The CBO Spotlight.....Paul Ashley Brown

 With Intermittent Squelching By The UKs King Of Comics

(That's me...)

Having ignored all my best Simon Cowell "Go on, boy -I'll make you famous! (but poor)" lines, "Old Slow Hand"/"Panting Pazzer"/"Wonder Maid" (?! -I have the photo somewhere).  From his humble beginnings as a scribbler working on 1980s legendary comic, Vigilante Vulture, a few strips -including one in Coffin Blood- and some he might wish to forget like his Phantom Detective strip.  Oh, I keep it all.

But he will probably not be remembered for....

OUTLAWS OF THE URBAN FOREST-

The Series That Never Was!

Now, I have shown low res scans of the Sad Lads Pad idea sent to TV companies and then I found the set colour scheme but I have a hefty correspondence file with the artist.

Yes, Paul Ashley Brown may be better known these days for Browner Knowle but back in the day...well a few years actually back in the 1980s...he was the artist struggling with over-written scripts for a comic that attracted the attention of many top UK comic creators (no, it was not porn)...Vigilante Vulture!

There were a few forays after that but the comics industry is full of crooks as Mr Brown discovered -though he did take legal action and get his money (but not work) back off one UK publisher.

Now, unless you know him (not in the "Biblical sense") you will know that he can produce some great humour work -drawing Peter Lallys Donald Hamilton for instance.  There is, if I can ever scan it, a comic strip telling of the Southbank TV show special on my career, presented by Melvyn Bragg. And much more.

You see, when he doesn't put a lot of thought into comics designed to drive people to despair, Mr Brown has a quick cartoon style that he can turn to some very funny strips.  In that sense he has never explored the idea of turning these into a comic which is a great pity.

Mr Brown was also inspired by my classic 1983-84 mini series Outlaws Of The Urban Forest and in..2008(??) he set to work on a follow-up which, sadly, never got completed and I really did like the art/story and as everyone knows I never ever allow people to work on things I started unless I like what I see.

I have some of those pages but here is a cover mock-up -the black and white version and the vibrantly coloured version.

Great stuff and I'd like to see more of this type of thing from him.  He has the ability and style and CAN do it.

In case he reads this, he never does, I'd like to point out I've been ill so I probably never ever said anything kind about him. 

Mr Brown's work has appeared in Stripburger and he's usually at all the hip, beat-cat zine events building up his ever growing....do my notes read "erection"?? Oh -reputation. And having already been to Japan in 2014 he had to, of course, visit Finland where he was hailed as a taxi innovative comicker.

Remember this CBO item?

Bristol Artist Paul Ashley Brown In Finland Exhibit

Yes, those Europeans know a good thing.  And in this case it is Bristol artist Paul Ashley Brown whose work is being exhibited in Finland.

Here is a photo of the man himself at the exhibit followed by an article from Helmet.fi

Helmet -http://www.helmet.fi/fi-FI/Kirjastot_ja_palvelut/Rikhardinkadun_kirjasto/Tapahtumat/Paul_Ashley_Brownin_sarjakuvia%2852116%29

Paul Ashley Brownin sarjakuvia

Paul Ashley Brown valmistui kuvittajaksi vuonna 2001 The University of West of Englandista. Sen jälkeen hän on julkaissut omakustanteena seitsemän osaa Browner-Knowle-zinestä, joka on kokoelma lyhyitä, melankolisia sarjakuvia ja narratiivisia piirustuksia, sekä muita yksittäisiä julkaisuja. Hänen töitään on ollut myös Illustrated Ape-, The Comix rRader- ja Stripburger-lehdissä. Hän asuu ja työskentelee Bristolissa Englannissa.

Paul Ashley Brown graduated from The University of the West of England in 2001 with a First Class Honours Degree in Illustration, Since 2008 he has self-published seven issues of Browner-Knowle, his zine collection of short, poetic melancholy narrative drawings and comics, as well as other small one-off titles. His work has also been published in the pages of The Illustrated Ape, The Comix Reader, and Stripburger. He lives and works in Bristol, England.

Tapahtumapaikka:Rikhardinkadun kirjasto, Hyllygalleria hyvinpieni 2. krs.

Tapahtuma-aika:1.12.2014 - 31.12.2014

 But, Mr Brown's Small Press offerings are much sought after, including, with some memorable full page illoes, Anon....

