This review was written by Helen Ryan (

This review was written by Helen Ryan (Kitten Designs) about the first novel of our mutual friend Sue Fletcher. When your friend writes a book - especially if it’s a good book - there’s a natural urge to get word to as many people as possble. Hence this.

Eve Green deals with a lonely, difficult childhood as an outsider in a small Welsh village.

After Evie’s mother dies, she returns to Cae Tressaint to live with her grandparents. Over the course of her first year there, she discovers more about her mysterious father, the unforgiving nature of village gossip, and learns about love, friendship and the terrifying inevitablity of betrayal.
The characters, though seldom radical, are evoked with real freshness and humanity, and are securely fixed in a brilliantly realised community and natural environment. There is a great awareness of beauty in Fletcher’s writing, and some wonderfully understated emotional responses that reminded me strongly of the work of Rose Tremain. In spite of terrible events, there
is always a sense of the strength in the novel’s backbone, a certainty of facing down the darkness with a quiet internal joy.

Possibly the most controversial aspect of the book is the very clearly described fact that Eve falls in love with her future husband at the age of only eight - a very brave authorial decision in a book which also deals with crimes against children. But in Fletcher’s hands the issue is un-sensational, entirely believable, and it’s her work on threads like this that are the most exciting aspect of this author. Whilst she has written a very accomplished first novel, it is impossible not to rub one’s hands in anticipation of her next. Her writing is full of the potential to develop into something even more special - I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see her winning awards before long.

Don’t be put off by the “blurb” on the book jacket, which seems to me to be designed to appeal to Maeve Binchy readers, when the book inside is a subtle and intelligent read. It would be a shame to miss it.

And while we’re at it, here’s some more on Helen Ryan and Kitten Designs, in case anyone needs some interior design work.

SEE ME FEEL ME INTIMATELY

SEE ME FEEL ME INTIMATELY

Click here and here for a rather effusive and showy post on Scott McCloud and much better one about Mr Hoogerbrugge. They’re seperate posts, but they almost belong as one - Hoogerbrugge’s pushing the boundaries of what is with his ‘Hotel’ webcomic/animation, which you can find if you explore his site until your eyes fall out from the glory.

SEE ME FEEL ME OR SEE MY WRATH AND FEEL THAT

SEE ME FEEL ME OR SEE MY WRATH AND FEEL THAT

I already wrote this once… crashing computer wiped it from existence… but I will not flag in my mission to bring ye the greatest webcomic in existence.

And here it is! Daily Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North is one of the shining lights of webcomics. Using the same six panels of dinosaurs doing the same things, day after day after day, changing only the dialogue, North creates an ever-changing cornucopia of wit and panache, using his self-created limits as a framework to build a dazzling library of the absolute best comics to be found on the web. And the best part is, once you truly understand the concept - anyone can play! (See if you can find my little efforts!)

Due to crashing computer, the rest must wait. Blame the virus makers and their foolery.

BUSY BEES IN THE TREE SHOULD AGREE

BUSY BEES IN THE TREE SHOULD AGREE

I’ve not been that good at this Brown Wedge thing, so I’m going to try something new and run off with my own blog. Random thoughts posted daily in an effort to keep a prescence on the web for more than five minutes. If it works, I’ll be a better human and you can link to me. If not - well.

I WANT A BLOG.

More SEE ME FEEL ME in a moment. I want you all to read the damn things this time, mind.

BRISTOL: CITY OF FEAR

BRISTOL: CITY OF FEAR

The good news - apparently People In High Places are taking an interest in my work and my minicomics have taken the festival by storm.

The bad news - fifteen minutes ago I had a ringside seat for a riot. It’s not the violence, it’s the speed - glass breaks, then another, then the shouts, then raising the head to see a chair sailing across the room into the face of J Wellington Wimpy in a Bristol City shirt not two metres away from your face. Bristol City lost today, and lost big. That’s the news breaking.

A new experience for a middle-class introvert living in seclusion in sleepy old Fishergate. If not for Jamie Boardman, who instinctively and instantly went into command mode and got us out the back, things would have been a lot worse. Jamie is 2000AD’s graphic novel supremo and his second latest bit of good work has been the alliance between 2000AD and DC Comics to reproduce the comic’s greatest hits in TPB form, backed up not by dodgy old Titan but by a corporate machine of extreme power. These will include the complete painted DREDD/BATMAN, SAM SLADE: VERDUS and various 2000AD/DC team-ups and dream-ups that I’m too adrenalined up to go into.

I just bought Jamie a pint of Carling. Feel free to follow my lead and buy a 2000AD trade paperback.

