Mindless Ones

Keen as we are to take what comfort we can in these dark hours, the Mindless Ones will be at Thought Bubble 2024 in Harrogate this weekend. We’ll be at tables B3-4 in DSTLRY Hall on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th November, providing maps to places that may or may not exist to weary travellers.

Here’s one:

A bloom of ungodly beauty in a world of holy tragedy, Leckie / Bone Chanter will be with us this weekend. Keepers of sweet secrets and keen-eyed sailors already know about Wraithlands, “a dark fantasy tabletop roleplaying game set on the cursed celtic island of Nullona, a mist-sodden conquered land of giant beasts, desperate villages, haunted bogs and daemonic landowners.” It’s a gorgeous premise, play-tested by legends from near and far, and brought to life by the gnarly whin of Leckie’s prose and art Paul Jon Milne (remember him?) that hints at ragged wounds and muck-damp landscapes yet to be uncovered.

The version of Wraithlands on sale this weekend is 161 page paperback.

As you can see, it’s a handsome volume. Perhaps even more handsome than the horde of Mindless Men who will be behind the table flogging it this weekend.

Because we are nothing if not enthusiasts for ritual, the Mindless Ones will be at Thought Bubble 2024 in Harrogate this weekend. We’ll be at tables B3-4 in DSTLRY Hall on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th November, trading gnomic wisdom for earthy security.

A living totem of a masculinity untroubled by hate, Dan Cox has been a fixture of the Mindless Ones table for many years now. His stimulating musk and warm embrace have kept us going through some brutal hangovers over the years, and his comics might just get you through the dark of the year if you’re lucky.

We’ve interviewed Dan alongside his Hitsville UK collaborator John Riordan at least twice previously, and I’ve written at length about Hitsville at length here. If that last sentence seems familiar, that’s probably because I used a version of it while hyping up John’s work yesterday.

But enough of the past! What will Dan have with him this year?

As the author of two (excellent) Pocket Chillers it pains me to admit that “Jeff” is the best in the series, but who could argue with “Jeff” after meeting it in the street? A collaboration with the mighty Fraser Geesin, “Jeff” agitates the reader’s imagination by carefully controlling what they see, prompting them to ask why the fuck everyone else in the story is reacting like that. Geesin’s mastery of character acting makes sure that Cox’s ingenious concept feels plausible, like something that might just keep going in your own room when you put the comic down – trust me, once you read the thing, there will be no thought more horrible.

Described by Cox as “an experimental zine,” Weird Kids Like McCoy doesn’t have a lot in common with “Jeff” on first glance. “‘You’re trapped in a horrible house, a terrible relationship, an awful job. Maybe remembering the comics you liked as a kid will help” – this prompt calls to mind comics in the vein of Enigma and Flex Mentallo, and the Weird Kids itself makes good on that promise, but this is no retread of past metafictions. A close reading of the book will reveal a layer of formal play subtly in line with the techniques of “Jeff”, further marking out Cox as one of the most exciting and experimental comics makers around at the moment.

Rounding out Cox’s offerings will be some classy tote bags, and free material from “Pagans Against AI“.

On a table full of such aggrieved, conversational and idiosyncratic works, I can’t think of anything more fitting.

As you might have gathered if you’ve been looking at the site over the past couple of days, the Mindless Ones will be at Thought Bubble 2024 in Harrogate this weekend. We’ll be at tables B3-4 in DSTLRY Hall on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th November, trading our handmade dreams for the purest product of the imagination we know of – your money.

Dan White won’t be with us at tables B3-4 this year. You see, the artist formerly known as The Beast Must Die is a real boy now. Oni press published Cindy and Biscuit last year, and since then he’s been a true fancy man, with his own fancy pants, and trousers too. If he takes a break from swigging Dom Pérignon at all this weekend, our good friend will be sitting… all the way over at table B2, DSTLRY Hall.

Despite the fact that he’s sitting one table away from us, and is therefore our mortal enemy, Dan is one of the best cartoonists around. Cindy and Biscuit: We Love Trouble showcases the range of skills Dan has built up over the years. As an action cartoonist, his compositions are genuinely propulsive. As a horror artist, his comics have reliably made me feel unexpectedly vulnerable in my own home. And as a storyteller, Dan can make you laugh just by the way he draws Biscuit’s cute dog face, or make you feel a world of unseen hurt with a couple of stray lines.

