http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/deadhead-comics-edinburgh
I took a lucky dip and selected five locally produced comic books. Here’s what I picked up, a quick description of the book and whether or not I thought it was any good, or not.
Title: The Steamin’ Headmaster
Publisher: UK Comics Creative Limited
Website: http://www.comicsy.co.uk/rapidcomics/store/products/the-steamin-head-master/
A book about a drunk Glaswegian headmaster who gets kicked out of his house by his rightfully angry wife and ends up living a drunken bachelors life, of sorts, at the school. Whilst messing around in various parts of the school in his underpants and swinging a bottle of booze around his head he comes across his equally strange science teacher buddy and together they hatch a plan to do some crazy sci-fi experiment involving a disgraced former colleague and a millipede. The book doesn’t quite work, perhaps unsure as to whether or not it’s a comedy, horror or serious look at the moral implications of genetic manipulation between man and animal. The first half is fun, but the conclusion is a bit of a let-down, packing too much into a short number of pages and ending with a silly panel of a giant millipede that left me feeling a bit confused. My lasting impression of the book is of a good idea that got a bit lost in translation. It started off fun, got a bit weird and ended up a bit of a mess. Rating 5/10
Title: Saltire
Publisher: Diamondsteel Comics Ltd
Website: http://www.diamondsteelcomics.com/
I was looking forward to this one, having heard about it on various comic book websites. However, after reading the book I was a bit disappointed with it. The story follows Roman era Scots battling the invading Roman legions, and there’s not much to it at all. Saltire is a superhero/God and he helps the locals fight against the Romans, and that’s about it really. I found it to be a bit childish, shallow and not very rewarding. The art was not bad, but there was a tone of seriousness to it that was a bit po-faced and severely lacking in fun. That’s okay sometimes, but there wasn’t enough meat in the story to justify the serious tone, and by the end of it all I was getting a bit bored with the silly, largely undeveloped characters. I was a bit upset by this book. I thought it would be great, but it wasn’t even good. Rating: 5/10
Title: Maximum Alan
Publisher: Black Hearted Press
Website: http://blackheartedpress.tictail.com/product/maximum-alan-1
This one looked like a lot of fun. The front cover is designed to look like a Watchmen comic, and it appears to be offering a cutting piss take of all things Alan Moore related. What I actually got was an amateurishly drawn joke stretched way to thin, loads of inside jokes about comics that even I didn’t understand and a silly plot that got a bit tiresome half way through the book. This book was certainly bizarre (as is claimed by David Lloyd on the front cover) but it wasn’t that funny, and not half as good as I wanted it to be. Rating: 4/10
Title: The Freedom Collective
Publisher: Rough Cut Comics
Website: http://www.roughcut-comics.com/pages/frames.htmlhttp://www.roughcut-comics.com/pages/frames.html
This one is a lot of fun, taking the piss out all of those old American comics of the 1960’s anti communist era that portrayed everything Soviet as bad, and everything American as good. The book comes from a Kremlin perspective, so everything communist is good, and everything capitalist is bad. It’s a good idea, and there’s a lot of mileage to be had from reversing western propaganda and showing how it might work if the other side uses the same, simplistic and deceitful tactics to deceive their own populace. The book plays it for laughs and there are underlying assumptions to be wary of, but there are moments when it gets it right, in particular the panels that show a large mountain of money flowing underneath the White House, and the portrayal of the US president as a Mafia boss, which is closer to the truth than a lot of people would like to admit, even to themselves. Reading this book makes me long for a modern equivalent that tackles contemporary US propaganda, perhaps looking at what is happening in the Ukraine right now where the US has sponsored a coup to overthrow a democratically elected government, and how the US corporate media is misleading the American public about what has happened, what is happening, and who is responsible. Where’s that book? We certainly need it right now in this era of corporate mainstream media deceit and connivance with the rich and powerful. This book however is all about the comic code era propaganda in American comics, not what’s happening in 2014. It’s a lot of fun, drawn very well and I’d fully recommend it to anybody reading this review. Rating: 8/10
Title: Laptop Guy
Publisher: Black Hearted Press
Website: http://blackheartedpress.com/comics/laptop-guy/
This book is undoubtedly my favourite of the five books I picked up during my time in Edinburgh. The plot follows an eternally optimistic, yet obviously doomed, comic book writer as he takes time off from his McJob to come up with the big idea that is going to make him the next big thing in the world of comics. Things are looking pretty bleak (Sherlock Bones anyone?) but then a work colleague horribly mutilates himself as a result of his own doomed attempts at artistic creativity, and the amazing Laptop Guy is born. This book is absolutely hilarious. It’s the kind of book that leaves you properly laughing out loud, as opposed to typing LOL at your own half asset attempts at humour on facebook. The art, in particular the facials of the hapless comic book creator himself, is perfect and furthers a sense of the ridiculous that makes this book an absolute riot. Check out that cover. Check out that stupidly optimistic face, surrounded by his ridiculous creation. This book is awesome. It’s probably the funniest comic book I’ve read in a long, long time and it was well worth going all the way to Scotland and running a half marathon (in the rain) to get my hands on it. Check out the website, and get a copy for yourself. You won’t regret it. Rating 10/10
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