Nope, it’s not ‘Be Offensive Friday’: it is, in fact, Buy One Get One Free Friday here at Things in Panels!

Here’s the deal: buy any comic from my shop and get a second comic absolutely free!

To take advantage of this offer, simply head to the shop, choose a comic you’d like to purchase and click on the ‘Add to Cart’ button. When you come to complete your payment in PayPal, fill out the ‘Additional Information for Seller’ (or you can drop me an email), with details of the comic you’d like free! Boringly, the free comic must be of the same value, or lower than, the one you’re purchasing.

…and, if you buy more than one comic, you get more than one free! How’s that to lift your spirits on a miserable Friday?

Any questions - get in touch!

(This offer ends when it stops being Friday, where ever you are in the world)

Edit: this sale is now over. Thanks to everyone who got involved and bought some comics!

(Excerpt from Lisbon.)

There’s a new review of my Lisbon mini-travelogue up at the Forbidden Planet International blog. This is what Richard says:

“It’s absolutely lovely, simply done, naturalistic storytelling and it really makes me hanker to see Simon M get stuck into something far more substantial, his style, his invention and his tone all press all the right buttons for me. Someone give him some cash to go away and make longer form comics. Please?

… and while there might not be any publishers able to knock my door down with offers of oodles and oodles of cash (I’m sure they would if they could), tis the season to be jolly and share, so why not check out my shop? It’s full of comic-based goodies loved by small press reviewers around the world. So why not treat the small-press DIY-ethos-diggin’ indie-comic-lovin introspective boy or girl in your life to the Christmas surprise of Smoo Comics? It’d sure make my day - and theirs!

(Excerpt from Smoo #3)

Also, it’s Tumblr Tuesday, so perhaps you might like to recommend me for being awesome at comics, or pleading, or something.

…and finally… If you need a song-based accompaniment for your reading or browsing, why not consider this charity single, released as part of my friend’s 52 New Things project? Ahh, go on.

Smoo Comics #3

• A5
• 36pp
• White card cover

Only £2.00 postage paid in the UK, £3.00 elsewhere.

Available in the shop now!

That’s right! SHOP’s Zine Library has returned and is looking better than ever! After our last set of cardboard shelving went the way of the cardboard dodo, we had to take the zines down while we rethought our shelving strategy. Now, however, the zines are back, housed in lots of smaller, modular, cardboard shelving units. Each one is hand-made and hand-decorated from recycled cardboard and they all look pretty darned ace. We’ve scattered them throughout SHOP, in all sorts of places, for interested parties to have a read.

There is still work to be done updating the Zine Library blog, Things I Have Zine, but that will be completed by the end of the month. Also, sometime in November, there’ll be a night of zine reading, reviewing, discussing and chatting in SHOP’s cosy lounge. I’ll be sure to write more on that as the details emerge. For now, though, rest assured: the Zine Library is back!

We’ve been busy making some modular cardboard shelving for the Zine Library out of old boxes. The blurry buggers below are two example of these things - handy, slanting shelves that will hold about 5 or 6 zines a pop:

…and here is Brett, looking all cheerful, with some of his beautifully decorated examples:

I’ll put up some pictures when I get back from Berlin next week. I’ll also be posting more about the relaunch of the Zine Library, too.

PS I’m back in the saddle with Smoo #3 and I am very excited about it. Whoop!

PPS Due to a shortage of time and over-commitment on my part, I was unable to contribute to Rob Jackson’s up-coming Gin Palace 2 anthology. However, here are eleven reasons why you should buy it when it comes out.