My new zine got reviewed by Richard Bruton over at the Forbidden Planet International blog. He writes:

“Moreton’s lines get fewer yet his ideas seem limitless. Perhaps the fewer lines are what does it; you look at a page, your eyes flow easily and smoothly over the image, guided skillfully and precisely by Moreton’s hand, and then your mind takes over, automatically filling in the gaps, all the space is there just to inspire the imagination, and it works so wonderfully, wonderfully well. There’s such skill in these pages, as there is with any artist who sacrifices detail for clarity.”

You can read the full review here

You can buy it here.

Jason Martin wrote about my comics for his Zine Club! Jason’s one of my favourite cartoonists, about whom I’ve written before. He scored an Ignatz nomination last year for a story he wrote, illustrated by Jesse Reklaw, in the last issue of Papercutter (which Jason wrote all of). If you do follow the link below, make sure you check out his work too!

Jason on SMOO Comics

Over on Graphixia, Peter Wilkins writes about my comics. He does so in a thoughtful way that seems to capture what I’m trying to do with them, and is more than a little humbling. Peter writes:

“Moreton’s drawings are about getting as much information and affect into as few lines as possible. It would not only be a cliche but incorrect to say that we “fill in the rest” with our imaginations. Rather, I think Moreton makes us cling to to the partial images he gives us of a place or a memory and look at them really intensely, because the parts we can’t see have a sublime quality that plays off of the beauty and elegance of the drawings.”

Read the full post here.

Wow. Smoo #6 gets a write-up on The Comics Journal, thanks to Rob Clough. First time ever on TCJ!

Read it here.

If you like what you read, why not take a look at some of my comics, and consider browsing my online shop. You might like to buy something, or, alternatively, explore some of the distros and shops that carry SMOO and the rest of their amazing stock.

We started 2012 eating grapes in a tapas bar in Ourense, Spain, half drunk on cava and half-drunk on beer. 2011 wasn’t the greatest of years in some ways – struggling to find work and creatively frustrated – and I remember hoping that 2012 was going to be better. As it happens, it really has been.

There’s a whole bunch of reasons for that, including a new job, a new house, but as far as making comics goes, I think this year I started making the comics that I wanted to make, not the comics I thought I should make. I can’t say this was a conscious decision – it just sort of happened. I blame drawing with pencils.

So here’s a quick recap, below the cut.

Read More

Justin Giampaoli has reviewed Smoo #6 over at the Poopsheet Foundation. He writes:

“It’s clear that these aren’t just mindless sketches or doodles though, Moreton thinks about the imagery, like the squiggle of ink that stands-in for confusion over not knowing how to help a sick bird. It’s this type of visual shorthand for more complex emotion that proves his fluid understanding of what makes the medium so unique. He blurs the line between text and image to achieve superb information delivery.”

I’m really humbled by this review.

You can read the full review here.

You can buy Smoo #6 here.

Andy Oliverof Broken Frontierreviews Smoo #5. He writes:

Some of the very, very best in autobiographical comics are those that feel they have been written as much for the creator as they have for his or her potential audience. For me, Simon Moreton’s work falls firmly under that classification. Quietly uncompromising, it has a raw and admirable honesty to it that draws the reader in and fully absorbs them in the emotive and very personal slice-of-life episodes he recreates on the comics page.

You can read the rest of the review here. You can buy it from my shop here.

New review from Rob CloughforSmoo #5. He writes:

“… Moreton’s increasingly confident voice and line have made his quiet, reflective and poetic comics a rich and rewarding experience… When drawing figures, he has a new economy of line that gets across the bare minimum of human details but still does a tremendous job with gesture and body language so as to convey emotion.”

You can read the full review here. You can buy the comic from my shop.

Two of my comics have been reviewed by Rob Clough at High/Low. Of Smoo #4 he says, “Moreton takes the reader on a recapitulation of his perceptual journey of Marlow, going from the awe of childhood to the contempt of his teenage years to the ways in which he and his friends tried to create meaning. The revelations Moreton provides about his sense of growing old externally but not feeling it internally are not especially innovative, but that does not diminish the impact of the revelation as he feels it, nor the beautiful way that he expresses it on the page”. Here is a page from that comic:

Of The Escapologist #2, he says: “this is a comic about being from a particular place and knowing particular people, and how the sum total of our personality is constructed in part by our relationships with others. It’s a short and sweet depiction of a feeling and a sense of loss, of being connected and feeling apart.”

He also reviews recent work by Derik Badman and Jenny Zervakis. Having actually read the other comics Rob has reviewed, I can also whole-heartedly recommend chasing them up. Speaking of which, if you’d like to chase my comics up, look no further as you can buy both these titles here.

Richard Bruton of the Forbidden Planet International blog has reviewed The Escapologist #2. Richard has been very supportive of my work in the past, and this is review is no exception. He writes,

“… there’s just an irresistible pull to [the images], they draw me in, over and over and over. Each image has meaning no doubt, but it’s the beauty of the image in isolation and the cumulative effect that wins me over. I could stare happily at each panel for so long, lost in the ideas it helps form as my own thoughts wander and fly, connecting, imagining.”

Above all, he seems to derive from the zine what it intends to give, which is very encouraging:

“Repeated readings / viewings don’t necessarily glean new information, but they do encourage my mind to wander, reflective and open, a glorious, uplifting experience brought out by such simple lines, but so beautifully done.”

You can read the full review here. Issues #1 and #2 are available from my shop for just £1.50 (ppd, UK) or £2.50 (ppd everywhere else). If you order now, you may very well get them before Christmas…