Well look here if it isn't me and Iain Laurie's books, genuinely and legitimately available in Waterstones of Argyl Street Glasgow, and the Graphic Novels of the Month at that!
Showing posts with label Haunted Bowels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Haunted Bowels. Show all posts
Lurching Toward Legitimacy...!
It's possible but unlikely that you might have seen my ill-conceived prank in which my "successful line of children's adventure fiction Foes Forever" was presented on the shelves of Waterstones...
Well look here if it isn't me and Iain Laurie's books, genuinely and legitimately available in Waterstones of Argyl Street Glasgow, and the Graphic Novels of the Month at that!
A sincere thanks to Waterstones for having our work in store, and for the generous feature spot!
Well look here if it isn't me and Iain Laurie's books, genuinely and legitimately available in Waterstones of Argyl Street Glasgow, and the Graphic Novels of the Month at that!
2013 Round Up
Now that 2013 is winding up it's time for a wee retrospective. Something to look over what I've done and failed to do, something to appreciate some of the unexpected opportunities that have come my way and consolidate some plans for the year ahead.
This year I brought out two new comics, both in collaboration with the mighty Iain Laurie, and rather unusual beasts they were.
First up was Metrodome. Metrodome was a long and involved process at every stage, partly due to the unconventional nature of our collaboration on it and partly due to the extremely detailed task it proved to be to collate and finalise, and it seemed to take forever to bring to completion. So it was a challenge to complete and a relief to finally put it out into the world! I'm pleased to say it's been very well received, broadly speaking the reviews have been great and I've had all sorts of excited feedback from friends and other small press colleagues, so I reckon in the end me we be pretty pleased with this unruly book. There's a little something extra for Metrodome to come, so look out in early 2014.
About a month later I released Crawl Hole, the spiritual cousin to Roachwell and a collection of various experimental surreal horror strips from across the years. These strips in this collected format had been my plan for a few years, and while it's a strip or two slimmer than I'd planned, it's great to have this out there and finally feel that this part of my work is brought to a kind of conclusion. It seems to have gone down very well, and I'm particularly proud of this book. While I expect I'll do work of a similar sort in future, this feels like the Roachwell / Crawl Hole axis of evil brought to a solid close.
This year was also a bit of an achievement in that I finally got into the frenetic world of selling my comics at conventions and events. I had a little warm up in selling Metrodome at the Glasgow Comic Con, where John Lees kindly invited me to perch on his table. But the first major event on my own was the excellent Stripped Fest as part of the Edinburgh Book Festival.
Something unexpected that came alongside Stripped, and I've no idea how this came about, is that I was invited to take part in a special 'comics edition' of the famed Literary Death Match, with none other than Neil Gaiman as a judge. I've written about it in detail here, but needless to say it was a nerve-wracking and extraordinary experience that was hugely enjoyable and just great to be involved in. Certainly the coolest thing that happened to me, comics wise, for the year.
Stripped itself was a really enjoyable show in a truly lovely set of halls. We were all ridiculously well looked after by the Book Festival and its staff, and it was a great first foray into the world of selling at conventions.
Following that - MCM Glasgow. None of us really knew what to expect of it, but we did not expect the astounding attendance that resulted. I had an excellent day, selling comics and chatting with cool folks and admiring the brilliant costumes going on. I have to say that I was hugely impressed by the crowd, despite a three-odd hour wait in intermittent rain the positivity and good humour on show was really something. Plus I met this guy:
Lastly the mighty Thought Bubble. It was quite an experience, as was my Sunday hangover. All in all I had a great time, I sold better than I expected to, and had the opportunity to finally meet in person lots of friends I know from being in anthologies with, Twitter, Facebook and all. And the huge variety and quality of work on offer was simply fantastic. I suppose the scale of the event is, for an exhibitor, both a positive and a negative. In that there's very little time to get away from your table and in that time, there's so many people's work to look into and events and talks on, it's impossible to make much of a dent in what you'd like to see. Similarly I wonder, with the number of exhibitors, can it be possible that enough punters come in the door with enough money to not send many an exhibitor home short of breaking even? But all that's for wider discussion, and it was a great weekend.
