Saturday, June 8, 2024

PHIL ELLIOTT MONTH: Comix Reading List #81: Rodney: The Preminition

 81. RODNEY: THE PREMONITION (Kickstarter) Phil Elliott


I first encountered Phil Elliott's particular brand of genius in early issues of HONK where "Rodney: The Premonition II" made a big impression. A collaboration between him and Eddie Campbell, Rodney is a vicious character with no remorse for his many victims, who is still quite polite about it and somehow sympathetic through his frustrations with humanity. I'm not sure who does what, in any case these early strips are particularly horrifying and ridiculous.


The absurdity levels rise exponentially until this penultimate strip where Rodney gets so fed up with his situation he decides to commit suicide. Him being the last person on earth, you can imagine how that goes.


These strips, the previous WONDERS OF SCIENCE, and THE MAMMY which followed them all appeared in the UK weekly SOUNDS music newspaper ca. 1984-85. Below is the cover of the January 12, 1984 issue of SOUNDS and the comics page (downloaded from here):




Thursday, June 6, 2024

PHIL ELLIOTT MONTH: Comix Reading List #77-80: Second City 1-4

SECOND CITY #1, page 6
SECOND CITY #2, page 20
SECOND CITY #3, page 24
SECOND CITY #4, page 5

77-80. SECOND CITY #1-4 (Harrier) Kochcomics

This was the first graphic novel created by Phil Elliott, it came out in 1986 from Harrier. The series revolves around the Jack character and his relationship with the "City", author Paul Duncan puts him through the wringer in an almost post-modern disjointed narrative. I love the realistic renderings, impressionistic pages, and even geometric patterns all brought together by Elliott to form a wild narrative. Elliott's art is remarkably consistent while being experimental and keeping up with Duncan's unusual story. 

Cartoonist Michel Fiffe interviewed Paul Duncan and Phil Elliott in 2011 on their SECOND CITY collaboration. 

Slave Labor Graphics collected the series in 1994:
GCD

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

PHIL ELLIOTT MONTH: Comix Reading List #76: Contraband

 76. CONTRABAND penciled by Phil Elliott (MarkosiaKindle




At the time this graphic novel came out it was a complete surprise to me to see a 140 page book from Phil Elliott released. Elliott is no stranger to commercial comics work (DOCTOR WHO, GHOSTBUSTERS, JACK STAFF), and luckily inker Ian Sharman (Markosia Editor-in-chief) and tone artist Cherie Donovan are faithful to his style.



TJ Behe's story spawned two sequels and a screenplay, it's a convoluted near future story of a very real, very dark turn for social media. There are lots of time jumps and dialogue. It all works very well as a comic with Phil Elliott's strong narrative storytelling moving things forward to a twist ending.





Sunday, June 2, 2024

PHIL ELLIOTT MONTH: Kickstarter Adventures 2020-2024

 I became a diehard Phil Elliott follower after finding him (and collaborators Robert Wells and Mike Powell) on twitter in 2020 and discovering his very unusual kickstarter campaign with Mike Powell. This was a sort of gothic science fiction text story with every other page a single b/w Phil Elliott illustration.




Also in 2020 was a kickstarter campaign for the two-man anthology MALTY HEAVE with the brilliant Robert Wells joining Elliott for two issues. (MALTY HEAVE = HEAVY METAL tribute)

cover: Robert Wells/Phil Elliott

Elliott's robots

Elliott cover painting

 "The Game" by Elliott

2021 brought the first in a series of archival volume of Elliott's unpublished, commercial, out of print, or uncollected works. I've always loved this issue of STUFF and the two subsequent wonderfully obscure volumes kickstarted in 2022 (a rumored 4th volume never appeared or I just missed it!).

strip submitted to PUNCH


Glenn Dakin inking Elliott pencils



Unused Dakin/Elliott MR. NIGHT

The stars (figuratively) aligned in 2023 bringing us two volumes of the landscape format !GAG!, collections of obscure "gag strip" format comics from Phil Elliott, Glenn Dakin, and Eddie Campbell. Similar to STUFF in that all three artists scrounged up their favorite unpublished and uncollected work.

I'm partial to "The Tribe of Ush"


unknown but loved!


Currently running is an 84-page collected edition of THE MAN FROM ZODIAC by Glenn Dakin and Elliott, the campaign is fully funded and ends June 6th. Don't miss it! (Also available for preorder from the Shift Store.)




Phil Elliott has also contributed to other people's kickstarter campaigns, following are some I've backed in the past:


 
Story: Mike Powell






Story: Mike Powell


 
Story: Anna Everts
Last two pages from this downthetubes interview with Elliott
Covers from the77comic wordpress site

(I've gone by the dates I downloaded the PDFs of the individual books as their release dates, although the kickstarter campaigns may have been earlier.)

Saturday, June 1, 2024

Phil Elliott Month: June 2024

Celebrating the birth month of veteran UK cartoonist Phil Elliott by reading as many of his comics as possible!
           marvel.fandom.com/facebook

PHIL ELLIOTT (June 22, 1960- )

Unpublished kickstarter commission, 2023.

Sunday, May 26, 2024

New Alternative and Small Press Comics Arrivals (May Week 4)

1. TERRA MEA ISSUE ZERO by Bryce (bluesky)
ordering information in link

2. HYPERMUTT SET 1-9 by Max Huffman (bluesky)
Follow link to another link to Huffman's very cool store.

3. CHARGER COUNTY by Cathy G. Johnson (bluesky)
I've come across a lot of good webcomics on bluesky.

4. King-Cat #83 by John Porcellino (bluesky)
Coming soon!

5. kus! #50 (bluesky) via Hal Weaver
6. GOITER by Josh Pettinger (bluesky)
Josh Pettinger in Spanish from Ediciones La Cupula, May 30.

7. Erika Price bigcartel store (bluesky)
Horror at it's best.

8. Ansis Purins Patreon (bluesky)
9. INFINITE ©️ exhibition by Joshua W. Cotter (bluesky)
I love everything about this.

10. "note to self" by Speed Paste Robot AKA Steven Solomon (bluesky)
Curiosity killed the cat...and the blogger!

BONUS: We've admired gossip gore postings since way back in my twitter days. My favorite recent post showcased Oslo artist Hellasarthole (Very good and Very NSFW)!