Tops and Bottoms - 23rd April 2025.
‘Smiling like a Melon’.
First up - Happy St George’s Day. Our faults are many in this country I live in, but it still makes me proud on occasion.
If you are new to this weekly column then welcome.
Back again and happy/sad as always. We have hopefully all survived the most boring of all Holidays - Easter Monday. You’ve already had a long weekend and you are presented with a day where DIY seems like a welcome alternative to boring-ass BS. I mended a wobbly washing machine and built something for plants to climb through and up. I also caught up on a chunk of the read pile. Possibly more of that below. And finally listened through all the comics podcasts I had lined up. When without I found solace in the work of ‘The Man that Invented Himself’. You too can investigate a musician who is rudely ignored by clicking on this link right here.
Enough boom-cha-boom. Let’s get back to comics.
Over at the ACP this week we had Daniel McCloskey from San Fran on for a chat about his Cloud Town comics projects. The new volume is called ‘Cloud Town: Friends in Stormy Weather’ (see one of the magnificent panels above). A thoughtful dude. We really get into how he approaches story and art. Using some collage and a lot of originality you really need to get on this new project. I was also super intrigued by his contact with puppets! I’ll say no more, have a listen.
Onwards into the highs and lows of the week.
Small Press Comic of the Week.
A Rodriguez & Lapusan production out of Black Ink Comix this does exactly what it should do in a UK Underground Comix release. I read mine on Global Comix. Go find a copy for yourself. You can find this comix collective here. It’ll hopefully be the start of a running series.
Top.
Returning home can be a win or a lose. I sat in a coffee shop waiting for Falpy and read this series. (Cover to issue 1 by John McCrea) I was transported back to the days of First Comics without them seemingly missing a single issue. Not only does Mike Baron write with his usual mixture of humour, sarcasm and action but you get Val Mayerik in that mix too. Glorious. It can be ordered through UK Previews but you’re unlikely to see it on a comic shop shelf. Not sure why that is. Maybe those shit-flinging monkeys on the island have been ganging up on someone other than Norbert Sykes?
Bottoms.
I caught up on the X books. What the fuck is this crap? Breaks my heart that this is the state of this once great/fun/involving group of comics characters. Brevoort spends so much time being pompous and argumentative on his Substack every week, (it goes on and on and on) maybe that time would be better spent giving this utter wank a second look? What do you think? I’ve just seen that Rob Liefeld has expressed similar concerns. We’ll probably both get ignored and at least one of us called ‘Toxic’ - doesn’t change the fact that they are shite. Maybe they think taking a horse down a mine is good storytelling? Worked for Lassie I suppose?
That’s everything for this week.
Many thanks for reading.
I’ve been reading Mark Russell’s XFactor from the current era, but even that feels like Mark Russell on autopilot.
Doesn’t hit the highs of the Milligan and Allred predecessor that it appears to be influenced by.
Badger is a gap in my reading history, so I ended up not ordering this one.
I did pick up the Nexus 2 parter though.
I think it’s time for Brevoort to call it a day. I’ve given up reading his substack due his attitude towards people who are clearly paying customers expressing pretty moderate opinions about shit comics. He’s a fucking twat.
Sadly I’m part of the problem because I’m buying Xmen, Uncanny, Wolverine and Xforce for my 10 year old who picked a few of them up on a trip to FP in Glasgow last summer and I want to feed his habit.
But I’ve since undone some of the damage by introducing him to the Morrison New XMen run.
I’ve not read the current Xbooks myself yet because I’m still trying to wade through the Krakoan era stuff on Marvel Unlimited, although I’ve completely given up on some of those titles altogether as they are unreadable.
I’ve enjoyed the Ben Percy written stuff and the early Hickman issues, the rest of it has been hard work for the most part with the odd exception.
I’m not sure why I’m doing this to myself tbh (my subconscious punishing me?) but I’ve come this far so I feel the need to see it through, albeit skimming all the bullshit.