Rounding out the year nicely, I was asked to do a reading for the recent inaugural event for a new Scottish outfit the Speculative Bookshop. Myself and four other local writers discussed our work and did readings, for my part I discussed Roachwell, it's conception and some of the ideas therein, and the wider freedoms and limitations of small press comics, then finished with a spoken word version of a Roachwell strip that never was. The highlight of the night was Stephen Goodall's excellent and dread-inducing reading that linked to his Institute for Marine Research Comic. Do check that out! Kudos to Jen and Dale for running a great event with enthusiasm and professionalism, keep an eye on those guys.
So despite not feeling so, it's been a pretty productive year and I've been able to do some pretty cool things. And with those two long-gestating comics out now, the cupboards are bare. So I'm looking forward to the year ahead, and hoping between my young family and compressed working week I can find a little more time a little more regularly. I've got two (or maybe three, if there's an appetite for Haunted Bowels: Volume II) projects at various stages, all of which will be longer and more substantial undertakings. You may even see me flirt with crazy notions such as character and plot...!
Lastly I'd like to thank my collaborators over the years, in particular Iain, and the various reviewers for the time and effort they put into critical assessment of small press work, and the various friends and colleagues who've read and been supportive of my comics. Thanks all!
This year I brought out two new comics, both in collaboration with the mighty Iain Laurie, and rather unusual beasts they were.
First up was Metrodome. Metrodome was a long and involved process at every stage, partly due to the unconventional nature of our collaboration on it and partly due to the extremely detailed task it proved to be to collate and finalise, and it seemed to take forever to bring to completion. So it was a challenge to complete and a relief to finally put it out into the world! I'm pleased to say it's been very well received, broadly speaking the reviews have been great and I've had all sorts of excited feedback from friends and other small press colleagues, so I reckon in the end me we be pretty pleased with this unruly book. There's a little something extra for Metrodome to come, so look out in early 2014.
About a month later I released Crawl Hole, the spiritual cousin to Roachwell and a collection of various experimental surreal horror strips from across the years. These strips in this collected format had been my plan for a few years, and while it's a strip or two slimmer than I'd planned, it's great to have this out there and finally feel that this part of my work is brought to a kind of conclusion. It seems to have gone down very well, and I'm particularly proud of this book. While I expect I'll do work of a similar sort in future, this feels like the Roachwell / Crawl Hole axis of evil brought to a solid close.
This year was also a bit of an achievement in that I finally got into the frenetic world of selling my comics at conventions and events. I had a little warm up in selling Metrodome at the Glasgow Comic Con, where John Lees kindly invited me to perch on his table. But the first major event on my own was the excellent Stripped Fest as part of the Edinburgh Book Festival.
Something unexpected that came alongside Stripped, and I've no idea how this came about, is that I was invited to take part in a special 'comics edition' of the famed Literary Death Match, with none other than Neil Gaiman as a judge. I've written about it in detail here, but needless to say it was a nerve-wracking and extraordinary experience that was hugely enjoyable and just great to be involved in. Certainly the coolest thing that happened to me, comics wise, for the year.
Stripped itself was a really enjoyable show in a truly lovely set of halls. We were all ridiculously well looked after by the Book Festival and its staff, and it was a great first foray into the world of selling at conventions.
Following that - MCM Glasgow. None of us really knew what to expect of it, but we did not expect the astounding attendance that resulted. I had an excellent day, selling comics and chatting with cool folks and admiring the brilliant costumes going on. I have to say that I was hugely impressed by the crowd, despite a three-odd hour wait in intermittent rain the positivity and good humour on show was really something. Plus I met this guy:
Lastly the mighty Thought Bubble. It was quite an experience, as was my Sunday hangover. All in all I had a great time, I sold better than I expected to, and had the opportunity to finally meet in person lots of friends I know from being in anthologies with, Twitter, Facebook and all. And the huge variety and quality of work on offer was simply fantastic. I suppose the scale of the event is, for an exhibitor, both a positive and a negative. In that there's very little time to get away from your table and in that time, there's so many people's work to look into and events and talks on, it's impossible to make much of a dent in what you'd like to see. Similarly I wonder, with the number of exhibitors, can it be possible that enough punters come in the door with enough money to not send many an exhibitor home short of breaking even? But all that's for wider discussion, and it was a great weekend.
