Why newsprint?

Here is a one question interview I did for avoidthefuture.com a few months ago.

Q: Why newsprint?

A: The idea behind The Comix Reader is that a group of artists who are somewhat on the same wavelength can come together and combine their work and resources to do something on a scale they wouldn't be able to do alone. If you can find the right printer, newsprint is very cheap. Even using full colour you can print a few thousand copies for the same price you'd pay for a run of a few hundred b/w digitally printed comics. By everyone contributing to the print costs we were able to do a run of 9,000 copies, without needing a "real" publisher. So newsprint offered the thrill of printing lot's of copies and being able to sell them cheap or give them away. It means 9,000 people will see it, and maybe their friends will see it too.
Other than this, I also quite like the idea of having this really inexpensive format. It makes it both collectible and disposable at the same time. It's also a statement against the very well-printed, but very expensive comics that have come out over the last few years. They look amazing as art objects, and will last forever, but the content was often disappointing - or at least not worth the cover price.
Another reason for newsprint is that The Comix Reader is inspired by the format of 60's underground newspapers like Gothic Blimp Works where the very early underground comix appeared. If The Comix Reader can capture a bit of that flavour and energy I'd be very pleased. It's also inspired on some level by early comic newspapers like Ally Sloper's Half Holiday, which was far more mainstream but contained some very coarse rough-and-tumble type humour. This ties in with a final reason for the tabloid format, which is that it may be more acceptable to non comics fans than the traditional stapled comic format or trade paperback. This was another motivation for doing The Comix Reader : to get it out to people who wouldn't normally come across many comics, but who might be interested in them if they actually had a chance to see them... perhaps the kind of people who in the 19th Century would have read Ally Sloper!

The Strumpet Lives!

Indy mainstay Whores Of Mensa lives on as.... The Strumpet! Featuring the usual gang of Ellen Lindner, Mardou, Jeremy Day, plus more recent members Patrice Aggs and Tanya Meditzky, new contributors, and the return of Lucy Sweet from Whores issue 1!
You can see a preview of The Strumpet here and you can pre-order on www.kickstarter.com




strumpetcomic.com

Next *TUESDAY* is this month's Comix Meeting! Not at The Crown... at The MILLER!!

Yep, we're moving the day AND the pub! The next Alternative/Underground Comix meeting is Tues 4th October at THE MILLER near London Bridge.
So that's TUESDAY October 4, 8ish (or earlier if you like) until closing at The Miller Pub, 96 Snowfields, London Bridge.
The Crown was cool when we could sit upstairs, because there was lots of room & and it was easy to circulate and talk to everyone. But now they keep closing that part of the pub at 9pm... and if we're sitting in the regular bar downstairs it just ain't so spacious.
So our monthly get together for Comix Kids picks itself up, blows the dust off, and hops a freight train to London Bridge, from where it's but a short walk to The Miller.
So do come along.... it's a chance to chat with people like yourself who dig alternative & underground comix. Bring some comics or art to talk about if you like, or just sit in the corner hunched over your latest obscure comix finds.
Also, it should go without saying that these meetings are a bullshit free zone, with zero tolerance for any kind of abuse. Cool people only!






















Art by Dan Clowes and Hurk.

Pic Lit?!

Ahhhh Distro…. taking the comic stall on the road with Gareth and Julia… on forbiddenplanet.co.uk

Leeds Alternative Comics Fair

The Board and I - Selling the Comix Reader

Good ol' Ellen Lindner writes :

"This summer I took to the road, and even sometimes the streets, as part of a grand experiment in comics distribution called The Comix Reader.
The Comix Reader is a comics newspaper edited by Richard Cowdry and published in the UK. All of the artists club together – there are 22 of us in each issue – and contribute to a giant publishing pot. We print about 9000 copies of the Reader, and we each get a sizeable number to distribute ourselves.
Staring at a pile of literally hundreds of comics can be a daunting experience. And with a majority of the cartoonists involved living in London, just taking some to the local comic book shop is not a viable way of selling them.
So what's a girl to do? My pal J. Homersham, the author of Chuckle Sandwich, has come up with a great solution – THE BOARD.
The Board is basically a hand-made sandwich board. I got my first taste of The Board at this year's West Dean Festival, where J. Homersham and her partner Gareth Brookes had a stall for selling comics as part of their Aaah! Distro project.
We walked that board all over the festival. Unlike my prior experiences of selling comics on the street, where I felt that myself and my audience were, urm, not communicating (I often got the feeling that they thought I was some kind of religious fanatic) the Board made things very simple and clear. We are selling a self-published comic called The Comix Reader. It costs one pound. If you'd like one, we are here to serve. As the Brits say, end of."

Check out the video of J. Ho and El working the Board!