Frankly #4

Posted: Tuesday, May 11, 2004
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of Frankly #4 Creator(s): Gary M. Gibson (ed)
Publishers: Self Published
From: UK
Price: Sold Out

A blast from the past here with a UK anthology from 1993. Most of the stories in the collection have a link: Doug Mclure. You may remember him from such films as Warlords of Atlantis and the Cannonball Run II He turns up in the strangest of places - Finding alien eggs in the cave at the end of the garden, sunning himself by the pool in Hawaii, picking up fast women in the local pub, and checking out a hopeless band down at the Krankhaus club.

The collection has a delightfully silly quality to it. The stories are light-hearted, with a healthy disregard for narrative structure and the laws of reality. There's a talking yeti who wears checked shorts. Don't understand why, but he's there and he's silly in an entertaining way.

The real treat for me is seeing one of my favourite artists at work. John Bagnall's work is always a pleasure to look at, and we get a cover as well as a nifty monster story. But as well there's some folks who are new to me that give John a run for his money. John Miller's material has a bold style - very angular and somehow very 80's. Now I think I've seen some of Simon MacKie work somewhere - the loose line work and use of zip-o-tone create characters who look very punky.

Amongst the comics there's also a nice selection of reviews of both mainstream books and some interviews with UK small press creators. My mate Paul Schroeder (no relation) gets a mention as having some work in the caption Comic zine and news on the Caption '93 convention. Small press history in the making.

Great collection here, shame none of you will be able to get hold of copy unless you live in the UK and know someone involved with the book back then. I wonder where all the copies got to? If you own one let us know. You are one of the lucky ones. Dig it out from the box of small press in the attic and enjoy!.

Where are they now? Visit bugpowder.com and then go into the bugwiki section to find out.

In a Word: Treasure.



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