Rounding out the year nicely, I was asked to do a reading for the recent inaugural event for a new Scottish outfit the Speculative Bookshop. Myself and four other local writers discussed our work and did readings, for my part I discussed Roachwell, it's conception and some of the ideas therein, and the wider freedoms and limitations of small press comics, then finished with a spoken word version of a Roachwell strip that never was. The highlight of the night was Stephen Goodall's excellent and dread-inducing reading that linked to his Institute for Marine Research Comic. Do check that out! Kudos to Jen and Dale for running a great event with enthusiasm and professionalism, keep an eye on those guys.
So despite not feeling so, it's been a pretty productive year and I've been able to do some pretty cool things. And with those two long-gestating comics out now, the cupboards are bare. So I'm looking forward to the year ahead, and hoping between my young family and compressed working week I can find a little more time a little more regularly. I've got two (or maybe three, if there's an appetite for Haunted Bowels: Volume II) projects at various stages, all of which will be longer and more substantial undertakings. You may even see me flirt with crazy notions such as character and plot...!
Lastly I'd like to thank my collaborators over the years, in particular Iain, and the various reviewers for the time and effort they put into critical assessment of small press work, and the various friends and colleagues who've read and been supportive of my comics. Thanks all!
Scottish MCM Comic Con: Beyond The Wall
I'm very excited to be at this weekend's first ever Scottish MCM Comic Con (7th September) in the frozen wasteland of the SECC, tabling my comics in the Comics Village along with a massive but undisciplined warband of talented indie creators! It looks to be a very busy exhibition with a great deal going on, and for a pretty cheap entry too...
Here's a wee round up of the books I'll be selling - do drop Table C11 by and check them out, say hello and have a chat. Note that Metrodome cosplay is actively encouraged!
Metrodome: by me and Iain Laurie. Drawn from The Metro like poison from a wound, Eight Contenders in The Fight for Survival, The Battle for Ultimate Victory! An experimental production in creation, destruction and survival, in a comic created from a single edition of the free UK newspaper The Metro. Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released July 2013 (£3.00).
"The characters emerge fully formed from the deepest, darkest depths of the magnificently poisonous headspaces of Collins and Laurie... If you like your comics unsettling, in-yer-face and gratuitously grotesque then you can’t go wrong with the wicked and wily wit of these guys." Broken Frontier.
Haunted Bowels: A collection of small press comedy comics - gruesome gags and oddball humour, surreal comedy and morbid light entertainment. Omniscient beings, strange cowboys, troubled poets and unruly spectres and much more await within...!
Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2012 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released June 2012 (£3.00).Chocked to the gills with comics and featuring art by a multiuide of fine comics artists from Scotland and beyond.
"Yep, funny and surreal, dark, gruesome fun inside with a series of wildly different art styles..." Forbidden Planet.
"In the strips that make up Haunted Bowels, Collins combines clever bad taste humour with perceptive pop cultural parody... ruthless satirical swagger" Broken Frontier.
"That dichotomy between wry observational humour and outright bad taste lies at the heart of Collins’ best work... Collins’ love of horror elevates his comics to the extent that I suspect we’re only getting a glimpse of what he’s be capable of on a more sustained project" Starburst Magazine.
Roachwell: A surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Sized A5, 28 pages Black and White with colour cover, collected June 2011 (£3.00). Featured in Indie anthologies Hive 4 and 5 and New British Comics #2. Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2011 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
"It’s a clever, solid, surreal and funny comic – and at its end, it manages all four in one strip." - Forbidden Planet.
"This is exquisitely macabre material drenched in a flawless cynicism; wonderfully and self-indulgently morbid in its delivery, it is gruesomely entertaining fare" Broken Frontier.
"...refreshingly weird, effortlessly funny and at times just plain psychotic... Funny, frightening and a world unto itself..." - Comic Heroes.
"...an interesting meld between Collins' absurd blackout gags and Laurie's intensely hatched and grotesque character work". Rob Clough's The High-Low.