So It Is Writ. So It Must Be. Anon. The Return Of Paul Ashley Brown

 ANON
Paul Ashley Brown
Browner Knowle Publications
8 or 16 pages
A4 or A3
£3.00 + £1.00 p&p
Ordering: contact Paul through his website at: http://www.paulashleybrown.co.uk/#home

The Bristol art leg end that is Paul Alouitiuos Makepiece Kitchener Lady Chaterley Brown -aka Ashley Simpson aka Paul Ashley Brown was bound to return. After the Browner Knowle issue cited in Parliament as being responsible for mass suicides -and which I am legally obliged not to mention here- we have another offering from the living Erzatz.

You know he hates me, right? Rival more like.

There may be a few who wonder why I've written "A4/A3" and "8 or 16 pages"?  Simple.  This is an un-stapled, loose-leaf offering offering double spreads so they are A3 folded to A4. There is the usual collection of eccentrics and sketches from life and do not panic -still the faint hint of depression here but all enjoyable.

However, there is ONE reason why you ought top get a copy of this latest offering. If only the story behind it were included but it is a case of "protecting the innocent".  Here is that reason:

Anon 2
Paul Ashley Brown
Browner Knowle
A4
16pp
I have no price here...?
www.paulashleybrown.co.uk./

Firstly, this is printed on a slightly tinted paper which looks nice but fecks things up on scanning. So I had to turn 'em into black and white art pages.  Does look better with the tint, though.

Now, I do not usually look at other reviews but this one caught my eye:

"Reading this will make you a goddam sexual tyrranosaur!"

Dr Jessie Ventura

Karachi Medical Gazette

That is some recommendation. 

Well, if there was one positive side to last weekends BCZF it was that Mr Paul Ashley Brown sold a fair doings of zines. He stood there, drinking an espresso with his t-Shirt emblazoned with "Je ne suis pas prétentieux, je ne suis que l'artiste!"*

 I have written "16 pages" but that is not quite accurate.  This book is not stapled and that is for a very good reason: the pages open up to make four A3 posters.  My favourite of these is this one:

 You do get the one page treats such as "Humpty On The Edge Forever" that Mr Brown calls "Mon déchirant chef-d'œuvre de la vie!"** And who could argue with that? I cried. I truly cried.*** I do like the use of solid black and white here which balances out the page.

 And Mr Brown did say that far more would be revealede about what he calls his "mes penchants sexuels torrides" and I'm guessing this page covers that. Believe me, that illo is physically spot on accurate, boy. This is half of one of the A3 posters I was referring to and if you want to see the women in the other half you will have to buy. Gave me the right horn. Although, this illustration of its own accord has a slight, what the French call "taquineries sexuelle".  Hmm?

Yes, no cover logo...and yet we knew it was Anon 2 because Mr Brown told us so.

Here is a comparison with Storm which I just reviewed.  This is an art style I've not seen anyone other than Mr Brown employ and it works for style of story telling -whether simply illustrative or text accompanied. I don't have any problem recommending this -simply contact Mr Brown and ask the cost!
 _______________________________________________________________________________

 Reviewers notes.
*"I am not pretentious. I am merely THE artist!" 
**"My heart wrenching masterpiece about life!"
***And did I cry -I whacked my big toe against the table leg.
I may have been lying about some things in this review but not the book.  Buy a copy and get in on why he's so popular!
____________________________________________________________________________

But THE legendary work that saw his rise to fame is Browner Knowle -an explanation to our foreign comickers: "Browner" is the way some people refer to Mr Brown.  A Mr Smith might be called "Smithy" or "Smithers".  "Knowle is a rather upmarket, low guttering drain hole where Mr Brown grew up.  So the series should be titled Brown from Knowle -but this is Bristol!

BK Books: Browner Knowle 7 -I Read It Yet I Live

Browner Knowle 7
Paul Ashley Brown
BK Books
A5
Black & white
24pp
£4.00
www.paulashleybrown.co.uk/

Now before I start, that web address I have just spent an hour trying to find. Paul Ashley Brown everywhere (mostly from old CBO postings) but no web page so I'll have to look into this.

You know there are two absolute metaphysical certainties in this world. One: We'll be dead one day. Two: Suicide rates climb whenever a new Browner Knowle is published. Within the constraints of of the confined internal logic of the psycho-metaphysical rules of existentialism that engage our every day  lives Browner Knowle is the Messenger of death.

                                                                   Heh?
            
                                                                   Quite.

I love mixing medication it's like an existentialist lottery. But then....why not?

It is at times like these that I think Mr Brown might even be able to draw a comic.  Let's face it, that is how this aging poster child for the lost Thatcher generation started out -Vigilante Vulture and so on. However, having worked with the writer of said VV it was bound to affect the aging hipster's mind  -he is free and single, ladies so if interested here's his photo (and in the background LMFAOs "I'm Sexy And I Know It" blasts away):

Ahhh. Nothing like a bit of character assassination to start off a day of pain.  So now to the subject of this posting which was temporarily lost somewhere in the Himalaya's until it was found to be a polar bear-brown bear hybrid.

