…this time by Kevin of Optical Sloth. Kevin has said nice things about Smoo in the past (and in fact, may well have been the first person to ever publish a review of one of my comics). It’s also nearing the ten (TEN!) year anniversary of his work reviewing comics online. Might I suggest you head over there, browse his review archive and maybe even pick up a couple of comics from his store while you’re at it? Y’know, just to say thanks.

Anyway, this time round, seems like Kevin enjoyed The Escapologist. In particular, he concludes his review by writing,

“…to me this comic was both a chance to escape for a minute or two (as the title implies) while also contemplating the manner in which the entire world fits together. That’s damned tricky to accomplish, and it may or may not have been what he was shooting for, but that’s what I saw.”

This makes me very happy, because what Kevin describes is exactly what I’m shooting for with this one. Sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing and sometimes I don’t know whether people read the same thing that I write (which is a whole philosophical can of worms which I won’t open here), but knowing at least a few people dig it in the way it’s intended makes it all worthwhile.

As for the rest of the series, three pages of #3 loosely pencilled: #2 due end of September. No idea how long it’ll go on for, but it will end at some point.

Thanks, Kevin!

The Sorry Entertainer gets a review from Justin Giampaoli! He writes:

“The Sorry Entertainer (Things In Panels): The Bristol-based duo of Simon Moreton and Nick Soucek join the newsprint revivalist movement, and I’ll say that I was immediately sold when I read that the contributors included Noah Van Sciver and Lauren Barnett. They are two of my favorite mini-comics creators working in the industry today. Noah’s done-in-one crime story is an effective storytelling tutorial about concise functionality. Paddy Lynch’s piece was full of inky emotion, Thom Ferrier examines our knee-jerk inclination to document everything we see in the New Media Era, and we get a big full page of Rock N’ Roll ‘Restling from David Ziggy Greene. It’s a thing of rare beauty, full of influences from people like Sammy Harkham, Brandon Graham, and Paul Pope. Chris Fairless dazzles with ink washes, and Sam Spina playfully addresses audience expectations, while Richard Worth and Jordan Cullver display a beautiful turn of the century aesthetic, which is a tad hard to read due to the scale. There’s actually a lot more, but those are my favorites. Simply put, this is the way to do an anthology. It doesn’t matter that there really isn’t a unifying theme, and it doesn’t matter that some of the creators are more popular or bigger names than some of the others. They key is that you find really good pieces, you put them in a unique format, and suddenly you’ve accomplished that rare feat, an anthology with few, if any, weak links. I hope we can look forward to future installments of this venture. Grade A.”

This short review is from Mr Justin Giampaoli: Thanks Justin!

“The Escapologist (Self-Published): Simon Moreton has really been improving his craft lately, and The Escapologist is no exception. The style is full of his usual intricate fine line, with generous backgrounds and crosshatching technique on display. Where he really pours it on is the confidence with which he tells the story. There are several pages without any sort of dialogue, all capturing the disconnect between body and soul. It seems he’s fascinated by our ability to consciously experience the world around us with these different parts of our being. There’s even some suggestion that reality is merely an illusion, being a man-made construct. It’s a terribly quick read, but extremely thought-provoking, and I quite liked it. Grade A.”

I think this sums up pretty much what I’m trying to achieve with The Escapologist. But don’t forget: unlike my other mini-comics, The Escapologist is a serial, and the story will be building across a fair few issues, the second of which will be available soon.

There’s a new review of Smoo #3 up on Optical Sloth. Kevin writes…

“It’s depressing to think that this comic only has a print run of 50 copies. Oh sure, Simon can always make more, and he has plenty of free comics up at his website, so it’s not like his work is barely visible. Still, it’s a sad testament to a lack of any sort of financial reward for doing really exceptional work.”

Read the full review here.

I’ve printed some copies of Smoo #3, so do take the plunge and order if you’re curious - we are in stock! As for Optical Sloth, it’s a great resource for minicomics fans - and I’m saying that as a reader, not a creator. You should go check it out!

Here are some things beginning with ‘S’ that I’ve been enjoying of late. First up is Sam Spina. I traded some comics with him recently, and oh my, did I enjoy them. He also does illustration work, and has done a piece for our Sorry Entertainer Newspaper Anthology. It’s awesome. Anyway, here’s how Sam welcomed in the New Year:

© 2010/2011 Sam Spina

I’ve also been listening to Sam Amidon (that counts as an ‘S’, right?). He’s been revisiting a variety of old American folk music traditions, updating them for a more contemporary audience - but the way the music emerges goes beyond ‘playin’ the classics’; it becomes timeless, visceral, intimate, old and new, all at once. Plus, I am a sucker for a banjo. His last release, All is Well, is fantastic. His newest, I see the Sign, arrived on my desk this morning, and I expect it to be similarly good. He’s good. He also draws comics sometimes.

