What? You say you don't read Underground Comix anymore? WELL 'FHA Q!!!' (FHA Q #1-3 by John Orlando)

So, I was hoping to review issues #1 & 2, of John Orlando's 'FHA Q'; (a quality looking contemporary U.S Underground Comix), but it looks like the copies he sent over from the states got lost somewhere in transit.

Well, I hope SOMEONE, somewhere is having a bloody good read of them anyway!

Having seen numerous panels and teaser strips online for the book, I can honestly say that FHA-Q looks to not only keep the tradition of the U.S Underground comic alive and well, but it also reflects the tone of great satirical comics like MAD and Humbug, bringing them up to date for today's hectic and crazy world.

The warped tone of themes and characters includes all kinds of sympathetic freaks, misanthropes, weirdos, eccentric geniuses, curvaceous women, swipes at corporate greed (vs the everyman), the recession, life on the street, and scenarios that mix the modern world with slightly surreal goings on.

John has also promoted the comic by showing lots of the fake advertisments and reader testimonies that lampoon the consumerist society in which we live.

No one seems safe from being caught in the crosshairs and trapped inside the panels by Orlando's pen:

From what I've seen so far, anyone and everyone from art critics, pretentious intellectuals, the self obsessed and greedy, to those who angrily attack things they don't understand, to judgemental misanthropes and the terminally humourless.

At the time of writing this, issue #3 has just come back from the press and is available to buy along with the other two issues.

You can buy any of the three issues individually, or as part of a triple issue deal from JGM comics online:

http://jgmcomics.ecrater.com/p/15266892/fha-q-3

Be warned however, as Orlando states in his own disclaimers; reading it can bring about all kinds of weird side effects, maladjustments, or warp your mind for good!...

Animation: "The External World" by David OReilly

What can I say? This is one of the best animations I've seen. I'd seen Oreilly's previous animation 'Please Say Something' which was also very good, but this, to me, is outstanding. I've watched it 3 times and it just confirms it's brilliance on each view (to me anyway). The voice artists include Julian Barratt & Adam Buxton (if anyone's interested).

Review: Kiahan (A Tale Of Migration) by Carrie MacKinnon

Kiahan is a harrowing and informative tale about a 14 year old boy, who the comic is named after and based on.

Carrie met him in a detention camp in Calais; a place of squalid conditions, lacking in basic human rights. The comic is based on Kiahan and his brother's story along with other real testimonies and experiences of other migrant 'refugees and asylum seekers' who Carrie met.

Kiahan was born in Afghanistan, but when his father was killed by the Taliban, he and his brother fled the country and the comic chronicles their journey and attempt to make their way to the UK for asylum.

The comic highlights the exploitative people-smuggling trade, where Kiahan and his brother spend all their money to be packed into a truck with others and smuggled into countries that don’t want them, and the dangers of deportation, beatings or death that they face on the way.

When they reach Calais, Kiahan and his brother Amir try to claim asylum, but are separated when the authorities don't believe Amir is 17, and he is segregated with the adults into a different part of the camp.

It is here that the story is interrupted by a two page segment that uses quotes from those living in the terrible conditions in the camps, interspersed around Carrie's evocative and slightly surreal art which was inspired by the quote; "it was like dipping your toe in an enormous pool of lost people":

When Kiahan and Amir finally are allowed into the UK to live with a foster family; we then also see the prejudice they are subjected to in British society. The comic also conveys Kiahan's wish to not be pitied by others; he and his brother want to learn english, fit in, work and be a useful members of society. Without giving too much away, the story ends on an ambigous note.

Interspaced between the comic pages are text pieces that range from reports on the Calais shantytowns where Kiahan lived, to more general pieces of information on refugees, detention centres, and the 'No Borders' group; to whom Carrie is affiliated.

I found this to be a very moving and passionate work; both informative and personal. Carrie's use of subtle water-colour like shading adds a subtlety and mood to the art.

There are website addresses and contact information for a lot of different support groups involved with refugees in the book too, should you be inspired to get involved.

The comic is only £1 (+postage which is only 50p in the UK!). All the proceeds of the zine go to the 'No Borders' campaign.

You can get it via here

 Also here is a link to those who want to learn more about the issues and lend support: http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/

Review: JB's Comicstories #1 by JB

We have a bizarre, darkly funny, bold and unnerving little comic here by the mysterious 'JB', once more coming from Canadian Underground Comix Smut Peddlers; 'The Comix Company'.

Subtitled "Traumatism.vid"; The comic explores the murkier side of internet pornography, in particular, the more extreme aspects of live-feed webcam videos.

