We are aiming to get more regular at posting book reviews (or at least our thoughts about indie books). It's our goal for our second year, but as we plan for our big birthday extravagana - about which more is coming soon - it seemed high time to review Broken Frontier's Small Press Year Book which I was lucky enough to be sent a copy of.
First of all we need to talk about Broken Frontier. If you're not familiar, as I wasn't before I discovered them on twitter, it's a website for comics things, but they feature comics which push the boundaries because they believe in "the power of comics as an art form and in the continued progressive evolution of the medium". As a lover of comics who began her journey with The Sandman and Persepolis (quite different in terms of style and content!) I have always appreciated the huge diversity of comics and personally I'm really loving the discovery of BF and know I'll be exploring their blog and columns to find new stuff to read.
The concept of the Small Press Year Book is that six 'creators to watch' are chosen to be featured, in 2017 with work along the theme of 'New Horizons' and their work is buffered by other contributors. It's a fantastic way to discover some new creators without huge investment (it will set you back just £7.99 including postage and packing) and includes some really interesting art and stories that are a mixture of the very mundane (in the best way) and the really surreal.
A couple of my favourites are below, and I really urge you to give the Small Press Year Book a try. If you think you're not into comics you'll probably find something in here to love and of course, as with the all good anthologies, the best thing about it is that you can then go explore and add more books to your wishlist, such as this wonderful looking children's book illustrated by Rebecca Bagley or Ellice Weaver's debut Something City. The collection is really thoughtfully put together and contains such a diversity of stories and artwork that it feels like a real treasure trove.