Crawl Hole: A collection of surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Trilingual comics, relationships past and the terrors of the Vengabus await... Sized A5, 16 pages Black and White with colour cover, released August 2013 (£2.50). Includes work featured in Indie anthologies New British Comics (UK), Top Shelf Online (USA), Lazer Art-Zine (Belgium) and Yuck (Australia).
"As usual with these gents, gore, violence and a twisted sense of humour is real high in the mix... All in all, this one is slight, but manages to do the important thing; it’s satisfying, with ideas that make the sum of the experience far greater than the page-count". Forbidden Planet.
Forbidden Planet - Roachwell / Crawl Hole cover spotlight.
Of course, if you fancy any of these but are nowhere near Glasgow you can head over to my Big Cartel Shop. You, yes YOU, could be the guy who pulls a gun because we're no longer serving the breakfast menu!
Here's a wee round up of the books I'll be selling - do drop Table C11 by and check them out, say hello and have a chat. Note that Metrodome cosplay is actively encouraged!
Metrodome: by me and Iain Laurie. Drawn from The Metro like poison from a wound, Eight Contenders in The Fight for Survival, The Battle for Ultimate Victory! An experimental production in creation, destruction and survival, in a comic created from a single edition of the free UK newspaper The Metro. Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released July 2013 (£3.00).
"The characters emerge fully formed from the deepest, darkest depths of the magnificently poisonous headspaces of Collins and Laurie... If you like your comics unsettling, in-yer-face and gratuitously grotesque then you can’t go wrong with the wicked and wily wit of these guys." Broken Frontier.
Haunted Bowels: A collection of small press comedy comics - gruesome gags and oddball humour, surreal comedy and morbid light entertainment. Omniscient beings, strange cowboys, troubled poets and unruly spectres and much more await within...!
Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2012 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released June 2012 (£3.00).Chocked to the gills with comics and featuring art by a multiuide of fine comics artists from Scotland and beyond.
"Yep, funny and surreal, dark, gruesome fun inside with a series of wildly different art styles..." Forbidden Planet.
"In the strips that make up Haunted Bowels, Collins combines clever bad taste humour with perceptive pop cultural parody... ruthless satirical swagger" Broken Frontier.
"That dichotomy between wry observational humour and outright bad taste lies at the heart of Collins’ best work... Collins’ love of horror elevates his comics to the extent that I suspect we’re only getting a glimpse of what he’s be capable of on a more sustained project" Starburst Magazine.
Roachwell: A surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Sized A5, 28 pages Black and White with colour cover, collected June 2011 (£3.00). Featured in Indie anthologies Hive 4 and 5 and New British Comics #2. Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2011 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
"It’s a clever, solid, surreal and funny comic – and at its end, it manages all four in one strip." - Forbidden Planet.
"This is exquisitely macabre material drenched in a flawless cynicism; wonderfully and self-indulgently morbid in its delivery, it is gruesomely entertaining fare" Broken Frontier.
"...refreshingly weird, effortlessly funny and at times just plain psychotic... Funny, frightening and a world unto itself..." - Comic Heroes.
"...an interesting meld between Collins' absurd blackout gags and Laurie's intensely hatched and grotesque character work". Rob Clough's The High-Low.
Crawl Hole: A collection of surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Trilingual comics, relationships past and the terrors of the Vengabus await... Sized A5, 16 pages Black and White with colour cover, released August 2013 (£2.50). Includes work featured in Indie anthologies New British Comics (UK), Top Shelf Online (USA), Lazer Art-Zine (Belgium) and Yuck (Australia).
"As usual with these gents, gore, violence and a twisted sense of humour is real high in the mix... All in all, this one is slight, but manages to do the important thing; it’s satisfying, with ideas that make the sum of the experience far greater than the page-count". Forbidden Planet.
Forbidden Planet - Roachwell / Crawl Hole cover spotlight.
Of course, if you fancy any of these but are nowhere near Glasgow you can head over to my Big Cartel Shop. You, yes YOU, could be the guy who pulls a gun because we're no longer serving the breakfast menu!
Stripped to the bone...
I'm very excited to be exhibiting at this weekend's Stripped Mini Comic Fair, part of the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, and here's a wee roundup of the books available at my table...