The star of the comic is 'Louiese Diseasy' accompanied by her ghostly yet loyal little friend 'Weesy'. Louiese is somewhat of an internet celebrity for her no-holds-barred (or should that be holes?) solo amateur sex videos which attract 1000's of viewers every evening. Louiese considers herself an empowered artist of the adult sex cam, earning money and having a 'wishlist' of gifts that her voyeuristic admirers buy for her.

Enter the not quite so popular 'Little Baby Teef'. LBT as he is known on the internet, is a troubled and isolated chap who lives in his mother's cellar and has just spent his last bit of internet creds buying a special anniversary DVD edition of 'Nightmare Before Christmas' for Louiese (from her wish list).

To make ends meet and fuel his porn-addiction/ obsession with Louiese, LBT has a pay-per-view webcam portal of his own; a much darker and masochistic affair, where he uses every extreme BDSM method at his disposal (which is thankfully mostly left to the imagination), torturing himself (or more specifically, his genitals) for money.

Far from being repulsed by his actions, Louiese considers him the ultimate freaky artist and showman for whom she has the upmost respect."What a monster!" she declares.

Soon, after, LBT goes out in his van to get some food and happens to recognise Louiese going into the same takeaway place with weesy. Too maladjusted and over-excited to just go up and speak to her, LBT instead kidnaps her off the street, leaving the stricken Weesy behind.

Louiese is not a bit phased, thinking that her abduction and blindfolding is a planned kidnapped fantasy gone wrong. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TREVOR, I TOLD YOU FRIDAY!!!". After removing her blindfold and realising that it's not Trevor,  instead seeing the sweaty ski-mask wearing pervert who tries to reassure her that he's her 'number one fan', Louiese then knocks seven shades of shit out of her captor, before exposing his genitals, which she then recognises from LBT's masochist-cam.

The two decide to team-up and shake up the online sex world, "together we'll stir emotions and reveal brutal, basic human truths" declares Little Baby Teef, like some nerdy little Marquis De Sade.

For well over half of the rest of the book, Weesy the ghost searches for Louiese utilising a human host, whilst LBT and Miss Diseasy go on an even more twisted and imaginative odyssey together, garnering interest from all over the internet, which builds, in ways they had not predicted, to a tragi-comic finale, where calamity strikes, then everyone gets what they want...err, kind of.

Now, this may just sound like an abject lesson in how far human kicks can go, and in many ways it is. The comic, it seems, satirises and comments on extreme sexual fetishes, voyeurism, self-abuse, as well as the 'trollishness' and shallow behaviour of many on the internet; the modern trait of 'viral' videos, where for many, everything is entertainment to be laughed at, sneered at and shared.

Internet anonymity and privacy (or lack of) plays a part in the story, as does loneliness, taking oneself too seriously, exhibitionism, public ridicule, self loathing, and self-mutilation.

There's also a good balance/ representation between the two BDSM 'freaks' of the tale; Louiese comes across as sexually liberated, pretty well-adjusted (if just as full-on) and fairly sound of mind, whilst LBT represents someone who is pretty disturbed, yet pitiful, with many hang-ups.

How much you read into this comic is up to you. At it's core is a black comedy in underground comix mould, but even at the end, the punchline says a lot about how messed up people can be. It also felt like, to my mind, that along with the absurdishness, grossness and humour, it was also somewhat critical of those who judge, ridicule and bully those who are different, just as it was a cartoonish exploration of the extremities of sado-masochism and self-martyrdom...I found it a refreshingly different read, and a very original idea.

JB also has to be commended on his art style; both the colour cover and his black and white line art look really nice, with a natural fluidity throughout the pages....You can buy the comic for $4 here. Don't torture yourself, just buy a copy!

For Kelly Thomas...Untitled Piece by Michael Em

Artist Michael Em, made this piece after listening to the audio of the police beating and tazering Kelly Thomas, a mentally-troubled, homeless and unarmed man, to death.  As they beat him, Kelly cried out, saying he was sorry, and later screaming "help me" and screaming for his Dad.

I've seen the video myself and it's easy to see that it was an unprovoked attack. The two cops who were there initially intimidated and bullied Thomas, then brutalised him, before being joined by others who tazered and jumped on him like a gang of thugs.
And the way they all reacted afterwards was so matter of fact, like it was all just so routine.

I thought this was a superb piece of art, and very moving and fitting. RIP Kelly Thomas

THE GREEN SLIME!

