As many of you may already be aware, Dylan Williams who runs Sparkplug Comics has fallen quite seriously ill. Unlike the UK, where we have a free state provided health care system, Dylan is based in the USA and will have to pay medical bills. He's but a humble cartoonist and underground comics publisher, and could really use your support. Lucky for you, you can do this by buying comics directly from Sparkplug.
Why should you care? Well, Sparkplug are one of the finest examples of an underground publisher doing what they do for all the right reasons. Dylan isn't out to make buckets of cash, or publish fancy tomes for your coffee table; he's far more concerned with publishing comics that push honest self expression. If ever there was someone doing it out of pure love of the medium, it's Dylan.
I'd like to urge you to please go buy some comics from Sparkplug, even if you buy just one thing it'll be a massive help. I've made a quick 'Top 5 personal favourites' list with links to reviews of the books we've featured. All of the below are absolutely essential for any discerning comic book fan and can be purchased from Sparkplug Comics here.
1. Inkweed by Chris Wright
What we said: "Haunting multi-layered stories, laced with gothic overtones and visual symbolism".
2. Eschew (1-2) by Robert Sergel
What we said: "The beauty of Sergel's work lies in its careful use of layout and timing; in its formalisation of the everyday, transforming the mundane into a series of taught parallel lines and carefully crafted geometric forms".
3. The Heavy Hand by Chris C Cilla
What we said: "The Heavy Hand embraces a skewed feverish dream logic, spewing forth puzzle pieces that point towards some unfathomable truth just beyond the reader's grasp".
4. Reich (1-8) by Elijah Brubaker
What we said: "Elijah J. Brubaker’s elegant and investigative biography of the notorious Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich".
5. Asthma by John Hanckiewicz
What we said: Well, not an awful lot, but the buzz around this book has been incredible. I'm off to pick up a copy myself. Right now...
2 comments:
Thank you for posting this entry, Matt.
It was the very least I could do. I made a point of following my own advice and also ordered a copy of Asthma and all the Ditko collections.
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