Metrodome: by me and Iain Laurie. Drawn from The Metro like poison from a wound, Eight Contenders in The Fight for Survival, The Battle for Ultimate Victory! An experimental production in creation, destruction and survival, in a
comic created from a single edition of the free UK newspaper The Metro. Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released July 2013 (£3.00).
"The characters emerge fully formed from the deepest, darkest depths of the magnificently poisonous headspaces of Collins and Laurie... If you like your comics unsettling, in-yer-face and gratuitously grotesque then you can’t go wrong with the wicked and wily wit of these guys." Broken Frontier.
Haunted Bowels: A collection of small press comedy comics - gruesome gags and oddball humour, surreal comedy and morbid light entertainment. Omniscient beings, strange cowboys, troubled poets and unruly spectres and much more await within...!
Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2012 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released June 2012 (£3.00).Chocked to the gills with comics and featuring art by a multiuide of fine comics artists from Scotland and beyond.
"Yep, funny and surreal, dark, gruesome fun inside with a series of wildly different art styles..." Forbidden Planet.
"In the strips that make up Haunted Bowels, Collins combines clever bad taste humour with perceptive pop cultural parody... ruthless satirical swagger" Broken Frontier.
"That dichotomy between wry observational humour and outright bad taste lies at the heart of Collins’ best work... Collins’ love of horror elevates his comics to the extent that I suspect we’re only getting a glimpse of what he’s be capable of on a more sustained project" Starburst Magazine.
Roachwell: A surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Sized A5, 28 pages Black and White with colour cover, collected June 2011 (£3.00). Featured in Indie anthologies Hive 4 and 5 and New British Comics #2. Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2011 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
"It’s a clever, solid, surreal and funny comic – and at its end, it manages all four in one strip." - Forbidden Planet.
"This is exquisitely macabre material drenched in a flawless cynicism; wonderfully and self-indulgently morbid in its delivery, it is gruesomely entertaining fare" Broken Frontier.
"...refreshingly weird, effortlessly funny and at times just plain psychotic... Funny, frightening and a world unto itself..." - Comic Heroes.
"...an interesting meld between Collins' absurd blackout gags and Laurie's intensely hatched and grotesque character work". Rob Clough's The High-Low.
Crawl Hole: A collection of surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Trilingual comics, relationships past and the terrors of the Vengabus await... Sized A5, 16 pages Black and White with colour cover, released August 2013 (£2.50). Includes work featured in Indie anthologies New British Comics (UK), Top Shelf Online (USA), Lazer Art-Zine (Belgium) and Yuck (Australia).
"As usual with these gents, gore, violence and a twisted sense of humour is real high in the mix... All in all, this one is slight, but manages to do the important thing; it’s satisfying, with ideas that make the sum of the experience far greater than the page-count". Forbidden Planet.
Forbidden Planet - Roachwell / Crawl Hole cover spotlight.
Of course, if you fancy any of these but are nowhere near Edinburgh you can head over to my Big Cartel Shop. You, yes YOU, could be that little kid who shoots Omar when he's in for a packet of smokes!
Exhaustive Self-Promotional Götterdammerung over! It's an honour to be a part of this and the inaugural Stripped festival, and I hope both Stripped and the fair have many healthy years to come. If you're seeing other events at Stripped this weekend or in Edinburgh, come by and say hello and check out the wealth and diversity of talent that will be on show at the Mini Comic Fair.
"The characters emerge fully formed from the deepest, darkest depths of the magnificently poisonous headspaces of Collins and Laurie... If you like your comics unsettling, in-yer-face and gratuitously grotesque then you can’t go wrong with the wicked and wily wit of these guys." Broken Frontier.
Haunted Bowels: A collection of small press comedy comics - gruesome gags and oddball humour, surreal comedy and morbid light entertainment. Omniscient beings, strange cowboys, troubled poets and unruly spectres and much more await within...!
Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2012 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
Sized A5, 24 pages Black and White with colour cover, released June 2012 (£3.00).Chocked to the gills with comics and featuring art by a multiuide of fine comics artists from Scotland and beyond.
"Yep, funny and surreal, dark, gruesome fun inside with a series of wildly different art styles..." Forbidden Planet.