I had to share this trailer. It looks a wonderfully cheesy 60's creature-feature B-movie, enhanced by the narrator's accentuation; "the Greeeeeen slime!". Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, the song kicks in at the end. Fantastiche! (P.S: I've noticed that the blog cuts off part of the video screen, so you might want to click on the youtube link at the top of the viewer to see it in it's unadulterated glory!)

....Amd here's that groovin', haemorrhoid poppin', acid-rock space-ditty in all it's glory:

REVIEW: Hot Little Cut #1 by Carrie Q Contrary

So begins the first of several reviews I'll be doing over the next couple of months, of various salacious, kinky, sex-orientated comix sent to me from Dexter Cockburn's 'The Comix Company' in Canada.

Dexter and his band of merry perverts are regularly cracking-out comix like no-ones business, getting their creative juices (and libidos) flowing and stimulating their imaginations before getting right down to it; beavering away before the next 'release'.

It's good to see a comix publisher that has not only kept the torch burning for the uncensorred delights of the Underground of yore, but is releasing new and progressive variations on the adult, sleaze and humour sex-comic genre, and breathing new life into an often ignored/ avoided area of comics by the more prudish.

I kind of like that 'Dexter Cockburn' and Miss 'Contrary' are using pseudonyms; the names are not only amusing, but also tacitly imply that their work is going to be naughty, underground and explicit enough to warrant aliases from which to peddle their filth under.

And so, without further ado; our premier comix exhibitionist show of the evening, is Carrie Q. Contrary's 'Hot Little Cut' #1; a 32 page comic made up of 3 different stories and a couple of one page illustrations.

The first story 'Attack Of The Giant Libido', is a fun fantasy strip which is part 'Attack Of The 50 ft Woman' and part 'Gulliver's Travels', put in a sex-crazed horny blender. Having no luck satisfying her cravings herself, our protagonist ventures off into the outside world; where she continues to grow, more and more, just like her out of control sex-drive.

Pretty soon, she finds a suitable male specimen and picks him up, but unlike the usual creature-feature victims, he seems to be only a slightly shocked, but more aroused, and quite willing to endure whatever is in store for him.

As can be seen from the page above, she has a novel yet functional use for her tiny lover, as he squirms around inside her. After a literally earth-moving climax (that would put Godzilla to shame), suddenly a whole host of frenzied, horny guys want in on the sexy lady theme park, and so the story becomes a kind of pornographic Gulliver's travels.

Whilst Milo Manara did a very beautifully drawn version of a Giant 'Gullivera' back in the day, his version seemed a little too controlled, posed, and almost voyeuristically clean-cut. Carrie's version uses quick brush strokes, and moves quickly and more urgently, as though she herself is getting swept away with the fantasy, which seems more flowing and 'down 'n' dirty' as things gush, shudder and explode throughout the panels. I won't give much else away on this one, other than it's a good-humoured, raunchy fantasy comic.


'Time For A Bath' is a humourous one-page filler comic, all about Carrie getting carried away in the bath tub.

'Shameless' is a longer strip, the first part of a to-be- continued autobiographical comic. Part memoir, part confessional, the story starts by taking us through Carrie's earliest sexual awakenings; of discovering and exploring her body in different ways.

I found this the most unique of the three stories, as well as the most honest and personal. Told in a straight-forward style, in a fairly minimalist way, the strip recalls, balances, juxtaposes and subtly blends all the unashamed, innocent curiosity of childhood, and the more secretive and increasingly self-aware world of burgeoning sexuality and pleasure. Probably not the easiest thing to pull off for a lot of people, but Carrie does it naturally and with aplomb.

This feels like a more mature and thought-provoking work to me (don't get me wrong though, humourous fantasy and titillation is just as valid) which illuminates an area which is seldom talked about, and is generally seen as more taboo for women to discuss it seems, or at least not as readily seen and heard. For instance, we've seen the likes of Robert Crumb and Chester Brown sharing their early sexual experiences in their autobio comic work, but there are very few female cartoonists (to my knowledge) who have given similar insights.

Also worth a mention are the illustrations. As well as the 'tuff girl' cover, we have 'My Little Porno'; a send up of the popular toy franchise (lets hope Hasbro don't get wind of it!), and an amusing and nicely drawn colour pin-up style bit of debauchery on the back:

You can buy 'Hot Little Cut' for only $4 (+ shipping) along with lots of other weird, wonderful and depraved comics at the Comix Company website.

I've still got a little space to use up here, so I will bid you good day, and watch out for more Comix Company reviews, along with many other Underground and Alternative Comix reviews in the very near future!

As The Cramps said; "STAY SICK!" ;)

Laters Alligators!