© 2011 Sam Amidon

I’m also very much listening to a great deal of Sebadoh, because Sebadoh are amazing. So there.

More about Smoo news, coming soon.

The year so far

Oh, 2010! What a year you’ve been for Smoo. To start with, it has been, almost to the day, a whole calendar year since I started distributing Smoo with any sense of commitment. We were in Amsterdam visiting friends, and I stopped into Lambiek, sweatily clutching five copies of Smoo #2 and building up the courage to approach the shopkeepers. Thus began the publishing and distributing powerhouse that is Things in Panels.

Since then my confidence to distribute and have strangers actually read my comic has grown: we’ve had tables at Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo, and Thoughtbubble 2010, I’ve got stuff in shops, and even people I’ve never met have been using my online shop to buy things. This is an exciting development. I’ve also managed to publish Smoo #2, Smoo #2 1/2, finish Lisbon, compile and publish my old diary comics, and complete Smoo #3. Quite productive, I guess - and the reviews have been good, too (in fact, there’s a new review up for Smoo #3 from Matthew Murray. You can read it here.)

In other news, I finished my PhD and ran a half-marathon too, both of which I can say with some confidence will be one-time events. Running is a silly idea at the best of times, and running a long way is a very silly idea. However, a lot of people did a lot of silly running for a lot of good causes, and I’m glad I could help in some small way. But that is by the by. This is about comics.

What next?

See, I’m a sucker for the idea of the New Year: fresh starts, reinvigorated after the holidays for the onset of January and the rest of the year. Just as well really, because no matter how many times and in how many ways I list the things I have accomplished this year, I must say I don’t feel as though I’ve done that much: I’ve got so much more that I want to do, but don’t really know what that ‘more’ is or how to go about doing it. I got a bit overwhelmed towards the end of this year with various working and self-imposed comic-pressure, but a good bout of the flu helped me stop, take stock and calm down.

So what are my plans for the New Year? In the short-term, we’ve got The Sorry Entertainer anthology to put together and get printed - we’re aiming to get it released sometime in May: I’m working one or two submissions for other people’s anthologies, so we’ll see happens there: we have tables at the Small Press Expos in London in March and Bristol in May. We’re also trying to organise our own event here in Bristol, but more on that another time.

But what about Smoo #4? Well, I’ve reached a funny sort of impasse here: I don’t really know what I want to achieve with my next issue of Smoo. The amazing thing about self-publishing is that it can be anything I’d like it to be: the annoying thing about self-publishing is that it can be anything I’d like it to be (i.e. too many options). So what will happen next? What stories will I tell? Comics? Writing? Poems? Autobiography? Fiction? To be honest, I really don’t know, but it might be something quite different - and equally, it might be more of the same. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Happy 2010. I’m off to think about things some more. I’ll see you on the other side.

Interview!

I’ve been interviewed by Dan Berry as part of the UK comics snapshot series being run over at the Comics Bureau. It was my first ever interview, so I am grateful and excited. As Mr Timothy Winchester, author of the joyous People I Know, communicated to me via the medium of twitter, “2011 is going to going to be a good year for us!”. Was he joking? Was he predicting? Did he have a premonition? You can only find out by reading his comics!

You can also read interviews with far more interesting folk than I, including Darryl Cunningham, Oliver East, Katie Green and Jim Medway.

Review!

Justin has reviewed Smoo #3 over at the Poopsheet Foundation. Justin has been a very supportive reviewer of late, so I’m grateful. However, I’ve also sent review copiers further out into the world - so we’ll see what they have to say! Anyway, here is a snippet of what Justin has said:

” I love the detail in Simon’s lines, along with the effortless flow from one panel to another. There’s something unique about his page layouts and panel arrangements too; the pacing is under control with isolated moments that seem to float effortlessly down the page, gently nudging the reader’s eye toward the end goal.”

You can read the whole interview here.

That’s it for now: more soon!

(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.

© David Heatley 2008

…My Brain is Hanging Upside Down by David Heatley. It’s stark in it’s honesty, and compelling reading: like autobiographical comics should be, bold visceral, entertaining, touching, valuable. Not that I’ve finished reading it yet, but you should probably buy it.

In other news, Kevin ‘Optical Sloth’ Bramer has read the preview to Smoo #3, and suggests you all take a leap of faith and purchase the whole thing. He’s right you know: you really should! Buy it here!