Dump 3

Up-date: David points out that I DID review Dump 2 and liked it!  The evidence is here:
http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/dump.html 


Dump #3

Writer and artist credits: Writer: David Robertson. Artist: David Robertson, with 6 short stories drawn respectively by Damon Herd, Donna Law, Neil Paterson, Ludi Price, Keara Stewart and Pam Wye.

Publisher: Fred Egg Comics

Format -book size: 6”x9”

(Mostly) Black and White (with colour cover)

page count: 80

cost: £5

HOW TO ORDER/BUY THE BOOK: Go to http://fredeggcomics.bigcartel.com/products

The title "Dump" serves as a description of the book - a collection place for different comics I've done; and as the name of the main story, whose main character works in a council dump.

 "Things to Do at 3 O’Clock in the Morning" is a story about 2 guys on New Year’s Eve. "Room Tour" concerns a coffee machine collector. A chance sighting of an old school colleague happens in “What a Difference a Day Makes”. “The Orb” features a fatal snooker hall mishap. A university lecturer discusses “Why it’s Good to Fell Pain”. Two ladies in 17^th century France star in “I Don’t Give a F**k”. There is a nocturnal “Visitor”. A woman wonders “What Is It?” A scientific experiment creates “Bum Monster”.   

I have 6 different short stories written by me, with art by 6 others as listed above, on topics such as beautiful women, dreams, a music festival, TV, wonder and wishing life was like a book. There is also my contribution to 30 Days of comic collected as "November".

All I can say is that, art-wise, the styles used are very basic.  I've seen the same styles used in the Small Press for well over 30 years.  

Nothing stood out.  Well, not in a positive way. There appears to be a photocopy of the paper used for a game of Battleships...I think.  There is an illo of a pencil case accompanied by "Before going to bed, my son watched me drawing for a while.  To help me, he brought me his pencil case."  I just asked myself what the hell that was about...even louder with the Battleships page.

Using art that has only been pencilled is another major problem because it does not always look good and you cannot really use inked lettering on smudgy pencil art as it looks ridiculous so they've gone with pencil art and lettering.

If people were drawing these strips for fun or any reason that made them happy then fair enough.  I seriously do not see anyone here who'll be earning a living in comics.  In a way it reminds me of the early 1980s zines put together by school mates -Knock Yaself Out Comix for instance.  Also, I have no idea how old this material is and I've written and said it over and over before:if you draw comic strips then always initial in the bottom right panel and put a dat such as 2/15 (February 2015) because it helps collectors and comic fans in a number of ways. It is also your "copyright" on the art.

The writing in places seems a lot better than the art but at points the art was putting me off.  Perhaps it might have been better writing a anthology prose book?

This is the first time I've seen "Dump" so no idea whether 1 and 2 were better but if you have copies and they were do not complain to me -I go by what I have!    It's a problem you get when reviewing that people will think "I'll throw him a copy of issue 3" and it might leave a reviewer unimpressed whereas issue 1 and 2 might have been incredible.  

This has actually happened and I'll save the man involved embarassment by not naming him again.  I gave issue 4 of his title a not very good review.  He saw me at a Bristol Comic Expo and asked "why?" so I told him the reason "Why" was in the review.  He then told me that issues 1-3 had received "cracking reviews" -but not from me, from other reviewers.  I do not read other peoples reviews and PRs sent with books that use these quotes...well, the quotes get deleted.  I am the reviewer on CBO!   Thing is, this chappie told me that he expected I'm "jump on board" with the good reviews.  No.

So, Dump 1 and 2 may have been great but number 3 had some good writing but no art that stands up. But as I always write, it could be that you find this a great cover-to-cover read.  "Different folks, different strokes".   If you support the Small Press then you probably will buy a copy and my advice is always check inside these books -even if miserable bearded bastids have been negative because they might just tickle your doo-bells.