Mindless Ones

Caroline’s fancy free exploration in the ruins on Surprise Island finally starts to pay out some of its Indiana Jones promise – ALL SPONSORED BY JUST FLIP A COIN DOT COM!

THIS is the sound of ADVENTURE!

THIS is the sound of STARLIGHT!

THIS is the sound of Dan and Fraser having a LOVELY TIME thank you very much!

Dan and Fraser’s Starlight Adventures can be supported on our Patreon where (at time of posting) you can listen forward to Episode 25 and hear two episodes of us tackling a pretty bad Gladiators game book.

LOOK AT THIS!

WHEN I SAW MUSHROOM HEAD, I WAS BORN AND I WAS DEAD

It’s the Drifting Reviewniverse #3 and Gary Lactus, Al To Astonish and Maid Of Nails are supposed to be examining Ghost Rider #11 (Marvel, 1975). Unfortunately Maid Of Nails has gone missing and the adverts are far too interesting to concentrate on the comic itself. Despite this and quite amazingly, what you have here is an hour and a half of enthusiastic dissection that covers less than half the comic! We’re going to have to dive back in for Part 2 next week. OMGR!!!!!!!

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Having dumped Nigel, Dan/Caroline has chosen to adventure with Liam. Liam is a young man with all the charm and charisma of an estate agent telling you his favourite facts about pylons. There’s a fair bit of wrestling fate into submission in order to maximise adventure. Intrigue is found, bladders are talking and stars shine on us all once again.

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ACTIVITY TROUSERS

This week (ahem), the Drifting Reviewniverse takes Gary Lactus and TT into everyone’s least favourite Chuck D, Charles Dixon’s Marc Spector: Moon Knight #12.

CURSE YOU, FATE! Your hosts do their best to choke it down and describe the experience. It’s a fun chat about a comic that wasn’t enjoyed by either of them.

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SOMETIMES I CAN’T FIND MY GOOD HABITS

You hear that? Of course you do, it’s startling, nigh on deafening! It’s the NEW HIGH CONCEPT ALARM! 

Unfortunately the new thing doesn’t know what it’s called. Drifting Reviewniverse? Random Reviewniverse? Adventure into Indeterminacy? Let’s read with Ian Determinate? The idea is simple. A random English language comic from the last 90 years or so is chosen, read and talked about. This episode it’s Here’s Howie #9 and it’s talked about by Gary Lactus and Al To Astonish

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THOSE WHO KNOW, THEY DON’T LET IT SHOW

Gary Lactus is joined by Al To Astonish as they do their best to reconstruct the SILENCE! To Astonish! panel at this year’s Thought Bubble in lieu of a usable recording. Worst Christmas gift ever? YOU DECIDE!

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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.