I’ve never pretended to be a comic book expert – I’m not –
but thanks to the explosion of films which were inspired by the medium I have
started to appreciate them a lot more.
It is all about storytelling and like TV and film, some
of the best stories can be found at the grassroots level.
“Tales from a lonely planet” is a collection of stories
by grassroots comic book writers and artists put together by Stu Perrins. Importantly,
all proceeds from the anthology will go to Cancer Research UK.
...
It is the editor of the anthology that kicks off matters
with his satirical strip “No such thing as bad press”. I must admit, the
artwork of Nick Gonzo put me off at first but once I started to read the story his
contribution became evident.
Gonzo adds a lot of charm to Perrins’ funny and
sharp writing and by end of the story you want to read more about the
adventures of Harvey Spig.
But it is the next strip, “Dogs” by Niall Doonan which is
the stand out piece of the anthology. Inspired by the characters of Tarantino’s
iconic debut film, it follows a hilarious conversation about one of the Dogs becoming
a vegetarian. It is a little gem of a strip – it’s surreal, laugh out loud
funny and also strangely familiar. The art work by Trystan Mitchell is just fantastic
and adds even more quality to the strip.
...
Every story in ‘lonely planet’ is peppered generously
with humour, but I also enjoyed how different the art in each story was. No
story looks the same and this makes starting a new strip feel like a breath of
fresh air. There will probably be some strips in this book that may not be to everyone’s
taste, but that’s fine – that’s the point.
What this book demonstrates is just how unique comics
are. There are ideas and little fables in this anthology that will stay with
for a while (Blas Bigatti’s piece is just beautiful) and they show you that
comics can be so much more than your Batmans or Supermans.
I loved “Tales from a lonely planet” and I applaud Mr
Perrins for putting this together. Importantly, I can’t wait to see what these
artists come up with next.