In addition to his Cindy and Biscuit wares, Dan will also be selling his new collection of Freaky Deakies, which showcases his lovingly coloured late night doodles, a real testament to both his raw visual imagination and his carefully honed craft.

Rounding out Dan’s offerings way up there in the giddy heights of table B2 is a collection of his single page Insomnia comics.

Like Terminus, Insomnia first ran on Mindless Ones dot com way back in the day. Like that comic, it’s a real masterclass in precision, but where Terminus was drawn in the playful, unsettling style that Dan would fully develop in Cindy and Biscuit, Insomnia made use of a series of painterly effects to get across is haunted absurdity. I can’t wait to see how this print edition looks, and if you’ve never read these strips before, I fully recommend that you give them a try.

In a heartwarming display of brotherhood, Dan will be putting his bucket of fizz down and putting his The Beast Must Die mask back on for the SILENCE! to Astonish panel at 2pm on Saturday 16th November in Panel Room 2.

The Beast will be joined in this endeavour by his trusty co-hosts, Gary Lactus and “Affronted” Al Kennedy, and by special guests Chrissy Williams, Ram V, David Brothers and Stephanie Phillips. Expect odd questions, inexplicable challenges, and totally unexpected and double plus special guests in this, the ninth occurrence of comicdom’s most pointless and shambolic panel show.

Thanks to our inability to arrange a piss-up in a brewery somewhere smack bang in the middle of the nation, the Mindless Ones will be at Thought Bubble 2024 in Harrogate this weekend. We’ll be at tables B3-4 in DSTLRY Hall on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th November, trading our dazzling wares for coins, card transactions and wry smiles.

An angel in a pack of foul wretches, John Riordan will be with us once again this year. Why, he’s even made his own map to show where he’ll be sitting! It’s better formatted than the one we’ve used in our other posts, but we won’t hold that against him. Unloved creatures that we are, we can all still appreciate a little taste of the light.

We’ve interviewed John alongside his Hitsville UK collaborator Dan Cox at least twice previously, and I’ve written at length about Hitsville here. John’s a charming lad, as you can tell from his efforts to elevate the discourse that follows…

1. Who are you and why are you lying to us?

I am the Spectre of John Riordan, comic artist, catastrophist and William Blake nut. You may know him from his cult collaboration with Dan Cox, Hitsville UK and his solo work ‘Oh God what is happening and is it somehow my fault?’ I am lying because that’s what Spectres do.

2. What’s the best thing you’ll be selling at Thought Bubble 2024?

In a radical break with recent tradition I have a new comic. I’ll be selling LOS, the first instalment of my long gestated, labour-of-love comic based on the life of William Blake. It’s a 32-page, full-colour combination of pencil, ink, watercolour and digital trickery, and incorporates some Blake-style prints that I did on a replica 18th century printing press. As you do.

3. What are you looking forward to picking up at the convention?

I’m looking forward to picking up new stuff from my fellow Mindless Ones Fraser Geesin, Paul Jon Milne and that weird David Allison guy (do I get to call myself an honorary Mindless One these days? Surely I’ve put in the hours). Other than that, not sure really. One of the things that I really like about Thought Bubble is that I’ll inevitably discover wonderful new comics that I had no idea existed and filly my suitcase with them. Although I expect what I’m most likely to pick up is Covid. Ah well…

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Initiation into the Mindless involves an unplugged fridge, a draft of human piss, and a shroud of uncut darkness. Whether John has committed to this ritual is knowledge only our fellow adepts may share.]

4. …

I notice there is no question 4.

‘what Demon

Hath form’d this abominable void

This soul-shudd’ring vacuum? —Some said

“It is Urizen”’

Others said it was Illogical Volume. Next!

5. What sweetens your dreams?

Music, friendship, art, weird humans unable to resist following their own fascinations and making strange new things as a result.

6. What sours your nightmares?

Climate catastrophe, fascism, financialised capitalism, narcissism masquerading as power, power masquerading as religion, peanut butter.

7. Who will star in the inevitable Disney adaptation of your work and why will it be Gary Barlow’s giant son? 

How tall is Gary Barlow’s son? I’ve not looked. Presumably all that tax avoidance went into buying him protein shakes? If you put Mark Owen on Barlow Jr’s shoulders would they be the height of two average men? Blake was relatively short, but he had a bit of a thing about giants, so Toby Jones to play Blake and Gary Barlow’s son can play ’The Giant Albion’, and erm, Dexter Fletcher to play John’s Spectre. Er, that is, me. Lies lies lies.