"In the strips that make up Haunted Bowels, Collins combines clever bad taste humour with perceptive pop cultural parody... ruthless satirical swagger" Broken Frontier.
"That dichotomy between wry observational humour and outright bad taste lies at the heart of Collins’ best work... Collins’ love of horror elevates his comics to the extent that I suspect we’re only getting a glimpse of what he’s be capable of on a more sustained project" Starburst Magazine.
Roachwell: A surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Sized A5, 28 pages Black and White with colour cover, collected June 2011 (£3.00). Featured in Indie anthologies Hive 4 and 5 and New British Comics #2. Nominated for Best Comic and Best Writer at the 2011 Scottish Independent Comic Book Awards.
"It’s a clever, solid, surreal and funny comic – and at its end, it manages all four in one strip." - Forbidden Planet.
"This is exquisitely macabre material drenched in a flawless cynicism; wonderfully and self-indulgently morbid in its delivery, it is gruesomely entertaining fare" Broken Frontier.
"...refreshingly weird, effortlessly funny and at times just plain psychotic... Funny, frightening and a world unto itself..." - Comic Heroes.
"...an interesting meld between Collins' absurd blackout gags and Laurie's intensely hatched and grotesque character work". Rob Clough's The High-Low.
Crawl Hole: A collection of surreal horror comedy comic by me and Iain Laurie. Trilingual comics, relationships past and the terrors of the Vengabus await... Sized A5, 16 pages Black and White with colour cover, released August 2013 (£2.50). Includes work featured in Indie anthologies New British Comics (UK), Top Shelf Online (USA), Lazer Art-Zine (Belgium) and Yuck (Australia).
"As usual with these gents, gore, violence and a twisted sense of humour is real high in the mix... All in all, this one is slight, but manages to do the important thing; it’s satisfying, with ideas that make the sum of the experience far greater than the page-count". Forbidden Planet.
Forbidden Planet - Roachwell / Crawl Hole cover spotlight.
Of course, if you fancy any of these but are nowhere near Edinburgh you can head over to my Big Cartel Shop. You, yes YOU, could be that little kid who shoots Omar when he's in for a packet of smokes!
Exhaustive Self-Promotional Götterdammerung over! It's an honour to be a part of this and the inaugural Stripped festival, and I hope both Stripped and the fair have many healthy years to come. If you're seeing other events at Stripped this weekend or in Edinburgh, come by and say hello and check out the wealth and diversity of talent that will be on show at the Mini Comic Fair.
Featuring all these cool and talented folks!
Summer to Autumn 2013: Campaign of Terror!
This year I'm finally diving headlong into the abyss, and starting to table my comics at events. Exciting times!
Later this suummer I'll be at the Edinburgh International Book Festival's Stripped Comic Book Fest, taking part in the Mini Comic Fair on the 24th-25th of August in Edinburgh's Charlotte Square:
There's a wealth of Scottish comics talent exhibiting and entry is free, so do drop by...
Next up, I'll be exhibiting at the first ever Scottish MCM Expo, on the 7th of September in the Comics Village. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that Metrodome Cosplay is actively encouraged...
And finally, the largest and frankly most intimidating of them all: Thought Bubble!
You can find me in exhibiting in the New Dock Hall on the 23-24th of November, along with this vast horde of slavering ravenous comicsters... Look for the my exhibitor icon!:
I'll be selling Roachwell, Metrodome and Haunted Bowels at all of these events, and possibly a sneaky something else... Or alternatively, Glasgow pals can get all of these comics at Plan B Books, Forbidden Planet Glasgow and Geek Retreat, or anyone in the whole goddamn world can stop by my Big Cartel Shop.
Hope to see you there!
Later this suummer I'll be at the Edinburgh International Book Festival's Stripped Comic Book Fest, taking part in the Mini Comic Fair on the 24th-25th of August in Edinburgh's Charlotte Square:
Next up, I'll be exhibiting at the first ever Scottish MCM Expo, on the 7th of September in the Comics Village. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that Metrodome Cosplay is actively encouraged...
And finally, the largest and frankly most intimidating of them all: Thought Bubble!
You can find me in exhibiting in the New Dock Hall on the 23-24th of November, along with this vast horde of slavering ravenous comicsters... Look for the my exhibitor icon!:
Hope to see you there!