The cover...well, this is just another Bristol street scene and walk through Bedminster any day of the week and you can spot these...tatters.  In fact, another good example is "The Walking Man" -as seen below:

But this is not an issue full of Mr Brown's "Bristol Grotesques".  No, there are two strips in this edition -he would probably call them "contes graphiques".  Anyway, the first is "3 A. M. With The Lights Off", though since you can see that on the page below I do wonder why I wrote that.  We've all been there: the guy talking at you in the car but not really talking to you and the promise of what might be but never really is. Men can be bastards. I'm looking at this through a woman's eyes of course. 

erm

Nice, nice solid blacks.  Mr Brown really could become an artist you know. You know, I feel sorry for the poor utterly depressed man who stood on Perot's Bridge in the City Harbour. Looking into the murky, beckoning waters but terrified of jumping in just in case someone pulls him out and he contracts Weil's Disease.  All the time some git with a sketch pad is saying: "Yes. Like that. Keep that look of total and utter despair until I've finished!"

All he wanted to do was kill himself but he ended up in Browner Knowle. Quite depressing. And then we have "Charles Aznevour" and while reading this we should all be singing along. Come on now -you KNOW the lyrics as well as I do. A one...a two...a three and.....

Dance in the Old Fashioned Way.
Won't you stay in my arms?
Just melt against my skin
And let me feel your heart,
Don't let the music win
By dancing far apart.
Come close where you belong.
Let's hear our secret song.
Dance in the Old Fashioned Way.
Won't you stay in my arms?
And we'll discover highs
We never knew before,
If we just close our eyes
And dance around the floor.
That gay old fashioned way
That makes me love you more.
Dance in the Old Fashioned Way.
Won't you stay in my arms?
And we'll discover highs
We never knew before,
If we just close our eyes
And dance around the floor.
That gay old fashioned way
That makes me love you more

ahh, Charles, you may be 89 years old now but should such a singer-song-writer, actor, public activist, diplomat such as you be in an issue of Browner Knowle?  Yes. We've all been there though some of us find it harder each year to embrace ourselves. Poignant, ain't it me old luvver?

Let's cheer things up and take a peek at Mr Brown after he's met up with a certain Mr Northall (a rival if the truth be told!) for five minutes.

Yes, it is quite terrible when all your favourite 1970s British TV greats have been arrested under Operation Yewtree.  Especially when you scream at the news media for not hyphenating "Yewtree"!

"A Sound From Downstairs" for me can usually mean my irritable bowel syndrome is about to explode into a volcano of....no. No, you don't really want to know that. Besides, in this case, it is the title of the second strip in this book.  Seven pages showing that Mr Brown CAN indeed draw sequential works or comic strips. Compliment with a slap. See what I did there?

I'm guessing this is Mr Brown in ten years time?  It is a nicely drawn strip -solid negatives and even a little cross-hatching and some nice detailed garden in a panel.  I'd say this was "enjoyable" but I don't quite think that is the point here. Nor is it the point in "Face Down In A Face-Shaped Hole" -actually a third strip. Yeah, I miss-counted but I read this so I've been punished enough.

Over-all it's a nice little book with probably "A Sound From Downstairs" being the longest piece of strip-work from the aging hipster in a long time and I'm not including his preliminary work on the graphic novel "Stuart Hall Touched Me Inappropriately But Not In A Physical Way" due out on the 13/13/13.

But will this tour de force (I really must stop reading these French BD) be the last Browner Knowle -will all those Small/Alternative Press events attended by Mr Brown now be so much poorer for the lack of work from the Dean of Depression?

I put this to Mr Brown who responded cryptically, as usual, over a serving of Cream Crunchy biscuits: "Fans often approach me and ask these questions and I allways respond with 'Dear hero imprisoned with all the new crimes that you are perfecting. Oh, I can't help quoting you because everything that you said rings true' for am I now not in my cell, well, I followed you.." a glazed look takes over his eyes as he angrily presses his face closer to mine and gutterally demanded: "Reggie kray - do you know my name ?"
_______________________________________________________________


Now, when I referred to making investments for the future by buying Small Press books Browner Knowle is a perfect example.  Very low print runs, around 50 copies and no reprints, a popular creator with a following who is a "name".  So if you grab copies of his zines then in ten years (rather than 40-50+ years with mainstream comics) you ought to see a reasonable return if you sold them.


If you want really -really- rare then go for Ben Dilworth 1980s zines.


But in the meantime, as the Boy from Knowle would say, "I'm off to soak up the misery"!