12-pager titled The Goddess Lucy, a seemingly autobiographical (?) thing that's equal parts funny, depressing and even... sweet!?


That's the main reason I find myself seeking out small-press comics whenever and wherever I can - when there's so much of the artist actually ON as well as IN the pages, it seems so much more relateable. Maybe some interesting or horrific or amazing or even mundane things have happened to you in your life, stick it into cartoon form and it becomes completely yours, as well as everyone else's. I love 'em.

Plus, you get to say what you think of a LOT of things, and offer some solutions of your own:


And there we go, two comics that are new and cheap and readily available - get yourself over to The Comix Company and have a browse. Loads of stuff for every taste and whim!


And also, because it's a Canadian company, they're super-friendly. This is the envelope my comics arrived in:


And there was a free gift in there too, which was nice:


If you've any idea what a Tijuana Bible is, I don't have to tell you what's inside that thing. And if you don't, it's probably best keeping it that way (wink wink, nudge nudge).

16 comments:

  1. Thanks for that encouraging review. VERY much appreciated.
    As Kenneth Williams used to say "I'm the biggest CULT around here..."

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  2. Well said! Also, glad you enjoyed them! Mr. Turnock's got some new treats on the horizon, so stay tooned! :)

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  3. I had a fair ol' chuckle at that 'Dandy' page, THB, even 'though I've seen it before. Lee does 'underground comics' as well as anyone has ever done them and he's proved his small-minded critics wrong by delivering the goods. Let's hope it leads to him getting more work and being recognised for his talents. I'm not a huge fan of underground comics as most people know (the first, last and only one I ever bought was Marvel's COMIX BOOK in 1973), but as I said, Lee does them as good as anybody and it's a shame that there's hardly any proper comics for kids around anymore where he could show that he does them pretty darn good as well - and better than some.

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  4. I was about to do some impulse-shopping on the site, only to discover they don‘t ship tp where I live. Bah...

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    1. I'd be happy to act as a halfway man for you if you want?

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    2. Thanks for your kind offer Ryan. The impulse has now passed, I don’t feel like spending with them if they don’t want my money  Their criteria of choosing shipping destinations are rather strange: some EU countries are excluded but – lo and behold – they do ship to Russia and the Ukraine that are notorious for packages going astray!

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    3. Dexter DOES ship to Europe. Just drop him an email at thecomixcompany@gmail.com and he'll sort something out.

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    4. Where do you live, Irmantas? The store's shipping matrix is not the best, so I find I have to keep adding shipping destinations in. Trust me: I want your money! :)

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  5. Did you know there's website where you can read tons of tijuana bibles?

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    1. Yep, and a very good site it is if it's the one I'm thinking of! All indexed by "theme", if I'm right?

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  6. Horrible Crumb ripoffs and obsessive depictions of the same large-breasted brunette. This guy is horrible.

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    1. Have you really not got anything better to do? You've been popping up on pretty much every blog that's ever mentioned the guy now...

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    2. Not every one, managed to miss one... http://arfonjones.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/a-review-honk-1.html

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    3. Probably won't be long now ;)

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    4. Hi Gerald, mate. Hope you're well. Happy new year. Oh, by the way, go fuck yourself.

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    5. And doesn't Crumb constantly rip himself off with the same depictions of Amazonian gals? You're just trolling - go fuck yourself. ;)

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