Haunted Bowels Phantom Newsround
Some news and reviews tumbling forth from the Haunted Bowels...
Ahem-hem. I'm pleased to say Haunted Bowels has received more positive reviews...
First up is on High-Low Comics, where Rob Clough has plenty of good things to say including "Accustomed as I am to seeing cerebral if visceral horror stories from Collins, it was amusing to see him riff on pop culture and lay down some deadly puns".
It's all about the Round-Ups, as Henry Northmore grabs the Scottish Small Press by the scruff of its filthy neck in Scotland's premier events and entertainment magazine The List, and describes Haunted Bowels as "... satisfyingly weird as long as you like pitch-black sci-fi/fantasy-themed humour." And surely you do!
Phillip Buchan review Haunted Bowels in the mighty Starburst Magazine, nestling me between reviews of Scott Snyder and Craig Thompson like a turd betwixt two tiaras. Among Phillip's comments are "That dichotomy between wry observational humour and outright bad taste lies at the heart of Collins’ best work..."
And "...Collins’ love of
horror elevates his comics to the extent that I suspect we’re only getting a
glimpse of what he’s be capable of on a more sustained project".
Phillip also sets me against the "wholesome, Guardian-friendly fodder being created by so many independent artists around the UK" and likens Haunted Bowels to "the grotesqueries of Frank Quitely or the confrontational stylings of Mark Millar" which makes me sound far more bad-ass than actually I am.
And as an aside Rob Clough is back reviewing New British Comics in The Comics Journal as part of a Survey of International Small Press, giving a nod to me and Iain Laurie's strip "The Quiet Burden".
So thanks to all the above for the very kind review! You can head over to my Big Cartel store, but you won't find any copies of Haunted Bowels to buy I'm afraid. Either I sold them to you, or I gave you one because I think you're cool and I like your work. But I'll print more soon, so check back sometime!
Ahem-hem. I'm pleased to say Haunted Bowels has received more positive reviews...
First up is on High-Low Comics, where Rob Clough has plenty of good things to say including "Accustomed as I am to seeing cerebral if visceral horror stories from Collins, it was amusing to see him riff on pop culture and lay down some deadly puns".
It's all about the Round-Ups, as Henry Northmore grabs the Scottish Small Press by the scruff of its filthy neck in Scotland's premier events and entertainment magazine The List, and describes Haunted Bowels as "... satisfyingly weird as long as you like pitch-black sci-fi/fantasy-themed humour." And surely you do!
Phillip Buchan review Haunted Bowels in the mighty Starburst Magazine, nestling me between reviews of Scott Snyder and Craig Thompson like a turd betwixt two tiaras. Among Phillip's comments are "That dichotomy between wry observational humour and outright bad taste lies at the heart of Collins’ best work..."
Startburst #380 - available in all good newsagents and Aggro-Domes now!
Phillip also sets me against the "wholesome, Guardian-friendly fodder being created by so many independent artists around the UK" and likens Haunted Bowels to "the grotesqueries of Frank Quitely or the confrontational stylings of Mark Millar" which makes me sound far more bad-ass than actually I am.
And as an aside Rob Clough is back reviewing New British Comics in The Comics Journal as part of a Survey of International Small Press, giving a nod to me and Iain Laurie's strip "The Quiet Burden".
Haunted Bowels Ghostly Update
Some spooky news and reviews emanating from the Haunted Bowels...
Ahem. Haunted Bowels has received a couple of pretty warm reviews. First up is the excellent Forbidden Planet Blog, where Richard Bruton calls it "...funny and surreal, dark, gruesome fun inside with a series of wildly different art styles..." and compares my work to Evan Dorkin, Charles Addams and Gahan Wilson! Read the review over here...
It's also been reviewed over at Comics Anonymous, where Linsay Powell gave it a smashing 8 out of 10 and declared it so enjoyable that it gave her the "kick up the arse" required to drop some more woeful mainstream publisher's titles from her monthly comics haul... but which ones!?