Due to an obscure sentence passed by an unflinching god, the Mindless Ones will be at Thought Bubble 2024 in Harrogate this weekend. We’ll be at tables B3-4 in DSTLRY Hall on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th November, trading hard drawn comics for hard earned cash, and shouting at tech bros whether any are present or not.

Scourge of Scotland’s east coast, the mighty Paul Jon Milne will be with us throughout the weekend. Paul is the sort of talent that comics have always attracted – a genius that can do anything except admit to its own existence. If the following interview leaves you with a desire to hear more from the man himself, we’ve blethered to him before here. If you want to check out his work – as all tortured aesthetes and muscle magic aficionados should – you can either pop round to Harrogate this weekend or visit his online shop.

Perverts who enjoy writing about comics are directed to my post on Paul’s “superheroes on the dole” comic Guts Power.

Anyway, enough of my shite. Let’s hear from the man himself!

1. Who are you and how did you get here?

I am Paul Jon Milne (He/Him) and I’ve been making comics and Art Stuff for ages, in Edinburgh and sometimes in Fife. Done all sorts of drawings for things. Drew some pics with a pal for a short film that had Gail Porter in it, a lifetime ago. Only saw it recently, via youtube. Was not mentioned in the credits. This is my ‘career’ in general.

2. What will you be bringing with you to Thought Bubble 2024?

Limit Formation Inertial! A comic about a wee lad who gets home from a space adventure, with consequences!!! 

These Aren’t My Brutes! A collection of fan-art pics I made this summer, now scanned in, printed and monetised.

Creep Heap 2025! A collection of drawings and comics from this year, mostly never seen before!!! Unless it doesn’t show up in time from the printer in which case no-one’ll see any of it.

Torse! Comic from 2023 about a training dummy. Nominated for ‘best art’ at The Selkie Awards (see question 4)!!!

3. What are you looking forward to at the convention?

Seeing pals! Avoiding the eyes of customers! Shivering and shaking as I try to handle money, hoping to god someone else can do everything for me as I try to become as small as possible behind the table. Also looking forward to sighting someone in fancy dress as Cole Cash, The Grifter.

4. We hear your Torso has been nominated for a prestigious award. How did that happen and what does it mean for the future of Scottish beefcakes?

I saw a tweet advertising a new awards thing and entered it as I am a very arrogant man. Doubt I’ll win but it’s nice to imagine I could. I’m hoping if I win it’ll lead to all the Scottish gym bozos reading Torse and seeing that being radicalised by a culture of joyless body fascism is a bad scene, and make being a musclebound oaf fun again.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: we were hoping to provoke Paul into discussing his own reputable Torso, rather than the (excellent) comic book Torse, but modesty and good taste have lead us elsewhere and who are we to deny those fine characteristics when they present themselves in this blighted world?]

5. What has been holding back despair when the inevitable disgust with all things comics creeps in during the dark of night?

Nothing, really!!! ‘LOL’! Been watching all the Alien and Predator films, though. I have the same opinions as everyone else about all of them except now I prefer Predator 2 to Predator 1, and Alien 3 (extendo edition) to Aliens. Dunno if this is ‘holding back despair’ but it’s certainly making me an interesting contrarian with a raised eyebrow and smug smile, ready for Discourse.

6. Which is the best Marvel vs. Capcom game and why? 

Difficult to answer!!! In theory it’s Marvel vs. Capcom 2 as it has one million characters, crucially including Cable and Marrow of the X-Men, and (yawn) Technical and Involved Gameplay. However, it also has shitey 3D backgrounds.

Was recently reacquainted with Marvel vs. Capcom 1 and while it has a tiny wee roster, it also has lovely 2D backgrounds and the ability to go two slightly different versions of the Hulk at once. It’s slightly less hectic than 2 for the most part and I feel more like I know what I’m doing. Also the end boss is Onslaught which seems a terrible idea but I’m very glad he’s there being legitimised by Capcom, one in the eye for the “LOL 90s amirite” crowd.

So MvC 1 is the best one. Maybe.

All I know is Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite is dog shit as it has no X-Men and stinks of ‘movie synergy’. No! No.

Comics?!?!?

For the first time since the last time, the Mindless Ones will be at Thought Bubble 2024 in Harrogate this weekend. We’ll be at tables B3-4 in DSTLRY Hall on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th November, trading comics for cash and WNDRNG WHT YRTS.

