Comics From Oxford (Part 1)

It's three weeks since I drove down to Oxford for my first ever Caption and I've only just got around to reviewing some of the excellent small press comics I picked up there. Where does the time go?

Andrew Cheverton's Pictures Made Of Light is a gorgeous little comic featuring some of Chev's best art to date (typically of comic book artists, Chev tells me he "can't bear to look at it it") on an enigmatic adaptation of a prose story he originally wrote for Elephant Words.

I've read this comic three times now and each time it reveals new layers of interpretation. Chev tells me he expects it'll infuriate many readers who will "throw it away and never buy anything I make again". Now how's that for a challenge?

Pictures Made Of Light is available to buy now (£2 including p&p) from The Angry Candy Store.

Crisp Biscuit Comics #1 collects a bunch of hilarious full colour 1-page strips from Rob Wells's Crisp Biscuit Blog. These include the time-wasting adventures of Jack Bowser, star of TV's 'Twenty Bore'; political satire featuring the alien takeover plans of D'Avid C'Ameron; movie spoofs like The Green C**k Ring and X-Men: Standard Parcels... and more. You could read them at Rob's blog... or you could pay him £2.50 and get a lovely paper copy sent to your home for you to love and cherish forever. I'd recommend the latter - because who wants to read comics on a computer?

Blood Magic is a gripping tale of witchcraft, family ties and sacrifice by Karen Rubins, produced as part of her Comics Artist residency at the Victoria & Albert Museum. And you can get a FREE copy (subject to availability) over at Karen's website... all you have to do is send her 50p for p&p. Bargain!

Sean Azzopardi's Nine Months Of Beige is another collection of sharp, funny, honest and touching musings from one of my favourite autobiographical comic creators. As always with Sean's comics, I found myself nodding my head in sympathy and agreement throughout. You can't put a price on that kind of creativity... but if you did, it'd be a well-spent £2.50 (plus postage) from Sean's shop.

More reviews of Comics From Caption to follow... as soon as I've read them.

Oxford Comma

Being a huge fan of Inspector Morse, I wasn't about to let my recent trip to Caption go by without taking a little stroll around Oxford itself. It's a city I've always wanted visit... but would it live up to expectations?

Well, there certainly are some beautiful old buildings and wonderful examples of classic architecture. I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to architecture, hence my use of "classic" in that previous sentence rather than "Classical". Pedants beware!

I suppose I had it in my head that Oxford would be all old buildings, trapped in amber, time-warping me back to a long gone Golden Age of England as soon as I drove through the city limits. In places though, Oxford looks like any other city. I guess every high street needs a Superdrug.

Many of the actual colleges were either closed to the public - or charged a hefty entry fee that unemployed writers couldn't really justify paying - but I did get to walk through the grounds of Christ Church College and the Bodelian Library (above). Tempted as I was to shout, "Do hurry up, Lewis!" I kept quiet as a mark of respect... and because I generally get very annoyed by people who talk in libraries. As to those colleges I couldn't gain free entry to, I leaned through the gates and took a few photos anyway...

I began my tour very early on Sunday morning while the streets were reasonably quiet... but it wasn't long before I was joined by hordes of tourists. Every corner I turned, I met another group, guided by an old boy of Oxford (it was usually boys) sharing his knowledge of the city's history and heritage. As beautiful a place as Oxford undoubtedly is, I soon grew tired of all the sightseers with their cameras... particularly when they prevented me from getting decent photos of my own!

As the morning rumbled on, the skies over the dreaming spires grew cloudy and began to threaten rain... so I headed down to the river to catch a few shots that matched the Oxford in my head even more than the magnificent skyline...

Oxford, then: almost everything I'd hoped for. Just a disappointing lack of cunningly planned murders being foiled by grumpy misanthropic policemen and their thick Geordie sidekicks. You'd have thought they might have organised at least one after I'd driven all that way...

My First Caption

Big thanks to Jay and Selina (and the rest of the Committee) for making my first Caption such an enjoyable experience. It was great - and somewhat surreal - to meet so many people I've known for so many years (via the interweb) in the flesh... for the first time ever. I wish I'd attended more of the panels, but there were just so many "old friends" to talk to instead. Next time, I promise to ignore you all and just go watch the panelists.

At least I managed to make it along to our own Comics - On The Ration panel...

(Paul Rainey, Rob Wells, me and Steve Miller - together at last! Photo courtesy of Terry Wiley.)