BRISTOL UPDATE

BRISTOL UPDATE

The fog of depression from earlier has lifted slightly although the muscles in my legs still aren’t working. The small press in the UK is vibrant and alive, with a hundred different kinds of animal battling in friendly competition to bring you the reader the greatest comics achievable by the hand of man. The ‘mainstream’ dealers huddle at the sides like mystery fish, unable to bring in the thrills, while the middle of the floor is reserved for the visionaries. Talks are sent to the Ramada, five minutes walk away, like lepers. SOLAR WIND in particular - ‘Yesterday’s comic today at tomorrow’s prices’ - is a delight to the mind. You can take a look at it here. Also, I suggest you take time to check out Arthur Wyatt’s doings - another small press guru who’s developing a network of all the people who should be in comics but aren’t. Go on! Order your copies!

BRISTOL: DAY ONE

BRISTOL: DAY ONE

I’m sitting in a Holiday Inn, staring at the screen of this god-damned bastard moneysucking internet VAMPIRE machine sat in the corner of the room trying desperately to remember the events of last night and failing.
I can barely remember who won what at the awards - Dom Reardon got something and THE LOSERS got something else, but I’m damned if I know what. Best Newcomer and Best New Series I think… Does it even matter? More kudos to them as they are Freaky Trigger massive whether they know it or not. The thing to watch at the moment is Dave Gibbons’ new hardback - (why these hardbacks? Who has the money for hardbacks? Is the average comic fan now a two-up-two-down-owning systems analyst from Surbiton with a Subaru who can afford such madness? Who are they aiming at?) - called THE ORIGINALS, a beautiful sci-fi take on Mod and all it meant. You heard it here last.
The other thing to watch is the death of the UK Comics Industry. Is this the hangover talking or was there a palpable sense of doom hanging like a terrifying pall over the whole thing last night? The creators and would-be creators seemingly outnumber the fans at the moment, and the general impression was some kind of boiling, bubbling cannibalistic soup, hundreds of beasts and creatures eating each other and themselves, not in some blood-stained nightmare of jealousy but in a bizarre love ritual from the depths of Coleridge’s worst imagining. It’s a truly beautiful thing but how long can we maintain?
And what mad superbeasts will be born - like the nine-headed creature of Revelation THE BEAST 666 - from the wreckage and mass of limbs? I’m about to find out. Here I go to tyhe main hall to find sweet goth girls, delicious bacon and the fruits of the New Uk Scene… the smell of xeroxed paper and mystery…

More later.

BUSY BEES IN THE TREE SHOULD AGREE

I’ve been hurled into a state of feverish work this week, which the Freaky Trigger version of Tharg pointed out was the wrong response to actually being published in something for once. The correct response is to immediately post on the Brown Wedge - natch! Rather than slapping up a weedy notice on ILC and trusting to luck.

So GO OUT AND BUY A 2000AD before the new ones come out on Wednesday. Beg, borrow or steal a copy, all of you, and turn instantly to the black-and-white Terror Tale which is one of my better efforts and has been turned into a proud thing of beauty by the master touch of the very lovely Cam Smith.

Next week, Bill Savage returns with his ’shootah’ and all the fans are squeaking with delight. How bringing back all of the old, crusty fan faves can help the trembling, coughing 2000AD to pull itself back on its feet and square up to the new video-gaming little bastard generation is something that eludes me. It gives the nasty impression that ‘Tooth’ as they call it is appealing mostly to an ever-narrowing coalition of people who read it once and never gave up the habit. Who are the readership? Dults? Juves? Crocks? ‘Metal Hammer’-reading bikers? This kind of thing worries me, because 2000AD is basically all we’ve got left in this country unless you count Warhammer and Action Man Comic, which doesn’t really have the hem-hem pzazz of the Galaxy’s Greatest…

Bob Haney!

Bob Haney! BOB HANEY! BOB HANEY! BOB HANEY!!

GREAT RAO! It’s the TOP TEN COMICS OF 2003 NUMBER FOUR!! BY CEASAR’S GHOST!!!

GREAT RAO! It’s the TOP TEN COMICS OF 2003 NUMBER FOUR!! BY CEASAR’S GHOST!!!

Well, as you can guess by the title, this entry in the slowest chart of all time has to do with BATMAN. No no, I kid. I kid ‘cos I love. The true star of this amazing number is in fact… LEX LUTHOR!

BY BOB HANEY! I hear you scream!

Yes, the bald one is in fact the star of SUPERMAN: RED SON, Mark Millar’s journey into the Man Of Steel’s silver age coolness and golden age communist leanings. I might have mentioned earlier that this was Superman done right, but looking at it once again…

I think we should all admit that, John Byrne’s ridiculous fat lech aside, everyone would rather be Luthor than Supes. I know I would. Who wouldn’t want to be the smartest human ever to exist, by golly? To confound grotesque alpha-male alien threats to human self-reliance at every turn? To cry noble tears at the feet of a true hero of the human way? None of this American Way Stuff And Nonsense for Lex Luthor, by crikey! If it was a Democrat-Republican race between Presidents Bartlett and Luthor, I’d vote Lex in 2004 every time! What a pity he’s gone mad.

Buy RED SON today.