America, we have an international crisis on our hands. First, China’s eclipsing us in math and science, and now, Britain’s serving us our ass in the realm of comics magazines that aren’t for kids. Case in point: CLINT #2.
Editor Mark Millar’s born-in-the-UK monthly hits no sophomore slump with its October issue. In fact, the quality arguably inches up a hair. And pubic, of course, in keeping with the mag’s “adult content” stamp. This one presents six comics features in all, four of which are the second chapters of ongoing, serialized stories, beginning with “Kick-Ass 2,” in which Dave finds a new superhero pal in the so-called Doctor Gravity, physics professor by day, gravity pole-wielder by night.
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As editor Mark Millar’s intro reads, “Grandpa had THE EAGLE, Dad has 2000AD and now you’ve got CLINT, you lucky people.” Well, if you were British, that may hold true, but at least with modern-day importing, the third part can be. And it should, because it’s been too damn long that the world has been without an honest-to-God original comics magazine for big people — not a magazine about comics, but a magazine of comics. (And, no, manga doesn’t count.)
With CLINT #1, Millar has remedied that. The 100-page, full-color UK publication is anchored by five comic features, four of which are serialized. Spread amongst them are a few entertainment-oriented articles, interviews and/or tongue-in-cheek tidbits typical of other lad-mags (i.e. “Top Ten Hot TV Mums”). Those comics, however, are atypical.
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How’s about a SAVAGE KICK to the crotch? Murder Slim Press’ roughly annual literary magazine makes a strong case for its hyperbolic “world’s greatest” tag with this, its fifth issue. It sports a great cover that parodies an old issue of FANTASTIC FOUR, but luckily, there’s more greatness inside.
And it begins with some wonderfully profane, full-page cartoons by indie cartoonist Ivan Brunetti. Interestingly, they’re older ones that he’s kinda ashamed of, per the rather frank, self-loathing interview that follows. He admits they came from an angrier part of him and that he wouldn’t do them today, so one wonders how the KICK edit team convinced him to let them be reprinted.
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The survival of the short story may depend upon the independent press, and BULL SPEC marks another worthy vehicle to carry the format through the next decade and beyond. A magazine of speculative fiction, it’s published quarterly out of Durham, N.C.
For this debut issue, editor Samuel Montgomery-Blinn has assembled a worthy lineup of offerings from C.S. Fuqua, Peter Wood and Natania Barron, plus an excerpt from Michael Jasper’s A GATHERING OF DOORWAYS, all comprising the mag’s first half. All are presented in a manner that makes for leisurely reading, that puts the emphasis on the flow of the words.
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Good superhero fiction is hard to come by. Last year, two anthologies of do-gooder short stories both underwhelmed, as did full novels by the likes of Austin Grossman the year before. Like an underdog — or perhaps Underdog — A THOUSAND FACES: THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SUPERHUMAN FICTION is better than all of them, coming out of nowhere.
Edited by Frank Byrns, the ninth issue contains 13 stories and, like many indie-fiction “magazines” these days, comes packaged as a trade paperback, rather than stapled paper. Among the highlights is the first tale, “Mister Brass and the Red Horror of Frankenstein,” by Joshua M. Reynolds. It reminded me of the TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN anthologies, where established characters of others’ creations intermingle — in this case, Victor Frankenstein, Dr. Moreau and groups from the pen of H.P. Lovecraft and Sax Rohmer.
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