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PURE EVIL #6
(PO Box 348 / Flemington, Victoria 3031 / AUSTRALIA.
E-mail. I believe this is available in the States from
Top Shelf)
Review by Rick Bradford
If you're curious about the comix scene in and around Australia, a good place to start looking is this issue of the
Pure Evil anthology. There's lots of good stuff in here, a bit of it by familiar names but most of these cartoonists will be new to anyone abroad. None of the pieces are too terribly long (none over six pages) so it's a nice showcase for a large number of artists. Some of the work that really stands out for me: the "City of Tales" comic by the Oats Comics guys, Stefan Neville and Clayton Noone; a creepy dream by Neale Blanden (at least, I hope it was a dream); "I'd Like to Give My Dog to Uncle Sam", a hilarious (er, I mean "patriotic") WWII song illustrated by Susan Butcher and Carol Wood; Nicki Greenberg's "Bug" in which the heroine romances a toaster; Kieran Mangan's disturbing pet story (it's a cat-sized beetle, for cryin' out loud); Anton Emdin's lovely one-pager (as always, wish there were more!); "Punkin Moon" (by Lachlan Conn, I
think, and reminiscent of Mat Brinkman); and David Nichols' "Evil Empire", a bizarre mix of personal lives and surreal advertising.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. There's other nice stuff by Peter Savieri, Ben Hutchings, Mandy Ord, Glenn Smith, Nick Potter, Q-Ray and still others. Along with the late, great
Sick Puppy/
Atomiser, this is one of the best anthologies I've seen out of Australia.
For more info on many of the contributors, check out
this page at the Quickdraw site.
[ Link to this review ]