Some handsome bastard called David Allison will be there flogging zines and comics in the hope of attracting the right crowd. His first big new release of the weekend is An Intervention, his second Pocket Chiller.

An Intervention is a tale of random encounters, submerged responsibility, and concrete angels. Like a chimp attempting to make fire by hooting at some twigs, David has made a crude trailer for the comic, which you can watch below.

David’s other new release is The Grave and The Good, a Choose Your Own Adventure zine.

Here’s how David is trying to entice the unsuspecting this time out: “You wake up with the taste of earth in your mouth. Everything else about you is cold and damp, but you sense that you were on the verge of learning something horrible and true about the world. The only question is, can you dig deep into this feeling and survive?”

David will have copies of his previous Pocket Chiller, The Candidate, for sale at the weekend. If he gets his act together, he will also have a range of zines and mini-comics with him, including: Uncle Frank, Cut-Out Witch, and Mini-Witch (all illustrated by Shaky Ghost); Beyond Whiles (adapted from the work of Alasdair Gray); BARRY, or “The Robot”; and Grave Tidings, an eight page comic made of reprocessed art from The Grave and The Good.

In a startling turn of events, the Mindless Ones will be at Thought Bubble 2024 in Harrogate this weekend. We’ll be at tables B3-4 in DSTLRY Hall on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th November, trading comics for hard cash and pre-chewed vowels.

It wouldn’t be a Mindless meet-up without big massive genius Gary Lactus aka Fraser Geesin in the mix, so we’re all delighted to know that we’ll be able to look upon the face of bad backs this weekend. This time out Fraser will be debuting the latest issue of Pricks, his ongoing collaboration with Laurie Rowan.

Here’s a Mindless micro-review of the latest issue, just to get yr receptors tingling:

Ever feel everything closing in as you flop about in next door’s bins trying to find a new accessory? Ever wonder what’s happened to your brand, and how you were convinced to have it burned into your flesh in the first place? Ever find yourself not mad but laughing, actually? If so, congratulations, Pricks #4 is the comic for you! If not, amazing, Pricks #4 has experienced all those things so you don’t have to! 

The previous three issues of Fraser Geesin and Laurie Rowan’s Pricks established a tone and a set of characters, none of them particularly stable. Just when you think you’ve got a grip on what’s going on with Darren – hunched in a slum property, dressed in only a rubber glove for warmth – Pricks finds a new shape to squeeze him into. This is high, horrible absurdity that will appeal to fans of Michael Kupperman and Steve Aylett, made all the more potent by the way Geesin’s art grounds even the book’s wildest gags in the everyday.

Pricks looks and smells every bit as routinely abhorrent as the modern world. What a miracle, then, that it’s also the funniest comic of the year.

Alongside all four issues of Pricks, Fraser will be selling the following hand crafted wonders this weekend: his ace autobio comic The Cleaner; Ikea-themed anthology Komisk; prints depicting Ikea Products From Hell; his collaboration with big pimpin’ Andre Whickey, Tales From 500 Songs; the Pocket Chillers Speckle and Ash and Jeff (the latter with Dan Cox); and Journey To The Surface of the Earth issues #1-2.

As if all that wasn’t enough, Fraser will be stripping off his civilian identity and going full Gary Lactus at the SILENCE! to Astonish panel at 2pm on Saturday 16th November in Panel Room 2.

Goodie Lactus will be joined in this endeavour by his trusty co-hosts, The Beast Must Die and “Affable” Al Kennedy, and by special guests Chrissy Williams, Ram V, David Brothers and Stephanie Phillips. Expect odd questions, inexplicable challenges, and totally unexpected and double plus special guests in this, the ninth occurrence of comicdom’s most pointless and shambolic panel show.

Dan gets another chance at binning off Nigel. Good. But will it pay off? OF COURSE IT WILL! Bloody Nigel!

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Birdland (Gilbert Hernandez, 1991)

(Originally published in a slightly different form on the now-decommissioned Vibrational Match blog back in January 2009.)

Ladies, gentlemen, those beyond the binary – I’d like to start out by informing you that this post is most definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK, not even if you work from home!

I’ve edited some of the following images down so that they’re a little more abstract, but it’s still not the sort of material you want anyone else to catch you looking at, you know?  Your cat would be unimpressed, and your father would only fall back into the arms of his priest to spite you.

Sensible souls that you are, I know you’ve probably closed this browser down already, or at least flicked back to a less grubby web page. So, having scared off those who still have their wits about them, let’s get on with it shall we?

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