Knee Pockets

Posted: Tuesday, May 21, 2002
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of Knee Pockets Writer(s): David Tang (Editor, writer, and designer)
Artist(s): David Tang, Jeremy Macpherson, Doug Holgate, Steven Preston and Egbert Tjong
Publishers: Self Published
From: Australia
Price: $4 (AU) Also available from http://www.comicsaustralia.com

David, an occasional contributor to these pages sent this our way a few weeks ago. He does all the writing chores and some of the art, and ropes in some helpers to work on the others. As the blurb on the cover proclaims, the 15 stories collect in here span various genres, ...from autobiography to ninjaing...and everything in between.

My favourites are the autobiographical pieces. They are short and amusing comics looking at first loves, old pets, neighbourhood gun shots etc. They have a charming sense of humour, cause you get to laugh at with David as he reveals events from his life. The other stories are a mix of more fictional topics. There is a robot musical, unrequited love and a random film noir like shooting.

David's drawing works well with the autobiographical pieces. For the most part he sticks with straight forward line work, throwing in the occasional piece of grey toning. The other artists all show off their skills to good effect. Doug Holgate's illustration of the robot song is an especially attractive piece of work. On first sight the contributions of Jeremy Macpherson lack a clarity of line, but the strange, 50's retro style that his work displays gives things an off kilter, creepy tone that is appealing.

Wrapped up as it is in a very eye catching cover, this collection should please the fans of imagination and quirky storytelling.

In a Word: Offbeat.



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