In other news, the Glasgow Comic Com will soon be upon us, and Haunted Bowels has been nominated for a couple of awards at the Scottish Independent Comic Books Awards (SICBAs). I'm up for Best Comic and Best Writer (the same categories as I was nominated in last year for Roachwell), along with the following people and books:
Best Comic:
ALL YOU CAN EAT 1 & 2
GUTS POWER
HAUNTED BOWELS
JON BOT VS MARTHA
KING EVIL
MAXIMUM ALAN
NO MORE HEROES
RAISING AMY
REALITY WAR
ROSE BLACK DEMON SEED
THE STANDARD
STAR TRUDGE
X
Best Writer:
Needless to say I don't expect my heavy-breathing book of weird and gruesome gags to capture the hearts and minds of the voting public, but it's an honour to be among these talented nominees and good luck to everyone, especially my good pals Curt Sibling, Rob Miller and Colin Bell.
I'll be about at the Con and most likely packing some copies, so please come on over and harass me if you'd like one, or alternatively you can ram-raid my Big Cartel store if you'd like on by post!
Ahem. Haunted Bowels has received a couple of pretty warm reviews. First up is the excellent Forbidden Planet Blog, where Richard Bruton calls it "...funny and surreal, dark, gruesome fun inside with a series of wildly different art styles..." and compares my work to Evan Dorkin, Charles Addams and Gahan Wilson! Read the review over here...
It's also been reviewed over at Comics Anonymous, where Linsay Powell gave it a smashing 8 out of 10 and declared it so enjoyable that it gave her the "kick up the arse" required to drop some more woeful mainstream publisher's titles from her monthly comics haul... but which ones!?
In other news, the Glasgow Comic Com will soon be upon us, and Haunted Bowels has been nominated for a couple of awards at the Scottish Independent Comic Books Awards (SICBAs). I'm up for Best Comic and Best Writer (the same categories as I was nominated in last year for Roachwell), along with the following people and books:
Best Comic:
ALL YOU CAN EAT 1 & 2
GUTS POWER
HAUNTED BOWELS
JON BOT VS MARTHA
KING EVIL
MAXIMUM ALAN
NO MORE HEROES
RAISING AMY
REALITY WAR
ROSE BLACK DEMON SEED
THE STANDARD
STAR TRUDGE
X
Best Writer:
I'll be about at the Con and most likely packing some copies, so please come on over and harass me if you'd like one, or alternatively you can ram-raid my Big Cartel store if you'd like on by post!
Haunted Bowels!
Prepare to be haunted....!
I'm very pleased to say that after some years now of producing comics, I've finally printed my first collected volume - Haunted Bowels: Craig Collins Collected Comics Volume 1.
28 A5 black and white pages with colour cover. Some adult humour. Chocked to the gills with comics and featuring art by:
Dave Alexander, James Corcoran, Iain Laurie, Paul McCann, Rob Miller, Nulsh, Curt Sibling, Robert Thomson and Jacek Zabawa.
And you can buy it here in my Big Cartel for a mere £3 plus postage.
Needless to say it's been a huge pleasure collaborating with these exceptionally talented gentlemen, without whom I wouldn't have made any comics at all. Thanks guys, my hat's off to you! Thanks also to Stuart Gould of UK Comics, printer extraordinaire and all-round good guy.
I'm very pleased to say that after some years now of producing comics, I've finally printed my first collected volume - Haunted Bowels: Craig Collins Collected Comics Volume 1.
Cover art by Iain Laurie
A collection of small press comedy comics - gruesome gags and oddball
humour, surreal comedy and morbid light entertainment. Omniscient
beings, strange cowboys, troubled poets and unruly spectres and much
more await within...!28 A5 black and white pages with colour cover. Some adult humour. Chocked to the gills with comics and featuring art by:
Dave Alexander, James Corcoran, Iain Laurie, Paul McCann, Rob Miller, Nulsh, Curt Sibling, Robert Thomson and Jacek Zabawa.
And you can buy it here in my Big Cartel for a mere £3 plus postage.
Needless to say it's been a huge pleasure collaborating with these exceptionally talented gentlemen, without whom I wouldn't have made any comics at all. Thanks guys, my hat's off to you! Thanks also to Stuart Gould of UK Comics, printer extraordinaire and all-round good guy.
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